We rolling? All right. Yep. We're going to have to move quick. We got 43 slides to get through. And we're starting late. So we're going to go an hour. It be what it be. All right? It be what it be. That's right. All right. So I just want a quick review. Week one, why study music in the life of a Christian? Well, introduction. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Week one was why study music in the life of a Christian. Week two was new life, new music. Week three, rock, right or wrong. Week four, music makes its mark. Last week, order in music offers harmony in life. And this week, music builds and music destroys. Hebrews 2, verse 12 says, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church, will I sing praise unto thee. music builds and music destroys. We're going to look here. So we're going to try here to establish a sharp distinction between the world's view of the power of music and a great contrast of the prevailing Christian position. In other words, the quote-unquote prevailing Christian position is greatly lacking when it comes to the real or the reality of the situation. So the music in the life of man, here by Julius Portnoy. He says, music can therefore ennoble or degrade character, make men better or worse than they are. Music and the mind. He says, music is a powerful tool, or rather, music is a powerful instrument of education, which can be used for good or ill, okay? Remember what was our theme this week? Music can build up or music can destroy. A timely observation from the most respected soprano of the 20th century, Beverly Sills, said, the arts are the signature of a civilization. Personal discussions with Roger Norrington, a well-known English conductor. He asked, the question, is music moral? It says, music can make men better. Can it make men worse? Yes, it can. Oh, hold on. Now, here's a point of statement here. Reading is one thing. Talking to experts in the music profession is quite another. Consider the responses as we saw these responses here. personal discussions with Rolf Smedvig, founder of Empire Brass. This fella, or this is Empire Brass, it's this fella here. He said, I was shocked I know what that stuff means." Talking about the stuff of music. Let me read here a portion of the book here. The discussion with Rolf Smedvig came during a brass master class held in Manchester, New Hampshire. I asked Mr. Smedvig the music morality question during a break. He had never thought about the morality of music and asked where I was involved in music. I am minister of music at a church in Concord, New Hampshire, I responded. He then began to relay this most interesting story. It seemed that he had not been to church for years. His wife, on the other hand, attended the Catholic church faithfully each week. On a recent Saturday, he decided to go with her. He had not witnessed a worship service of any kind for years. When they entered the church, the church building there, Mr. Smedvig saw a rock group on the altar. As they began to play, he could not believe what was taking place. A rock group in church? He thought to himself. It was at that part of his account that he, in essence, gave me the answer to my morality question. I was shocked. As he says here, he exclaimed with a somewhat twisted countenance, I know what that stuff means. He's a kind of a, you know, he might know something about music, maybe, maybe. Personal discussions, another person here with, with Leon Flischer. I'm probably slaughtering his name. A well-known pianist, here he is. To the question, is music moral? He answers, music ennobles man. Can it make him worse? Yes. All right. Personal discussions again with Robert Shaw, most respected choral conductor of the 20th century. Question, is music moral? Son, all the arts are moral. Hmm, interesting. And this is in great contrast to Christian thinking of today. Music through the eyes of faith here, this fella says, there is nothing un- or anti-Christian about any kind of music. Then in page 52, he goes on to say in page 59, the Christian is free of the moral nothingness of music, exactly the same way a former idolater is released from the nothingness of the idol. In other words, on this type of logic, an idolater, because he realizes the idol is nothing, he can continue to worship him. because he realizes it's nothing. That's not good Christian logic. That's absolutely hogwash. Does anybody get any sort of logic out of that last statement? He's essentially saying that because you're a Christian and you know that something is, there's no moral, there's moral nothingness in something, you know, there's no, there's no real reality to, you know, an idol is nothing in this world as the Bible says. So then therefore it makes it okay for you to involve yourself with idols on a regular basis and being, you know, and, and maintain a position of idolatry because you're, you know, that idol, that idols are nothing. Well, I know it's nothing. I'm not worshiping it anymore, but I still acknowledge it. I still, you know, it's not just, just not. Yeah. So here in the book, the contemporary Christian music debate, Steve Miller, he says, using what is neutral in a society as a vehicle for the gospel is not only acceptable, it is sound. Missionary strategy. Wrong. Totally wrong. You're going to cut yourself there. So, you catching this? Using what is neutral in a society. By the way, is music neutral? I mean, haven't we already kind of established that? No, music isn't neutral. You're still going to find out that at some point there's a line drawn. Remember what we talked about gray areas? Gray is made