In this sermon, the importance of music in worship is emphasized. The speaker recounts the story of Joshua and the Levites, who sang before going into battle and witnessed God's victory. The sermon also mentions the songs of Moses, which contained both praise and judgment. The speaker emphasizes the need for songs with meaningful content and encourages believers to sing with the understanding of God's goodness and mercy.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Good morning. It's a blessing to be here. Every time we sing, I think these thoughts. This is the only activity in a typical church service that we're still going to be doing in eternity. Someday the preaching will all be over. Someday the praying will all be over. No, we'll still be fellowshipping and we'll still be worshipping, and that might include more than singing. But of the activities that we're used to in our typical congregational experience, this is the one we're going to do through all eternity. And so we want to get it right while we're here. Would you turn to 280 in your hymnal? Just want to sing one verse, and then I'd like to make a couple comments. This has a long time been a high on the favorite list of our family. We love this song. O soul, guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but Thou art mighty. Hold me with Thy powerful hand. Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, Feed me now and evermore. Feed me now and evermore. Now, if you look at the Dadal-Ned song, it takes us back about 200 years to the country of Wales. And I don't know how much you know about what happened there, but if you would have gone out early in the morning, every morning, this went on for years, and those miners were walking to work, and women were walking to work. That was in the days before there were automobiles, people walked, and they would be singing this song. And if you were at a public meeting, the public meeting probably would not be closed until this song was sung. It practically became the national anthem of Wales. It was written by a man by the name of William Williams. Now, we don't hear much about him, but he was about as notable in his own country, at least, of Wales, as John Wesley was in England. He traveled about 95,000 miles by horse, and he was a little different from Wesley. He was a great singer. He was known as the sweet singer of Wales, and he wrote something like 900 songs, all of them in Welsh. Only a few of them have been translated, so if you ever learn Welsh, please translate the rest. I'd like to know what they're like. I found a few more of them for the hymnal I've been compiling. But the interesting thing about that revival was he basically promoted it as a revival that was motivated and inspired by singing. Very little preaching was done in that revival. And often, if there was preaching done, in the middle of the sermon, someone would burst into song, and they'd spend the rest of the evening singing. It was a singing revival, and the Spirit of God came down upon the country of Wales and changed the country for almost a century. It was not the same. In fact, if you go there today, this song is still sung very, very frequently. It's been translated into something like 75 languages. It's a very popular song around the Christian world. This man had a 40-year ministry, and he was an extremely influential person, but the power of his ministry was mostly the power of song and the songs that he wrote. And so, this is indeed a very important subject. I would like for you to turn now back 2,500 years. Let's go back to 2 Chronicles 20. And here we have another story that tells us about the tremendous power of song. Now, I'm going to state right up front my personal belief, and that is, I think, that music brings us right up into the supernatural. That's what I believe. I believe the minute we start singing, we are on the verge of the supernatural world, be it the right one or the wrong one. And so, that's why I think music is so terribly important, because I think when people are singing, they are starting to commune with spirits, either the Holy Spirit and all of the power that it represents, or the wrong kind of spirits and all the power that it represents. And I hope that maybe we can document that a little bit as we go along. You will recall that the nation of Judah was in terrible trouble. Jehoshaphat was their king. The Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Edomites had come up against them, and they were formidable enemies that the Israelites had not destroyed. God would not let the Israelites destroy these two nations, three nations. And so, their thanks to Israel was when Judah was weak to come up and attack Judah. And so, Jehoshaphat got an army together, the Syrians, the Israelites, and the people of Judah, and he proclaimed a fast. And he stood up in the congregation and prayed, as we read in verse 6, and said, O Lord God of our fathers, art thou not God in heaven, and rulest thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? And then he reminded God of his promise that if they ever got into trouble and they came and prayed in his sanctuary, that He would hear. And this is what he prayed. Art thou not our God who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel? I'm reading from verse 7. And gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever? And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If when evil cometh upon us as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house and in thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help. Verse 12. O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And then Jehaziel, one of the sons of Asaph, who was a singer and a Levite, stood up and said, Don't you be dismayed about this great multitude. The battle is not yours, it's the Lord's, and you shall not need to fight in this battle. It's my personal opinion, if Israel had always responded the way they should have to the Lord, they would never have needed to fight in any battle. Now that's my personal belief, and this is a good example of how I think the Lord would have liked to have won their battles for them. Verse 17. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem, fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord will be with you. And they all worshiped. Now, I want to define the word worship before we get very far. A lot of what goes on today, I don't think is worship. Worship is not getting together and making a lot of exciting noises. That's not worship. It could be. But that in itself is not worship. Worship is not something we do primarily on Sunday morning. Worship is not even primarily something we do when we're singing. Because the word worship comes from the Old English word worth-ship. We only worship whenever, by our entire life, we demonstrate that God is worth more to us than anything else. That's worship. And then if we come together and our singing is part and parcel of what we have demonstrated by word and deed throughout the week, then we worship. But if this is disconnected from what you were doing over the past six days, then you were not worshiping this morning. We only worship whenever we have demonstrated that God is the highest thing on our list of priorities. I heard a preacher say not too long ago that what everyone should do is list on a piece of paper the 50 things that are important to him. Then he should cross off the one that is the least important. And then he should cross off the next one that's the least important. He should finish doing that until there's only one left. And for many people, that would not be God. If their neighbors and their friends and the people who know them best, their family, would have to confirm, yes, I can honestly tell you that God is number one in this person's life. Now, if that is true, then you worship. You worship all week. And you do it here when you sing. So these people worshiped. And then the Levites stood up to praise the Lord with a loud voice. It's interesting, but God considered music very important. And we're going to look at that in this message this morning. Are you aware that there were 4,000 paid musicians in Israel? It was a paid position. 