And let's grab our song books, please, and turn them to hymn number 413.
We'll begin tonight with Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, hymn number 413.
And we'll sing it out nice and loud on that first verse.
Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, number 413.
Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross.
In Christ the Lord your measure, it must not suffer loss.
One victory, a two victory, his army shall he lead.
Till ever more is made, when Christ the Lord in thee.
Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, your trumpet call obey.
For to the mighty horse, in this victorious day,
Be that of men thou serveth, against the number thawed.
When courage rose in danger, and strength to strength of thawed.
Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, in his strength alone.
Beyond the flesh will fail you, be there not trust for all.
But on the gospel on, and watching unto prayer.
We call for danger, remember once again.
Amen.
Father in Heaven, thank you for your church. I pray that you please bless your children here and elsewhere.
And please bless all aspects of the service and Pastor Anderson's preaching.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Amen. Right across the page, number 412.
Onward Christian soldiers, hymn number 412.
And marching as the Lord, hymn number 412 on this first verse.
Onward Christian soldiers, marching as the Lord.
With the cross of Jesus, going on before.
Rise up, Lord, your Master.
Lift against the fold.
Forward into battle, see it better go.
Onward Christian soldiers, marching as the Lord.
With the cross of Jesus, going on before.
At the sign of triumph, Satan's host doth flee.
On then Christian soldiers, on to victory.
Hell's foundations glimmer at the shout of praise.
Lovers lift your voices, loud your rambles raise.
Onward Christian soldiers, marching as the Lord.
With the cross of Jesus, going on before.
Like Almighty are we, who's the Church of God.
Brothers we are treading, where the saints have gone.
We are not divided, all one body we.
One in hope and doctrine, one in charity.
Onward Christian soldiers, marching as the Lord.
With the cross of Jesus, going on before.
Onward, then ye people, join our happy throne.
Blend with us your voices in the triumph song.
Glory, God, and honor, until Christ the King.
Mr. Countless Angels, men and angels sing.
Onward Christian soldiers, marching as the Lord.
With the cross of Jesus, going on before.
Alright, this time we'll go through our announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high and we'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 630. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
And tonight we are in, excuse me, Wednesday night we're in Ecclesiastes chapter 9.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvations and baptisms.
We've got all the birthdays and anniversaries listed for July.
The Spanish night is this Thursday at 7 o'clock.
All the fellowship before and after the service is also in Spanish, no English allowed.
So all levels of Spanish are welcome. You can be a total beginner, that's no problem,
but you just can't use any English.
You can use Google Translate, a dictionary, charades, whatever, but just no English.
And then on the back we've got the Bible memory passage.
We're working through 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 9 through 13.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
And that whole passage, the deadline for that is going to be next Sunday.
So that doesn't seem right. I think that that deadline should be extended to the 18th
because this is only week 5, so next week will be week 6, so change that to the 18th.
Alright, so you've got a little more time on that.
And then below that we've got the expectant ladies.
Pray for them that they will have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
And then down at the bottom, other upcoming events, we've got the soul winning trips.
The plan is Heber, but if that falls through due to forest fires, we will redirect to Flagstaff.
And anybody's welcome to come to those, even if you're brand new to soul winning.
You can just come along and be a silent partner and learn the ropes.
And these trips are totally free of charge.
We pay for the transportation, the lodging, the food.
And we're usually pretty good about picking good restaurants too.
So it's really like a culinary tour in a lot of ways.
And you get to see a lot of cool scenery.
You get a lot of good fellowship.
And we're doing important work bringing the gospel to a lot of people whose doors are not going to get knocked by anyone else with the gospel in these more remote areas where we're going.
And so it's a good time for all involved and it's important work.
So that's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days going back to Thursday, which was the first of July.
Anything from Thursday?
Alright.
Anything else from Thursday?
Anything from Friday?
Two.
Alright.
Anything else from Friday?
And then what about Saturday?
Nine for the group in Payson on that trip to Payson.
So good job everybody who went out to Payson.
Anything else?
That's pretty good for Payson too.
Nine.
Alright.
And then anything else?
What about Sunday?
Today.
Okay.
Anything from today?
Gotcha.
Anything else from today?
Alright.
Very good.
Keep up the good work on soul winning.
With that, let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
Alright.
In the front of your hymnals, you should find the hymn, God of Our Fathers.
If you don't have an insert, please raise your hand.
God of Our Fathers, whose almighty hand.
Lead us on high, till ever-ending day.
Hail, all our lives, with love and grace divine.
And glory, Lord, and praise be ever thine.
Amen.
Your hymnals now please turn to hymn number 416.
As a volunteer, hymn number 416.
A call for loyal soldiers comes to one and all.
Soldiers for the hungry, bellies in the hall.
Good lives are made with love and cheer.
Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
A volunteer for Jesus, a soldier too.
Others have enlisted, why?
Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
A volunteer for Jesus, a soldier too.
Others have enlisted, why not you?
Jesus is the captain, we will never fear.
Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
If Jesus was a soldier, you are filled with power.
Soldiers who will serve him, every day and hour.
He will not forsake you, he is ever near.
Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
A volunteer for Jesus, a soldier too.
Others have enlisted, why not you?
Jesus is the captain, we will never fear.
Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
Who calls you or who calls you when the heart calls kind?
He who's heartless, broken, broken, format kind.
Who loud and sound, he calls you, calls it as his fear.
Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
A volunteer for Jesus, a soldier too.
Others have enlisted, why not you?
Jesus is the captain, we will never fear.
Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
And when the war is over and the victory's won,
When the true and faithful gather one by one,
He will ground with glory all fair up near.
Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
A volunteer for Jesus, a soldier too.
Others have enlisted, why not you?
Jesus is the captain, we will never fear.
Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
Thank you, Jesus.
Alright, this time we'll pass the offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Ephesians, chapter 5.
Ephesians, chapter number 5.
As we always do, read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1.
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads.
Ephesians, chapter 5, beginning in verse number 1.
In Ephesians, chapter 5, the Bible reads,
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children,
and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us,
and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior.
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as become as saints,
neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient,
but rather giving of thanks.
For this ye know that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater,
have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
Be not ye therefore partakers with them, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather reprove them, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
Wherefore ye sayeth, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, 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.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the saviour of the body.
Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it,
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself,
and the wives see that she reverence her husband.
Dear Father, please bless this sermon, and please give us ears to hear. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, the title of my sermon tonight is Songs, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs.
Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. The Bible reads there in verse number 18 of Ephesians chapter 5.
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.
Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Obviously we know what psalms are.
Psalms are actually referring to the book of Psalms, you know, singing the word of God itself.
We've got the entire book of Psalms, 150 of them, and then obviously we know what hymns and spiritual songs are.
These are just songs of praise to God, songs about God.
These are not taken directly from Scripture, but they are written by human beings, not under any kind of special divine inspiration.
They're not Scripture or authoritative, but they are just songs that are inspired by the message of the Bible, the Gospel.
And so God desires to hear us sing both the songs that are in His word and also that we would sing a new song unto the Lord that is composed from someone's own heart.
And so the Bible talks about singing both. Now the thing I really want to point out here, first of all, is that the Bible talks about being filled with the Spirit,
and then He rolls right into this, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Now we all want to be filled with the Spirit. This is very important.
If we walk in the Spirit, then we're not going to fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
And we want to have the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We want to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
How do we get there? Well, one way that we get there is by speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing and making melody in our hearts of the Lord.
