Roger Lewis - The House of Asaph - Family of Faith and Masters of Music - Class 2 - The Spirit of the House of Asaph

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Our second speaker this morning is Brother Roger Lewis of the Christchurch Ecclesia in New Zealand. The theme for Brother Louis’s classes this week is the House of Asaph, Family of Faith and Masters. Of music today’s. Class is entitled The Spirit of the House of Asaph, Brother Roger. Well, thank you, brother Chairman, and good morning, my dear brothers and sisters. In our opening study yesterday, we looked at the story of the founding of the House of Asaph and that moment of time when Asaph was appointed by David that he might lead the responsibility for matters of worship in Israel. And you’ll remember in the first of Chronicles chapter 16, we read of that special Psalm that was delivered to the House of Asaph, that they might lead the children of Israel in praise to the Heavenly Father.

2. 1:00

   And you’ll remember also that we suggested yesterday that there were five key things, five key principles by which this family governed their music of praise to the Father. Now, unfortunately, in our study yesterday, we didn’t have time to look at the first of those. So I’m going to take the first few moments this morning just to take you through that first of those five key principles. And that idea was that their singing always focused on the supremacy of God.

3. 1:34

   You’ll remember we made reference to that in our closing remarks yesterday. Now look, I’d like you to come back to the first of Chronicles 16 and just to see again the spirit of this idea in the great Psalm that was given to this family. First of Chronicles 16 and reading from verse 8. Now I’m just going to read the Psalm to you. And as we read the Psalm, I want you just to to capture this idea that that the whole thing is focused on the Father and not on man.

4. 2:17

   So first of Chronicles 16 and verse 8. Give thanks unto Yahweh, call upon His name, make known that His deeds among the people sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him. Talk ye of all His wondrous works, glory ye in His holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek Yahweh, seek Yahweh and His strength.

5. 2:50

   Seek His face continually. Remember His marvellous works that He hath done His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth. Oh, ye seed of Israel, His servant, He children of Jacob, His chosen ones, He is Yahweh, our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Be mindful always of His covenant, the Word which He commanded to 1000 generations, even of the covenant which He made with Abram, and of His oath unto Isaac, and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant. Saying unto thee, Will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance, when ye were but few, even a few, and strangers in it.

6. 3:38

   And when they went from 1 nation to nation, from one Kingdom to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong. Yeah, He reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Sing unto Yahweh all the earth, show forth from day-to-day His salvation. Declare His glory among the heathen, His marvellous works among all nations.

7. 4:11

   For great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the people are idols. But Yahweh. May the heavens, glory and honour are in His presence. Strength and gladness are in His place. Give unto Yahweh, ye kindreds of the people. Give unto Yahweh glory and strength.

8. 4:38

   Give unto Yahweh the glory Jew unto His name. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship Yahweh in the beauty of holiness. Fear before Him all the earth. The earth also shall be stable. Let it be not moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. And let men say, among the nations, Yahweh reigneth. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the woods sing out at the presence of Yahweh, because He cometh to judge the earth. Oh, give thanks unto Yahweh, for He is good for His mercy endureth forever.

9. 5:27

   And say, Ye save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to Thy holy name and glory in thy praise.

10. 5:45

    Blessed be Yahweh Elohim of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said, Amen. Now you know, brothers and sisters, when you really think about that son, where is man in these words? He’s not there. The absolute focus of this Sam is on the the complete supremacy of God in all things. You know, brothers and sisters, we live in a world of rampant humanism.

11. 6:25

    We live in a world that tells us every day that it’s what we think, what we feel, what we want that’s the most important. What’s in it for #1 And the whole focus of this Psalm of the, of the family of Asaph was that the world does not revolve around man, but around Almighty God and His purpose.

