Love, the Perfect Bond of Unity

Transcript

GR 989
8/17/1997
Love, the Perfect Bond of Unity
Colossians 3:14-17
Gil Rugh

Colossians Chapter 3 We are in the midst of the paragraph that covers verses l2-l7 in Chapter 3. You can identify the paragraphs in your bible, each verse is listed separately, usually they begin a new paragraph by putting the numbers in bold. You note verse l2 of Colossians 3, the l2 is bold, meaning it starts a new paragraph. Eighteen is bold and it starts a new paragraph. Just helps you keep in mind the unity of thought that is being dealt with. Verses l2-l7, Paul is focusing on those virtues which are to be characteristic of those who have become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, and interestingly his focus is on how these virtues or qualities are to manifest themselves in our relationship together as believers in the body of Christ. That is not to say that these moral qualities and character traits will not be true of us in our dealings with people in the world, but his focus is on the family relationship that we have as believers. But, of course, we are to have a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and so on. Those are to be the characteristics of our life, as he mentions in verse l2, but they particularly have opportunity to manifest themselves as we relate together as the family of God, and it is of utmost importance that we as the body of Christ manifest before the world as a testimony to God’s power and redemption, that we do function together as a body in unity, harmony, and oneness as a testimony to God’s work in our lives.

When we place our faith in Jesus Christ we are born again, we’re born into the family of God, we become members of the body of Christ. I Corinthians, Chapter l2, verse l3 says,
“For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, and we are all made to partake of one spirit”. So spiritually, in the spiritual realm, the Holy Spirit took us and identified us with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection and so placed us into the spiritual body of Christ. He also took up residence in us as God’s people, both individually and corporately. We partook of one spirit and the spirit himself comes now to dwell within every person who is a child of God. So, as we submit to the spirit we are a cohesive unit.

Just like this body has many parts, but it is to be controlled by one mind. So, it is with the indwelling spirit in the spiritual body of Christ, as He controls us, even though there are many individual parts there will be unity and harmony in the body. In our functioning as God’s people we are to manifest the character of Christ in all that we do. So verse l2 said, “As those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion”, and so on. It’s like clothes that we are dressed in, only these are spiritual and moral qualities, if you will, that manifest the character of our Heavenly Father. This means that we have to learn to put up with one another, as verse l3 says, “Bearing with one another”, or putting up with one another. It’s like brothers and sisters in our human family, with the bickering and the squabbling. As parents, what, you say that has to stop, and then one of them wants to give their say, you say, stop it, I want you to learn to get along. That’s the way it is with the body of Christ, we have to learn to put up with one another, bear with one another, forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Forgiveness is to be an identifying characteristic of someone who has experienced the forgiveness of God in their own life. We are going to have to be forgiving each other, and whoever has a complaint, you may have just grounds to be offended humanly speaking, someone may have wronged you, but we are to forgive those that we might have a complaint against, who have done something wrong to us. And the standard of forgiveness is just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. The issue is not how much have we been wronged, but how much have we been forgiven. It’s a constant struggle to keep the proper biblical perspective in this area. When someone does something wrong to me, I am immediately absorbed with their guilt, the wrongness of what they have done, how I have been wronged. The emphasis in scripture is that I should be absorbed with the opportunity to forgive them, because I have been forgiven so much in Christ.

Back up to Matthew, Chapter l8, we’re not going to take a lot of time right now to look at this portion, but I want you to get the jest of it in Matthew, Chapter l8. So many of the problems and conflicts that affect the unity of the church, the body of Christ, and particularly the local church, which is the physical expression of the body of Christ, come back to this area of forgiveness, and we have all kinds of ways to work around it. And I was wronged so many times, or the wrong was so great, or they never ask for my forgiveness, and on and on we go, which are all irrelevant issues. The issue is how much have you been forgiven. In Matthew Chapter l8, verse 2l, “Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” Then Peter gives a suggestion to show how gracious he can be, “Up to seven times?” I mean my brother has sinned against me seven times, should I forgive him that many times. Peter is addressed by Christ with the answer, Peter you have it turned around. The issue is not how many times does he sin against you. The issue is how much sin have you been forgiven. So Jesus said to him in verse 22, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven”. In other words, Peter, you shouldn’t be keeping a record, you shouldn’t be keeping track. The issue is not how many times did that brother sin against you. Then He goes on to give an account of a man who had an overwhelming debt, running into what would be the equivalent of millions of dollars. He is graciously forgiven by his master, but then in turn he goes out and will not forgive someone a debt that amounts to but a few dollars, it’s nothing. Jesus says the message of this story is verse 35.

