Transcript

During the dark and difficult days of the depression a preacher by the name of William Stidger remained steadfast in thankfulness to God.

Another preacher approached him about his concern over his sermon for Thanksgiving, and asked Stidger, “What can I say that’s affirmative in a period of depression like this?”

Stidger replied: “Why don’t you give thanks to those people who have been a blessing in your life and affirm them during this terrible time?”

As he thought on his reply the thought came to his mind of a teacher very dear to him, a wonderful Christian teacher of poetry and literature from years ago who had gone out of her way to put a great love of literature and verse in him.

It affected all his writings and his preaching. So he sat down and wrote a letter to this woman, now up in years. It was only a matter of days until he got a reply in the feeble scrawl of the aged. The letter said:

“My Dear Willy, I can’t tell you how much your note meant to me. I am in my eighties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and like the last leaf of autumn lingering behind.

“You’ll be interested to know that I taught in school for more than fifty years, and yours is the first note of appreciation I ever received. It came on a blue, cold morning, and it cheered me as nothing has done in many years.”

Then he thought of a kindly elder in his church, now retired, an old man who had recently faced the death of his wife and was all alone.

This elder had taken a lot of time, given him advice and counsel and love when he first began his ministry. So he sat down and wrote the man.

In two days a reply came back.

“My Dear Will: Your letter was so beautiful, so real, that as I sat reading it in my study, tears of gratitude fell from my eyes.

“Before I realized what I was doing, I rose from my chair and I called her name to share it with her, forgetting she was gone.

“You’ll never know how much your letter has warmed my spirit. I have been walking around in the glow of your letter all day long.”

Paul instructs the Church to “be filled with the Spirit” in Ephesians 5:18. And, as we will see in this passage, one way this instruction is manifested in our lives is by “Giving thanks always for all things.”

Ephesians 5:18: “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”

Paul gives a negative then a positive command in verse 18. What we allow to influence and control us is the issue in this verse. And Paul makes it very clear that God does not want the believer to be “drunk with wine.”

Proverbs 20:1 teaches that “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whoseoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”

In the previous verses to this instruction, Paul instructed the Church to “walk circumspectly [or carefully], not as fools, but as wise” and “Wherefore be ye not unwise.”

Being drunk with wine and controlled by it is unwise, and it often leads a person to make foolish decisions, but it is wise for the believer to “be filled with the Spirit.”

Drunkenness is a mark of the flesh, the old man. Galatians 5:19,21 says, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness…envyings, murders, drunkenness…”

However, Ephesians 4:22-24 teaches us that God wants us to put off the old man and to put on the new man. And thus, the believer needs to put off drunkenness.

There are similarities and contrasts between the two parts of verse 18.

In both conditions, the person is under a power. With drunkenness, it is to be under the power of alcohol, which interestingly is sometimes called “spirits.” In being filled with the Spirit, it is about living in the power of the Holy Spirit.

In both conditions, the person’s walk is affected. In the case of drunkenness, his walk, or his moral behavior, is negatively affected (and even his physical walk is affected with drunkenness). In being filled with the Spirit, one’s walk and moral behavior is positively affected. In both cases, it affects how one acts, thinks, and speaks.

In both conditions, the person’s relationships are affected. Drunkenness tears down and destroys relationships, and there are countless examples of this. But being filled with the Spirit strengthens and builds relationships.

In both conditions, the person’s self-control is affected. In the case of drunkenness, there is a loss of self-control. But being filled with the Spirit yields the fruit of self-control or “temperance” (Gal. 5:23).

In both conditions, the person’s function is affected. In the case of drunkenness, alcohol is a depressant and slows down parts of the brain. But the Holy Spirit is a stimulant. He moves and motivates the believer, empowering our service, and enables us to see and understand life and this world more clearly.

Instead of being drunk with wine, Paul wrote that the believer needs to “be filled with the Spirit.” Now, Paul is not speaking of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of us.

The Holy Spirit is already in the believer. At the moment we trust the gospel of salvation, the Spirit indwells us, seals us, and He is never leaving us.

The word “filled” means to fill to the full, to fill to the top or brim. Paul desired that the Ephesian believers be filled to the top with the Spirit.

