Singing and the Glory of Christ in His Church (Galatians 6:13-14)

Such a pleasure as always to preach the Word of God to you. If you could open back into your copy of God's Word to Galatians 6, verses 13 and 14. We will also be referring to other passages. If you remember, Brother Tommy Alderman filled in for Brother Chris last week and preached from Galatians 6, verses 6 through 7, on the unbreakable law of sowing and reaping. And given the direction the Lord had already placed on my heart, I wanted to give you an update on my time at the Worship Matters Intensive. Many of you have asked. I felt as though I was going, but I felt sincerely that my entire church was excited for me.

The minute I came back, many of you asked, "How was the intensive?" And that was the hardest question to answer. I felt like an entire week I was literally drinking from two fire hydrants. And it was a hard question to answer, and I thought it might take an entire message. So when Brother Tommy preached on sowing and reaping, I thought that was a great and logical place to begin as we open up God's Word.

And we can simply ask ourselves the question, "What are we planting as we worship every single Sunday?" I did not get on an airplane and go to Louisville, Kentucky to get more tools, more tricks for worship leaders, although I did receive great practical information. My heart really in going to the intensive was to see that we would all grow as worshipers. And this is far more than the songs we choose. It's far more than how we set up our worship services. So the question I would like us to all ask this morning, are we boasting in Christ through the worship ministry at Grace Life, Brookhaven?

And I want to say from the outset that I was so encouraged by hearing these other brothers, 15 men from churches all over the country and one from the UK. I was so encouraged that many problems that these brothers deal with that we don't deal with and haven't dealt with. We were, I think, the smallest church. I was the oldest worship leader, which I was extremely encouraged by that fact. They were quick to point that out. I thought I was young, actually, it's not the case. Ages ranged from 23 to 46. Worship styles varied from large orchestras to one brother with a guitar, which would be myself.

I was so thankful to share that many people actually have congregations of folks that don't sing. Many men have congregations that don't smile when they sing. Although we were probably one of the smallest congregations represented, I could boast that we probably, in my opinion, have the best singers. The Lord's blessed us with a sanctuary. We say this oftentimes, "You all lead in worship every Sunday." And that's exactly why I wanted to preach this this morning, to encourage us in what we're doing right, but challenge us where we can grow.

And as Bob Coughlin, who led the Intensive, shared so many times, "This is just a rehearsal for heaven." When we come to worship, we are actually taking our rightful place in what we will do forever. There won't be preaching in heaven. There will be worship. And for eternity, we will simply gaze at the risen Christ, and we will be in awe. And if we're honest, many times we come, and many times I can come, even leading worship, just because that's what we do. As we rehearse for eternity, I don't think we ever can exhaust the topic of how can we come every Sunday morning and simply gaze upon Christ.

I'm thankful for Brother Jared, who leads so effectively. If you think of the songs that we picked this morning, all will be well with the hand of our Father. In Psalms 46, "Has the Lord been with you through the fire?" I know many of you know your testimony. I know that indeed he has. And so when we come and we sing, and we gaze upon the sufficiency of Christ, we're simply asking ourselves, "How can we plant more effectively?" You know, our worship ministries in our churches will make much of something. Your song and your worship makes much of something. Either we make much of emotional experience.

Either we make much of musical arrangements. Either we make much of how well we sing or how poorly we sing. We can even make too much of our own shortcomings and failures. And if I can be honest, in the last 20 years of walking with Jesus, I have made all of these, even as a Christian, even as a minister in the last 12 years. I've made all of these mistakes. So I was blessed during the intensive and greatly encouraged Galatians 3, 2 through 3. We can look at just a little bit of context before we dive into the text this morning. Paul says this to his beloved church in Galatia. Let me ask you only this.

Did you receive the Spirit by works or of the law by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Now we don't know too much about the singing of the Galatians, but we can gather they were bewitched. In Galatians 6, we see where we are picking up this morning. Paul is writing the entire book for a church that has fallen back into legalism. In fact, he's saying you were one to Christ by the Spirit, and now you are trying to add to your sanctification through effort and through striving.

There's a group of Jewish Christians called the Judaizers, and they were telling these Christians faith in Jesus isn't enough. You need to believe in Jesus, and then you need to be circumcised, and then you need to keep the law. The cross of Christ is not enough. Paul is lovingly rebuking the Galatians. He's simultaneously exalting Christ, and we need both. We need to be made low, and we need Christ to be exalted. This needs to be the habit and pattern of our life day to day, so when we come in to sing as we sing, we become less and Christ becomes more in our eyes.

