Thank you, friend, for joining our study of the Bible In Search of the Lord’s Way to become a Christian, to live the Christian life, and as in today’s lesson how to worship God in such a way as to please Him. You have requested it, so we will explain why music in churches of Christ is a cappella.
Warmest greetings to you, my friend. We feel honored to have your invitation into your home today by TV or radio. We pray we will both be blessed by our study. I know you have many choices of programs and many of them religious programs, but you have chosen us and we are grateful. Your choice of our program this half-hour reveals your interest in religious matters. May I assume, therefore, that you also read the newspapers and magazine reports of a religious nature? I pray I'm not assuming too much, then, that you are aware of much of the current turmoil and the conflict in just about all religious groups calling themselves "Christian." We had a program about some of those things just two weeks ago in which we attributed much of that confusion to different methods of interpreting the Scriptures. Were you able to be with us then? Well, if you weren't and if you like, we will send you a free copy of that program-- or you may read it or hear it or even view it at your convenience at searchtv.org. I said then that God's silence in the Scriptures is sometimes prohibitive and sometimes permissive. And that is all true.
Well, I've been anxious to continue that message, or to be more accurate I suppose I should say, to build on that message. And that is what today's is. If you remember, I said then that I would like to-- well, I would really like to say we in churches of Christ around the world are perfectly united and free of all those conflicts, but I can't honestly say that. If you are as informed as I think some of you are, you know some of those 27,000 churches and more than two million adherents are drifting away. And some have even left us. Some of you are asking where this ministry is going to go. To our shame, we have several divisions among us, some of which I spoke about two weeks ago. And we stand rebuked by the Lord Himself in 1 Corinthians and other places in the Scriptures. The big issue among us right now is what has divided most non-catholic churches in times past. It is the question of a cappella or instrumental music in worship. Is it mere tradition? Or is it Biblical?
Well, if you think you would like a free printed copy or a free audio cassette tape or a free CD of the message two weeks ago and maybe this one also, mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. And our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. Ken Helterbrand will lead us now as we sing, and then I will be back.
We are reading from the book of Ephesians chapter 5. We will begin at verse 18 and read through verse 21. “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” And now let us go to God in prayer. Holy Father, we are so thankful to You for being with us today and for the guidance that You give us in our worship so that we can know and be sure from the reading of Your word what pleases You in worship. And we pray that as we study this matter that You will lead us in the right way through the teaching of Your word to do what is acceptable with You so that You don’t reject our worship as we offer it in spirit and in truth. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son and our Savior, we pray. Amen!
Oh, music is a powerful influence in our lives, isn’t it? I've heard and seen it attributed to several people, but I believe it was Plato who said, "If you will let me write the music of the nation, I care not who writes its laws." In our own times we have seen that influence of music in our nation. The sub culture of the free-sex and drugs became our American way of life on the wings of rock music; and all the legislation against those things has been unable to curb it. Remember Woodstock? Of course, you do! The birthplace of that culture. Yes, Plato was right. Music is more powerful than the laws our government can make and impose on us. Music can stir the basest physical passions of men or it can inspire the noblest ambitions. Music can still a troubled heart or it can summon an army into battle. Music can bring comfort to the bereaved soul or it can excite a person to the heights of ecstasy and joy! Music can fan the tiniest spark of patriotism or it can arouse a mob to revolution. It is no wonder or marvel then, is it, that God ordained music as a part of Christian worship?
Christian Worship: that is our message today-- the music of Christian worship. No, we are not studying today about the worship of Buddhism or Islam, not even Judaism of the Old Testament. Although, we must give some time to Old Testament worship because many people reference those Scriptures in an effort to justify mechanical music in Christian worship.
