Please be seated and turn in your Bibles to Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5. You'll see at the very end of the reading of 5, 18th or 21, that the word Christ, I'll be reading God. That's how the King James has it, and I think it's better tested there in the King James. This is Ephesians 5, 18 through 21, and before we hear God's holy word read, let us go to him again asking for his help in understanding and applying this passage of scripture. Our God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the psalms that we have sung to praise you. We are your people and we love to praise you. We pray that this passage of scripture would exhort us all the more to praise you in song, with psalms, hymns, and songs. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen. Hear now the word of God. This is Ephesians 5, 18 through 21. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Submitting to one another out of reverence for God congregations the word of our Lord Can you imagine a day without singing without you yourself singing or somebody singing to you, or you listening to a song. It would be quite odd, wouldn't it, to imagine that? Because I'm sure your days are filled with singing. You probably sing more than you realize. Perhaps like Gandalf, you find yourself humming from day to day throughout the day. At New Year's Eve, you ring in the new year, do you not, with a song, the lyrics of which you mumble your way through. What is even the title of that song? I don't remember, but I'm sure you do. At birthday parties, you sing to celebrate the birthed one, even perhaps with a flair of Michael Scott. When you're doing your yard work or housework, you're mowing or vacuuming, are you singing or are you hearing people sing into your earbuds? Does your voice break out in song as soon as that shower water hits your body? When you get in the car, can you imagine a ride in silence? Perhaps that is the wish of the parents driving the vehicle. Can you imagine a car ride without song? It's hard to imagine, isn't it? Or when your bottom touches the dental chair, you hear the sweet sounds from above, and as you look above to hear the sounds, you also see the images of cats looking down upon you with care. You can't even ride an elevator without music reaching into your bones, at times even making you wish you had a longer ride on the elevator. Every day you sing or you listen to songs because music is in the air. But it's not just a commonplace of society. It's not just a cultural product to be taken for granted. It is, as Paul shows us in this text, a mark of the Christian. It is a sign of your salvation. It's an indicator of someone who has been truly saved and changed by Jesus. Redeemed people sing. We're not talking about singing everything, because every song has a worldview. No song is neutral. Every song has some kind of worldview commitment, some belief system that it is propagating, and so some songs shouldn't be sung. Just because you sing, of course, doesn't make you a Christian. Non-Christians sing too, you know. But if you are a Christian, you will sing. It is part of who you are now. It is your new life in Christ. I'm not saying that you sing well. I'm saying you will sing. And you will grow more and more in your singing. Again, we're not talking about all singing, but we are talking about all genres of singing. That is to say, in times of trial, in times of prosperity, whether we have nothing or everything, cold or warm, regardless of the season, we sing. We can take our cues, for instance, from the Israelites. The ancient Israelites cried out a psalm of deep pain in Psalm 137, one of the hardest psalms when they reflect on their own Babylonian captivity. and they were being called upon by the Chaldeans to sing them a song, and they were called upon to do that in mockery. Or even the lowly Haman had time for a psalm in Sheol, a dirge in darkness, if you read Psalm 88. If you have any biblical reason to sing at your lowest, that's your psalm. God wants the music of our lives to match reality. and to come from the Holy Spirit that He has given us, that now indwells our hearts. And so in these few verses, we see very clearly that being filled with the spirit of new life, we sing to God and speak to one another in Psalms. Now verse 18, we can recall the context, what comes before verse 18. Remember that folly is being replaced by wisdom. That wasting days in evil is being replaced with redeeming the day, seizing the day with the glories of redemption and the grace of God. The old ways filling is now replaced with new ways. Old way sexuality now with new way sexuality. And always, regardless of season, always with a song in the heart. Now verse 18 literally reads this way. And do not be making yourselves drunk with wine, but be being filled with the spirit. Do not be making yourselves drunk with wine. You see that present, active, ongoing