The Controversies of Music in Lord's Day Worship

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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November 12, 2014

00:00: Well, tonight we are continuing our study entitled Decently and in Order, Understanding Proper Lord's Day Worship, and we have come to what can only be described as the most controversial subject in the church today.
00:28: I was writing a reminder for people on our Facebook page just to kind of encourage people to come today, and what I put on the page was, come and study the subject which has divided more churches in the last 20 years than any other subject that I know of.
00:47: More than any doctrine, more than any statement of faith or theology or social platform or political view, this subject has caused more division, it's caused more church splits, it's caused more people to leave churches and go to other churches.
01:03: It is the controversy of the day, and if you don't believe that it is, I can tell you from experience that it is.
01:13: And the subject is music.
01:17: Music is so, so controversial.
01:20: In fact, in your introduction on your notes, I wrote this, music is the leading cause of congregational infighting and has caused no small amount of division within the church.
01:40: Growing up, I saw two types of music in the church.
01:45: As many of you know, growing up, I kind of went back and forth.
01:51: I was at Forrest when it was a very high church service.
01:57: And by high church, I mean it was a full choir with robes and an organ, and the choir practiced.
02:08: Pat, you remember that? There was choir practice during the week, and when you came in on Sunday morning, the organist was playing a prelude.
02:16: And when she got to the got to the time for service, she would count off the bells to let you know that it was time and she would play the bells.
02:25: And that was letting you know to count down to the time of worship service, like almost like church bells ringing.
02:30: But they did it with the organ.
02:32: And if you remember that, she would just play ding, ding.
02:35: And it was so, and the pastor would come up and he'd wear a robe and he would stand and he would read.
02:40: And it was very high church.
02:42: And then on some weekends I would go to my mother's church in Stark.
02:52: Now, my mother's church was Congregational Methodist or sometimes called Holiness Church.
02:58: And the Holiness Church was open to just about any type of instrumental music as far as guitars, banjos, tambourines, harmonicas, drums.
03:14: If you could roll it in and plug it up, you could play it.
03:19: And so I really did.
03:23: I got an opportunity to see two extremes, the extreme high church and the extreme what we might call, I would say, I would say, choir style and country style.
03:36: I mean, it's the only real maybe maybe even countries a little maybe more bluegrass is what you could identify it because it had so many different types of country style musical instruments.
03:49: And as I said, throughout my life, which is not super long yet, 34 years old, throughout my life, I have seen a radical evolution.
04:02: In many places, hymns are no more.
04:07: They have either been replaced or restructured to fit the contemporary style.
04:13: We've gone from following along in a book to following along on a screen.
04:18: None of that is necessarily good or bad.
04:20: It just is.
04:22: That is the evolution which has occurred in my short lifetime.
04:27: I remember when I was a kid, nobody ever saw those screens.
04:30: You don't know what that was.
04:33: But sometime from the time I was a child to the time I was an adult, that became the norm.
04:38: And the transition occurred relatively quickly.
04:44: Tonight, we're going to look at the subject of music, we're going to look at this very divisive subject, and we're going to seek to answer a few foundational questions.
04:54: I'm going to go ahead and tell you in the preparation of this lesson.
04:59: I have been somewhat conflicted myself because I don't have all the answers.
05:05: I never have all the answers ever.
05:07: But on this subject, it is so divisive.
05:10: It is so widespread.
05:11: There is so much that has to be taken into account that it's really hard.
05:18: So all this to simply say, as we're going along, I wrote questions to seek to give us the answers as best I could.
05:28: That was the whole way that I wrote the lesson out.
05:31: So I put on your sheet tonight four questions.
05:33: Number one, does the Bible teach that we should sing as part of Lord's Day worship? Number two, does the Bible teach that we should use instruments as part of Lord's Day worship? Number three, why is congregational singing an important part of Lord's Day worship? And number four, what would make a song appropriate or inappropriate for Lord's Day worship? So those are the four questions I think that we should try to ask and answer, because when we're talking about Lord's Day worship and we're talking about what I would identify as the most divisive part of Lord's Day worship, I think we ought to be honest about what the questions are and seek to answer them.
06:15: So let's begin with the first question.
06:18: Does the Bible teach that we should sing as part of Lord's Day worship? The answer, of course, is yes.
06:28: Let's look at a few of the examples that we have.
06:31: Letter A, we have examples in the Old Testament, right? What is the first example that you all can think of from the Old Testament about singing? OK, David, that was OK, but the Psalms, who said the Psalms, Psalms, right? The Psalms are one hundred and fifty specific songs.
07:00: There are one hundred and fifty outlined songs to God.
07:06: So the psalm, the psalms that we hold in our Bible are the songbook of Israel.
07:13: It's the only inspired or we might say God breathed songbook in history.
07:21: You know, there's a lot of good hymns out there.
07:23: There's a lot of good hymns that have been written by a lot of good people, but none of them outside of the Psalms are God breathed.
07:30: So we have starting in the Old Testament, the God breathed hymnal of Israel.
07:38: And what was it for? It was meant to be sung.
07:43: If you read through the Psalms, you'll see where it says this was meant to be sung with this instrument.
07:47: This was meant to be sung this way.
07:49: This was meant to be done this way.
07:50: It actually has identification on how it was meant to be done.
07:55: Now, the next one, if you want to look at a text of the Bible, Second Samuel, Chapter six and verse 14.
08:02: Second Samuel six and verse 14, you mentioned David, Mr.
08:06: Irv.
08:07: Well, this is a reference to David, if you guys want to turn there.
08:13: I like this story, 614.
08:19: I like this story because David is dancing before the Ark of God or singing and dancing, it says in verse 14.
08:26: And David danced before the Lord with all his might.
08:29: And David was wearing a linen ephod.
08:32: So we see here David dancing before the Lord with all of his might as there was singing going on.
08:40: And if you read through the story, you'll find that Michal, his wife, was very displeased with his dancing.
08:47: She found it very inappropriate.
08:51: And she said, all the handmaidens are watching you.
08:56: And so she was either jealous or ashamed or maybe a little bit of both, probably a little bit of both.
09:02: But she found it to be quite displeasing.
09:05: And he told her that he's going to do what God calls him to do.
09:09: And he's going to worship before the Lord.
