They turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three, as I was thinking about this section, it does portray for us a picture of the new man. Thomas Watson, that Puritan pastor and author, wrote a book. several hundred years ago called The Godly Man's Picture Drawn With A Scripture Pencil. It's currently in print through Banner of Truth, if you are so inclined.
It's a wonderful study of a godly man. And as he says, drawn with a scripture pencil. Now, he goes to all over the scriptures. We're going to confine ourselves here to Colossians three.
But we are sketching with the scripture pen pencil what a new man looks like. He is new, not because he is good, not because he has accomplished something, not because he has performed well, but he is new because God is gracious and God is merciful. And he sent his son, Jesus, to live for us and to die for us. and to rise again. In fact, the language specifically in verses 9 and 10 of Colossians 3 highlight that fact that God has sovereignly worked in the new man.
Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. It is God who does this. It is God who is supreme in the matter of salvation. Truly, as the prophet Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord.
We'll pick up reading in chapter three at verse twelve. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body and be thankful.
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. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Amen. Well, let us pray.
Father, we thank you for the Holy Scripture and we pray for the spirit of God to guide and direct us now. We pray, Father, that you would deal with us graciously, deal with us severely if we need it, Father. We pray that you would correct us, that you would reprove us, that you would instruct us in righteousness. We genuinely desire to be thoroughly furnished unto every good work.
And again, for those who do not know Christ as Lord and Savior, we pray that you would humble them under your mighty hand this day, that they would have an appreciation of who Jesus is and what he has accomplished. And that we will never stand in the presence of thrice holy God and our own righteousness or in our own strength. We stand clothed in the righteousness of Christ alone. And God, I pray that this would give us peace and this would give us cause for eternal thanksgiving.
And we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Well,
Introduction
as we come to chapter three, specifically verses 15 to 17, we need to understand that the new man is not simply a moralist, a moralist. He's not someone that just puts off bad things and puts on good things. The new man isn't a legalist. He doesn't earn his status with God by his accomplishment of putting off and putting on.
The new man, rather, is defined ultimately by his belief in the gospel. And that belief will ultimately yield the putting off and the putting on. But it will all be bathed in or saturated in his desire and his orientation to be Christ centered. Christ centeredness ought to define the new man.
If somebody were to ask you, why are you a Christian? Don't say, because I put off sin and put on righteousness. I'm a Christian because Jesus lived, died and rose again. I'm a Christian because of Christ, because of him, because of the Lord of glory himself.
We need to be very careful that we don't fall prey to a Christ-less Christianity. We all of us are pretty proud and we all think that we've accomplished things pretty well and we can give ourselves a pat on the back and we don't do this anymore. We don't do that. We don't do this.
And now we do this and now we do that. We're feeling pretty good about ourselves. Well, the best, the very best is still a miserable wretch who stands justly under God's condemnation and wrath. We stand by grace.
We are here because of grace. We will enter into the New Jerusalem, clothed in a righteousness which is not our own. That righteousness which Luther called an alien righteousness. It's imputed to us.
It has been secured by the Lord Jesus. And I believe here in chapter 3, verses 15 to 17, the emphasis is on the Christ-centered orientation of the new man. And
Three Christ-Centered Realities
Paul highlights specifically three things. He highlights first the peace of Christ, verse 15. Secondly, the word of Christ, verse 16. And then thirdly, the name of Christ in verse 17.
So when all you're putting off and then all you're putting on, do it under the conscious reality that you are walking in the peace of Christ. that you are driven and governed by the word of Christ and that you do whatever you do in word or in deed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. for the glory of God, the father will look at.
The Peace of Christ
Let's look at this piece of Christ first in verse fifteen. After having said that the new man puts on tender mercies, kindness, humility, he bears with one another and he forgives one another. He has above all put as a crown upon himself love, which is the bond of perfection. Paul now says in verse fifteen and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. to which also you were called in one body and be thankful.
What is this piece of Christ? I realize the new King James translates it, the peace of God. But I think for symmetry, the peace of Christ is probably a better rendition here. Christ is God.
So it's no stretch whatsoever. Just clearly defining more, I think, the person that is in view. Well, the peace of Christ has already been spoken of by Paul in Colossians chapter one. It is vitally connected to his crosswork.
Go back to Colossians 1 and verse 20 for just a moment. So if we need to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, we need to understand what we're talking about. Jesus is not the innovator of the leader of the United Nations or some other man-centered peacekeeping association. The peace that Christ gives is of a different kind altogether.
And if we are to let that peace govern us, or umpire us, or referee us, or rule in our hearts, we need to have a fresh appreciation of that peace. Notice in Colossians 1 at verse 19. It pleased the father that in him all the fullness should dwell and by him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made notice peace through the blood of his cross. So letting the peace of Christ rule in your heart isn't some nebulous, warm feeling that just causes you not to get too bent out of shape over certain circumstances.