4,000 people were paid to full-time worship the Lord in psalm. That's how important it was to God. Out of those 4,000 people, you can read this in 1 Chronicles 23.5 and 1 Chronicles 25.1 and 7 if you want to jot down these references. Out of those 4,000 people, 288 of them were specially trained to go out and teach all of the people of the land to sing. They were special music teachers. It was a paid position. 4,000 people stood before God day... I don't know if it was night, but day after day after day doing nothing but praising God in song. And 288 of those went out through the land and made sure that everybody else learned to sing. This gives us some idea of how important music is to God. Now the next morning... Now these Levites, they sang, and I just sort of imagined that when they were doing that, it just became very evident that the most powerful thing they could do the next morning was to sing! And so the next morning, Joshua was still so inspired by those Levites and their singing, those 4,000 people praising the Lord at the end of that stirring prophecy about Jehaziel that he put those singers right in front of the army and they marched into battle singing. And the Lord set ambushments against Moab, Edom and Ammon. And you know the story. They got confused. And they started killing each other until they were all dead. That must have been an amazing sight for these people to just stand there and watch this battle being won without them lifting a sword. And on they go with their song. And I think it got louder and louder. This was indeed an amazing experience. I wish I could have been there. But brothers and sisters, we've been there. I don't know what you do whenever the battle is hard. I don't know what you do when you're sorely tempted. I don't know what you do when you're opposed and bitterly accused. And the devil is right there with discouragement. I'll tell you what I do. I sing. And you'll see the same thing happen. You'll see ambushments. And you'll see the enemy defeat its own self and leave the field. This is a powerful weapon. This is a tremendous resource that God has given every one of us. And that's why I think it is such a tragedy if there's somebody who cannot sing, or if they can, they will not sing. There's nothing we have at our disposal that is more strategically powerful than song. I remember John Risser, a godly bishop who used to preach in our community frequently, stood in one of our pulpits and very sadly said, Beware of the person who has no song. Beware of the person who has no song. Now, he didn't mean they had to sing beautifully or anything like that, but a person who doesn't have that song of praise welling up, even if they can't sing on tune, welling up out of their hearts, and just there, in every situation of life. Well, this was quite a battle. All these people had to do was go gather up the spoil. It took them three days. And it tells you they couldn't even carry it all. Would you see what it says there in verse 25? It says, And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves more than they could carry away. And they were three days in gathering of the spoil. It was so much. What a victory. Alright. And then they returned to Jerusalem with joy, and they're still singing, with harps and with trumpets. Verse 28, And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest around about. What a story. And I just chose that to introduce the whole idea that in worship, in songs of worship, there is supernatural power. I just want to emphasize that. That's my first point this morning. I want to spend a little bit of time with it. I want to convince you that the most powerful thing you can do through the next week and through your entire life is to sing in true worship. Whether it's the revival in Wales, or whether it's this deliverance we just read about in Israel. We find that there is supernatural power in true songs of worship. Especially in difficult situations. You remember Paul and Silas in the prison of Philippi? And they were thrust into those inner stocks, the inner part of the prison, and put in stocks with their backs bleeding. And they began to sing. I'm not going to spend much time with this. We all know the incident. And the foundations of the prison shook. And all the doors were open. But there was something more amazing happened that day than that. Not one prisoner got up and left. Did you ever notice that? Because when the jailer came and was scared to death for his own life, Paul says, we're all here. To me, that's the most amazing miracle. You have a prison with all the gates open, and everybody's chains loose, and everybody just sits there. Paul and Silas' song had that whole situation, even the human element, under complete control. I told you there's supernatural power in song. Nehemiah 8, verse 10 says, the joy of the Lord is your... Psalm 22, verse 3 says, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. When you sing, I said, song puts you right on the verge, on the edge of the spiritual world. And when you start to sing, Christ, or God, comes right into your song. And He's there. Are you ever in a situation of life where you don't feel like God's presence is very real? Here it is. It's never failed for me to make God's presence very real in my life. My mother was one of the most cheerful people I ever met in my life. And she was one of the most victorious people that I knew in my life. And I think I know why. I didn't think about it so much when I was growing up, but I've thought a lot about it since I'm older. She spent almost all her time singing. When my mother was not singing, she was sick. That's just simple. I know most of the hymns in our hymnal by heart because she sang them, and that's where I learned them. She knew them by heart. I don't know how she learned so many hymns by heart. I think she must have had a very retentive mind and a very good memory. And it was a tremendous experience to grow up with a mother who spent all her time singing. No wonder she was so happy. Everybody in the family will tell you that my mother was one of the most joyful and cheerful persons that our family ever knew. She was always happy. I shouldn't say always. She had her times. But by and large, she was a happy person. And I think it had to do with the fact, I don't even know if she knew this, but she spent a lot of her life singing. She sang all day. We got up with Mom singing and we went to bed with Mom singing. She was always singing. Of course, my dad was the musician. He was the one that knew music. My mother couldn't read a note. She couldn't sing a part. She was not a great musical person, but she loved to sing. And I want to tell you something, mothers. The best thing you can do for your children is to sing. And fathers too, for that matter. It will bring God's presence right into your home. It will bring God's presence and make it very real to your children. And they'll never know what it's like to grow up without a song. It's the best ear training, by the way, that you can give your children. And they have to have that ear training if they're going to learn to sing. They come here to church and they hear us all singing parts and they're confused. But if you sing at home, they hear only the melody and they learn to sing because of your ear training that you've given them. I want to show you another reason why I believe that the singing opens us up to the world of the spiritual. Just automatically that happens. I really believe that. I've already given you the verse that God inhabits the praises of Israel. Now I'd like for you to turn to 2 Kings. The title of my message this morning is Sing the New Song. Sing it! And this afternoon, we'll talk about recognizing the new song. But this morning, it's Sing the New Song. I want you to sing. I want everybody to leave this congregation this morning determined that song is going to be a prominent part of their everyday experience. 