This transcript was generated automatically and may contain minor errors.

Well, good evening. What a good crowd we have with us in person, and I'm grateful also for those who are joining us online. If you'd like to take out your bible, please, and turn to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter five. We'll begin reading in verse 15, probably, here in just a second.

Ephesians chapter five and verse 15 here in just a second. I'll also have a lot of scriptures up on the screen tonight as we go through some things rather quickly. But, hopefully, this will be helpful to you as we think about some things tonight that are really related to both our theme and also the things that we talked about this morning. This morning, we're talking about this idea of a firm foundation of why. And this is really the second set of lessons that go along this idea of shoring up why we believe what we believe in such a way that we're confident in it.

Also, it can help us in explaining it to other people. And so we were asking this question, does this please God? And what I'd like to do tonight is I'd like to use a case study, for the things that we talked about this morning, just like we did when we talked about apostolic tradition and the things that the apostles approved of, I wanna do the same thing with a specific topic related to this question, does this please God? Now if you were not here this morning, this is a little bit self indulgent... No.

Self engrandizing. I don't know. Go listen to that lesson if you don't mind. Go listen to that lesson if you have opportunity, if you didn't hear it this morning. I really felt like I was able to communicate clearly what it was I was trying to get across.

But if you were not here this morning, so that we're all kind of on the same page, let's think about this very quickly. This question, does this please God might be answered in three ways. Right? It might be answered yes, which means that is authorized, and we go about authorizing those things through explicit commands. God says, thou shalt do this.

We better do it. Sometimes we just have to draw conclusions based on the text, though, because there are statements that God makes. There are questions that are asked where we see these statements and the implication of that. The inference that we have to draw, the conclusion that we have to draw comes back to this is something that pleases God. And then there are approved examples.

That is they did it in the first century. It was approved by the apostles. We can do the same thing. But the second way we might answer that question is no, and those things are condemned. And sometimes there are explicit prohibitions.

Do not do this. Right? Thou shalt not. But also, we draw conclusions sometimes based on statements and also based on these disapproved examples. So they did it in the first century.

The apostles and prophets, God says, don't do that. And so we know that we shouldn't do that either. But there's this third whole category of maybe or I don't know or I'm not sure. I don't know if this pleases God or not, And we would just call that unauthorized. And what we said this morning is what we should be doing as Christians.

If we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and if our goal is to be fully pleasing to him, we need to be living in that first category that I know this pleases God, and that's what I wanna do because I know it pleases God. Now I felt so good about that lesson this morning. Man, I felt good about it. And then I started getting these text messages rolling in and comments rolling in that there was something wrong with my chart. Yes, no, maybe.

Does this please God? Yes. Green means go. Does this please God? No.

Red means stop. Does this please God? I don't know. Yellow means caution. Are you happy now?

Okay. Alright. Well, I think that visually helps us. Right? With this idea of we know this pleases God, do it.

God wants us to do it, and we should do it. Go for it. No. This doesn't please God because he explicitly condemns it. Don't do it.

But if we don't know if it pleases God or not, we need to be ultra careful. And the burden of proof is on the one who wants to do something other than what we know pleases God. You better be able to have a good bible reason for that. And as soon as you have that good bible reason, what happens? It moves from over here over to here saying, yes.

We should do this. We can do this. This is pleasing to God. So give me a thumbs up if everybody's on the same page and all of that. Okay.

Well, let's have a case study for this particular thing. We ran through a long list of examples this morning of different ways in which this applies to our lives as individual Christians, but specifically how it applies to us as local churches. And so I wanna use this as our case study tonight, a firm foundation of why as it relates to singing in worship and the way we worship God in our songs. So does this please God? That's the question.

And the first thing that I would say about that is in every example of Christian singing in the New Testament, there is no mention of instruments. I put acapella up there because that's what it's called. That's from Latin and Italian origin, and it means in the style of the chapel or in the chapel style. In other words, this is the way you sing at church. You sing at church without instruments.

Now I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine, a brother in the Lord who is who is a faithful Christian, a good bible student, and we were talking about this idea. He brought up a good point that maybe I've never ever expressed before. He says, well, but singing, does that... Is that mutually exclusive from playing? In other words, are those two things that you can do at the same time?