Well, first, what is Christian worship? It isn't entertainment or amusement or recreation or "fun." It is a fellowship with people of like passions and faith alright, but it isn't just a meeting or social gathering like a Rotary or Lions Club or Ladies Club. It isn't a duty. It isn't a "requirement" God has placed on members of His church. It is a necessity, though, to the Christian's development-- I mean his spiritual growth and well-being in his living the Christian life. For that reason Christians are admonished not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together" as some had already (Hebrews 10:25). The worship assembly of Christians fulfills a spiritual need. We can appreciate it in our busy and rushed life in this 21st-century environment, can’t we, because it is the Christian's time set apart for him to be with God and others who are there for the same purpose?
From the beginning of man's history on this earth, he has been a worshiping being. And God has prescribed the actions and the places of their worship. In that time (we are going to call it the Patriarchal Age) it was the altar. Animal sacrifices were acceptable and these were the offerings in Genesis chapter 8, verse 20; chapter 12 and verse 8; and other places.
Of the people that God delivered from Egyptian bondage, He created a nation from whom would be born the Messiah, the Christ-- the Savior of the world. He established a new form of worship for them; and it was the tabernacle worship. The tabernacle was a tent-like structure that they could move about in their 40-year journey to the Promised Land. It had two rooms. In the first was the golden candlestick, the table of shewbread and the altar of incense. And behind that room was the "holy of hollies" wherein was the altar containing the two tables of stone. Well, you can read about all of that in detail in the book of Exodus, chapters 25 through 33. And their worship there consisted of blood sacrifices, burning of incense and the lighting of candles. And, on occasion there is mention of the use of mechanical music in their worship. You can read about that in 1 Samuel 18; 1 Chronicles 15; and 2 Chronicles chapter 5 and chapter 7 and chapter 23, and those places. All that was later carried over into their national temple worship. And, every thing in it was a type or a shadow or a figure of something spiritual that was to come in the "new covenant." The new is Christian, and it is better. The book of Hebrews in the New Testament is written to show the superiority of Christianity over Judaism. Read it. Read the whole book. It does it well. I have said all that to say this: We can not justify the Christian use of the cornet, flute, harp, psaltery, or our own that we might add to those; our drums and our keyboards and our electric guitars and our tambourines and our trombones and pianos and organs and all of that. We cannot add the use, their use, of those things in the Old Testament to our worship today as Christians any more than we can justify the Christian use of candles and incense, and animal sacrifices of that day because they had them. That would be inconsistent, wouldn't it? What I'm saying is this, friend: It is in the ninth chapter of Hebrews. The first (or the old) covenant "had ordinances of divine service and an earthly tabernacle.” That is verses 1 through 10. But Christ came as a better High Priest of better things, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands-- meaning the church. We are New Testament Christians, friend!
Now, what does the New Testament teach Christians about the music of their worship? Whatta ya say we look there and see? Let us take a quick look at every passage in the New Testament that references music. (1)When Jesus had instituted the Supper in His memory it is written in Matthew 16:30 that "when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." (2) Again in Mark chapter 14, verse 26 it is written, "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives." (3) Acts chapter 16, verse 25: Paul and Silas were in jail at Philippi, "But at midnight they were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." (4) Romans 15:9 the inspired writer, who incidentally, is the apostle to the Gentiles, says to God, "For this reason will I confess to You among the Gentiles, and sing to Your name." (5) In 1 Corinthians 14:15 the same inspired man of God addressed some problems that existed in the church there-- and even then it was troublesome to them-- the worshiping assembly of the church. And he said, "What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding." (6) Ephesians 5:19 which we read a while ago, "...speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." And then the seventh one: Colossians chapter 3, verses 16 and 17: "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. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name [meaning by the authority] of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through Him." And the eighth one: Hebrews chapter 2:12 it is written, "I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly when I sing praise to You." Hebrews 13 and 14 and 15: "For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by Him let us continually offer up the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to Him." The tenth one: James 5:13: "Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms."
My friend, that is all the Scriptures say about music in the church age. Two of those, one in Matthew and one in Mark, were actually before the church began on Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, but I included them because the singing referenced in them was associated with the Lord's Supper. And there are three passages in Revelation that I didn't mention (that is chapter 14 verse 2; chapter 15, verse 3; chapter 18, verse 22) which mentions trumpets or harps in heaven. And they are all symbolic, friend. They have to be symbolic because besides being mentioned in symbolic language, if we think of heaven as a place of factories where such will be manufactured and transportation facilities to move them about to different places in heaven; well, we have a mistaken conception of heaven, don’t we?