09:12: And he wasn't going to let her stop him.
09:17: Yeah.
09:25: Oh, yeah.
09:26: She despised him in her heart.
09:27: What she was doing.
09:30: You can see it starting in verse 20.
09:32: And David returned to bless his household.
09:34: But Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said how the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of the servants, female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows, shamelessly uncovers himself.
09:50: And David said to Michal, it was before the Lord who chose me above your father and above all this household to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord.
10:00: And I will celebrate before the Lord.
10:02: I will make myself yet more contemptible than this.
10:06: And I will be abased in your eyes.
10:08: I was like, I'll make myself more contemptible than this.
10:11: If this is what God wants, you think this is bad.
10:14: You ain't seen nothing yet.
10:15: If you're offended by what I'm doing, I'll make myself.
10:18: Why, if God called me to it, I'll do it whether you like it or not.
10:24: And I just always thought it was an interesting little little moment in the life of David, whereas he is worshiping and song and dance before the Lord and his wife calls him out and he says, no, no, I'll do it and I'll do it even worse if necessary.
10:39: Oh, nay, nay.
10:39: Yes.
10:43: Really? Who was it? David Crowder.
10:47: Yeah.
10:48: That's good.
10:50: So we have in the Old Testament, we see David writing many of the psalms.
10:55: We see David himself dancing before the Lord, obviously to music, obviously to singing.
11:00: We see this in the Old Testament.
11:02: We see singing in the Old Testament.
11:03: We also see singing in the New Testament.
11:06: If you just want to make a mark, Matthew twenty six thirty.
11:12: Matthew twenty six thirty says that Jesus sang a hymn with his disciples.
11:17: It was after they had had the last supper.
11:21: It says he sang a hymn.
11:23: That's interesting, isn't it? That the Lord of Glory, Jesus Christ, sang a hymn.
11:28: And of course, at 16 and 25, most of you are familiar with that story at 16 and 25.
11:36: Paul and Silas are in the jail.
11:38: And what are they doing? They are singing a hymn.
11:42: The text tells us they are singing a hymn.
11:45: It means simply a praise to God.
11:47: The word hymn simply means a song of praise to God.
11:51: So they're singing a song of praise to God.
11:52: There's this earthquake.
11:53: The shackles fall off.
11:54: The jailer runs in and going to kill himself.
11:57: And they said, don't kill yourself.
11:58: And you know what? What shall I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
12:02: You and your household, you know the story, you know what happened.
12:05: But it was in the midst of the singing of a hymn that all of this takes place.
12:12: So we see that now there is also direct admonition in the New Testament regarding singing.
12:20: And these are the passages I actually want to look at.
12:22: So the two passages we're going to look at is Colossians 3, 16 and Ephesians 5, 19.
12:37: And you can actually add to that James chapter five and verse 13.
12:45: We'll start there.
12:46: I'll just read that one to you very quickly.
12:48: James 5, 13.
12:49: Is any among you suffering? Let him pray.
12:52: Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
12:56: That's the admonition of James is to sing.
12:59: If we're if we're if we're cheerful, then what's the natural thing that we do? We sing praise.
13:06: That's that's part of it.
13:09: But Colossians 3, 16 and Ephesians 5, 19, the Apostle Paul says two very similar things.
13:15: Let's go to those passages together.
13:16: And the first one is Colossians.
13:18: We'll go there.
13:27: Colossians chapter three and verse 16.
13:39: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
13:56: Now, keep that in mind.
13:57: And we'll go back to Ephesians 5 and 19, Ephesians 5 and 19.
14:07: We see.
14:09: Actually starts the sentence begins in verse 18 and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.
14:27: So we see in the Old Testament there is singing.
14:31: We see in the New Testament, Jesus sings, Paul and Silas sings.
14:36: And then in James and in Paul, we have the admonition to sing.
14:41: So is there any doubt in anyone's mind that according to the regulative principle that we are only to do that, which in worship, which is commanded in Scripture? Is there any doubt that we are to sing as part of corporate worship? It's a psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
15:03: Now, I want to add a caveat.
15:08: Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs is a very it's not an easy to interpret trifle mention there.
15:20: In fact, when we were at when we went to the conference, Pat and Sue and I went to the worship conference, I stood up and asked that question because throughout the whole conference, they had sort of sort of downplayed most contemporary music.
15:37: And while I think a lot of the new stuff is not good, I don't think all of it is bad.
15:43: And we obviously we do a lot of it in our worship.
15:46: So I wanted to know what their definition of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs were.
15:52: And essentially the definition, which, if you guys remember, was that spiritual songs was not the newer songs couldn't be spiritual songs.
16:02: I sort of disagreed.
16:04: Of course, I was going to make an issue at the at the conference.
16:06: And we don't we don't have to agree on everything.
16:07: But I do think that the reason for the trifle mentioned by Paul, and it's twice, is because of the identification of the fact that there are different kinds of music.
16:20: A song is a song written for us.
16:24: We have 150 of them.
16:26: And a hymn is a song of praise and a spiritual song is a song of the spirit.
16:34: It's a song from the spirit.
16:36: It's a spiritual song.
16:37: A song from the spirit.
16:38: Yes.
16:39: Or did you? Well, that's that's what we're going to get to in a minute.
17:04: What constitutes proper singing? What constitutes a proper song? Because while I do believe that there are a lot of songs that fit the category of a spiritual song or hymn.
17:17: I do not believe that a lot of songs, even older songs, qualify.
17:27: And that's where this is going to get controversial tonight.
17:29: And I wore my running shoes in case you guys start throwing stuff, because I will tell you this.
17:37: There's a lot of bad songs that are being written now, but there were bad songs that were written 100 years ago.
17:42: There were bad songs that were written 50 years ago.
17:45: There was bad songs written by people that you probably respect and like.
17:48: And that's OK.
17:51: But the key to all this is understanding what we're going to get to in a minute.
17:56: And that is content is what matters.
17:59: What does the song say? So anyway, I just want to make the point in our first question, does the Bible teach that we should sing as part of worship? The overarching answer is yes.
18:11: There is no doubt that the Bible teaches that we ought to sing as part of corporate worship.
18:16: Yes, ma'am.
18:25: There's multiple doxologies in scripture, you know, doxa, worship and logos word.
