Transcript The importance of worshipping God in spirit & truth – John 4:24! • The reality of “FALSE” worship! • The “PURPOSE” of worship! • Some.

1
The importance of
worshipping God in spirit &
truth – John 4:24!
• The reality of “FALSE” worship!
• The “PURPOSE” of worship!
• Some general principles
governing our worship!
The Lord’s Supper
The Collection
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ
2
Ephes. 5:19 (NKJV)
speaking to one
another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and
making melody in your
heart to the Lord,
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ
3
What Are
The
Grounds of
Objecting
To
Mechanical
Instrument
s of Music
In
Don McClain
Worship?
Not Because:
 They are evil in and
of themselves  Merely preference But Because:
 There is no authority
for using mechanical
instruments of music
in worship . . . Col
65th St church of Christ
3:17
4
Matthew 26:30 (NKJV)
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the
Mount of Olives.
Acts 16:25 (NKJV)
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing
hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
Romans 15:9 (NKJV)
and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as
it is written: "For this reason I will confess to You among the
Gentiles, And sing to Your name."
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ
5
1 Cor. 14:15 (NKJV)
What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit,
and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with
the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.
Hebrews 2:12 (NKJV)
saying: "I will declare Your name to My brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You."
[13:15] Therefore by Him let us continually offer the
sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to His name.
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ
6
Ephes. 5:19 (NKJV)
speaking to one
another in psalms
and hymns and
spiritual songs,
singing and making
melody in your heart
to the Lord,
 Speaking?
 To one another?
 Psalms, hymns &
spiritual songs?
 Singing?
 Melody is to be
made – but how?
 To please Whom?
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ
7
Adam Clarke
Ephes. 5:19 (NKJV)
speaking to one
another in psalms
and hymns and
spiritual songs,
singing and making
melody in your heart
to the Lord,
Don McClain
. . . The heart always going
with the lips. It is a
shocking profanation of
Divine worship to draw
nigh to God with the lips,
while the heart is far from
him. It is too often the case
that, in public worship,
men are carried off from
the sense of the words by
the sounds65ththat
St church ofare
Christ put to
8
Col. 3:16 (NKJV)
Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all
wisdom, teaching and
admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your hearts
to the Lord.
Don McClain
 Teaching?
 Admonishing?
 One another?
 Psalms, hymns, &
Spiritual songs?
 Singing?
 W/ grace in your
hearts?
 To the65thLord
St church of Christ
9
Adam Clarke
Col. 3:16 (NKJV)
Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all
wisdom, teaching and
admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your hearts
to the Lord.
Don McClain
The singing which is here
recommended is widely
different from what is
commonly used in most
Christian congregations; a
congeries of unmeaning
sounds, associated to
bundles of nonsensical,
and often ridiculous,
repetitions, which at once
both deprave and disgrace
the Church
of ofChrist.
...
65th St church
Christ
10
Adam Clarke
Col. 3:16 (NKJV)
Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all
wisdom, teaching and
admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your hearts
to the Lord.
Don McClain
. . . Melody, which is allowed
to be the most proper for
devotional music, is now
sacrificed to an exuberant
harmony, which requires, . . .
different musical instruments
to support it. And by these
preposterous means the
simplicity of the Christian
worship is destroyed, and all
edification totally prevented.
65th St church of Christ
11
We are
told what
to sing
(Eph.
5:19).
1) "Psalms" - the heritage of the
Jews which expresses
deliverance, thanksgiving, etc.
2) "Hymns" - songs of praise,
reverence and adoration.
3) "Spiritual Songs" - a song
which correctly expresses the
thoughts, facts, and emotions of
Christianity.
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ
12
We are
told what
to sing
(Eph.
5:19).
We are
told how
to sing:
Don McClain
1) With spirit and
understanding (1 Cor.
14:15).
2) With melody in the heart
(Eph. 5:19).
3) With grace in the heart
(Col. 3:16).
65th St church of Christ
13
David Had &
Used Them – 1
Chr 23:5
Don McClain
•
What about animal sacrifices,
the burning of incense, and the
Passover. (Amos 5:21-23; 6:5)
•
We are no longer under the Old
Testament – we are under the
New Testament. (Col. 2:14; Gal.
5:4; Heb. 10:9-10)
•
We must find authority for all
that we do in the New
Testament. Col. 3:17; 2 John
1:9
65th St church of Christ
14
Rev. 5:8 (NKJV)
Now when He had taken the scroll, the four
living creatures and the twenty-four elders
fell down before the Lamb, each having a
harp, and golden bowls full of incense,
which are the prayers of the saints.
David Had &
Used Them – 1
Chr 23:5
Harps are in
heaven – Rev
5:8
•
•
Don McClain
Literal harps?Other things in the
context – The
What are the scroll, (1-4), The
golden bowls
throne, Lamb,
of incense? seven horns, eyes
& spirits, (6)
65th St church of Christ
15
David Had &
Used Them – 1
Chr 23:5
Harps are in
heaven – Rev
5:8
Psallo –
includes mec.
Instrument
Don McClain
Vincent Word Studies:
•
A psalm [psalmos], was
originally a song accompanied
by a stringed instrument. . . .