“So shall My Heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart”. And, so forgiveness among ourselves is to be a reflection that we have experienced the forgiveness of God. For me to be an unforgiving person is to manifest the fact I haven’t come to understand the forgiveness that is found in Christ. I am an unforgiven person myself, and so come under the condemnation of God. This is a serious matter. We have grudges carried on in churches not for weeks and days but for years. People nurse their grudges and nurse their hurts. They can rehearse to you how they were wronged, what people did to them, how they were ignored, how they were mistreated, and it’s all irrelevant. You say you don’t even know what they did to me, it’s irrelevant. What is relevant is do you understand anything of the forgiveness that is provided in Jesus Christ. Do you understand anything of how great your sin is? It is immeasurable. Your sin is so overwhelming it necessitates your eternity in hell, and yet God, in Christ, has wiped the slate clean for you. Now, you should want to argue and jockey for a position that you were justified in bearing a grudge and having an unforgiven spirit towards someone else. Now, if what Jesus says in Matthew l8 is true and Paul is reiterating the same basic point, it means that many people in our churches today who profess to be believers are liars. They have not experienced the forgiveness of Christ at all. They’re nursing the grudges and the hurts, they are willing to divide the church over their personal grievances, they desire to be exonerated, and on and on it goes. I get things turned around. It doesn’t matter really what you do to me, it matters what God has done for me in Christ. The issue is not I will forgive you if you ask me, these things are not the issue. The issue is what has God done for me in Christ. That is so overwhelming and so massive. Whatever someone would do to me or to you is nothing in comparison.

Come back to Colossians, Chapter 3. This doesn’t mean that it comes naturally or we don’t struggle with it, so don’t carry what I am saying beyond what is intended. The reason Paul has to write under the direction of the spirit and remind us of this and exhort us about it, is we easily forget. I don’t want to put up with you, I don’t want to forgive you for what you’ve done, I want to nurse my grudge, I want to be bitter about what happened to me, I want to stew about it, I want to talk to others about it because that will get them on my side, and on it goes. It’s not a matter of I can’t, it’s right now I just don’t want to. I know all that, I’ve been forgiven in Christ and I know, I know, but this is a more serious matter than you understand. Well, the truth is, it isn’t a more serious matter than a person understands when they’re unforgiving. We have to back up and say, wait a minute, wait a minute, let’s reiterate what God has done for me in Christ. Now let’s compare that to what someone else has done in wronging me. It’s nothing. As Matthew l8 said, it’s like a few dollars compared to multiplied millions. And, I would withhold forgiveness, I haven’t come to understand the forgiveness that I need that can only be found in Him.

Colossians 3:l3, that last statement, “just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you”. Complete and full and limitless. How many of my sins been against a holy God, I could never count them, all forgiven, complete and final. Verse l4, “Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” So, the capstone, if you will, or the ultimate piece of clothing, or the clothing that wraps it all together, however you want to look at it, love is the most important garment, and really all the other virtues will flow out of the love that is produced in me by the spirit. In John’s gospel, Chapter l3, verse 35 Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” And that’s the love we are talking about here, self-sacrificing love. In Galatians, Chapter 5, verse 22, the leading fruit of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit is, first one mentioned, love.

