The Portrait of the Church: Purity (Part 6)

Let's open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5 and kind of working our way through the first half of chapter 5 and getting near to the end of that first half of chapter 5.

Once again, let me remind you all that it's connected to an overall theme where Paul is in a sense kind of painting for us a portrait of the church. He started with unity, unity in the church way back there in the first part of chapter 4.

And now he's been sharing with us or instructing us on purity, the purity of the church. And as identified by the numerous times that Paul uses the word walk, walk.

And so under the purity of the church, we've had three parts to this. Two of these we've already looked at. First, the believers walk differently.

Second, believers walk rightly. And now tonight, believers walk divinely. Believers walk divinely. And we find that in verses 18 through 21.

And verse 18, of course, is very, very well known. And we're going to spend some time on it because it's one of those, oh, I don't know, high watermark passages.

Not just in the book of Ephesians, but in the New Testament, in the Bible. It's very, very important that we understand what Paul is teaching us here about the Holy Spirit.

Again, under this overall heading of purity, purity or holiness in the church. All right, let me go ahead and read the text. Verses 18 through 21 is where we're going to kind of get started tonight.

Verse 18, and do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation. Now, we'll cover this in a little bit, but there are so many different translations of this.

And so many that we kind of wonder, well, what does this mean? Well, we'll get into that. So be not drunk with wine, or do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.

Now, that's the most important thing in the passage. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another in the fear of God. All right, so there's really the final part of this section on the purity of the church.

That gets us all the way to verse 21. Now, the believer's walk here in this passage. And this is kind of interesting.

It's not something that just kind of shouts out at you when you look at it. But once I mention this, you're going to see it pretty easily. But the believer's walk is summed up in terms of the divine trinity.

The divine trinity. Only it's listed in reverse order. Well, God the Son's in the right place. He's always in the middle of the trinity, right?

But He's going to begin with the Holy Spirit, then the Son, then the Father. So, these verses, you see that. And of course you see it because I've got it there in your notes so you can see it very clearly.

But every member of the trinity is mentioned in these verses. God the Spirit, of course, in verse 18, be filled with the Spirit. And that's not Spirit with a lowercase s.

That's a capital S. That's the Holy Spirit. And then God the Son is in verse 19, making melody in your heart to the Lord. To the Lord.

You say, well, is that talking about God the Son? Yes, it is. Lord is a Greek word, kurios. And in the New Testament, universally, it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ. And then God the Father, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father. And then the latter part of verse 21, in the fear of God. So we have Spirit, Holy Spirit, God the Spirit, God the Son, God the Father.

And so, the believer's walk, then, is kind of summed up in terms of the divine trinity. And it's interesting when you study the Bible that you find in close proximity the Bible mentioning all three members of the Trinity involved at the same time.

So, quite often, from the creation, you have all three members mentioned there in Genesis 1. And in so many other passages throughout the Bible. And so, here we have it again.

Now, here is the point of this paragraph. And the paragraph being verses 18 to 21. There is purity in the church when each member is under the divine mastery of God.

That's the point of this entire text. Let me say it again, though you've got it there in your notes. There is purity in the church when each member, each of its members are under the divine mastery of God.

And God in all of His persons. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Again, though, in this case, Paul reverses the order. Now, the text then consists of two commands.

Two commands, verse 18. And then four consequences. Consequences, that is, of obedience to those commands.

Or really the most important command in verse 18. So, two commands, four consequences. And that's a good way to divide our study of the passage.

Alright, so first of all, verse 18 consists of two commands. Two commands. And I want to emphasize tonight that first command that we find in the passage.

What is it? The first command. Do not be drunk with wine. Alright, so I want us to really pay close attention to that command in Scripture.

Now, you know, in the first place, it may seem just a little bit strange and perplexing why Paul would connect these two things together.

That is, not getting drunk with wine. Or this whole idea of getting drunk with wine. Connecting that with being filled with the Holy Spirit.

How do those two things go together? And do they? And how is Paul using these two things to make his point?

And what is Paul's point? And really what I mean is, are we to take this first command that's in the passage, verse 18, separate it, kind of pull it out from the rest of the verse, and then interpret it as God's mandate concerning the drinking of alcoholic beverages?