In our corporate worship, we can fall into error, as Proverbs 4.23 says, "We must keep our hearts with all diligence." So I said a few minutes ago, we're doing so much right. And as we rehearse for eternity, I feel we can do so much better at simply loving Christ so much more. So to this end, first truth this morning, if we are going to worship Christ and glory in Christ, first we must boast in the cross. Boast in the cross. Now to flesh this out, I've taken a Warren Wiersby's outline, and I want to kind of highlight what Paul says. Let me read Galatians 13 through 14 one more time.

"For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." If we are going to see the glory of Christ in our singing, we must boast in the cross. Warren Wiersby says that Paul boasted in the person of the cross. Now our worship every Sunday morning needs to be personal. We're not singing ideas about God. We're not singing ideas to God. We should actually be encountering the person of Jesus.

I'm going to ask you when you met the person of Jesus. When were you converted to Christ? The personal work of Jesus in your own life, that's where you begin worship. We must revisit our conversion every single Sunday in every song. Is it not a blessing to sing a song that is actually your testimony? Paul boasted in the cross of Christ because the cross of Christ met him personally when he was going to persecute Christians. The Lord knocked him off of his high horse and brought him low and changed his heart. I ask you today, sir, ma'am, child, have you been born again to Christ?

It's amazing, Charles Spurgeon once said, how far a man may go in religion and yet die in his sin. You may know all the songs. You may even lead the songs as I did in March 3rd of 2003 when I was leading songs about Christ and the Lord convicted me that I did not know Christ. And like Saul, I was knocked off of my high horse. We're going to boast in the cross. We must boast first in the person of cross. Our worship begins with our conversion. Paul also boasted in the purpose of the cross. He knew the purpose of why Jesus died and this is how he could boast of Christ.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, 1 Timothy 1.15 says, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. You Grace Live Church Brookhaven, my dear friend, you were the purpose of the cross. Do you remember that? Now you might know that intellectually, but let's think about this for a second. If Jesus Christ came into the world to die for sinners, can you agree with Paul simply saying of whom I am the foremost? And after your conversion, this is the second place that we go to if we're going to worship the way we need to.

When I'm singing songs, I should be reminded I'm the worst sinner in the house. This is what I was amazed at the intensive is the depth of pride that men confessed, the depth of humility that I saw demonstrated and how I was encouraged that our worship should be rooted in our personal conversion and also a daily reminder. Christ Jesus came to die for sinners of whom I am the foremost. When we sing, we should be reminded of what the Lord saved us from and who we are. We sing out of humility. We sing because the Lord saved a wretch like me. Ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah, what a savior. Do you believe this this morning?

Do you believe that you're the worst sinner here? Do you believe that Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom you are the worst? Because if you believe you're the biggest sinner in the room and that Jesus was offered for you, how then should you sing? You should sing with gratitude. You should sing with amazement. Now all of a sudden you won't be concerned that you don't have a voice. You don't have to worry about your voice if you have a song. Paul also boasted in the power of the cross. See the cross and the cross alone is enough to overcome your sin. Every Sunday we seem to have to push back whatever we have dealt with the week before.

And it is only in the cross we find a cure for our pride. Every Sunday if we're going to boast in the cross we need to remind ourselves. Jesus who is God the Son, he bore the Father's hatred of sin for me so that I could worship. And if we come here out of routine or out of habit, if we don't come and sing fully amazed as much as the Lord would allow us for how wonderful it is that the Lord would send his only Son to save a wretch like me, then we are not fully making much of the blood of Christ. It was spilt for you. It was spilt for me. That should impact our singing. It should impact our life.

Our singing must be fueled by adoration for the person of the cross, celebration of the purpose of the cross, and exaltation, power of the cross. I believe that's why we sing well. Also believe that's why we could probably sing a little better. Because we're going to spend an eternity fully adoring the person of Jesus, the purpose of Jesus, and the power of Jesus. It should impact our face. Bob Coughlin often says this, that the Lord has said in scripture that those who look to the Son are radiant. Yet so many times we come to church and even as we sing, our heart is not telling our face how awesome Jesus is.

So many times when we're honest, we're just trying to take a deep breath because the work week has been so tough and we have another one ahead of us. And we have this trial coming in our lives and we have this loss. And even in the midst of all of that, we should find amazement at who Jesus is. That He would come and give His precious blood to save this wretch. And singing well first begins with praying well. And singing well begins with reading the word well and listening well. So if I could just ask you, how well are you doing this morning as a worshipper and as a lead worshipper? You know I can relate to the Galatians.