12. 6:45

    Now you see, we say that we understand the principle of God manifestation, that we understand the the idea of the supremacy of God, but we live in an age, brothers and sisters, that denies this principle day by day. And even though we say we understand this principle, I think sometimes, well, maybe we don’t understand it as much as we should. You may have heard of this saying before where it has been said, and justly so, that the strength of ecclesial life is measured in attendance at the Bible class. Well, here’s another saying.

13. 7:28

    You can tell whether an ecclesia understands God manifestation by its prayers. Now let me give you just one keyword in the first of Chronicles 16 and in this Psalm. That’s absolutely vital in terms of the spirit of truly seeing the supremacy of the Father. Have a look at verse 35. In verse 35 of of this particular Psalm, it says, and say, Ye, O save us, save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together and deliver us from the heathen, so that we may give thanks to thy holy name. Now you see, that little word is so desperately important in that Psalm because those who truly understand the principle of God manifestation will never pray the fatal prayer of unconditional deliverance.

14. 8:36

    The basis of the prayer here is not that they should be saved, not that they should be delivered, but that they should be saved so that they might give thanks to the Father. That’s a proper understanding of God manifestation. Now you see, this particular family understood that principle. We haven’t got time to look at their psalms, but you’ll find that they understood that principle. I think that that we, we ought to apply the so that rule to our prayers.

15. 9:12

    Now, have you ever heard of expressions like this in our prayers? We desire to be there in the Kingdom and Father, we, we pray that they will grant us all a place in that glorious day. So that and we pray that they will bless us with the strength and the joy of immortality.

16. 9:41

    So that you see, brothers and sisters, you know what I’m saying? I’m not saying that we have to even use that word every time. And yet if you listen to the prayers, you’ll find that so often we pray for things that we want and that we desire from the Father that He should give us those things. But that little word that is never there. And the reason why we should pray for the Kingdom is so that we might praise Him in that day.

17. 10:09

    And the reason why we should pray for immortality is so that we can serve Him without the wearying of our powers. That’s understanding the supremacy of God.

18. 10:22

    Now in our hymns of worship, this has to be one of the key things that we therefore take up that our songs of praise ought to truly celebrate our our understanding of that principle that the truth revolves around the Father and the greatness of his purpose. Now in the time that we have left to us this morning, we’re going to look just briefly at at the story of the Psalms of the House of Asaph.

19. 10:50

    We haven’t got time to investigate these in detail, but we do hope to look at at one or two principles that may be helpful in the development of our story over the course of this coming week. Do you know that there are 12 Psalms in the book of Psalms that are attributed to Asaph?

20. 11:12

    One of them is in Book 2, which is Psalm 50, and all the others, which is Psalm 73 to 83, are found in Book 3.

21. 11:23

    Perhaps because there are 12 Psalms attributed to Asaph, we might conclude that they are representative of all Israel. But the interesting thing about the Psalms of Asaph are this, that when we come to look at their composition, well, I think we we draw several conclusions. The first is this, that the Psalms attributed to the House of Asaph may certainly have been written by Asaph by himself, but on the other hand they may have been written by successive generations of the same house.

22. 11:58

    And the reason why we say that is this, that when we look at those Psalms in greater detail, you’ll find that they appear to spend many centuries of time. They refer to several great epochs in the history of the nation. Now, if those psalms were written by Asaph in his own day, yet reach forward to other periods that as yet lay in the future, those psalms would not have had great relevance in the day of Asaph himself. In fact, some of those psalms would have been an absolute mystery and a puzzle.

23. 12:32

    One of the things about these Psalms is this, that the very writing of these psalms echoes the language and the incident of historical events down through time. The language is fresh and urgent, as if it is written by someone who was really there at that moment of crisis in the history of the nation. And the strange thing about it is this, that of all the times that we believe the Psalms of Asaph refer to, we have on each occasion an historical reference to tell us that why at that very moment of time in the history of the nation, the House of Asaph was spiritually active amongst the children of Israel. Now by the way, don’t forget you’re going to get a summary of all these overheads at the end of the Bible school. So if you’re worried about keeping up with these as I turn them off, please do not fear.

