Living Under the Influence - Final Wrap-up | Adult Sunday School

All right, folks, well, good morning.

If you want to call me Festus, that'd be all right. I would understand. Well, as we begin together, let's pray.

Our great God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, how thankful we are for your goodness, kindness, mercy, and grace toward us that is new every morning.

That our sin has been taken by your son. He has drunk the cup of the wrath of God and drained it to his very dregs on our behalf.

And in that great exchange that Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we have now received his righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, and so we can sit here this morning, perfect in our union with the

Messiah, and thus receive all of your great blessings toward us.

What an amazing reality to contemplate as we begin together this morning. Thank you for it. We pray,

Father, for listening ears, we pray for open hearts, we pray that we would be attuned to the work of your spirit through his word, in and through us, for the glory of Christ alone, amen.

So when God saves us, when God saves us, he does not immediately take us to be with him.

Isn't that true? We can experientially say, yeah, yay and amen, right?

That is true. But instead what he does is he undertakes a task in us to completely transform us so that we might become experientially that which we are positionally, that is perfect in Christ.

That is what he is about in us as believers. Now, the task is not completed, this side of the grave, but we all make progress in that because God is committed to that reality, that he is transforming us from the inside out to make us the new creations in Christ, 2

Corinthians 5 .17. That means that there is no aspect of God's transforming work that is off limits to him, no area that he is not interested in.

He changes our thinking, he changes our values, he changes our desires, our goals, our purpose, our speech, our behavior, all of it.

God has set himself to doing a complete overhaul, praise

God, because we need a complete overhaul. And he does it over time, he does it over time as we begin to take on the new family identity, the new family identity as sons of the living

God and joint heirs with Christ. Now, the Father accomplishes this transformation progressively as we said, and he does it in this life by his

Holy Spirit through the scriptures, that is his mechanism. And he finally and completely finishes it when he takes us to glory to be with him.

Open your Bibles to the fifth chapter of Ephesians, beginning in verse 18.

We are returning this morning for a sixth and final time to this passage. So this is our sixth and final time in this text, as we seek to draw out the life changing truths.

Herein, let's read it. Ephesians chapter five and beginning in verse 18.

And do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but be filled by the

Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, 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. Now, through these six studies together, we have organized it around a series of 10 questions.

And that's what we've been doing. We've been asking and answering questions that arise from this text.

There were 10 of them. And so what I'll do is just kind of briefly go through the first nine again that catches back up, and then we'll undertake the 10th and final question for this morning together.

Okay, that's where we're going. So briefly, the first question we asked was, why is this study so important?

Do you remember that? Why is this study so important? And we said it's important because it takes us into the heart of the doctrine of sanctification and our relationship to the third person of the triune

Godhead, the Holy Spirit. It is impossible, we said, to live as Christians without the

Spirit's enablement. And without understanding how the Spirit enables us to live a life pleasing to God, right, then frustration will be our experience.

We will experience tremendous frustration and spiritual defeat unless we understand and then apply how the

Spirit of God works this mysterious process of transformation. That's why the study is important.

That's why we've undertook it. That's why we've backed up to this place, even though the purpose of the series is to deal with marriage and family, which we will begin formally next week, okay, formally next week.

So that's why it's important. The second question we asked was, why warn about wine?

Remember that one? Why warn about wine? And the answer is, it's because drunkenness leads to a lifestyle of dissipation or debauchery.

That's why. And it is the dissipation or the debauchery that is brought on by a life given to wine that is characteristic of spiritual darkness.

It's the characteristic of spiritual darkness versus, and there's the contrast there, you see it in verse 18, versus being filled by the

Spirit, which produces a life of moral excellence. Moral excellence.

Moral excellence that shows itself in the church, the home, and the community.

So it's these contrasting lifestyles, debauchery, moral excellence. One belongs to the old man in union with Adam.

The other belongs to the new man in union with Christ. That's why Paul uses wine.

That's why he brings wine into the discussion. Third question.

And the third question we looked at, what is the filling of the Spirit? What is the filling of the

Spirit? And you remember this one, right? In order to answer this question, we had to, you know, kind of jump into the deep end of the pool of Greek grammar.

You remember that one? We had to go into that, the murky waters of Greek grammar. And from it, we learned a few important things.

We learned that the Spirit is the means of our filling rather than the content of our filling.

That was very important for us. We learned that the Spirit is the means for the filling, not the content of the filling.

