Ephesians 5:19

Be Filled with the Spirit, Part 3

Ephesians 5:19

1941

December 17, 1978

Ephesians 5:18–21 – John MacArthur Sermon Summary (NASB) Focus: The Ministry of Spirit-Filled Music Series Context: Consequences of Being Filled with the Spirit

INTRODUCTION — Why the Holy Spirit Matters

In Jesus’ final night with His disciples recorded for us in John 13, 14, 15, and 16, He promised to them many things – many wonderful, incomparable, somewhat incredible things.  But the key to all of them was the same one thing, and it was the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Every promise Jesus ever gave in that last night before His betrayal and crucifixion, every promise Jesus ever gave that night found its fulfillment, in some sense, in the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Now, we all know that God is one God:  “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,” says the Shema of the Old Testament.  But we also are well aware that that one Lord, that one God, is in three distinct persons, and that’s the mystery of the triune God.  That God is one and yet God is individually God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  And God often makes promises through Christ which are confirmed to us by the Holy Spirit.  It is really God in His third person making good His original promises.  And so the Spirit of God is none other than God Himself in the third person.  And it is the coming of the Holy Spirit into the life of the Christian that makes real all the promises of Jesus Christ.  Look with me for a moment at the 14th chapter of John, and this will help us to get a setting for our thoughts. 

In John chapter 14, particularly in this 14th chapter, maybe more so than in the 13th, the 15th, or even the 16th, our Lord promises them a great group of important things.  Jesus is about to leave His disciples, and He does not want to leave them fearful.  Several times He says, “Stop letting your heart be troubled,” because they were very fearful about His leaving.  And so to compensate for the vacuum and the absence that they were going to feel, He grants to them these amazing promises, all of which become fulfilled in the Holy Spirit’s coming in some way or another.  Look at verse 16, for example, and there you have the heart of the matter.  “The Spirit of truth,” He says, “whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.” 

Now, there is one of the great dispensational statements of the Bible, there is one of the great statements about God’s design for the New Testament era.  The Holy Spirit has been with you, shall be in you.  This is the promise that in the new covenant age, in the new era, after the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God would not be just with His people, that is alongside them, but He would be in them.  That, then, becomes the thing which makes possible all the other promises.  If the Spirit of God does not take up residence, then all of the things that Jesus is promising cannot come to their full fruition. 

Now, that’s a wonderful promise.  But if you’re like I am, you like promises that have guarantees, right?  If somebody makes a promise, you say, “It’s fine, I appreciate your promise, have you got any way that you can provide some collateral for that?  Can you verify that?”  And God knows that He needs to verify His promise, so in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it tells us – you don’t need to look it up – it also tells us in Ephesians 1.  He says, “He has given unto us the arrabn of the Spirit.”  It’s called the earnest of the Spirit in the Old English.  The word “arrabn” means guarantee, first installment, down payment, or engagement ring.  In other words, Christ is saying here, “I am going to take you to heaven to be with me to inherit My kingdom.  As the first installment or as the down payment, the guarantee, or the security, the engagement ring to prove I’m serious about the marriage, I’m going to give you the Holy Spirit.”  So you see, the Holy Spirit then becomes the guarantor of this promise of a heavenly inheritance.  If there was no Holy Spirit in us, we would not have the security to know that Christ would fulfill His promise. 

Later on in this chapter, look at verse 12, and here our Lord makes another magnanimous and amazing promise.  He says, “Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto My Father.”  Now, Jesus here is saying, “You will do greater works,” not greater in kind because you couldn’t do any greater in kind, but greater in extent, greater in breadth than even He did.  He was confined to a very localized area.  He is saying, “Because I go to the Father, you’ll do greater things.”  How could that be possible – and especially in His absence?  The answer is in Acts 1:8 where our Lord says, “You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”  “And you shall be witnesses unto Me” – mou martures – My martyrs – watch – “in Jerusalem, Judea, and the uttermost part of the earth.”  There is the fulfillment.  Jesus did it in Jerusalem, Jesus did it in Judea, but you will do it in the uttermost part of the earth, places where Jesus never went, and you will be able to do it because of the Holy Spirit.  So the very fulfillment here is dependent on the Spirit of God in us, else we cannot be witnesses to the uttermost part of the earth.  We will not have the security and the guarantee of our inheritance in His kingdom unless we have the security and the guarantee of the presence of the Spirit of God. 

