2026 Summer Gospel Meeting: James Luedecke - Restoring the Type of Music God Asks For in the Church

Thank you for being here tonight Thank you for

coming out to support the gospel meeting at North

Warren Your presence here tonight your participation

in the service through song and prayer helps

make this gospel meeting a success and It's very

uplifting to us to have you here if you consider

yourself a guest a visitor We want to give you

a warm welcome. We're especially glad you're

here. We hope you can come back and continue

to be a part of this gospel meeting as it goes

forward the rest of the week. This week we've

been talking about a topic that we feel like

is very important. We've been talking about restoring

New Testament Christianity. We see a desperate

need in the religious world around us to restore

the church that Jesus built, and we have a strong

desire to do our part in restoring Christ's church.

And we are convinced and convicted that the only

true way to go about accomplishing that goal

and mission is to simply go back to the Bible

so that we can find our faith, we can find our

doctrine, and we can find our practice. Tonight

we're going to go ahead in our series of studies

and we're going to talk about restoring the type

of music that God wants in the church. What kind

of music has God asked us for? Whatever kind

of music God has asked us to offer him in the

church That's what we want to discover from the

scriptures and whatever that music is. That's

the kind of music we want to give to God now

before we go any further in this lesson, I want

us to be I Want it I want it to be clear. I don't

want it to be misunderstood I want us to have

a laser like focus on Exactly what we're trying

to discover from the scriptures concerning music

And just to reiterate, we want to restore the

type of music God wants in the church. We are

not interested in restoring the type of music

that God may have asked the Jews for in centuries

gone by during that old covenant law that they

lived under and worshipped according to. We're

not interested in restoring Old Testament worship

or the music that the Jews gave to God under

the old covenant. You know, in 2 Chronicles 29

-25 the Bible tells us in the days of King Hezekiah

that he the king set the Levites, that was the

priests, in the house of the Lord with cymbals,

with psalteries, and with harps. And this was

done according to the commandment of David the

king, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan

the prophet, for so was the commandment of the

Lord by his prophets. It's easy for us to see

from this verse that under that old covenant

law, during the days of King Hezekiah, God asked

his people, the Jews, to worship him with instruments

of music. He commanded it through the king, through

the seers, through the prophets. The Bible says

it was the commandment of the Lord. God wanted

that type of music at that time from his people,

the Jews, and so he asked them to worship him

with instruments. But you know, we don't live

under that old covenant law today. We don't worship

according to the practices of the Old Testament

Paul tells us in Galatians 3 24 wherefore the

law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ

that we might be justified by faith But after

that faith has come he says we are no longer

under a schoolmaster We understand Christ came

and brought a new and better covenant And that's

the covenant that we live under today as Christians,

and that's the covenant we worship according

to. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 6 talks about that

Hebrews 8:6

covenant, where it says, But now hath he that's

Jesus obtained a more excellent ministry, by

how much also he that's Christ is the mediator

of a better covenant, which was established upon

better promises. We have a new and better covenant

today that Christ has brought us. And so we don't

turn back to the shadows of that old covenant

law for guidance on how to worship God. Not when

Jesus came and took that law out of the way and

brought a new better covenant for Christians

today. Here's something else I want you to understand.

We do not wish to try to restore the type of

music which may or may not be in heaven. You

know in Revelation chapter five verses eight

to nine, the book of Revelation describes a vision

that the apostle John had. John had many visions

and they're recorded in Revelation. And in one

of those visions, John sees twenty four elders

surrounding the throne of God. And these elders

have golden vials and they have harps and they're

playing their harps and they're singing to God.

Now we don't try to deny the fact that John had

this vision of 24 elders playing harps around

the throne of God in Revelation chapter 5. However,

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

we do have to remember something about the book

of Revelation. In Revelation 1 .1 the Bible says

that it was a revelation given to John by Jesus

through his angel and the message was sent and

signified or it was revealed in signs and symbols

to the Apostle John who wrote Revelation. And

as it is with many things in the book of Revelation,

a lot of the language is figurative and symbolic

in nature. Just as those golden vials in Revelation

5, 8, and 9 are symbolic of the prayers of the

saints, it is most likely that those harps are

not literal harps, but more symbolic of the praise

that the saints offer to God. So we're not interested

in an inquiry into whether or not there's going

to be literal harps or literal instruments of

music in heaven. I think that's probably another

lesson for another time and that's a controversial

question. But we're really not interested in

what kind of music may or may not be in heaven.

