Sunday, July 2, 2023 AM

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Thank you,

Father, for gathering us here today. And I thank you for the hope unto which we gather.

The faith in which we gather and the love by which we gather.

I thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, who is

King of kings and Lord of lords. Our great shepherd. Who has laid down his life for the sheep.

We rejoice in your salvation. And treasure your good news.

And we are in communion with you today. Living stones and dwelt by your

Holy Spirit. Grace upon grace upon grace, we are so grateful for these heavenly father.

You have given to us more abundantly than we have ever asked. Far beyond what we can fathom.

And yet you say there is still more. And so we give you praise and ask you, you would help us today.

To rejoice in your truth and to love one another. I thank you for your faithfulness and your long suffering, your goodness and your grace, your your preserving work.

The way in which. Your son, Jesus, builds his church, prays to you.

Pray these things in his name, amen. I'm trying not to cry.

I don't know why, but it's been nine years and I love you. The Lord is good.

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Ephesians five,

Ephesians five, verses 17 through 21. Taking a little break from the book of Acts.

And we're going to talk about singing. A title of the sermon today.

There reigns a melody. Now, our dear brother Elton Roth, who wrote the hymn there in my heart, there rings a melody.

100 years ago in 1923, he was at an evangelistic opportunity tent meeting, tent meeting back then.

He was somewhere down in Texas. And he just wrote that, wrote that song out and taught hundreds of children to sing it, and then they taught it to everybody who attended that meeting.

In my heart, there rings a melody. Melody of love. As I reflected on those passages in the scriptures that instruct us about our singing, they all come to us in light of the authority of Jesus, in light of his excellence and how he compels us to live in his light and in his love for each other.

And so our brother Elton, I'm not complaining about his song, but I think maybe reign, reigns a melody fits just a tad bit better.

In my heart, there reigns a melody, a melody of love. Our brother went on to be with the

Lord the year before our church started. Seventy two years ago in my heart, there reigns a melody.

You see the quote there in your bulletin about from Martin Luther next to the word of God, next to the word of God, music deserves the highest praise.

The gift of language combined with the gift of song was given to man that he should proclaim the word of God through music.

Remember seeing that quote hanging on my father's wall in his pastoral study, the.

The gift of music, the gift of singing together. I want us to think about that today.

We are going to. Read Ephesians chapter five,

I invite you to stand with me, Ephesians five, beginning in verse 17, reading through verse 21, this is the word of the

Lord, therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the

Lord is and do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit.

Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the

Lord. Giving thanks always for all things to God, the father in the name of our

Lord, Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. We had a great meeting together as the music music ministry team, and we began to speak with one another about the past and the present and the future of of the music here at Sunnyside Baptist Church.

Seventy one years of God's faithfulness and him providing music as a gift to the church where we are today and where God wants us to go.

It's something to to ponder and to consider and to treasure and to appreciate. When I was preaching through Colossians, we came past that passage very similar to this one in Ephesians five in Colossians chapter three, and we talked about it then, but that was seven years ago.

So it's time for a refresher. Time to cover some possibly new ground for some of us, some old ground for some of us.

But as we look at this passage, we see that it comes to us in the light of the excellence of Christ.

You know, the book of Ephesians was summarized by, I think it was Washman Knee, sit, walk, stand, sit, walk, stand.

And indeed, that's a good way to summarize the book of Ephesians, that seated with Christ in the heavenly places, we walk with Christ in these earthly places that we may stand in the difficult places.

And this comes in the part of Ephesians where we're thinking about walking with Christ. What does that look like?

To walk in Christ, to walk as Christ has taught us, to walk with him.

And we hear these instructions, therefore do not be unwise.

Understand what the will of the Lord is. And there are these specific instructions to not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit, to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that we're going to sing and make melody in our hearts to the

Lord. But as we look at the text, it says that we're supposed to sing to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, but we're also to sing to the

Lord. What does that tell us? It tells us that singing to one another, we sing to the

Lord. Singing to one another, we sing to the Lord. And it begins with submitting to the

Lord, doesn't it? We back up to verse 14.

Therefore, he says, Awake, awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead and Christ will give you light.

Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead and Christ will give you light.

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit.

So in other words, because of who Christ is as our Savior, the one who brings us to new life, who the one who raises the dead, the very one who said, let there be light is the one who shines his light into us and raises us from the dead, from spiritual death.

He wakes us up. He gives us life. He is our light.

See then, everything is different now, walking in his light. And we are not to walk as fools.

We are not to walk as fools. And the very first way you can see that someone is walking as a fool is that they don't care about the time.