2 Kings 3. Now in this incident, Moab had come up to attack Judah and Judah had gotten Israel to eat them together. And they went out to fight Moab. And they ran out of water. And they were in dire trouble. Okay? And so somebody remembered to call on Elisha. And Elisha came. And he said, if it weren't for Jehoshaphat, I wouldn't even talk to you people, but because of this godly man, I'll help you. Now I want to look at verse 15. But now bring me a minstrel. Now this is the great Elisha. The prophet. How did he make contact with God for the help that these people needed? Music. He said, bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass when the minstrel played that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, make this valley full of ditches. And you know what happened. They made the valley full of ditches. And it didn't even rain, but the next morning the ditches were full of water. They looked like blood. And these Moabites got afraid. And so they fled. And these people ran after them and attacked them from behind and slew many of them. Again, a great victory. But the thing that I wanted to point out was even Elisha knew that the very best contact he could make with God was through music. And he called for a minstrel. When I study this subject, I wonder why this resource is so neglected. So neglected. And I think I understand why when the church goes into apostasy, one of the first things the devil takes from them is their songs. He knows, if we don't know it, he does, that that's our most powerful weapon. And when churches are in apostasy, they're without a song. And the devil loves it because they have just thrown aside the most powerful weapon they have to fight against him. Turn to 1 Chronicles 25.1. I'm not quite sure what the people who don't believe in musical instruments do with these. I'm not necessarily promoting musical instruments, but this is interesting. 1 Chronicles 25.1. What I'm trying to establish here is music is closely associated with supernatural power. Alright? We're reading 1 Chronicles 25.1. Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph and of Haman and of Judusan. Now look at this. Who should prophesy with harps and psalteries and cymbals? Isn't that interesting? We often talk about prophesying and saying, Paul says that every person would prophesy. Well, here is something maybe we should take into consideration. These people prophesied with music. It was their key to the best insight they could get into the will of God. No wonder it says in Psalm 89.15, Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. See, music gives us direction. It gives us prophecy. It gives us direction. I'm going to read it again. Psalm 89.15 Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound. And the implication is that they're involved in this joyful sound, and because of that, they walk in the light of God's countenance. Isn't that tremendous? So the next time somebody comes to you and says, brother, I'm having trouble finding direction in life, your answer should be, sing, brother, sing! Many is the time that I found myself confused and frustrated, and singing cleared it, and God's will became plain to me, and I was able to walk in the light of His countenance. Let's say it all together. Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. I'm going to have great confidence that the people of charity are going to have clear direction over the next years if I continue to understand that you're a singing people. Songs of true worship are associated with power, and they always were associated afterward with the most powerful things that happened in the Bible. We have the song of Moses in Exodus 15 right after the Red Sea. I mean, these people understood that music went along with all of these experiences. Deborah and Barak after their victory over Hazor and Sisera in Judges 5. You find a song. In fact, that's a very interesting song. You don't find out what happened in that battle until you read the song. And you just find out that Sisera was defeated and he came running and drove a tent peg through his head. That's all you find out. But if you have the song, and I have a feeling that the song was maybe sung when this was all happening. You find out what happened is Sisera was up there on the mountain. He had chariots. Israel didn't have chariots. They were foot soldiers. And they were there in the valley. And they were scared to death of chariots because these chariots were made of iron. And they usually had swords fastened to their axles. And someone could just come swooping down through a bunch of foot soldiers and just mow off their legs with those chariots. And so Israel was, they were just terrified to death of chariots. But God had told them not to have chariots. So here they were, standing in the valley. Sisera says, this is a piece of cake. I think he had, I didn't go back and count it, but I think he had something like five or six hundred chariots. We're just going to swoop down off this mountain. And they're all going to look like grass lying on the ground. But what he didn't calculate on is up the valley of the river, God sent a huge, this is all in the song. God sent a huge thunderstorm. So by the time he got down off the mountain into the valley, the river had overflowed and the valley was mud. And there he was. His chariots got stuck. The wheels came off. The children of Israel pursued these people and killed them one after another. In fact, the Bible says the stars fought against this poor man. By the way, if you ever get into a battle with the stars, the stars always win. But it was associated here with song. The last words of Moses are two beautiful songs. One outlining the attributes of God and His wonders among them and ends with some pretty severe judgments. That was all in his song. And the second one was a song basically of blessing upon these people tribe by tribe. It was the end of his life. And they're long, by the way. Let me just put in a little comment. Those songs are more than five words projected on a wall sung 50 times. 7-11 songs, I call them. Seven words sung 11 times. We have good examples in the Scripture as to what God calls songs. They have content. They tell us something. Now we can sing Hallelujah, Hallelujah. And I'm sure we'll do a lot of that in heaven too, but I'm sorry, I don't want to sing that all Sunday, every Sunday, or any songs like that. It's okay occasionally. And we're just adoring Christ. But most of our singing should be instructing our minds and inspiring our hearts and saying something of worth about what we believe about God. And understand about His will for our lives. Some other incidents. Christ sang before going to Gethsemane. I want to tell you something. I think He did it for the same reason we've been talking. I think it was one of the weapons that He took in His grasp when He marched out to that dreadful death. I think that's why He sang. He knew He needed this. We march right into trouble and difficulty without a song. And tragedy. Luther's enemy said he has done more harm by his songs than by any of his sermons. The Anabaptists sang at the stake and it was so effective. The witness of those people singing in those most inhumane and unbelievable circumstances that they finally had to execute them secretly because