Encouraging Christians

If you would, please take your
Bibles and turn back to the book of Colossians. Indeed, we have
resumed our study. Colossians chapter three. Back in the 70s, before I was
even saved, pastor and author J. Adams wrote a very important
book called Competent to Counsel. It was, to some degree, a polemic
against the psychological counseling approach that had jumped its
banks and was overwhelming even the church. Adams argued two
things. One, that the scriptures themselves
were exceedingly adequate to address sinners’ needs. And then secondly, that Christians
were well-fitted to be of help in such situations just with
the Word of God. A godly believer with his or
her Bible was fully prepared to speak even to the most difficult
troubles that were vexing a Christian friend. And so hence the title
of his book, declared that point competent to counsel. That little
title was practically borrowed from the Apostle Paul, namely
from Romans 15-14, writing to the saints of Rome, Paul said
in 15-14, concerning you, my brethren, I myself am also convinced
that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all
knowledge and able also to admonish one another. And Paul there is
not talking only to the elders of that church, the shepherds. He certainly wasn’t addressing
some specially trained super group of counselors. He was addressing
the saints of this local body. And his assessment of them was
that not only did they possess the maturity of practical righteousness,
they were full of goodness, and that they were biblically wise,
filled with all knowledge, but also that they themselves were
perfectly capable of counseling their fellow believers, that
they were able to admonish one another. It’s that final quality
there that suggests the ministry of counseling. The word there
is nuthateo, a combination of two words, nus, the mind, and
tithemi, to place. To place into the mind is essentially
the the role of counseling. And so he says, you are able
to admonish, as J. Adams said, you are competent
to counsel. And so with J. Adams’ help, the
Ministry of Newthetic Counseling was born. Newthetic simply observes
a problem. It seeks to address that problem
by the wisdom of God’s word, Such problems, such troubles
should not surprise us. We are all sinners and God’s
word speaks to every single one of them. What we so often need
is a faithful friend who points us back to biblical principles. Whether it’s by means of encouragement
or it’s by means of a confrontation over sin or reproof. or even
comfort. And a key component of euthetic
counseling, as I’ve already mentioned, according to Adams, was just
how broadly this ministry could be practiced. As Adams himself
said it, euthetic activity is a work in which all of God’s
people may participate. Particularly, it characterizes
the work of the ministry. I agree with J. Adams and so does Paul. Paul
himself in Ephesians 4.12 speaks of the Christian ministry as
involving all Christians. He says that apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastors, and teachers are given for the purpose of
equipping the saints for the work of service. We’re all in
the ministry in that sense. All Christians are gifted. All
are called to serve. All may be used of the Lord.
And even in the delicate area of Christian counseling, it isn’t
limited to a trained few, but to the broad spectrum of believers
in the church. In a sense, we’re all called
to the ministry of encouragement. We’re all competent to counsel
in that most basic sense. Any faithful, godly, mature believer
is equipped by God to counsel a fellow believer if needed. Well, that’s what Paul was saying
to the Roman Christians there in Romans 15, 14. They were competent
to counsel, and I would suggest to you that in a roundabout way,
that’s exactly what Paul is discussing in Colossians 3.16. If the Lord’s people would turn
there once again, Colossians 3.16, this is Paul’s now sixth
application of his doctrine, those first two chapters of doctrine
in Colossians. And this verse in particular
is a verse where Paul is discussing Bible-centered living. That’s
my overview title for this section. And the significance of this
verse is not self-centered, but it’s other-oriented. It’s ultimately
aimed at benefiting other believers. If you would glance down at this
one verse as I read it this morning, Colossians 3, 16. Let the word of Christ richly
dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Now, before we dig in to our
study of this verse, I want to take you to the parallel book
and passage, Ephesians, once again, and to chapter 5, if you
keep your finger in Colossians 3. We’ll be there for just a
moment. Once you get to Ephesians 5, if you would glide down, find
your way to verse 18. I just want to show you this
nearly identical passage. Paul begins in verse 18, and
he’s essentially addressing these believers on some of the same
issues. Verse 18 says, and do not get
drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with
the Holy Spirit, pardon me, 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. Now, the parallel here in Ephesians
is certainly fuller than our single-verse version of it in
Colossians, but Paul is discussing the same thing. Verse 19, especially,
is nearly identical to Colossians 3.16. And in addition to that,
there are numerous verbal parallels. the one another of verse 19,
the Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, the encouragement to singing
and not only to singing, but doing so in their heart. And
then finally, in verse 20, the same thought of giving thanks. Now we’ll dip back into this
passage occasionally here and there as I go this morning. But
I wanted you to see the remarkable similarities of these passages
back if you would, to Colossians chapter 3. In Colossians 3.16,
I want to point out that what I would call elements of Christian
counsel. I’ve already suggested that we’re
all called to counsel. We’re all called to ministry.
