Washington's three. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. Therefore, Put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 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. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. 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 the bond of perfection, And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you are also called in one body. And 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. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. May God bless His word to our hearts this afternoon. And our text is verse 16. I'll just read it once more. 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. Loved in Christ, the question before us that God's Word brings to our hearts is, is God's Word living in you? And this afternoon we want to answer these three things. Whose word is it that we're talking about? It's very important to have the right word, understand whose word this is that we need to have living in our hearts. Second, how close should it be to our hearts? And then third, what will it do for you? If it is in your heart, what will it do for you? So whose word does Paul talk about here? It's not the word. of Pastor Wymus, it's not the word of Pastor Zechvelt, it's not the word of any other visiting pastor here or if you happen to go and visit another church and hear that pastor and he's faithfully preaching God's word, it's still not that pastor's word that you need to have living in you. It's not their sermon. that you need living in you. It's the word, what does Paul say? Of Christ. It's the word of your Lord. It's the word of your Savior, the one who died on the cross for your sins. It's the word of the one whose love is greater than that of a friend who lays down his life for a friend. Because He laid down His life for you when you were still His enemy. He went to hell, Jesus went to hell and came back again to make you His friend. Really, to make you His lover, to make you His bride. The church is Christ's bride. If his word isn't worth listening to, if his word isn't worth hanging on to, if his word isn't worth treasuring and hiding in your heart and thinking about, then whose word is worth letting live inside you? It's the word of Christ. Now, that's what Paul writes here that the word of Christ dwells in you richly. Does that mean that word of Jesus Christ is kind of like more important than the word of the Father or the word of the Holy Spirit or that it's not really the word of the Father or the Holy Spirit that you have to be concerned about? Of course not. It's always the word of God, triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's their word too. Every word that comes from the Father And every word that the Holy Spirit brings into your heart and convicts you of, is a word connected to Christ. The whole Bible, the whole Bible, from the very beginning to the very end, is really the word of Christ. As well as the Word of the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus was speaking already in the very beginning. In Genesis chapter 1. How do I know that? How do you know that? Because there in chapter 1, what did God say when He spoke? He said, let us make man in our image. And therefore in the image of God made He Him. Male. and female. So the Father was speaking with the Son and the Holy Spirit. And you know, you remember in the beginning of the Gospel of John, what does John say? He says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And without Him, nothing was made that was made. And who is that Word that was right there in the beginning? who spoke." John goes on, he says, "...the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glories of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." It's Jesus. Jesus' Word from beginning to end. He ends, too, with the promise that He is coming again. It's the Alpha and the Omega. And the very first words that God also actually spoke to Adam and Eve after they fell into sin. What were they? They were words of mercy. They were words of grace. Words of salvation. And that means they had to be the word of Christ. Because without Christ, there is no word of grace. There is no word of salvation. There is no word of hope. The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, where are you? Now, remember, this is when they sinned. And then after they sinned, what did they deserve? Did they deserve to have God come and reach out to them and talk to them? No. Adam and Eve both deserved immediately to be destroyed and sent to hell. But God didn't do that. Instead, he reached out to them. He called them. They were hiding, remember? They were ashamed of their nakedness and sin. They were hiding. He called out to them, where are you? He knew where they were. But what was God doing? He was reaching out, communicating to them, drawing them back. And if it were not for Christ, if it were not for the fact that He was going to die on the cross for Adam's sin and Eve's sin, There would have been no such words. God would never have been able to reach, would not have reached out to Adam and Eve. There would have been no basis for that. They would have been destroyed. But because of Christ, God could come to Adam and Eve and say, where are you? And He wants to bring them back to Himself. And so there is no longer, because of Christ, there's a bridge over that gulf that would have forever otherwise separated God and man. And if it wasn't for Christ, God would not have said, where are you? He would have said, go to hell. And so you see right there in the very beginning, the very first words that God speaks to Adam and Eve and their fallen nature are words, too, of Christ, connected to, based on, and flowing from Christ and His work. And you know what? You need, I need, to remember, I don't always remember it, but I need to remember when I read God's Word, and when I'm Even preparing to bring God's Word, I've