We're also not interested or we don't wish to

restore whatever type of music might be the most

popular. or the most preferred in Christianity

or even in our own congregations. It's not about

what's trendy, it's not about what's popular,

it's not about the kind of music that we like.

Again, our focus is on this, restoring the type

of music that God asks us to give him when we

come together in the assemblies of the church.

I will, before we move on past this introduction,

I will make a few points though. I want to draw

a few points from some of the things I've shared

with you tonight. If there are literal instruments

of music in heaven, if that's true, then we know

that God is quite familiar with instrumental

music, isn't he? And you know, if God commanded

the Jews to worship Him with instruments under

the law, and He did in 2 Chronicles 29 -25, that

tells us that God is very capable. He is quite

capable of communicating to His people what He

wants for worship. And all that being said, it

leads us to two very important questions. And

the questions are these. What kind of music does

God want from us as Christians today? when we

discover that type of music that God wants us

to give him as Christians will we be satisfied

to give the word give God the worship the music

that he has asked for that he desires regardless

of what we might want to do for music or what

we might desire to give God for worship those

are the two questions we're going to concern

ourselves with tonight as we go through this

lesson As we've done tonight in the course of

this meeting, we're gonna take a very careful

methodical approach to considering this practice.

We're gonna follow a four -step approach when

it comes to restoring God's plan for music in

the church. The first step is this. We're gonna

go to the New Testament. and find God's plan

for music as it was originally revealed to the

New Testament church. And when we do that, we

find a pattern of singing music. God's original

plan and pattern for music in the church was

a pattern of singing music. We'll look at some

verses which illustrate this. Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 5:18–20

5 verses 18 to 20. It tells us there to be not

drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled

with the Spirit. It says speaking to yourselves

in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing

and making melody in your heart to the Lord,

giving thanks always for all things unto God

and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus

Christ. Bible tells us here to speak to one another

and to give thanks to God by singing psalms,

hymns, and spiritual songs. Almost identical

to what he told the Colossians. He told the church

at Colossi and Colossians 3 16 He said 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 he says

with grace in your hearts to the Lord Now he

told the Colossians here that they were to teach

and they were to admonish one another Through

the same exercise through singing Psalms hymns

spiritual songs. Also in the book of James, James

5 13. Book of James 5 13 says, is any among you

afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him

sing psalms. The message is clear. During the

hard times, what do God's people do? We pray.

During the happy times, what do we do? Tells

us to sing, sing psalms. First Corinthians 14

1 Corinthians 14:15

verse 15. 1st Corinthians 14 is a very interesting

chapter. It gives us a lot of guidance and instruction

on how to conduct ourselves in the assemblies

of the church. If you're interested in that,

come back Saturday night. We're gonna do an in

-depth dive into 1st Corinthians 14 and look

at what it teaches us about the proper teaching

that needs to take place when the church assembles.

But there's a verse in 1st Corinthians 14 that

also speaks to singing. OK, in the greater context

of this passage is the assembly. First Corinthians

14, 15, Paul tells the Corinthians, What is it

then? I will pray with the spirit and I will

pray with the understanding also. He says, I

will sing with the spirit and I will sing with

the understanding also. Here, the Bible mentions

Paul, he references singing in the assembly and

doing so both with the spirit and with the understanding.

So the pattern that we see in these New Testament

scriptures, the pattern for music is very clear.

It's consistent. It's a pattern for singing music

to God. We also find in these verses that God

tells us to sing this music and offer it up from

our hearts. We sing from the heart we saw that

in Ephesians 5 19 where it says speaking to yourselves

and Psalms hymns and spiritual songs singing

and Making melody where he says make melody in

your heart to the Lord notice where the melody

is made Notice where the music comes from that

we offer up to God the Bible says that we make

that melody in our heart It doesn't mean mention

making that melody in a piano. It doesn't mention

making that melody in a guitar It doesn't mention

making that melody in a trumpet. It tells us

to sing to God and make the melody. The music

comes from our hearts. We also saw this in Colossians

3, 16, where he says, Teach and admonish one

another in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs,

singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Again, the music, the praise comes forth from

