In session 2, the progression of thought will include questions such as, Do we have or even need a theology of music? Is music neutral? How are form and content related? Can a music style communicate a worldview? Should form be compatible with content or does that matter? Did God give us rock and roll?

If you'd open your Bibles with me this morning please to 1 Corinthians 14. The first Thistle to the Corinthians, chapter 14. I don't know how many of you were here yesterday or were not, But I'm not doing strict exposition, and I don't want to give you the impression that I am. I've got a very large subject with a vast amount of information, And I've just been working through these heads as systematically as I can. I hope that you'll be able to follow some coherence with me here.

That being said, let's stand together and read the Word of God. First Corinthians chapter 14, We're going to read verses 6, 7, and 8 this morning. Let us give our attention to the inspired and infallible Word. Now brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you? Except I shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine.

And even things without life, giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, Who shall prepare himself to the battle? Amen. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his good word. Let's unite our hearts in prayer.

Righteous and holy Father, how I praise and thank thee for the mercy of another day. I thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast granted us yet another day to walk with Jesus Christ, to know His blessed name, to know Thy gospel of grace, to know that by faith in Him our sins are washed away, that in His resurrection we have life and we have it more abundantly. Oh, how we praise and bless Thee, Lord. I thank Thee for the saints that Thou hast brought here this morning. I pray that Thou wouldst encourage their hearts.

Father, I pray that Thy mighty Spirit would be here. All of this is in vain if Thy Spirit does not come and grant us understanding. Please, O righteous God, may we know Thy blessed presence. Thou dost love Thy children, Lord. Feed them, bless them, encourage them.

And I ask it all that Christ would be exalted. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. Now we have taken up the subject of music and worship.

In our previous session, we considered the following things. Number one, God commands us to worship Him with music. This raised the question, how do we know what music pleases Him? This brought us to our first challenges. The first challenge is the fact that the bible does not define music anywhere in the sacred text the second challenges the fact that the scriptures do not promote or prohibit any particular style of music that makes this discussion extremely difficult.

But it's not impossible. So then, with that in mind, what is our authority regarding this subject? What is our authority regarding music? And our answer to that is the Word of God. A proper understanding of the sufficiency of scripture will guide us in this matter.

And when we then, or we then considered a very brief overview of music in the Bible. And this made very clear that music can be a part of our daily lives as the children of God, but most especially in the corporate worship. Two questions arise from this. What is worship? What is music?

Music or worship is our spiritual response to God arising from the power of the Holy Spirit informed by the word of God. Worship is our spiritual response to God, arising from the power of the Holy Spirit and informed by God's word. Music is sound or tones ordered in time. We then made some qualifications. Number one, music is the product of creative intelligence.

Humans do this. We're the only ones that compose and make music. Because men and women are created in the image of God, we have the ability to create musical instruments and to compose music. We also considered that music is aesthetic. It is beautiful.

Scripture reveals to us that God is beautiful, And human beauty and the human capacity for creating and responding to beauty arises from and reflects our Creator. Number three, music is expressive. Because we are created in the image of God and have creative intelligence, one human being can express himself or herself in musical form to another human being that has the same capabilities. And finally, we consider that Music affects us. Music affects us.

Now, we don't really need scientists to tell us that. We spent a good bit of time backing all of that up yesterday with scientific evidence, just so you know we're not making it up. But we all know this. Intrinsically. We know music touches us.

It creeps down into the very deepest parts of who and what we are, and it touches us. And we respond. It's different with different people. We don't all respond the same way. We certainly don't respond to the same things.

Some of us hate one style of music and appreciate another. We can put all the buts and what ifs and all of that in there, but the bottom line is every one of us knows the touch of music and that it's powerful. And now science has spent millions and millions of dollars giving us really interesting information as to all of the stuff that goes on. I mean, our body, our brain starts dumping out chemicals into the body. It's just an amazing process.

