“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”
Folks, we’ve been lied to.
I don’t know who started it. I don’t even know how the lie was first presented; whether in words, or attitudes; implications; body language; I don’t know.
But it was a lie, nonetheless, and we as a Christian culture have suffered for believing it.
The lie? That we’re supposed to be serious and reserved, and that to demonstrate proper Christian behavior we’re to go about acting like pious, God-fearing, clean-cut pillars of the church. Shy and meek (by the world’s definition), always grieving just a little bit and always just a little bit concerned for… whatever…
That must be the message, because I see a lot of Christians acting that way. Someone must have told them they should.
I wonder where Paul was on the day of Pentecost. He wasn’t a Christian yet. But where was he? Maybe right there in the crowd as Peter preached? Seething in rage because of the blasphemies he was hearing? Maybe even one of the ones who shouted, ‘they’re drunk!’
Surely, even if he wasn’t present, he must have heard of it by day’s end. This was 9am, and 3000 people believed in Jesus that day. He must have heard something of the nature of the incident.
The sound of a mighty, rushing wind; a large group of people coming down out of that upper chamber babbling; their countenance aglow with an overwhelming joy.
I wonder if someone said to him, “Saul, you should have seen them! We thought they were all drunk with wine. They were laughing and waving their hands and hugging each other.
Then they started speaking to the crowd, and though there were many languages and cultures represented in the crowd, each one was hearing them speak in his own tongue.”
And Paul prods him for more. “What were they saying?”
“Um… Saul, you don’t want to know… you‘re not gonna like it.”
Well of course I don’t know and no one does. But for whatever reason, he uses drunkenness as a parallel of sorts with the spiritual joy of the Christian.
I don’t think he was just snatching the opportunity to condemn wine drinking. I think he was saying there’s a greater ‘high’ to be had for the one who is Spirit-filled.
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
Now we just got done talking about this; focused an entire sermon on it; so I won’t go into it a lot here, except to maybe give you a little refresher.
You may remember that I said Dr. Lloyd-Jones likens this kind of ‘filling’ to people around us who may have a strong influence in our lives, and we might use a term like, “Full of so and so”, meaning a person is so constantly thinking about another that he or she is ‘full’ of that person. One has a controlling influence over the other.
So note that he says, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit”.
Being filled up with wine may make you temporarily happy, if you’re a happy drunk, but it is a dissipated sort of happiness. And like I said, a temporary one.
By contrast, he says, be filled with the Spirit. You’re a Christian. You have the life of Christ in you. You have the Holy Spirit in you. But there’s more.
There is a daily surrender to the Spirit of Christ, and through the Word and prayer being filled to overflowing with His controlling influence.
During the pagan practices of worship to Artemis there was a great deal of wine guzzling and drunkenness.
The Ephesians, many of whom had been so recently caught up in that life of debauchery, must have had some very vivid memories pop into their heads when they heard or read these words of Paul.
Remember the last time you were reeling with wine and falling down drunk during your time in the pagan temple? Well put that away from yourself, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Drink Him in. Be made blessed in His presence and invite Him to control your thoughts and your actions and the use of your members. There is no dissipation here; only joy.
SPEAKING TO ONE ANOTHER
Now Paul turns once again to the relationship between believers. In chapter 4 he exhorts us to be diligent in preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He has admonished us to relate to one another in humility and gentleness, patience and love. In verse 25 of that chapter he says to speak truth to one another, as we are members of one another.
Then he ends the chapter telling us to be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving with Christ’s kind of forgiveness; complete and unconditionally.
He returns to that theme now, but take note that he does so only after admonishing us to be filled with the Spirit. It is only as we are freshly filled, by our deliberate seeking of Him and His profound presence with us as we go, that we can possibly relate to one another in the way he is about to suggest.
“…speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…”
Now I have to admit; this put some pretty funny pictures in my head initially.
I pictured our congregation, in a scene sort of like one out of “Oklahoma” or “Singing In The Rain” or some other musical of the ‘40’s. Dancing around in big swinging circles, doing cartwheels, getting inches from each other’s face and singing stuff like, “Getting to Know You” or “On the Street Where You Live”.
Only they’d have to be more spiritual, because they’re supposed to be from the Psalms and other spiritual songs.
So we’d be singing things like,
“The law of the Lord is perfect,
Restoring the soul:
The testimony of the Lord is sure,
Making wise the simple…”
Somehow I don’t think that’s exactly what Paul had in mind.