our hearts in the form of singing and Giving

praise to God through song We also find in the

New Testament pattern for music the idea that

God wants us to give him a sacrifice of praise

and That praise is to come forth in the form

of the fruit of our lips or the words that we

sing to God This is in Hebrews chapter 13 verse

Hebrews 13:15

15 where it says by him. That's Jesus Therefore,

let us offer the sacrifice of praise God wants

us to give him a sacrifice of praise. He wants

us to give it to him continually, and then he

goes on to describe here what that is. He says

that is the fruit of our lips. The fruit of our

lips, the words that we sing, the praise that

we offer up with our voices, the fruit of our

lips giving thanks to his name. That's the sacrifice

of praise God is looking for when we come together

in the assembly. We praise him with the fruit

of our lips. Now something that we do notice

as we're looking at all these New Testament scriptures

which speak to God's plan for music We see a

pattern for singing singing that music from the

heart Offering God a sacrifice of praise as being

the fruit of our lips But we don't find any mention

of any kind of mechanical instruments of music

being involved God's plan or pattern for music

for the New Testament Church every scripture

to my knowledge in the New Testament which speaks

to the type of music God wants us to give him

in the church it always mentioned singing of

music did you notice that that that was the consistent

theme in all of these verses it was always about

singing speaking teaching words coming forth

in Psalms hymns and spiritual long Psalms, hymns

and spiritual songs coming from our heart, coming

forth as the fruit of our lips. The common thread

and theme is God has just asked us to sing the

music. None of the scriptures in the New Testament

which speak to the type of music God wants in

the church mention the playing of any instruments

whatsoever. Now when God wanted instrumental

music as we mentioned in second Chronicles 29

25 when he wanted the Jews to play musical instruments

as part of their worship God asked for that type

of worship and his people obeyed the commandment

of God But the commandment of God for new covenant

Christians today is not that we play instruments

of music The type of music God wants from Christians

today under the New Testament, He wants us to

sing music apparently without the use of instruments.

Otherwise, He would have mentioned instrumental

music in the New Testament. But since He's just

asked us to sing, we hear His command and we

try to respond in obedience. That's why when

we come together at North Warren Church of Christ,

we don't have a guitar, we don't have drums,

we don't have a piano, we just give God the type

of music He's asked for, we just sing. Now before

we move on I just want to answer a few commonly

offered objections To some of the things that

we're teaching tonight Some have said that the

Greek word for Psalms as we read it in Ephesians

5 19 that that Greek word for Psalms implies

singing music with instruments You know, some

have claimed this and some have brought this

to our attention, that the word Psalms implies

or infers that God wants us to use instruments.

Okay, as it is with every statement, we need

to honestly consider it. So let's consider this

idea. Let's look at the Greek word for Psalms

and let's see if this is true. The Greek word

for Psalms in Ephesians 5 .19 is the Greek noun,

psalmos. If you go to a Greek lexicon and study

the Greek word psalmos, here's the definition

of the word. Psalmos simply refers to a set piece

of music that is a sacred ode. That's a Greek

definition for psalmos. A psalmos is just a set

piece of music. Now, if you study psalmos a little

bit deeper, here's a fact that you will find.

This Greek noun, psalmos, can in fact refer to

both vocal music and it can refer to instrumental

music. Why? Because psalmos is just a piece of

music. It doesn't really tell us whether or not

the music is being sung or the music is being

played. It's just talking about a piece of music.

So in Ephesians 5 19 the question then becomes,

which is it? Is it vocal music when it says psalmos

or is it instrumental music when it says psalmos

in Ephesians 5 19? Here's what we got to do.

If we will look carefully at the context of that

passage, It'll tell us what type of music is

under consideration. So let's go back and do

that. Let's look at Ephesians 5 19 It says speaking

to yourselves in Psalms Greek word psalmos Speaking

to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual

songs singing it says These psalms were psalms

for speaking these psalms were psalms for singing

So the context here is telling us that psalmos,

meaning a set piece of music, is talking about

a piece of music that's to be sung. There's no

reference to playing music. There's no reference

to any musical instrument in this verse. So the

context is telling us that the psalmos, the piece

of music, is being sung. It's not being played.

One more objection that's commonly offered before

we move on is the idea that the Greek word another

Greek word in the same verse Ephesians 5 19 the

Greek word for making melody Implies that we

should play instruments. Well, let's let's give

that some consideration for just a moment Let's

look at the Greek word for making melody in Ephesians

5 19 the Greek word for making melody in that

verse is a Greek verb an action word, solo, P

-S -A -L -L -O, solo. You know what solo means?

