Be Real

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? You doing alright today? Oh, I trust so, bless your heart. Glad to be back with you, and I’m looking with you at Colossians 3:16. The last time we talked together, we spoke about what it means to admonish someone, and then it says, “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Small thought here, your music, your Christian music, ought to be well-rounded. Some people insist on singing nothing but Psalms. Others feel that it is a kind of sacrilege to sing anything other than a stately hymn. And still others specialize in gospel songs that have a little more life and rhythm to them.

Well, if I read anything from the Word of God, I see it right here, that there’s a balance in our approach to Christian music. Young people today respond to a musical idiom that we more mature people… I’m not gonna say older. [chuckle] We more mature people don’t always identify with. It’s an outgrowth of the musical idiom of the ’50s and ’60s and ’70s, and there’s that persistent beat and there is oftentimes, so far as I’m concerned, a kind of a banal repetition of lyrics that goes on and on forever and all of that. And yet young people identify with it, that seems to be their kind of musical language, so-to-speak. I will say that many have taken that musical form and adapted it to scriptural lyrics, so that whether or not you like the tune, you certainly can’t disagree with the words because they’re read out of the Bible. [chuckle] I like that. But that’s one form of music. And then there are the hymns and the gospel songs. And the Psalms, of course, as they’re sung in many a church. In oldline denominational church, they have what they call a psalter, and they sing the Psalms.

Beloved, it’s not either or, it’s not one or the other, it’s both and. God likes them all. Why shouldn’t we? Pretty good idea? Don’t look down at someone who doesn’t share your musical taste. We don’t all have to be in agreement about details. What we have to agree on is the Lordship of Christ and the infallibility and inerrancy of God’s Word, the need of the new birth, Christ’s deity and virgin birth, and blood atonement, and bodily resurrection, and present ministry, and second coming, and the person and work of the Holy Spirit. We have to agree on these things and lots more that I haven’t mentioned, that are foundational to our Christian faith. But you don’t have to agree on the color of your shirt or the cut of your suit. You don’t have to agree on the order of service. No, you don’t.

I remember the first time I preached in a certain church over on Long Island. Now I was in the pastorate 18 years, and the morning service is pretty well etched in my mind so far as the order in which things ought to happen is concerned. In churches that I served we started with the doxology, the people remained standing while you had what we call the invocation. They generally remained standing for the opening hymn, so that would give some folk who were latecomers a chance to slip in. And then there was Scripture reading and special music and announcements, and the offering, and another hymn, to get people awake before you started to preach. And then you preached, and that was the morning service. That sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it?

Well on this particular church to which I’m referring, we had prayer in the room just off the platform, and then the minister said, “Alright, we’ll go on the platform.” And as he walked on the platform, he started to sing. He had a very pleasant voice as I recall. The choir behind him picked up the refrain, and for perhaps eight or 10 minutes that entire congregation sang at the top of their voices giving praise and glory to God. No announcement, no hymn book, no order of service, just a full-hearted, full-throated sound of praise welling up from hundreds of hearts. Hey, that was great. Well, I was surprised ’cause I hadn’t seen that before.

“Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” Make room in your thinking for other people’s musical taste. Just be sure that the ground is level at the foot of the cross, and that you get there. When you and I kneel together before our blessed Lord, we’re one. Your neck tie may be blue and mine may be red, or yellow, or whatever, but we’re one when we get together at the foot of the cross. You follow me? It’s a great truth to have, and it takes a lot of the strain out of interpersonal relationships with people whose musical tastes, let us say, or other tastes for that matter, you may not share.