18:33: So it's a word of word of worship.
18:35: Or you see them, you see people breaking out in words of praise or words of worship throughout the one that we typically sing.
18:42: Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
18:44: You know that that one is is I don't I actually don't know the answer to where that came from.
18:50: But it's pretty much has been established among a lot of churches as being, quote unquote, the doxology.
18:55: That's the title of it.
18:56: But it's not necessarily that it's a it's clearly biblical, but not a biblical hymn in the sense of having come directly out of scripture.
19:07: Yes.
19:07: Why are we not saying that anymore? I I actually made a little bit of a change in our liturgy because we were doing it every week as part of the ending of communion.
19:19: But now you'll notice we don't take the the the offerings back up.
19:23: We pray before the offerings come out.
19:25: It gives me another extra moment to get myself ready to preach because the way it was was that we'd sing that song and then I'd preach.
19:32: I didn't have any time to get up onto the chancel, take a breath after communion.
19:37: I asked for a break and we took it out as that.
19:40: And we've added a different song in at that point now.
19:42: So we we move it.
19:43: We move.
19:44: We have different songs each week at that point in the service rather than that one specific song that was done in that way.
19:51: There was a change in the liturgy that I I did that actually says, in general, yeah, yeah.
20:26: Well, again, again, that's what a hymn is, by definition, a hymn is a song of praise.
20:34: So that when it's calling us to that, it's calling us to sing hymns in the church, if you will.
20:40: All right, moving to the second question, does the Bible teach that we should use instruments as part of Lord's Day worship? Well, this is where we get a little bit more difficult because this is actually a very big question.
20:59: Some have argued that the use of instruments and the New Testament church violate the regulative principle because they are not mentioned in the New Testament.
21:12: These would include the historic Church of Christ.
21:15: If you've ever been in the Church of Christ, you will see they don't sing with any musical accompaniment at all.
21:22: And if you go into some reformed churches, they do not use any musical instrumentation at all.
21:28: And the great Charles Haddon Spurgeon, whom I love, also believed that instruments were a hindrance to worship.
21:40: He said, and I quote, I would assume pray to God with machinery as to sing to God with machinery, end quote.
21:48: So it has been an interesting thing throughout the history of the church to see the division on whether or not we should have instruments in the church.
21:58: Yes, I would assume pray to God with machinery as sing to God with machinery, end quote.
22:09: He's saying, I don't believe in instruments in the church because I think the voice is the instrument.
22:14: That was Spurgeon's argument.
22:24: No, he's saying I would just as soon pray with a machine as I would sing with a machine.
22:30: So he's saying I would just as soon do this as I would do that.
22:32: And I wouldn't do that.
22:33: So I wouldn't do this was the was the outlining of the quote.
22:39: So this, as I said, the subject's a little bit more divisive and we're going to get divisive.
22:45: We'll get we'll get there.
22:46: But this just starting, does the Bible teach that we should use instruments as part of the Lord's Day worship? Well, the Bible does address positively the use of musical instruments in the Old Testament.
22:59: You can make any number of quotes from the Psalms, Psalm 33 to Psalm 71, 22, Psalm 81, 1 through 3, Psalm 150.
23:08: Praise the Lord with with all these different instruments.
23:11: You know, you know, Psalm 150.
23:13: Let's read it real quick.
23:14: Just hear all of the instruments which are referenced just in that one Psalm alone.
23:22: Psalm 150 closes the song book of Israel with a call to praise.
23:29: And it says, praise the Lord.
23:31: Praise God in his sanctuary.
23:33: Praise him in his mighty heavens.
23:35: Praise him for his mighty deeds.
23:37: Praise him according to his excellent greatness.
23:39: Praise him with trumpet sound.
23:41: So there's a trumpet.
23:43: Praise him with the lute and harp, two different instruments.
23:46: Praise him with a tambourine and dance and with strings and pipe.
23:54: Praise him with symbols and loud clashing symbols.
23:59: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
24:04: So the Old Testament is without doubt that not only were musical instruments employed in the worship of God, but they were commanded.
24:16: Praise him with this.
24:18: Praise him with that and praise him with all of it.
24:22: Let everything praise the Lord.
24:26: So we know that Old Testament, no doubt.
24:31: Now, as you see in your notes, letter B, there are no mention of musical instruments in the New Testament.
24:42: And because of that, some people argue for their exclusion.
24:48: That because they're not mentioned in the New Testament, we can't have them.
24:52: And that was the argument of the the the Campbellites, the Stoneites, the ones who were foundational in the Restoration Movement, which became the Church of Christ.
25:03: In fact, there's a book, Campbellites, Cowbells, Rosary Beads and Snake Handling.
25:09: That's a book that's on my shelf.
25:11: I was I have I can remember that title because it's very creative title.
25:15: And the book is about the fact that I believe it was Alexander Campbell who said that if you allow instruments into the church, then soon what you'll have is rosary beads and cowbells and snake handling, because that's what's going to come.
25:29: If you allow any instruments in the church, those things will naturally follow.
25:33: Well, yeah, it's just all it's just all going to flow and it's all it's all it's just going to be and we call that the slippery slope argument.
25:43: And if you allow this one thing, it's going to create a snowball effect and it's just going to be it's just going to be wanton.
25:51: Everything's going to be all crazy and willy nilly.
25:53: And then it'll be Nathan's fault, Nathan's fault.
25:59: Yeah.
26:00: So here is the issue.
26:06: Before we even get to letter C, let me at least point this out.
26:12: And I think it's worthy of our attention.
26:14: The Old Testament clearly says that the worship of Israel was done with instruments.
26:22: The New Testament doesn't have any reference to instruments.
26:28: However, there is also and there must be it must be agreed on that there's because there's no reference to instruments at all.
26:37: There is no prohibition either.
26:40: There's neither a for or against.
26:47: And because we have the established worship principle in the Old Testament, which not only allows instruments, but commands instruments.
26:57: And then in the New Testament, there is no prohibition or change because you think about the dietary restrictions of Israel.
27:03: Acts chapter 10 totally changes that.
27:06: It says you didn't eat this before, but I made all things clean.
27:09: You know, there's this change.
27:10: It was so obvious that the Apostle Peter had to see it with his own eyes to even believe that such a change would occur.