In I Corinthians, chapter l3, verse l3, “Now abides these three, faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love.” It is the supreme characteristic of the child of God, and it would encompass everything else, because agape love, the love we are talking about here, love which is not a love of feeling, which is not a love of response. It is a love of action, it is doing what is best for someone else, acting for their good. Now in Colossians 3, verse l4, we’re told that love is the perfect bond of unity, or literally, it is the bond of perfection, and I think the idea here, it is the bond that produces perfection, true maturity, true growth in Christ comes in the context of a body that is functioning together in love. Back up to Ephesians, Chapter 4 if you would. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, so just two books before the book of Colossians is the book of Ephesians, and look at the end of Chapter 4 and the beginning of Chapter 5, then we will go back to the beginning of Chapter 4. The last verse of Ephesians, Chapter 4 parallels what we just read, we were looking at in Colossians 3. “And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God, in Christ, has forgiven you.” That’s the measure of forgiveness. Not related to what someone has done to me, it’s related to what God has done for me in Christ. Chapter 5 begins, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children”. In other words, I imitate His forgiveness and walk in love. I imitate His love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us as an offering and sacrifice to God. Jesus told His disciples on that last night before His crucifixion, “greater love has no man than this, that a man would lay down his life for his friends”. Is that not the ultimate sacrifice? I mean, to give $l00,000 to help you have a medical procedure that would spare your life would be a great gift, but to give one of my vital organs that you might live, that’s the greatest expression, because I put my life on the line for yours. That’s what we’re talking about with agape love. We are to love and walk in love just as Christ loved you, which was without limitation. He was willing to be a sacrifice on the cross for you. Now you love the way He loved.

So you come back to the beginning of Chapter 4, verse l. “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord entreats you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called”. How do you walk, you see, this parallel is what we have been looking at in Colossians? With all humility, and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love. There’s our in love. Being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, that’s coming up in a moment, in Colossians 3. Jump down to verse l5. But speaking the truth in love. There’s our love, in the context of truth. It’s not love overrules truth. It’s love functioning in the context of truth. We’ll see this same point made with a little different wording in a moment in Colossians 3. Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part. The picture here is the functioning of the gifts that God has given to the body. And each person who is a member of the body has something to contribute to the functioning of that body, and as every part functions as it should, this causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love, the end of verse l6. So, you see what happens. We grow up into Christ, in verse l5. The body builds itself up. So, as we function together each one of us putting others ahead of ourselves, the well-being of others before ourselves, doing for others not expecting anything in return. And you know, sometimes the Lord graciously allows us to be tested, because we will sometimes grow weary in well doing and what will we say, I’m not going to do that anymore, there’s no thanks in it. Now wait a minute, wait a minute, do we do it for thanks, or do we do it for the love that God has given us for this person and this body. That’s true self-sacrificing love. When Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice for me, what did He get out of it. Now I realize we have a warped theology today that says you were so valuable Christ died for you, but that’s just what it is, a warped theology. The very point of the love of Christ is, He gave everything for you who are nothing. It was not what he got in return. He did it out of love for you, for me. That’s the point, that’s true love. I’ve used the line that Marilyn used, that I’m still not sure I like, but it’s true. She told the ladies one day, that I happened to overhear by God’s grace, I expect nothing from Gil and I’m never disappointed. I was sitting in a room when I overheard that, and I thought, I have to go out and correct this. But you know, that’s true isn’t it. When you love someone. I expect nothing from them and I’m never disappointed. I simply give myself. If you were doing something for someone and you expect absolutely nothing, would you be disappointed. If you come to this church and you don’t expect any one to do anything for you, you just come, looking to be taught the word, and looking for an opportunity to minister to someone in a way that will help them grow, you won’t be disappointed. That’s true biblical law. It takes the disappointments out of my life, because there are many, many opportunities for me to serve other people. I’m just disappointed the way they respond. I invited them to my house and they never invited me back. I told them what a good job they were doing, but they never told me what a good job I was doing. I helped them to their car in the snow, but no one ever helped me to my car, and on and on we go. Now, wait a minute, just take that one element out of it. That’s true biblical love. That’s how the body grows to perfection, with selfless giving for the good of others, expecting nothing in return, and so never disappointed when you get nothing.

