He is worthy to be praised, and he is our exalted being.
We give thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art and wastes and art to come,
because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power and has reigned.
Our God is still on His throne and ruling the affairs of man,
even as He does not change, His truths have not changed.
Thankfully, God still has a people, setting forth His sovereignty
and the old paths of truth where we can find rest for ourselves.
Welcome to Word of Sovereign Grace,
a ministry of Paradise Primitive Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.
Get your Bible, call your friends, and sit back
as we open the King James Scriptures to explore the glorious Word of Sovereign Grace.
Glory, honor, and salvation, Christ the Lord has come to reign.
Here's this week's message.
I hope that everyone has been praying for this time, concerning this time.
I look forward to this is my time when I can get in out of the world.
I'm about up to here.
You know, the Scripture mentions in one place that I've crucified the world and the world under me.
That means the world holds nothing for me.
I know that the fact of the reality is that we're in the world
and we have to occupy until the Lord comes.
I had my brothers, a brother that the Lord came back.
Now, I know that we shouldn't be afraid of death,
but I think that one of the things that man is afraid of is dying
because of possibly the pain associated with it or the suffering.
But we shouldn't be afraid of death.
What's beyond that is the presence of God.
And I believe that and I know you do too.
But until the Lord comes again, there's going to be suffering in this life
and there's going to be trials and tribulations.
That's not my subject.
I do have something on my mind this morning and it's instruments in the church
or musical instruments in the church.
Hopefully we can look around us and see the absence of all the mechanical
man-made instruments and we should be thankful for that.
I think that God has given us an instrument.
I believe that He's given us a golden heart.
I have several texts that I want to look at,
but I just want to talk about this for a little bit.
Sometimes we do something in life, we're brought up with certain traditions
and we never investigate whether they're really right or not.
I believe that it was museum that said,
people that are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.
It's interesting to study church history, to see where the churches come from
and to see the doctrine in practice as the Lord has brought the church even up to this very day.
I encourage you when you have opportunity to look at church history,
but I'll be very quick to say that church history does not supersede the Word of God.
Tradition does not supersede the Word of God.
In some of the major denominations in the world today,
it's as they hold the Scripture and tradition.
They can pretty much mold that tradition to whatever they want it to be,
so I don't even know why they want to say that they hold to what the Bible teaches.
Anyway, we have traditionally, as a people, sung acapella.
There's a reason for this, that there is no mechanical musical accompaniment
to our efforts to attempt to sing praise to God.
You know, the Lord tells us, first and foremost, to make a joyful noise to the Lord.
And it's got to come from here.
It's got to come from the heart, because that's where God's looking.
In every aspect of our worship, not just in how we sing praise,
but what we believe, the doctrine we believe,
and the thoughts and the intents of our heart, God's looking at that very place.
And hopefully, we know where we're reminded that God is spirit
and must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.
And the Lord knows the sincerity of our heart.
Now, we can be sincere and we can be wrong.
I told the story before of a man that wanted to go to Los Angeles,
but he was on the road to New York.
He was sincere about wanting to go to Los Angeles, but he was sincerely wrong.
He was on the wrong path.
We can be, if we're not careful, if our doctrine and practice,
and I'm in the habit of saying doctrine and practice,
but you know, I can sum it all up on our practices, our doctrine too.
But you understand what I mean when I say that,
but we'd have to continually examine the things that we do
and the things that we teach to make sure they line up with God's Word.
But anyway, I want you to think about it just a minute
now that you remember back in the 50s when Elvis Presley first came on the scene
and there was a big uproar.
Well, you know, this is the devil's music.
And it had a major appeal to the carnal instincts of an individual.
And Rock and Roll still has a major appeal to the carnal instincts of an individual.
Now, and just hold on to that for a little bit.
And you ever thought about when you've gone in the grocery store that they play that soft, soothing music?
There's a reason for that.
It's because they know that it has a calming effect on you
and will cause you to slow down and you will put more groceries in your basket.
That's proven. That's been proven.
You had every once in a while when you might go into a grocery store
and your first indication that the manager is not there
is that one of the teenagers has got it on a Rock and Roll station.
And that's not good.
You ever noticed when you called the bank and the bank's made a mistake?
And you're mad. You know, you want to get this right and they put you on hold.
You know, they don't have Jethro Toll playing on the whole music.
They have something soft and soothing playing.
And there's a reason for that because it has its calming effects.
And have you ever noticed too when you see these people making pleas for money
for the starving children in Africa?
You're hearing Rock and Roll going on.
You're hearing that soft, soothing music because it makes an appeal.
It tells you on your heartstrings.
So I said all that to say that music has an effect on our attitude
and the way that we feel.
So in the Old Testament, we're going to find that there were some things
concerning the first covenant of service.
Now there have been two covenants of service.
Now there are many different covenants.
There's the covenant of grace.
There's the covenant of the law service.
And now we're under the covenant of grace.
The covenant in the New Testament church.
Second covenant of service.
