Ephesians chapter 5. We're going to be looking at some temperance
today. Be not drunk with wine. It's good to consider temperance,
how we walk in this world. That's what Paul's telling us
in this chapter. But Felix had considered these
things. He reasoned of righteousness. This man Felix. There in Acts
chapter 24, he reasoned of righteousness. I'm not and Christ is. Well,
that's something, isn't it? He reasoned of temperance. My
knowledge of God, out of a debt of love, I ought to walk a certain
way in this world. And he reasoned of judgment. The Lord's going
to judge this world. Christ sets in judgment of all
things. He trembled at those things. that temperance, that
righteousness, that judgment to come. And you know what he
did? He said, I'll deal with this next month. I'll come back
to this next week. It wasn't important to us. Things
are important to us. Here in Ephesians chapter 5 verse
17, Paul writes about the Holy Ghost and says, Wherefore be
ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunk with wine. wherein is excess, but be filled
with the Spirit, 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 God." Before we look at this
word of instruction, I want us to remember, as I hope we do
every message through this book and as we go through Romans,
Paul is writing to believers here. He's writing to saved children
of God. He's writing to Christ's sheep.
He's giving them instruction. not to become children of God,
but because they are children of God. I want us to remember
the context of this letter to this church at Ephesus. Paul
tells us in chapters 1 and 2, he's used by God the Holy Ghost
to tell us plainly what the Lord did in and for his people. God
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. The Father chose a people before
the world was. Before there was a sinner, there
was a Savior. The Lord chose them in Christ. His goodwill
and pleasure, He predestinated us to the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ. That is who we find redemption
in. In His blood. That is in who
we find forgiveness of our sins. And it's in direct proportionality. It's an equal measure of His
abundant grace. Oh, what forgiveness is there
in Him in direct proportion to His abundant grace? Things are
going to run out? You who believe Christ, we find
this to be true because the Holy Spirit abounds towards us. He does it in perfect wisdom
and in perfect prudence. He makes this mystery. Boy, it's
mysterious, isn't it? The salvation in Christ alone. How mysterious that is to the
natural man. And He makes us to know it. I
think that is what it is. That's salvation. It's a person. Makes us know it. If this gracious
inheritance of Christ This act of eternal love for His people,
this redemption that is forever, we are sealed with that Holy
Spirit, a promise. All of it is to the praise and
the glory of our mighty God. This letter is to you who know
that, who know Him. You who trusted Christ alone
as He tells us after you heard the preaching of the Word of
Truth. The truth of the Lordship of Christ. You didn't believe
Him before you heard that. You believed Him after you heard
it. He says in Ephesians 4 verse 32, left side of your page there. It's an act that's already taken
place. Ephesians 4 verse 32, And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Do I have to do something for
God to forgive me? He hath forgiven you. Fools argue over when's a man
justified. There's two points. There's four
points to justification. All kinds of nonsense. For Christ's
sake, who's sake is that for? We're just beneficiaries. For
his sake, he hath forgiven you. That's then, that's right now,
and that's to come. In the first verse of chapter
5, Paul writes for us to be followers of God, imitators of God as little
children, children of God, because you are His children. Ephesians
5 verse 14, Wherefore he saith, Awakest thou that sleepest, and
arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life. Because
we've been awakened, quickened, given life from our spiritual
death, And given His light, He says in verse 17, cause all this. Everything He said in this whole
letter to Ephesus. Cause all this, verse 17. Wherefore,
be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
Don't be unwise. Don't be a fool. Be understanding
of the will of the Lord. We looked at that last time. Verse 18, and be not drunk with
wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. This
has a practical application to it, as most of the Word of God
does. I reference that a lot in Proverbs.
You read those Proverbs, you show up at the right place, right
time, right uniform, right attitude, it's going to help get you a job.
You're going to get promoted, ain't you? Those financial things. Don't
be slaved to the lender. You're going to have a little
more money in your pocket. But if that's all you get, you got
nothing. If all you get is the practical, if all you get is
how you're supposed to do in this world, you got nothing.
It's all going to burn. Wood, hay, and stubble. There
must be some precious stones there, some gold there, some
silver there built on cross this foundation. It's not only good practical
instruction, Paul's laying the groundwork to speak to husbands
and wives. That's what we're going to look at next week, Lord
willing. He's going to give us instruction concerning marriage.
But he reminds us again there in verse 32, Ephesians 5, 32.
