We'll continue our work today through the book of Nehemiah.
I believe after this morning we'll have one more sermon in the book.
and I hope that it's blessed your heart the way it has mine over this past few weeks.
Nehemiah chapter 12.
Now to give you just a brief summary up to this point,
catch your mind up to speed for this morning.
God has brought His covenant people home to Israel
after 70 years of Babylonian captivity.
Remember, they were carried off into captivity because of their sinfulness.
Because of the way they had disregarded God's law.
And so they were taken captive and led away.
They've been brought back now.
A couple of different movements coming back.
But they're home now in Israel, in the promised land.
And they've now refinished rebuilding the temple we see in the book of Ezra.
And now the wall surrounding Jerusalem here in the book of Nehemiah.
There's been a great revival that I believe started prior to chapter 8.
But we certainly observe it take its full swing.
In chapter 8, it's broken out amongst them.
In this past few weeks, we've observed together the evidences of God-sent revival.
That revival is not something that we put on a calendar or on a sign.
We don't pitch a tent across from Kroger and Gainesville.
That's not revival.
But that God brings revival.
A special returning of His people to Him.
And we noted that if revival is God's sin, God's people will be praying.
That they will reestablish the Word of God as the ultimate authority in their lives.
I hope you at least have a copy of it with you this morning.
That they will recognize their defiance of God and view His chastisement as just.
They'll quit making excuses and justifying the things that they do.
But they'll recognize that they have not observed God's law as He requires.
And they'll turn from that defiance to obedience.
They'll say, God, in all ways I want to honor You.
If Your Word says it, I want to do it.
And I will work to that end.
This is a mighty work of the Spirit in the hearts of men.
But it is something we ought to be endeavoring to do.
And as we see these things happening in our lives,
we can certainly say that the Spirit is at work and moving in our hearts.
We see here in Nehemiah that the Spirit draws the sword from the scabbard.
And has His work, has His way with His people.
And it has been my prayer for us that the same will be true.
That we'll no longer be complacent Christians.
But that we will devote ourselves to God the way He deserves our devotion.
Now this morning I want to draw our attention to the dedication service for the wall
that we see recorded in chapter 12, verses 27 through 47.
But I don't want to totally neglect chapter 11 and the beginning of chapter 12.
There is some significance there.
And there may even be some significance beyond what I'm about to share with you.
But for us today, I think the significance we need to see is this.
Chapter 11, verses 1 through 2.
Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem.
And the rest of the people cast lots to bring 1 out of 10 to live in Jerusalem, the holy city.
While 9 out of 10 remained in the other towns.
And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.
A number of weeks ago we talked about the fact that the wall had been built
and yet nobody lived in Jerusalem at that time.
The thing that ultimately grieved Nehemiah's heart, as we see recorded in chapter 1,
is that the city was in ruins.
And as such, the state of the people of God looked horrible.
Their capital city, the place that should have been the center of all activity and trade,
the place where the temple was located,
no one even inhabited it at this time.
And so they rebuilt the wall for the glory of God.
Not for protection, but for the glory of God.
But yet people still didn't come in to live and dwell in that place for his sake.
But we see here now a correction of that.
So remember in chapter 7, I spoke to you, verse 4, it says,
The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few,
and no houses had been rebuilt.
And then in verse 73 of the same chapter,
So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers,
some of the people, the temple servants in all Israel, lived in their towns.
And when the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns.
They had yet to reoccupy the city.
And to say to the nations around them,
God is certainly good to his people.
So it's important for us to see that they've now made reparations for that.
They have fixed that now.
They have now sent people into the city to live.
Now, verse 3 in chapter 11 through chapter 12, verse 26,
I just want you to get one thing.
It is a massive list of names.
And this is what I want you to get from it.
God has set apart for himself a covenant people.
People group.
Here it was Israel.
Now it is the church.
It's us, right?
But a people is certainly made up of individuals.
And individuals matter.
God is concerned for the individual, right?
Which means he cares for you.
He cares for you.
And as such, we should care for individuals.
I've been encouraging you over some time just to get to know each other's names.
There's a good starting point, right?
And here we see a massive list of names of the people who came to occupy the land.
So, we skipped a stone off of chapter 11 and the beginning of 12.
I'm sure there's some more depth to it there.
But I want to get into this worship service that we can see in chapter 12, beginning in verse 27.
So, let's read that together.
I'm actually going to hop and skip a little bit through it to avoid the burdensome nature of some of these names,
both for my sake and for yours.
So, bear with me as we do that.
And I'll give you some explanation as we go along here.
So, beginning in verse 27.
And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites in all their places
to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness,
with thanksgiving, and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres.
And the sons of the singers gathered together from the districts surrounding Jerusalem
and from the villages of the Nataphatites,
also from Beth Gilgal and from the region of Geba and Asmoth Beth,
from the singers had built for themselves villages around Jerusalem.
And the priests and the Levites purified themselves,
and they purified the people and the gates and the wall.
Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall
and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks.
One went to the south on the wall to the dung gate.
Verse 38.