Furthermore, we learned that the verb be filled is a present passive imperative, a present passive imperative.

And that means that Paul is commanding the Ephesian believers to allow themselves to be continually filled by the

Spirit. It's a command. It is something they must do. But what is it they must do? They must allow themselves continually to be filled by the

Spirit no matter where they are and no matter what they're doing. One writer said to be filled by the

Spirit is to live in a way that is fully influenced by the Spirit, willingly yielding ourselves to the

Spirit's control. It's to put ourselves continually in a position in which the

Spirit has free reign in our lives. This is what it means to be being filled by the

Spirit, more literally for the present passive imperative. Now let's do the fourth question.

The fourth question, how is the filling different from the Spirit's other ministries to the believer?

So how is the filling different from the other ministries of the Spirit provided to the believer?

We looked and noted that some of the Spirit's other ministries to the believer, such as sealing,

Ephesians 1 .13, indwelling, 1 Corinthians 6 .19,

and spirit baptism, 1 Corinthians 12 .13, are bestowed upon the believer as a gift at the moment of salvation, and they are instantaneous and non -repeatable.

They are instantaneous realities. They are non -repeatable events. They come to all believers equally, totally, fully at the moment that we place saving faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Unlike the command here to be being filled in 5 .18,

there are no commands associated with these other ministries of the Spirit. No commands associated with them.

It's not something we have to do. Different here. Different here. Question five.

This was a simple one. Who does the filling? Who does the filling? And we noted there from Ephesians 1 .23,

4 .10, it is Christ. Christ does the filling. Who does the filling?

Christ. Six. The sixth question we looked at.

What is the content of the filling? What is the content of the filling?

We noted that the content of the filling is the fullness of God. We traced that down.

You'll remember. We traced it down. What is the fullness of God? The fullness of God is the moral likeness of God.

It is the moral likeness of God which is most clearly expressed in the person of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8 .29, we are being conformed to that image.

As we are filled by means of the Spirit, we grow in the likeness of Christ, thus grow in the fullness of God, thus grow in the moral likeness of God most perfectly expressed in the

Lord Jesus Christ. So we are becoming like Christ, becoming like Christ. That's the content.

Seven. How, how do I fulfill this command? Okay, I got it.

It's a command, something I have to do. But how? How do I do it? There we went to the sister epistle.

Remember this one? Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16. We went over there where Paul writes there to the church at Colossae to let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.

And then he begins to talk about in the same language, psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and so forth.

And we concluded from that that we fulfill Paul's command to be filled by granting the

Holy Spirit free and unhindered access to every nook and cranny of our lives through the prayerful reading and study of the scriptures.

So how do we do it? We do it by granting the

Spirit full and unhindered access to every aspect of our lives through the prayerful reading and study of the scriptures.

The Spirit uses those same scriptures to shape the way we think and respond to every situation in life.

That's the process. That's how we fulfill the command. Question eight we looked at.

Can the filling leak out? Remember that one? Can the filling leak out?

The answer was no. No. Unambiguously no.

However, we can and often do obstruct his work in us of fully influencing us into the likeness of Christ by giving in to various sin patterns.

And we noted three of them in particular here. Do you remember this? The sin of self -reliance.

We talked about that. The sin of self -reliance. That is, raising any other authority source, including our own opinion, above the scriptures.

If we raise any other authority source above the Word of God, then we have given in to the sin of self -reliance.

That hinders the work of the Spirit in us. We also have the sin of self -exaltation.

That was the second obstacle. Self -exaltation. In other words, we have forgotten that at the foot of the cross the ground is level.

That we all come before Christ in the same way and in the same need.

We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. Everyone.

Everyone. From the highest and most distinguished members of society to the lowest imaginable.

We all come in the same way. We all come in the same way. Salvation is a gift of God.

It is not the result of our works, nor our status, nor our social achievement, nor our economic standing, nor our intellectual levels.

None of it. None of it matters. So therefore, we must not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, as Paul would say.

And when we do, we're giving in to the sin of self -exaltation. In other words, why wouldn't

God want to save me? I'm a pretty good person. Self -exaltation.

It hinders the work of the Spirit. Third, we said self -will. That was the third one we looked at.

Self -will. Self -reliance. Self -exaltation. Self -will. Self -will, we've said, is resisting the

Spirit's work in us. Resisting the Spirit's work in us by living on the same moral plane as those who are still lost in darkness.