Here's the definition of solo. Remember it's

an action, it's a verb. It means to pluck, to

twang, or to cause to vibrate. That's what the

Greek word solo means. It's translated making

melody in Ephesians 5 .19. Now it is true, it

is also very true that yes, a stringed musical

instrument can be soloed. It can be plucked,

it can be twanged, you can make its strings vibrate.

That is true. You could take a guitar and solo

it. When you play it, you vibrate its strings.

But let me tell you, there are so many other

objects that can be soloed just as well as a

guitar. And if you study ancient Greek literature,

here's just a few examples from ancient Greek

literature. Ancient Greek literature talks about

The plucking of hair, plucking or pulling of

hair and it uses the Greek verb solo, same action.

The literature talks about the twanging of a

bow string and it uses the Greek word solo. Greek

literature talks about the snapping of a carpenter's

line and it uses that same Greek word solo or

it can be vibrating the strings of a harp, the

Greek word is solo. The point I'm trying to make

is this, when we find the Greek word solo, that

verb, meaning to pluck, vibrate, or twang. The

object being plucked, twanged, or vibrated is

never automatically built into that word, solo.

The object receiving the action, the object being

plucked, being twanged, being vibrated is never

automatically built in or baked into the word.

What you got to do is you got to look carefully

at the context. Again, you got to go back and

look at the context to discover what object is

being plucked, twanged, or vibrated. So let's

go and do that in Ephesians 519. You know, it

tells us here again that we're to speak to ourselves

in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. It says

we're to sing and we're to make melody in our

heart to the Lord. There's no guitar. There's

no stringed instrument to be plucked, to be twanged.

It only mentions singing and speaking and making

melody in our heart. Think it's clear that it's

the vibration of our vocal cords that's associated

with singing from the heart. That's how we make

melody That's how we solo according to the context

of the passage So we can try to read these words

and read these passages and study these Greek

verbs and these Greek nouns and say that they

imply instruments Well, we the instruments are

not there The instruments are not there And so

these objections fall short of proving that God

wants us to worship Him with instruments. Let's

move on in our lesson now. Now that we've considered

the original New Testament pattern for music,

we're going to do a brief survey and study of

church history to see how error slowly evolved

in the church concerning God's plan for music.

Here are some facts we want to establish. The

church worshiped with acapella music for the

first 600 years of its history. For 600 years,

all of God's people came together and they just

sang, just like we did tonight. And that testimony

of early church history is very, very clear.

600 years of a cappella singing. In fact, the

word a cappella comes from a Latin word, which

means in the church chapel. When you hear people

talk about a cappella singing, it's talking about

the singing of the church or the singing of the

chapel, which for 600 years of church history.

was singing without the use of instrumental music.

Now I want to just briefly show you some proof

of this as I go back and refer to some of the

early church fathers and different teachers in

the church through history which spoke to the

type of music that they had in their time in

the churches. This is Clement of Alexandria in

202 AD. He wrote this. He said, Leave the pipe

to the shepherd, the flute to the superstitious

men who are engrossed in idol worship. Such instruments

must be excluded, he said. We make use of one

instrument alone, the word of peace by which

we honor God. So there's an early third century

church leader saying, we don't worship with instruments

of music. We just use our voice that God gave

us to worship Him. Eusebius of Caesarea around

the year 300 A .D. Eusebius was a historian.

He recorded a lot of history the first 400 years

of the church. He did that on behalf. He was

a devout Christian, but he recorded that history

for the Roman Empire and its leaders. And this

is what Eusebius said about music in the church

in his time. He says, of old among the Jews,

it was not inappropriate to send up hymns to

God with the psaltery and the sithera. It's an

ancient guitar -like musical instrument. He says,

but we render our hymn with a living psaltery

and a living sithera with spiritual songs. This

is Eusebius saying, you know, the Jews used to

worship God with instruments, but we as Christians

don't do that. We just sing to God. John Chrysostom

in 397 AD, he wrote this, David formerly sang

songs. Also we sing today with him. He had a

lyre with lifeless strings or a harp with lifeless

strings. The church has a lyre or a harp with

living strings. Our tongues are the strings of

this lyre. Again, all the way to about 400 AD,

the testimony of early church history is that

they just sang songs to God and didn't use instruments

of music. But eventually we come to a point in

church history where instruments became slowly

added into the worship of God in the church.

