Music holds significant value for believers, serving not only to gain attention but also to stir memories and calm tumult. The sermon illustrates how music can capture attention, citing examples from scripture and everyday life, and how it can evoke powerful memories, referencing personal experiences and the potential for unsaved individuals to recall church hymns after the rapture. Furthermore, music possesses the ability to soothe and bring peace, as seen in its use in dental offices and its capacity to quiet troubled minds. Ultimately, the sermon emphasizes that while music can be used for evil, its true value for the people of God lies in its ability to draw attention to Him, recall His goodness, and bring peace.
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Wrap it, stop by redeeming forever. Dive it on the cross. Dive for the sinner. Pray all he's due. String for your soul with the blood of the Lamb. And I who pass will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you.
Sheepest of sinners, Jesus will say, Holy and promised what we will do. Wash in the fountain, open for men, and die, we'll pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I will pass, I will pass over you, over you.
Judgment is coming, oh, you'll be there. Each one receiving, just may you do. Hide in the saving, in cleansing blood, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
Oh, great compassion, oh, boundless love, oh, loving kindness, faithful and true, find peace and shelter under the blood, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you.
still the quiet and the joy Come our fathers and the numbers let me call Every hour of every day there's love we see In His mercy He provides for one and all,
From the crown he that is rich and free, So that every life is good and free, And from every righteousness come the word you pray. Rose the veneration From the grace of grace In the celebration To our Lord with grace Nor your heart shall let live, Nor your lips shall sing And the God rejoices in song to our King.
She's song to our King. Not alone in ways of beauty that we guide, Not alone is we respondent to our needs, But we give to one a thousand joy's defile, Our love, gladness are by them secret. Oh, and every righteous will do to our King, And from every righteousness come the worship ring.
Songs of veneration, songs of grateful grace, and foundation till I long be ready. Loyal heart shall bless him, loyal lips shall sing, and some God rejoicing, some to our king. Please come to our King.
Oh, our many hearts go unto him in song, As we strive our true allegiance to express, As we pray that every one He will never let his eyes descend. And when every light is on you are me, And from every voice that song the word is written, From the resurrection, John the grateful praise, give the faithful David, and our life we pray.
Now your heart shall let him The wildest shall sing, And comes our rejoicing, Come to our king, Sweet come to our king. Thank you.
Just before we approach the throne of grace, I'd like to repeat what I've told to the brethren here, how much we have enjoyed our short visit here. I don't know when we've had a more delightful time, greeting old friends and making new ones. Now I understand what the folks up in Pittsburgh said when we were leaving. Don't get any ideas in here. And, our Father, we come to thee in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ at this even tide, thanking thee for the blessings of another Lord's day, for the privilege we have this morning of remembering once again our Lord Jesus Christ.
Surely it has been a day spent in thy courts. We thank thee for this singing, this music we have heard, and throughout the conference with our dear brother Hurley Dixon. And it was an unusual but a very delightful type of conference. Most of us, I would think, are lovers of music. So we thank you for this season we had had together along this line. We thank you for the speaker and the good messages that have been brought to us. And now, Father, we would pray by blessing upon the message tonight, not only here in this place, but throughout the whole wide world.
For thy word has gone forth this day, and will yet, ere this day come to a close, that many precious souls may be led to put their trust in our Lord Jesus Christ. We would remember, particularly, Father, our loved ones. members of our families spoken too often, and yet strangest to thy mercy. Oh, we do pray tonight, our Father, that thou art deal with them. Speak to them in a very special way that we may have the joy of knowing that we will meet them in that coming day. Now, our Father, we pray for early in Virginia as they are traveling home.
The journey is long. We know the dangers that lurk on the road. So we just commend them to thee. And all of thy people who are traveling. Remember those here who are on sick beds, Lord. We pray for them especially. We commend them to thee. And now again for this day and for the message that will be given, we give thee thanks. Pray thy blessing upon it. And upon us we thy people. We remember the spoken words of the Lord Jesus. Because you are the salt of the earth. So, Father, we just commend ourselves to thee now in the precious, worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wonderful, domestic, gracious, regent, decent and mighty, golden sea.
Higher down the mountain, mighty like a fountain, holy, great a great for all I can see. Brother, thanks is so much like a blessing. He is great a garden for the near, the fair. Oh, magnify the question, oh, magnify the question Leon Jesus, may he be. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. so so
It seemed appropriate to me tonight that the choirs should sing for us the last of the special music songs to our King. Did you notice those lovely words? Here they are. So let every heart give tribute to our King, and from every voice let songs of worship ring, songs of adoration, songs of grateful praise, hymns of exaltation to our Lord will raise. loyal heart shall bless him, loyal lips shall sing, anthems of rejoicing, songs to our king, sweet songs to our king.
