Principles of Godly Music — Alan Ives

Thank you again for the the music that's a Wonderful event for us just to hear others praising the Lord we hear us all the time and It's just wonderful to in this day and age here people who still sing tunes And praise of the Lord sing melodies and work with the harmonies and so forth.

Beautiful beautiful beautiful. Well, I need to put a guitar on here. We're glad to be with you. I think did preachers say four years and I think that it is June of 2005. Not quite. We're gonna look at a definition of music according to the Bible tonight in Psalm 143 and Then we're gonna look at a definition of the three parts of music in Ephesians and In the book of John and we may not get any further than that tonight.

Music as a Means of Remembering God’s Works

We have some things yet to bring tomorrow and everything else is going to go unsaid. But but we will teach as much as we can. I'm glad God has much to say about those things in the Bible. We're going to go ahead and Sing a song that we have sung for years with our choir saying it a lot of the music we sing is men's quartets that we've whittled down to two parts and ladies trios that we've whittled down to two parts and Things that our choir did that we've whittled down to two parts.

We couldn't get them to travel with us or we would have taken them with us. But this is a song that reminds us never to get over the wonder that God would love sinners such as we are and we Have just sung this song for years.

So filled with wonder am I.

And to run in his strength and in his power when we get to heaven.

We'll wish we'd been more consistent more efficient more useful more filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And lady actually wrote the tune and the poem and Captured this thought and this truth. I wish I had given him more.

I trust it'll make us consider our ways as we're down here.

More often and be more careful and filled with the Spirit in our life. I wish I had given him more privilege of.

Taking the Word of God and giving it out to someone and if we pray God opens doors for us to speak for him and It is marvelous and we never know. When the meetings are short with other people sometimes we never know what the Word of God will do.

But we know it will not return void to our Lord. He promised it would not and I Remember one night in particular we were Going up around northern, Michigan and it was the middle of the night and I thought this is no time to do any talking at all and Yet the Lord was prompting me and there was a young man that was taking care of the gas station in the middle of the night.

In the middle of the night and I don't know how long it was but we took a long time there after we spoke to him for this great length of time. He said, you know You're talking just like my friend. He told me I had to be saved.

Someone else had already planted the seed and We were just doing a little bit of watering and I said I have to leave and I may never see you again. But you better go back and talk to your friend again.

God is trying to get a hold of you. I Said do you realize this is the middle of the night and we don't ever come this way at least not very often and I said I appreciate you listening to the Word of God.

But you still must call from the Lord and do this of your own free will. He had just gotten married and Been married a year or two and already had a child and I said boy you need the Lord more than ever if for nothing else just Just to hold your family together and to learn to be the husband you need to be and the dad.

You've never been either until just a little while ago. And I said most of all you you and your family need to be saved. But it's a blessed privilege to scatter the Word of God. You know, everyone doesn't listen and everyone does not receive it.

Some of it falls on on poor ground but Some of it falls on good ground. Let's sing the song scattering precious seed.

Scattering precious seed by the way Scattering precious seed by the hills Scattering precious seed for the fields wide scattering precious seed Oh Scattering precious seed Scattering precious seed trusting Precious seed by the way Doubting Scattering precious seed trusting Showing the word with prayer Trusting the Lord for growth and for.

Walking Daily With the Lord’s Guidance

After we're saved there was The smartest thing the wisest thing that we can do Is simply to walk? With our Lord day by day. The first thing the Apostle Paul said after he was saved Was Lord, but wilt thou have me to do and that's good for every day that we live.

We may assume sometime especially if we're in a good work, we may just assume that we're doing what the Lord wants, but we ought to ask and Then if the Lord has something that's a surprise for us or something different for us to do we Will still be ready to do that.

He did it to me and the songwriter said If that was a blessing thought he leadeth me old blessed thought words with heavenly comfort froth. And he ended the phone his faithful follower. I Would be for by his hand.

He leadeth me. And so we have that Blessed privilege if you're wondering which hand it is. He holds us by it's the right hand. But there's a verse in the Psalms that indicates that I'm looking for a different pick.