So this is a very spiritual activity when we sing praises to God.
But the other thing I want to point out here is the emphasis in the Bible is always on singing the praises of God, not listening to the praises of God.
We live in a spectator society where people typically go to church nowadays and they listen to performances of music.
They listen to a lot of singing. And sometimes there's no congregational singing or very little congregational singing.
And so this is going by the wayside many times. And we need to be the ones singing to the Lord.
Notice what he says here in verse 19. He says, speaking to yourselves.
Alright, so keep that in mind and let's flip over to the parallel passage over in Colossians.
So he says, speaking to yourselves. Now go over to Colossians chapter 3 verse 16.
Colossians 3, 16. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Verse 16 of chapter 3, Colossians, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.
And then watch this wording, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And so what we see here is that this is a reciprocal thing. This isn't one person singing to another person.
No, this is singing to each other. Teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Speaking to yourselves. Those are both plural. You know, the group plural is speaking to yourselves plural because everybody's singing to one another.
This is the purpose of our congregational singing. So we can teach and admonish one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord.
And then he says in verse 17, and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Now jump down to verse 23. It says, and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men.
So notice that we roll directly from verse 16, which is talking about singing, into a scripture that says, hey, do everything in the name of Christ.
And then just a few verses later, we have something that says, do everything heartily as unto the Lord and not to men.
Wouldn't that include singing? If he says, whatever you do, do it heartily. And it's even in the context of a passage about singing.
So if the Bible says that whatever we do, we should do it heartily, that would definitely include singing. Now what does it mean to do it heartily?
What's got the word heart in it? Singing from the heart, right? Doing it with all of our might.
You know, the Bible says, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
Whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord. Singing praises to God is something that pleases him.
It's something that he wants us to do. It needs to be an important part of our personal lives and also of our church service itself.
We don't just sing in church because we're trying to fill a little time. You know, like we're just trying to fill up some time and kind of stretch out the service a little bit, make it last a little longer.
The singing has an important purpose. Part of the reason why we're here is to come together in a group and sing praises to God in order to be filled with the Spirit to prepare our hearts for the preaching that we're going to hear.
Okay, that's part of the purpose of singing the songs is to get in the right spirit, get in the right frame of mind, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
So that's part of the purpose. You know, part of the other purpose of coming to church and singing together is so that we can learn new songs.
You know, we come to church and we learn the songs and then hopefully we take those songs with us throughout the week and we're singing those songs in the shower, we're singing those songs driving down the road, we're singing those songs on a daily basis that we learn here.
Now you say, Pastor Anderson, I'm not really big on singing. Well, you know what? You need to change, frankly, because singing and praising God is something that we are commanded by God to do.
You say, well, I'm not good at it. The way to get good at anything is by doing it. That's how you get good at stuff.
Well, you know, when you see somebody who's really good at something, all that means is that they've spent thousands of hours doing it. That's all that means.
Some people think like, oh, it's just an inborn talent. And whenever you see someone who's good at something, people always say to them like, oh, you're so talented, I could never do this.
You know, I don't believe that for one second. I think most things in life are 10% talent and 90% hard work.
So yeah, if you're going to be some world-class athlete or world-class musician or if you're going to be literally the best on the planet, you're going to need that 10% talent to get you there.
Because if you're going to be the ultimate, then you'd have to have a lot of hard work and you'd have to be gifted with a lot of talent.
But you know what? Most of us mere mortals, even if we have very little talent, if we spend time working hard at anything, we can achieve what we need to achieve in this life.
And you know, when I hear people talking a lot about talent, to me, that's just a code word for lazy people explaining why they don't achieve anything and other people do.
It's because everybody else has all the talent and I don't. Wrong. Other people have the motivation. Other people have the drive.
Other people put in the hours and put in the work. You didn't. That's what it comes down to. It's that simple.
Because you could take somebody with zero talent, but if they grew up in a Christian home, singing in church, singing at home, singing the hymns throughout the week,
I guarantee you, even if that person is not going to be on whatever country's got talent or whatever, I guarantee you that that person is going to be able to carry a tune and at least do some basic singing.
And so we'll all get better at singing by practicing singing. Now, for some people, when you're older, that ship has kind of sailed because of the way our brains work.
And you may be too late for you to get good at singing. But you know what? God doesn't really care how good you are at singing because the Bible just says to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.
So even if it's just like, you know, that was a joke. But anyway, you know, just make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Praise God in whatever way you can.
And you know what? I guarantee you, if someone were literally, you know, so messed up physically that that's all the noise they could make, you know what?
If their heart was praising God with that noise, God would be pleased with that noise. It's sort of like your children, when they sing to you, the more mistakes they make, the more you enjoy it.
I mean, if they sang it perfectly, it's almost boring. You know, you like it when the little kids mix up the lyrics a little bit and sing things a little bit wrong.
Don't you get a kick out of that as parents? You love to listen to toddlers sing. And you know what? That's the way God, you know, we're his children.
And so he wants to hear us sing. He's not looking for perfection. He's looking for the heart. He's looking for the attitude. He wants us to sing praises unto him.
Flip back, if you would, to Psalm 33. You know, because kids sometimes, they don't understand the lyrics to the songs and they really butcher them.
You know, when we were kids, we used to sing, Christ is captain of the mighty thumb. Onward, forward, shout aloud.
You know, it didn't really make a lot of sense, but that's what we thought they were saying.
Every single kid on this planet sings We Three Kings as we three kings of orient are bearing gifts. We travel so far.
I mean, that's every kid in the world. I did it. Everybody did it, you know. And so, you know, it's funny when kids make mistakes, when they sing off tune, when they add extra beats to the measure.
Who cares, right? It's about enjoying your children, right? And they're cute and it's precious.
Well, God looks at us and you know what? We are precious unto him. He loves us. The hairs of our head are numbered.
If we love our children on this earth, how much more does our Father which is in heaven love us and want to hear from us singing?
And here's the thing about this. You know, this church, Faithful Word Baptist Church, we're not here to exalt human beings.
We're not here to exalt people's talent or lift up man. We're here to lift up Christ.
And so, you know, we don't really care what the singing sounds like as far as, you know, whether it's all sounding like some kind of a choir or something.
You know, obviously we want to do the best that we can, but you know what? What we really just care about is we just want people just singing out from their heart to the Lord.
And we just want the spirit to be right. And I'm telling you that if you get in the habit of singing hymns and spiritual songs unto the Lord throughout the week,
and you get in the habit of singing the Psalms, your heart will be edified and your Christian walk will be improved.
I can't even count how many times I've been in a bad mood or had kind of a bad spirit and I started singing hymns and it just turned my attitude around.
I mean, it turned my spirit around because it just puts you in the spirit with the Lord and just can actually really do something for you on a daily basis.
And you know, it's sad when people don't take advantage of that and don't use that in order to be edified on a daily basis.
But not only that, but you know, obviously the Lord wants to hear us sing. We're also singing unto the Lord as well.
But look at Psalm 33. The Bible says in Psalm 33 verse 1,
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the upright.
Praise the Lord with harp. Sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
Sing unto him a new song. Play skillfully with a loud noise.
For the word of the Lord is right and all his works are done in truth.
He loveth righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
You know, there's a lot to sing about, isn't there?
There's a lot of subject matter in the book of Psalms about all of God's attributes, about all of his righteous acts.
