Preaching Through Songs of Worship | Mike Criswell

The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 5 verse 6 begins this

Romans 5:6

way. For when we were still without

strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet per adventure.

For a good man some would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we

were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That passage has always been very beautiful to me, and

certainly goes along with just about any topic we might want to

discuss when it comes to God and His love.

And of course, as I've mentioned from night to night, the book of

Philippians is about God the Father and His grace.

Well, of course, the grace of God and the love of God cannot

be separated because God is both love.

He is grace, He is mercy, He is justice, He is all of those

wonderful attributes rolled up into one and then some.

And so you can't really parcel out the great attributes, the

eternal attributes of our heavenly Father.

I hope as we've gone through Philippians, we've looked at

some of the things that might resonate with you on a practical

level. We haven't really delved into

the doctrine of Philippians really deep, but nonetheless,

there's been so much hopefully in Philippians that we can take

with us and apply. So I hope by now you've gotten

the general thrust of Philippians.

We haven't covered every verse. We won't cover every verse, but

I hope maybe you'll go home and at least appreciate the book a

little bit more. So with that in mind, and given

that the song that we sang is so important here, in just a few

minutes, I want to discuss with you.

I'm going to change my topic tonight, not talk about

Philippians, but I want to talk about the song that really I

think is based a little bit on, on our passage in Romans chapter

Romans 5 · chapter mention

5. You know, before the prayer, our

brother LED this song by Stuart Townsend called How Deep the

Father's Love. Years ago, I was at a 4th of

July meeting and I was asked to speak.

And you know, it's always hard to know what to speak about.

And I got to thinking about the songs in that book.

And, you know, songs really are sermons and songs are really a

way that we learn about Scripture and even theology.

You know, if you go back, for example, in the Reformation

period in the 1500s, you'll find songs that are just filled with

theology. You find great songs like

Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound that saved a Wretch like

me. I once was lost and now I'm

found, was blind and now I see. And then you find great songs by

Martin Luther, you found how the mighty fortress is our God and

and songs along that line that just resonate and just really

exude scripture and deep theology.

But sometimes that theology is not that which we in the

churches of Christ necessarily always agree with.

But those songs were classics. We have classics today as well.

In fact, we sang tonight some Ivan Costa songs.

I think he's one of the best writers ever in this in this

brotherhood ever. And we have others that are

extremely talented. But nonetheless, there's a lot

of really good songs. And those songs are part of our

worship for more than one reason.

You know, the apostle Paul in Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5

speaks speaking or teaching one another in psalms and hymns and

spiritual songs. And we sing and we make melody

in our hearts to the Lord. There is a praise element aspect

to our singing. There's also a teaching aspect

as with reciprocity, we sing and and we teach one another in

song. And you know, sometimes after

the end of a service, we may have really not only had one

sermon, maybe we've had six or seven sermons.

Oh, not preaching, but we've sang songs together.

We've let our hearts and our minds and our souls mingle in

the words and in taking those words and using them to praise

God. I really believe that the 1st

century church and of course God's people in every

dispensation have been singers. Even in the Old Testament, of

course we had the great singers. We had David, the Psalm, the

sweet singer of Israel. But in the early church, they

sang and probably sang literally the Psalms of David.

In fact, that's probably what Paul's Speaking of when he said

singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Now, we don't have to sing the Psalms exactly, but our songs do

need to be spiritually oriented. They are to build us up in the

faith and build us up in those things that are spiritual in

nature. Well, you know, once in a while

I run across a song that I think is just absolutely incredible.

And this is one of those songs #22 in this book called How Deep

the Father's Love. And you know, as I began to

contemplate that song, Stuart Townsend, I think, raises some

things in this song that to me really are on par with some of

those great classics from the Restoration era, the great

theologies that really come out of who Jesus was and what God

did for us. And so as I many times do at

home, and then even on a meeting sometimes, if one song is song

that I particularly like, or maybe I haven't even heard it

before, but it just moves me, I talked through it with the

congregation. And so if you want to turn

along, we won't be looking at our scriptures per SE, but I

want to look with you at this song again #22 we just sang it.

So maybe the words are fresh on your mind, but have we really

thought about the words? Now?