Back to Colossians Chapter 3. That’s why Paul says, “And put on love which is the perfect bond of unity”, or the bond that produces perfection. Because it’s love that enables all these other qualities and virtues to be carried out, which enables you to pour yourself and the exercising of the gift that God has given you for the benefit of others, expecting nothings. Selfless service is the picture. Verse l5 of Colossians 3, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful”. Now, this is a verse that gets a variety of uses. We want to be careful we understand it in the context. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. So often we have people say when they are going to do something, I have peace in my heart. Well, there is an element of truth in that, but be very careful. You hear people that aren’t even believers who do some clearly wrong things, who will say I’m comfortable. Sure, we’re happy to function this way. I watched a couple of people, well known people who were living together and not married and the interviewer asked if they planned to get married. They said, no, we’re perfectly comfortable this way, we’re happy the way it is, why would we spoil it by getting married. I think they would say that, you know, they’re at peace about that relationship. They say they feel okay about it. I want to be careful. I can feel okay about things that aren’t okay. But there is also an element of truth, as a child of God, as a believer in Jesus Christ who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, I want to have the confidence that this is okay before God, because Romans l4 says whatever is not of faith is sin. So, I am doing something I don’t have the full confidence that this is pleasing to God, I better stop doing it. There is that element of subjective peace. I don’t think that’s primarily what Paul is talking about here. He says let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. He’s talking about peace in the context of the body. We were called into the body in a relationship of peace. So a governing factor in my decisions must be how will this impact the peace of the body. So the decisions I make in my heart are governed by its impact on the peace in the body. Now, as we see in a moment, he’s going to talk about the word of Christ dwelling in us. This does not mean we sacrifice truth for peace.

You know we talked about forgiveness and we looked at Matthew, Chapter l8, it’s interesting. Christ tells Peter there is no limit on the forgiveness he is to offer and give to people, no strings attached. But you know what he has talked about earlier in Matthew, Chapter l8, church discipline, and how you discipline a sinning Christian. So, we don’t want to play the scriptures against each other, you forgive, but there are certain things that do have to be dealt with. But personal grievances have no place. Truth, we must stand for truth. In Galatians 2, Paul said that when Peter was wrong I withstood him to the face, because he denied the truth by his action. We must stand for truth. But the peace of Christ must rule in our hearts, and that’s a command, present imperative. The peace of Christ must rule in your hearts. That desire for the peace, as we saw in Ephesians 4 and I said remember this verse, that we are to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, that idea, my personal grievances. You know, I get grieved when people come and say well, I’m leaving, can’t fellowship in this church any longer. Why? Well, there’s no doctrinal problem. We don’t like the way so and so did something or the way you do something, or. Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. There is no place for fracturing the peace of the body over personal grievances. If there is a doctrinal issue, that has to be resolved. If someone is in sin we want that to be corrected, but this personal grievance idea, there’s no place for that in the body, because I’m glad for the opportunity to forgive or I must be. Maybe the Lord has given me an opportunity to grow so I learn it more. So I must be colored by, my decisions must be governed by how will this impact and affect the unity of the body. One person wrote, “that is in making your decisions, in choosing between alternatives, in settling conflicts of will, a desire to preserve the inward and communal peace that Christ gave and gives, should be your controlling principle.” We were called to this peace in one body. Don’t expect the hand to be fighting with the arm. I mean, you know, this is one body. You don’t grab on to your ear and just give it a twist until it comes off. That’s not the way the body functions. But we do it in the church all the time. But we were called to peace, peace among members of the body, and I take it he’s talking primarily about the expression in the local church at Colossae. We like to carry these things out on a broad scale, but the prime concern is the functioning of the body in the local church. He’s writing to them at Colossae, and how they should function there first and foremost, how the local church ought to be governed as the expression of the body of Christ. Peace is another fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5:22, “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace.” So again, we’re talking about the work of the spirit in our lives, who has placed us in the body, and who is now directing and controlling in the functioning of the body.