We'll do a harp and guitar duet here to chopsticks.

Well, someone wrote some Christian words to it and of course that's that little piece, you know on the piano starts out with it a dissonance that resolves and that's a nice thing to have happen, but but Someone did write some Christian words to it.

It seems like a children's song in many ways I'm sure it is and yet the message of this song is quite profound because it's an invitation for others to come to the Savior and That's always a good thing to do is invite others to come to the Lord.

God won't force anyone to be saved and we can't force anyone to be saved but we can persuade men. Can't we and I'm glad we have the Word of God to help us with that and to use actually to Put them in a place where they'll be under conviction now just because.

So we have to have some kind of a keyboard so my wife has two keyboards here. That looks a little bit like a piano that's been shrunk and the bells aren't much different here, but we'll use those and we'll say chopsticks for Christ.

We We play. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul and we're going to play it again and try to use some of these other.

Instruments. Some tears.

Not expecting anything except just remorse for being a sinner and Here the Lord along with free salvation Gave me joy and the happiness way beyond what I was looking for and once I became disentangled from the music of this world I Joyfully praised the Lord matter of fact, I joyfully praised him before that but once I got free of pop music I was able to live for the Lord with much greater victory and Have effectiveness in witnessing Genuine burden for souls a Greater understanding in the Word of God.

It's almost like all of a sudden. I woke up I was saved for two years and didn't really see much of anything. I think we're getting a little bit of a ring there that will I Think you can get rid of that.

Biblical Definitions of Music and the Authority of Scripture

I'm going to try to stay relatively Short you can see I'm five foot six. Try to stay a little short tonight. But I didn't want to give you some Bible definitions the definitions of these things Just in and of themselves are marvelous.

Man has got everything Backwards. Everything turned upside down everything twisted around. None of it is right. God's ways is certainly not man's ways and When it comes to music, this is no exception.

Of course. Remember when the disciples We began to witness in the New Testament times and they accused them of turning the world upside down. They were just turning it back the way it was supposed to be.

That's what we're trying to do with music. We want it back the way God intends it to be. What did someone say? They turned the world upside, right? If you've ever heard that phrase before that was kind of a new one for me one day upside, right?

But anyway we want to go to Psalm 143 as I said and then we'll go to the New Testament and I love the Word of God because it Gives to us the answers that we need and it should not it should not be a surprise to any Christian that our final authority our final answer for everything is in the Bible and An application of course a scriptural application of it.

Do you know that escapes a lot of people today? I would hope not at this church I don't think so. You've probably been taught better, but we can rest our cause we can rest our soul our life everything on This Bible we can trust it.

It has the answers for everything. It is God's Word and so let's go to Psalm 143 let's stand together and we're going to read one verse and this is the verse with three parts and David defines music in these three parts in one verse Psalm 143 and verse 5.

So let's read it Psalm 143 in verse 5 out loud together. I Remember the days of old. I Meditate on all thy works. I muse on the work of thy hands. There's our word music as short as we can get it in English M U S E muse let's pray dear father make this message a blessing and help it not to be long.

We have a Wonderful day ahead of us tomorrow but Lord may it be filled with information that will answer some questions for people here and Be a blessing. May Saints go home encouraged tonight and Lord we are just to hear thy praises sung when I can read my title clear from the brass and so many other songs tonight just a blessing to our hearts and To see young people to praising thee willing to praise thee wanting to praise thee and doing so well.

And it dear Lord help us to be found when you come with faith on the earth and a heart full of joy. Singing thy praises Lord Thou has lightened our footsteps and given us what others are looking for and trying to have and though life can be rough Lord with thee it is a What did thou say?

My burden is light and oh Lord it is Thank you for taking away The things that would weigh us down we cannot bear them ourselves and most of all our sins dear Lord Honor thy name and thyself and help me preach it with Holy Spirit power.

Bless now in Jesus precious name. We ask it. Amen. Be seated then and we'll look at these three parts. This is a Bible definition of music the Word of God defining it for us. And as I said, there's our word muse in the third phrase.