There was covenants made with Abraham.
All different types of covenants.
But under that first service, we find that those things were types and shadows
that which was to come in the New Testament era when Christ would come
and fulfill all these things.
But we want to keep in mind that the first service now has passed away.
But I want to go over to 1 Chronicles chapter 23.
And we'll find this if we'll look at this.
This will be helpful in some other areas too.
And Lord be my helper, I'll give you a brief explanation of what I mean.
1 Chronicles 23 it says, So when David was old and full of days,
he made Solomon his son king over Israel.
And he gathered together all the princes of Israel with the priests and the Levites.
Now the Levites were numbered from the age 30 years and upward,
and they're numbered by their poles man by man with 30 and 8,000.
Of which 20 and 4,000 were sent forward to the work of the house of the Lord.
And 6,000 were officers and judges.
Moreover, 4,000 were quarters and 4,000 praised the Lord with instruments
which I made, said David, to praise that with.
Hang on to that because that's key.
Right there he says, These are instruments which I made, said David.
And now we find that here that this is the priestly course.
We see that the judges and we see that some attended the temple and the service there.
And as a matter of fact, this is one of the ways that you can go back and show
and prove when Jesus was born.
Because when John the Baptist's father was serving in this priestly course,
and then he had the talk that Mary and Elizabeth met when they were,
she was, Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant and so on.
And you can get the timing of all this down.
But anyway, here you see that this was ordained by David,
that they had 4,000 that praised the Lord with instruments which I made, said David.
So let's go over it for just a minute to 2nd Chronicles 29.
Hang on to that.
2nd Chronicles 29.
So keep in mind here that what we have is there's an offering that's being made.
Okay, here's the king.
He says, and he said in 29 and verse 25,
and he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with symbols,
with sultries, with harps, according to the commandment of David and God this year,
and Nathan the prophet, for so was the command of the Lord by his prophets.
And the Levites stood with instruments of David and with the priests, with the trumpets.
Now Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar.
And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets
and with the instruments ordained by David.
So here's the burnt offering taking place,
and you've got all these people that are standing by, they're singing,
all these musical instruments are going off.
You kind of try to place yourself there a little bit.
He says in verse 28,
and all the congregation worshiped, and the singer sang, and the trumpeter sounded,
and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.
Now this is a key point right here that we have to understand
that something different will take place once the offering is finished.
Now again, we have to remind ourselves that this offering,
as well as any of those offerings in the Old Testament,
pointed to the one offering that Jesus Christ would make.
Now we know that He finished the work that God gave Him to do.
He entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.
He offered His blood unto God without spot.
So we see that, now just keep that in mind, because that's key.
Now in verse 28, He says,
all these sounded and continued until the burnt offering was finished.
And when they had made an end of offering,
the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped.
Moreover, Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites
to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David.
Okay, beforehand they were to praise with the instruments of music.
Now once the offering is completed, they're to praise God
and sing praises with the words of David.
Not the instruments of music,
but with the words of David and Asphalt the Seer
and they sing praises with gladness and they bow their heads in worship.
I think this is what we're seeing here.
This is foretelling of the time when Jesus Christ would finish the sacrifice,
there is a change in the order of service.
When Jesus finished the work that God gave Him to do,
there was a change in the order of service.
Now we know that the first covenant wasn't just cut off immediately.
It was suffered to go vanish away slowly, I believe,
or fade away is what he says in the book of Hebrews,
as a new covenant was being established.
But I believe here that we're seeing that once the offering is finished,
there's a change in the order of service.
Now let's go over here for a little bit to Amos chapter 5,
and I know many of you are familiar with these,
but it's good for us to be reminded over in Amos 5 about the 21st verse.
Now I believe that what this says is a prophecy of this day and time
that once this sacrifice has been completed,
and if you'll read this, it's the only thing that really makes sense
because God had originally ordained or commanded these sacrifices to be made.
Now we're reading about a time when God says,
I don't want anything more to do with it.
So we read over in Amos chapter 5 and 21.
He says, I hate, I despise your feast days,
I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings,
I will not accept them.
Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beast.
Take thou away from me the noise of thy vials,
while I will not hear the melody of thy vials.
Now this is, like I said, this is pointing to a time
when God regarded the sacrifice complete.
Now there's no longer a necessity, once Jesus had offered himself,
there's no longer a necessity for all these Old Testament sacrifices.
But here I want you to notice this.
He says in verse 21, he says, I hate, I despise.
God detested these very things that they continue to do then,
once his son had fulfilled the law to a jot in the title,
and had completed the sacrifice.
So once the sacrifice is completed,
there's a necessity of the change of the order of service.
Okay?
I mean, that's pretty easy to see.
God says, take away from me, I will not hear the melody of thy vials.
Then again, as we know,
the string was throughout the scripture that tells us that God is still looking in our heart,
and God still is looking for that joyful noise that comes from the heart.
He said, well, Brother Keith, I can't hear you tuning the bucket.
