Spirit-filled Holiness

Amen, grateful for your singing this morning.

It's always a blessing to my heart.

As I said last Sunday, I was preaching at another church and I so missed being here with you.

So thank you for your encouragement and song this morning.

You know, so many ways today, we are living in a time.

I don't wanna be doom and gloom here, but I want you to just have a sobering reflection of our moment in

history.

In so many ways, we are witnessing the decay of our society.

A recent Wall Street Journal poll showed that in the last 25 years, so

this is gonna be a shock for some of you, 25 years ago, that was 1998.

1998 was 25 years ago.

So from 1998 to 2023, this poll shows that the values of Americans have drastically changed.

Patriotism has fallen by 32%.

The importance of religion has fallen by over 20%.

The desire to have children has fallen by 30%.

Community involvement has fallen by 35%.

Of course, most of us in here, we're perceptive enough.

We have a pulse and we have eyes.

We don't really need a poll in order to realize that our society around us is

crumbling.

We're witnessing every day.

This last week, I had the terrible tragedy of a person

walking into a school, heavily armed, and shooting

nine -year -old children.

We live in a culture of death.

Sexual immorality is flaunted all over the place.

Idolatry is rampant.

We are watching the celebration of the rebellion

of gender dysphoria.

In Texas, I believe it was in Texas, there was some sort of demonstration held at the

capital of Texas recently, it was this week, whereby people are demanding the right

of underage children to mutilate their bodies and reproductive organs.

It's like in one sense that we're living in the last days of Rome.

You understand that if you study the history of Rome, Rome collapsed long before its official

death date.

And I wonder, in some ways, is it already too late for our

nation?

So what are we to do?

Well, friends, we're to look to the Word of God.

We are to look to the Bible.

I am reminded that 2 ,000 years ago, Paul, in his letter to the church at Ephesus,

he reminded, he commanded Christians to do something while living in the midst of,

guess what, a heathen and pagan culture.

In the midst of immorality and idolatry, Paul commanded

Christians in Ephesus to be filled with the Spirit.

We turn to Ephesians five.

There's a syndrome, I just kind of made this up, maybe someone else has already named this better than me, but there's a syndrome, I

think, that some Christians today are tempted to conform to, and I'll just call it the Jonah

syndrome.

What's the Jonah syndrome?

That is, I see all this happening around me, and I'm gonna disengage.

I'm gonna go up on my little hill over here, right, and I'm going to see what God is going to do

about all of this.

But I'm getting out of here.

That was wrong for Jonah, by the way, and it's wrong for us.

Don't disengage.

Friends, rather, we must engage as we are

filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

Now, I don't mean to try to suggest that I have any kind of magic cure for our nation.

I do not, but what I do know is this.

Whatever may or may not happen in our country, our great and glorious God is

working in the world today, and He has commanded us in our text today to be filled in

Him.

You understand that professing Christians in this generation and in generations gone on before us in this

nation need to take partial responsibility for the state of our country today?

That is, there has been too long, listen to me now, there has been too long in our nation a type of

Christianity put forth that has required no obedience to this command in

our text in Ephesians 5, 18.

No concern, no tangible concern about being filled with the Spirit.

Oh, they may go around and jump around and try to say things in gibberish and call that being filled with the Spirit, but

it's not according to the Scriptures.

No concern about holiness.

No concern about a true definition of the church.

No concern about Christ being our all.

No concern about engaging the culture today with the

truth of God.

Friends, the Bible says that the church, that the gates of hell will not

prevail against the church.

In Ephesians 6, I'm going off topic.

Okay, in Ephesians 6, Paul gives us the armor of the Christian.

Do you know which,.

You know what side of the Christian is not covered by any armor?

You know what side it is?

The back side.

Why?

Because we ain't running, right?

We're not running away, but we're going to the battle.

We're engaging.

This is the part of the reasons that we're now gonna spend a third week in Ephesians 5, 18.

And the title of today's sermon is simply Spirit -Filled Holiness.

Spirit -Filled Holiness.

Think about this as we begin this.

