Turn with me to Ephesians, chapter
five. There we are. There again, Ephesians, chapter
five. In church, where we are now in
this text, as we've been running for so long, is we continue to
see several things taking place. Primarily, we see, of course,
a lot of doctrine, a lot of truth, the gospel as it's portrayed
and established and. Through Paul's writing, showing
us the church, who we are and whose we are in Christ. showing
the power of God who has enabled us to exist as the church through
sanctification, redemption, regeneration, and then showing the outcome
of that which God has decreed through his divine purpose to
save a people for his glory, by his grace in his son and to
the praise of his glory. And we've been seeing some comparisons,
we've seen comparisons, we've seen Paul say things like. You who were once dead now are
alive, who used to walk in the futility of your mind now are
wise, who used to be hateful and mean and selfish are now
loving and kind and generous. And so we see these. These continual
contrast and comparisons, and Paul is saying that the church
has been established unto this end. Let the thief no longer steal,
no longer are you to be angry. But be loving. And if you are
angry, be angry at that which God is angry and then sin not
in your anger, but understand that God is indeed the one who
receives justice, put away all falsehood. We are to grow up
to the full, to the mature stature, the fullness of Christ, we are
to be growing in every way into a holy people. that we have been
created and called and predestined to be according to the purpose
of His will, that we should be holy and blameless before Him
in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 1. And so we've been looking now
at these comparisons as they move all the way into chapter
5, where Paul begins to or ends in chapter four, to forgive one
another as Christ has forgiven you, as God in Christ forgave
you. And so that we are to be imitators
of God. And we realize and we talked
about this several weeks back or maybe a month or so, that
imitation of God is not to be in the very essence, the application,
doing the things that God does, for we are not God, nor can we
do that which God does. We are not Jesus, nor can we
do that which Jesus does. But in the Attitude of our minds
and the power of the Spirit of God, we then, as Jesus was human,
walk as Jesus did. But not as Jesus was God, we
cannot walk as God men and women because only Jesus is the God
man, eternally man, eternally God, fully man, fully God, the
hypostatic union. Neither of them are merged. The
divine nature doesn't overpower the human nature. The human nature
doesn't dilute the divine nature. And so God at all the time, as
Jesus Christ was fully man and fully God, equal in person, separate
in authority and role. And then we see that as the son
was raised to life, God set him up as the head of all things. So we are to walk as imitators
of God's beloved children in love as Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us. And so Paul then is teeter tottering
between these things. Let no one deceive you, he says,
with empty words. For because of these things,
the wrath of God is coming down upon the sons of disobedience.
Paul echoes these words in Romans chapter one, where he says that
God turns over the reprobate to the mind of their own flesh
and that they do the things which are not holy, but are rather
natural in their own inclination, but are not natural according
to the design of God. Let no one deceive you with empty
words, church, for the wrath of God is coming upon the things
on these things and upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore,
Paul says, do not become partners with them, but to expose the
darkness. At one time you were darkness,
but now you are in the light. You are children of the light.
Back in two. So therefore, because you are
light, walk as though you were light. Do not walk as though
you were still in darkness, for you're not in darkness. There
is no sin that overpowers the Christian that puts him back
into slavery and bondage. There is no sin that controls
the Christian's heart, for the Christian heart, though it is
still deceitful, has been empowered by the Holy Spirit of God through
grace to long and to yearn for righteousness. To discern, Paul
says, what is pleasing to the Lord. To have wisdom, which is
yours. Paul says to the Philippians
church, have this mind among you, which is yours in Christ
Jesus. Paul doesn't say find it, hope
you can get it. Paul doesn't say you need to
practice this and build it. Paul doesn't say you need to
discover it and find it because it's hidden from you. Paul says
it's yours. And so, Church, if that is yours,
then walk in that that is yours already, that is in Christ Jesus.
For Christ, you are in Christ, and Christ is in you, and the
fullness of Christ dwells in you. And so here's now this picture,
and Paul gets to this place, and he says, look carefully how
you walk in verse 15 of chapter 5. Look carefully how you walk,
not as unwise, but as wise. You are wise, so therefore you
walk there, making the best use of the time because the days
are evil. Verse 17, therefore, do not be
foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And
we've dealt with those two texts. So he gives the negative exhortation. He says, do not walk unwise,
but walk wisely. Do not waste your life, but make
best use of your hours, of your days, of your seconds. Then he
says, do not be a fool. But walk wise in the wisdom of
the will of the Lord. Know and understand what the
wisdom of the Lord is. And it's not a mystery. Paul
says that mystery has been given. Christ is the wisdom of God made
known to us. We know who he is. We know what
he is. We know from what he operates and how he works. And we understand
through the spirit of God within us and his word how we ought
to be and what we ought to look like. It is not a mystery to
decide. Does God want me to do this, say this, believe this,
act this way, feel this way, or consider these things? Are
my affections supposed to be here or here? We know what they
are. And to say that we can work on this when we come to the word
of God, friends professing to be Christians and we say, can
I get away with that? Let me find where the Bible says
that I can do that. How my liberty says I can. We
are not walking in wisdom. We're walking on the precipice
of damnation, we're walking on in the shadows of darkness, looking
at the light while our butt is stuck in the dark. so that we
can have our cake and eat it too. But friends, there is no
cake in darkness, for we who are the children of light do
not delight in darkness. We do not delight even in the
lust of our own flesh. Sometimes when it rises up against
us, we don't say, oh, I wish I could. We go, oh, I wish I
could stop seeing this before me and be tempted in this way.
