Address—Mark Breman
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Good evening. By way of introduction to the subject that I have on my heart this evening, I'd like to read a few lines of a hymn. We won't sing it, we'll sing another, but.
Says how pleasant is the sound of praise. It well becomes the Saints of God for him who washed us in his blood.
Let us, our sweetest songs, prepare one string there is.
Of Swedish tone reserved for sinners saved by grace.
Every one of us has a voice. God has given everyone of us a voice to sing with.
And our voice will work in eternity. Think about that.
Of all creation, the human being is the only one that has a voice capable of singing. You know, in songs and poetry it speaks of Angel singing. The word of God doesn't indicate that, as they say, but human beings were intended to sing. God wants us to sing the song of the redeemed.
The sad thing is because if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, your voice.
Will work in eternity, too. It speaks of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and we trust that there's nobody here in this room this evening that would use your voice for all eternity in such a sad way.
Our desire is that if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, that this evening that the Lord Jesus Christ would touch your heart with His love and grace and you would come to know Him, and you would know what it is to have those praises on your lips.
Let's turn in our little flock hymn book to hymn #95.
Hymn #95.
Let's sing it together.
Break forth and say.
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We just bow in prayer and ask the Lord for His help this evening.
Our blessed God and loving Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast given us voices to sing praises to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank thee that with whatever.
Wavering our voices may have that those praises by the Spirit ascend imperfection to God the Father.
And we thank Thee that someday these stammering tongues will be loosed to praise Thy holy name as we really ought to, or Jesus we feel is right around the corner. But until then, we ask that that would give us guidance and direction from Thy Word as to how Thou would have us to sing. And so we just give thanks and praise for this opportunity to have Thy Word open before us. We can confess our weakness.
But we depend on my spirit for guidance and direction, that the things that are said might be helpful, and that nothing would be said that would bring a dishonor to the name of the Lord Jesus. If you prepare yourself with a song in your heart for the Lord, the Lord can use a song to help restore happy communion with Him. Verse three upon an instrument of 10 strings.
And a sultry and the sultry upon a harp with solemn song.
I would encourage you young people if you don't know how and you might say you're not musically inclined.
That's okay. There are instruments out there that are not really suited to just the best musicians. Take for instance, a simple thing like a harmonica.
In your own personal, private life, it is good to have some sort of.
A musical instrument that you can use to give honor and glory.
To the Lord Jesus.
After a stressful day at work, I enjoy the piano.
At our house, we enjoy lots of different musical instruments. I know some people have difficulty with that, but there's something special about doing it yourself. Pop out your earbuds.
Do it yourself.
There was a young man came to me and said, Mark, will you teach me how to play the guitar?
I said that young man, you first have to have a song in your heart to the Lord.
You know when we have a song in our heart to the Lord, it will help us.
I'm speaking on a very natural level here now when I'm speaking a musical instruments, it's something that will encourage the young.
If you use it for his honor and glory to take up with the praises of God. If you use it.
For that.
Verse four. For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy works. I will triumph in my works, in the works of thy hands. Oh Lord, how great is the hour. Thy works and thy thoughts are very deep. The Lord is interested in every detail of us, and as we think of that, it draws out our hearts in worship and praise to Him. Let's go to Psalms 40.
Oh.
Psalms chapter 40 and verse 2.
He brought me up also Ottoman horrible underlying that in your Bible if it's not already.
Then a horrible fit.
Out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.
He has put a new song in my mouth. Even praise.
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Unto our God.
Like to take a little closer look at some of these verses that are maybe a little more well known to some of us and look in them just a little bit.
Says a new song. A new song.
That would indicate to us that there are.
Old songs.
Old songs.
The psalmist says he brought me up also out of a horrible pit. What do you suppose the horrible pit reminds us of?
Young people, do you not know some of some old songs that are suited for the horrible pit?
Let's turn to Revelation Chapter 9.
