Turn with me, if you would, to
Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three. As I mentioned to you this morning,
I spent much of my time studying last week in the book of Colossians.
Just reading through this book and entering into these verses,
dwelling on these different verses as the Lord brought my attention
to them. And I want us to look at one
of them tonight that was a real blessing to me. It's just such
a blessing to me because it exhorted me to do something that I find
myself doing all the time. And after we read this, I believe
you're gonna find that you do it all the time too. Look with me at Colossians 3
verse 16. It says, let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. As you go about your day from
time to time, do you ever find yourself singing these hymns
that we love so much, singing these songs that we've heard
in our worship services? Do they stick with you? And sometimes
you don't even know you're doing it. You just find yourself, you
realize you're singing some of these songs who've been written
by dear brethren that Love the Lord, Fannie Crosby. Every time I sing or read a Fannie
Crosby song, I think, man, that woman knew something about the
gospel. And Isaac Watts and John Newton and just precious believers
and songwriters. Sometimes it's subconscious,
sometimes you realize it, sometimes you don't, but usually you end
up rejoicing because of the message in the song. You're just singing
and rejoicing because of what is
being said in that song. Singing is a good thing. It is such a good thing. It doesn't
have to be out loud. It can be in the heart. But singing is a good thing.
Singing is of God. I love the line in that song, Marching
to Zion. It says, let those refuse to
sing who never knew our God. God is the one who ordained singing. Many of the prophets were songwriters. Many of them, there are tons
of songs in the old Testament, not just in the Psalms, all through
the old Testament. There are many, many songs in
the old Testament scriptures. And not only were they made to
be a part of worship, but they were recorded in the Canon of
God's word. What that means is Moses wasn't
actually the one writing that song. You know, it says, and
then Moses wrote this song, and now it's recorded in the canon
of God's word. David wasn't the one actually
writing that song. Solomon, Asaph, and all these
different men. God was the one writing that
song. The great songwriter, the great creator of music and instruments,
not only in the form of strings and horns, but in the form of
songbirds and streams and things of that nature. The Lord created
birds and put a song in their beak. He created water and put
a song in its stream. I haven't told this in a while,
but I love that story of Mr. and Miss Burke. Many, many years ago, a long
time ago, in the horse and buggy days, there was this lady who
attended the local assembly where the truth was preached, Miss
Burke, and her husband had no heart for the gospel, no heart
for Christ, he didn't have any interest in going, she went by
herself. One weekend, they were having
a meeting, a Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning meeting,
And on a whim, she just asked her husband, why don't you go
to the service Friday night? Why don't you go to the service
with me Friday night? He said, what time does it start? She
said, seven o'clock. He said, all right, I'll go.
Couldn't believe it. So he got the buggy ready and they rode
into town and went to the service. And after the service was over,
he was fighting mad. He said, what did you tell that
preacher about me? All the way home, he was so mad.
He said, don't you ever ask me to go ever again. I'll never
go again. So Saturday rolls around and she wasn't even gonna ask.
Saturday afternoon, he said, what time is that service tonight?
She said, seven o'clock. Why, are you gonna go? He said,
well, I'm gonna go one more time. I'll go one more time. So he
got the horse and buggy ready and they rode into town. And
as soon as the service was over, he bolted out, sat in a buggy
and waited on her to come out. He was just mad the whole time. I'm not listening to him anymore.
Never again. Saturday night, she got very,
very sick. And Sunday morning, she was too
sick to go. Woke up and she just said, I'm
sick. And he got up and started putting his dress clothes on. And she said, what are you doing?