27:18: You understand? So when we talk about the fact, we're talking about the regulative principle.
27:27: I do think that the whole of Scripture comes into play.
27:32: I do not believe that we can simply say the absence in the New Testament creates a prohibition, especially when the Old Testament is so clearly for the use of instruments as as as not objects of worship.
27:49: But let me clear that up as instruments of worship.
27:54: But let me just show you one passage very quick, quickly.
27:57: We're in Ephesians five.
27:59: I think some of you turn there.
28:00: But if you haven't turned back quickly, I just want to show you one phrase in Ephesians 5.
28:07: Nineteen.
28:09: When it says that we are to address one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and doing what? Making melody to the Lord, that we're making melody in the Greek language is it does mean to strum an instrument or to take winner.
28:30: You look like you want to be followed by with your heart.
28:34: Yes, well, in the ESV, it says making melody to the Lord with your heart.
28:44: So are you sure? Sure.
28:51: But my point is we see here if there is a reference to instruments at all, this would be the only one.
28:57: If there is a reference to instruments at all, this would be it.
29:00: The Greek word here does indicate at least in its in its base, the the strumming of an instrument or the the the playing of an instrument.
29:12: The point of the matter, though, again, the argument I think that is to be made for the use of instruments should not come from Ephesians five, because at best that particular passage is somewhat an argumentative passage.
29:25: We can't prove anything from that passage other than to say that it does have a reference here which could relate to the playing of an instrument.
29:32: But the Old Testament clearly, without doubt, offers up a true sense in which the playing of an instrument is key.
29:41: And Jameson Fawcett Brown does reference in Ephesians 519 that this is the playing and string singing with an instrument.
29:48: So there are some there are some who would argue that it is the use of an instrument in Ephesians 519.
29:54: But here's my point.
29:56: I think that this is at best a Romans 14 issue.
30:01: What is a Romans 14 issue? An issue of conscience, an issue of liberty is certainly an issue of liberty, because this is a this is a place wherein if your conscience binds you to not using instruments in the church, then you shouldn't.
30:18: You know, I don't I don't go into a church of Christ and say you guys should be using instruments because if their conscience is bound to not use instruments, me going in and telling them, no, you ought to be using a guitar.
30:30: You ought to be using drums.
30:31: You ought to be using that.
30:32: I think that's totally an issue of conscience.
30:35: It's totally an issue of Christian liberty.
30:37: And it would not be my place to simply divide them or to confront them on something which certainly is not a sin.
30:44: It's certainly not a sin to not do it.
30:48: But I also believe it is not a sin to do it.
30:50: I don't believe that exercising that liberty, liberty is a sin.
30:55: Very, very few churches that I'm aware of make it a complete and absolute prohibition to use any instruments in the church.
31:07: Like I said, when I mentioned it, what did you guys immediately think of? Church of Christ.
31:11: Right.
31:11: And as I said, some reformed churches, but very few have taken the scripture to understand it as being absolute prohibition.
31:21: And I don't think so either.
31:23: If I thought that it was a prohibition for worship, I wouldn't allow it in our church or I would seek that the elders not allow it.
31:30: But I don't believe it is a prohibition.
31:32: So that's where we are.
31:34: Yeah.
31:34: Yeah.
31:35: You get the thumbs up from the guy who played one of the instruments.
31:38: But but that but again, it's not an easy question, not an easy question at all.
31:44: And that's why this is such a divisive subject.
31:46: But let's move on, because once we look at does the Bible say we should sing? Absolutely.
31:53: Does the Bible say we should use instruments? And the Old Testament does.
31:56: The New Testament doesn't.
31:57: But at least the scripture does speak to the issue and says that instruments can be used as as instruments of worship.
32:02: So, number three, third question, why is congregational singing an important part of Lord's Day worship? Why is that the case? Number one or letter A rather singing is a form of prayer.
32:25: Singing is a form of prayer.
32:30: In our last session, we looked at prayer and Lord's Day worship.
32:34: And remember, we talked about the different types of prayer.
32:37: We said that there was the prayer of invocation.
32:39: There was the prayer of intercession.
32:41: There's the prayer of consecration.
32:42: There's the prayer of dedication.
32:44: There's the prayer of benediction.
32:45: There's all these prayers that make up Lord's Day worship.
32:49: And there are each one directed and intentional prayers.
32:53: But also when the congregation of the faithful.
32:58: Together with one voice, sing to God praises, we are, in essence, speaking those praises to Him.
33:12: And as such, in that sense, we are praying.
33:17: A hymn is a corporate prayer spoken together in rhythm for the purpose of praising God.
33:44: Yeah, it's a participatory action.
33:46: You're participating in it.
33:48: Absolutely.
33:49: Absolutely.
33:50: And that's where, you know, I don't print my prayers beforehand and give them to you to pray with me when I'm praying the intercessory prayer or when we're praying at the table or I'm praying the benediction.
34:02: We don't give those to you.
34:03: But the songs you have and thus we can pray them together.
34:09: We can sing them together.
34:10: This is why, by the way, I have a big problem with what I call the 7-Eleven songs.
34:17: You know what a 7-Eleven song is.
34:19: What is it? Well, seven words, 11 times, seven words, 11 times.
34:32: It's the repetitious songs.
34:34: That's only the same thing over and over and over.
34:37: A few weeks ago we watched videos.
34:39: You remember, listen to the rhythm of heaven.
34:42: Listen to you.
34:43: Aren't here for that, were you? That was that was that was almost hypnotic.
34:47: It was so it was just it was two or three minutes of just those words over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
34:55: Jesus tells us in our prayers, do not pray in vain repetition, believing that you will be heard for your many words.
35:04: So I believe that that would apply also to singing, that if we are singing simply vain repetition over and over and over without putting thought into our words, but simply causing somewhat of a hypnotic effect of just singing the same thing over and over and over and over and over.
35:22: I don't think that that's appropriate.
35:23: Now, somebody might argue and say the angels in heaven sing holy, holy, holy always.
35:30: So I will respond to that and say, you ain't no angel.
35:34: No, there is a there is a sense in which there are certain attributes of God which are worthy of being repeated.
35:42: Yes, yes.
35:53: Now, but that is a purposeful repetition.
35:55: The reason why we do the model prayer is it has a didactic element.