Revelation Chapter 9.
And the 5th Angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and lo.
And to him was given the key to the bottomless fit, and he opened the bottomless pit.
And there arose a smoke out of the pit.
As the smoke of a great furnace.
And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
The Word of God speaks plainly about the pit.
It tells us of the pit.
There are other things associated with the pit. Verse three. And there came out of the smoke that ascended from the pit locust, verse 7.
And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle, And their heads were as it were, were a crown like gold. And their faces were as the faces of men, and they had hair as the hair of women.
Let's stop right there a second.
Don't tell me you haven't seen cover photos.
On some of these albums that are music from the pit, tell me not, do they not have the faces of men and hair of women?
What are they depicting?
These demons that rise from the pit. And if you look into the lyrics of those songs, dear young people, don't be fooled.
By the catchy tunes.
It's the path to destruction.
It's the path to the pit.
He had put a new song in my mouth. Young people don't turn back and take up with songs to the pit.
Let's go back to Psalms 40.
The new song is for the Redeemed.
And it is praise unto our God.
When enjoying happy fellowship with the Lord, those praises are wonderful. They flow, they add.
Think of all the things the Lord has done for us, that we might have that new song in our mouth. The middle of verse five. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than I can number.
Think of what we were by nature.
And the Son of God.
Loving us so much that He would leave the heights of glory and come down into this world for wretches such as you and I. In Romans we read of our total depravity.
Total emptiness.
But we read of something else there too.
We read that God provided a sacrifice, his Son, whereby we can be justified in His presence and what the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary Cross. We also find that no, it is not by the works of the law.
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It is by faith.
The apostle spends the 1St 11 Chapters of the book expounding on that.
And what happens when he has realized it in his own mind and he has shared it? Let's turn to Romans Chapter 11.
The same thing will happen to us when we think on what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. Romans Chapter 11 and verse 33 he breaks forth.
Like I said, it's spontaneous happy communion with the Lord and thoughts of what He's done for us bring for us spontaneous singing. I don't know that there's a tune to this.
But if there was, I'd be interested in learning it, because it's beautiful. This is a type of a strong here. Verse 33. Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor, or who hath first given to him, and it shall be reckoned unto him again.
For of him and through him.
And to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Can you say that in your heart too, at the end of that? Amen. It's wonderful, isn't it, to be able to have that kind of a prayer of Thanksgiving and expression in your heart for what the Lord has done for you?
Yes, oftentimes our praise gets tainted. Young people, I'd like you to focus on what we do have sometimes. I know we had a lot of questions this weekend and this some of them were related to what we don't have or questions about why things are the way they are. But what you do know that you do have, we can focus on and it brings forth the song of praise from our lips.
Let's look at Ephesians chapter one.
Look at something that we have Ephesians chapter one and verse 7.
In two words.
We have, there's something we have, we have redemption through His blood. It's not wonderful we stop and think about that, that we have redemption through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Does that do something to your heart? If you know Him as your Savior, you're going to spend all eternity giving Him thanks and praise for shedding His precious blood on Calvary's cross for you.
It behooves us to daily bow our heads and thank the Lord Jesus for His blood.
That was shed for us.
It's wonderful, isn't it, to give thanks? It raises a song of praise in our hearts to think of what the cost the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross that we might be His.
Let's go back to Romans five. Another thing we have.
Down in the work, in the Versailles, little ways. This is my faith. By faith we have peace with God. Isn't that wonderful? Can you say that? Do you have peace with God tonight? If you don't have peace with God, I feel sorry for you. God loves you. God has provided every way whereby you might have peace with him in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Come as you are, receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
And find this joy that we're Speaking of and this peace.
We have that's something young people that you can sing about you if you know the Lord Jesus Christ your Savior, you have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. First John chapter 2 something else we have.
First on chapter 2, in the middle of the verse, we have.
