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The mission of Church & Family Life is to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture for both church and family life.
Singing as Worship
Oct. 31, 2013
00:00
-1:01:06
Transcription

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Greg Houston with the following message entitled, Singing as Worship. Well good morning. Thank you for being here this morning. And I'm delighted to be able to open up the Word of God to you on this day and to be able to share with you on singing as worship. I love the passage of scripture in 1 Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy chapter 3, just to frame some of the thoughts for today. 1 Timothy chapter number 3 is the qualifications for the bishop or the elders, the pastors, and the deacons. And at the conclusion of that, there is this admonition from the Apostle Paul, these things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God the pillar and the ground of the truth." Father I pray you'd help us this morning Help us to seek Your Word with regards to singing as worship. Lord, we pray that You would give us wisdom, biblical wisdom, biblical understanding of this most controversial subject in our day.

Lord, help us to hear the scripture and to say in our hearts, yes and amen. Help us to be challenged and changed by your word. Guide my lips and my thoughts. Help me to communicate clearly this morning. Help me to bring glory to you.

Help us all as we learn more about worship to see the one thing that David desired. He might dwell in thy tabernacle and that he might see the beauty of the Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. A house of singing. The psalmist declares in Psalm 100 great truth about singing.

This morning my desire is to bring us to many scriptures to be able to see a pattern that God has laid out. And with the understanding of the passage of scripture that I just read from 1 Timothy, I believe that it is good and right that we would learn in every area how we ought to behave ourselves in the house of God. How we are to rightly order what we do when we come to worship with God's people. When we come to meet with God. And singing is definitely one of those areas where we need some clarity.

I can't pretend to be able to answer all of the questions this morning that we might have with regards to music but I hope I can at least lay a groundwork, lay a foundation about the glory of singing together in congregational worship from both the Old and the New Testament. Psalm 100, a psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing.

Come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations I love Psalm 100 I love the beauty and the exaltation that is found in this psalm, and this understanding that we are to come before the Lord, serving the Lord with gladness, and to come before his presence with singing. That means that when we gather together, when we worship the Lord, we come before the presence of Almighty God. That means we come before the courts of heaven. We come into His presence and He meets with us, I believe, as we assemble together in the house of God, in the church of the living God, as we come together on the Lord's day. And He meets with us in a powerful and in a mighty way.

This morning I want to just lay a little bit of introductory groundwork with regards to gearing our hearts and our minds, which are already filled to overflowing on all subjects regarding the worship of God. I don't know how you feel on day one and a half already complete. It's almost like how much more can we take to fill the cup. I'm not saying it's not been wonderful. I'm just saying it's almost overload at times with all that we're receiving.

And then we get the CDs and we drive home listening to the rest of them and our cup runs over and over and over. But biblical worship is important for us to study. It is important for us to understand, at least to understand better. Biblical worship is a subject as vast as the ocean. I think about the great Pacific where I live.

And as far as the eye can see, just ocean and the sunset at the evening time, the horizon before you. It's vast. So is the subject of worship. I would submit to you that the subject of worship is as vast as the greatness of God because His ways, His glory is unsearchable. And as deep as the deepest parts of the sea, It's vast.

It's worthy of our study. It's worthy of our attention. And this conference will hopefully do a good job in laying a groundwork, but even in this conference we won't exhaust the riches of the truth of the worship of God. Nonetheless, I want to seek to look at the elements of singing as worship in the house of God. Now, unless you've been hiding in a mountain cabin somewhere in Montana for the last 50 years, you understand the great debate in our day regarding worship rests in the area of music in the church.

The conflict has reached epic proportions. It has been dubbed the worship wars, a term you've heard, no doubt, during this conference already. This has had many adverse effects on Christianity at large. Not the least of which has been that the subject of worship has been shrunk down to really only include in most people's minds the subject of music, the subject of singing. When people talk in a casual way as Christians or even in an exuberant way, the worship was wonderful, The worship was awesome.

By and large, people are exclusively talking about music. They're talking about how they were inspired during the time of worship. That's what most people think of when they think of worship amongst Christians in the West. Rarely do Christians in our day speak of reading of Scripture and say, that was so worshipful. And yet, it is something powerful.

