Transcript: June 6th, 2004« Back

Distinguishing Marks of a Deepening Love for God

Ephesians 5:18-21

Jeff Noblit

Distinguishing Marks of a Deepening Love for God

Ephesians 5:18-21

 

     Ephesians chapter 5.  If you would, turn there with me.  As we, if you’re visiting with us today, we’re journeying verse by verse, chapter by chapter through this powerful letter.  Originally it was a letter.  It’s a part of the canon of scripture of course now.  Letter that Paul was writing to the believers at the church in Ephesus.  And it’s inspired scripture for them and it is inspired scripture for us. 

     I’ve entitled this message, “Distinguishing Marks of a Deepening Love for God.”  Distinguishing marks of a deepening love for God.  Normative for the Christian life is that we know Him and we are to be increasingly knowing Him.  And we love and enjoy Him and we are to be increasingly knowing and enjoying Him.  Now by the way, I don’t pick the topic I am preaching on when I go through books of the Bible.  I give you what’s next, and this is what’s next.  Paul, next in this part of Ephesians says, “These are the overflowing, outworking marks, not all of them, by the way.  But these are some of the marks that show forth that there is a deepening work of love for God in your heart.”  In other words, you’re a normal Christian. You’re on track.  You’re doing good. 

     Now let me introduce it this way.  God gives believers a new song.  We don’t have the old song of the world.  We have a new song of the Lord.  It’s a song that is birthed in our hearts by the Spirit of God.  And it’s a song that comes from the Spirit-filled heart.  Now when we looked at Ephesians 5:18 last time and we talked about the Spirit-filled heart, I told you that really and the better understanding of that verse is not Spirit-filled, but cultivating a continual crush on God.  ‘Cause the article is not there.  Literally Paul says, “Get full of God.”  Not be filled with the Spirit, just get full of Him, get full of Him.  He’s not some impersonal force or some impersonal power or enablement that we sort of manipulate to get some blessing or some enablement or some power in our life.  He’s the person God the Holy Spirit.  And what Paul is saying when he commands us, “Be filled with the Spirit,” he means cultivate continually a heart passionate love or crush on God. 

Have you ever seen a teenager when they get a deep crush on someone?  They feel it deeply but they cultivate it heavily.  They have their pictures everywhere.  They keep, my sister, I told you before, used to keep the cologne of her boyfriend around, kept one of his shirts around that she could wear.  She’d sing songs that reminded her of him.  She would sing their song.  And then she would sing songs that was her song thinking about him.  She cultivated it.  That’s what Paul is saying here.  AS a child of God you’ve been introduced to God through Jesus Christ.  Now listen, you put some work in cultivating a heart passionate love, crush on God.  And then in these verses that are following that we’re gonna dive into today, he’s gonna say, here’s some of the characteristics that’ll come out of our lives if that deepening love or crush, as I say, is going on in our hearts.

And one of the marks, and we’re gonna find this out in a moment, is about singing, and that’s why I’m emphasizing singing as I introduce this.  And our point is that we have a new song and it’s not the old song of the world.  It’s the new song because we have a new heart.  The Bible says if we’re in Christ we’re a new creation.  And over and over again the scriptures emphasize this new song, this different song we sing.  Matter of fact, here’s some verses for you.  Psalm 33 verse 1 says, “Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; praise is becoming to the upright.”  Christian folks are a singing folk.  Just can’t help it.  Not because we learned a new song.  We’ve been given a new song because we’ve been given a new heart, and that new heart has a new song. 

Psalm 40 verse 3: And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord.  David said, “Because of my testimony, because of this song He’s put in my heart, I believe others are gonna come to love Him and know Him and trust Him.  By the way, your testimony’s powerful.  Share your testimony when you can.  Share it with the folks at school and share it with the folks at work and share it with the people in your family that you are a wretched, lost condemned sinner and didn’t see yourself that way until God showed you that you were and you saw Christ as your only hope and you put your trust and reliance in Him and He’s changed your heart.  Psalm 96 verses 1 and 2:  Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth; sing to the Lord, bless His name, proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.  And then Revelation chapter 5 verses 8 and 9, John the revelator, John…  Revelation means the unveiling.  Things were unveiled so that John could see things that are gonna happen in the future.  And looking out yonder in the future as God begins to shut all things down, the Bible says, “And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having one harp and gold, golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song.”  They sing the song about God.  Look at it there.  “Worthy art Thou to take the book and break its seals, for Thou was slain and Thou didst purchase with Thy blood men from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.”  We have a new song. 