Well, some of us think that about ourselves,
but that's not what God cares about.
And it may be edifying to you and I to hear someone that has a gift to sing,
audibly in a way that's very pleasing,
but God doesn't hear about that at all.
He just cares that it's coming from your heart.
You're making that joyful noise,
and that you're praising Him for how great things that He's done,
and that He's completed the work.
I mean, this is key,
because anyone that would take up an Old Testament practice,
not an Old Testament practice, but an Old Covenant,
the first Covenant practice is basically saying,
we don't believe that Jesus finished the sacrifice.
Now, I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself,
but we'll talk a little bit about how some of the other things
that the Old Testament has to say about musical instruments.
But here He says God hates it.
He despises it.
I mean, how much stronger can the language be?
And people that want to make sacrifice of works,
you can make the application there too.
People that would try to work their way into the graces of God.
Same difference.
Now, I was thinking, this is not directly related,
but I was thinking about this in Matthew chapter 7.
You know there where it says,
depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never do you,
and then say, Lord, Lord, have we not done many wonderful works
in thy name?
Well, one of the things that I want to bring to your attention
is that there has got to be an absence of grace
in that situation right there,
because grace will not permit you to boast in the sight of God.
It just won't.
Grace shows you that you're depraved.
Grace shows you that you need the mercy of God,
and grace will not permit you to boast about anything good
that you've done.
Okay, but anyway, that's a sidebar,
but just take that for what it's worth.
So God, He says, I hate, I despise, I'll not smell.
He won't smell the incense.
He doesn't delight in the burnt offerings,
and He will not hear the melody of the vials.
And those are the mechanical, man-made musical instruments.
Remember He said musical instruments
that David had made unto himself.
Over in Amos chapter 6, just right across the page,
in verse 1 we read,
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion,
and trust in the mountain of Samaria,
which are named chief of the nations
to whom the house of Israel came.
Now, Zion is the top of the church.
Just keep that in mind.
He says, Pasheon to Calnae and C,
and from thence go ye to Hamoth the great,
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Be they better than these kingdoms,
or their border greater than your border?
In verse 3, He says,
Put ye far away the evil day,
and cause the seed of violence to come near.
He says, ye that put far away the evil day,
and cause the seed of violence to come near,
that lie upon bed and bribery,
and stress themselves upon their couches,
and eat lambs out of the flock,
and the calves out of the mist of the stall,
that chant to the sound of the vile,
and invent to themselves instruments of music like David.
Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist
to figure out, he's pronouncing a woe on these people.
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion,
and woe to them that chant to the sound of the vile,
and invent to themselves.
You're not inventing these things to God.
Now, something else that I want you to keep in mind here,
and we'll discuss this just a little bit.
Over here in the Old Testament, they were told to play.
Play on the harp, okay?
Play musical instruments.
In the New Testament, you're not going to find any such language.
In the New Testament, any connection to the word harp or psalm
is going to talk about a voice that's in connection with it.
There's a difference between playing and a voice.
Now, over here in 1 Samuel 16,
it believes where I want to go.
And then it's not my subject this morning,
but if you do a little bit of research into this
and checking in, you're going to find that there's some connection
with musical instruments and susane, okay?
There's some connection with it.
Remember, we've already talked about how the
the carnality of the individual can be stirred up
through musical instruments,
or how that the emotions can be calmed.
But look over here in Psalms 16 and 16.
You remember Saul.
Saul had an evil spirit from the Lord that came upon him.
In verse 14, he says,
But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.
And by the way, some say,
Well, nobody had the spirit before the day of Pentecost.
Wait a minute, the spirit of the Lord.
Right there, he said.
Now, I don't believe that he departed from Saul in an eternal sense,
but he turned his face from him.
Basically is what he's saying here.
But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul
and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.
And Saul's servant sent unto him,
Behold now an evil spirit from God troubleeth thee.
Let our Lord now command the servants which are before thee
to seek out a man who is a cunning player on a harp.
And it shall come to pass when the evil spirit from God is upon thee,
that he shall play with his hand, and thou shall be well.
Now, we know through the...
We read the story that David was the one that was brought before Saul to play.
But there's something about this that's unsettling as far as
if you want to use these things to worship.
That's a little... I was doing some reading on this,
and some didn't describe this as an exorcism of sorts,
because he said when he played, the evil spirit departed.
Okay, and isn't that what an exorcism is all about,
to get rid of the evil spirits?
But anyway, like I said, that's not my subject,
but I just wanted you to see that, that he was playing,
and that this is connected in some way with the same.
Okay, and divining.
But I don't want to get into all that this morning.
So just keep that in your mind.
And then we'll go over here to Psalms chapter 33.
Well, okay.
Get by my reference.
Get by my reference.
Okay.
Well, it says that he'll play, that I'll play on the harp,
and I'll sing with the voice, and I'll play on the harp.
Thank you.
Praise the Lord with the harp.
Sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
Sing a new song.
And here it is, 33 and 3.