Preaching. Well, this sermon, sometimes it blesses me, but sometimes I just wish it would be shortened. Sometimes I just wish that he would get out of the way so we could just worship God more. I feel so connected to God. How many people think of prayer as worship?

Prayer frequently becomes something we just either tack on or we know we're supposed to do and we feel guilty about not doing it but we don't really look at it as the heart of worship or giving. All these people want is my money. They don't look at it as an act of opportunity to worship God in giving something tangible and giving something that the Lord has blessed us with and returning unto him a tithe and offering unto the Lord with a spirit and a heart of worship. Baptism. Baptism is something yes in many circles yes you should be baptized in one mode or another and people have an understanding somewhat of baptism but do you understand that amongst many Christians in our day and age amongst evangelical Christians that baptism is a new rediscovered thing?

Because in the in the in the mega church movement much of things like Christian baptism was just ignored almost exclusively. The Lord's Supper as worship. Yet according to the Word of God all of these are elements of biblical worship, two of which the scripture and preaching that go together inform us about every other thing regarding worship. If you don't have Scripture and you don't have preaching of the Scripture, you don't know what the Scripture has to say about anything. We don't know how to worship God rightly.

What has happened in much of the debate is that it is almost exclusively focused on style preferences, whether it's traditional hymns or my preference is Southern gospel or my preference is CCM, my preference is 70s praise music. If you look at modern-day music, you'll find out in churches the reason why they're having multiple services frequently is because they have one service for each kind and style of music and the people who you know who grew up during the 70s and they had the the praise music and It was new and fresh and amazing in their minds and they still think it's hip and cool and fresh and amazing and the young guys on the block don't think so anymore. It's already out of date. It has no sense of a timelessness. Christians with a country twang, jazz for Jesus, hip hop, and in our area and in many places around this country, you can go to church and have full-on indie rock band leading the worship amidst stage fog and strobe lights.

And that is what is dubbed as worship. Along with these various styles of music, and here's something I think is really important, is the reality that most people attend church worship services and never really participate in corporate singing at all. I have been to some of these churches. I have investigated places that I wouldn't go to or attend or become a member of. Maybe to hear a special speaker or something of that nature.

And I have been in churches that many people would know the names of if I said them. And I stood in the time of worship, of singing, singing unto the Lord. And I looked around and eerily people were just standing there watching the band go at it. Nobody was even opening their mouth. That was one of the oddest experiences I've ever had And that is not abnormal.

I'm not saying every place is like that, but it's not abnormal. What's missing almost completely is that the biblical definition of worship has nothing to do with personal preferences. Rather it has to do with prostrating oneself in humility before the will and way of God. That is distinctly revealed in His Word. This is the exact opposite of having it their way.

If you go to church, or if you look for a church and you want it your way, and it has even, I'm going to poke our eyes a little bit, even if your way is I want it this conservative way, and it's not grounded in Scripture, you're no different only in style. Your motive, your heart motive is no different. It's putting a preference on something without having it be rooted in Scripture. And it has the same dangerous end because if you're not rooted in scripture your children may grow up and say well their preference was about you know their their choices were about preferences over style not about substance in in scriptural truth so my preferences are just different. You need to be rooted in the scriptures with regards to what does it mean to worship.

Otherwise it just becomes a form of idolatry. I was reading in World Magazine and there's a young musician, classically trained, and he's chosen to use his gifts in the secular realm with music that I'm not sure exactly what style he has, but he made a profound statement. He said the problem with most of what's happening in churches today with regards to music is that it's all about the idolatry of the individual, not about what pleases God. It's all about the idolatry of musical preferences, and the worship of God is nowhere to be found. Few seem to be asking the question today, does the Bible have anything to say about music?

And specifically, and this is where our focus is going to be, on singing. And I want to say with a resounding yes, the Scripture does have much to say. If we have a question about it, we need to ask ourselves, if God doesn't have anything to say about singing, why did he write a song book and put it in the Bible? God wrote the book of Psalms, I think is a pretty good indication he has something to say about music and specifically about corporate singing as worship in the house of God. I want to ask you to take your Bibles and turn to the Old Testament to the book of Ezra.