We’re all able to serve. If we are mature in Christ and
growing in his grace, And I’ve given the passage a title with
kind of a dual significance, and I’ve done so for a reason.
I titled it Encouraging Christians, and that title could be used
to describe particular believers who are especially given to words
of inspiration and support. They are encouraging Christians. But the title could just as easily
be taken in the sense of describing, even prompting such behavior,
that of encouraging other believers, other Christians. Either way,
Paul is setting forth here some thoughts pertaining to the subject
of Christian counsel, the encouragement of our fellow believers. And
what I wanna look at this morning is three elements of Christian
counsel specifically. The first we find at the outset
of that verse, where we see the foundation of Christian encouragement. The foundation of Christian encouragement,
where Paul just says, let the word of Christ richly dwell within
you. If we are to help our fellow
believers, If we are to counsel or advise or caution them, we’re
going to need to be grounded in God’s word. That sounds so
simple, it seems like I would hardly have to say that, but
that’s where it has to begin. Our friends will be of no benefit
by our own homespun wisdom. Our own opinions will be of no
help to anyone. Only scripture, only the life-giving,
life-sustaining truths of God’s Word will be of a spiritual benefit
to our fellow believers. And so Paul says, before we try
to help anyone with anything, we ourselves have to allow the
Word of God, the Word of Christ here, to dwell richly within
us. We must be well instructed in
the truths of Scripture. And that’s why I said a mature
Christian is going to be able to do this with relative ease. This phrase, the Word of Christ,
it’s unique. It’s found only here in the New
Testament, but it’s not enigmatic. We know what Paul means by it.
He’s not referring to some mysterious statement made by our Lord. It isn’t limited to the gospel
message about Jesus Christ. It’s divine revelation to which
he points. It’s the word of the Lord. It’s
the word of God. It’s the whole counsel of God.
It’s God’s word, the Bible, in its precepts and doctrine. And Paul says here that this
word must be allowed to dwell within us, and that, richly. That word let, and it doesn’t
matter, it’s amazing, it doesn’t matter whether you’re reading
the King James, the ESV, or the New American Standard, that word
is in all three. It’s the same translation in
all three. That word is not a separate word from the original. It’s
a way of translating an imperative verb. The verb dwell is an imperative. It’s a command. And so the translation,
let dwell, is the way that our translators have chosen to capture
that imperative verb. The root word there, oikos, house, and its compound element, en
or in, to live in as a house, is what he’s saying, and he’s
using the imperative there to suggest opening your door and
allowing the Word of God to come in and dwell within. It’s a great
illustration. Paul urges believers here to
give way to the Word of God, to make its home in our hearts. Beautiful thought. Paul uses
this word four other times in his writings, Romans 8, 11, to
speak of Christ’s spirit who dwells in you. We know that that’s
a truth. Likewise, in 2 Timothy 2, 14,
his admonition to young pastor Timothy, guard through the Holy
Spirit who dwells in us the treasure of the gospel. The Holy Spirit
is a welcome and permanent resident in the Christian. And so here,
God’s word should not be treated as a guest, as an occasional
visitor in our lives, certainly not a stranger, rather. This word should be at home within
us. In this case, in our hearts.