Of course, unfortunately, sometimes a preacher can

pontificate on anything. You know, I think you could take

a fairy tale or, you know, Mary had a lamb and preached to it if

you wanted to. But nonetheless, there are so

many things about this song that I don't know what the author had

in mind. I don't know Stuart Townsend

personally, but nonetheless, he surely had some of these things

in mind that I'm going to discuss tonight as we go through

this song. So he starts up first of all, in

the first stanza, and he says how deep the father's love for

us. We mentioned this morning that

today is Father's Day. And of course fathers, if

they're worth their salt, love their children, they gather them

together, they teach them, they train them up, and then nurture

and then administer of the Lord. God is that to us.

He is our Father. In fact, Jesus taught to pray,

our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

His love though comes to us. His love comes to us as mere

mortals. And when you think about the

nature of God, God is spirit. John 424 And those that worship

him and approach Him must do in a spiritual way, in spirit and

in truth when you think about his nature.

And yet we are fleshly and God loved us enough to send Jesus

Christ. That's an incredible, incredible

concept because on one level there has to be a disconnect

between US and God. There is the otherness of God.

God is not human. God is not a man, and yet He

sent Jesus to become a man, to take on the form of humanity, to

be tempted, as was mentioned tonight in every point, as we

are Hebrews 4 and yet without sin.

How deep of love does that take? You know, God could have cast us

away. He could have, even in the time

of the Garden of Eden, or in the time of Noah, or in the time of

Sodom, Gomorrah just destroyed the entire earth.

But rather, He held out hope through the scheme of

redemption, Even so much so that in the Garden when Adam and Eve

sinned, though he was going to give them the consequences of

their sin. He said the seed of woman that's

Christ would bruise, would crush the head of the serpent, That's

Satan that happened on the cross.

Satan did indeed bruise Jesus, but it was not a wound that

would take away the plan of salvation with the promise of

hope. It was a wound that put him on

the cross. But Jesus arose from the dead,

triumphant over the very power death that Satan has to begin

with. So Stuart here just says, how

deep is that love? You know that love, though, is

personal. I believe that God loves you

personally. He loves me personally.

And that's hard because I don't know that I deserve that.

In fact, I know I don't deserve that.

Romans 5 says that while we were sinners, God died.

God sent his Son. You know, again, in this life we

hear about a lot of wonderful things people do.

The firefighter who rushes into the burning building to rescue

the child or maybe sometimes even an animal.

Very altruistic, very giving. And yet that pales in comparison

to deity giving his life for us. How vast, he says, beyond all

measure. You know, God's love for us is

not something you can encapsulate.

You can't put it in a test tube and weigh it.

You can't measure it. It's not something that can be

fathomed. It is deeper than the oceans.

It is broader than the seas. It is higher than the heavens.

And yet it can fit within our heart.

Isn't that incredible? God's love can fill our heart,

and our heart can take it too, if we'll let him fill it with

his love. But it's fast, it's so vast that

God, even before eternity began, or even in before the world

began rather, and eternity had already made this plan.

You know, Philippians or Ephesians chapter 1, rather, is

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

a beautiful chapter about the Providence of God, about the

predetermined plan that God would send his Son to die for

us. Now at that point man was not

even created. This was before the world and

yet God already had it in his mind.

Knowing we would sin to sin Jesus Christ, He predestined a

system so that we could be saved even though we had not even been

created yet. Then he says that he should give

his only Son. You know, this idea of an only

son is interesting because we know that sonship, the sonship

of Jesus, doesn't mean that he was spun off from Jesus so that

he was of God rather, or born in the sense of a physical person.

But the idea of sonship is the idea of relationship, the idea

of having the same characteristics and likeness of

God. You know, I have a son.

Many of you have children. They bear the characteristics of

us. They are human.

And of course that's what Jesus elicited from Peter in Matthew

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16. And Peter said you are the

Christ, the Son of the living God.

You have the same attributes. On one occasion the disciples

came to Jesus and said, show us the Father.

And of course Jesus said, have you been so long with me and

say, show us the Father? He said, if you've seen me,

you've seen the Father. And so again, God's attributes

were in his Son. And so when we when they looked

at Jesus, they should have seen him.

But again, Jesus was his only son.