Because after I was saved, I tried to perfect so much of what the Lord had done in the flesh. Music was a big part of that. I thought if I led so many disciple nows or if I was a Christian counselor or if I was a minister that I could somehow add to my sanctification. Several years in the ministry I realized that myself, I could become bewitched. If we're not careful, we can try to add to what the Lord has done in the spirit in our own flesh. Secondly this morning, to sing for the glory of Christ in His church, we must boast in our weakness.

Paul wrote another letter to the church at 2 Corinthians 12.9 and he says this, "He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in my weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness and the power of Christ. The power of Christ may rest upon me.'" Can I ask what your greatest weakness is this morning? So Bob Coughlin, I'm not name dropping. He said once we go through the intensive we can call him and email him. So I'm going to say that my friend Bob Coughlin says this, that everyone here is struggling with one of three things.

You're either struggling with sin or you're struggling with suffering or you're struggling with self-sufficiency. And if I were to ask you what is your greatest weakness, you might actually say one of those things. You might say, now we're struggling with all of them if we're honest. We're always going through some kind of trial. We always have some sin that we're wrestling with, praying over and we're always battling self-sufficiency. But how can we make our greatest weakness actually our boast? How does that draw us into the Lord's presence in worship?

Well if we're wrestling with the sin, 2 Corinthians 7.10 says that godly sorrow leads to repentance. Worldly sorrow leads to death. So if you have sin and it's on your mind in worship, we need to be careful that we're not actually wallowing in our sin and our self-pity. Worldly sorrow leads to death. Now I find the quickest way when we find a conscience or the Holy Spirit is convicting us and we seem to be in the muck and the mire of sin is simply to look at what a big Savior that we have. You know Jesus died on the cross for all of your sins, past, present and future.

And so as we worship, we worship the God who knew your sin while you were still sinning, Christ died for you. He knew all of your weakness, he knew all of your hang ups, he knew all of your immaturity. It just so happens that as you live your life, you're learning your hang ups, your weakness and your immaturities. They're not a surprise for you. They're not a surprise to God. We become broken when we realize who Christ actually saved. This godly sorrow can lead to repentance.

We have to be careful that we can deceive ourselves into thinking that we're actually convicted when actually we're really having a spiritual pity party about how bad we are. The phrase that I've used this and I've heard Jared talk about it is pig-pin worship where we want to just stay in a pit and we want to sing about how bad we are and think how terrible we are as a person. At some point, we've got to realize those sins were nailed to the cross. Now the Lord, I think, will not sometimes we wrestle with a guilty conscience sometimes because the Lord wants us to see the severity of our sin.

But we should realize that first and foremost, Jesus defeated our sin on the cross. Secondly, suffering. Paul boasted in how the Lord humbled him through suffering. Now this is the hardest one for us, but when we're actually going through suffering in a period of trial, as Brother Jared's saying, all will be well, we must grow to a point where we realize, 1 Corinthians 12-9, "My grace is sufficient for you." God told Paul when the thorn was in his flesh, "My power is made perfect in weakness." The Lord will bring suffering to show you who you are and to help those around you, to help the church. And finally, with our self-sufficiency.

When we fail to pray, we are living in self-sufficiency. When we fail to read the word, we're living in self-sufficiency. And can I challenge you here? When you don't ask people's opinion, when you will not ask godly Christians for accountability, you're also living in self-sufficiency. Do you know that's why we have a small group ministry? That's why you're in that ministry and that's why God has put those people around you.

And it is an act of humility to go to them and say, "I'm dealing with an issue and I know what God's word says, what do you think?" And I find that this pride that we have that wants to hide our weakness, that doesn't want to open up, that doesn't want to be vulnerable. Now, I'm not saying we have an open mic night, you confess your weakness and your difficulties for the church, but you should at least confess them to your small group leader. You should at least be willing to go to lunch with someone and be open about something that you're dealing with. This is something the Lord has given us to battle what? Self-sufficiency.

So I'll revisit this question, what is your greatness weakness? Your greatest weakness is that you cannot add to anything, right? The Lord is sending difficulty just to show you that He alone and the cross alone is sufficient. You know, I was overcome with a frequency of which I focus in everything else except the greatness of the cross. I can remind myself of Peter and I learned this at the Intensive as we were challenged to examine our own hearts. You know, Peter sees Jesus and I believe he was spiritual, he wanted to be with Jesus, he wanted to see the greatness of Jesus, so he jumps out of the boat, onto the water, and then what happened?