Teenagers, young people, adults, does this describe you?

Are you a believer filled in the Spirit, desiring to be light in a dark world?

Let's consider what the Lord has for us today.

Ephesians 5, 18, would you stand as we honor the reading of God's word?

Ephesians 5, 18.

I hope by now if I woke you up at two in the morning and shook you and said, what does Ephesians 5, 18 say that you would be able to recite

it?

We've read it so much.

Consider the text.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.

But be filled with the Spirit.

Father, help us to understand today what it means to be full in the Spirit.

We pray that we would be a church filled in the Spirit.

We pray that we would be a church that engages our culture and takes the message of truth and Christ to

the world around us.

Speak to us today from your word.

Christ is worthy.

Christ is worthy of a healthy church here.

Christ is worthy of all obedience here.

Christ is worthy of every age child, every young man, every young woman, every senior adult, every

middle -aged man, every boy, every girl, every middle -aged woman.

Christ is worthy of our obedience.

And I pray that we would submit ourselves to His rule, not just

a hat tip or a check of the box, but that our hearts today would be surrendered to Christ.

And we would be a church that is saturated with Christ.

We pray it all in His name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

This is, I understand, our third week in this verse.

I am not suggesting that everyone who preaches through Ephesians must preach through it in this way.

It's just how that we've landed.

And so we've sought to understand this great letter in great detail.

So the first week then, if you look at your outline, the first week we looked at the prohibition.

Number one, the prohibition.

That is, Paul says, do not get drunk with wine.

And we understood that this was not to be controlled by alcohol or any other foreign substance or

by idolatry or food or sin or anything, except to be controlled by the Holy

Spirit.

And then the last time we looked at the precept, he doesn't just say don't do something, but do something.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but what?

But be filled with the Spirit.

And we saw last week that this command is one about control by the Holy Spirit.

It's a continual reality.

That is, it's not something you're ever gonna fully achieve.

It's something that we're always wanting to do.

And we saw this is a corporate reality too.

Paul is not just saying this to individual Christians, but to the entire church.

And then that's God's will for your life, right, dear Christian?

That you would live your life under his control.

So we've examined the prohibition and the precept.

And what we want to do today is begin to examine number three, the productivity.

Number three, the productivity.

That is, what does the Spirit -filled life, what does it produce?

It produces holiness.

It's the Holy Spirit, right?

So in one sense, we have a great example of what this life produces in our text.

Just take your eyes for just a moment and lock them on to verse 18 and following.

So let me read this in its context.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.

And then notice this.

Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to

God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of

reverence for Christ.

Friends, I don't understand the version of Christianity out there today that disconnects being

filled in the Spirit and the local church.

Like, how do you do that?

How do you disconnect?

Do you not see here the connection between being filled in the Spirit and life in the local church?

There is no, there is no Spirit -filled life to

disconnected from life together in the worship and regular attendance and

regular fellowship in the local church.

Now, there are about eight things that I wanna highlight that Spirit -filled holiness looks like.

Loving the local church is one of those things.

And we'll get to that later when we examine verse 19 more closely.

But just to keep it in your mind, let me reread verse 19 through 21.

Paul says that being filled in the Spirit is gonna result in addressing one another in

psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord

with your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Friends, how could any believer, how could any believer desire to be

disconnected from the local church?

How could any believer desire to be separated from the worship of God

with the people of God?

When you sing, spoiler alert, we eventually will get to verse 19, okay?

But I want you to know, preview, when we sing, we are ministering to one another.

We're singing this great truth.

Like a thief on the cross we sing about this morning, which we celebrate Good Friday coming up.

The thief on the cross, like God saved that wretch.

Oh, and guess what?

You're a wretch too.

And the blood of Christ will save you too.

And we sing that to one another.

Praise God.

How could a believer desire to be separated from that?

How could any believer willfully resist submitting to the local church?

Verse 21, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Guys, we talk to so many people door to door.

There has been one occasion, Imani and I were in a team one week, and there was an occasion that we knocked on the

door and a man said, I am an atheist, okay?

