Principles Of Music (Part 2)

Of music, and I'm going to give you a lot of information

tonight, a lot of Bible verses tonight.

So I would highly recommend that if you can grab a piece of paper

and a pen or use the back of the bulletin and write some of these

principles down and go back and study them.

This music is, as we talked about last week, is a very, very

powerful thing. And believe it or not, I think

most people don't realize the power that music has over them.

And, you know, just you think about the type of of mood that

music can put you in, right? I mean, look, look, just a

simple example in the Old Testament at Saul, right?

And he had an evil spirit that had come over him and he brought

David into play the harp. And what happened changed

everything, right? It changed his entire spirit,

changed everything about it. The whole mood changed because

of the music. And, and you just, I mean, music

was used all the way throughout the temple ceremonies and the

sacrifices and all of those things to help prepare their

hearts for the for worshipping the Lord and all kinds of things

that are that are part of that, that that just proves that music

is very powerful and in in many cases much more powerful than we

realize. Let me just go back real quick

and just kind of give you, we, we looked at five points earlier

a couple weeks ago and kind of laid the groundwork for some of

the principles that I want to talk about tonight.

But #1 music must be overseen by the pastor.

And when I say that, it means that it's my responsibility as

the pastor to oversee the music in our church and to lay the

groundwork and to lay the foundations for for what music

will be acceptable and what music is not acceptable.

To make sure that all of our music is glorifying to the Lord.

And #2 church music must be sung and played by spirit filled

Saints who are indwelt with God's Word.

And the more you are in God's Word, the more the the music is

going to be spirit filled and more the music is going to be

very obviously sacred music. The farther you get away from

the Lord, the less it becomes sacred music and the more it

becomes lust filled, if you want to call it that, because that's

what a lot of the sensual music is in the world today.

But church music must be sung and played by spirit filled

Saints who are indwelt with the Holy Spirit #3 the music must be

sound in doctrine. And these are all principles by

the way, that are going to help us test whether a song is a song

that we should be singing in church or not.

Whether it's a song that honestly that we should be

listening to or not, just because, you know, we, we won't

sing it in church doesn't mean that OK, well, we won't sing

that song in church, but I can listen to any kind of music I

want to when I'm not in church. You know, it's like, it's like

people saying, I can't believe you lied in church.

You're you're in church and you just told a lie as if it's OK to

tell a lie when you're outside of church.

You just can't do it in the building, right?

You hear people say that all the time.

You know, you're standing next to a pastor.

And I can't believe you just said that.

As if as long as you're not standing by a pastor, it's OK,

right? I mean, and we have that same

mindset. Well, OK, we won't sing that

music in church, but I can listen to that in the car.

I can listen to that wherever I want.

You know, these are principles that that should not only define

our church music, but it's music principles that should define

the music that you listen to, that you use to edify yourself

with. Because that's, that's what

music does or should anyway #4 the music must emphasize the

melody. Melody is the simplest part of

the music. You should be able to hear the

melody throughout the song #5 music is not neutral.

It's a language. And the message of the music

must match the message of the lyrics.

Meaning just because you put Jesus in there, or just because

you put some words that have Christian sounding themes to

them, doesn't mean that it's OK if you put it to a rock song,

right? Doesn't mean that it's all right

if you're jamming out to it as long as it says Jesus.

No, the music is not neutral. When we say the music, we're

talking about everything that's behind the melody.

It's it's a language and the message of the music must match

the message of the lyrics #5 or sorry, number six.

What I want to start with tonight is this.

The music must be spiritual and non worldly in sound.

Church music especially, but music in general that we listen

to must be spiritual and non worldly in sound.

There's a lot of verses that give us this principle.

I'm just going to look at a few of them tonight.

I'll have you turn to a couple of them.

I'll read a couple of them for sake of time.

But Romans chapter 12 is where we are in Romans chapter 12 and

Romans 12 · chapter mention Romans 12 · chapter mention

verse #2 says and be not conformed to this world, but be

transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove

what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

That's spiritual. It's non worldly.

We're not conforming to the world.

And if that's what our life should be, that our music should

match the same thing. Let's go over to Colossians

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, Colossians chapter 3. These are a lot of these verses,

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

don't even necessarily this one in Colossians does, but a lot of

these verses don't necessarily even mention music, but they're

just principles in our lives. We should not be conformed to

the world. We should not want anything to

do with the world. And so our music, because

especially because it has such a powerful influence over us,

should easily be part of that, not wanting the world to be part

of anything that we do. Colossians chapter 3 and verse

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

16. Let the word of Christ dwell in

you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one

another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with

grace in your hearts to the Lord.

So the music must be spiritual and non worldly and sound.

Why don't you turn over to Ephesians chapter 4?

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

I'm going to give you 2 more verses that you can write down.

I'll read them to you. James chapter 4 and verse #4 Ye

James 4 · chapter mention

adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship

of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever, therefore, will be a

friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Now, we will easily accept that principle when it comes to

movies or, you know, anything else that's inappropriate that's

on a screen or something like that.

But all the sudden music shows up and well, the music is

different. No, it's not different.

You're either the friend of God or you're the friend of the

world. You're either at enmity with God

or you're not. Right.

First, Peter, chapter 2 and verse 11.

Dearly beloved, I beseech you, get this.

As strangers and pilgrims, as strangers and pilgrims abstain

from fleshly lust, which war against the soul.

We are strangers and pilgrims in this world.

You know what a Pilgrim is? Somebody that just doesn't

really fit in, a stranger, somebody that just doesn't

really fit in. That's the way that we ought to

be as we go through this world. You're in it, right?

A Pilgrim, somebody who just doesn't really fit in is still

in society, but he just doesn't fit in with society, right?

That's the way that our lives ought to be when somebody sees

us. We ought to be people that just

don't really fit in because we don't want anything to do with

the world. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

#17 this. I say therefore and testify in

the Lord that she henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk

in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding

darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the

ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of

their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves

over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.

