Ephesians chapter 5, the heading
at the top of my page says exhortations to love and to eschew and that
means shun or avoid all uncleanness. The Apostle Paul is exhorting
God's people to be followers of Christ and not followers of
this world. That is an exhortation to all
of God's people. He's exhorting us to walk in
the Spirit that God has given to us. He's given us His Spirit.
He has given us His Spirit. We just called on His Spirit
in prayer. We begged Him to bless us through
His Spirit. And the exhortation is to call
on the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh because
it's completely contrary to God's Spirit. It fights against the
Spirit. Before we continue with what
he's saying here, we've been going through this chapter for
quite a while. We've been in Ephesians 5 for
quite a while, going through these exhortations. Before we
continue, let's make it very clear that he is speaking to
saved people. He is speaking to saved people. He is not telling unsaved people
how to be saved. He said in verse one, I'm speaking
to God's dear children. He said in chapter 4, verse 32,
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. He hath. In chapter 1, he said, I'm speaking
to those that God has already chosen and already blessed and
already adopted, already accepted, already redeemed. That's who
I'm speaking to. So these exhortations are not
in order to be God's children. They are because we are God's
children. All right, we pick up with verse
17. Wherefore, be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is. That verse is
going to be our text in the message in just a moment. So we'll look
at it then. Verse 18. and be not drunk with
wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." Every
scripture has a road that leads to Jesus Christ crucified. Our business, whether we're in
a Sunday school lesson or in a morning message, either way
it doesn't matter. Our business is to find that road and get
on it. So let's do that first. Every
scripture does have a physical application, but it's the spiritual
application of Christ crucified that is the gospel of the word. So it says, Be not drunk with
wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Turn
with me if you would to Revelation chapter 14. Revelation 14, verse six, it
says, and I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having
the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth
and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people, saying
with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him. For the hour
of his judgment is come, and worship him that made heaven
and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters. And there
followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen,
that great city, because she made all nations drink the wine
of the wrath of her fornication." In the scripture, Babylon represents
false religion. When we see Babylon, it's talking
about false religion. The wine of her fornication represents
the message of lies that intoxicates men and women. That message of
lies is so intoxicating to the flesh. It's so enticing to the
flesh. And it causes men and women to
leave their first love, which is Christ, and go after something
else. The truth of the gospel cries,
there is one way. That's what the truth of the
word cries. There is one way. There is only one truth. You know, people say, well, y'all
are being too narrow-minded over there. No, there's only one truth. There's only one way. There's
only one life. There's only one covenant. God
made one covenant. There's only one love. The intoxicating message of lies
says, and this is what religion says, you turn on these, sometimes
I get caught up with myself, I want to call them names that
I shouldn't call them, but these sissies on TV, they stand up
there and they'll tell you, oh there are many ways. There are
many truths. There are many loves. You just
pick the one that makes you feel the best. That's intoxication. God's people are exhorted. Stay
away from it. Stay away from it. Don't entertain
it. Don't partake of it. Don't become numb to it. Don't
let it make you numb. Judgment is coming to the message
of lies against the Christ of Scripture. It may appear to be
a great party right now. Religion is a great party these
days. Fun. It's fun. But God says judgment's
coming. It's coming to everything that
is strange to the covenant of the blood of His Son, that being
our only means of salvation. Chapter 17 right here in Revelation
it says, there came one of the seven angels which had the seven
vials and talked with me saying unto me, come hither I will show
unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon
many waters with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication
and the habitants of the earth have been made drunk with the
wine of her fornication. Judgment is coming to false religion. Chapter 18, it says, after these
things, I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great
power, and the earth was lightened by his glory, and he cried mightily
with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen,
is fallen, and has become the habitation of devils, and the
hold of every foul spirit in a cage of every unclean and hateful
bird. For all nations have drunk of
the wine of the wrath of her fornication, And the kings of
the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of
the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Everybody's getting rich on it. Everybody's getting rich on it.
It's just great for everybody. It's thriving. Verse 4, And I
heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people. Aren't you so glad for that voice?
Thank God for that voice that called every one of us, Come
out of her, my people. that you be not partakers of
her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. For her sins
have reached unto heaven, and God remembered her iniquities."
To those who safely sit covered under the blood of Jesus Christ,
this is what God says about them. He says, their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. No more. And the reason is because
they're gone. They don't exist, they're put
away. But to every soul who has become drunk with the wine of
lies, lies against the holiness of God and the sinfulness of
man, lies against the only remedy for sin, that being the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. To every soul who has been made
drunk with the lies of false religion, God says, judgment
is coming. is coming. Back in Revelation
14, Revelation 14 verse 10, it says, The same shall drink of
the wine of the wrath of God. which is poured out without mixture
into the cup of his indignation. And he shall be tormented with
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the
presence of the lamb. Dear God, have mercy on our souls.