There's plenty of subject matter to sing about and God wants us to praise him.
And he says to sing unto him a new song and he said to play skillfully with a loud noise.
Now let's pull a few doctrines from this right here, okay?
Because when it comes to our music, we want to make sure that we're biblical about our attitude toward music.
Now there's a doctrine out there that says that we should not use musical instruments in church.
There are religions like this. I believe Church of Christ is like that.
And another one is that some Presbyterians are like that.
They have this thing called the regulatory principle or something and they don't have musical instruments many times.
And to me, I think this is one of the most ridiculous doctrines imaginable.
It's like a flat earth level of stupidity to say, let me tell you how I really feel about it, you know, to say no musical instruments in church.
Now here's where they get this. They say, well, you know, there's no example of it in the New Testament.
I don't see any example of it in the New Testament.
Well, first of all, that's a bad way to interpret the Bible because the right way to interpret the Bible is that if God didn't specifically change something in the New Testament, you go by the Old Testament.
God's not going to re-say everything he said in the Old Testament.
I mean, look how thick the Old Testament of your Bible is compared to the New Testament, right?
The Old Testament is much longer.
So God gave a lot of teaching, a lot of instruction, a lot of doctrine, and unless he specifically changed something in the New Testament, why would we assume that it's void?
I mean, are we just going to start deleting things from the Old Testament? No.
The only things that change from the Old Testament to the New Testament are the things that God specifically said changed.
That's just, that's where I stand doctrinally.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Anything that God did not specifically change in the New Testament, we go by the Old Testament.
We look to the Old Testament.
What does God think about this?
What should we believe about this?
You go to the Old Testament.
Now, there are specific things that have been changed.
The Bible tells us that the meats, the drinks, the divers' washings, the carnal ordinances are done away in Christ.
We don't have the animal sacrifices.
We don't have the tabernacle.
We don't have the Levitical priesthood.
It's the priesthood of Christ after the order of Melchizedek.
And so we have these specific teachings that no longer is the nation of Israel God's chosen people, but now all believers are God's chosen people.
We are now a chosen people, a holy nation, a peculiar people as Christians.
So those are the things that specifically change.
But, you know, what about all the things that the Bible explains about, you know, not marrying somebody that's a close relative?
Does that have to be repeated in the New Testament?
Or can we just agree that God still doesn't want us to marry our aunt or our niece or whatever?
Wouldn't we just assume that that stays the same?
I mean, that's kind of common sense.
And, you know, if God told people not to cross-dress in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 22.5,
that's why you show people this verse that says, a man should not put on a woman's garment.
And then they'll be like, well, that's Old Testament.
So I guess when Jesus Christ died on the cross, it's not just the veil in the temple that was rent and train.
It was also the veil separating the men's department and the lady's department, you know.
In the JC Penny in Jerusalem, you know, the fitting room curtain ripped in half.
It's like, hey, it's all one department now.
That's garbage.
That's a transvestite society telling you that.
Okay?
If God said it was wicked back then, it's wicked now.
Unless something specifically changed.
We understand that in the New Testament, the Bible says the priesthood being changed,
there's made of necessity a change also of the law.
But you know what?
Things that did not specifically change are the same.
Keep them the same.
And so to sit there and say, well, I don't see anybody using musical instruments in the New Testament.
Let me explain to you why.
Because you see very little music in the New Testament because the New Testament is not a musical.
You know, it's not some kind of a musical story.
The emphasis is on the preaching.
The emphasis is on evangelism.
The emphasis is on doing missions.
So there's very little to go on.
You know, you have an example of Jesus at the Last Supper with his disciples.
They sang a hymn and they went out into the Mount of Olives.
But how many examples do you really have of music?
It always just talks about them coming together, break bread, and do preaching.
Okay.
So why is there so little about music?
Because we have this giant book called Psalms in the Old Testament.
So why do we need him to just repeat all that in the New Testament?
It'd be redundant.
The Bible is the correct length.
Amen.
It's long.
It's a long book.
It doesn't need to be any longer.
It doesn't need to be any shorter.
God gave us a book that's the right length.
I mean, thank God the Bible isn't like an encyclopedia.
You know, it'd be hard to study.
You know, he gave us something that we can handle, you know, in our finite brains.
This is what we can handle here.
And so it's been made the exact size that we need.
And we shouldn't expect everything in the Old Testament to be repeated in the New Testament.
What we instead have is God in the New Testament putting his stamp of approval on things from
the Old Testament.
So he, you know, he tells you, hey, the Holy Ghost is speaking by Isaiah the prophet.
You know, that tells us the book of Isaiah, you know, this is from the mouth of the Lord.
We need this.
We should study this.
And when he says in the New Testament that David said this in the book of Psalms and
then he said the Holy Ghost said it by the mouth of David the prophet, that tells us
that the book of Psalms is inspired by God.
When he quotes Psalms and says the Holy Ghost said this through the mouth of David, then
that tells us, okay, now we understand that the Psalms are inspired scripture from the
mouth of God.
Then we have Ephesians telling us to sing Psalms in the local church.
You know, are we supposed to just have preaching and no singing?
No, because the Bible told us in Ephesians and Colossians, which are epistles written
to local churches, he said, speak to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, teaching
and admonishing one another, right?
Singing, making melody in your heart to the Lord.
So we're commanded to sing in church, but we're commanded specifically to sing the Psalms.
Now, think about this.
There are 150 Psalms.
God's telling us, sing those.
This is not a complicated sermon, but this is important.
Sing that stuff, sing that book, sing those 150 Psalms.
Okay, the Psalms themselves talk over and over again about musical instruments.
Like you just read it right there.
Verse two, praise the Lord with harp, sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument
of 10 strings.
So are we supposed to sing in the New Testament if the Presbyterians have got this right,
or if Church of Christ has got this right, then in the New Testament, we're supposed
to sing about musical instruments acapella.
Think about how ridiculous that is.
Like, sing about praising the Lord with the harp, but don't you dare praise the Lord with
the harp.
Sing about an instrument of 10 strings, but don't pull out that 10 string guitar.
You know, sing about this stuff, but don't do it.
That is absurd.
That is madness.
It's crazy.
If we are supposed to be singing the Psalms, if the Psalms are our pattern for music, and
then we can take the pattern, we can understand the book of Psalms, then we can go write new
songs, so we can praise the Lord with a new song, then if he's talking about musical
instruments over and over again, and there's nothing in the New Testament telling us not
to, and there are hundreds, literally, of verses in the Old Testament teaching the use
of musical instruments, why on earth would we think that was changed?
And if you're going to use that method to interpret the Bible, I wonder what other kind
of crazy stuff are you going to get, and maybe you will marry your sister because you can't
find anything in the New Testament or something.
I don't know what you're going to do.
It's craziness.
It's ludicrous.
It really, it's one of those things that just kind of blows your mind, that it's even out
there, that this doctrine even exists.
As you can see, I feel strongly about this.
But anyway, flip over, if you would, in your Bible to Psalm 22.
Actually, I'll read you Psalm 22.
Go to Psalm 145.
I wanted to point out some cool verses in Psalm 22.
In Psalm 22, verse 3, the Bible says, But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the
praises of Israel.
Think about that.
God inhabits the praises of Israel.
God lives there.
God's presence is there in the praises of Israel as they sing these songs.
Why?