And it’s familiar to us as the most intimate member of a household. For good measure, Paul folds
in this adverb here, richly. Let the word of God dwell within
you richly. This word speaks of an abundant
or overwhelming supply, measured in much the same way that God
dispenses his gifts. Paul uses this word, 1 Timothy
6, 17, to tell of how God richly supplies us with all things to
enjoy. You know that of God, don’t you?
When we return, when we give our offering, we’re giving out
of the overflow of what God has given to us in such abundance. Paul uses it as well, this word
richly in Titus 3, 6, of his Holy Spirit whom God poured out
upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Aren’t you
glad that the Lord Jesus didn’t give us just a glimpse or just
a peek here and there of the Holy Spirit’s influence in our
life, but that every time we sin, we know it, we feel it. We’re perceptive of the Spirit’s
work in our lives. That’s a good thing. That’s a
sign of life. Peter employs this word as well,
richly, 2 Peter 1.11, that the entrance into the kingdom of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied. Aren’t you glad of that? that
it’s not just a hopeful, wishful thought that we might get into
heaven, but it is abundantly supplied. We’re a shoo-in to
get to heaven because of Christ’s work on the cross. Well, those
verses all declare the magnanimity, the generosity of God in his
blessings and in his spiritual treasures. What Paul points to
here in his use of the word is that the Christian is to be skilled
and trained in his word, that he is to have an abundant supply
that overflows to others for the benefit not only of himself
but for his fellow believers. So this isn’t someone This isn’t
someone who listens to or occasionally memorizes some snippet of God’s
word. This is the Christian in whom
God’s word is flourishing. It rules every aspect of his
or her life. Paul made a similar plea to the
Philippian church that they were to be holding fast to the word
of life. Our embrace of God’s Word by
faith is not to be casual or slight. It is to be a vigorous,
wholehearted grasp of God’s Word. And so Paul urges, let the Word
of Christ dwell within you richly. You see, only when Scripture
is deeply ingrained in us When we have deeply imbibed of its
teachings, its doctrines, its promises, its precepts, only
then will we have anything beneficial to share with our fellow believers. But when we do, scripture and
its lessons, its principles, they come quickly to our mind
in those situations to counsel, advise, encourage, our fellow
saints. Well, Paul says in his first
element of Christian counsel that there is a foundation to
this Christian encouragement. It’s God’s word. But he says,
secondly, he wants to tell us about the methods of Christian
encouragement. He’s talking about Christian
counseling. You are one of them if you’re
a mature Christian. And he says, secondly, the methods
of our Christian encouragement. Look at the verse again, and
I’ll take a running start at it. Let the word of Christ richly
dwell within you. with all wisdom, teaching and
admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual
songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” He basically
points to three things by way of these participles, teaching,
admonishing, and singing. Paul’s argument here is that
when God’s word has been welcomed and resides in our hearts as
a beloved friend, then and only then will we have something inherently
good and nourishing to share with our fellow believers. Paul
says that we should do so in three different ways. By teaching,
by admonishing, and by singing. Let’s consider each of these
methods. any consideration of passing
along God’s word to others, the list would be incomplete
without this most basic, the word teaching. This is the primary
word for spiritual instruction. Teaching is the spiritually nourishing
gift in the church. And teaching, Teaching a biblical
truth, it can be done formally, even as at this moment, or informally,
just passing along a scripture to a friend. It includes the
noble and the vital office of instruction for the people of
the church that Christ has given pastors and teachers and the
like. Christ was called this. Christ
was called teacher. The apostles did this, the apostles
went about teaching, but in a way, as I’ve already suggested to
you, this is something that we’re all called to do. When we pen
several lines of scripture by means of encouragement or instructing
a friend, we’re teaching. When we write an entire book
explaining dozens if not hundreds of verses, we are teaching. We may quietly use God’s Word
to admonish a Christian brother. Or we may take occasion to preach
to a large audience of people. Either way, we are teaching.