We're going to hop over this list of people that went in this procession along with this one choir.
Verse 38.
The other choir of those who gave thanks went to the north,
And I followed them with half of the people on the wall above the tower of the ovens to the broad wall,
and above the gate of Ephraim, and by the gate of Yashana,
and by the fish gate and the tower of Hananel, and the tower of the hundred to the sheep gate,
and they came to a halt at the gate of the guard.
So both choirs of those who gave thanks stood in the house of God,
and I and half of the officials with me.
And then we're going to jump down a little bit further to verse 43,
and we'll finish out the rest of the chapter.
And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced,
for God had made them rejoice with great joy.
The women and children also rejoiced,
and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.
On that day men were appointed over the storerooms,
the contributions, the firstfruits, and the tithes,
to gather into them the portions required by the law for the priests,
and for the Levites according to the fields of the towns.
For Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered.
And they performed the service of their God in the service of purification,
as did the singers and the gatekeepers,
according to the command of David and his son Solomon.
For long ago in the days of David and Asaph,
there were directors of the singers,
and there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.
And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel,
and in the days of Nehemiah,
gave the daily portions for the singers and the gatekeepers.
And they set apart that which was for the Levites,
and the Levites set apart that which was for the sons of Aaron.
Join me in prayer.
Father, we thank you for your word,
your very spoken word, your breath to us.
And I pray this day that you will, by your spirit,
apply it to our hearts.
And don't let us just take these things in
and have some mental understanding of the last part of chapter 12,
but show us how it is that the activity recorded here
for the nation of Israel means something for us this day.
Help us, Father, to see how to rightly worship you.
And we pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.
Now, again, the observation here is a worship service
set apart for the dedication of the wall.
And we've seen a couple of other worship services.
This one consists primarily of music.
That's a major activity in this particular worship service.
We saw at the beginning of chapter 8 a worship service
that was primarily the reading of God's word.
Half the day, teaching and reading of God's word.
We see another in chapter 9,
which consisted of the reading of God's word,
and then confession through prayer.
So we're seeing this mix of different types of service
as they come together and worship God.
We have to be very careful as we talk about worship.
And so we're going to spend a little bit of time this morning
simply defining our terms.
What do we mean when we say worship?
This is something that has been far misconstrued
in the Christian church these days.
When did the worship of God become just about music?
Oh, that was wonderful worship this morning.
What do people are referring to when they say that?
The music.
What do we call the guy with the guitar?
The worship leader.
As if the only activity of the Christian life
that is worshipful to God is singing songs.
Shame on us.
This is a trite view of what worship actually is.
When did this happen?
I wish I knew.
I want to do a sociological observation experiment.
I wish I could see through history and see what happened.
I would expect that at some point
the term music minister didn't apply
to the skinny kid, Gene,
getting up there with the faux hawk playing the guitar.
And they had to come up with a different term for him.
Right?
Because the music minister is a guy
that leads music with his hand
and puts together cantatas.
Right?
But I don't really know what happened.
What has happened to our thinking
about this term worship?
Now get me,
many of us say words
and we're trying to communicate something
and if somebody were to correct us
we would say,
oh well, I don't mean that.
Many of us would do that.
There's a very important biblical teaching
that simply says,
out of the outflow of the heart,
the mouth speaks.
What you say directly connects
to what you think about particular matters.
Right?
We go after you pretty hard
about calling this
building the church.
Right?
Because it clearly communicates
that in your mind
the gathering of God's people
is not about people.
It's about institution.
Building.
Lights.
And trappings.
It's not about that.
It's about God's people
coming together.
We are the church.
This is an example.
Worship is another.
It's a burr in my saddle.
Let me show you why.
Hebrews chapter 12
verses 28 and 29.
You can turn there if you want to.
I'm going to go pretty quick
because I have twice as many notes
as I normally do
on a Sunday morning.
The writer of Hebrews says,
Therefore, let us be grateful
for receiving a kingdom
that cannot be shaken.
He's just presented the gospel
in a very clear way.
And thus, let us offer to God
acceptable worship.
Acceptable worship.
Is he talking about music here?
No.
With reverence.
Not relevance.
Catch that.
With reverence and awe.
For our God
is a consuming fire.
Now, we are so quick
when we're reading the scriptures
to let these man-made divisions
block our thinking.
But the writer of Hebrews
didn't stop at that point,
take a couple of week break,
and then pick back up
and start chapter 13
as an entirely different
subject matter.
He goes on to explain
exactly what he's meaning
when he talks about
offering acceptable worship
with reverence and awe.
Let's, just a quick summary.
What does chapter 13
tell us we ought to be doing
to worship our God?
Let brotherly love continue.
Show hospitality to strangers.
Remember persecuted Christians.
Honor marriage.
Be sexually pure.
Do not love money.
Be content.
Imitate the faith of your leaders.
Do not be led away
by false doctrine.
Bear the reproach of Christ.
Acknowledge Christ with your lips.
Do good.
Share what you have.
Obey and submit to your leaders.
This is worship.