it was so powerful and so effective the song of these people. And we all know that the Wesley revivals were carried along by song and so were the Moravian revivals. Well, my first point was that music is associated with supernatural power. It's one of the most important and one of the most crucial weapons that you and I have. And it should be your purpose as parents to make sure that every one of your children sings. Alright? And this congregation as well. It should be a purpose. And I think it is. I'm sort of preaching to the choir here for a little bit. This congregation should continue to do what you've been doing. Promote the singing of good music. Well, the second point I'd like to make is music is important to God. Music is very important to God Himself. I want you to turn to an interesting scripture in Zephaniah. Verse 17. This verse maybe is familiar to you. But it's an amazing verse. Speaking to the future glorification of Israel it says in 17, the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. He will joy over thee with singing. I can't wait to hear that. Can you imagine what it must sound like when God sings? No wonder we are supposed to sing. No wonder it's so much a part of our experience. We are made in His image and He is a singer. God is a singer. And He left us with a tremendous witness to that. There are over 300 references in the Bible to song urging us to sing. And almost all of those 300 references say something like this. Sing unto the Lord. It doesn't say this is a suggestion. It's a command. But like all of God's commands, we love them. They are not grievous. Sing unto the Lord 300 times in the Bible. And of course we have a whole book of the Bible devoted to nothing but songs. These songs, let's turn to a few of them. We'll just do it real quickly. Psalm 33.3 Sing unto Him a new song. Play skillfully with a loud noise. Now the Bible talks repeatedly about this new song. That tells me something about music. Music is not amoral. Before people are converted, they sing a song. And then when they're converted, they sing a different song. He says sing a new song. Alright? Psalm 40, verse 3. This one of course is a very familiar one. I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me also up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry place, set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He put a new song in my mouth, even praising to our God. I told you it has power. Look what it says. Many shall see it and fear, just like they did in the days of Jehoshaphat, and shall trust in the Lord. You want to evangelize? Here it is. Psalm 96, verse 1. God didn't want us to make any mistake on this one. Three times it tells us to sing here. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name. Show forth His salvation from day to day. I want to make some comments about that just directly. Psalm 98, verse 1. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song, for He hath done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the victory. One more. 144, verse 1. I think I must have the wrong reference. It doesn't look right. Verse 9. I will sing a new song unto thee, O God, upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Now, what is this new song about? We want to talk a little bit about the content of the new song. I told you that my message is, sing the new song. What is the message of this new song? Well, if you look at all these references, it's always about God's mighty works, especially His work of salvation. Deliverance. The word salvation means to salvage, to bring a person out of a bad situation into a good situation. In fact, that's what most of the psalms is about. If you look at them, when I was a boy, I didn't read them very much because it seemed like the psalmist was complaining a lot of the time and that wasn't really... When I was young, I didn't have much to complain about. I got more to complain about later. And then the psalms became precious to me. And then I realized that the psalms follow a pattern. They don't all start this way, but many of them do. They start out with a problem. And they end up with praise. What's in between? Does anybody know? Okay, what did you say? Uh oh, sorry. I'm sorry, I have this wrong. They end up with prayer. No, I'm sorry, they end up with praise. I had it right. That's sort of the pattern of many of the psalms. So the psalmist starts out saying, You have ransacked me. You have searched me. I can't handle this, Lord. I can't get away. I can't do anything about it. This is terrible. You know everything I'm thinking. You know everything I'm doing. You know my words before I say them. And I can't handle this kind of scrutiny. And then in the middle of the psalm, he starts to contemplate God. And here's the worthship. And who God really is. And he realizes that when God sees a problem, he begins to salvage. And so if he sees a mistake in your life, he doesn't clobber you, he just starts to redeem. And when the psalmist realizes that, did you ever notice how he ends the psalm? Ransack me, O God, and know my heart. And see if there be any wicked way in me. But at the beginning, he didn't want the Lord to see that. At the end, he says, Please, ransack me and see if there's any wicked way in my life. And lead me in the way everlasting. But it's praise. Praise the whole way through. For God's salvation. Let's turn back to Psalm 96. And just look a little bit at what he has to say there. We'll just read down through it. I've already read the first part. It goes, Sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord. Bless His name. Show forth His salvation from day to day. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to sing the mighty delivering power of God in our lives. Verse 3 says, So what else is going to be the content of our songs? It's going to be a description of God's magnificent character. Glory, as I understand it, is an expression of excellence. We talk about the glory of a sunset. We mean you couldn't add anything to it. It's absolutely perfect. We talk about the glory of youth. Here's a young man. That's everything a young man is supposed to be. That's glory. And that's what we sing about. We sing about the excellence of God's characteristics. Because one of the reasons that's so necessary in our day is because most people have a very, very pitiful concept of God. Most of them have a negative concept of God. In fact, most of my life I had a negative concept of God. And we need to tell the world about His magnificent character. The excellence of His characteristics. They need to hear that. Declare His glory. Then he goes on to say, For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols. But the Lord made the heavens. And people are going to look at the heavens and get some clue as to what kind of God He is. Honor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. We should tell the whole world that we have been made whole. And demonstrate. That's beautiful. Somebody said something about the blood this morning. I don't give any messages almost anymore without talking a little bit about the blood. I have just been so appreciative. In fact, I put a bunch more songs in my book about the blood just recently. I want to praise God for His blood, for His salvation, for His great restoration in making me whole, in making you whole, in making communities whole. You know, after 9-11, I got to contemplating other religions of the world. And I made an amazing discovery that I should have known before. But I always had the impression that the heathen promised, their gods promised something they couldn't deliver. And then all of a sudden it struck me, they don't even offer it. It's not that they offer it and can't deliver it. They don't even offer it. Mohammed doesn't offer an agent that will cleanse sin. Islam