The book of Ezra. The children of Israel had been in exile. Babylonian Empire. In Ezra chapter number three and verse number one, it speaks of the people of God coming together. This is in a similar time frame and a part of the same revolution that's happening.

Ezra and Nehemiah were working together And they were seeing the walls rebuilt and they were restoring worship in Jerusalem. And you remember in Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse number 1, the people cried after they gathered together. It says, and all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate, and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel." Bring the book. Bring the Word to bear. In chapter 3 of Ezra, it says, "...and when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem." As one man to Jerusalem.

There is a sense that we get here they're coming together corporately. They're coming together as a people. And in the book of Nehemiah it gives more explanation as the men, the women, the children, all that can hear with understanding. They came together as the people of God. And when they came together, they said, bring the book.

And we learn from Nehemiah that they preached the Word of God, they explained the Word of God, but in the book of Ezra, we learn that they came together and sang unto the Lord. It says later in this chapter, in chapter number three, it says, And when the builders, in verse 10, had laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord after the ordinance of David king of Israel and they sang together by course in Praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good for His mercy endureth forever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, and when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid." This was a glorious day for the nation of Israel. This was a glorious time for those who had been in exile. For those, it goes on to say, who had seen the former temple and those who had never seen the former temple.

They came together and they were singing together unto the Lord because the foundation had been laid. There is something magnificent about the people of God coming together as one man and lifting up their voice as one. Lifting up their voice and singing unto the Lord. Something so powerful about congregational singing. I love singing at our church.

Not because it's fancy, not because we have a magnificent orchestra or because we have polished musicians, but because the people sing under the Lord together and the people sing with a loud voice unto the Lord. And it's like the roof is being lifted off the church. I love coming together to sing with God's people. It encourages. It strengthens.

It inspires. But most of all, it's done unto the Lord as worship. And I believe it is pleasing unto Him. Here in Ezra When the people gathered together, they were gathering together to worship God. They were gathering together after having been in exile.

After having a very difficult path, a difficult road. What was it when they were brought from that bondage back to the place where they could worship freely. They had to sing unto the Lord. Do you know what beloved, you think about this in a in a different way whether it was the children of Israel when they were in bondage in Egypt or was in exile in Babylon or whether it's us today who were trapped in the bondage of sin but through Jesus Christ we've been freed. We have reason to sing unto the Lord.

We have reason to come together every Lord's Day and lift up our voice like trumpets and to cry out to the Lord in song and worship and praise. It says specifically in verse number 11 that they sang together by course. In the Hebrew, this phrase sang together by course or together by course is one phrase. And it has an indication of tunefully. That's what comes to your mind when you read it.

They sang together by course. Like, they sang together and people sang maybe their part. They sang with a tunefulness. That was the actual definition that was in the Hebrew. And when they sang, everyone singing their part, they sang praising and giving thanks.

Do you ever come to Sunday having had a difficult week? Do you ever come into the Lord's house on the Lord's day with God's people and the week you just finished was the hardest of your life or very difficult? Do you know what God wants you to do on that Lord's day? Is to sing with praise and thanksgiving, remembering that no matter what the difficulty of the past week was, no matter what the difficulty of the past year was, that You have a God who is not unaware of your circumstances. You have a God who has already won the victory through His Son Jesus Christ for you in your life and you can praise and thank Him.

You may not just have had a difficult week, it may have been a difficult year or a difficult few years. I understand that. That happens and yet I long and I look forward to the Lord's day to lift up my voice and praise and give thanks to God because He is good. Why should you sing together by course as you gather together? Because He is good.

That's what it says here. And they sang together by course praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because He is good. What is He good? Why is He good? Well, it goes on to say, because His mercy endures forever.

I'm thankful that the mercies of the Lord are new Every morning and I'm thankful that they are not only for this life They are for all of eternity for those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ His mercy endureth forever and for that we should lift up our voice in singing. And the people shouted and praised the Lord for what He had done. The biblical shout that we see many times in the Scriptures is Amen and Amen. It was not just necessarily something to be said when you agreed with something that was being preached. It was literally something that put an exclamation point on what had been sung unto the Lord.