24. 13:29

    You’ll see them all at the end. If you wish to have a copy, let me give you an illustration of what I mean. Now take for example, the 78th Psalm. I believe that the 78th Psalm was probably written at the time of Rehoboam. Now let’s just take, we’re just going to take this particular one as an illustration.

25. 13:52

    And, and because we haven’t got much time, I’m just going to draw a couple of things to your attention out of several Psalms. Well, here’s the first one, Psalm 78. Now a couple of interesting things about the 78th Psalm. You notice this. We’re told in this Psalm that there is considerable judgement against the children of Ephraim.

26. 14:15

    And notice verse 9, verse 8 for connection, that they might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law. Now over the page you notice this in the 67th verse at the end of the Psalm.

27. 14:52

    It says there. Moreover, he refused the Tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion, which he loved. So the first interesting thing to note about Psalm 78 is that there is comment upon the the unfaithfulness of the tribe of Ephraim. And the second strange thing about the Psalm which appears to relate the history of the nation is that it stops abruptly in the in the 70th verse with reference of the ascension of David to the throne.

28. 15:29

    And at that point the stop in the the Psalm stops abruptly in the story of Israel. Now where would be the appropriate circumstance for the writing of a Psalm that celebrates two things that firstly says to Israel David is the chosen man and Judah is the chosen tribe to be ruler over the nation. And the second thing is that Zion is the chosen place, not the tribe of Ephraim, not the capital of Ephraim, and not the king of Ephraim.

29. 16:05

    You see, I think that the moment for the writing of this Psalm was when the Kingdom had divided and the 10 tribes to the north, who cumulatively were known as Ephraim, had separated from Judah and from the House of David and has established a rival Kingdom to the north. And I think that it brought forth this Psalm as a warning to the 10 tribes that they ought not to forget that David and Judah and Zion was God’s proper choice. Now if that’s so, then it may be that Psalm 78 was not composed by Asaph himself, because there is every chance that Asaph may have been, in fact probably was dead by that time. Or you might say, well yes, but he could have been alive. Well, yes, but have a look at this one. If you come to the 83rd Psalm, we have a very famous Psalm about the the enemies of Israel assembled in their confederated strength against the nation.

30. 17:21

    And I just want to show you one circumstance out of Psalm 83 because we haven’t got time to dwell on these. But you know, there’s just one thing about Psalm 83. Firstly it says in verse five that there was a great confederacy and then it proceeds to list all of the nations that were assembled together. In verse 6 it says there were there was the Edomites and the Ishmaelites and the Moabites and so on and so forth. But when we come down to the end of verse 8, it says it summarizes it as follows.

31. 17:49

    It says these all have Holpen, the children of Lot. So who were the leaders of this particular campaign against Israel in the 83rd Psalm? And the answer is the children of Lot and a great confederacy with them. Now who were the children of Lot, Moab and Amon? Only those two Moab and Amon. Now come back to the to the historical record. Because you see in the Second of Chronicles chapter 20, we’re told this in the time of Jehoshaphat. I think this is the very moment when this Psalm was composed. And God willing in our study tomorrow morning we may have occasion to to look at this in a little further detail. But it says in the Second of Chronicles chapter 20 and verse one, it came to pass after this also that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon.

32. 18:55

    Now who’s that? Why, that’s the children of Lot, isn’t it? And with them other beside came against Jehoshaphat to battle. In verse 2 it says there was a great multitude. In verse 12 it says there was a great company. In verse 15 it says there was a great multitude, but the leadership of the confederacy was Aman and Moab. You see this answers exactly to the story of Psalm 83, the children of Lot and the great confederacy of enemies with them who came against Israel on this occasion. Do you think Asaph was still alive in the days of Jehoshaphat?