says, if you keep the month of Ramadan by fasting during the day, and you make a pilgrimage to Mecca, and you pray five times a day, and there are two other ones which I can never remember. When you meet Allah, you just might incur His favor, but you can't be sure. In fact, if you want to witness to a Muslim, say to them, is Allah holy? Now, my personal opinion is that Allah is a demon, but they think He's God. But anyway, I say that because of what He does. You see the awful thing that's happening. People say, well, what about the Inquisition? Well, those people were worshipping demons too. But anyway, but you say to them, is Allah holy? Well, yes. Are you holy? No. How do you hope to stand in Allah's presence someday? And they will be speechless. They have no blood. They have no blood. The Buddha offers no blood. The Hindu offers no blood. There is not a religion in the world that offers anybody a cleansing agent that will remove sin and put a person in a state of innocence just as if they had never sinned. Now, if that doesn't send you out of this building shouting and levitating, I don't know what will. That is tremendous that I can stand here and know that if I drop dead on this platform, I would appear before God with no sin on my record. And that's what He's saying. Declare this to the heathen. The heathen are scared to death of their gods. Their gods are all angry. Somebody told me that some missionary said the greatest thing he ever did for those heathen was to tell them that there was only one God. That was a tremendous relief right there. And then to announce to them that that God was a good God. A benevolent God. They had deities that they impoverished themselves and beat themselves and did all kinds of crazy things to make those gods happy so that they would treat them well. And here He comes announcing, by the way, there's only one. And He's benevolent. What a relief. And not only that, but He has provided an agent that will cleanse away all your sins. You better start singing. They don't know that. They don't know it. You have to tell them. And if they see in your life that sin has been dealt with. I love the song Rock of Ages. And John Overholt changed the words in his book. And he's not here. I'd have some words with him about it. Rock of Ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed. Be of sin. He says the perfect cure. And you can see that He changed the type. You can see in the hymnal it's a different type. I don't know why He did that. But the original song says be of sin the double cure. What's the double cure? Save from wrath and keep me pure. Cleanse me from its guilt and its power. Oh, when I sing that song I get goose pimples. What an offer. What an offer. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Demonstrate to the world the effect of that blood. What it has done for you in your life in the beauty of holiness. I want to say something here about music. I've been trying to tell you what a tremendous resource it is. I'm going to have to put a famous diagram on the board. And this isn't original with me. It comes from way back in the Middle Ages somewhere. And it was given to me by Joseph Oberholtz. And I've used it all my life since. And the people who came to Bible school have seen this thing. Spirit, capital S. Mind, will, and emotions. And, of course, this is the body with its five senses. This diagram explains a tremendous amount. When there's a small s in there, we're going to be talking about wholeness here. So just bear with me for just a moment. When the small s is in there, it has no power. And so the body, basically, you're being influenced. All of your activities and thinking and so on is being influenced from your externals. These are the people who are driven around by their circumstances. They tell you that they're doing pretty well under the circumstances. And you should say, what are you doing under the circumstances? But circumstances are dominating their lives. I want you to tell me which of those three is the body going to make its appeal to. Go on, tell me. The emotions. Now, the sad part about this is the mind was intended by God to be the place where the basic appeal is to be made. And the mind has been made to want to be in control. And so when the emotions take control, the mind starts working real fast to think up reasons why the emotion should do what the emotions want to do, what the body wants to do. It's like I drove into the place where I used to go to church years ago. My uncle was there. I need to tell you that on both sides of my family, the people are wealthy. I'm poor little Johnny Martin that has a different philosophy about wealth. So my uncle was there. I was driving along the highway. My uncle was there working in the graveyard. And I hadn't talked to him for a long time. I thought, well, I'll just go in and say hi to uncle. And so I went in and I was driving. You people remember that old Buick, that old Pontiac station wagon I had with the wood grain peeling off the side. You remember? That was a good car, by the way. It never owed me any money. It ran and ran and ran. I paid $800 for it. Anyway, so I swung this old peeled off looking vehicle in there. I wound down the window and the first thing uncle said to me was, John, I guess you see I bought a brand new truck, but it doesn't mean anything to me. See what was happening? This is what dominated. But see, the mind has to come up with reasons. And so there's this tremendous conflict between the mind and the emotions. There's war here. Most people are walking civil war because these two, the mind is trying really hard to get it together with the emotions, but the mind knows better. My uncle knew better. And then he went on to say, and I bought a new Cadillac too, and it doesn't mean anything to me. And I didn't say a word. I hadn't said one word about his vehicles. And after he said that, I didn't say anything out there. Well, I know what's going on now. How does music help us here? What does music make a tremendous appeal to our hearts? Well, I, this is what I call the heart. This whole the emotions. Now it also speaks to our minds. But when we sing, it involves our whole being. It involves our spirit. It involves our mind. It involves our emotions. It involves our body with the rhythm. That's why music is so powerful in terms of salvation, in terms of helping the salvaging process in our lives. Because it's addressing every part of our being, and it helps to deal with this problem here. It brings our emotions. By the way, when the Holy Spirit is here, this is a capital S, and then it starts to work the other way. The spirit addresses the mind. The mind tells the emotions they put up an awful fight, but they eventually lie down and behave. And the whole thing begins to work the way it should. How many of you have ever come to church feeling just sort of at odds? You just didn't feel very great peace. You walked in the door, and after we sung about five songs, it was all different. How many have ever had that experience? See why? Because music has a great power to bring our emotions to the support of what we know. I want you to leave realizing there are so many things happening when you're singing. In fact, it is applicable and relevant to every circumstance of life. I want you to know that. Okay. And that's why I might as well give my belief about being filled with the Spirit while I'm here. I believe that when you become a Christian, you get all of the Holy Spirit. Now, there are some people that are praying for more of the Holy Spirit. I don't know whether they want a knee or an eye or an ear or a nose or what they want. But the Holy Spirit is a person. He's not given to people by pieces, I don't think. So what does it mean when it says be filled with the Holy Spirit? It means bring