The Old Testament is filled with scriptures. I'm going to read several. I'm not going to turn to all of them. We don't have time, but I want to read several scriptures just to kind of put an exclamation point on this priority of singing in the Old Testament. Then I want to focus in on the New Testament scriptures.

In the book of Exodus chapter 15 verse 1 and 2 it says, Then saying Moses and the children of Israel, this song unto the Lord. So here's Moses who's leading the children of Israel, and here is the children of Israel coming together as one. They were singing a song unto the Lord and Spake sang, I will sing unto the Lord for He hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song and He is become my salvation.

He is my God and I will prepare him and habitation my father's God and I will exalt him all In song to the Lord singing together as the people of God The book of Isaiah in chapter 52 verse 6 and through 9 says Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak. Behold it is I. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publish salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, With the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.

Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted his people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. We're given the entire book of Psalms filled with not only every one of them is a song but filled with specific admonitions to sing together unto the Lord. In Psalm 7 verse 16 and 17 it says, his mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High." Psalm 66 in verse 2 says, sing forth of it out of Excuse me.

Sing forth. It didn't print right. Let me look up Psalm 66 2. Psalm 66 in verse number 1 and 2 says, Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands. Sing forth the honor of His name.

Make His praise glorious. It's beautiful. Make His praise glorious. And sing joyfully unto Him. Psalm 47 verse 5 through 7 says God is gone up with a shout the Lord with the sound of a trumpet sing praises to God sing praises sing praises unto our King sing praises for God is the King of all the earth.

Sing ye praises with understanding. Psalm 59. Let them that wander up and down for meat and grudge if they be not satisfied. But I will sing of Thy power. Yea, I will sing aloud Thy mercy in the morning.

For Thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. Under Thee, O my strength, will I sing. For God is my defense, the God of my mercy. Psalm 66, 1-4 says, Make a joyful noise unto God, all you lands. Sing forth the honor of His name.

Make His praise glorious. Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! How awesome! Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. All the earth shall worship thee and shall sing unto thee.

They shall sing to thy name, Selah." There is so many Scriptures in the Old Testament regarding singing. We could be here all morning. I could just read through and quote verse upon verse upon verse. Do you realize something? And I know you do.

That the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament? And that if God was pleased with His people coming together to sing to Him and to worship and to praise His name together by course. Do you think that He would change that in the New Testament? I don't think He would and He didn't. Just look briefly at singing in the Old Testament.

Singing as worship together. But let's look in the New Testament at singing as worship. In the New Testament, we're clearly instructed in two epistles that we are to sing corporately in the house of God. Remember I read to you 1 Timothy chapter 3, these things right under thee hoping to come under thee shortly but if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar in the ground of the truth. I believe that if you look at this verse simply, if there is a way that you ought to behave, then of necessity there is a way that you ought not to behave in the house of God.

It's a logical conclusion. I believe that the pastors and the deacons, that the elders and the deacons are God's leaders in the church and the elders are to lead the flock, to oversee, the deacons are to serve and to care for the flock as ministers. And Paul gave them a responsibility to know how they ought to behave themselves so that they could lead rightly amongst the people. The house of God in the New Testament, when she gathers together, there is an appropriate way in which we are to behave ourselves at worship. Where to worship the Lord, John's Gospel says, in spirit and in truth.

Jesus said these words, but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." Two significant things. Spirit and truth. There's a really glorious picture in the two passages that we have before us that I want to share with regards to how God works in spirit and in truth as we sing together unto Him.

I'd like you to take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians 5 if you would this morning. Ephesians 5. In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul takes the first three chapters and lays a robust theological groundwork for the practical outworking of the final three chapters that deal with everything from marriage and family to how to be a good worker, how to be a good employer, how to to care for for others, how to live the the Christian life in a spiritual way, and it also speaks to the issue of singing. The Bible says in v. 18, "...and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, 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, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." Some of that language sounds very familiar to the Old Testament.