Sing unto him a new song.
Play skillfully with a loud voice.
Okay, so here we say that we see again that he's talking about playing.
And you're going to notice the absence of that instruction in the New Testament.
Okay, now I don't want to get too far ahead of myself,
but just think of it as just a minute.
Well, Psalms chapter 150, it's completely filled with the,
the entire chapter talks about praising God with the cymbals and the psaltery
and all these types of musical instruments.
Remember, these were instruments that David invented unto himself.
Remember, we see that God already said that he's not pleased with that
and that he won't hear the melody of it.
Okay, so some said, well, Psalms chapter 150 talks about musical instruments.
But that doesn't give us any authority to bring an Old Testament
or an Old Covenant practice into the New Testament.
What gives us the right to pick and choose
if you're going to bring the musical instruments over?
You might as well bring the author for sacrificing sheep.
Okay, we just have no authority.
There is no New Testament authority for musical instruments in the church.
Now, I'll talk about this a little bit a few weeks ago.
We found that up until the late 19th century
in the Baptist church musical instruments were nowhere to be seen.
There were no way around.
And of course, I said that a pitch pipe was the first instrument,
but actually a pitch pipe only sets the pitch.
It doesn't sustain the music like a piano or an organ would do.
But for the first 1800 years of the church's existence,
there was an absence of these things.
Now, we have to ask ourselves, was God deficient
and not giving the church what she needed for 1800 years?
I'm not ready to go there.
You hear me say all the time
that the Lord gave the church everything that she stood in need of
before he ascended back to glory.
And had he intended for her to have musical instruments,
they would have had them.
Now, there on the day of the Passover
before the Lord was crucified,
they were washing the saints' feet.
He says they sung to him and went out.
It doesn't say they waited for the band to strike up.
Does it?
No, they sung to him and went out.
And they're on the Mount of Olives.
They talk about they sung to him on the Mount of Olives.
There's no mention whatsoever of musical instruments.
And then when you think about Paul and Silas
who were in jail in midnight, they sang praises to God.
There were no musical instruments there.
It's kind of absurd to think
that you can't sing praise without those things.
And here's the beauty of all of this,
that God has given us...
I'm getting a little ahead of myself again,
but God has given us the ability to praise Him wherever we're at.
Isn't that marvelous?
If we're at work in a foreign country,
or if we're in Iraq,
or if we're in the shower,
or if we're doing dishes,
or we're vacuuming in the house,
or we're driving down the road,
we can sing praise to our God right there.
And you've heard me say this before.
I said the last time I heard of anybody taking an electric guitar in the shower,
it was kind of a shocking experience.
See, that's the beauty about it.
We praise God. We worship Him in spirit and in truth.
And the Apostle Paul talks about this,
but we'll get to that in just a little bit.
I'm going to turn it over for just a minute
to Revelation chapter 5.
And we have some mention.
I was talking to the people a couple of weeks ago
that were saying that these are proof,
that these are proofs that there were musical instruments
in the New Testament church.
Revelation 5 in 8, he says,
and when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and the four and 20 elders fell down before the Lamb,
everyone having them harps and gold and vials,
full of odors, which are the prayers of saints.
And they sung a new song saying.
And didn't say that. They played.
They sung a new song saying.
You've got to understand, too,
that if we believe that this is either a picture of the church
or whether we believe this is a picture of heaven,
we've got to understand if we think it's a picture of heaven,
he says in one place that it's not entered into the heart of man
the things that God has prepared for them that love him.
I had not seen, or had not heard,
neither had it entered into the heart of man
the things that God has prepared for them that love him.
So if this is in heaven and it's mentioned in the heart,
I don't think it's going to be like anything
that we could picture or understand.
It's not going to be anything mechanical.
But I'm still taking the position today,
but I believe that's that golden heart that God gives us
that ability to sing praise Revelation 14 and 2.
Here's another place where the harps are mentioned.
And he says,
And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters,
as the voice of a great thunder,
and I heard the voice of harpers harping with the harps,
and they sung.
That doesn't say I heard the harper's playing.
I heard the voice of the harper's harping, and they sung.
That's what we do, brothers and sisters,
when we come together to sing praise.
We're singing with those harps.
And I believe, and I know that you do too,
that this part of the worship service is very important.
It's very important.
And I've experienced this a couple of times.
You know, when you go visiting other churches as a minister,
sometimes you like to go in late so that they don't see you
and don't want to put you up to preach.
So you'll come in about 10, 59 or so,
and you miss the song service.
It takes a good 25 or 30 minutes or longer to get your mind off
that argument you had with your wife in the car
or all the problems you've been thinking about all week.
The problems at work, how you're going to pay the bills,
whatever your boyfriend or your girlfriend
or whatever it might be,
it takes time to get your mind off of that.
We sing one of the songs that we sing
parts about setting our souls in frame.
And that's exactly what the worship service,
the singing service is all about.
And you don't know how thankful I am
that when we come together, we come together on time.