What fills you, controls, motivates, and moves you, and it influences both your actions and your reactions. And that’s what this filling pertains to.

But this instruction by Paul has caused many to question how one is filled with the Spirit and what results from it when we are filled.

And much of the confusion stems from thinking or being taught that Acts 2:4 is about us in the Church today. On the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was sent to Israel, Acts 2:4 reads, “And they were all FILLED with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

In Acts 2:4, we do not find an exhortation to be filled with the Spirit, as we have in Ephesians 5:18. Rather, we have a simple statement of fact: “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.”

The believers at Pentecost were filled with the Holy Spirit, because the time had arrived for the fulfillment of God’s promise.

Joel had prophesied God’s words, that “I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.” God told Israel through the prophet Ezekiel that, in accordance with the new covenant, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes” (Ezek. 36:27).

And Christ had promised and predicted that the Spirit would come and that they would “be baptized with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 1:5).

Pentecost was the fulfillment of these prophecies and promises, and on that day, they were baptized by Christ with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit filled them that believed.

And the believers at Pentecost were all SUPERNATURALLY filled with the Spirit. This spiritual baptism and filling placed believers under the complete control of the Spirit which enabled them to perform miraculous signs and work wonders, to be able to heal the sick, speak in tongues, to live for one another and have all things common, and so on.

And these signs and wonders were for the purpose of being witnesses of Christ and His resurrection in accord with the gospel of the kingdom and their great commission.

But as you continue reading Acts and the record of the Spirit’s powerful ministry in Israel, you find that Israel continued in her rejection of her Messiah, and Israel was set aside in Acts 7, after her leaders stoned Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit.

Then God turned to the Gentiles, the nations, and He raised up the apostle of the Gentiles, Paul in Acts 9, and He ushered in the dispensation of the grace of God. And to this moment, we are living in the dispensation of grace.

And today, under grace, the operation of the Spirit is much different from God’s prophetic dealings with Israel on the day of Pentecost.

Today, we are given the Spirit the moment we believe the gospel of grace, and He indwells us. As Paul told the Church in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

And under grace, being filled with the Spirit is not about enabling the believer to carry out miraculous signs and wonders, or to heal the sick, speak in tongues, and so on.

The manifestations of the Spirit’s filling in this chapter are found in verses 19 to 21, which have nothing to do with miraculous displays.

Rather it pertains today to practical things like “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things…Submitting yourselves one to another…”

The Apostle commands believers under grace to “be filled with the Spirit,” just as he exhorts them and prays for them to “be FILLED with the fruits of righteousness” in Philippians 1:11, and “FILLED with the knowledge of His will” in Colossians 1:9.

God desires these things to fill and direct our lives. Likewise, God desires that the Spirit so fill us that the Spirit touches and affects each part of our lives.

It is about allowing our lives to be directed, influenced, and governed by the Holy Spirit, and to let the Spirit empower and enable our walk for the Lord.

The instruction to “be filled with the Spirit” today is a practical goal that God sets before the believer.

To be filled with the Spirit isn’t about us having more of the Spirit, it is about the Spirit having more of us. We have the Spirit in His fullness, but does He have us fully is the question? Every believer in Christ is a temple of the Spirit, He abides permanently within, but the command is to let the Spirit possess more and more of us.

Grace and faith are the characteristic features of the present dispensation. Salvation is by grace through faith. Our walk is by grace through faith. And the Spirit also operates in the believer by grace through faith today.

He does not take possession of us and enable us to work miracles or supernaturally cause us to do God’s will, but rather He dwells within each believer, and by grace He works to provide us with guidance for our walk, to strengthen us to withstand temptation, to give us wisdom and power to serve the Lord, and to comfort us in our afflictions.

The Spirit indwells and works in us by grace, and we must appropriate His aid and strength by faith. The Spirit indwells us and to be filled with the Spirit involves submission to Him, allowing Him and His Word to lead us, and surrendering to His working in us to change our attitudes and actions.

The filling of the Spirit is not a one-time event that we live off of for the rest of our lives. It is a constant thing that we do on a continual basis by faith. It is part of our daily walk, and it is what empowers our walk.