Giving thanks unto God, praising His name. Here we have very explicit instructions. It says, be not drunk with wine where it is excess. Don't be under the control of anything that would take you away from being able to worship God rightly. Rather, be filled with the Spirit.

Be controlled by the Holy Spirit of God. And let the Spirit lead in your singing. Speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. We're to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Here we have in Ephesians spirit-led singing.

To sing filled with the Spirit is what God wants. That does not have some kind of ecstatic tongue connected to it. It means that you are filled with the Spirit when God lives inside of you, when He has redeemed you, His Spirit has sealed you on the day of redemption. And we are to sing, filled with the Spirit, with our hearts overflowing with gratitude, and the Spirit working in us to teach us and to instruct us in a right way. This doesn't mean that we can claim anything we want and say, well, the Spirit led me to do it.

The Spirit and the truth work together. The Spirit never contradicts the truth. If it does, then that's a different spirit. Right? I think we need to heed the Spirit's leading and we need to heed the Word of Truth as we seek to worship the Lord rightly.

To sing filled with the Spirit pleases God. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14. 1 Corinthians chapter number 14 has some really important passages and one of them is in verse number 15. First Corinthians 14 and verse 15 it says, What is it then? I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with understanding also.

I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with understanding also." I think there's a picture there. There's a pattern there. Singing in the Spirit and with understanding. Singing in spirit and in truth. What are we told to sing?

In Ephesians 5, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. I'll be the first to confess that in our church, one of the things that I have been trying to bring about is to learn psalms. I pastor a Baptist church and we sing from a hymnal. And there are Psalms in the hymnal and our choir sings Psalms. But there's something that that we have been lax in.

We have not really followed this like we ought to. And it's something that the last year I've become convinced we need to learn the Psalms. They're beautiful to sing under the Lord. And be more important than whether or not they are beautiful, we're commanded to sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And I'm a Bible guy, Right?

And that's important that we obey the Scriptures. Right? And we all need to have that heart to say, and to be honest to say, we're not doing that. We need to. Right?

Do you do that in your homes? We need to do that in the church to say, here's something we're missing. We need to improve. We need to grow into a more perfect way, in a more perfect understanding of the ways of the Lord. To sing psalms under the Lord.

To sing hymns under the Lord and to sing spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord, and singing with the heart of thanksgiving together. I think that singing, at times you may be singing a somber song, But I think that much of our singing should be victorious. Because we are victorious through our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't come to a funeral church as we worship the Lord every Sunday.

We come as a victorious people. He has conquered Satan's sin and death on our behalf. And we are to sing in the Spirit psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with our hearts under the Lord. Singing in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of God from the truth that we have learned from the songs that we sing.

Singing together ministers unto the Lord first and foremost. It worships the Lord. But singing together admonishes one another. It challenges one another. 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, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

I believe it's in the next passage that we'll see that it is something that admonishes one another. I realize that submitting or submission is far more than just of our own musical preferences when it says submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord. I mean, not preferring what we want, but submitting to one another. But I think that it seems right that it would at least include music. I love how clearly this passage also lays out the Trinitarian nature of singing.

There's something very beautiful about that in the pictures of literally everything that I've been called upon to teach. Baptism was yesterday. It's Trinitarian. We worship the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as we baptize. And when we sing, we sing in the Spirit.

And we sing, speaking to ourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing in our heart to the Lord, and we give thanks for all things unto God the Father and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Trinitarian worship in singing together as the people of God. We do it in the Spirit and we worship God the Father through Jesus Christ who is our mediator. There is something beautiful about how when we worship, we continually declare the triune God of the universe. We sing in the Spirit.

We're to worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Turn to Colossians, if you would please. Colossians chapter number three. Colossians chapter number three. A very similar, we could say a parallel passage.

But I think it's profound How between the two, one begins with being filled with the Spirit, and in Colossians, it begins with the truth. It begins with the Word. It says in Colossians chapter 3 in verse number 16, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. One, in Ephesians, is let the Spirit fill you to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Here it says let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

There's a tie in here. These are parallel passages. I think there's a conclusion that we can come to is that the Spirit and the Word leading us to sin will not contradict one another. So we can't just say whatever the Spirit leads, we have to prove all things with Scripture. We have to let the Word of Christ dwell in us 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.