When we open the Word of God to assist, confront, encourage,
rebuke, comfort, or nourish fellow Christians, we are teaching. If we’re full of the Word of
God, if scripture and its truths are welcome and at home in our
lives, we will not only have the inclination to teach others,
we will find the need to admonish others. This word, admonition,
to our modern ears, it kind of has a heaviness, even a harshness
to it. There’s an element of that in
this word, but it’s not a negative or a harsh thing, if it’s practiced
correctly. Admonition basically just speaks
of warning someone. cautioning them, and again, cautioning
them by putting a thought or a principle from God’s word back
into their minds for consideration. An overview will be relatively
simple because the word is only used a total of eight times in
scripture, and all of them by Paul. Listen to just a few. Luke quoted Paul’s strong plea
to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, calling them to mind, calling
them to remember how he had conducted himself in their midst. And he
said, I did not cease to admonish each one of you with tears. They knew that admonition was
part of the core of Paul’s ministry among them. Paul had a heart
for the people of Ephesus and he held nothing back. And so
if he had any cause to give a warning, he did so with great faithfulness.
We saw at the outset this morning, Paul’s use of this word in Romans
15, a verse we’ve already looked at. of believers’ ability to
admonish one another. And not only the ability, but
the responsibility, as every member of this church assents
when they join this church. The duty of admonition of believers
is it’s a believer’s attempt to address what is out of balance
in a brother or sister’s life. There is, on the part of the
one admonishing someone, an attempt to correct something in their
friend’s life. This was a ministry that especially
characterized Paul’s ministry. Paul was an intense and a faithful
friend. He was very much about the ministry
of correction. Earlier in this very epistle,
Paul explains that no one is exempt from correction, admonition. Colossians 128, we proclaim him
admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom that
we may present every man complete in Christ. No one was above being
admonished by Paul. And so whether it was a rebuke,
a warning, a gentle counseling or heartfelt comfort, Paul was
always ready to render what was needed. And his point here is
that we should be ready as well. We should be able to take up
God’s word and assess someone in a bit of a spiritual crisis. And we should be able to speak
to that crisis from God’s word. comforting, admonishing, even
rebuking. You see, warning others who are
in the midst of a spiritual danger is something that all believers
not only can but must practice. Paul calls the mature Thessalonian
Christians in 1 Thessalonians 5.14, he basically calls them
to triage their counseling situation. He says that there are going
to be those who struggle in your midst and you need to respond
accordingly. First Thessalonians 5.14, he
urges them to admonish the unruly. There are going to be people
that are really out of control. They’re sinful. And we are called to come alongside
them and rebuke them from time to time, admonish them in that
sense. He says, not only admonish the
unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with
all. There are various ways of responding
to various situations in the church, whether it’s admonishing
someone who is out of control, encouraging someone who is just
slack in their faith, or helping someone who is weak in their
understanding of Christianity, but with all of them, we’re called
to be patient. Just like people were patient
with us. Remember, admonition is just one tool in the bag of
a faithful Christian friend. There’s a third means of benefiting
our fellow believers with the word of God, not only teaching
and admonishing, but also singing. That’s right. Singing. Before you tune me out as if
I’m calling us to join hands and sing kumbaya, let me explain. It’s a well-known
thing in my family that I am not a big fan of musicals. You
know the kind of movie, you know what I’m talking about, where
two people are just talking, having a conversation, when suddenly
one of them, and it’s usually the lady, breaks out into a song. And I’m just telling you, if
we’re standing around talking someday and suddenly you break
out into a song, I’m running. I’m not a big fan of the musical.
And there’s a longstanding debate about this verse, this singing
Some take it as a reference to corporate worship, which we’ve
just done, and we’ve sung in our corporate worship, and I
believe that that is good and right and appropriate. We are called to sing, in a sense,
before one another, if not to one another on those occasions.