Music touches us, and it's something that can even be measured on sensitive instruments. So with that in mind, we came to the end of yesterday's study together learning that music does not control us. Music affects us music powerfully influences us but it doesn't control us we can resist its power it doesn't drag is kicking in screaming you know into realms of ecstasy or uh... Agony uh... It we can go I don't want to listen to this, and leave.

We can do that. Now we take up our next message. Can we use any form of music in the formal worship of God? Again, if you were not with us, we're not talking about music in general. I can't answer all my questions about music in general or even music in worship but that's a little narrower subject and I can deal with a bit better and I meant to say this yesterday and I didn't I certainly should have and it it caught up with me right after the message.

I'm not going to tell you who you can listen to or who you can't listen to. I'm not going to make a list for you, okay? You need to work that out with the Lord, But you need to take biblical principles to do that. And that's what I'm trying to do. I could surely miss something and say, no, don't listen to them and find out later, oh, that was all right.

So I'm not your conscience, but I do want to inform your conscience. I want to charge your conscience with the Word of God and And all of us to think about this very very seriously Because I think most of us are looking out at what's happening in American Christianity And we're stunned and appalled beyond words If you're attracted to what you're seeing out there, I would challenge you to put your head in the Bible, turn all your media off, all your digital stuff, and get in the scriptures for about six months. So — and I don't mean that to be hateful, I say that with great grief. My generation helped create what's out there, so I say that with a real sense of responsibility. Now, having said all that, can we use any form of music in the formal worship of God?

And I can tell you immediately that I believe the answer is no. I do not believe that rock and roll, most forms of pop, metal, blues, jazz, or hip hop and their sub-genres are appropriate styles for worship music. Now, if that statement turned you off, I would just encourage you to try to stay tuned for the rest of the period and just think this through with me. One of the reasons this is long is because I've spent a great deal of time trying to put together how we get to certain conclusions. And I'm hoping that some of you are picking up on that as well as just hearing my yeas and nays.

So why do I think these things are not appropriate for the corporate worship of God? Remember the context, not general music, the corporate worship of Almighty God. We want to unfold that here building upon what we talked about yesterday. I hope with all of my heart that you were here. If you weren't, some of this may not be as clear or cogent, but I did try to give a review of the primary points that we hit, and I hope that that at least laid some foundational work for you.

So I want to begin with a question. We've been laying out all of our headings basically as questions. And the first question this morning is is music a language this is important to the argument is music a language we hear that music is often called a language this like everything else about music is hotly debated and Musicologist Robert Greenberg says that music is the ultimate language. That's an astonishing statement. That music is the ultimate language.

Listen to his choice of words. A language in which our hard-wired predisposition to use successions of sounds to communicate is exaggerated, intensified, and codified into a sonic experience capable of infinitely more expressive nuance than mere words alone. A sonic experience that can plumb the sublime and in doing so, reveal profound truths. Now I have very very deep respect for Dr. Greenberg however I strongly disagree that music alone can reveal profound truth.

Truth can only be conveyed by propositions. That's another discussion. But you don't feel truth. You process truth. Okay?

So I don't agree with him, but I, because of the great respect I do have for him, I wanted you to hear that this is what musicologists, philosophers, and scientists are saying. At one time music wasn't considered that big a deal. Now, especially for in evolutionary circles, that's the idea, is that we've been hardwired because they can't account for music in an evolutionary worldview. It's not something adaptive. It doesn't help you eat, it doesn't save your life.

You don't need it. You don't need music. Contrary to the way some of us feel, you don't need music. You can live without it. So evolution is struggling very hard, especially with all of its scientific gadgets, to try to figure out how it is that we're hard-wired to this thing, because Every single culture and every tribe, everywhere that we've ever discovered, even when they don't have art and when they don't have anything else, they always have music.