That's the big question. And, you know, maybe it's never been a question in your mind, but I assure you that this particular part of the passage has been much debated over the years.

And what should we come away with from this first part of the verse? Now, we think we may understand what he's talking about when he gets to the filling of the Holy Spirit, but what about this command, do not be drunk with wine?

Are we to pull that out and make that, in a sense, a proof text for a doctrine of the sin of drinking?

Drinking whatever drinking it is. Beer or wine or any other alcoholic beverage. I assure you many have taken that passage and used it as the text to say that this is something that a believer should not be doing.

Now, you're wondering right now, where's the pastor going with this? Well, I hope you'll know very clearly by the time I'm done. But I have to say, I have to kind of cover this on the front end, because Paul has something else in mind here.

His intent here was not to present a rule for the believer in regard to the drinking of alcoholic beverages.

The Bible speaks of that, but that's not his intent here. Ephesians 5.18 is first and foremost a text on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And that's what we need to understand from this passage.

And if that's all we understand, then Paul has been successful in what he's written to us. Now, that said, that does not in any way, in my judgment, does not in any way diminish the importance of the command as a bona fide command of God.

There is a command here in the passage in regard to the drinking of alcoholic beverage. Now, we've got to understand what it is. But let's not minimize it.

Even though, again, I would tell you that Paul's intent here is to present a very important, very key principle or doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Even though that is his intent. There is something here for us to get concerning this command. Now, there are three things we should consider about this first half of verse 18.

There's the command itself. And then there's the comparison. There's a comparison that we should see. And then thirdly, there's a contrast. So those are the three things that we need to see in these few verses.

And that's as far as we're going to get tonight. Just not even a complete, well, it is a complete sentence. But half of one verse. So, first of all, the command.

The command. That is, what about the command itself? And so here, I am going to just pull it out of the text. And we'll put it over here and look at it and say, now, what does that mean to us?

This command. Do not be drunk with wine. It is a command. All right. Now, the phrase, do not be drunk. Do not be drunk.

That's a phrase. Comes from really just two Greek words. I didn't give the Greek words to you there, but I'm going to name them for you. It's two of them. One's a very small little word.

It's the word may. And it means not or no or un. I guess in English we would use the word un.

And then there is methusko. Methusko, which means to be drunk. All right. So, you put that together, you understand. Those two words is how, from where we get this entire phrase, do not be drunk with wine.

It means not to get drunk. Now, it means, though, more than just to be inebriated. All right.

It means more than that. John Wycliffe, you probably know a little bit of history of the Bible translation. John Wycliffe way back in the 1400s, 1500s, and key in Bible translation of the enemy of the Roman Catholic Church because he somehow thought that the Word of God needed to be available for the common man.

And John Wycliffe translated this verse, or the word drunk, he translated it filled.

He said, do not be filled with wine. And then, I mean, you can see how that fits very well with the rest of the verse.

But be filled with the Spirit. So, be not filled with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. And that's a very valid translation.

You can take the word and translate it. The same Greek word was used to describe the process of preparing animal hides. It's an old process from way back.

In fact, we even get this example from Homer in some of his writings. And it pertains to the process of soaking the animal hides to make them pliable, supple, so that they could be stretched.

And so, the word means soaking. Now, we can kind of in our minds see how this would fit, you know. So, they would soak the animal hides in a liquid of oil or animal fat to make it so they could stretch it.

So, therefore, we could translate the phrase, do not be soaked with wine. Be not soaked with it. And so, you're kind of getting the idea here.

So, the idea is not just that of a person who takes a sip of wine now and again. Or any other kind of alcoholic intoxicating drink.

It's not even so much about a person who might get a little bit too much wine. Alright? Like becoming a little bit tipsy.

Whatever term a person might want to use. But the idea is of a person who is full of wine. Alright? Full of it. That is, and we understand, this drunk to the point of being absolutely under the full influence of alcohol.

Now, regardless of your position on the drinking of alcoholic beverages, this is what Paul is talking about here. Alright? We're trying to make it apply to every other issue concerning alcohol.