So what we're saying here is that the music must be spiritual

and it must be non worldly in the sound.

Spiritual means set apart for God means different from the

world. You're close.

Let's turn over to Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Spiritual is something that is under the control of the Spirit

of God and that's that's what we find here in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

5. This is the verse right before

verse 19. But verse 18 says and be not

drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the

Spirit. And then he talks about music

right after that. Spiritual is the opposite of

carnal. It's the opposite of fleshly.

It's the opposite of, of wanting to be like the world And, and

honestly, listen, when, when you have a teenager that gets

rebellious, right? The first thing that they're

going to do, especially if they're in church, is not go out

and get a, a tattoo on their arm.

They're not going to go out and get a, a ring in their nose or,

you know, they're not going to do those things necessary.

They're not going to, you know, color their hair pink and show

up at church. They're not going to do that.

But you know what they're going to do?

They're going to sneak around behind their parents back and do

what? Listen to rock music, watch

things that they know that they shouldn't watch because those

are the things that are rebellious that you can get away

with because they're not necessarily outward things that

that that you know, you'd get in trouble for.

Right. If one of my kids walked in with

pink hair, I don't know what I'd do.

I'd probably shave it all off 1st and then go from there and

see what happens. Yeah, Right.

Is that what happened to you, brother?

No, this is good. He showed up with pink hair one

day and his wife got a hold of them Clippers and said, you're

not doing that. I don't know what I'd do if one

of the kids showed up with pink hair, but I'll tell you what.

But they're sneaking around listening to rock music or

listening to contemporary Christian music or whatever it

is. I mean, that's a rebellion that

you can hide, right? And, and why do people do that?

Why do you hide it? Because you know it's

rebellious. You know that it's not

Christian. You know that it's not that that

it's worldly. You know that it's rebellious

against the things of God. But I'm going to do it anyway

because this is the way that I can rebel.

It happens a lot. But spiritual is the opposite of

that. First Corinthians chapter 3 and

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

verse #1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto

spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

All right, we, we new Christians are babes in Christ.

And it's understandable that that maybe you don't understand

these principles of music and you don't know how to discern

between the right kind of music and the wrong kind of music.

But as you grow in Christ and as you mature in Christ, if you

don't change those things, you're no different than a 15

year old drinking out of a bottle, right?

It doesn't make sense. It's it's not natural.

As you mature, you should be changing things that that show

your level of maturity, right? You're not going to walk around

sucking on a pacifier at 12 years old because that's

something that a baby does, right?

And how do you figure that out? Well, somebody has to say, hey,

I hate to mention this, but you're 12 now.

It's probably time to be done sucking the pacifier, right?

And when you find out, you start looking around and you say, wow,

yeah, I guess everybody else that is 12 years old is not

really sucking on a pacifier. Maybe I should get rid of this

thing, right? And that's what happens as you,

as you grow and mature in Christ.

And this is part of your growth process, right?

How do you find out what the kind of what the right kind of

music is? How do you find out what the

wrong kind of music is? That's what we're doing tonight,

right? This is me telling you it's time

to take the pacifier out of your mouth.

You're growing in Christ, right? And you can either say, no, I'm

not taking this pacifier out. I'm this is too comfortable to

me. This is, I've been doing this

for my whole life. I can't stop sucking on a

pacifier. Or you can say, you know what?

Yeah, you're right. But your Christians don't do

that. Pull the pacifier out, right?

That that's that's what we're talking about tonight.

This is this part of the growth process.

And you can claim ignorance until you're taught what the

right thing is to do. Then you can't claim ignorance

anymore. Now you have a decision to make.

Are you going to do what God wants you to do?

Or are you going to do what feels good to you and what feels

good to your flesh and what feels comfortable to you?

Or are you going to do a God's way?

That's the difference, right? So he's saying, I, I want to

speak to you like mature Christians, but I can't because

you're babes in Christ, because you're still carnal.

And I'm not saying that I'm not, I'm not saying that to you, but

I'm, I'm explaining what Paul is saying there to the Corinthians.

Spiritual, as we're talking about, is the opposite of the

unfruitful work, works of darkness that he talks about in

Ephesians chapter 5. You can read that in verse 11.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

But spiritual is the opposite of worldliness.

So what Paul is saying here is that God's people are to sing

songs that are holy, songs that are sacred, songs that are set

apart for God, songs that are not carnal and fleshly, songs

that are different in quality from the songs of the world,

songs that are morally pure, that are are of a heavenly

flavor rather than a worldly flavor.

That's why it's called sacred music, right?

We sing sacred music. What does sacred music mean?

It means that it's set apart. It means that this is the, this

is what the saved. This is what the sanctified

sing. It's music that is bringing

honor to God. 99% of the music in the world is not honoring to

God, right? Because you think about it, you,

you just listen to a song that you hear in Wawa when you walk

in there and they're talking about things that are ungodly,

right? And what happens is the same

thing that happens when you're watching a lot of the wrong

things on television and everything you get, you get

immune to it. And oh man, I didn't realize

there was a cuss word in there. Oops.

You know why you didn't notice there was a cuss word in there?

Because you're used to it, right?

And it's it's so natural for you to hear it because you're

hearing it so much that it doesn't bother you anymore.

And the next thing you know, you're telling somebody about

how great this video is, how great this movie is.

And they go watch it in the first 5 minutes.

There's five cuss words. And.

Oh, I guess I don't know. I didn't think there was

anything wrong with that movie. Yeah.

Because you're so immune to it because you've accepted it for

so long. Right.

Step back. All right.

This is this is this Will. This will kind of tell you if

your music is spiritual and or worldly.

All right, stop listening to it. Stop listening to anything that

is not sacred Christian music for a month.

All right, if it's if it's, if it's OK and you go back to it a

month later, listen to it and see what it sounds like to you.

Fill your mind with nothing but good God honoring sacred music,

songs that you would sing here at church, songs that you would

hear here at church. Don't listen to anything else.