They always have music. So they figured that somehow it's just wired into our disposition. But with that in mind, the point is to say that philosophers, musicologists, and many others believe that music, apart from lyrics, is language. Music and language are similar in some ways. Both language and music are means of human communication.

And again, I want to remind you, that is why I'm making part of the case that I am. Human Communication is not a neutral thing. The same part of the brain processes both music and language, and for a good reason. They are similar means of communication. Not identical, but similar.

Number one, both show rhythm, tempo, and anticipation. In fact, you've probably known some people that have had very sing-songy voices. You can listen to them, and it's quite musical to hear them talk. And there are certain rhythms and there are certain stops and there are pauses and they have lags. It's very much like music.

Number two, both can be written and read. We notate words with symbols called letters, and we notate tones with dots called notes. Both can be generated internally. We think in words. You sit and think about things you're going to say you can here yourself sometimes you think in terms of words some of us uh...

Uh... Perhaps a bit more prick picturesque than others but the fact is we we generally tend to think in words and it's the same thing. All of a sudden you can be sitting there and a lovely melody comes to your mind, wafts through your mind. What's even more remarkable is for composers who wake up in the morning sometimes and all of a sudden there's a symphony just waiting in their minds. All right, it can be internally generated.

And four, both are symbolic ways of communicating. Symbolic ways of communicating. Now we'll talk about music symbolism a little bit later. So there are real similarities and there are more than these, but we're going to press on. Paul, the apostle Paul, saw a similarity between music and language.

That is the passage that we just read. As we saw in our session yesterday, the Apostle Paul compares language and music in 1 Corinthians 14, verses 6 through 8. His main theme is this. Those who speak in tongues without an interpretation cannot edify God's people. No one benefits from something that he cannot understand.

Paul said, now brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you except I shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine? His point is this. If he came to the Corinthians babbling in a language they did not understand, it would do them no good. On the other hand, if he came bringing a revelation, most likely the gospel, or prophecy, or teaching in clear language, it would do them spiritual good. Paul then made a comparison between language and music.

And even things without life, giving sound whether pipe or harp, a pipe isn't alive, It's not a living thing, a harp. Except they give a distinction in the sounds. How shall it be known what is piped or harped. God's people are edified only when they understand what's being said. So to illustrate his point, he alludes to music.

Now this tells us something about the way Paul understood music. We define music as sound ordered in time. That's a minimalistic definition but that's our working definition. By distinction in the sounds, Paul means an identifiable pattern of tones. Our brain processes it.

And it points to melody, to rhythm, to time, to timbre, distinction in the tones. It points to these elements of music. An instrumental voice without intervals, without melody, is unrecognizable noise, not music. It is clear that Paul believed that for someone to profit from hearing music it would have to be sound ordered in time he might not have used the precise terminology but each point of the definition that we've given is here in what he alludes to. When a human mind directs tones, orders melody, and defines time, another human mind can process this and receive meaning.

There is meaning in music without lyrics and it can be good or bad. Paul went on to say if the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battle." Now here he's not talking about a melody as such, but he is talking about a coded sound. The blasting on the trumpet that gives the signal. In this analogy Paul illustrates his point with the trumpet or a bugle sounding a military signal. The word uncertain means indistinct, unrecognizable.

Certain identifiable blasts of the trumpet mean Prepare for battle, attack, retreat. You need to know those codes, right? But you can know the codes and if you don't get a certain sound, it won't do you any good. This is Paul's theme all the way through his argument, but we're just picking out the music part for our study. So these blasts of the trumpet are understandable coded, or ordered codes that speaks.

The mind understands and processes the signal, and the soldier prepares for battle. A random garbled noise rather than clear notes will not alert the soldiers. That's the idea. So the point of all of this is that scripture affirms a similarity between music and language, which science is now studying with all its might human voices or musical instruments in the hands of a human being can and do produce sounds ordered in time that communicate meaning. Music is not a propositional language That's our next thought.