And what I fear happens
is that when we think of music
as the only thing
that is worship to God,
we neglect all of these things.
Now, would music be found in this list?
Yes.
It absolutely would.
Right?
We are to acknowledge Christ
with our lips.
And we do that
when we sing together.
John MacArthur,
in a book I would commend to you
called Worship,
The Ultimate Priority,
said,
Worship is any essential expression
of service
rendered unto God
by a soul who loves
and extols Him
for who He is.
Real worship, therefore,
should be the full-time,
non-stop activity
of every believer.
And the aim of the exercise
ought to be
to please God.
That is worship.
Our lives are meant to be lives
of worship.
As a person,
you are always going to be
worshiping something.
You're going to either be
worshiping the Most High God
or something else.
Yourself,
sports,
success,
your wife,
your husband,
just relationships in general.
You're always going to be
worshiping something.
Proper worship
is worship
of God.
The Puritans had a
principle
they called
the regulative principle.
Excuse me,
not the Puritans,
the Reformers.
Sorry,
history buffs.
Listen to what John Calvin said.
I think this sums up
the regulative principle well.
He said,
We may not adopt
any device
in our worship
which seems to fit
ourselves,
but look to the injunctions
of Him
who alone
is entitled to prescribe.
Therefore,
if we would have Him
approve our worship,
this rule
which He everywhere
enforces
with the utmost strictness
must be carefully observed.
God disapproves
of all modes
of worship
not expressly
sanctioned
by His Word.
So I'm taking you now
to talk about worship
and life as general.
What He's saying
certainly applies to that.
Talk about how it is
that we ought to
worship together
in our services.
Right?
Matthew 15,
8 and 9.
Jesus said,
This people honors me
with their lips,
but their heart
is far from me.
In vain
do they worship me.
Teaching as doctrines
the commandments
of men.
As they're gathering together,
they were doing things
to worship
that were man-made,
man-created,
ways in which
we should worship God.
We've been given
the instruction manual
for how we ought
to worship God.
Certainly,
it applies to how
we worship God
together.
All of our service
is worship.
This is a worship service.
That's what we have
come together to do.
From the very beginning
all the way to the end,
that's what we have
come to do.
If anybody rightly
gets the title
of worship leader,
it would be me
because I take responsibility
for everything
that happens
when we're together
on a Sunday morning.
Right?
Here in our text,
who are the worship leaders
here?
I didn't read
the name out to you,
but we see a singer
being led
at the very end
of verse 42.
The singer's leader
is Jezrehiah.
Is he the worship leader?
I would say to you,
no.
He was the leader
of the singers.
Nehemiah
and Ezra,
the men who were
leading the people
and put together
this thing
are the worship leaders.
So this morning,
I'm going to use
the term musical worship
because certainly
our singing
is that.
And unfortunately,
people have
done two things
if they're doing
anything wrongly
with music.
They've either made it,
they've relegated it
to a lesser thing.
It's the thing we do
in order to prepare
ourselves
to hear the word
preached.
It could be a way
that you treat it.
I know this is true
because I used to be
that way.
Especially when the
whole praise and worship
movement started
coming out.
I started to stop
seeing the value
in singing some of
these songs
that were being sung
and I just bore
through it so I could
get to the teaching
of the word.
Some of you may be
that way.
Others of you may
make it too big
of a deal.
You may just bear
through the preaching
so that you can
sing some more songs.
Have your emotional
tank filled back up.
Properly,
our musical worship
is worship of God.
We should come
together prepared
to do this activity
together.
We should want
to please Him
with what we do
together in song.
So today I want
to give you
four characteristics
of proper
musical
worship.
Proper musical
worship.
And I want you
to keep two questions
in mind
as we do this.
One,
do you think rightly
about musical worship?
Do you think rightly
about it?
Do you understand
what it is supposed
to be and what it
is supposed to look
like?
And then secondly,
do you participate
rightly in musical
worship?
Do you think rightly
about it?
Do you participate
rightly in it?
One of the questions
that kind of got at
my mind though
as I was looking
at this is the
question,
is musical worship
important to our
meetings?
I would venture to
say,
I may be wrong
about this,
but I would venture
to say that there
is not a church
in this nation
that you would go
to this morning
that wouldn't
sing in some
fashion on a
Sunday morning.
Why?
Why do churches
do that?
Is it just that
it's the thing
we're supposed to
do?
We just know
when we come
together as a
church,
you sing.
I don't know
why we sing,
but we sing.
Some of you
may feel that
way.
Some of you
might stand
stoically without
uttering a word.
I don't have a
good voice.
I don't want to
sing.
I hate the
singing.
Why do we sing
in church?
Is musical worship
important to our
meetings?
If you were to be
a careful student
of the word of
God, you could
emphatically answer
that yes.
Music is all
throughout the
Bible.
From the very
first book,
there are hymns
recorded, songs
sung to praise
God in Genesis
all the way
through to the
book of
Revelation.
Except for the
book of Psalms,
you know that
Revelation has
more songs of
praise in it than
any other?
There's 14 songs.
I don't have my
14 songs sung in
the book of
Revelation.
