Now Performing: The Original Gospel Choir

In other words, Paul is saying here that the sound of the gospel has been vibrating around the world for the instrumentation of creation. Did you hear it? Did you see the lyrics of God in the sky? And in his musical masterpiece of creation, this collection of voices, this grand gospel choir called creation, it's now performing. You go out there and it's playing.

It plays day after day and night on tonight. Can you hear it? What's the most beautiful thing you've ever encountered in nature? Where's the most beautiful place you've ever been? God designed his creation with purpose. When we look at it, we're supposed to marvel at it.

It points to him. We're supposed to look at God's creation and realize that there's a wonderful creator. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen's gonna explore this. We're looking at what the Apostle Paul taught concerning the lessons we learned from creation. We're in Romans 10 today and Stephen called this message, now performing the original gospel choir. Has it ever occurred to you that when we sing together, we're joining in a practice that has been around since before the time actually began? In fact, Job informs us that when God laid the cornerstone of the universe and the foundations of his creation that the morning stars, a reference to the angels, sang together.

Job 38, 6 to 7. This was the original gospel choir. If you can imagine the sounds of these, this created host before the worlds were created, God created them first as if it were to sing praise while the universe was being brought into being. What an amazing choir that must have been, a choir of millions of angels singing praise to God.

Man, I would have loved to have been there, would have loved to have seen that, would have loved to have sung along. Revelation informs us that at the new creation, the new heaven and the new earth, this great host will again assemble and we will be with them. We will be singing praise to God in that great choir. All we're doing here is tuning up.

Some of us need more tuning than others, but we're just tuning up, getting ready for the great day. We're singing here in praise and worship to God in view, of course, of what God is doing in our own lives. And music has a tremendous impact in our lives and can have a great impact in the church as well. Martin Luther, the reformer, once said that sacred music is the handmaiden of theology.

Powerful statement. Sacred music is the handmaiden of theology. No wonder he wrote hymns for his congregation to sing and we still sing some of them to this day. It's no surprise that a Jesuit priest would make this comment in the 16th century complaining about the lingering effects of Martin Luther's reformation within the church and ultimately it led outside the church. His complaint is enlightening. He said this, and I quote, Luther has stolen away more people with his hymns than with all his sermons.

Powerful statement. The power of music to soothe and to convict, to challenge, to encourage, to bring about change in the believer is impossible to fully estimate. Even in the secular world, the power of music is very obvious. Have you ever watched a television commercial without music? One medical doctor was trying to help some of his patients and he came up with this conclusion.

He said half an hour of music produced in many of my patients the same effect as 10 milligrams of Valium. Do you see that? Truly, don't you? In 1 Samuel 16, David is brought in with his harp. Saul is depressed.

He is discouraged and David would play his harp and the text would say he would become refreshed and well and the distressing spirit would depart from Saul. So a question would be, are you troubled? Maybe this is a brief moment in your week where you seem to have your spirit lifted.

Is it any coincidence that it would be related to music? Are you anxious throughout the week? Are you troubled? Are you distracted? Are you tempted? Why leave this here?

This isn't intended to stay here. Who are your musical counselors? Who have you allowed into your life to motivate you and encourage you and determine your mood and your spirit?

Power of sacred music is impossible to estimate. I wonder who you've allowed to move your soul throughout the week. I wonder who you listen to and what you listen to when you drive to work. What do you listen to in your apartment?

What do you listen to as you're coming home from school? Who have you allowed to counsel your soul? I had a woman come up after one of the earlier hours and she said, you know what you're talking about, about music.

That's so true. Something's been happening in my life and I wanted to tell you. And I asked her if I could insert it here.

I won't tell her name, but she said, sure. She told me, she said, you know, I had reached a point where in my Christian life I didn't seem to be growing. In fact, I seem to be going the other way. I was discouraged and distracted. And I had a friend call me up and say, you know, I've noticed that things aren't right with you. Would you come over?

Could we get together? And she said, I didn't really want to go over it because I knew I'd be held accountable and have to answer some questions as a young mother. She said, but I did go and my friend sat with me and talked with me and then said, you know, could I pray with you? And she said, I don't know.

I guess, you know, I really don't feel anything and sense anything. And she said, well, I'll pray anyway. And so she prayed. And then she said, after the prayer, she looked up at her and she said, you know, I don't know why God's Spirit seems to be impressing me. Would you mind if I just sang?

