We're going to read the word of God in Colossians 3. Colossians and Ephesians, as you know, are very similar. And I think you'll see many of those similarities between Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5 as we read Colossians 3 this evening. I'd like you to notice especially Colossians 3 verse 16, that's a parallel passage to the verse I'm going to be preaching on tonight, Ephesians 5 verse 19. Colossians 3, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them. Now ye also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not to one another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, Forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are 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 whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons. That's as far as we read God's word in Colossians this evening. The sermon text, as I told you, is Ephesians 5 verse 19. speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. We're going to be focusing on that reference. It's here in Ephesians 5 verse 19, and it's also in Colossians 3 verse 16, the reference to psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. But we should not forget, focusing on verse 19, that this is one of the ways in which we are to be filled with the Spirit. The main thought in the passage is not this reference to psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, but to being filled with the spirit. And this is one of the ways in which we live in obedience to that requirement of the word of God. Want to begin this evening then by talking about those Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and about what they are. The passage is speaking of our singing and especially of our singing in the worship services of the church. And it's in that part of the worship of God that we are to sing what the Word of God calls psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Now I think you know that the vast majority of Christians today would agree with us that the Psalms are a reference to the 150 Psalms that we have in the Word of God, some of which we sang this evening. But most, perhaps without thinking much about the matter, would think that the hymns and spiritual songs are something else. a reference to various compositions of men that hymns refer to what are commonly known as hymns today. The songs written by people like Horatio Spafford, Augustus Toplady, Isaac Watts, and a thousand others, and would think too that the spiritual songs are also compositions for singing of the same sort. The problem with that is, it's rather ironic, I think, that in the churches today, In spite of the fact that Psalms are first, mentioned first in this verse, and even if the hymns and spiritual songs are something else, the Psalms are seldom sung. Maybe Psalm 23 and a couple of others but the majority of song books in Christian churches today include very, very few of the Psalms. I remember going through a well-known hymn book and finding among 550 songs, only 11 Psalms. So I suppose you could say that for the most part, the church today sings only what they consider to be hymns and spiritual songs. And the Psalms are, for the most part, neglected. And many would even argue that the Psalms are not appropriate for singing in the New Testament church. that there's too much judgment and wrath and too much of God's anger against his enemies in the Psalms, and therefore they're not appropriate for singing today. The fact of the matter is that not only the word Psalms But here in Scripture, the word hymns and spiritual songs all refer to the 150 Psalms of Scripture. Hymns and spiritual songs are not human compositions, but the inspired and infallible songs that God has given us in the book of Psalms. They're just, in other words, different kinds of psalms. The word psalms is general, but the word hymns refers especially to psalms of praise, almost all of which in Scripture begin with the word hallelujah, or what's really a translation of the word hallelujah, praise ye God or praise Jehovah. The last Psalms, Psalms 145 through 150, are examples of that kind of psalm. If you look At that part of the Book of Psalms, you'll see that those psalms all begin with, praise ye the Lord, really the word hallelujah. And that's the type of psalm that's being referred to here in Ephesians 5, when the Word of God speaks of hymns. Spiritual songs are those Psalms that record the experiences of God's people and, of course, the experiences of our Savior as well. And many of them are actually called Psalms or songs in Scripture. If you turn, for example, to Psalms 120 and those that follow, you'll see that they're all called songs, songs of degrees. And that's the kind of psalm that the Word of God is referring to here in Ephesians 5 verse 19, not to human compositions, what Christians today think of when they think of hymns, but to the hymns of Scripture and the spiritual songs of Scripture. And proof for that is found in the headings of the Psalms. as, for example, in Psalms 120 through 134. All songs in the Word of God. But an even clearer proof that Scripture is speaking not of human compositions, but of the songs of Scripture The most important proof is found in Colossians 3, verse 16. I don't know if you noticed that when we read the verse. I asked you to pay attention to it. But that verse too, of course, speaks of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. But that verse begins with these words. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. In all wisdom, how do we do that? By teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And I think you'll agree with me that the words of Isaac Watts or of Charles Wesley or someone else, cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called the word of Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, speaking, teaching, and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And Colossians 3 verse 16 reminds us then of the fact that the Psalms are unique. All of the scriptures are the word of Christ, of course, but the Psalms are that in a unique way because, as we've seen in our study of some of the Psalms, Christ speaks personally in the Psalms. You have an amazing example of that in Psalm 69, or Psalm 62, Psalms that have to do with the suffering of Christ. Those Psalms don't speak about Christ and his suffering, but are the actual words of Christ in his suffering. Psalm 22 begins with the words, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And we understand that when he was dying on the cross and actually spoke those words, he didn't have in his agonies to think of something to say, but said what he had said many, many years before, said himself through David, who wrote the psalm. The psalms are in a unique way The voice of Christ in his joys and his sorrows, in his suffering and in his exaltation, in all that he experienced as the one who was touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and who is, as Hebrews says, our elder brother in all of that. That's what Colossians 2 is talking about when it speaks of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and identifies them as the word of Christ. I find it difficult in light of a passage like Colossians 3 verse 16 to understand why anyone would want to sing anything else but the Psalms. How much better to sing the Word of Christ than, for example, the words of Horatio Spofford or Isaac Watts? Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And so the word of God itself tells us what is intended by those words in Ephesians 5 verse 19. And we have to have to see that in light of the way that Scripture describes the singing of the church. Here in Ephesians 5 verse 19, it's singing the Psalms, the different kinds of Psalms, is first of all a matter of speaking to one another. Colossians puts it a little differently, but really says the same thing. Talks about teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And that's the first great use of the Psalms in the singing of the church. It's a way in which we speak to one another, not casually, but as Colossians 3 verse 16 says, by way of teaching one another and admonishing one another. And here too, I have a problem with man-made hymns. If you read them, read them carefully, you will find that in the vast majority of them there is not much teaching, nor a great deal of admonishing. Certainly not much teaching about God, his glory. his majesty, his holiness, his righteousness, his coming in judgment. Look through a hymn book once and see if you can find a hymn that teaches something about God as judge, the righteous judge, to whom all must give account, now and in the great day of judgment. And you'll be hard-pressed to find any hymns of that sort. But the Psalms, of course, are full of that kind of teaching. They tell us who God is. In all of his majesty, as the only true and living God. They tell us what He's done for us in Christ Jesus our Lord, how He sent our Savior to be forsaken of Him, and so to deliver us from wrath and hell and death. They speak of the mercy and loving kindness of God in a way that is incomparable. And when we sing the Psalms, then we are, as Colossians 3 verse 16 says, teaching and admonishing one another. Not with the words of men, That's of little account but with what God says of himself in the Psalms. That's one reason. Ephesians 5 also speaks of singing the Psalms in the worship of the church as the way in which we speak to God. We, Ephesians 5 verse 19 puts it much more beautifully than that. When we sing the Psalms, then we are singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. Beautiful, isn't it? Praising Him, thanking Him, making melody in our hearts. to him. Not so important then, of course, that we be able to sing on tune or follow the melody or something like that. The important thing is the melody that arises from the hearts of God's people as they sing God's praises and sing the praises of God as he himself has given them those praises in his word. So that's another way in which the Psalms are of importance and use in the worship of the Church and in the singing of the Church. I want to emphasize that too, that we're talking here about worship, We may sing other things in the privacy of our own homes, and when we're alone and feel the need to sing, but in the worship of the church, the word of God here in Ephesians 5 verse 19 is the rule that must be followed, and followed for the reasons that the Word of God gives us here. But there's another reason, too, and that's in a verse that I preached on some time ago, Hebrews 2. Perhaps you remember something of the sermon that I preached on Hebrews 2, verse 12. There, Jesus, he's the one who's speaking in Hebrews 2 verse 12, says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church, will I sing praise unto thee. When the Psalms are sung, then Christ joins his voice with the voices of the members of the church in the singing of the church. And that has to do with the fact that the Psalms are uniquely the word of Christ. Not the word of Isaac Watts or of some other hymn writer, but the word of Christ. And when the church sings the Psalms, then Christ joins his voice with the voices of the members in praise and thanks to God, and he too teaches and admonishes God's people in the church. And that is what makes the worship of the church truly covenantal. That word isn't used in Ephesians 5, but Ephesians 5 verse 19 is describing the singing of the church as part of the covenantal worship of the church. And you understand, I trust, that when we speak of God's covenant, we're speaking of that wonderful relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christ sings with the church to his Father in heaven. But we're also talking about that wonderful relationship that we have with God through our Savior, Jesus Christ, and talking about our relationship to one another. And from that point of view, the singing of God's people is an important part of the worship. In the preaching of the Word, God speaks to us. in that blessed