And we get that 25 or 30 minutes of singing in.
I think it's important.
It helps us to remember,
sets our souls in frame for the preaching hour.
It helps us to remember the things that God has done for us.
And we can just forget about the things in the world.
Just forget about it for a while.
After all, this is supposed to be a place of refuge,
a place of rest, a place of safety,
a place where we can pile all those things aside.
But the singing portion is important.
Okay.
So I heard the voice.
Now, we all know the difference between the voice and playing.
I heard the voice of harpers harping with their hearts.
And they sung, as it were, a new song before the song.
And I believe this.
I believe that these songs that we sing,
if we're making that joyful noise from the heart,
that they are singing right to the throne of God.
And as part of the priesthood of believers,
we are to offer the sacrifice of praise.
That is, our lips continually giving thanks to God.
We're to offer those sacrifices.
And sometime we'll go back over there and look again at those sacrifices.
Yes, I know it says today is better than sacrifice.
I know that.
When I'm talking about it in the New Testament era,
he says he has made us kings and priests unto God.
We're kings.
You know, what are we king over?
Well, hopefully if we're walking in the spirit of God,
we're reigning over these mortal bodies.
If we're kings, we're reigning over these mortal bodies.
And if we're priests, we're making spiritual sacrifices unto God.
That's what we're supposed to be doing.
But we offer the sacrifice of praise.
Okay.
Revelation 15 and 2.
And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire,
and then that had gotten victory over the beast,
and over his image, and over his mark,
and over the number of his names,
the sea of glass having the hearts of God and they sing.
Didn't say they'd play.
Now, very good.
Let me back up.
I didn't really notice this,
but this week I had some thoughts about the mark of the beast.
It talks about, in another place here in this book,
and this is the sidebar,
in another place it talks about having the number of the beast
written in their foreheads and in their right hand.
Well, the number six is the number of man.
Okay.
Now, I've got my ideas about who I think the six,
who the man was at 666.
I don't want to go into that right now.
But what I think this represents is man in the world
and the things of the world.
So the Scripture also talks about the saints of God
have the name of God written in their forehead.
Well, I don't see a tattoo on any of you on your forehead.
You know what that means?
When the name of God's written on your forehead,
that means you're thinking about Him.
That means you're meditating on His Word.
That means you're reading His Word.
That means you're praying to Him.
So when it says that you have the mark of the...
someone has the mark of the beast written on their head,
that means they're thinking about the world
and the things of the world
and they're caring about the things of the world.
And when that mark is on their head,
that means that's the thing they're putting their hands to.
They're putting their hands to the things of the world
and not to the things of God.
Okay? Does that make sense?
All right, anyway, that's a little side note.
But here he says in verse 3,
and they sing the song of Moses,
the servant of God and the song of the Lamb.
So there again we see these hearts
and connection with these hearts.
It doesn't say they played them like it did over in the Old Testament
with David, they played them.
Remember, those were outward tops.
In the New Testament,
what they did was outwardly.
In the New Testament, what we're supposed to do is be inwardly.
Remember, where is the kingdom of God after all?
It's within you.
It says, the kingdom of God come with not with observation
for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.
Now, one more place over in the book of Revelation before,
we'll touch very briefly on what the New Testament authority is
for singing.
Revelation 18.
And this is concerning Babylon.
And what I think that Babylon represents is,
and this is in regard to a Babylon
that set forth a type of worship.
Though I believe it to be a false worship,
as Babylon represents the world or confusion.
Now, don't take you very long, just look out there.
There's a lot of confusion in the religious world, isn't there?
A lot of confusion.
And that's what Babylon means.
It's confusion.
Over here in verse, chapter 18 verse 20,
he says,
Rejoice over her, thou heaven,
and ye holy apostles and prophets,
for God hath avenged you on her.
Must have been some persecution going on there, right?
And a mighty angel took up a great stone like a millstone
and cast it into the sea, saying,
Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon
be thrown down and shall be found no more at all.
And the voice of harpers and of musicians and of poppers
and of trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee.
Okay?
So there it looks like a time, this will be a time
when God's going to overthrow that system.
Okay?
Yeah, there were people singing there,
but there were also musicians there.
There were also poppers and trumpeters.
And God says, the time's coming that shall no more be heard at all.
Okay?
And no craftsmen.
And whatsoever craft you be.
You know, we talk about craftsmen in the churches of the world.
They're all the time about trying to craft some new ideas
or some new invention because God must have,
you know, God must have failed after all for 1800 years.
We didn't have musical instruments.
Well, we can better the church.
Well, let's just bring these musical instruments in.
Was the Holy Spirit a failure for 1800 years?
That's kind of the attitude they take.
Now, I know, like I said, if the Lord gave the church
everything that she needed before he ascended,
there's nothing that we can do to improve it.
There is nothing that we can do to improve on what the Lord gave.
But if we think that we can improve it,
then there's probably a lot that we're going to do to mess it up.