But I don’t see that the flavor of that in this passage
at all. This isn’t talking about corporate
worship. The context, both here and in
the Ephesian passage, Ephesians 519, the focus is the Christian
walk, not corporate worship. There’s no mention of public
worship here in the church. Paul is addressing day-to-day
Christian living. The singing, he goes on to say,
is to be in our hearts. What one writer called the silent
symphony. Isn’t that beautiful? And that
hardly elicits thoughts of a corporate worship service. So I find it
far better to take this as a reference to our general demeanor, affected
by our interaction with the scriptures, That there is a song in our hearts
that our lives are lifted and changed and enthusiastic. Because of God’s word, it’s not
just our Sunday conduct. It’s everything about us. There’s yet a third element to
Christian counsel. We find it in the details of
verse 16. Paul’s looking at these three
elements of Christian counsel, not only the foundation of Christian
encouragement, which is allowing the word of God to dwell richly
within us, the methods of Christian encouragement, teaching, admonishing,
even singing, but I want to look thirdly at the blessings of Christian
encouragement. What comes from it? What good
is it? We find it in the details of
verse 16. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with
all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts
to God. Paul has commended us as believers
to cultivate, to establish God’s word in our minds and hearts
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, and that when
we do, it will emerge from us for the benefit of others, whether
it’s by our teaching or our admonition or through the song of our hearts.
And he moves here to close out this discussion with a host of
blessings, wisdom, spiritual poetry, and a heart of gratitude. That’s how I would characterize
these three things, wisdom, spiritual poetry, and a heart of gratitude. These spiritual blessings will
stem from our proclamation of scripture flowing through us,
not only for our own hearts, but for others as well, whether
by teaching, admonition, or singing, as I’ve noted. The temptation
is to try to isolate and associate each of these blessings with
one of the three methods of encouraging one another by God’s word. Let
me explain that. If you wanted to say with all
wisdom and associate that only with teaching, that’s, I think,
a mistake. It isn’t necessary. There’s little
doubt that grammatically wisdom is supposed to be associated
not only with teaching but also with admonition because of its
near proximity. Likewise, it’s only natural to
think of psalms, hymns, and songs as being associated with singing.
That isn’t rocket science. In fact, as it stands, singing
receives a double modifier, thanksgiving as well, right? But if the blessings
of God’s word flow from any of those means of imparting encouragement,
teaching, admonition, or singing, if they flow from any of them,
they flow from all of them, right? so that there’s no reason to
think that wisdom cannot be imparted by admonition, or that we cannot
teach a fellow believer about thankfulness. And these various
songs, they too could be used for teaching and admonition just
as easily as they could be sung, just as deep abiding, working
knowledge of God’s word leads to multiple ways of imparting
that divine encouragement. So also the blessings produced
are not limited to any one of those means. Let’s consider each
of these blessings that are produced by the communication of biblical
truth. That’s what Paul’s up against.