Paul gave instructions for our walk in this chapter, teaching us to walk in love, as children of light, and to walk circumspectly. Being filled with the Spirit enables us to walk in these ways. We need God’s help; we need the Spirit to live the Christian life.

And as we are filled with the Spirit, and allow the Spirit to work in and through us, He can use us in a mighty way and transform our entire life.

Ephesians 5:18 is preceded with “understanding what the will of the Lord is” in verse 17. We understand the will of the Lord through His Word. The will of the Lord speaks directly of “the mystery of His will,” that Paul wrote of in chapter 1.

The will of the Lord, the mystery of His will, concerns the message of grace for the Church today that was revealed by Christ to Paul. And the Spirit works and leads according to the will of the Lord and God’s grace truth for today.

The command to be filled with the Spirit is a call to be filled with the Word of God whose Author is the Holy Spirit. This instruction is a reminder that to be filled with the Spirit, we need to spend time with the Word and allow its truths to fill our lives.

As Paul wrote in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,” and as we do so the same results follow as being filled with the Spirit, “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

Ephesians 5:19 says: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

Barbara McKeever tells the following: In the middle of a hymn at our church, my young grandson Chandler tugged on my sleeve and whispered in my ear, “The woman behind us can’t sing very well, can she?”

Knowing the woman had a deep love for the Lord, I said, “Chandler, she sings from her heart. That’s what makes it good.” He nodded thoughtfully.

Several days later as he and I were singing along with the car radio, Chandler stopped and said, “Grandma, you sing from your heart, don’t you?”

The heart is what God looks at when we sing and in whatever we do.

The first consequence of being filled with the Spirit is not a mountain-moving faith, extraordinary miracle, an astonishing spiritual experience, but simply a heart that sings. Paul shows that the fruit of a Spirit-filled life is joy and thanksgiving.

Paul first says, “Speaking to yourselves,” which means speaking to one another in the church, for the purpose of edifying and ministering to each other.

Worship through music and singing is done in the presence of other believers and in fellowship with them so that the church might be built up and ministered to.

The Spirit produces a selfless mindset and He puts our focus on others in the Church.

When we are filled with the Spirit, it produces this desire to worship God and to encourage others in their worship of God. And together in the Church, we express our joy in Christ through the Spirit in song, and together we are strengthened and inspired.

And in the Church, we sing the Old Testament “Psalms” put to music. Still today, many of the songs and choruses we sing in the local church are from the Book of Psalms. And Psalm 105:2 says, “Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him: talk ye of all His wondrous works.”

We minister to each other in the church also by singing “hymns” or sacred songs of praise to God, songs that exalt and honor God and His greatness, and give praise to the Savior and the redemption we have in Him.

The Lord and His disciples sang a “hymn” at the Last Supper before going to the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:30). Paul and Silas sang hymns of praise while suffering in prison in Philippi (Acts 16:25).

And “spiritual songs” are songs of testimony about the Christian experience, songs expressing what God has done for us, giving praise for God’s power, help, or comfort.

When Paul wrote, “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,” the term “singing,” of course, refers to vocal praise, but the “making melody in your heart” refers to inaudible praise, which takes place within through the Spirit.

Being filled with the Spirit we praise God both audibly and inaudibly, through our voice and within our heart just between you and the Lord. This is personal worship in the quiet place of your spirit. And the Spirit puts a song and a melody of praise in our heart.

And then Paul adds that all of this is done “to the Lord.” The Spirit always points us to the Lord Jesus. That is His ministry, to give Him glory.

Our Savior is the audience to Whom we sing, and we offer our worship up to Him for all He has done for us in loving us, dying for us, and saving us from our sins.

Being filled with the Spirit, the Spirit leads us to worship, honor, and lift up our voices in song to the Lord, and to give glory to the Son.

As we yield to His working, the Spirit produces the fruit of “love, JOY, peace” in our life. And when we are filled with the Spirit, it results in a life that is a fountain of praise to God, which bubbles over with joy.

Zephaniah 3:14-17 tells Israel, “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart…the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee…The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.”