This is a great mystery. He's just told us all about marriage,
husbands and wives. But I speak concerning Christ
and the church. There's a spiritual application
there. Nevertheless, verse 33, let every one of you in particular
so love his wife even as himself and the wife see that she reverence
her husband. Just because this is a spiritual
lesson, nevertheless, don't do. Go do that. So this practical
application is good. Do not be drunk with wine. What
happens when you're drunk with wine? You can't control your
speech. You can't control your body.
You can't control your actions, your thoughts. And it's not in
the wisdom of moderation. But there's a spiritual lesson
here. Turn over to Revelation 14. Revelation 14, verse 6, "...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..." Here's the message. and give glory to Him. For the
hour of His judgment has 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 of the
wine of the wrath of her fornication. Throughout the Scriptures, Babylon
is pictured as false religion. The wine of her fornication is
that message of lies. We've been looking at that recently,
that fornication. Spiritually, that's to completely bypass the
covenants of grace and pay no attention to God. It's a message
that that covenant of grace of Christ is not so. That you can
come to God any way you want. That's a big glass of wine, a
fornication of Babylon. There's one way to approach God.
Cross Jesus the Lord. People say, I've been told this
so many times, we're all going to the same place, we're just
taking different paths. Oh, there's so many ways to approach
God. There's so many truths. There's
so many truths, don't they? So many loves. We're all brethren. That's my brother. That's my
sister. You just pick whichever way is best for you and it's
just going to be wonderful. You know what that is? That's
meeting somebody with a kiss. They call you brother or sister
so easily. That's what Lord William will
look at tonight. The difference between Judas and Peter. Lord
is it I. But in man's religion, and so-called
worship that originates from man. That's where it comes from.
That's just a big party, isn't it? A big drunken party. It's
like Neb Connector's boys. And it's intoxicating to our
nature. Our old man, boy, we got just
a craving, a great appeal for that wine, don't we? Why would
it be so much easier, wouldn't it, if we were just more inclusive?
Open the doors up for everybody. Just love everybody. Let everybody
get up and preach. I don't know, you said he's good.
Let everybody watch my children. If you're a good person, yeah,
watch my kids for a week. I'm going out of town. We wouldn't
do that, would we? The truth cries, there is one
way, there is one truth, there is one life. Christ the Lord, the one mediator
between God and men. We have one hope, Him. We have
one faith, His faith. We have one birth. being born
of God. We have one love, His love. Child
of God is told plainly to stay away from that wine of Babylon.
Don't support it, don't partake in it, and don't become indifferent
to it. Stick to the simplicity of Christ. We don't need to attempt to be
the judge, jury, and executioner of all this, of Babylon. We don't need to try to close
up their liquor store. What have we been learning? Christ
is the judge of all. Vengeance is of the Lord. He'll
deal with it won't He? Revelation 17, verse 1, And there
came one of the seven angels, which had the seven boughs, 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 inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the
wine of her fornication. One of these seven angels come
to John and said, I'm going to show you this judgment. You ain't
going to be the one to do it. There will be answers. Look here
in Revelation 18 verse 1. And after these things I saw
another angel come down from heaven, having great power, and
the earth was lighted with 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, and a cage of every unclean and hateful
bird. For all nations have drunk 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." That's what
we just read there. Those merchant changers kicked
out of the temple. They waxed rich. It's a profitable business.
People try to make money off of it. Verse 4, And I heard another
voice saying from heaven, Come out of her. My people, be ye
not partakers of her sins, that she receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto
heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. For the child
of God, wrapped up and is drunk, and don't know you're drunk in
it, Drinking it like water. Hard as you can throw it back.
We have comfort knowing that our sins and our iniquities,
the Lord will remember no more. He's going to come to His child,
my people, nobody else, and say, come out. And you think they're
going to stay around? You think, well, I'm going to
go there on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I'll come here the rest of
the week. He said, come out. Come out. Our sins are, remember,
no more. They are removed. That iniquity
is removed as far as the east is from the west. There is therefore
now, right now, right yesterday, right now, right tomorrow, right
now, no condemnation. To who? To them who are in Christ
Jesus, in the person of Him. for those that drink that wine
and are intoxicated by it and have a lot of comfort in all
those lies they told man. Who man is. Who God is. Lies
about His holiness. These souls that are drunk on
lies about the remedy of that sin. That's just something other
than the blood of Jesus Christ, isn't it? I was going to get
rid of your sin. You better quit. and smoking
and chewing and drinking wine and all this stuff. Because that's
don't be drunk with wine, right? You've got to do that. That's
not the remission of sin. That's something other than the
blood of Jesus Christ. His blood is our remission for sin. And
to those people, to those that weren't brought out, His people,
the Lord says judgment's coming. Judgment's coming to them. Look
back in Revelation 14.10 again. Revelation 14.10. The same shall drink of the wine
of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into
the cup of his indignation. It ain't gonna get watered down.
