*This sermon was delivered at Gethsemane Baptist Church during Lord’s Day worship on December 4, 2022.
Introduction:
We’re studying the Holy Spirit, and we’re looking today at what’s called the filling of the Holy Spirit. And by this time in our study, we’re probably starting to ask ourselves, “So what?” I mean, this is great, and it’s good to know who the Spirit is, but how does this really affect my life? How is this going to help me live the Christian life? How does this affect my marriage? My ability to be a good employee? A good parent? A good son or daughter?
In other words, how do we take this knowledge about the Holy Spirit and not just know right doctrine, but how do we actually get changed by right doctrine?
Well, you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. How does that work? Great question. We’ll look at Who Gets Filled, What Filling Is, and How Filling Happens.
I. Who Gets Filled
Now, we’ve got to understand to whom Paul is speaking here when he says, “Be filled with the Spirit” in v. 18. Because when he says, “Be filled with the Spirit,” he’s not just saying that to anybody. So, let me show you what kind of people he has in mind to whom he’s now saying, “Be filled with the Spirit.”
First, he’s saying “be filled with the Spirit” to those who have been sealed by the Spirit. Eph. 1:13 says, “In him [Christ] you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” When it says “you were sealed” it means that we as believers in Jesus Christ have been marked by God as being authentically his. Bought and paid for. Anyone who believes on Christ, therefore, has the Spirit of God indwelling them, and his presence in them is a seal to us that God is faithful to all of his promises and he will keep us until glory. Same thing in 4:30 which says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” So, he’s talking to those who have been sealed.
But secondly, he’s speaking to those who have been baptized in the Spirit. Eph. 4:5 says, “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” He says the same thing to the Corinthians: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (I Cor. 12:13). He’s not talking about being baptized by water into a local church. No, water baptism is a profession of a spiritual baptism; that is, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Which gives me an opportunity to say that there is no such thing as a second baptism, as if you get baptized by water and then you get baptized later by the Holy Spirit when you speak in tongues. Why? Because in Paul’s theology of the baptism of the Spirit, he had no category for an unbaptized by the Holy Spirit Christian. “We were all baptized into one body.” To be a Christian is to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. And therefore, those who are filled with the Holy Spirit are those who have been baptized in the Spirit.
And thirdly, those who can be filled by the Holy Spirit are those who have been united to Christ. Eph. 2:22 says, “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Any time you hear Paul saying, “in him” he’s almost always referring to our union with Christ, the bond of which is the Spirit of Christ. “By the Spirit.” Paul makes this same point in Gal. 3:2 when he asks the Galatians, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” He’s asking, “How do you receive the Spirit? By your obedience or by faith in Christ crucified?” Answer: By faith in Christ crucified. Which means that anyone confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in their heart that God has raised him from the dead, not only are they saved, not only are they justified by faith alone apart from works, not only are they adopted, washed clean, and united with Christ, but they are given the Spirit. You see, those who can be filled with the Holy Spirit are those who have been justified by faith and have had all their sins washed away in the blood of the Lamb.
Now, do you see? When Paul says, “Be filled with the Spirit,” he’s not just saying that to anybody. This would be an impossible command if none of that were the case. Be filled with the Spirit assumes the amazing grace of God in Christ.
So what is filling?
II. What Filling Is
So, what is being filled with the Spirit? To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to repeatedly and continuously be influenced by him. It’s to have his fullness so that he controls your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions.[1] Paul contrasts it with drunkenness: “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” What is being drunk? It’s a mind-altering, behavior-changing influence. Paul says, “if you’re going to be influenced by something, be influenced by the Spirit!” Don’t be controlled by something that is guaranteed to leave you unhappy and unsatisfied after the effects are gone. Be filled with the Spirit, and let his influence alter your mind so that you think on truth and meditate on Christ. Be filled with the Spirit so that little by little you are changed in your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. Let his influence have a sanctifying, purifying influence on you. Be filled with the Spirit.
Really, what Paul is telling us to do when he tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit is submit to the Spirit. I love what Richard Sibbes says here: “Let us give up the government of our souls to the Spirit. It is for our safety so to do, as being wiser than ourselves who are unable to direct our own way. It is our liberty to be under a Wisdom and Goodness larger than our own. Let the Spirit think in us, desire in us, pray in us, live in us, do all in us; labor ever to be in such a frame as we may be fit for the Spirit to work upon [us].”[2]
Now, here’s the rub: The indwelling of the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean that sin is no longer present. It doesn’t mean that because we have the Spirit, we’re not proud anymore; or envious; or angry when things don’t go our way; it doesn’t mean that we no longer struggle with a lack of love toward others. So here’s what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit: He’s going to show you your sin and he’s going to humble you. There’s not enough room in your heart for your pride and the Holy Spirit. So in order to fill you with himself and his influence, he’s going to have to empty you. In order for Christ to increase in your heart, you must decrease. And the only way to do that is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to strip your heart away from your idols and your pride, and set your heart on Christ. It means he’s going to humble you and show you that you actually don’t have the strength in yourself to do what you ought to do; you don’t have enough fortitude in yourself to fight your sin; you don’t have the discipline in yourself to respond with kindness and wisdom and love to those who are trying your patience.