Now I want to say something here, and I’m gonna quote Dr. John MacArthur in saying this.  And that is that the church has to be discerning and the church needs to be cautious about bringing the old world’s music into our congregation because we have a new song.  We have to be careful there.  Listen to what Dr. MacArthur said.  He said, “It should be noted that the many contemporary entertainers who think they are using their rock style music to evangelize the lost are often doing nothing more than contributing to the weakness of the church.  Evangelizing with the world’s contemporary music has many serious flaws.  It tends to create pride in the musicians rather than humility,” now listen, “and it makes the gospel a matter of entertainment when there’s not one thing about the gospel that’s entertaining.”  Think about that. 

You totally violate the character of God’s gospel when you say, “You can be saved if I entertain you enough to get you to it.”  “It makes the public proclaimers of Christianity those who are popular or talented I the world’s eyes rather than those who are godly and gifted teachers of God’s truth.  In using the world’s genres of music, it blurs the gap between worldly satanic values and divine ones.  It tends to deny the power of the simple gospel and the sovereign saving work of the Holy Spirit.”  Now he goes on. 

So we need to be careful in the church today.  WE need to be wise and we need to be discerning about saying, “We can bring the old worldly things into the church and reach people with the gospel.  I want to tell you what will reach lost people.  It’s not telling them to enjoy the world.  If they’re being convicted at all of the Holy Spirit, they’re beginning to get weary of the world.  They want to hear a new song.  Are you hearing me?  The world’s music is about their lostness.  The world’s music is about their heartache.  The world’s music is about the dead end streets they’re on.  The world’s music is about their hopelessness.  If we really want music to evangelize the lost, it ought to be music where God’s people that love God are singing with joy and conviction the new songs of our faith.  Our genuineness singing God’s glorious truth will have a far greater impact than bringing worldly things into the church.

I caught part of the or one of those award shows for country music the other day.  And a man got up on the stage and had won an award for a song that glamorizes and glorifies the use of whiskey and alcoholic beverages.  And the first thing he said was, “I want to thank Jesus Christ.”  This stuff is getting prominent today, where Jesus is nothing but this little rabbit foot thing.  He’s this little power you get zapped with.  He’s a little, just a little buddy you put onto your life that keeps you out of hell.  And because it’s just once saved always saved and it’s all grace then the rest of life is just yours to live like you want to.  I want to tell you something.  That is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.  And that man does not know Christ.  How in heaven’s name before the world could He glamorize that and at the same time thank Christ?  But we have a new song, not an old one.

Here’s a good illustration of how we have a new song.  Did you know from about 500 A.D. to about 1500 A.D. the church didn’t sing?  The organized church of the day, they just didn’t sing.  Occasionally when they would have music, a professional musician would sing.  But he sang in such a way or a language that could not be understood or appreciated by the average church member.  But then something happened.  And obscure old bull-necked monk by the name of Martin Luther began to study his Bible.  And he came to find out that salvation was not through the Pope and it was not through altars and it was not through motions in a church building and it was not through the priest administering the sacraments, that salvation was by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  And Martin Luther and John Calvin and John Knox and Huss and Roger Williams and all of these great reformers began to preach the Word of God, and they began to write hymns.  And they wrote hymns about the salvation of God and the cleansing of God and the glory of Christ and the wonder of faith in Christ and the glories of justification by faith and the wondrous work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.  They were writing the new songs.  And some of our most beloved hymns today were written by those original reformers who broke out of Catholicism to build the church back on the Word of God.  They sang the new song.  Ole Martin Luther wrote the song that we use for our Anchored in Truth broadcast, “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.”  What a powerful song that is. 

So let me say some things about the church singing and then we’re gonna say some things about thanksgiving and then we’re gonna say some things about submission because those are the distinguishing marks that Paul points out here that are evident when we have a deepening love for God growing in our hearts.  Let’s look at, first of all, the first major point.  That is there will be singing that edifies the saints and glorifies the Savior.  Roman numeral one, a distinguishing mark of a deepening love for God means there will be singing in your life that edifies the saints, other Christians, and glorifies the Savior.  And I mean the whole Godhead here, God the Father, God the Son or God the Holy Spirit. 