And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence
of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Capital
L-A-M-B. You know how often we ask our
Lord to give us ears to hear. Lord, give me ears to hear. He
must be the one that does that. He must give us ears to hear
of His blood, of His accepted payment for our sin, His finished
work. He must give us hearts to love
Him, trust Him, and we must be drawn to Him. He has to come
to my people and say, come out. People often ask me, why are
you even preaching? If Ephesians 1 is true, and it is, And Christ
must do all the work. Man's just got to wait for Him
to do something. It ain't got nothing of our work
in it. My hand ain't involved in it. You say, oh, that closes
the door for men and women to come to Christ. No, it does not.
I'm telling you right now, come out. Be not drunk with wine. Don't get drunk on that foolishness.
Wood, hay, and stubble. Come out. I read a good quote
of that, I think it's Thomas More, he said, Arminianism's
all door and no house, and Hyper-Calvinism's all house and no door. It's true,
ain't it? Here's the door. Come to Christ. Come out. Does that slay you? Like that jawbone of an ass coming. Does that slay you? Are you made
willing in the day of His power, or do you willfully and earnestly
in your heart reject it, and say, I'll go back to being drunk
with works? I'm going to go hang out with Babylon. They're my
friends. That's what Christ was speaking
of when he said, a man that does not forsake his mother, father,
brother, sister, child, whatever, and follow me, he's none of mine.
Well, he also tells us to honor your mother and father. That's
the cling to Babylon. Well, my grandma, she knew right. She just heard a different gospel. Back in our text here in Ephesians
5, speaking to the child of God, for Christ's sake, in response
to His love towards us, for calling out His sheep, we're told here
in verse 18, Ephesians 5, 18, and be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Physically, I wonder
if the multitude, don't know where people got the notion that
sin's in a bottle, sin's in alcohol. But if the multitudes that believe
the alcohol in and of itself, that drink, is evil, oh it's
sin, practically, would they call our Lord a winebibber? If
he had a glass of wine with his dinner and he was here with us
this evening? Oh, you can't do that. They're gonna set in judgment
the Lord? We recently saw it's not what goes into a mouth that
defiles a man, it's what comes out. Sin's not a substance, it's
in my misusing of it. Drinks are not sin, but when
I consume it on my own lust, when I'm just bare knuckle boxing
drunk, that's sinful. That sin's in me, it's not in
that substance. Meat, food, it's not sinful,
but if I abuse it, Or if I push it on my brethren. It's okay
for you to eat this. That's what we've been looking
at in Romans. That's sinful. Either saying we need to abstain
or you must eat. That's sinful. Days are not sinful. My abuse of those days are sinful. That puts a child of God in a
unique, peculiar position, doesn't it? Our Lord said, for John the
Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine. He wasn't
doing either one of them. And you say, he hath a devil. Look
at that man. He's a devil. The Son of Man
has come eating and drinking. And you say, behold, a gluttonous
man, a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. Look who
he's hanging out with. Did you see what he ate? He had
a glass of wine that dinner. The family of God is going to
have some troubles, aren't they? Whether we eat or we don't eat.
Whether we drink or we don't drink. we do or we do not do
something. Christ knew no sin. He never
sinned. Spotless Lamb of God. That should
tell us that consuming wine is not sinful. That we're the sin.
Paul told Timothy, drink no longer water but use a little wine for
thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities. Timothy's
about to become a pastor. He's going to have some infirmities. You have some stomach problems.
You'll be up late at night. He said, you drank a little wine.
Did he say a whole bunch? He didn't say a fifth or a handle,
did he? He said a little. Moderation. As with anything, if we drive
fast, get in the car, do 200 miles an hour, if we just consume
everything we can get in front of us, if we spend every penny
we can get a hold of, If we save every penny, we get a hold of
it. We're only here for a vapor, aren't we? All those things are
going to burn. Do it in moderation. Do it in
moderation. But what is there no law against?
It says there in verse 18, And be not drunk with wine, wherein
is excess. You can overdo that. But be filled
with the Spirit. You see the drafts contrast? You've got something that you
physically do, and then immediately something spiritually. It's probably
talking about spiritual on both. We've been looking at that a
lot lately and I pray it will stay with us to put off that
old man and put on a new. Be filled with the Spirit. Put
off, physically and spiritually both, put off that old man, those
things that do not profit, and put on Christ. Be filled with
the Spirit. How can we do that? We can't do it in and of ourselves.