Remember that he said ‘speaking’. He didn’t say, “Singing to one another” So I’d have to conclude that he intended for us to both admonish and encourage one another with scriptural truth; especially the truths found in Davidic psalms and songs written for worship.
Why those? Because more than the non-poetical books, they tell of God’s greatness and His attributes. His love for us and His provision and His desire for our fellowship. They tell of His saving power and His delight in those who delight in Him.
They are words of joy!
My fellow believers, of all the people in the world, the ones most contented, the most satisfied, the most glowingly joyful, the most likely to burst into spontaneous laughter, should be Christians!
My favorite film version of Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”, was the 1951 movie starring Alistair Sim. At the end of the story, after he has awakened and realized that all his visitations came in one night, and he is a transformed man, he dances and celebrates, and gets pretty giddy; frightening his housekeeper and sending a plump Christmas goose to the home of Bob Cratchet.
The next morning, December 26th, he sits in his office waiting for his clerk to show up. Crachet is only moments late, but Ebenezer starts to give him a hard time about it. Then, unable to keep up the façade, he apologizes to Bob for the way he has treated him, gives him a raise, and tells him to go out and buy a bigger coal bucket for the office stove.
After an amazed Bob Cratchet scurries out the door, Scrooge begins to laugh uncontrollably. In the middle of it he gets his composure for just a second and says with a frown, “I have no right to be so happy”
Then the laughter breaks forth again, and tossing his quill pen over his shoulder behind him, he says, “But I can’t help it. I just can’t help it”.
Christians, you were miserable and destitute and helpless. You were vile and wasted and unable even to care.
But God cared, and He did something about it. He condescended to you by becoming identified with you in flesh. He loved you enough to suffer; and God should never have had to suffer.
Like the song says, He brought you up out of the miry clay and set you on solid ground with Him. He breathed life into you and cleansed you and redressed you in His own righteousness, and promised you that not only will you never taste of death, but you will spend all of eternity in His place of perfect bliss.
No one in the world can come anywhere near having what you have until they too believe what you have believed and receive what you have been given.
You may occasionally pause for a sober moment and remind yourself that you didn’t deserve all of that, and that you don’t deserve to be so happy; but those moments should be very brief, as you remember whose you are and what He has done for you, and at that thought your joy should bubble over the cup once again.
You have reason to sing, Christian. You have good cause to sing light-hearted, joyful praises as you rise in the morning, as you go your way, as you pause to worship, before you retire at night.
And Paul says that not only should we speak these joyful truths to one another, but we should also sing.
SINGING
Martin Luther said, "The devil takes flight at the sound of music, just as he does at the words of theology, and for this reason the prophets always combined theology and music, the teaching of truth and the chanting of Psalms and hymns."
I’m sure you’d agree, that if Martin had heard some of today’s music he might have chosen his words more carefully, and said something like, ‘the devil flees from music that praises God and extols His Christ’.
But he makes a good point. The music of the Psalms and the hymns of the church are very powerful spiritually; and even act as a sort of gauge of our closeness to the Lord.
Not in every case. Some people just have a hang up about singing in general, because they think they have a terrible voice. Maybe they do have a terrible voice.
However I know that in my own past experience, when I have not been where I should be in my relationship to Christ, whether in a time of rebellion or just going through a dry and difficult period, one of the first things to suffer was my desire to sing.
I would stand in church, agreeing with the words, and wishing I felt more like singing, but unable to bring it out of myself.
I’ve known others who refused to sing in church, and in many of those cases, there was also evidence in their lives and their very demeanor that they were not experiencing the joy of a significant closeness to Jesus.
Paul exhorts us to sing. And I would submit for consideration to those who refuse to sing aloud in public, that there is a spiritual principle involved in this. If you would come to a point of surrendering that part of yourself to Christ and say, “Lord, I don’t want to sing, but your word tells me I should sing, so I’m going to sing”, and then do it, I believe you would find yourself blessed. I believe you would sense His approval, and that your joy would increase.
I believe that the spiritual principle that applies here, which inspired Paul to exhort us to sing these spiritual songs, is that it deepens our relationship to God, and to one another.
When we gather for corporate worship and sing these biblical truths set to music, we are testifying to each other that these words are true for each of us, and on an equal plane they apply.
In this light, can you understand why the congregation-splitting debate over music in recent decades is so demonic?