command. But be being filled, an awkward phrase, but be being filled with the Spirit. Paul warns against the wrong kind of filling. This is the filling without the Holy Spirit. Two clear clarifications are in order first. One is that this does not mean that you can get drunk with non-wine. Paul's not saying that only wine is off the table, but you can get drunk with beer or bourbon or other spirits. He's not saying that. That would be a misreading of the passage. Another clarification is that this does mean that the wine was not Welch's grape juice. If the command is not to get drunk with wine, then there has to be something of that substance of wine that would get you drunk, and we call that alcohol, don't we? And so he's saying, this is real wine, this is real alcohol, and if you drink it in excess, you're going to get drunk. So don't be drinking in excess wine. Now, surprisingly perhaps, this word drunk can be used very positively in the Old Testament and in the New. For instance, in Psalm 23 verse 5, Psalm of the Good Shepherd, the phrase, my cup overflows, that word overflows is this word here, do not be drunk. Or in Psalm 36, verse 8, it says, they feast, that's the word, they feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. Or Song of Songs, chapter 5, verse 1, eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love. Or in John 2, verse 10, there's that, the miracle of Jesus, the wedding in Cana, Galilee. The people had drunk freely the good wine, and then the poor wine is given. So at times, this word is used very positively to speak of the abundance, the outpouring of blessings or of love, of being deeply invested in companionship with your beloved, feasting at the Lord's table. So there can be a positive use of this word. But clearly, the context here shows us that it's actually in line with most of the evidence in the Bible that it is not a good thing. This is one of those no-nos. This is language of getting drunk. In Noah's day, in Genesis 9, 21, we know that Noah, as a new Adam figure, he imbibed too much of the bubbly and he got drunk. Or in Luke 12, verse 45, the drunk servants are caught unawares and they are unable to act timely. They're unable to act wisely because they've lost control and they are too tired. They don't have their wits about them. Or in 1 Thessalonians 5, 7, night and drunkenness can catch us unawares and not sober-minded. Or consider Revelation 17 verse 2, that the kings of the earth and the earth dwellers get drunk with immorality. So here we have a lot of examples in the Old and New Testament of excessive investment, of unnecessary, of too much either drink or immorality. And this is what Paul really has in mind in verse 18. And we know that because he qualifies this with the next clause, for that is debauchery. Do not be getting drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. He means here wastefulness, reckless abandon, wild living, prodigality, the life of a prodigal. That's what this is about, this life of being drunk. So being drunk with wine is being full of wine. Why would he say this? Why would he highlight this? Because the focus here has been on being mastered, on losing control. The question for the Ephesians is, who are you going to be controlled by? Or what are you going to be controlled by? Are you controlled by the world or are you controlled by the Spirit of God? We already saw in the preceding verses that we're not supposed to be mentioning or naming sexual sins. That is, we're not supposed to be subjecting our members to unrighteousness. We then would be controlled by and mastered by these sins. The same thing here as far as this substance of wine. Don't be controlled by this wine. I once knew a woman whose hand was glued to the glass of wine. Everyone in her family knew that she had a problem. She obviously did not think she had a problem. Those who are drunks usually don't think they have a problem, and they can rationalize their way through the conversation. What's wrong with a glass of wine at the end of the night to unwind, she asks. Well, nothing is wrong with that in itself. That's really not the question, now is it? Maybe we should follow up with, How many glasses are you really taking? And how big is the glass? You've seen those funny images of, I've only had one cup of coffee and it's like a bowl. How much wine have you really had? And I think even a bigger question is, how would you act if you didn't have it? How would you act if someone said, don't drink it for the next week? Could you be okay not having that? One of my pastor friends in North Carolina, he actually found himself recently on an enemies list, but he was accused by a member of the congregation of being an alcoholic, of drinking too much wine. And the elders didn't believe it, he didn't believe it, and most of the congregation didn't believe it, but she was a rabble-rouser and she was trying to be divisive, cause some