Then thirdly, He says in verses 13 and 14, “I want to give you another promise.”  It is this:  “Whatever you shall ask in My name, that will I do.”  Now, that’s an incredible promise.  He repeats it in verse 14.  “If you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.”  In other words, He’s saying, “I’m going to give you a resource, that resource is called prayer.  You ask in My name, and I will do it.”  But you know something?  That’s hard to do.  Very hard to do.  You know why?  Because Romans 8 says we know not what to pray for as we ought.  We don’t know how to pray.  But the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which are unutterable and He knows the mind of the Father.  In other words, that verse wouldn’t be fully fulfilled if it were not for the indwelling Spirit’s continuous intercessory work before the throne of God.  The fact, then, that we are secure in a heavenly inheritance, the fact that we will do greater things than our Lord, the fact that we can ask and receive is dependent upon the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. 

Further, you will note that He says in verse 18:  “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.  Yet a little while and the world sees Me no more but you see Me.”  Now, how is that going to happen?  You’re going to go away?  And the world isn’t going to see You anymore?  What do You mean You’re going to come to us?  Verse 20:  “At that day you shall know that I am in My Father and ye in Me and I” – where? – “in you.”  At what day did they know that God was in them?  At what day did the people of God know that God had come to live within them?  The Day of Pentecost.  The Spirit of God descended and dwells in them.  And that is exactly what He’s saying.  Jesus says, “I am going to go away, but I’m going to come back, and in that day you will know that I am in you.”  The fulfillment of that is the coming of the Holy Spirit.  That is the guarantee that God lives in me. 

Look at verse 27:  “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  Now, wait a minute.  Jesus promised peace.  And, by the way, look at chapter 15 verse 11:  “These things have I spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you.”  Jesus said, “I want you to have My peace,” chapter 14.  “I want you to have My joy,” chapter 15.  And He said, “I want you to have My love” in chapter 13.  Remember that?  Love, joy, peace.  “Well,” you say, “that’s a wonderful promise but where do we get it?”  Galatians 5:22:  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.”  You see? 

MacArthur begins by returning to the heart of the Christian life:

Ephesians 5:18 — “Be filled with the Spirit.”

Everything Christ promised becomes realized through the Spirit’s indwelling presence. Without Him, Christian living becomes human effort — powerless, frustrating, and fruitless.

Jesus’ final teachings in John 13–16 contain incredible promises:

Heaven (John 14:2–3)

Power for greater ministry (John 14:12)

Answered prayer (John 14:13–14)

Love, joy, peace (John 13:34; 15:11; 14:27)

Christ’s presence within (John 14:18–23)

But every one of those promises is only fulfilled through the Holy Spirit:

John 14:17 — “He dwells with you and will be in you.”

Ephesians 1:13–14 — The Spirit is the arrabōn (down payment, engagement ring) of our inheritance.

But here’s the key:  All of this is yours by the indwelling Spirit, but it is only appropriated in your life, it is only functional in your life, when you are filled with the Spirit.  You understand?  You can possess the Spirit of God as all Christians do, you can be indwelt by the Spirit of God, you can have all of the potential for all of these fulfillments to the promises of Christ, but unless you are filled or controlled by the Spirit of God, unless you are guided by the Spirit of God, you will never know what it means to possess these tremendous promises.  Promises unfulfilled are the equivalent of promises unmade or unkept.  God has given you Christ and in Christ great and precious promises, Peter calls them.  And they are yours, you possess them, but you will never realize them, you will never know what it is to have security for life and death, you will never know what it is to see things in your life beyond what you could dream possible, you will never know what it is to have prayers answered constantly, you will never know what it is to have the sense of God alive in you, you will never know what it is to have love, joy, and peace unless you know what it is to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.  Even though you possess it, it won’t be active in your life.  And that’s essentially what Paul is saying. 

MacArthur’s reminder:

You may possess all spiritual resources… but you only experience them when the Spirit controls you.

Thus:

Contrast — Not drunk with wine → but filled with the Spirit

Command — “Be being kept filled”

Consequences — singing, thanksgiving, submitting, & service

All relationships restored: self, God, believers, unbelievers

CONSEQUENCE #1 — Spirit-Filled Singing (Review + Expansion)

You know, in Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan has written a masterful picture of the Christian life, and as he goes through following Pilgrim’s walk, he says that all along the way, Pilgrim gets off the way, doesn’t he?  He falls into the Slough of Despond and then he gets off and goes into Doubting Castle and then he gets off on the wrong road and somebody leads him into Vanity Fair and he has all of these problems and he keeps falling off the path and off the way and then he comes back on the way all the time and finally gets back on the way and finally gets back and finally crosses the river and ascends the hill and enters the Celestial City.  John Bunyan never ever mentions the filling of the Spirit.  In the entire Pilgrim’s Progress, he never talks about the filling of the Spirit.  But about 50 times, you know what he says?  Pilgrim got back on the way and went on his way what?  Singing.  That’s John Bunyan’s way of saying the same thing.  He went on his way singing.  Why?  Because the singing is the expression of what God is doing in the heart. 