It’s the communication of biblical truth. The first blessing, wisdom,
is one with which we’re familiar. It’s a recurring subject in this
particular epistle, 128. In Colossians 128, Paul says
that he teaches with wisdom. In 2.3, he says that in Christ
is all wisdom. In 3.6, he urges the Colossians
to teach each other with wisdom. essentially an echo of this or
a precursor to this thought, and then in 4-5, he urges them
to conduct themselves with wisdom. The pursuit of wisdom was an
insatiable pursuit by the Greeks. Their version of wisdom, however,
in the end amounted to little more than homespun man-made advice. But the wisdom of God was an
altogether different thing. Generally speaking, wisdom is
that ability to assess and determine the best possible course to achieve
the best possible results. That’s wisdom. Biblical wisdom,
then, is the ability to identify and apply foundational principles
from God’s Word. We look at a situation, we assess
it, and we think, what is the best word for this particular
situation? And a mature Christian is that
person guided by the Holy Spirit and his word so that he can see
fit to impart wisdom in this terrible setting. Now, let’s
switch. from wisdom, let’s talk about
psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And I think the best way
to approach this part of the discussion is to first consider
the nature of each of these elements, what, if any, differences there
are between a psalm and a song and a hymn, and then we try and
figure out what Paul is suggesting by his mention of them. After all, a psalm, in a sense,
is a song as are hymns, but we can distinguish between them
somewhat. Bear with me. By psalms, this is probably the
easiest one of the whole mix, Paul is certainly referring here
to that collection of Hebrew poetry in the Old Testament known
by that name. These psalms were often set to
music. Usually they were chanted because
they didn’t have, they didn’t meter them like our modern hymns
do. They were designed to be sung
or chanted as a group of believers. By the term hymns, By the term
hymns, Paul is surely referring to extra biblical songs of praise
to God. These were more formal, more
structured songs than the shorter spiritual songs. These were solemn
expressions of truth and worship to God. And from time to time,
we bandied about this argument, even in our own church, that
we should practice exclusive psalm singing. Well, where would
we be without hymn writers like Isaac Watts? Where would be the
great themes of redemption and the cross and the ministry of
Christ? Those aren’t in the psalms. And
so psalms, and hymns, and then there’s a third, spiritual songs. These are shorter lines of truth
from God’s word, and it’s the Greek word, you’ll hear it as
soon as I say the Greek word, it’s the word from which we get
our word, ode. A short, happy little song. They’re
songs in the sense that they are poetry. They’re spiritual
in the sense that they speak sacred truth. We have an almost
certain example of this in 1 Timothy 3.16. Do you want to turn to
these? Yeah, go ahead. 1 Timothy 3.16, you have one
of these spiritual songs. Whether Paul is quoting a portion
of this lyric or whether this was the song itself, not unlike
some of our modern choruses with only a handful of words and verses. First Timothy 3.16. And Paul says, by common confession,
which means that it was something that was going about, people
knew, they were familiar with this phrase. By common confession,
confession, great is the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed
in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed
among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
That was a song. Those are the lyrics, almost
certainly, to a short song, a chorus, if you will. And it reads almost
like one of the creeds of the Christian faith. It was a short
summary of Christian doctrine, namely the doctrine of Christ. It was a spiritual song. There’s
another. I don’t know where you are. If
you’re in First Timothy, go to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter 5, and Paul seems here to flag this
as a well-known lyric, because he says, it says. Maybe they even had hymnals,
I don’t know what the case, but these were words that were well-known
to the Ephesian believers. Look at verse 14, Ephesians 5,
14. For this reason, it says, awake
sleeper and rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Those are almost certainly lyrics
to a Christian song. If you would, turn to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy, and when you get there
to chapter two, if you would please, 2 Timothy chapter two,
and when you get to chapter two, scroll down to verse 11, where
Paul flags these as almost certainly lyrics by noting, get this, it
is a trustworthy statement. These are good words. This is
a spiritual song. Look at verse 11. It is a trustworthy
statement. For if we died with him, we will
also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign
with him. If we deny him, he will deny
us. If we are faithless, he remains
faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Beautiful words. That’s a spiritual song. Back,
if you would, to Colossians 3. Well, these songs have indeed been employed in
Christian worship from the earliest times. But it’s this exhortation
to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness. Was
it limited to the gathered worship of God’s people? Is this Paul’s
exclusive reference here? As I mentioned a moment ago,
this question has been debated for hundreds of years in the
church. And my perspective, as I shared earlier, is that these
references, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, they are to
filter out through the general demeanor of believers, through
our conversation, not just in a public worship service. Individually
or collectively, psalms, hymns, and poetic lyrics of spiritual
songs are the means of communicating truths and principles. One of
the ways that we memorize biblical truth is poetry, right? And that’s what I believe Paul
is urging his readers to do here, to communicate deep spiritual
truths in passing by means of recitation, whether it’s from
a literal psalm, or one of the great and timeless hymns of the
Christian faith, or a few short lines of a spiritual truth, even
in your own words. And if that word of Christ is
dwelling within us richly, these lines of truth will not only
serve as meditations for our own minds, They will be the songs
of our hearts and we will surely express them in various ways,
whether in corporate worship or in prayer or in declarations
and expressions of truth to others, right? Listen to these. I want you to listen to see if
your heart is able to complete these. You don’t necessarily
have to declare them audibly. I’m not forbidding you from doing
so, but I don’t want to embarrass anybody either should you fill
in the blank incorrectly. I’m only seeking to show how
deeply God’s word becomes implanted into our hearts that we are ready.