And then a month later, go back and listen to it and see if you

can still listen to it, because mostly you won't be able to

because you'll say, wow, I didn't even realize what that

sounded like before. I didn't even realize that's

what I was listening to before. Right.

Do the same thing with a movie. If, if you think that what

you're watching is fine, then stop watching them for a month.

Don't watch anything that has anything in it.

And you can find out. We, we do this and, and I'll

tell you, I, I, I bet this year we've probably watched maybe 3

movies, maybe because there's hardly anything that you can

watch anymore that doesn't have a cuss word in it or doesn't

have something inappropriate. Go into IMDb, International

Movie Database, look at it. It'll tell you what, what kind

of junk that movie has in it. You see anything that it has in

it, you don't watch it, right? That's, that's the standard,

right? If I, if I look at something on

that database and it tells me that there's cuss words in it,

I'm not watching it. Oh, well that one only has 2, so

I guess it's OK. What's your limit 10/15/20?

What's what's your limit? It only has 2, so it's OK.

Either it's right or it's not right.

Don't watch any of it and then go back to it in a month and see

if you can still sit there and, and, and not squirm and not be

uncomfortable. Do the same thing with your

music. You want to test whether or not

the music that you're listening to is God honoring or not.

Don't listen to it for a month and then go back to it and see

if you can still listen to it because it'll change.

You'll get it, you'll get weaned off of it and it'll change how

you perceive it. If you go back and watch it and

or listen to it a month later and see if you can still do it.

Maybe you can. But Paul is saying that God's

people are to sing songs that are holy and that are sacred

songs that that lift up Christ, songs that can be sung with

Christ standing there listening and you're not going to be

embarrassed by it. Hey, I'm just a, I'm just a

person. I'm just a man.

I'm not God, but let me listen to the songs that you listen to

and see what I think about it. Let's go out to your car right

now and see what songs that you have that that pop on when your

car starts and see if I can sit in there and listen to it with

you. If you would be embarrassed with

me sitting there listening to you, imagine how embarrassed you

would be if Christ was sitting there, right?

That that'll tell you where your music is at, right?

If you don't want me to hear it, then why should Christ have to

sit there and listen to it with you, right?

Our music should be sacred. It should be holy, it should be

God honoring. That's why it's called sacred

music. And the church's music is not

going to sound like the world's pop music.

It's not going to sound like, you know, it's not going to be

the same music that the world uses for dancing and drinking

and partying and everything else.

The music of a holy God should not contain any aspect of the

world's sensual ways. And that's what happens with a

lot of the contemporary Christian music.

That's why 99.9% of it is wrong, because they are taking world

music principles and applying it to Christian words and calling

it Christian music. And it's not Christian music

just because you put Christian words with it.

It's not. If it has the world sound, then

it's the world's music. You call it Christian rock.

Rock music is the world's music. It's sex music.

That's what it was designed for. And everybody that is part of

the the history of Rock'n'roll will tell you that without any

hesitation because they know that that's what it was, that's

what it was created for. And now you're going to take

something that vile and put Christian words with it and

expect that God's going to bless that.

You see what I do? You understand what I'm saying

when I say that music is a language and music is not a

moral. Music put with any kind of words

is going to speak its own language and that's what the

rock music is Now you, you, you add pop music to it.

You can Add all kinds of different things.

But you know, some of the music that we purposefully avoid would

be like the, the dance syncopation type music.

Write some of these things down and go look these up so you

understand what it sounds like. If I was doing a longer series

on this, I would play some of these things for you so you

could hear it. It should be very, very obvious

to you, but syncopated music with a backbeat and the, and the

beat anticipation, the honky tonk style, you know, ragtime

and, and boogie woogie and all those things that a lot of those

are, are Southern gospel type music that this, that Southern

gospel has has adopted that sound in a lot of ways.

And, and you know, a same song that you could hear in, in a, in

a honky tonk bar on a Saturday night, you could put the

Southern gospel words with and it sounds perfectly the same.

They, they fit perfectly together because it's this, it's

that music, right? I'm not saying that every

Southern gospel song is wrong, but many, much of it is because

of the sound that comes along with it, right?

The, the sensual vocal styles. And, and again, I would, I would

play some of these things for you if we had more time to go

through this. But but the scooping and the

sliding and the breathiness, those are things that are, are

sensual that, that, that attract people that listen to that kind

of music, right? That's the sound that pop has.

And so when you're sliding all over the place, when you're

singing, right, it's, it's, it's things that at the very, very

least is lazy vocal technique, but at the most is trying to

sound exactly like the, the, the worldly musicians sound.

And when you have that really breathy sound when you're

singing. Right, That that's, that is a

sensual sound that's made to make you feel a certain way

while you're listening to it. And then you try to take that

sound and put Christian words and Christian music with it and

expect that God is pleased, right?

I think you would maybe understand a little bit more if

if I was to play these things for you.

It's a lot more prevalent than you think it is, right?

And that's why we have to be so careful that we don't do those

things because I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to be sensual

about the Holy Spirit, not trying to be sensual about my

worship of God, right? I'm not trying to be sensual

and, and, and, and, and even saying that sounds sacrilegious,

right? Because it is.

That's what I'm trying to get you to understand.

When you when you're singing with those pop culture

techniques of music and you're putting Christian words with it,

how do you think God is pleased with those things?

All right. And I'll be honest with you,

most of you in here that are going to sing that way are not

doing it because you're trying to be sensual, right?

You're not doing it because you're trying to sound like some

pop star you heard necessarily. But there are things that we

have to be very careful that we don't sound like that.

So we have to understand these principles so that we know, OK,

I don't want to sound like that. I don't want to be anywhere

close to what the world's music sounds like.

I don't want to sound sensual when I'm singing, right?

So that's why we don't slide and scoop and do all of these other

things in the music that was that we're singing for the Lord

and doesn't mean that every song just has to sound like this.