Because God is present in his word, of course.
And when people sing these Psalms, God is present.
And then a little bit later in Psalm 22, he says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren
in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
We should all be praising God in the midst of the congregation.
Now, as I said, it would be absurd to think that we should not sing the Psalms to musical
instruments when the Psalms literally command us to use musical instruments.
It doesn't even say if you want.
I mean, the Bible commands the use of musical instruments in the praise and worship of the
Lord.
And so it would be absurd to just in the New Testament say we're not going to do that because
we can't find anything specifically telling us to do that, even though we are specifically
told to sing a song that specifically tells us to do that.
I mean, it's a very strange logic indeed.
But not only that, let me just say this.
Along the same lines of this ridiculous idea of not using musical instruments, let me say
this as well.
If you have a problem with singing any of these Psalms in the New Testament, there's
something wrong with your doctrine.
If you have some issue like, well, we can't sing that, I mean, we can't be singing that,
you have a problem with your doctrine.
See, you know, and I've said this before, we've literally had people get offended when
he sang Psalm 139.
Because, I mean, you know, I had a pastor say to me like, are you singing about hating
people?
It's like, well, hold on a second.
I didn't write that song.
Now, and here's the thing.
I could see where someone was coming from.
Let's say I took some really gnarly part of the Bible that's not in Psalms.
You know, I just went to like some super gnarly story in the Bible.
Let's say I went to Malachi chapter 2 where he's talking about how God's so mad at him
he wants to shove dung in their faces.
And let's say I put that to music and we're singing that, I could see how somebody would
be like, I don't think this is a good song.
Like, it's a great Bible story, it's a great sermon, I don't think it's a good song.
Or let's say somebody took like Leviticus 18 or 20 where it's just listing all those
perverted sins that the Canaanites did and you're just like singing that.
Okay, I get it.
I would agree that, hey, this is good scripture, it's good for reading, it's good for preaching.
This doesn't make a good song.
I get that.
But here's the thing about the book of Psalms.
These are songs.
They're all songs.
So God set out for us to sing these particular songs.
So it's not like we're taking some gnarly Bible story that doesn't really necessarily
belong as music.
And even then, even then, I think that there could be a case made that all of it could
be sung appropriately.
And I would lean toward that if it were sung in the right spirit.
Like, I don't think you should put a happy tune to some of these things.
But I think if you had like a, you know, kind of a little bit of a darker tune to it, you
know, you could sing everything, you know.
And obviously, I would never pattern anything after the Christ-rejecting religion of Judaism.
But just saying, you know, the Jews actually sing the entire Torah, Genesis through Deuteronomy.
You know, they sing the whole thing.
Okay.
You know, if you read a Hebrew Bible in the original Hebrew, underneath all of the letters,
it has what are called the cantillation, somewhere above the letters and below it.
It actually has musical notation on every page telling you how to sing it if you want
to sing Genesis through Deuteronomy and even other parts of the Old Testament.
It all has cantillation marks on how to sing it, what would be done.
Now, obviously, we're not practicing Judaism.
We're not interested in that religion or anything that they do.
But my point being, you could make the case for singing all of it.
But I will say this, you could never, ever make an even halfway logical case that anything
in Psalms should not be sung when it's literally a song book.
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
You could argue about whether Malachi 2 makes a great song or Leviticus 18, but I promise
you that Psalm 139 makes a great song and the Lord of the universe who created everything,
he made that song to be sung and he commanded us to sing the songs in the New Testament.
Who are you to stand in judgment of God Almighty?
You know what it is?
It's people that think they're smarter than God.
And they're also more loving than God.
Because they love everybody.
They love pedophiles and the Pope and Charles Manson.
They love Satan.
They're so loving.
But let me tell you something.
God is the ultimate love.
So if you're more loving than God, you're confused.
You're not smarter than God.
And you know what?
I don't approach other parts of the Bible that way.
I don't approach other parts of the Bible like, well, you know, I know that's what the
Bible says, but come on, let's use common sense.
That's somebody who thinks they're smarter than God.
You see, a humble approach says, okay, this is the song book.
A hundred and fifty Psalms.
This is the song book.
And let me tell you something.
Like I said, I'm all for producing new music.
And the thing is, just like there are people who are against using musical instruments,
there are also some people who think we should only sing Psalms.
No hymns.
Just Psalms.
And they'll try to say, well, when the Bible says Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, that's
all just different types of scripture songs.
And you can never compose anything new.
But what does the Bible say?
Sing a new song unto the Lord.
Sing a new song.
So what does that mean?
How can we sing something new?
You've got to compose that.
Am I right?
And so you've got to sing a new song unto the Lord.
So here's the thing.
We have a hymnal with hundreds of songs in it that are not from the Word of God.
Sometimes they're paraphrasing scripture.
Sometimes they quote scripture.
But they are written by human beings and they are relatively new.
You know, the songs in the hymnal have all pretty much been written in the last 400 years.
And I would say that even the majority of songs in that hymnal were written during the
20th century.
Okay?
So they're fairly newer songs.
Some of them go all the way back to the 1600s.
But those are in the minority.
Most of the hymns that are in our hymnal are from the 20th century.
And then there's a lot from the 19th century, you know, 18th century.
And it gets less and less as you go back in time.
And then, you know, that's when our language didn't exist.
Because our modern English language has only existed for about 450 to 500 years, depending
on how you calculate it, depending on where you want to cut that off.
Our modern language has only existed for about 500 years.
So we got about 500 years worth of music.
Okay?
And here's the thing.
I'm all for writing new songs.
But I think that when we write new songs or when we choose hymns for the hymnal, I believe
that the book of Psalms is a pattern for us.
So it's like God has given us the psalm book here.
We've got 150 songs, and these are the songs God wrote.
And he used human beings to write them, so they do also have human authorship.
And so I believe that the book of Psalms is sort of a pattern book, saying write songs
like this.
Here are some great songs.
Go write more.
Sing a new song.
Write a new song unto the Lord.
Now, what can we take away from the book of Psalms?
Well, you know, one of the things that I take away from the book of Psalms is just
the breadth of the subject matter.
You know, the wonderful thing about reading the book of Psalms is that Psalms hits on
every subject.
It's one of the reasons that it's one of my favorite books in the Bible.
Because when you read the book of Psalms, I mean, you've got everything.
You've got chapters that are teaching you the Gospel, that are pointing you to Jesus
Christ, you know, prophecies about Jesus, clear scriptures about salvation, and prophecies
about the Lord Jesus Christ.
You've also got a lot of historical Psalms that tell you the stories about the children
of Israel leaving Egypt, they list off plagues in Egypt, talk about them crossing the Red
Sea, being fed by manna in the wilderness, and they are complaining and God's destroying
them.
And so you have a lot of Psalms that tell Bible stories.
So I would consider that a certain genre of Psalm, right?
So you've got, like, you could say messianic Psalms, you've got what I would call historical
Psalms or narrative Psalms that are telling us a Bible story, and then you've also got
prayers where it's showing us these really heartfelt and intimate prayers of David and
others crying out to the Lord, pouring out their hearts, asking for help.
And then you have another class of Psalms called imprecatory Psalms.
There are 19 Psalms that are classified as the imprecatory Psalms.
And imprecatory is just a fancy word for cursing.
So you have 19 Psalms where David or others are praying a curse upon the enemies of the
Lord.
