Of music, and I'm going to give you a lot of information
tonight, a lot of Bible verses tonight.
So I would highly recommend that if you can grab a piece of paper
and a pen or use the back of the bulletin and write some of these
principles down and go back and study them.
This music is, as we talked about last week, is a very, very
powerful thing. And believe it or not, I think
most people don't realize the power that music has over them.
And, you know, just you think about the type of of mood that
music can put you in, right? I mean, look, look, just a
simple example in the Old Testament at Saul, right?
And he had an evil spirit that had come over him and he brought
David into play the harp. And what happened changed
everything, right? It changed his entire spirit,
changed everything about it. The whole mood changed because
of the music. And, and you just, I mean, music
was used all the way throughout the temple ceremonies and the
sacrifices and all of those things to help prepare their
hearts for the for worshipping the Lord and all kinds of things
that are that are part of that, that that just proves that music
is very powerful and in in many cases much more powerful than we
realize. Let me just go back real quick
and just kind of give you, we, we looked at five points earlier
a couple weeks ago and kind of laid the groundwork for some of
the principles that I want to talk about tonight.
But #1 music must be overseen by the pastor.
And when I say that, it means that it's my responsibility as
the pastor to oversee the music in our church and to lay the
groundwork and to lay the foundations for for what music
will be acceptable and what music is not acceptable.
To make sure that all of our music is glorifying to the Lord.
And #2 church music must be sung and played by spirit filled
Saints who are indwelt with God's Word.
And the more you are in God's Word, the more the the music is
going to be spirit filled and more the music is going to be
very obviously sacred music. The farther you get away from
the Lord, the less it becomes sacred music and the more it
becomes lust filled, if you want to call it that, because that's
what a lot of the sensual music is in the world today.
But church music must be sung and played by spirit filled
Saints who are indwelt with the Holy Spirit #3 the music must be
sound in doctrine. And these are all principles by
the way, that are going to help us test whether a song is a song
that we should be singing in church or not.
Whether it's a song that honestly that we should be
listening to or not, just because, you know, we, we won't
sing it in church doesn't mean that OK, well, we won't sing
that song in church, but I can listen to any kind of music I
want to when I'm not in church. You know, it's like, it's like
people saying, I can't believe you lied in church.
You're you're in church and you just told a lie as if it's OK to
tell a lie when you're outside of church.
You just can't do it in the building, right?
You hear people say that all the time.
You know, you're standing next to a pastor.
And I can't believe you just said that.
As if as long as you're not standing by a pastor, it's OK,
right? I mean, and we have that same
mindset. Well, OK, we won't sing that
music in church, but I can listen to that in the car.
I can listen to that wherever I want.
You know, these are principles that that should not only define
our church music, but it's music principles that should define
the music that you listen to, that you use to edify yourself
with. Because that's, that's what
music does or should anyway #4 the music must emphasize the
melody. Melody is the simplest part of
the music. You should be able to hear the
melody throughout the song #5 music is not neutral.
It's a language. And the message of the music
must match the message of the lyrics.
Meaning just because you put Jesus in there, or just because
you put some words that have Christian sounding themes to
them, doesn't mean that it's OK if you put it to a rock song,
right? Doesn't mean that it's all right
if you're jamming out to it as long as it says Jesus.
No, the music is not neutral. When we say the music, we're
talking about everything that's behind the melody.
It's it's a language and the message of the music must match
the message of the lyrics #5 or sorry, number six.
What I want to start with tonight is this.
The music must be spiritual and non worldly in sound.
Church music especially, but music in general that we listen
to must be spiritual and non worldly in sound.
There's a lot of verses that give us this principle.
I'm just going to look at a few of them tonight.
I'll have you turn to a couple of them.
I'll read a couple of them for sake of time.
But Romans chapter 12 is where we are in Romans chapter 12 and
verse #2 says and be not conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
That's spiritual. It's non worldly.
We're not conforming to the world.
And if that's what our life should be, that our music should
match the same thing. Let's go over to Colossians
chapter 3, Colossians chapter 3. These are a lot of these verses,
don't even necessarily this one in Colossians does, but a lot of
these verses don't necessarily even mention music, but they're
just principles in our lives. We should not be conformed to
the world. We should not want anything to
do with the world. And so our music, because
especially because it has such a powerful influence over us,
should easily be part of that, not wanting the world to be part
of anything that we do. Colossians chapter 3 and verse
16. Let the word of Christ dwell in
you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord.
So the music must be spiritual and non worldly and sound.
Why don't you turn over to Ephesians chapter 4?
I'm going to give you 2 more verses that you can write down.
I'll read them to you. James chapter 4 and verse #4 Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship
of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever, therefore, will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Now, we will easily accept that principle when it comes to
movies or, you know, anything else that's inappropriate that's
on a screen or something like that.
But all the sudden music shows up and well, the music is
different. No, it's not different.
You're either the friend of God or you're the friend of the
world. You're either at enmity with God
or you're not. Right.
First, Peter, chapter 2 and verse 11.
Dearly beloved, I beseech you, get this.
As strangers and pilgrims, as strangers and pilgrims abstain
from fleshly lust, which war against the soul.
We are strangers and pilgrims in this world.
You know what a Pilgrim is? Somebody that just doesn't
really fit in, a stranger, somebody that just doesn't
really fit in. That's the way that we ought to
be as we go through this world. You're in it, right?
A Pilgrim, somebody who just doesn't really fit in is still
in society, but he just doesn't fit in with society, right?
That's the way that our lives ought to be when somebody sees
us. We ought to be people that just
don't really fit in because we don't want anything to do with
the world. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse
#17 this. I say therefore and testify in
the Lord that she henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of
their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves
over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.
So what we're saying here is that the music must be spiritual
and it must be non worldly in the sound.
Spiritual means set apart for God means different from the
world. You're close.
Let's turn over to Ephesians chapter 5.