Music is not propositional language. Now, while we refer to music as a language, we do not mean that it communicates in the way words do. Verbal communication involves propositions, truth statements that can be evaluated. If I were to say, I'm wearing a green suit, You can evaluate that statement as true or false. Verbal communication.

But a musical piece without lyrics cannot give us the content, say, of the Lord's prayer. Although, it might be able to capture and convey something of the majesty, serenity, beauty, and humility of that occasion. Likewise, music cannot communicate something like, I would like to buy a new iPad with retina display. You don't get that from music. So music doesn't communicate that way.

Furthermore, we know that language is not merely a collection of syllables, randomly joined together. There is a sequence and there's an order when we speak to someone and we've learned to discern those codes and we can communicate with each other. Music is not merely a collection of sounds randomly joined together. Once again, it is the product of creative intelligence and it communicates. It is expressive.

Music is the expression of a human heart as it organizes, tones, rhythm, and all the rest. And our brains pick it up, process it, translate it, and we get meaning. Music expresses emotion and hearers respond to it monroe stearns said if the existence of music in the world needs any justification then that justification is the fact that music expresses what words cannot communicate, the essences of the universal emotions of mankind. Now that captures what we're talking about. Verbal communication and musical communication are both powerful ways of communicating to other human beings they stimulate the same parts of the brain as is is the brain is trying to take it all in.

And I don't think any of us here thinks that our words are neutral. Do we? I want you to think about that for a minute. So next question. How does music communicate emotions to us?

It's just fascinating reading, and I don't have time to give you all the stuff that would probably put most of you to sleep. But it's really interesting stuff. Music is a language of symbols that represents feeling and moods by reproducing them in sound. When we say symbols, we mean something that represents something else. We all know what a symbol is at some time or another, but it's a little hard for us to think of music in symbols.

But the point is that music represents emotion. It is symbolic in that sense. We may say that the eagle is the symbol of the United States. A sheriff's badge is a symbol of his authority. When we speak of music as a symbol, we mean music represents feelings and moods.

When we listen to music, our brain makes connections between the sounds and the emotions that those sounds represent. And that's why you can listen to something and say, oh, that sounds sad. That's why your body picks it up and reads it that way. How does music represent an emotion like sadness? Can't see it, right?

We have all been sad and We have watched others when they were sad. They usually move slowly and speak softly. Music can represent sadness with slow rhythm and soft tones. It is the same thing with anger. Angry people can be loud, intense, hasty, and explosive.

Music can represent anger with loud, abrasive, harsh tones, abrupt, sudden rhythm. Harsh tones abrupt sudden rhythm music can represent happiness with a fast and lively pace and with a little increased volume most people can recognize these qualities and I've seen tested that we have a a group of people sitting there and that they will player a particular person will play uh... Portion of a piece and say all right now write down you know your emotion as you hear this and it is just astonishing how most people say the same thing what are we talking about a language that communicates by symbol it speaks to us not verbally, but it represents emotions, feelings, mood. So when we say that music is symbolic, we mean that it represents emotions by reproducing them with sounds. In fact, it might even be more helpful to say that music mimics emotion.

Now, we know that music can, not always, but it can powerfully move our emotions, change our moods, and trigger powerful feelings. If this is the case, and it is, Is music neutral? Is music neutral? Now, full disclosure here. I believe that this is the wrong question.

I actually believe this is the wrong question. One of the most common arguments that we hear today when discussing rock and metal and hip-hop and all of that in worship is this. Musical styles are neutral. They are amoral. The only thing that carries morality is lyrics.

How many of you have heard that argument? Okay, how many of you have made that argument? Really? I thought there'd have been more than that. Must be some conservative people in here.

So with this in mind, Christians then use every style of music in worship. The Normal reply from those who disagree with this is usually an attempt to prove then that music is moral. Now I've got to try to figure out how to prove to them that it's moral. And I think they're both talking past each other with the wrong question. Perhaps it's better for us not to think of music in terms of being neutral or moral.