Now, I ask, "What kind of music does Jesus Christ, whose name or by whose authority we are to do all these things-- what kind of music does He authorize in His church?” It is as plain as daylight, isn't it? It is a cappella, of course; the fruit of our lips, from the hearts. "A cappella" just simply means, the word means the music of the church. That is the meaning of the very word “a cappella”. The organ, the piano, the drums, the steel guitars, the tambourines, the keyboards-- well, let's just be honest: all that is to draw a crowd, and for their entertainment when they arrive. It is not Christian worship, friend. When God told Noah to build the ark of gopher wood that eliminated every other kind of wood. When God specified "singing from the heart" that eliminated "playing" on instruments!
Church historians are agreed that no church used an instrument of music in worship for centuries-- at least 400 years, and some say 1,000 years, after the church began on Pentecost in Acts two. Even then it was not without strife and controversy, even division among those churches. Mechanical instruments of music in Christian worship would have been offensive to New Testament disciples-- and to God, too-- because of the common association with pagan idolatrous worship and the rankest forms of immoral living. That is what Ephesians 5:18-19 is all about: "Do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation." Loud band music and drunkenness and all that was an important part of their lewd and indecent entertainment. And it was also used in their worship of Bacchus, their god of wine. But, in becoming Christians, they had died to all of that-- both in life and worship. And, they had been made "alive to God through Christ" (Romans 6:11). Christians in our time should have done that, also. "Oh, but," we are being told today that, "we are living in a much more sophisticated advanced and enlightened society." Anyway, they were taught (and so are we in the same passage) to speak "to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody [not on drums and steel guitars and tambourines and trombones-- with great-showmanship] but singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.” Shall we pray? Holy Father, we are thankful to You for the instructions You give us in such simple terms and straightforward ways in Your word. Give us the courage and the boldness to abide by Your word and respect Your authority in it. In the lovely name of Jesus, we pray.
The great reformers were opposed to the use of instruments of music in the worship of Jehovah, also. So were the denominations that were established in the beginning, some of which bear their names to this day. Don’t take my word for it. Go to your religion section of your public library and research it for yourself. It is important to you, friend. Your eternal destiny may depend on it.
I suppose every one has some measure of appreciation for music-- some more, some less. Some prefer one kind, some another. Much of the youth of America is roused and revved-up or however you want to say it, by rock music and rap music. And some of their parents, even some of their own age are flatly turned off by that. Therefore, the music the church offers to God as worship cannot be determined by personal preferences of one group over the other, or by a majority vote of the congregation. Any choice or determination on that basis will be received by some, and rejected by others. It will please some and offend others. It must be a sincerely determined effort by congregational leadership to "do all in the name of the Lord," as we read awhile ago from Colossians 3:16 and 17. It must be a sincere desire to offer to God worship that pleases Him. Church leadership must be dedicated to doing God's will, then teaching the church what to want to do and for them to be like-minded. Yes, my friend, I am talking about something that will determine your eternal destiny. I believe it with all my heart. And God bless you in your search for the Lord's Way of living and worshiping Him.
I'm sure you know we are here nationwide with a Bible message every week, being sponsored by churches of Christ and Christians across America whose music is a cappella. Much of the mail we receive expresses appreciation for our beautiful a cappella music. You might think it comes from those Christians and churches who sponsor us. Well yes; some of it does. But you might be surprised how much of it is from those who don't agree with us on this subject, also. From whomever: we thank you and we appreciate your mail very much.
As I said earlier, if you would like a printed copy-- or a CD-- or an audio cassette tape of today's message titled A cappella Is the Music of the Church-- or maybe this one and the one two weeks ago, simply mail your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or by email to searchtv@searchtv.org. God bless you now. Come back next Sunday. We love you.
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