He's talking about being full of it. So full that you are completely under its sway. And that's the command. And so then the word dissipation, that's how it's translated in the New King James and also the New American Standard.

Dissipation, which is not really a word that we hear very often. And you'd have to look it up probably in a dictionary to find out what the word means. King James uses the word excess.

Right? I mean, if you remember your King James Bible, and I, you know, I grew up with the King James, and so when I, kind of, even when I read this passage, I kind of want to, tend to, want to say where it is excess, rather than dissipation.

The ESV and even the NIV, they use the word debauchery. Debauchery. Now that is even, it's kind of a difficult word. It's, again, not one that we're real familiar with.

But we have kind of an idea what that means. Debauchery. Right? And, alright, so the word dissipation, this is what we need to get. The word dissipation refers to the sin of drunkenness.

And not to the quantity of wine a person must consume to constitute drunkenness. Alright?

I'm not trying to make a point about drinking, okay? Everybody's looking at me. We're waiting for some answer about that. I'm trying to tell you what the text says. And so, it's not talking about a quantity or amount.

The word is, talk about something else. The King James, the choice that they made to translate it excess, it's really kind of a problem.

Because it's led many over the years to kind of quantify the sin of drunkenness. That is, you know, say, well, I'm only a little bit drunk. You know, well, what's a little bit?

Is your little bit the same as my little bit? Or can you be more than a little bit? Or less than a little bit? Or double it a little bit? Or, you know, how do you... So, you know, so to think about this idea of, well, don't be drunk with wine wherein is excess.

Then you might come up with the wrong conclusion about that. You know, a person says, I know when to quit when it becomes excessive. Oh, you do. Well, when is it excessive?

All right. For me, it's before you take the first sip. So, that's my position. We'll talk more about that in a little bit. Or a person says, you know, I know how to hold my liquor.

You know, that famous line. Or, like the expression, you know, mind your P's and Q's. See, I thought that's something you said to little children, you know, and you meant, you know, be good.

Did you know that P's and Q's... Do you know where that expression comes from? I may have shared this with you before. It's rather interesting to me. In fact, if you look at some of our favorite expressions, you'll be surprised at their origins sometimes.

But the idea is of a person going into a bar, and the bartender keeps track of how many pints and quarts of beer that you have drunk.

Some of them even had a little chalkboard up there. And they'd mark one down for pint or quart. And so, when you had enough pints and quarts, then they wouldn't serve you anymore.

So, mind your P's and Q's. Keep track of your P's and Q's. Really? I mean, that's the origin of that term. And now we use it. Well, probably not we.

It's pretty old, and not too many people use it anymore. It used to be a favorite line to use for your kids. Mind your P's and Q's. And we meant be good, you know, right?

But it comes from this context here. And so, again, you know, excess is not really a good English word. It can be misunderstood, misconstrued.

The same Greek word is used by Jesus in Luke 15, verse 13. And we studied this one Sunday morning, months ago, when we were in chapter 15.

But it's used there to describe the prodigal son. The prodigal son. He wasted his possessions with prodigal living. That's how it's translated in New King James.

Some versions translate it living in debauchery. King James says riotous living. But it's the very same word that Paul uses here in verse 18 of Ephesians 5.

And that's why in the ESV, we have that verse in Ephesians translated, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. Debauchery.

So it's the same word. But let's go even a little deeper. And I know that I mentioned this when we were studying Luke 15 months ago.

The Greek word could be translated unsavedness. If you wanted to translate it literally, the word here, you could translate unsavedness.

It is the Greek word asotia. Asotia. And a on the front of a Greek word means it's a negative. It's a negative prefix.

And it's affixed to the word sotia, which is a form of the word soter, which means salvation. So it means not saved or unsavedness.

Alright, so here's the idea then. The idea is much more than just the amount of wine that a person should not consume. It's not about that really at all.

But rather, it's about the nature and spiritual condition of the person who drinks wine to the point of drunkenness. So it's not talking about the amount.

It's talking about the condition of that person's heart. Debauchery. Now we could say that the verse is telling us that drunkenness will always lead to debauchery.