So we cry out, Daddy, Lead me not into temptation. Deliver
me from the darkness that which you save me from already. Help
me walk in the paths of righteousness. Take over my will and my mind
and my heart and my strength and establish it in the foundation
of Christ's righteousness that I'm not walking away. That is
worthy of the calling to which you called me so that your name
would not be defamed, but would be honored and glorified. Glorify
your name in me. O great God of Highest Heaven,
glorify your name in me. That is the cry of the church.
That's the cry of the Christian. It's not to be glorified in our
own right, but it's that we decrease, that he might increase, as John
the Baptizer says in John 3, that God and his Son, Jesus Christ,
would be seen and manifested in such a way that only supernatural
explanations are given credit to that which we walk. In the
way in which we walk. And then in verse 18, which is
where I'm going to spend all of the rest of my time today. Says this, and do not get drunk
with wine. For that is debauchery. But be
filled with the spirit. I'm going to stop there and I
want to give you something to think about as we move forward.
Paul has done something and it may not be that way for you,
but I've been reading Ephesians for so many times in the last
year, it's odd. It's like listening to a song
that's in a genre of opera and then all of a sudden out of nowhere
comes this heavy metal distortion. Wait a minute, I was listening
to an Italian aria and now there's ACDC cramming through. What is
going on? So it strikes me like that. Here
is all of these things will carry how you walk, not as wise, but
as I'm making best time because the days of it do not be foolish,
understand what the will of the Lord is and don't get drunk. All these spiritual things, all
these emotional things, all these active things that we see in
the context of the gospel, and we are supposed to be looking
and acting in this way. And then all of a sudden, don't
get drunk. What is this? And so what happens
now, let me give you some history behind it. What happens is oftentimes
commentators then like to suppose what's not in the text. And that's
erroneous hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the art or excuse
me, I say the art because I believe it's an art. Hermeneutics is
the science of interpretation of antique literature. And not
just antique literature, any literature, but as a Bible scholar,
it is the science of interpretation of ancient literature. And so
hermeneutics, a proper hermeneutic, is that the scripture or the
text or the poem or the narrative or the history or the letter
or whatever it might be, actually defines itself. And we don't
need to go and try to figure out what else it might say, because
it says what it says and that's what it means. And there's a
lot more to that because we do need to understand the context
in which it was written. We didn't understand the audience,
the author, the things that are happening. And let me tell you
what's happened. And if you look, if you read commentaries, which
you probably don't, it's like reading grill assembly instructions.
So if you read commentaries, sometimes they'll boggle your
head. This is terrible. It's boring. But you see the
grammar there and a lot of times people take liberty because they
don't have a whole lot to say here and they say, oh, this is
what happens. They were wasting away with drunkenness there in
Ephesus. No, they weren't. There's no
historical evidence for that. There's no scriptural evidence
that Paul does not review them for drinking. He says all of
a sudden, do not get drunk with one. And so what does it mean
for us as we read this here? We don't need to impose that
which is not in the text. We don't need to say, oh, no,
there's some drunk problems going on that we better watch out.
And we preach a whole three series on drunkenness. Is it improper
to preach a series on drunkenness? Not at all. But don't say that's
what Ephesians is preaching against. Because what we're seeing now
is a continuation of the contrast of that which is dead and condemned
who are not in Christ versus those who are alive in Christ.
