Music holds a significant and divinely ordained place in worship and ministry, as evidenced by its extensive use in the Old Testament. The sermon highlights the organized and skilled participation of Levites and singers in the Temple, emphasizing the importance of quality, training, and dedication in musical offerings. From the coronation of Solomon to Hezekiah's reforms and David's soothing melodies for Saul, music served various crucial functions, including praise, worship, and emotional solace. Ultimately, the true focus and effectiveness of music in glorifying God and ministering to hearts stems from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, enabling believers to sing with genuine reverence and joy.
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Oh, beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, For purple mountains' majesty, above the fruit it lay. America, God shed His grace on thee, And the crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.
America, America, God shed His grace on thee. And up from thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea. Amen. Joyful, joyful we adore thee.
What a glory, Lord of love. Hearts unto like flowers before thee, hail thee at the sun above. Milk the clouds of sin and sadness, dry the dark of doubt away. Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day.
Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessing. Wellspring of the joy of living, Ocean death of happy rest. Thou our father, Christ our brother, All who live in love are thine. Each us now to love each other, Lift up to the joy divine.
Amen. We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing. He chastens and hastens his will to make known. The wicked, oppressing, now cease them from distressing. Praises to his name, he forgets not his own.
Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining, ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine. So from the beginning the fight we were winning, Thou Lord was at our side, the glory be thine. or the deep, deep love of Jesus.
It is an ocean full of blessing. Thirty-three. Let's rise and sing it, shall we? Oh, the deep, deep love of Eden, that the measured mountains free, glowing and the of thy the ocean, in its fullness over thee.
Underneath thee, all around thee, in the meaning onward, leaning forward to my glorious rest of Oh, the deep deep God of Jesus, send him with us from shore to shore.
Thou be loved when ever got there, changed there for his husband. Can you pray for him? from the throne. He is where he is, but in glory from the throne.
Oh, the deep deep love of Jesus, love of every love of death. In that ocean was promised Even we don't have of Jesus with the help of him to see and it is he come to glory to For it is we come to thee.
Thank you again for that lovely thing. Now the ministry of music is a very wide ministry. You not only enjoy as you sit there breathless and hear Mr. Dixon sing for you but I know you enjoy singing yourselves. Now we have a feature here at Park of the Palms that from time to time we indulge in, we just delve back into our distant memories and we try to unearth some of the choruses that we haven't sung for a long, long time. Now can you remember some of these old choruses that you think you'd like to sing tonight to remind you that once a long time ago Not so long ago, for some of you, at Sunday school, you sang.
Let's sing, I Will Make You, Fishes of Men, just to give us a start, and be careful if you do the action that you don't hit the person in front of you. I will make you. Now, you'll notice the microphones have been turned in your direction by the tape man. He obviously wants you to hear yourselves. So you wouldn't want to make a tape, that would be painful to listen to, would you? Pull out all the stops and sing it. I will make you. I will make you figures. Come on. Let it louder. I will make you pictures of men.
If you follow me, if you follow me, if you follow Now who's got the next one? If you don't give it me quickly, I'll have to choose one. Scarlet, Scarlet, Scarlet, though your sins be scarlet. They shall be as white as snow. Let's see if you remember it now. Come on, I have to find out whether I do. Scarlet, scarlet, low as misty scarlet, They shall be white as snow is the precious god.
Scripps and crimson crimson, though they wreck like crimson. They shall be white as snow. That's very good. Now we had an elite choir finishing it up. Let's try it again now. And the second time it's crimson crimson, though your sins be crimson. By the grace of God they shall be white as wool. That's right. All right, let's try it. Come on. Though your will be thorn, they shall be white as gold. It's a trail of thorn.
Crimson, crimson, those therein thy crimson, by the grace of God there shall be white as gold. Very good. Now I don't have a job, you see, remembering things of sixty years ago. It's just where I put my glasses, five minutes ago that I have a problem with. Now somebody else has another favorite. Way at the back there. And wide wide as the ocean is at the front. Deep. Oh, deep and wide he wants. All right, we have to do the actions to this one, but we'll sing it through once. And please remember your neighbors are not very far from you because we're rather full this evening.
