Want us to read Matthew 26, please, Matthew chapter 26. Beginning to read at verse 14, page 993, 993, Matthew 26, verse 14. Then one of the 12 called Judas Iscariot went on to the chief priests and said unto them, what will you give me and I will deliver him unto you? and they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver. And from that time, he sought opportunity to betray him. Now, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The master saith, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The son of man goeth as it is written of him. But woe unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It had been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, thou hast said. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples and said, take eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. And when they had sung in him, they went out into the Mount of Olives. There are some people who think that the Reformation is just for Methodists or Baptists or Presbyterians. But I want to say tonight that it is not just for any one group of believers. It is not even just for Calvinists or Arminians. Rather, the glorious Reformation is for everyone who cherishes the gospel and treasures the truth of Holy Scripture. So if tonight in this evening service you cherish the gospel and you treasure your Bible, then you should be joining in the great celebration today on Reformation Sunday. Our subject tonight is the importance of congregational singing. Perhaps for you, singing is a painful part of church life. because someone who once stood beside you is not there anymore, or because your struggles during the week seem to tighten your vocal cords on a Sunday. Perhaps you simply don't have much time to think about it because you are a parent tumbling in fresh from the battle of trying to get the whole family out to church. underslept, over-caffeinated, and singing with one eye on the screen and one eye on your children, longing for these sung truths to be the air blowing through their young souls. 500 years ago, in the autumn of 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther began what became known as the Reformation of the church through the preaching and the singing of the word You might understandably think of Luther primarily as a theologian or a preacher, but he was also a focused and prolific hymn writer who reinvigorated singing in what became known as the Protestant church. How the congregation sang was a key question for Luther. He believed that a truly biblical church would be one where every believer was actively participating in every part of the service, including the singing, celebrating this incredible gospel together. Let God speak directly to his people through the scriptures, he said, and let his people respond with grateful songs of praise. Prior to the Reformation, the people did not participate in worship, The music consisted of Gregorian chants performed by the monks. It was all done in Latin so the people could not understand a word of it. But then along came that man sent by God whose name was Martin. Many of Luther's enemies feared his hymns more than the man himself. Singing was at the heart of the Reformation. Indeed, such was the conviction of the man who was in some ways Luther's predecessor, John Hus, that he was martyred for what the Church of Rome called the heresy of congregational singing. But Luther was passionate and serious about the art and practice of music and congregational singing, a passion that today in many churches has arguably lost its focus. There is no part of the worship life more in need of reformation today than congregational singing. But this reformation will not come about by simply telling people to sing any more than telling a child to eat something they don't like. We need not only to know that we ought to sing as Christians, but to learn to love to sing as Christians. Folks, I want to say tonight that congregational singing is under threat today. Do you get that? I want you to really understand this point. Congregational singing is under threat today. With the advent of new video technologies, churches began to project the lyrics of their songs onto a screen, and the number of songs at a church's disposal increased dramatically. At first, this advance in technology led to more powerful congregational singing, but soon a shift in worship leadership began to move the congregation back to pre-Reformation spectators, or as someone has called them, pew potatoes. Pew potatoes. In other words, people who just spectate in church, they do not sing. They leave all the singing to the worship group at the front. Rather than going to a worship service, these people, in fact, are going to a concert. So let's ask the question tonight, why is congregational singing under threat today? Let me suggest a few reasons. First of all, the people don't know the songs that are being sung. With the release of new songs weekly, worship leaders are providing a steady diet of the latest worship songs, songs which have little or no doctrinal content, but are merely an emotional repeating of the same one or two lines over and over again. The people are singing songs not suitable for congregational singing because of their rhythms which are too difficult and their keys which are too high for the average person. Let me give you another couple of reasons why congregational singing is dwindling today. People can't hear the people around them singing. If the music is too loud for people to hear each other singing, it is too loud. Music is meant to accompany the singing, not drown it out. People need to think about the words they're singing, but they cannot do this if they are fighting with the music. On the other hand, if the music is too quiet, again, the congregation will fail to sing out. And one final reason that I want to leave with you tonight as to why there's not as much congregational singing today, why it seems to be dying a death, and it's simply this. Some worship leaders are not even saved. They disappear at the end of their performance, not interested in the ministry of the word, then magically reappear to perform again at the end. The congregation are left feeling empty and frustrated when they should be feeling exhilarated through heartfelt congregational singing. Well, what should be the response of the church in 2018, what should be our response tonight as we see the way things are today in Christ's church? Let me just say we must go against the flow. Congregational singing must be preserved at all costs. The only thing more important in the worship life of the church is the Word of God. That's the only thing that is more important in the life of any church, folks. The only thing that's more important than the singing of the congregation is the reading and the preaching of God's Word. So I said again tonight, in light of the situation that we find ourselves in, we must go against the flow. Maybe you're asking tonight, why make such a big deal about singing? Well, let me explain. Because we were created to sing. That's why I get so excited about congregational singing. That's why whenever people say