When the Spirit fills you, he shows you how helpless you are without him. And so do you know why some of you are so frustrated in your fight against certain sins in your life? Do you know why you’re so frustrated you haven’t seen more progress in becoming godly? A huge part of your frustration that things aren’t working out for you because you’re still relying on your own smarts, your own talents, your discipline, your resolve to fight sin. Unless you’re being filled with the Spirit, that confidence in your own self is still going to be what drives your fight against sin. And I’m telling you, you’ll still experience frustration.
So, to be filled with the Spirit is to be emptied by the Spirit. Now, how do we do that?
III. How Filling Happens
Paul tells us how: (19) “Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
Now, the answer is the means of grace. God uses the means of grace to fill us with the Spirit. But first look at what all these means center around in this verse: The one another in this passage is the body of Christ; the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs is the word of Christ; singing to the Lord in your heart is the spiritual reign of Christ; giving thanks for what God has done, the most glorious of which is the work of Christ; and submission to the body of Christ is submission to Christ.
Before we look at these means God uses, I want you see that it’s not just doing them legalistically and religiously and suddenly you’re filled with the Spirit. I just told you that what the Spirit does when he fills you is empty you of your self-righteousness, your pride. And how he does that is by drawing your heart again and again to the gospel. Did you notice that all these means described in vv. 19-21 center around Christ?
How the Spirit fills you with his presence is by constantly drawing the focus of your heart to Jesus. If you let your eyes fall on vv. 15-21 again, do you realize that Jesus is the one who obeyed this absolutely perfectly? No one looked more carefully how he walked, not as unwise but as wise, than Jesus. No one made the best use of his time, in the evilest of days, like Jesus. No one understood the will of the Lord like Jesus. And no one, not one person in all of history, was ever filled with the Spirit like Jesus.
The reason you can be filled with the Spirit, Christian, is because of Jesus. The gospel is that Christ endured everything that should’ve been yours. He lived the life you should’ve lived. And in your place, in spite of everything you’ve ever done, he died the death you should’ve died. On the cross, Jesus was not comforted by the Spirit, but he was afflicted by him. On the cross, he was pierced and bruised, crushed and chastised. Why? So that by his wounds you might be healed. So that the one who rendered perfect obedience might bestow forgiveness on the disobedient. And now God accepts you not because you’re good but because Jesus was good for you. God accepts you not on the basis of your righteousness but because of Christ’s righteousness. But God fills you with the Holy Spirit not because you are so good and so worthy of the Spirit’s indwelling. God fills you with the Holy Spirit to show you how good and how worthy Jesus is.
How does he do that? Look at the means God uses to fill us with his Spirit:
- Word: “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”
- Prayer: “singing… to the Lord”
- Congregational Singing: “addressing one another”
- Thanksgiving: “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father…”
- Mutual submission: “Submitting to one another after first submitting to Christ.”
John Stott: “The two chief spheres in which this fullness is manifest are worship and fellowship.”[3]
You cannot be filled with the Spirit apart from the means of God’s grace. If you’re not reading the word, praying the word, singing the word, giving thanks through the word, submitting to one another through the word, you’ll never be filled with the Spirit the way Paul’s talking about here.
And if you are a member of this local church, and nobody knows you; nobody sees you throughout the week; nobody knows your struggles, your sins, your griefs, your sorrows; how can you say you’re obeying this command to submit to your fellow church members when you never see them and you relegate your membership to Sunday morning worship services? That’s just as foreign to the NT as a Christian not joining a local church. How can you expect to be filled with the Holy Spirit apart from the means described here in this passage? Expecting God to fill you with his Spirit apart from the means of grace is like expecting to be clean apart from taking a bath. If you never take advantage of the water, you’ll never washed. If you never take advantage of singing the word, praying the word, giving thanks through the word, you’ll never be filled with his Spirit.
And you see, if you begin with where these means of grace begin – that is, at the gospel – then it frees you to dive into a local church, because you’re not doing it to gain approval from God, but because you already have his approval, which frees you up to be vulnerable and submit to others in the church. You’re not afraid to submit to others and be truthful about your sin because you know your sin has been dealt with ultimately at the cross. And in the gospel you recognize his divine power has given you everything you need for life and godliness, so you engage in thanksgiving because you’re content. People who are full of themselves are never full of the Spirit, which means they’re never thankful. So not only are these things Paul describes the means to be filled with the Spirit, but they’re also evidence that you’re filled with the Spirit. People filled with the Spirit sing; people filled with the Spirit are always giving thanks, they’re always looking at their circumstances and saying, “If God is for me, who can be against me?” People filled with the Spirit want to live under authority and in the light, in mutual submission to Christ’s people. These are gospel means of grace, do you see? And it’s the only way to grow and be filled with the Spirit.
Non-Christian, this spiritual life that we’re talking about here is probably a big mystery to you. But what we’re inviting you to is a joy that comes not from drunkenness but from a deeper joy of knowing your Creator, the way you were always meant to know him. It’s true, we’re inviting you. But God commands you. And you are to obey him. You are to turn from your sins to Christ who is the only one who can satisfy the deepest longings of your soul. Only he can bring you true happiness and eternal joy. Repent of your sins, trust him as your Lord, and God will save you.
[1] Charles Hodge, Ephesians, 220.
[2] Sibbes, A Fountain Sealed, 5:426.
[3] Stott, Baptism and Fullness, 59.
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