Paul pointed out in this very Book of Colossians that he says there, “There is neither Greek nor Jew, there is neither barbarian or Scythian or bond or free.” He says they’re one in Christ Jesus. You remember that passage? We went over it in this very book. Christ is all and in all. Jesus our blessed Lord is bigger than ethnic differences, Greek or Jew. He’s better than religious differences, circumcision, or uncircumcision. He’s greater than cultural differences, barbarian or Scythian. He’s greater than societal differences, bond or free. Christ is all and in all, and ye are complete in Him. Oh, it’s great to be one with God’s children, isn’t it? And there may be some differences among us so far as lifestyle or tastes or ideas is concerned. But when you get together at the pierced feet of Jesus, oh, you’re one. Cherish that oneness, won’t you? Never lose that.

Well, I mentioned singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, don’t be afraid to sing something for God, He likes to hear from you. “To the Lord,” it says, not to people. With grace in your hearts to the Lord. I always bristle a little when a song leader, in trying to get a congregation to sing a little better, he says, “Now let’s all sing it as if we meant it”. Oh I want to bite him. [chuckle] That’s terrible, isn’t it? In other words, we don’t mean it, but let’s put on as though we do. Oh hey, you have to be real, brother or sister. You have to be real if you’re singing to the Lord. ‘Cause He knows, “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart,” the Bible says. God knows whether you mean it. So let’s be real, let’s be true and let’s be enthusiastic as we sing to our blessed Lord, whether it be in a church service or riding through the lonesome miles of a western state where you roll down the window and just sing a hymn for your blessed Heavenly Father. Either way. Let it be real.

Now, he said, “And whatsoever.” Lots of whatsoevers in the Bible, whosoevers and whatsoevers. Do a study of that sometime, it will enrich your own heart. “Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son,” Jesus said. “Whatsoever things ye desire, when you pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them,” our Savior said. Lots of whatsoevers, here’s one, “Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed”, that takes it all in, doesn’t it? “Do all”, said he, “In the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” Now he said, “Whatever you do in word or deed,” what you say or what you do, that takes in the whole spectrum of daily life. Well, now what are we supposed to do about it? He said “Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Somebody has paraphrased that “in the name of” phrase as being this way: do all as a representative of the Lord Jesus. You like that? If you come in somebody’s name, you come representing him or her, do you not? I come in the name, I come in the name of John Smith. Well, I’m representing him then, that’s what I’m saying, I’m representing him. Well, how do you do that, how do you do that? Well, all of the relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, as verbalized in this phrase “In the name of,” all of it has to do with His merits and your faith in Him. Luke 24 says, “Repentance and the remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.”

Our Lord Jesus said, as recorded in John 14, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son,” I quoted that for you a moment ago. The very essence of salvation is in the name of. “These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name.” Simon Peter going to a prayer meeting at 3:00 PM with the Apostle John was accosted by this beggar man at the beautiful gate of the temple. Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” A little later on when he was explaining to the crowd what had happened, it says, “And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know, yea the faith which is by him.” See that’s explaining the phrase ‘In his name’, “The faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.”

“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” so as representative the Lord of the Lord Jesus, as belonging to him, you can talk to the Father, you can proclaim the gospel, you can rebuke evil spirits, you can ask for the intervention of God in a miraculous fashion in human need, in His name. What does it mean? When you come to God, you come pleading the merits of that perfect spotless Son of God, who is for you God’s passover lamb, God’s provision for the forgiveness of your sin and God’s guarantee that you are part of His heavenly family forever. When you come to God in the name of Jesus, that means that you are pleading His merits, and that you are standing as a representative of all that He is, “Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption.” Then when you talk with other people or do anything here on this earth involving other people, again it is as a representative and bearing the merits and the authority and the power of your living Savior. “In word or deed,” he said, “do all in the name of,” that is representing and carrying with you the authority, the power, the compassion, the love, the message of your blessed Lord Jesus. Would you begin to think about that in your daily life?

So many of the things we do are thoroughly secular, and we don’t have anything that relates to Jesus in them. It doesn’t mean that you have to be religious about everything, it does mean that everything you say and do is going to be for Him.

Dear Father, today may we have grace in our hearts for Thee, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!