And I would say, well, yes. We see that idea that you can play and sing at the same time. You can do both of those activities at the same time. You see that? But, also, they are fundamentally different activities.

Right? So you can play without singing, and you can sing without playing. And so it's powerful to us that we see all of these examples, and we're about to run through them. All of these examples singing in the New Testament, there is no mention of instruments. Now instruments are not explicitly condemned in the New Testament.

They're not in that second category, the red category. But do we have any authorization or permission for them? That's our question tonight. What do we know pleases God? So you're taking notes?

Ready? Because we're gonna go through this quickly. Let's just look at all of these examples. Matthew 26 and verse 30, also Mark fourteen twenty six. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount Of Olives.

Acts chapter 16 and verse 25, but at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Hebrews chapter two in verse 12, I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you. Romans chapter 15 and verse nine. And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written, for this reason, I will confess to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.

First Corinthians 14 and verse 15, what is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit. I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit. I will also sing with the understanding.

Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 15, therefore, by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. So what's our praise to God in the New Testament? That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Perhaps that includes both prayer and singing, but it's the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. And then James chapter five and verse 13, this is talking about more us as individuals, not what we're doing as a local church, but is anyone among you suffering?

Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. So does this please God? Yes, no, I don't know.

What do we know pleases God from all of those examples? Every example is singing with no mention of instruments. That's what we see as we go through the New Testament. Now I wanna take just a moment to address the book of Revelation because there are three instances in the book of Revelation where we see something a little bit different. In Revelation chapter five and verse eight, now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Now pretty obviously, this is symbolic. Right? The incense are the prayers of the saints, and certainly, it doesn't authorize instrumental music in the church. We have the 24 elders here, whoever they are and whatever they represent. That's not our purpose tonight.

These are before the lamb, and they're worshiping in this way. In Revelation chapter 14, I told you to turn to Ephesians five. Mark your spot there. Let's go to Revelation 14, and let's read the first five verses. And the question is, does this give us authorization?

Does this give us permission to use instruments where we say, I can do this. I can do what they were doing and know that I'm pleasing to God. Well, I think the difficulty is we can't recreate what it is they're doing here in Revelation chapter 14 or even who was doing it. So Revelation 14 starting in verse one. Then I looked and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him, 144,000, having his father's name written on their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven like the voice of many waters and like the voice of a loud thunder, and I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang, as it were, a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who were not defiled by women for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men being first fruits to God and to the lamb, and in their mouth was found no deceit for they are without fall before the throne of God.

So here we find the 144,000 in heaven, and it's only them that have the hearts, and it's only the 144,000 who could learn the song, and they were all virgin men. Very clearly, this has nothing to do with our corporate worship in the New Testament church today. And then finally, Revelation chapter 15 in verse two, and I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire. And those who have victory over the beast, over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass having harps of God. Whatever a God harp is, if we could bring that into our worship, maybe we could use that.

But this is something that's happening in heaven, and this is something that doesn't apply to Christians on Earth today. So what do we draw from all of those examples? Well, just what we said. Every example that we see in our New Testament of Christians worshiping together with god... Worshiping god together in song, every single example is singing with no mention of mechanical instruments of music.

Well, what about the commands that we have regarding worshiping God in song? Well, I would suggest that these commands are simple, though maybe it's not that command that we would expect. Now if you'll turn to Ephesians chapter five, read with me there beginning in verse 15. Ephesians chapter five starting in verse 15. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Now that's language very similar to what we were talking about this morning. Don't be unwise. Don't be foolish. Know what the Lord's will is and seek to do whatever the Lord's will is.

And, verse 18, do not be drunk with wine, that's a prohibition, in which is dissipation, the reason why, but be filled with the spirit. Now that is a command, to be filled with the spirit. How? Verse 19. Well, we have all of these participles, these I n g words that speak about this.

Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God our father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. So the command is to be filled with the spirit. And if we were to go over to Colossians chapter three in verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. The command, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom. And the way we go about doing that, the way we show that in our worship to God are all these I n g words.