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Aren't you thankful for that? Aren't you thankful that when you don't step out of line, God just doesn't smack you down?
It's wonderful we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous in that hymn we sing, it said, Sing how he intercedes above for those whose sins he bore. We can sing about it that we have an advocate. It's wonderful, isn't it? It ought to bring praise to our hearts.
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That God can take wretches like us and put praise in us to Him.
Give us peace, give us redemption, Give us the tools to give Him honor and glory, our voice.
Let's also look at the 20th verse.
Ye have an auction from the Holy One.
Young people, we have been given the Spirit of God.
To influence us as we heard in these meetings, everyone who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior has the leading of the Spirit. The question is, do we obey or not?
It's there if we will only obey. Isn't it wonderful that God has provided that in whole and full to us?
We ought to be so thankful. Ephesians, chapter 3.
Another thing we have.
The end of verse 11. Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access.
Young people, you don't have to be scared to come into God's presence.
Does that make you glad? Does that make you rejoice that you don't have to have be scared to come in His presence? He loves you. What would make you scared to come in His presence?
A bad conscience, but guess what, You still don't have to be scared. He loves you. Go to him. Go to him about it. Go to him. He loves you.
Hebrews chapter 4 for another.
In verse 14.
We have a great high priest. For the sake of time, let's go to chapter 13.
Verse 10 We have an altar place to worship and shut out those praises.
Chapter 6.
Verse 19 we have an anchor for the soul. What's the anchor for the soul? The next verse tells us it's Jesus who's the forerunner already there for us.
You can't be lost again. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, does that make your heart well up with praise and joy? Thank Him. It's wonderful, isn't it? We have a forerunner, the Lord Jesus. He's already there, beloved for us.
It's sure that we're going to land on that shore.
Enjoy it, rejoice in it, let it produce a song in your heart.
Talk a little bit more about songs, music.
We're a three-part being body, soul and spirit.
There's.
There's a lot of things that are three parts, electricity, volts, amps, and ohms.
Water pressure flows and all that.
God is a three-part being.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. You know music has three parts.
The three parts.
The melody, the harmony and the rhythm.
Those three parts.
I'll do something inside here.
Maybe you young people have a question as to what is good music or bad music.
Here it is. There's three parts to it.
Melody, harmony and rhythm don't let them get out of balance.
They get out of balance. You got bad music.
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The body. Our body.
Associated with rhythm. You know, the stronger the beat, the more you want to, you know, our body is associated with rhythm, Rhythm. OK.
Harmony.
That's the soul.
So it's very soothing up and down.
The melodies associated with our spirit.
Melodies associated with our spirit. It's something you know that our body is world conscious.
Our soul.
Is self-conscious.
And our spirit is God conscious.
It's very much related to music. You want to know if you're listening to bad music or not. Make sure those things are not out of balance.
You know, with today's technology, we've had a lot about technology and the influence of it on us in these meetings.
It is so easy today to obtain an MP3 or to pop in a CD.
They're cheap and some are free. Just because there's Christian on the front doesn't mean it's going to.
Lead you in a way dishonored to the Lord Jesus.
We also had in these meetings we should weigh everything by the word of God.
I'd like to talk a little bit more about that a little later, but be careful.
Be careful that we just don't grab a hold of anything without testing it by the scripture just because it has a nice tune.
Look at the words.
Look at who's singing it.
Songs are wonderful.
On Lord's Day evening.
Brother James Ferguson down at the at the campfire, seeing down there. He talked about singing.
And he brought before us how Jehoshaphat brought the army and said, put the priest in the front and have them sing. And what happened? Remember the story? The enemy, the Lord came in and the enemy was taken care of by the Lord. He spoke about Paul and Silas who were in bonds in prison. Where's the circumstances? Not complaining.
Bound there.
And they were, they were, they were giving thanks to God and praising Him in those circumstances.
And the Lord worked a great victory that that evening, that night their chains fell off.