33. 19:45

    I think not, and yet it says of Psalm 83 at the head of the Psalm that it was a Psalm of Asaph. How so? Come and have a look at this one. In Psalm 76 we’re told in the first verse in Judah is God known? His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his Tabernacle and his dwelling place in Zion. There break he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle.

34. 20:32

    And then the fifth verse says, The stout heart are despoiled. They have slept their sleep, and none of the men of might have found their hands. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and the horse are cast into a dead sleep. Now where was it, brothers and sisters? Or when was it that a great battle was waged outside the city of Jerusalem, where God break the arrow and the bow and the shield and the sword and the battle, so that both the chariot and the man of the chariot were cast into a dead sleep?

35. 21:03

    And the answer is, why the time of Hezekiah when the watchers went out, and on the morning they saw the whole host of the Assyrians strewed across the plain outside, and as the record says, behold, the 185,000 of them were all dead corpses, and they were all in the sleep of death, of which Psalm 76 refers.

36. 21:27

    Some of you may know that over the head of Psalm 76 in the Septuagint translation are these words it says with reference to the Assyrian. So Psalm 76 is a Psalm that celebrates the miraculous overthrow of the host of Sennacherib in the days of Hezekiah.

37. 21:52

    But it’s described as a Psalm of Asaph. Was Asaph still alive? I think not. Come and have a look at this one. The 81st Psalm has a couple of strange features about it that are worth study. Two of the great features about the 81st Psalm of these that there are a number of references that take us back to the book of the Law, and in particular not just to the book of the Law, but to Deuteronomy over and over again. Psalm 81 has a number of allusions to the book of Deuteronomy.

38. 22:40

    Now, not only are there allusions to the book of Deuteronomy, but there are clearly allusions to a special feast day that Psalm 81 celebrates, because we’re told in the third verse it says blow up the trumpet in the new moon. In the time appointed on our solemn feast day, You know, there were two feast days, two special feasts of God that began on the new moon, the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles. But I think that of those two, the indications of Psalm 81, if you read verses 5 and six and seven, it is clearly telling us that the feast that the Psalm has in mind is the feast of Passover.

39. 23:24

    And we won’t go into the to the to the teaching of the Psalm. It’s a it’s a wonderful lament for things that might have been if only the nation had listened to Almighty God. But I ask you this one simple question, brothers and sisters, what king was famous for these two notable incidents in his life? One, the discovery and the reading of the book of the Law. And two, celebration of a special feast of Passover to bring the nation back into covenant with their God. Why, that’s good King Josiah, isn’t it? Of Judah.

40. 24:02

    And yet Psalm 81 is a Psalm of Asaph. Come and have a look at this one. In Psalm 74, we’re told this concerning the circumstances of this particular sun says in the seventh verse, They have cast fire into Thy sanctuary. They have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of Thy name to the ground.

41. 24:50

    When Sennacherib came against Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, did he, did he burn the sanctuary with fire? The answer is no, he didn’t. In fact, there appears to be only one reference to 1 occasion historically where the sanctuary was ever burned with fire, and that’s in the Second of Kings chapter 25. You might like to come and have a look at that. In the Second of Kings chapter 25, we’re told this in the eighth verse.

42. 25:30

    Second of Kings chapter 25 and verse 8. And in the 5th month, on the 7th day of the month, which is the 19th year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzar Aden, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem. And he burnt the House of the Lord, and the King’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire.

43. 26:04

    And I think that Psalm 74 is commemorating the day of that most tragic overthrow of the sanctuary of God by the burning of fire that can only take us to the time of the Babylonian captivity and and beyond. And this Psalm, Psalm 74, is a lamentation of those faithful of Israel who had seen the desecration of the temple by the Babylonian in that day.

44. 26:28

    It takes us into the very realm and time of the captivity. But Psalm 74 is described as a Psalm of Asaph. Now you see what we’re suggesting. What we believe is that when we have a description in the book of Psalms of the Psalms of Asaph, that these psalms were actually composed by successive generations of the same family.

