Colossians 3:16
~15 min read
TRANSCRIPT
I greet all of you in the blessed name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning's message is taken from Colossians 3:16. Allow me to read for you: “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.”
The word of Christ is the word of God. And the phrase, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, is identical to being filled with the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled with the word. And similarly, to have the word dwell in us richly is to be controlled by the Spirit.
There is a difference between being indwelled by the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer at the moment of salvation. It occurs at the point of conversion, and it happens only once. Romans 8:9 says, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” In other words, if a person does not have the Holy Spirit, he does not belong to Jesus Christ.
The filling of the Holy Spirit happens continually. It is to be completely controlled by the Spirit. When the believer totally surrenders to the Spirit's leading, and the Holy Spirit will not work independently apart from the word of God. The word of God is like the handle that the Holy Spirit would use to direct and control us.
I. Filled With The Spirit In Word
So the title of our message is filled with the Spirit in word and in songs. The first part of verse 16, Colossians chapter 3 said, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another.” How do we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom? By teaching and admonishing one another.
Teaching is the positive aspect of imparting God's truth to us, which is all sufficient for our lives and practices. That is the meaning of richly in all wisdom. And this teaching comes to us through hearing sermons, attending the Bible classes, and learning God's word, or having our own devotional study of the Bible. Admonishing is the negative aspect of teaching. It is to warn us of the consequences of our behaviours when we do something wrong.
In order for us to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, firstly it involves a diligent study of the Bible. 2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” You and I can never live a godly life, a sanctified life, or make the right decisions, or respond to the situations of life rightly if we do not know what is required of us. So we need to know the Bible and to study it diligently.
Secondly, it involves a humble submission to the Bible. Through his word, God declared his thoughts, his standards, his desires, and his will for our lives. So through teaching and admonishing we let his thoughts be our thoughts. We let his standards be our standards. His desires be our desires, and his will be our will. When we yield ourselves to the word of God, the Holy Spirit will lead us to do, say, and think as God would want us to do, say, and think.
Let's say if you get to know someone and you desire to marry that person, but he or she is an unbeliever, and the Bible says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” Then your desire must submit to the Bible. If you encounter a particular trial and you reason within your mind that this is how you should respond, but if your respond because of your reasoning contradicts what the Bible says, then your reason must bow to the authority of the Bible. The Bible must take preeminence.
That is the most reasonable thing to do. Only God knows everything. You do not know everything. And what God said, you know, it can be trusted even though you may not fully understand it.
As Isaiah the prophet said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8–9). That is the meaning of submitting ourselves to the word of God.
Allow me to give you another example to stress this point. We all know that the Bible teaches us to exercise self-control. What does it mean to exercise self-control? When you say to your children, control yourself, what do you mean?
It can be because he is getting angry and he needs to calm down, or he is making a proud statement and he needs to stop being proud, or he is jealous about his sister and he needs to stop. So you say to him, control yourself. Put that emotion or that action under subjection.
In a similar fashion, we take all our emotions, whether it be our anger, our pride, jealousy, envy, bitterness, and so forth. And we see what the Bible says about all these negative emotions. And we pray, God, may the Spirit take control of my bitterness. Take control of my anger. Take control of my pride. Take control of my negative thoughts.
Essentially, what God says in his word, we believe and we submit, and we let the Spirit of God take control. It involves a day to day, moment by moment submission to the word of God and the Spirit's control. It is not something that we do to ourselves, but we prayerfully allow it to be done to us. It is entirely the work of the Spirit, and it works only through our willing submission.
That is why this command is in the present tense. It is not something we rejoice in the past or something we hope for in the future. But today, in the present, we submit ourselves to the word of God and to the Spirit's control.
Just like the mark of a good marital relationship, it is not the love and devotion that the husband and wife had in the past, as wonderful, meaningful, and loving as they may be. Nor is it the love and devotion they hope for in the future. The strength of their marriage is the love and devotion they have for each other today in the present.
Likewise, the strength of a Christian, his spiritual life and his relationship with his God is today. And day by day, moment by moment, he submits to the word of God and the Spirit's control. The best analogy of this day by day, moment by moment submission is the idea of walking. When we walk, we move one step at a time. And it can be done in no other way.
To have the word of Christ dwell in us and the Spirit of God controls us is to walk and move, weighing every thought, every decision, every word, every action, every respond with the word of God and submitting ourselves to the Spirit. That is how you and I should live our lives. Remember Galatians 5:16 says, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
II. Filled With The Spirit In Song
Next, the Apostle Paul turned and said to them, “In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Having the word of Christ dwell richly in us will not only produce spiritual understanding and the ability to live godly lives, but it will also influence our emotions, our entire spiritual persona.