He had the preeminence. There is there was no other,

there was no other part of the Godhead that can be sent to die

for us. And God gave his only begotten

son. You know when I think of that, I

think of over in Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

I think it is where Abraham has Isaac.

Now Isaac is of course, the promised son.

Abraham and Sarah couldn't have children.

Isaac is finally born through a providential birth.

And yet then God comes to Abraham and he says, Abraham, I

want you to take your son, your only son, and I want you to

offer him as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah, his only son.

You know, I think we understand perhaps the depth of that when

we consider that it was through that son that the promises of

Genesis 12, we're going to be fulfilled.

Abraham, you know, had been told, it's through you, Abraham,

I'm going to make a great nation.

I'm going to bless the world. And finally Isaac comes along

and now God says, I want you to sacrifice him.

That is so incredible because what must have Abraham thought

my only son and now I'm going to give him up.

And that plan of me blessing the world and becoming a great

nation, it's going to be it's going to be in dust.

But God had a plan to bring that to fruition.

God gave his only son, John 316 for God so loved the world that

he sent his only begotten son. You see, it was done by the best

from the best for the best given to the best of given from the

best of heaven. Then he says to make a Wretch.

His treasure make a Wretch. You know, when we think about us

ourselves and our sins and our unholiness, really when you

think about it, we are wretched. In fact, you know, there were

those in Revelation who thought they were pretty spiritually

strong. And Jesus says you're wretched,

you're, you're miserable. You know, our, our

righteousness, as the Old Testament prophet says, is like

filthy rags. It's nothing, you know, we

sometimes come before God and we say, God, I want you to look at

me and look how good I am and look how much I deserve your

love. We don't deserve God's love.

We don't deserve salvation at all.

We are, we are wretched, we are poor, we are miserable, we are

blind. And yet what does God do?

He takes us, cleans our sins, watches us and sets us up to be

his possession, his special people.

We are his possession. He owns us as a trophy, if you

will. He owns us and he displays us as

it were, so that the world can see.

These are my children. Then he says, how great, though,

the pain of searing loss. The Father turns his head away,

face away. Now, of course, she's been

describing here the giving of Christ on the cross to make us a

treasure. Jesus dies for our sins, and he

says how painful must that have been for God to look upon his

Son? I mentioned in this meeting that

there's a theological conundrum, difficulty, question, enigma,

whatever word you want to use about what happened on the

cross, because there was that period of time when the world

went black. There was darkness, palpable

darkness over all the land, and it is as if God turned his face

away from Jesus. Now we know that God does not

look upon sin in the truest sense because He does not

associate or identify with sin because He is pure holiness.

But nonetheless, Jesus for a time looks like he becomes sin

for us. Now I believe that what Paul's

talking about when he speaks of Jesus becoming the sin is

becoming a sin sacrifice. Jesus offers himself and it is,

it is truly a loss for heaven, is it not?

At least on one level. In fact, Paul and Philippians 2

that we've looked at talks about the emptying.

Christ, emptying himself came from heaven to die for us.

Now, how in the world did God feel about that, the Father feel

about that? Again, we don't know.

We're trying to put human emotion and human thoughts into

deity, something far above us. But did God miss his son?

Apparently his son missed his Father.

Jesus was constantly speaking to God in prayer, sometimes all

night, praying to his father, even in the garden.

Father, help me through this. Jesus never lost trust in his

Father. There was pain in the cross.

There was a searing loss in the cross so that we might have our

sins forgiven and says as the the father looked down, it's as

if he turns his face away. I mentioned earlier, and I'll

mention this quickly because I don't want to go too long

tonight, that actually Jesus in saying, my God, my God, why have

you forsaken me? That's a cry that lead many to

believe that that God did forsake Jesus because that's

what Jesus says. But now in the context of that

Psalm, Psalm 22, it is a Psalm of victory where it later on

says you will not abandon me. You will not turn your face from

me. And so I think what Jesus was

probably doing on the cross was he was preaching a mini sermon.

You know, those scriptures were known by the Jews and they

probably could have filled in the blanks had they thought

about it. But Jesus as the world is dark,

as Jesus, you know, cries out, why are you for?