45. 26:59

    These are the Psalms of the House of Asaph, but Asaph was their family name. And so down through the history of the nation, on successive occasions, these Psalms were brought into being by the very circumstances and extremities of the time into which the nation found themselves. And at that moment of time, whenever it might be, one of the sons of Asaph stood up and gave forth a Psalm.

46. 27:28

    Now let me tell you something interesting in terms of why we think that that is so. Do you know this, That if we come to the time of Rehoboam, or to the time of Jehoshaphat, or to the time of Hezekiah, or to the time of Josiah, or to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, on each of those major epochs in the history of the nation we will find an historical reference that tells us why the House of Asaph was spiritually active at that very moment in the history of the nation.

47. 28:02

    Almost, you see, as if we’re being given a clue that these indeed were the Psalms of a family faithful in their successive generations. Do you remember that yesterday, brothers and sisters, we suggested that this family was the most remarkable family that Israel ever saw in their history? I think that this is one of the reasons why we can justly say that this is so.

48. 28:25

    You think of the implication of these Psalms. You see, God revealed His word, did He not, to many faithful men down through time. But if this be true about the writing of these sounds, then what we’re being told is that Almighty God was pleased to grant successive revelations of His mind to the same family down through time.

49. 28:58

    What must that family have been like? That God was pleased to reveal himself over and over again to a father, to a son, to a grandson, to to a great, great grandson. What unique relationship did this family have to Almighty God? Brothers and sisters, they were like this in the history of the nation.

50. 29:22

    And what those Psalms will reveal to us is that that family had the same spirit and the same attitude through many generations. So what was their spirit?

51. 29:36

    Well, it was related to the idea of the ark, of God’s presence amongst his people. That’s what David had asked them to celebrate. Remember in the first of Chronicles 16, he asked them to stand before the ark and to celebrate the presence of that ark in Israel. Well, let me show you what happened.

52. 29:53

    If you come to the first of Chronicles and the 6th chapter, we’re told this in terms of of the circumstances of this family immediately after David had appointed them.

53. 30:16

    In the first of Chronicles chapter 6 and reading from verse 31 says, And these are they whom David said over the service of song in the House of Yahweh. After that the ark had rest and they ministered before the dwelling place of the Tabernacle of the congregation with singing until Solomon had built the House of Yahweh in Jerusalem and then they waited on their office according to their order. Do you know what that verse is telling us, brothers and sisters?

54. 30:58

    Firstly, this. You see, when David came to Jerusalem, he brought the Ark of God to Zion. Does anyone know how long David reigned in Jerusalem? Not in Hebron, but in Jerusalem? Anyone know 33 years, Absolutely correct. Do you know how many years it took before Solomon completed the temple from the beginning of his reign? 11 years we’re told in the first of Kings chapter 6 and verse 38. Now even if we deduct the first 3 or 4 years for the reign of David before he managed to bring the ark of God to Zion, what we can say from the first of Chronicles 6 and verses 31 and 32 is this, that David left the House of Asaph in front of the ark, and there they remained until Solomon had built the house, and then they waited in their successive orders. You see, I believe that that verse is telling us that the House of Asaph sang alone before the ark for 40 years. For 40 years this family sang all by themselves before the ark of God’s presence.

55. 32:10

    And I can tell you, brothers and sisters, that during that time they thought long and hard about what it really represented, and they had a crucial leap in their understanding. They understood, brothers and sisters, that the Ark was only the physical token of a principle, that the Ark symbolized an idea that here between the Caribbean was the manifestation of the divine presence, but that the Father’s physical being was in the heavens and this family, the House of Asaph. They came to understand the paradox of the Ark, and the paradox was theirs.

