1.
Hymns: Roots and Wings for
the Next Generation
Stand for the Gospel 2013
William Chong

2.
“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children:
One is roots. The other is wings.”
– Henry Ward Beecher

3.
Which of the following are hymns?
• Amazing Grace
• Blessed Assurance
• Great Is Thy Faithfulness
• Just As I Am
• In Christ Alone
• Nothing But the Blood
• Rock of Ages
• To God Be The Glory
• The Solid Rock
• When I Survey

4.
Which of the following are hymns?
• Amazing Grace
• Blessed Assurance
• Great Is Thy Faithfulness
• Just As I Am
• In Christ Alone
• Nothing But the Blood
• Rock of Ages
• To God Be The Glory
• The Solid Rock
• When I Survey

5.
I. What is a hymn?

6.
I. What is a hymn?
“… a poem, designed for group
singing, and written as a sequence
of identical units called stanzas.
Each stanza has the same line
length, rhythms and rhyme scheme
as its predecessor, so that the hymn
can be sung, stanza by stanza, to
the same tune.” – Brian Wren
Wren, Brian. Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox
Press, 2000. pg. 100.

7.
I. What is a hymn?
Holy Holy Holy
1. Holy holy holy
Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning
Our song shall rise to Thee
Holy holy holy
Merciful and mighty
God in three persons
Blessed Trinity
John Bacchus Dykes, Reginald Heber. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775
3. Holy holy holy
Though the darkness hide Thee
Though the eye of sinful man
Thy glory may not see
Only Thou art holy
There is none beside Thee
Perfect in power
In love and purity

8.
I. What is a hymn?
“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:
He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.”
1 Timothy 3:16 (ESV)

9.
I. What is a hymn?
Great Is The Gospel
2. Great is the mystery of godliness, (1 Tim 3:16)
Great is the work of God’s own holiness,
It moves my soul, and causes me to long
For greater joys than to the earth belong
3. The Spirit vindicated Christ our Lord,
And angels sang with joy and sweet accord;
The nations heard, a dark world flamed with light –
When Jesus rose in glory and in might
William Vernon Higham. © WV Higham Trust. CCLI License # 42775

10.
A hymn is different to…
• Chorus
– Come Now Is The Time To Worship
– Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?
• Refrain / Gospel Song
– Great Is Thy Faithfulness
– Nothing But the Blood
– Victory in Jesus

11.
Which of the following are hymns?
• Amazing Grace
• Blessed Assurance
• Great Is Thy Faithfulness
• Just As I Am
• In Christ Alone
• Nothing But the Blood
• Rock of Ages
• To God Be The Glory
• The Solid Rock
• When I Survey

12.
I. What is a hymn?
A Mighty Fortress (isorhythmic) – Martin Luther

13.
I. What is a hymn?
Olney Hymns, page 331

14.
I. What is a hymn?

15.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
A. We need roots into a historic, credible faith.
“My grandmother saved it,
My mother threw it away,
And now I’m buying it back.”
– Kevin Twit

16.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
A. We need roots into a historic, credible faith.

17.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
A. We need roots into a historic, credible faith.
John Newton. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

18.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
Anne Steele. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

19.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
Anne Steele. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

20.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
Anne Steele. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

21.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
B. We need wings from the formative power of the
gospel.
“Run, run, the law commands
But gives us neither feet nor hands.
Far better news the gospel brings
It bids us fly and gives us wings.”
– attr. John Bunyan

22.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
How often do these worldviews sneak into your heart?
• “I’m on the right track baby I was born this way”
• “Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try”
• “Nothing really matters to me”
• “I faced it all and I stood tall and I did it my way”

23.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
Jesus I My Cross Have Taken
1. Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee.
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I’ve sought or hoped or known.
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are still my own.
Henry Lyte. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

24.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
Thou Lovely Source of True Delight
1. Thou lovely source of true delight
Whom I unseen adore
Unveil Thy beauties to my sight
That I might love Thee more.
Anne Steele. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

25.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
Come Thou Fount
3. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Robert Robinson. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

26.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
C. We need to relearn the art of meditation on God’s
Word.
“I will meditate on Your precepts,
And contemplate Your ways.
I will delight in Your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.”
– Psalm 119:15–16 (NKJV)

27.
II. Why do we need hymns today?
When I Survey
1. When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.
Isaac Watts. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775
“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.” –
Galatians 6:14 (ESV)

28.
III. How can we pass on hymns to
the next generation?
a. Find and choose good hymns.
b. Sing them to yourself.
c. Sing them with your family.
d. Sing them with your church community.

29.
III. How can we pass on hymns to
the next generation?
“… I say without qualification,
after the Sacred Scriptures,
the next best companion for
the soul is a good hymnal.”
– AW Tozer
Tozer, Aiden Wilson. We Travel An Appointed Way. Christian Publications, 1988.

30.
Questions/Reflection

31.
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Isaac Watts. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

32.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.
Isaac Watts. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

33.
See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown!
Isaac Watts. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

34.
[His dying crimson1, like a robe,
Spreads o'er his body on the tree:
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.]
Isaac Watts. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775
1. blood

35.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Isaac Watts. Public Domain. CCLI License # 42775

36.
“We will not hide them from their children, but
tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds
of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders
that he has done.”
– Psalm 78:4 (ESV)