It generates this joy and grace in us to sing unto the Lord in our hearts. Here Paul was not speaking about some dramatic spiritual experiences or some mountain moving faith or certain dynamic spiritual abilities, but simply a heart that sings.It is this inner joy in us that is manifested into songs. Whether the believer has a good voice or cannot carry a tune, it doesn't matter. The word filled and Spirit filled Christian is a singing Christian.
Throughout the scriptures, the believers were constantly singing unto the Lord. When God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses and all the people gathered together and put into a song how God has so mightily open up the Red Sea and delivered them. You can read about that in Exodus chapter 15.
When the Israelites were delivered from the Canaanites, Deborah and Barack said in Judges 5:3, “Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.”
Do you know what was the last thing our Lord Jesus and the disciples did after the last supper before they entered into the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was arrested? They sang a hymn. Matthew 26:30 recorded for us, “And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.”
In Acts chapter 16:25, when Paul and Silas were imprisoned at Philippi at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.
Indeed, the believers were always singing unto the Lord. And here in Colossians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul talked about singing. And he explained with whom we are to sing, from where we are to sing, and how we ought to sing.
Firstly, with whom the believers are to sing. Paul said, “To one another.” In Ephesians 5:19, a similar verse he sent to yourselves. Throughout the Bible, God's people always sing within the fellowship of believers.
No music in the Bible is ever characterised as being intended to be evangelistic. Yes, God may use the gospel content in a song to bring his truth to the lost and thereafter to lead them to himself. But that was not his intent for music. God's intent for evangelism has always been through preaching the gospel. For faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
God's people always sing within the fellowship of believers. The common problem with using songs to evangelise is that there is often this lack in the presentation of God's truth and this lack in delivering the full gospel message. The people's emotions are simply stirred up, producing a false sense of well-being and contentment. The unbelievers walk away thinking that they have received certain spiritual satisfaction.
Today there are so many modern churches all over the world trying to use rap style, rock style, or techno style music to evangelise to the lost. Instead of evangelising to the lost, they give a wrong message that there's no difference between the church and the world. It is about entertaining, and the entertainers become famous, popular, and impressive in the eyes of the people. It makes the gospel a matter of sort of pride. It depends on how well you can sing rather than humility.
Many of the modern Christian songs have bad theology with absolutely no spiritual values. Not all of them, but many of them. Sometimes with very few words about God and Jesus Christ punctuated in the songs. The music of today's gospel songs has been used as a means for making money. But as believers, we must never devalue the gospel because the gospel is priceless.
The unbelievers has no comprehension of the praises that we sing because he has no Holy Spirit in him. He cannot sing the song of redemption because he's not redeemed. He cannot fathom the song of salvation because salvation means nothing to him.
Christian singing is a spiritual activity. It is an expression of the individual believer and with the other believers celebrating life together in Jesus Christ. That is what we do when you and I come together to sing. True Christian songs are always based on the word of God.
Do you realise that the songs in our hymnals are mainly written from the 1600s onwards? The question people would ask is why aren't there any songs before that period? The reason is because before the reformation, for over a thousand years during the dark ages of church history from AD 500 to AD 500, the ordinary people did not have the Bible.
So at that time the church in general did not sing. Singing or music was often performed by the professional musicians. The lay people would just sit back and listen, unable to understand, appreciate, or participate. But when the Bible came into the church during the reformation, the singing was revived.
So Martin Luther and the other reformers wrote thousands and thousands of hymns. Through the word of God, the Holy Spirit puts the music into the heart.
How do the believers sing? The Bible tells us in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Hymns is a reference to the Old Testament hymns put into music. Sorry, psalms, not hymns. Hymns are songs of praises which in the early church were distinguished from the psalms. Spiritual songs are songs of testimony, and it covers a broad category, and that includes any song that declares God's truth.
Today in the church we may say that the singing of Psalm 23 and Psalm 84 are songs of psalms. The old rugged cross and blessed assurance are songs or hymns. “The world behind me and the cross before me” is known as a spiritual song.
Singing means to sing with a voice. It is a sound offered to God from a spirit filled heart. The organ and the piano are great instruments, but the human voice is the most beautiful of all instruments. For it can communicate to the heart like no other instruments can communicate.
The sound God is looking for in his children is the sound that comes from our hearts. Regardless of whether the voice is rough and unpolished or smooth and trained, as parents, whenever we are away from home, we always miss our families, especially our children. Right?
