{"id":6507,"date":"2022-09-09T17:49:24","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T22:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/?p=6507"},"modified":"2022-09-09T17:54:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T22:54:10","slug":"the-holy-spirit-the-psalms-and-your-our-sanctification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/09\/the-holy-spirit-the-psalms-and-your-our-sanctification\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Holy Spirit, The Psalms and Your (Our) Sanctification\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0 Ephesians 5:15-21 <\/strong><\/p>\n

(Ephesians 4:17-6:9)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The purpose of this paper is to show the relationship between the Holy Spirit, the Psalms, and your (our) sanctification.\u00a0 I say \u201cyour (our)\u201d\u00a0 because I will show that sanctification is a process involving both individual effort and corporate effort.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0In Colossians 2:23 Paul, after discussing various religious practices that the Colossians had introduced into their worship and lives says this:<\/p>\n

23<\/sup> These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false <\/em>humility, and neglect of the body, but are <\/em>of no value against the indulgence of the flesh (Col. 2:23 NKJ)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The church in general in our culture today is losing the battle against the flesh.\u00a0 We fill sermons, worship services, and books with \u201cwise\u201d ideas about how to battle the flesh.\u00a0 Paul in Ephesians 5:15-21 gives us true wisdom about our sanctification. The Holy Spirit alone can bring true sanctification.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit fills the believer who sings the Psalms with fellow believers. Let us take a close look at how Paul makes this argument.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0As background to this passage, I want to set a broader Biblical context.\u00a0 Consider the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20:<\/p>\n

18<\/sup> “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19<\/sup> Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20<\/sup> teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even <\/em>to the end of the age.\u00a0 Amen.'” (Matt. 28:18-20 NKJ)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0We call this passage \u201cThe Great Commission.\u201d\u00a0 The main verb is the command \u201cmake disciples of the nations.\u201d\u00a0 This is the primary purpose of the church.\u00a0 This discipleship process includes three steps.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The first step is the command \u201cgo.\u201d In the original Greek \u201cgo\u201d is not a command.\u00a0 It is a participle that literally means \u201cgoing\u201d or \u201cin your going.\u201d\u00a0 Going is assumed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The first step in making a disciple is to go to someone who is not a disciple of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 We must take the gospel to people who are not Christians.\u00a0 We call this step evangelism.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The second is \u201cbaptizing.\u201d This step answers the question, \u201cWhat do we do when someone accepts the gospel and wants to become a disciple of Jesus Christ?”\u00a0 We baptize them.\u00a0 Notice that the church baptizes the new disciple not only in the name of the Father and the Son but also in the name of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit plays a vital part in this. While evangelism may involve years of faithful witness, conversion and baptism are a relatively short process.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The third step in this commission is \u201cteaching them to observe all that I have commanded you\u201d which refers to the on-going mission of the church.\u00a0 Note that the command \u201cmake disciples\u201d is preceded by one participle (\u201cgoing\u201d) and followed by two participles (\u201cbaptizing\u201d and \u201cteaching\u201d).[1]<\/span><\/a>All three of these participles function as adverbs modifying the command \u201cmake disciples.\u201d\u00a0 There are three components to how the church is to make disciples:\u00a0 going, baptizing, and teaching.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/span><\/a> A participle is a verb ending in \u201c-ing.\u201d\u00a0 Participles can be nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0This commission is not complete until a disciple keeps \u201call\u201d Christ\u2019s commandments.\u00a0 He lives a life that mirrors the life of Christ.\u00a0 This is not some form of perfectionism, but it is a dramatic breaking with the past in such a way that when one looks at the Christian and one looks at Christ one concludes, that the Christian is worthy of Christ. Paul talks about this idea in Colossians 1:28 where he says that he preaches Christ \u201cwarning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The challenge in \u201cteaching them to keep\u201d Christ\u2019s commands is that the battle with sin in our lives is a ferocious one.\u00a0 To get a sense of that, think briefly and carefully about Mark 7 and Romans 7.\u00a0 Mark 7 says that my problems are not drugs, alcohol, pornography, my wife, my children or anything outside of me.\u00a0 My problem is me.\u00a0 Jesus said:<\/p>\n