A Spirit-controlled believer sings because joy is inside. Circumstances do not determine the song — the Spirit does.

Examples:

Paul & Silas in stocks — singing at midnight

Pastor returning from Israel — singing in the shower

Bunyan’s Pilgrim — “went on his way singing”

Singing is evidence of:

Peace with God

Joy in Christ

A clean conscience

The Spirit’s active presence

KEY QUESTION 1 — Among Whom Do We Sing?

Now, we’ve asked several questions.  Let’s look at them again.  First little question is:  Among whom do we sing?  Among whom do we sing?  Simply says in verse 19:  “Speaking among yourselves.”  We sing among ourselves.  It’s our songs.  And I realize that people have insisted on the use of music as an evangelistic tool.  I’ve spoken in different places and certain music groups are there and they’ll perform a certain kind of music and I’ll say, “You know, why do you do that kind of music?”  “Well,” they’ll say, “you know, if you’re going to reach the world for Christ through music, you got to do the kind of music the world is listening to.”  And my question is always the same:  “Well, where in the Bible does it say you’re supposed to reach the world through music?”  And no one ever thinks of it.  And they’ll invariably say, “I don’t know.”  You want to know something?  No place in the Bible does it ever say sing the gospel of Christ; says preach it. 

The gospel is to be preached as the power of God unto salvation.  And I’m sure that God wanted to be sure, because of the power of music to act upon the emotions, that we not confuse the issue in the presentation of the gospel by playing to the emotions rather than to the decision-making faculties.  And so I think it’s very important that the Bible says the church uses music to address itself, to speak among itself.  That’s where the music is to be. 

“Speaking among yourselves…” — Eph 5:19

Christian music is for the church

It is not a substitute for evangelism

The Gospel must be preached, not performed

MacArthur warns:

Music stirs emotions — unbelievers may respond emotionally without conversion

The church must not mimic the world’s music just to gain attention

Christian music is distinct because the redeemed are its true audience

Unbelievers may listen — but they cannot understand the heart behind it.

KEY QUESTION 2 — From Where Does It Originate?

Secondly:  From where does it originate?  Where is our music to come from?  Verse 19 says – it says at the end of the verse, “in your heart” and literally means from your heart, from out of an internal source.  The point of origination is the heart, and last week I told you that in Amos chapter 5, the prophet Amos, as the voice of God, said to the people of God, “Stop singing because your hearts are not right.  I do not want to hear your songs.”  And in the 6th chapter he says, “You people are acting foolishly, you lie upon your couches of ivory, you lie upon your fancy beds, you drink your wine out of bowls because cups are too small, you are drunken, you are indulgent, you are covered with sweet-smelling ointment, you’ve got jewelry hanging over you, and you’re playing all these songs and you’re chanting all this music and you’re inventing new and sophisticated instruments and I don’t want to hear any of it,” he says.  “Stop it all.”

And then in chapter 8, he says in verse 3, “Your singing shall turn to wailing when I’m through with you.”  In other words, music in and of itself is not the issue; it is the heart of the one singing that is the issue.  That’s the issue before God.  And you can sing the most beautiful song in the world, you can sing the most God-glorifying words in the world, but if your heart is not right before God, whether you are singing it up here or singing it there or singing it at your house, that is the issue with God.  If your heart isn’t right, the song doesn’t please Him, no matter how well you sing it.  On the other hand, no matter how lousy you are, no matter how bad you are at keeping the tune, if your heart is right the song, is sweet music to the ears of God.  It’s the heart that is the issue.

And he tells here how Babylon in chapter 18 is going to be wiped out at the end of the tribulation.  And when it’s wiped out, then Christ will return and set up His kingdom.  And one of the things that’s going to take place is this:  Verse 21, it says, “An angel takes like a stone, like a great millstone, casts it into the sea and says, ‘With that kind of violence shall the great city Babylon be thrown down.’”  And when the whole system goes, look what goes first.  Verse 22:  “And the voice of harpers and minstrels and flute players and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee.”  That is the end of the world’s music.  That’s the end of it.  It’s over.  God says, “That is enough, it is gone.”  All non-spirit-filled music will halt immediately.  You know, it’s almost as if God has given music to mankind.  It’s a wonderful blessing, but man has corrupted that gift of God like he corrupts every other gift of God and so the day is coming when God will remove it. 