You don't have to sing. You just listen. And she said, I began to sing some of the old hymns. And this woman told me, she said it was unbelievable with tears coming down her cheeks. She said, God's Spirit just sort of re-grabbed my heart. And then I began to think about what I've allowed with music that so profoundly affected me, what I've allowed into my life over these last months and years. And she said, I went home, I gathered all of my secular CDs and the pop stuff and all of that.

I gathered it all together, had a yard sale and I gave it all away. She said, I'm committed now to sacred music like never before. Challenge you to reconsider who you allowing to counsel your soul throughout the course of the week. It is a handmaiden to theology.

Does your music match your theology? We often ask each other, you know, how's your prayer life? That's a good question. How's your Bible study life? That's a great question. We don't ask one another, how's your music life this week?

How's your music? Huh? Well, that's sort of over there.

No, it's not. It profoundly affects our lives more than we could ever imagine. A. W. Tozer once wrote, I say without qualification after the sacred scriptures, the next best companion for the soul is sacred music. Sometimes our hearts are strangely stubborn and will not soften or grow tender no matter how much praying we do. At such times, it is often found that the reading or singing of a hymn will melt the ice jam and start the inward affections flowing again.

That's so good. This idea was music to begin with. It was created before man was created. It's not man's idea.

It's God's idea. Warren Wiersbe pointed out that each member of the triune God sings. God the Father sings. Zephaniah 3.17, where the prophet Zephaniah wrote these words, the Lord your God is in your midst.

The mighty one will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will rejoice over you with singing. He's in your midst and he's rejoicing over you with singing. Can you imagine this morning he was singing along? God the Son sings.

We know that in the upper room they had that meal and in a few hours the Lord will be crucified and before they departed, what did they do? They sang a hymn. Can you imagine God the Son leading in the singing of the hymn? God the Spirit sings through us, Paul writes to the Ephesians, to be under the influence of the Spirit of God and this is what's going to happen. You're going to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

You're going to sing and make melody in your hearts to the Lord. Music is not the idea of man. Music is the idea of God. Bring God into your music.

Bring godly music into your life. God was the first lyricist. He was the first composer.

You could even say it this way. He was the first choir director. He was the original composer of gospel music. And you're saying what does this have to do with Romans chapter 10?

You're so cynical. Well, turn to Romans chapter 10 and I'll show you. What I found fascinating is that the Apostle Paul summarizes his argument about the lost condition of not only the Jews but the whole world by quoting gospel music.

As it were, this great Jewish attorney pulls out two songs from the way distant past. Two songs out of Israel's life and he brings them in to use as testimonies that the unbelieving world is responsible for their unbelief. Now before we dive in in word about verse 18 here, 19, you've studied this letter long enough with me to know that Paul often anticipated the objections of his readers, didn't he? And so what he would do is he would just spell out their objection and then he would just answer it.

He does the same thing here. Let's back up to verse 16 and get a running start. However, they did not all heed the glad tidings for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?

So in summary, faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, here's the objection. Surely they have never heard, have they?

They've never heard. That would be the objection and Paul anticipates it. So he just says it. But the truth is the Jewish people have heard the gospel. They heard it from Moses. They heard it from Abraham. They heard it through the prophets. They heard it from the Lord himself. They heard it through Stephen. They heard it through the apostles. And the reaction was always the same. They rejected it.

Some did believe. But it's as if Paul here says, well, you know, that's a good objection. And so what I want to do is I'm going to answer that objection by playing you a song right out of your hymnal.

It's on page number 19 and it goes like this. Psalm 19, the heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. Day to day pours forth speech and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor are there words. Their voice is not heard. Their line or their voice has gone out through the earth and their utterances to the end of the world.

Sound familiar? That's the point that Paul uses right here in Romans chapter 10. He quotes that line out of that third or fourth stanza. Their voice went out into all the earth.

Did you remember that song? The word translated voice in Romans 10 is a rare Greek word. It's a word that was created to sound like that which it was describing. Thong thong. It's a word that describes the strumming of a string. Thong and the vibration of that sound.

It's a word that only appears two times. The other one is in first Corinthians 14 where Paul talks about the sound of a flute or a harp. In other words Paul is saying here that the sound of the gospel has been vibrating around the world through the instrumentation of creation. Did you hear it? Did you see the lyrics of God in the sky and in his universe?