All right, let's try it. Deep and wide, deep and wide there's a fountain going deep and wide. That's very good. Now we sing it three times through, and we speed it up a little, and the first time you're singing deep and wide, the second time you're singing and wide, and the third time you're singing and wide, and the third time you're singing and... and you don't say, hmm, because that's cheating, and you have to put in the end when you sing it the third time. Let's see how smart you are now.
Come on, ready? Be a quietest, be a quietest, be a quietest, be a quietest, be a quiet, be a quiet, be a quiet, be a quiet, be a quiet, be a quiet, be a quiet, And why did the bottle turn it flowing? And why? And why did the bottle turn it flowing? And why? And why did the bottle turn it flowing?
And why? And why did the bottle turn it flowing? And why? And why did the bottle turn it flowing? And why? Very good. Now things following on. Wide, wide is the ocean. And you can do the action of these two if you feel you need a little calisthenics. Come on. Why, why can't the ocean, why is the heaven above? Deep, deep as the deep as the sea, if I say you love, I'm so unworthy, still I'm a child with sin.
Very good. Now another one. Oh, I'm traveling on the Hallelujah Line. She likes the two, too. Come on, now back to Sunday school days. Don't be afraid. You're making a spectacle of yourselves, but don't worry about it. You're all in the same boat. Come on now. There's a note. Oh, I'm traveling on the path to the light on the good old young girl's train.
I'm on the right track, and you never will go back to the station I've been again. I mean, don't care, I'm riding on a path with the blood of a sinner's plague. I've been passing on the path through your life. I've been doing all the life's okay. You know, they love that at the nursing home. They get a big kick out of that at the nursing home. I would repeat that. I mean, I would have you repeat it, but I... I don't want you to feel too badly about yourselves when you get home tonight. Way back there, very loose. Climb, climb up Sunshine Mountain. We are going back to Sunday school days.
Paces on the globe. How many of you remember this one? Let me see. How many of you never heard it in your lives? Well, Mr. Hodgman, we're just about to speak it to you. Havenly breeze is blow. Climb, climb up Sunshine Mountain. Places all the glow. Come on now. Climb, climb up Sunshine Mountain. Heavenly breeze is flow. Climb, climb up Sunshine Mountain. Places all the glow. Think and doubly, looking to the sky.
Shine, shine, love, sunshine, magic, you and I. Now you've really never thought that at the Thanksgiving Day Conference, you'd be doing things like this, did you? But you know, this is part of the Ministry of Music. Boys and girls remember the choruses. why even you very big boys and girls you remember very clearly the the words and these choruses from your boyhood and your girlhood you know in in the nursing home people who can remember nothing else will sing the words of some of these old hymns and old songs let's have another one now oh here they come the wise man built his house on a rock and Rolled away.
All right, let's try rolled away first, and then we have to finish with building the house on the rock. Come on now. We're all the way, all the way, all the way, every word of my heart rolled away, all the way, all the way, all the way, every word of my heart rolled away, all the way, all the way, all my sin has to go. It's the Christmas song that we have in a new way. Rolled away, rolled away Every burden of my house Rolled away Now everybody has to do the actions That the wise man built his house upon a rock There it is with the twiddly bits as well Ready?
The wise man built his house upon a rock The widest man built his house upon the rock The widest man built his house upon the rock And the rain came on the lake down The rain came down and the flood came up The rain came down and the flood came up Range came down in the summer, came up, and the house on the Rock should burn. Oh, the foolish man killed his house upon his land.
The foolish man killed his house upon his land. The foolish man killed his house upon his land. And the rain came coming down. The rain came down and the flood came up. The rain came down and the flood came up. The rain came down and the sun came out and the house was quenched flat. So build your life on the Lord Jesus. So build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ. Build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the blessings will come down. So let me put them down and the prayers go up. So let me put them down and the prayers go up. So let me put them down and the prayers go up. So build your heart. My you did so well. And now we're going to grow up and Mr. Dixon is going to take the feature chorus. And he's going to sing after that. This morning, if you weren't with us this morning, we sang another old chorus. Thank you, Jesus. for all you've done. We want to sing it again tonight, all together.
Thank you, Jesus, for all you've done. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for victory, God. Oh, thank you, Lord. For thy love and tender care For thy word and answer prayer Thank you, Jesus, for all you've done Thank you, The trusting heart to Jesus clings, Nor any ill forebodes, But at the cross of Calvary sings, Praise God for lifted load.