35:59: I don't know if you remember that from last week.
36:01: You were here last month.
36:02: Remember, why do we do the Lord's Prayer every week? The model prayer, rather, is because it is the didactic prayer element of our of our service.
36:09: It's meant to teach.
36:11: And I do it specifically because I know that kids are not getting that in school anymore.
36:15: Kids are not.
36:16: A lot of them are.
36:17: Some of them may not be getting it at home, but when they come to church, they learn the prayer through the through the corporate.
36:25: You know, we're going to talk about didactic part in a minute.
36:27: Part of what we do is we do to teach.
36:29: Yes, sir.
36:33: Yeah, there is a there are those who sing the prayer to have a version of it by Anne Murray.
36:40: I've used it for funerals before.
36:41: I have quite a large funeral library because I do so many funerals that people I get music.
36:47: And Anne Murray's Lord's Prayer is a beautiful version of that.
36:53: All right.
36:54: Seeing as a type of prayer now, this is going to kind of go with what you said, Miss Ray, because this is the next thing.
36:59: Singing is a type of prayer.
37:00: Singing is also a type of catechism.
37:07: It is a type of catechism.
37:11: Now, people often associate catechisms with Catholics.
37:15: But let me tell you something.
37:18: Catechisms predate Roman Catholicism.
37:20: They predate Christianity because there were catechisms even in the in Israel.
37:25: But the idea of teaching by memorization, the idea of teaching by question and answer that I teach you the answers and then you memorize them and then you learn to answer the question.
37:35: That is an ancient technique of teaching.
37:37: And it has had a rich history in reformed churches.
37:41: The Westminster Catechism, the Heidelberg Catechism.
37:45: You know, the Baptists had catechisms, even though modern Baptists of, oh, no, that's Catholic.
37:49: No, no, no.
37:50: There were Baptist catechisms.
37:59: You know what? There are those.
38:01: A lot of them now are in English, though, because they want people to learn them.
38:04: But yeah, there are for for so long, so much was for a long time.
38:10: That was true.
38:10: Yeah.
38:12: Yeah.
38:24: Well, that's what I that's kind of where I was going, because catechisms are meant to teach sound doctrine through memorization.
38:31: And one of the best ways to get people to remember things is to harmonize them, put them into a song to create a melody.
38:40: For instance, most of us learn the alphabet.
38:43: How as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H.
38:48: You know, we learn it as a song.
38:50: I learned the Greek alphabet as a song.
38:53: You know, the song Mama's Little Baby Goes Short and short.
38:56: You know that song, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Theta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, C, Omicron, P, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Omega.
39:06: That's how I learned the Greek alphabet was to learn to sing it.
39:10: And so, too, the books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy.
39:18: That was the song Deuteronomy twice because it kept with the little rhythm.
39:22: But that's how we taught it to the kids.
39:24: We teach it to them in song.
39:26: So most of us understand the value of learning through this mnemonic device of singing.
39:36: You mentioned that, Mr.
39:37: Erb, that we sing things to memorize them.
39:40: This is why music is so valuable for teaching.
39:43: And while I say it's a type of catechism, because you will remember the songs and you will internalize what the songs say because of the melody.
39:55: You'll remember them more.
39:56: So that's another reason why it is so important that when we sing, we sing good doctrine.
40:03: We sing good teaching.
40:04: We sing things that are right because singing is didactic.
40:17: It's D-I-D-A-C-T-I-C.
40:20: It is didactic.
40:22: It is a teaching tool, much the same way we repeat the Lord's model prayer.
40:27: So, too, when we sing, we try to sing songs that have a teaching quality.
40:32: We're teaching something.
40:35: OK, well, in that regard, there is built into the worship service a teaching portion in the music.
40:50: So we've looked at the three questions so far.
40:53: Does the Bible teach that we should sing? Yes.
40:55: Does the Bible teach that we should use musical instruments? It does in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
41:01: There are those who would disagree, but I would say yes.
41:04: The number three, the question is, why is congregational singing an important part of Lord's Day worship? Because it is a type of prayer and it is a type of catechism.
41:19: It is both to praise and to teach.
41:22: It has a twofold quality.
41:25: Lastly, what would make a song appropriate or inappropriate for Lord's Day worship? Well, it's a huge question because often people want to apply very subjective standards.
41:46: You know, we want it a certain way.
41:49: Some people believe all hymns are appropriate and all contemporary music is inappropriate simply because one is older than the other.
42:00: I remember I was standing right here welcoming people to leave after service.
42:07: I can't believe I'm inviting people to know, you know, I stand at the end, I shake hands.
42:11: This was years and years ago.
42:13: And there was an older gentleman at my church.
42:15: I knew he didn't like the the music, some of the music that we were doing.
42:18: And he came up to me and he and he and he pulled me in tight to where no one else could hear.
42:24: And he said, I want to know something.
42:27: He said, why don't we sing the old standards anymore? And my response was, what's the standard? What do you mean? I said, a lot of those old standards are theologically inaccurate.
42:53: And he didn't like that.
42:54: But that was pretty much it.
42:56: I said, who's standard? You say old standard as if somebody came along in 1955 and went, this is it.
43:04: That's the standard.
43:07: And no more shall come.
43:10: That's dangerous thinking.
43:14: Because all of these songs that you love from your youth were at one time new songs, all songs at one time were contemporary.
43:29: How many of you ever heard of Isaac Watts? You have because you are here and you have sung the song, Great God, how infinite are thou? What worthless worms are we? You know, that song we sing with it.
43:43: Yeah.
43:44: Joy to the world.
43:46: No, you know that joy to the world, the Lord is come.
43:49: Right.
43:51: These were contemporary songs and people hated them because he was writing new songs in the what, 1800s scripture.
44:08: Yeah.
44:08: Is that what you.
44:16: Well, there's their their argument that some of the hymns that we sing came from ballroom melodies, that they would take the melodies of the common songs of men that were used that people knew and they would simply apply to them Christian lyrics.
44:32: And here's my thought on that.
44:34: I'm OK with it.
44:36: Only because and I'm and this is I'm getting ahead of myself.
44:41: You keep running ahead of me there.
44:44: Let me just say this, OK, so I don't forget it.
44:47: Age is not the issue.