problems. And he said, okay, fine, I'm going to vow for the next year not to drink wine. And he did. He kept the vow just to prove a point. I don't have to drink wine. And if that's going to cause you to stumble, I'm not going to drink it at all. Well, back to this lady whose hand was glued to the glass. And this shows us both our own unwillingness to expose darkness. Remember that in a preceding, in a previous sermon, we have to, as light, expose darkness. But this shows our unwillingness to expose the darkness because of family ties. It also shows the folly of being drunk. This woman would complain a lot. She was known for writing these impulsive emails in the middle of the night. These are rather, quote, urgent communications that demanded immediate response, even calling for an immediate session meeting. You have to come and address this subject, and I need to be there. Wow, that's rather pressing, just ignoring all the proper channels of communication straight to the session. And when her communication would be considered by the group of men and her worldly thinking was apparent, her behavior was then minimized. Well, you know, she has PTSD. Or, well, you know, she has a drinking problem. So I guess that is how you can justify your conduct. Just give yourself or have PTSD and have a drinking problem and all the sins go away. And it really helps if the leadership has a relative on your side. That's the folly of being drunk. That's the unwillingness to expose darkness. It's the kind of stuff that happens and that's the kind of stuff that actually divides people, divides relationships, ruins churches. If we fill our stomachs with mind-altering substances, we can be sure that nothing but folly shall fill our days and darkness our path. Do not hear me saying that you cannot drink alcohol, but be careful. Do not be getting drunk with wine. You're never allowed, we're never allowed to be drunk with wine or beer or bourbon, et cetera. Kids know, I always have, pretty much always have a glass of bourbon at the end of the night, and just a libble, right, like this. And the boys have said, well, what happens if you drink too much? And what if it's like way up here? Well, Daddy will be a little crazy. Has Daddy ever been crazy? No. No, I haven't. I should not be drunk with wine, or bourbon, or beer, which, as I established in a previous sermon, I don't like the taste of, even non-alcoholic beer. So we put off this folly, this filling with wine, this mind-altering substance, and we put on being filled with the Spirit of God. Again, that's an awkward phrase when read literally, but it is an important theological point that we are being filled with the Spirit. And before coming to that point, I need to be clear, Paul is not saying that we are empty of the Spirit, and so we need to be filled with the Spirit. He's not, in other words, talking to a bunch of unbelievers, saying, you guys don't have the Spirit at all, so be full of the Spirit. Be converted. Be changed. Let the Spirit indwell you. He's not saying that. In fact, that would be contrary to everything He has been saying in the preceding chapters. He is comforting the Ephesians. He is comforting us by saying the Holy Spirit indwells you. You have the Spirit as your guarantee, as an inheritance of the coming redemption. He is yours. The Father has chosen you. The Son has died for you. The Spirit has sealed you. You belong to the Trinity. You belong to God. He created you. He redeemed you. He is sustaining you. He is working in you. Paul's not going to then say, well, that doesn't apply to you. This filling is an ongoing filling by means of the Spirit of God. Controlled by the Spirit of the Christ, we are actively availing ourselves of this filling. And so what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? It means this. It means being filled with God's Word. To be filled with the spirit means to be filled with God's word. And there are two reasons we know that this is what he's talking about. The first is the surrounding context. What comes out of this spirit filling? Verse 19 says, you are addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So what is coming out of the heart is the word of God. We are addressing, teaching, admonishing one another with the word of God. And what has gone out must first have come in. First it must be filled with the word of God before you can teach, admonish, and sing the word of God in psalms, hymns, and songs. Another way we know, this is what Paul is saying, is that remember, Ephesians and Colossians are very similar. And oftentimes, the language in Colossians and Ephesians are almost word for word. And in Colossians 3.16, Paul says this. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, or in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness to your hearts." That is essentially everything that Paul says in Ephesians 5. But notice the difference. In Ephesians 5, after he says, don't be drunk with wine, he says, be filled with the Spirit. Instead of saying be filled with the spirit He has the same thing Colossians But says let the Word of God dwell on you or let the Word of Christ dwell on you richly So he is saying be filled with the very Word of God the inspired Word of God be filled with his revelation with his wisdom which goes really well with everything has been he has been saying about being light exposing darkness and knowing the Word of God. And so we are active in this filling as we are reading His Word, as we are reflecting on His Word, as we are praying His Word and praying in response to His Word. And it's the Holy Spirit Himself who blows where He wills, who will fill us according to His grace and in His sovereign time. And so the question again for the Ephesians, for the Colossians, for you here at Grace, is what controls you. Is the stuff of the earth compelling you? Is that what is moving you? Is that what is controlling you? Is that what is guiding you? Or is it the stuff of heaven? Is it the world? Or is it the word that has been breathed into by the Holy Spirit himself? Who is your master? Who is your guide? Who is leading you? The control must be by the spirit, as new lifers are led by the spirit. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the great preacher, says, drunkenness always exhausts us. The Holy Spirit does not exhaust, but energizes us. And he's playing on the physical effect that drinking alcohol in excess has on you. Alcohol is a depressant. That's why people normally when they drink, drink at the end of the day because they've had a long day and they're trying to unwind and they are powering down. It's time to take a break and get ready to go to bed. It is a depressant. It brings you down, powers you down. But The Holy Spirit does not power you down. He actually empowers you. He energizes you. He fills you with His grace and everything you need. So again, the question is, what are we being controlled by? The world or the Word? wine, or whatever your spirit of choice is, or the Holy Spirit. Again, this is a call for all of us to return to the wisdom and the light of the Word of God. And there is always true freedom by the Spirit, true control in our conduct. And as we fill ourselves with God's Spirit-inspired Word, we see from verse 19 that we sing it. We fill ourselves with God's Word, and what goes in comes out in song. Literally, verse 19 reads this way, speaking to each other spiritual psalms and hymns and songs, singing and psalming with y'all's heart to the Lord. I know you love that y'all's collective with a singular, okay? And that's something that we have already been singing in Paul's letter time and again. Why does he do that? He's speaking to more than one person He's speaking to a church that has a single thing. The congregation has a single heart. So he's talking about a collective heart, a corporate heart, a congregational heart, the heart of Grace Presbyterian Church, y'all's heart. that reminds us of the unity that we are to have with one another because we are united to Christ. We all should be singing on the same sheet of music. And notice also that the word spiritual, uppercase S spiritual, is fronted in my translation. Speaking to each other, spiritual psalms and hymns and songs. That's not how the ESV reads, which is not a bad rendition. But the reason that the word spiritual is on the front end is that the word spiritual describes all the songs. All the songs. And today in Sunday School, I gave some reasons why we do not affirm exclusive psalmody. And when the audio is up this afternoon, if you weren't there, if you want to listen to it again, I commend that lesson to you. But you'll remember that the reasons that we were given were not based on the three different kinds of song. that there's one word, Psalms, and that means just the Book of Psalms, and then the word hymns refers to something else entirely different, or the word songs refers to something else entirely different, as if there were three separate categories of songs, and one is Bible Psalms, and the others are maybe Bible-based. That's not what Paul is saying here. The word Psalms can refer to the entire Book of Psalms, those 150 Psalms, or in 1 Corinthians 14, when people come together, some have a hymn, translated Psalm and the King James, and the verb psalm originally meant to pluck. Not like to pluck someone's eye or anything like that, but to pluck an instrument, like a stringed instrument. It basically means a song of praise, sometimes accompanied by musical instrument, sometimes not. And this word hymn also means a song of praise. In the New Testament, it's only used here and then Colossians 3, which I read earlier. But it's used in the Old Testament to refer to stringed instruments, like in Psalm 6. At times, our English translations will even render this word as prayers. And this