And so now we have to say, what is it exactly that he's arguing,
listen to the full statement, listen to the words of Paul,
and I'm going to go all the way through verse twenty one and
just listen. Look carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise,
but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days
are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is and do not get
drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. But be filled with
the spirit of God, addressing one another in songs and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making medley to the Lord
with your heart, giving thanks always for every good for everything
to God, the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting
to one another out of reverence for Christ. And so, Paul, then,
as you see, is like, don't get drunk on wine for that leads
to debauchery, but be filled with the spirit. So it's the
same thing. We have a comparison now continuing in this text. And now we must ask ourselves,
what difference does that make for us? What is it that Paul
is actually arguing for? Let me give you some things to
think about. In Ephesians one, we see in the
very beginning that Paul says that God has blessed us and the
father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us in Christ with
every spiritual blessing. Even as he chose us, verse four,
chapter one, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and blameless before him. And so we understand that
the redemption of the church is in order to establish them
righteous. To declare them righteous and
then to sanctify them into righteousness, not unto salvation for its justification
along through rebirth. Grace through faith. These are
a gift, not of your own doing, so that no one may boast. And
then we understand that Paul, as he prays in verse 15. Well,
up in chapter one, excuse me, verse thirteen in him. You also,
when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation
and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of
it to the praise of the glory. So God has decreed us to be holy
and then God has sealed us as holy in the spirit. And so then
we go on down for this. And he says, for this reason,
because you are called out and saved by God's grace and you
are sealed in the spirit of his own spirit, you now I am thankful. I pray because I've heard of
your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints.
I do not cease to give thanks for you in my prayers, remembering
you. That the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit, listen,
a spirit of wisdom and a revelation of the knowledge of him. Having
the eyes of your heart enlightened that you may know what is the
hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious
inheritance of the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness
of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his
great might. Now, see, there's an introductory clause to the
close of chapter six, and we'll get to. that he worked in Christ
when he raised him from the dead. And so now we see that Paul is
arguing the idea that God's magnificent power through this, through in
Christ, through the spirit is establishing a people. And look
what he says there that he worked in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly
places, far above all rule. It doesn't say most. It doesn't
say some. He says Christ is seated far
above all rule in the heavenly places, far above all rule in
the authority and power and dominion and above every name that is
named, not only in this age, but in the age to come. And he
put all things under the feet of the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ
and gave him As head over all things to the church, which is
his body, the fullness, and this is what I want to see, the fullness
of him who feels all in all. And so when we think about it,
we have a tendency in this 17th verse of chapter five to do two
things. One is we like to impose what's not there in the argument
and decide we're going to preach, you know, a series on alcohol.
Well, that's not what Paul's talking about. It's a good reminder,
and I'll talk about it a little bit today because it's there.
So we got to talk about it, but I don't want to preach on it. And then the second thing is,
then people want to make it into a whole series of sermons about
the filling of the Holy Spirit, and then they want to then they
want to assume that because of their history and a very short
history thereof, that people began to say, oh, this is what
Paul's meaning. Oh, wow, some mystery. Now, the mystery is
revealed. And Paul prays that God reveals the fullness of his
knowledge and wisdom and that we be filled with all the fullness
of God Christ, who fills all in all. And so then in chapter three.
Well, in chapter two, verse 18, for though we for through Christ,
we both have access in one spirit to the father, then you are no
longer strangers and aliens. So you're a fellow citizen. So
what that means there is that the spirit of God and being filled
with the spirit of God is regeneration. So if you're not filled with
the spirit of God, you're lost. That's how Paul defines the filling
of the Holy Spirit. But now Luke does something else,
and we'll talk about Luke in a minute. Because there's only
two people that talk about the filling of the Spirit, or the
baptism of the Spirit. It's Luke and it's Paul. And Luke talks about it in a
different way, out of the works of the Holy Spirit, of the acts
of the Holy Spirit, acts of the apostles. And Paul's talking about it in
a theological way, in a powerful way, in the way that God actually
works. And so they're not talking about the same thing, though
the English translates are the same thing. They're not. They're talking
about something totally different. But one does not negate the other,
and one is not superfluous to the other, and one is not an
extra blessing because the feeling of the Spirit of God to become
a son gives you every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, according
to Chapter one. So there's nothing left for God to give you. Except
for a constant renewal of his daily mercies and grace through
his spirit, from his word in his son to the praise of his
glorious grace. And then in Chapter three. We see a verse 14 that Paul begins
to pray. And what does he do? He prays. For this reason, I bow my knees
before the father from whom every family in heaven and on Earth
is named, you notice he's praying to God. That he may grant you
to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner
being. Now, Paul's not praying there
that they be saved with the Spirit. He says that they be strengthened
in the Spirit. Now, Paul, in that same language,
and I know I'm taking you everywhere and I can't stand to preach this
way, but I'm sorry, listen to the MP3. In the same language,
Paul does in 2 Timothy, he tells Timothy, he says, be strengthened
by the strength that is in Christ Jesus. So which is it, Paul? Are we
strengthened in Christ? Are we strengthened in the Spirit?
