Where is the Piano?

 

Introduction

1.      When someone who is not familiar with Christ’s church walks into a church of Christ for the first time, one of the first things they notice is that we do not worship with instrumental music?

2.      If they were to ask you why, what would you tell them?

a.       It is not because of preference.

b.      It is not because of human tradition.

c.       It is not because “that’s just the way the Church of Christ does it.”

d.      We must be able to give a scriptural answer.

3.      In this lesson I want to:

a.       Show that we are not the only ones who believe as we do about using instrumental music in worship; we don’t have some peculiar interpretation of the Scriptures that nobody else understands or sees.

b.      Show that instrumental music in worship is not scriptural.

c.       Answer a few arguments that have been made in favor of using instrumental music in worship.

Discussion

I.                    It is not strange for us not to accept instrumental music in worship.

A.     Many of the famous preachers and theologians of the past were very much against instrumental music in worship.

1.      Martin Luther said: “The organ in the worship of God is an ensign of baal” (Wallace, Foy E. Jr. “Instrumental Music in Christian Worship.” Why Churches of Christ Do Not Use Instrumental Music in Worship. The Spiritual Sword, Vol. 35, Number 2: January, 2004. p. 25)

2.      John Calvin, who along with John Knox, is credited with being the founder of the Presbyterian church, said in his commentary on the 33rd Psalm, “Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting of lamps and the restoration of the other shadows of the law. The papists,” in other words, the Catholics, “therefore, have foolishly borrowed this, as well as many other things, from the Jews.”

3.      Adam Clarke is hailed as one of the greatest Methodist commentators who ever lived.

a.       Many gospel preachers have his commentaries in their own libraries.

b.      In his commentary about Amos 6:5, Clarke wrote: “I am an old man, and an old minister; and I here declare that I never knew them [instruments of music] productive of any good in the worship of God; and have reason to believe that they were productive of much evil. Music, as a science, I esteem and admire: but instruments of music in the house of God I abominate and abhor.”

c.       He then continues: “The late venerable and most eminent divine, the Rev. John Wesley, who was a lover of music, and an elegant poet, when asked his opinion of instruments of music being introduced into the chapels of the Methodists said, in his terse and powerful manner, ‘I have no objection to instruments of music in our chapels, provided they are neither HEARD nor SEEN.’”

4.      Charles Spurgeon is considered by some to be the greatest Baptist preacher that has ever lived.

a.       He lived in the 1800’s, and was the preacher for the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle in London England.

b.      He preached to about 10,000 people on any given Sunday.

c.       In his series The Treasury of David in his comments on the 42nd Psalm, Charles Spurgeon wrote: “David appears to have had a peculiarly tender remembrance of the singing of the pilgrims, and assuredly it is the most delightful part of worship and that which comes nearest to the adoration of heaven. What a degradation to supplant the intelligent song of the whole congregation by the theatrical prettinesses of a quartet, the refined niceties of a choir, or the blowing off of wind from inanimate bellows and pipes. We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it.”

5.      In a little Book called Fifty years Among the Baptists by David Benedict, published in 1859, this well-known Baptist historian wrote: “Staunch old Baptists in former times would have as soon tolerated the Pope of Rome in their pulpits as an organ in their galleries. And yet the instrument has gradually found its way among them and their successors in church management, with nothing like the jars and difficulties which arose of old concerning the bass viol and smaller instruments of music.”

B.     What these people taught or believed don’t make it right or wrong.

1.      It really wouldn’t matter if we were the only ones on the face of the planet that does not use instrumental music in our worship services.

2.      If that is what the Scriptures teach, then that is what we must do.

3.      But, it is sometimes helpful to see the whole picture and not just look around the place where we happen to be standing.

C.     There are two Biblical principles that do make the use of instruments of music in worship sinful: the authority principle, and the Pattern principle.

II.                 There is no scriptural authority for the use of instrumental music in worship.

A.     “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Col. 3:16-17).

1.      “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus…”

a.       Word = teaching

b.      Deed = practice

c.       In the name of the Lord = signifies the authority by which something is done.