In Romans, Chapter 14, verse 19 Paul exhorted the Romans, “So then, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of the body”. Same kind of context we have in Colossians 3; the same kind of context we have in Ephesians 4. Pursue peace and the things which make for the building up of the body. But wait a minute, I was wronged. So what, we got to get on with building the body. But nobody pays any attention to me at this church. So what, get on with contributing to the building up of the body. But no one gives me a compliment for what I do. So what, get on with building up the body. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be a complimenting body, that we shouldn’t express appreciation and so on. What I’m saying is that I shouldn’t be looking for it for myself. So, if I never get it there won’t be any bitterness and discontent produced in my heart.

Note the end of verse l5, another command. “Let the peace of Christ rule”. Let it rule, be the arbitrator, guide you in your decision. Another command, present tense, “Be thankful”. This command is going to be repeated three times in these next three verses. It’ll be repeated again at the end of verse l6 and the end of verse l7. We’re functioning as a body in the context of continual gratitude toward God, and it is a command, be continually thankful, continually giving thanks or expressing gratitude to God for what He has done in Christ. I mean, that keeps the focus of my life, doesn’t it. I want to be living and in everything I do constantly filled with gratitude to God for what He has done for me in Christ. That puts everything here, the wrongs that I experienced, oh yea, they’re nothing. You know, it’s like if I got an old jalopy parked out front, might sell for $500 top dollar, banged and dented and somebody backs into it and puts a little dent in the fender, comes to my door with tears and says, “Oh, I’m so sorry, I put a dent in your car”. I’ve just opened a registered letter, finds out I inherited l00 million dollars from a relative I didn’t know I had. You know what I’m probably going to say to the guy at the door, “Forget it, it’s nothing, it’s nothing, why I’m filled with gratitude, let me tell you what I just got”. Yea but, your car. You mean that jalopy, you can have it, it’s nothing. You know, if I’m walking around just filled with gratitude to God because my mind is filled with what He has done for me in Christ, and I see it everywhere, expression of His love shown to me, I mean, the little dents I get, they’re nothing, they’re nothing, forget it, don’t mention it, so to speak. Be thankful, constantly filled with gratitude to God with what He has done. This is going to come up again and again. I wonder if the children in our homes if they were going to express themselves, how often do we grumble and complain. I wonder if they would say, you know, my parents never complain. I never hear my Mom or my Dad grumble or complain, they just always seem so thankful for what God has done, what God has provided, how God cares for them. You know, that’s true when it seems things have not been good, they’re just always so thankful to God for what He has done. I wonder if that is really what they see in our home. Are we a people that just live in the realm of continual gratitude toward God for what He has done? They hear us expressing the grudges we’re nursing, the bitterness that’s seething, the discontent. Be thankful.

Verse l6, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you”. Another command, let it dwell within you, let it dwell within you. So, we have the peace to rule, we are to be thankful, now the word of Christ is richly dwelling within you. This means the truth we have received from Christ as well as the truth about Christ and they become synonymous. The truth of Christ is the truth concerning Him, it’s the truth we have from Him, it’s what we have now as our bibles. The Old Testament is a message anticipating Him, the New Testament is a message about his life and death and then the apostles that unfold the truth that has been accomplished in and through Him. That word is to dwell richly within you. Now you note the result of the word dwelling richly, and then we’ll look at some of the details, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, then wives be subject, husbands love your wives and so on.

Back up to Ephesians Chapter 5, and look at verse l8. “Do not be drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” There it’s given as a command; we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit just as we are commanded to let the word dwell richly within us. Note the result of being filled with the Spirit, verse l9 of Ephesians 5, “speaking to one another in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”, verse 2l, be subject to one another, wives be subject to your husbands, verse 25, husbands love your wives, Chapter 6, verse l, children. The results are exactly the same, for being filled with the Spirit or in Colossians 3, letting the word of Christ richly dwell within you, saying the same thing from two sides. To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Spirit who indwells you, to live your life under His control. To let the word of Christ richly dwell within you means it permeates your life and controls everything you do, you are controlled by the word of God, you are controlled by the Spirit of God, and that is the dominating influence in all that is done. So, in Colossians 3, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. It must permeate you, control you, even as the Spirit of God is to do.