This is what Paul speaks of in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30, verses 22 and 23 of chapter 4, and so forth.

So when the believer lives on the same moral plane as those who are still lost in darkness, that is the exercise of self -will.

That hinders the work of the Spirit. It's hanging on to that which was crucified with Christ and dragging it forward into the new life.

That inhibits the work of the Spirit. Nine. This was last week.

Is the filling of the Spirit visible? We asked that.

Is the filling of the Spirit visible? And we noted there that while the actual work of the

Holy Spirit in conforming us to the image of Christ is invisible, the results of it are not.

The results are not. We noted, back to grammar again, that the verb be filled, play ra -o, is followed in verses 19 to 21, so we're back nose into the text, with five participles.

Five participles. Speaking, singing, making melody, giving thanks, and being subject.

Those are the five. And it is these five participles that derive their force from the lead verb in verse 18 that describe the result of the

Spirit's filling, not the means to achieve it. We speak of the result of being filled by the

Spirit, not the means to be filled by the Spirit. We noted from Daniel Wallace in his

Greek grammar, excellent, very excellent intermediate Greek grammar, quote the following, the way in which one measures his or her success in filling the command of 518 is by the participles that follow.

This is how we measure our success. This is how it's observable. The first four, speaking, singing, making melody, giving thanks, we noted they all occur in the realm of the public gathering of the church.

These all speak of the realm of the public gathering of the church. They're speaking about what's happening here and now. This is how we express being filled by the

Spirit with one another as we speak and sing to one another as well as vertically to God.

So we looked last week, remember, at the horizontal aspect of this and the discipling ministry of song, and we looked at the vertical aspect of worship in song.

The fifth participle in verse 21, being subject to, serves as a bridge.

This is the bridge that leads us into the topic of the Spirit -filled home. It leads us into 22 and following.

Just a tip of the hand a bit looking ahead to verse 22, you'll notice that there is no verb in verse 22.

It literally says, wives to your own husbands as to the Lord. The idea of being in submission to is carried forward from verse 21.

So can you see the results of a congregation that is being filled by the Spirit? Absolutely. Absolutely you can.

What does a congregation that is being filled by the Spirit look like? They sing together. They pray together.

They relate to one another in their homes in a way that emulates Christ. That's what it looks like.

Those are very, very practical ways to gauge, both individually and corporately, are we being filled by the

Spirit? Is that a reality in our lives? Are there areas that we need to strive even more for?

And I'm sure there are for all of us. For all of us. That takes us to the 10th and final question.

That's what I want to look at with you this morning, the 10th and final question. And here it is. Where do

I find the strength to obey? Where do

I find the strength to obey? I cannot do this by myself.

Where do I find it? Again, quoting from Daniel Wallace in his book.

Every time I quote him, I say, oh, it's an excellent little book. It's not little, and it is excellent. But anyway,

Wallace notes there in his grammar that he notes the progressive difficulty. I thought this was insightful, so I'm sharing it with you.

He notes the progressive difficulty of going from speaking God's word in song to being thankful for all things to being submissive to one another.

There's a continuum there, and they're not all equally easy.

They actually become increasingly more difficult. He writes, and this is a quote from him, such progression would, of course, immediately suggest that this feeling is not instantaneous and absolute, but progressive and relative.

Okay, let me read it to you again. He says that such progression from speaking

God's word to one another in song to being thankful for all things to being submissive to one another, noting the increase in difficulty, that such progression would, of course, immediately suggest that this feeling is not instantaneous and absolute, but progressive and relative.

It is progressive, and it is relative. What that means is we are all on a continuum of growth, and everybody's not in the same place.

And some maybe have made more progress in one area than in another, and vice versa. So in other words, being filled by the

Spirit is not like on a light switch. It's not like flipping on a light switch.

It occurs over time. It occurs over time by the diligent exertion of effort on the part of the believer.

We play a real role in this, a real role in this. And there are times in all of our lives when we find ourselves not being particularly diligent.

We can affirm this. It happens to all of us. We're not expending very much effort in the prayerful reading and study and application of the

Scriptures, which is the means by which we are filled by the Spirit. Right? Remember we said that? So we're just honest with each other.

We don't all pursue it all the time with the same level of intensity. So what do we do?

What do we do when we find ourselves that way? Is the answer to dig down deep, pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, try harder?