It is everywhere.
Why were the
Psalms even
written?
What was the
very point of
them being
written?
It was written
to give God's
people songs to
sing together.
Listen to just a
couple of examples
of the Psalms
speaking to this
very point.
Psalm 22,
22.
I will tell of
your name to
my brothers.
In the midst of
the congregation,
I will praise
you.
The picture in
Hebrew of singing
praise to God's
name.
Psalm 35,
18.
I will thank you
in the great
congregation.
In the mighty
throng, I will
praise you.
Psalm 68, 26.
Bless God in
the great
congregation, the
Lord of you who
are of Israel's
fountain.
Yes, it's key.
Yes, it should
be done.
John Calvin
called the Psalms
the anatomy of
all the parts of
the soul.
These songs have
been given to us
to relate to and
express with and
to understand some
of the realities of
God in our
inner being, in
our very emotion,
the seat of who
we are.
Laura Melendez
put up on
Facebook a cool
quote from
Jonathan Edwards
this week, which
was so timely,
so I nabbed it
and I put it in
here.
Jonathan Edwards
said,
the best,
most beautiful,
and most perfect
way that we have
of expressing a
sweet concord of
mind to each
other is by
music.
Hear that
again.
The best,
most beautiful,
and most perfect
way that we have
of expressing a
sweet concord of
mind to each
other is by
music.
Martin Luther,
a great reformer,
said,
next to the word
of God,
music deserves
the highest
praise.
The gift of
language combined
with the gift
of song was
given to man
so that he
should proclaim
the word of
God through
music.
That's what we
come together to
do when we
sing.
That's why the
music isn't so
loud that you
can't hear yourself
and the person
standing next to
you in this
room.
It's not a
concert.
Congregational
worship and
songs should
look much
different than
a rock show,
to be sure.
And this is all
me.
This is my
quote.
I just want to
get myself in
the mix with
these guys.
Singing is
vital to our
meetings because
songs most
readily,
it's not the
only way,
but songs most
readily unite our
minds and our
hearts.
We get the
information packed
in to our heads
and songs help
it unite with
our heart.
We feel the
truth when we
sing.
At least I
hope you feel
the truth when
you sing.
You ever
wondered why we
do two songs
before the
preaching and
three songs
after?
Not that those
are magic numbers
at all, but the
ways when we
broke it up that
way is because we
want you to
rejoice in the
truth of the
gospel after the
preaching of the
gospel.
If you're not a
person that really
engages with lyrics
on a screen, we
want you to
have heard it
spoken to you so
that you'll be
more likely to
have these things
happen, to have
your mind and
your heart unite
around these
truths.
So yes, yes,
music is important
to our meeting
together.
All right, so
first observation,
proper musical
worship is
ordered.
Proper musical
worship is
ordered.
Take a look at
the activity of
the choirs here.
This is not
something that just
got suddenly thrown
together in a
spontaneous fashion.
There are some who
think that musical
worship ought to
always be just
spontaneous, right?
That it just
ought to come from
the spirits leading
and then somebody
just starts playing
and somebody starts
singing.
Or that when they
are in fact given
a slotted time to
sing, they go on
and they go on
and they go on.
And I'll tell you
this, that a person
that cannot bring a
resolution to a song
usually isn't being
spirit-led, but
they're not good
enough to resolve
a song.
If they just play
that chorus one
more time, they're
going to figure out
how to end the
song on that
go around.
Proper musical
worship is
ordered.
Look at the
activity of the
choirs.
The first part of
verse 31, there's
these two great
choirs appointed
to give thanks.
The first group
goes up on the
wall.
We skipped over
some of this,
right?
But they go up
on the wall and
they move in a
counterclockwise
direction.
All of this record
of the places they
were passing by,
if you understood
the city, you
would just know.
He's just telling
us the direction in
which they flowed as
they walked on this
walkway that would
have run around the
inside of the edge
of the wall.
That's what's going
on here.
I had to pull up a
map and carefully
plot the course and
see what they did.
You've got the first
group that goes and
they go counterclockwise
around the wall.
The second group goes
up and they go
clockwise around the
wall.
The first group is
led by Ezra.
The second group
followed by Nehemiah.
And they come around
the city and meet
at the house of God.
That's where we end
up seeing them
standing.
They stood in the
house of God, you
see in verses 40
through 43, offering
great sacrifices and
rejoicing.
Most of our
translations probably
record the great
number of choirs.
Let me see if I can
spot that real quick
as I didn't make a
note about it.
Yep, yep, yep.
Gather Together from
the District's
Rounding.
Okay, anyway, there's
a record of it being
a great choir.
Okay, this is not
speaking to the
choir's quality of
voice, that they were
a well-trained choir,
although I propose
that they were, but
speaking to their
number, a massive
number of people that
were a choir that had
to coordinate.
You've got two
choirs getting up on
the wall and singing
and passing around
and then going
together and
into the house
of God.
This was
incredibly ordered.
Right?
So practice matters
at this point, is
what I'm trying to
say.