And debauchery includes also the idea of destruction. Destruction, it will lead you there. So this is certainly a passage that is consistent with the Bible's universal condemnation of drunkenness.

So although it is not a proof text, you know, that you need to take, and this is part of your arsenal to stop or to convince someone not to drink intoxicating beverages.

And the reason why it should not be that proof text is because that was not Paul's intent when he wrote it. Intent is so important. In fact, when you're studying the Word of God, you certainly need to understand what is said by looking at the words and understanding definitions.

But you need to even, more importantly, need to understand the intent of the author. When the author wrote it. And the way to discover that is to look at the overall context and the point that the author is making when he uses words and phrases and such as Paul has done here.

But, again, having said that, it is consistent with the Bible's condemnation of drunkenness. And you find it all throughout Scripture. And I'm really just giving you a few examples.

I don't think I put this in your note, but we can go back and look at Noah. Noah is a life example of the evils of drunkenness. Remember what happened after the flood and Noah got drunk and, you know, his sons kind of took advantage of him.

And there's that old story. And then, how about Lot? Lot got drunk and had incestuous relations with his two daughters. And all kinds of trouble came as a result of that.

And we've been studying judges. How about Samson? He's, you know, poster child for the evils of drunkenness. And there are many other examples in Scripture.

You need to go into the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 11, 27. And, you know, the people, the Corinthian, some of the people in the Corinthian church were getting drunk at the Lord's table of all places.

And so forth. And we have the warnings, of course, that are given to us in Proverbs. And I've given those passages to you. And still, though I'd like to read them, Proverbs 20, verse 1.

I mean, both of those very violent things, aren't they?

And whoever is led astray by it is not wise. Proverbs 23, 19. Hear, my son, and be wise and guide your heart in the way.

Do not mix with wine bibbers or with gluttonous eaters of meat. Of course, I'd really like to leave out the gluttony part of this verse. I don't have any trouble with the wines of this world, but food...

Anyway. For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags. A little bit later in that same chapter, Proverbs 23-29, who has woe?

Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? All of these problems with relationships and so forth. Who has wounds without cause?

Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at the wine. Those who go in search of mixed wine. Actually, mixed drink.

It's something more than just the fruit of the vine. It's a strong drink. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly.

I mean, obviously talking about its fermentation, right? At the last, it bites like a serpent. It stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things.

Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea. As you know, you're just kind of like you're floating. You've seen a drunk person, and you know how they kind of sway, and hopefully, God forbid, any of you have experienced this, but maybe some of you have, you know, in your B.C. days, before Christ days, and feel like you're floating in water.

That's what's being described here, or be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies at the top of the mast. You know, you just kind of imagine being way up there on that top of the mast, up there in the crow's nest on that ship, and that mast is going back and forth, and, you know, you're getting kind of seasick.

And saying, They have struck me, but I was not hurt. They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?

This is drunkenness. Alcoholism. And then we have the warnings given by the prophet Isaiah. A couple of them there. Isaiah 5.11, Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink, who continue until night, till wine inflames them.

You wake up drinking and go to bed drinking. It's Isaiah 28.7, But they also have erred through wine, and through intoxicating drink, are out of the way.

That's kind of an ancient way of saying they stagger around. The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They are out of the way.

Again, staggering or confused. Through intoxicating drink, they err in vision. Can't see straight. They stumble in judgment. Can't make right decisions.

For all tables are full of vomit and filth. No place is clean. That's pretty descriptive. Now, I would say this, that though the Bible does not explicitly, I mean just in, like we would like for it to say it, explicitly prohibit the drinking of alcoholic beverages, like wine, beer, any of those things.

Even though that may be the case, though I think even some of these verses, for me, are good enough. You know, especially when it says, don't even look at it.

I mean, you can't drink without looking at it. But even though it doesn't explicitly, I mean just spell it out for us, the thou shalt not kind of thing, before you drink alcoholic beverages, you should seriously and honestly consider these questions.

And really there are more, but just think about these questions. And the first one I think is rather obvious. At what point does drinking become a sinful activity? I mean, if, you know, you might buy into the idea that drinking alcoholic beverages, the wine at meal or beer now and again, that's not drunkenness.