Speaking, singing, making melody in your heart, giving thanks, teaching, and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And so we see these commands that are given, and we see the way we carry out these commands. And so what we draw from that, yes, every example is singing with no mention of instruments, but every command is a form of speaking. As he said, it's in Hebrews 13 and verse 15, the fruit of our lips or singing, and that comes from the heart because the spirit the spirit and the word dwell in us, so we might say the spirit dwells in us through the word.

And these commands that are given are intended for all Christians. That is not a command for a few who can sing well, but for all who would worship God in song from the heart. When I was growing up and whenever I heard a lesson on this, I heard the old timers. They always used to say, we don't use mechanical instruments of music in our worship. Raise your hand if you've heard that before.

Mechanical instruments. And when I was a little boy, I had this image of my... In my mind of, like, this giant pipe organ with all of these knobs and so forth that you turned and pushed and so forth, and it's smoking. You know? It's like, it's a mechanical instrument of music.

And I think the reason why the old timers always talked about it that way is because there is an instrument that we use in worship. Right? We make melody. And while by the first century that word meant to sing, originally, it had the connotation of to pluck or to play. And what is it that we make melody with or in?

It's our heart, our mind, our spirit. That is what we're playing as we think about going to God in our worship. Our hearts being in tune to God, making a joyful noise with our mouth for better or for worse, but all of us lifting up that pleasing sound heard by him and him alone of our hearts playing the song he wants us to play. Who in here can play a mechanical instrument of music, guitar, banjo, trumpet, a few hands. Who in here can play their heart and worship to God?

All of us. And that's the point, that we are unified as we worship God using our mouths, but our mouths as an expression of what is in our heart. So why do we worship in song without the use of mechanical instruments? Because we know it pleases God. But here's the crazy thing.

I talked this morning how this differentiates us from a lot of groups that are out there. And I'll say this as well. I'm not saying this is the most important thing that we need to get right and all of the things that we need to do for the Lord. I have a friend, someone I would certainly hold to be a friend, that we differ on a lot of things, and we've had long and fruitful conversations about Calvinism, about how one is saved, and what must... What one must do to be saved.

We've had conversations about baptism, what it does and what it doesn't do. And yet through the years, he's always said to me, I have no interest whatsoever in talking to you about instruments. And I'm like, okay. Well, that's fine. You know, that's the way you feel about it.

And, certainly, this idea of salvation in Jesus Christ would be more important. But if we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, our desire is going to be fully pleasing to him in all that I do, in all that I practice. And it is clear that God cares about the way we worship him, certainly, when we all come together to worship him. And that's why this is important. And the crazy thing to me is...

Crazy maybe is the wrong word. The interesting, amazing thing to me, very few believers. I wanna say no believers, but, you know, there's always maybe the exception, across the entire spectrum of those who claim to be Christians, what Leon Manning used to call greater Christendom, right, would argue that worshiping God in song without instruments, as long as our heart is right and so forth, no one would argue that that doesn't please God. You ever thought about that? Virtually, everyone agrees that worshiping in song is something that we can do, that the scriptures teach that we should do, and even more that the early church, the New Testament church, worshiped this way for at least decades and decades, probably centuries and centuries.

Everyone agrees that we can say with absolute certainty, provided our hearts are right and all those sorts of things, that this form of worship pleases God. And here's my point. If we're gonna do something different, we should have that same sort of confidence where we can point in our Bible and say, see here, this is how I know that doing this will be pleasing to God. If we're doing things in that third category, what we've done is say, okay. Maybe.

I don't know if this pleases God or not, but I'm going to do it anyway. And at best, that's presumptuous. But if somebody texted me this afternoon, maybe really what that is is testing God saying, God, I know what you've told me to do. I know what pleases you, but I'm gonna do something adjacent to that. I'm gonna add to that or I'm gonna decide to do something different, and that is a very dangerous place for us to be.

Why do we worship in this way? Because we know this pleases God. And we can ask that question, does this please God? And answer confidently, yes. I know this pleases God.

Well, we might just leave the lesson there, and you say, Reagan, oh, that's early. We can do that. But I do think there's one other thing that that certainly needs to be addressed, and this is this idea. And in fact, I just had a conversation with someone this. Why would the New Testament church not worship God with instruments when they clearly did so in the Old Testament in the Psalms?

We see that in the law of Moses. Is that true? Do we see that? Absolutely, we do. So why why the change?