Otherwise it gets really boring and really drab, right?

But does it have a, a worldly sound to it?

Does it sound like a pop song If you were to take the words of,

of, of some pop song and I, I don't even know some pop song

words to tell you to sing with, you know, the old Rugged Cross.

But I can promise you that the pop song words don't fit with

the old Rugged Cross, right? The tune of the old Rugged

cross, because it's a sacred tune and it doesn't, they just

don't fit together, right? But then what we want to try to

do is take some words and put it with a pop song and we can make

almost anything fit with it, right?

Almost And, and what you're well, I think what, what's what

I've heard a little bit more of that's getting really, really

popular is these secular musicians that all want to talk

about Jesus in their songs, you know, and drinking beer on

Saturday night and going to church on Sunday.

You know, that's, that's not a Christian song just because they

talk about going to church, you know, or they, they have these

what, what I, what you're hearing a lot of these people

doing nowadays are making sacred music albums, You know, these

country music stars and, or maybe they're not even stars.

I don't know who they are, but these country music people that

all want to sing Amazing Grace and the old rugged Cross.

And, and then they have the, IT, it's literally sounds like a

country song with those words in it, right?

It's, it's a secular song with a secular tune and secular sound.

And you're going to try to put Christian words with it.

And that just doesn't go together.

The other thing that you see a lot of is the soft sound, you

know, it, it weakens the power and the, and the, and the

dynamics and the majesty and the spiritual conviction and the

militarism of, of sacred music. You know, it's the feminization

of our culture. And you have these little skinny

Jean wearing, you know, soft hand guys that want to get up

there and wear their little beanie on their head hanging off

the back and sound so soft and sing this little nice tune and

music. You Can't Sing the old rugged

cross and sing it that way, right?

Because it's sacred. It's, it's, it's, it's powerful,

it's dynamic. It's, it's, it's got some

substance to it. You Can't Sing that song that

way. At least you have to really try

to do it right. I'm sure somebody can, but it's,

it's this really soft Jesus is my boyfriend kind of music, you

know, you light up my life and that kind of stuff.

That's it's just, it's soft. It's so soft because you're

trying to be sensual and you're trying to draw people in and

you're trying to draw people to yourself instead of trying to

draw people to Christ, right. That's, that's what we're saying

that, that, you know, sacred music should be spiritual, it

should be non worldly. And by the way, that's why we

avoid the use of drums and electric guitars because

they're, they're, they're totally identified with rock

music and, and, and so it easily, it's used in pop music

fashion. Now, an exception to that would

be using a tympani section, you know, in a, in an orchestra

style that's different. You're not using that to create

a rock beat. You're using it to fill up the

sound and everything else different.

But you know, you also have to realize that you can play a

piano with a rock beat and you can play an acoustic guitar with

a rock beat. But you know, drums, you know, a

drum set, which is why we don't have a drum set up here, is very

easily associated with rock music, right?

Same thing with electric guitars that that's all the, you know,

these guys that want to hang it down here and play it.

You know, you can't even see them because they're so low on

their guitars. And I mean, look, that's, that's

how they play those things, right?

If if you were just trying to play an electric guitar and

you're standing here and you're and you're playing an electric

guitar, this is where you play an electric guitar, right?

You ever seen any of those contemporary Christian music

groups? What do they do?

They're down here playing the electric guitar, right?

Because they saw somebody on a rock stage doing that thing and

that they're not trying to play sacred music.

They want to be a rock star. They just weren't good enough,

so they ended up in contemporary Christian music.

And it's kind of funny, but I'm not trying to be funny.

That's what happens. Because as soon as they start

making it a little bit, you know, successfully, they

crossover and left that in the dust, right?

They're not doing it because they're trying to lift up

Christ. They're trying to do it because

they want to make money. And this is how they can break

into the industry, right? That's that's what happens.

It's not sacred music at all. It's a whole new discussion for

a different day. Is, is basic education for

determining how to judge the style of music.

If you're interested in it, I'll give you some great resources

that that you can, you know that you can really dive deep into

those things to be able to understand the difference and,

and hear a song and be able to say that's contemporary, that's

sacred, that's pop, that's Southern gospel, that's this.

You have to be able to understand and you have to be

able to discern between those types of music so that you can

listen to and if you play and sing, play and sing music that

is honoring to the Lord, music that is sacred music and doesn't

borrow from the sound of the world.

So music to, to, to summarize that point must be spiritual and

non worldly in sound. That's our longest point #7 the

music must edify. And I may have to, I may have

to, in fact, I am going to have to.

We're not going to get all the way through this.

Let me just give you this point at least and then we'll see

where we're at. But the, the, the music must

edify. Let's turn over to 1st

Corinthians chapter 14 talk about the music must be

spiritual and it must be non worldly and that's important.

But when it comes to church music, the purpose of church

music is to edify the church. So First Corinthians chapter 14

1 Corinthians 14 · chapter mention

and verse #26 how is it then brethren, when you come

together, every one of you hath A Psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a

tongue, hath A revelation, hath an interpretation.

Let all things be done unto edifying is music mentioned in

this verse? Possibly if you're talking about

a Psalm, right? Probably that's what they're

meaning is is is this is a song singing something.

But whether or not you say that that Psalm is talking about

music or not is music part of all things?

It is right? So everything that's done in the

church must be done to the edifying of the Saints.

It must be done for edification, right?

What does edify mean? Edify means to build up, right?

It means to to build up somebody by, you know, through faith, by

hearing and understanding the truths of God's Word.

So all things being done unto edification means that sacred

music must emphasize the message, right?

And again, we talked about a lot of things that deal with the

message. It must be sound and doctrine.

It must not be shallow. It must you know, it shouldn't

be soft. You know, again, especially Lady

Fine, sing a soft song softly and tenderly.