56. 32:54

    This family learned that it was possible to physically approach the symbol of God’s presence and yet not find him spiritually, but that the converse also was true, that they could spiritually enter into the very presence of God and yet physically be unable to approach the one who dwelled in heaven above. And even though they sang before the ark, which of course they never saw, they learned, brothers and sisters, that whether they were with the ark or whether they were separated from it, that they were so imbued with the majesty of God as to live constantly in His presence. They learned the secret of how to draw near to God in their music of praise.

57. 33:56

    And our music, brothers and sisters, whatever it is that we sing to Almighty God must help us to enter into the presence of God. And that was the secret that this family had in fact discovered. And so the key, the key to this idea was that the catalyst to drawing near to God was the principle of spiritual thought, not emotion, but spiritual thought.

58. 34:24

    Their music was based upon divine principle. So here’s the second of the of the great themes of the music of the of the House of Asaph, which is to do with the idea of the preeminence of principle. The songs of the House of Asaph reveal the genius of Hebrew poetry, which lies in its rhythm of ideas rather than in in the rhythm of words or sounds.

59. 34:52

    And although we haven’t got time to look at it now, the whole of of that Psalm and the first of Chronicles 16 is a declaration of divine principle. Oh, and you know what the keyword is in the first of Chronicles 16. Just come and have a look at this. Here’s the keyword. You see in in the whole Psalm that they used to sing before God.

60. 35:12

    It’s in verse 11. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face. You see the word face in the first of Chronicles 16, verse 11. It’s the word panim. Now some of you may know that the word parnim literally means the presence of God. You see, this is what the act was all about.

61. 35:31

    It was the presence of God amongst his people. Well, there’s there’s that word in the first of Chronicles 16. Now it’s in verse 11. Seek his parnim. It’s in verse 27. Glory and honor are in His parnim. It’s in verse 29. Bring an offering and come into his Panin, the words before him.

62. 35:57

    It’s in verse 30, fear in his parnim, in His presence before him. It’s in verse 33, the trees of the woods will sing out at the presence, the parnim of Yahweh. See, this is the keyword of their Psalm. This Psalm celebrated the truth of the presence of God amongst His people, and this family understood that principle more than any other family. Now, you see, this is important in terms of our own songs of worship, you see, because when we compare therefore, the biblical basis of songs of worship, the songs that the House of Asaph sang, and we look at modern scriptural music or modern religious music, modern Christian music, we find in fact that there is a very great difference between the two. You see, the biblical idea of worship is where the emphasis falls on the words, not the music. The thoughts and ideas expressed are crucial. The music is an adjunct, but only an adjunct to infuse the words with feeling and power.

63. 37:07

    The emphasis of the words, in turn, falls on the noblest ideals and deepest truths found in the Holy Writ. Where thought and sound thus combine, the effect is the quick and heart and mind to the exhilaration of the true worship of the Deity. It’s spiritual principle, brothers and sisters, that will cause us to come into the presence of God in our singing. But modern gospel music is fundamentally a corruption of this principle.

64. 37:41

    Here the emphasis falls on the music and not the words. That being so, the essential elements are melody, rhythm and beat, whilst the words become subservient to the music itself. Feeling is a matter of heart, not mind. The words themselves, whilst not necessarily untrue, are often shallow, repetitious, banal, and disturbingly empty of hearty and vigorous declaration of doctrines which form the very foundation of our love for God. We don’t need, brothers and sisters, the music of the churches, because they don’t know the secret of the House of Asaph, that it is spiritual thought that brings us into the presence of the Father and not merely the beating of emotional hearts unrelated to an appreciation of divine principles.

65. 38:41

    That’s not the heritage that we ought to be following. Some of you may have seen this article before, but it’s an intensely interesting one if I can just but find it.

66. 38:54

    It’s an article written by a professor of university here in Kentucky about 3 or 4 years ago, and he said this. So this is a non Christadelphian. He said hymnody was an important part of Christadelphianism from its very beginning, and along with the journal the Christadelphian gave independent ecclesias a broader fellowship. Hymns reflected the essential doctrines and principles of their faith. These principles were anti trinitarianism. They also believed that God would establish his Kingdom on earth through the return of Jesus to reign 1000 years in Jerusalem.