reminds us of the connection between psalms and prayers. Even in our confession of faith and assurance of pardon this morning, Psalm 66 is a psalm. And notice he says, he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God because he has not rejected my prayer. His psalm is his prayer. His prayer is his psalm. So sometimes that word hymns refers to prayers, as in Psalm 7120. And the word songs has a broader inclusion of songs. Sometimes this word is translated ode. It refers in the Bible to Moses' song, or Deborah's song, to the songs of David. It's used of the Levitical singers in the Old Testament in 1 Chronicles 15 and 16. It's used in many of the psalm titles. And in the New Testament, it's used of a new song, like Revelation 5, sung in heaven. And again, I already covered this last hour, but it's used at the Song of Moses and the Lamb, referring back to Deuteronomy 32, Moses' song, and referring to parts in Revelation of the Song of the Lamb, joining Old Testament and New Testament singing together. Not all of these songs are psalms in the sense of finding a place in the 150 psalms. Now, our PCNA brothers and sisters are right. and they're not the only ones who say this, but if you say it, you're right, that each of these words, psalms, hymns, and songs, is found in the Book of Psalms. You would find these words used to speak of the various psalms, and they can be titles in the Book of Psalms. No argument there. But this truth does not translate into an exclusive psalmody, singing only those 150. It is impossible, really, to differentiate these three terms. They all speak to God's songs for us to sing. So why say the same thing thrice? Is Paul really just saying, sing psalms, psalms, and psalms? And people ask that question as if it's ridiculous. The answer is, yes, he is saying that, psalms, psalms, and psalms. And that's very characteristic of Paul. He will often take things and use three different, two different words to refer to the same idea. Sin, iniquity, transgression, all the same in the Bible. Signs, wonders, mighty works, all referring to one thing, miracles. Now there might be shades of difference, but he's referring categorically to the thing for the sake of emphasis. So the point of application here, briefly, is we sing led by the Holy Spirit. Rather than focusing on what we do not do, we need to fill our time with spirit-filled songs. And this is where, again, the Greek geeks are going to get a little excited. So if you're not into Greek, you can tune me out for the next 30 seconds. But be into Greek, so keep listening. What is this word spiritual modifying? I already told you it's fronted, it's spiritual psalms, hymns and songs, rather than psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Now why? Why do people put spiritual at the very end? And here's why, and this is again where it gets a little detailed. We don't really experience this this much in English because our language is all messed up. But in real languages, Nouns and adjectives tend to agree. They have a grammatical category called gender and a grammatical category called singular or plural, number. And there are, in a lot of languages, a case system based on the function of that noun. If the noun's a subject, it's like this. It's in this form. If it's an object, it looks in this way. So you have these three categories of nouns and adjectives. Because there needs to be harmony between the noun and the adjective. They don't want to be at odds with each other. They don't want to fight each other. If you're going to have an adjective describing a noun, they have to be friends. They have to look like each other and share things in common. And so if you have a noun that's feminine, dative, plural, then your adjective is feminine, dative, plural. Whatever those words mean, right? Well, the word spiritual is feminine dative plural, and that is modifying songs. That is, psalms and hymns are not feminine dative plural. Oh no! What are we going to do? They're masculine! In Greek, what you can do, if you want to describe everything with a single adjective, you don't put that adjective in the three different case genders and numbers, you can just put it that matches the one closest to the adjective. And so, spiritual modifies best the word songs, and it's closest, and so that's what it's used of all three. I know, that was perhaps unnecessary for you, but I know you wanted it. And think of it this way. It'd be very odd, wouldn't it, that Paul wouldn't connect the Holy Spirit with psalms or hymns. He's saying that the Spirit's involved with the psalms, or he's not saying that. It's that the Spirit is only involved with these songs, and not the psalms or the hymns. But of course, the psalms are inspired by God. So clearly, it is the Holy Spirit who is filling us with these psalms, hymns, and songs. we have commands and biblical precedent to sing these spiritual songs. Songs inspired