That was quite an evening.
Those are wonderful things, spontaneous singing. Some of us were privileged to be out here at the dock. Brother Nelson Santiago was baptized.
When he came out of the water, what did you feel like doing?
How many of us just felt like singing?
It was spontaneous, wasn't it? It was a joyous time to see our brother want to identify with Christian ground. It's wonderful. We all wanted to sing and we participated in that. It was beautiful. No handbooks. We sang. It was beautiful.
Now I'd like to say, OK.
How does this relate to singing in the meetings? In assembly meeting?
You know we had in these in these meetings here that that the Spirit of God is the one that guides and directs the ministry in the meetings.
What about the singing question? Psalms 22?
One other thing that Brother Ferguson mentioned down there at this thing was a song that was sung by the Lord Jesus and his disciples just before the Lord Jesus went to Calvary.
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And I wonder.
Don't mean to speculate. I almost wonder if Psalm 22, portions of it at least, weren't part of that song. In verse 22 it says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation. Will I sing praise? Will I praise thee? You still have your little flock in book. Let's go to #35 in the back.
Maybe this hymn will help me express the truth here. That's on my heart a little bit.
Verse 3.
It says now he capital H, who is that? The Lord Jesus Christ. Now he praises in the assembly. You mean when we're gathered around him on Lords Day morning to show forth his death? Yes, he's there leading the singing the praises.
The fifth line yes, he praises Grace, recounting all the path already trod first four he we are invited now join the singing that he leadeth. Let's get this in our minds before we go too deep into assembly singing because.
Just like understanding that it is the Spirit of God.
That leads the ministry in the singing in the assembly. It's also very important to understand who and how the singing should be done.
Verse 5.
It is finished. It is finished. Who can tell redemptions worth? He who knows it knows what what redemption's worth was. The Lord Jesus Christ himself paid the penalty for our sins on the cross. He's the one that leads the praises in the assembly.
It's wonderful.
Proverbs.
Chapter 24.
I.
Young people, at this point I just want to give a little warning.
A little word of caution.
Along with this age of technology that we live in and the songs that we've been influenced by in it some of them.
Are nice songs for private singing or maybe some group singing and so on. But.
If the Lord Jesus Christ is truly the leader of the singing in the assembly, should I be looking to Him as to how the songs should go in the assembly, or is it my opinion?
Verse 21, last part of the verse says metal knot with them that are given to change. There's a reason why we sing the way we do.
If the Lord Jesus Christ is leading and everyone of us are looking to him for that leading, oh, it's too slow.
Oh, we don't like that tune. I'm not saying we can't alter a few things that would be more suited to his praise, but let us be careful that we don't try and draw in things to change what he should be leading if he's allowed to.
If everyone of our hearts are in tune with that, think of the praise that would go up in Unity heart engagement. It's wonderful.
I want to talk a little bit about reverence.
To the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and using His name in song.
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Let's look at Exodus chapter 20.
And you might say, well, this is Old Testament.
Exodus chapter 20 we also have Thou shalt not steal, OK?
Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Do we believe those things are good and right? Yes, we do. Then let's let's believe this is good and right too. And in application we can put it to singing.
For seven.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name.
In vain. What does it mean to take the Lord's name? In vain? Believe Mr. Darby's translation says something like this. Thou shalt not idly utter the name of Jehovah thy God.
Idly utter. You know, we were born and raised with these hymns. We know him. It's so easy just to open the book, set it on our lap and just sing the words and, you know, look around and something happens over their house.
Over there, across me. Yeah. And we just single in. Oh, yeah, Let's see. I forgot. Yeah, I didn't finish my test. Let's see. And close the book.
It gets us, doesn't it?
It gets us idly uttering. I'm guilty of it, my mind wandering when I'm singing praise to the Lord.
I'd like to just give another word of caution.
As to why we just don't embrace all the songs that are out there that attach the name of the Lord Jesus with them.