                                                          (1)     What if a law enforcement official says, “Open up in the name of the law?”

                                                                            (a)            We would not be opening the door because of any authority he may have personally.

                                                                           (b)            Because of the authority by which he is acting; the authority of the local government.

                                                          (2)     “…Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ…” (Acts 2:38)

                                                                            (a)            Peter was not saying that a person should be baptized in the name of Jesus only.

                                                                           (b)            Peter was giving a command in the name, or by the authority, of Jesus.

                                                          (3)     Whatever you teach, it must be by divine authority.

                                                          (4)     Whatever you practice, it must be by divine authority.

                                                          (5)     Do all in the name, or by the authority, of Jesus Christ.

2.      How could we have instrumental music in worship by the authority of Christ?

a.       There is no authority for moving the piano into the worship.

b.      From Matthew to Revelation, no New Testament church ever heard the sound of a musical instrument in its worship.

B.     What about the silence of the scriptures?

1.      This is just another facet of the authority principle—if you do not have authority for a practice, then you don’t do it.

a.       But someone might say, “You are relying on the silence of the Scriptures. No verse says, ‘Thou shalt not use instruments of music.’”

b.      But we are relying on the fact that there is no verse in the Bible that says you are to use instrumental music.

c.       There is no verse that commands it.

d.      There is not a verse that authorizes it.

e.       The Bible is silent about the use of instrumental music in worship.

2.      We should recognize that the silence of the Scriptures involves a valid, scriptural principle.

a.       “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son” (Heb. 1:5)?

                                                          (1)     “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee” (Ps. 2:7).

                                                          (2)     “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son” (2 Sam. 7:14).

                                                          (3)     When were statements like this ever made to angels?

                                                          (4)     The writer was saying that Jesus is greater than angels, and part of his proof that Jesus is greater than angels is that God said to Jesus, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”

                                                          (5)     He is arguing from something God did not say.

                                                          (6)     God did not say to the angels, “Thou art my Son.”

                                                          (7)     He did say that to Christ, so Christ is greater than the angels.

b.      “But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?” (Heb. 1:13)

                                                          (1)     That is a prophetic reference to Christ from Psalm 110:1.

                                                          (2)     But was it ever spoken to an angel? No.

                                                          (3)     Therefore, Christ is greater than angels.

c.       “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev. 10:1-2)

                                                          (1)     God did not tell them they couldn’t.

                                                          (2)     God had already told them what they could, and by using something else, they sinned and were punished by death.

C.     If God did not say anything about something, then it is not authorized.

1.      “Whatsoever you do in word or in deed do all in the name of [or by the authority of] the Lord Jesus.”

2.      Apply that to this subject of instrumental music, and you are going to see something powerful here if you believe the Bible.

3.      Instrumental music is a form of worship that the Lord commanded not!

III.               There is no New Testament Pattern for the use of instrumental music in worship.

A.     “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:13).

1.      The American Standard Version translates the word “form” there” pattern,” “pattern of sound words.”

2.      We believe that God has given us the way, that there is a pattern that we are to follow.

a.       Why do we have elders in the church today? Because we find it in the pattern.

b.      Why do we observe the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week? Because we find that in the New Testament pattern.

3.      When you come to this matter of instrumental music, if you believe the New Testament gives us a pattern for our worship, where is instrumental music ever found in the pattern? It is not there.

B.     There was a dissertation that was written as a requirement for a Ph.D. in music history at Columbia University.

1.      It was done in 1965, by a man named James W. McKinnon.

2.      He was not a member of the church, he was a Catholic.

3.      He was writing about what is called “The Patristic Fathers.”

4.      These are the men who wrote in the first four centuries after the church was established; primarily talking about the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries.

5.      James McKinnon says, “More important than explicit opposition to instruments is the simple fact that they were not used in the patristic period.”

