By

Shelby G. Floyd

We have a good audience today. It is good to see all of you. I hope you picked up a copy of our Newsletter. Next Sunday, you are invited to the surprise 65th wedding anniversary of Benny and Gail Stephens. I hope many will honor them. Benny has preached at several congregations in the Indianapolis area over many years. We are thankful for his service in the church.

Rick Wheat is visiting from the Lehman Avenue church of Christ in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Please welcome him. It is good to see all of you!

Our singing was really good today, as it always is. Several months ago, we were discussing with several people how beautiful our singing is here at Heartland. And during that conversation a person said to me, “I have always wondered why we do not use instrumental music in our worship to God.” After some thought about that statement, I realized that it is good for us to wonder why we do certain things. Therefore, we need to present more sermons on why we sing a cappella in our worship to God. The word a cappella means “in the style of the church.”

While my thoughts were on singing praises to God, my mind drifted to the Songbirds. It is like God created them to sing and they cannot hold back. But they must sing their songs of praise to their creator God. And that is the way we are here at the Heartland church. We are like songbirds! We love to sing all the beautiful hymns and spiritual songs that have been handed down to us by great writers of music!

King David, a man after God’s own heart, loved to sing praises to his God. And in the book of Psalms he said,

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.                                      (Psalms 104:33 NKJV).

And so, David praised God continually with his praise songs in the book of Psalms!

SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

And that takes us back to the beginning of the church when singing without instrumental music was practiced in worship to God. And so, for hundreds of years, the New Testament church in worship to God only sung psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs without instrumental music accompaniment!

About 600 A. D. after the establishment of the New Testament church, there was a group that wanted to introduce instrumental music into the worship. This created so much opposition that they took it out and the controversy died. About 800 A.D. there was a movement to bring the instrument back into the worship again and it flourished in the apostate church. And then later during the Reformation movement beginning about 1500 A.D., most of those new churches that were started used instrumental music in their worship to God.

But here in America in the 1800s there was a movement to restore the New Testament church in all of its essential features. And since there were no passages of Scripture that authorized instrumental music in worship to God, their worship was simply singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19).

I believe that we should preach more biblical fundamental topics, because young people are growing up in the church. And if they do not know why we sing in worship without instrumental music, when they get out into the world, some slick tongued preacher will convince them that singing with instrumental music is exactly what God wants. And they will not know how to answer and counter with the truth of the gospel. And perhaps then they will make the same statement that we started our lesson with today, “I’ve always wondered why we don’t use instrumental music in worship of God!”

And people could say that about a lot of different subjects. Why does the church observe the Lord’s supper every Sunday, 52 weeks a year? Because many churches only observe the Lord’s supper monthly, quarterly, and some only once a year at Christmas time.

But Jesus said to the woman at the well,

“Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21-24). 

Jesus emphasized that in the new order worship must be in spirit and truth!

THE NEW TESTAMENT AUTHORIZES SINGING IN WORSHIP

Therefore, we must go to the New Testament to discover the teaching that authorizes true worship to God. And when we do, in the area of music God only authorizes singing. The following scriptures will reveal to us how we can sing in worship to God “a cappella” without the use of instrumental music.

1. In Matthew 26:30, after Jesus had established the Lord’s supper and the beautiful ceremony was over, they went out and sung a hymn in worship to God. The word sung in the Greek language is humneo. The word hymn derives from this term. This word is always translated by the English word sing.

2. Singing in Acts 16:25 took place when Paul and Silas were in the city of Philippi. They were mistreated, thrown in jail, and their feet were fastened in the stocks. And I am sure they were downhearted. But they never gave up hope that God would take care of them. At midnight, Paul and Silas were “praying and singing hymns to God.” The other prisoners listened to them. They were not religious and were not singing or praying. It is a joy to serve God, pray and sing hymns at midnight. Again, the word singing is from the Greek word humneo, so literally, they were “hymning hymns!” Our next scripture is,

3. Romans 15:9, …and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: “For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles And sing to Your name.” In Paul’s writings to the churches, he expressed his desire to go to Rome on several occasions. Rome ruled the world at that time. He desired to encourage the church in Rome that was undergoing great persecution. The Greek word for sing is psallo. This action verb psallo commands us to sing to the glory of God. And this word is always translated sing or an equivalent synonym.

4. 1 Corinthians 14:15, is our fourth scripture that authorizes singing in our worship to God. Paul wrote to this congregation and said, “What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.” According to the teaching of Paul, both praying and singing requires the spirit and the understanding of the worshiper. That is what we would call “wholehearted worship!” And here again the word sing translates the Greek word psallo. And psallo is always translated by the word sing or its equivalent synonym!

5. Ephesians 5:19, and this is the key verse in our discussion on why we should not use instrumental music in worship to our Creator God. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus and said, “… speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Where do we sing and make melody? We do that in our heart to the Lord! Is there an instrument involved in singing and making melody to the Lord? Yes there is. It is the human heart! In this case what is the human heart? It is your emotions, your intellect, your conscience, and your willpower. So, we sing and praise God in our heart with all of our physical and spiritual being.