Why have you forsaken me? He's really saying God is going

to to acknowledge what I'm doing here and there's going to be

victory at the end. And then he says in the song at

the end of the line 1, he says as wounds which mar the chosen

one bring many sons to glory. When I think about this, I think

about Isaiah. You know, Isaiah is really the

messianic prophet. Isaiah 52 talks about Jesus

being beaten and, you know, burying our stripes.

He is marred for our our transgressions.

And Jesus, the chosen lamb, you know, in the Old Testament,

before the Passover and other sacrifices, they would take the

lamb and it had to be a perfect lamb.

They would put that lamb up especially for the Passover and

they would watch it for a number of days and study it to make for

sure it was the perfect specimen to be offered.

Jesus came as the Lamb of God. That takes away the sins of the

world, the perfect lamb. But what was his purpose?

Just to be a sacrifice, just so God could say, look, you know, I

could sacrifice. No, it's, it was for to bring us

to glory. This is a quote from Hebrews.

You know, it is through Jesus that we as Christians are

brought to glory in Christ. And then he says in verse 2,

behold the man upon the cross. Behold the man.

That was the words by the way of Pilate before the cross, Pilate.

Pilate, of course knew that Jesus was innocent.

And yet he presents Jesus to the mob and says, behold the man.

You know, really in reality, Jesus was innocent.

Pilate knew that. I think maybe some in the

audience, the crowd knew that, but they cried out.

They clamored for the death of Jesus, but then this writer

takes it to the cross. Behold that man upon the cross.

You know again, Jesus is there, He is bloody, He is dying, He is

nailed to the cross. He has been spit upon, He has

been abused, He has been scourged.

He has a crown of thorns on his head.

Think about that. Think about how dark of a scene

that was that humanity could treat another human that way.

My sins, he says upon his shoulders.

Had we been able to strip away the physicality of that scene

and really see it before what it was, we would see a Lamb of God

with the sins of the world being passed, cast upon Him.

He becomes not sinful and not sin in my view, literally

because He is deity. But He becomes the sin

sacrifice, just like in the Old Testament.

He is paying the price, in other words, for our sin.

That burden was being placed upon His shoulders, as it were.

And then he says, ashamed. I hear my mocking voice call out

among the scoffers. That is one of the most poignant

and haunting parts of this song. You know, I wonder, if I had

been in the Garden of Eden or Garden of Eden, Garden of

Yosemite, and the mob was coming, would I have stood and

been like Judas? Would I have really in some

ways, been willing to sacrifice Jesus to betray Him?

I wonder, you know, in the campfire where Jesus was being

tried and, you know, Peter's there, would I have been next to

Peter? Would I have cursed and swore

that, oh, I don't even know the man?

You know, sometimes I think we meet Judas and we meet Peter and

we meet others who deny the Lord.

And he looks a lot like us. He looks a lot like what we are.

Would we have been in that crowd below the cross mocking Jesus?

Maybe because that's why we've what we really felt, or maybe

because we were afraid not to, because we were afraid that we

might be identified as a follower.

You see, there were people there mocking Jesus, yelling out, come

down. You saved others, you know, save

yourself. Jesus bore it all.

And then he says it was this. It was my sin that held him

there until it was accomplished. You know, through the years,

scholars and theologians have discussed who killed Jesus?

Who murdered Jesus? Was it the Romans who killed

Jesus? They were the ones who drove up

the nails, apparently. Was it the Jews who for envy

offered him up? Maybe they were responsible.

Who was it that really killed Jesus?

And of course, some say, well, you know, sin held Jesus to the

cross and it did. Others say love was what held

Jesus to the cross and it was. You see, all of those things

came into play. But we have to remember what

Jesus had said in John 10. John said in 10, Jesus says no

man takes my life for me, but I lay it down willingly.

And so Jesus, you know, he was on the cross by his own will.

He could have called, as we sometimes think, 10,000 angels

to destroy the world and set him free, but he didn't.

He maintained his position as the Lamb of God until it was

accomplished. You know, that phrase also has

deep theological meaning at the end of Jesus life.

Jesus says it is finished. Just simple words.

And sometimes I think perhaps we don't fully grasp any of the

depth of some of these words of Jesus on the cross.

There were seven sayings, by the way.

They're very short, very pithy, very, very to the point.

But what does it mean that it is finished?

Well, of course you could say, well, his life was finished.