We can't imagine this torment. We know it's coming, knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord. But we can't imagine, we can't
we can't enter in at all to the terror. Lord, be merciful to
us. Don't we thank God for the blood
of the lamb? Thank God that has washed us
from our sins and redeemed us back to God. All right. Now,
that's who Paul is writing to in Ephesians five. Those who
are redeemed, those who are spared, those who who fear God and give
glory to his name, like verse seven says. So go with me back
over there. Ephesians five. to the redeemed for Christ's
sake in a loving and a thankful response for everything Christ
His Spirit is from. He exhorts in verse 18, be not
drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. I'm not sure where some forms
of false religion got the idea that wine is sinful. I'm not
sure where that came from. They didn't get it from the scriptures.
You would think that they would see this and see verses, but
they didn't get it from the scriptures. Look with me, if you would, at
Mark chapter seven. Mark 7 verse 14 says, and when he had called all the
people unto him, he said unto them, hearken unto me every one
of you and understand there is nothing from without a man that
entering into him can defile him. But the things which come
out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have
ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into
the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning
the parable. And he said unto them, Are you
so without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatsoever
thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him? Because it entereth not into
his heart, but into the belly, and go without into the draught
purging all meats. And he said, that which cometh
out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out
of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things
come from within and defile the man. Sin is not in the substance
of something. No matter what it is. Sin is
not in the substance. Sin is in my abuse of it. Sin does not enter us. Sin comes out of us. It comes
out of us. It comes from the source. Which
is right here within us. We are sin. Therefore we sin. I am what I
am. Turn with me over to Luke chapter
7. Luke chapter 7 verse 33, For John the Baptist came neither
eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say he hath a devil.
The son of man is come eating and drinking, and you say, behold,
a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners."
They called our Lord a winebibber, meaning when he sat down to dinner
with publicans and sinners, he had a glass of wine with him.
And they said, look at him. He's a wine tipper. Look at him
throwing the wine back. 2 Corinthians 5 says, Our Lord
knew no sin. So that ought to tell us that
the sin is not in the wine. The sin is in my abuse of it. Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter
5. Verse Timothy 5, Paul is telling
Timothy, he's giving him some advice for being a pastor. And
this is good advice, this is very good advice. We know it's
good because it's directly from the Word of the Spirit of God.
God recorded it in His Holy Word. So this is good advice to give
you an idea of the kind of things he's mentioning. Verse 19 says,
against an elder, receive not accusation, but before two or
three witnesses." If somebody comes and says something on a
man who's preaching, don't believe it. Don't believe it, unless
you hear it come from the mouth of two or three witnesses. Preachers
become accused of a lot of things. They become accused of a lot
of things. And he said, Timothy, you're going to be a pastor now.
When you hear something about these other men who are preaching
God's truth, don't believe it until it comes from the mouth
of two or three witnesses. That's good advice. Verse 20, them that
sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. Verse 21, I charge
thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels
that thou observe these things without preferring one before
another. Do nothing by partiality. Timothy,
you're going to be a pastor now. Don't form cliques. Don't do
partiality. We're all one. Good advice. Verse 22, lay hands suddenly
on no man. Neither be partaker of other
men's sins, keep thyself pure. Verse 23, drink no longer water,
but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake. And I often affirm
it. So sin is not in the wine, sin is in me. There is nothing
wrong with a little wine. There's nothing wrong with a
little wine. When the problem starts though
that I cannot have it, when the sin is evidence that I cannot
have it without becoming a brawling drunk, if I cannot have a little wine
without taking it to excess and becoming a brawling drunk, then
I don't need to have a little wine. This is just how it is. This is how we need to view it.
The exhortation of moderation. There's nothing wrong with a
little wine. Is it a sin to drink wine? No. Is it a sin to become
an absolute brawl and drum? God says it is. It ruins, we
can't control anything. We can't control our tongues.
We can't control our bodies, our desires. We become a terrible
example. We become a terrible testimony.
So if I can't have it without it just consuming me, then I
don't need to have it. Moderation applies to everything. It applies to everything. We
can eat. We're welcome to eat. Our Lord said, don't become a
glutton. We can drive a car. You know, as long as we're of
age and we have a legal license, we are welcome to drive a car.
But the minute we get in that car and mash the accelerator
to the floor and try to see if we can get to 90 miles an hour
everywhere we go, we're lawbreakers. And it's not good. So God's people
are exhorted to be law-abiding. They're exhorted to be moderate.