Singing I go along life's road, Praising the Lord, praising the Lord, Singing I go along life's road, For Jesus has lifted my load. He tells me of my Father's love and never slumbering eye. My everlasting King above will all my needs supply. Singing I go along life's road, praising the Lord, praising the Lord.
Singing I go along life's road, for Jesus has lifted my load. When to the throne of grace I flee, I find the promise true. The mighty arm of holding me will bear my burdens too. Singing I go along life's road, praising the Lord, praising the Lord, singing I go along life's road.
For Jesus had lifted my Lord. Amen. Amen. All the people said. Amen. Amen. Let's turn again to First Chronicles, shall we? We were there this morning, and we'll read again in First Chronicles and do a little reading in Second Chronicles also. First Chronicles chapter twenty three. So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel.
And he gathered together all the princes of Israel with the priests and the Levites. Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward, and their number by their poles, that is by their heads, man by man was thirty and eight thousand, thirty-eight thousand, of which twenty and four thousand were set to set forward, or was set to set forward, the work of the house of the Lord. and six thousand were officers and judges. Moreover, four thousand were porters, and, and this is what I want to emphasize, four thousand praised the Lord with the instruments which I made, said David, to praise their with.
And David divided them into courses. Now look at chapter twenty-five, will you please? Chapter twenty-five and verse one. Moreover, David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph and of Heaman and of Jejuthan, who should prophesy with harps, with sultaries, and with symbols, and the number of the workmen according to their service was of the sons of Asaph, so and so and so. And so it goes on until we get to verse six, which reads like this.
All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the Lord, with symbols, sultries, and harps for the service of the house of God, according to the king's order to Asaph, Jejuthun, and Heman. So the number of them with their brethren that were instructed in the songs of the Lord, even all that were cunning was two hundred, fourscore, and eight. So you have a choir and an orchestra of four thousand with two hundred and eighty-eight leaders.
More about that in a few moments. Now let's turn to second Chronicles, chapter twenty-nine. Second Chronicles chapter twenty nine. Verse twenty five. And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with symbols, with sulteries and with harps, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king's seer and Nathan the prophet. For so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets. And the Levites stood with the instruments of David and the priests with the trumpets.
And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets and with the instruments ordained by David, King of Israel. And all the congregation worshipped. And the singers sang. and the trumpeters sounded, and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves and worshipped. Moreover, Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seers.
and they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped. Now there are many, many more passages that I could read to you like that, which indicate immediately how important music was, and I believe is, to God. Now during the conference, Most of our time is being spent, is going to be spent listening to music and making music ourselves. The messages for this conference are sort of secondary. The ministry of sung or of music.
Now there are kinds of music and I know you know that. Some is not music at all. They call it music, but it's made up of weird sounds that don't seem to have any place at all, and tones that are not even tones. Some that's not music at all. And then there's some music that's not our kind of music. Now that does not mean to say that that music does not have a ministry. I have an idea that quite a bit of the music that we at Park of the Palms in our conferences and so on would not actually enjoy is music that really ministers to the hearts of young people.
I can remember when we had a little question about even allowing a guitar upon the platform. We have no problem like that now. We have a guitar and an auto harp and all sorts of other things, and we have authority for this. But there is some music that appeals to us, and some that doesn't, some that's not our kind of music, but still has its very definite ministry. So let's not dismiss it as though it's not of any importance at all. There are people to whom God ministers through that kind of ministry. Music. And I'm not talking about so-called Christian rock, which again is not music, and I believe is not God-honoring, which is just aping the world and cannot, justifiably, I believe, find any place in the work of God.
Yes, there are kinds of music. Some music that is a real ministry to our hearts. And we've had some of it today. I know because I sit there looking at your faces and I know that God is ministering to your hearts through the music. But there are not only kinds of music there are appreciations of music. Now to the lives of some or in the lives of some music has no part at all. They dismiss it by saying I cannot carry a tune in a bucket and I don't find any particular pleasure in listening to it, and they must be very strange people, but they exist, even among the people of God.
And then there are those, and in the thinking of them, the thinking of some, music, it may be pleasant, but it has no real value. Now we certainly do not subscribe to that. because we see what music meant to the heart of God. We see what music meant to the people of God. And there was a time, perhaps, when we didn't appreciate music, Christian music, the way we appreciate it today. For some, music is nothing. In the lives of some music has no part. In the thinking of some, music has no value.