Jesus is calling. That's a little bit of a softer

song. But even that has a, has a power

to it has a, it has a dynamic to it and, and you know, a power

that that comes with it. But the message has to be clear

so that it speaks to people's hearts, their minds, and it

edifies them. And nothing should be allowed to

distract from that, right? So musical instruments sometimes

can be too loud and drown out the message of the song, right?

You hear that happen often. It's, it's different when our

whole congregation is singing. And obviously we have all the

orchestra musics and the trumpet and everything else in a small

room. I'm talking about when you have

somebody that's getting up to sing a special especially, and

you know, you have a, you have an accompaniment that is, that

is being played with that it's so loud you can't hear anything

else. I told you about that.

I think I told you that when, when Alex was just a little kid,

we went and visited a church and the choir got up to sing and

the, and they had a background track.

They had, they had pianists, they had people that could have

played. I don't know why they decided to

choose or why they, why they decided to use a soundtrack to

for the choir to sing with, but the music was so loud that

number one, not only could you not hear the choir, Alex was

probably 3 or 4 years old and he was sitting there like this.

He couldn't, he, he, you know, because you, you can't

concentrate on the message of the song when the music and, and

this particular music had a heavy rock beat in it of all

that. I mean, nothing else did.

And all the sudden boom, boom, boom, boom.

And he just, you have to plug your ears because the message is

not what's being emphasized. And that's not edifying anybody,

right? Because the music is so loud you

can't even hear it. The music can also be so complex

that it hinders the message of the song as well.

I think, for example, if the harmonies are so complex that

the message is not clear, that's not good sacred music.

And that can happen. Maybe those who know music will

understand that a little bit more, and you're the ones that

need to understand it because you're the ones that are singing

it. But at the same time, all things

being done unto edification means that there is no place for

entertainment in sacred music. When people get up here to sing,

they're not getting up here to sing to entertain, right?

If you want entertainment, go listen to the Richmond Pops

orchestra, right? That's entertainment.

They're not, they're not doing that to glorify God.

It's not, it's not wrong, but they're not doing it for for

edification because it's not being done in a church setting,

right? If you want to be entertained,

go listen to to a Symphony Orchestra.

Go listen to something like that.

When you're here. The music is for edification,

right? Which is why it's, it's

important that you listen to the words that are being sung.

That's why it's important that you, you know, and, and, and why

we purposefully and emphatically avoid anything that's, that

speaks of entertainment. That's why.

And again, you know, one of the things that that that we've done

is applauding when somebody gets finished singing a special,

right? That that that lends itself

toward entertainment, right? Why do you clap when somebody's

done? Oh, you did a wonderful job,

right? Who are who are they doing it

for you or for the Lord should be for the Lord, right?

And I haven't said anything about it because I understand

your intention. You're saying, hey, that was

great. You did a lot of you know, you

put a lot of work into it. But but how about instead of

clapping, let's say Amen, right, Amen.

That was great. Amen.

I heard Brother Ryan after we finished the the Hallelujah

chorus. Amen, Amen, Amen.

Hey, say Amen a bunch of times, right?

Who are we glorifying when you're saying Amen, the person

or God, right? Right.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, right?

When you say praise the Lord, who are you praising?

The person that just got done singing or playing or the Lord?

It's pretty obvious, isn't it? But then when somebody, you

know, somebody gets up here and sings and they did a good job on

it. Great job.

Yeah, Yeah. The crowd goes wild, right.

And again, I understand the intention behind it.

You're saying good job. You, you put a lot of work into

it. That was beautiful.

That was honoring to the Lord and everything else.

But how about instead of clapping, let's just say Amen.

Give him a give him a hearty Amen, right.

That that's something that that that says you did a great job.

But I know it wasn't for us. It was for the Lord, but we

appreciated it at the same time, right.

And again, I understand that's, you know, I haven't said

anything about it because we, you know, it's it's not like

it's it's a sin to clap for somebody that that finished

singing a song or playing music or something like that.

But it's not a performance, right?

We're not applauding a performance, but that's what you

do when somebody performs, you applaud for them, right?

Saying Amen lifts up Christ. It brings the honor and glory

and points it more toward him than it does to the person that

that did the special, right. It's it's performance.

Is it it it everything that we do has should move away from

anything that looks like the world, right?

And you know, so, so looking like the world, acting like the

world. But that's again, that's the

same reason why we don't use, you know, sensual vocal

techniques that that draw attention to the singer like

that scooping and the sliding and the breathiness and all of

those things. That's why, again, we don't use

video cameras to zoom in on the people singing and, and slide

around and get them from all these different angles while

they're singing, right? I mean, you ever watched a

concert? That's what they do.

If it's, if it's video, that's what they do, right?

Because you're, you're focusing on that.

I, I read you this quote not too long ago.

I can't think of the guy's name starts with AC, but anyway,

contemporary Christian musician and he said, you know, in his in

this quote, he said, you know, everybody wants to write the

next banger, the song that's going to make a millions of

dollars because people are listening.

And he said, I've made millions of dollars off of writing

contemporary Christian music. I'm done with it because it

doesn't have anything to do with God has everything to do with I

want to write something that's going to be really popular,

right? I want to write something that's

going to get me a lot of of of view so I can make a lot of

money from this. I want to write a song that

everybody's singing, right? And one of the points that he

brought up is he said if, if all of this music and, and all these

contemporary people would say that they're trying to do it to,

to glorify Christ. But this is what he said.

This is a, this is one of the guys who has made it to the top

of the contemporary Christian music world, who is one of the

most popular contemporary Christian musicians right now.

And he said, if it's all about Christ, then why do we all

travel with our huge production teams that are videoing us from

every angle and trying to capture every corner of every

part of the stage so that it can be zoomed in on and, and, and

can and can lift up the singer and you can zoom right in on

their face if you want to said, if it's all about Christ, then

why do why are we making it all about us?

That's coming from a guy who is making it all about him, right?

But at least even he understands when you get a video production

crew that is filming your every move when you're on stage, it's

not about lifting up Christ. It's about lifting up the

performer at that point. And that's that's again, that's

why we don't do those things. There's there, there are things,

you know, those things are, are the way of performance and

entertainment. It's not the way of true

worship, which isn't that what singing is all about?