Spiritual is something that is under the control of the Spirit
of God and that's that's what we find here in Ephesians chapter
5. This is the verse right before
verse 19. But verse 18 says and be not
drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the
Spirit. And then he talks about music
right after that. Spiritual is the opposite of
carnal. It's the opposite of fleshly.
It's the opposite of, of wanting to be like the world And, and
honestly, listen, when, when you have a teenager that gets
rebellious, right? The first thing that they're
going to do, especially if they're in church, is not go out
and get a, a tattoo on their arm.
They're not going to go out and get a, a ring in their nose or,
you know, they're not going to do those things necessary.
They're not going to, you know, color their hair pink and show
up at church. They're not going to do that.
But you know what they're going to do?
They're going to sneak around behind their parents back and do
what? Listen to rock music, watch
things that they know that they shouldn't watch because those
are the things that are rebellious that you can get away
with because they're not necessarily outward things that
that that you know, you'd get in trouble for.
Right. If one of my kids walked in with
pink hair, I don't know what I'd do.
I'd probably shave it all off 1st and then go from there and
see what happens. Yeah, Right.
Is that what happened to you, brother?
No, this is good. He showed up with pink hair one
day and his wife got a hold of them Clippers and said, you're
not doing that. I don't know what I'd do if one
of the kids showed up with pink hair, but I'll tell you what.
But they're sneaking around listening to rock music or
listening to contemporary Christian music or whatever it
is. I mean, that's a rebellion that
you can hide, right? And, and why do people do that?
Why do you hide it? Because you know it's
rebellious. You know that it's not
Christian. You know that it's not that that
it's worldly. You know that it's rebellious
against the things of God. But I'm going to do it anyway
because this is the way that I can rebel.
It happens a lot. But spiritual is the opposite of
that. First Corinthians chapter 3 and
verse #1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto
spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
All right, we, we new Christians are babes in Christ.
And it's understandable that that maybe you don't understand
these principles of music and you don't know how to discern
between the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music.
But as you grow in Christ and as you mature in Christ, if you
don't change those things, you're no different than a 15
year old drinking out of a bottle, right?
It doesn't make sense. It's it's not natural.
As you mature, you should be changing things that that show
your level of maturity, right? You're not going to walk around
sucking on a pacifier at 12 years old because that's
something that a baby does, right?
And how do you figure that out? Well, somebody has to say, hey,
I hate to mention this, but you're 12 now.
It's probably time to be done sucking the pacifier, right?
And when you find out, you start looking around and you say, wow,
yeah, I guess everybody else that is 12 years old is not
really sucking on a pacifier. Maybe I should get rid of this
thing, right? And that's what happens as you,
as you grow and mature in Christ.
And this is part of your growth process, right?
How do you find out what the kind of what the right kind of
music is? How do you find out what the
wrong kind of music is? That's what we're doing tonight,
right? This is me telling you it's time
to take the pacifier out of your mouth.
You're growing in Christ, right? And you can either say, no, I'm
not taking this pacifier out. I'm this is too comfortable to
me. This is, I've been doing this
for my whole life. I can't stop sucking on a
pacifier. Or you can say, you know what?
Yeah, you're right. But your Christians don't do
that. Pull the pacifier out, right?
That that's that's what we're talking about tonight.
This is this part of the growth process.
And you can claim ignorance until you're taught what the
right thing is to do. Then you can't claim ignorance
anymore. Now you have a decision to make.
Are you going to do what God wants you to do?
Or are you going to do what feels good to you and what feels
good to your flesh and what feels comfortable to you?
Or are you going to do a God's way?
That's the difference, right? So he's saying, I, I want to
speak to you like mature Christians, but I can't because
you're babes in Christ, because you're still carnal.
And I'm not saying that I'm not, I'm not saying that to you, but
I'm, I'm explaining what Paul is saying there to the Corinthians.
Spiritual, as we're talking about, is the opposite of the
unfruitful work, works of darkness that he talks about in
Ephesians chapter 5. You can read that in verse 11.
But spiritual is the opposite of worldliness.
So what Paul is saying here is that God's people are to sing
songs that are holy, songs that are sacred, songs that are set
apart for God, songs that are not carnal and fleshly, songs
that are different in quality from the songs of the world,
songs that are morally pure, that are are of a heavenly
flavor rather than a worldly flavor.
That's why it's called sacred music, right?
We sing sacred music. What does sacred music mean?
It means that it's set apart. It means that this is the, this
is what the saved. This is what the sanctified
sing. It's music that is bringing
honor to God. 99% of the music in the world is not honoring to
God, right? Because you think about it, you,
you just listen to a song that you hear in Wawa when you walk
in there and they're talking about things that are ungodly,
right? And what happens is the same
thing that happens when you're watching a lot of the wrong
things on television and everything you get, you get
immune to it. And oh man, I didn't realize
there was a cuss word in there. Oops.
You know why you didn't notice there was a cuss word in there?
Because you're used to it, right?
And it's it's so natural for you to hear it because you're
hearing it so much that it doesn't bother you anymore.
And the next thing you know, you're telling somebody about
how great this video is, how great this movie is.
And they go watch it in the first 5 minutes.
There's five cuss words. And.
Oh, I guess I don't know. I didn't think there was
anything wrong with that movie. Yeah.
Because you're so immune to it because you've accepted it for
so long. Right.
Step back. All right.
This is this is this Will. This will kind of tell you if
your music is spiritual and or worldly.
All right, stop listening to it. Stop listening to anything that
is not sacred Christian music for a month.
All right, if it's if it's, if it's OK and you go back to it a
month later, listen to it and see what it sounds like to you.
Fill your mind with nothing but good God honoring sacred music,
songs that you would sing here at church, songs that you would
hear here at church. Don't listen to anything else.
And then a month later, go back and listen to it and see if you
can still listen to it, because mostly you won't be able to
because you'll say, wow, I didn't even realize what that
sounded like before. I didn't even realize that's
what I was listening to before. Right.