44:48: Content is key.
44:51: Style, old or new, should never be more important than substance.
44:58: Style should never be more important than substance.
45:02: And two truths need to be recognized.
45:04: These are not your answers, by the way.
45:05: These are two additional truths that I put in there.
45:08: One, this is you could get ready with your fireballs if you want them.
45:12: But I'm going to say it.
45:13: I believe this is true.
45:15: There is no such thing as Christian music.
45:18: There's only Christian lyrics.
45:24: The Bible doesn't say it has to be in for for time and it has to be in the key of G.
45:32: It doesn't say it has to be done with an organ or a piano.
45:37: And when we begin to arbitrate those type of standards, we are arbitrating a personal desire for style over and above what the scripture has commanded, because the Bible does not give us a key of G or a four four time signature.
45:56: The Bible tells us that we praise God with songs and hymns and spiritual songs.
46:02: And those songs ought to be accurate to the word.
46:06: Now, we're going to get to that in a moment.
46:07: But that's the key.
46:09: Content is key.
46:14: Now, having said that, I want to add another thing before we get to our answers.
46:18: Not all songs are appropriate for worship just because they're Christian songs.
46:25: Not all songs are meant for the corporate expression of worship.
46:32: Some are meant for personal devotion.
46:34: Some are meant for enjoying while you're driving down the road.
46:38: But they're not meant for in the church on Sunday.
46:44: And I think one of the biggest problems is we've started to draft and I mean the church as a whole, not specifically, but the church as a whole has started to draft in a lot of songs which are not really cohesive to corporate worship, into the corporate and tried to force them in, shoehorn them in when they don't really belong there.
47:01: Never was that their purpose.
47:05: So that's this is important.
47:07: Now, let me give you the answers, as I can see you on your bated breath waiting at your seat.
47:13: Here are the two things we say, what would make a song appropriate or inappropriate for lords they worship? Number one, a song must express proper theology.
47:24: That's that's it.
47:26: If a song has bad theology, if a song has questionable theology, if a song has no theology, because a lot of them don't, then it ain't meant for worship.
47:41: I want to give you I want to give you a couple of examples.
47:43: Here's where we're going to get excited.
47:49: I'm going to give you a couple of new songs which express great theology.
47:55: And by new, I mean they were written in my lifetime.
47:58: OK, so they might not have been written last week, but they're new in the sense that.
48:04: A lot of them aren't in the hymn book because they're just not there yet.
48:09: In Christ alone, great song written in the 90s, I think it was written in the 2000s.
48:16: OK, I didn't look that up, but I know it's relatively new.
48:20: In Christ alone, my hope is found.
48:21: He is my light, my strength, my song, this cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm, what heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are still, when striving cease, my comforter, my all in all here in the love of Christ.
48:35: I stand and it goes on and on and on through the ministry of Christ on the cross.
48:39: And it has that wonderful phrase that says, scorned by the ones who came to save till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.
48:47: That made it it didn't even make it into one of the recent hymn books because they wouldn't take out that phrase.
48:53: The wrath of God was satisfied, the people making the hymn books wanted to change that to the love of God was magnified rather than the wrath of God was satisfied.
49:01: And the writer said, no, we won't let you change it.
49:05: And they wouldn't put it in their book because it clearly teaches in the song substitutionary atonement that Christ took our wrath upon himself.
49:13: The wrath of God that we deserved went to Christ, such a wonderful hymn, relatively new hymn, but in every way is a hymn can be sung expressively in a with guitars and drums can be sung to the piano.
49:27: We sang it with the piano during the during the conference.
49:32: As I said, there's no Christian music, just lyrics, what is the song say? Behold, our God.
49:40: Behold, our God seated on his throne, come, let us adore him.
49:44: Behold, our king, nothing can compare.
49:46: Come, let us adore him.
49:47: Who has held the oceans in his hands? Who has numbered every grain of sand? Kings and nations tremble at his voice.
49:53: All creation rises to rejoice.
49:58: Behold, our God seated on his throne.
50:00: Come, let us adore him.
50:01: This is a song of God's praise.
50:04: Behold, our God.
50:06: It's a wonderful hymn.
50:08: And it's really recent.
50:10: I have the album that it was on.
50:14: Yeah, this.
50:15: Yeah, this is less than less than less than 10 years.
50:17: Definitely.
50:19: How deep the father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure that he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure, how great the pain of searing loss the father turns his face away as wounds, which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory.
50:35: You don't know that song we sing, you know, how deep the father's love for us.
50:40: That one was ninety five.
50:41: I think that's that's the oldest of these three.
50:44: Now, I want you to compare that to a bad new song.
50:53: I told you I brought a little bit of both.
50:58: This is probably the worst song that I've ever read or heard.
51:05: And you might hear it and not think much about it.
51:08: But there are certain parts of it that to me cause a cringe.
51:13: It's called I give you freedom.
51:16: Also known as the free will song, that's the title.
51:22: It starts out not bad.
51:23: I set the boundaries of ocean vast, carved out the mountains from distant past, molded a man from the miry clay, breathed in him life.
51:31: But he went astray.
51:32: All good so far.
51:35: I hold the waters in my hand, spread out the heavens with a single span, make all creation tremble at my voice.
51:41: But my own sons come to me by choice.
51:46: You see, it's already starting to focus on man and his choice.
51:50: But it goes on.
51:51: It says, I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
51:53: I write the music for the whippoorwill, control the planets with their rocks and reels, but give you freedom to use your own will.
52:04: Even the oxen knows the master stall, a sheep will recognize the shepherd's call.
52:07: I could demand your love.
52:09: I own you twice, but only willing love is worth the price.
52:12: And if you want me to, I'll make you whole.
52:15: I'll do it, though.
52:16: If you say so, I'll never force you for I love you.
52:20: So I give you freedom.
52:21: Is it yes or no? It's the free will song.
52:24: It's all about exalting man, exalting freedom, exalting his will.
52:29: And of course, to me, it is repugnant because it said you get the choice, you make the choice.
52:35: It's all up to you.
52:36: When the Bible says that left to ourselves.
52:40: Not only wouldn't we.
52:42: But we don't.
52:44: It is God who breaks the heart.
52:46: It is God who changes man.
52:48: We do not change ourselves.