And whatever you do in word and deed or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. Our singing needs to be Spirit-filled. Our singing needs to be Spirit-led. But our singing also needs to be led by the truth of God's Word. This gives an understanding that the songs that we sing need to be biblical.

The songs that we sing together, they need to have some robust doctrine they need to have truth that is sound biblically if you take a listen to some of the songs that are in the contemporary realm you you have You have songs that are hard to make out anything biblical. That's not to say that there are not contemporary or current day songwriters that are writing good songs. I believe there are some. But there is so much that just songs that have nothing spiritual, nothing with any depth doctrinally. And we need to make certain that the songs that we sing are guided by the truth.

We have a hymnal that has 600 songs and there are a lot of them we don't sing on purpose because the depth of doctrine, the depth of biblical truth is not there. There are songs that I call kind of happy clappy songs. What are joy bells ringing in your heart anyway? And those are songs that are in the hymnbook. And so for some, we're just singing from the hymnbook because those are the right songs.

I look and say just because a song is in the hymnbook doesn't mean it's really a song that's guided by the truth of God's Word. Some of those are the happy clappy songs of 1950. They're no different than the happy clappy songs of 2013. They just have a different tune to them. They're empty songs.

They're vain jangling. And I believe that our songs need to be filled with truth. They need to be filled with robust doctrine. I love this pattern. Ephesians and Colossians.

Singing filled with the Spirit. Singing in the truth. Singing with the Word of Christ dwelling in you richly. Teaching and admonishing. Singing unto the Lord first goes upward.

That's where worship always goes. Worship needs to first ascend up into heaven. But that does not mean that the worship then does not flow horizontally to bless and to minister to God's people. Some people try to act so spiritual that their worship, their singing is only unto the Lord. There's no benefit for them at all.

They're not encouraged by it. They're not moved by it. There's no emotion at all by it. It's just worship unto the Lord. They're missing out on one of God's gifts of music.

Yes, it needs to be first unto the Lord, but does it bless God's people? Have you never came away from singing a hymn, or singing a psalm, Or even maybe hearing a choir sing a song that ministered deeply to you because it taught and admonished you. Like a sermon. That's what the Scripture says singing is supposed to do. Songs that are empty don't do that.

But songs that are filled with rich truth do. I love hearing that my chains are gone. That my heart has been set free by the glorious gift of Christ. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Sing the truth.

Let the Word teach you as you worship in song together. Let the Word admonish you, convict you, convict one another as you sing the truth corporately. Let the Word be sung in psalm and hymns and spiritual song. Let the Word be honored, singing with grace in your heart unto the Lord. Singing is not just found in the Old Testament and the New Testament in a way where we can look and say There it is, singing unto the Lord.

But singing needs to be done in a way as we worship the Lord that pleases God. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, I read from verse number 15. This time I want to draw your attention to 1st Corinthians chapter 14 and verse number 40. This is a very important verse with regards to worship in all aspects. It says, let all things be done decently and in order.

That word carries deep, that verse carries deep meaning that applies to all of worship. Let all things be done decently. The word decently means becomingly. Having grace or dignity means decorum, beauty. All things that we do under the Lord and absolutely all things we do in regards to worshipping the Father through the Son and by the Holy Spirit need to be done decently.

They need to be done becomingly. Something that has grace and beauty and dignity. Something that is done in a way that pleases the Lord. But it's also to be done in order. This word is the Greek word taxis.

It means fixed succession. Order. Proper procedure. Part of an arrangement. It's not disheveled.

It's not haphazard. A lot of times there is an idea that true worship is just being spirit-led and that means no discipline, no structure, no order, no pattern of worship. We're just led by the spirit. That is a wrong ideology. That comes from the enlightenment more than it does the scripture.