Do the same thing with a movie. If, if you think that what
you're watching is fine, then stop watching them for a month.
Don't watch anything that has anything in it.
And you can find out. We, we do this and, and I'll
tell you, I, I, I bet this year we've probably watched maybe 3
movies, maybe because there's hardly anything that you can
watch anymore that doesn't have a cuss word in it or doesn't
have something inappropriate. Go into IMDb, International
Movie Database, look at it. It'll tell you what, what kind
of junk that movie has in it. You see anything that it has in
it, you don't watch it, right? That's, that's the standard,
right? If I, if I look at something on
that database and it tells me that there's cuss words in it,
I'm not watching it. Oh, well that one only has 2, so
I guess it's OK. What's your limit 10/15/20?
What's what's your limit? It only has 2, so it's OK.
Either it's right or it's not right.
Don't watch any of it and then go back to it in a month and see
if you can still sit there and, and, and not squirm and not be
uncomfortable. Do the same thing with your
music. You want to test whether or not
the music that you're listening to is God honoring or not.
Don't listen to it for a month and then go back to it and see
if you can still listen to it because it'll change.
You'll get it, you'll get weaned off of it and it'll change how
you perceive it. If you go back and watch it and
or listen to it a month later and see if you can still do it.
Maybe you can. But Paul is saying that God's
people are to sing songs that are holy and that are sacred
songs that that lift up Christ, songs that can be sung with
Christ standing there listening and you're not going to be
embarrassed by it. Hey, I'm just a, I'm just a
person. I'm just a man.
I'm not God, but let me listen to the songs that you listen to
and see what I think about it. Let's go out to your car right
now and see what songs that you have that that pop on when your
car starts and see if I can sit in there and listen to it with
you. If you would be embarrassed with
me sitting there listening to you, imagine how embarrassed you
would be if Christ was sitting there, right?
That that'll tell you where your music is at, right?
If you don't want me to hear it, then why should Christ have to
sit there and listen to it with you, right?
Our music should be sacred. It should be holy, it should be
God honoring. That's why it's called sacred
music. And the church's music is not
going to sound like the world's pop music.
It's not going to sound like, you know, it's not going to be
the same music that the world uses for dancing and drinking
and partying and everything else.
The music of a holy God should not contain any aspect of the
world's sensual ways. And that's what happens with a
lot of the contemporary Christian music.
That's why 99.9% of it is wrong, because they are taking world
music principles and applying it to Christian words and calling
it Christian music. And it's not Christian music
just because you put Christian words with it.
It's not. If it has the world sound, then
it's the world's music. You call it Christian rock.
Rock music is the world's music. It's sex music.
That's what it was designed for. And everybody that is part of
the the history of Rock'n'roll will tell you that without any
hesitation because they know that that's what it was, that's
what it was created for. And now you're going to take
something that vile and put Christian words with it and
expect that God's going to bless that.
You see what I do? You understand what I'm saying
when I say that music is a language and music is not a
moral. Music put with any kind of words
is going to speak its own language and that's what the
rock music is Now you, you, you add pop music to it.
You can Add all kinds of different things.
But you know, some of the music that we purposefully avoid would
be like the, the dance syncopation type music.
Write some of these things down and go look these up so you
understand what it sounds like. If I was doing a longer series
on this, I would play some of these things for you so you
could hear it. It should be very, very obvious
to you, but syncopated music with a backbeat and the, and the
beat anticipation, the honky tonk style, you know, ragtime
and, and boogie woogie and all those things that a lot of those
are, are Southern gospel type music that this, that Southern
gospel has has adopted that sound in a lot of ways.
And, and you know, a same song that you could hear in, in a, in
a honky tonk bar on a Saturday night, you could put the
Southern gospel words with and it sounds perfectly the same.
They, they fit perfectly together because it's this, it's
that music, right? I'm not saying that every
Southern gospel song is wrong, but many, much of it is because
of the sound that comes along with it, right?
The, the sensual vocal styles. And, and again, I would, I would
play some of these things for you if we had more time to go
through this. But but the scooping and the
sliding and the breathiness, those are things that are, are
sensual that, that, that attract people that listen to that kind
of music, right? That's the sound that pop has.
And so when you're sliding all over the place, when you're
singing, right, it's, it's, it's things that at the very, very
least is lazy vocal technique, but at the most is trying to
sound exactly like the, the, the worldly musicians sound.
And when you have that really breathy sound when you're
singing. Right, That that's, that is a
sensual sound that's made to make you feel a certain way
while you're listening to it. And then you try to take that
sound and put Christian words and Christian music with it and
expect that God is pleased, right?
I think you would maybe understand a little bit more if
if I was to play these things for you.
It's a lot more prevalent than you think it is, right?
And that's why we have to be so careful that we don't do those
things because I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to be sensual
about the Holy Spirit, not trying to be sensual about my
worship of God, right? I'm not trying to be sensual
and, and, and, and, and even saying that sounds sacrilegious,
right? Because it is.
That's what I'm trying to get you to understand.
When you when you're singing with those pop culture
techniques of music and you're putting Christian words with it,
how do you think God is pleased with those things?
All right. And I'll be honest with you,
most of you in here that are going to sing that way are not
doing it because you're trying to be sensual, right?
You're not doing it because you're trying to sound like some
pop star you heard necessarily. But there are things that we
have to be very careful that we don't sound like that.
So we have to understand these principles so that we know, OK,
I don't want to sound like that. I don't want to be anywhere
close to what the world's music sounds like.
I don't want to sound sensual when I'm singing, right?
So that's why we don't slide and scoop and do all of these other
things in the music that was that we're singing for the Lord
and doesn't mean that every song just has to sound like this.
Otherwise it gets really boring and really drab, right?
But does it have a, a worldly sound to it?