Or is it sheer willpower? Is that what we're lacking? We just need to muscle up some

Christianity here? Or has

God provided a means of grace that will help us in time of need?

Yes, he has. Indeed, he has. God has provided to us a variety of means of grace, and they all flow out of the gospel.

They all flow out from the gospel because it is in the gospel that the greatest density of God's power in the entire universe is found.

That is the greatest place of density of the power of Almighty God is found in the gospel.

That's exactly what he says in Romans 1 16. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

For everyone who believes. Where do we find the power? We find it in the gospel and nowhere else.

Let's talk about this, this means of grace in the gospel. How do we find the power to fulfill the command?

It begins by preaching the gospel to ourselves. Okay? That's probably terminology that you've at least become acquainted with.

You've heard it before. You need to preach the gospel to yourself. Well, yeah, actually, you do. Actually, you do.

What I want to do here is spend a few minutes just talking about what is this gospel that we need to preach to ourselves?

What does that mean? What it means is to be to remind ourselves of the truths of this gospel.

Why? Because we're forgetful people. We're just flat forgetful people.

We're also at various times and places, people of little faith. So we tend to doubt the power of this gospel and we need to be reminded.

We need to be reminded. So let's do this. Turn back to chapter one of Ephesians. We'll spend the entire time here in Ephesians.

Okay? Can it be done from other places? Of course. But Ephesians is a great spot. Preach the gospel to yourself.

First, remind yourself that God the Father loves us and has chosen us to be holy and blameless.

God the Father loves us and has chosen us to be holy and blameless.

We need to remember that. First Corinthians, or sorry, Ephesians. Ephesians chapter one and verse four, where Paul writes, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him.

That we would be holy and blameless before him. Chapter two, verse four.

But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.

We can't forget that. We dare not forget that. We need to remind ourselves of that regularly.

Regularly. Great, great way to begin a day. Just as you wake up, just remind yourself of this reality.

Second, God the Father has united us with Christ. He has united us with Christ and adopted us as sons to share the family likeness and inheritance.

Back to chapter one again. He's united us with Christ and he's adopted us as sons that we might share the family likeness, that we might share the inheritance.

Chapter one, verses five and six. In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestows on us in the beloved.

Verse eleven. Also, we, having obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will.

We have been united with Christ. We have been adopted as sons of the living

God. Third, Christ the Son has shed his own blood to purchase our redemption and set us free from the power and the penalty of sin.

Christ has shed his own blood. He has purchased our redemption and he has set us free from the power and penalty of sin.

It no longer rules over us. Romans six. But here in Ephesians, look at verse seven of chapter one.

In him, that is in Christ, in union with him, we have redemption through his blood.

The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. Chapter two, verses five and six.

Even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Fourth, the Holy Spirit has been given to us to ensure that our status as forgiven sons never falters, no matter whether we are having a good day or a bad day.

Our status as sons of the living God does never falters. It never falters.

It's not diminished when we don't. We see that in chapter one, verses 13 and 14.

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, 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.

The praise of his glory. Now, while our love for Christ may wobble, his love for us never changes.

His love for us never changes. The Father loves us with the same passion and perfection that he has for his own dear son.

God the Father is passionate about you. If you are in union with his son with the very same passion that he has for his own son, he now has for you.

Fifth, because the Father has placed us in union with Christ, we're also united with all the other believers in Christ.

We are placed in union with Christ. I'm in union with Christ.

You're in union with Christ. We are thus in union with each other. That's 2 .13.

We are now members of the family of God. Verse 13, chapter 2, but now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

We have been brought near by the blood of Christ. We are all brought near to God through the blood of Christ and we are thus brought near to each other or brought near to each other.

It is in the local fellowship, we've noted, that we share the same indwelling Holy Spirit. Verse 18, for through him we both have our access in one spirit to the

Father. That makes us members of one another. It gives us a common destiny, a common purpose.

What is it? It is to build up the local body of Christ. Chapter 4, beginning in verse 13, 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 Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine and by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love.

Speaking the truth in love. He'll elaborate on that in the next chapter, won't he? How we can do it and so on.

Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

We are saved for a purpose, for a purpose. We congregate for a purpose, and the purpose is to encourage one another in our growth in the likeness of Christ.

You can't grow in the likeness of Christ all by yourself. There's no such thing as a lone wolf

Christian. The strength of the wolf is the pack.

The strength of the pack is the wolf. We are needed by each other, thus all the one another's that litter the

New Testament. Preaching the gospel to yourself.