When we return home, our greatest desire is to hear our children calling out to us, “Oh, daddy, you are back! You are back!" It may be a scream. It may be a shout. It may be a cry. It doesn't matter. We love every moment of it because those are the voices of our beloved children calling out to us.
How much more our Heavenly Father who loves to hear his dearly beloved children singing unto Him. He wants to hear the voice that we will render to Him from our hearts.
I believe I've shared this testimony before about a famous orator and an old preacher. Both of them were invited to attend a community dinner where there were thousands of people. The master of ceremony invited the famous orator to recite Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd.
The orator said, I will only recite Psalm 23 if that old preacher also agrees to recite the same Psalm. Because he was proud. He knew that he could recite better than that old preacher. After much persuasion, the old preacher agreed.
The auditor began reciting Psalm 23 in perfect English. His dictation and pronunciations and punctuations were all perfect. The crowd was impressed, and they applauded.
Then the old preacher stood up and started reciting. His voice was rough and broken. His stammered. His dictation was bad. Nothing near perfect. But after he finished reciting, the crowd was weeping and crying.
The master of ceremony was puzzled, and he asked the orator what happened. The orator was humbled, and he said I only knew the psalm but he knew the shepherd.
Dear friend, do you know the great shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ? If you truly know him, then whether you sing alone in your home or in the car or together with a few friends with the piano playing or a capella in the congregation or in the choir, you sing because you know the shepherd and you seek no glory but the glory of him.
And God who hears, he will be most glad to bless your singing.
From where do believers sing? The songs that we sing must originate in our hearts. And that is why the apostle Paul said, “Sing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” A person whose heart is not right with God cannot sing in his heart. He can only sing with his lips and without the power of the Spirit. It is but vanity.
If this morning you have come to church with this broken and bitter spirit and you are angry with your loved one or with the one sitting beside you, your heart is not in harmony with God. How can you sing in your heart to the Lord?
Singing without the heart is at best just an empty exercise of the vocal cords, and at worst it is hypocrisy. And hypocrisy can neither praise nor please God.
In Amos 5:23, when the people's hearts were not right with God, through his prophet, God said, “Take thou away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy instruments.” They are just noise to God. Take them away.
The psalmist also said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” (Psalm 66:18).
So it is from the heart that we sing to God, and God sees into our hearts. If our hearts are not right, how then can we sing to him?
We may be singing amazing grace, but what is so amazing about God's grace? When our hearts are not transformed, we may sing Jesus paid it all, but yet we are not willing to forgive the person whom God said he has paid it all.
Dear friend, if our hearts are not right with the Almighty God, our singing will never be acceptable and pleasing unto him.
To whom do believers sing to?
Whether we sing in a congregation or with the choir, our songs are always directed unto the Lord. Our singing is not for the purpose of drawing attention to ourselves. It is not for the purpose of entertaining others, but to rejoice and praise the Lord.
Do you realise that it is possible for us to fall into the sin of singing for pride? Singing for fame, singing to impress others, singing for money, basing are just empty words that will never ascend to God.
So whether we sing solo or whether we sing in the congregation or with the choir, our focus is always on the Lord, not on ourselves or the other people. God is both the audience and the object of our singing. And he sees into the innermost of our hearts.
If there be any pride or self glory, if our hearts are not right with him or we are just singing for the sake of singing or we are just singing because everyone is singing, he knows and it will never be acceptable unto him. Our worship will mean nothing to him.
As believers, we are to be filled with the Spirit in word and in songs. How do we do then?
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and in hymns and in spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.”
That is what we must do. And we pray that that is truly what we will be. Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, indeed as believers, thou who has saved us, we are indwwellled with the Holy Spirit. But every day of our lives, we need to be filled with the Spirit. And to be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled with thy word.
And we submit ourselves to thy word. But before we are able to submit ourselves, we have to know thy word. So we have to study diligently the Bible. And we pray that the Spirit of God will take thy word, impress it upon our hearts, convict us, and cause us to be able to live the lives that thou would want us to live.
And the result of such a spirit filled life will be this inward joy that manifests itself in music. We will then sing from our hearts to the Lord. Singing with grace, the psalms, the hymns, and the spiritual psalms. And thou are both the audience and the object of our singing.
And our hearts must always be in tune with thee. For if our hearts are not right with thee, then our singing will mean nothing. For thou has taught us that we ought to sing in our hearts to the Lord.
So help us to set these spiritual perspectives right as we come before thee and learn from thy precious word and also to render our voices whether as a congregation, as a choir group, or in our own lives together with our families.