Believe we look into the lyrics of some of them. We know that the Lord Jesus himself couldn't have fellowship with those songs.
Especially when.
In regard to reverence.
I'm going to name a song.
And no, I'm not trying to be judgmental.
I'd like to draw from this something that would implant something in our souls that would stir us to be careful.
I don't want to be judgmental to anybody. I'm not trying to do that. Please understand that.
Many of us know a song or have heard of a song.
Called our God is an awesome God.
Millions and millions of believers sing that song.
It is in almost every modern church hymnal.
There's a kids version.
I'm thankful that the kids version doesn't have in it what the original version version has.
But sad story.
Um.
A lot of people think that the one who wrote that song is Mr. Smith.
No, Mr. Smith did not write that song.
Mr. Smith took up that song as a tribute to the one who did write it.
Why did he do that?
Because the one who wrote it is no longer living.
I don't know if you all know the verbiage.
Connected with some of the verses of that sorrow.
Go look it up.
I hate to say it because I am. I don't want to.
Say something that will dishonor the Lord.
However, I'm going to read some of the words of a verse of that song.
Speaking about God Almighty, God our Savior.
When he rolled up his sleeve.
He ain't just putting on the Ritz.
Do you know those words were in that song?
Is that a way to talk about God?
And the Lord.
Wasn't joking when he kicked him out of Eden. It wasn't for no reason that he.
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I hesitate to say it shed his blood, young people.
Be reverent.
With the Lord Jesus in his blood. It's not a joke.
To insinuate that God could be putting on the Ritz, to insinuate he could have been joking, it's solemn, the man who wrote that song said in an interview. It was the lousiest song he ever wrote. He just threw it together and somehow when it got out, it went to the top of the charts.
So work of the enemy and that man was responsible.
For making millions and millions of people who really love the Lord Jesus who didn't give.
Thought to it, give, make words come out of their mouth that we're not honoring to God and that we've seen it happen before. I don't mean to be judgmental.
God deals with people. I'm not saying that this is, I'll just tell you what happened and I'm not saying no God did this, but God allows things, OK?
The man who wrote that song.
Was on the highway.
Just.
On Hwy. 39 N of Rockford, IL he was in the Jeep and he was headed down to do a concert in Wichita, KS.
And he was just rolling down the highway and a semi was following him. His Jeep for an unknown reason became out of control and the semi swerved to miss the Jeep.
If he was a brother in the Lord.
He was thrown from the Jeep and he landed directly in front of that semi at highway speed on the highway.
The man who is responsible for making millions of people who trust the Lord Jesus to take words of His precious blood lightly on their lips. Young people, be careful. Look into those things.
Ecclesiastes.
Chapter 5.
Verse 2.
Be not rash or fast with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God.
Before God is in heaven and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy words be few. We have to be careful. Yes, this is the Old Testament, that this is a principle of reverence to God. I had a friend and he was a believer.
And I love him. He's a dear friend. This when I was a kid and he had some favorite music that he liked and he tried to get me to listen to it. This one particular group that he liked was called the 2nd chapter of Acts. Fairly lively.
And these family members that staying in this group had a brother. I'm go ahead and use his name. He's going to check me out on it. That's fine. His name is Matthew Ward.
Matthew Ward.
And if you look at the front of his album, you kind of wonder.
Not to be judgmental, but remember what we read in Revelation.
The face of a man and the hair of a woman. Well, this friend of mine got tickets to go to a Matthew Ward concert.
And somehow he got passes to go backstage. This friend of mine had told me that Matthew Ward was filled with the Holy Ghost, and the Matthew Ward was moving in front of the audience in the power of the Holy Spirit. This young man got tickets to go backstage, and he met Matthew.
We found out.
Matthew Ward is not filled with the Holy Spirit. He was putting chemistry inside his body behind the curtains before he went out to stage.