By quoting David though Paul is actually expanding the application of David's song beyond the Jewish people and beyond the Roman Empire. In fact everybody we learn from Romans is exposed to the creator's musical masterpiece of creation. This collection of voices, this grand gospel choir called creation. It's now performing. You go out there and it's playing. It plays day after day and night on tonight. Can you hear it?

Do you see it? You add to that general revelation of creation the special revelation of the scripture and the rapid progress of the gospel even as Paul is writing throughout that known world in the first century was amazing. Tertullian would say we are of yesterday but we have already filled your cities. We filled your islands. We filled your camps.

We filled your palaces. We have only left alone your temple. Justin Martyr in the middle of the second century wrote there is no people Greek or barbarian or of any other race by whatever appellation or manners they may be distinguished however ignorant of arts or agriculture whether they dwell in tents or wander about in covered wagons among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered in the name of the crucified Jesus. You say we saw the statistics in the 21st century there are roughly one and a half billion people who've never heard the name of Jesus Christ.

That's true. There are four and a half billion who have and more importantly for you today you're one of them. What are you doing about it? Have you adopted the lyrics of these for yourself?

Is this your music too? And even those who've never heard the name of Christ will stand guilty and without excuse before the Lord because they were given the music of creation or general revelation. Turn back to chapter one in Romans very quickly and look at verse 20 again. He writes for since the creation of the world that is since this vibration began his invisible attributes his eternal power his divine nature they've been clearly seen being understood through what has been made poetically crafted so that they are without what excuse they've seen it and what do they do.

They decided to ignore it or speculate about it. In fact that's what he says in verse 21 for even though they knew about God they did not honor him as God or give thanks but they became futile and their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened instead of saying wow look at creation there must be a creator. They say wow we'll worship that tree. We'll worship the river.

We'll worship mother nature maybe earth itself in some way created all there is rather than worshiping God. They profess to be wise verse 22 but they became fools. They were given the praise of nature. They were given the praise of creation. They were given the order and symmetry and the masterpiece of all there is and they have said we will choose not to give glory to a creator God. So Paul takes the lyrics of David's old gospel hymn and counters the objection by saying well you can't say you haven't heard.

You can't say you didn't read the lyrics. The vibration of the created order like the sound of a string that's been plucked reverberates around the world. And today when you tell people about the gospel and the gospel involves the story of a creator what do they say. Well you mean you really believe that. You believe that.

But did you fall off. And yet Colossians 1 tells us for by him that is Christ the second person of the deity who is the actually the agent of creation for by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth visible and invisible. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.

You mean you actually believe that. You share with people and you'll discover that the responses will be just what Jesus Christ said they would be. Four different kinds of people will receive the gospel.

Matthew 13 tells us let me give them to you very quickly. First of all there are the defiant ones. They're the hardened people the seed of the gospel beyond the exposure of creation to their hearts. Their hearts are hard.

They're like a beaten down path and the seed never gets through. You're the people that you say something about Jesus or the gospel to at work or at school and they'll say I don't want to hear it. There are the disillusion. Secondly they seem to receive the gospel until persecution arises and then they abandon what they said they believed.

There are third the deviant. These are the ones that say they believe in the gospel seems to penetrate seems to bring about some form of life until prosperity occurs not persecution but for them prosperity and it grows up in their lives and like thorns it chokes off what seemed to be life and they walk away from any desire for the one true and living God and they pursue their other gods. They buy Babylon they choose things people and all those other things that they find as idols. Then you have not only defiant and disillusioned and deviant but you do have the disciple. This is the one who receives the word embraces it and somewhere prior to perhaps even hearing the word they saw creation and God worked in their hearts to where they said you know there's got to be something else there's got to be more. Now in Romans Chapter 9 Paul has spelled out the doctrine of election and you're left with the truth of God's sovereignty. Then you get to Romans Chapter 10 and Paul spells out human accountability to believe and he never seems to try and even reconcile these two thoughts and he tells us though in Romans Chapter 10 that mankind will stand accountable before God for their unbelief. No one will ever stand before God and say well I wasn't elect you can't send me to hell.

No every person will stand before their creator and God will say I gave you the music I showed you the lyrics and what did you do. And they'll all say we disbelieved. We didn't believe. We heard the music and we rejected it. We chose to worship the sun the moon some tree.

We chose to worship ourselves. But as for you today the message is simple. Hear the music. Listen to the gospel choir of God's creation. Join the choir. Sign up. Sign up and sing along.

