I Got The Music In Me

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle

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Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her king.

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Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth.

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I still have a frog in my throat. I think it's a parasite.

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Well, it could be some kind of lamprey eel or something. The judgment of God. Steve is one smart cookie because we needed to tape another show today, and we had just got done taping a very controversial show on sports.

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And I said, well, let's just tape another show because I have a lunch appointment to make. I've got other things to do besides No Compromise.

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And so Steve just sat down and he has his Bible in front of him and his water, and he's just ready to go.

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You're ready to talk about anything. Oh, yes. We could just have a stream of consciousness show. Yeah, what could

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I be thinking about? That was the name I proposed for the title. What are you going to preach next when you're in the pulpit at Bethlehem Bible Church?

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First Timothy chapter six, verses three to 10. Okay. What book after that?

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The Book of John. The Book of John. I was listening to S. Lewis Johnson the other day in the Book of John, and he talked about it.

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It is a worshipful piece of propaganda and how this whole book is about proselytizing and showing that Jesus Christ is

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God. And even in the prologue, where it talks about, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, when the

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Jehovah's Witnesses tried to make it a God, Jesus was a God. What you would do in the prologue of such a book is you would say, this is what the book is all about, and then the rest of the book proves it.

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So Jesus Christ is the God who made everything, and then you try to prove it with all the I ams and all the miracles.

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Well, if he was only a God, what would you try to prove the rest of the book? That there were other gods? I don't know.

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I mean, I don't know what you'd try to prove, but having studied through John a little bit in the past, one of the things that's most impressive to me is just the care with which,

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I mean, John was a theologian. He wasn't just some kind of bumpkin. And when you read him, he's very, very careful about the theology he presents, and I just really enjoy that book, so.

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Good, well, I'm actually studying John a little bit. The last few days I've been intrigued with the book, too, and so I'm looking forward to your series.

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Oh, I thought you were going to say, so I decided I'm going to preach it, too. I might do some truths found in John 1 or something like that, but that wouldn't be an exposition per se.

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Okay. Let's talk about music. Steve loves music. Let's talk about pop music.

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Talking about pop music. Let's talk about music that Christians listen to.

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Let's talk about music that Christians listen to outside of the environs of the building, and then let's talk about the music that goes on inside the church as well.

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First of all, let's just make it basic. Do you like music, Steve? Yes. You could say that I have a passion for music.

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Do you think it's part of men and women as image -bearing creatures that we have been wired to enjoy music?

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Do you think that's fair, or do you think that's maybe, maybe we can't prove it biblically, but just. Oh, I think it's absolutely correct.

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I mean, if God, if we are such a reflection, I mean, think about how much of a part music plays in our lives, whether we're big music fans or not.

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We all know music. Music sticks in our head. We appreciate it when we hear it. It's such a major force in our culture.

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I mean, it would be like saying that art has no reflection on God.

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Well, it does. God is creative. God created with a word, and he made us in his image, and we are therefore creative beings.

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That's just the reality of it. And when you look in scripture, you regularly see people singing, and they love to sing.

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And my favorite Bible passage that talks about singing is found just after communion, the final

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Passover message meal, and then the first communion service, and it says that they sang a hymn.

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Can you imagine Jesus with the disciples singing a hymn? You think it was, come thou fount of every blessing?

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I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that Jesus was singing loudly and the disciples were just kind of mumbling. I mean, you know, that's just as an aside.

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I hate that when I'm in church and people are just like, come thou fount of every blessing. Well, Wesley was right when he said

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Christians sing because we have all the reason to sing. We've been given voices and we've been given redemption. We've been given the mediator,

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Christ Jesus, and we should sing. We should echo what's going on in heaven now.

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We should echo the new song that people are shouting in heaven. So here's the thing.

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When it comes to music, we believe everybody loves music. And we especially want you to think about Christian music and why it's important to have good lyrics and to have music that matches the lyrics.

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Go ahead. Is that a look of consternation there? Is that a look of, I'm just waiting for you to pause. No, it's neither one.

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It's neither one. It's just a furrowed brow, you know, watching you going, okay, and you know, what's he going to say next?

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Sergei Denisov. One of my favorite composers. Sociologist at Bowling Green University.

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I thought he was a center on the Bruins. And Newsweek Magazine said, if you want to reach young people in this country, write a song.

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Don't buy an ad. I agree. I mean, music, I think about, I think about my whole life.

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I mean, there are Coke commercials I can remember from like the 60s or whatever, you know? And I mean, things that you just remember from your childhood.

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Well, why is that? Well, because they were in a song and you just remember them, you know? I mean, Hello Dolly by Louis Armstrong.

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I used to have that little 45, you know? And I'm going, I don't know why I had it, but you know, there it was.