Around the year about 650, middle of the seventh

century, some of the very first pipe organs were

introduced into some Roman Catholic churches.

However, history tells us that their use was

somewhat rare, it was very controversial, and

it was not widely accepted when it first began

to be introduced in 650 AD. It would take about

another 600 years, another 600 years before the

organ was commonly used and accepted in most

churches by about 1300 AD. It's interesting to

note, however, that the Eastern Greek Orthodox

churches resisted the change to instrumental

music in the church, and they never adopted instrumental

music at all in their churches. I believe to

this day, the Greek Eastern Orthodox Church still

sings a cappella. So, slowly over a period of

1 ,300 years, primarily from 650 AD to 1300 AD,

instruments were slowly added into the worship

of God. However, like I mentioned, it was very

controversial and many people in the church opposed

this change, this departure, this deviation away

from God's original plan for singing. They oppose

the addition of these instruments of music. Now,

I'm just going to give you a sampling of a few

of their disputes and their opposition to this

practice. John of Salisbury around the year 1159

A .D. He wrote this. He said, When you hear the

organs and the voices, you might think yourself

in a theater rather than a church. He didn't

think very highly of the instruments at all.

He said it was almost like being in a theater

rather in a church. Thomas Aquinas probably the

foremost Catholic theologian of the Middle Ages

in 1270 AD. Now this is coming to around the

year 1300 when the organs were becoming very

very common in Catholic churches. But yet look

at what Thomas Aquinas wrote. He said in the

old law God was praised both with musical instruments

and human voices. He said but the church does

not use musical instruments to praise God. Even

as Thomas Aquinas sees all the churches slowly

bringing in pipe organs. He still writes That

the church doesn't use instruments of music or

shouldn't use instruments of music to praise

God John Calvin the founder of reformed theology

and the doctrine of Calvinism A lot of modern

-day churches such as Presbyterian Church have

their roots back to the teaching and doctrine

of Calvin Calvin wrote this musical instruments

and celebrating the praises of God would be no

more suitable than the burning of incense, the

lighting of lamps and the restoration of other

shadows of the law. So even Calvin himself was

opposed to Christians worshiping God with instruments.

Yet a lot of the churches that were founded on

Calvin's doctrine and theology worship God with

instruments today. John Wesley. in the 1750s.

He's quoted by Clark as saying, I have no objection

to instruments of music in our chapels provided

they are neither heard nor seen. He said, I don't

have any problem with instruments of music in

the church as long as we don't have to see them

or hear them. John Wesley and his brother Charles

are considered the founders of modern -day Methodism.

The Methodist church has its roots back to the

Wesley brothers. To my knowledge, the Methodist

Church today worships God with instruments, although

their founders have this to say about it. Charles

Spurgeon, a prolific preacher of the 19th century,

considered one of the maybe the greatest Baptist

preachers who ever lived. Here's what he said.

He said, When Jesus gives us spiritual food,

one can make melody without strings and pipes.

We do not need them. He says, Sing unto him.

This is the sweetest and best music. No instrument

like the human voice. Most Baptist churches today

worship God with instruments of music, despite

the fact that Spurgeon said, you know, we don't

need them. Just sing unto him. That's the best

music of all. So, this is just the testimony

of men. And again, I don't want you to misunderstand

me. Our authority does not come from men. Our

authority comes from the Word of God. But I'm

just showing you this to help you see. That down

through history what we see today is so common

that many many churches worship God with instruments

of music It has not always been that way in fact

It wasn't that way for 1300 years and even after

instruments came into the church many notable

theologians and teachers and even the founders

of denominational churches Opposed the practice

that is so common today Now let's move forward

to our modern -day practice As we look and consider

music in Christianity today, as it's offered

in many different churches, what things do we

see? Well, unfortunately and sadly, we see many

churches today who offer entertainment, but they

market it as worship to God. When at its core,

it's really nothing more than entertainment.

You know, we need to be reminded about worship

and what it really is. Worship is us giving to

God that which pleases Him. Worship is us giving

to God that which pleases him Entertainment is

different than worship Entertainment is us giving

to us what pleases us and I'm not against entertainment

There's a time and a place for good godly wholesome

entertainment But listen, we need to be careful.