Does it sound like a pop song If you were to take the words of,
of, of some pop song and I, I don't even know some pop song
words to tell you to sing with, you know, the old Rugged Cross.
But I can promise you that the pop song words don't fit with
the old Rugged Cross, right? The tune of the old Rugged
cross, because it's a sacred tune and it doesn't, they just
don't fit together, right? But then what we want to try to
do is take some words and put it with a pop song and we can make
almost anything fit with it, right?
Almost And, and what you're well, I think what, what's what
I've heard a little bit more of that's getting really, really
popular is these secular musicians that all want to talk
about Jesus in their songs, you know, and drinking beer on
Saturday night and going to church on Sunday.
You know, that's, that's not a Christian song just because they
talk about going to church, you know, or they, they have these
what, what I, what you're hearing a lot of these people
doing nowadays are making sacred music albums, You know, these
country music stars and, or maybe they're not even stars.
I don't know who they are, but these country music people that
all want to sing Amazing Grace and the old rugged Cross.
And, and then they have the, IT, it's literally sounds like a
country song with those words in it, right?
It's, it's a secular song with a secular tune and secular sound.
And you're going to try to put Christian words with it.
And that just doesn't go together.
The other thing that you see a lot of is the soft sound, you
know, it, it weakens the power and the, and the, and the
dynamics and the majesty and the spiritual conviction and the
militarism of, of sacred music. You know, it's the feminization
of our culture. And you have these little skinny
Jean wearing, you know, soft hand guys that want to get up
there and wear their little beanie on their head hanging off
the back and sound so soft and sing this little nice tune and
music. You Can't Sing the old rugged
cross and sing it that way, right?
Because it's sacred. It's, it's, it's, it's powerful,
it's dynamic. It's, it's, it's got some
substance to it. You Can't Sing that song that
way. At least you have to really try
to do it right. I'm sure somebody can, but it's,
it's this really soft Jesus is my boyfriend kind of music, you
know, you light up my life and that kind of stuff.
That's it's just, it's soft. It's so soft because you're
trying to be sensual and you're trying to draw people in and
you're trying to draw people to yourself instead of trying to
draw people to Christ, right. That's, that's what we're saying
that, that, you know, sacred music should be spiritual, it
should be non worldly. And by the way, that's why we
avoid the use of drums and electric guitars because
they're, they're, they're totally identified with rock
music and, and, and so it easily, it's used in pop music
fashion. Now, an exception to that would
be using a tympani section, you know, in a, in an orchestra
style that's different. You're not using that to create
a rock beat. You're using it to fill up the
sound and everything else different.
But you know, you also have to realize that you can play a
piano with a rock beat and you can play an acoustic guitar with
a rock beat. But you know, drums, you know, a
drum set, which is why we don't have a drum set up here, is very
easily associated with rock music, right?
Same thing with electric guitars that that's all the, you know,
these guys that want to hang it down here and play it.
You know, you can't even see them because they're so low on
their guitars. And I mean, look, that's, that's
how they play those things, right?
If if you were just trying to play an electric guitar and
you're standing here and you're and you're playing an electric
guitar, this is where you play an electric guitar, right?
You ever seen any of those contemporary Christian music
groups? What do they do?
They're down here playing the electric guitar, right?
Because they saw somebody on a rock stage doing that thing and
that they're not trying to play sacred music.
They want to be a rock star. They just weren't good enough,
so they ended up in contemporary Christian music.
And it's kind of funny, but I'm not trying to be funny.
That's what happens. Because as soon as they start
making it a little bit, you know, successfully, they
crossover and left that in the dust, right?
They're not doing it because they're trying to lift up
Christ. They're trying to do it because
they want to make money. And this is how they can break
into the industry, right? That's that's what happens.
It's not sacred music at all. It's a whole new discussion for
a different day. Is, is basic education for
determining how to judge the style of music.
If you're interested in it, I'll give you some great resources
that that you can, you know that you can really dive deep into
those things to be able to understand the difference and,
and hear a song and be able to say that's contemporary, that's
sacred, that's pop, that's Southern gospel, that's this.
You have to be able to understand and you have to be
able to discern between those types of music so that you can
listen to and if you play and sing, play and sing music that
is honoring to the Lord, music that is sacred music and doesn't
borrow from the sound of the world.
So music to, to, to summarize that point must be spiritual and
non worldly in sound. That's our longest point #7 the
music must edify. And I may have to, I may have
to, in fact, I am going to have to.
We're not going to get all the way through this.
Let me just give you this point at least and then we'll see
where we're at. But the, the, the music must
edify. Let's turn over to 1st
Corinthians chapter 14 talk about the music must be
spiritual and it must be non worldly and that's important.
But when it comes to church music, the purpose of church
music is to edify the church. So First Corinthians chapter 14
and verse #26 how is it then brethren, when you come
together, every one of you hath A Psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a
tongue, hath A revelation, hath an interpretation.
Let all things be done unto edifying is music mentioned in
this verse? Possibly if you're talking about
a Psalm, right? Probably that's what they're
meaning is is is this is a song singing something.
But whether or not you say that that Psalm is talking about
music or not is music part of all things?
It is right? So everything that's done in the
church must be done to the edifying of the Saints.
It must be done for edification, right?
What does edify mean? Edify means to build up, right?
It means to to build up somebody by, you know, through faith, by
hearing and understanding the truths of God's Word.
So all things being done unto edification means that sacred
music must emphasize the message, right?
And again, we talked about a lot of things that deal with the
message. It must be sound and doctrine.
It must not be shallow. It must you know, it shouldn't
be soft. You know, again, especially Lady
Fine, sing a soft song softly and tenderly.
Jesus is calling. That's a little bit of a softer
song. But even that has a, has a power
to it has a, it has a dynamic to it and, and you know, a power
that that comes with it. But the message has to be clear
so that it speaks to people's hearts, their minds, and it
edifies them. And nothing should be allowed to
distract from that, right? So musical instruments sometimes
can be too loud and drown out the message of the song, right?