Yes. Jesus is the fullness of God. Jesus leaves, Jesus sends the
Spirit. The Spirit is the fullness of
God in Christ. They're not weaker vessels or
persons of dividing God into three, it's one God, three persons. All God. It's all purpose and possible
and promised in Christ. That he may grant you to be strengthened
with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that
to see what where you get in this stuff, just read the next
part of the sentence in verse 17 of chapter three. So that
Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being
rooted and grounded in love may have strength to do what? I need
strength, God. I need strength to overcome this.
I need strength to be able to deal with this. I need strength
to be able to share this. I need strength to be able to
teach this. I need strength. And we think that the strength
is the strength that somehow is going to empower us in the
material world to be able to manage that which God has handed
us. But that's not what Paul argues here, and that's not what
he's talking about in Ephesians 5 in contrast to being drunk.
He says, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith
that you being rooted and grounded in love. He didn't say that I
want you to be. You are. You are actively now being rooted
and grounded in love. You are presently rooted and
grounded in love in Christ. And I pray that by the Spirit
of God, you may have strength to comprehend with all the other
saints. What is the breadth and the length
and the height and the depth and to know that the love of
Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all
the fullness of God. Wow. Holy moly. So. Do not get drunk on wine,
which leads to debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit
of God. Yes. Now to him, verse 20, chapter
three, who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask than
all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout
all generations forever and ever. Amen. Then we know in chapter
four, Christ Jesus, through the spirit, empowers the church,
gives gifts to the church, the evangelist, the teachers, the
prophets, the pastors, In order to equip the church for the work
of the ministry, in verse 30 of chapter 4, he
says some interesting words. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
of God by which you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and calamity and slander be put away from you, along with
all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. So, friends,
I'm here to tell you that what we see now in verse 18 is a continuation
of that contrast. And it's incredible because what
is the outcome of the feeling of the spirit here? And we'll
deal with that in the next two or three weeks when we literally
see the worship of the church. Is this not what God has called
us and prepared us for to the praise of his glorious grace? To the praise of his glory, God
created the church in Christ that he might be worshiped for
his all surpassing glorious greatness and his mercy toward us sinners
who deserve death. And he took it upon himself and
killed his son that we might become the righteousness of God. And do not get drunk with wine.
Why do people drink wine? I asked myself that question
as I thought through this this week. Why do people drink? OK, let's go ahead and knock
out the reasons that won't get us in trouble here. All right,
because we like the way it tastes and it's good with meat, that's
fine, but don't get drunk with it. Let's go with that. You want
to take a glass of wine? Good. So you like it. It brings
you what? Joy. It brings you joy. It brings you pleasure, like
a cold glass of milk, if you like milk or something else.
There's joy and refreshment. And another reason people drink
it is because it's good for your heart. Some doctors prescribe
it. It's good for your circulation.
It's good. Some people drink it in certain parts of the world
because it keeps them alive from freezing to death. But they don't
get drunk. So let's eliminate those things,
but because it tastes good with our meal and because it might
be good for our body and because we might freeze to death, so
we'll we'll put those in a box and deal with them later. That's
not what Paul's talking about here. Paul says, do not get drunk
with wine. And people drink wine for the most part, wine and other
types of spirits, because it gives them joy. It gives them
joy because it feels good. It gives them joy because it
tastes good. It gives them joy because it numbs them from the
senses of the world that hates them. It gives them joy because
it allows them not to have to worry about the problems they're
in. It gives them joy because it actually allows them to deal
with the pain and the suffering that they're experiencing. without
having to focus on it. It gives them joy, and that joy
is a joy apart from the joy that comes in Christ alone, and therefore
it leads to debauchery. I don't have the statistics in
front of me, but I've looked at them. I know what they look
like. I know in almost two decades of being in ministry, What it
looks like to actually see people who are addicted to drink and
what it does to their body, what it does to their mind, what it
does to their family and their children, their spouse. I know
what it looks like that almost every person that's arrested
on Friday nights and Saturday nights and Sunday nights is because
they're intoxicated. I know what it does to the common
sense of the human mind. Where people who drink alcohol
to the point to where they no longer function in a cognitive
way. I'm not talking about dead drunk. I'm talking about just
a little bit. Where they have inhibitions that have been wiped
away and they're willing to do things that they normally wouldn't
do. They're willing to say things that they normally won't say.