Now I’m gonna start back up in verse 18 even though I’ve already spent a lot of time on 18, so you can get the flow of the context.  He says here, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation.  That is riotous, that is total waste and ruin.  But be filled with the Spirit.”  Making a powerful contrast here.   Where the world would be prone to sing their songs with drinking and revelry and rejoicing around that stuff, we’re right the opposite.  We don’t use the unholy spirit of alcohol to loosen us up to sing and enjoy ourselves.  We use the Holy Spirit of God that gives us life and gives us a song to sing to one another.  There’s a contrast here he’s pointing out.  And again that phrase, “Be filled with Spirit,” means be full of Him, get, cultivate.  It’s a present active verb.  It means you and the activity is you acting on yourself.  It’s you see to it that you are full of a growing, maturing passion, infatuation, or crush on God.  It’s gonna take some work.  You’re gonna have to get some of that God cologne.  You’re gonna have to get some of those God shirts and wear them.  You’re gonna have to, just like a teenager gets that stuff about the person they have a crush on, you’re gonna have to work on this.  That’s why it’s a command.  It’s a, it’s an imperative mood and a present tense verb in the passive voice which means you are commanded to see to it now that you have the privileged opportunity to deepen this love for God. 

Now if that is happening, then he comes to verse 19, here’s what will happen.  First of all he says, “speaking to one another.”  I Want to just emphasize the phrase one another.  That means your singing is going to have an impact on those around you, an edifying impact on those around you.  Child of God, when you come to the service, you are responsible to forget yourself and so discipline your heart and mind that you enjoy and glory in the truths we’re singing because you have a responsibility to edify the person around you.  I don’t care how you feel.  Amen?  This thing isn’t built on feelings.  Now feelings are real, but you work at joying in your God as you sing because your brother and sister around you deserve that service and that work that you can give them.  Amen?  Help me this morning.  And it’s not always gonna be natural.  It will be more natural if we’d ever learn to turn the televisions off about five o’clock on Saturday and start getting our hearts ready for church on Sunday morning.  Around my house we’re doing a better job and we’re working at that.  Haven’t arrived, but we’re working at that because I want my girls to grow up knowing Saturday night isn’t to cram all the world in you can get so you walk into the church dead and listless and not alert and just worthless for the kingdom of God on Sunday morning.  Saturday night is not that night.  Friday night we may do some of that.  Saturday night, as a rule, is the night to get ready for God’s people the next morning because you have a responsible ministry to so sing in the congregation that it edifies and strengthens.  Because you may have a younger Christian sitting four rows around you, and they need encouragement because they’re a baby in Christ.  They know you’ve been saved a long time.  They need to see you singing like God is worthy of it.  Whatever burden and whatever heartache and whatever crisis and whatever discouragement, it’s not gonna hold your face back from giving your Lord the edification and praise He deserves when you sing on Sunday morning.  That’s one of the marks, Paul says, of a deepening love for God.  Singing will come out of you that will speak to, what does he say there, verse 19 too?  It’s a ministry to one another. 

Well, notice what he says here.  The first word of verse 19 of the New American Standard anyway says, “Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.”  Now you’re singing, true.  But your singing is speaking to others.  One of the purposes of congregational singing is that as we sing it speaks to each other. 

Notice the three categories as such that Paul gives.  Speaking to one another in psalms.  Now the word psalm was a word that was mostly used when you wanted musical accompaniment with a song.  But most likely in the biblical context a psalm referred to the Psalms, that hymnbook of the Hebrew nation that we have as our book of Psalms.  And literally, especially in the early church age, they sang the psalms.  And we do a little of that today, but it would probably be good if we did more of that, just singing the scripture.  Matter of fact, the church of England, the Anglican church that sort of dominated Christendom for a long time both in Europe and in pre-American days, but when America was mostly British colonies, they didn’t allow anything but scripture singing.  So that pretty well dominated the Christian front at that time.  Well, that’d be like a psalm.

Then he says, “hymns.”  Hymns would be those songs that are unique to the church.  Where a psalm might just exalt God and His wonder and His glory and His creation, etc., a hymn more speaks to redemption and Christ and the saving work of Jesus Christ.  That’s why we have so many Christian hymns about our Lord and about our salvation and about what He’s done.  And then he says, “spiritual songs,” and that’s a very broad category.  Btu I think he’s trying to emphasize all the other songs that might be more testimonial songs about how God has changed us and what He has done for us, things that speak of God’s help to us, God’s power for us, God’s comfort toward us, etc., etc., etc. 