“…in your heart…” — Eph 5:19

God focuses on the heart, not the sound:

Amos 5 — God rejects Israel’s worship because their hearts were corrupt

Psalm 137 — Israel refused to sing sacred songs in a pagan land

Motive matters more than musical excellence

MacArthur’s bold warning:

“God is not interested in songs from a heart that is not right.”

Conversely:

Even off-key, “broken-voice” praise

Is sweet worship

When the heart is Spirit-filled

Only the redeemed have an eternal song:

Revelation 18 — world’s music will cease forever

Hell will contain no music

Heaven will be filled with the song of the redeemed

KEY QUESTION 3 — To Whom Do We Sing?

Thirdly:  To whom is our song sung?  Well, that’s clear, isn’t it?  Chapter 5 verse 19, the end of the verse, it says, “to the Lord.”  We sing to the Lord and that’s why I said this morning, you know, it isn’t necessary to clap or applaud, and I appreciate that, it’s all right.  I don’t want to make you feel bad for being thankful, if that’s what is in your heart, but you don’t have to express your thanks in that way because we’re really offering it to the Lord.  If anybody should clap, it should be the Lord.  And last night He was clapping a lot as the thunder was cracking in places, but I don’t think that had anything to do with what we’re talking about.  I don’t think the Lord responds in that manner. 

And in 2 Chronicles chapter 5 and verse 12, the Levites, who were the singers, all gathered around for the dedication of the temple and they got there and they were arrayed with white linen.  They had cymbals and psalteries and harps, and there were 120 priests playing the trumpet.  Can you imagine a 4,000-voice choir with 120 trumpets?  Man, what a tremendous experience.  “And it came to pass as the trumpeters and the singers were as one” – what way were they one? – “to make one sound.”  They were one in that they all played the same tune, the same way, and saying the same. 

And in Revelation, when you hear the great choir sing in the future, they sing unto the Lord, “Worthy is the Lamb, praise to God.”  All music was offered to God.  Johann Sebastian Bach, really the father in many sense of modern music, said this centuries ago:  “The aim of all music is the glory of God.”  End quote, he’s right.  And so when we sing, we must keep in mind that it’s a gift of praise to the Lord.  That means that the words that we sing, whatever words of whatever song, should be biblical, right?  They should rightly reflect God’s thoughts and God’s attitudes and God’s revelation.  And there’s a lot of music that just misses it altogether.  It’s theological mish-mash.  It’s doctrinally wrong.  Our words need to be right.  Not only that, but the tune should be honoring, the vehicle, the method with which we sing.  I think sometimes songs are offered to God in a vernacular that is so much of the world that God wouldn’t particularly want to be identified with that style because of what it connotes in the system we live in.  There ought to be a beauty and a distinctiveness and a set-apartness so that it’s clear that this is offered to God. 

“…to the Lord.” — Eph 5:19

Music is:

Praise — not performance

Doxology — not entertainment

God-focused — not audience-focused

Biblical model: 2 Chronicles 5 — unified praise → God’s glory filled the temple Revelation 5 — “Worthy is the Lamb!”

MacArthur’s reminder:

Words must be theologically accurate

Music style should reflect holiness and reverence

Excellence is good — but heart devotion is essential

Residual blessings:

Music heals

Music comforts

Music strengthens faith

Illustration — 1 Samuel 16:23:

David plays → Saul is refreshed mentally, strengthened physically, and relieved spiritually

KEY QUESTION 4 — With What Do We Sing?

The point is this:  any sound offered to the Lord from a Spirit-filled heart in the right context, you see.  Could be a guitar, could be a violin, could even be a drum, could be a harp, could be a horn, could be a clarinet, a flute, a reed instrument, could be all these things.  And tonight when you come, there’ll be 45 or 50 of them up here, all playing all these things and all speaking among ourselves unto the Lord.  All the sounds.  Have you ever thought how God has invented all these incredible sounds?  What would it be, a world without music?  What would it be?  I mean can you imagine if we couldn’t sing, if the human voice was exactly like this and it went like this all the time and we talked like R2D2, or whatever that thing is, and we just talked like a computer-talk all the time.  It’s so impersonal and nobody would bother to hear us for more than ten minutes or their ears would be ringing.  But God has made us able to go up and down and all over the scale to keep people’s interest in that way, see. 

“Speaking…” — a Greek word meaning any sound

God accepts:

Voice

Instrument

Whistling

Humming

Children chirping rhymes in their bedroom

Why?