67. 39:35

    Considering the scope of hymnic literature by Christadelphians, we might conclude that few branches of Christianity can claim such a close relationship between hymn writing and their own religious development. Such a high percentage of hymnists in their membership. As the hymns become better known, this close relationship will reveal that the heritage and faith of Christadelphians has been enhanced through a strong emphasis on hymnody from their beginnings to the present day. Do you know what that article was saying, brothers and sisters?

68. 40:14

    It’s saying that the hymns that we sing from our Christadelphian hymn book express the truths we believe and the doctrines we understand, and that that those hymns have helped us to preserve the heritage of the faith that we have. We ought to treasure that. We ought to never underestimate the power and the majesty of those hymns to help us enter into the presence of God. And we ought to be wary of modern gospel music which does not illustrate those principles of the truth. Just by way of illustration.

69. 40:50

    Let me give you one of those by way of conclusion. This is a modern hymn on the atonement to modern Christian peace. See my Jesus on the cross, the people crying, looking on a man who’d think that such a tragedy. But what the world could not see is that when they nailed them to that tree, it broke the chains of sin and set me free.

70. 41:17

    Love grew where the blood fell. Flowers of hope sprang up for men in misery. Let me tell you, sin died when the blood fell. Oh, I’m so glad His precious blood covers me. Thorns of violence, thorns of hate were growing wildly. And through the pain that sin had caused, you know, it was so very plain to see.

71. 41:39

    But when the blood came streaming down the cross, when my Savior bled and died, it broke the chains of sin, and he set me free. Love grew. When the blood fell, those flowers of hope sprang up for men in misery. Oh, sin died when the blood fell. Oh, I’m so glad His precious blood covers me now. Let me tell you just a couple of interesting statistics about that particular piece.

72. 42:14

    This is a hymn about the Atonement. Guess how many times God has mentioned in the hymn answer? Never. Guess how many times the Lord Jesus Christ is mentioned in the hymn? Answer? 6 times. Guess how many times I’m mentioned in the hymn? Why 9 times? After all, we should get our priorities right, And the whole focus of this hymn is what Christ can do for me, that he set me free.

73. 42:52

    Oh, I’m so glad what’s been done for me. He paid the price and I’m free. That’s the doctrine of substitution, isn’t it? You know what’s really sad about that, Brothers and sisters? That’s on a Christadelphian CD.

74. 43:13

    That’s not the heritage of the House of Asaph. That’s not divine principle taking us into the presence of the Father. We won’t draw near to God with hymns that are very emotional but lack the substance of divine truth. Now compare that with this peace that we know and love and sing heartily all around the ecclesial world, and just look at the difference.

75. 43:44

    We praise the heavenly Father, we thank the Lord, that still the word of Thy salvation works out Thy sovereign will. Or where’s the emphasis of this hymn but on the majesty of the purpose of the Father being fulfilled. A hymn, brothers and sisters, that saturated in its successive verses with scriptural illusions. Verse one tells us that the sovereign majesty of God’s purpose has touched us, that we might manifest in both now and in the age to come. Verse 2 says we need to practice the positive and negative aspects of the atonement in our own lives, death to the flesh and life to the spirit.

76. 44:27

    Verse 3 says that the representative nature of our Lord’s offering means that we must identify with him fully to share in the victory issue. Here is a hymn that celebrates what we really we believe about the atonement. No other Christian Church understands the atonement as we do. Brothers and sisters, why would we want the hymns of the churches to celebrate this?

77. 44:51

    We have our own. Who wrote that hymn? By the way, Brother Charles Ladson is expressive of the truth. And when I sing that hymn, I come into the presence of God. Now this family, brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, understood that secret. And God willing, in our subsequent studies, we will try to understand how they imparted that secret to their family.