As we said yesterday, because we are created in the image of God, human beings are moral, but things are not moral. Chairs are not moral. A guitar is not moral. A note you play from a guitar, the note itself is not moral things are not moral we say you know this is wicked this is evil and a lot of times we apply it to stuff that it's not the case I mean you don't think of the argument about guns and the conservatives say guns are it's all depends on who's got the gun. Got nothing to do with the gun itself.

It's just a gun. Well, things are not evil. People are evil. You and I came into this world wicked. So arguing about whether the note or whether the drumbeat is moral or amoral, I think, is running down the wrong road.

Notes are not moral. A drumbeat is not moral, but that's not the end of the argument. That's where the argument usually ends. Style is neutral. Case closed.

We're not arguing anymore. And I would say, no, I disagree with that. The heart expresses emotions with notes, with melodies, with drum beats that become the extension of that heart. Whether we will agree that a rhythm is neutral or moral or not, the expression and the experience of music is moral because it is coming from a moral being to another moral being for the express purpose of communicating. So we must ask, can music communicate in a way that stirs up sinful passions in its hearers?

And the answer is yes. It can stir up good things and it can stir up wicked things. We are moral beings that communicate emotions and moods by the symbols of music, and that is a moral experience. So in light of this, how are form and content related? Form and content, very important.

When we say form and content, we mean the style of the music we use to convey the lyrical content of the song. Lyrics communicate what we're saying. The style communicates how we're saying it. We all know this with body language, but we all know this if you're married. You know that you can say something, it's absolutely clear in your mind.

You know exactly what you meant by it. You weren't looking in the mirror to check your face. You didn't know exactly what kind of look you had on your face. But the person that was listening to you saw that look and it changed everything that you thought you were saying. Anybody had that experience?

I'm married to a Cajun. I know this experience. And she is the finest woman in the world. Now again, I want us to be able to get a hold of this because we're building towards something and I trust you're kind of beginning to feel that ooching closer to it. The whole idea is that we know that we can take exactly the same words how about something is innocuous as hello there hello there you just you just had a context it sounds like I'm trying to get someone's attention at a distance hello there and sometimes up close you're seeing a friend a family member is lovely you know hello there now I'm a little tired.

Now, exactly the same two words each time, yes? It was all the same lyrics. But the context changed what was being communicated. It is the same thing with music I love Jesus I love Jesus I mean that's a big difference right and what are we saying with each one but that's being screamed out, pulpit after pulpit, platform after platform. What are we saying to people?

Music, in the experience of it is a moral thing because we are giving information. And I think everybody understands why I'm making this point. One of the other arguments that we regularly hear, and I've heard it for years, is music is neutral. The only thing that carries morality is the lyrics. And while I understand the appeal and I know why someone usually makes this argument, I don't believe that it's a cogent argument.

And I think that if we all really sat down and tried to think that through, we would realize that that's a pretty flimsy argument. So form and content are very, very, very important. How we say something contributes to our communication and can produce powerful reactions and passions in the hearer. Advocates of rock, pop, and hip-hop worship say that style does not matter. All that matters is the lyrics.

And I just don't think that they can really maintain that if they would sit down and think about this. But this is why we have to make these long ardent and perhaps arduous arguments, is the fact that, yes, this is a language. What kind of language is it? It's a language of emotions. It's coming from a human heart.

We have to think these things through and realize, wait, there's more to this than just the issue of neutral styles. And by the way, I have no one in mind, I'm not trying to pick on anybody in any of these things. I've wrestled with all these issues. I'm not angry with anybody. But I am troubled by what I see.

And I think there are some that are in the movement that are actually beginning to realize that this is not going in the right direction. Well, that's another thought. So what I would like for us now to take our minds back to May 19, 1962, just to drive the point home a little bit more. Madison Square Garden, Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe put to rest the idea that form and content do not matter.