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The jingle can really influence people. And so the false teacher, Arian, who believed that Jesus wasn't fully

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God, the equivalent to modern day Jehovah's Witnesses, he would write jingles to teach that Jesus wasn't

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God and to talk about Unitarianism instead of Tritheism. Excuse me, Tritheism.

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Well, in his mind, it was Tritheism, Trinitarianism. And so when you think of these jingles,

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Steve, these commercials, to all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun.

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They're just there. You deserve a break today. So get up and get away. Or, you know, one of my favorites,

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I'd like to teach the world to sing, you know? Yes, I know. I wish I was an Oscar Mayer Wiener. And so music influences, and we would like to say that if you would like to help your theology, we would wish to encourage you to listen to songs that have good theology.

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Let's talk about songs with good theology. I don't think they necessarily have to always be hymns because there are new songs that are excellent.

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Can you think of any new songs, corporate worship songs that are excellent? Oh, some of the, yeah, those people.

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Getty? Yeah, sure. The Getty songs. And then I was thinking, oh, some of the Sovereign Grace tunes too are very, very good.

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You know, very Christ -centered, God -honoring lyrics. Yeah, and good music too.

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What if you like heavy metal, Christian metal music at home, and then you go to church and you think, well,

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I want some Christian metal here. After all, their lyrics can be excellent. Well, you know, we'll pray for you.

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Well, I mean, it's just like Christian rap or anything else. I mean, when you, Christian heavy metal, whatever, if you do that in church, then what are you gonna wind up with?

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You know, a bunch of kids with no eardrums and, you know, 20, 30 -something -year -olds, and then everybody's gonna just drop out because they're just gonna, and, you know, so you appeal to a certain group and you just leave everybody else behind, and I don't think that's what the church ought to be about.

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And I'm not talking about, you know, lowest common denominator. I'm talking about you want to make sure that your music really focuses people on Christ and not on any kind of worship experience, per se.

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If people go home and say, the music rocked, and all they can do is talk about that, well, what about the sermon?

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I think usually what they probably do at Bethlehem Bible Church is they go home and they say, I didn't like the worship. I didn't like it.

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I mean, well, you know, I mean, just briefly, what is the worship? I mean, you look through the scripture. Worship is the public reading of the word.

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Worship is the prayer. Worship is the giving. Worship is the preaching. Worship is the listening. And worship is singing.

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But it's all those things, and it's not, you know, worship is fellowshipping. It's not any of those things divorced from the other.

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And so when you say, I didn't really like the worship, well, what part of it did you not like? You know, were they not friendly?

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Was the sermon no good? Did you lack in your giving to the church? I mean, what was no good?

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Well, the part of the worship that I didn't like is the part where the immature, maybe unbelieving quote -unquote worshiper wanted to rule the service.

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That's a part of the worship I didn't like. You know, I mean, I think maybe the worst worship I was ever in, it was a charismatic thing on a

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Friday night. Uh -oh. And while people were singing the music, I noticed just everybody seemed to be dancing in their own little place with their eyes closed, and they might as well have had iPods, you know, and earplugs in there and whatnot, because it was like everybody was having their own individual worship service.

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It wasn't a corporate, there wasn't a corporate sense that anybody was together. Steve, I just turned to Deuteronomy 32, the song of Moses.

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Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished in the ears of all the assembly of Israel.

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What a verse. He spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel. And I'm not going to go through the whole song because that would probably take the rest of the show.

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Well, go ahead. But it is very interesting when it starts off.

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Give ear, oh heavens, and I will speak and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, for I will proclaim the name of the

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Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. The rock His work is perfect, for all

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His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is

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He. And then everybody would say, hoorah, until we get to this point. They have dealt corruptly with Him.

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They are no longer His children because they are blemished. They are crooked and a twisted generation.

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Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? And that's the chorus.

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Try singing that seven times, right? That is amazing. Do you thus repay the

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Lord, you foolish people? Let's just sing that a few more times. Until somebody comes down to the altar one more time.

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So here's what we'd like to do. One, does the song that you sing, do the songs that you sing in corporate worship have scriptural integrity?

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I think that'd be a good question to start with. And if you look at Deuteronomy chapter 32, that's a no -brainer, scriptural integrity.

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Do the songs have scriptural integrity? Can you think of any songs that maybe don't have scriptural integrity that we shouldn't sing on a

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Sunday? You almost said dude, maybe. I mean,

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I know what I was gonna say is, do you really want me to start? Give me the hymnal, you know? I mean, there are some songs that I will just say

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I loathe with a holy passion. For example, I would say I really don't care much for In the

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Garden. Yeah, so that song doesn't have scriptural integrity. What about the song that we love to sing in Yankeeville, but pretty much they don't sing in Mississippi?

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Battle Hymn of the Republic, written by a Unitarian. There are some songs that just shouldn't be sung because they don't reflect who

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God is, what He's done. They don't have scriptural integrity. I think the way

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Peyton asked the question was the right way when it comes to picking songs. And maybe you're the person who picks the songs at church.