We ought to note something in light of the context here. It goes on to say, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, singing and so on. There is a concern here of the expression of this again in our corporate relationship. So, it’s not just being controlled by the Spirit as an individual, it’s being controlled by the Spirit together as the body of Christ. It’s not just the word of Christ dwells richly within us as individuals, it dwells richly within us as the body of Christ. That’s why as we come together as the body, one ought to permeate everything we do is the word of God. It is the focus; it is the dominating influence in everything that takes place. That’s the tragedy and the travesty of churches that are attracting people by pushing the word of God to the side, to less of a sensual role. You cannot truly worship God and pleasing to Him unless the word of God richly dwells within you or among you, both within you as an individual and within us among us as the people of God, because the expression is going to take place in the context of our relationship to one another. It’s just not a private, personal matter. This is the body together. So, if the Lord leads you to another place and you look for a fellowship of believers as you gather together to worship, you ought to look, does the word of Christ richly dwell among them, is it permeating everything that’s going on, is it a controlling thing in their worship. Now, that’s the command, let the word dwell richly.

There are three participles that elaborate on this. It is important to get the understanding of this passage correctly. The first two go together and they have been used together already in Colossians, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another. Back in Colossians, Chapter l, Verse 28, we proclaim Him, Christ, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. So, here with all wisdom, the wisdom that he talked about earlier in Chapter l of Colossians, and the wisdom that comes from the knowledge of God and His truth is applied by the Spirit of God. We are to be teaching. That is the importation of God’s truth. So, as we gather together as the body of Christ, the word of Christ is richly dwelling among us, then we will be teaching this truth that we might grow and be nurtured. Remember the gift of pastor/teacher in Ephesians 4 given for equipping the saints for the work of ministry. We are to be speaking the truth in love that the body might grow. We are admonishing, that’s the negative side of the teaching, that’s correcting, that’s reproof. So there is no thought here that all unity and peace rules over everything. Unity and peace rules in the context of God’s truth and the context of teaching and the context of correcting and reproving, correcting where it needs to be done, just like in our physical homes. In a family there is to be love, there is to be unity, there is to be peace. But there will be discipline, there will be correction, there will be reproof that takes place within that context.

Now, in our bibles, at least in the New American Standard bible I’m using, it says with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and you get the idea that the teaching and admonishing takes place through the songs. I don’t think that quite gives you the idea because you have one command here, let the word dwell, let it dwell. Now there are three participles modifying it, teaching, admonishing, singing. So, the third participle here, singing, further carries out the word of Christ dwelling richly, expresses itself in singing, and we are singing with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in our hearts to God. So, the word of Christ richly dwelling among us will express itself as the word of God is taught, as we are admonished with the word, as we are singing. Isn’t that true. You meet some body and they’re humming a tune or singing and you say, “What are you so happy about?” It is fitting, with thankfulness in your hearts to God, it’s an expression of thanks and gratitude. It’s a natural expression, that our hearts are filled with song. We have that song or chorus we sing, In my heart there rings a melody, that’s what we’re saying. Our hearts are filled with gratitude, why I even hum, in certain private recesses I sing. It is to be an expression of the word of Christ richly dwelling. Let me say something to offend you while we are all here together. Certain people have developed a pattern, they don’t come to church for l5-20 minutes after it starts because “I just come for the teaching of the word, we can do away with the singing as far as I’m concerned”. Well, I’m glad you’re not God, because God says where His word dwells richly there should be singing. This idea we decide what the worship will be rather than God decides, is an awful, awful thing. You know, I sometimes wonder, if you had an appointment with the President of the United States, I would imagine you would show up on time. Oh, it doesn’t matter, we can be there l5 or 20 minutes late, he won’t say anything important the first part. That may be true! But, out of respect for the office you would be on time. But, somehow on the worship of God I don’t care for the singing. Well, God says that where the word of Christ dwells richly among His people in their worship, there is teaching, there is admonishing and there is singing. The singing includes songs, hymns and spiritual songs. Now, I read a number of commentaries who clearly define what each of these were, but in reality we don’t know the difference. There is probably a difference in these words because he uses three different words. Psalms originally meant something that was sung to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument. It came to be used of songs that were accompanied by instruments. Some people say we shouldn’t have musical instruments, we don’t need those. Well, part of what we do in our singing is sing to God to the accompaniment of instruments, so we do need them. It may be a reference to the Old Testament psalms, although by this time Jews were using it even more broadly than just the inspired psalms of the Old Testament. Hymns are often thought of as songs that particularly express praise to God and exalt His glory, certainly that would be part of it. Spiritual songs then would be general songs of a spiritual nature. With spiritual songs, I want you to note, that these songs are included in the worship of heaven itself. So, turn over to Revelation, Chapter 5, let you see this word spiritual songs as it is used in the worship of heaven and the very presence of God in glory. Now, if you came late this morning I don’t want to embarrass you, but I have to admonish you, that’s reprove and rebuke. Maybe your car broke down, no one knows, just don’t be late next week. Revelation 5, look at Verse 9, now here we are in heaven before the very throne of God, the host of heaven joined together and verse 9 says, “And they sang a new song”. The word song is the same word we have spiritual songs, the word songs there in Colossians 3, this word. They’re doing that in heaven, they sang a new song and the content of the song is recorded in verses 9 and l0. Look over in Revelation, Verse 3, “And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders”, this is a 144,000. You see, in the expression of worship offered to God before the host of heaven the 144,000 express it in song. Chapter 15 of Revelation, Verse 3, “And they sang the song of Moses”, there’s the word song again, in Colossians 3, the song of the Lamb saying and here’s the content, great and marvelous are your works, Oh Lord, God the almighty, and so on. So understand that our worship to God is offered as a package. We want to be careful that we are biblical, that the word of God is dwelling richly among us, that we as a body are functioning, being filled or controlled with the Spirit. It fragments the body, fractures the worship when I pick and choose. I don’t like the songs so I come 20 minutes late, besides I don’t know why we have songs anyway, I just want to study the word, and then we say we want to be biblical.
To be biblical you must study the word, you must be taught the word, you must be rebuked by the word. We also then express in our hearts the song of gratitude we have to our God for His greatness, for His love, for His mercy, for the wonder of His person, His truth.