The prophecy of Zephaniah builds to a crescendo at the end. It ends with a prophecy of the kingdom of heaven on the earth in which there will be great joy.

The reason for Israel’s joy is that “the King of Israel, even the Lord” is in her midst. Christ’s personal presence among Israel in the kingdom on earth, reigning over them as her King, will be the cause for their greatest joy. Because of this, Israel is told to “Sing…shout…be glad and rejoice with all [her] heart.”

Paul teaches the Church, the Body of Christ to “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). The Lord is the reason for our joy and gladness. We too sing, are glad, and rejoice with all our heart because of the Lord, and because He saved us.

Within that kingdom on earth, Israel is told also that the Lord will rejoice over THEM. “He will rest in His love” Zephaniah 3:17 says, which speaks of a still, silent joy by the Lord for Israel. But then He will break that silence and “He will joy over thee with singing.” In the kingdom, Christ will sing in HIS joy over those who are His people.

The Lord loves us, the Church, the Body of Christ, just as much as He loves believing Israel. We rejoice in our Redeemer, but our Redeemer also rejoices over us. We sing in our praise of Him; He sings too because we belong to Him eternally.

And the voice of God that created all things, stilled the storm, and will raise the dead at the Rapture; that voice sings over His deep joy for His redeemed.

Out of His infinite love for you and me, like with believing Israel, He rejoices over us with a joy so strong that it will cause Him to sing. And by grace, one day in glory, you and I will hear our Savior sing in His joy over US!

Ephesians 5:20: “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When one is filled with the Spirit, it leads one be filled with thanksgiving. The Spirit opens our eyes to the goodness, kindness, and graciousness of God. And this leads us to praise and give thanks to God.

As one would probably expect, the Spirit-filled life is God-centered. And by the Spirit, we acknowledge Him in all our ways, we perceive His working in our lives, and we notice His continual blessings.

Thomas Merton once said, “Gratitude takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder, and to praise of the goodness of God.”

Being filled with the Spirit, the Spirit can lead to us be more responsive and sensitive to God’s goodness in our lives, and give us a deep appreciate for it that results in spontaneous expressions of thanksgiving.

As we are continually filled with the Spirit, this leads to thanksgiving being a state of mind and being, so that we are “giving thanks always for all things.”

And “all things” means “all things.” “All things” includes both the spiritual blessings and physical blessings of God.

In 1 Timothy 6:17, Paul tells us that the living God, “giveth us richly ALL THINGS to enjoy.” In Acts 17:25, Paul said that God “giveth to all life, and breath, and ALL THINGS.”

It is right and good to thank God for blessing us “with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” And it is good and right to thank Him for His many physical blessings.

It is not less spiritual to thank God for physical blessings. It is more spiritual. God is involved in every area of our life. Giving thanks to God always for all things is about seeing and acknowledging the hand of God and His care in all parts of our life.

James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

All mankind benefits from the “good gifts” that God has bestowed upon His creation. He has provided the fruitful seasons, sunlight, and the rains that produce the harvest which sustains life upon the earth.

Psalm 145:15 says that “The eyes of all wait upon Thee” or look expectantly to Him for their physical need of food as all depend on Him for it, and the verse continues and states, “and Thou givest them their meat in due season.”

God provides and gives all the food they need at the proper time. We depend on God for food, and by His creation He provides.

Psalm 145:16 adds that “Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” God does not close His hand and hold back, but in His goodness and mercy, He opens His hand and He gives abundantly and He provides for all.

We give thanks, Paul wrote, “unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” As we are filled and influenced by the SPIRIT, we give thanks unto FATHER in the name and authority of the SON through whom we have access and a relationship with the Father. Thus, all three persons of the Godhead are involved in our thanksgiving.

And the triune God is always giving and providing. And He is always good to us. And we deserve nothing of His kindness and provisions. So we should give Him thanks. He is worthy of our thanksgiving.

As it’s been said, “How can we not be thankful when we owe everything to God?”

As we are filled with the Spirit, the Spirit can give us the spiritual perception that acknowledges that everything good we have, we have received from God.

Because He so faithfully and richly provides for us both spiritually and physically, so it is right that we be, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”