But besides that, everyone else says, oh, I'm a Christian.

Is Christ your king?

Oh, yes.

You follow the Lord Jesus?

Oh, yes.

Where do you go to church?

Oh, I don't go to church.

Friends, that's not biblical Christian.

Here it is.

To be filled in the spirit is to be connected to the local church.

There's an obvious connection between being filled in the Holy Spirit and being in love with the local church, but

that's not the focus of today's sermon.

So really, I said I kind of have eight realities.

I say about eight.

We'll see next week what that turns into, but we're gonna focus our attention on one of these eight realities

of what spirit -filled holiness looks like, and then we'll put the other seven together maybe in another sermon

or two or more.

But really, the focus of today's sermon is I wanna walk through a parallel passage in

Colossians.

So I'm gonna ask you to turn to Colossians 3.

So the letters, so turn to Colossians, please.

The letters of Ephesians and Colossians, that is, they're sister

letters.

They're probably most certainly written at the same time by Paul.

So see if you notice a parallel here in Colossians 3.

Colossians 3, and verse 15.

Colossians 3, and verse 15.

Paul says, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,

singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God, and whatever you do

in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Do you notice any parallels there?

So it's not my goal today to exegete Colossians 3 so much as it is to show you the connection

in Paul's mind under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the connection between the filling of the

Spirit and something else.

And so that brings us to the first thing being filled in the Spirit produces, and that is number one

for today, Christ's saturation.

Christ's saturation.

That is, the believer who is filled in the Holy Spirit is saturated

with Christ.

Look at verse 15.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Look at verse 16.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

And then in Ephesians 5, 18, be filled in the Holy Spirit.

In other words, listen to this very carefully.

There is a correlation in the apostle Paul's mind under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit

between being filled with the Holy Spirit and what?

Being full of Christ.

Listen, these things are so closely connected in Paul's mind that he can tell one local church,

be filled in the Holy Spirit, and he can tell another local church, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and let the word

of Christ dwell in you richly.

And he is essentially meaning the same thing.

This is not to say that the Holy Spirit and Christ are the same person.

We distinguish between the roles of the person of Christ and the roles of the person of the Holy Spirit.

Yet it does help us to understand more the role of the Holy Spirit.

And I think this is vastly misunderstood today.

And that is the chief role of the Holy Spirit is this, to magnify

Christ.

The Holy Spirit of God is like a spotlight that loves to point to

Jesus, loves to point to the gospel, loves to point to the work of Christ

and his beauty and his glory.

The Holy Spirit is truly God.

He is worthy of our adoration.

He is worthy of our worship and our honor.

But what I'm saying here is we honor the Holy Spirit when we see his role in magnifying

Christ.

You wanna see where the Holy Spirit's working today?

Where the Holy Spirit is working today is where you will see Christ exalted.

Where the gospel is exalted.

Where biblical repentance is embraced.

Where the word of God is cherished and submitted to and the building

of Christ's church is happening.

This is where the Spirit of God is working.

These are the things the Holy Spirit loves to do.

So to be filled in the Spirit, friends, is for the believer to be saturated

with Christ.

Now, I have another eight points here in this sub -point.

This is probably why it takes so long to preach through a book of the Bible.

It's probably from reading the Puritans.

You get to thinking about something and then your mind wanders into sub -points, having sub -points, having sub -points.

And then here we are, lost in some sort of maze of an outline.

But listen, I think this is both faithful to our passage and it's a benefit to us

here this morning.

So I wanna walk through it together.

If our culture is gonna decay before our eyes, so be it.

But the church, friends, must not falter.

We must seek to obey Paul's command to be filled in the Spirit.

We cannot control Washington.

You've seen that, right?

But we can influence Perryville.

We can influence Perry County.

Paul says that the kingdom of God consists in power.

Not talk, friends, but power.

What kind of power might we produce right here?

If we're willing to be filled in the Spirit.

So the first point is this will produce Christ's saturation within us.

And so here are eight realities of that in our life.

Number one, unification.

Number one, unification.