by God and songs that proclaim the glories of Christ in his fullness. Our Old Testament saints were not exorcist psalmists, we've already established that. They weren't confined to the 150, but they loved the psalms and they leaned on the psalms every single day. The saints in heaven with whom we are joined even now are not exclusive psalmists. They have a wider songbook beyond the 150, but still they sing those very psalms because they are God's inspired word. We should therefore prioritize God-glorifying, Christ-exalting songs over all other songs. And so the application here is to sing the Psalms. Like literally, the Psalms. Sing them. And we have a lot of them in here. Sing those Psalms. They exalt God. They exalt his Messiah. They are for every single occasion of the saints. And I know what some are going to say, because I've heard it a thousand times. And we talked about it last hour. Well, I don't want to sing the Psalms, because they're a bunch of downers. And they sound like a dirge. They sound like a lament. I don't want to do that. I don't want to sing a lament. I don't want to sing something that's so sad. Well, do it. Most of the Psalms are laments. Shouldn't that tell you about the stuff of the Christian life that we are grieving, that we live in a world that is, we are waiting for our better heavenly home, and right now we are being poked by those thorns and thistles. We are suffering at the hands of others. We are sinners. Those things are sad. Not everything has to be so happy and clappy. We can be grieving, and we can grieve with one another. But we can do that even while we have joy. sing the Psalms. Yes, they might be hard to learn, or at least they might be scary for you to learn. Because, like you, I wasn't raised in a home that the Psalms predominated. I wasn't raised in that way. I'm sure most of you haven't been raised in that way. And so, our history of songs does really not include Psalms. It's foreign to us. But isn't Reformed Presbyterian worship foreign to you? Wasn't it foreign to you? Wasn't it an acquired taste? Or when you first, maybe this is your testimony, but it's probably not the testimony of a lot of people. When they come to a Reformed church and hear all the prayers, the singing, maybe some guys wearing a Geneva gown, and they're like, this is all weird. It's foreign. And you're not like all in right away, right? Well, the Psalms might be like that to you. Doesn't mean you shouldn't learn them. Now, there's the, I'm not gonna tell you who this guy is, but I've been fascinated by him. He is a freestyle rapper, okay? And just to put my cards on the table, I like rap, all right? I've liked it for decades. And I'm not going to apologize for it. Yes, some rap is not good. Don't listen to it. Well, this guy, again, 95% clean. He'll say a curse word from time to time as part of the song. But what he does, he's a freestyle rapper. And I'm telling you, and this is a bold statement, his stuff is better than Snoop Dogg or Eminem, OK? And Eminem might be arguably the best rapper, but this guy outmatches him. What he does is he will appear on screen or he'll be in a crowd and he'll say, can I get three words? Give me some random words. Don't give me animals, don't give me food, because those are so common. Give me three random words. And someone will say cup. Another will say, I don't know, somebody said key of Solomon, which was some mystical thing that he didn't know and he had to have explained. Give me another one, and then, I don't know, flagpole, okay? Take these three words, and then he's going to incorporate those in a four or five minute rap. And he doesn't just use those words. What he does is he actually incorporates the real life responses and the clothing, the actions, the banner that's behind, the flag that's behind, something that's on the shelf, how they respond in real time. He incorporates all of that in a four or five minute freestyle rap that is logically coherent and, as the kids say, fire. Really good. Fascinated by it. Liz has heard me listen to this. It's part of what I do when I wind down. And I am amazed at the gift, at the talent that this guy has to bring random words together in a string of a song, if you're gonna call rap a song, and I'm gonna do it. I'm fascinated by that. And as creative and as awesome as that really is and how I marvel at that, that does not even compare to these Psalms. These are inspired by God. These are God's gift of music to you to sing back to him, to praise his glorious name, to consider the marvelous works of God. He has given you 150 of them and others outside the Old Testament and in the New Testament to say, Sing these. Consider me. Consider my glories. You can't confine my glories to 150 psalms. There's so much goodness about me. I'm infinite, he's saying. I'm majestic. I'm compassionate. Sing to me. These psalms are incredible. There's a wealth of musical resources for