No, it is to let the gospel peace influence you. It is to live near Calvary's cross. It is to let the shadow of Calvary shine or cast its shadow in your life. This is the piece that Jesus spoke of in John fourteen and verse twenty seven in the upper room.
What does he say to his disciples? My piece I give to you. My piece I leave with you. Not as the world gives do I give the world has a semblance or an appearance of peace.
The world can offer what appears to be happiness and some degree of stability, but that's not the kind of peace that Jesus gives. The peace that Jesus gives cannot be found in a bottle. It cannot be found in a pill. It cannot be found in the United Nations.
The peace that Christ gives comes as a result of his blood shedding at Calvary. And do you know what else? This peace that we are to let govern our hearts is not connected to our performance. Let peace rule in your hearts as long as you're being peaceful.
Let peace rule in your hearts as long as you're stable. Let peace rule in your hearts as long as you're doing well. We tend to connect peace with our sanctification. We tend to connect peace with how we're feeling.
That's what the Bible says. We are to connect peace with the cross. We are to connect peace with justification.
Peace Grounded in Justification
Turn to Romans chapter 5 for just a moment. Romans chapter 5, where you see that peace is intimately connected again to the gospel, to Christ's doing and dying on behalf of sinners and to that justification which flows freely from his grace received by faith alone. Notice in Romans 5.1, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, one man as well said the doctrine of sola fide needs to be proclaimed again from every pulpit in the land.
That means faith alone. That Reformation cry that we're saved by grace through faith in Jesus needs to be thundered in the churches. Not so we can just win over the Roman Catholic arguments. Not so we can just put to shame the new perspective on Paul.
Not just so we can show those federal vision guys who's right and who's confessional, but so that you may know peace. Your peace is connected to the cross, not to whether or not you read your Bible today. Now, I'm not saying don't read your Bible today, but I have met a fair share of Christians who, when they read their Bibles and pray, they have peace. That's not what this text says.
In the language of Romans 5.1, he uses a perfect participle. That means something's happened in the past. It is a perfectly completed activity, but it has current and abiding results for you right now. Isn't that beautiful?
Therefore, having been justified by faith, Remember, when we looked at the doctrine of justification, it's a one time declaration. You don't grow in your justification. You don't get more justified. I heard a sermon yesterday and the man quoted Spurgeon.
And then the man said, rightly, I don't think I'd have the guts to say it like Spurgeon did. Spurgeon said something to the effect that when God justifies you. When God pronounces not guilty over you because of the work of Jesus Christ, he loves you as much as he loves his only begotten son. An hour after you believe the gospel, a minute after you believe the gospel and you have been justified by faith, God loves you in the same measure that he loves his son.
And Donnelly says, I don't think I would have said that like that. But the scriptures testify we are co-heirs with Christ. We are joint heirs with Christ. When the father says of the son in his baptism and at the transfiguration, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
We are vitally connected now. We are legally united to the son so that the father's pleasure in his son is now the father's pleasure in us. I know that's hard to comprehend. I understand that.
I realize that to be a sinning wretch, it's difficult to realize that God loves me. That's why the Bible tells us so many times. That's why the New Testament underscores this reality so many times so that on Thursday, if you forgot to read your Bible, it's not as if God has cast you off and has forgotten all about you and you have to shimmy your way back into his affection. That's the way we think.
Paul condemns such madness in Galatians 221. If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. If righteousness comes because I performed well, then why Golgotha? Why Calvary?
Why that cry of dereliction? Why has thou forsaken me? If all of us sinners could perform in obedience to God. Therefore, he says, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.
Notice in Romans five. There is that past action. We have been justified by faith. We have present peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then in verse two, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. There's a future orientation as well. Yes, we've been justified by faith. Yes, we have peace with God, but we're not in the New Jerusalem yet.
We have that hope. Hope in the New Testament isn't, I hope I win a million dollars. I hope I get that job promotion that I have no business getting. I hope that this woman will marry me when she doesn't even know who I am.
We use hope as just, I hope it happens. That's not hope in the Bible. It is a confident expectation based on the truth of God. This hope that we have in future glory has been secured for us by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul says, let the peace of Christ rule. And the word rule here, as I've already alluded to, means to referee. What would be an umpire? Kind of amazing, huh?
The guy standing behind the plate, this big pad and the headpiece on, umpiring the game. He's ruling it. He's over it. You as a coach may not like his ruling and you may come and you may kick dust on his shoes.
And what does he do? You're out of here, right? He rules that field. It is his dominion.