And then he would go back for more at a break. And he asked Matthew, why are you doing that? He says, well, you got to do something to keep calm in front of the audience.
Young people, be careful what you listen to and who it's coming from.
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Psalms 90. Let's see 89.
Psalms 89 and verse seven. Many of us have this verse upon our meeting room walls. It's appropriate to apply it to singing. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints, and if He had, in reverence of all them that are about Him. Let's turn to chapter 111 also.
Chapter 111 and verse 9.
He sent redemption unto His people. Young people, that's what ought to draw praise and worship out of our hearts and out of our mouths.
He hath commanded his Covenant forever.
Holy and Reverend is his name. Let's be careful how we take up the name of the Lord Jesus even in song.
Verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding. You want a good understanding, or an indication of it, a meter, a gauge, a good understanding have all they that do His commandments, His praise endureth forever. Hebrews chapter 12.
Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 28. Wherefore we receive a we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God. And yes, singing is a way to serve God.
With three things.
There's three things here that is acceptable to you and me. No to him. To him.
And with reverence.
Understand who he is.
And what is due him and give it to him?
And godly fear, those three things. How to characterize genuine praise that comes out of our mouth?
To the Lord.
You ever read the preface in front of the Little Flock Handbook? It's very instructive.
Let's turn to page 4 of the preface.
Here again, I'm not trying to be judgmental.
Is trying to show that the heart must be engaged OK?
Page 4, the last sentence of that first paragraph. There it says you may often, doesn't say always. OK, so I'm not trying to be judgmental, but let it stir our hearts. You may often find the loudest singers where the conscience is the least reached.
Why?
Because he's not getting the glory. I want people to hear my voice.
Doesn't mean we have to whisper.
But what it means is if everybody is being loud, it's being loud too. That's unity, right? If everybody is subdued a little bit, be subdued with them.
Ephesians chapter 5.
And verse 19, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Again here, we don't always do this heart engagement what God is asking us to do here, but it's just so important trying to stay focused, try to have our hearts engaged in the praise and the worship that is going forward.
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First Corinthians, chapter 14.
We have this person, our meetings. How many of you take piano lessons or have had them before?
Did your teacher use a thing called a metronome?
What the metronome do?
Go ahead. Anybody, Bill, your hand went up.
Gives you the beat. Gives you the beat and the timing, Yes.
This verse is the metronome for assembly singing. OK.
Last part of the verse, verse 15, I will sing with the Spirit. I will sing with the understanding also.
Don't forget, who you're singing with in the assembly is to be a united voice, as one to the Lord. There are children there. There are older ones there. There are ones who can't read quite as fast as those who just got out of college.
They can't. Don't force them. Please don't force them to sing without their understanding.
We're not seeing so slow that it's like meditating, No, but if you allow people to understand what they're singing in the speed of the song, you know what? You're also covering another bass. Those who want to keep God's name reverent.
It's wonderful, isn't it, that we have these guidelines and principles in the Word of God.
Colossians, chapter 3.
Verse 16 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 Now this ones a little different. With grace, with grace in your hearts to the Lord that's considering others too, Not just what God has done for us, but with grace in our hearts to the Lord. Now we have 2 scriptures.
That.
That refer to psalms, hymns and spiritual songs that we've looked at tonight. And the question might come up, what is a Psalm and what is a hymn and what is a spiritual song that we are being admonished to sing? Well, let's turn in our hymn books to 246.
We sang this in our meetings.
246 From every stormy wind that blows, from every swelling tide of woes there is a calm, a sweet retreat tis found before the mercy seat. This song bears the character of a Psalm.
The previous song.
245.
On that same night, Lord Jesus.
When all around me joined to cast its darkest shadow across thy holy mind, we hear thy voice. Blessed Savior, this do Remember Me. With joyful hearts responding, we do remember Thee. Young people, that's a hymn. Isn't that beautiful? That's a hymn. The one right before it, 244.
