Sunday, June 12, 2011

Good, wholesome music

I am just curious about what your church teaches regarding worship through music?  We are all musical in our family and love to play our instruments and sing to the Lord.  Is this scriptural for the grace dispensation?  Ever since learning about grace the scope of musical selections has gotten a lot smaller.  There are a lot of really terrible, theologically erroneous lyrics out there.  When I listen to Christian radio I spend most of the time pulling my hair out but there are some gems.



As far as “what we believe,” we believe what God commands thru our Apostle Paul. We believe that it is God's will that good, biblical, scriptural music play an integral part of the corporate worship of the Body of Christ!

We believe that it ranks right up there with prayer, grace giving, fellowship, and right behind the word of God itself, so it is a part of our weekly worship.

Here is what Paul says about music...

1 Corinthians 14:15
What is it then? 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.

Here, the Apostle says that just like prayer, singing comes from our spirits and that it should be with an understanding of the doctrines of Grace that God gave us gentiles thru Paul.

Ephesians 5:19
Speaking to yourselves [meditating upon the Word in your heart] in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

God uses music/songs as part of the edification process of the Grace believer! We are to use psalms, hymns, spiritual songs.

What's a psalm?

1 Chronicles 16:9
Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works.

Psalm 95:2
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

James 5:13
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

From these verses we see that a Psalm is joyful or merry song that praises God for His wonderful works. For example: How Great Thou Art.

What's a hymn?

Matthew 26:30
And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.

Mark 14:26
And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.

So we see that hymns are serious and solemn songs that reflect on our Lord's passion/sufferings as he went to Calvary's cross. For example, At Calvary...At the cross...Jesus Paid it All....Glory to His Name.

Then what is a spiritual song?

1 Corinthians 14:37
If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.

So we see that spiritual songs are those songs that teach the commands/doctrines of Pauline Grace given to us gentiles today in the Dispensation of the Grace of God! For example: Grace, Grace...Grace Greater Than All Our Sin.

At our local assembly, we sing all three of these types of songs during our Sunday worship. We use an old-fashion Christian hymnal with all those old songs from yesteryear. But we are always up for special music composed/performed by any of the saints as well.



Hopefully this helps! 
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Do you have a question for Pastor Ron?




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