So he says, “I want you to be speaking to one another using all these varieties of songs in singing so that you might edify, build up the church.”  But then he says something else here.  And I’m telling you, the scholars and the commentary writers just don’t know what to do with this, and to me it’s incredibly simple.  Notice the next thing he says there.  “Making melody with your heart to the Lord.”  And there are guys who say, “Well, you speak.  You don’t really sing.  You speak psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  In your singing, your melody is from your heart to the Lord.”  And they try to make it two different things.  It’s not two different things.  It’s one whole thing.  Here’s the point.  You get caught up in our harmonious, melodious communing with God in your singing and it will speak to your brothers and sisters around you in edification.  Do you get that?  But I want to say something to you.  If you’ve got unconfessed sin in your life, if you’re not walking in victory, if you’re not yielded to God with joy in your heart then you’re not in melodious harmony with God as you sing, and you will not be edifying your brothers and sisters.  And I want to tell you what that is.  That’s sin.  You are robbing your church family of the service they deserve from you.  It’s your rightful duty.  But let me say this to you.  It’s also your wonderful blessing.  Singing the things of the Lord is its own reward. Have you noticed that?  How many times have you popped in a tape or turned on a Christian radio station and a Christian song, a song about our Lord is on and you just kind of were flat, you just really were not interested, but as the song played on your joy came back?  It’s its own reward. 

So here we are with this responsibility to make melody.  That is a harmonious communion with God.  Nothing’s between me and God.  I’m yielded to Him.  I’m surrendered to Him.  I’m adoring Him.  And I sing with that kind of heart spirit that’s gonna make me most powerfully edifly, edify, rather, those around me.  So, now listen to what I’m gonna tell you.  Don’t make Ephesians 5:18 and 19 and 20 and 21 a bunch of steps.  They’re not progressive steps.  They’re not separate things.  It’s one whole.  Now get the picture.  You are to be continually cultivating a heart passion or crush on God.  If you are continually cultivating a heart passion and crush on God, then you will have a melodious, harmonious, that is, communion with God.  And you will sing, and that singing will edify your brothers and sisters and help them in their Christian walk.  It’s all one package.  That’s what he’s telling us.  Well, singing that edifies the saints and glorifies God is one of the distinguishing marks of a deepening love for God.

Number two, Roman numeral two, a life of thanksgiving.  A life of thanksgiving is a distinguishing mark that you are as an act of your will purposing and working toward deepening and cultivating a love or a crush on God.  Notice what he says in verse 20.  “Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God even the Father.”  Now what he means by this, through our Lord Jesus Christ or in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is that when you look, you meditate upon what’s been done for you through Christ then everything else doesn’t matter a whole lot anymore.  And the things that burden you and discourage you and grieve you all the sudden aren’t worthy to be compared to what God’s already done for you through Christ.  And that enables you to be thankful, listen, in everything. 

I want to say something to you.  Are you hearing what I’m about to tell you?  If you’re relying on Jesus for your eternal destiny, then how is it so hard to trust Him for all this other stuff that’s not nearly as important?  Are you with me?  I mean wait a minute.  My soul is immortal.  It’s going, you’re gonna live somewhere forever, and I can trust Him to take care of that.  But if a financial crisis or a rebellious child or my dreams are vanquished, whatever it might be crumbles before me I can’t trust God with that?  Do you really trust Him with your eternal soul?  IF you do the rest of this is downhill.  Think about it.  It’s nothing.  I want to tell you something.  You can trust your Lord.  He who foreknew you specifically and personally, He who predestined you specifically and personally, He who sent His Son to die and redeem your soul two thousand years ago, His redemption on the cross was not making salvation possible.  His redemption on the cross for you was to secure your salvation.  He who called you through the preaching of the Word and the wooing of the Holy Spirit, He who regenerated you through the work of the Holy Spirit, enabling you to repent toward your sin and place faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  He who sealed you with the Holy Spirit and has given you the assurance that you’re His by the continual witness of the Spirit in your life, you can trust Him with everything else if you can trust Him for that.  And trust Him so that, are you hearing me?  You can be thankful in everything.  Not necessarily for everything, ‘cause some things are just evil.  But you can be thankful that even if evil has come your way and you’re 99.9% innocent and you’ve been done wrong, you can still be thankful.  I’m telling you, God gives you that enablement.  And that is a distinguishing mark of one who is one the pattern, on the road of cultivating a continual crush or a deepening love in God.