So these are the Psalms that say things like, you know, break their teeth, oh God, in their
mouth, and, you know, let them melt like a snail, let them go down quick into hell, and,
you know, do not I hate them, oh Lord, that hate thee.
And again, these are the 19 Psalms where people would say, don't sing these in the New Testament.
But you know what?
You have a problem with your doctrine, and that's your problem.
Because these are all God's word, they're all prescribed in the New Testament.
And to me, the book of Psalms, you know, it's hard to even classify it as New Testament.
It almost transcends Testament anyway because of the fact that it's commanded to be the
song book in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament.
So the book, and by the way, that's why historically if you buy a New Testament, if they tag one
book from the Old Testament, which one do they tag on?
How many times have we held in our hand the New Testament and Psalms?
Because if you could only have one book from the Old Testament, you know, you'd probably
maybe be a toss-up between like you'd really want Genesis and you'd really want Psalms.
Maybe those would be the ones that you'd kind of think as, hey, these are the ones that
are really important.
You know, well, which books did the Lord Jesus Christ quote the most?
I'll tell you which three he quoted the most.
My understanding is that he quoted the most Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah.
That's the way that I understand it.
I could be wrong on that, but I believe that that's accurate.
Psalms, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah are the ones that are the most often quoted by the Lord.
And in the New Testament, when we see the Apostle Paul quoting stuff, you know, he quotes
a lot of Psalms.
In the book of Acts, they quote a lot of Psalms.
And so it's a very important book.
And if you think about it, music tends to drill things into our head, doesn't it?
I mean, I could sing to you commercials from the 80s that I've never heard since, but I
could sing every word of them, and I've totally memorized all kinds of slogans.
And, you know, I mean, I go to the grocery store, and I know exactly what to buy, because
it's just, you know, the songs are guiding me, and the music is telling me, you know,
all the things, because, you know, nobody doesn't like Sarah Lee.
You know, and we have all these songs drilled into our mind, and it's like, hey, nobody
doesn't like Sarah Lee.
I mean, come on, you know?
And it's just like, we have been drilled in with advertising, and we could sing those
songs decades later, because music has a way of drilling into our head.
Well, the question is, what do you want drilled into your head?
What do you want drilled into your head?
Because you know what?
There's some music out there that's going to drill some really raunchy stuff into your
head.
You know, you think about the worldly music of our day.
You think about a lot of the pop music that's out there.
You think about the rap music, and you think about these things, and the subject matter.
I mean, you know, you just, you hear that car pull up next to you, the, and you know,
you'll catch like one sentence of the lyrics.
It's pretty horrifying.
It's horrifying.
It's shocking.
You know, meanwhile, people are shocked by Bible preaching.
This stuff is being listened to by millions of people, and nobody bats an eye.
But the lyrics that you hear are shocking, and you've got a bunch of just filth that's
being promoted, blasphemy that's being promoted, wickedness that's being promoted.
And let me tell you something, that stuff is drilled into your head.
It's drilled deep into the core of who you are, and it is there to stay.
And you better be careful what you allow into your brain, especially in the form of
music, because music is powerful.
That's why he said you are teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs.
And so when we sing biblically sound hymns, they drill Bible doctrine into our brain.
And I'll tell you one Bible verse that I never had to sit down and memorize.
You know, I remember I was working through and memorizing 1 and 2 Timothy.
Well, you know what?
I got to one verse that I didn't have to memorize at all, because it was,
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day.
It was like, done.
That verse is done.
I never set out to memorize that verse, but I sang that song in church as a kid.
I could go, I guarantee you if I went 30 years without hearing that song, I could still rattle
that off.
That will never go away.
That is in my brain for good.
Music has a way of doing that, and that's why God commanded the children of Israel to
sing the song of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy, because he said you're going to forget the
Bible, you're going to forget the law, you're going to turn away from God, but you will
not forget this song.
And so the song will testify against you and bring you back to God, because the music drills
good doctrine into our head.
That's why we need to make sure that we don't sing songs that have bad doctrine.
You know, that's why we, you know, there are, and here's the thing, the hymnal that we use
is a good hymnal.
You know, it's a Baptist hymnal.
You know, it's produced by the sword of the Lord, John R. Rice and Curtis Hudson and
those guys.
But here's the thing, there are some songs in that hymnal that are not doctrinally sound
and we don't sing those.
You know, we purposely skip certain songs, even if they're just doctrinally questionable
or misleading, because we don't want people's doctrine to be screwed up from getting drilled
with these wrong songs.
So we want to sing songs that have good doctrine.
And the songs that we sing in our hymnal, you know, they emphasize believing in Jesus
Christ, they emphasize eternal life, they emphasize the blood, they emphasize the power
of God's word.
And so these are good doctrinal songs that get our mind filled with good truth and good
doctrine.
But you know what, singing Psalms is great because you end up memorizing huge sections
of the Bible without even trying.
But I think more important than that is just getting drilled with that good doctrine.
Because here's the thing, if you're singing the Psalms, you know it's doctrinally right.
It's the word of God.
And so getting that word drilled into your mind is so great.
And you know what?
If you think about how many churches today have become so soft and so weak and so watered
down, I wonder if they'd been singing the book of Psalms the whole time if they could
ever have gotten that way.
Because there's so many hard things in Psalms.
There's so much hard preaching in the book of Psalms.
You've got 19 imprecatory Psalms and you've got all of these other Psalms that have such
powerful messages.
You couldn't really become watered down if you were singing them.
But you probably could become watered down with just a steady diet of the kind of contemporary
praise worship style music that's pretty lean on doctrine.
You know, I mean, you know, just singing all this light praise to God.
And you say, well, what's wrong with the Christian contemporary music?
What's wrong with all this contemporary praise and worship?
I don't see what the issue is.
I'll tell you exactly what's wrong with it.
It's being written by people who are trying to market it to all denominations at the same
time.
There you go.
That's one sentence.
That's just done.
Any questions?
It's being written by people who are trying to market it to all denominations at the same
time.
So they can't put any distinctive Baptist doctrine or any really clear Bible doctrine
in it because they don't want to offend anyone.
You know, I mean, if they sing about baptism being by immersion, you know, well, there
goes a lot of their audience.
If they sing about how you can't lose your salvation and it's eternal, then they're going
to lose part of their audience.
Right?
They can't get too clear on any doctrine.
They have to keep it all purposefully vague in order to appeal to as big of an audience
as possible because they want the Methodists to buy it, the Presbyterians to buy it, the
Baptists to buy it.
They want Roman Catholics to buy it.
They would love the Mormons to buy it.
They want everybody to buy it because they will take your money as long as your money
is green.
And let me tell you something.
Every single day in the news, you're just constantly saying like, oh, this Christian
artist is now an atheist.
Here's another Christian artist that just came out and said that they're pro-Homo and
pro-Sodomite.
You know, I just saw in the news a few weeks ago one of the guys from DC Talk, which was
a super popular rock slash rap kind of a group from the 1990s.
When I was a teenager, everybody was into it and one of the founding members is saying
now that he's a recovering evangelical and now he's pro-Sodomite and he's just super
liberal, left wing, just a total commie.
A literal queer commie.
I mean, look it up.
The guy's just a super leftist.
You know, one of the founding members from the newsboys came out as an atheist.
You know, he's just an atheist now.
And, you know, and here's the thing.
You know, I remember listening to the newsboys as a teenager.