up of what? Black and white. In other words, you're not just straddling the fence because you may be standing in a gray area. You don't know which part of the gray area you're standing on? Are you standing on the part that's primarily made up of black or the part that's primarily made up of white? Right. Yeah. How much, how much sin does it take before it's really sinful? Any right. The Bible says whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Pretty straightforward. That actually takes away, what that does is it takes the whole gray area and it puts it in the black. Because if... Right, he that's not with us is against us. Now, again, black and white. And this is what some people will say, Christians will say, well, wait a minute, If it's neutral, or if it's in the gray area, then, you know, gray area, you know, it might be right, it might be wrong. But then when you take the verse that says whatsoever is not of faith is sin, what does that do? It takes everything in the gray area and it says, if I can't do it by faith, it's sin. In other words, if it's questionable at all, it's sin. It removes gray areas completely from our lives. If I don't know and I can't say I believe this is okay, I believe this is scripturally right, this is in the white, so to speak, as we talk about, when you're talking about gray areas, you're talking about black and white and gray, right? So if it's in the gray area, well, it's questionable. Questionable means you can't do it in faith. you have a question about it, right? It says, he that doubteth is damned if he eat. Now, that's the passage that it's talking about there when you're eating meat offered to idols. In other words, if you doubt, if you don't know, if you're unsure, say no. Gray area becomes a sinful area. So, this fella here wrote a book called I Don't Like That Music, and He said, and this is a CCM supporter, he said, furthermore, Christian values do not lie in the music itself, but rather in the attitudes which attend its creation and hearing. In other words, it doesn't matter what kind of music it is, just depends on how the person feels when they make it and how the person feels when they listen to it. That is, does that sound familiar? Remember. In another place we saw in the book Rock Reconsidered says it is different because it is infused with a different purpose. Remember we talked about that another another week, right? The guy was like, you know what? Something in other words, he basically was. It was trying to say that something that's bad becomes good because it's a different purpose. In other words, if I murder you because I think you're in the way of something and my purpose is right, then it's okay to murder you. No, murder's wrong, period. Now, of course, if you're trying to kill my family and I kill you, that's not murder, that's defense. But if my reason for doing wrong, that's like saying if my reason for doing wrong is right, then it's right to do wrong, no. Right, yeah, I robbed the bank because my family was hungry. That's not a right reason. It doesn't make it okay to steal. There we go. So, that kind of thinking brings these results. So, question. Does God rock? So does God rock? Tune into any top 40 station and you'll hear plenty of songs glorifying sex and drugs. But if you listen for long, you'll also hear songs glorifying God. Is that a cool thing or a colossal compromise? Does God rock? You decide. How about here? Does God rock? Jars of Clay is a contemporary Christian band, okay? Rock band. After the Christian band Jars of Clay appeared on The Letterman Show and MTV, some of their diehard fans accused them of watering down their message. The criticism didn't faze them. We're called into our culture, says Jar's guitarist, Steven Mason. Jesus was all about living out his life in front of the media of his day. Hmm. Really? Does God rock? You decide. pod here. I don't know what that stands for, but the front man, Sonny Sandoval, claims ultimately we're trying to win you over with the music, and it's up to you to think about what we're talking about. Does God rock? You decide, is this the kind of stuff God would want, or is saying, or is this the kind of philosophy God wants? So he's serious about being both a Christian and an artist, but he doesn't think he should have to conform to anyone else's opinion of how he should dress or what he should sing about. Still, he admits he's not going to walk around in public with a bottle of Jack Daniels in each hand. That's not me. Christian Pop Diva, by the way, he might be doing that in private, though. Christian Pop Diva, Stacey Orrico, who was criticized in Atlanta, in an Atlanta Constitution article for, that Atlanta Constitution's Did I read that right? Yeah, there you go. But she was criticized for gyrating on stage in tight pants and heels at a performance last year. Says that she thinks fans need to look beyond artists outward appearance. I went on tour with Destiny's Child. and they stood on stage in front of 10,000 people and sang Amazing Grace and talked about Christ and prayer and spiritual things. She says, I don't know why they feel like they need to sing Bootylicious and shake their butts around, but they're reaching many people that Christian artists would never get an opportunity to. So in other words, this makes it okay, right? So does God rock? You decide. There they are right there all naked and stuff. All right, so Destiny's Child. insists that there's nothing ironic about sending both spiritual and sexual messages. You can be a sexy woman and still love God, they say. The trio's Beyonce, by the way, that's where she's, I don't know if that's where she started, but that's where she started to get popular. Beyonce Knowles told the Chicago Tribune recently, adds Kelly Rowland, God is beautiful, so therefore, we try to be beautiful too. They say it's okay to send these two opposing messages. There they are again. Have you decided yet? Let me bring your attention to Exodus 32, verse five. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. Talking about the calf, yeah. And Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And verse number 25, Moses comes upon them and it says, and when he saw the people were naked for Aaron had made them naked to their shame among their enemies. And they were, by the way, they were dancing and naked. And there was a sound of war in the camp. So this fella here has decided, here's what he said. In an effort to reach the world, we've leaned over, lost our balance, and fallen in. I think that's probably pretty interesting where he's at. Duke Divinity School. Divinity School is like a seminary. He's the dean of Duke Divinity School. Now that's, what's that? I don't know. I wouldn't. I wasn't there. Yeah. So how does the how does hearing work? Scripture mentions hearing and the ear approximately 1,500 times. Now we're gonna read all those passages. I'm just kidding, not all 1,500, but these here that are mentioned, Matthew 13, 16 says, but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. Proverbs 1, 8, my son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. Hebrews 2, verse 1, Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." Proverbs 15, 31, the ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. Proverbs 19, 20 says, hear counsel and receive instruction that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. Y'all remember Tone Death and All Thumbs? Talked about that the first week. The book, anyways. Our ears respond to 19,985 individually perceptible sound frequencies. Whoa. That's pretty amazing. Our eyes respond to 375 individually perceptible wavelengths of light. Conclusion, here's some math for you. Our ears are over 50 times more sensitive than our eyes. Isn't that interesting? Is there some sort of significance to that? Proverbs 23 says, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Keeping your heart, it's like guarding your heart, right? Where do we place guards? Place guards at entrances, right? What are the entrances of our hearts? Our eyes and our ears. That's exactly right. You just had to quote it, right? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. They did. I didn't even hit it. Didn't even hit go. He already knew what it was going to say. This reminds me of the book, The Holy War by John Bunyan. If you haven't read that, or if you want to try to find an audio book of it, it's entertaining. The Holy War, it's not just entertaining, but it is very helpful, and he does a very good job illustrating the war for man's soul. He's the same one that wrote Pilgrim's Progress, yes. And he does a wonderful job illustrating the war for man's soul. It's a town called Man's Soul, and it's an allegorical message. It's better than Pilgrim's Progress, I believe. I don't think, I mean, the problem is so many people have made Pilgrim's Progress so popular that the Holy War is often overlooked completely. But when you read the book or listen to it or whatever, The Holy War is all about what's going on, the turmoil of man's soul and the fight for man's soul. And you'll find that the enemy tries to get in through the ear gate and the eye gate. And you find this is a common, he does a really good job of that. John Bunyan was a Baptist preacher and I don't agree with everything that he believed, but there were some really good, That book is a really good book. I've actually got the book here if somebody wants to borrow it or whatever to read. The Holy War is a good one. I've got it, I think, in my office if anybody wants to borrow it and read it. You can get it on Kindle. It's free. Kindle's free. You just, it's an app for your iPad. Yeah, you get Kindle for free and then you can get books. I think you can get John Bunyan's writings for three bucks or something on Kindle. I forget. I forget. So the importance of hearing. No, I think it was further back than that, but yeah, I can't remember. Um, What? I don't know everything. Come on now. Man. When did John Bunyan live? What are you going to ask? 1628 and died August 31st, 1688. There you go. Told you it was further back than 1800. 1600s, that's all you have to remember. He was around in the 1600s. No, I just know how to find the answers. They're right here. But sometimes Siri can answer them too. Siri doesn't speak hillbilly though. That's the problem. Yeah. When it comes to directions, I don't use Siri for that, unless I've already got the address saved in my phone. If I've got the address saved in my phone, then I'll just ask, you know, give me directions home or something, you know, Hey Siri, give me directions home. Getting directions to home. Wow, it's only five minutes away. Starting route to 2036 Olive Street. Nope, now the whole world knows where we live. That's okay, we got guns and surveillance so that we can get it on video when we shoot them. All right, so the importance of hearing, back to this. Romans 10, 17. Ah, something has to do with hearing there. So then faith cometh by hearing, hearing, right? Hearing the word of God brings faith, right? So the word plus hearing results in faith. Hearing is pretty important, right? It's really important. Isaiah 50 verses 5, 7, and 10, and then 51 verses 1, 3, and 7. I'm going to go ahead and just read all that as though it's all together in one, okay? The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting, for the Lord God will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint. I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me who hath and by the way I'm it's skipping from one verse to the next you know based on you know five seven ten actually I I'm reading, I was reading eight there, so verse seven said, for the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded, therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know what shall not be, or I'm sorry, I know that I shall not be ashamed. Verse 10, who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light. Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. Chapter 51 verse one. Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn and the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found there in Thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Verse seven, hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revelings. So what is, or what has your ear, in other words, what are you listening to, right? To whom is your ear given? What sounds, which sound sources have your ears attention? Is it the word of the Lord? We have those passages that I just read here talk about hearkening, right? In other words, we hear and believe, hearken. What happens when we do that? We have joy and gladness. We have Thanksgiving. We have a voice of melody that's mentioned there. We have music, right? What's that? No, it means listen. Harken. Harken means listen and do. No, no, no. Hark is different than harken. Only slightly Hark I believe in that context is more like Hey, look at that. Check that out. It's kind of like behold, right? Am I right? Hark Hark Like hey pay attention to this the herald angels are singing man or Harkin there is, you know, listen to what I'm saying, you know. Here, Ken, right? Right, you take the word Ken, or you take Ken off of there, see? Here, Ken, here, right? Harken. What's that? There you go. Think of it in another way. Let's look at some fruit here. All right. The word of God, right? So we, Isaiah 51 verse eight says, but my righteousness shall be forever and my salvation from generation to generation. Listening to God and building our faith includes music. See the word of God, when we hearken to the word of God, it brings about faith in our life and faith in our life will bring about a voice of melody, right? Music. It'll bring about joy and gladness. This is the fruit of faith. It'll bring about thanksgiving, right? This begins to be the things that we see in our lives because we've hearkened to the word of God and we've had, and, and hearkening to the word of God has produced faith and faith has produced these fruits. Does that make sense? According to that passage, right? There's other things that faith produces as well, but specifically in these, this, that we're talking about. So, um, So from life to self here, our society is characterized by serving the Lord with gladness, being selfless and loving to people, loving God with everything they have and serving God with everything they have and loving man with everything they have. What's that? Where do I live? Olive Street's that way. It isn't that way in your neighborhood. No. Instant gratification, that's what our world's filled with, right? Our society's characterized by instant gratification. We kind of do. That's mainly because half the houses in our neighborhood are empty. You go to the backyard, it's not so peaceful yet. We have transitioned from a Lord, let me live from day to day in such a self forgetting way or forgetful way to a have it your way. And you deserve a break today mentality, right? Burger King and McDonald's, right? Have it your way. And have you had your break today? Right. You deserve it. You need it. You should have it. Instant gratification is no longer good enough, though. Right. Mark, a 34 would be an appropriate verse, where it says, let him deny himself and follow me, right? This would be an appropriate verse to add to the instant gratification life, right? Instead of instant gratification, we should deny ourselves, right? The biblical direction is one of denying self and following him. What? I'm not quoting the whole thing. I'm just I'm reading a paraphrase. Yeah. Sorry. Paraphrase. There you go. Deny him. Uh, let him deny himself and follow me. I've been now. Mark Mark 8 34. Oh, I've got it right here. Yeah, I actually have it down here at the bottom. So that, but the concept there of denying self and following the Lord, this, uh, it is the, uh, instant gratification, which satisfies our desires, right? That's, that's what we, we want all this, but that's, that's not, that's not the way things ought to be. Remember Jesus said in Mark 8 34, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. There you go. Yeah, so consider our needs. We are spiritual beings. We have spiritual needs, right? No one? We are intellectual beings, emotional beings. We have emotional needs. We do. Yes, you do. Don't you lie. We're also physical beings. We have physical needs. Anybody not eat today at all? They're not eating a month. Man. What's going to happen to him if he doesn't eat? He's going to die, right? He has physical needs. Music satisfies some of these needs, right? July. We're almost done with July. Which of these, which of these, these three areas, I need to take one of those theses out. I have two theses up there. Which of these, these three areas of need can be satisfied most quickly? Spiritual need? Emotional