52:49: Yes.
52:50: Where did you find it? Oh, it's online.
52:52: Go find it.
52:54: It's a gas.
52:57: Go, go watch people say it with great gusto.
53:01: It's on YouTube.
53:02: It's a gas.
53:03: Anyway, go ahead.
53:04: Yes.
53:37: We're going to get you keep running ahead of me because the next thing is about corporate participation.
53:43: I do think, as I said earlier, I think there are times when a song is unable to be participated in because of the way that it's played.
53:53: And I don't think that that's right.
53:54: I don't think that we should play music in such a way that it is unable to participate in corporately.
54:01: And that's what you're talking about, I think.
54:17: Well, that does happen as well that that can happen as well.
54:21: And I don't.
54:22: Yeah, I don't I don't think you're wrong.
54:25: I think that's true.
54:26: I think we focus on style.
54:28: And, you know, for as many people as worry about the style of the hymns, there are just as many who worry about the style of the contemporary.
54:36: And they would never think they wouldn't want to do it in a hymn style.
54:39: They would only want to do it in the rock and roll or whatever.
54:42: They wouldn't want to do a hymn as just a hymn.
54:46: So I think that there's I think there's problems on both sides.
54:50: All right.
54:51: Now comes the fun part.
54:52: Now, I'm going to share with you some songs from the old school, I share with you a couple of new I share with you ones I thought were good, new songs and one that wasn't, in my opinion, worthy of singing and church ever, ever, ever.
55:10: OK, but here are a few ones.
55:13: In fact, I sent out a I sent out a thing last night to some of my pastor friends, some of the guys at the conference.
55:18: I said, hey, what are some songs that you don't like from the old hymnal? One I never thought of before, and I'm still thinking about it, is old rugged cross, because one of my friends said he said, when will we ever exchange our cross for a crown or the cross for a crown? What does that even mean? And what is the theology behind that? I don't know, I never thought of it before.
55:44: That was one that he had issue with.
55:46: But here's one that I think is even more, to me, offensive.
55:52: The Savior is waiting.
55:54: I don't know if you guys know that one, it's very popular, especially invitation song.
55:59: Savior is waiting time after time.
56:03: He has waited before.
56:04: Now he is waiting again.
56:07: It's all about he's just wringing his hands, just wondering, worried, you know.
56:13: Uh, how about this? Since Jesus came into my heart, since Jesus came into my heart, since Jesus came into my heart, I have lied in my soul for which long I have sought.
56:28: No, you didn't because you never saw that light.
56:31: I don't know what you're talking about.
56:31: I don't know what light you were seeking because you weren't seeking God because no man takes after God.
56:35: No, not even one Romans three.
56:37: So I have an issue with that song.
56:39: Uh, softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling.
56:45: Oh, yeah, but that's what what is it? Is there is there a theology there? Is there is there a is there is there rightness in there now? You might say.
57:03: You know, I don't find those necessarily offensive.
57:07: Here's what I want to point out to you.
57:09: It's not always that a song necessarily is wrong, but sometimes it just isn't right enough for corporate worship.
57:17: It shouldn't be that we wonder, is this right? It should be correct.
57:23: We are singing when we when I sing, when I go in there and I encourage people to sing, I just lost my favorite.
57:32: What's my favorite hymn, Nathan? A mighty fortress, a mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark, never failing our helper, he amid the flood of mortal ills.
57:49: You can sing that with power and you know the words and what they mean in the speaking of the God of whom you serve and you know from whence it came, the right hand of Martin Luther as he stood prepared to die for the faith and a bulwark is what a wall of defense that that's what our God is.
58:07: That's powerful and meaningful.
58:09: Yes, it's almost impossible to play the instruments.
58:13: Yes, but that's what we live in English.
58:16: Yes, it was written in German and thankfully it still rhymes even in English.
58:29: Oh, sure.
58:30: Absolutely.
58:44: Yeah, absolutely.
58:45: And that's what I said earlier.
58:46: You were going to say that because I want to.
58:48: Well, I was just going to say, you know, when we sing it to play with instruments and that's OK.
58:54: Yeah, we can sing it without instruments.
58:56: And that's that's sometimes the best way to do it.
58:58: Now, let me let me throw a couple of them at you that I personally do not find appropriate for worship.
59:06: And they're tied, OK, he lives very popular Resurrection Day song.
59:19: He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today, he walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way, he lives, he lives.
59:29: Salvation to impart, you ask me how I know he lives, not because it's written in the word, but because it's in my heart.
59:36: No, that's not an apologetic that I can appreciate.
59:39: Jesus doesn't live and he doesn't live because he lives in your heart.
59:42: And that's not an apologetic.
59:44: I'm sorry.
59:46: That's not how we express truth, that it's true because it's true to me.
59:51: No, it's not how we express truth.
59:54: So I'm sorry, that is relative.
59:55: Is it true because he's true to me? No, he's true.
59:59: You're irrelevant.
01:00:01: He's true with or without you.
01:00:04: This is the atheist.
01:00:05: I don't believe in Jesus.
01:00:06: I don't care if you stand on this roof and I kick you off and you fall, whether or not you believe in gravity is irrelevant now that I would kick you off the roof.
01:00:17: But I'm saying our what's in our heart, in the sense of the song, it's you ask me how I know he lives.
01:00:24: He lives within my heart.
01:00:24: No, you ask me how I know he lives.
01:00:26: He lives and his word tells me he lives.
01:00:28: That's how I know he lives.
01:00:31: Is he in my heart? Well, the Bible says the Holy Spirit is within me.
01:00:33: It says he is at the right hand of the father.
01:00:35: This whole Jesus in your heart business is a modern day addition to the text.
01:00:45: It's not asking Jesus in your heart is not biblical.
01:00:48: It is a sales ploy.
01:00:49: It's exactly what it is.
01:00:51: So that one, I mean, I'm not here trying to kick you in the mouth if you like the song fine, but there's a reason why I don't in the garden.
01:01:02: I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses and the voice I hear falling on my ear, the son of God discloses and he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own and the joy we share as we tarry there.
01:01:22: No other has ever known.
01:01:25: When the world is a song about what theological truth is being expressed in that song.
01:01:31: It's all about me.
01:01:33: He walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me all about how he loves me.