Christ's saturation, one reality of Christ's saturation is

unification.

Look at verse 15.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your heart to which you were called in one body and

be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing

psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Twofold meaning here of unification.

One, those who are saturated with Christ are unified with what?

With one another.

Because why?

Because we're one body.

I love Christ, you love Christ, we love one another.

And we want to go forward together.

But in another sense, union with Christ is a reality.

And really union with Christ and being filled with the Spirit I don't mean to say they're the same thing.

But I want to remind us here that the Holy Spirit has taken the believer and made him or her

one with Christ.

Have you this morning seen your wretched and miserable condition?

Have you seen the hopelessness that you possess

in and of yourself?

Have you seen no outlet for your situation?

That is what I mean by that.

Listen carefully, there's no magic prayer.

There is no baptism.

There is no money that you can give to rescue you from your sins.

You have nothing.

Have you seen today that your only hope is Christ, His righteous life,

His atoning death, His resurrection?

Have you fled to this Jesus in repentance and faith?

Is Christ this morning your only suitable and all -sufficient Savior?

If you answered yes to these questions, then the Holy Spirit has united you to

Christ.

His peace is in you, His Word is in you.

Being filled in the Spirit produces a reminder of our unification with Christ.

He is ours, we are His.

Second reality, adoration.

Unification, adoration.

What we're talking about here is that being filled in the Spirit produces Christ's saturation in our life.

And what does Christ's saturation look like?

Number one, it looks like unification.

Number two, it looks like adoration.

Look at verse 17.

And whatever you do, remember we're staying in Colossians 3.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of who?

The Lord Jesus.

Everything.

Every bite you eat, every mile you run, every hour you work,

every prayer you pray, every baseball you throw, every turkey you shoot.

Do everything, the text says, in the name of Christ.

Why?

The Lord Jesus is everything to the believer.

The Spirit -filled Christian adores Christ.

One of the things that you can do to get to know someone better is you talk to them about the things they love.

Their job, their kids, their hobbies.

And because when you begin to talk about someone's interests, they perk up, they begin to open up, they talk to you more about the

things that they love.

Friends, Christians love Christ.

Christians adore Christ.

Being filled in the Spirit produces adoration of Christ in our lives.

We love to adore Him, to worship Him, to speak of Him.

Thirdly, unification, adoration.

Thirdly, education.

Look at verse 16.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Not rosy and warm feelings, per se.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Here I mean that Christ saturation means not only do we love to adore Christ, but we love

to know more about Jesus.

We love to know more about His ways.

The Spirit -filled believer loves to grow in his or her knowledge of Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 2 .12, Paul says of the Holy Spirit, now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is

from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

Believer, the Holy Spirit in your life educates you in Christ.

What I mean is, well, let me say this.

What I don't mean is that you must go to seminary.

It does not mean that you have to have some sort of intellectually astute mind.

Friends, Christ is not merely for smart people, right?

This is good news for me because there are so many people in this world today who are so

intelligent and so, so, so smart.

But the believer has the Holy Spirit who is a

wonderful professor in the school of Christ.

The Spirit writes the Word of God upon our hearts.

He stores the Word of God richly within us.

He teaches us the mystery and the wonder and the glory of Christ through the Bible.

Jesus is not just for the intellectual elites.

He is for the common folk.

He is for us, the blue -collar people here in Perry County.

Christ, we can have Him.

This doesn't mean that we don't,.

We're not against intelligence.

The church greatly benefits certainly from intellectuals.

We should prize the mind.

We should seek to cultivate rich and deep learning.

But the point I'm making here is that even the simplest of persons who are filled in the Spirit are

educated in Christ.

The child who is converted possesses the mind of Christ.

Friends, those who are full of the Spirit, those who are filled in the Spirit learn Christ.

They think like Christ.

The Spirit -filled life produces Christ's saturation.

This results in unification, adoration, education.

Fourthly, imitation, imitation.

Verse 17 says,.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the

Father through Him.

Not merely do we adore this Jesus, but we seek to be like Him.