Johnny says very well, the peace of Christ is not merely to have existence in your hearts, but it is to exercise supreme command. You are to let that piece of Christ, which he secured at Calvary, govern, rule, dominate, and exercise supreme command in your hearts. That explains why, in the most difficult circumstances, we find Christians doing amazing things. This is why we find in Acts chapter five, after the unbelieving Jews took whips and opened the flesh of the disciples, they left from there, not threatening to call their congressmen, not threatening to call the governor, not invoking their rights as Jewish men, but rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus.
How do they do that? Because the peace of Christ doesn't merely exist in their hearts, but it exercises dominion. This is why Paul and Silas, who are rounded up in the marketplace and brought to the Roman magistrate, having had the Roman rod laid upon their backs and their feet placed in the stocks at midnight, instead of crying and agonizing and calling upon the jailer to give them their one phone call, they're praising God and singing hymns. I think it was Tertullian who said, while the feet are in the stocks, the heart is in heaven.
That's how Christ's people operate. They understand justification by faith. They understand that peace with God. That's what matters.
That's what counts. That's what I ought to let govern me. And
Peace in the Body of Christ
notice the theater that this piece is to flesh itself out and notice in verse 15 of Colossians 3. Let the peace of God or peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which you were called in one body. To love Paul, he'll never let us forget sovereign grace. Paul is the quintessential Calvinist.
He won't let us forget we were called to this. We didn't arrive at this. We didn't get together and work these things out. Why don't we just live together in peace?
No, we wouldn't do that. He says you've been called to this. You have been called to participate in the government of Christ's peace. You have been called to be subdued.
You've been called to be enslaved. You have been called to have a yoke placed upon you. And in this instance, it is the yoke of Christ's peace. You were called to this in one body.
So this vertical peace that you enjoy with God, having been justified by faith because of the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ, that peace with God ought to flow out into the church. It ought to affect other people, it ought to be evident in your home. It ought to be evident in your workplace. It ought to be evident in your church.
Having been justified by faith, new man is a peaceful man. Because when things are right with God, things are right. We don't often think like that. Got to get my house in order.
Got to get my job in order. Got to get my schooling in order. Got to get this in order. Got to get that in order.
Then I'll have peace. You see what Paul's saying? You have peace with the most important one. Everything else is in place.
Right? It's his argument. That's what he's saying. A new man walks like.
It ought to affect you in the life of the church. We've been called as one body, Romans 12, 5, 1st Corinthians 12, 12 and Ephesians 4, 4. F.F. Bruce says that strife inevitably results when men and women are out of touch with him, who is the one source of true peace.
But there is no reason why those who have received the peace which Christ established by his death on the cross should have any other than peaceful relations among themselves. Let me just read that again and listen, because sometimes in our churches we forget that this peace which has come as a result of Christ justifying us doesn't always flush itself out the way that we live. Strife inevitably results, that means it comes certainly, when men and women are out of touch with him who is the one source of true peace. It shouldn't surprise you that there is chaos in the world.
It shouldn't surprise you that there is a whole host of unrest in this world. I mean, it should still shock us when we read about Fort Hood. It should still cause us to weep and break our hearts. We should never become comfortable with sin.
But we shouldn't throw up our hands and say, I don't know how this could ever happen. You don't. Men are at war with the living God. Men hate God.
Men have mounted an opposition against God and against his Christ. And you wonder why there's not peace. Sometimes we Christians ban in our in our judgmental attitudes really undo what Christ came to do. How dare you behave like that.
It's like saying this to the bird. How dare you fly. How dare you swim to a fish. No more so we should say I understand that you swim like a fish because you're a fish.
Christ came and died for sinners and rose again. He says there is no reason why those who have received the peace which Christ established by his death on the cross should have any other than peaceful relations among themselves. Oh, we'll bump into each other. We'll be, there'll be friction.
There'll be tension to be sure, but because we're going to forbear and because we're going to forgive and because we're governed and ruled by the peace of Christ, we're going to bury those things. We are going to embrace one another and we are going to dwell in peace. Paul says in Ephesians 4 that we are to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That doesn't mean if the pastor comes up and starts preaching heresy, you don't challenge him.
Or he starts exercising undue authority, you don't challenge him. Or if someone in the church offends you legitimately, you just suck it up and knuckle under. That doesn't mean that. You deal with it biblically, you deal with it scripturally, but you deal with it so you can have peace with one another.
And
Peace and Thankfulness
notice there is a thankfulness which accompanies peace. I love Paul in Colossians puts thankfulness in here so many times we find it in his own prayer in Colossians 1 3. We see it in Colossians 1 12 that they themselves were to be thankful. Colossians 2 and verse 7 here in Colossians 3 and verse 15 again in Colossians 3 17 and in Colossians 4 2 at the end of verse 15 he says and be thankful.
That's interesting. Peace and thankfulness go hand in hand. In fact, if we're really thankful, it facilitates peace. It's hard to be mean to your brother and sister when you're thanking God, right?