got to remember whose Word this is. It's not my Word. It's not the Apostle Paul's Word, even though God used him. But it's the Word of my Savior. And if you hear these letters, not just as letters that Paul or Peter or John or whatever wrote to the churches back then, but if you really believe it's the word of God and the word of Christ that he was speaking to and writing to his church then, but also now, then you understand and you hear it as the letter. of someone who loves you more than anybody else. If you're married and you have a husband who loves you or a wife who loves you, or if you're a child and you have a mom or dad who loves you, Jesus loves you more. His words pulse with love and concern for you. And we need to remember that. We need to hear it as a letter from someone who loves you more than anyone else does and whom you love too. And that will affect the way you read it. And just listen to what this young lady, said when she was asked to talk about the way she read the Bible. She said, yesterday morning I received the letter from one to whom I have given my heart and devoted my life. She goes on to say that to read it over and over was not with me a question of duty. I didn't just do it because I had to. But it was simply one of pleasure. I read it because I am devoted to Him who wrote it. To read the Bible with that motive is to read it devotionally, You know, we talk about doing devotions, or reading, doing our devotions. I don't know if you use that language, we do in our house. Did you do your devotions? Sometimes my wife asks me, maybe I'm not in such a good mood, or I look like I was rushed, or whatever. She says, did you remember to do your devotions this morning? She's talking about, did I pray? And did I read God's Word? Why do we call it devotions? Because it means that you are devoted and devoting yourself to the One who's devoted to you. And you're reading His Word like one who is devoted to you more than anybody else ever was or ever will be. And that's how this lady read it. She read it as a love letter. The Word of Christ to His people. is a word that shows and tells us of the love of Christ. And this young Christian's explanation is beautifully clear. And it tells us that your mind is important, right? You've got to be kind of awake and alert when you're reading the Bible, and you've got to concentrate. And there's some things that are very easy to understand when you read it, and touch your heart right away, and other things you've got to really apply your mind to. And Peter says there's things that Paul has written that are hard to understand. You have to really study them and compare scripture. That's so, the mind is important, but don't forget this, the heart is just as important. You have to read Him with your heart, with love for the one who's writing to you, and a love that realizes He loves you more than you love Him, way more, and that He cares about you. Let the word of Christ dwell in you. His word from beginning to end, let it dwell in you richly in all wisdom. So remember, it's the word of Jesus. There's nobody's word that's more important than Jesus' word. There's no other book that's more important. There's no other book that's brought more blessing and more lives and changed more lives than this one. Word of Christ. The second point is, how close should that word be then to our heart? Because Paul uses special language here. He says, let it dwell in you. So what does that mean? It means the Word of God is not designed just to be a book on your table, a book on your desk, a book on your work, on your bookshelf. The Word of God is designed to live inside you. You are to read it so that in such a way and pray over it in such a way that it doesn't just stay there on the page. That gets right inside you. You remember it. You think about it. It affects you. It blesses you. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. It doesn't get closer than that. Don't let the word, the Bible just sit there on your bookshelf or table or desk, gathering dust with its covers closed. You need to read it. And you know, I hope you read the Bible when you're together as a family, with your family, with your children. And you know what? It's important as children, when your mommy and daddy read the Bible to you, it's not just good enough to sit still. You should sit still and you should, You should sit still, but you should also listen and think. What is Daddy saying or what is Mommy saying? What is God saying to me in His Word? What is Jesus saying? And then, if you don't understand something, you should ask. Because you really want to know what this really means. Because this is what Jesus says. And if we are parents, we should be asking our children. When we read the Bible to them, we should ask them about what we just read. We should read it, then we should ask them so that we see that they understand it. Now they're not going to understand it fully, but so that they have a beginning of understanding. But we should also ask in such a way that It shows that we are concerned whether it's in their hearts. Is it coming into their hearts? Do they believe it? We want to find out and show that we care as parents whether the Word of Christ is also even living in them as little children. It should be living inside you. So it talks about, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. And you know, so it's more than, you know, just looking at the Word or listening or thinking from time to time about the Word. If your neighbor comes and visits you once in a while, like once a week or once a month or whatever, That's nice, but you don't say that that neighbor is dwelling with you. He's not living with you. She's not living with you. She's just coming and visiting once in a while. But guess what? Sometimes I think we treat the Word of God as we just visit it, and we just let it visit us a little bit, and then we forget about it. But that's