Let's turn together, please, to First Samuel chapter sixteen. First Samuel chapter sixteen. and you'll notice that I have been roaming around in Mr. Gilbert's territory. He loves the Old Testament, and he's had plenty of it during this conference. So much about music in the Old Testament. First Samuel, chapter sixteen, verse fourteen. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.
And Saul's servant said unto him, Behold now an evil spirit from God troubled thee. Let our Lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man who is a cunning player on a harp. And it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, that is, cunning in playing, and a mighty, valiant man and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person.
and the Lord is with him. Wherefore Saul sent messages unto Jesse and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep. And Jesse took an ass laden with bread and a bottle of wine and a kid and sent them by David his son unto Saul. And David came to Saul and stood before him, and he loved him greatly. And he became... his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me, for he hath found favor in my sight. And it came to pass when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp and played with his hand.
So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. Look at chapter twenty four, will you please, this time of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter twenty four. And let me read to you from verse fourteen and verse sixteen. Isaiah twenty four, fourteen and sixteen. They shall lift up their voice they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord.
And verse sixteen the response. From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs even glory to the righteous. Now go back to chapter three for just a verse, will you? Chapter twenty three and verse fifteen. and it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
Take an harp. Go about the city thou harlot that hath been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs. that thou mayest be remembered. Let's pray together, shall we. Our Father, we thank thee for the gift of music. We thank thee for the joy it brings to you when our music is not perhaps as beautiful as it might be. We thank thee, O Lord, that the music that honours thee is the music that comes from the heart, and we believe that much of it has risen into thy presence from this service so far this evening.
Now continue to bless our hearts. We pray thee as we think again of music. In Jesus' name. Amen. I want tonight to talk about the value of music to the people of God. Now we've already talked about the importance of music for the people of God, but there is a difference between importance and value. I remember staying with a lady once and they came through the mail a catalogue. and it was from the makers of Royal Dalton.
And I was summing through the catalogue and looking at some of the lovely things that were there, and I pointed one out to my hostess, and I said, I well remember this well. This was made a gift from the assembly from which I come to one of the ladies who had a great collection of Royal Dalton. She said, I'm not interested. It's nothing but a dust collector to me. So Royal Dalton had no value as far as she was concerned.
We have learned that music has great potential. It has great potential for evil. It has great potential for good. The devil has taken music and he has prostituted it to his own ends and used it for a rousing passion and causing men to do and to think evil things. I remember a missionary in South America in the jungle area of South America saying to me one day, I am going to take you today for a drive out into the bush. and we shall be out there until dusk. As we go through two of the villages, I want you to notice what's going on.
When we come back, we shall not dare to go through those villages. We shall skirt them both. But you will see the result of the way that these pagans stir themselves up. So off we went. We went through one village. I remember from some place Indian had gotten hold of an old washing machine and he was mixing up his liquor, if you please, in a washing machine. And we stayed away until after the celebration the feast got going. And as we approached the first of those villages, And I heard the thump, thump, thump, thump, thump of the percussion underneath their songs as they were singing.
I said, now I know where rock and roll comes from. And as we skirted that village, I saw what that music could do. God deliver our young people from the evils of rock and roll. I hope none of your grandchildren listen to it. You have no control, do you? But do you know this? There are some Christian parents so lax they don't even know what their children listen to. But if they listen to this kind of evil music, it will have the same effect on them as it had upon those natives in South America.
It's bad. music but good music has great potential too but the value of it depends upon what you want to get out of it perhaps there's someone here and our conference and the good brother who open in prayer I think he used the word strange I hope by that he meant different. There may be some here who are not very happy with the fact that we have so emphasized music.
There are believers and music doesn't do a thing for them. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some who had said, I just wish we didn't have as much music. How many of you are glad tonight you had so much music? Let me see. I think that's a great proportion of you. We thought a conference like this would be a change of face. We thought that God could speak to you just as well through the music as he could speak to you through the word, because the music that was sung was indeed the word. And the man who brought it to us is a man whose life is dedicated to God.
And I believe that God has been honored in every one of these sessions. and certainly by the music. I don't know how valuable music is to you. However, there are four incontrovertible things about music. Things that cannot be gainsaid. And we have in passing skirted a couple of these, and I want for just a very few minutes to dwell on them. In the first place, music gains attention. Seeing God said, we read it in the scriptures, and from the uttermost parts of the earth they said, we have heard.
Today in the dining room there was a lady who was not known to us, but who saw the piano there. Quite a number had left the dining room. She sat down at the piano and she began to play. And the noise in the dining room died away and every eye turned in her direction. At least it gains attention. You remember the man whose story I told you on his way to shoot himself? And he heard music and it saved his life. And the eldest son, you will remember, was in the field, and as he drew nigh unto the house, he heard music.