You hear that happen often. It's, it's different when our
whole congregation is singing. And obviously we have all the
orchestra musics and the trumpet and everything else in a small
room. I'm talking about when you have
somebody that's getting up to sing a special especially, and
you know, you have a, you have an accompaniment that is, that
is being played with that it's so loud you can't hear anything
else. I told you about that.
I think I told you that when, when Alex was just a little kid,
we went and visited a church and the choir got up to sing and
the, and they had a background track.
They had, they had pianists, they had people that could have
played. I don't know why they decided to
choose or why they, why they decided to use a soundtrack to
for the choir to sing with, but the music was so loud that
number one, not only could you not hear the choir, Alex was
probably 3 or 4 years old and he was sitting there like this.
He couldn't, he, he, you know, because you, you can't
concentrate on the message of the song when the music and, and
this particular music had a heavy rock beat in it of all
that. I mean, nothing else did.
And all the sudden boom, boom, boom, boom.
And he just, you have to plug your ears because the message is
not what's being emphasized. And that's not edifying anybody,
right? Because the music is so loud you
can't even hear it. The music can also be so complex
that it hinders the message of the song as well.
I think, for example, if the harmonies are so complex that
the message is not clear, that's not good sacred music.
And that can happen. Maybe those who know music will
understand that a little bit more, and you're the ones that
need to understand it because you're the ones that are singing
it. But at the same time, all things
being done unto edification means that there is no place for
entertainment in sacred music. When people get up here to sing,
they're not getting up here to sing to entertain, right?
If you want entertainment, go listen to the Richmond Pops
orchestra, right? That's entertainment.
They're not, they're not doing that to glorify God.
It's not, it's not wrong, but they're not doing it for for
edification because it's not being done in a church setting,
right? If you want to be entertained,
go listen to to a Symphony Orchestra.
Go listen to something like that.
When you're here. The music is for edification,
right? Which is why it's, it's
important that you listen to the words that are being sung.
That's why it's important that you, you know, and, and, and why
we purposefully and emphatically avoid anything that's, that
speaks of entertainment. That's why.
And again, you know, one of the things that that that we've done
is applauding when somebody gets finished singing a special,
right? That that that lends itself
toward entertainment, right? Why do you clap when somebody's
done? Oh, you did a wonderful job,
right? Who are who are they doing it
for you or for the Lord should be for the Lord, right?
And I haven't said anything about it because I understand
your intention. You're saying, hey, that was
great. You did a lot of you know, you
put a lot of work into it. But but how about instead of
clapping, let's say Amen, right, Amen.
That was great. Amen.
I heard Brother Ryan after we finished the the Hallelujah
chorus. Amen, Amen, Amen.
Hey, say Amen a bunch of times, right?
Who are we glorifying when you're saying Amen, the person
or God, right? Right.
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, right?
When you say praise the Lord, who are you praising?
The person that just got done singing or playing or the Lord?
It's pretty obvious, isn't it? But then when somebody, you
know, somebody gets up here and sings and they did a good job on
it. Great job.
Yeah, Yeah. The crowd goes wild, right.
And again, I understand the intention behind it.
You're saying good job. You, you put a lot of work into
it. That was beautiful.
That was honoring to the Lord and everything else.
But how about instead of clapping, let's just say Amen.
Give him a give him a hearty Amen, right.
That that's something that that that says you did a great job.
But I know it wasn't for us. It was for the Lord, but we
appreciated it at the same time, right.
And again, I understand that's, you know, I haven't said
anything about it because we, you know, it's it's not like
it's it's a sin to clap for somebody that that finished
singing a song or playing music or something like that.
But it's not a performance, right?
We're not applauding a performance, but that's what you
do when somebody performs, you applaud for them, right?
Saying Amen lifts up Christ. It brings the honor and glory
and points it more toward him than it does to the person that
that did the special, right. It's it's performance.
Is it it it everything that we do has should move away from
anything that looks like the world, right?
And you know, so, so looking like the world, acting like the
world. But that's again, that's the
same reason why we don't use, you know, sensual vocal
techniques that that draw attention to the singer like
that scooping and the sliding and the breathiness and all of
those things. That's why, again, we don't use
video cameras to zoom in on the people singing and, and slide
around and get them from all these different angles while
they're singing, right? I mean, you ever watched a
concert? That's what they do.
If it's, if it's video, that's what they do, right?
Because you're, you're focusing on that.
I, I read you this quote not too long ago.
I can't think of the guy's name starts with AC, but anyway,
contemporary Christian musician and he said, you know, in his in
this quote, he said, you know, everybody wants to write the
next banger, the song that's going to make a millions of
dollars because people are listening.
And he said, I've made millions of dollars off of writing
contemporary Christian music. I'm done with it because it
doesn't have anything to do with God has everything to do with I
want to write something that's going to be really popular,
right? I want to write something that's
going to get me a lot of of of view so I can make a lot of
money from this. I want to write a song that
everybody's singing, right? And one of the points that he
brought up is he said if, if all of this music and, and all these
contemporary people would say that they're trying to do it to,
to glorify Christ. But this is what he said.
This is a, this is one of the guys who has made it to the top
of the contemporary Christian music world, who is one of the
most popular contemporary Christian musicians right now.
And he said, if it's all about Christ, then why do we all
travel with our huge production teams that are videoing us from
every angle and trying to capture every corner of every
part of the stage so that it can be zoomed in on and, and, and
can and can lift up the singer and you can zoom right in on
their face if you want to said, if it's all about Christ, then
why do why are we making it all about us?
That's coming from a guy who is making it all about him, right?
But at least even he understands when you get a video production
crew that is filming your every move when you're on stage, it's
not about lifting up Christ. It's about lifting up the
performer at that point. And that's that's again, that's
why we don't do those things. There's there, there are things,
you know, those things are, are the way of performance and
entertainment. It's not the way of true
worship, which isn't that what singing is all about?