yourself to the point where there's no civil war here. This is all at the Holy Spirit's disposal, and there's no conflict. And then you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, this sort of comes and goes because we have our problems. And the civil war starts here, and we need to get it back together again. And as soon as this is all reconciled and the Holy Spirit has it all, and there's no conflict, there's no civil war anymore, then you're filled with the Holy Spirit. And music is your most valuable resource. That's why it says be filled with the Spirit speaking to yourselves in tongues. Isn't that what it says? That's the place it should have been. That's where the Holy Spirit should have put that, if that's what it's supposed to be. It says speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Song goes along with this because I really believe this is sort of what it is. What I just described to you, I think, is what's happening. And so it says here that we are to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The word is the same as the word wholeness. It means in one piece. And that is beautiful. If you meet a person who is whole, there's no civil war going on here. He's a beautiful person. Wholeness is always beautiful. Pieces are not. Let's just read the rest of this. We must conclude here. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world also shall be established that it shall not be moved. Tell the heathen all this carrying on and upheaval in this world is going to end when the Lord reigns. It's going to end. Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar in the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful in all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord. For he cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness. Oh my. How the world wants judgment and righteousness finally. And the people with his truth, reality. That's what we're supposed to sing. All the things that are in that psalm. And we didn't get time to talk to all of them. And talk about all of them. Let's turn over to Psalm 100. Just look at this one a little bit. And we'll bring this to conclusion. I'm praying the whole time I'm giving this that I'm convincing you that you can't do without psalm. And it should be a 24 hour, well, when you're awake at least, experience. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. The whole earth is called to praise. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Now, when you went into the presence of a king back in those days, you always brought a present. You didn't go into the presence of a king without a present. You always brought a gift that had the greatest value that you could accumulate. You've got this, well, you know what the wise men did when they came to Christ. They brought very expensive gifts. And they're people that go charging right into God's presence without any gift. Well, that won't do. He's a great king. You can't come into his presence without a gift. What gift does he want? Singing. To him, that's, what this says to me is that's the most valuable thing you can bring. Is a heartfelt song. And it's a joyful noise. The heathen come into the presence of their gods with wailing because they dread those gods. And they're sad. And they're terrified. We come into the presence of God with singing because he's a benevolent God. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. The young lions do lack and suffer need. But they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. That's the God we're coming to. So we come with our gift. And we come with praise and with joy. Serve the Lord with gladness. I'm sorry. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving. And into his courts. I missed something here. Oh, I'm sorry. Verse 3. 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. That's how you come into his presence and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good. Do we really believe that the Lord is good? You know, that is the most important thing that we can ever get into the consciousness of people. That God is good. The reason they won't surrender to him is they don't believe in his goodness. They believe he's to be feared in a negative kind of way. And for 25 years, you can ask the people who have gone with me to the Franklin County Prison. The thing that I have labored the hardest to get those men to understand is that they can totally trust God. He is a benevolent dictator. And he dictates only for the best and highest welfare of people. When Joseph came into Pharaoh's presence, he said to Pharaoh before he ever heard the dream. God shall give you an answer of peace. Isn't that amazing? He hadn't even heard the dream. And he said, God shall give Pharaoh an answer of shalom. The answer God gives you, Pharaoh, will be for your highest well-being. Now you know why Joseph did so well? He never doubted that. Through all of the horrible experiences he had, he believed that somehow there was a good God behind it all. It was Romans 8.28 before it was ever written. And this little boy with that one piece of information about God was able to do amazing things and do much better than most of us who claim to have many more advantages than he had. But it was that one thing he believed behind it all was a good purpose that would eventually somehow vindicate him and bless him. And you'll sing. If you believe that about God, you'll sing. I just am so glad that we have a benevolent God. A benevolent God. For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting. And His truth endureth to all generations. Well, folks, it's not that we don't have enough to praise Him about, is it? I've tried to give you many, many reasons. Just two concepts of song that I take from the New Testament. One of them was referred to here this morning. It was that music is a sacrifice. It says we bring the fruit of our lips as a sacrifice to God, just like they brought those Old Testament sacrifices. And you know that they were to be without blemish. Those lambs were to be the best lambs that they could bring. And that's what we should do. I'm not talking about taking voice lessons and learning that kind of excellence. But we should bring our song to God, and we should try the very best to have the perfect song when we sing. And I've already referred to the other one. Song is the authentic expression of the Spirit-filled life. And so, if you want to really give an expression of a Spirit-filled life, it's singing. The Bible has said that. So, let's sing. Let's turn to 280 and sing the other two verses. I saw a motto up at Faith Builders years ago that said something I had to go home to research. It said that joy is the infallible evidence of the grace of God. Did you get that? Joy is the infallible evidence of the grace of God. I'll tell you why. Because the word for grace is charis. The word for joy is c-h-a-r. They are from the same root. If you have grace, you have joy. If you have joy, you have grace. If you don't have joy, you don't have grace. And so, that's also tied into this whole thing of Christians being motivated to sing. The grace in their heart just bubbles over with joy. Open now the crystal fountain. By the way, this whole thing is a picture of the children of Israel going through the wilderness. Open now the crystal fountain. Remember, they drank from that fountain. Whence the healing streams do flow, Moses threw a tree in it and made them sweet. Let the fiery, cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through. Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, be thou still my strength and shield. I told you, it's your greatest weapon. Be thou still my strength and shield. And then, of course, the other is about Jordan. So, second verse. Open now the crystal fountain. Whence the healing streams do flow. Let the fiery, cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through. Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, be thou still my strength and shield. Be thou still my strength and shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside. Death of death and hell's destruction land me safe on Canaan's side. Songs of praises, songs of praises, I will ever give to thee. I will ever give to thee. Let's bow our heads and then I'll entertain your questions. Father, we thank you this morning for this tremendous resource of song. Oh God, I pray help us not to forget to use it. Through every experience of life, Father, it's the key to our victory, it's the key to us being filled with the spirit, it's the key to entering into your presence, it just is the key to everything. And Lord, I just pray that every person in this audience will be motivated by this message to face the battle that they face in the future with song. Lord, I just pray help us to be a singing people and we pray, Lord, that we would be able to demonstrate to the heathen the blood-washed wholeness that they can experience by your precious blood. Oh God, I pray, bless us as we go into the next message. Help us, Lord, to understand better what kind of songs bring the most glory to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, they said there would be a question and answer period and it doesn't have to just be questions. It can be a testimony. It can be some insight that came to you that I didn't touch on. I'm sure there was a lot more that could have been said. So, it's open. Well, I've either confused you or I've answered all the questions. I'm not sure which. Well, if you don't have any questions, we won't prolong it. Oh, there is one. Okay. Well, I'd just like to comment. I have to think a little bit about the Israelites who were out there and it took three days to carry away the spoil. I just feel I'm so overwhelmed. I'm so glad that we do have this thing on tape that I can take the tape along home because there's more than I can carry home already. I mean, I don't know what I'm going to do with what's going to come next, but I'm so blessed. It's such a vast treasury and there's no way I can carry it all along home. So, I just want to bless and praise and thank God for that. Thank you so much for the message. Isn't that the way God gives all His blessings? More than we can carry. Brother Bailey. Yes. I don't know. Maybe you were planning to address this in another session, but I'm not quite sure how to phrase my question. It has to do with the use of musical instruments in the New Testament church. We don't have that practice among us. I'm not against musical instruments, but I sure appreciate our singing the way we have it on a Sunday morning. Could you give some teaching on that? I'm glad you asked that question. No, I was not planning to address that, but I will address it. You've all heard the word acapella. Does anybody know what it means? Yes, brother. It means of the chapel. And the word goes way back to the Latin. And so the word itself is a testimony that whether people used instruments or not outside of the congregation, maybe could be debated. But the singing in the chapel was always unaccompanied. And I think with good reason. I think musical instruments have a purpose for education, for wholesome recreation, but I believe the purest form of corporate worship is unaccompanied song. And I couldn't make an argument from scripture, but it is a practical argument. I remember when one of the main denominations, plain denominations in our community decided to put in an organ. And I wish you would go there to hear their singing. It just finally does not add. And so, yes, I would be the first person to raise the objection if they brought them into the church. We would lose something and they would add nothing. Somebody else have a question? Just a testimony on singing, praising to the Lord. We were climbing a mountain last year and my wife started to struggle two-thirds of the way up and she lifted up a song to the Lord and it just carried her right up the mountain. We were struggling to keep up with her. Well, you should have started singing too. I believe we all were. Praise the Lord. Amen. Can you expound a little more on what you were saying that Israel, that your personal belief was that Israel didn't have to actually fight in the battles? Could you give an example of that or expound a little more? I knew I was opening a can of worms. I don't think I should address that here. That's another total subject. And it's a personal opinion. If I were to go and look at the Old Testament scriptures, which I'm not prepared to do right at the moment, it would be a nuanced discussion and you could see it both ways. I said it was my personal observation. Perhaps that's what the Lord had in mind. He said He would send the hornets to drive them out and some other things like that that are said and some examples of where it actually happened. And I guess I have wondered, I'll just make this comment, you go study it for yourself. I have wondered if God's people had always been where God wanted them to be if they would ever have needed to lift a sword. That's just a question you might want to ponder. Okay? Yes? Yeah, Psalms 149 also bears testimony of what it does to the heart of our enemies. It says here, 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 a 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 the judgment written. This honor have all His saints. Praise ye the Lord. But it just brings out there in verse 6, Let the high praises of God be in their mouth. And it says to execute vengeance in essence to our enemies. And this honor have all His saints. It says, I've always been blessed with that scripture there. I'd like to make a comment on that. The question is often asked, What do non-resistant people do if somebody comes into their home and makes an attack on their wife and children? Did you read the incident in David Brisseau's book? It's not a guarantee, but that lady just started singing, Jesus loves me. And in that case, the whole thing dissipated. So, let's not forget that. You know, if we're ever in a situation like that, a tremendous resource is song. There's a hand back here. We may cover this also in a later session, but I've had a question in my mind for a long time. Often when I read songwriters' autobiographies, especially around 1750s through mid-1800s, they come across that they are contemporary songwriters and that they should be just singing the psalms from the Bible. I enjoy the hymnals and the hymns of those eras, but then when I'm confronted today by people saying, well, your songs that you sing were accused of being too contemporary of your day, and our songs, you're accusing us of being too contemporary. I'm not sure how to make that argument that what we're singing has content and meat and maybe what they're singing is just fluff. Are you going to elaborate on that, or can you add to that at all? I think the next session will give some answer to that. If I have an answer, I'll bring it up again. Just a comment about following on what Brother Mel said with the supernatural influence of music. When we were working in Africa, times when there were people that had problems with demonic bondage and the brethren didn't know how to get through, they would just start singing. And that would just calm that person down. It would minister. And a lot of times, there was freedom that came out of that. And their theology wasn't always right. They didn't have a harp like David had, but they just sang hymns. And so just a confirmation of that testimony. Two hands. Brother Denny's, and there's a hand back here. Brother John, I'm just privileged to hear you share on music. It's a very needful topic in the