Notice in verse 28,
you see this
interesting phrase,
the sons of the
singers.
The sons of the
singers.
Is he referring
here to those who
were descendants of
the singers?
That could be a
possibility since we've
now seen Israel go
away and return from
Babylonian captivity
because these be the
sons of the men who
were singers before
Babylonian captivity,
now returned?
No, that's not what
he's talking about.
This was common
Hebrew language.
To say sons of
something was a way
of saying in the
order of.
That it was their
job.
It was something that
was prescribed to
them.
It was their nature.
They were the sons
of the singers.
You'll notice it
again, a similar
phrase in verse 47.
You'll see the sons
of Aaron.
Right at the very end
of the chapter,
the sons of Aaron.
Were they descendants
of Aaron?
And certainly they
were.
But the point he's
making here is that
these were the
priests.
These were the ones
who were in the
priestly order.
They were the ones
given the task of
serving as priests.
So we see men,
potentially women
here, that are
specifically given
the task.
That was their
calling to do
this very thing
for the people of
God.
Notice in verse
29.
They've actually
congregated together.
For the singers
had built for
themselves villages
around Jerusalem as
the people weren't
living in Jerusalem.
They had congregated
together.
And I would imagine
that this was because
they were practicing
their skill.
They were together.
I don't know what
kind of picture this
brings up in your
mind.
Maybe for some of
you it's robes and
books in a room
behind the sanctuary.
Them gathering
together and honing
their craft as they
came together.
I think of kind of
hippie guys sitting
around in their
flip-flops in a
circle playing drums
and guitars.
But they were
together in towns
together working on
this craft.
They were prepared
for this activity.
We see no record of
them having to go for
weeks and weeks of
practice so they could
get together to lead
this massive congregation.
30,000 to 50,000
people are back now
from Babylonian
captivity in the
song.
No, they were ready.
They knew the songs
and all they had to do
was be coordinated in
this movement around
the city.
Notice in verse 47
that there was
actually provision made
for these singers.
This was a job,
a task,
an official assignment
given to them.
Money, provision
was set aside
to care for them
so that they could be
better and better
and better at their
craft.
We, for the size of
our church, we are
immensely blessed with
musical talent.
Kind of blows my mind.
I'm mentioning
Lauren Melendez again.
She won the Eddie's
Attic open mic night,
if you know that or not,
which is a pretty
incredible task.
Yeah.
Yeah, pretty incredible.
We have great, great
talent here.
What if, what if,
wouldn't it be just
fantastic if Wes,
rather than having to
show up at 8.30 on
Sunday morning and get
everybody together and
get their talents on the
same page together,
what if he could spend
more time in the week
preparing and doing that
to lead us in this very
important aspect of
worshiping God together
in our singing, right?
This is something that
the people of Israel
recognized was important
to set aside provision
for the singers,
for those who are in
the order of singing.
Just as an interesting
side note, it says
very little to do with
what we're talking about
here, but with that
in mind, thinking of
these people being the
sons of the singers,
we see the sons of
Aaron.
Isn't it interesting that
Jesus is called the
son of God?
Certainly he was born,
we came into the earth
that way, but it means
more than that.
To the Hebrew reader,
they would have seen
and understood that he
was in the very order
of God.
He himself was God.
His deity is found in
that very title, being
the son of God.
I thought that was
pretty cool when I
discovered this this
week.
So, firstly, proper
musical worship is
ordered.
Secondly, proper
musical worship is
content-driven.
It's content-driven.
So we look at the job
of these singers.
It's mentioned a couple
of times.
Verse 31, verse 38,
verse 40.
Their job was to give
thanks.
That was the work that
they were about.
But what was it that
they were to give
thanks for?
What is the very thing
that they're praising
God for?
Verse 46 says,
For long ago in the
days of David and
Asaph, there were
directors of the
singers and there were
songs of praise and
thanksgiving to God.
They had songs that
they were singing.
There's a record of it
here.
That they had the very
songs of David and
Asaph.
What are they
referring to?
The Psalms.
They're referring to
the Psalms.
What would have been
the major thing that
would have been praised
for David and
Asaph?
What was the major
activity, the major
praising of God in
song?
His person and his
work in the Exodus.
Right?
Psalm 105 is a really
like perfect example
of this.
They praised him for
the work he had
done on their
behalf.
Right?
His goodness to
mankind has been
evidenced in his
work.
Right?
So truth.
That is what the
songs were about.
That was what they
were returning
thanks for, for the
things that God had
done.
John 4, 23-24,
Jesus says,
The hour is coming
and is now here
when true worshipers
will worship the
Father in what?
spirit and truth.
Not spirit and song.
Spirit and truth.
Not spirit and emotion.
Spirit and truth.
For the Father is
seeking such people
to worship him.
God is spirit and
those who worship him
must worship in spirit
and in truth.
Right?
You know that this
return from Babylonian
captivity back to
Israel became known
as the second
Exodus?
That it was a
another picture of
God's goodness in
that way?
And you know that
what we've experienced
in Christ, a
deliverance from the
bondage, the slavery
of sin and death, is
known as the third
Exodus?
