Be Filled with the Spirit, Part 3

Ephesians 5:19

We want to continue in our wonderful and exciting study of Ephesians chapter 5 verses 18 to 21. We've been in this passage because we've gone a little bit off on a few tangents and divergencies for about six weeks but we're having a great time and we're going to be here for awhile to come. I really feel this is a tremendous portion, it holds so many great and important truths for us that we've got to take our time in really comprehending it. Ephesians chapter 5 verses 18 to 21, I'm going to read it and you follow along as I read.

"And be not drunk with wine in which is excess but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."

Let's pray together as we begin.

Father, we ask this morning, Lord, that You would somehow quiet our hearts from the things about us, that You would help us to be able to come apart from all of the vicissitudes and struggles and parts of out lives that tend to fill up our thinking. Lord, as it were by a divine act, clear our minds so that we can draw into Your presence without any preconceptions, without any predispositions, with a pure mind and a pure heart to receive at Your hand what it is that You have for us. And 0 Lord, I pray that You would guide the one who speaks that he might only be a vessel that Christ might be the teacher and the Spirit of God might be the one who communicates. That we might hear from You, that we might go from this place knowing that we have met with You and we'll praise You in Christ's name. Amen

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 0 Israel the Lord ou 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 is 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 f 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 he 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 sort of 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 he absence 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, an there you have the heart of the matter. "The Spirit of Truth," e says, "whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him n t neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him for He dwelleth with you an shall be in you."

Now there is one of the great dispensational statements of the Bible, there is one of the great statements bout 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 along side 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 than all of the things that Jesus is promising cannot come to their full fruition. To show you what I mean look at the first six verses of the 14th chapter. And here Jesus is essentially promising them heaven. He has promised... there is a promise here in verse 2, that in My Father's house are many rooms, if i were not so I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for y u and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am there ye may be also. Now here is a great promise. Jesus said, I'm going to go away, I'm going to make ready a place for you, I'm going to come back, and I'm going to take you to be with Me in that place.

Now that's a wonderful promise. But if you are 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 II Cor. 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 arrabon of the Spirit, it's called the earnest of the Spirit in the Old English. The word arrabon 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 am 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. It is the Holy Spirit in us that cries from within us, Abba Father, has the consciousness of understanding that we do truly belong to God and someday we'll inherit. 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 thee 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. Well, what? ... How could that be possible? And especially in His absence. The answer is in Acts 8 where our Lord says, "You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you." "And you shall be witnesses unto Me," moi marturas, My martyrs, watch, "In Jerusalem, Judea and the uttermost part of the earth." There's 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 guaranty of our inheritance in His Kingdom unless we have the security and the guaranty 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 is 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 continual intercessory work before the throne of God. The fact, then, that we are secure in 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 are going to go away? An d 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 is 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, giveth I unto you but 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, 1 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? Everything that Jesus ever promises a believer comes to pass because of the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God. This is so very important. We all have that potential resource. And that's why in chapter 16 verse 14 the Lord says; "When the Spirit comes He shall glorify Me for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you." In other words, the Spirit, then, becomes the channel through which the promises of Christ come to the believer. Do you understand that? Very essential. If it were not for the indwelling Spirit the promises of Christ could not be fulfilled in your life. But here is 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. Do 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 unkempt. 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.

Now back to Ephesians 5. He is saying if you want to see the fruition of all of these things in your life, then it is absolutely necessary that you be filled with the Spirit. There is no other way. There is no other possibility for realization of these things. And all the way through the five chapters of Ephesians Paul has been describing the tremendous power and the tremendous potential of a believer but it all boils down to this one thing, people, you can fly through he first five chapters and seventeen verses and if you get bogged down here you're going to mess it all up because unless you are controlled by the Holy Spirit all of that resource available to you, all of that potential for living a life of wisdom and love and light and uniqueness and humility and oneness, all the potential is lost. And when you get into chapter 6 and you start your warfare with Satan, if you're not living controlled by the Holy Spirit you're going to go right down the tubes. This is the heart of the matter.

You ought to take your red pencil and draw a big box around verse 18, this is the heart of the issue.

Now as we've looked at 18 to 21, we've really only looked at verse 18 and a little bit of 19, but as we've looked at it we noted three things that I want you to see; the contrast, the command and the consequences. The contrast, the command and the consequences. We studied in great detail the contrast; "Be not drunk with wine in which is excess but be filled with the Spirit." In other words, our joy and our peace and our exhilaration and our communion with God and our fellowship and our power does not come like the pagans from getting drunk but from being filled with the Spirit. That's the contrast.

Then out of the contrast comes the command; "Be being kept filled with the Spirit." In other words, if all of our resources are bound up, if all of the realization of our potential is bound up in being filled with the Spirit then keep on being filled with the Spirit or keep on being controlled. And it is a matter of moment by moment yielding your life to the will and the working of the Spirit of God. It's not some mystical strange, divine zap it is simply yielding one moment at a time to the Spirit of God. And that will only happen in your life when you are thinking thoughts about the Spirit of God and that will only happen when you saturate your heart and mind and soul with the pages of the Word of God. And so as you do that, you will be controlled by the Spirit, filled by the Spirit. And, thirdly, consequences will happen. And there are three that He speaks of in this text and I'll probably add another one by the time we get there in a few weeks. But there are three.