Now, that wasn't all. Had we continued with that story, we would have discovered not only did he hear music, and he arrested, he asked, what do these things mean? The music certainly got his attention. I know you've heard about the man who sold a horse. He said the horse was very obedient, but the man who bought him couldn't handle the horse at all. So he took him back to the earlier owner and he said, you told me the horse was obedient, it will not obey me at all.
So the man picked up a two before and hit the horse over the head and he said, you have to get his attention. Music will do it. Music will do it. People ask questions when they see tears. They want to know why, so that they can be ready to comfort and console. People ask questions when confronted with silence. They say, is that man sullen? Or is he confused and perplexed? Or is his silence a stoic kind of silence?
Do you remember what Pilate said after we read, Jesus answered him to never a word. Pilate said, Hearest thou not, answerest thou not me, hearest thou not how many things they witness against me. Jesus answered him to never a word, in so much that the governor marvelled great. He recognized the power of that silence. He recognized the strength in that silence of the Lord Jesus. And He marveled. But when they hear songs, they prick up their ears so often and say, what right have these people got to sing?
Other people around are defeated. Other people around are discouraged. Other people pick up their newspapers and nothing but bad news reaches their eyes and they grow downcast, even afraid. What right has a man got to sing in the middle of circumstances like this, they say. The man who has Christ has every right to sing because he's not defeated and he's not downcast and he's not afraid because he knows somebody has the reins. somebody is in control. Things are not just happening. Indeed, God is in charge of everything.
And the believer believes what the Scripture says, for we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the cold, according to his purpose. And so the Christian, in the midst of all the darkness and all the confusion, opens his mouth and he sings because he has a song in his heart and it won't stay there. The world doesn't understand it but the Word of God explains it. How asks the world can they sing and they are so intrigued but the fact is the things they are speculating about are the things that we know.
The things that they long for are the things that we have. The future of which they are so afraid is the future that for us is sure and certain. And if we sing here, and we enjoy singing here, and you just sang as though you enjoyed singing here, when we get to glory we shall really sing. Yes, that's the first of these things that cannot be gained said. Song, music, it gets attention. The second thing is this. It stirs memories. In the scripture that we read, we read these words.
Sing many songs that thou mayest be remembered. Now this comes out of Ezekiel chapter twenty-six. and God is actually mocking Tyre. Tyre, the city of which he says that it will be sought for and never found. Do you know that they know exactly the site of the city of Tyre, the old city of Tyre, but they've never been able to find a stone from that city? God said it was going to be that way. It shall be sought for and never found.
And God was mocking them here, and he was mocking Tyre as the company of harlots, because Tyre was seeking to plan the downfall of Jerusalem. Tyre was hearkened to a harlot, and then God let Tyre go into obscurity for seventy years. not even remembered. And when eventually the city came back into the picture, this was the cry of Tyre to the harlot, sing many songs that thou mayest be remembered. I can remember the songs my mother used to sing.
There was an old song and I was trying to remember some of the other lines, but it began like this. Songs my mother taught me. Anybody know that song? It goes like this. Anybody know that one? I see a few hands creeping up there and it's called Songs my mother taught me. And I look to try to find it because I thought that the words that followed might have been appropriate here but I couldn't find it. somewhere I have it on a record but it's a very lovely song but the thought is you sing songs you're remembered I have an idea that when the Lord Jesus comes back again and the rapture takes place and the church is taken out of this scene and awful judgments fall upon men One of the things that they will remember about the Church of God is this.
It was a singing church, and I believe that songs will come back to them. I can see people picking up the hymn books and remembering what they heard when the Church of God stood on its feet and sang. Sing many songs that thou mayest be remembered. It brings back memories. Are there any songs that you hear? And as soon as the notes are struck, immediately there come pictures into your mind. Memories that make you a little nostalgic. Things that make you think of wonderful things and wonderful people somewhere in your past.
Music is like that. It not only gains attention, it stirs memories. and I believe the unsaved after the rapture are going to find themselves remembering the songs that were sung by the Church of God, and the realization they will never be able to sing them themselves will be part of their torment at that time. The third thing is this, and we've seen it illustrated in the verses that we read, it calms tumult. Why do you think the dentist plays music in his office?
Because music has a way of quietening. Music has a way of soothing. Music has a way of, because it doesn't always work, to the place where you suddenly, you don't suddenly remember, you left a pot on the stove and although you have an appointment, you're not there when it comes due. Some people are very scared of the dentists. But have you noticed, you phone a company and they put you on