Being filled in the Spirit results in a life that imitates Christ.

Romans 8 .29 says it this way, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the

image of His Son.

The Holy Spirit, what is He doing right now in your life, believer?

What's He doing with tornadoes and your financial status and what's going on at work and what's

going on at home and what's going on with your health?

What is the Holy Spirit doing in all of this?

Friends, if you're in Christ, the Holy Spirit is conforming you to the image of

Jesus.

Being filled in the Spirit produces a life that seeks to imitate Christ.

Guys, there's a lot of people today that name the name of Christ that have no desire to

imitate Him.

To follow Christ is to walk in His ways.

It's to seek to imitate His love and His mercy.

It's to seek to imitate His theology and doctrine.

It is to seek to imitate His love for the church.

It is to seek to imitate His compassion for sinners.

It is to seek to imitate His holiness.

Our prayers, believers, as father, make us more like Christ.

Friends, are you filled in the Spirit?

These are the types of things that He produces in us.

Fifthly, unification, adoration, education, imitation.

Fifthly, subjugation.

Subjugation, one of Paul's favorite titles for himself is that he was a

doulos of Christ.

That's the Greek word often translated in your Bibles as servant.

And yet the idea of this word carries a much weightier reality

than a butler.

Paul is not saying, I'm a butler for Christ.

Rather, by using this word, he is saying, I am a slave

of Christ.

Friends, on the cross, Christ bought His people.

He is our, the scriptures are clear on this.

He's our master and we are His slaves.

He is our king and we are His subjects.

What I'm saying is that the Spirit -filled life produces in us Christ's saturation.

And part of what it means to be saturated with Christ is being subjugated to Christ.

Listen very carefully here.

I wanna make sure that we're clear on this.

I don't want you to stand before judgment one day and say, nobody ever told me this as Jesus sends you off to

eternal hell.

Listen to this very carefully.

Is Christ the king of your life?

I'm not talking about, have you prayed a prayer?

I'm not talking about, do you give money in the play?

I'm not talking about, have you been baptized?

No, no, friends, I'm asking, is the Lord Jesus king of your life?

Is He king of your thoughts?

Is He king of your behavior?

Is He king of your attitude?

Is He king of your affections?

Is He king of your actions?

Is the Lord Jesus Christ king of your life?

Because the Holy Spirit produces in us subjugation.

That is, we want to follow and be slaves to and under

the reign of Christ.

He's high above all earthly powers and rulers.

When I have to make a choice of being disloyal to my government or disloyal to my

king, which am I going to choose?

For the spirit -filled Christian, there is no choice at all.

Do you remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

And you remember they stood before King Nebuchadnezzar and he told them, you must bow to the government,.

Essentially, right?

You must bow to us.

And they said, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

Why would they say that?

Their choice was already made.

Nebuchadnezzar wasn't their king.

God was their king.

Friends, that's the kind of life that the spirit of God produces in the Christian.

The government's not my king.

Joe Biden's not my king.

A political party is not my king.

Christ is my king and I'll live for him.

No matter what, I will not be enslaved to any other.

Christ or country, Christ or culture, Christ or fame, Christ or fortune, Christ or sin, Christ or hobbies.

I will be enslaved to none of those things.

I will be not enslaved to drunkenness or food or idolatry or money.

Why?

Christ is king.

Christ is the king and there is no other.

Now, certainly there are earthly authorities, right, that you must obey.

However, when those authorities are in conflict between Christ and anything

else, it is Christ above all.

We obey Christ above all.

We obey God rather than men.

Are you being filled in the spirit?

Unification, adoration, education, imitation, subjugation, sixly, evangelization.

Now, let's go back and think about verse 16 for a second.

Paul says to the Colossian believers, let the word of Christ dwell in you

richly, evangelization.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

The word of Christ means not merely the words Jesus spoke in the Gospels.

Friends, if you have a red letter Bible and you think to yourself, the red letters in my Bible

carry more weight than the black letters in my Bible, I would counsel you to put your red letter

Bible aside and buy you a Bible that doesn't have red letters so you're not confused about that.