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Did the music ministry today cause the word of Christ to dwell in us richly? Now that is a great question.

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And it's a great question because it's founded right in Colossians 3. And you know,

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I just wanna read just a little bit of, starting in verse 15. And listen to this. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

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And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

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That kind of sums up what should be going on. When you sing those songs, they should ring out with thankfulness to God.

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If they're not Christ -centered, if they're not focused on His work, then what are you doing singing them?

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I mean, how can you be thankful while you're singing, and He walks with me? I just have no words for that.

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I mean, it's just, it's just, that is devoid of, of doctrine.

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I mean, it is just empty. I was just enjoying watching Steve, because you out there in Radioland cannot watch

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Steve when he sings, he walks with me, and he talks with me. You can't actually see that, but I can see that.

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Holy. Listen to this, Steve. We're going to create a little no -compromise controversy when we're talking about music.

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Oh, I love controversies, yeah. The parallel passage to Colossians 3, which you just read, is

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Ephesians 5, verse 18. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the

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Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the

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Lord with your heart. Now, what I find interesting there is, of course, worship is koram

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Deo, in the face of God. We worship God, but there is a horizontal aspect, because here we have making melody to the

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Lord, singing to the Lord, but we address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

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And so it's not like we're singing to other people, saying, you know what, you redeem me, you save me, you're great, but we do address one another with these psalms.

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And so unwind that for us, unravel that for us. How can we sing to one another and still sing to the

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Lord? Well, I think it's an exhortation, you know, to one another when we're singing these great things.

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I think it's an encouragement to one another. And I think it's also just, I mean, look, when we go to the

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Shepherds Conference and we sit there with 3 ,200 men and we're all singing at the top of our lungs, that is quite a worship experience.

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And that is something not to be forgotten. And so when you are in the body of Christ like that, you can't help but be uplifted and be encouraged and be reminded of the great truths of Christianity.

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Steve, when we think about music in the local church, is simple bad? No. Is simplistic bad?

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Simplistic is bad. Yeah, I think simplistic, if you're singing, you know, the same words, like I was joking about that being the chorus, but if you're singing the same words over and over and over again, yeah,

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I mean, 7 -11 songs, you know, seven words sung 11 times, there's something wrong with that.

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Do you know what, I'm going to rename those because the first time I heard someone say that 7 -11 deal was Chuck Swindoll and I thought it was pretty funny, but I'm going to rename that.

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I'm going to call them da -do -ron -ron songs. Da -do -ron -ron -ron, da -do -ron -ron. Because it really does just kind of all run together and it loses its meaning, you know, if you,

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I don't even want to name a song, but if you're just kind of going through that, you know, singing, it becomes more like a mantra.

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So you might as well be singing da -do -ron -ron, I agree. Well, what if we look at Psalm 136, is this mantra, give thanks to the

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Lord for his good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Verse two, give thanks to the God of gods for his steadfast love endures forever.

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Verse three, give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever. Do you think the psalmist was trying to drive a point there?

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I think he was. What was that point? That his steadfast love endures forever.

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Yeah, and I mean, repetition isn't always bad is what we're trying to say. You could have these kumbaya type of songs that, here's what

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I'm after, Steve, I think you're going to like this. We don't want songs that foster thoughtlessness. I agree.

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Yeah, I mean, I like singing songs where I just go, wow, you know,

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I mean, for example, the bliss of this glorious thought that my sins, not the part, but the whole are nailed to the cross and I bear them no more.

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I mean, when I sing that song and I think about the truth of it, that is a reason to shout joyfully to the

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Lord and to sing with all my heart. Good, let's talk more about songs for corporate worship.

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And hopefully this will spill into your own listening to at home or in the car. How about songs that are either theocentric or Christocentric?

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That is to say, songs like Exodus 15 that exalt the Lord, referred to at least 45 times in those 18 verses, according to one counter.

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Songs that exalt the Lord. In contrast to songs that talk about how much

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I love the Lord. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Dead to run.

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I mean, this kind of, you know, when I hear songs and I have heard songs like this, you know, that just kind of talk about how much

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I love the Lord, how much I worship the Lord, how much I, I, I, I, yeah, I hate it. And why do

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I hate it? Because I'm just like, you know, I can listen to that on the radio. I can listen to secular songs about me, me, me,

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I, I, I, and me, myself and I. I want to hear songs and I want to sing songs that remind me of the greatness of God and all that he has done on my behalf.

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And that's the only place I should, you know, be involved in a song is what God has done for me and my sin that made it necessary.

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That's all I want to, you know, talk about me. I could probably live without ever singing, I love you,

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Lord, to lift up my heart, to worship the almighty, you know, whatever it is. I could probably live without singing those songs the rest of my life.