First of all, he says there will be a consequence within yourself, singing. Secondly there will be a consequence toward God, saying thanks. Thirdly, there will be a consequence among the believers, submitting. And, fourthly, I'll probably add, there will be a con­sequence even to the unbelieving and that will be service. And I'll show you what I mean by that as we go.

So that when you are filled with the Spirit you see all the relationships are right. You're rightly related to yourself, you'll be a whole healthy person. You know, people go to counseling and they go see the psychiatrist and the psychologist and the analyst and the Christian counselor and so forth and so forth, and so on ... and they take Valium, and Thorozene and Librium and all of that trying to be able to solve their problems and they take long naps, you know, they want to play the Rip Van Winkle game and just forget it all. People try to run from their problems when the way to be at peace with yourself and have a song in your heart is to be filled with the Spirit, you see. That's rightly related to yourself.

Secondly, when you are rightly related to the Spirit of God you are going to find yourself doing what verse 21 says; giving thanks always for all things unto God.

Thirdly, you're going to find verse 21 a reality; you'll be submitting to everybody around you. There will be a spirit of humility. There will be a spirit that says ‑ I don't seek my own thing but I seek to do what is best for you. All of the relationships become right and the fourth one; the area of service is way back in John 7 where our Lord there said ‑When the Spirit of God fills you out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water to everybody around you. So that all relationships are summed up in being filled with the Spirit. As He controls your life everything is right.

Now, we've been looking at number‑one; singing. This is the personal element. When you become a Christian and the Spirit of God comes and lives in you, and the Spirit of God fills you, you become joyous on the inside. A Spirit‑filled Christian is going to be happy it doesn't matter what is going on. He may be in jail and stocks, like Paul and Silas, and by the way the stocks weren't like the Pilgrims had where you hang your hands like this ... and you hang your feet through like this ... they were stocks with graduated holes extending further and further and wider and wider so that your legs were pulled as far apart as they could go without splitting and then they were locked in that position and kept there for weeks on end. And it was in the midst of that circumstance that they were spending all night doing what? Singing. Why? Because the circumstances are not the issue, the filling of the Spirit is the issue that brings the song. And when I am right with myself and when I am at peace in my own heart and when I am filled with His Spirit a song breaks forth. At the end of the sermon this morning, you'll see why in what I think is a very exciting climax to all of our thoughts.

So, the thing that we've been looking at then is that Spirit filled people sing because something is right in their heart. Jerry Mitchell who is a pastor in our church for the Homebuilder area and also works in our evangelism ministry just returned from two weeks in Israel. He went over there with a group of Jewish people from the United States and he was the first Gentile to ever go with that particular group, none of them were Christians and he was staying in the home of an Israeli general, secular Israeli general. And he's not used to two weeks without any Christians, he's not used to having no fellowship and when he came back, and he wasn't here last Sunday to hear me preach, he got in on Monday, he came into our staff meeting, the first thing he said was ‑ You know? It's so good to be back in the fellowship of the brothers. He said, It's so great to be here. He said, You know? I found myself just so frustrated by being around these non‑Christians all the time that when I'd get in to take a shower I would just break forth and sing. And I just kind of chuckled and so did everybody else, see. He didn't hear what I said but that is what Spirit‑filled people do. And when a Christian is bottled up and he can't sing, something is wrong. He'll find a shower where he can just sing about Christ all he wants to without ... you know you can't do that in some hotels in Israel without getting into a lot of trouble. He said, he used to lock himself, lock himself in his room just to read the New Testament. But there needs to be that release of the joy of the Spirit.

You know, in PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, John Bunyon 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 slew 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 Bunyon 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 fifty times, you know what he says? Pilgrim got back on the way and went on his way, what? Singing.   That's John Bunyon'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. Spirit‑filled people have a song and he is saying, in effect, when the pagans get together in their orgies and their, their Satanic liturgy, they do their certain things with drunkenness when we get together we sing because the Spirit of God has born a song in our hearts. So, it's basic.

In Ephesians 5:18 it says if you are filled with the Spirit, you sing. In Colossians 3:16 it says if the word of Christ dwells in you richly you'll sing. In James 5:13 it says if your heart is filled with joy you'll sing. And that is true. God has given us song as an expression of joy.

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? It 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've 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 are 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. It says preach it. Music was never intended by God to be an evangelistic tool. I mean, music has been around a long time and I'm sure that there are times when songs and hymns and spiritual songs have pricked the heart and the conscious of an unbeliever and maybe because the gospel truth is already known they can kind of get them over the edge and come to Christ but that is like a residual benefit. Much as you living the Christian life becomes a testimony to somebody. But the heart of the matter of evangelism is to preach the gospel and to live the gospel and to teach the gospel. We are not told that the world is to be won by music groups. Now I don't want to be too hard about this but I do think that if we really examine again what the Bible is saying here we can eliminate a lot of pretty bad stuff that goes on in the name of Christian music under the guise that we've got to reach the world. We were never told to reach the world by singing at them. And I think we need to keep it in mind. 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 I in the presentation of the gospel by playing to the emotions rather than to the decision‑making faculties. And so I think it is 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.