We're singing to the Lord, singing in your hearts, making

melody in your hearts to the Lord, right?

Isn't that exactly what that verse says?

So is it about him or is it about me?

Is it about lifting up his name or is it about people applauding

my performance? What?

What's your motivation behind why you're doing what you're

doing? And those are all things that we

have to think about all things being done unto edification

means that every song should be selected because of its message.

If the if the message is theologically wrong, we

shouldn't be singing it. I'll be honest with you.

The Battle of Hymn of the Republic.

Go look at the theological message in the battle of Hymn of

the Republic. It's about as messed up

theologically as it can possibly be.

You know, it's in song books. It's in good song books.

It shouldn't be sung because it the theology in that song is not

good theology. It doesn't line up with God's

Word. There's no edification.

There's a song I remember hearing growing up come to the

church in the Wildwood. Remember that song?

It's weak. It's just nothing to it.

There's no edification in that. It comes to the church in the

Wildwood. Where's the church in the

Wildwood have for me to even go to.

And really that's all it. That's kind of all it talks

about. You know, there's a there's,

there's, there's other songs that fit in with that category.

But when we're choosing sacred music, when we're choosing songs

to sing a special especially, they should be songs that have

edification, something that's going to edify the people who

are listening to it, glorify God, edify the body of Christ.

All things being done into edification means there must be

education. And when I say that, I mean

this. If the message of the song is

spiritual, but it's couched in words that that the people who

are listening can't understand, then there's still no

edification. And, and some of the old hymns

have some things in it that are like that.

And I'm not saying that we should stop singing the old

hymns that have those words in them, but there has to be

education. So explain what that means,

right? You have songs like A Mighty

Fortress is Our God. And in that song it says

something about Lord Sabayoth is his name.

What does that mean? If you're singing it unto

edification, then we should know what that means, right?

So if you're going to sing the song, explain it right here.

I raise my Ebenezer. What is that Christmas Carol?

You know, Scrooge, is that what we're talking about in that

song? No.

What does Ebenezer mean? No, Ebenezer means hitherto hath

the Lord helped us, right? So if we're going to edify,

maybe say, hey, I want you to think about the words of this

song. But there's a phrase in here

that says, here I raise my Ebenezer.

This is what this song, this is what that means.

Now it's edifying, right? So there has to be some

education in those things as well.

You know, other songs that that speak of Beulah land.

What is Beulah land? All right, we, we need to, we

need to have the edification in those things.

So unless the meanings of the words are known by the

congregation, there's not much edification.

Nothing wrong with that. But that's where, you know, the

song leader can briefly mention it.

Brian does that sometimes I do it.

We try to try to edify through the singing.

You've heard me say it many times.

Think about the words while we sing this last verse.

All right, because what is the purpose of congregational

singing edification, right, If all you're doing is just singing

the so I'll cling to the old rugged cross.

I wonder what's going to happen after church.

So I'll you're not being edified by that song, right?

But if I, as the song leaders say, think about the words to

this last verse, now you're like, oh, what's in this last

verse that I need to be thinking about, right?

Why is he saying that? It puts the focus where it

belongs on the words to the song.

And now you're focused on the cross.

Cling to the old rugged cross till my trophies At last I lay

down. You know some of these songs,

especially if you've been in church for any length of time,

we've sung them so many times that you don't even think about

the beauty of the words and the, and the, the depth of the

theology in those songs. I'll cling to the old rugged

cross till my trophies. At last I lay down.

I'll cling to the old rugged cross.

And what is it that now, now the words are escaping my head.

Yeah. Exchange it someday for a crown,

right? What does that, what does that

mean? All the things that I'm doing on

this earth, I'm not doing. I'm going to lay those down at

his feet and he's going to give me a crown of righteousness and

A and, and this crown and that crown that I can earn, right?

There's a lot of theology and there's a lot of doctrine and

there's a lot of edification in those songs.

If I'm really thinking about the words now, I want to go out

there and earn those things for the Lord so that I can lay those

down at his feet someday, right. And and not every song is going

to be really theologically deep or not every song is going to be

really, you know, have have tons of edification in it, but it

should have edification in it. There should be something of

value in that song for for those who are listening to it.

So all things being done in the edification means that the

people must be taught and reminded to think about the

words in the song. I just mentioned that and, and

put your attention on the edification from the words.

And that's that. So, so they, the music should

point to the message. The message should be 1 of

doctrinal, doctrinally correct edification.

That's what we're, that's what we're aiming at.

That's what our goal ought to be.

Let me give you one more #8 and we will have to finish this

later because I got a good bit more for you, but #8 church

music must not produce a charismatic style mystical

experience. Let's turn over to first Peter.

I got 2 verses for you there. I'll give you a couple points

about this and then we'll be done.

First Peter chapter 1. First Peter chapter 1.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention 1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Church music must not produce a charismatic style mystical

experience, which is, I'll be honest with you, most of what

the contemporary Christian music, the non denominational

church is trying to do with their music.

They're trying to create this mystical experience to try to

make you feel like I entered the presence of the Lord today,

right? They're trying to drum that up

with the music and they're almost like they're putting you

into a trance. It's one of the reasons why they

use all the lights and everything else is dim.

You know, you can't see anything in front of you except the, the

big stage and all the lights and you know, all the, the, the

walls and the ceiling and everything is painted black.

And you focus only on the front because we're going to draw you

into this experience and you're going to enjoy it and you're

going to walk out of here feeling like you worship God

today. We're trying to avoid that first

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Peter chapter 1. Now you should feel like men.

That was that was wonderful. We worship the Lord, you know,

singing he's Emmanuel, the God of all the ages come in human

flesh. I mean, we should walk out of

here and say, man, that's a that's a great song.