Paul Decker, from Williamsville, NY, in a sermon on this same verse says,
“Music is not to divide us. It is to unite us. … God wants us to be unified in the blessing we can give each other. Well, just as God wants us to hear each other pray so we can agree with one another, so it is with music. Music gives us the opportunity to agree and demonstrate unity.”
Churches that have allowed the music issues to cause friction and division have fallen into a very clever and destructive snare of the devil, and they have twisted that part of the worship service into something quite the opposite of what it was meant to be.
Believers, with any type of music, whether it be the relatively new, short choruses, or even the old hymns of the church, the first thing we should be concerned with doing is making sure the words we’re singing are theologically and doctrinally accurate. Once we are agreed on that and our songs line up with scripture, then they should all be sung, by all of us, in harmony that is both musical and spiritual.
MAKING MELODY WITH YOUR HEART
“…and making melody with your heart to the Lord”
Paul has told us to speak the words of the Psalms and spiritual songs to one another, and then to outwardly sing these things corporately; now he’s adding that these joyful melodies of God’s blessing and promise should be on our hearts, going up to God as a blessing to Him and a show of gratitude for all things He has done.
I get that from verse 20 you see, because there is no break or transition to a new topic of discussion. Verses 18 through 21 are all one sentence!
Now let me back up just slightly and give you a word of admonition concerning your public singing. I cannot force you to sing, and I would not force you if I could. I would only give you pastorly admonitions to sing, as Paul has done in his letter.
I am well aware that some people sound like a cat stuck in the screen door when they sing. Your refusal may be out of mercy for the rest of us.
But in our hearts, folks, we all sound like Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Steve and Edie. Sonny and Cher. Roy and Dale. Bill and Gloria. (Sorry kids, I don’t know any newer singing teams than that).
Whether your vocal chords ever strike a note above talking again in your entire life or not, you can have the joy that comes with knowing Christ and Him crucified and risen again for you, and you can make merry melodies in your heart to the Lord.
You can, and you must. The bible tells you to.
It’s important that we share these words of joy with one another It’s important that we encourage one another and express our unity in theology and doctrine by sharing these things in corporate worship and song.
But most important is it, to let praise and worship rise up to God from a grateful heart.
Paul says, “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father”
Both verses 20 and 21 have to refer back to these things he’s saying, so we have to see that it must be the Father’s delight, to receive praise and thanksgiving from us, through His Son and our Lord, from our hearts, as beautiful music to His ears.
Melody.
So also with verse 21, it is tied to what Paul is telling us. We are to be subject to one another. To subject ourselves to one another.
Need I point out that subjection to one another is impossible if we’re not present with one another?
We’re supposed to benefit from one another’s company and fellowship, fellows, and when attendance at worship or other functions of the assembly is occasional, and sporadic, we do not benefit.
The faithful attenders do not benefit from the sporadic attender, and the sporadic attender certainly does not benefit from those he or she seldom has contact with.
Even more than blood family, we are very important and significant to one another as sharers of the divine nature; and people, we need to come to realize that our assembling, our sharing, our subjection to one another as we speak truth and sing spiritual songs, and collectively make melody in our heart to the Lord, should be seen by us as absolutely indispensable, and we should give these things the highest of priorities.
Now Paul is going to spend the rest of this chapter emphasizing relationships. Specifically, marriage, family, and work relationships.
As we go, let’s remember that the things he will be telling us are built upon this foundation he has laid.
We’re entirely different than we once were, and entirely different than those who are not in Christ.
We are now to be different. To be light in the Lord. To walk accordingly, and cease to participate in those things that are contrary to what we are.
And once we’ve understood those distinctions, we are to relate then to one another, as those who need mutual encouragement, accountability and support.
We’re to strengthen one another with spiritual truth. With the joy-bringing words of the Psalms and the songs of the church.
Corporately, we are to fortify one another with joyful singing and making merry melodies in our hearts to the Father through our Lord, giving praise and thanks to Him, and considering our assembly and our relating to one another as essential.
That’s the foundation upon which all of our personal relationships should be built and stabilized, Christians. We need one another, and we need to be close-knit, inseparable and indivisible.
Because when God’s people determine to do the work of the Kingdom together and follow His leading in it, the enemy is going to fight that tooth and nail; and it seems his favorite ploys are to divide, to extinguish joy, and stop the singing, and therefore stop the worship.
I won’t berate you if I can’t hear you sing. But let’s be joyful, and let’s raise up as a corporate body, merry melodies of praise and worship to our Father who is worthy.
I know He desires to have congregations like that to bless and grow.