I, um, had to have a time of repentance when I was studying this.  You know what, choir?  I think God makes me preach this way because I need it.  I have to repent a lot before I dump it on you.  But you know what?  When I repent and get my heart back on track and get where I’m supposed to be, it helps me.  I get happier.  I get at peace.  I get my joy back.  So I want you to have the same thing.  “Well, I wish you wouldn’t preach that stuff.  That stuff’s hard.”  I’m trying to heal you if you’ll let God do it.  I’ll help you.  So this week and last night, and would you believe God woke me up before five o’clock and made me do it again?  I just had to start thanking God. 

You’re not gonna believe this.  But I have a little fund, not a lot of money, but a little money put back for just stuff like deer hunting stuff, vacation stuff.  And I had it figured out that my tax refund check was gonna be an important part of my little fund.  My letter came from the IRS this week, and I looked for a check and there was not a check in there.  There was a statement that said, “You messed up.  You’re not getting anything back.  You owe us $709.00.”  I’d been studying this, so I just had to say, after I fussed for awhile, I had to say, “Thank You, Lord.  You know what?  I don’t deserve having the little bit of dollars I’ve got left in my little fund, much less the amount I thought I was gonna have.  So I just thank You for it.”  And you know what?  I don’t, I’m not just anxiety ridden.  Some of you got junk in your life that’s just eating you alive.  Just get thankful and watch the peace come.  And guess what?  You may wake up the next morning and the arr is back.  And you know what you have to do?  I’m trusting Him with my immortal soul.  For heaven’s sake, can I not thank Him and trust He knows what He’s doing in this, and get the peace back again.  Matter of fact, I can help you with this money thing.  If you’ll just give it to the missions/debt retirement campaign we can just relieve you of all that burden.  There’s more truth in that than you know.  And I can say that because I know my own giving record.  I can challenge you because I’ve given generously if not in American definition at times sacrificially.  And my testimony is God just keeps flooding it back.  But I’ve learned something recently, and I’m putting myself on the spot here, but I need it.  I’ve learned recently that God didn’t flood it back so that I can have more.  God flooded it back so I could give more.  And I’m still growing in that area and still giving and still learning, but I’m learning to be more thankful.

Luke 7, we’ll not turn there for time, but Luke 7:41 through 48 is a great cross reference here of the woman who was weeping and wiping Jesus’ feet.  And Jesus, in effect, said, “The one who’s been forgiven much is more thankful.”  Now he wasn’t saying that those wretched self-righteous Pharisees weren’t as sinful as she was.  It was just that she saw her sinfulness. That’s the problem in the church today.  We’re not, we don’t’ have a holy contrition over our sinfulness and what our Lord’s done for us.  Some of us are just so cocked full of our self and half arrogant we think God got a pretty good deal when He got us.  The only reason you’re saved, sir, is because God needed worthless wretches to pour out grace on so He could illustrate how wonderful grace is, not because you deserved anything.  And looking at some of you, He’s illustrated how wonderful grace is.  And when I look in the mirror I see that too. 

Number three, a third distinguishing mark of the deepening love for God that Paul points out here is a life of yielded submission.  Don’t tell me how spiritual you are.  Don’t tell me how brilliant.  Don’t tell me how much you know doctrine and the Word.  Your love for God is exhibited through a life of yielded submission.  That’s what Paul says next.  Verse 21:  “And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”  Well, let’s take this apart.  First of all, he says, “Be subject.”  That word subject is the military word you would use if you want to tell people to fall in rank or get in line, get under your authority.  Submit, fall in line, get in rank.  Now he’s implying here that we all must have a submissive spirit.  There is no place for haughtiness, arrogance, and pride in God’s church.  We all need to grow and walk in a submissive spirit.  But if you look at the context here, in the next verse, verse 25 he gonna talk about the wives being subject, getting in line under their husband’s authority.  In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1, he tells children to obey their parents, get in line under their parental authority.  So he’s implying by the flow of the context that when you’re Spirit-filled you can joyously surrender, yield, and submit to those God’s put in authority over you, whether it’s wives to their husbands, children to their parents, the citizen to the government, the church member to the elders.  A distinguishing mark of a deepening love for God is that you can joyously rest and honor those with a yielded submission who are over you.