If we think, let me say that again,
if anybody thinks that they can improve on what God gave,
then we're probably going to do a lot to mess it up.
And that's exactly what happened a little over 200 years ago
when the New School of Baptists began to introduce
all these new doctrines and new practices.
They induced the world and injected the world right into the church.
And thanks be to God that there was a body of people
that stood up against those things
and that protested against them
and did not permit them or allow them.
And that's who I'm looking at today.
That's that same body of people.
But anyway, we've always said
that the world has no place in the church.
When you say we've got benches and we've got air conditioning,
that's different.
That's not talking about...
That's just a comfort aid.
That's not aiding or supporting our doctrine or practice.
Anyway, I've heard people make,
oh, you've got air conditioner, you know, that's wrong.
The Bible doesn't say anything about having an air conditioner in the church.
That's just silly.
That really doesn't even merit a response
to somebody that thinks like that.
But anyway, so how are we to sing in the New Testament?
Let's go over here just real quick to Colossians chapter 3.
And keep it in mind, as I've already pointed out to you,
that we're to worship God.
Remember that woman at the well?
She was thinking it was...
What was important was where you worshiped.
It wasn't.
It wasn't important...
She told Jesus,
you say that in Jerusalem is where we should worship.
Well, he says it wasn't important about where you worshiped,
but it's important how you worshiped.
It is important how you worshiped.
Remember when we talked a little bit about that rock and roll?
That rock and roll stirs the carnality?
And at least to rebellion.
It's rebellion, okay?
Just let me say it.
It's rebellion.
And I get really confused when people tell me
that they listened to Christian rock.
That just really confuses the dickens out of me.
Now, I want to ask them,
well, do you take Christian drugs when you listen to Christian rock?
That same beat, that same melody,
type of melody,
stirs up those same carnal feelings.
Now, you may not agree with me that you had the right,
but think about it,
think about it and look at it.
If you're listening to a rock and roll song on one station,
Led Zeppelin, and you turn to another station,
and you've got the same exact same beat,
but they're using different words,
what's that telling you?
There's something wrong with that picture.
And now they call it Christian rap,
or I could just put a C in front of that rap,
and I'm sorry, I don't mean to be ugly.
But if you want to worship God,
it's got to be done in the right way.
Now, I'm not talking about being legalistic.
If I was being legalistic,
I'd say, well, we've got to do all these ABC and D
so we can get to heaven and finally go to be with the Lord.
That's not what I'm talking about.
We've got to worship in truth.
We worship in spirit and in truth.
We can't worship in spirit and in falsehood,
or we can't worship in the flesh and in the truth.
We've got to be in spirit and in truth.
And the truth is found in God's word,
and this is how God says,
God says we do it one way,
everything else is excluded.
We can make an argument based on the silence of Scripture.
You remember when, over in the book of Hebrews,
when the writer over there was talking about
how the Lord came out of Judah,
which he says the Scriptures say nothing concerning the priesthood?
He based an argument right there on the silence of Scriptures.
Okay?
The Scriptures are silent in the New Testament
about using musical instruments.
And people will say,
well, the Scripture doesn't say we can't.
Well, that's a dangerous position to take
because the Scripture doesn't say,
thou shalt not smoke marijuana.
Can I do it?
Therefore?
You understand what I'm saying?
It doesn't say thou shalt not smoke marijuana.
But it does tell us we're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh, right?
And some other things that we could bring in to show
that we're not supposed to be...
And it's against the law that all the powers that be are ordained of God, right?
And we're to be subject to the higher powers?
It's against the law.
All right.
But if we want to base an argument on the silence of Scriptures,
and we're just taking a door wide open,
we can't do that.
But we are told how we're to sing in Colossians 3 and 15,
he says, let the peace of God rule where?
In your hearts.
Where's God looking?
He's looking in your heart.
You come in here and you want to sing praise to God?
Don't.
Well, God loves a cheerful giver.
Let me say that.
I know that's in the context of talking about giving,
but God loves a cheerful giver.
If you want to give praise, you need to do it cheerfully.
All right?
Make a joyful noise from the heart.
But let the peace of God rule in your hearts,
to which you are also called in one body,
and be ye thankful.
Let the water cross well in you richly.
Remember, what are we thinking about?
What's in our mind?
Is the name of God written in our forehead?
Are we letting the water cross well in us richly?
And all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another,
and psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Remember we talked about those people where there was an
absence of grace?
They wanted to boast about what they were doing.
Grace will not permit us to boast.
Grace teaches us that Christ has finished their work,
and grace teaches us that He is our worthiness,
and He is our righteousness.
It's from this standpoint that we are to sing.
We are to sing from that standpoint.
On the opposite side of that spectrum,
if you were to sing with pride in your hearts,
you'd probably want to sing, what about me?
What about I?
What about number one?
You remember that song?
Oh, we could get on Country Music too,
but I don't want to do that.
I don't want to take everything away from y'all at one time.
But it's the same principle applies.
The same principle applies.