This is a important means, important means of the power needed to fulfill the command to be filled by the

Spirit. You need the gospel regularly, comprehensively, deeply, and we need it with each other.

Other means of grace. Other. Are there other? Oh yeah. Oh yeah,

God's not one -dimensional. Look around. He displays his creation in a variety of colors and textures.

He is not one -dimensional. So, are there other means of grace? You bet there are. Private prayer.

Private prayer. That is a means of grace. It's a means to draw near to God in Christ as the

Spirit works. Again, we'll use Ephesians to illustrate this, but looking at chapter one, there are two prayers that Paul records in the book of Ephesians, one in chapter one and one in chapter three.

One in chapter one, one in chapter three. The one in chapter one begins in verse 15 and runs through verse 23, and this is

Paul's intercession on behalf of the Ephesian believers, if I could say it this way, that the lights would go on for them, that the lights would go on.

For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers, that the

God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe.

These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion in every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."

The general thrust of Paul's prayer here, and notice it's private prayer, but it's prayer on behalf of others, the general thrust of the prayer is that the

Ephesians would have their hearts and their heads and their hands shaped by the truth of what

God has done for them. Verses 3 to 14 that just precede this prayer is where Paul spells out this incredible theology about what

God has done for them in Christ, and then he turns to pray. And what he prays is that not that God would do something new for them, not that he would grant them some additional spiritual blessing, but notice that they would fully grasp the implications of what he has already done.

That's the significance, that the lights would go on. Having the lights go on with regard to the spiritual blessings in Christ is not a one -time event, it's the continual discovery and reacquaintance as we pray and meditate upon his word in light of the circumstances of our life.

Our life circumstances are constantly changing, and as they change in that very colored hue of our life, we have additional opportunity to meditate upon and reacquaint ourselves with the truth that Paul has laid out here in chapter 1 verses 3 to 14.

Another way we could think about this is the common prayer request for grace, right?

Lord, please extend your grace to so -and -so. That's kind of a common type of prayer request.

And properly understood, when that prayer request is voiced, we are not asking God to dispense grace like some spiritual pixie dust, like just throw a little more grace onto somebody, right?

That's actually a nonsense idea. Actually, if we understand what we are asking, we are asking

God to aid the believer in comprehending the grace already given in the gospel and their need to increasingly rely on that grace.

That's what we're praying for. If you ask me, once I tell you this, you probably, most of you will never ask me to pray for you again.

If you ask me to pray for you, that will be my prayer for you. I will pray that God will help you to see, understand, believe your vast riches in Christ, and that as you more and more comprehend that reality, you will be better suited to deal with life's adversity, whatever that adversity is.

Now, am I saying I'll never pray for God to heal you? No, I'm not saying that, but that will never be my primary prayer.

That will never be my primary prayer. Why? Because physical healing is temporal.

At best. At best. Chapter 3 is his other prayer, which also can and should inform the way we pray, right?

Why does Paul include these? He includes them for structural value. Teach me to pray.

Okay, here's a couple of really lengthy passages to instruct you in how to pray. So, chapter 3, beginning in verse 14 to the end of the chapter,

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his

Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

Amen. Amen. This is Paul's intercession that they would experience

God's transformative power. The first prayer was that the lights would go on.

They'd realize the tremendous riches they have in by union in Christ. This is that they would experience the transformative power of God through the gospel of Christ.

Look at verse 17, first part again. So that, I mean, I'm not trying to unpack this whole prayer, believe me, but notice in verse 17, the first part, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

This is kind of the gist of this. To understand what it means, it's probably helpful just to at least note that the verb here, to dwell, has the idea to settle down, to settle down somewhere.

It speaks about a permanence rather than a temporary abode. In fact, this idea of the permanent nature here, we can find it over, we're not going to turn there, but in Colossians 2 .9,

same words used there to speak of the fullness of the divine nature dwelling in Christ, not temporarily dwelling in Christ, it has a permanent abode in Christ.

That's what Paul's praying here. So that Christ may permanently dwell in your hearts through faith.

Now, D .A. Carson, name known to some of you, very fine New Testament scholar, is a wonderful book.

I commend it to you. A wonderful book. It's called A Call to Spiritual Reformation. A Call to Spiritual Reformation.