I remember going to their concerts, okay, as a teenager with my Christian youth group
and so forth.
And here's the thing.
I went to a newsboys concert, but here's what I didn't know when I was at that newsboys
concert.
Here's what I didn't know.
What I didn't know is that at the time the lead singer was addicted to heroin at the
exact, because I was reading later about this guy's, and you know what, here's the
thing.
I'm not ragging on the guy as far as, you know, I hope that he's a saved Christian.
I believe that he probably is saved and he's repentant and he's living right now and he
just got out of the music business and he's just focusing on living a good life right
now.
But here's the thing.
That industry though covers things up like that because you kind of know if someone around
you is addicted to heroin.
When someone is getting drunk and using prostitutes and on drugs and everything, you're going
to notice that if you're in the band with that person, if you're on the crew, if you're
in the music business with those people.
But a lot of that stuff, it's just about making money.
It's just about making money and there's a lot of rotten things going on in that industry
and then you see these people later coming out and saying they're an atheist, they're
an agnostic, I'm affirming of the LGBT now and all these different things.
That's not where I want to get my source of godly music from people who are trying to
please all denominations and sell as many records and get popular and get huge and so
forth.
So the problem with the praise and worship genre is that, and a lot of this stuff by
the way is coming from literal heretics.
You got all this hill song that everybody's into.
I mean that place is churning out a bunch of damnable heresy.
So why would I want to get a hold of their Christian music?
I'm not interested.
And so we need to understand that music is powerful.
It's drilling a message into our head.
We want to get the right message drilled into our head.
And anytime you're singing the Psalms, it's the right message.
And if you can't sing the Psalms today with a big smile on your face, you've got something
wrong with your doctrine that you need to figure out where you screwed up doctrinally
why you can't sing the Psalms.
So let's just look through this quickly.
We're running out of time.
But look at Psalm 145 verse 1.
It says, I will extol my God, I will extol thee my God, O king, and I will bless thy
name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever.
Look at Psalm 146 verse 1.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
While I live will I praise the Lord.
I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
147 verse 1, praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God, for it
is pleasant and praise is comely.
Look at Psalm 148 verse 1.
Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights.
Praise ye him, all his angels.
Praise ye him, all his hosts.
Praise ye him, sun and moon.
Praise him, all ye stars of light.
Praise him, ye heavens of heavens and ye waters that be above the heavens.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created.
He hath also established them forever and ever.
He hath made a decree which shall not pass.
Go to Psalm 149 verse 1.
Praise ye the Lord, sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of
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 the dance.
Let them sing praises unto him with the timberland harp, for the Lord taketh pleasure in his
people.
He will beautify the meek with salvation.
Let the saints be joyful in glory.
Don't miss this.
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.
He sang sing praises to God, not just in the congregation, although we should, not just
in church, not just when we get together with Christian friends as we should, like when
Jesus is with the disciples in the upper room, they sing a hymn.
Great!
But you know what?
What about when you're all by yourself?
And that's what's represented by singing in the bed because that's where you're alone.
That's where you're by yourself.
That's where you're in private.
Bed is a private place and you sing to the Lord in your bed.
Sing to the Lord when you're by yourself.
Singing praises of God should be a part of our life.
It will help us have God's word in our heart.
The Bible says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and
admonishing one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
God's word can dwell in you richly when you sing God's word.
That's a way for God's word to dwell in you richly.
I mean, what does that mean?
It goes in deep, right?
It's like another part of your brain.
And it's also a part of your heart now that has absorbed that music.
That's why I love the songs put to music because of the fact that they get stuck in your head
if they have a catchy tune.
And here's the thing.
We've been working to try to put Psalms to music.
It's very difficult.
It's a slow process.
It's hard to take these songs and make a good song that can be sung out of them.
You know, they were all originally sung in Hebrew, but that's a different language.
And we don't know the tune anymore.
So, you know, we have to kind of start over with that and take these songs and put them
to music.
Now, there are a few different ways to do this.
And let me just close the sermon by talking a little bit about this, is that there are
different philosophies on this.
Now, what some people have done is they have paraphrased the Psalms in order to make them
rhyme.
You know, so they'll basically, they'll go back even to the original Hebrew and try to
keep the meaning and everything as close as possible, but some things end up getting paraphrased
and they end up putting them in, you know, in a versified fashion where they rhyme a
little bit and they have a meter to them and they're broken up that way.
But they're paraphrases of the Psalms.
This is how the Geneva Psalms are or other Psalm books.
I have one in my office that's from, I want to say it's like from the 1600s and it's published
by the Trinitarian Bible Society and it has all the Psalms in verse form.
And then it even gives you like suggested tunes where you could sing them to familiar
tunes.
Now, you know, when I first heard that, I thought to myself, I don't like that, you
know, because I, you know, I want to sing it verbatim because I, you know, I really
want to get the word of God as it is in our King James Bible, you know, accurately translate.
You know, I'd rather get that drilled in, you know, word for word.
And, and, and, you know, I still think that that's the best.
But then I got to thinking about it, I thought to myself, you know what, though?
You still wish that people had been singing that thing instead of just singing nothing
for the last hundred years or something.
Because in the independent fundamental Baptist movement, there's been almost no singing of
the Psalms.
Very little, tiny bit, precious little, couple of Psalms that they would sing, couple verses
here and there, but very, very little.
And I'm thinking to myself, at least if they would have been singing out of that thing,
at least they would have got all the gnarly doctrines.
You know what I mean?
Which would have been great, would have been better than nothing.
So I am, I just want to go on the record.
I am not against that book that, that versifies the Psalms and, and, you know, you know, I
think that that is something good, you know?
But I think ideally, I think what's better is to sing the Psalms word for word, and that's
what we're focused on here.
So whenever we sing Psalms in church, we only sing them word for word.
That's the way we do it here.
I'm just saying I'm not going to cast stones at someone else who's using that book because
of the fact that it's way better than the music program at 99% of churches, if they're
at least incorporating that, that's a great step.
And I've heard a lot of those sung, and they're great, and they do say exactly what the
Psalms says, and they're, they're, they're definitely getting a great doctrine across.
So I'm not, I'm not against that.
It's just we're working on a specific project here.
You know, the way that we're doing it, we're putting the Psalms to music word for word
because we want to just put the King James Psalms to music.
Now, some of the, the, the principles that I've followed in doing this are that when
we put the Psalms to music, you know, in addition to doing them word for word, what they are
in the King James, is that we also want them to be as much like the hymns that we're already
used to as possible.
You know, because here's the thing, when you, when you try to approach people with something
that's too different, it's, you know, they can't handle it.
It's too different.
So if we put Psalms to music and it's just a way different style than the hymns that
we've, you know, historically sung or that we've grown up with, and it's just this dramatically
different style, then that's going to be hard for people to accept and hard to integrate
into our music program.
And here's the thing, it's hard enough, it's a tough enough sell to try to get the old
IFB singing Psalms, but at least if we can give them some Psalms that are similar to
hymns that we already sing and that are in that same style, then I think it's going to
be easier for them to accept and incorporate and use the Psalms so that they can be a blessing
to as many people as possible.
And again, notice I said like the old IFB, because you know what, I'm not really interested
in creating music for the Pentecostal church down the street or Presbyterians or Methodists.
You know what, I'm interested in creating music, you know, for people of like faith.