The red letters in your Bible don't carry more weight than the black letters.

Why?

They're all of God.

All of the Bible is from God, all of it, from Genesis to Revelation.

The red letters don't carry special weight and so that's not what Paul is saying.

He's not saying the red letters, but he says the word of Christ.

He has in mind here the Christ -focused, Christ -saturated, full -ridden, God

-breathed Revelation.

Yes, the Bible must dwell within us, but it's more than just that because some people know the Bible well and they're not

Christians.

So it is the Bible with the proper understanding of its Christ -centeredness.

The Bible, the grand story that the Bible produces is

Christ.

The scriptures show us our sin and our need.

They show us Christ's work for us.

They show us that Christ is our all.

And Paul says here that this is the word of Christ that must dwell in us.

And think about that word for a moment, dwell.

Let the word of Christ, Colossians 3 .16, let the, what would it say if it said this?

Let the word of Christ come over every other weekend.

That's not what it says.

Let the word of Christ visit every now and then.

That's not what Paul says.

He says, let the word of Christ, what?

Dwell.

That's a command, by the way.

There are many places in your life that you visit.

We went and visited the Ark.

That was fun.

Maybe some of you visit places rather frequently, but your home is

the place that you dwell.

It is where you live.

It is where you sleep.

It is where you find refuge from the weather.

It is, when we think of the word dwell, we think of permanence, not where you visit, not where you vacation,

but where you live, where you dwell.

And this is Paul's meaning in verse 16.

Let the word of Christ not visit, not come over, not hang out every now and then, let it dwell.

Let it take up residence.

It doesn't visit.

It doesn't vacation.

It doesn't come over for a night or two.

It dwells.

It's not an appetizer.

It's the main course.

It's not a toe in the water.

It's a full -blown cannonball off the high dial.

And it dwells richly, the text says, that is, abundantly and deeply.

Now, listen to this very carefully.

If this dwells within us deeply, how can we

not speak of Christ from the overflow of our hearts,

right?

Think about this for just a moment.

If the word of Christ is dwelling in your heart, and your heart, let's say it's like a cup, and your heart is bubbling

over with the word of Christ, how's it not spilling out all over the counter?

How's it not making a mess in your kitchen, right?

Because Christ is being poured in, and so in our hearts, Christ is dwelling richly, and we're full of Christ, and since we're

full of Christ, that is coming forth in our actions and attitudes, and specifically in our words.

What I'm saying here is that the Spirit -filled Christian will be Christ -saturated, and part of what this means is that

we love to and long to speak of Christ and preach Christ to the nations.

Because the word of God dwells in us richly, you don't have to beat the Spirit -filled

Christian over the head in order to evangelize.

Why?

This is what they want to do.

It doesn't mean that we're not nervous.

Maybe I can encourage you with this.

Every time that we go door to door, or every time I street preach, or every time I hand a tract to someone,

there always seems to be at least, at the very least, a tinge of nervousness in me.

Why is that?

Well, it's because there's a fear of man, right?

I get nervous, but what it does mean is that we pray for, and sometimes I've failed.

Haven't you failed at that?

Haven't you failed in evangelism?

Haven't you said, I know I need to tell this person about Christ, and then you just stop and you don't do

it?

We should repent of that.

To be filled in the Spirit does mean that we pray for God to overcome earthly and carnal fears.

Because more than we fear man, we love Christ.

And since Christ has filled our hearts and saturated our lives, we want to honor

Him and bring Him glory in preaching Him to the nations.

A man asked me the other day, he said, is y 'all's door -to -door evangelism, is that producing any salvations?

I said, I don't know, I have no idea.

We haven't seen any salvations to this point, so I don't know.

But what I know is happening is this.

God is being honored.

Christ is being proclaimed.

And we keep going, why?

Because our hearts are so full of Christ.

That we want the worthiness of Christ.

To be exalted in our town.

And we know that His word doesn't return void, we know that.

We believe here in faithful evangelism that God is actually going to save sinners.

