When arguing over church music, the debate often turns into “I like this kind of music.” But every aspect of our worship, including music, must conform to what God has revealed in His word. This brief message looks at three principles from Colossians 3:16 that help us choose songs and tunes that are appropriate for singing in the gathering of the local church.
Approx. 15 min.
Many OT laws seem strange, harsh, and oppressive. One such law is the one dealing with female captives in Deuteronomy 21. Is this law really what it is often made out to be?
Approx. 18 min.
Every nation discriminates. Every nation has its idea of who they want as citizens. Every nation will therefore seek to discourage certain types of people from coming into its borders. So, how do we make sure the “right” people immigrate to America?
The answer is not to give the government more control. When governments become socialist (like ours), they will try to attract people who also want socialism. The more control the government has over immigration, the more effective they will be at ensuring that only socialism-loving people will be allowed in.
This is something that Conservatives don’t seem to understand. They want to give more and more power to our socialist government to enforce who comes into our country and who doesn’t. For example, most Conservatives are in favor of the Clinton-Obama border wall. I call it the Clinton-Obama border wall, because Hillary and Barack both voted to fund the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border when they were senators. Sure, they pretended to be against the wall when President Trump was building it, but they’re not as opposed to it as they let on. Like other Communists, they want to have tight control over who comes and goes. Karl Marx even included the idea of strict government control over emigration in his Ten Planks of Communism (“immigration” refers to those coming into your country, “emigration” refers to those leaving your country). It’s no wonder, then, that the communist East Germans built the Berlin Wall to keep people from leaving.
America’s Founders, on the other hand, didn’t give the national government a lot of power over immigration. They wanted limited government in all areas, including in relation to people’s migrations. The Kentucky Resolves of 1798 (drafted by Thomas Jefferson) warned that governments often pass laws directed at “the friendless alien” first, but will eventually use similar laws against its citizens (see Resolve IX). Heed his warning: the laws that pertain to immigrants will likely be used against you one day. Be very careful in giving governments power in any area, including immigration and emigration.
As I’m writing this, a Canadian pastor who was arrested for holding a church service was prevented from leaving his country to speak at a conference that I was attending. Why? The ultimate reason was that he didn’t bow down to their tyranny. Our government isn’t much friendlier to Christians than Canada’s is. Soon, we will be held hostage by our own country simply for not bowing down to our tyrants. At that point, there will be no escape.
All of this is to say that more government control is not a good way to make sure the right people come to America. I’m not saying that the government should have no laws concerning immigration, but there are others ways of encouraging the “right” people to come here. Here’s a couple of ideas for attracting the “right” people to our shores, while still maintaining some freedoms:
1. Get rid of socialism. People complain that immigrants who come to America mooch off of “the system” (getting free stuff from the government). This is a valid complaint. However, the solution isn’t giving more power to the government. The solution is getting rid of the “system” that many immigrants mooch off of. In the Bible, it’s not the government’s role to provide free stuff to the people (citizens or foreigners).
If Americans would stop voting for socialist politicians (which includes all Democrats and about 99% of Republicans), immigrants couldn’t mooch off of the system. If there is no system to mooch off of, the moochers wouldn’t want to come to America. The only immigrants who would want to come would be the ones who just wanted a chance to work hard to provide for their families. Those are the “right” kind of people. Having a more biblical government would solve the mooching problem.
2. Have Bible-based laws. While we do want to maintain freedoms, the freedom to do violence to others is not the kind of freedom I’m referring to. Another complaint I hear about immigrants is that there are murderers, rapists, and sex traffickers coming across the border. This is also true (though the majority aren’t violent criminals).
But again, the solution isn’t giving the government more power to control people’s migrations. The solution is to have a more biblical government. While there are some immigrants who are involved in murder, rape, and sex trafficking, so are some Americans! Even if no foreigner was allowed in our country, these crimes would still happen. The answer then is to adequately punish those who commit these crimes. It is true that some immigrants who commit these crimes are let go with little or no punishment. However, the same often happens to American citizens who do these evil things.
In the Bible, the main job of the government is to punish evildoers (Rom. 13:1-4). The punishment for murder and rape is the death penalty (Exo. 21:12; Deut. 22:25-26). Furthermore, anyone who kidnaps someone and sells them into slavery (including sex-slavery) would also get the death penalty (Exo. 21:16).
If God’s laws were enforced against these crimes, immigrants who want to commit them would stay as far away from America as they could! So again, the only people who would want to come to America would be those who wanted to behave, and those are the people we want to come to our shores.
I realize there’s more to the immigration debate than can be covered in this short article (like terrorists coming over the border, etc). But when it comes to many of our immigration problems, the main fault is that our nation doesn’t obey the Bible. If there was no socialist system to take advantage of, we wouldn’t have immigrants taking advantage it! If we had laws that were in line with the Bible, those guilty of heinous crimes would actually be punished!
In short, a country that disobeys the Bible will attract immigrants who disobey the Bible. A country that reveres and obeys God will attract immigrants that are willing to do the same.
Some forms of discrimination are sinful, but some are not. Churches should be discriminating against certain people. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t want everyone to come to our churches. By the way, everyone believes this.
If a fire-breathing conservative Christian were attending a very liberal church, and that Christian stood up in every Sunday service and read aloud verses in the Bible which talk of stoning those who practice homosexuality (Lev. 20:13), wouldn’t that person be asked to stop attending that church? And likewise, if a liberal “Christian” were attending a more conservative church and would not stop spreading blasphemous heresies, wouldn’t they be asked to leave as well? So really, every church discriminates.