But let's take a look and see what music is all about according to this verse and Then we're gonna run to the New Testament and break music up into its three parts and hope give you some help with that, too.

Here we find it says first of all, I remember the days of old good music. Really all music but good music is meant to stir our memory, I Would have to admit it's kind of hard to stir Our memory of things that haven't taken place yet.

That no, that's real deep. Think about it for a while, but all music is really a look back at something that already took place before and It's so impressed the poet and the musician that they wrote the experience.

So they wrote the wisdom that they got or the information the help from God, whatever it was. They wrote it into a song. They may have worked together or they may have worked separately or one person as in that last.

Or one of the songs we sang may have I wish I'd given them more written all by the same person memory. David says I remember the days of old. That's not just a good old days guys are always you know. You get to be 40 years old and you talk about the past because you probably got more past than you got future left.

Unless you're a Christian, I guess then we have lots of time in heaven, but you got more memories than you can remember as you get older and Life on this earth as we know it gets shorter at the forward end.

We call a practice with the choir a Rehearsal. Rehearsal we rehear it and see it. Whatever happened to this Christian who went before they left a little message for us in that song and when we sing the song we are reminded of what God did for them and we know that God is no Respecter of persons if he answered their prayer if he protected them if he provided for them He can take care of us in the same way if he blessed them he can bless us and we gain strength from looking back at what God did for someone else and Singing it and we get this little picture.

Music paints pictures, you know and in the case of God's music it paints a picture of something he's promised to do and Did for someone and they said he did and they wrote it down. So that we could see it again so that we could hear it again.

So that it would not be forgotten and that's a blessed event. Now he's not just talking about the days of old. He's talking about the things God has done, but we won't know that for sure till we get to the second phrase.

But a song stir our memory, you know, even when it comes to worldly music. There's a lot of songs that people like because it stirs up a good memory in them. Now there's plenty of them that can stir up bad memories.

But there are songs that are coupled with family or home. Or even with your wife or your spouse couples always used to say that's our song and they called that their love song forever, you know, just Thrilled with that song might not have been much at all.

But they picked one out and The remembrances were sweet, you know when it comes to God The remembrances are good and they are sweet and that's what Christians have written down for us with the world's music.

You're not really sure boy a song will come up and you go. Oh boy that reminds me of. You know fill in the blank, but might not be a good memory with God's Music, it's always going to be a good memory.

That's stirred up. I Remember the days of old the second part of our definition is I meditate on all thy works. Now we know it's not just the good old days, but it's the things that God has done in history.

By the way, I did not I well, let's be honest. I hated history when I was a boy. It seemed like well, that's all done and gone. I got my life to live now, but you know what? What's gone on before? Has a whole lot to do with what's going on right now.

And where it came from and where it's going to still has a lot to do with now. But once I got saved and I saw that God indeed has worked down through the ages in Nations in people's lives. I said how many of my ancestors trusted Christ?

I'm gonna know who else got saved. I was up a little bit north of here and a preacher said to me that it was Reuben Archer Torrey the evangelist went to the little town of Lawsville, Pennsylvania. And he won 85 of that town to the Lord.

Well, I know the people in that town. That's where we came from. There's only a hundred people there if Reuben Torrey won 85 of me won some of my cousins. This is a long time ago now, you know, but That's exciting.

All of a sudden history is exciting. God has worked down through the ages. I don't have it with me, but I wrote a poem called God in the affairs of men and What God has done down down through the centuries?

He's affected people. You've probably heard the stories many of. Of the men who discovered things and invented things had the help of God. Thomas Edison's mother sent him to the Baptist Church when he was a boy in Ohio.

I don't know Thomas Edison's testimony. But I know where he got the wisdom to think some of his things through and I know what his mother was trying to do for him. Exciting exciting things. Colleges that are gone way liberal were started once upon a time to train young men for the ministry.

Even Yale. That's my family's school. God has worked down through history. It's marvelous and all of a sudden history comes alive. Wars even he may be judging a nation or several nations. But it's marvelous.