The idea of accompaniment
passed away in usage, and the
psalm, in New-Testament
phraseology, is an OldTestament psalm, or a
composition having that
character. (Col 3:16)
65th St church of Christ
16
David Had &
Used Them – 1
Chr 23:5
Harps are in
heaven – Rev
5:8
Psallo –
includes mec.
Instrument
Don McClain
Thayer Definition:
ψάλλω - psallō
1) to pluck off, pull out
2) to cause to vibrate by touching, to twang
2a) to touch or strike the chord, to twang
the strings of a musical instrument so
that they gently vibrate
2b) to play on a stringed instrument, to
play, the harp, etc.
2c) to sing to the music of the harp
2d) in the NT to sing a hymn, to celebrate
the praises of God in song
65th St church of Christ
17
David Had &
Used Them – 1
Chr 23:5
Harps are in
heaven – Rev
5:8
Psallo –
includes mec.
Instrument
Don McClain
There is an
instrument
specified:
Ephes. 5:19
(NKJV) . . .
singing and
making melody
(psallō) in your
heart to the
Lord,
65th St church of Christ
18
Specified:
Excludes
The Participants –“one
another”
The Kind of Songs –
“Psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs,”
The Instrument –“Singing
Making melody in your
heart to the Lord”
Solos & Choirs! Playing
instrument!
Don McClain
Patriotic songs, holiday
jingles, secular songs -
Making melody on a piano!
Entertainment!
65th St church of Christ
19
Specified:
Excludes
The Participants –“one
Solos & Choirs! Playing
These change
the type (nature,
another”
instrument!
characteristic) of the music
The Kind
of Songs –
“specified.”
Patriotic songs, holiday
“Psalms
and hymns and
God Specified:
jingles, secular songs  spiritual
The Participants
–
songs,”
 The Kind of Songs TheInstrument
–“Singing
The Instrument to be Used Making melody on a piano!
Making
melody in your
Entertainment!
heart to the Lord”
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ
20
David Had &
Used Them – 1
Chr 23:5
Expedients
• Pitch pipes,
Harps are in
heaven – Rev
5:8
• Song books,
Psallo –
includes mec.
Instrument
Nothing God requires is
changed by using such
aids
An expedient,
Don McClain
• Song leader.
65th St church of Christ
21
David Had &
Used Them – 1
Chr 23:5
Harps are in
heaven – Rev
5:8
Psallo –
includes mec.
Instrument
An expedient,
Don McClain
But - If a mechanical
instrument of music
is used, it is an
addition - the type
(nature,
characteristic) of the
music “specified” is
changed. The
instrument is
specified – The
Heart!
65th St church of Christ
22
Don McClain
Justin Martyr (A.D. 139):
"The use of [instrumental] music was
not received in the Christian churches,
as it was among the Jew, in their infant
state, but only the use of plain song. . .
. Simply singing is not agreeable to
children [the aforementioned Jews],
but singing with lifeless instruments
and with dancing and clapping is. On
this account the use of this kind of
instruments and of others agreeable to
children is removed from the songs of
the churches, and there is left
65th Stsinging."
church of Christ
remaining simply
23
Tertullian (c. A.D. 200):
"Musical concerts with viol and
lute belong to Apollo, to the
Muses, to Minerva and Mercury
who invented them; ye who are
Christians, hate and abhor these
things whose very authors
themselves must be the object of
loathing and aversion."
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ
24
Don McClain
Eusebius (260-340):
"Of old at the time those of the
circumcision were worshiping with
symbols and types it was not
inappropriate to send up hymns to God
with the psalterion and kithara . . . But
we in an inward manner keep the part of
the Jew, according to the saying of the
apostle . . . [Romans 2:28f]. We render
our hymns with a living psalterion and a
living kithara, with spiritual songs. The
unison voices of Christians would be
more acceptable to God than any
St church of Christ
musical instrument"65th(Comments
on
25
Augustine 354 A.D.
"musical instruments were not
used. The pipe, tabret, and harp
here associate so intimately with
the sensual heathen cults, as well
as with the wild revelries and
shameless performances of the
degenerate theater and circus, it is
easy to understand the prejudices
against their use in the worship."
(Describing the singing at Alexandria under
Don McClain
Athanasius)
65th St church of Christ
26
Don McClain
Chrysostom (345-407):
"Just as the Jews are commanded
to praise God with all musical
instruments so we are
commanded to praise him with all
our members-the eye, the tongue,
ear, the hand. These instruments
were then allowed because of the
weakness of the people, to train
them to love and harmony"
(Comments on Psalm
150)..