How then do we get the “right” kind of people to come to our church? First, we must define who the right people are. The Bible does not divide humanity primarily by race or ethnicity, or economic status, etc. It does divide humanity by a person’s standing in Christ. A person is either in Christ or in Adam; saved or lost; a believer or an unbeliever; a sheep or a goat; elect or non-elect.
The true church (i.e., all true Christians) is made up of only those who have been regenerated (born again). Our local churches should ideally be made up of those same people. Of course, since we can’t see into the hearts of people, we can’t know for certain who is truly a believer and who is not.
We also need to take into consideration that even a true member of God’s elect may not yet be converted. God’s electing of people happens even before they are born (Eph. 1:4), so even while the apostle Paul was unconverted, he was one of the elect.
How then do we attract the right people (the elect) to our churches if we can’t even be certain about who the elect are?
Simple: do what God has told you to do. God knows everything. He knows the hearts of people and He knows the future, so He knows how attract the “right” people. If a church does what God has told it to do, no less and no more, it will mainly attract the elect. Of course, no church will be totally pure; even the best churches will have a mixture of believers and unbelievers amongst its members. But following the Bible will do much to weed out the pretenders. Generally speaking, the more closely a church follows the Bible, the higher the ratio of true Christians to false Christians will be.
The subject of what the Bible tells a local church to do is a large one, but here are a few ideas that will help your church attract the right people (i.e., the elect):
1. The preaching.
The preaching of the word of God is the most foundational aspect of a church. It is here where most churches have problems. If you are preaching sermons that are carefully crafted to not offend the unbeliever, then you will attract mostly unbelievers. This means, your church will soon be filled with people who are not true Christians (but who think they are). This is what happens when your preaching gives people the impression that they are “all right” in God’s eyes.
While preaching doesn’t have to be rude for rudeness sake, it does have to incorporate the whole Bible, and many of the Bible’s teachings are quite offensive to unbelievers! And yet, if an unconverted person is one of the elect, even bold preaching won’t scare him away (Acts 2:36-37).
Many churches today are filled with people who think that they are not in need of grace. These people often make up their own rules and think that because they obey their own rules, somehow that means they are right with God. Preaching that salvation is totally a work of God, and not us, will do much to drive these pretenders away.
On the other hand, in many churches there are people that live sinful lives, and yet they think they are right with God because they’ve been told that following God’s law isn’t that important. So, teaching that true salvation is always accompanied by good works (Eph. 2:8-10; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 5:3) will drive away those who believe that obedience to God’s commands is optional.
2. Church music.
Rick Warren once said that a church’s music will have a big impact on the type of people that come to your church. While most of what Warren says about church music is wrong, he is right on this point. Churches which worship God with music that mimics the music produced by a godless culture will mostly attract “worldly” people. These people aren’t true Christians (Jam. 4:4). And, just as truly biblical preaching will offend the non-elect, songs that are rooted in Scripture (and not just the “happy” verses) will not be preferred by unbelievers either. Even a quick perusal of inspired songs shows that God’s songs aren’t exactly “seeker-friendly” (Ps. 5:5-6; 7:11; 9:5, 17; etc).
3. Church discipline.
Not many unbelievers would want to be members of a church that practices biblical discipline. While we ought have grace, love, and humility toward our fellow church members, a true church will discipline members who continue in unrepentant sin.
4. Christian fellowship.
Even though close, loving fellowship can be attractive to unbelievers, many fake Christians prefer to attend churches that don’t have close fellowship. Many people want to belong to a community, but not many unbelievers want to have people asking about how their walk with the Lord is going.
Sharing meals together is great fellowship. But if everyone at the table is talking about the things of the Lord, that will tend to make a false Christian a little uncomfortable. Many false Christians attend megachurches because they don’t want fellowship! They’re there to check off their “went to church” box, not to actually invest their time caring for others.
Following the Bible won’t guarantee that a church will have no fakers in its midst. But not adhering to what the Scriptures say about church practice will generally attract mostly false Christians. Those who are numbered among the elect will be drawn to a biblical church; the non-elect will not be. A church should discriminate, but that discrimination should be organic, not forced. Just do what God has told you to do, and the good kind of discrimination will follow.
The Acts 4:32-35 passage has been used to support Socialism/Communism. This message refutes that interpretation. This passage does show, however, that Christians need to take care of their own, and not rely on unbelievers for help. Christians have the Holy Spirit and the word of God; we shouldn’t have to depend on Christ’s enemies for help.
Approx.: 39 min.
Matthew Henry’s Bible commentary, written over 300 years ago, is still popular today. This message looks Matthew’s life, his commentary, and the role of the Henry family in producing this great work.
Approx: 24 min.
The Bible gives instruction for every area of life, including warfare and the military. When that instruction isn’t followed, bad things happen. It has been years, if not centuries, since God’s rules for war have been obeyed by our government. The results speak for themselves.
This message looks at Deuteronomy 20 (the chapter in the Bible with the most instruction on war), and gives some application to contemporary events like the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Approx. 45 min.
Is there a connection between homeschooling and the end times? Yes, if you have a biblical view of the end times. Biblical education is actually an important part of the fulfilling of Bible prophecy.
Approx. 39 min.
Pride & worldliness aren’t the most “exciting” things to talk about, but they are sins that have devastating consequences on individuals and societies. God promises to exalt the humble and destroy the proud. Do you want to be destroyed or exalted? James gives us the remedy to these seemingly “small” sins.
This message looks at James 4:4-10. Approx. 36 min.
John Gill was the first great Baptist commentator, and the church he pastored has had some of the greatest pastors in history (Baptist or otherwise). This brief message looks at his life and his commentary.
Approx. 23 min.