He stopped singing "How great thou art" and he started singing "How great are the waves, how great is the wind, how weak I am, how sinful I am" and what happened? He started to sink. I find the quickest way out of my selfishness and self-centeredness, it's not by singing, it's by worshipping. And let me explain that. You can sing worship songs and not worship. Look at what James 5, 13 says, "Is anyone among you suffering, let him pray? Is anyone cheerful, let him sing, praise?" God has given you a song, we come to sing, and lo and behold, someone next to you who is suffering is challenged out of their own self-centeredness.

If we're going to see the glory of Christ in our singing, we need to count the world as crucified. So let's go back to the text and I'll read verse 14 of Galatians 6. "Far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me." How do you know when the world is fully crucified to you? Especially when you no longer have an appetite for the world's delicacies. When the world no longer is appealing to you. And this was the case for Paul. Gil says that Paul gloried not in the wood of the cross, but in the effects of his crucifixion.

He gloried in the peace, pardon, righteousness, life, salvation, and eternal glory, which come through the death of the cross. He gloried in Christ as his wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. As I read that quote by John Gil, I could not help but think the line to this hymn. "All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to your blood." You know, I think the temptation for many of us is not that you love concert going more than Jesus. I know the families at Grace Live Church. I don't think the temptation for us is that we necessarily, like a lot of entertainment so much that it pushes Christ out.

But on one particular Sunday, years ago when we were NOLA, I sang this line, "All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to your blood." And I was not planning to do this, but I felt impressed simply to challenge the congregation as I played instrumentally. What are the vain things that are charming us most other than Christ?

After the service, a woman comes to me and she says, "You know, Brother Keith, when we did that, I began weeping because I realized that what was charming me most was my family." She was telling me that the Lord was convicting her, that she had really treasured her family more than she was treasuring Christ. I think that perhaps we can have misplaced affections without even knowing it. And the Lord loves us so much that He would call us into a place of conviction. And I know the Lord does this. He does this in my life. He does this in a life of believers.

But when we are not counting the world as crucified, it may come in the most nice of packages. We can make a subtle idol out of anything. I can know for me that the fear of man can be an egregious sin that may often creep up in my heart. One Sunday, and I tell this story a lot, if you've heard it, please forgive me. It fits. This was in my first year, maybe second year, of singing leading worship at Nola Baptist Church. And there's a really sharp curve going out to that church, you know, if you've been through it. You turn through that curve and you're only about a few tenths of a mile away from Nola Baptist.

And the whole way there, I was really self-conscious, specifically about how I sing. And I made the mistake of opening up to my wife about it. I said, "You know, I don't know that I really like my voice. I don't know that I really like the way I sound." And you know how wonderful my wife is and how honest, in a very tender way, she just says, "Well, that's dumb." And through that very biblical response, I was convicted of the Spirit. That was dumb. That was dumb. See, I was bent out of shape that I didn't like the way my voice sounded, or I didn't think I was an effective guitar player enough. And I realized that was sin.

It was the fear of man. Now no one had complained about my voice, at least not to my hearing. But for some reason, I wasn't measuring up to who I thought I needed to be. And if we're not careful, any one of these misplaced affections can rob us of our worship. So just a general challenge, perhaps you're not singing out enough because you don't think you sing very well. And you may not sing very well. That doesn't mean you don't have a song. You are the choir. I want to challenge you. So many of us do sing out. And may the Lord refine our hearts. If we're going to see the glory of Christ in the singing of His church.

Finally, we need to count ourselves as crucified to the world. So in Galatians 6, 14, "But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world was crucified to me and I to the world." Now have you been crucified to the world? That's the second half of this verse that perhaps we could miss. What does that mean to be crucified to the world? Simply, it just means that you are despised and hated. Are you as Paul? Paul was despised by the world for the sake of the crucified Christ. The world had no affection for Paul because he gloried in the cross. Listen to what 2 John 2, verses 16 through 17 says.

"For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life." It's not from the Father, but it's of the world. The world and its desires are passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. A famous Christian leader once publicly said that their praise team would not sing any song about the blood because that would be an offense to the lost world. This person was, and still today is one of the top leading booksellers of all time in the Christian church, and he built a ministry on this seeker-sensitive idea not to offend the lost world.