Now I think it is wonderful for unsaved people to come and hear the music and I hope, I hope they love the music but they won't understand it the way we understand it and they need the gospel of Jesus Christ to be brought to Christ. They need more than just the songs. And I really fear that today music with its emotional power and impact is used as a device. And if you make the music so much like the music of the world then the world thinks becoming a Christian isn't so different than being in the world anyway. And that's why it's very difficult to get any kind of commitment out of them. Well, I don't want to beg the point I just want you to understand that Paul says Spirit‑filled people sing to themselves, speak to themselves.

In Israel of old the music of Israel was the music of Israel. It was their music, it was their music and their expression among themselves.

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." It 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 sixth 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 to 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 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 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.

People, I'm telling you, today in the church we have lost sight of that, we have piled up in Christianity a stack of musicians and singers and so forth whose hearts are not right before God who are constantly being promoted and pushed and portrayed across the Christian scene. And God is not interested in their songs, if their hearts are not right. I'm not trying to eliminate all these people from ministry, I just think maybe they ought to back up and get their life right before they claim to represent God's music. Because He is interested in the heart. In fact, the music of the world you know, you don't want to identify with that anyway. Our music ought to be different. The music of the world is going to stop someday. Do you know that? And every radio station that plays music is going to stop, all t e instruments are going to stop, no more world's music at all. You say ‑ when is that? Revelation chapter 18, if you want to read it I'll show you verses 20 to 22. In Revelation 18 God has brought judgment on the world's system and here the world's system is called Mystery Babylon. Babylon was the origination of the evil world system and it will be the consummation of it. And so this final form of the anti‑Christ's world's system is called by the term Babylon. And he tells here how Babylon in chapter 18 is going to be wiped out at the end of the tribulation. And when it is 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, 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 the." 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. Can you imagine a world without music? Can you imagine? People in our society can't make it from their house to their car to get the radio on. And from their car back to their house to get the stereo on. The music plays at work, the music plays at the factory, it plays at the shop, it plays at the half time of the football game, music plays constantly. People don't want to face life without the music because the music plants the thought$ in their minds, the words in their minds to keep them from thinking about the stuff that matters. The world without music will be a very frustrated place. But that's what God says. Ezekiel 26:13, God says ‑ "I will cause the noise of your songs to cease and the sound of your harps shall be heard no more." He said that to Tyre and then they came in and they wiped that city out, and that was a little microcosm of what's going to happen when God comes in judgment against the world, there will never be a song in hell. People will live forever in hell without a note of music, without a song to sing, without any thing to relieve the unmitigated judgment that they will endure. And the only songs that will ever be sung after God stops the music o the world will be the song of the hearts of the Spirit filled saints of God that fill the kingdom and go on into eternity, the eternal song of the redeemed. Listen, our song is to come from our hearts and to be distinct and unique.

Thirdly, to whom is our song sung? That's clear, isn't it, chapter 5 verse 19, the end of the verse 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, that's all right, I don't want, 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 has anything to do with what we're talking about. I don't think the Lord responds in that manner. What I'm trying to say is that when we offer something to the Lord we don't treat it as entertainment. if the choir sings or someone plays, as Rufus did this morning, or someone sings, they are endeavoring really, not to perform for you but to have your thoughts gathered up with their thoughts and lifted up as praise to the Lord.: So that it is not an entertainment response. We are all together in one united way being led by the singers and led by the players to praise the Lord Himself. And that's where the praise is to go. I is unto the Lord. All music is to be offered to Him. And you know... you ought to have a checkpoint on your singing at that point. And there are some people who say ‑ well, you know that so‑and‑so, gets up there and sings all the time but I think she is doing it for herself. Well, you know all the people who sing for themselves aren't up here. There are even people in a congregation when it comes time for congregational singing, knock out everybody for five rows around. So, people will turn around and say ‑ Oh, who is ... wonderful. You know. Martyn Lloyd‑Jones says there is probably more of that in the pew than there is in the choir loft. I don't know if that is true or not but I think all of us has to be aware that if we are truly singing from a Spirit‑filled heart it is offered to the Lord not for everyone around to say ‑ how wonderful your voice is.

In II Chronicles chapter 5, it's a pretty practical illustration here, this is a fantastic Scripture, the great temple has been built. What a glorious day in Israel. And in II 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 the 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 ass 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. In other words, they were good, they were excellent musically. But beyond that they were one in praising and thanking the Lord, you see. In other words, they were right musically and they were right in their hearts. And they ... it says; "And lifted up their voice," singular, one voice, "with trumpets and cymbals and instruments and praised the Lord and said He is good, His mercy endures forever." And God was so pleased it says, the cloud, the Shekinah glory came down and filled the temple so that the priests could not minister for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. What a beautiful picture. Music glorifying God and God responding by His presence appearing so that they couldn't even minister because His glory blinded them and filled the whole place.

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 offer