They think they're fine so they get behind the wheel of a car
and they kill families. And they wrap themselves around
trees and light poles. And then they leave everybody
else to pick up the pieces of their selfish, inconsiderate,
finite joy that leads to debauchery. You see what Paul's talking about
now? So that's why it's so easy to preach on alcohol when you
see that. But that's about as far as we
need to push it. Because what the outcome is, is if we don't
want to be filled with a temporary death-bringing joy, We want to
be filled with the Spirit, the full joy, the fullness of the
fullness of God. I pray that you be filled with
all the fullness of God in Christ Jesus through the power of the
Spirit of God. God has equipped you to be filled, but don't grieve
the Spirit. Don't become an adulteress. Don't
seek out another lover and call it compassion and call it a companion. Don't seek out satisfaction in
the things that the world offers. Don't look to find your gratitude
in a temporary fix that will move you almost just like a back
step away from the line of sight of the world that you think you're
happy and when you sober up, you come right back to it and
it's as bad as it ever was. That's what Paul's saying. Do
not get drunk with wine. He doesn't say don't drink it.
He says, don't get drunk with it. So that's for you and your
conscience to deal with. And if it's better for you to
abstain, abstain. But that's for you and your conscience
to deal with. Because if we're drunk with wine,
then the spirit of God is not in control of our lives. He is not filling us with all
the fullness of God. There is a difference, though.
Now let's talk about how Luke talks about the filling of the
Spirit. Paul talks about the filling of the Spirit when he
mentions it in this way, that it is salvific. That when you
are regenerated, it is the spirit of God. And then he alludes to,
based on his prayers and this, that there is a filling that
is daily. And how does it happen? God,
the father. What are we to do with that?
Well, Luke deals with the Holy Spirit in this way. He talks
primarily about the acts of the apostles, and he knows that when
Jesus left, he said, go and wait. And there were 120 in the upper
room. I'm going to send the comforter. And they were there, and he uses
a lot of imagery, it's amazing, it's like a whirlwind. tongues
of fire on their heads, and they spoke in other tongues, and they
were filled with the Spirit of God, and they went out into Jerusalem,
and evangelism was explosive, and people came in great numbers.
Did you know that Peter's first sermon, 3,000 people came to
faith? And I read that thing, and I'm
like, really? 3,000 people. Who in the world can preach like
that? God can preach like that. If we're worried about the content
of our sermons, Well, just quit. I should have said about that,
if we're worried about how well our sermons are going to move
the mind and the soul, forget it. God moves the mind and soul.
And like I tell the brothers when we meet. God used Balaam's mule. To rebuke him. He can use me. In fact, it probably
should be the other way. If God can use me, he can use
Balaam and Mule. Do not get drunk with wine for
that is debauchery. What is debauchery? Debauchery is a lifestyle that
is filled with the unfruitful works of darkness. Debauchery
is that which at one time we once walked in, but now we are
turning the light, so we walk in that. So even as believers,
if we grieve the Spirit of God by seeking joy apart from Christ,
we will slide, be very careful how you hear what I'm saying,
please do not hear what I have not said, we will slide into
a lifestyle of debauchery for just a moment. When I mean that,
I'm talking about like a few seconds. I mean, an hour or two,
we will do things that are akin to or like those who are in darkness. They will not be habitual. They
will not control us. But if we're filled with drink,
we're not in control and the spirit is not in control. Debauchery is indicative of the
dead. The life that is not filled with
the spirit of God. grieving and bitterness and malice
and envy and sexual immorality and lucidiousness and all of
these things that Paul has already mentioned in this text before
this point, he says, don't be filled with wine for it leads
to those things, but be filled with the spirit. How? How are we? How are we filled
with the spirit? See, that's really the ultimate
question. How am I supposed to be filled
with the spirit? Well, primarily, if you are a
child of God, you have a desire to be. And then also, if you
are a child of God, your desire is that the spirit of God not
only fills you, but fills you up and continually fills you
and that you desire to be moved by the spirit, you desire to
be controlled by the spirit. How is that possible? Well. We see the outcome, so let's
look at the outcome. Let's look at the outcome of
what the filling of the spirit does. The film, the spirit. Allows us to praise God. Fully in spirit and in truth,
he allows us to walk away from temptation and sin. The feeling
of the spirit empowers us to edify the church and to love
one another. The spirit of the spirit of the
Lord, the feeling of the spirit. Allows us to be in unity with
one another. It allows us to take off the
old flesh, you know, that put off the old self, which is dead
and put on the new self, which is alive in Christ. That's so
odd to me, and it's still odd. And honestly, in my walk, I'm
still learning what the world Paul is talking about. But look at that verse 19 of
chapter five. Addressing one another in songs
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melodies for
Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything
to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and
submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. So if
we're filled with the spirit of God, we can come up with a
big list of things that will be evident in our life. And primarily
now in this context of this argument, Paul is saying if we're filled
the spirit of God, what does it say? What does it really say?
Our joy will be full. Our joy will be full. So you
want to know if you're filled with the Spirit of God today?