Order is something beautiful to God. Order is becomingly. Order is powerful. This word taxes has to do with like a military brigade on March. If you saw a military brigade and they were bumping into each other, they were you know all going in the wrong direction, it'd be like seeing a marching band you know at a football game and everybody's knocking each other the tuba player knocks over the you know the wind instruments and it just it just looks disheveled everything's falling apart that's the opposite of taxes if you see a military brigade doing that you are not threatened But if you see one that has sharp turns and they're moving in unison, they're in fixed succession, their order in procedure is right and sharp, there's something powerful about that.

God wants all things that we do in worship to Him to be done decently with beauty and decorum and with an order that says they are on the march, as it were. There is something powerful about that. Music is in a sense warfare. The right kind of music is warfare. It is doing battle against the enemy.

It speaks loudly. It speaks more loudly, more boldly than some cheesy Christian indie rock band trying to lead worship. The Scripture clearly gives us the order and boundaries regarding music in the New Testament with a clear instruction to sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Now, we have been learning much about the regulative principle at this conference and that's how our focus is with regards to the London Baptist Confession, the Westminster Confession of Faith. But there are variants within people who practice the regulative principle And I may not hold the exact view that you do but I hope that you will hear these last few words this morning.

Some that maybe are more strict regulativists or maybe even hyper regulativists have taken this to mean that since in the New Testament there is no mention of any instruments that we cannot have them and we can only sing from the psalms. I've heard many different arguments and read about them, but I want to submit to you that we are to sing psalms and I've confessed that there is a lack in our church with that regard. And we need to grow in that. Some young man back here, he was involved in music at a church and he's heard me say that and want to work towards that. Yet, we're also commanded to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

I want to argue today against strict non-instrumental psalms only on the basis of the psalms themselves. It seems to me right according to biblical exegesis and logic that we should be able to obey the Psalms that we are commanded to sing. You may not agree with that and I can respect that but if we are commanded to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, even if you take hymns and spiritual songs away, because many people say those are all just psalms. I don't agree with that and one reason I don't is because the psalms themselves say sing a new song. I will sing a new song unto the Lord.

God does that in people. In the Old Testament, He gave people the gift of making instruments and things of that nature. He's gifted all of us differently. Some people, when they're moved by God and the truth, they write songs about it. Unto the Lord.

It's pleasing to Him. He's made people to play beautiful instruments. And He's made them to play them skillfully. And I just believe that if I'm command of the New Testament to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, then I ought to be able to obey the Psalms. Does that make sense?

It does to me, it doesn't to you, that's alright. Okay? The exception of this would be the things that are obvious. We no longer offer sacrifices. So if the Psalm says to offer a sacrifice in the sense of a physical animal, We know because other scripture says that's been fulfilled, that's been completed, that we'd no longer do that.

Those are the obvious things. But with regards to music and with regards to singing, I want to say There's a lot of joy and there's a lot of blessing in the Psalms that we're allowed to participate in. Now with that, I want to give some guidelines and I have just a few minutes, six minutes left. We must in all that we do not fall into the trap to think that music is amoral. I'm not saying anything goes by any stretch of the imagination.

God forbid. I think that the New Testament gives us other passages of Scripture that would give us some guidelines that would apply to all of life that are appropriate. Romans chapter 12 verse 2 says, And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I don't think we need to try to adopt the ways of the world. 1 John says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the eyes, excuse me, The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. If your desire for singing in your church, if your desire for musical taste and preferences is a worldly bent, you have the wrong heart in the issue. You want to do that which is pleasing to the Lord. You want to do that which is beautiful and reverent and holy under the Lord.

1 Peter 2 11 says, Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul. To be quite frank, there are many styles of worship that I believe are nothing but appealing to the flesh of man. And we are to have no part. But does that mean that if the Psalms exhort us to sing unto the Lord in a particular way, and depraise Him in a particular joyous way, that it's unacceptable? I believe God wants us to worship Him joyously.

He wants us to worship Him with a loud voice. He wants us to obey the Psalms. If it was pleasing to Him when David did it, Why would it be displeasing to Him when we do it? In the Psalms, many of them exhort, sing a new song to the Lord. I love Psalm 40.