And so Christ, since He rules our hearts, since He dwells in us richly,

we take this message to our city.

Unification, adoration, education, imitation, subjugation, evangelization.

How many of these do we have?

This is number seven, magnification.

Paul says in verse 17, "'Whatever you do in the word or deed, "'do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, "'giving thanks to

God the Father through Him.'".

So everything we're doing, everything we're doing, being filled in the Spirit, everything we're doing is in the name of Christ.

Now, in a sense, I understand magnification, adoration.

You're saying, now you're just giving synonyms.

If you just give synonyms, you could have 1 ,000 points.

But let me push this.

The difference between adoration and magnification in my mind is this.

Adoration is what you're doing.

You see Christ and you say, I love Him.

I adore Him.

He is my King.

He is my Master.

He is my Lord.

I love Him.

He's infinitely worthy and glorious and beauty.

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the people.

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

I love Him.

Adoration.

Magnification is what you long to see others do

when they see your life.

You adore Christ and so you want your life to magnify

Christ.

Thus, the Spirit -filled Christian has a life that magnifies Christ.

Now, remember something here.

We tend to think that magnifying Christ, let others, we sing the song, let others see Jesus in you, right?

We think that that's gonna result in the world loving us.

Listen, you will hear people in Big Eva or evangelicalism say things to you.

You need to be more like Christ.

If you would just treat people more like Jesus, the world would

not be so hostile against you.

Shame on you, church.

And you've even heard with what's happened this week, which is

wicked.

You have heard people blaming Christians for

what this wicked woman did in Nashville.

No.

Let me tell you something.

We've lost our minds.

Jesus, you grant me this argument.

There ain't nobody in the world more like Jesus than Jesus, right?

Granted, follow this logically.

Jesus was perfectly like Jesus.

What did the world do to Him?

They nailed Him to a tree.

They crucified Him.

Do not think that Christ's magnification will result in the accolades of

the world.

The world will hate us.

The world will ridicule us.

So when you go out and preach Christ, don't expect people to come by and just say, well, praise God, I'm glad you're doing that.

That has happened.

But also, there's filth.

Some even person in town the other day gave us, is it appropriate if I say the California wave?

Does everybody know what that means?

So gave us that kind of wave.

I know we have some Californians in here, no offense to you.

But the idea is, not everybody likes it.

The impression where you say, I've done everything right.

I've loved them like Christ.

I've shown them like Christ.

I've shown them Christ.

I've shared Christ with them in compassion.

I have lived before them in a Christ -like manner.

Why do they hate me?

Because they hated Christ.

They hated Christ.

And Jesus says, if they hate me, they'll hate you.

The spirit -filled life magnifies Christ.

Now, certainly it's the hope that others will see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in

heaven.

So our lives magnify Christ because it aids our evangelism, certainly does.

God uses our life and our words, our words that are backed up by a holy

life to bring sinners to glory.

But don't think that a life that magnifies Christ always results in that, because at times, if your life is gonna

magnify Christ, it's gonna be a harder life.

Okay, eighthly, finally.

Unification, adoration, education, imitation, subjugation, evangelization, magnification.

Finally, a Christ -saturated life.

What does it look like, eighthly and finally?

Dependence.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be

thankful that the word of Christ dwell in you, richly teaching and admonishing

one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts

to God.

And whatever you do, in word or

deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Here is where we finish.

The Spirit -filled life is a life that is entirely dependent on Christ.

I am dependent upon His righteousness.

He fulfilled all righteousness on behalf, on my behalf.

Apart from Him, I am not righteous.

All my righteousness is as filthy rags.

All things in me, listen, all things in me, apart from Christ, demand my

rejection, demand my sentencing to judgment,

demand the wrath of God.

My life, my thoughts, my deeds, my best, all things apart from Christ,

call out to God for justice and wrath and judgment and

hell.

I'm dependent upon the righteousness of Christ, His obedience to God, His

keeping and His fulfilling the law.

I am dependent upon His propitiation, His wrath satisfying sacrifice.

No sacrifice on my behalf could atone for my sins.