Why the difference? Well, I would say this, first of all, that if there is a change, if that's God's will, ultimately, we just need to do what his will is, do what we know pleases him even if we don't fully understand why. But let me answer that question in three ways. First, we usually just say, well, we're not under the old law, including the Psalms, not under the law of Moses, and that's true. And that doesn't mean that we don't believe in the Old Testament.

We obviously... That it see that it was given by God. We see its value in teaching us about God. We see its power in bringing us to Christ. We see all of the things that it's intended to accomplish and all of the wisdom that is to be found therein, but I do not believe that we are subject to the laws and requirements of the old law. Galatians chapter three, for example, in verses twenty four and twenty five says that the old law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, that is the faith in Jesus Christ, the new covenant, we are no longer under a tutor. We are now in that place where we're worshiping God, that we're coming before him in spirit and in truth. And the first covenant, the old law, the Old Testament ended, and the second covenant, the new law, the New Testament began when Jesus died on a cross as a perfect sacrifice for us.

And the law served its purpose, but that purpose was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So my first answer, we are no longer under the law, and that's why this idea of, well, they did it in the Old Testament doesn't hold water for us today. But the second way I would answer that, I think we're usually under the impression that this... When this question is asked, that that they in the Old Testament could just use whatever instrument they wanted. And when it came...

When they came together at the temple to worship, if somebody was good at an instrument, they could just kinda add that to the band as it were, but that's not really the case. I... I've heard it pointed out recently that there were specifics to the use of instruments in Old Testament worship, what instruments were to be used, and who it was that could use them. I want you to look there in second Chronicles chapter 29. So corporate worship under the law was specifically regulated as well.

Turn over there. And this is not some slam dunk point, but I think it is important for us to consider in regard to these things. This is when Hezekiah is restoring true worship there in the temple. Verse 26, second Chronicles 29. Let's start in verse 25.

And the... And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with symbols, with stringed instruments, and with harps, notice, according to the commandment of David, of Gad, the king seer, and of Nathan the prophet, for thus was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets. This is who's supposed to be doing it. Who? The Levites.

And what were they supposed to use? Symbols, stringed instruments, harps. The Levites stood with the instruments of David and the priest with the trumpets. Then Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt offering on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord also began with the trumpets and with the instruments of David, king of Israel.

So according to the prophets, this is what they use. And notice those two things. The instruments that were used were symbols, stringed instruments, maybe lyres, I think the ESV says, harps and trumpets. That's it. And I'm sure there were other instruments to be found at that time, but these were the ones divinely approved for worship to God.

And it's the Levites and the priests who play these instruments. And I would suggest it wouldn't matter if you were the best harp player in the world. I don't know who the best harp player in the world is today. I don't even know who the best guitarist in the world is today. Maybe Daniel Hooten is.

I'm not sure. But even if you were the best in the world, if you weren't a priest or a Levite, you weren't gonna be coming and playing in this corporate worship that they had to God. If you were of the tribe of Judah, you were not gonna come and play. And we see several places in the Old Testament, the disastrous deadly consequences of someone other than the priests and Levites attending to temple worship together. So that's the second thing.

Corporate worship under the law was specifically regulated. And if we're gonna recreate what they did under the old law, then it's gonna have to be Levites and priests playing specific instruments if that's gonna be our argument. But the third thing I would say is this, I really think this question goes the other way. Why would the New Testament church not worship God with instruments when they clearly did so in the Old Testament in the Psalms? I would take it a step further.

They also did this in pagan worship. So whether you're from a Jewish background or from a pagan Gentile background, what you were used to, what you came from was worshiping God or the gods with instruments when you came before God in song. And yet what we find, historians are in agreement that both Jews and pagans used instruments, but the early Christians did not use instruments. We know from history that instruments weren't used in Christian worship for the first eight or nine hundred years or so of the early church. And early Christian writers, though they don't have the authority of the apostles, they speak explicitly against the use of instruments in worship.

Origen in the second century, Eusebius in the third century, Chrysostom in the fourth century, and others all condemn any use of instruments in Christian worship. So, again, religious and secular historians are in agreement. First century Jews and the vast majority of first century pagans used musical instruments of music in their worship, but the early Christians universally across the board did not. Ain't that interesting? The Jews used them, the pagans used them in worship, but the Christians didn't.