That's powerful, but it's not this mystical, charismatic style

experience. First Peter chapter one, verse

13. Wherefore gird up the loins of

your mind, Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to

be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

First Peter 58. It's another one that you

recognize hopefully and most of you know it and you see the same

word in there. Be sober, be vigilant, because

your adversary of the devil as a roaring lion walketh about

seeking whom he may devour to this this contemporary music,

you know, contemporary worship music is designed to create this

emotional experience, a sensual experience, as opposed to sacred

music that is edifying through the understanding.

So it's designed to carry the people who are listening to it

through this emotional experiences roller coaster.

And if you notice, if you, if you've listened to any kind of

contemporary Christian music at all.

And, and I, you know, I've only done it because I, you know,

want to see what, what are they doing at Hillsong?

What are they doing at Bethel? What are they doing in

elevation? You know, those, those kind of

things. And so, I mean, I couldn't tell

you any songs that they sing, but what you notice about

everyone is it starts off really low, draws you in, and then it

starts to build, build, build, build, build, build, build,

build. It almost gets to a crescendo

and then it goes back down. Then it builds you back up

again, builds you back up again, builds you back up again.

Then it goes back down until eventually by the time you get

to the third time through those 7 words, you're rocking the

place out and it's as loud as it can possibly be and then it goes

back down again. It's, it's designed to take you

on this roller coaster where you just right.

I mean, it's what it's designed to do.

It's drawing you through this emotional experience.

I saw AI don't know, I guess it was a meme.

I don't know. It was a guy that had 7 pencils

all tied together. Is that this how worship

musicians write their songs? And he's writing, you know, the

seven lines with 7 pencils all at the same time.

You know, and, and honestly, that's a lot of what it is.

They're not saying anything. It's the music.

And what you don't understand, what most of these people don't

understand, is that you are being manipulated by the music.

The words aren't even saying anything.

You're not being, you're not being drawn into the presence of

God because the mute, the words are so doctrinally rich.

You're being drawn through an emotional experience and you're

being manipulated by the music and you don't even realize it.

So you walk out saying, wow, we worship God today.

No, you didn't worship God. You got manipulated by the music

and you got taken on a on a roller coaster ride through the

words and you felt like you had any Worshipful experience

because you were on their emotional roller coaster that

they took you through. Graham Kendrick, he's one of the

biggest names in contemporary worship and and or at least was

for a for a long time, but this is what he said.

He had an interview with a guy who was like a music producer.

He said the old way of preaching and singing began to give way to

an experience that God would visit us and we'd be ex.

We'd experience his presence in a tangible sort of way.

That's what they're trying to do.

They're just trying to try to make you feel like you can reach

out and touch God, right. And if we can just, if we can

use the music to just bring him right there and you can just

reach out and touch him, then you've had that emotional

experience and you'll come back again because you want to

experience that high again. It's like drugs, you know,

you'll never, you'll never experience the same high, but

you'll keep trying to get it right.

And, and that's what the, and that's why most people in these

non denominational churches last for four, 5-6 years.

And then they start thinking something's not right about

this. It's empty, it's hollow.

Why is that? Because they got you that

emotional high and now you're trying to get to it and you

never quite have that same emotional high and eventually it

fizzles out and the next thing you know, you got to go find

another place. And wow, this is wonderful.

Look at this worship experience that we had.

It goes to the same roller coaster all the way through

again. But to that end, a lot of these

contemporary musicians use music with the sensual dance rhythms

in it. They use music with with non

resolving chord cadences. You ever listen to one of these

contemporary songs and you know, if I try to think of and

exchange it someday for crown, right.

That's that's what it that's what resolving is.

But a lot of the a lot of the pop music does this, but a lot

of yours contemporary Christian music does the same thing and

it's not the exact words, but and exchange it someday for and

you're like, and it just leaves you hanging there.

Non resolving chords. That's it.

That is a that is a pattern of contemporary Christian music,

right. And it obviously they're not

just going to not say crown at the end of that song.

It's different words and everything else, but it's non

resolving chord patterns. And that's one of the that's

that's that's an easy way that you can tell a contemporary

style of music. It's it's non resolving.

You also have, you know, other things that go along with that

repetition, obviously electronic modulation, other elements so

that people get carried away emotionally.

It's designed to take you on that emotional roller coaster.

And we should reject any church music that's designed to create

a highly emotional state or, you know, anything that produces any

sort of hypnotic effect. But the Bible, as we just read

in first Peter One and first Peter 5, it tells us to be sober

minded and not to allow anything to capture our hearts and our

souls other than God in his word.

We're not supposed to open ourselves up unquestionably to

any force or experience, but we're supposed to test

everything by the standard of God's Word.

So we refuse to be controlled by highly emotional music.

And if you're going to refuse to be controlled by highly

emotional music, then you will naturally reject anything that

has to do with contemporary Christian music because 99% of

that music is emotional control. And that's why people like it,

right? That's why, that's why we have

to fight the flesh when it comes to listening to rock music or

any of those kind of things. You ever, you ever notice you're

sitting in a place and a song comes on and you don't even know

the song, but the next thing you know, you're doing this with it,

right? Why is that?

And then you're like, wait a second, what?

What is it? Where's that coming from?

Oh, there's music playing, right.

You didn't even notice that the song, you don't even know the

song, but but that music drives you to to do those things,

right? It's those are sensual things.

Those are things that you know, and, and, and what happens then

is and, and, and that's the way that rock music is designed.

It's, it's designed to get you to gyrate your body and do all

of those other kind of things, right.

So that's why even like 50s, sixties, 70's rock, I mean,

that's, that's what it was designed to do, is designed to

get you to move your body in sensual ways.

And then you take that music and you put Christian words with it,

but the music didn't stop doing what it was originally intended

to do. And so now, I mean, I was, I saw

a clip from somewhere and, and this girl, it was, I don't even

know what song it was. I don't know.