That bride and blessed and mourn is near.
When he, the bridegroom, shall appear and call his bride away, her blessing then shall be complete. When with her Lord, she takes her seat in everlasting day, that's a song.
That's a song. It's a beautiful song. See the difference character of them. It's a little different, isn't it?
Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. That's a spiritual song. It's wonderful. And notice the tenor of your voice.
That God would lead you to use when you read those words. Indication of it when I see our time is moving on.
Chapter. Let's see.
Let's go back to the preface of the Little Flock Hymn book again. Before we close, just a few more pointers that might help out.
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Preface of the little flock him back first page.
I'm going to kind of break into some of this sake of time last two lines practical grace and truth. This is the first page of the preface last two lines practical grace and truth which set the soul in communion with Christ. Key keywords for assembly singing there and raises to to the father and yet this.
In such sort that it is not mere individual experience.
Which for assembly worship is out of place. We don't sing alone in the assembly. You have to remember that everyone united together to lift our voices to him. God of the down little ways. God alone can give this as to meet the wants of the assembly.
Let's go over the next page, the middle of the page, middle sentence. The singer must be there, but the singer associated in his thoughts with God filled from on high.
Yet not individualize himself and leave the assembly behind him. Stay united. See exercise of those who put this little book together.
The last sentence of that third page.
Abstractly, you are making people to sing as having certain feelings and then preaching to them because they have not.
We can't force people into a sphere that they are not up to, but if we allow the Lord Jesus Christ to lead the singing, it's taken care of, isn't it? It's beautiful if we let him be the leader. If I don't get an idea in my head that.
I don't quite think this is right. I'm going to make it go the way I want it. I think perhaps I've just lost the mind of what God intended for seeing in the assembly.
Genesis chapter 33 for a quick reference there as to the Spirit.
Of waiting on those who aren't as quick as some.
Jacob and Esau Esau type the flesh gotta go fast.
Jacob is taking it easy.
I'm just going to reason for the sake of time, I'm just going to read some expressions. Verse 13.
Then down the ways a little in the in the verse. The children are tender. Don't forget it.
Little ways. Further, if men should OverDrive them. There's a difference between men and children. The children are tender. Let's don't OverDrive the children.
14th verse. Here's a beautiful illustration of it in the middle of the verse. I will lead on softly down a little further and the children be able to endure.
Have to remember who is with us when we're singing Romans chapter 15.
Romans chapter 15 and verse six bears this thought out very very clearly.
That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why not do it now? We had in the meetings in Revelation 5 where we're going to spend an eternity giving praise unto His name and having Him be the center of our praise and worship and allowing Him to lead that.
Let's do it.
Together now just to summarize Psalms 34.
Individual, then casual collective singing and then the assembly.
Individual first, I will bless. Psalm 34, verse one, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall be continually in my mouth. I will, my soul will make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall heal thereof and be glad. Now let's have somebody join in with us a little bit, Okay, I'll magnify the Lord with me.
01:00:03
You know this next one is associated with his name and let us exalt His name. That's what we gather to let us exalt his name.
Look at this last word together.
Together, let's pray.
Our blessed God and loving Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast given us voices that could raise praise and honor to Thee. We pray for these young people, pray that would give them godly discernment as to what is good songs and what is not, what would lead them into a pathway of rejoicing in the Lord Jesus.
And giving honor and glory to him versus that which would be a hindrance in their life and their walk with thee. We ask for guidance and direction and two together as we sing with one another. May we be have take thy the fruitful praise of our lips. Thy name is a serious thing and as we join together in the assembly Lord Jesus, we just ask that we would give these thy rightful place. We appreciate the guidance and direction of thy spirit in.
And we pray that that would exercise our hearts about submission to thyself, as well as the Guider and director of the singing in the assembly and singing together in unity, that one mind and one mouth might bring praise and honor and glory to the Lord Jesus. We ask these things for thy honor and glory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.