We're singing to the Lord, singing in your hearts, making
melody in your hearts to the Lord, right?
Isn't that exactly what that verse says?
So is it about him or is it about me?
Is it about lifting up his name or is it about people applauding
my performance? What?
What's your motivation behind why you're doing what you're
doing? And those are all things that we
have to think about all things being done unto edification
means that every song should be selected because of its message.
If the if the message is theologically wrong, we
shouldn't be singing it. I'll be honest with you.
The Battle of Hymn of the Republic.
Go look at the theological message in the battle of Hymn of
the Republic. It's about as messed up
theologically as it can possibly be.
You know, it's in song books. It's in good song books.
It shouldn't be sung because it the theology in that song is not
good theology. It doesn't line up with God's
Word. There's no edification.
There's a song I remember hearing growing up come to the
church in the Wildwood. Remember that song?
It's weak. It's just nothing to it.
There's no edification in that. It comes to the church in the
Wildwood. Where's the church in the
Wildwood have for me to even go to.
And really that's all it. That's kind of all it talks
about. You know, there's a there's,
there's, there's other songs that fit in with that category.
But when we're choosing sacred music, when we're choosing songs
to sing a special especially, they should be songs that have
edification, something that's going to edify the people who
are listening to it, glorify God, edify the body of Christ.
All things being done into edification means there must be
education. And when I say that, I mean
this. If the message of the song is
spiritual, but it's couched in words that that the people who
are listening can't understand, then there's still no
edification. And, and some of the old hymns
have some things in it that are like that.
And I'm not saying that we should stop singing the old
hymns that have those words in them, but there has to be
education. So explain what that means,
right? You have songs like A Mighty
Fortress is Our God. And in that song it says
something about Lord Sabayoth is his name.
What does that mean? If you're singing it unto
edification, then we should know what that means, right?
So if you're going to sing the song, explain it right here.
I raise my Ebenezer. What is that Christmas Carol?
You know, Scrooge, is that what we're talking about in that
song? No.
What does Ebenezer mean? No, Ebenezer means hitherto hath
the Lord helped us, right? So if we're going to edify,
maybe say, hey, I want you to think about the words of this
song. But there's a phrase in here
that says, here I raise my Ebenezer.
This is what this song, this is what that means.
Now it's edifying, right? So there has to be some
education in those things as well.
You know, other songs that that speak of Beulah land.
What is Beulah land? All right, we, we need to, we
need to have the edification in those things.
So unless the meanings of the words are known by the
congregation, there's not much edification.
Nothing wrong with that. But that's where, you know, the
song leader can briefly mention it.
Brian does that sometimes I do it.
We try to try to edify through the singing.
You've heard me say it many times.
Think about the words while we sing this last verse.
All right, because what is the purpose of congregational
singing edification, right, If all you're doing is just singing
the so I'll cling to the old rugged cross.
I wonder what's going to happen after church.
So I'll you're not being edified by that song, right?
But if I, as the song leaders say, think about the words to
this last verse, now you're like, oh, what's in this last
verse that I need to be thinking about, right?
Why is he saying that? It puts the focus where it
belongs on the words to the song.
And now you're focused on the cross.
Cling to the old rugged cross till my trophies At last I lay
down. You know some of these songs,
especially if you've been in church for any length of time,
we've sung them so many times that you don't even think about
the beauty of the words and the, and the, the depth of the
theology in those songs. I'll cling to the old rugged
cross till my trophies. At last I lay down.
I'll cling to the old rugged cross.
And what is it that now, now the words are escaping my head.
Yeah. Exchange it someday for a crown,
right? What does that, what does that
mean? All the things that I'm doing on
this earth, I'm not doing. I'm going to lay those down at
his feet and he's going to give me a crown of righteousness and
A and, and this crown and that crown that I can earn, right?
There's a lot of theology and there's a lot of doctrine and
there's a lot of edification in those songs.
If I'm really thinking about the words now, I want to go out
there and earn those things for the Lord so that I can lay those
down at his feet someday, right. And and not every song is going
to be really theologically deep or not every song is going to be
really, you know, have have tons of edification in it, but it
should have edification in it. There should be something of
value in that song for for those who are listening to it.
So all things being done in the edification means that the
people must be taught and reminded to think about the
words in the song. I just mentioned that and, and
put your attention on the edification from the words.
And that's that. So, so they, the music should
point to the message. The message should be 1 of
doctrinal, doctrinally correct edification.
That's what we're, that's what we're aiming at.
That's what our goal ought to be.
Let me give you one more #8 and we will have to finish this
later because I got a good bit more for you, but #8 church
music must not produce a charismatic style mystical
experience. Let's turn over to first Peter.
I got 2 verses for you there. I'll give you a couple points
about this and then we'll be done.
First Peter chapter 1. First Peter chapter 1.
Church music must not produce a charismatic style mystical
experience, which is, I'll be honest with you, most of what
the contemporary Christian music, the non denominational
church is trying to do with their music.
They're trying to create this mystical experience to try to
make you feel like I entered the presence of the Lord today,
right? They're trying to drum that up
with the music and they're almost like they're putting you
into a trance. It's one of the reasons why they
use all the lights and everything else is dim.
You know, you can't see anything in front of you except the, the
big stage and all the lights and you know, all the, the, the
walls and the ceiling and everything is painted black.
And you focus only on the front because we're going to draw you
into this experience and you're going to enjoy it and you're
going to walk out of here feeling like you worship God
today. We're trying to avoid that first
Peter chapter 1. Now you should feel like men.
That was that was wonderful. We worship the Lord, you know,
singing he's Emmanuel, the God of all the ages come in human
flesh. I mean, we should walk out of
here and say, man, that's a that's a great song.