In the opinion of some, music, special music, has no place on the platform. I'm glad we are not among those people. We love music. We encourage people to sing, and we encourage them to enjoy the singing and the music of other people. For some music is nothing. For some, music is everything. And the Bible says both are wrong. There is a middle course where music takes its proper place which is to honor God, to minister to the hearts of the people, and to really bless the Church of God.
The Bible tells us that music has a place. The Bible tells us that music has an important place. Let's go back to our chapters in Chronicles. In that verse, book of chronicles where we read in chapter twenty three about the orchestra and incidentally the singers too we read about the importance of the quality of the music now I think that's very important I really think that it's very hard to get a blessing out of music that is mediocre I think it's very difficult to get a blessing out of music that isn't on tune.
I think there has to be a realization in our hearts that music made for God is music that should have a quality about it. Now there are three things here in our early chapters that we read. Chapter twenty-three and chapter twenty-five of Chronicles. which bring before us, first of all, the significance of the numbers of those who participate in it, and secondly, the demand for its excellence, and thirdly, the emphasis upon experience. Now, first of all, the significance of its numbers.
I'm glad that God is a God of variety, aren't you? I'm glad that Christian life was never meant to be monotonous. and I'm glad that it's possible to make sweet music to God even on a reed that is cut down and skillfully carved and beautifully blown. It says Solomon spoke three thousand Proverbs and his songs were how many? Do you remember? One thousand and five. One thousand and five, I don't suppose he sang them every day. I don't suppose that the people of God sang them every day.
But a thousand and five. That's a lot of singing to do, and that was just Solomon. And you know, along with him came David and Asaph and some of these others writing these songs, countless numbers of them. many of which have been preserved for us in the Psalms, many of which we have no recourse to. They have slipped away into the recesses of time and gotten lost. But it was very significant to read that out of thirty-eight thousand priests and Levites, out of thirty-eight thousand, ten percent of them formed the orchestra.
Four thousand, we read, praised with instruments. And then after that come all of the singers. Now God we know demanded excellence because he called for trained leaders. In First Chronicles chapter fifteen, and maybe I can read this to you if I can find it, so the singers, Heaman, you've been hearing about him, I've read his name three or four times already, along with Asaph and Ethan, were appointed to sound with symbols of brass, and Zechariah and Asiel, and Shemiramoth, and Jahil, Messiah and Beniah, with falteries on Alamoth, and Matithiah, and El-Aphila, and Micniah, and Obed-Edom, and Jeal, and Azaziah, with harps on the Sheminith, two excels.
to excel. God looks for quality in our music. And this called for trained leaders. And so as I reminded you in the reading, God had appointed two hundred and eighty-eight men that were spoken of in a dual fashion. They were spoken of as cunning and they were spoken of as being instructed in the songs of the Lord. Now that word cunning is an interesting word and it actually means intelligent. So here the leaders had to be intelligent and they had to be instructed in the songs of the Lord and then they had to lead the people of God in song along with their huge orchestra and fine choirs.
David divided them, if you will, into twenty-four divisions so that he could call on this one and that one and that one. It must have been wonderful to hear the orchestras and the choirs of Israel when they all sang together. Don't you think so? That would have been a foretaste of heaven. Sometimes when I listen to the groups sing here at the park, I think that's a foretaste of heaven. One day, We're really going to hear music as it's never been heard yet. The demand for its excellence. It called for trained leaders. It included all known instruments.
If you look, you'll find that there were wind instruments, brasses are mentioned, and reaser mentioned, and I had planned to have a saxophone during the, not for me, during the conference. But the saxophone player who is local had another engagement and could not come this time. But he'll be coming back. Yes, there were brasses, there were reeds, there were wind instruments. There were string instruments like the harp and so on. And there were even percussion instruments. The cymbals and the tabrets and so on.
These were percussion instruments. So it's possible to glorify God on a wind instrument, on a stringed instrument, on a percussion instrument. This gives us a lot of choice, doesn't it? This covers a wide area. And God found real pleasure in these things. They involved an orderly performance. That's why the twenty-four divisions were chosen. but every one of them had to be a dedicated talent. Now that's getting to the root of the matter. It's not enough to be able to play a horn, it's not enough to be able to play a harp, it's not enough to be able to play the symbols, or even to sing like this man sings.