us to sing. Devote yourself for a lifetime to singing the psalms. These are God's gift to you, and they are a wonderful means of expressing worship to our God. Yes, they will take time getting used to them. I am still learning them as well. We're learning together a new psalm every month, an opening psalm that we repeat the whole month. This is our way, as a congregation, growing in these psalms. They're beautiful expressions of worship to our God. And sing other psalms and hymns and songs that likewise revere God, extol Christ, and speak from the new life that we have from the Spirit. And as we sing, as we continue to read this passage, we sing horizontally, not just vertically. Yes, we sing to God, but you notice here that we're also singing horizontally. Verse 19 says we are addressing one another. And verse 21, it says we are submitting to one another. You see that horizontal, that one-anothering aspect that our music involves, our singing involves. In our singing, we are speaking to one another. That is to say, singing should be music to each other's ears, not just to God's ears, but to each other's ears. We encourage, we sing that we would encourage one another. This is why I will look at you as we're singing. I'm scanning the room. I'm looking right at you, or trying to anyways, trying to look at you. I'm singing to you. I'm singing primarily to God, but I'm also singing to you and trying with my eyes or face to express some encouragement to you. This is also why sometimes I will look at a little one and smile at them while I'm singing. As I see Jameson boys, for instance, just growing in singing the hymn, knowing these words. I'm like, yes, you're doing it. And it's not just that you're learning the words, but you are worshipping God too. Children are worshippers in the pew as well. Yes, there is a difference in role as we submit to one another, as Paul explains. And we're going to get into some difficult passages about headship and submission and all that while starting next week. But there's no hierarchy in the Christian life here. And so it's not unreasonable to look at each other, or at least to think about one another as we are singing. You are not singing as an individual. This entire service is a corporate worship service. So the whole body is to be in mind. When you know of a brother or sister who is in a trial, for instance, and the song touches the sovereignty of God, the goodness of God, the comfort that comes from Christ, the power of the resurrection, the reality of the resurrection, think about that person. And maybe even tell them afterwards, I thought about your situation this last week, and as I was singing, I thought about you again. God brought you to mind, and I hope you were encouraged by that song. I'm thinking about you as I'm singing this. When a Christian sibling has cause for rejoicing, let us sing in rejoicing with one another. And let us remember also that we are not singing just as Grace Presbyterian, but we are singing with acknowledgement that there are brothers and sisters outside of these walls who perhaps need that lamentation, that hard song that represents their hearts aching and their real pain. And notice again here in verse 19 that we sing, making melody with the heart, from the heart. We, as it were, pluck the heart strings as we voice songs in praise to our God. It is no surprise to hear this exhortation to sing with the heart because God wants your heart. He doesn't just want the words to come out of your mouth. He wants your heart to produce those words and your heart to be inclined heavenward towards him Remember the parable of the unforgiving servant, Jesus says, so also my Heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Jesus is not satisfied, the Father is not satisfied with you saying, yeah, I forgive you because I have to forgive you. I'm forced to forgive you, so I'm gonna forgive you, but I don't want to. Jesus says, I'm not satisfied with that. Your father in heaven is not satisfied with that. You have to mean it. You have to want to forgive that person. You have to love to forgive that person. Because you love the offense? Of course not. Well, how do you get to a point where you want to forgive that person, where you feel it, you are compassionate towards that, you love to forgive? How do you get to that point? by filling your heart with His Word, by being filled with the Spirit, by knowing the Word of God, how He is compassionate towards you, how He has forgiven you that unimaginable sin debt, that He has nailed that penalty to the cross and you bear it no more, and you're set free. Penalty's been paid. So how could you then hold over that person? what he has committed against you. God wants your heart in forgiveness. He wants your heart in everything. It is from the heart that spring forth all the issues of life. So God loves the forms when they are aligned to the heart. He wants the right way