Isn't it? It's hard to be Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh when you're thanking God. It's hard to be obnoxious when you're thanking God. We can still do it, but it's harder.
When we're living in an attitude of pervasive thankfulness unto God, which thankfulness is necessary because it causes us to look always at God's grace. It's a legitimate and excellent motivation. Listen to Douglas Moody says believers who are full of gratitude to God for his gracious calling will find it easier to extend the fellow believers the grace of love and forgiveness and to put aside petty issues that might inhibit the expression of peace in the community. Simple right.
When you're thanking God hopefully you're able to deal with people in a righteous manner. Let this peace rule in your heart and be thankful. So not only be thankful to facilitate peace, but that peace ought to promote thankfulness. Praise God, I'm right with God.
This may not be in order, that may not be in order, this may have some issues. You ever feel like your life is a bunch of frayed ends? Like if somebody could look inside your head, instead of seeing a nice rope or a nice string, they'd see a bunch of frayed ends. Am I the only one that ever feels like that?
I doubt it. But even though you've got all those frayed ends, the most important thing is covered. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice Paul moves on.
The Word of Christ
It's not only the peace of Christ. But it's the message of the word of Christ. Notice, in verse 16, that 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.
Centrality of the Word in Worship
First, I want to look at the centrality of Christ's word. Then we'll look at this translation a little bit just to try to make some sense out of what Paul is actually instructing us. Notice the first thing with reference to this, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Now, there is that personal or individual element, to be sure, every Christian ought to let the word of Christ dwell in him richly.
We'll get to that in just a moment, but there's a corporate element to. How should our churches look? Should the pulpit be off to the side or in the center? Should entertainment take priority?
Should the abomination of the mass take priority? The very asking of the question says no. What should take priority in the assemblies of God's people? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Don't have a bit of familiarity with the word. Don't come near the word, but let it dwell in you richly. Let it take up residence in your heart and mind. Let it be a part of you.
Let it be something you are more than familiar with. Let it be a ready and a constant guide. Corporately, the church should be about proclamation. Now, there are other elements of worship to be sure.
This very context highlights one of those other elements. But we ought not to forget that when Paul was about to die, He's about to go the way of all flesh and enter into his eternal reward. The very last charge that he gives to his young companion, Timothy, is not be the best, be the happiest, be the most dazzling, be the most gifted, speak in tongues, prophesy, have great entertainment, do all those things. His last and his final admonition to Timothy is simply this.
Preach the word. Not preach your feelings. A preacher experiences not preach stories. The preacher actually in America says my congregation really loves stories, so we got the pulpit out of there, put a big brown easy chair in there and I sit down and I tell them stories.
God have mercy that we have fallen such from the Reformation standard of the centrality of the preaching of God's word. The Heidelberg Catechism is very clear. When a man is accurately and faithfully preaching the word, you are hearing from God himself that I'm God. I think if we appreciated this admonition to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, we might approach worship with a bit of a difference.
We wouldn't come thinking we're just going to hear the ramblings of a man, and I hope he finishes by 11 or 12, 15. We're not coming in just to get our ears tickled. We're not coming in just to get some life experience or a bit of help from our coach, but we're coming to meet with the triune God. Let the word of Christ dwell in you.
Paul says preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. And then, you know what?
Paul gives two reasons why Timothy is to do that. The second reason is because Paul's about to die. The first reason is because the church may not want it. I love his logic.
If Timothy would have got on the phone or he would have emailed Paul and he would have said, look, the church I'm ministering to doesn't want sound doctrine, what should I do? Paul would say, preach sound doctrine. Not move your pulpit over and get a big brown easy chair and have entertainment. He'd say, preach the word.
For the time will come, Paul says to Timothy, when they will not endure sound doctrine. It's almost like they're going to stomp up their ears and say, no, we want this. We want to heap up men that'll tickle our ears, that'll tell us peace, peace, when there is no peace. And to tell us about every other thing save the doctrine of the cross.
Paul says the time will come when they will do that. So here's the response. Preach the word. That's his logic.
Paul wants the word of Christ to dwell in you richly. Corporately as a church. There ought to be a longing to hear from God's word. We don't look at it as if the hymns or the prayers are all just preliminary.
Let's get to the stuff. We don't want to fall into that trap either. We ought to be worshiping in song. We ought to be worshiping in prayer.
We ought to be gathered together as the corporate body of God's elect, holy and beloved coming into his presence to meet with him. By the same token, we don't say, well, we worship for an hour and then we throw a little bit of an exhortation in. No. I've met people that think that worship stops when the singing stops, do you know that right now, if you're really paying attention, you're worshiping God.