On the occasion of the 45th birthday celebration of then-President John F. Kennedy, Monroe was the reigning sex symbol in our country. She wore a sheer dress made of flesh-colored fabric that was so tight-fitting she was sewn into it. She then sang the traditional happy birthday to you, to the President of the United States. She panted.

She aspirated. With a very sensuous voice. And she was able to take an innocent child's song and turn it into one of the most astonishing displays of seductive flirtation in American history. If you've never seen it, don't recommend that you see it, but if you've ever seen it, you understand what I'm talking about. Style matters because it's the context of what you're saying.

In his book, Running with the Devil, rock historian Robert Walser says, Before any lyrics can be comprehended, before harmony or rhythmic patterns are established, timbre instantly signals genre and effect. What's he saying? The music is more important in the communication than the words. Now this is a rock historian. It's not coming from the cramped and fevered mind of a fundamentalist back into a corner trying to come up with an argument against the music he doesn't like.

No. This guy loves rock and roll. He says, you know what sets it off? It's the music. Now, how is it that lost people get this and professing Christians don't?

In 1995, Pixar Animation and Disney released Toy Story. How many of you have seen that? Okay. Probably everyone here has, just about. Can anyone remember the music that played in the background every time the evil next-door neighbor Sid entered the scene?

Heavy metal with no lyrics and he was evil. You don't have to have lyrics. Music communicates things. Now I understand there's all types of arguments about association and those things, and some of them are legitimate, some of them are not. The point is this.

In our heart of hearts, most of us understand when we hear something and we're kind of troubled by it there's probably a good reason for it. Now it could be in some circumstances we're just hearing something new it's it's not in the context of things that we hear. If you've ever heard Gamelan music, I mean, it's wow. It is a different vibe altogether. Many people would be tempted to say that's not music, but it's a very cultural thing.

So yeah, there's a lot of different things. Nonetheless, we know the codes in our culture, and those codes speak to us, and we're the ones that we're dealing with right now. Well, so I trust everyone begins to understand then that music is a language of emotions because it represents and conveys feelings and moods, it communicates and stirs up wicked passions. It can. I said it can encourage us and lift our hearts.

Biblical music must learn to match the lyrical content with its expression of emotion biblical music must learn to match the lyrical content with its expression of emotion then then the next question is this is all music good is all music good the Christian rockers creed says we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all music was created equal, that No instrument or style of music is in itself evil, that the diversity of music expression which flows forth from man is but one evidence of the boundless creativity of our Heavenly Father." Now personally, I just kind of like the way that statement sounds. I love for people to exalt God and his glorious creation and the things that he does through me, and that's a good thing, and it's a good thing to be thinking about. But I don't think this is a good argument either. Whether one realizes it or not, this implies a theological and a philosophical statement that contradicts the Bible. To say that God created every style of music, I believe, is mistaken and confusion.

The statement, all music was created equal and is, but one evidence of the boundless creativity of our Heavenly Father is problematic. Here's why. It makes God the creator of every music style. A long time ago, Petra sang, God gave rock and roll to you, put it in the soul of everyone. If you love the sound, then don't forget the source.

But this is a mistaken assumption that confuses man's ability to create music with the music itself. It does not follow that God is pleased with every single thing men create. Let me try to give you an example of that. God has created all people in his image and he's given some the ability to create music. Alright?

He's also given all men the ability to create words. We come up with words, that's why the dictionary is always being updated, but this does not mean that every word he creates is good, edifying, useful. Do we understand the difference between God giving us the ability to do this? It is a God-given gift to compose and saying that God made all this. That makes him responsible for, imagine someone saying, ah, here's this beautiful piece of marble.

I'm going to carve it. And he makes something utterly obscene and say, look what God did. Art is from God, it's all good, here it is. Obscene, pornographic. Well of course not.