So that means we couldn't sing nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. See the last challenge that I'm talking about this morning is that we would somehow not want to embrace the cross because of what the cross means to the world. That's exactly why we need to embrace the cross. We should be willing to be despised and rejected. I was recently shown a video of a ministry team in a place where it is difficult to be a Christian and going out on the street. This worship team simply sang worship songs. It broke my heart as the lost world simply just walked right past the praise team.

Why did they not stand and listen to these songs? Because the cross is despised and rejected. The closer we get to Christ and the more we sing for Christ, the more our song will be despised and rejected. They won't understand why we smile when we sing. They won't understand why we weep when we sing. He saved a wretch like me. So in conclusion, I simply want to challenge you with four types of worshipers. Four types of worshipers. First we have the legalist. The legalist, this is actually the church of Galatians and these were Christians. They had fallen into legalism. This person says, hey, we must sing this way.

The legalist is unconcerned with the burden of sin with the fellow Christians sitting right next to them. See legalists, as Wiersby says, have no concern about your burden. In fact, they will lay more burden upon you that they themselves can't carry. We can't ever impose our ideals of worship on anyone else. Can't say, hey, you've got to sing my way or you've got to sing this way. Legalism can creep into our hearts, especially when we become proud of our principles and we start to compare ourselves with other churches. We can't ever be prideful.

It's okay if you love our songs the best, but we have to be careful not to look at the live streams of other churches and denigrate them and have a judgmental spirit or else we fall into that pitfall of being a legalist. Secondly, we can be a formalist. The formalist says we must rigidly follow our routine. We're going to sing two songs. We're going to read scripture. We're going to sing two more songs and we're going to preach and we're going to sing another song, which is actually what we do every single Sunday. But the danger comes in is if we start to rely on that more than we are glorying in Christ.

Again my friend Bob Coughlin says this, the Holy Spirit helps us plan, but the plan is not the Holy Spirit. So if we follow God and if we are amazed at who Jesus is every Sunday, he is with us. We've desired and prayed that we would be a lampstand church in Revelation chapter three and the seven churches of Revelation. A lampstand church is simply a church where Jesus walks among us. You know he promised to be here. Scripture says that he inhabits the praises of his people. When you come and you sing out regardless of your voice and when you see the words on the screen, but you're not singing at the screen, you're singing to the Lord.

Do you realize it's not a formula, it's not a pattern, it's personal. Third, this is the hedonist. Yes, hedonism. And hedonist says we must worship to get what we want. This is the person, and there's a lot of songs you may hear on the radio that have a hedonistic bend. This is what Bob Coughlin told us, Jesus isn't the means to get what we want, he is what we want. And I love that and that challenged me. I guess I wanted to give you guys the highlights of the things that I learned. The legalist and the formalist and the hedonist. It's not that other person at the other church down the street. It's me. It's you.

Godly Christians who are growing and walking in their faith can fall into patterns of worship that just don't edify Christ as much as we need to. Fourth and finally, this is what we strive for. We have the legalist, the formalist, the hedonist, and the doxologist. Now that's a big word, I would be scared of using it if not we've taught you a bunch. But doxology is just simply, it's what you believe about singing from the Bible. And that our songs and our services need to be influenced by our doctrine. You can tell a lot about what a church believes by how they sing.

And our greatest witness to lost people that come into our midst is how they see us and hear us simply adore Jesus. And that's what we're striving for. We will be rehearsing for eternity until we are in eternity. We can't ever preach on this enough. We can't ever improve in this area enough. So I challenge you all simply to join me as I just try to be a better worshipper. That's what I learned at the conference. I learned lots of practical stuff that I won't bore you with. It's really technical things that really helped me. I can't thank you enough for sending me, for going with me.

I saw many of you post the Sovereign Grace music, put out a picture and I was there. My pastor obviously joked and made fun of me and said I was praying with my eyes open. But thank you so much for going with me. Thank you for praying with me. I felt as though I was the most excited to be there out of all of them. And I look forward to what the Lord is going to do as He expands our hearts. It's not about having a music program or a music ministry. It's about cultivating hearts that are adoring Jesus all the time. I was really so proud of you guys.

So many of these brothers in really, really large churches were just telling us people don't smile, they don't sing, they can't get folks to volunteer, they can't get help. We just don't have that problem. Thank you so much for how you serve the Lord. I'm going to ask Brother Jared to come and we're going to close in prayer and we're going to sing. And I'm just challenging you as always just to focus on the Lord, how great He is. He would come and save.