And in this Scripture, we are introduced to a novel word on the subject of praising God with the human voice without instrumental music. We are to sing and make melody! The word sing translates from the Greek word ado. And then the words “make melody” translate from the Greek verb psallo! We noticed that word psallo in several other scriptures and it is always translated sing. But why is it translated in this particular passage by the words “make melody”? It would sound redundant in this particular case to translate psallo by the word sing. Then the passage would sound something like this, “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and singing in your heart to the Lord.” Therefore, the translators simply used a good synonym of the word sing to translate this passage. And that synonym is “making melody” in your heart to the Lord.
The Internet dictionary gives these synonyms for the word “sing”: chant, in tone, croon, carol, and warble! But in my judgment, the translators in 1611 chose the best synonym in the words “make melody.” But the word must be sing or a true synonym. The action is to be done is “in your heart to the Lord”! The heart of man is the great workshop from which we praise our God and Creator in the worship of the church.

Therefore, in summary we have three verbs that are all translated sing or its equivalent. And those three words are ado, humneo, and psallo. And none of them include instrumental music in worship to God.

THE LAW OF GENERICS AND SPECIFICS

Let us now discuss the Law of Generics and Specifics as it relates to our singing and praising God in worship.

One of you men decide you want to purchase a new truck. You approach the salesperson and instruct him that you are interested in a new Red Dodge one half ton truck with an extended cab and the largest v-eight engine. The salesperson disappears and shortly returns with a Ford Truck. We all understand that specific instructions excludes anything outside of the specific parameters! When we specify something, that excludes anything outside of those specifics.

The law of generics and specifics is illustrated in the following chart on biblical principles.

Example One: The Ark-Gopher Wood

In preparation for the great flood, God said to Noah, “Make and ark according to my instructions. Make it out of “Gopher Wood!” There were various kinds of wood then as there are today. There was Acacia, Almug, Olive, Sycamore, and Cedar wood. Isaiah added Myrtle, the Oil tree, Cypress, Pine, Oak, and the Box tree (Isaiah 41:19; 44:14). God specified these distinct kinds of wood for other projects. But for the building of the ark God plainly instructed Noah to build it out of Gopher Wood (Genesis 6:14). It is an unknown wood today that simply vanished with the flood. Noah might have said to his three boys as they were building the ark, “boys, we are out of material, go for wood!” Seriously, Noah understood and acted upon God’s specific commandment!

Example Two: The Passover-Lamb

The Passover that occurred in Egypt is our second example. God instructed the Hebrews to paint the door post and lintels of their house with the blood of the Lamb. They obeyed his specific command and not one Hebrew lost a firstborn son. God also instructed them to offer up different animals such as a turtledove, a heifer, or a goat on other occasion. But at this time God specified the blood of a lamb. Surly this was a type of the precious blood of our Passover Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The specific instruction is given in Exodus 12:1-13). The specific blood of a lamb excludes all other animals.

Example Three: Music-Singing Vocal

This brings us to example three. What kind of music does God accept in the worship of the church? There are only three kinds of music: vocal, instrumental, and a combination of both. Out of these three coordinate species of music, God named one kind – singing. The church can only obey God by using the kind of music he specified. When God selected singing, that eliminated all other kinds of music. These three examples of the law of generics and specifics are all parallel and understood by most people.

THE GENERIC TERM “MUSIC”

In summary, our topic is what kind of music does God specify in the worship of the church? We have noticed several passages, and they all speak of singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to the Lord. The generic term music is only found one time in the New Testament, and it is found in the story of the prodigal son.

Remember, Jesus told the story of the prodigal son who got tired of living at home. He asked his father for his inheritance, which his father gave him. He then went out and wasted it in riotous living. When his money ran out, he came to himself. He said that in his father’s house even the servants had plenty to eat. But he was eating the pods that the pigs ate! So, he said, “this will I do, I will rise and go back to my father and say, father I have sinned against you and against heaven. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”

But the father loved his son. He called his servants. “Kill the fatted calf, put new shoes on his feet, and put a robe on him. We are going to have a party! This is my son who was lost and has returned home. Let us all rejoice!”

The older son was in the field working. He was a good boy. He had stayed home and obeyed his father. And he never gave him any trouble. But when he heard the music and dancing going on, he returned to the house. What is going on? Have you not heard? Your brother came home. Your father is giving him a party. But my father never gave me a party he said. He had a bad spirit!

But our point here is he heard “music and dancing.” The word music translates from the Greek term sumphonia. This refers to a harmonious union of the sounds of musical instruments (Luke 15:25). “Symphony” derives from this Greek word. If God wanted instrumental music in our worship, He would have used a term like this.

It is my prayer that no one will leave this worship service and wonder why we do not use instrumental music in worship to God. Now you know why. Thank you for reading this lesson on the singing worship of the New Testament church. 

Copyright © 2024 Shelby G. Floyd, All Rights Reserved

Shelby G. Floyd, minister, delivered this sermon August 4, 2024, at the Heartland Church of Christ, 1693 West Main Street, Greenwood, Indiana 46142.