Did you know that you're not just some passive stuff, you're not just a bump on the log, you're not just an oddity on these pews, but you're a worshiper of the triune God. That's how you come to this. That's how you prepare your heart. You come to hear and worship.
Corporately and individually. It's like a fire, right? You just throw one log on the fire, it'll burn right up. You throw a bunch of wood in there and it burns hot and it burns bright and it burns strong.
That's how it ought to be on the Lord's day. A lot of logs coming together to burn strong and bright for their God. You should be feeding your soul each and every day. Your status with God does not depend upon your Bible reading, but your life with God is certainly helped as you read your Bible.
Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, that means I can read, I can pray, I can commune with this God, I can learn from him. You know, most of us spent the better part of our lives doing everything wrong. Now we get the privilege of being transformed by the renewing of our minds. And yet laziness is a reality.
Indifference is a reality. We have to fight. We have to just put those things off and we have to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.
Teaching, Admonishing, and Singing
Notice what Paul says in verse sixteen, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. The New King James reads as if teaching and admonishing one another takes place while we sing. This has some weight when we compare Ephesians chapter five, because as we read Ephesians five, it does read that way. But that's not how the grammar of this text reads.
I think it's a twofold thing. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, and it will flesh itself out in two ways. The first, you'll teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and the second is you'll sing psalms and hymns and praises to God. In fact, the ESV renders that let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
I think that captures the grammar. I think that is a good and legitimate translation. So the idea is that individually, Monday through Saturday, you're letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly. So that when you see a brother, or when you see a sister, or when you come in here on the Lord's Day, you can teach and admonish one another.
That doesn't mean you call your friends and say, I've got a word from the Lord, come and sit down in my house, because I'm going to teach you and I'm going to admonish you. No, it doesn't mean that. Now, you may have a word that you want to share and it's burning in your heart and you want to tell them about it. But I think it's the day in, day out, exhorting one another daily while it is called today, lest we be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
He's not saying that we ought to get rid of the pulpit. We ought to get rid of the teaching ministry. We ought not to have elders. We ought not to have preachers.
We ought not to have that. The body ought to just tend to itself. No, I don't think that's what he's saying. He's saying, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly so that you can teach and admonish one another in all wisdom.
So if your brother says, look, I'm going to go out and do this, you can say, no, the Bible says don't do that. But if your wife gets, you know, unsubmissive, he said, honey, the Bible says don't do that. Or if your husband is acting like a jerk, you can say, honey, the Bible doesn't say that. It says to love me.
You're going to teach and admonish one another in all wisdom. Paul connects wisdom with teaching in Colossians 1. I think it bears out the grammar. So what do you do?
Two things. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly so that we can be of benefit to one another. So, if somebody says, hey, I met with this Jehovah's Witness and they were challenging me about who Jesus is, you can say, wow, I just read today in Acts chapter 5 that the Holy Spirit is God. I read in John 20, 28 that Jesus is God.
And then a friend says, wow, that's great. I'm going to write that down. I'm going to remember that so that now I can be better equipped to teach Jehovah's Witness. It doesn't mean it has to be a formalized setting.
OK, today we're going to hear from Brother Whoever, Brother So-and-so, Brother What? No, no, no. That's not the point. The point is, have the word dwelling in you richly so that you're of help to a brother.
Right? So you can encourage a brother. So you can admonish a brother. So if a brother comes to you and says, look, I'm going to sell my house, I'm going to leave my wife, and I'm going to go be a rock star.
You can say, no. Don't do that. Let me show you something in the Bible, right? Oh no, I'm settled.
No, let me show you. You teach them and you admonish them. The idea is that you let the word dwell in you richly, not just so you can benefit, but so that you can benefit others. John F.
Kay said, ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country. Or at least his speechwriter said that. The church or the Christian ought not to always be about what can the church do for me. We live in a very self-centered age.
People shop for churches like they shop for computers. I want this CPU. I want this program. I want this.
I want this. I want this. Because it all has to serve me. Because I'm most important.
How about this zany idea? You get up on a Sunday morning and pray and read, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and then say to God, Lord, let me benefit somebody else. Let me be of help to another. Let me be an encouragement.
Let me be kind. Let me share with them something that encouraged me during the week. That's what Paul is saying. It is to flesh itself out in our teaching and admonishing of one another and in our singing of praise to Jesus.
Notice the connection here? Let the word of Christ dwell richly in your heart so that you can sing. Not empty yourself of any thought of doctrine, any thought of truth, any thought of whatever. Be experience-driven and feelings-oriented, and whatever music gets you going, sing.
No. God's method is fill yourself with truth so that you can sing back truth. Not fill yourself with feeling and warmth, so that you can sing out for feeling and warmth. Right?
You see that? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, so that you can teach and admonish one another, and so that when you come to sing, you're singing to God. Yeah, when a two-year-old is able to say, I love you, Daddy, that's great. But when he's 22, he should be able to articulate a few reasons why he loves you.