18<\/sup> “So He said to them, ‘Are you thus without understanding also?\u00a0 \u00a0Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him,\u00a0 19<\/sup> because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus <\/em>purifying all foods?’ 20<\/sup>And He said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.\u00a0 21<\/sup>For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22<\/sup>thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23<\/sup>All these evil things come from within and defile a man.'” (Mar 7:18-23 NKJ)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0In Romans 7 one phrase stands out to me: \u201cthat sin might become utterly sinful.\u201d 12<\/sup> “Therefore the law is <\/em>holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. 13<\/sup>Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.” (Rom 7:12-13 NKJ)<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Our human nature recoils at that.\u00a0 We struggle with the sin that comes out of our heart: our tongue, our thoughts, our habits, drugs, alcohol, pornography, homosexuality, fornication, envy, etc.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0How is a Christian to survive?\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 answer is that he is to be discipled.\u00a0 In response the church has many programs for making disciples.\u00a0 These include things like taking up the means of grace through church attendance, memorizing Scripture, Bible reading, Bible study, small groups, individual discipleship.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0While these are all very good things, one element that brings all of these together is missing.\u00a0 This element was at the heart of Paul\u2019s discipleship program as laid out in Ephesians.\u00a0 This element is the continual filling of the Holy Spirit through psalm singing. Luther said that the Psalms are a \u201clittle Bible.\u201d\u00a0 He said that God brings together all the things He wants us to know in the Psalms.\u00a0 Calvin said that the Psalms are an anatomy of the soul.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a quick overview of Ephesians<\/span> to see how Paul lays this out.<\/p>\n

Background:<\/p>\n

Ephesians 1 – 3\u00a0 The indicative<\/strong> \u2013 what God has done for us in Christ\u00a0 — our position<\/p>\n

Ephesians 4 – 6\u00a0 The imperative<\/strong> \u2013 what God asks of us in light of the indicative \u2013 our walk.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Note carefully that in 1:3 that Paul addresses the \u201csaints,\u201d plural.\u00a0 In this book Paul\u2019s priority is the corporate not the individual. This book is not about how you, individually, can be a better Christian, but Ephesians tells us how we as individuals can grow up together as a body of believers into one new man, one holy temple in Christ because we have one Lord, one faith, one God and Father of us all (4:1ff).<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0In breaking down chapters 1-3, note that chapter one ends in a prayer and chapter three ends in a prayer.\u00a0 Both these prayers are very similar.\u00a0 But there are differences.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Chapter one gives a broad overview of God\u2019s plan from eternity past to choose a people for Himself.\u00a0 Chapters two and three deal with the same subject matter but with a different emphasis, This reminds me of Genesis one and two.\u00a0\u00a0 Genesis one gives a broad overview of the seven days of creation.\u00a0 Genesis two goes back and fills in certain important details.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Ephesians one gives us the broad overview of God\u2019s eternal plan.\u00a0 He purposed according to His own will before the foundation of the world to have a people for Himself who would be holy and blameless before Him.\u00a0 We have redemption and an inheritance in Christ.\u00a0 He has given us \u201cthe Holy Spirit of promise\u201d (1:13) as a seal or guaranteed of our salvation until the \u201credemption of the purchased possession\u201d (1:14).\u00a0 All of this He did for the \u201cpraise of His glory\u201d which he mentions three times: 1:6; 1:12; 1:14. Paul concludes Ephesians one with a prayer that the Ephesian Christians would grasp the magnitude of God\u2019s work from eternity past to eternity future in saving them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Ephesians two and three then go back over this big picture and fill in the details.\u00a0 God overcame three problems.\u00a0 First, in 2:1-10, we were spiritually dead.\u00a0 So He made us alive in Christ.\u00a0 \u201cFor we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them\u201d (2:10).<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Second, the gentiles were socially separated.\u00a0 God in Christ breaks down the social barriers that separated Jew and Gentile (2:11-17).\u00a0 The Gospel overcomes the sinful prejudices that keep people apart.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Third, in 3:1-13, the mystery of God\u2019s plan to make one new man was hidden, but God is now using Paul and the church to make known this plan\u00a0 \u201cto the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord\u201d (3:10-11).<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 Paul then concludes chapter three with a prayer that is very similar to the prayer that closes chapter one.\u00a0 His prayer is that the church, corporately and thus individually, would see and understand God\u2019s great design and purposes both in its larger scope (chapter one) and in the details (chapters two and three). Paul\u2019s desire is that they would be able to comprehend this work of God and be \u201cfilled with all the fullness of God.\u201d Note here that Paul\u2019s use of \u201cfilled\u201d here is the same Greek word he will use again in 5:18 when he exhorts them to be filled with the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0In the first three chapters, Paul\u2019s purposes are eschatological.\u00a0 He wants us to understand the eternal purposes of God in His church.\u00a0 But notice where he goes in 4:1-6, \u00a0“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.\u00a0 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Eph 4:1-6 NKJ)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0In chapters four to six he wants us to walk worthy of our calling in Christ — to live and work out the details of our life in the church in light of the eternal purposes of God which began in eternity past and will conclude in eternity future.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Paul lays the groundwork for that kind of worthy walk in 4:7-16 “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8<\/sup> Therefore He says: ‘When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.’ 9<\/sup> (Now this, ‘He ascended ‘– what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10<\/sup>He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)11<\/sup>And He Himself gave some to be <\/em>apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12<\/sup>for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13<\/sup>till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14<\/sup>that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15<\/sup>but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head– Christ– 16<\/sup>from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” (Eph. 4:7-16 NKJ)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Keep in mind several things from 4:1-16:<\/p>\n