These are the things
that they and we are
to be praising God
for.
The truth of the
gospel.
Who he is and how
it is that he's
displayed who he is
to us.
Turn with me to
Revelation chapter 5.
We really ought to
take cues from the
scriptures, particularly
pictures into heaven
about how we ought to
be praising God.
Doesn't it only make
sense that we take a
glimpse, John's vision
of the praise that's
happening in heaven,
this musical worship,
and go, oh, is that
how it's done?
We will model after
that.
This must have
pleased God.
It's taking place in
heaven where his will
is perfectly accomplished.
Let's ask for God's will
to be done here in our
musical worship.
Revelation chapter 5
verses 9 through 10
and then 12 through 13.
Here's the picture, the
singing.
What are they praising God
for, giving thanks for?
Worthy are you to take
and open its seals.
For you were slain and
by your blood you ransomed
people for God from every
tribe and language and
people and nation.
You have made them a
kingdom and priests to
our God and they shall
reign on the earth.
Verse 12.
Worthy is the Lamb who
was slain to receive
power and wealth and
wisdom and might and
honor and glory and
blessing.
And then further down in
13.
To him who sits on the
throne, the Lamb be
blessing and honor and
glory and might forever
and ever.
You see the truth,
praising God for the
good things he's done
for us in Christ.
This should characterize
our songs together.
Now, that doesn't mean
that we can't sing
simple songs.
I'm not suggesting that.
We don't tend to sing
many songs here that
don't have a lot of
words in them.
And I fully recognize
that.
Simple songs can be
okay, but are they
true songs?
Is there actual
content?
Is there a weight in
the content of the
song itself?
Many of you have heard
me say, if you can
replace Jesus' name or
God's name in a song
with your girlfriend's
name, it really isn't a
song to be sung in
church.
There should be some
weight and some truth
when we speak and sing
praises to our God.
Let's look this morning
at the bulletin insert
we gave you.
If you don't have one,
look on with somebody
else.
Just take a look.
Now you know why we
printed these out today.
Just take a look at
these titles that Wes
very carefully picked
out for us.
Look at what he
included.
He included the
scripture reference.
The very words of God
to us in song.
That's what these are.
If you know your
Bible well, when you
sing these songs, you
can, oh, that is the
scriptures.
I have read that.
I know.
I know what he's
talking about.
He's singing straight
from the word of God.
That's what the record of
this is here.
Look at the song we
just sang, How Great
Thou Art.
First verse, praising
God for his creation,
his mighty works on man's
behalf in creation.
Second verse, his
redemption of our souls.
Third verse, our final
glorification.
The fact that one day
we will exist with him
in glory perfected
forever.
You see the totality of
the truth here.
Many of our great old
hymns, a lot of us
probably grew up in
Baptist churches where
the songs were just too
long, so we sang like
the first, the third,
and the fifth verse.
You're familiar with
that?
But most of them were
written very carefully to
give us a broad
spectrum of the gospel.
To take us from the
very beginning, who we
are, what Christ has
done for us, how it is
that we're continuing
life to death, and what
will happen finally and
fully after that.
They're beautiful pictures
of the gospel.
So we unite our minds
with our hearts as we
sing true words together.
That's why we do things
that way.
Now music, I think,
should be good.
I think that if we're
going to do anything to
praise God, we should
work at it.
Right?
As I noted before,
music was ordered.
They practiced.
I'm sure this was a
very pleasing sound.
We ought to strain at
that.
If you're in the
congregation and you
don't feel like you're
a good singer, sing
anyway, but try to sing
well.
You don't have to get in
your own little zone and
sing horribly off key,
but if you can't sing on
key, that's alright.
Just sing.
Right?
It's good to try to hear
the notes.
It's good to try to know
the music.
It's good to do those
types of things, but it's
not the ultimate thing.
That's not what matters
mostly.
So many of us are
emotionally driven by
music.
You recognize that that's
part of our fiber, very
part of our being.
There's a reason that
we're moved by music, that
crescendo lifts our
spirit.
Right?
But that shouldn't be the
thing that causes us joy
when we sing.
Right?
It should be the truth of
the gospel.
MacArthur, again, in
worship, the ultimate
priority, said,
Worship should engage the
intellect as well as the
emotions.
By all means, musical
worship should be
passionate, heartfelt, and
moving.
But the point is not to
stir the emotions while
turning off the mind.
True worship merges heart
and mind in a response of
pure adoration.
Based on the truth revealed
in the word, music may
sometimes move us by the
sheer beauty of its sound,
but such sentiment is not
worship.
You catch what he said
there?
If you're simply moved by
the beauty of sound, that's
not worship.
Music by itself, apart from
the truth contained in the
lyrics, is not a legitimate
springboard for real worship.
Truth.
It should be content-driven.
Thirdly, proper musical
worship is characterized by joy.
It's characterized by joy.
Content-driven, characterized by joy.
Look at verse 43 of chapter 12.
It says,
And they offered great
sacrifices that day and
rejoiced, for God had made
them rejoice with great joy.