Because you've given to me, you have taken care of me, you have not dealt with me according to my transgressions, you have loved me when others haven't. It's great. You get saved to say, I love you, God. It's no accident that our hymn book was written primarily, the hymns in our book were written primarily by pastors and by theologians.
Why? Because they knew that the truth was to saturate the heart in order to sing it back to God.
Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs
He speaks of three categories here, he says Psalms and he says hymns and he says spiritual songs. Psalms is probably a reference to the Old Testament Psalter. Some take this and say it's a Psalms only position that these three terms all refer to sections in the Psalter. I don't think that's right.
Psalm itself means to sing with musical accompaniment. It's always been a curious thing to me that some of the Psalms only people are anti-musical instruments. It's very difficult to come away from reading the Psalms and conclude that musical instruments are wrong. The very word of the etymology itself suggests that you're singing with accompaniment.
Hymns are praises to God. And songs is a neutral term. It could be religious or it could be spiritual. That's why he says spiritual songs.
These three elements ought to be present in the life of God's people. Calvin defines song this way. A song is that in the singing of which some musical instrument besides the tongue is made use of. So, Charles Hodge says a song was agreeably to the etymology of the word, a song designed to be sung with the accompaniment of instrumental music.
Calvin says a hymn is properly a song of praise, whether it be sung simply with the voice or otherwise. And spiritual songs, John Eady said, the ode is a general term and denotes the natural outburst of an excited bosom. Oh, that we'd have more natural outbursts of excited bosoms. As I said, I don't agree in a psalms only position.
I think that singing is somewhat like preaching. The preacher is not to get up and simply recite the sacred text. In the same manner, I don't think the psalms only position is accurate that we simply recite the sacred text. However, in our preaching and in our singing, we must accurately reflect the sacred text.
We must accurately teach and preach the sacred text. Now, having said that, I don't believe Paul is teaching a psalms only position, I am very sympathetic to those brethren who see it this way. In what is very shallow hymnody, in what is very trite singing, in what is very, very unbiblical. The church does well To get the songs of David under their belts, Robert Raymond commenting on the singing and worship, he says it will also include the much neglected singing of songs which express the full range of human emotions and worship.
See, human authors don't sit down and write laments. A human author would never write song without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, would ever write Psalm 88. Or Psalm 42 or Psalm 43. We're afraid to tell people that I actually cried out to God, where are you?
But you know, when we search the Psalms, we find that those guys weren't afraid under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. You see, God is real. And when I say God is real, I don't mean that he's real existently or he's existing. I mean that to be sure.
But he's real. He knows us. He doesn't play games with us. We put on the game we put on the fake.
We say we're fine when we're not. God knows better. Raymond goes on to say the biblical Psalms are realistic in a way that many hymns are not. And choruses could hardly ever be.
They also contrast the righteous and the wicked. You're not going to find anybody today writing a hymn that says, you know, God, your enemies make make his children orphans, his wife, a widow. Now, whether we should sing all that in corporate worship, I actually think so, but that's a whole nother topic for argument. The whole use of the imprecatory songs.
He goes on to say they also contrast the righteous and the wicked highlight the conflict between them and thereby encourage a bold militant spirituality such as the Huguenot and Puritan fathers knew and lived by. Remember reading that the Huguenot marching into battle would sing Psalm 68. French Calvinists going to battle would be singing the Psalms of David. Gordon Clark says singing hymns which were free to do. does not imply that the cheap, catchy ditties of some modern evangelism, if it is evangelism at all, are superior to the Psalms of David.
And a hymn book without a good proportion of Psalms is not fit for a church service. Some of you, when we read the Trinity Psalter, that's an odd duck thing. There's a good deal of Psalms in our hymn book. But that Trinity Psalter is a good supplement to introduce more of them so that we can sing about those themes that would not otherwise be captured by an uninspired writer.
So it's.
The Name of Christ
The peace of Christ, the message of Christ, and then finally notice the name of Christ, our orientation is Christ word, verse 17, whatever you do in word or deed. It's the scope, isn't that great? Whatever you do, Paul said to put off and he said to put on. But just in case I missed anything, whatever you do, whether it's in word, what you say or it's indeed what you do, whatever you do, whatever you say, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.
That doesn't mean, ladies, that you wash your dishes and before you do it, you say in the name of Jesus, I'm going to wash these dishes. It isn't simply a rote parenting of the phrase, in the name of Jesus. It means your orientation. It means your life.
It means, as Scripture says elsewhere, your walk, your conversation. Whatever you do, you do according to the nature of, the person of, the works of Jesus. You're not parenting a formula. You're living a life.