I think that speaks powerfully about the change of these people and how they understood what it was God desired from them, what what it was that pleased God. So God specifies to sing using our heart as the instrument in the New Testament, and that is exactly what the first century church did, that and nothing more. And if this whole thing was just merely a matter of man's judgment or opinion, if it was a matter of tradition, this is the way we've always done it, or personal preference. I like using instruments. Maybe you don't like using instruments.

Wouldn't we have seen some examples of some churches somewhere in the world worshiping with instruments in the first few decades, in the first few centuries of the early church, and yet we do not. And so they changed their religious practices, both Jews and Greeks, to acapella singing when they become Christians. And the ants... And the question that begs to be asked is why? Answer for yourself.

It's not the most reasonable explanation that they believed singing to be specifically authorized by God and playing to be unauthorized as many of the early extra biblical writers indicate. What I think we see clearly is we know what pleases God on this issue, and it is really, really clear. This is why this is such an interesting test case to me. It is really, really clear. Everybody agrees.

We can do this, and we can plea... God. Everybody agrees. This is what they did in the first century church in order to worship. We all are in agreement that we know this pleases god.

And while instruments are not condemned, they are left in that unauthorized category of what we don't know pleases God. So what are we gonna do about that? Are we gonna do what we know pleases God, or are we gonna venture into the unknown about what we don't know pleases God or not? And maybe part of the reason why this bothers us is because at this point in time, we are in the minority. That was not the case for the first eight hundred years of the church, nor was that the case at the beginning of the reformation movement.

At the beginning of the reformation movement, those those people who came out of Catholicism did not use instruments because they viewed it as a change that was made in the Catholic church that should not be there, that was not something that was right. And we see all of these different people, Presbyterians, Baptists, most Methodists, refused to use instruments in their worship services, and that lasted in many congregations well into the eighteen hundreds. John Calvin, that reformer, said this, musical instruments and celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting of lamps, and the restoration of other shadows of the law. The papists, therefore, having foolishly borrowed this as well as many other things from the Jews, Men who are fond of outward pomp may delight in that noise, but the simplicity which God recommends us by the apostles is far more pleasing to him. Now I don't agree with John Calvin on everything, but it's interesting that so many who would follow after many of the things that he taught don't follow him on this and don't follow the other reformers who felt the same way.

They saw in their Bibles that this is what pleases God just as I do. So are you in the minority now? Yes. But that has not always been the case. In fact, over the history of Christendom, more often than not, that was not the case.

And so be confident. Be confident that you know what you're doing is pleasing God because here's the fact of the matter. The acceptance of instrumental music is a relatively late development without New Testament commands or authoritative apostolic examples where we see them doing it and the apostle said, yes, we should do that. And if our goal in all of these things is to answer the question, does this please God with yes, To me, it is clear what we should be doing when we come together to worship God in song. Now that's one issue.

Next week, we'll cover the next 17 issues that relate back to this particular topic. No. What I would like for you to do is just as the good hearted, god loving, Jesus imitating people that you are here this evening and any who fit that description who might be joining us online or joining via a recording, what I would like for you to do and what I believe God desires for you to do is just ask this question about anything that we think or say or do or practice as an individual Christian or as a group of Christians coming together in a local church. Does this please God? And do those things that you know, that you're confident, yes.

I know this pleases God, and that's why I'm going to do it. And if we have that kind of attitude, we're not gonna be perfect, but we can stand before God in the day of judgment with confidence saying, Lord, in my heart of hearts, all I've tried to do is be pleasing to you and allow the blood of Jesus Christ to take care of the rest. I'm so grateful for your good attention tonight about this issue or any issue. I'm grateful for the good number of people who are with us tonight. And while this isn't a lesson designed to bring somebody to salvation in Jesus Christ, I think that question is, does this please God?

What is it that you need to do to be pleasing to God? If you know what it is you need to do tonight, come and do it. But if there is any way we can help you, if we can study with you, if we can pray for you, if we can walk beside you as you're striving to be who God has called you to be, there is nothing that we would love more than to help you. And if that's something that you need to make known in a public way, we need you... We would encourage you to come now where together we stand and what we sing.

Just stand on...