Well, that's true in the sense that his physical life was being

taken away from him, and so it was just about time for him to

give up the ghost or the spirit and die.

You can say, well, it's finished in that the old law was taken

out of the way and, as we sometimes say, nailed to the

cross. And so there was a end of that

Old Testament regime. In fact, when Jesus died, the

veil of the temple, which again kept people from looking into

the most holy, was torn in two from top to bottom and rent in

two, opening the way to a new system.

But what does it mean when he says again, you know, it was our

sins that held him there? Well, I'm sorry I got off the

track, but anyway, I'm sorry. Anyway, my mind is not working

too well tonight. But anyway, he says, I know that

it is finished. That's where I'm at.

That word there in Greek is tetelestai and it's the words

apparently that were put at on a bill of sale when somebody paid

the full cost, paid the full price, they would stamp it with

tetelestai or when someone had completed some great project, it

would be described as telesty. That's the word Jesus used here.

In other words, everything that Jesus had planned he now has

accomplished. And then he goes on to verse

three. He says I will not boast in

anything. No gifts, no power, no wisdom.

You know, this is an echo of Paul.

Paul said, I'm not going to glory in anything but Jesus

Christ being crucified. He makes that point over and

over, especially to the Corinthians.

He says, you know, when I came, I didn't come with Excellency of

speech. I came to preach the gospel.

I don't want to know anything but Jesus Christ and him

crucified. You know, we boast in a lot of

things today that give us meaning and life.

Maybe it's our money or maybe it's our status or maybe it's

our families, or maybe it's even, you know, our

relationships in the church. But in reality, none of that

makes any sense or means anything without Jesus.

And so he says, but I will not boast in anything but Jesus

Christ, his death and his resurrection.

Why? Why not boast in what we have?

I mean, why not think this life is tough and the person who dies

with the most toys wins? Because we can't take any of

that with us. None of that is important.

None of that means anything at all in the, the, the, the grand

scheme of, of eternity. It is only in the resurrection

of Jesus Christ that we have the power of life over death.

And then he says, why should I gain from his reward?

You know, Jesus bore the shame for the joy of the cross before

him. He completed this great

sacrifice and now he's in heaven.

Why should I gain from that? What did I do to deserve it?

And really the answer is nothing.

You know, we don't merit salvation.

Yes, there are things that we do to comply to the demands or the

overtures of God, but we do not deserve it.

Then he says, I cannot give an answer.

I don't know why God loved us enough.

I don't know why God loved us so much.

Rather, he says, but this I know with all my heart.

His wounds have paid my ransom. You know, this idea.

And that's a deep theological question of what does this

ransom thing mean? Because you'll find that, you

know, Paul talks about, you know, the the ransom that Jesus

paid. You know, Jesus certainly wasn't

paying Satan just to get us out of trouble.

No, he gave his life a ransom because he loved us.

He bought us back. We were, as it were, slaves on

the oxygen block of sin, being ready to be auctioned off, if

you will, into nothingness, into oblivion, into a world of total

degradation and total worthlessness.

And Jesus comes along with his blood and he says, I'll buy that

wretched person, I'll take him her, I'll clean them up.

I will wash their sins away. I will give them status as part

of the family of God, and I will make something of that person.

You know, the beauty of Christianity is no matter how

unsuccessful we think we are in life, we can be successful in

Christ because he's the one that ultimately gives us the value

that is eternal. And so again, this song is just

a neat song. I hadn't even seen this song for

a long, long time. It's not in our books at home.

But nonetheless, it's such a beautiful song.

And So what I want to encourage you to do is as you sing songs,

think about the words, think about the scriptures or the

concepts of scriptures that might be in behind those songs,

because I can guarantee you that the writer was thinking in a

scriptural vein when he wrote those words.

So they're sermons for us. We learn well as we close

tonight and close the meeting, how deep was God's love?

So deep, Deeper than the oceans. And tonight, if you're not a

Christian, you can, you can be part of that depth by obeying

the gospel of Jesus Christ, hearing the gospel, the good

news, believing it by faith, reaching out, repenting of your

sins, confessing Jesus as the Lord and Savior, Son of God, and

then having our sins washed away in baptism.

If you've taken those steps and you find yourself amiss or away

from God, we'd be happy to pray with you tonight too, while we

stand and while we sin.