"TRUE" WORSHIP...

John 4:20-24

"VAIN" WORSHIP...

Matthew 15:7-9

"IGNORANT" WORSHIP...

Acts 17:22-23

"WILL" (Man Made) WORHSIP...

Col 2:20-23

THE MEANING OF "TRUE" WORSHIP

According to Jesus

FLESHLY ordinances

n a) A physical structure (tabernacle)

n b) Special clothing for priests

n c) Lampstands

n d) Burning of incense

n e) Instruments of music

n f) Animal sacrifices

1 Cor. 3:16 (ESV)

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

1 Peter 2:5 (ESV)

you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Worshipping God in “Truth”

n To worship according to the commands of God?

n Certainly we should do this!

n No contrast to what was expected in the O.T.

Shadows pointing to the “True”

nThe Tabernacle

nThe Law

Sing!

n Webster: “sing” is” to produce musical tones by means of the voice.”

n is to produce music w/ the God given instrument… the voice (“vocal music.”)

n All Other methods of producing musical tones can only be made from a man-made instrument of some kind.

n (“instrumental music.”)

The only Music commanded!

n Matthew 26:30, Mark 14:26 (ESV)

n And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

n Acts 16:25 (ESV)

n About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,

The Church collectively

n 1 Cor. 14:15 (ESV)

n What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

Ephes. 5:19 (ESV)

n addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart,

Psallo

n F.F. Bruce wrote:

n “Words are not static things. They change their meaning with the passage of time” (Vine, 1997, p. vi).

Thayer’s

n “in the N.T. [psallo signifies] to sing a hymn, to celebrate the praises of God in song. . . ” (p. 675).

W.E. Vine

n “The word psallo originally meant to play a stringed instrument with the fingers, or to sing with the accompaniment of a harp. Later, however, and in the New Testament, it came to signify simply to praise without the accompaniment of an instrument” (1951, p. 191 )

Col. 3:16 (ESV)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Hebrews 2:12

James 5:13 (ESV)

n Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

Are We The Only Ones?

nWe’re Not!

nThe Reason?

Paul Lang of the Christian Church:

n All our sources deal amply with vocal music of the church, but they are chary (shy of) mention of any other manifestations of musical art...

n The development of Western music was decisively influenced by the exclusion of musical instruments from the early Christian Church."

Hugo Leichtentritt

n "Only singing, however, and no playing of instruments, was permitted in the early Christian Church.“

n Music, History, and Ideas, p. 34

Emil Nauman

n : "There can be no doubt that originally the music of the divine service was everywhere entirely of a vocal nature."

n The History of Music, Vol. 1, p. 177

Dr. Frederick Ritter

n “History of Music from the Christian Era to the Present Time”, said: “We have no real knowledge of the exact character of the music which formed a part of the religious devotion of the first Christian congregations. It was, however, purely vocal." –

n History of Music From The Christian Era to The Present Time, p. 28

Lyman Coleman

n “Both the Jews in their temple service, and the Greeks in their idol worship, were accustomed to sing with the accompaniment of instrumental music. The converts to Christianity accordingly must have been familiar with this mode of singing... But …the primitive Christians employed no instrumental music in their worship."

n The Apostolic and Primitive Church pp. 368-369

The Catholic Encyclopedia -

n "... the first Christians were of too spiritual a fiber to substitute lifeless instruments for worship, or to use them to accompany the human voice."

Constantine Cavarnos

n "The execution of Byzantine church music by instruments, or even the accompaniment of sacred chanting by instruments was ruled out by the Eastern Fathers as being incompatible with the pure, solemn, spiritual character of the religion of Christ."

John Calvin (Presbyterian)

n "Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting up of lamps, 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 apostle is far more pleasing to Him."

John Wesley, Methodist Church

n "I have no objection to instruments of music, in our chapels, provided they are neither heard nor seen."

Adam Clarke, Methodist Commentator

n "Music as a science, I esteem and admire: but instruments of music in the house of God I abominate and abhor. This is the abuse of music; and here I register my protest against all such corruptions in the worship of the Author of Christianity."

Charles H. Spurgeon, Baptist preacher

n"I would as soon attempt to pray to God with machinery as to sing to Him with machinery."

"I LIKE IT IN MY WORSHIP TO GOD"

n I don’t see anything wrong with it!

n Offerings based only on what one likes, has never been the right reason for what we do.

Nadab And Abihu

n Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. [2] And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. [3] Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the Lord has said, 'Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.' " And Aaron held his peace.

n Leviticus 10:1-3 (ESV)

“They used instrumental music in the Old Testament.”

n Moses Exodus 17:5-6

n And the Lord said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. [6] Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Numbers 20:9-12 (ESV)

n And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

n [10] Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" [11] And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

[12] And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them."

What was His sin?

n He failed to treat God holy… How? by simply failing to do and doing more than he was commanded at the PRESENT time!

So it is in our worship today !

n In the past we find record of Worship to God in Instrumental music… but when we look to the New Covenant… we see a replacement… Now told Sing & Use the heart toward God as the instruments of music.

n“singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord”

In so doing, we can be sure that our worship is pleasing to God, & that we are standing on safe ground in our Worship.