He said, I'm gonna go hear him one more time. Just one more
time. So he got the horse and buggy
ready and he went by himself to the service and the Lord opened
his heart. The Lord broke his heart. He
heard, he heard the gospel. And isn't it so sweet how The
Lord takes his word and he feeds his people with it and it speaks
to the heart, comforts the soul. Something that made the flesh
so mad before now makes the spirit so glad, just so glad. Well, he said on his way home,
he said everything was just different. He said, I heard the birds singing
for the first time. It sounded like they said, glad
you're saved, Brother Burke. And he said, I drove the horse
and buggy over the bridge where the stream was coming through,
and I heard that water, it sounded like it was singing, glad you're
saved, brother Bert. So he got home and put the horse
and buggy away, put the buggy in the stall, and he was coming
up the back walk to the back door, and his wife was standing
at the door with her hands on her hips, just stern, looked
on her face, and she said, God saved you, didn't he? And he said, well, yeah, I think
so. How'd you know? She said, I heard
you singing all the way down the drive. Amazing grace, how
sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Singing is a good thing. When God opens the heart, that
heart will start singing. Singing is of God. At the announcement
of our Lord's birth, the angels sang, glory to God in the highest,
peace is on earth. After our Lord gave his disciples
the ordinance of his table, it says he sang a song with them. They sang together. Throughout
eternity, the book of the Revelation tells us that all of God's saints
are going to sing that new song, that song of the redeemed, and
this is how it goes. Thou art worthy, for thou was
slain and hast redeemed us back to God by thy blood. Singing is truly a wonderful
thing. It's of God and it glorifies
God and this is my hope. After we look into all these
things, I hope we're encouraged to do more of it and with more volume. Good or
bad is irrelevant. It's of the Lord. I hope we're
encouraged to just sing out Now, I wanna qualify something about
our singing, and then I wanna emphasize some examples of the
songs that we have to sing. Turn with me over to Psalm 100. Psalm 100 verse 1 says, Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord all ye lands, serve the Lord with gladness, come before
His presence with singing. That's how we are to come before
His presence, with singing. That's how we come in worship.
This is how we come before His presence. with singing. And when
we come and when we sing, our song is unto Him. If you look what our brother
read a moment ago, Psalm 98 verse one, it says, oh, sing unto the
Lord. A new song, for he hath done
marvelous things, His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten
Him the victory. Sing unto the Lord a new song. That's the commandment to the
saints. That's the exhortation. Sing a new song. That new song
is His work instead of mine. That's the new song. The old
song of the old man is all about my work instead of his. And it is, isn't it? Which that doesn't even exist.
There is no work of mine for him. But that old song, that's the
only song that a sinner knows to sing until God reveals the
new song Of the work and the glory of Christ until God reveals
that a center doesn't know any other song, but the old song.
That's all he knows. You know, how it is old time
religion. We got that old time religion. That's how it is. Our songs are all about. We're
all about what we're going to do for him. A man cannot know the new song
until God reveals it to him. And here it is plainly written
in the Word. Turn with me to Revelation 15. Revelation 15 verse three, it
says, and they sing the song of Moses. Moses had the new song. They sing the song of Moses,
the servant of God and the song of the lamb saying. Great and
marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are
thy ways, thou King of saints. We sing that song, the Lord is
King. Holy and true are all thy ways. Let every creature shout
your praise. This is something that's very
important for us to realize. In all of the songs that we sing,
all of them, must give all the glory, and they must ascribe
all of the work to the Lord Jesus Christ in all the songs that
we sing. If the song does not do that,
then we shouldn't sing the song. In almost every song that we
sing in our hymn book, in many of them, in most of them,
I would say, There's a line or there's at least a word that
I wish was changed. Man cannot write as perfectly
as God can write. He just cannot. But in all the
songs that we sing, the message gives all the glory to Christ. The message gives all the glory.
It ascribes all the work to Christ in our salvation. There are a
ton of songs in this book that don't do that, and we don't sing
them. There's many songs in here that
we don't sing, and it's for that reason, that reason alone. There's a song in this book titled,
What Will You Do With Jesus? Well, I'm not gonna do anything
with him. What's he gonna do with me? That's the question. What's he going to do with me?
This thing is in his hands, not mine. Rest assured, we're not going
to sing that song. We're not going to sing that one. The songs
that we sing and the melodies that we make in our hearts, they
must give Christ all the glory. They must ascribe all the work
of salvation to Him as it's declared in His Word. And that's what
our text is saying to us. That's what that verse is saying.
If you go back with me to Colossians 3, Colossians 3 verse 16, it says, let the Word of Christ dwell
in you richly. This book right here is called
the Word. It's called the Holy Word. It's called the Word of Scripture. It's called the Word of God. The Word of God. to specifically declare who that
is. This is the Word of Christ. To
say it is the Word of God is to say it is the Word of Christ. And to say it's the Word of Christ
is to say it's the Word of God, God Almighty. This Word is of
Christ. It's of the Spirit of Christ.
It's concerning the person of Christ. declaring the work of
Christ unto the glory of Christ. This is the Word of Christ. That's what this is, the Word
of Christ. And the Psalms and the hymns
and the spiritual songs that we sing, they must agree with
the Word of Christ in order for them to produce grace in our
hearts." They must agree with that word in order for them to
produce grace in our hearts to the Lord. They must be songs
of grace concerning grace, God's grace, in order for them to produce
grace. You can't sing with grace if the song is not about grace. But if it is about grace, if
the song declares the glorious gospel of the grace of God, then
it will fill the heart with grace. Grace. I wanna give you an example
of that. I hope we'll see the gospel difference. I hope we'll see the difference
right here in works and grace. This is a song that we don't
sing. All right, this right here is a song that we don't sing.