I'm not saying as a child you are in the Spirit. But is the
Spirit of God, are you full? What's the word full mean? Well,
let's think about it like this. John chapter 6. This text gets
me in trouble. John chapter six, Jesus feeds
five thousand men with two loaves and fish. And there are 12 baskets of leftovers
for the disciples. And he disappears, as he always
does. And the next morning, everybody gets in boats and goes across
the sea to Capernaum. And they find Jesus, who had
walked across the ocean and teleported the boat three miles. Read it, John six, he stepped
into the boat three miles out and immediately the boat was
on dry land just by that teleportation. That's who God is, folks. And the people, the 5000 plus
people that are there and all the people that are following
them around, they come to Jesus and they find him and they say,
where did you how did you get here? Oh, Jesus, we look for
you all night and we we wanted to see you again. We love you
so sweet. And we just can't wait to talk
with you, get to know you and have you over for dinner. And
you'll have to bring it. But, you know, and all these
things. And Jesus turns to them and says, you seek after me not
because and I'm going to improvise to explain to you, not because
of my glory. You seek after me, not because
of my joy filling you up. You seek after me, not because
you're full from from me. You seek after me because you're
full of bread. And a matter of fact, Jesus,
in a very snide way, says you come after me, not because of
the wonders that I do, but you come after me because you've
got your bellies full of the loaves. And then he commands
them, do not seek, do not. Actually, he doesn't say seek.
He says, do not labor. Do not labor for the food that
perishes, but labor for the bread that endures unto eternal life.
And then he gives this great exposition about the manna in
heaven and in the wilderness and exodus, this beautiful stuff. And they're arguing with him
and they're saying, whoa, give us this bread. We want this bread
always. And he says, I am the bread. Dude, we're hungry. We want you
to do what you did yesterday and you're talking about your
bread. Get out of here. What the world? Give us the bread. I am the bread. Come get it. Be full and joyfully satisfied
in me and me alone and quit looking to be satisfied in all that junk. Even that bread I gave you, you're
hungry now. But I'll satisfy you forever,
and that is the theme of John's gospel, by the way. And so now. They argue with him and the Pharisees
are listening, they're upset, how dare he say he comes from
heaven. And then Jesus just goes right
out and just puts it like this, unless you eat of my flesh and
drink of my blood, you are not worthy of me. And they left. They cried out
to be satisfied. And he says, I am the fullness
of your joy. Be satisfied in me. I will take
my body and take your lustful desires on it and take your lustful
thirst and put it on it. And the Father will destroy me
and in so satisfy himself toward you. And you will be full with
me. And you will never thirst and
never hunger again. In your soul. And it says they
walked away. For they could not bear to hear
the teaching of Christ. How many left all of them? And Jesus turns to the 12 and
he says, are you leaving? Peter, the spokesman. To whom
shall we go? For you have the words of eternal
life. So now let's go back. How will we know if we're filled
with the Spirit of God? Are you satisfied in Christ? Are you wanting that extra stuff? OK, I'm satisfied in Jesus, but
if you could just give me this, Jesus, just right there, just
that. God, if you could just give me
that. If you could just give me this, then I'd be fully happy.
You see those things? You see that? And there may be
real needs that we have. There may be real desires that
are not necessarily godless desires or selfish desires or lustful
desires, but they may just be material things or physical things
or emotional things. And that our satisfaction in
Jesus means that We want those things and we share that with
our father who desires to give us all good things, but we don't
desire those things above the joy that comes along and satisfactory
in Christ completely. So we go and we say, oh, God,
if it be your will for my joy, bring me this. But you are what
I want. You see that. And when God says
no, we know it's for what our good and our joy. So how then
you can see if you are filled with Christ or with the Spirit
of God, you have joy. You see how often that wanes. And even in this preaching, it
may wane, so they go, oh, no, I'm not full. So we will do about it. See,
that's the answer everybody wants. How do I get filled with the
Spirit of God? Well, there's many garbage ways of being told how
to do this. There's cults and there's erroneous
teaching and there's crazy people who talk to phone poles and everything
else in the street and they'll tell you how to be filled with
the Spirit of God and they'll hand you a bottle of liquor and
say, just get this in you, you'll see God and E.T. and every other mythical creature
that you want to see. Listen to these words in 417. Now, this, I say, and testify
in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do
in the futility, you know what that word means, the worthlessness.