that we do things from the right attitude. He wants the actual words. He wants the real sacrifice. If we're talking Old Testament, he had a certain way that animals had to be prepared, and certain animals and not other animals. He wanted those, but he wanted those from a heart that knew what those served, what function they served, that God was compassionate towards them. He loves the sacrifice of praise when it comes from the heart of praise. We then should sing from the heart. And this is true music to God's ears. Again, how do you do this? By filling your heart with His Word. How do you sing the songs that we sing every Lord's Day and throughout the week? We do so according to knowledge. That's why I give you in the newsletter what songs we're going to sing. You might be unfamiliar with them. Maybe you are fairly familiar with them. Look them up in your own hard copy or in the TPH app. Look them up. Look at the lyrics. Go over them. Go over them with your family and family worship. Talk about them. What does this mean? Think about them so that you can sing according to knowledge. Fill your mind with the promises of God, His assurance, His joy, His love, His wisdom, His power. Feed your soul the truths of Christ's suffering, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His session, the reality of what our Redeemer has done. You sing with the heart rejoicing in Jesus who gave His heart to you and who is even now singing over you with gladness as Zephaniah 3 says. and singing really isn't about you or me. God is the content. We see here that we give thanks to God, verse 20, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Singing is horizontal, yes, it is singing to one another, it is addressing one another, but it is fundamentally vertical. You are here primarily to praise God. We sing thanks to God for all things in everything. Whatever the situation, you can praise God. Our songs, despite the time, despite the trial or the season, are always to be songs of thanks. Because even that hard providence is from God. And you don't know how it's all worked out for good, but God does, and God's intending that for good. So you can thank him even for that difficult trial, as hard as it is. We can sing and whether our tomorrows be filled with good or ill, we'll triumph through our sorrows and rise to bless you still. That's from Oh God Beyond All Praising. Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned that the girl, a six or seven year old girl was in the driveway and coming down and she got run over by that truck and that daughter of the PCA pastor and she died immediately. And they had a funeral and that was a song, that was one of the songs that they sang. Oh God Beyond All Praising. Whether our tomorrows be filled with good or ill, you know that congregation, that family is in great grief, but they can still sing with hope those lines. Or when one Sunday our loved one is with us, but the next Sunday he's gone, we can still praise God and thank God how great thou art. We can sing, all I have is Christ. We sing thanks to God, always rightly fearing God, in awe of God. That's what the last verse there says, out of reverence for God, which doesn't exclude Christ as much as it includes all the persons. We have reverence for the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We revere the Father for choosing us, the Son for redeeming us, the Spirit for sealing us. We want all persons of the Trinity to be part of our praise. We want to think about how each person has been actively involved in our own redemption. And finally, we sing in the name of Christ with Christ on our lips. We sing under the authority of Christ because he is our high priestly worship leader. He has led us into God's presence, and the melody of our hearts is attuned to His voice. And not only this, but our lips are graciously allowed to name Him, to proclaim Him, to exalt Him, to sing His very name, Jesus Christ. We sing in the name of Christ. As we are converted, or as we think about our own conversion, we can sing, Jesus, what a friend for sinners. When we put away our works and we are not resting in what we've done, we can say, Jesus, I am resting, resting. When we consider His sufficiency on the cross, we can say, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. When we deny ourselves, we sing, Jesus, I, my cross, have taken. When we rejoice in the resurrection, we can sing, Jesus Christ is risen today. To comfort our anxious hearts, we can sing, Jesus shall reign where'er the sun. And we sing, as we were taught to sing as little ones, Jesus loves me, this I know. Children loved by God, you who are being filled with the Holy Spirit, sing. Sing spiritual psalms, hymns, and songs. Sing to one another. Sing with thanksgiving. Sing to God. Sing with fear. Sing with melody of a changed heart. And sing all in the name of Christ, who is your sure and great Redeemer. Let's pray.