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,
everything, unto God and to the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. How can we keep from being drunk
with the wine of this world? Speak to yourselves in psalms.
and hymns. That's the Psalms that David
wrote most of them and Asa. And the hymns, what about that
song of Moses? Spiritual songs. Singing to the
Lord. If He's worked in us, we have
a new song to sing, don't we? Worthy is the Lamb. My brother
Gabe sings a song from Psalm 121. I will lift up mine eyes
unto the hills from which cometh my help. I recently got a CD,
I'll burn it for any of you. It's something profitable worth
listening to. You want to listen to spiritual songs, that's it.
He said, He reached way down for me. Boy, that's been stuck
in my head for two weeks. Christ Jesus reached down for
me. When He reached way down, that's
where I was. Way down. Bottom of that miry pit and clay
for me. Brother John Reeves, we get talking
about politics or something, he'll start saying, this world
is not my home. That's good. That's good. Be
reminded, we stay focused on politics. Oh, if we stay focused
on Babylon, false religion, if we stay focused on the government,
what are they doing? On looking to our brethren instead
of looking out for our brethren, we're going to be miserable.
Do it if you want to. Wood, hay and stubble is going
to burn up, but you're going to be miserable. We're going
to be miserable. But when our pure minds are stirred up, we
put off these foolish things. Paul said, when I was a child,
I acted like a child, thought like a child. But when I became
a man, I acted and talked like a man. When our pure minds are
stirred up, when we're brought into remembrance, when we remember
the body and the blood of our Redeemer, that's what we do when we come
to the Lord's table. His body broken for me. His blood shed
for me. Then we're filled with the Spirit,
aren't we? Well, we ain't looking at this world no more. We're
looking above. Focused on things above. Those fruits of the Spirit
come when this happens. When He fills us with the Spirit.
Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law. There's no excess. He said in
drinking wine, there's excess. In those things, there's no excess.
There's no overdoing it. You ain't going to go out and love them. With
all this in mind, verse 21. Ephesians 5, 21. Submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of God, in our flesh, in our nature
born of Adam, men and women. We always somehow think in the
back of our minds women are a little more pious than men are. little
more nicer creatures. Men and women, they do not like
the word submit. Neither one of them do. We like
it if someone's submitting to us, don't we? That's pretty good. We're just going to do it your
way, Kevin, however you want. That's all right. Make me grin
a little bit. But we have no desire to submit
to anyone or anything. Not rulers, not employers, not
husbands and wives, not to the pastor, not to your parents. That ain't our nature born of
Adam, is it? Don't like it? Why? Because this old man is
drunk in their own wisdom, in our own thoughts, in our own
fears, and it does not know the power, the love, and the mercy
of Almighty God. but to the saint of God, to cross
sheep, they know of God's love. He shed His blood on our hearts.
We know of His power. This whited bones, this dead
man was made willing a long time ago, in the day of His power. The Lord gave me ears to hear.
I listened to a whole bunch. One day, I heard. He opened me
up. And I know of His mercy. Because
when He opened those ears and He gave me a new heart, oh, I
was convicted of sin. I was convicted of me. Christ
is righteousness. That's what's accepted of God.
Judgment's coming at how merciful He's been to me. What mercy He's
shown me in the face of Jesus Christ. To them, To those people that
have experienced that, submitting to Christ is rest. That's to
lay down your guns. It's done. It's finished. Salvation
is accomplished. He is the Lord of our salvation. The Lord of our righteousness.
Stand still. Look at Him. Submit. Bow to Him. Paul said in Galatians 3.28,
there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female, for we are all one in Christ
Jesus. Submitting one to another is
what Paul is telling us here. One believer to another believer.
That's an act of love. Say, we'll just do it your way.
It's honoring to Christ in you. And it's good for the whole body
of Christ. For everyone of you. We, as the
body of Christ, are to love one another, to help one another,
and to be subject one to another. That is what we do to Christ. We subject ourselves to Him.
We submit to Him willingly. A willing bond-servant. A willing
love-servant. Out of love to Him, out of love
to our brethren, we ought to esteem one another higher than
ourselves. We don't submit to drunkenness,
but to the Spirit. We don't submit to this world,
but to God. We do not have others submit
to us, but we are to submit one to another. I hope that was a
blessing to you, and I think it'll be a great blessing. It
was for me. As we go into next week and we
look at this analogy of husbands and wives, this marriage between
men and women, I want to preserve these words and not be gone for
too long. Let's try to cancel that. I don't think we'll let
it happen. Try to erase that from history.
It ain't going to work for them. But how precious of a picture
it is of a husband and a wife while we get to walk this world
and that submitting one to another. All right, let's pray together.