65th St church of Christ
27
Thomas Aquinas (1225 1274)
"Our church does not use
musical instruments, as
harps and psalteries, to
praise God withal, that she
may not seem to Judaize"
Don McClain
(Thomas Aquinas, Bingham's
Antiquities, Vol. 3,
page 137)
65th St church of Christ
28
John Calvin
Don McClain
"Musical instruments in celebrating the
praises of God would be no more suitable
than the burning of incense, the lighting of
lamps, and the restoration of the other
shadows of the law. The Papists therefore,
have foolishly borrowed, this, as well as
many other things, from the Jews. Men who
are fond of outward pomp may delight in
that noise; but the simplicity which God
recommends to us by the apostles is far
more pleasing to him. Paul allows us to
bless God in the public assembly of the
saints, only in a known tongue (I Cor. 14:16)
What shall we then say of
chanting, which
65th St church of Christ
29
Martin Luther
(1483-1546)
"The organ in the worship Is
the insignia of Baal… The
Roman Catholic borrowed it
from the Jews."
(Martin Luther, Mcclintock &
Strong's Encyclopedia
Volume VI, page 762)
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ
30
John Wesley
(1703-1791)
'I have no objection to
instruments of music in
our worship, provided
they are neither seen
nor heard."
(founder of Methodism)
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ
31
Adam Clarke - (?1760-1832)
Don McClain
"But were it even evident, . . . that instruments of
music were prescribed by divine authority under the
law, could this be adduced with any semblance of
reason, that they ought to be used in Christian
worship? No; the whole spirit, soul, and genius of
the Christian religion are against this; and those
who know the Church of God best, and what
constitutes its genuine spiritual state, know that
these things have been introduced as a substitute
for the life and power of religion; and that where
they prevail most, there is least of the power of
Christianity. Away with such portentous baubles
from the worship of that infinite Spirit who requires
His followers to worship Him in spirit and truth, for
to no such worship are these instruments
65th St church of Christ friendly."
32
Adam Clarke - (?1760-1832)
Don McClain
"I am an old man, and I here declare that I never
knew them to be productive of any good in the
worship of God, and have reason to believe that
they are productive of much evil. Music as a
science I esteem and admire, but instrumental
music in the house of God I abominate and abhor.
This is the abuse of music, and I here register my
protest against all such corruption of the worship of
the author of Christianity . . . John Wesley, who was
a lover of music, and an elegant poet, when asked
his opinion of instruments of music being introduced
into the chapels of the Methodists, said in his terse
and powerful manner, 'I have no objections to
instruments of music in our chapels, provided they
65th St church
Christ
are neither heard nor seen.' I say
the ofsame."
(Adam
33
Charles Spurgeon
(1834-1892)
Don McClain
"David appears to have had a peculiarly
tender remembrance of the singing of
the pilgrims, and assuredly it is the most
delightful part of worship and that which
comes nearest to the adoration of
heaven. What a degradation to supplant
the intelligent song of the whole
congregation by the theatrical prettiness
of a quartet, bellows, and pipes. We
might as well pray by machinery as
St church of Christ
praise by65thit...
34
Charles Spurgeon
(1834-1892)
Don McClain
. . . 'Praise the Lord with harp.' Israel
was at school, and used childish things
to help her to learn; but in these days
when Jesus gives us spiritual food, one
can make melody without strings and
pipes... We do not need them. That
would hinder rather than help our praise.
Sing unto him. This is the sweetest and
best music. No instrument is like the
human voice." (Charles Spurgeon
65th St church of Christ
(Baptist), Commentary
on Psalm 42.)
35
William Conybeare
Don McClain
"Throughout the whole passage there is a
contrast implied between the Heathen and
the Christian practice… When you meet,
let your enjoyment consist not in fullness of
wine, but fullness of the spirit; let your
songs be, not the drinking songs of
heathen feasts, but psalms and hymns;
and their accompaniment, not the music of
the lyre, but the melody of the heart; while
you sing them to the praise, not of
Bacchus or Venus, but of the Lord Jesus
65th St churchLife
of Christand Times
Christ" (Conybeare and Howson,
36
Vincent’s Word Studies: Vol. 3:
The Epistles of Paul – 1 Cor. 14:15
The verb, _äù is also used for sing, Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16;
Revelation 5:9; 14:3; 15:3. . . . In Ephesians 5:19 we have both verbs. The
noun øáëìüò psalm (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 14:26),
which is etymologically akin to this verb, is used in the New Testament of a
religious song in general, having the character of an Old Testament psalm;
though in Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26, ›ìíÝù hymneo, whence our
hymn, is used of singing an Old Testament psalm. Here applied to such
songs improvised under the spiritual ecstasy (v. 26). Some think that the
verb has here its original signification of singing with an instrument. . . . But
neither Basil nor Ambrose nor Chrysostom, in their panegyrics upon music,
mention instrumental music, and Basil expressly condemns it. Bingham
dismisses the matter summarily, and sites Justin Martyr as saying expressly
that instrumental music was not used in the Christian Church. The verb is
used here in the general sense of singing
praise.
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ
37
Book Chapter &
Verse – says
sing – not play
No authority for
mechanical
music in
worship
Don McClain
History testifies
to the NT
church’s kind
65th St church of Christ
38
Without mechanical
accompaniment is right
– to which everyone will
agree!
Don McClain
Songs directed toward
God, (i.e. songs of
worship), With
mechanical
accompaniment cannot
be done by faith! (2 Cor
5:7; Rom 14:23)
65th St church of Christ
39
Don McClain
65th St church of Christ