to me, why don't you cut out some of the hymns in the service? I say, no way. Cut out something else in the service, but not a hymn. not the singing of God's people. Because, folks, we were created to sing. That's where it all starts. We're told in Zephaniah 3, verse 17, In that wonderful verse, we are told that our Creator sings. And we are made in his image. Therefore, we are created to sing. To sing is written into our DNA. It is part of God's design. Our ability to sing is fearfully and wonderfully made. Around the 12-week mark, the vocal cords of a baby growing in the womb are in place and have been shown to work long before the baby is born. We may sound different, but each of us has the same vocal apparatus. Breath flowing up from our lungs, vibrating through vocal cords in our throat, and pushing sound out through our mouths, tongues, and lips. Singing is not a byproduct of our creation. It is something we are designed to be able to do. We may not all be very good singers, but we are all created to be singers nonetheless. So that's the first reason tonight why we make such a big deal out of singing and why we should get so excited about what we're calling congregational singing. We were created to sing. Let me give you two more reasons tonight why singing is so important. because the Bible commands us to sing. Yes, because we were created to sing, but the Bible commands us to sing. There's a phrase that is continually repeated in the book of Psalms, just four words, sing unto the Lord. You get a concordance or you go into biblegateway.com or some other Bible website and you type in sing unto the Lord, It occurs time and time again in the Psalms, 23 times in total, in fact. It's not a suggestion that we sing. We are commanded to sing, and we're commanded to sing unto the Lord. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 19 gives us another command to sing. Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Colossians 3, 16, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Why sing? Because we were created to sing. Because the Bible commands us to sing. But let me say, finally, because the gospel compels us to sing. When we think of the fact that Jesus willingly shed his precious blood, died and rose again for depraved wretches like us, then we will want to express our ecstasy in congregational singing. You know, folks, there are some times whenever words are just not enough. We read in Matthew chapter 26 verse 30, and when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. There were just 12 people in that congregation that evening. There are some people who wouldn't darken the door of a small church. Why would you even think about going there? Not many people go there. Let's go to the big mega church with 5,000, 10,000, you know, and they're people who almost laugh at, you know, small churches. Well, I want to say tonight that the Lord of glory didn't laugh at small churches. He didn't despise small congregations. In fact, he was in the middle of one here in Matthew 26. There were just 12 people in this congregation. Jesus plus 11 disciples. Judas had departed. left that little group to go and do his dirty work. But here we have this small congregation, and what do we find is happening right there? We find that the first communion service in history is taking place. It is just a matter of hours before the horror of Calvary. Yet what do we find our blessed Redeemer doing? We find him joining with his feeble followers in hymn of praise. Friends, here we have the greatest example anywhere in the Bible of congregational singing. The Lord Jesus joining with those 11 disciples, and they most likely would have been singing one of the Psalms, or probably, in fact, more than one of the Psalms. They were praising the Lord, lifting up their voice to Him. Congregational singing has a very prominent place in heaven. What is the theme of heaven's song? Well, it is simply the finished work of Christ. Christians in heaven delight to sing about the blood of the lamb. It is their constant theme. They just cannot stop singing about the blood of Christ. Revelation 5 verse 9, And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. It's a wonderful thing to be redeemed, isn't it? It's a wonderful thing, it's an amazing reality to be able to say, I am redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Let me come right out with it tonight and ask you, can you say that? Or do you have to resort back to saying, I go to my church, I'm a member of my church, I give to charity, I am a good neighbor, and the list goes on and on. How sad not to be able to say that you have been redeemed with the blood of the Lamb. Many in the service tonight can say that. And what joy it brings to our souls. It's a joy that is so overflowing that the only way we can vent this joy is to join in singing with the people of God and sing the praises and raise the roof to our wonderful Redeemer. Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. Why are we going out on Wednesday night into hell upon earth? It's because we want others to be redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus. And folks, some people would say, well, are you not scared? Are you not afraid? Why should we be afraid? If God before us, who can be against us? There's Martin Luther who said, going to the diet of worms, and boys and girls, maybe when you hear that phrase, the diet of worms, you say, oh, well, that's not a very nice diet. Imagine having to eat worms for your diet. Well, that's not what it means. Back in Luther's days, that word just meant a meeting. A diet was a meeting. And Martin Luther was going to that religious assembly, that religious meeting, where all the religious leaders were gathered together. And people were saying to Luther, are you not afraid to go there? Are you not scared to go to the City of Worms? Are you not afraid, Martin, about what might happen to you there? And Martin Luther just turned to them and he said, Even if there were as many devils and worms as tiles upon the roofs, I would still go there. You see, you can go anywhere on God's earth when you know that the Lord is with you. When you're covered by his blood, fear disappears. What is man that we should be afraid of him? The only person tonight, folks, that we should fear is the Lord himself. Revelation chapter 15, another wonderful verse, tells us there about the song of Moses and of the lamb. As we think and as we bring our message tonight to a close, as we have been thinking about this subject, the importance of congregational singing, we find that the inhabitants of heaven are singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. The song of Moses was sung at the Red Sea, where the Egyptians, the enemies of God's people, were drowned. But we who are redeemed have greater cause to sing than Moses, because our sins have been drowned in the red sea of the Savior's blood, every one of them. Christian, I want you to get that tonight. Every one of your sins, past, present, and future, has been drowned in the sea of Jesus' blood. And if that doesn't make you want to sing, nothing will. Hallelujah, what a Savior.