The women and children also
rejoiced, and the joy of
Jerusalem was heard far away.
Now here the record doesn't
tell us exactly how it is that
God made them rejoice with
great joy, because it already
did.
Am I right?
That's what the first 11
chapters have been about.
What God had been doing for the
people, to make His name great
amongst them.
This is what God did to make
them rejoice with great joy.
Do you remember the taunts of
Sanbalat and Tobiah, the
opposers of the work of the wall?
I know a lot of you weren't here.
Turn back to chapter 4, the very
beginning.
I'll show you the taunts of
Sanbalat and Tobiah.
Verse 1.
They're beginning the work on
the wall.
Now when Sanbalat had heard they
were building the wall, he was
angry and greatly enraged, and he
jeered at the Jews, and he said in
the presence of his brothers and
of the army of Samaria, what are
these feeble Jews doing?
Will they restore it for
themselves?
Will they sacrifice?
Will they finish it up in the
day?
Will they revive the stones out of
the heaps of rubbish and burned
ones at that?
He's mocking them.
Look at these feeble, ridiculous
Jews.
They'll never be able to
accomplish this work that's
ahead of them.
And then verse 3.
Tobiah the Ammonite was beside
him, and he said, yes, what are
they building?
If a fox goes up on it, it will
break down their stone wall.
It's going to be such a poor and
pitiful wall that even if a
small animal, light-footed animal,
were to get up on it, it'll just
break down the stone wall.
These are the taunts that they
are experiencing.
Can you imagine as they marched
an army of singers with men and
leaders to follow them up onto
the wall, and they marched around
the entire circumference of the
city, that through their minds
they must have been saying, oh
yeah?
How about that, Tobiah?
Chapter 6, verse 15 and 16
says,
So the wall was finished on the
25th day of the month of Elul.
In 52 days, the wall's finished in
52 days.
And when all our enemies heard of
it, all the nations around us were
afraid and fell greatly in their own
esteem, for they perceived that
this work had been accomplished with
the help of our God.
So see, all the people around them
recognized this was a difficult work
to do, to rebuild this wall.
These poor, pitiful, feeble Jews
rebuilt it.
It must have been done with the
help of their God.
And they were afraid.
They stood in awe of who God was
as a result.
So these are the things that God had
done.
God had made them rejoice with great
joy, is what it says there in verse
43 of chapter 12.
This is how he made them rejoice.
Remember, again, the truth.
The things that God had done
on their behalf.
Now, all of this joy
is for the glory of God.
And in the same way,
ours should do that.
People who come into this place,
even people who may claim to be
Christians who aren't, or people who
are just lukewarm in their
Christianity, ought to come into this
place and go,
Man, that is a joy-filled
people.
They must worship a different God
than I do.
I am not filled with joy in the way
they are filled with joy.
What am I missing?
And I hope that in the lyrics of the
songs, and in our preaching,
in our prayer, and Aletheia,
all of those things, they see and
they get it.
They go,
That, it's the truth.
It's the truth.
I haven't been reveling in the truth
the way these people revel in the
truth.
I need to do that more.
I need to saturate myself with the
truth of God's goodness to me,
so that I will also overflow with joy.
Anyway, rightly understanding the
gospel, beloved, will cause this to
happen.
It's not a negotiable thing.
Like, well, it will if you're having
a good day, if you're feeling all
right, if you got plenty of sleep the
night before.
This will, in fact, happen.
And in fact, if you don't feel joy,
and I'm not talking about jumping up
and down nutty displays of joy, but if
your heart isn't warm when you're
singing songs, something's going on in
your life.
Because the realities of the gospel
aren't working themselves around in
your heart.
You fail to believe it, at least in
that moment.
Because if you truly understand who
God is, who you are, this great
separation between you, what Christ
has done on your behalf, you will be
filled with joy.
Men, there's nothing more precious to
me than men who sing and sing loud.
I love it.
I'm thankful that there's a very male
presence in our singing together, for
sure.
But we could do better.
Don't stand and be stoic.
Some of the most moving times I've
experienced in musical worship with
people is with somebody who does not
sing well, but just sings.
I love it.
Two great examples in this
congregation.
My father.
I love you, Dad.
Don't have a great singing voice, but
from an early child, I don't either, so
I'm definitely my father's son.
I'm a son of Jerry and the same type.
But from a very early age, my dad just
sang, and I always loved it.
Because I knew that he believed what he
was singing.
Clay has had two lung transplants.
Clay doesn't have the ability, I think,
to push good sound.
He's coughed so much in his life from a
CEF, and Clay is the same way.
Clay is a little quieter in his singing
because he can't push so much volume
out, but Clay warms my heart because
he sings.
Men sing.
If you think these things are true, sing.
And I'll find in my own life that
sometimes when I don't believe the
truths of the gospel in those moments,
that singing them helps me too.
Just getting it out there.
I should believe this.
I should.
It's true.
I know it's true.
Sing.
Our joy is an encouragement to one
another.
Congregational meetings matter.