We don't confuse worship with entertainment because

there's a big difference Worship is us giving

to God what he wants entertainment is us giving

us what we want It might be hard for you to see

that image, but that was from a recent church

assembly in a mega church in Plano, Texas, where

as part of this concert -like performance, they

had drummers that rappelled like 100 feet from

the ceiling of this church to play their drums

suspended over the audience when the lights and

the smoke and... That's what we're talking about

when we talk about entertainment many churches

today market this and They say this is worship

when it's easy for us to see at its core. It's

nothing more than carnal entertainment Let's

go to second Samuel 6 5 second Samuel 6 5 Bible

tells us in the days of King David when David

moved the ark of the Covenant There's a lesson

that we can learn from David when he moved the

Ark of the Covenant In connection with moving

the Ark of the Covenant the Bible says David

and all the house of the Lord prayed David and

all the house of Israel played before the Lord

on all manner of instruments made of fir wood

even on harps salt trees on timbrels on corn

ants on cymbals a Lot of people today are drawn

to big churches that entertained because they

put on a big show They put on a big show, and

to some degree, we see David here putting on

a big show when he was moving the Ark of the

Covenant. All the instruments came out. David

danced before the Ark, the Bible tells us. All

Israel came out to watch and witness this parade

-like concert, and all the instruments played,

and David danced. And we'll visit the end of

the story in just a few moments. We'll come back

to it and learn the lesson that needs to be learned

from that chapter. But as we look around us today

something else we also see is that the faith

of many people who call themselves Christians

Has been founded on nothing more than dopamine

driven emotional experiences For a lot of people

who call them Christians they have built their

faith on an experience a dopamine driven experience

involving a huge auditorium With massive crowds

right and loud music and bright lights and theatrical

smoke and you know the band You know, it's the

best band in town and it's up there playing and

the music is loud and they they're playing the

number one song on Christian radio and everyone's

got their hands held high and everyone's shouting

hallelujah and this this experience This dopamine

driven experience. This is what many people have

associated with and believe it means to be spiritual

To be involved in an experience like this and

this is what they need To have their relationship

with God they need this type of experience. They

found their faith on emotional experiences because

after all an event like this That's the place

to be. That's the main event. That's the big

show a Lot of people a lot of Christians have

built their faith on this big show Here's what

I want to tell you and I'm we're gonna see this

by going back to 2nd Samuel chapter 6 God does

not always attend the big show and God does not

always approve of the big show If the big show

involves worship that doesn't please him The

whole world could like it and it don't matter

if it doesn't please God if it's not acceptable

to him He's not gonna approve of that big show.

He's not gonna attend the big show We know that

for what happened in second Samuel chapter 6

2 Samuel 6 · chapter mention

remember David was moving the ark the instruments

were playing David was dancing you remember what

happened Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark

of God took hold of it for the oxen shook shook

it and the anger of the Lord was kindled against

Uzzah and God smote him there for his error and

there he died by the ark They put on a big show

God did not approve of their big show Their disregard

for God's word. They weren't moving the ark of

God in the way that he had prescribed in the

law and their disregard for his word made him

very angry and And a man named Uza lost his life

that day because he wasn't careful To do things

God's way Folks we need to be careful to do things

God's way when it comes to giving Him worship,

when it comes to approaching Him and doing things

for Him that are part of our faith doctrine and

practice. Stories like this teach us we need

to be extra careful. And we need to learn a lesson

from Uzzah. We need to be careful about the type

of worship we offer up to God because, you know,

instrumental music, I like bluegrass music. I

like bluegrass music. That's the type of music

I love. And I love it so much, it'd be an easy

jump for me to say, well, if I love it so much,

God should love it as much as I do, and we'll

just bring the bluegrass band in here on Sundays

and just play bluegrass hymns to the Lord. That

would seem right to me. On a certain level, that

would seem very right to me, and that does seem

right to many different religious people, to

just give God the type of music we like. But

you know what Proverbs 14 -12 says? It says,

there's a way which seemeth right unto a man.

There's all kinds of religious ways that seem

right. Just seemed right for Uzzah to touch the

ark. Just seemed right. There's a way which seemeth

right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the

ways of death. We look around us in the religious

world today, and unfortunately, all too often,

worship becomes not about that which pleases

God, but about what pleases us, what pleases

me. And you know, that's not a new thing. It's

an old thing. It goes all the way back, I believe,

to Genesis chapter 4. In Genesis chapter 4, we

Genesis 4 · chapter mention Genesis 4 · chapter mention

read about two brothers, Cain and Abel, the sons

of Adam and Eve. Both brothers, the Bible tells

us, were worshipers of God. They both brought

an offering to the Lord. They brought their sacrifices.