The gift of doing these things has to be dedicated to God. That's the only way that it can be acceptable music in the ear of God. So there's the importance of its quality. Now let me mention some examples of its use. And I'll go outside of our chapters just briefly here. Within our chapters here we read, so when David was old and full of days he made Solomon his son king of Israel. And you find the orchestras and you find the choirs in full strength at that coronation. One day the choirs are going to sing at another coronation.
When the crown will be placed on the head of the Lord Jesus and there will not be a discordant instrument, there won't even be a discordant note. And all of heaven is going to ring with the music at that coronation. Yes, these people produced their music at the coronation of Solomon. And then we have details of its use in connection with the burnt offering. When Hezekiah burnt the offering, oh, there's so much history behind it. So much the people of God had lost and then suddenly it was restored to them again and so the orchestras come forward and the choirs come forward and the people of God stand to sing with their singers and they did it all the way through the burnt offering.
From the moment the flame was ignited till the moment it died out and left only ashes. it was praised in the matter of Saul and David do you remember that Saul used to have some kinds of seizures some kind of spirit strange spirit from God would seize him and he would become violent and they would call for David and David would play sweetly on his harp and the spirit would depart and Saul would become calm and tranquil again.
Music, as we reminded you this morning, has charms to soothe the troubled breast. Do you remember in the New Testament after the institution of the Lord's Supper when they had sung an hymn they went out. So many uses for music So many times when music was a blessing, I think of those disciples singing in that upper room after they had broken bread and drunk wine in remembrance of the Lord Jesus. They sang a hymn.
I would love to have known. I'd love to know what the words of that hymn were. I would love to have been somewhere within reach to hear it. And I'm sure the voice of the Lord Jesus was lifted up with them. It was a song undoubtedly of sorrow tinged with sorrow. But it was a place where music had its place. Even in the spot, in the place of sorrow, there's a place for music. It's not always appreciated. The wise man writes, As vinegar von Niter, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart.
but it isn't meant to be that way the singing of songs to the heavy heart is meant to be a means of refreshment and encouragement and cheer let me mention a last thing after the importance of its quality and some examples of its use the inevitability of its focus All of this music had one joined together in one tremendous and wonderful focus. Do you know what Moses sang?
Oh yes, he sang way back in those early days. The people of God sang way back then. He sang, The Lord is my Son. And that's the focus for the orchestras, that's the focus for the instruments, that's the focus for the voices, that's the focus for the songs. The Lord is my song. We have to have a relationship with God if we are really going to be able to sing. I'd be presumptuous to assume that everybody here had that relationship. that everybody here really knew the Lord Jesus in a personal and powerful and obvious fashion you can't really sing unless you have the Lord Jesus in your heart you know you cannot really make music unless you have a right relationship with God and that doesn't mean just going to church on a regular basis that doesn't just mean having a deep deep respect for the things of God That doesn't just mean saying your prayers.
It means having reached a point in your life when deliberately, intelligently, once and for all, you have said, Lord Jesus, I know why you died upon the cross. You died there because there was no other way that my sin could be pardoned. No other way that my sin could be taken away. And because, Lord Jesus, you died on the cross for that reason. I want to thank you for taking my place there. And I want to receive you into my heart and my life as my very own personal Savior. Now that's the experience a man or a woman, a child must know if ever they are going to be able to make what is real, true music and the kind that thrills the heart of God.
The Lord is my song. Can you say it? Can you really say it? Can you say it without any hesitation? Can you say it with a positiveness that really assures those to whom you say it that it is really true? The Lord is my song. And then we read elsewhere, I will praise the name of God with a song. Our songs must not only have that one focus, the Lord is my song. But they must have a deep reverence for the name of the Lord Jesus and the name of God.
You know, there are some of us who cringe. When we hear the Lord Jesus spoken of us, my Jesus, or sung about us, my Jesus, there is a hymn, my Jesus, I love thee. We've taken liberty in our hymn book. and we've changed it to Lord Jesus I love thee I know thou art mine we love the name of the Lord Jesus and in our music we are to make much of the name of the Lord Jesus and we are to do it with godly reverence and elsewhere we read they shall