Come back to Colossians, Chapter 3. We’re singing with thankfulness in our hearts to God all kinds of songs with varying accompaniments. Verse l7 sums up Verses l2-l6, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus”. Our lives are to be lived in their entirety, according to the will of God and consistent with His character. So, what it means, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, His name stands for all that He is. Do everything in accord with His person, with His will, with His character. That’s to shape us, to control us. I Corinthians l0:3l says, “Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”. That’s saying basically the same thing, we do all to the glory of God, we do everything according to the name of Christ, consistent with His will, consistent with His character, giving thanks through Him to God the Father, the third time, verse l5, verse l6, verse l7. We are a people whose hearts are to be overflowing with gratitude, I never get tired of it, it’s never old. How sad in our Christian life, you know, we are so thrilled early on and we are involved in the worship of God every time the saints come together, but with the passing of time we think we need less and less, when really with my growing in knowledge and understanding my gratitude ought to be increasing, and this bucket ought to be overflowing more and more and more, because I know far more about the wonder of my God and His salvation today than I did l0 years ago. Does that not increase the depth of gratitude and thanks to Him, isn’t something wrong with the people who say, oh yes, I have grown in knowledge, I have grown in understanding and somehow I’m shriveling in gratitude. You know, something is wrong. Am I taking these truths to heart, am I taking them in and absorbing them and allowing the Spirit to make them part and parcel of my thinking and my living. Verses l2-l7 really telling us the character of our God is to be manifest in us as His people, continually expressed in our relationships to one another. We’re almost in a situation of being a people who cannot offend one another. Have you ever talked to someone, you see something happen and afterwards you say, weren’t you offended by what they said, oh no, I didn’t take it that way, well you should have, I’m sure they meant it that way, no, I didn’t take it that way? Isn’t that the way you function after you’ve been married a while. Maybe Marilyn and I after we’ve been married so long I got tired of apologizing, saying you just take it for granted, and in a sense I don’t want to take for granted that forgiveness in our relationship, but in another way, that’s the way we function, don’t we. We don’t stop with every possible slight, let’s go back and talk it over and work it out, and she has come to the point, I know what he meant, he didn’t mean that personally. Again, I have to be careful I don’t presume on that, I have to function biblically. But, in a relationship we’re not expecting, we’re not looking for ways to be offended. It’s almost no, no I didn’t take it that way. I think they were looking to offend you, no, I didn’t take it that way, no I didn’t give it another thought. Then somebody comes back and say, you know, I said something and I’m sure it hurt you. Oh, no, I didn’t give it another thought, but thank you for your concern. You know, sometimes good for us to make things right, but not because the other person, if they are a believer, ought to be waiting for us to do it. They have already taken care of it, I didn’t think any more about it, doesn’t affect my relationship with you, I didn’t give it a passing thought. That’s just the way we function together. I’m almost become in a position I’m non-offendable. Now, don’t try me out, but that’s what I need to be working on and sometimes I’m really grieved to see how small I am. Quite frankly, there are times I have to say thank you, Lord, for that offense, because it is tragic that I am still so immature. I have mulled it over, I have thought about it, I’ve been bitter about it, I’ve looked for them to get theirs, and, Lord, I really needed that in my life because I need to grow. How sad that one who has been forgiven so much, should still be thinking about this little trite, insignificant thing. God, by your grace, help me to grow up. That’s got to be my response, whether someone else intended to offend me or not that’s their problem with the Lord. If I am offended by it then it’s my problem with the Lord. I want your problems with the Lord to stay with you and the Lord, I don’t want to take them and make them my problems in the wrong sense. Now, if the body functions like this where would the divisions be. Well, where people are unbiblical, they’re not standing for sound doctrine, the issue would have to be dealt with. Where there is open sin it mars the testimony of the body and it does hurt the life of the believer. We intervene in discipline and love, but personal affronts, they’re nonexistent, personality conflicts, personal grievances, well you know you do that, you take all the battles out of the churches, they’re nonexistent. I’ve used the church I’ve pastored before I came here. I went there as a seminary student, had the center aisle, I could name the family that sat on this side, the family that sat on this side, the people were lined up according that if you came to visit that church whatever side you sat on that was you, you were that faction, didn’t matter you didn’t know, you sat on that side. Finally said, we got to resolve this. You know what they told me, gone on for 35 years and you’re not going to solve it. You know, we don’t have to go back 35 years’ folks, doesn’t matter what was done then, does it. All we have to come to grips with is how much have we been forgiven in Christ. That washes out everything down here. Now if we live like that, taken care of. No matter what happens to me, I go home and say, Lord, thank you for forgiving me so much in Christ, I’m overwhelmed with your forgiveness, I can’t hardly even take notice of the little wrongs that take place down here.