not, it's not just to be, we're not just to be visitors to the Word, and the Word of Christ is not just to visit, it's to dwell in us richly. in all wisdom. If the Word of Christ tells you about His coming into the world, about His life, about His death, about His resurrection, and all the promises He gives to you, if that lives in you, it does something. It changes you. It has an impact on how you live, how you talk. Remember, it was the word of Christ. It was Christ, and it was the word of Christ, right, that penetrated that hard, wicked, hateful heart of Saul before he became the apostle Paul, right? And what did it do? It totally changed him. It was the word of Christ. changed Paul completely. And that didn't mean that he knew it all in one moment. No, he had a whole life to grow and he kept on growing. And we were looking at, in Nobleton, we were looking at the Apostle Paul a little while ago and remembering that even as he was getting ready for the ministry, the Bible tells us that he didn't even go up to Jerusalem for three years, but he was in the deserts of Arabia, growing in the Word. learning the Word more and more, so that I would more and more live in Him, because then He would be more and more able to tell it right from His heart. But it changed, and then also it changed the Word of Christ. Being with Christ and hearing Christ, they had it directly from Him, right? Peter, John, Apostles, After Jesus ascended into heaven, we read in Acts 4.13 that the Pharisees, the religious leaders, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, untrained men, they marveled. And they realized, they didn't want to realize it, but they realized that it was because these men had been with Jesus. They had fellowship with Him, they had communicated. He talked to them, they talked to Him. And that changed them in an amazing way. It made them bold and powerful and filled with love for God. And that's what happens. And that's what happens more and more when the word of Christ takes root inside you, in your heart. If it's not living like it should, and none of us have the word of God as much as we should living in us, but if it isn't living in us at all like it should, then you need to pray to God to break your heart. Broken in a contrite heart, the Lord doesn't despise. And then you need a broken heart so that God would break through and give you a hunger and a thirst to want to read Jesus' love letter to you and change you into a place that His Word can dwell in. And you know, if you pray that, and you really mean it, and you really feel like it's not living in you the way it should, and you really pray to God, to let His Word change you more, live in you more, and so that you'll understand that it's a word of love from Him, then guess what? God will answer. God will give it. He promises. He says, James, if anyone of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. So if you want the wisdom of the word of Christ to dwell in you richly, more richly, pray for it. Really pray for it. And God will answer you more and more. If you are born again by the spirit of God and you do love God's word and you do treasure it, You still know that the devil fights you and tries to distract you from reading the word and sometimes makes you not as excited as you should be. There's always a battle, there's a spiritual battle going on, but if God has given you a beginning of a love for His Word, so that you want it to grow and to live in you, then you just need to pray, too. And I need to pray, still, that that would grow. That it would grow and grow and grow. and that it would not be choked by all the other things that try to compete with the Word of God, you know? There's so much information today that you can get, and so many things you can read, and so many things you can learn, so many things you can study, and we need to study things, and we need to learn things, especially for our work and school and so on, sure, but we've also got to remember that the Word of God has to have the first place. and that we don't let everything else choke our time and our love for the Word of Christ and its place in our hearts. And so we must be growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. And you know, if you dwell with each other in your home or in your family, somebody comes and lives with you, what happens? You get to know them better, right? You get to know their good things and their bad things. their strengths and their weaknesses. When you get married, usually when you're newly married, you are filled with all the good things about each other and you've seen the best side of each other. But as you live together for a longer time, you grow and you learn more about the good things. You also learn more about the bad things. You have to forgive each other and all of those things. That's part of dwelling. Dwelling together. But now, when you're talking about the Word of Christ dwelling in you, that means, too, you will learn it better, and you will learn more about it. Except that with the Word of Christ, there's no weaknesses. There's no sins. There's no faults. It's all a blessing. That's what makes it so wonderful. So, watch out, because the devil will try to make you too busy, and think that you're too busy. Pray, too busy to read the Word of God, to think about it, to talk about it, to sing about it, right? I didn't mention it here, but you know, remember Daniel? Daniel, the Lord raised him up when he was in captivity. God's people were in captivity over Babylon. God raised him up to be the chief ruler under Nebuchadnezzar, right? And he was watching over all the affairs of the kingdom. And there were governors under him and satraps and all. So he was unbelievably busy. But what does the Bible tell us about him? He took his time, three times a day, to commune with God. to pray to God, to listen to God, right? He made that a regular part of his life. He didn't let himself be too busy for the Word of God. And you know the story about Martha and Mary? Two wonderful women, right? Two beautiful women. It was actually, when you read the story, you know that it was Martha who wanted to have Jesus come into the house. She's the one who invited Him. Martha was a beautiful woman too. But we do remember that when Jesus was there, what did Mary do? Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to Him. To Mary, the Word of Christ was the most important thing to her. She hung on His Word. She wanted to learn from Him. Martha was very busy. She was busy in the kitchen, busy getting things ready. And you know what? You remember, right? She got jealous of Mary and she kind of accused Mary. She said, Mary, you should be more busy like me. In other words, you should be a little more too busy for Jesus and for his words. And what did Jesus say? What did Jesus say? He said, Martha, Martha. And I said, when you read that, you can put your own name there too. Jesus says it to us too, right? Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her. Will not be taken away from her. Why not? Because even when Jesus would leave her in body, His words would stay with her. She wouldn't forget them. She wouldn't forget the love and the wisdom attached to those words. And so the message is for you and me, don't be so distracted. So worried, so troubled about so many things that you don't have much room or much time for the Word of God to dwell in you. Maybe you've read this or heard this before, but it's quite striking. The Bible seems like such a big book in some ways, right? It seems like sometimes the devil makes you think, how can you ever read it all? And of course, you can never stop learning it and growing and understanding it. But it's also good to remember that it's, if you read the Bible out loud at a pace that is slow enough to easily understand, You could travel from Genesis all the way to Revelation in 78 hours. Nobody's going to read 78 hours straight. But if you divide that out over the course of one year, you would discover that God's Word can be read in 365 days by reading only 12 minutes a day. In one year, you can read the whole of God's Word in 12 minutes a day. That's reading it not fast. Not like when you read it silently and you go fairly quick. That's reading it slowly, out loud, just 12 minutes a day. How much is that to give to the reading of God's Word? Then you should give some little more to thinking about it, praying about it. But a Christian once wrote, that came out a little wrong there, it should be a Christian once said, a Bible that's falling apart probably belongs to someone who isn't. Because the Word of God brings blessing. What will it do then when it lives in you? It will give you an experience of richness and wisdom. Paul is saying let it enrich you. Let it dwell in you richly. It brings, it makes you rich. Let it make you wise in all wisdom. Like it has made me wise. Right? Not wise the way the world looks at it, you know. Paul, remember Paul who was writing this, he had all the education, all the high learning that the unbelieving religious leaders had to tell him, to teach him. He had all that, but it didn't make him wise because it didn't point him to Christ. Right? And he's saying, he's saying, read the word of God and let it make you wise like it's made me wise by bringing me to know God through Jesus Christ. Let it give you a deeper sense of awe and wonder at who God is and at the gift Jesus gave when he gave himself for you, for your sins. And Paul told, when he wrote to Timothy, he reminded him how thankful he should be that from a child Not all of us are privileged to know God's Word from being a child, but if you are, you are very privileged, like Timothy, to have known the Scriptures that are able to make you wise unto salvation. Let it dwell in you richly with all wisdom, because nothing makes you wise like God's Word makes you wise. Wise in everything you need to know to live a fruitful, blessed life in this world. God's Word is the ultimate source of wisdom. And there's these verses, right? That speak of how valuable it is. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom. And in all you're getting, get understanding. Wisdom is better than rubies. And all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her. It's more valuable than gold, precious stones. And do you want happiness? Who doesn't want happiness? Everybody wants happiness, right? Thing is, the world thinks a lot of things will give you happiness. Right? Great looking guy or girl gives you happiness. Great job gives you happiness. Lots of money can buy you happiness. But you know what? It's not true. That in itself will not give you happiness. What gives you happiness? Wisdom. Wisdom from God, the Word of Christ. That makes a man happy, who finds wisdom. And the man who gains understanding. Wisdom and happiness go hand in hand. So if you lack happiness, you know, we think, I just got to fix my circumstance. I just got to get a better job. I just got to get a nicer house. I got to get a nicer car. I'm going to be happier. But happiness isn't in those circumstances. You know, you get those things, and then you feel, maybe for a little while you feel a little better, and then it fades away. It doesn't endure. It doesn't stay. It's not in circumstances. Paul and Barnabas were singing at the top of their lungs with thankfulness and joy. Where? In the worst circumstances you can imagine, in the dungeon. in a dungeon. How could they be happy? Because they had the wisdom of the Word of Christ living in them and flowing out, bursting out from them. So it wasn't where they were living at the moment that made them sing. It was the Word of Christ. Let it dwell in you richly in all wisdom. It makes you wise in the sense of giving you the right directions to follow. A shipmate once challenged a chaplain with the question, how is it that you're always