Again, Doug Moose says this to do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus, then does not mean simply to utter Jesus name, but to act always in concert with the nature and character of our Lord. In other words, when you do something or you say something, you do it as a Christian, you do it as a new man, you do it as a new woman, you do it as one who has been justified by faith, who now enjoys peace with God. You do it in that manner. You don't do it as a heathen.
You don't do it as a pagan. You don't do it for yourself. You don't do it for everybody else. The Christian priority structure is very clearly defined in the Bible.
And we do well to heed that. God comes first. And you know that, ladies, if your husband puts God first, you're going to benefit. It's when he puts you first that things are going to go right.
Same thing with the wives. If she puts God before you, praise the Lord for that. Because any other order, any other system of priority means that we're idolaters. We do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.
And Paul ends again with thankfulness, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Thankfulness in the Christian life is so important because it is a constant recognition of the grace-based nature of God's saving dealings with his people. That's why thankfulness is important. It casts your eyes on God.
It causes you to remember Jesus. It causes you to consider Calvary. It causes you to say with Paul, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. That's what thankfulness is all about.
Well, thus far in our portrait of a new man, we have seen that he sets his mind on things above where Christ is. That's where it begins. Chapter three, verses one to four. Before he says put off, before he says put on, before he says do this, before he says do that, he says you need to put your mind here.
Because you see a spiritual or biblical mindedness will flush itself out on the earth. Biblical mindedness will have horizontal effect. on those around you. He sets his mind on things above where Christ is. He puts off sins of the flesh and sins of the tongue.
He puts on virtues consistent with the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is governed by or ruled by the peace of Christ. He is filled with the knowledge of Christ's word because it was richly in his heart. And he is a man who is faithful with reference to thankfulness to his God.
Do these things describe you? Real simply, if we set up the portrait of a new man here, does it look like you? Does it look like what you want to become? I mean, praise God, what Newton said is true.
Yeah, I'm not what I ought to be, but praise God, I'm not what I was. And I know I'm not what I'm going to be by God's grace. You may look at this portrait and you may say, wow, I don't think there's a one on one correspondence, but by God's grace, I've been justified by faith and that is what I want. I don't care how old you are.
I don't care how young you are. Does this describe you? Is this you? Can you look at Colossians chapter three and say, wow, by the grace of God, by the grace of God.
This indwelling word of Christ. Rather, I don't know if you stand as amazed as I do at the biblical illiteracy that is rampant in North America, but it just drives me nuts. This isn't because I just finished up my Whitfield studies either. Biblical illiteracy.
We have support groups, we have encounter groups, we have this meeting, we've got this meeting, we got men's this, we got women's this, we got kids this, we got all this. But how many can say that justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons all of our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith." That is a grand confession. It was on that confession that the Protestant Reformation launched forth. The greatest revival in the history of the Church centered on that truth.
And we have people today that are ignorant of that truth. Please don't let it be you. Let the word of Christ dwell richly in your hearts. There's nothing better.
What is the psalmist saying? Much to be desired, more than fine gold. King David had everything at his fingertips, but he wanted God's word. King Solomon had everything at his fingertips, but he wanted wisdom from God.
You see, they understood, let the word of Christ well richly in your heart. And it's very interesting if you compare on your own later this with the parallel in Ephesians five in Ephesians five. Paul says, Do not be drunk with wine and which is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ever wondered, how do I get more Holy Spirit?
I hope you've wondered that. I hope that's a legitimate desire. I hope you're like, man, I want more of the Holy Spirit. You know, all of the Charismatics and Pentecostals are saying, I don't know that that even really is the Holy Spirit.
But because they abuse some things doesn't mean we, as Reformed folk, shouldn't seek more of the Holy Spirit. We want to be Spirit-filled. Well, when you take these two passages and you compare them, he says, but be filled with the Holy Spirit speaking to one another in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Here is let the word of Christ dwell in you richly speaking in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Obviously, the same idea is going on. I'm just simple enough to say, well, maybe the filling of the spirit has to do with letting the word of Christ dwell richly in my heart. It's not magic. We don't roll the dice.
We don't conjure up meaning so that the Spirit will come and visit us. We get up, we open our Bibles and we read. I know that doesn't sound as dramatic and as sensational, but when we compare the two passages, I think that's what's in view. Pastor MacArthur said this, the Holy Spirit fills the life controlled by his word.
Isn't that great? The Holy Spirit fills the life controlled by his word. You want more of the spirit, read more of the Bible. He goes on to say.
This emphasizes that the filling of the spirit is not some ecstatic or emotional experience, but a steady controlling of the life by obedience to the truth of God's word. You don't get the Spirit by selling everything you have and joining a monastery. You don't get the Spirit necessarily by going to a conference. More often than not, you are going to know more of the influence and the power of the Holy Spirit if you as a Christian man make a commitment to let the Word of Christ dwell richly in your hearts.