6.      So, here is a man who is not trying to uphold our position, he is just trying to be historically accurate, and he is telling us that for the first four hundred years, instrumental music was not used.

C.     Another person, Everett Ferguson, who is a member of the church and who holds a Ph. D. from Harvard, made a study of the early writers and came to the same conclusion.

D.     There is no question, whether a person looks to the Bible, or looks to extra Biblical sources, for hundreds of years, the early church did not use musical instruments.

E.      If we are going to follow the pattern given by Christ, the apostles, the inspired writers of the New Testament, and that was demonstrated by the early church, we are not going to use musical instruments in worship.

F.      “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me…” (2 Tim. 1:13).

IV.              There are many arguments made for the acceptance of instrumental music in worship; let us consider a few of them.

A.     It is said that instrumental music is in heaven, and if they have it in heaven, why can we not have it in the church?

1.      What would a spiritual being do with a material harp?

a.       Heaven is the home of the soul.

b.      I may as well argue that there will be corvettes and a McDonald’s in heaven.

2.      The book of Revelation is a book of symbols.

a.       Revelation 14:2 says, “And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers harping with their harps” (ASV).

b.      “As” means that it was like that, he was making a comparison.

c.       The same thing is meant in Rev. 5:8.

B.     It is said that since instrumental music was used in the Old Testament, it should be used in the church.

1.      We are not under the physical law of the O.T. law, but under the spiritual law of Christ.

2.      We must rightly divide the word of God.

3.      David said in Psalm 66:13-15: “I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows, Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble. I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats.”

4.      What if a man came to services with a lamb under his arm, insisting that David sacrificed lambs?

a.       We would tell him that that is no longer acceptable.

b.      He might say, “David did in the O.T.”

c.       We would tell him that we do not live under the O.T. and sacrificial lambs are no longer acceptable means of worship.

5.      What if another man came with incense and a censor and wanted to burn incense to God because David did it?

a.       We would tell him the same thing.

b.      That was in the Old Testament, we can no longer do that.

6.      Now suppose another man walks up with a harp under his arm and says that he wants to use it in worship.

a.       He uses the same excuse and he is let in because David used one.

b.      What would we think about that?

c.       It would be ridiculous.

C.     There are some theologians that will tell us that there is a word used in the New Testament that is derived from the Greek word which means: to “play an instrument.”

1.      That word occurs in the Greek New Testament five times. In Ephesians 5:19 it is translated “making melody.” In First Corinthians 14:15 it is found twice and translated “sing.” In Romans 15:9 it is translated “sing.” In James 5:13 it is translated “sing praises.”

2.      If I look in the KJV and those translators say that that word means sing, and if I then look in the NKJV and find the same thing, and I look in the ASV, NASB, NIV, ESV, etc, and they all say the same thing, but then someone wants me to believe that they are all wrong because he wants the Bible to say that we are to “play an instrument,” that is something that I just could not do.

D.     There are many more arguments, but not any that are any more sound than the few we have here; they just can’t stand up to the test.

Conclusion

1.      The early church fathers rejected instrumental music in worship.

2.      John Calvin, Martin Luther, Adam Clarke, John Wesley, and Charles Spurgeon all rejected instrumental music in their worship.

3.      The first century church did not use instrumental music in worship.

4.      There is no scriptural authority for instrumental music in worship.

5.      There is no New Testament pattern for instrumental music in worship.

6.      There is no sound argument in favor of instrumental music in worship.

7.      Here is what the New Testament has to say about what kind of music is to be used in worship:

a.       “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives” (Mt. 26:30).

b.      “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God” (Acts 16:25).

c.       “Sing unto thy name” (Ro. 15:9).

d.      “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also” (1 Cor. 14:15).

e.       “Speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart unto the Lord” (Eph. 5:19).

f.        “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God” (Col. 3:16).

g.       “In the midst of the congregation will I sing thy praise” (Heb. 2:12).

h.       “Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips which make confession to his name” (Heb. 13:15).

i.         “Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise” (James 5:13).