They don't care about the time. The excellence of Christ and his timely judgment puts all of our times into proper perspective.

Who he is and how he's reigning and what he said makes time precious. Time isn't precious because it's limited.

Time is precious because of who Christ is. And then he says, now be careful with your lives, be careful with yourselves.

Do not be drunk with wine. The problem is not the wine. The problem is the drunkenness.

It says this is dissipation. Being drunk with wine is dissipation. Now, I know that that's not a word that you go around using very much.

Much less the synonym of profligacy. Yeah. What is that?

Sometimes the translators say, which is in excess. Being drunk is, you know, drinking too much wine.

Well, yeah. That doesn't, you're just saying what the other word said, but this word, this word is the word for seeing the boundaries of safety and intentionally crossing it.

Wearing a safety harness with lines that keep you secure and intentionally cutting those lines.

That's a sin. Don't be drunk with wine, which is dissipation.

Don't be a fool, right? Remember, so the ignorant doesn't know this.

Right. The simple needs to be taught, instructed, needs wisdom.

But the fool is the one who knows better and does it anyway. Fool says in his heart, there is no

God. The fool says in his heart, Christ does not reign. Fools isolate themselves from others, seeking only their own opinion.

Fools have no interest in what anybody else says, but only in speaking their own mind.

Don't walk as fools. The master says, walk this way. The good shepherd says, walk this way.

Walk as the wise, value what God values. See, it says, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the

Lord is. Consider the will of the Lord, learn the will of the Lord, appreciate it.

Get into the nuances of what he desires for you. The master says, walk this way.

Learn what God's will is. Think of him. Think of his word. Think of him first. Think of him most.

Isn't wisdom, the fear of the Lord, isn't that the beginning of wisdom? So think of Christ first.

Think of him most. Discern what his will is. And it says, be filled with the spirit.

A very interesting verb. It's present tense.

Right now, it is imperative. It's command. It's your job.

It's also passive, something that someone else does. Be being filled with the

Holy Spirit. What a strange way to say it. Be being filled with the

Holy Spirit. I want us to think about that just a moment before we talk about singing, because it's related.

It's related. Now, this is a culminating type of statement that Paul makes after talking about holiness, as he starts talking about godliness.

After all, he starts off in chapter five and says, therefore, be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us in offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.

In verse eight, it says, for you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, walk as children of light.

So when you go back to the end of chapter four, there's all these things listed. Say, well, this is not the way to live, but this is the way to live.

This is all about walking in the light of of Christ. And when we get down to verse 18, it says, be filled, be being filled with the

Holy Spirit. So how does this?

How does this work? Yeah, I'm not in charge of the

Holy Spirit. I don't control him.

I don't move him. I don't invoke him to do anything.

He is sovereign. Sovereign as the son is sovereign, as the father is sovereign, he is sovereign.

It is still my responsibility. I am commanded be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that those who are born again of the spirit.

Are those who are not something that they did, I mean, Nicodemus is like, what do I do? How do

I be born again? Jesus said, no, it's the Holy Spirit who does that work as you feel the wind and you hear the sound of the wind, but you do not know where it came from or it's going.

So is everyone who was born of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus is playing upon the the metaphor of of the spirit and the wind.

After all, the Hebrew word Ruach is for spirit and for wind. So when we see this instruction, be being filled with the

Holy Spirit, I don't control the spirit. I don't I don't make him fill me. I don't make him do things for me.

And after all, remember that Jesus did not tell his disciples before he ascended.

He didn't say to his disciples, now, look, you've got this great commission. You've got to go to all these nations and preach me now.

You all get back to Jerusalem because the spirit is waiting on you to get back there and you need to get all your stuff in arrangement so that he can do what he needs to do.

That's not what he said. He said, you go back to Jerusalem and you wait. You wait for the gift of the

Holy Spirit waiting on the Lord. You see. Lord's not waiting on us.

We are to wait upon. The Lord, we don't control the spirit, we don't control the wind, but we are to set the sail, we are to set the sail.

Now, if you if you're on a boat. And your whole goal is to sail and you don't raise the sail, then you're just sitting on a bunch of driftwood.

Now, you put the sail up. Are you commanding the wind to blow? You are not commanding the wind to blow.

You're waiting. On the wind to blow. But you've got to set that sail.

And we are called to walk by faith and not by sight, and we are called to set the sail. Now, how do we set the sail?

That's what verses one and two are about in Ephesians five. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ.

Listen, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us and offering in a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.

Here's what this passage is not doing. Paul is not saying now, here's the here's the standard of how you're supposed to perform, and it's

Jesus. So get started failing. Welcome to the Christian life.