He inclined unto me and he heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit and out of the miry clay. And he set my feet upon a rock. And he established my going. And then it says he hath put a new song in my mouth.

Even praise unto our God. Enter His house with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Let the singers proclaim His glory. Let the stringed instruments play skillfully as Psalm 33 verse 2 teaches us. Let all the music give a distinct and a certain sound that is pleasing to the Lord.

Let us sing unto the Lord praises unto His name. I'll just read the last two Psalms. Psalm 149 says, Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise in the congregation of the saints. Let Israel rejoice in Him that made Him.

Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise his name in dance. Let them sing praises unto him with timbrel and harp. For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people. He will beautify the meek with salvation.

Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and the two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them judgment written, this honor have all his saints. Praise you the Lord." Praise you the Lord. Praise him in his sanctuary.

Praise him in the firmament of his power praise him for his mighty acts praise him according to his excellent greatness that's all worship That's extolling and exalting the name of God. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the psaltery and harp. Praise Him with timbrel and dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs.

Praise Him with the loud cymbals. Praise Him with the high sounding symbols. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. I believe that God has given to us the Psalms and we're commanded to sing them.

And I believe it would be utterly unimaginable to be commanded to sing Psalms that we weren't able to obey. Psalm 68 says that the foot of... This was mentioned last night, that the foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same. They have seen Thy goings, O God, even the goings of my God, my King in the sanctuary. The singers went before.

The players on instruments followed after. Among them were the damsels playing with timbrels. Bless ye, God, and the congregation, even the Lord from the fountain of Israel. There is little Benjamin with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their council, the princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali. Singers, players of instruments, There are people that God has gifted and they're supposed to use their talents unto Him.

2 Chronicles 5 says, And it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place for all the priests that were present were sanctified and did not then wait by course also the Levites which were the singers and all them of Asaph of Heman and Judathan were the sons of their brethren being arrayed in white linen having symbols and Psalters and harps stood in the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets, it came even to pass as the trumpeters and the singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanksgiving the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice with trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good. For His mercy endureth forever. And then, that then in the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priest could not stand a minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. May our singing in the house of God be that which God desires.

May we remember the one thing. I have a desire to be in His tabernacle. I have a desire to see the beauty of His holiness. Psalm 27 verse 4. May we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs unto the Lord.

May we do it decently with beauty and decorum in a way that's reverent and joyful. And may we do it in order. May we do it in a way that pleases the Lord. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the opportunity to speak today to this people.

I pray that I could be of some help, some encouragement, and I pray that we would see the glory of singing together as one man in worship. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Of the church and the family to the Word of God and for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Churches where you can search our online network to find family integrated churches in your area, log on to our website ncfic.org. God.

Singing in the gathered church is meant to be a unifying and edifying time of the saints, proclaiming truth to one another and worshiping their God with their unified voice. Sadly, however, many churches are divided over the issue of singing with personal preferences driving division between different groups within the church. Sometimes this division reaches the point where multiple services are held based solely on the kind of music that is used in the service. While churches should discuss what songs and genres they will employ in their music, the heart of the issue must always be in focus: How can we unite around the truth of these songs and worship our God in spirit and truth?

Conference
The Worship of God
Speaker

Craig Houston has served as the pastor of Westside Baptist Church since 2002. Born and raised in Astoria, Oregon, he was privileged to grow up in a fourth generation Christian home. Saved and baptized at an early age, he surrendered to preach the gospel at the age of 19. A graduate of Bayview Baptist Bible Institute and Sound Baptist Bible College, he was ordained to the Gospel ministry in 1997 and sent out as a church planter in Oregon the following year. He married his sweetheart, Emily, in 1994 and the Lord has blessed them with thirteen children; Naomi, Anna & Derek Hase, Samuel, Daniel, Nathanael, Michael, Julia, Lydia, Abigail, Ezekiel, Selah, Tirzah, and Lemuel.  Pastor Craig has a heart and passion for expository preaching, reaching the lost and restoring the Christian home. He enjoys spending time with his family, reading, and drinking good coffee. His sermons can be found at bibledirectionforlife.com

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