Of their minds, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated
from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them
due to the hardness of heart. They've become callous and given
themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind
of impurity. Verse 20 is the key friends. This is so. I pray
God will show you this to you right now, but that is not the
way you learned Christ. That's not the way you learn
Christ. Assuming that you have heard
about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner
of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed
in the spirit of your minds and to be and to put on the new self
created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and
holiness. John does it simplistically. He says the one who practices
righteousness is righteous. He doesn't say the one who practices
righteousness becomes righteous, he says the one who practices
righteousness is righteous, he says the one who practices lawlessness
is lawlessness. For all sin is lawlessness. So
how are you filled with the Spirit of God? Friends, you learn Christ. You learn Christ. You learn Christ
is the God, according to Colossians 1, who created the world and
by the word of his power, he sustains it. You learn Christ is the one who
upholds the molecules and holds together the cosmos. What is
it? Ten droplets of water has more
power and energy in it than the atom bomb. We shared that yesterday. That was a praise report. See
how we can praise God for the simplest things? I want to praise
God for the power of ten drops of water, because in those ten
drops of water is more power than what destroyed an entire
city. And Jesus is the God who holds
that together, who by his speaking, all that there is, the ineffable,
immeasurable, infinite universe just went boom. And came to be. Learn Christ,
who is the eternal God, man, that was with the father and
with the spirit before the world began and that learned the Christ
who created the world so that he might say, let there be light. And there was light. And he is
the light of the world. And then he who was in us, then
we are the light of the world. Learn that Christ is the God
come down from glory created a woman named Mary at the fullness
of time when the world was pregnant. I like how Luke says that. At
the time of birth, the fullness of time, Christ entered the womb
of Mary that he created and was born. Learn the Christ who grew as
a boy, obedient, submissive to the mother that he created before
the world began. and a father that wasn't his
that loved him with a love that wasn't his to love. And he raised
him up in the righteousness of God, and he taught him the law.
He learned to read Greek, and he learned the Septuagint. He
learned the Old Testament in the Greek. He learned to go to
the temple. And at 12 years of age, he was out about his father's
business, wowing the rabbis with his wisdom. And his mother, frantic
after three days of missing him, says, What are you doing? He
says, Don't you know, Mom? I'm to be about my father's business."
And she says, come home. And he goes home. Learn Jesus, who learned obedience
as a man. And at the age of 30, as was
fitting, in order to fulfill all Scripture, he walks to John
the Baptist, to the river, and he says, it is fitting that I
be baptized, that all Scripture might be fulfilled. For a rabbi
must be baptized at the age of 30. For the first time in 500 years,
God's voice was heard. And he says, this is my son. And whom I am well pleased. Listen
to him. Learn that, Jesus, learn that,
Jesus, who then walked in the power of the Spirit of God, when
the Spirit of God descended upon him at his baptism, and then
he began to teach and rebuke and train in righteousness through
the Scriptures. And he began to teach out of
the Scriptures the revelation of what they meant. And he began
to call men to preach the gospel. Then he began to call women to
profess his glory. He began to gather children and
says, do not hinder them. And they falsely accused him,
and they tried to kill him, and they tried to arrest him, and
they tried to do it, but it was not his time. Learn that, Jesus. And then when it was his time,
he laid down his life willingly that he might take it up again.
For he said that I have the power to lay it down, and I also have
the power to take it up again. And he tells it very clearly
to Pilate, friend, if my people were to fight for me, If I were
coming to set an army, I, with one word, angels would come and
smite this entire place, buddy. There is nothing saving me. It
is of my free will that I lay down my life. You have taken
nothing from me. Know that, Jesus. Learn that, Jesus. Learn that,
Jesus, that took and was arrested by the betrayer of his own inner
group. Learn that, Jesus. who took the
sins of all who would believe on himself and who willingly
walked into the Roman possession. And the Scripture says that he
was beaten beyond recognition as a man. And learn that Jesus, who walked
the streets on the way to Golgotha, the hill of the skull, where
three crosses or beams were prepared And two thieves were there. Learn
the Jesus that was mocked and stoned and belittled and the
whole while the Creator was being destroyed by the creation, by
the hand and the will of the Father to display His righteousness
that He might be the just and justifier of all who have faith
in Jesus Christ. Learn that Jesus. And learn that Jesus who hanged
on the cross for six And the very men who were mocking
Him and holding Him there by force, He says, forgive them. Learn that Jesus who died and suffered at the hand of the
Father, really, so that God's justice would be satisfied in
forgiving me, a wicked, vile, depraved enemy. And learn that Jesus, who took
His life and laid it down and raised it from the dead, that
He might be the firstborn of many brothers. That's how you get filled with
the Spirit of God. You learn that Jesus. I already know Him. Well, know Him more. I already know that about Him.