Every day you must match Jesus's performance and every day you're going to fail.

No, that's not look what he's doing. What is he doing? He's doing the same thing here in Ephesians five that he was doing in Colossians three, set your mind on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

You're setting the sail. Put your attention upon your savior, Jesus Christ, remember him and recognize him and respond to him, call out to him, think of him, contextualize everything you're in your life in the light of Jesus Christ.

Set that sail, study him, read about him, pray to him, call to God and appeal to him in the name of him.

Set that sail as the old sailing ships would put the emblem of their king upon the sail.

So we put the emblem of Christ upon our sail. I don't control the wind, but I've got to set that sail. And so I'm not

I'm not working and laboring and churning out and producing like a factory, my holiness, just not.

The salvation which I enjoy is one that excludes boasting. It totally does away with boasting every single every single grace and every single aspect of holiness in Paul's life.

You know what he had to say about it? It's not I but Christ who lives within me, I am what I am by the grace of God, and that's all that I am.

How can you say that, Paul? Didn't you labor than the most of them? Yes. But what is that? He's just setting the sail.

It's the spirit. It's the spirit who does the work of flesh, prophets, nothing.

Having begun by the spirit, shall we continue in the flesh? God forbid. And so all the all the labors that we do in that we do is to put our attention upon our

Savior, upon Christ. And we set that sail. And, you know, we do so confident that the spirit will blow because God promised.

God promised and we can trust him and God's going to do what he's going to do according to his measure, according to his timing, according to his power.

And we need to walk by faith. Therefore, we set the sail. We had to submit to the

Lord Jesus. He's our king. I'm going to raise that sail. If your sail, if you think that spirituality and holiness and quality

Christian life has to do with your self -affirmation, being proud of yourself and feeling good about yourself, you're going to set a sail and hope to catch men's praises to blow you along.

If you think that the Christian life has to do with feeling very religious and mysterious and spiritual and having amazing experiences, then you're going to set a sail and you're going to hope that the emotions carry you along.

But those types of sails that you will set will send your ship into shipwreck. And even as there is only one

Savior who justifies us, there's only one Savior who sanctifies us, and it ain't us. It is

Jesus Christ. So we set that sail and it's Jesus, Jesus all the way, sweetest name we know.

He deserves our praise and he determines our praise. He's the content of our praise and he's the conductor of our praise.

He's the one who makes us holy and he's the one who makes us harmonize. Preparation for worshiping together begins with our submission to Jesus.

We have to know the one to whom we sing. You've got to know the one to whom we sing.

So submitting to the Lord begins first. Be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Raise that sail of Christ.

Now sing songs to the Lord. Sing songs to the Lord. He is worthy of our worship.

Now, I want to encourage you, use your Bible app on your phone or your your PC software or your good old trusty

Strong's Concordance, whichever you got. Just go look up the word sing in the

Bible. That will bless you. That will bless you. There's a lot of it.

So start with the Psalms. Just go just go look at all those passages where you see the word sing.

And that will encourage you and exhort you and move you along. Let's think about the forms of our singing, the forms of our singing.

We see our three Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, we are to speak to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

By these, we are to sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord. What are the

Psalms? That's easy. There's 150 of them in our Bible. Um, those of you who went through the summer session last year on the

Psalms will know that they come in five books. And there's a variety and a beauty and a structure to the

Psalms. If you miss that, you can check out that literature in the library.

Go through it yourself. The Psalms are here in God's word for us.

They are full of praise and prayers. They are laments.

They are imprecations. Psalms were given to Israel to sing to God, and they are all sung to God, praising in the shadows of Christ.

And now we take them up and we take up the Psalms that were sung as praises to the shadow of Christ upon the horizon of redemption.

And now we sing them with unveiled face and rejoice in Jesus from the pen of David and Solomon, sons of Korah, Asaph.

Sing the Psalms. Sing the Psalms. They are full of such variety.

And hymns, we sing hymns. Now, hymns are fairly structured.

They're about honoring a king. The whole idea of a hymn in its original meaning was to give an ode and an honor to some glorious king, to God.

They involve everybody. They're way more corporate. They're not really individual types of songs.

A true hymn is not one that's going to have the personal pronoun. It's not going to be

I and me. And that's fine, but that's not a hymn. They're declarative.

They're less responsive. There's some response, but they're more declarative, describing

God, declaring His glory, His worthiness, and just magnifying Him. Together, we confess together the truths of the

Word of God. In other words, holy, holy, holy is a hymn, and I love you,

Lord, is a spiritual song. Spiritual song. Songs that are promoted by the

Holy Spirit, in agreement with the Holy Spirit, in agreement with His works and His witness, that these songs bring us in spiritual songs, not to say that the other songs aren't spiritual, but they are all about our communion with Christ, our comfort in Christ, which is the ministry of the

Holy Spirit, responsive. So what do we have going on here?