But we're to sing with grace in our hearts to impress the
person that's sitting beside you.
Are you singing four praise?
Are you singing two praise, or are you singing to get praise?
Now, we've got to be careful.
We're to sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord.
That praise is supposed to go to Him.
We've got to be careful because we've got to be careful.
If God has given us a gift of singing,
we've got to be careful we're doing that,
not to be heard or seen of men.
It's impossible for us to sing without being heard or seen,
but if that's our motivation and that's the reason we're doing it,
then we're wrong.
That praise is to be directed to the Lord.
So we sing hymns and spiritual songs,
and that's what I believe that we have.
I believe that's what we do.
We sing hymns and spiritual songs.
Over in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 17,
therefore be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
You're not drunk with wine in his excess,
but be filled with the Spirit.
Now, I know this that the Scripture tells us that Jesus was given the Spirit
without measure, in him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
But we have to understand that we're given a measure.
And whatever that measure, another little side note,
God gives every man the measure of faith.
A little side note, I was talking to someone the other day.
We were talking about children,
and we mentioned that text that,
happy is the man that has his quiver full.
I've met some people that think
that means you're supposed to have 15 or 18 children.
Well, it didn't take me long to figure out
that I just don't have a very big quiver.
My quiver is full, with two.
With two children, my quiver is full.
But if you've got the idea that your quiver is supposed to have 18 or 20,
you may want to rethink that,
and look, it's not...
Anyway, your quiver can be full without having 18 or 20 children,
is what I'm trying to say.
But God tells us to be filled with the Spirit.
And how do we do that?
We've met it by reading God's Word, by meditating,
by coming into the Kingdom of God
and fellowshiping one with another.
But be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves,
in Psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
There it is.
God is looking on the heart.
He doesn't look on the outward appearance,
and He doesn't care what that sounds like.
If you're...
You know one of the things that I've seen about this, too,
that these people that want to take up
all these orchestras and everything,
and they've got these people that they've put forth
in churches and they kind of exalt them, right?
They've got beautiful singing voices.
And the next thing you know, they've left the church
and they're out in the world making those big bucks with that.
I don't think...
I used to belong to a church not too long ago
where they would do specials.
And I really felt uncomfortable with that.
It's not about any one individual,
collectively as a body is one.
We sing.
We offer that sense of that praise collectively.
And sometimes even feel uncomfortable
about even getting up in front of the people to lead a song.
But I think that we need someone to mark time.
And I'm trying to learn how to mark time.
It's not as easy.
Well, it may come easier for other people,
but we need to learn how to mark time.
That's the whole purpose is to keep everyone in time.
That's the reason for that we have a song leader.
But we don't have specials here
where people get up and sing for the praise of men.
Because that's not right.
It's just not right.
But we speak to ourselves in Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs singing, making melody.
Instead, in the absence of all the mechanical musical instruments,
we're making melody right here.
Well, the heart.
I'm not talking about the muscle that pumps blood.
I'm talking about the seat and the core of our affections.
And that's got to be right there in the kingdom of God.
You know, if you have a kingdom,
there's a king in there and he's sitting on a throne
and he's raining, right?
But from our heart, we sing and make a melody in our heart
to the Lord.
Again, it's to the Lord.
It's nowhere else.
The Apostle Paul even addresses over in the Corinthian letter.
He says, I will pray with the spirit
and I will pray with the understanding also.
I will sing with the spirit
and I will sing with the understanding also.
Complete absence.
I hope that I've shown you there's a complete absence
in the New Testament of musical instruments,
mechanical musical instruments.
But I have shown you those harps also.
Every time those harps are mentioned,
it's talking about a voice.
It's talking about singing.
It's not talking about playing.
There's a big difference.
So if someone asks you
why we don't have musical instruments,
maybe you can give them a reasonable answer.
And if this is like anything else,
like I said, I may have been brought up in this church all my life
and done it and I defend it because I've been taught it.
In this case, you'd be right to defend it.
But if you're brought up in a denomination outside of here
where they have all this other stuff
and you've been brought up and you're defending it,
you're wrong because the Scripture will not bear it out.
And like I said, this is not legalism.
It's not about trying to get everything right
so we can work our way to heaven.
It's about worshiping God in spirit and in truth
and pleasing the Lord.
Is there anyone here that doesn't want to please the Lord?
We all want to please the Lord.
We want to do those things that are acceptable in sight.
And this is just like the numbers thing,
the numbers game that the world plays with all those people.
You see all those people following after these other denomination.
It takes faith to follow in this path.
When you see all these musical instruments and music as a...
Am I condemning music in your personal life?
That's between you and the Lord.
But I'm saying in the house of God,
there is absolutely no room for it whatsoever.
If you want to do it in your personal lives,
that's between you and the Lord.
But I think to what degree?
Personally, what I have in my pickup,
I listen to preaching and I listen to archipelacine.
And you just ask my wife, she'll tell you,
when I sit at my computer, when I'm working,
I put on archipelacine.
But that's me.