talking to my men about Jesus Christ? Have you ever seen him? No, I never did. And how can you tell a man to trust in somebody you've never even seen? I can't see any sense in that. Well, replied the chaplain, when you head for a place of refuge in a storm, what sense is there in telling your men to let go the anchor when they can't see the ground? On what principle do you trust your ship and your life to ground you've never seen and can never see? Oh, said the mate, we go by our chart. Exactly, replied the chaplain, holding up his Bible, and I too go by a chart, and it is an infallible one, while yours is not. It tells me of the only sure ground of my salvation, the atoning work of Christ on the cross. My faith, like your anchor, takes hold of this unseen but real ground, and so rides out the storms of life in peace and safety. So what does that tell you? It tells you you can put your trust and confidence in the Word of Christ. He's not going to lie to you. He's not going to lead you astray. He's got no reason to deceive you, mislead you, give you empty promises. What He says is true. It's true. Rely on it like a sailor relies on his charts and it won't steer you wrong. The Bible says hide his word, your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. How do you hide it? You hide it from those who want to steal it away. You hide it from the enemies, like we mentioned, the busyness, carelessness, indifference, neglect. But we do not hide it in the sense of not letting other people know about it. We have to share it. Share it. How? And what does Paul say here? Gives an example. Teaching, admonishing one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. So you're actually singing to each other because you're teaching each other and you're admonishing. That means, you know, reproving sin and all that in each other through song. And you're singing to the Lord. It's vertical and horizontal, too. Both ways. And the words that are used here is psalms, for psalms, hymns, spiritual psalms. Psalms are those from the Old Testament. We don't believe you only can sing them. That's what a psalmist believes. But we do believe you should sing them because that's why they're there. And they're so rich. My youngest son, Kenny, and a group of friends were in a conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee for a good part of last week. And it was a conference entitled Sing, a Christian conference, all about singing. They had their first one a year ago. They're going to have five years of conferences about singing to drive home the beauty, the wonder, the joy, and the place of singing in the Christian heart, and in church, and in worship, and in the home, and the family, all those places. That's what it's all about. Well, this year, the theme of it was Psalms. It was about Psalms. Singing songs. There were 7,500 Christians gathered together in that conference. Can you imagine singing with them? What a joy. But one day we're going to sing with a multitude no one can number. But already now, there's such beauty in singing. Singing yourself sometimes, singing with your loved ones, singing in church. And Paul says, let that word of Christ dwell in you, in such a way that it fills you, it's overflowing, and you share it, and you sing about it, and you teach it to each other, and you admonish each other through song. And that's what God has given us, the ability to sing for, to sing praise to Him. And not just in church, but also other times we can sing. Families used to make this a big part of their lives, much bigger than today, I think. So many other things compete with family time, work and recreation and sports, but we should turn that tide because there's no more... It's such a wonderful blessing to pass on to your children the joy of singing to the Lord and singing about His Word. You know what? If you sing more, it's harder to get depressed. The devil has less ability to get a hold of you and drag you down when the Word of God fills you and you sing it out with each other. And years ago, people didn't have the whole Bible in print. You know that, right? The Bible wasn't always in print. It had to be written out longhand. And people would go to church, they could hear the Word, but not everybody had it in their homes. And even after it began to be printed, it was very expensive. Not all the families could have Bibles like you and I do in our homes so cheaply. But what did they do? They memorized it. way more than we do. They would memorize it very carefully and listen to it very carefully and they also learn psalms and hymns based on the Bible because that just helps it to stay in your heart like nothing else. I was just talking to a lady who I knew in young people's and I met her yesterday after many years talking about her mother. Her mother has dementia. Her mother doesn't know her daughter anymore. She still smiles sometimes when her daughter comes, but she's lost her ability to communicate. But, and this is quite common, the one thing that makes her really smile and get excited is when she hears hymns being sung. Because that stays so deeply in a person's heart and soul. And that's why it's so important to sing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. It's good to be on tune, but the most important thing is is that we sing with grace, with passion born out of love for Jesus. God wants you and me to sing joyfully out of a heart born again and renewed by the Holy Spirit, singing with a heart filled with awe and joy at the grace and blessings that are yours in Jesus Christ. And so, may God bless you. You as a church, you as families, each one of you as individuals, may He bless you, even in this coming week and weeks, that the Word of God may dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, so that you would experience the joy of teaching and admonishing one another, also in songs, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, amen.