You know, I'm not like these pop star Christian musicians who just want to sell records, you
know.
But I do want to be a blessing to a lot of independent Baptists or people who at least
believe like us, okay, even if they're not independent Baptists, if they believe the
things that we believe.
So, you know, we want it to be verbatim, we want it to be as much like what we already
are used to as possible.
You know, when I come out with some Chinese tune, you know, we're not going to know what
to do with that.
You know, it's just not, it's not the music that we're used to, okay.
And it could be a great tune.
You know, you could really sweep China with that tune.
But it's just, it's got to be what we're used to, you know, number two.
And then another thing is, and this is something that I've impressed upon people too, is that
it has to be easy to learn.
You see, there are lots of people who put songs to music on YouTube and they're beautiful
to listen to, but they just kind of go all over the place musically and they're just
kind of, you know, they're just kind of, and there's no repetition.
Well, then you know what that means, it makes it hard for people to learn, right.
So you know, I think of, you know, I grew up hearing Psalm 1, sung by the tune of,
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.
Anybody know it?
Who knows that particular tune?
Me and one other person, all right.
Well, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seed of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his fruit in his season.
And whatsoever he doeth.
Now look, it's a great tune.
I love it.
I think it's great.
Here's the problem.
It never really repeats anything.
It just goes all different places.
So that's very difficult to learn, very difficult to sing congregationally,
which is why only one person here knows it.
Because of the fact that, you know, it's a tune that would be a challenge
to learn and teach other people.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
And sometimes when people have brought me songs that they compose,
I said, you got to simplify.
You got to strip this down.
It's got to repeat, repetition, okay.
Think about the songs that we sing in the hymnal that everybody likes,
that are the most popular songs.
We could go to independent Baptist churches all over America,
and everywhere we go, you want to know what's going to be a popular song?
Nothing but the blood.
Am I right?
Is there any Baptist church in America where nothing but the blood is not popular?
Okay, let me give you some facts about nothing but the blood.
Nothing but the blood contains four notes.
It's true.
It has four notes.
G, A, B, and D.
That's it.
Whole song.
Four notes.
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Those are the four notes.
That's it.
Not only that, the second line is exactly the same as the first line.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Okay, third line's a little different.
Same four notes.
Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know.
So that little musical phrase is repeated three times, and then we're back to the same thing again.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Okay, let me tell you about another song in the hymnal.
Amazing Grace.
Is that a pretty popular song?
Five notes.
So a little more complex.
You know, a little more complex than nothing but the blood.
Now you're using five notes.
Ooh.
You know what everybody's favorite songs are?
Jesus Loves Me.
Nothing But The Blood.
Power In The Blood.
And you know what all these songs have in common?
Super simple, super easy to learn, and they usually repeat the same notes over and over again.
You know, one of my favorite songs in the hymnal is Come Thou Fount.
I love that song.
Notice Come Thou Fount.
Four lines.
Line one, two, and four are identical.
Only line three is different.
And I could go all night.
I could tell you about songs and explain to you and break these songs down to you musically
and explain how few notes they use.
Oh, and by the way, here's another interesting fact.
Every single song in the hymnal all ends on the same note.
All 479 of them.
How about that?
It's true.
The only one that's kind of an exception is Hallelujah What A Savior.
Hallelujah What A Savior.
And it kind of leaves you hanging a little bit at the end.
But in the harmony, you still play the one note that they all end on.
Because whatever the name of the key is, if it's in the key of A, they all end on an A.
If it's in the key of C, always ends on a C.
If it's in the key of G, always ends on a G.
Every single time.
So if you played all the songs in the hymnal in the key of C,
because you can play every song in the key of C, right?
Yeah.
The music guy is affirming me.
If I played every song in the hymnal in the key of C, you know, every single note,
the last note I'm going to hit is a C note.
The last chord in every song in the hymnal is going to be a C chord.
And the second to last chord in every song in the hymnal virtually is going to be a G7.
In virtually every song in the hymnal, if we were doing them in the key of C,
they would end with G7, C.
Virtually every single time.
And here's the thing.
The one song that's a little bit of an exception to that, you know,
Hallelujah, you want to sing it?
That's why it's super unpopular.
That's why we're like the only ones still singing it.
And you know, you find all these really complex songs in the hymnal.
Here's a complex song in the hymnal.
The cross, it standeth fast, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, defying every blast.
I use a lot more than four notes.
It's all over the place.
And guess what?
We're one of the only people who sing it also.
Because what are the popular songs?
Nothing But the Blood, Jesus Loves Me, Power in the Blood, right?
Come Thou Fount.
Keep it simple, stupid.
That's what people want.
That's easy to learn.
And that's why, you know, when we do these Psalms, we make them as simple as we possibly
can.
Sometimes they have to be a little bit complex, but we try to make them as simple as we can.
Simple, easy to learn, repeat the same tunes over and over again.
You know, Pastor Jonathan Shelley's written a couple of really great Psalms.
The one that he wrote, I want to say, is it Psalm 126?
Is that the one that he wrote, right?
Psalm 126, you know, he originally brought me Psalm 126.
And I'm like, let me strip this down for you.
And I, you know, he's like the pure artist.
And I'm like the record company, like basically telling him, hey, we got to make this cell,
buddy.
And I'm like, you know, what's the right word?
He has kind of like, I don't know what the word is.
You know, but basically I took it, I took his hymn and I didn't add anything new to
it.
I just subtracted.
You know, I just like stripped it down and just stripped down every, you know, took some
stuff and I basically, and he was just like, what have you done?
I'm like, dude, this is the song that people are going to sing because yours is great.
I said, your version was even arguably better, but it's too complicated.
It was too hard.
I stripped it down and then everybody loved it and we've been singing it.
It's great.
I don't even remember what the old version was even like.
And again, just to be clear, I didn't write any of the music for that song.
It was 100% Pastor Shelley.
I just gutted the thing.
So then when he was working, he was working on Psalm 150.
This is what I took because, you know, he, he went to church and he went to our church
at the time.
So I was able to like tell him what to do.
Now he does whatever he wants.
But anyway, you know, he was here cause he was, he was being trained for the ministry.
So he's under my tutelage.
He came to me with Psalm 150 and I told him, I said, you already know what I'm going to
do to it.
Do it to yourself.
And he's like, okay.
And he went and he stripped it down himself and he brought it back.
I'm like, perfect.
No changes.
Right on.
And his Psalm 150 is a great song too, but they've got to be, they've got to be easy.
You know, they've got to be something that, that we can, you know, pick up on.
Now you say, what does that have to do with me, Pastor Anderson?
You know, I'm throwing that out there just so you understand where our philosophy is
coming from on making these Psalms.
And I want to say this too, that when we write the Psalms, yes, we do them verbatim, but
we do repeat things.
And sometimes we even jump around a little bit and some people are like, you're changing
God's word.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Because here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
What if I quote a verse twice in a row?
I mean, is that a corruption of God's word?
Let's not get superstitious.
You know, you can cross the line from piety into superstition where it's like you're afraid
to even say it twice or something.
And, and you know, sometimes we'll take one verse and make it the chorus.
Like for example, you know, we did Psalm 67.
God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us.
That thy name may be known upon earth.
Thy saving health among all nations.
Let the people praise thee, oh God.
And that's the chorus.
Let all the people praise thee.
Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
And then there's three more stanzas of that.
It's easy to learn.