You can't do what we do here in a
building with the lights turned out,
blacked out windows or no windows at
all, and the music so loud that you
can't hear anybody around you.
You can't do it.
You can't be encouraged in the way we
should be encouraging each other as we
sing together.
You matter in this setting.
This is not a come and consume.
Come look at the show, the concert, do all
that thing.
You matter.
In so many ways, before and after, but
certainly as we worship God together in
music, the people in front of you, behind
you, around you, need to hear you sing, and
they need to hear you sing with joy.
It's important for our meetings together.
If you think that you can properly praise God in
musical worship with the congregation in the
ways I've mentioned, blacked out, music so
loud, just sit in your car and turn the music
up.
It's the same thing.
It's the very same thing.
I hope you come together to praise with the
people of God.
And fourthly, I've got to move, sorry.
Proper musical worship is prepared for.
Notice in verse 30.
And the priests and the Levites purified
themselves, and they purified the people and
the gates and the wall.
They purified themselves.
This was Old Testament ceremonial purification.
What would this have included?
It was all external things.
It would have included the washing of their
bodies.
It would have included the washing of their
clothing, the abstaining from any sexual
activity, fasting and prayer.
It would have included a blood offering.
This blood would have been sprinkled on the
gates and the wall.
That's what's being referred to in this
case.
Ceremonial purification was a vital part of
Israel's worship.
That's what the book of Leviticus is all
about.
So there's a lesser implication.
Of that reality that they prepared here,
that we also ought to prepare to come
together.
That you ought to get up a little bit
earlier.
We meet at 1030.
That is late in the morning.
You ought to get up and prepare yourself
to come together.
You ought to be ready to come and be
joy-filled by the things that are
happening.
Be expectant to meet together with the
people of God.
You should be doing that.
But that's the lesser implication here.
The greater thing that should be
learned.
We have to ask the question,
what was all this for?
Why was it that they did all of these
external things to prepare themselves
for worship?
It was to show them that God is holy,
perfect,
and that he must never be approached in a
flippant, cavalier, or an impure matter.
God is not to be approached in that way.
So purification always preceded the worship
of God.
It was carefully ascribed in that way,
in this very external way.
Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 6.
beginning of verse 1.
In the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.
Isaiah is having a vision,
high and lifted up,
and the train of his robe filled the
temple.
Above him stood seraphim,
each had six wings,
with two he covered his faith,
with two he covered his feet,
and with two he flew.
And one called to another and said,
Holy,
holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
And the foundations of the threshold
took,
and the voice of him had called,
and the house was filled with smoke.
So here we see Isaiah simply,
we can't explain all this in the time we have,
but beholding the glory of God.
And look at his reaction,
proper reaction.
And I said,
Woe is me,
for I am lost,
for I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips,
for my eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts.
Verse 6.
Then one of the seraphim flew to me,
having in his hand a burning coal
that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
And he touched my mouth and said,
Behold,
this has touched your lips.
Your guilt is taken away,
and your sin atoned for.
And then,
verse 8,
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
Whom shall I send,
and who will go for us?
Then I said,
Here am I,
send me.
Verse 9.
And he said,
Go and say to this people,
we'll let it off there.
So Isaiah enters into the presence of God,
recognizes his great sinfulness,
and then symbolically,
a seraphim comes and touches a coal to his neck
and says,
Your sins have been atoned for.
So there was a purification,
but not an external purification,
but an internal purification on Isaiah's behalf.
His sins had been forgiven.
All of this Old Testament external cleansing
was prefigurative.
It was a shadow of the greater thing,
the internal cleansing that was to come in Christ.
It was meant to teach them and us
that we cannot enter into the presence of God
without the righteousness of Christ.
So the greater implication of this for us
is that proper musical worship
begins with regenerate hearts.
You cannot not be found in Christ
and have your worship be pleasing to God.
You must be found in Him.
God will have nothing to do with you
if you're not found in Christ.
You cannot enter into His presence.
All that God will have to do with you
would give you some general grace now
and then damn you forever
for your rebellion against Him.
You can't do enough coming into the presence.
Sing well enough, lift your hands,
close your eyes,
do all of those things to earn God's favor.
You'll find His favor in the person
and work of Christ.
That's a big question
for us to ask ourselves this morning.
If we desire to please God in musical worship,
are your hearts regenerate?
Have you in fact placed your faith in Christ?
And I really hope that of every person in this room,
we can say yes and amen.
Absolutely.
I ask that you ask the Spirit
to search your heart in that matter.
1 Corinthians 6, verse 9-11.
We'll close with this.
Paul says,
Do you not know that the unrighteous
will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived,
neither the sexually immoral,
the idolaters,
nor adulterers,
nor men who practice homosexuality,
nor thieves,
nor the greedy,
nor drunkards,
nor revilers,
nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God?
And such were some of you.
But you were washed.
You were sanctified.
You're hearing the language?
You were justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and by the Spirit of God.
So do we think rightly
about musical worship
and do we participate rightly
about musical worship?
We would do well to ask ourselves
those questions today.
Let's pray together.
Thank you.