Friends, you can know a lot about Jesus. And when you stand before
Him, He might say to you, I don't know you. For many will confess to me,
Jesus says, Lord, Lord. And I will say to them, I never
knew you. But to his children, he will
say, I've always known you. Before the world began, I knew
you and I died for you and I receive you unto myself. But for those
who he does not know, they may know who he is and they may know
him and they will say, but teacher, did we not or master, did we
not preach? Did we not cast out demons? Did
we not raise people from the dead? And He says to them, depart
from Me, you workers of wickedness. I never knew you. That preaching
and that delivering and that miracles that they did was wickedness. And Jesus says it's wickedness
because it counts for no righteousness. For He alone is the righteousness
of God and He bore the sins of all who believe that we might
become the righteousness of God. And God has loved us with an
everlasting love from eternity to eternity. It has never changed.
He didn't start to love us. He always has. And he put forth
Christ as propitiation in order to display his righteousness
to be received by faith. He put him forth to display his
righteousness and that he forbear the sins of old and forbear the
sins of now and would forbear the sins of the future and that
he would be the just and the justifier of all who have faith
in Christ Jesus. That's Romans three. Learn that you are the light
to church. And just as you wouldn't skip
food for 40 days, You wouldn't skip the bread of
life for 40 minutes. When anything is exposed by the
light, it becomes visible before anything that becomes visible
is light, therefore, it says a wake up sleeper and arise from
the dead and Christ will shine upon you. Church, look carefully
how you walk. Be filled with the Holy Spirit
of God and the outcome of that feeling is an eternal joy that
never wanes in the face of death. How do I handle it when I'm told
I have cancer? Be filled with the fullness of
God. Will he heal me? Maybe. If it is his will for
your joy. But if your joy is coming through
your healing, no, he won't heal you. And then he might just to show
you that you serve your body rather than him. What about when
my spouse leaves? Be filled with the fullness of
God. Be filled with the Spirit of God. Be joyful, filled with
the fullness of joy. Jesus prays for that. In John
17, he prays for that. What about when my children die?
They've been taken from me. Be filled with the Spirit of
God. Find your joy in the satisfaction of who God is and who Christ
is, and that He alone, friends, the Spirit and being filled with
the Spirit is being filled with the knowledge and the fullness
and the love and the power of Christ. That's what it is. And
that the love of Christ compels us. and bestows upon us satisfaction
and contentment and nothing can take us out of that. In closing, let me just read
to you my favorite text in all of the Bible. I've done it before. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Therefore, having this ministry
by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced
disgraceful, underhanded ways, we refuse to practice cunning
or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of
the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the
sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled
only to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this
world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them
from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of God, who
is. Excuse me, the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God for what we proclaim is not of ourselves,
but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your slaves for
Jesus sake. For God, who said, let light
shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give us the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing
power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every
way, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but we're not
driven to despair. We're persecuted, but we're not
forsaken. We're not alone. He says we're
struck down, but we are not destroyed, always carrying in the body the
death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested
in our bodies. For we who live are always being
given over to death for Jesus sake. in order that the life
of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death
is at work in us, but life is at work in you. Verse 13, since
we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written,
I believe and so spoke, and we believe and so we speak, knowing
that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus
and bring us into His presence. For it is all for your sake that
as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase
Thanksgiving to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose
heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self
is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction
is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison
as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things
that are unseen. For the things that are seen
are temporary. They're transient. They're moving
on out of here. They're dying and decaying and
they're already gone. But the things that are unseen
are eternal. How do we stay filled with the
fullness of God? Friends, it is by continually
abiding in His Word. And you may have it memorized,
and I've got a lot of Scripture memorized. I wish I could memorize
a lot more in will by God's grace, but I would tell you this. It
is not that which comes out of my heart that fills me. It is
when I come to that which I think I already know and I read it
again. I read that a thousand times
in the last year and it fills my soul. It fills my soul. So do not lose heart, church.
Be filled with the fullness of God. Do not seek the joy that
is temporal and outside of everything. But Christ, find the fullness
of your joy in Christ alone and He will satisfy you beyond measure,
knowledge and comprehension. And the only way that that is
effective in your life is by God's grace given to you that
you might repent of your worldly affair and love fully the person
of Jesus as your everlasting hope. Let's pray. Father. I thank you so for this
time that we've had to come and to hear your word and to reflect
upon your word. God, thank you so much for the
richness of the apostles. But you have written on their
hearts that they might give us the truth of that which is you
and your son and your spirit alive and active and breathing
in us through your word. Bring us to a place that we are
joyful and mindful of those times when we are quenching and grieving
Your Spirit, that we might repent of that and come fully as children
to the throne of grace, crying out, O Daddy, Father, give us
joy. Help us to seek that joy that
comes only from Christ. Help us to teach it to our friends
and family and our enemies, our neighbors, our children. Help
us to empower one another with the teaching of this word that
we might truly be established. To the praise of your glory. We pray these things in the name
of Jesus, our everlasting hope and King. Amen.