relationship that we call the covenant. But in singing, we speak to him in praise and thanks, making melody in our hearts to him, responding to his loving kindness and mercy and grace And Christ, the head of the covenant, joins his voice with ours when we sing the Psalms. And that means, too, that the singing of the church is not an incidental part of the worship of the church. but at the very heart of that covenant relationship that we have to God as his people through the blood and spirit of Jesus Christ. Worship can be described as a kind of holy conversation between God and his people. in that covenant of grace. And the singing then is that part of that holy conversation in which we speak to him. Congregational prayer is as well, but the singing is part of that covenantal worship of God. that takes place on the Lord's Day when God's people gather in the name of Christ and hear what God the Lord has to say to them and respond in kind, in thanks, in worship, in praise, doing what Ephesians 5 verse 19 says when it speaks of harp melodies. Colossians 3 says it a little differently, but it's talking about the same thing. uses these words, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Filled with thanks and praise for what God has done and for what we hear proclaimed in the good news of the gospel, we sing with grace and thanks in our hearts to the Lord. What a wonderful thing then the singing of the church is meant to be. And what a sad thing it is that so much of the Christian church today has lost sight of that. It's lost sight of what the Word of God teaches here in Ephesians 5 and also in Colossians 3. That brings us, that brings me this evening to the last point of my sermon, to the importance of all of this. I suppose in some ways we've already talked about that by emphasizing the fact that this is part of the worship of the church as something truly covenantal. But there are other ways, too, in which this is important. It's one of the ways in which the unity and the peace of the Church are encouraged and the Church built up. It's not always so easy to speak to one another, to admonish one another when that's necessary. But that's what we do in the singing of the Church. And then, of course, it's not just you and I admonishing and teaching one another, but Christ doing that through us, building up his Church in every possible way. Colossians, there again is that parallel passage, says that through the singing of the church, the word of Christ dwells in us. And that has to do with The unique place that singing has in our lives, there is nothing, I think you'll agree with me in that, that touches the heart as singing. And here, of course, that singing means that the word of Christ dwells in us richly in all wisdom. And from that point of view, of course, the singing of the church is most certainly not an incidental part of the worship, but something of very, very great importance. And how sad it is when the church lacks that indwelling of the word of Christ by singing something other than the word of Christ as it's given us in the Psalms. All that Ephesians says about the church has to do with this business then of singing, singing these Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. It's in the singing of the church that those great doctrines of Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 dwell in us and become matters of thanks and praise. The next Psalm that we have for our Bible study is Psalm 14, that psalm that speaks of the universal depravity of the human heart. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. A truth that's echoed in Ephesians 2, verse 1, you hath he quickened. who were dead in trespasses and sins. And when we sing Psalm 14, then that word of Christ dwells in us. We remember then that we too were dead in trespasses and sins and have been made alive by the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, born again as children of God, born again into the kingdom of God. And so with all those great truths that are taught in the first chapters of Ephesians. Another example is that those closing verses of chapter one, where Christ is described as the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Think of singing Psalm 110 in connection with that. The Lord unto his Christ hath said, in glory I enthrone thee. Tell all thy foes in triumph led, their sovereign king shall own thee. From Zion shall Jehovah send, thy scepter tell before thee bend the knees of proud rebellion. Thy people will be gladly thine when thou shalt come victorious. In holy beauty thou shalt shine like morning fair and glorious. That that truth becomes in our singing a melody of praise and thanks to God. That's the Word of God here in Ephesians 5. And all that Ephesians teaches about the unity of the church, about growing up into Christ in all things because he's the head. All that we've learned from these first five chapters becomes part of the worship of the Church of Jesus Christ. And it seems to me then that the only The only possible conclusion to what we've seen this evening is obedience to the word of God here in Ephesians 5 verse 19. Then our worship, even in singing, is the worship that God commands, worship that God glorifying, worship that edifying, and that builds up the church in preparation for Christ's return. With that in mind, we have to come back to where we started, that this is part of being filled with the Spirit. And what church, what congregation, what gathering of God's people would not profit from that. God grant it. Amen. Father, bless what we've heard this evening. Give us the grace to sing, to sing with understanding, to make melody in our hearts unto thee when we sing as members of the Church of Christ. And may our worship truly be the kind of worship in singing that is commanded in thy word. Bless us as we go our separate ways now. Bless Gary and return him to our fellowship once again. And all who are dear to us, bless and prosper. Keep in peace and safety until Christ comes again. In whose name we pray, amen.