We have truth by pattern. In the Psalms, in the Psalms and the historical realities of the

Psalms, we recognize the pattern of Christ, and the Psalms are filled with things that sound like hymns, everybody praising

God for His massive glory, and they have things that sound like spiritual songs in the Psalms, where it's

David crying out to the Lord in a difficult time. So we have a variety in the

Psalms, and there's even more variety in the Psalms, but we also sing hymns, but we are to write new songs and sing new songs, and spiritual songs.

Truth by pattern in the Psalms, truth by proclamation in hymns, and truth by personal application in spiritual songs.

All this variety tied together in the beauty of who Christ is. So we have forms of our singing, and God seems to indicate we need all three.

And so you'll notice that we have psalters in our hymnals, and our hymnals are filled with some spiritual songs and filled with hymns as well, trying to walk in the way that the

Master says. Our Good Shepherd knows what we need. We want to sing in the way that He teaches us.

But what is the fuel for our singing? What drives us to sing?

Well, let's see. We want to understand what the will of the Lord is. We want to think of Christ.

We want to exalt Him. We want to submit to Him. And rather than being filled with wine, we want to be filled with the

Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, in hymns, and spiritual songs.

See? Now, which is it?

Are we being filled with the Holy Spirit by speaking to one another in psalms, in hymns, and spiritual songs, exalting

Christ, and raising the sail? Or is it that once the fact is that we are filled with the

Spirit, and so from our filling in the Spirit, then we speak to one another in psalms, in hymns, and spiritual songs?

Yes, those two instructions are laid right next to each other without any qualification, one way or the other, for a reason, for a reason.

We are to, in light of who

Christ is and for His exaltation, sing because He's worthy.

That fuels our singing and our worship. And being filled with the

Spirit, that fuels our singing as well. Moved along by the

Holy Spirit to do this, that's the fuel for our singing. The fact of the matter is that the more we are in step with the

Spirit, the more that we are engaged in the Word of God, the more we anticipate and appreciate and participate and celebrate in singing together.

It's just the way it works. Now, what is the focus of our singing?

Well, the focus of our singing, notice, is twofold. There is a singing to one another, and there's a singing to the

Lord, and those things go together. I remember when

I was in college, one of, like a friend of one of my friends, was complaining about the way her church did the music, and her grave concern was that they only gave 45 minutes for singing because, truly, it was somewhere within that last 15 minutes of an hour that she could really begin to feel like she had actually worshiped.

Don't they understand, she said, that it takes some of us longer to get there? What's going on?

Where's her focus? How had she been discipled? How had she been taught? She had been taught to recognize a certain type of feeling as true worship, as the true movement of the

Spirit. That's how she had been instructed. That's what she thought. But the focus was not on how she might love others in her singing, and how she might honor and glorify

Jesus in her singing. The focus was off. And there is an important aspect of feeling when we sing.

Herman Bavink observed over 100 years ago that there was a growing loss of distinction.

People didn't understand the difference between religious feeling and aesthetic feeling anymore, that you can be moved by art, and that's a different thing than being moved by truth.

And many people are chasing the aesthetic feeling and missing the religious feeling.

The focus of our singing is for one another. You see this, speaking to one another. Colossians puts it, teaching one another, admonishing one another, laying things upon the mind, one thing after the other, in an orderly fashion.

That kind of teaching, admonishing, speaking to one another, we have a goal in mind of exhorting one another and edifying one another.

This is a part of the holding fast to confession of our hope without wavering, considering one another in order to stir up the love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.

It's that. Singing accomplishes those things.

Singing encourages one another. Singing is supposed to be towards one another, loving one another.

Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs is how we love one another. And as we see this described, verse 21, just kind of in line with everything else that's been said, making melody in your heart to the

Lord, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, submitting to one another in the fear of the

Lord, submitting to one another in the fear of God, submitting to one another.

That is an excellent description of harmony, isn't it? How does it work in a good choir?

All the different parts, submitting to one another, working together. The focus of our singing is one another.

Singing under Christ's lordship, we serve one another. We're each one of us looking for the needs of the other.

You know, my mother grew up in a time when they did not have PowerPoint. They didn't even have overhead projectors.

Some of you said, what? And she grew up in the church.

She had all the verses memorized of the hymns of the Baptist hymnal, basically.

So she knew them by heart. Even the third verse, she had it memorized.