But I believe to what degree that we can shut this stuff off
to the opposite degree.
We can draw closer to the Lord.
He says, draw now unto me and I'll draw now unto you.
So we want to please the Lord without faith that's impossible.
And think about this.
Think about this, that we have to bring our children up
and we're conditioning our children.
I'm not picking on anybody in particular.
But we've got to remember that we're conditioning our children.
And hopefully the things that we allow into their lives
are going to affect them.
Most of their lives.
I know that I've spent quite a bit of time.
Once the Lord brought me to the knowledge of the truth,
I've spent quite a bit of time unlearning.
I had a lot of unlearning to do.
And another thing that you'll see in the same line
when the Lord began to show me this about the music
is TV commercials are very revealing.
Sonny Powell says he doesn't watch TV, he studies it.
And that's one of the viewpoints that I take a lot.
I do watch TV.
I'm on it, I'll be honest.
But a lot of times I notice myself studying it,
seeing the deception and seeing how the world's trying to deceive you
and trick you.
But anyway, I digress.
I want you to pray about these things.
Look, I've given you some scriptures to look at.
Search it out for yourselves and see what these things are telling yourself.
Please, I want to beg for a minute.
Please, please, please, never ever get into the position
where you believe everything I say without checking it out.
Please, that is dangerous.
Please don't do it.
You'd be like those Bararians that were more noble than those of Thessalonica
and that they searched the scriptures daily
to see if the things that they were being told were so.
I thank you all for your good attention.
Hello, friends. I'm Elder Keith Ellison.
I'm pastor of Paradise Primitive Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.
I want to thank you for taking the time to watch the program today.
We're glad that you stopped by.
Now, I'd like to take just a few minutes to tell you a little bit about who we are
and what we're about.
Historically speaking, the Primitive Baptist Church began on the banks of the Jordan River
almost 2,000 years ago.
Now, she's gone by many different names through the ages
and she's been preserved by God until this very day.
Now, we're people who believe in simplicity of worship.
We practice three P's, praise.
We sing praise to God from the heart, making a joyful noise unto the Lord.
We pray, looking to the Lord of glory for answers to life-difficult problems,
and we preach.
Now, you'll not hear us beg for money.
Our God doesn't need money to save anyone.
We believe that the precious blood of Jesus was sufficient to pay our sin debt, period.
We believe in using the King James version of the Bible.
Now, with all the different translations out there today,
we feel that they're an effort of the enemy to dilute the Word of God
and cause confusion among God's people.
We also believe that the Scripture is our only rule of faith to practice.
Now, when it comes to truth, we don't compromise.
We've been put in trust with the gospel to please the Lord and not man,
so we tell it like it is.
Now, we also believe that the Church is a place of refuge from the world.
Therefore, don't expect to find the world in the Old Baptist Church.
If other denominations want to have six flags over Jesus, that's their business.
But we don't cater to the world.
In short, we're about true worship.
Our God is spirit and must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.
Now, we also believe that the Bible teaches that man is born into this world of center,
and he can't recover himself from this fallen condition.
Therefore, we believe that we're saved by the sovereign grace of Almighty God
through his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Now, if you see yourself a sinner not worthy of the lease of God's blessings,
you're in a blessed condition.
Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5,
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
If you're mourning on account that your sin has violated God's just and holy law,
it's an evidence of your gracious state.
Now, first it may not seem like it, but God has begun a work of grace in your heart,
and he's conforming you to the image of his only begotten Son.
Now, we also believe our God to be the Almighty with whom all things are possible.
Now, are you tired of hearing about a God that can't save unless you let Him?
Or a God who has to be carried?
Or a God that has a continual cash flow problem?
We are too.
Tired of trying to work your way into heaven, brother?
Tired of trying to carry that heavy burden?
Well, I've got good news for you.
The scriptures speak of a rest for the people of God.
Jeremiah spoke of it several hundred years before the Lord came to the earth.
Jeremiah 6.16 says,
Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old past,
whereas the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest unto yourselves.
But the people said, we will not walk therein.
Now, my prayer is that you won't rebel like they did,
but that you'll seek out these old pasts,
and you'll find the rest that God has for you.
So, if you're looking for a place of worship instead of a place where worldly carnal entertainment
is the main attraction, then we invite you to come worship with us.
Paradise Primitive Baptist Church meets every Sunday morning at 10.30 am.
We're located at 5300 Messfield Road in Arlington, Texas.
Now, just so you know, we believe that the love of God is sufficient to attract and keep the people coming back.
We know that once you experience this love for yourself, you'll also want to come back.
Now, thanks again for watching the program.
Now, if you still have questions, go to our website at www.paradispbc.org.
There you'll find lots of good information and answers to many of your biblical questions.
Remember to join us again next week at this same time.
Now, my prayer is that the God of Glory richly bless you.
Be sure to visit our website for articles, video and audio sermons, as well as biblical answers to your questions.
Thanks for watching and be sure to join us again next week.
May God richly bless you.