It's catchy.
It's upbeat.
And it sounds like something you would hear in a Baptist church.
Okay?
So that, you know, that's what we're going for.
It's okay to repeat stuff.
It's okay to move things around.
You know, that's what we do in our preaching all the time.
I mean, you know, and you say, well, you know, but I want to memorize that whole chapter.
What if I told you that when you get to heaven, you're not going to get any rewards for how
much scripture you memorized?
You're not going to go up to heaven and do a spelling bee and then quote scripture for
a prize.
And you know what?
This is coming from somebody who's pretty into scripture memory.
I've done a lot of scripture memory, but let me tell you something.
I don't believe that I'm going to get rewarded for my scripture memory.
I just don't.
I think I'm going to get rewarded for what I did with that scripture when I preached
it to people and when I won souls to Christ and when I preached sermons and I was able
to rattle off those verses.
And I think I'm going to get rewarded for the works that I did because I was inspired
by all that Bible I memorized.
But you know what?
Here's the thing.
What if I told you that memorize, you know, knowing all the verses in a chapter and knowing
every single verse in a chapter and being able to rattle off every statement in that
chapter is probably going to do just as much for you spiritually as being able to just
stand there and be like Psalm 67 verse one and just recite it.
Now look, I could not stand up right now and recite Psalm 67 in order.
Yet I have all of Psalm 67 memorized because I can sing that song.
And many of you could sing that song.
So what if I just go to the grave having never memorized Psalm 67 but yet I've memorized
every part of Psalm 67 because I've sung it a bunch of times.
So I know all the doctrine, I understand all the doctrine, and I'm able to preach it to
other people and quote those things and say, do you see what I'm saying?
What is our point here?
Just to run a spelling bee and a Bible verse quiz?
No.
You know, if we can drill Psalm 139 into you by singing it, our work is done.
Whether or not you can quote it verbatim in order or whether you can quote each individual
statement, it's all God's word.
And what if I told you that if you take one verse out of a chapter by itself, that verse
is God's word.
If I take half a verse and as long as I'm quoting it in the context of what it means,
I mean, that's God's word, right?
It's all God's word no matter how big of a chunk we use.
If it's one verse, it's God's word.
If it's the whole chapter, it's God's word.
I've got to hurry because I'm almost out of time.
But what I want to say is this, I want to kind of bring this back around to the common
man who's not composing Psalms, which is 99% of the people here.
The reason I bring this up about keeping it simple, making it easy is because a lot of
people's objection would be, you know, well, I don't really sing out in church because
I don't know the songs, right?
Like I don't really sing out in church because, you know, we should all be singing out, right?
See I don't really sing out because I don't know the songs.
I don't know the tune so I can't really sing it out.
This is one of the reasons why our church, which again is different than a lot of churches
in this, have you noticed that we always sing every verse of every song?
Now if you go to the old IFP churches, typically the way I grew up in Baptist churches, you
never sang all the verses.
And I remember as a kid being confused and thinking like, I remember trying to find the
problems with the verses that they skipped because I thought like there must be some
doctrine here that, you know, and I'm like this all seems kosher, you know, what's the
deal?
Why do we hate the third verse?
I remember one time I was on a work trip with a buddy and we were at the hotel after working
all day and I'm like, man, why do we never sing the third verse of any song?
The third verse is usually like the best verse of the song and we never sing it.
And we had a hymnal with us and we're like, we're going to sing the third verse of every
song in the hymnal right now.
Just the third verse.
This is before I was a pastor, this is when I was just a layman, I was just like a work
buddy that was also a Christian.
We pulled out the hymnal and we're just in the hotel room for hours just singing only
the third verse.
We're just like, his oath, his covenant, his blood, support me in the whelming flood.
You know, we're just going through all the obscure third verse, we're like, this is great,
we love this.
Some churches, because the typical, if you're lucky, you get first, second, and fourth,
if you're lucky.
Because nowadays it's like we'll sing the first and the last or just the first verse
and the second verse.
Here's the problem.
The problem is, what if you don't know the song?
If you don't know the song, by the end of the second verse you're just starting to kind
of get the tune.
You're like, okay, yeah, I'm starting to get this, alright, it's over, done.
By singing all the verses, you know what we're doing, we're giving you a chance to learn
the song.
And the idea is that even a song that's totally unfamiliar to you, if you start singing it
with us on the first verse, by the time you get to the fourth verse, you're at least going
to be able to sing part of it, and you could probably, if you tried the whole time and
just kind of made utterances the whole time, you'll probably be singing it right by the
fourth verse.
You know what I mean?
At least that's the idea, that's in theory, that's the way it's supposed to work.
So that's why we sing all four verses, is to give new people a chance to learn the songs.
And also, you know, we do a mix of old songs and new songs at this church, because we want
to have some old favorites, but we also want to learn new songs, and so we do a mix of
that.
And we sing all four verses so that you can learn the song as we go.
And so I encourage you to sing heartily unto the Lord as we sing in church.
But honestly, if you really want this to affect your life, don't just sing once a week.
I want you singing tomorrow.
I want you singing on Tuesday, I want you singing on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and
you learn the songs at church, and you know, you say, well, I listen to Christian music.
But you know what, that's not the same as doing it.
Singing is different than listening.
Where did God say, listen to Christian music?
What he emphasizes, sing, sing praises, make a joyful noise.
So God wants us to participate and not just spectate, okay?
And so we want to make sure that we have this as a part of our life.
The most common imperative verb in the Bible, you know, when God's giving commands so things
are imperative, the most common imperative is this verb, praise.
More than any other command in the Bible, the most frequently repeated imperative verb
is praise, by far, praise the Lord.
Just how many, I mean, the book of Psalms is like praise the Lord, praise Him, praise
Him, praise Him.
And even when it says hallelujah, the word hallelujah literally is just Hebrew for praise
the Lord.
That's what that means.
And so we need to be singing, we need to be praising the Lord, we need to be making a
joyful noise.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for all the wonderful things that you've done and there are so many
subjects that we could sing about, there are so many righteous acts that we could praise
you for, there are so many wonderful doctrines that we could teach in song, Lord.
We just pray that you would allow every single person here to have this blessing of spiritual
music in their life, of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and in Jesus' name we pray,
amen.
All right, now we better be singing a good song right now, what are we singing?
Our best.
Let's sing something that everybody knows really well, that's a good song.
Let me just go on the record saying I love the song Our Best.
Let's sing a song that everybody knows really well so that we can just really put the sermon
into practice right now by singing out really loud.
These are all great.
What about 205, he keeps me singing.
That's not popular enough.
I think It Is Well With My Soul and All God's People Said, all right, let's do It Is Well
With My Soul.
I think everybody knows that one pretty well.
You can really kind of, is everybody good with that one?
And by the way, you know, if you're having trouble following the tune, you know, some
of these musical instruments really make it easy too because sometimes I've been in the
back and it's kind of a song that's even a little bit unfamiliar to me and I'll hear
like a trumpet or something and I'm like, okay, I can follow that.
You know, you can kind of sometimes listen for the tune that way.
So is everybody good to go?
It Is Well With My Soul?
All right.
Very good.
145, It Is Well With My Soul.
Show me that you're listening to that sermon, all right?
Let's sing this.
Nice and loud.
It Is Well With My Soul and All God's People Said, all right, let's do it.
It Is Well With My Soul.