Well, at what point is it drunkenness? How do you define, ask yourself that question. At what point does it become a sinful activity?

Now, clearly from Scripture, drunkenness is a sinful activity. It's condemned in Scripture. And anything that Scripture condemns is sin. But at what point does it become a sinful activity?

Ask yourself that question. And secondly, how would you define intoxication? I'm not talking about how, you know, our laws define it.

I mean, that's important. We ought to know that. I don't think I'm going to ever have to worry about, you know, what the percent of blood alcohol constitutes drunkenness because I'm never going to be drunk.

But how do you define intoxication? That is where you lose some control of your thinking, of your vision, of your walking, lose some control, lose some inhibitions.

At what point, and I'm asking Christians this, okay, these are questions you should ask. The third one is, what is my real motive for taking a drink now and then?

Now, I hear, and I've had people tell me, well, I just use this socially. Just drink now and again. Or just at a meal time.

Or, if a person's honest, you know, just kind of relaxes me. I've heard people say that. And, is that okay? Well, what point is that okay and not okay?

At what point, is there some creation of a dependency? Something that you just really like, that kind of loosens you up, and kind of, you know, makes you feel better, and forget about some of your troubles?

You see, the path that you, you find yourself going, you know, I wish that, I had in the Bible, a place that said, thou shalt not.

But, we do have wisdom. And, we do have other scriptures, that, that, inform us. And, we have the Holy Spirit. And, so, if we would honestly ask some of these questions. And, here's another one.

Is it wise, to place myself within the dangers of alcohol addiction? Everybody knows that, alcohol is addictive. Now, how is it addictive?

And, you know, in what way is it addictive? I mean, there's several different dynamics to that. But, everybody knows that it is addictive. We wouldn't have alcoholism, if that were not the case.

And, so, then, why would, I mean, is it wise, to place myself, within, the potential, of, of some addiction, or some desire, for that?

Could my occasional drinking, actually be participation, with the anti-Christian alcohol industry? Anybody, here, unclear, about, the position, of the alcohol industry?

I do just watch their commercials, and, and so forth. And, it's ungodly. The way it's presented, the way they allure, and even many of them are even involved in, in teenage, getting teenagers and younger, involved in drinking, and making it look so cool.

And so, and so, could, could, just my, kind of, occasional, kind of, drinking, is that in any way, participation, with, and support of, the anti-Christian alcohol industry?

Should I partake of something, that has destroyed, and is destroying, so many lives? Anybody doubt, the destruction, of alcoholism?

I mean, probably most of us, in this room, have seen it first hand. Have it even, in our families. And, I tell you, their entire cultures, travel with me, sometime to Ukraine, and talk to the women, in the church, and ask them about, alcoholism.

Find out how many, of their husbands, how many men, in that culture, are, are drunks. China, same way. And, other, other cultures, as well.

And so, should, should I, be a part of anything, like that? Even if it's just a, little, little sip now and then, dinner time, or something like that. I mean, these, these are important questions.

Are we afraid to, ask these questions, to answer these questions? It'll identify, just how important, a thing is to us, and why it might be important to us. And, some of the implications of it.

You know, like, you know, this is a big one, I think, within the church. Will my liberty, to drink, and you could argue, I have that liberty, have that freedom. And, I would say, you have that liberty.

But, does that cause, a weaker brother, or sister, to stumble in, in his or her faith? I think the Bible, clearly, speaks to that issue. You know, you might be able to say, well, you know, I don't have, it doesn't affect me, I don't have any, any problem with that, and I'm, and I'm, and I'm, strong.

And, physiologically, maybe you don't have any problem. But, another brother, or sister, uh, maybe a different story with them. And, will you be influencing them?

Uh, and will it cause them to stumble in their faith, if their faith is weaker? And, then the final one is, drinking alcoholic beverage is so important to me, that I would risk all the potential dangers that it holds, and all those that I've mentioned.

Is it really that important? See, these, these may be arguments from a, kind of a practical, uh, standpoint. And, uh, in the absence of any clear command, uh, that is clear, uh, clearly applied to all, uh, various, uh, forms of alcoholic beverage.