I have no idea what group it was or anything like that singing

this, this, you know, contemporary Christian music

song. And she was down here like this,

you know, and throw her hair back and do all this stuff

because that that's what the music is telling you to do,

right? Is that honoring to God?

Is that is that really music that is bringing glory to him?

No, it's, it's because the music is taking you through this

experience that's telling you exactly how you should feel and

telling you exactly what you should do with your body, right?

Can you do that when you're singing the Old Rugged Cross?

You can't even do that if you want to when you're singing the

old Rugged Cross because the music doesn't push you into

that, right? There's nothing that the music

makes you do that that is displeasing to the Lord.

And what what I'm trying to get you to understand is that music

is powerful, and just because you put Christian words with it

does not make it right. And so we have to reject

anything that even comes close to sounding like the world

that's going to pull us away from the sacred music sound that

comes from songs and through songs like The Old Rugged Cross

and Jesus Loves Me and Victory in Jesus.

You can't gyrate to those songs if you want to, because the

music doesn't let you do that, let alone make you do that,

right? Do you understand the difference

between sacred music and worldly secular music that is designed

to make you do those things right?

And, and, and again, you don't even have to understand music to

know exactly what I'm talking about.

You know that that music is very, very powerful in that way.

And so I go back to what I said at the beginning.

Music is, has way more control over us than many of us are

willing to admit. Music, music has so much more to

do with how you worship and who you're actually worshipping

through the song. Then we realize it does in many

cases. So everything that we do must be

tested through God's word. Are these principles in this

song? Does this song go against the

principles of God's word? Does it sound like pop music?

Does it does it move me in this emotional experience?

And again, nothing wrong with, you know, we saying or we listen

to the song love let him go when we when we have our communion

service. It's a very emotional song, but

it's not emotional in the way that it's taking me up and down.

It's emotional because I'm thinking about the words love,

let him go to the cross. Love, let him leave his throne

so all the world would know, right?

It's emotional because the words are, are scriptural and

scriptural and are, and are driving me to think about Christ

and what he did. That's why it's emotional.

It's not emotional because the music is drawing me up and down

and doing all these things, right?

We're not having these, these, you know, fainting spells and

things like that. It might bring a tear to your

eye because you, you're thinking about the fact that Christ died

on the cross for me, right? So I'm not saying that you can't

be moved by a song, but what's moving you?

If the music is moving you, then you're being manipulated

emotionally and you're being taken on this roller coaster and

throwing some Christian words with it and calling it a worship

experience. And it's not a worship

experience. It's a music manipulation

experience to make you want to keep coming back and going after

that high again. So important thing to understand

is that church music must not produce a charismatic style

mystical experience where you know, where you're, you know,

doing all these other things that that the world does.

You know, you ever seen a mosh pit?

People are just dancing around and head banging and all that

kind of stuff. The music is doing that right.

A lot of times you can't even tell what they're saying because

you can't hear it right. You, you, unless you've listened

to the words of that song enough times, you don't even know what

the, what they're saying, but you're doing all this head

banging and everything else. Why is that?

Because the music is doing that. The music is very powerful.

So then to take that and put Christian words with it and

expect that God's going to be pleased, It's like a, it's like

the music version of an oxymoron.

It just doesn't happen, right? It doesn't make any sense that

those two don't go together. So then if those two, those two

don't go together, then where do we find our principles to make

sure that, all right, where is that line drawn?

If this is secular music and this is sacred music, where is

that line? Well, that's what these

principles are. That's what, that's where our

music standards are. And with most things, we've set

our standards, or we at least try to set our standards pretty

high because we don't want to. We don't want to be anywhere

near where the world's music is. We want to be, I would rather

air on the side of sacred and get to heaven and find out that

we could have probably done a little bit more music that we

didn't do than to get to heaven and find out that we were on the

other side of that. And we did music that was not

pleasing to the Lord because we wanted to add to it.

There are hundreds, maybe not hundreds of thousands, but there

are thousands and thousands of good songs that we can sing.

We don't need the world's music. We don't need the contemporary

Christian music. We don't need that to be able to

bring honor and glory to the Lord.

There are, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of

songs to choose from, from all the hymn books that have been

written over the last 300 years. Some of the songs that are being

written today, you know, we've, you know, as a choir, we, we've

sung quite a few songs in the last few months that are not in

any hymn book because they're relatively new, but they're

great songs. The music is OK.

The, the, the words are doctrinally correct.

They're edifying. My hope is Jesus, all right, I

mean, that's that what that's how you test a song to find out

if is this OK to sing in church? Is this OK for me to listen to?

Is this something that that God would be comfortable, Jesus

Christ would be comfortable sitting there listening to with

me, right, Those are these are these are and I've got some more

of these that I'll that I'll share with you next Sunday that

that are principles that that you need to test every song,

right, that that you listen to to make sure they're pleasing to

the Lord. If that's our goal, then

everything should fit in to that standard.

And music is one of those. Music is, is is paramount in

those because it controls so much else.

I'm done. But you think about it, Why?

You know, why is it that the music is always the first thing

to go in a church? Before a church gets away from

the King James Bible, before a church drops their standards,

before a church turns off all the lights and paints all the

walls black? What goes the music, right?

The music goes first because it's the easiest place to allow

that contemporary side to come in.

It's the easiest thing to give way in if we are not careful and

if we're not paying attention to what we allow in the church.

It should be sacred music. We'll give you some more

principles of music next week, but hopefully that's a help to

you and we'll finish up next time.

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. Thank you for the opportunity

that we have to be here tonight. Got to thank you for the fact

that we can go to Your Word and we can find these principles

that help us with music. God, may we be a church not for

the sake of being able to say that, oh, we have these high

standards in music or we do this or we do that.

May we have these standards in music so that everything that we

sing, everything that we play is pleasing to you, is edifying to

the church and is honoring to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And may everything that we do lift him up and may may you be

pleased by the the things that we try to do in this area of

music that would honor and glorify Christ.

Again, we thank you for all that you do for us in Jesus name,

Amen, If you would stand.