01:01:38: Well, that's what people need.
01:01:39: They need to know that God loves them.
01:01:41: It's a very theologically shallow song.
01:01:46: I just don't find that to be something that is worthy of corporate expression of who God is.
01:01:57: It's harmonized as well, and that's why we like it.
01:02:00: We like it because it's what we grew up with.
01:02:02: We like it because that's what was good to us in the day.
01:02:06: My mother's church has a song.
01:02:07: We're going to have a little talk with Jesus and we'll tell them all about our trouble and we'll hear our savior cry and we'll answer by and by.
01:02:15: Oh, see the little prayer wheel turning.
01:02:18: Oh, the little fire is burning.
01:02:20: Have a little talk with Jesus.
01:02:21: Makes it like meaningless.
01:02:25: How compare that, compare that immortal, invisible God, only wise, ineffable, incredible God that we sing about in the great hymns and the great songs.
01:02:41: And you compare that to this trite stuff.
01:02:43: It's not to be compared.
01:02:46: It's not.
01:02:47: You know, there are parts of amazing grace that are taken out and we replaced it with parts that were so much easier.
01:02:54: We took we replaced it with when we've been there 10,000 years bright, shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing his praise than when we first begun.
01:03:05: That wasn't part of what John Newton wrote.
01:03:08: You know, John Newton wrote, the earth will soon dissolve like snow.
01:03:14: The sun forbear to shine.
01:03:18: For God who keeps me here below will be forever mine.
01:03:23: That's the last verse of that hymn.
01:03:25: It's not when we've been there 10,000 years, we make it about us.
01:03:30: Yes.
01:03:30: And to the modern worship leader to bring that back.
01:03:32: Yeah.
01:03:33: But how many of you grew up never saying that verse, that last verse that I just sang? Yeah.
01:03:40: You saying that we've been there 10,000 years, which is a later addition to the song.
01:03:47: Now, again, I'm not here trying to be ugly.
01:03:49: I'm sure all of you have a few songs that you really love that I might not like, but it's not about personal preference.
01:03:56: My question to you is, what are we learning about God? What are we teaching about God and what are we singing about in the song? That's what matters.
01:04:03: What is in the song that makes it worthy for the people of God to gather around and praise him with it? If you like it in your personal devotion, that's fine.
01:04:15: There's songs I like that I don't bring into corporate worship.
01:04:18: Good.
01:04:19: Now here, last one, and I know we're way over time, so I'll make a song must be appropriate for corporate participation, corporate participation.
01:04:31: Not all songs lend themselves to the singing of the corporate body.
01:04:36: Corporate worship is not a spectator event.
01:04:38: By the way, you ever notice we don't have many solos here.
01:04:44: We have some.
01:04:46: But do you ever notice that we don't have a special every Sunday? You know why? Because it is my conviction that we're not here to watch.
01:04:57: We're here to participate.
01:04:59: I am fully convicted by that.
01:05:02: Now, that's not to say that every once in a while I won't ask Mr.
01:05:04: Irv, who is a fantastic singer, to come and lead a worshipful song.
01:05:10: But this is not a regular part of corporate worship because it is one that we do not all participate in.
01:05:20: We can, as long as we are all engaged in what the singer is singing.
01:05:26: But here's what has happened.
01:05:28: There's a short five minutes right before the sermon in so many churches that's become entertainment hour where little sister Sarah, our little little little brother Billy, is going to come up and give his entertainment.
01:05:41: I was one of those kids.
01:05:44: When I was a kid, I sang a little.
01:05:47: And I remember my mom's church get up there and sing this time, everybody sings.
01:05:56: So I went up and sang.
01:05:59: I love to tell the story of unseen things above of Jesus and his glory of Jesus and his love.
01:06:12: I like that song.
01:06:31: And that's what I was saying when I was a kid.
01:06:33: That's what I was doing.
01:06:34: I felt like I was I was little Bob Dylan, little, little whatever.
01:06:39: I was a little singer.
01:06:40: Well, I couldn't think of another singer.
01:06:42: You want to say this, right? I'm sorry.
01:06:59: Yes.
01:06:59: The reason there was a participation thing.
01:07:03: Nighttime is just it's just hard sometimes for folks.
01:07:06: Even our Sunday night service now is not not strongly participated.
01:07:09: And that was part of what, you know, people people, you know, we say we don't vote on things we don't, but people do vote participation sometimes and people just a lot of folks didn't come.
01:07:18: But but we you know, I don't have a problem with music and I don't have a problem with specials.
01:07:23: I just think that the corporate Sunday worship is a special sanctified time for a sanctified event.
01:07:29: And it's meant to be corporate.
01:07:31: Yes.
01:07:33: Yes.
01:07:33: The fifth Sunday.
01:07:34: All right.
01:07:35: We're done.
01:07:36: We're way over time.
01:07:37: I knew tonight was going to go long.
01:07:38: I should have started early.
01:07:39: I'm sorry.
01:07:40: Let's let's two questions for you to consider as you make your time of devotion.
01:07:44: Number one, should we sing songs we know are written by people who are not Christian or we know are heretics in their teaching and worship? That's a huge question that recently came up because there was a group, Phillips, Craig and Dean, the Holy Trinity of contemporary Christian music.
01:08:03: Don't believe in the Trinity.
01:08:06: Phillips, Craig and Dean doesn't believe in the Trinity.
01:08:09: Should we or should we not use our songs? It's a huge we don't we don't anyway, but but that becomes an issue.
01:08:18: And I and I just leaving it to you to think about that question.
01:08:21: Yes, sir.
01:08:24: Yeah, but they didn't write that one.
01:08:25: They didn't write that number two.
01:08:28: Do you think that most people who argue over music are more concerned with style or content? I tell you what, I think I think it's almost always style.
01:08:37: You get a song that somebody likes the way it sounds, it's not going to matter much what it says.
01:08:42: And that's the problem.
01:08:43: Father, thank you for this lesson.
01:08:45: Thank you for an opportunity to study together.
01:08:47: I pray that it's been glorifying to you.
01:08:49: I pray that it's been edifying for your people and that you would use it to help instruct us on the value of corporate worship and especially this most divisive subject of music.
01:09:00: In Jesus name we pray.
01:09:01: Amen.