God has done something and that's what we need to find. He says I meditate on all my works. What is God. And David says I'm thinking about it. I'm meditating. You know what meditation is real real we were talking about Eastern meditation how they just empty out their head and the next thing that flies by they accept and Think they've had an inspiration real Bible meditation is Half like what the Easterners call meditation they empty themselves of everything and they stay empty.

A Smart Christian says I need to empty my brain of my thoughts but then We fill them with God's thoughts. We get rid of our opinions and we get the law of God God's opinion if we can call it that. We compare scripture with scripture and we have wisdom instead of just our own ideas about something that's Meditation then we apply it to our life.

How does this fit in my life? What does it mean for me? What does it have to do with the choices that I make of the places I go or what I say or what? I'm thinking and we put it in our life and it's real and it's a living.

That's meditation. That's real Bible meditation. And I guess the best description of musical meditation is the handles Messiah Handle took 75 verses. I think his friend gave him to him to try and win him to the Savior.

He gave him the verse and said here do something with these. Well George set with his music manuscript and I don't know if he had a keyboard or not. But he shut himself in his room for 24 days and he looked at those 75 verses out of the Bible and he turned him this Way and that way and this way and that way and then he wrote a slow song and then he wrote a fast song.

Then the choir sang then the bass soloist sang and then the trumpet played a solo and then the alto had a little recitative and then the choir came in again and then the orchestra played something slow and somber and serious and then there was something light and Fast and and lively and happy and boy.

He just did everything he could to look at those 75 verses now. It doesn't take four hours to read him. He turned that into three and a half to four hours of music. They've never done all of the Messiah in one sitting.

I don't think not in the recording studio. They do a little bit each day, you know. That's meditation. Handle said what does it mean? What should I say about it? Is this a frightening passage a happy passage?

Is this a serious passage? Should I be picture joy or what should it be? He spent 24 days alone with those verses and God when he was done, I Wish it had been a clearer testimony, but he said I did see the great God.

I Think he saw him in the scriptures. I Think the Lord found him as he read over those verses his friend gave him he discovered that he needed the Lord. I wish we had a better testimony than that, but I know this he was meditating.

You can't spend that he scarcely slept and ate and would not see anybody. He was totally taken up in those Bible verses and I don't think that God has to change a note of that Music when we get to heaven, we'll all be able to sing all those things, you know that nobody can on earth.

Meditation. Bible meditation thinking about everything that God has done our thoughts Are supposed to be stayed on Christ. When things in life interfere, that's not part of God's plan. You can mark it down.

It's really part of the devil's plan if you're distracted from thinking about the God who made you and bought you with his blood. That's too much distraction and we work as Christians, don't we? I hope we do to clear those extra things out of our life.

God may have a fuller a larger Room in our heart in our thoughts when the Lord write a book of remembrance. There's a book of remembrance in heaven for those that thought upon his name. Just thinking on the name Jesus.

That's what a lot of our music is Jesus, oh how sweet the name Jesus every day the same Jesus let all saints proclaim that worthy name of Jesus. That songwriter just thinking about the name Jesus. There's no other name like it.

He's our Savior. Remembering the days of old. Meditating on God's works and then he says muse and by the way. The root for music is muse and it means to think if you go To the fair or the circus or whatever you call it.

But when it comes to town and you get on those rides into the Ferris wheel and the bullet and the scrambler and all the rest of those things that roller coaster rides. And I'll tell you for me at six flags over nausea I after you're 40, you can watch those things from the ground.

They don't you don't need to get on. You don't know where gravity is. It's just a crazy. It's crazy thing to do but kids, you know. They do that and they scream their heads off and they ride till they get sick and then they ride some more and they don't Care, they just get sick and keep going.

That is what we call Amusement. No thinking you just get on the ride and you go whoo. You know and if you let go it's supposed to be more exciting. I'll tell you what if I thought that that made it any more possible to fall out that would not be exciting.

Hanging on or letting go that would I'm assuming those things are gonna hold me in there. I'm not going To begin with but we don't think on the ride. We don't get on the roller coaster and go. I am going to contemplate the theory of relativity on this ride.