You shape that like that and it's that way with music. I don't believe that we can say God gave rock and roll to you any more than we can say God gave filthy four-letter words to you. God has given the ability and we must use it righteously. So now we want to consider a brief history of rock and roll. As with our scriptural survey of music, We can only do the very briefest.

I will not be able to do justice, and I'm already looking at time here, so let me run through this. The term rocking and rolling originally described a ship rocking fore and aft and rolling side to side on the ocean. By the time it was applied to the music which bears its name most of you probably know it was a euphemism for fornication. When you're saying rock and roll you are saying fornication. That's what they intended it to mean, because that's what was on their minds, and that's what the music helped to liberate.

Two popular myths obscure the history of rock music. The first myth is that rock began when Elvis Presley suddenly appeared on the scene, obscenely shaking his hips and making the girls swoon. The other myth is that blacks created rock and roll, and whites stole it from them and just commercialized it. Both myths have enough truth in them to satisfy those who don't look past the surface. However, rock and roll music was born after more than a century of musical cross-pollination between blacks and whites.

Furthermore, Jews played an early important role in producing songwriting, talent cultivating, and record making for rock and roll. With a rich musical heritage, rock music was a cultural evolution rooted in slavery. Music was an important part of the slave's life and it helped them express their emotion in terms of their own culture while experiencing the awful realities of slavery. They began to assimilate other forms of music around them. It was a syncretistic blend of European and African musical and cultural forms.

Former Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart deeply studied the roots of rock's heritage. He's written a number of books. And following a trip to Africa, he said, It was my first exposure to the mother rhythms from West Africa that later mutated into my tradition, becoming rock and roll. Jazz, blues, gospel, western swing, rhythm and blues, and jump blues all sprang up after World War II. Now these musical styles began kind of a give and take of many cultural backgrounds, including German, Irish, loads of folks.

And musical blending was taking place all over the country at the time. Country musicians included blues tunes into their repertoires. Delta blues musicians began using electric guitars to adapt to playing in the city. Jazz orchestras were adding blues vocals. Furthermore, the original blues singers rejected Christianity outright, seeing it a part of a hostile white Christianity.

There's been much debate over the story of the Delta Blues man, Robert Johnson, who sold his soul to the devil, or That he sold his soul to the devil. That's the debated point. Whether he did or not, rock and roll is full of legends. That may just be one of them. His songs like Me and the Devil do give a little credence to those things.

Now again, it may just be hype. But the fact of the matter is, what we're seeing in the milieu is a pot of flesh. Some believe that the very first rock and roll record was recorded December 28, 1947 by Wynony Harris. The song was Good Rockin' Tonight. It was a big hit.

Good rockin' tonight was a euphemism for partying and fornication. Rock historian James Miller said, when Harris sang his pathbreaking song, he was simply doing what he had done for years, making music that would lift listeners up and put people into motion and let them dance the night away. Miller continues, at the time he recorded Good Rockin' tonight, he was already a minor legend. Renowned for his fast living and hard drinking, he'd been building up a reputation as one of the wildest black showmen of his day. The song fits him well.

And it was meant to. He was joyfully expressing his life. Roy Brown who wrote the song said but now good rockin' tonight, you know what that means I had my mind on this girl listen man I wrote them kind of songs I was a dirty cat. Three cities were ahead of the game when it came to the new music, and that was New Orleans, Chicago, and Memphis. Some would claim that Rock at 88 by Ike Turner was the first rock and roll record.

You can read lots of books about rock and roll to find out who the first was. It's like everything else, lots of arguments. But 88, again, was a huge hit. It was produced by a man named Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee, 1951. Then in 1952, Bill Haley and the Comets had a huge hit with Rock Around the Clock.

Back in Memphis, Sam Phillips had been telling his friends that if he could just find a white man that could sing like a black man, he would make them both rich. He found him. His name was Elvis Presley. 1954, Presley's first single for Sun Records was the culmination of 200 years of musical cross-pollination. While it looks to the public and it makes a good promo that someone just appeared overnight and hears new music, it had been working its way up for quite some time.