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I think though, Steve, if there's in corporate worship, a majority of songs that talk about the indicatives of God and the gospel, the good news, the declaration of what

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God has done, truths that talk about redemption and the creation, I mean, the creator

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God. I think if we sing mainly those songs and once in a while there's a man -centered response or man's response to that,

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I can live with that. Sure, I mean, you know, father, I love you, I worship and I adore you, you know.

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I think we had to change the lyrics for that, spirit, we love you, we worship and adore you. The spirit should be or could be worshiped, but we don't see worship of the spirit in the

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Bible. Yeah, yeah, I don't know who was to change that. It was before I got here. Actually, Charlie did that years ago.

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Did he? Yeah. How about when we talk about music, corporate music, corporate worship music, how about praising

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God for specific things that he has done? Would you like that? I absolutely would. Why would you like that?

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I would like that because I think it's appropriate. I mean, I think anything that exalts Christ and what he's done, whether it's specific or general,

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I think those are all fine, so. Okay, good. How about playing and singing skillfully?

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Now, maybe you don't have a good voice, but is there something to be said? What are you trying to say?

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Well, I'm trying to say that - Okay, that does it. I'm doing special music. When I stand next to you, I try to sing a little bit louder for the sake of my brother.

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I'm doing special music. That does it. Playing skillfully. I think if we're to preach skillfully, we're to read the word skillfully, we'll just try to do our very best in response to God.

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I think we should play skillfully. And when the psalmist talks about sing the Lord a new song, play skillfully, how can we, what kind of truth can we take in a

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New Testament church from that psalm? Well, I think that's why, for example, Charlie does his eight -minute extended guitar solos, and then

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Eric comes in and does a nice little drum solo to get everybody in the mood. And is that what you mean?

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Well, that's not really what I meant. Oh, okay, sorry. But we would be after skillful, not, what would be the opposite of skillful?

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Skillless, shoddy. Well, or even showing off. Yes, that's exactly right. I mean, there's a balance to maintain between being skillful and just going, hey, everybody, watch this little riff.

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Well, since we're on the saddleback deal, I might as well bring that up. You have to have a stage. You have to have people up there.

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You have to have a platform, et cetera. I kind of like the old Puritan congregational choir in the back loft that you can't see that supports the music singing versus you look at the lady and you say, oh, she got a haircut.

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You look at the guy, oh, he got new glasses. And so when you see people on a platform, it's problematic. New glasses.

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Yeah. Okay. But when I go to saddleback and I see all the cameras and basically I see a show, it doesn't help me with corporate worship.

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I think the band, the music, the choir should all help the congregation sing. They should be the singers.

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Well, I've said it before. We've been there on a number of occasions and it is really like you are watching the

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Tonight Show, you know? I mean, it's Jay Leno. It is that quality of - Arnett. Yeah.

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It is that quality of musicianship. You know, the music now, that's something else.

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I mean, where else can you go on Sunday morning and hear Car Wash or, you know - Which we heard there. What was the

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Miley Cyrus song? I think it was Celine Dion. Oh, was it? Yeah. Well, I'm waiting -

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What's the difference? I think maybe they've done The Climb too. Nothing would surprise me over there.

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How about Born This Way? They might do that too. Who knows? Walk This Way, maybe. How about this next comment,

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Steve, on music? And we've got to wrap this up pretty quickly. Is new, are new songs bad? I think

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Handel's Messiah, when it first came out, was disdained by fundamentalists because it was too contemporary.

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No, new songs are not bad. I mean, we just look in the last 10 years. You know, you have songs like From the

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Gettys, you know, In Christ Alone, or, I mean, my mind just kind of fails me here, but they've written many songs that I think, you know, in years, decades, centuries to come, if the

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Lord tarries, they should be in the hymnal. I mean, these are great, great songs, so they should definitely be there.

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Today, we've talked a little bit about music, and if you have bad music at your church, then be kind to your pastor.

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He's probably trying to turn the ship around, but things turn slowly, and so maybe you make a recommendation, or if he picks a good song, say,

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Pastor, I really like that song. There's ways to do it. But overall, I'll say what J .S.

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Bach said. How do you say Bach in Deutsch? Bach. Yeah.

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You might say Bach. All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the soul's refreshment.

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Where this is not remembered, there is no real music, but only a devilish hubbub.

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And you know, just because it's in the hymnal, as we were saying earlier, just because it's in the hymnal doesn't necessarily mean it's good.

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I mean, we have songs written by a Muslim. You know, Morning Is Broken. Songs - Oh, don't.

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Songs written by coke addicts in our hymnal. And I'm not making that up.

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I can prove it. You know, look it up, Andre Crouch. Mike Ebenroth here with Steve Cooley.

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Sing a new song under the Lord. Preach it. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebenroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.