Now I want to say something to you, ma’am.  You don’t have the power to honor your husband’s headship.  That’s why you have a, have to have a deepening love for God that gives you spiritual empowerment to do what you can’t do.  Sir, you don’t have the natural capacity to submissively yield to your pastor and church elders.  That’s why you have to have a deepening love for God that enables you to have the spiritual power to do what you normally cannot do.  Young people, you don’t have a natural ability to obey your parents with joy.  That’s why you need a deepening love for God so that you can act toward your parents in ways that you normally cannot act.  Young people, don’t tell me about your love for God if you’re not walking in a yielded submission to your parents.  Paul says, “That’s a distinguishing mark of one who has a deepening love for God.”  Is there any of us here this morning who does not need to repent at least some? 

Now notice what else he says in verse 21.  Not only get in line, fall in line under your authority and generally just have a yielded, submissive spirit.  He says something else here.  He says, “in the fear of Christ.”  Here’s what he means by that.  The fear of Christ means I’m His, I’m His child, and I now have a love and a reverence and a respect for Him.  So here’s what you say.  You say, “I can’t fall in line under my God-ordained authority.  But out of love and respect for His lordship I will.”  You don’t honor me and yieldedly submit to mine and the elders’ leadership because we’re some special whoop-ti-do.  You do it out of love and respect for His lordship who told you to do that.  The wife does not yieldedly submit herself to the overseeing head of her husband because he somehow has earned it or deserved it?  She does it out of loving respect for His lordship, Jesus Christ, who asked her to do that.  The citizen does not honor the authority of government when government is as rotten as it is in many ways because we just are good guys.  But because out of respect and love for our lordship, who told us to do that.  IN the fear of Christ you do that.  Out of the new, you were baptized in this baptistery or a baptistery, and you said in that baptistery, “He is my Lord.  When my feelings conflict with His desires, His desires win the day.”  And then He’s promised to flood you with grace and bless you and encourage you.  My, listen to me.  Pride goeth before the fall.  He don’t want you to kill and ruin yourself.  That’s why He’s asking you to live in yielded subjection so that you can be blessed.  God gives grace to the what?  The humble.  What is grace?  Grace is the infinite power of God at your disposal.  God gives His infinite blessing and grace and power to the humble.  But God says, “I’m opposed to the proud.”  So God’s trying to help you.  That’s what He’s doing.  That’s what it’s all about. 

Well, in this day when Paul was writing this, there was a religious craze that was the fad of the day.  And the religious craze that was the fad of the day was the worship of the Greek god Dionysus, or Bacchus.  Dionysus was the god of vegetation.  They said, “Now he’s the god of the trees, and he’s the god of vegetables, and he’s the god of the vine.”  And they really like that part, the vine because on the vine grew grapes.  And out of grapes you could make wine and get intoxicating beverages.  And that was the thing of the day.  Matter of fact, it’s very interesting to me to note that the worshippers of Dionysus were big into drama.  They dramatized the life and the works of their god Dionysus.  And they had elaborate theater and drama in their worship.  Historians tell us that the ancient Greek theaters, which were a big deal, are still drawn from today by people who study those things, owe their beginning to the worship of Dionysus. 

So in Paul’s day, while He’s writing to these Ephesian believers, this craze of the day was to go to the temple of Dionysus.  They put on wild music or have people playing wild music.  They’d have extravagant revelries and dancing and music and get drunk as skunks.  Singing and revelry and sexual immorality.  And they, they taught that when you got intoxicated this god of vegetation communicated his power to you.  So they’d get drunk and wanted to show that his power was over them, so they’d have these wild, ecstatic gibberish and running around and dancing in the church or in the temple.  So Paul says, “You’ve seen how the world is when they love Dionysus, the god of wine.  Well, you’re supposed to be the opposite.”  So he writes, Ephesians 5:18, “Don’t be drunk with wine.  Why would you think that somehow using intoxicating beverages is gonna somehow give you what you need?  But be full of God, be filled with the Spirit.  Cultivate,” imperative command, present tense action, passive voice.  “You cultivate in your own heart and mind, thinking, life a passionate crush or love for God.  And the result will be obvious.  There’ll be a song in your heart which will edify those around you while you are melodiously communing with God.  There’ll be a new attitude of gratitude in your lifestyle.  And there’ll be a new yielded submissiveness in your spirit.  And your worship will be marked by loving one another, edifying one another, singing the new songs of Zion, being thankful toward one another, having a yielded submissiveness toward each other, not the wild, ecstatic dancing, revelries and immoralities of the pagans of this world.”  And you know, it’s about like that still today, isn’t it?  Follow the pagans in what they call fulfillment and entertainment and joy.  It looks kind of like the old pagan worship of Dionysus.  And that’s not what we are. 

Let’s stand together in prayer…