And he spends a lot of time in that book unpacking both these prayers in Ephesians. He looks at the prayers of the apostle

Paul, and these are two large ones. So he spends a fair amount of time with that. In that book, he gives what

I think is a helpful analogy, and I think it goes a long way to unlocking the idea of what Paul's talking about here, where the

Christ dwells permanently in our hearts through faith. So he talks about a young couple.

A young couple buys a house for the first time, and the house they buy typically needs work, right?

It needs work. Usually it needs paint, perhaps flooring, maybe a bathroom remodel or a kitchen remodel.

It needs electrical work. It needs plumbing, probably needs some landscaping, you know, the typical flop house that most young couples start with.

Now, he knows that the moment they close escrow, the house is theirs. The house is theirs, and they begin to live in it.

But it's a long way from truly becoming their home. It still doesn't get the feeling it's my house, right?

Yeah, I live here, and every month I get reminded. That doesn't feel like my house yet.

Over the course of time, they make the necessary repairs and the remodels, and one day they realize that they have a home in which they are now very comfortable living.

They're settled down. There's permanence to it. It's their house, he says, and I'm quoting him now here.

He says, in a similar way, when Christ first takes up residence in us,

He finds the moral equivalent of mounds of trash, black and silver wallpaper, and a leaking roof.

He sets about turning this residence into a place appropriate for Him, a home which makes

Him comfortable. There is a lot of cleaning to do, quite a few repairs, and some much -needed expansion.

Make no mistake, when Christ first moves into our lives, He finds us in very bad repair.

It takes a great deal of power to change us, and that is why

Paul prays for power. It takes the power of God to transform wicked sinners into the likeness of Christ, children of the living

God. It is not easily accomplished. Therefore, you and I need

God's inexhaustible power to be holy. We need it.

We need His power to think. We need His power to act. We need His power to speak in ways that are pleasing to Him.

We need His power to strengthen our moral resolve, to humble our proud hearts. We need the supernatural power to serve others instead of ourselves, to obediently trust

Him through all the trials and temptations of life. We need the power of God.

It is this spiritual strength that's essential to living out the ethical admonitions that follow beginning in chapter 4, abandoning the former darkened way of living, replacing it with God's righteous living, and, according to chapter 6, all the while, doing battle with the forces of darkness that are arrayed against us.

This transformation occurs on a battlefield that is being actively opposed by the forces of darkness.

It's not a simple matter. Not at all. It requires a massive dose of the power of God.

Other means of grace, quickly. One -to -one Bible reading. Let me commend that to you.

One -to -one Bible reading. In other words, getting together with friends or family or your spouse or whatever, and reading the

Scriptures together. It's a means of grace. It is a means of grace. Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the

Word of Christ. It strengthens and accelerates our growth in Christ.

Reading good Christian books with other people. Reading good Christian books with other people and talking about them, discussing what you have read is a means of grace.

The public worship of the church, for sure, is a means of grace. As we pray together, sing together, hear the preaching of the

Word, it's a means of grace. Baptism and communion are means of grace.

They're symbols of the gospel and commands to be obeyed. Symbols of the gospel and commands to be obeyed, they are a means of grace.

Practicing the one in others. Practicing the one in others. I think, if I remember right, there are 17 of them.

So that's a lot. But as we practice the one in others, that is a means in which we grow in grace.

Serving others, right? Counting others more important than ourselves. Mark 10, 45, where even the

Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, give his life a ransom for many.

So if the king came to serve, we as citizens of the king could and should expect nothing but that's our life too, called to serve.

And last and finally, sharing the gospel. Okay, by the way, this is not an exhaustive list, this is a representative list.

But sharing the gospel with others, telling people what Jesus has done, serve us to strengthen our own both understanding and commitment to the gospel.

The very act of evangelism is a means of grace for the believer. So with all of that,

I have one minute left, which is just enough time to pray and send you on your way. So Father, thank you.

Thank you for this six -week study together in the work of your spirit. We're very grateful for the truth of the scriptures.

We're grateful, Father, that your spirit works through the scriptures in our lives and that you are never satisfied and never done.

You are a gentle God, but you are persistent. And so I pray for each and every one of us that we would lean in, as it were, that we would apply ourselves to the truth and that we would rejoice together in the transformation that is occurring.

Father, help us to look for evidence of grace in one another and then to point them out, not as a way to flatter, but as merely a means to encourage one another.

Sometimes when we're in the to have someone come and say,

I see Christ at work in you in this particular area. So Father, help us to have that kind of an eye for the body.