Just finally there was a flash point. Now Phillips went on to start a man named Howling Wolf. That'll mean something to some of you, to others, that's perhaps an amusing name. Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Ike Turner, they got their first opportunities to record with Sam Phillips.

I mean, he's a big chunk of American history. But here's what we need to get a hold of. When Elvis hit, America changed. History changed. Now, it didn't change fully through every person overnight.

It wasn't anything like that. But there was something new here. As a matter of fact, history books are being written right now that says you cannot write a history book without putting a prominent place to the Beatles because when they came on the scene they changed the way things were. Music has been changing us. Now there's a lot of things involved in all this, I understand that.

Marketing, hype, there's tons of stuff with this but lying at the heart of it is the music. And the music was their chosen vehicle for expressing their lives of partying and fun and fornication. It was a suitable expression of their wicked hearts. Now to take that and nip out the lyrics and say, now we're going to sprinkle some Jesus in here is a big step. That's what we've been doing now for about 30 years.

Now we could go on. I'm going to jump out of my history and run a little ahead to it because I do want to finish here on time. But let me just say, these genres of music were written by men with sinful hearts. Now again, when I say this, I don't have someone in mind and I'm not trying to attack them personally. What I want you to understand is that they weren't bothered by what they were doing.

They were expressing themselves. They were expressing their lives and they chose vehicles that expressed it. Good Rocking Tonight was not to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb. There's a reason for it. Mary Had a Little Lamb isn't a fit vehicle.

Now someone might want to shock everyone and try it that way but that's a perversion of the form and content. I hope you understand that. So to express their sinful desires, their sinful lives, this is what it was. All you have to do is read the books and I don't recommend it. You can read interviews with these guys and what they were saying is, man, we were listening to rhythm and blues, we were listening to rock and roll, and we were learning about sex.

Mom and Dad didn't talk to us. They had their ears up against the radio, under their beds at night, or under the covers in bed. From its beginning to the present, from three-chord rock to the most elaborate and gifted musicians and their styles, Sex, drugs, and rock and roll is what this music is about. And I would simply put it to you this way. Do the Christians that want to support and play this music look more like the real rock and rollers?

Or you legalistic straight looking people? Who do they look like. I mean it's a package. Who's being influenced? And in fact to learn your chops you've got to listen to the guys who are spewing out their anti-Christ hatred.

That troubles me. The Apostle John said, love not the world. Now we could sit down and we could have some real arguments about what the word world means but I can say to you if rock and roll and its ethic is not the world I don't know that we can find a definition love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world yeah I wrote this song had this girl in my mind good rockin tonight if that is not the world what is it and it is not of the father but it is of the world and the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever brethren we've been taking these long chunks and I realize you've been very patient. You've had to listen through a lot of material. I appreciate your kindness.

Let me close for this session by saying, in light of what we've been considering, music is a language of the emotions and an expression of the human heart. It is therefore subject to the pollution of original and actual sin. Composing or hearing music is not an amoral or neutral experience. Let us then realize that some styles and their intended expressions – rock, blues, metal, and others – are not fitting for the worship of the Most High, thrice holy God. I will conclude our thoughts in the next message, God willing.

But let us look then to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith and live. Father we pray with all of our hearts that thou wouldst grant much grace. I am a feeble man. And Father, likely to be holes in many of the things that I've said, I pray that your people will think and that they will go to the scriptures, passages we've considered, arguments that have been set forth, and honestly think them through. Father, we don't want a knee-jerk reaction.

We don't want to say we just don't like something. You're not interested in that. Help us to examine things by scripture and grant us much light. I thank Thee for the patience of Thy dear people this early hour to go through so much information. Please grant them much grace and encourage them in this day.

And O righteous Father, may all that we say and do bring glory and honor to Thee. In Jesus' name, Amen. In your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org. You