That's powerful, but it's not this mystical, charismatic style
experience. First Peter chapter one, verse
13. Wherefore gird up the loins of
your mind, Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to
be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
First Peter 58. It's another one that you
recognize hopefully and most of you know it and you see the same
word in there. Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary of the devil as a roaring lion walketh about
seeking whom he may devour to this this contemporary music,
you know, contemporary worship music is designed to create this
emotional experience, a sensual experience, as opposed to sacred
music that is edifying through the understanding.
So it's designed to carry the people who are listening to it
through this emotional experiences roller coaster.
And if you notice, if you, if you've listened to any kind of
contemporary Christian music at all.
And, and I, you know, I've only done it because I, you know,
want to see what, what are they doing at Hillsong?
What are they doing at Bethel? What are they doing in
elevation? You know, those, those kind of
things. And so, I mean, I couldn't tell
you any songs that they sing, but what you notice about
everyone is it starts off really low, draws you in, and then it
starts to build, build, build, build, build, build, build,
build. It almost gets to a crescendo
and then it goes back down. Then it builds you back up
again, builds you back up again, builds you back up again.
Then it goes back down until eventually by the time you get
to the third time through those 7 words, you're rocking the
place out and it's as loud as it can possibly be and then it goes
back down again. It's, it's designed to take you
on this roller coaster where you just right.
I mean, it's what it's designed to do.
It's drawing you through this emotional experience.
I saw AI don't know, I guess it was a meme.
I don't know. It was a guy that had 7 pencils
all tied together. Is that this how worship
musicians write their songs? And he's writing, you know, the
seven lines with 7 pencils all at the same time.
You know, and, and honestly, that's a lot of what it is.
They're not saying anything. It's the music.
And what you don't understand, what most of these people don't
understand, is that you are being manipulated by the music.
The words aren't even saying anything.
You're not being, you're not being drawn into the presence of
God because the mute, the words are so doctrinally rich.
You're being drawn through an emotional experience and you're
being manipulated by the music and you don't even realize it.
So you walk out saying, wow, we worship God today.
No, you didn't worship God. You got manipulated by the music
and you got taken on a on a roller coaster ride through the
words and you felt like you had any Worshipful experience
because you were on their emotional roller coaster that
they took you through. Graham Kendrick, he's one of the
biggest names in contemporary worship and and or at least was
for a for a long time, but this is what he said.
He had an interview with a guy who was like a music producer.
He said the old way of preaching and singing began to give way to
an experience that God would visit us and we'd be ex.
We'd experience his presence in a tangible sort of way.
That's what they're trying to do.
They're just trying to try to make you feel like you can reach
out and touch God, right. And if we can just, if we can
use the music to just bring him right there and you can just
reach out and touch him, then you've had that emotional
experience and you'll come back again because you want to
experience that high again. It's like drugs, you know,
you'll never, you'll never experience the same high, but
you'll keep trying to get it right.
And, and that's what the, and that's why most people in these
non denominational churches last for four, 5-6 years.
And then they start thinking something's not right about
this. It's empty, it's hollow.
Why is that? Because they got you that
emotional high and now you're trying to get to it and you
never quite have that same emotional high and eventually it
fizzles out and the next thing you know, you got to go find
another place. And wow, this is wonderful.
Look at this worship experience that we had.
It goes to the same roller coaster all the way through
again. But to that end, a lot of these
contemporary musicians use music with the sensual dance rhythms
in it. They use music with with non
resolving chord cadences. You ever listen to one of these
contemporary songs and you know, if I try to think of and
exchange it someday for crown, right.
That's that's what it that's what resolving is.
But a lot of the a lot of the pop music does this, but a lot
of yours contemporary Christian music does the same thing and
it's not the exact words, but and exchange it someday for and
you're like, and it just leaves you hanging there.
Non resolving chords. That's it.
That is a that is a pattern of contemporary Christian music,
right. And it obviously they're not
just going to not say crown at the end of that song.
It's different words and everything else, but it's non
resolving chord patterns. And that's one of the that's
that's that's an easy way that you can tell a contemporary
style of music. It's it's non resolving.
You also have, you know, other things that go along with that
repetition, obviously electronic modulation, other elements so
that people get carried away emotionally.
It's designed to take you on that emotional roller coaster.
And we should reject any church music that's designed to create
a highly emotional state or, you know, anything that produces any
sort of hypnotic effect. But the Bible, as we just read
in first Peter One and first Peter 5, it tells us to be sober
minded and not to allow anything to capture our hearts and our
souls other than God in his word.
We're not supposed to open ourselves up unquestionably to
any force or experience, but we're supposed to test
everything by the standard of God's Word.
So we refuse to be controlled by highly emotional music.
And if you're going to refuse to be controlled by highly
emotional music, then you will naturally reject anything that
has to do with contemporary Christian music because 99% of
that music is emotional control. And that's why people like it,
right? That's why, that's why we have
to fight the flesh when it comes to listening to rock music or
any of those kind of things. You ever, you ever notice you're
sitting in a place and a song comes on and you don't even know
the song, but the next thing you know, you're doing this with it,
right? Why is that?
And then you're like, wait a second, what?
What is it? Where's that coming from?
Oh, there's music playing, right.
You didn't even notice that the song, you don't even know the
song, but but that music drives you to to do those things,
right? It's those are sensual things.
Those are things that you know, and, and, and what happens then
is and, and, and that's the way that rock music is designed.
It's, it's designed to get you to gyrate your body and do all
of those other kind of things, right.
So that's why even like 50s, sixties, 70's rock, I mean,
that's, that's what it was designed to do, is designed to
get you to move your body in sensual ways.
And then you take that music and you put Christian words with it,
but the music didn't stop doing what it was originally intended
to do. And so now, I mean, I was, I saw
a clip from somewhere and, and this girl, it was, I don't even
know what song it was. I don't know.
I have no idea what group it was or anything like that singing
this, this, you know, contemporary Christian music
song. And she was down here like this,
you know, and throw her hair back and do all this stuff
because that that's what the music is telling you to do,
right? Is that honoring to God?