“Make a joyful noise to the LORD.” — Ps 100:1

Two Broad Means

1️⃣ Singing — vocal worship 2️⃣ Making melody — instrumental worship (Gk. psallō — “to pluck strings” → musical instruments encouraged)

Instruments are:

Used at the Rapture (trumpet)

Throughout Revelation

Blessed tools for worship, not entertainment

If your heart is right… God loves your music

KEY QUESTION 5 — How Is Our Music Scripturally Framed?

Paul gives three categories:

1️⃣ Psalms

Usually OT Psalms

Songs glorifying God’s nature and works

The church should sing them more often

2️⃣ Hymns

Focus on the redemptive work of Christ

Early church examples in Colossians 1 and Philippians 2

3️⃣ Spiritual Songs

Personal testimonies of God’s grace

Songs like “I’d Rather Have Jesus”

Three domains of truth:

God’s character

Christ’s work

Our response

All three together express full-orbed worship.

THE MOST ASTONISHING TRUTH — CHRIST SINGS THROUGH US

And I want to close with this thought:  As we sing the real music out of really Spirit-filled hearts, you know what we’re doing?  And this is incredible.  Look with me at Hebrews 2:12, just this one word and we’re done.  Hebrews 2:12 says this – and this is Jesus talking, this is Jesus talking to the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to the Father – listen to what He said – absolutely incredible – He says, “I” – He’s talking to the Father now – “I will declare thy name unto my brethren” – and there He refers to the church, the believers – “in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.”  Do you know who the greatest solo singer in the universe is?  Who is it?  Jesus.  And you know what just knocks me over – I can’t believe it – He says, “In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee.”  The point is this:  When my heart is filled with the Spirit and I am singing with a Spirit-filled heart, Jesus says, “It will really be Me singing My praise to the Father through you.”  That tremendous? 

You know, that’s just another way that God has chosen to use us as channels for Christ to do His work.  I know Christ loves the Father and I know Christ would sing the Father’s praises from the beginning of eternity throughout eternity.  I know Christ would praise the Father at all times, and here He says, “And Father, I will sing that praise through Your people.”  And so as my heart is filled with the Spirit, as the joy of the Spirit wells up within me and I offer my songs of praise and thanks to God, as I sing out of the joy of my heart, it is Jesus Christ, the living reality of Christ, singing through me.  What a thought.  What a thought.  And what a responsibility.  For when I quench the Spirit, I quench the song of Christ to the Father in my life. 

MacArthur closes with Hebrews 2:12:

“In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.”

When we sing from a Spirit-filled heart:

Jesus Himself is singing through us to the Father.

This is holy, breathtaking privilege.

MacArthur’s final thought:

If we quench the Spirit… we silence the song of Christ in our lives.

APPLICATION POINTS

Examine your heart before you sing Is the worship sincere and Spirit-driven?

Keep music distinct from the world Worship must be holy, set apart.

Sing daily as an act of obedience Spirit-filled hearts cannot remain silent.

Reject performance mentality Audience = God, not the congregation.

Use music as ministry To comfort, strengthen, encourage.

Remember your privilege Christ sings through you — don’t hinder Him.

MEMORY VERSES

“Be filled with the Spirit…” — Ephesians 5:18 “Singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord…” — Ephesians 5:19 “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” — Galatians 5:22

CROSS-REFERENCES

John 14–16 — Promises fulfilled by the Spirit

Colossians 3:16 — Word-filled life produces the same results

Psalm 40:1–3 — God puts a “new song” in our mouths

Revelation 5 & 14 — Worship of the Lamb

1 Samuel 16:23 — Music’s healing ministry

2 Chronicles 5 — God glorified through unified worship

TEACHING OUTLINE

(For preaching or small groups)

Read Ephesians 5:18–21

The Spirit as fulfillment of Christ’s promises

Spirit-filled living — contrast, command, consequences

Consequence #1 — singing

Among ourselves

From the heart

To the Lord

With voice and instruments

Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs

Music offered to God blesses His people

Christ sings praise through His church

Call to Spirit-filled worship

DISCUSSION GUIDE

How does this sermon clarify the purpose of music in the church?

What dangers arise when worship music becomes entertainment?

In what ways have you personally experienced the healing effects of Spirit-filled music?

Why is the heart more important than musical skill?

What does it mean that Jesus sings through us (Heb 2:12)?

How can we guard against musical worldliness while still being excellent?

What might change in your worship if you remembered God is the audience?

SUMMARY

Spirit-filled believers sing:

To the church

From the heart

To the Lord

With voice and instrument

With truth about God, Christ, and grace

Worship becomes the place where Christ Himself sings praise to the Father through His church.

What a gift. What a responsibility. What a song.

Reference

John MacArthur. https://www.gty.org/sermons/1941/be-filled-with-the-spirit-part-3