Some of you may think, I've sinned, I've sinned, I've sinned.

So here's how I'll atone for my sins.

I'll stop sinning.

That will not atone for your sins.

Well, I'll give, I did wrong, so I'll do more.

That will not atone for your sins.

It will not atone for your sins.

No sacrifice on my behalf, no work on my behalf could atone for my sins against a holy God.

No thing that I could conjure up could counterman the law of God.

He Himself bore my sins in His body on the tree, on Calvary, He was

my substitute.

He did not merely die for me, He died as me.

He bore the wrath of God on my behalf, deserved by me, reserved for

me.

Savior bore the justice due me.

I am dependent on Palm Sunday.

Not just Jesus saying, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem.

You got big talk sometimes, don't you, right?

You got big talk.

You ever heard the old adage?

If a man says he's gonna do something, he's gonna do it.

Ladies, there's no need to remind him every six months, right?

He'll do it.

No, no, listen though.

Jesus did not just say, I'm going to Jerusalem, but on Palm

Sunday, boom, He goes in, humble, riding on

the colt of a donkey.

And He takes us through the Passion Week, the Gospels do, Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, and you get to Thursday and then

Good Friday.

And He bled for us.

I'm dependent upon His cross.

I am dependent upon His resurrection.

He was raised for my justification.

God the just is satisfied to look on Christ and pardon me.

By grace through faith, God has placed my account upon Christ and His account

upon my own.

I am declared righteous.

Why?

Because you're a preacher?

Because you wear a suit and tie?

Because you give money?

Because you pray?

Because you lead your family in family worship?

Because you go knocking on doors?

Because you preach the gospel?

Is that why you're counted righteous?

No, friends, even these things, even these things would only bear my condemnation.

I'm counted righteous for one reason.

Jesus was righteous.

And by grace through faith,

I am declared righteous by the merits of another, namely Christ, who I'm

desperately dependent upon.

I'm dependent upon His continued intercession.

He is my advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

I'm dependent upon His peace.

I'm dependent upon His word.

I'm dependent upon His life.

He is the vine and I am the branch and my source of life comes from Him.

I'm dependent on Him for the nourishment of my soul.

All that I have and all that I am and all that I hope to be, my forgiven past and my blessed eternal future,

everything, it is dependent on Christ.

And everything the culture could give me, any fame or fortune, any carnal prize the world holds out

to me, any offered check to compromise my king,.

I lay it at His feet.

I trade it all for Christ.

And all this is loss for the surpassing work, knowing

Christ.

Spirit -filled holiness does not put upon the Christian a new burden,

friends.

Friends, it saturates us with Christ in our unification,

adoration, education, imitation, subjugation, evangelization, magnification

and dependence.

And in a sense, listen to me, friends, in a sense, I am never as spirit -filled as I yearn to be,

but it is the command of God that I continually seek this as

I depend entirely upon Christ.

So here's the question for you today.

Here it is.

Is this your Christianity?

Here's God's will for His people.

Do you accept this or reject it?

To accept it is not merely a head nod of affirmation.

It is to cast yourself wholly upon Christ as your only suitable and all -sufficient

Savior as you now seek to live a life filled in the Spirit.

I'm going to tell you something.

I'm not being mean.

I'm not being a jerk.

I'm just gonna tell you, you can't ride the fence.

You can't.

So many people in Perryville, that's what they think they're doing.

Oh, I'm riding the fence.

I got one foot in religion and I got another foot in loving the carnality of this world

and I'm fine, and when I get to heaven, God's gonna be okay.

No, friends, you can't ride the fence.

You're either in or you're out.

And by the mercy of Christ, you have the opportunity to make that decision.

Don't straddle the fence.

Are you in or are you out?

Will your life pursue spirit -filled holiness and be saturated with Christ, or will it just

be part of the decay of our present culture?

Listen, will you engage this wretched

culture with the truth of Christ being filled in the Spirit, being

saturated in Christ?

Will you engage or will you perish?

There's no third one.

Father, I thank you for this text.

Help us to be a people who are saturated with Christ.