Is that is that really music that is bringing glory to him?
No, it's, it's because the music is taking you through this
experience that's telling you exactly how you should feel and
telling you exactly what you should do with your body, right?
Can you do that when you're singing the Old Rugged Cross?
You can't even do that if you want to when you're singing the
old Rugged Cross because the music doesn't push you into
that, right? There's nothing that the music
makes you do that that is displeasing to the Lord.
And what what I'm trying to get you to understand is that music
is powerful, and just because you put Christian words with it
does not make it right. And so we have to reject
anything that even comes close to sounding like the world
that's going to pull us away from the sacred music sound that
comes from songs and through songs like The Old Rugged Cross
and Jesus Loves Me and Victory in Jesus.
You can't gyrate to those songs if you want to, because the
music doesn't let you do that, let alone make you do that,
right? Do you understand the difference
between sacred music and worldly secular music that is designed
to make you do those things right?
And, and, and again, you don't even have to understand music to
know exactly what I'm talking about.
You know that that music is very, very powerful in that way.
And so I go back to what I said at the beginning.
Music is, has way more control over us than many of us are
willing to admit. Music, music has so much more to
do with how you worship and who you're actually worshipping
through the song. Then we realize it does in many
cases. So everything that we do must be
tested through God's word. Are these principles in this
song? Does this song go against the
principles of God's word? Does it sound like pop music?
Does it does it move me in this emotional experience?
And again, nothing wrong with, you know, we saying or we listen
to the song love let him go when we when we have our communion
service. It's a very emotional song, but
it's not emotional in the way that it's taking me up and down.
It's emotional because I'm thinking about the words love,
let him go to the cross. Love, let him leave his throne
so all the world would know, right?
It's emotional because the words are, are scriptural and
scriptural and are, and are driving me to think about Christ
and what he did. That's why it's emotional.
It's not emotional because the music is drawing me up and down
and doing all these things, right?
We're not having these, these, you know, fainting spells and
things like that. It might bring a tear to your
eye because you, you're thinking about the fact that Christ died
on the cross for me, right? So I'm not saying that you can't
be moved by a song, but what's moving you?
If the music is moving you, then you're being manipulated
emotionally and you're being taken on this roller coaster and
throwing some Christian words with it and calling it a worship
experience. And it's not a worship
experience. It's a music manipulation
experience to make you want to keep coming back and going after
that high again. So important thing to understand
is that church music must not produce a charismatic style
mystical experience where you know, where you're, you know,
doing all these other things that that the world does.
You know, you ever seen a mosh pit?
People are just dancing around and head banging and all that
kind of stuff. The music is doing that right.
A lot of times you can't even tell what they're saying because
you can't hear it right. You, you, unless you've listened
to the words of that song enough times, you don't even know what
the, what they're saying, but you're doing all this head
banging and everything else. Why is that?
Because the music is doing that. The music is very powerful.
So then to take that and put Christian words with it and
expect that God's going to be pleased, It's like a, it's like
the music version of an oxymoron.
It just doesn't happen, right? It doesn't make any sense that
those two don't go together. So then if those two, those two
don't go together, then where do we find our principles to make
sure that, all right, where is that line drawn?
If this is secular music and this is sacred music, where is
that line? Well, that's what these
principles are. That's what, that's where our
music standards are. And with most things, we've set
our standards, or we at least try to set our standards pretty
high because we don't want to. We don't want to be anywhere
near where the world's music is. We want to be, I would rather
air on the side of sacred and get to heaven and find out that
we could have probably done a little bit more music that we
didn't do than to get to heaven and find out that we were on the
other side of that. And we did music that was not
pleasing to the Lord because we wanted to add to it.
There are hundreds, maybe not hundreds of thousands, but there
are thousands and thousands of good songs that we can sing.
We don't need the world's music. We don't need the contemporary
Christian music. We don't need that to be able to
bring honor and glory to the Lord.
There are, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of
songs to choose from, from all the hymn books that have been
written over the last 300 years. Some of the songs that are being
written today, you know, we've, you know, as a choir, we, we've
sung quite a few songs in the last few months that are not in
any hymn book because they're relatively new, but they're
great songs. The music is OK.
The, the, the words are doctrinally correct.
They're edifying. My hope is Jesus, all right, I
mean, that's that what that's how you test a song to find out
if is this OK to sing in church? Is this OK for me to listen to?
Is this something that that God would be comfortable, Jesus
Christ would be comfortable sitting there listening to with
me, right, Those are these are these are and I've got some more
of these that I'll that I'll share with you next Sunday that
that are principles that that you need to test every song,
right, that that you listen to to make sure they're pleasing to
the Lord. If that's our goal, then
everything should fit in to that standard.
And music is one of those. Music is, is is paramount in
those because it controls so much else.
I'm done. But you think about it, Why?
You know, why is it that the music is always the first thing
to go in a church? Before a church gets away from
the King James Bible, before a church drops their standards,
before a church turns off all the lights and paints all the
walls black? What goes the music, right?
The music goes first because it's the easiest place to allow
that contemporary side to come in.
It's the easiest thing to give way in if we are not careful and
if we're not paying attention to what we allow in the church.
It should be sacred music. We'll give you some more
principles of music next week, but hopefully that's a help to
you and we'll finish up next time.
Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so
much for your goodness to us. Thank you for the opportunity
that we have to be here tonight. Got to thank you for the fact
that we can go to Your Word and we can find these principles
that help us with music. God, may we be a church not for
the sake of being able to say that, oh, we have these high
standards in music or we do this or we do that.
May we have these standards in music so that everything that we
sing, everything that we play is pleasing to you, is edifying to
the church and is honoring to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And may everything that we do lift him up and may may you be
pleased by the the things that we try to do in this area of
music that would honor and glorify Christ.
Again, we thank you for all that you do for us in Jesus name,
Amen, If you would stand.