I don't think so. You might think about gravity, but you probably don't think about anything except how you feel it's just a physical thrill that is our amusement is not thinking and What how much of amusement we want in our life is as a real big question that we can put on that but music means to think and From what David said it means to think about what God has done before.

Everything that he's done and To think on it turn it every which way. Comparing one scripture with another scripture and to be thinking about everything that God has done from creation to Calvary and That's what music is for.

Do you know how many musicians in this world are playing music and you ask him what for nickel? I want to make people happy and Do they? No, I Played in for the crowds that wanted to be happy and I never made anybody happy.

Some of them were so drunk that they didn't know what happy was. They didn't know what we were playing either. They weren't listening when I played that pop music. I was just ambience for their night of evil.

They didn't care if I played it well or not. They didn't care if I could sing it right or not. They didn't care if I got the right chords, they didn't care what the song was about just so long as they could dance.

They didn't care what I was all about and Here I was trying to make people happy and didn't even make me happy. That's not the purpose of music. I got a neighbor. Well, he moved away now. His name is Jim and he just kept asking me and asking me and asking me and asking me.

Doesn't God want me to be happy and I hemmed and hawed for a long time and finally I said no Jim. God wants you to be obedient and then you will be happy. But he wants you to obey him first. Classic case of a man that says I've trusted Christ, but I've not given him my life for service.

What a waste what a sad thing. But he can't be happy because he won't serve. I said Jim when you've got to give your life over to the Lord. You won't be happy otherwise. But the business of being happy musicians think they're playing to make people happy and there might be a moment of entertainment.

Involved but oh what a much higher calling to take music and minister to the needs of men. People have hurting hearts. People have great needs in their life. People need to know more of God. It isn't anything else.

We need to find out in this world. We need to know the Lord better. We need to get his wisdom. We need to get a hold of of him and have his love in our hearts. We need to have his comfort. We need to have his strength and people are all the time are looking for the help that they can get from God and we Can do that ministering in music?

People get just a glimpse of a God who cares for them. God who wants to straighten their life out and bless them. God who can take care of all of our problems and so real music. When the song starts whether there's any lyrics or not.

Turns everybody's heart and soul and spirit to the God of our comfort to the God who is our helper a Very present help in time of trouble to the only place they can get an answer. From the God of the Bible from the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's no greater calling for music. I know this you can read stories of so-and-so, you know there's some famous singer somewhere and I well I started in church when I was a little boy and Then I went to the big time.

Can I say something and I don't mean it in a wrong way. But singing in the church with the Lord is your audience even if it's for a handful of people that is the big time. Singing for the Lord singing as before the Lord.

Singing unto the Lord. There's no higher calling. I sang for the drunks for eight years. There was no pleasure in that. I sang for the crowd that didn't care about music and they didn't care what the subject my music.

What I'd much rather sing for the Lord. He cares about what I'm singing and if there's five Christians there or ten Christians there or twenty Christians there. They care what's being sung. Even if it's just because they care about the Savior and they don't really care about me or my instruments or anything else.

I know There's no higher calling and singing for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It's not so easy to learn to make him your audience because we can't see him. Whom having not seen yet you love with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

But if you learn that You will never and you know what the word is when you sell out for money. When you head for the world whether it's in music or any other talent that you have when you give it to the world.

Instead of to the Lord that's called Prostituting your gift. That's pretty low Terminology, isn't it? I'd rather sing unto the Lord and be poor and get rich using music For the world. I'm gonna be in heaven and praising the Lord forevermore.

Melody Praises God Through Musical Thought

Now is a good time for me to get started so music means to remember Everything God has done and encourage other people with it. It means to think about it what God has done and what it means in my life.

What should I be doing? Because I know this about God or that about God and then to be thinking. Music isn't you know that headbanger stuff that people isn't. That's so they can shut off their thoughts because they have painful thoughts and they don't know what to do with them.

And they just zap themselves out of reality. It's a drug music is a drug when it's like that. They're just disappear into into a vortex of sound. God means for us to think about him when the music starts and If by the way, the music keeps you from thinking about the Lord or won't help you think about the Lord that might be good music to turn off and just leave it alone and There's plenty of that that we don't need but let's go to the New Testament.