Both brothers were worshipers of God. However,

one brother's worship was accepted, Abel's worship.

One brother's worship, Cain's worship, was rejected.

Cain didn't give God what he wanted. He didn't

give God what he'd asked for and The point is

this you know what if we never sacrifice our

will in any way shape or form In order to embrace

God's will that might be a good sign that our

worship like Cain's might not be acceptable to

God We got to be willing to sacrifice our will

what we want what we think is nice To be able

to take hold of embrace and offer God the type

of worship that's acceptable to him. You in Genesis

4 -3, in the process of time it came to pass

Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering

unto the Lord, but Cain, unto his offering, but

unto Cain, unto his offering, God had not respect.

And Cain was very raw, he was very angry in his

countenance, his attitude fell. God did not accept

Cain's offering, Cain's worship, and God does

not accept self -serving worship today. So we've

talked about God's original plan for music what

he wants music to be in the church We've talked

about how down through the ages of church history

man has strayed away from God's original plan

for music in the church and we've tried to take

an honest assessment of Music in churches today.

The last thing we're going to do is we're going

to talk about how we restore That original pattern

how we get back to giving God the type of music

that He wants, right? That's what we want to

do. If we're going to restore God's pattern for

music in the church, we're going to have to go

back to simply singing music without the use

of musical instruments. Because as we've already

seen, those instruments are not authorized by

the New Testament Scriptures. If we want to worship

God like the church Jesus built, And that's what

we're striving to do. We're going to have to

pay close attention to the New Testament and

what it teaches concerning the pattern of music.

And we read these scriptures earlier in the lesson.

And the pattern is true. It's consistent. The

pattern is singing music, singing music. James

5 13 singing music. First Corinthians 14, Hebrews

13. The pattern is singing over and over again

as we go through these scriptures. Every scripture

in the New Testament which speaks to the type

of music God wants in the church It speaks of

singing music and I'll remind you again. None

of the scriptures in the New Testament which

speak To the music God wants in the church speak

to playing of music If we're going to restore

God's original pattern For music in the church

here. Here's an attitude. We're going to have

to cultivate in our hearts It's not just about

getting back to doing all the right things. Okay

doing the right things is important But you know

Jesus is looking for God is looking for true

worshipers who will worship what in spirit and

in truth We can worship in truth. We could do

all the right things in our worship. We could

sing to God That's a that's worshiping in truth.

That's worshiping according to the Word of God

But if we're not worshiping in spirit What's

the point? We need to be very sincere in our

worship. We need to cultivate the right heart,

mind, and attitude about the music we give to

God. And here's a part of that attitude we need

to cultivate. We can take joy. I think we should

take joy in the music that we give to God in

the church. But the source of that joy, the place

that that joy comes from is this. We need to

have an attitude that says God If I've given

you what you've wanted what you've asked for

for music, and it's made you happy Lord Then

I can be happy knowing I've made you happy Okay

Lord I can take joy in this offering of praise

if I know that you take joy in the praise that

I've given you I do believe we can take joy in

our worship. I don't believe we have to come

here like robots and we have to just sing the

songs and not show any type of joy, any type

of emotion, any type of feeling whatsoever. I

believe there's great joy to be found in singing

praises to God. But it's not a joy that comes

from... it sounds so good to me and we hit all

the notes just right and the four -part harmony

was great and you know I wish we would have recorded

that because we could have sold a million copies

of that and that's not where the joy comes from

the joy should come from knowing that we gave

God what he wants and that he is accepted and

that he is pleased with our worship and Lord

if you're pleased with it we can be pleased with

it Worship is us giving to God what pleases him.

So let's try to be faithful in doing that. Let's

give God what he's asked for He's asked us to

sing music to him. Let's do just that nothing

more and nothing less Let's put our faith and

trust in God's Word. You know faith is trusting

that God's Word is best Despite what I think

what I feel what I want faith is trusting that

what God feels what he thinks what he wants is

best and I just need to follow his word and Give

him what he wants and trust that he is pleased

So let's do our very best to to do just that

to have that type of heart to have that type

of attitude Let's do our very best to restore

the type of music. God wants in the assemblies

of the church