need? Physical? Yeah. So let's consider. that the greater part of today's music is popular because it satisfies that need, which is most easily and most quickly satisfied. Yep. Now, wait a minute. Somebody might say, I'm not sure I agree. That's true. Talking Tombstones and Other Tales of the Media Age says, the mass arts are popular and there can be no doubt that they are more appealing to the majority of people than the high culture or fine arts. Why? They are more popular because they meet the immediate needs of the audience for easily digested entertainment. Because it's talking about dead people talking, right? So let's see here. Okay, so I'm going to play something here. Okay. And are we, is channel three up? All right, going to need it. OK. Let's see. Wait a minute. I've got to do that so that I can change slides in just a second. OK. All right. So before that very last part, Before that last part, was it, we may not have liked it, but was it basically balanced-ish, kinda? No, you don't think so? Yeah, I mean it was acapella, so it was. It wasn't just one. People get jumping in, maybe the same woman tracks. That was Sandy Patty. Which music personality has been copied for the last 50 years? There's a hint. Elvis, yes. Right. That's right. But that that was a the king of rock and roll. Right. So his singing style would suggest a preoccupation with sex is what the art of rock and roll said. You would think that would come from a Christian magazine. No. This was from a supporter of Elvis Presley. Toying with sex through song, referring to Elvis Presley. in the Rock Revolution," Arnold Shaw said. Newsweek said, the master showman was ordered by a Florida judge in 1956 to tone down his infamous gyrations. Yeah, they called him Elvis the Pelvis, right? No, it wasn't. We know it was Elvis, right? That guy. All right, so CCM Magazine has a revealing comment on page 60. This was February of 1995. Jamie Lee Rake reviewed a recording by Elvis Presley, the Amazing Grace recording, and writes, Unlike anybody before him and probably after, Presley fused the white and black musical influences of his southern upbringing with a natural appeal that has left popular music forever changed. Though Christian rock is common today, Elvis Presley might have been the original article. Here is a Christian magazine endorsing and recommending what the world clearly labels as sensuality. I would say that if he's not dead, he's getting kind of old by now. Well, my grandfather and him were born on the same day. My grandpa passed away about 12, 14 years ago, something like that. No, no, no. 20 years ago or so now. I was 11 years old, so it was 24 years ago, yeah. Well, it was 32. All right, now you gotta ask Siri again, but we'll talk to her later. All right, so the world's view of Elvis, right? The world's view of Elvis was what, you know, that whole whatever, all the sensuality, and this is the Christian's view of Elvis. A hunk, a hunk of gospel love, he says. This is part of, I'm just gonna read the part that they quote out there. It says, gospel music has the heart and soul of the king of rock and roll. Whoa. Something's not right. Something to say about being still, right? The Lord said to be still and know that I am God. The right music or the right kind of music can help us to be quiet before God. Now, does that again? I want to balance this. Does that mean that it's completely wrong if music makes you tap your feet? No, not necessarily. However, that's not the primary appeal of the music. That should not be the primary appeal of music, because if it is, then again, that's the problem. Music should generally help us to be still and quiet before God. Now, again, it has to have some form of rhythm. And yes, it does and should appeal a little to the flesh part of us, but not primarily to the flesh. Right? Most of CCM's relentless beat and entertainment-oriented ambiance does not permit stillness. Not only does it not encourage, it doesn't even permit stillness. Ambiance. All right, so where'd my mouse go? Why is it over there? Get over here. Okay. So let's look here, Exodus 14, 13. And Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still and see the foundation, the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today, show to you today. For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. Numbers chapter nine, verse number eight. And Moses said unto them, stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you. Job chapter 37 verse 14 says, hearken unto this, O Job, stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. The Lord tells us that it is by our stillness and our focus on him that he is exalted. What a stark contrast to a society which is uneasy with being still. Silence is a rare commodity in the contemporary order. Society's addiction to entertainment and noise is the cause of such uneasiness. God says there is a time to be still. The great majority of the CCM sound and entertainment-oriented sensibility mirrors the world's obsession with clamor and hype. The right kind of music possesses a whole Rather, let me back up here. The right kind of music possesses a wholesome balance and a refreshing variety, which can assist the believer to be still before God. The classical style of music frequently includes times of stillness, reflection, and contemplation. Rock with relentless driving rhythm knows no such tranquility. Remember, The title of this lesson is Music Builds and Music Destroys. Which is being done to you? Which one? Is it building you? Is your music building you or is it destroying you? That's all we got for today. Amen. Let's pray.