I said a definition of the parts of music and this is so important to do you realize I don't need Harmony and I don't need rhythm. Those are just a little bit of extra things that God gave us. But I do need melody and we'll see why in just a moment.

Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5 and here we find melody. It's the same word that we use for the word Psalms in Ephesians chapter 5. Verse 18, of course gives us that admonition to be filled with the Spirit not be not drunk with wine.

We're in his excess but be filled with the Spirit. That's a speaking to yourselves. Music is for us and in some ways me you might say music is a selfish thing for everyone. It does something to us it talks to us by the way.

Don't ever forget that if you let him be a piece of music in your life. You let it in your ears. You let it in your heart if I let it in my life. It might just decide to take up residence and stay there for 40 years music talks to us.

It's going to say something to you and not just today go. Well, I listen to it today, but I don't want it tomorrow. Or maybe you might say well, it was worldly music today. And yeah, it wasn't very good.

But you know, I'll forget it. Oh boy, it'll pop up 10 years later. When you don't want it. When I don't want it. Music talks. What is the music you're storing away saying to you? You got to live with it.

I'm in some ways like the Apostle Paul what I did most of the years in the rock band. I did ignorantly. Had I known what I know today. I never would have been there. I can remember songs. From 40 years ago.

I can remember songs before I was in the band from 50 years ago. Things mother played on the radio. Things my parents sang to me. But this verse says speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs not carnal songs, by the way.

Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. There's another thing that's wrong with rap by the way. You can see the way music is going. The first thing that we're supposed to have in our heart to the Lord when it comes to anything musical is a melody.

None of this droning, you know tease in the middle of the pickle on top or whatever the rappers are saying. They're complaining in the streets is what they are and in that same Chapter that says happy is that people whose God is the Lord is the verse that says when there is no Complaining in the streets.

That's what the hippies did. That's what the beatniks before them did. That's what the rappers are doing now and they're cussing while they do it. They're mad, but they don't have a solution. They're just angry.

The hippies were mad, but they didn't have a solution. We had a solution. It was peace, man. They never had it. They never got it. It was a satanic imitation. They were calling peace. Making melody in your heart to the Lord.

You're supposed to have a tune. When you when we're happy God made us so that a melody strikes up even if we're not a singer. I know people that can't sing that write songs. It's horrible trying to figure out what notes they mean when they sing them to you and it's all kind of droning, you know.

But but you can hear it. You can hear something is giving them joy and they got a smile on their face and they sing this and that with the poor voice. That they have but you go. Whoa, there's something there.

It's a melody. Melody is the most important part of music with it you and I commune with God. Because I do pray it I think of this song almost always first. Jesus keep me near the cross. They're a precious fountain.

Why. Because I'm no good when I get far away from the Lord Jesus. But oh and the Lord keeps me close to him life is wonderful and I can be a blessing to someone. I need my life to count for God. I Need my life to count in helping somebody else.

Or my life has no meaning so we Sing that song. It doesn't have to be fast or slow or any particular rhythm. I can sing Jesus keep me near the cross or Jesus keep me near the cross or Jesus Keep me near the cross.

The rhythm doesn't matter at all. I don't need rhythm. I Just need a melody and I can pray to the Lord. All I need is a tune and I can sing my prayer unto the Lord. That's what David did. That's what his Psalms are and this the word for Psalms and the word for melody are the same word and in the concordance it tells us that that word means to to celebrate the divine worship with instruments and accompanying odes a Melody is to have instruments with it.

Yes in New Testament times to Just like the Psalms did in the old Old Testament. There are some people that teach that the instruments are wrong and they are very wrong. I'm sorry that they think it we in short worship God.

We praise God, maybe that's a better word and they don't mean the same thing praise and worship for two different things but music melody Means to praise God, so I don't need to have any particular accompaniment here.

We'll we'll put a little harmony to the our melody. It's not the same note, but it matches it it blends. So if I sing Jesus Keep me near the cross there are precious Fountain free to all. Healing stream flows from Calvary's mountain.