Uh, these, these, I think, are some important questions that Krishna ought to ask. All right, so that is the command itself. That's taking the, that one little, phrase, out of it, and just taking, take, looking at it for all that it's worth.

But we can't do that, uh, and understand the whole import of the passage. And so, now we need to look at a couple of other things. And that is, the comparison.

There's the command itself. Then there's a comparison. And this getting, uh, really getting us to Paul's intent in using this as part of his overall, uh, point.

There is a comparison intended. Uh, or we might use the word similarity. There is a similarity between the two conditions, drunk with wine and filled with the spirit, right?

And I think if we think about it, uh, we can see it pretty, pretty easily. I mean, we say about the person who is drunk with wine, what do we say? He or she is under the influence of alcohol.

Right? I mean, that's, that's, that's a definition of drunk. Under the influence. That's even a technical way of putting it. Likewise, we might say, and I would say in a superficial sense, the spirit filled Christian is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

That is a comparison that Paul is making here. Though that's not the only thing he's doing. And it is kind of a superficial comparison. Uh, because, uh, you know, once you get past that comparison, everything else is a contrast.

I mean, everything else, uh, Paul says, is, is, uh, to tell us that these two things are not the same, not alike. But there is a, a comparison.

The simile, and that, that's what this is technically, it's a simile. The simile would have been especially meaningful to the Ephesian believers. They would have been very familiar with the pagan worship of Dionysus.

Uh, and not just, uh, in, in the pagan worship of this goddess, but other gods, uh, where intoxication was used as an enhancement to worship. And they really did.

they, they would get drunk because they thought that that would help them connect with their gods. And that was the belief that the more intoxicated you became, the more in tune you were with your God, the God you were worshiping, the more free you were to worship, you know, without any inhibitions and so forth.

And, uh, that's what they believed. And there are those who still believe that today, as a matter of fact. Uh, so the Ephesians, they would have understood the, this comparison, uh, aspect of what Paul is saying.

But we've got to move on from there and see the contrast. Let me get this finished. The comparison between the two conditions, drunk with wine, filled with the Holy Spirit, that comparison is only superficial.

And it's a mistake, and I say a serious mistake, to suppose that to be filled with the Spirit is to somehow experience some kind of spiritual inebriation in which one loses all control of self.

All right, so you can't take the comparison too far. Because, you know, being drunk with wine or whatever it is, you lose all self-control.

But being filled with the Holy Spirit, uh, it's not the same. You don't lose control. I mean, self-control, uh, is the fruit of the Spirit. It's, it's one of the qualities.

In fact, the last one named in the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 and 23. All right, so, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we do not lose control.

We gain it. We gain it. Uh, and, and I inserted here a couple of quotes from, uh, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones. Um, he was, by the way, a physician as well as a preacher.

And in his commentary on this passage, this is what he wrote, and I won't read it, even though you have it there in your notes. Alcohol, he said, is not a stimulant. That's not.

It's not a stimulant. It is a depressant. It depresses, first and foremost, the highest centers, excuse the English spelling of center, the highest centers of all in the brain, everything that gives a man self-control, wisdom, understanding, discrimination, judgment, balance, the power to assess everything.

in other words, everything that makes a man behave at his very best and highest. So, alcohol depresses that. And so, here, here's the important, important contrast.

What the Holy Spirit does is the exact opposite. Again, Dr. Lloyd-Jones, if it were possible to put the Holy Spirit into a textbook of pharmacology, I would put him under the stimulants.

For that is where he belongs. He really does stimulate. He stimulates our faculties, the mind and the intellect, the heart and the will. And we'll certainly be talking more about that when we get to the second command and the consequences of obeying that command when we get the rest of the passage.

Alright, so, therefore, the result of drunkenness, what is it? Debauchery, uncontrolled actions, animal-like behavior, in fact, worse than animals. The result of being filled with the Holy Spirit, well, will be the consequences that are listed in the next several verses that we'll study next time.

But to sum it up, it's the Spirit that makes us like Christ. Makes us like Christ. That's the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, next time we'll get to the second command, which is be filled with the Spirit and then the four consequences.

Thank you.