That's how God rolls. through the due use of the ordinary means. We want the extraordinary. We want to be dazzled. We want our feelings on fire all the time.
Do you know that if every day they had a great big fireworks display, it would take away from the specialness of it? Every day, normal guy Christianity is not fireworks blasting. Now, God, in his grace and in his kindness, sometimes punctuates the walk of a Christian with some fireworks. Great, glorious, wonderful, revive me, Lord, according to your word, fill me with your spirit, cause me to rejoice, let my bosom be so excited.
I can't wait to get to the house of God and sing. But the absence of God doesn't mean the absence of God. Some bad teaching out there, that if you're not living on this mountain high, higher life plane, then somehow you're not a real Christian. Paul says, let the word of Christ flow richly in your heart.
Not through magic, not through osmosis, but through reading, using that thing that's on top of your shoulders.
Christ-Centeredness Keeps Balance
And the final observation with reference to these three things, with reference to Christ, is peace, his word and his name. It keeps us balanced. The Christ-centered orientation of the new man keeps us balanced. We are a reformed Baptist church.
That means we have some peculiarities in our community. Some people would look at us and call us hyper-Calvinists. Others would look at us and call us Arminians. Others would look at us and say, how could you ever be reformed and Baptist?
Others don't have a clue because they don't have a clue about how we roll or how we operate. We're just a strange bunch of people. We have some distinctive. We don't speak in tongues.
We don't have special meetings where we speak in tongues. We don't have supernatural, all that stuff. And we are odd to some. Do you know what, brethren?
Our distinctive ought to be the gospel. People ought to say, well, you know what? This we do see. You're governed by Christ's peace.
You really love his word and you really do everything in his name. It keeps us balanced. What are our distinctness supposed to be? Christ and him crucified.
I was listening to a sermon by Pastor Ted Donley and he mentioned the man Jimmy Durante. Some of the older people will remember that Jimmy Durante, I think, was an actor or something in the States. In the early part of the world, he had a great big schnoz. In fact, they called him Schnozzle.
Big, huge nose. People around him would say, why don't you blow your nose, Jimmy? He'd say, why don't you blow it, because you're closer. That was his distinctive.
That's what made him unique. That was his claim to fame. Probably on that walk where they put their handprints or footprints, he put a nose print, because that's how he was known. I've got to tell you, brethren, I don't want to go to my grave having been known for just being a Baptist or just being reformed or just not speaking in tongues or just not doing this or not doing that or loving the law of God.
I want to go to the grave having made much of Jesus Christ and him crucified. This keeps the new man centered. This keeps the new man balanced. This keeps the new man where he ought to be, the foot of the cross.
Not standing out on the street corner and saying, I thank you, God, that I'm not like those Charismatics. I thank you, God, that I'm not like those Paedobactists. I thank you, God, that I'm not like those men. No.
He stands and he says, I thank you, God, for your grace and mercy to a sinner like me. This is the perspective the new man ought to have. And
Application: Believe the Gospel
if you're not a new man here today, there's one way of becoming a new man. It's not by putting off. It's not by putting on. It's by believing the gospel.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. This isn't a how-to manual for non-Christians. You just do this and you're part of the club. You just do this and you're in.
You just do this and you get to be baptized. You just do this and you get to take the Lord's Supper. This is not a how-to manual for the non-Christian. This is a description of a new man.
A new man is made by God alone. A new man sees himself as a sinner, sees God as holy, and he doesn't even look up into heaven and he says, God be merciful to me. And the man looks upon the Lord Jesus Christ and he lives. That's the way of salvation.
Not performance, not our performance anyway. It is tied up in performance. It is in the doing and in the dying and in the rising of the Lord Jesus Christ. You look to him and you will live.
Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures and God, we confess our sins if we have followed any of this with any degree of clarity. God, we don't always let your peace rule in our hearts. We don't always let the word of God dwell richly in our hearts, and we don't always do everything in the name of Christ. Forgive us, Lord, and cleanse us afresh in the blood of Christ.
And how we thank you that we're justified by faith. We're justified by a sovereign act of a gracious God. And yet we pray, Lord, that you would just fill us with more of your spirit so that we may walk as this passage describes. And for those who have not looked unto Christ, we pray.
That you would indeed draw them unto yourself, that calling with which you call sinners. We pray you would exercise today and that you would cause sinners, even in this room, to look unto Jesus and to be saved. We ask now that you would go with us and watch over us. And we pray again for those sick in our midst.
We pray for Pastor Cam that you would just give him a good day of rest. And we pray that you would heal him quickly, that he would be physically well, and that you would restore our brother to physical health. And we ask now that you would be glorified in our lives. And we pray through Christ our Lord.
Amen.