We are competent to counsel. Listen to the Psalms. How blessed
is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners,
nor sit in the seat of scoffers, right? Psalm 3, but you, O Lord,
are a shield about me. You’re my glory. and the one
who lifts my head. Psalm 14, one, the fool has said
in his heart, there is no God. Psalm 19, one,
the heavens are telling of the glory of God. And their expanse
is declaring the work of his hands. Those things are in us. Those are truths. Those are principles
from God’s word, and we know them. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. His anger is
but for a moment, Psalm 30. His favor is for a lifetime. Psalm 32, when I kept silent
about my sin, what Christian doesn’t know this one? When I
kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away. Psalm 42, as the deer pants for
the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, oh
God. Psalm 46, God is our refuge and
strength. A very present help in trouble. Psalm 51, verse 10, create in
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit
within me. Psalm 56, verse three, when I
am afraid, I will put my trust in you. Psalm 86, teach me your
way, I will walk in your truths. You see these truths, these principles
by means of Hebrew poetry have embedded themselves in our hearts
and minds, right? So that we are able to call them
to mind not only for our own benefit, for the benefit of others,
as we teach, admonish, and sing. And this not only is true of
biblical truth, it’s true of the Psalms, as I said, it’s true
also of hymns as well. And in the hymns, we’re often
aided in our Western mind by poetic rhyme. Listen to just
a few. Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt yonder on Calvary’s
Mount outpoured. There where the blood of the
lamb was spilled. How deep the father’s love for
us, how vast beyond all measure. that he should give his only
son to make a wretch his treasure. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. You know it, don’t you? I once
was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind, but now I see. How about this one? What a friend
we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything
to God in prayer. We just finished Christmas, but
they’re there, they’re fresh, right? Hark, the herald angels
sing. Glory to our newborn king. when I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of Glory died? Even if you don’t know the exact
words, you know what’s there. My richest gain I count but pride
and poor contempt, pardon me, my richest gain I count but loss
and poor contempt on all my pride. Jesus paid it all, all to him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Do
you have even one of those truths that comes to mind? I would venture
to say that if you’ve walked with the Lord for any particular
period of time, you probably have dozens if not hundreds of
those. You have the means. You are competent to counsel.
So these truths, these spiritual principles, they find lodging
at first in our head and then in our heart so that according
to the need of the moment, we are able to utter a gracious,
gracious word of help and hope to a Christian friend in need. There’s a final blessing that
flows from an overflowing fullness of God’s word, and that’s thankfulness.
Paul says it this way in that final line of verse 16, that
if we are singing with, that we are to be singing with thankfulness
in our hearts to God. I’ve already established that
this is not to be limited to the worship service, nor is this
singing to be done directly to our Christian friends necessarily.
It is primarily and ultimately expressed in our hearts to God. In a sense, this kind of singing
can be done in complete silence. An inward disposition of our
heart It’s the echo of the parallel passage in Ephesians 519. Paul says there that the Christian
is to be making melody with your heart to the Lord. Beautiful
phrase. That doesn’t prohibit you humming
a Christian tune to yourself or even audibly singing them.
I’ve made several friends of little old ladies in the grocery
store just by singing a line of a hymn. But primarily, Paul is talking
here about that silent symphony of the heart. When our hearts
are full to overflowing with God’s word, our entire life becomes
one long running worship service. so that even in the quietness
of our hearts, overflowing into corporate worship and the encouragement
of our own Christian friends. Would you examine your heart
before him?