Have you ever experienced that overwhelming forgiveness in Christ? It’s marvelous, to know that every sin little and big is washed clean because in love He provided a Savior. That’s awesome, it’s overwhelming, and He offers it at no cost, no charge, you do nothing but say yes, I’ll take it. How do you take it? You believe what God says, you are a sinner, Jesus Christ, the son of God died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin, He was raised from the dead. You say, God, I want to turn from my sin, let it go and trust in Jesus Christ alone as my Savior. Forgiven every sin, past, present and future, transferred from the road to hell to the road to heaven, born into the family of God and made new within, indwelt by the person of God himself to control and direct your life. It’s marvelous, it’s amazing, it doesn’t even make any sense humanly speaking, that God would do such a thing for us, but He has. Have you experienced that salvation? If not, today could be the day. If we have, are we living it out with the consistency that God expects and requires by virtue of the provision He has made for us as His people.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for such a wonderful salvation. Lord, may our hearts continue to grow with gratitude and thankfulness as we learn more of you, and more of your salvation. Lord, may we be constantly and consistently filled with thankfulness to you for what you have done for us in Christ, and Lord, may we be rejoicing with the privilege and for the privilege of expressing the beauty of your character in our relationships with one another. And Father, for those who are here who do not yet know you, may today be the day when they experience the overwhelming joy of sins forgiven by your grace. We pray in Christ’s name.