And so she taught me how to read in church. She'd stand there halfway bent over with the hymnal in front of me, finger following the lines, teaching me, admonishing me, instructing me, helping me to sing, showing me the connection between the syllables and the notes.

We are to serve one another in our singing. And all this unto the

Lord, we are to make a melody to the Lord in our hearts. The word for making melody is just the verb form of the noun psalm.

We are to be psalming in our hearts to the

Lord. We are to strike the chords of our hearts, tuned by the spirit, tones of truth.

Psalming in our hearts to the Lord, making melody in our hearts to the Lord. As we as we serve one another and love one another in our singing, we are to be singing unto the

Lord, always giving thanks, always giving thanks. Isn't it hard to give thanks in all things?

This is the will of the Lord for us in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5 18. We are to always give thanks.

That's a spiritual discipline. But, you know, singing makes the discipline of thanksgiving accessible and beautiful.

Sometimes I don't even know how to be thankful for the situation that I'm in, but I can sing it. I can sing it.

And when we sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, they inexorably lead to giving thanks, giving thanks to the

God who made us and who saves us, who blesses us, giving thanks always for all things to God the

Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So everything in his name, we're thinking of him first, thinking of him most.

And that's what leads us to love one another rightly, rightly employing our talents and our time.

In our heart, there is to reign a melody, a melody of love. Now, I want to think about what does that mean for our singing together?

What does that mean for our singing together? Now, sometimes you're going to sing a new song, a song you've never heard before, a song that you're not familiar with.

This puts you in the uncomfortable position of learning from others. But, you know, you look at the passage and it indicates that people are going to be teaching one another, admonishing one another, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

So sometimes you're going to be the student. Sometimes you're going to be learning and it's uncomfortable to be the student, to have to learn.

That's a humbling thing, but that's good for us. What do we do when it's hard to learn a new song?

We do our best. We pray for help. What if we're out of sorts? What if I'm not really feeling what this hymn is saying?

Well, it's, you know, you're going to have to stop doing inventory on your personal warehouse. Did you know that no matter how long you spend in your personal warehouse of your heart, indexing all of the here's and there's and the ups and downs, you're still going to have a mess on your hands.

You're not going to know what's there. Heart is deceitfully wicked. Who can understand it? God can. God knows what's in the heart.

And, you know, he's already done a full inventory on it. And in Christ, he still loves you.

And if there's something that's out of order in the warehouse of your heart, you better know he's going to bring it to your attention and you can handle it.

But it's not your job to cross index everything and know what's there and then say, well,

I guess because I don't have my inventory in order, I can't sing. It's not about you. If you're out of sorts,

OK, you're here to serve others. You're here to love others by encouraging them and speaking to them, because that's going to bless them to hear that from you.

It's about serving them. Well, maybe I'm out of tune. I can't hit the notes.

Well, then you follow others. Let them help you hit the notes. It's like, well, the person next to me, they're out of tune, too.

Here is a great opportunity to move your pew. Say, I love you, brother.

I love you, sister. But I've got to get to somebody who can teach me how to sing. Come with me. We'll surround some sister or brother and bless them.

That's the only way I made it through any choir class, was being next to somebody who could sing on tune.

And I do my best to follow them. Let's say you got it down.

God has blessed you. You are talented. You're gifted. You just enjoy it. It comes naturally.

Well, then you are here to help others and bless others and to encourage others, serving others.

And when we think about the opportunity to sing to the Lord who he is, well, he deserves so much, so much honor and so much praise.

We ought to pray and ask the Lord's help in singing to him. And we ought to practice.

One of our dear sisters sends out a little email every week with the songs that we're going to be singing on Sunday.

So I don't know about that list. We'll get on that list. And use it, practice and prepare.

I mean, we're coming to sing together, to sing to one another, but to sing to the

Lord of Lords, to the King of Kings. He deserves to be sung to. And as we rejoice in it, he rejoices in it.

One last thought is this. Jesus told us that we are to go unto all the nations and make disciples of one another, teaching one another, teaching others, teaching them all that he has commanded.

And he promised to be with us even to the end of the age. He's given us his Holy Spirit and he's called us to the work of discipleship.

Now, what would you call teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs?

Well, that's called making disciples as we sing to one another. So you are participating in the very heart of what

Christ has called you to do when you sing to one another. In our hearts, let there reign a melody, a melody of love.

Let's close, Father, I thank you for the time that you've given us in your word. Lord, I thank you for this reminder of the blessing of singing to you, and I pray that you would help us to do so in the way that you have prescribed here, knowing that you have our best at heart.

Help us to love one another in our singing, but especially help us to exalt you and honor you as we sing.