The reason is because there's no grace in it. None, only works. This is not a song of God's free
gift. This is a song of man's works,
all right? This is the title of it. I surrender all. This is how it goes. All to Jesus. I surrender all to Him. I freely give. I'm going to show grace to Him.
I'm going to freely give to Him. I will ever love and trust Him
in His presence daily live. I surrender all. I surrender
all, all to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. I can't sing that song. I can't
sing that one, not with sincerity, not with grace in my heart. If I sang that song, I'd have
to sing it with sorrow, I'd have to sing it with shame, knowing
I haven't done that at all. Think about that. I surrender
all. I haven't done that at all. I'd
have to sing that believing in my heart that I was singing lies. I'm lying to you right now. But Brother Joe Terrell, who
is a pastor out in Rock Valley, Iowa, he took the music from
that song and he wrote new words to it. He made a new song out
of it, all right? Listen to it now. All for me, Christ did surrender. All for me, he freely gave. Holy one made sin for sinners. By his death, my soul is saved. He surrendered all. He surrendered
all, all to be my blessed Savior. He surrendered all. Grace. That just put grace in my heart.
That made me happy and it put grace in my heart. I've been leading the singing
here ever since I got here, almost eight years now. I led the singing
in Rocky Mount for almost 10 years before that. After you do it long enough,
you start to realize what people's favorite songs are because they
come request the same ones over and over. Brother Luke is not here tonight,
he's on vacation, so I'm gonna tell you what his favorite song
is. It's number 206, Wonderful Grace of Jesus. greater than
all my sin. How can my tongue describe it? Where shall its praise begin?
Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free, for the wonderful
grace of the Lord Jesus reaches even me. That's grace. Brother Henry used to always
request that will be glory. When all my labors and trials
are o'er, and I'm safe on that beautiful shore, just to be near
the dear Lord I adore will through the ages be glory for me. Friends
will be there I have loved long ago, joy like a river around
me will flow, yet just a smile from my Savior I know will through
the ages be glory for me. If he'll just look at me, if
he'll just do that, 497, when I can read my title clear,
when I can get there, when I'm finally there and I say, I'm
here, and I can see it signed in blood, when I can with these
two eyes, like Job said, read my title clear, free and clear. I think of Rebecca and Amy's
sister Jill every time we sing the song 514, Marching As I Am. There was a dear brother in Rocky
Mount that used to come up to me and say all the time, when
are we gonna sing 475 again? I wanna sing 475. Redeemed, how
I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the
lamb. Redeemed through his infinite
mercy, his child, and forever I am. Another brother used to come
up and say, can we sing hymn number 37? He'd say it all the
time. Can we sing hymn number 37? I'd
say, absolutely. Every time he'd say, make sure
you don't leave out verse three. You know what verse three of
hymn number 37 says? It says, and when I think that
God, his son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take
it in, that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled
and died to take away my sin, then sings my song. My Savior God to Thee, how great
Thou art. Can we see how all of these songs
in our hearts bring grace to the heart. Grace to the heart. It's not about the song, it's
about the grace. The grace. The song that entered
my mind when this first started coming about was One Day, the
song One Day. Lord willing, we're gonna sing
it in just a minute. One Day. I just slowly, slowly went through living
he loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He
carried my sins far away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming. Oh, glorious
day. I think about the fact sometimes
we have dear loved ones that have gone on. Well, they're coming
back with Him. If any of you go on before me,
you're gonna come back with Him. One day, He's coming. This is
what it is to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly, with
all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing with grace, not works. Not have I gotten, but what I
received. Grace hath bestowed it, and I
have believed. boasting excluded, pride I base,
I'm only a sinner saved by grace. That's singing with grace in
our hearts to the Lord. This is my prayer. May God put
a song in our hearts. I pray God will put a song in
our hearts tonight, tomorrow, this week, from here on out. And may God put a voice of singing
in our tongue, one that points us to the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ to us. I pray He will. I pray He will
put something in us that causes us to thank Him, cry out in praise
and adoration and thanks. We're gonna do that for all eternity.
Maybe He'll let us truly start right now. I pray He will. All right, let's all stand together. you.