We sing in our hearts to thee to glorify thee, and may our singing be found pleasing and acceptable to thee.
We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
THE BOOK OF COLOSSIANSA Faith And Love That ShinesA Faith And Love That ShinesColossians 1:1-4
The Blessedness Of Our Christian HopeThe Blessedness Of Our Christian HopeColossians 1:5-6a
The Transforming Power Of The GospelThe Transforming Power Of The GospelColossians 1:6b-8
The Need For PrayersThe Need For PrayersColossians 1:9
Prayer for Spiritual ExcellencePrayer for Spiritual ExcellenceColossians 1:9-12
Walk Worthy Of The LordWalk Worthy Of The LordColossians 1:10-11
What Does It Mean To Call God Our Father?What Does It Mean To Call God Our Father?Colossians 1:12a
What Does It Mean To Be Citizens Of God’s Kingdom?What Does It Mean To Be Citizens Of God’s Kingdom?Colossians 1:12b-13
I Am Redeemed And ForgivenI Am Redeemed And ForgivenColossians 1:14
Christ, The Invisible GodChrist, The Invisible GodColossians 1:15
Jesus Our Creator Loves Me, This I KnowJesus Our Creator Loves Me, This I KnowColossians 1:16-17; Romans 8:37-39
What Is Christ’s Relationship With The Church?What Is Christ’s Relationship With The Church?Colossians 1:18
What Does It Mean To Be Reconciled To God?What Does It Mean To Be Reconciled To God?Colossians 1:19-22
The Evidence Of Our SalvationThe Evidence Of Our SalvationColossians 1:23a
Are We Willing To Suffer For Christ?Are We Willing To Suffer For Christ?Colossians 1:23b-24
How Faithful Are We?How Faithful Are We?Colossians 1:25-27
What Does It Take To Be Faithful In The Ministry?What Does It Take To Be Faithful In The Ministry?Colossians 1:28-29
The Indispensable Component In Serving GodThe Indispensable Component In Serving GodColossians 2:1-2a
This Is What I Wish For You To Have And To BeThis Is What I Wish For You To Have And To BeColossians 2:2b-5
Message 3: What is Christ to you? My Covenantal Head!Message 3: What is Christ to you? My Covenantal Head!Colossians 2:4-9, 19
The Evidence Of Our SalvationThe Evidence Of Our SalvationColossians 2:6-7
Message 4: What is a healthy and sound church? My Covenantal Haven!Message 4: What is a healthy and sound church? My Covenantal Haven!Colossians 2:7
Our Spiritual Union With ChristOur Spiritual Union With ChristColossians 2:11-12
Message 2: What is Church to you? My Covenantal Family!Message 2: What is Church to you? My Covenantal Family!Exodus 12:48-49, Colossians 2:11-12
What It Means To Be ForgivenWhat It Means To Be ForgivenColossians 2:13-14
Faith In Christ Is The VictoryFaith In Christ Is The VictoryColossians 2:15
The Danger Of Being LegalisticThe Danger Of Being LegalisticColossians 2:16-17
The Danger Of Spiritual DeceptionThe Danger Of Spiritual DeceptionColossians 2:18-19
The Vanity Of Self-Denial To Achieve SpiritualityThe Vanity Of Self-Denial To Achieve SpiritualityColossians 2:20-23
Seek Those Things Which Are AboveSeek Those Things Which Are AboveColossians 3:1-2
What Does It Mean To Be In Christ?What Does It Mean To Be In Christ?Colossians 3:3-4
Mortification Of SinMortification Of SinColossians 3:5-7
Put Off All These ThingsPut Off All These ThingsColossians 3:8-9
Put On The New ManPut On The New ManColossians 3:10-11
Recipes For A God-Honouring ChurchRecipes For A God-Honouring ChurchColossians 3:12
Lessons About Forbearance And ForgivenessLessons About Forbearance And ForgivenessColossians 3:13
United In Love And Ruled By God’s PeaceUnited In Love And Ruled By God’s PeaceColossians 3:14-15
Filled With The Spirit In Word And SongsFilled With The Spirit In Word And SongsColossians 3:16
God’s Instructions For The Family — The Christian WifeGod’s Instructions For The Family — The Christian WifeColossians 3:17-18; Ephesians 5:22-24
God’s Instructions For The Family — The Christian HusbandGod’s Instructions For The Family — The Christian HusbandColossians 3:19; Ephesians 5:25-33
Human Wisdom Versus God’s WisdomHuman Wisdom Versus God’s WisdomColossians 2:8-10