They're exhorted to be temperate. Therefore, go with me back to
Ephesians 5. Verse 18 says, Be not drunk with
wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Dwell on things above. Put off
the old man, put on the new man, that old man who desires these
fleshly things. put him off and put on the spirit
that the Lord has given us. How can we do that? Verse 19,
speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. giving
thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to
another in the fear of the Lord. That's the spirit of Christ in
a believer. The Psalms and the hymns that we sing, they speak
of Christ. They remind us of Christ. They
bring us back to what Christ has done to us, done for us. And if we want to listen to politics
all day long, that's fine. That's fine. But we will continually
stay torn all to pieces. Those those guys will have us
torn all to pieces. And if that's how we would like
to walk through the day, that's fine. But we'll be torn all to
pieces. It's better to have this dwelling
in the heart. He leadeth me. Oh, blessed thought, whatever
those fellows are doing over there, He leadeth me. He's leading them. Oh, blessed thought. Oh, words
with heavenly comfort brought. Whatever I do, wherever I be,
still tis His hand that leadeth me. That's better. That's just
better. We could spend all day pondering
an economic crisis. The dollar losing value. But this is better. Oh, the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Wealth that can never be told. Riches exhaustless of mercy and
grace. What's his currency? Mercy and
grace. Precious, more precious than
gold. The dollar may run out. The dollar may run out, but God's
mercy never will. Never. There's no better way
to live than dwelling on these things in the heart. Giving thanks
to God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, thank you. Giving thanks to God. Thank you. Thank you. For the love that
sought us. Thank you for the blood that
bought us. Thank you for the grace that
brought us to the fold. Wondrous grace that brought us
to the fold. Do you know that song? In tenderness,
he sought me. We're about to sing it. If you
don't, I'll do a solo. It's a great song. So our exhortation
as believers is be moderate. Let's be moderate. We're not
lawless. Are we absolutely? Do we hate
God's law and sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Be moderate,
dwell on things above, give thanks always for all things to God
the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse
21, he said, do all these things, submitting yourselves one to
another in the fear of God. All right, this is the last verse
we'll look at this morning. The word submit. Is a word that the natural man
loves and the natural woman hates. Submit. All right. That's a word that the fleshly
man loves in the fleshly woman hates. And the reason is because
men who know nothing of the love of God. Men who know nothing of the tender,
tender, tender compassion of Christ for his bride. They try
to use that word to support their own pride and support their own
arrogance and support their own selfishness by telling their
wives that they have authority from God to do whatever they
want. They think they have authority
from God to get their way. And if their wife does not bow
to their way, she's disobeying God. That is not what that means
at all. That's not what that means at
all. I'm going to give the definition of submitting, but before I do,
I want to point out that we men are commanded to submit before
our wives are. Verse 21 says, submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of God. And then verse 22 says,
wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the
Lord. We are all commanded to submit,
all of us. And in verse 21, when it says
one to another, that does not mean men only. He's not saying
men, you need to submit to each other. He's speaking to the entire
church of God. He's speaking to the whole church
of God. And he said, all of us need to
submit ourselves to each other. Turn back just a few pages to
Galatians 3. Galatians 3 verse 26, it says,
For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ, that means laid hold of by the Holy Spirit
of God and immersed into Christ. God put you in Christ. As many
of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now watch verse 28. There is
neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. You're all one. This thing of submitting has
everything to do with love. everything to do with love, everything
to do with unity, everything to do with care for each other. We are all one in Him. To submit to each other is to
submit to our own body. I'll give you an example of that. If you want something done one
way, and I want something done another way, it's not important. It's not an issue of salvation.
It doesn't matter. It's just you want something
done one way, I want something done another way. By me submitting
to you, I am showing that I care for
you. I'm showing that I care for your
feelings. I'm showing that I don't want
to hurt you. And by me not hurting you, I'm not hurting the very
body that God has called me to be a part of spiritually. I'm
not hurting my own spiritual body. Submitting has everything
to do with love. And we're not gonna look at the
relationship of a husband and a wife. We'll save that for next
time. That's where we'll start, Lord willing, next time. But
I will go ahead and tell us that Where there is no love, there
is no submitting. There cannot be. There can be
bondage, but there cannot be submission. And here's why. The
word submit means to subject one's self to. Does that hit home? Does that ring a bell? Not to
bring somebody else under you. It's to submit one's self to. It's to willingly yield to another. To willingly yield. That's the
heart that God gives all of his people towards Christ. Willing
subjection. Willing. And love motivates it. He's the head. We're the body. And as the head cares for and
watches over and safely leads the body, this head, this head
right here, cares for and leads safely this body, watches over
this body. And in that same way, the body,
the spiritual body of Christ, knowing that the head is only
leading it for good, the body willingly subjects itself to
the leadership of the head. Willingly. Lovingly. We gladly
submit to Christ. We gladly do. We want to. And Christ in us makes us gladly
submit to each other. We do. For love's sake, for Christ's
sake, it's a good exhortation. It's a good way to be. Submit
to each other, love each other. For Christ's sake, it's a good
walk to have. So may the Lord help us with
it. All right, we'll pick up with that next time.