Christian life. And it will be my hope that maybe you'll be coming to share over in Africa as well. What I had a question was, will you be commenting on the role of Lucifer before his fall and after as far as the relationship to music? No, why don't you make whatever comment you feel would be appropriate. Well, I had heard that Lucifer was heavily involved in music when he was in heaven. And that makes us realize how careful we need to be in our music and our listening of music because he had a heavy role and now, of course, he was tainted in his fall. And we all the more need to be concerned about that. So I was just wondering if you were going to comment on that. No, I'm glad you made that comment. That says something. And that is that he knows very well what music is all about. Brother Denny had his hand up. Yes, just rejoicing to hear the very simple yet inspiring presentation this morning on music. As I was listening, I thought again and I've had this thought many times. Our modern technology, if we're not careful, it will slowly rob us of doing what those Welsh people did. They didn't have a cassette player and I'm not saying it's wrong to listen to a cassette, but they didn't have a cassette player to play music. They sang instead. And I think that we do wisely if we would do the same I know that with so many of our young people it's the next cassette, it's the latest CD, you know, and I think we're spending hours listening to music when I wonder what would happen if we would spend hours singing music. Amen, brother. So I had that thought and then the other thought that came to me, fresh and new, you know, the scriptures say it twice. It says in Ephesians 5, speaking to yourselves with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and then in Colossians it says speaking to one another, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And I thought about the aspect of meditation. Brother John mentioned his mother. You know, the Scripture promises us if we delight in God's Word and we meditate in it day and night, everything we do will prosper. Amen. And sometimes we think, how can you do that all day long? Well, John's mother was doing that all day long. Amen. And she was meditating all day long. And it wasn't a burden to her. She was singing. May God help us. Excellent. Thank you, Brother Denny. Yeah, I have a question. I think this would pertain probably to your other session, but I'm just going to give it out. The Bible often associates singing unto the Lord with shout, make a joyful noise and shout to the Lord. And that reminds me of, I don't know, what would be a good type of music to shout with, make a joyful noise with? I'll have to think about that one, Brother. Yes. On the board there a while ago, you put there problem and prayer and then worship or singing. I've often been invited, even out of South Dakota, just to get together and praise and worship. And nobody would ever have a problem or nobody would pray about getting to know the Lord more or just get together and make a lot of noise and worship. That would not be worshiping spirit and truth, would it? Well, the person who's worshiping, I told you, all his life is showing the worth of God, and prayer is a major part of that. If there's no prayer, there's no praise. That would be my answer to that. Because even not so long ago, out in South Dakota, or before I moved in, I was with some people that always wanted to just praise and worship, get together and never share their heart or their struggles or their problems, and I just didn't feel free to worship there. So I thank you for that. That's a very good point. Prayer and praise go together. Is... You had mentioned an interesting thing as far as the music in church being unaccompanied instruments possibly having their place as far as recreation, education, and I was wondering if you might be elaborating a little bit more on that in future session as far as just wondering where, how the thing of worship, entertainment and so forth, can there be a combination and somewhat scenario where I'm struggling somewhat to know where to... In the past I've always listened to music from an entertainment standpoint. I'm trying to find my way in... And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that out there. But I don't think... I think we should try to wring the entertainment element out of singing and music in the congregation. And you made a very good point. It's very hard to distinguish once the instruments are there. It's hard enough anyway. But it's even doubly hard once there's instrumental accompaniment. I told you my argument is a pragmatic argument. People say there's no instruments in the New Testament and I say there surely is of all places in heaven. So... You can't make that argument. But it seems like all sensitive spiritual people... I shouldn't say all, but many sensitive spiritual people have seen a danger there. John Wesley says you can put an organ in your church provided you fill it with concrete. So... Somebody else have a comment? I just wanted to share this morning that I was blessed by your sharing on the... just praise and how it works with the spirit world. And just in my quiet time, it seemed like many times that I struggled with just being thankful. And I found it was so helpful if I sang before I just even read the Scriptures or even prayed, and just that praise out of my heart just done something to the whole quiet time. I mean, it's simply... Those times were so enriching that I often wondered just exactly what all was happening, but I loved them. I treasured them so much. And I just thank you for sharing that. Because that has helped me to see that I need to do it more. Thank you, brother. Let's have two more and then we maybe should move on. Where is the brother here? Raise your hand. Go ahead. I just want to make a couple... read a couple comments that were made by brothers of the past or people that we use a lot of we refer to a lot in the past. And that is John Wesley, like you had said, the comment that he had was, I have no objections of instruments being in our chapels, provided they are neither heard nor seen. And then John Calvin commented, instrumental music is not fitter to be added into our public worship of the Christian Church than the incense, the candlestick, and the shadows of the Mosaic Law. And then there is one from Spurgeon that says, we would like to see all the pipes of the organs of our places of worship either ripped open or compacted filled with concrete. The human voice is so transcendently superior to all that wind or strings can accomplish that it is a shame to degrade its harmonies by the association with blowing and scraping. That the great Lord cares to be praised by bellows, we really gravely question. We cannot see any connection between the glory of God and the sounds produced by machinery. One broken note from a grateful heart must have more real acceptable praise in it than all the wind that sweeps through the whistling pipes. Thank you. Yes, and you could multiply those quotes. Many, if not all of the really outstanding spiritual leaders of the past made comments of that sort. One more. Thank you, Brother John, for what you're sharing. I'm glad to hear it. Glad it's being taught. I wonder if you can address this later. Have you ever noticed maybe you'll address it later, a parallel between our spirit, soul and body and melody, harmony and rhythm. That has often been observed and I am going to remind everybody of that. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much, Brother Aaron. I'll turn it back to you. Well, praise the Lord. We shall go forth singing into the battle. All right. We'll have a song while we minister to the Lord in our offerings. And after that song, Brother John, you just come right back with the next session.