That's the invitation. Paul says they heard whether they say they didn't or whether they say they can't they heard it's the universal vibration of God's masterpiece called creation. I remember reading a funny story of an older man who was very concerned about his wife's hearing. He went to his trusted doctor and he asked for advice. He said I know she's not going to come in to see you but I'm really troubled because she doesn't seem to be responding sometimes when I talk to her.

So the doctor said well let's experiment why don't you go home and try to talk to her where you know maybe she can't see you or whatever and let's find out how bad it is. And she said OK. So he went home and when he walked in the kitchen she was at the sink with her back to him and so he stood at the door and he in a normal voice said what's for supper. No response. So he stepped a little closer and he said a little louder what's for supper.

No response. He got right behind her and he said very loudly what's for supper and she wheeled around and she said for the third time we're having soup. So they say OK OK OK. All right. We got the music part. Now the objection would be but we don't understand it. That would be what they object with next verse 19.

But I say here's the next objection. Surely Israel did not know. You know they didn't understand that they. And once again Paul says well I'm going to answer that question by playing you another gospel song.

This really goes quite a ways back. It was written and sung by Moses would have loved to have heard Moses sing. He says in verse 19 again look there I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation by a nation without understanding.

Well I anger you. Now that doesn't sound much like a song to me. What kind of lyrics are those. Well Moses actually sang this composing it singing it after the commissioning of Joshua he's going to die very shortly and he in this song that's recorded in Deuteronomy 32 is just recounting the history of Israel and he's recounting God's providence and he's recounting God's power and and then he says some prophetic things in that song inspired by God. He says there will come a day Israel when you will be jealous and angry by those who are not a nation believing in God.

It's part of his lyrics. You're going to be angry that they believe in Isaiah sort of goes along with his song so he quotes him in verse 20 of Romans 10. Look there Isaiah is very bold and says I was found by those who sought me not. God is being quoted here.

I became manifest to those who did not ask for me. That's interesting the Jews were exclusively the people of God. They were the people of the law. They were the people of prayer.

They had God in their corner only. But now we discover the gospel's gone to the rest of the world. That means a few billion Gentiles and we thought God belonged to us and they became angry and jealous.

Now wait a second. I thought the objection here in verse 19 was that Israel didn't understand the gospel. How does the fact that Israel is jealous of Gentiles answer the objection that they didn't understand.

Well let me put it to you this way. If the Jew had not understood the gospel he wouldn't have cared any bit whether or not the Gentiles believed or not. If he didn't believe that they were literally getting a message from God they wouldn't have cared. Angry jealous.

Who cares. Let them believe what they want to believe. But the jealousy and the anger indicated that they understood very well what was happening. They knew that the message was coming from God and it was a different message. It was a message of grace. It had nothing to do with them keeping their laws and the regulations. It was not a fulfillment of Judaism. It was not an extension of Judaism. It was a contradiction to Judaism.

We don't like that fact that God would deliver to them a message of grace. And so they became very angry and guess what. Moses had sung about it. Their emotion revealed their understanding.

They knew full well what it meant. By the way that is encouraging to those of you who share your faith. You go out into the world and you might write off somebody that responds with vitriolic anger. You know you share the gospel and they say I don't want to hear that. I don't believe that God belongs to you not to me. I don't care about God. I don't want to hear anything about God. You know something that guy might be really close to salvation because he's so angry penetrating. There is ignorance though that would be inexcusable to God. Let me categorize him in two different statements God would hold mankind responsible for these forms of quote unquote ignorance.

There is an ignorance number one that comes from neglecting knowledge. You neglected to read the fine print on that contract. It was at the bottom. You remember on page 73 and you didn't read it but you signed the contract. Are you responsible and accountable to the fine print. You are.

Oh I didn't read it. Well you could have. You're responsible for knowledge you could have had because it was available. It is inexcusable when ignorance comes from simply neglecting knowledge that was available. Secondly another form of inexcusable ignorance is ignorance which comes from willful blindness.

We call that turning a blind eye. I'll date myself with this illustration but I remember watching as a kid Hogan's heroes. You remember any of you. I was before they were reruns and black and white was it. And they had that guard named Schultz had a bunch of old people in here with me.

I can tell by just the humming and Schultz would see one of them coming out of a tunnel or you know doing some kind of sabotage there and they'd slip him some food and he'd eat the food and he would say his famous line. I see nothing. I know nothing.

Oh boy you guys got it down. I see nothing in the world does that. Oh I don't see creation. You know I enjoy a little bit of it but I don't see it. I don't hear the gospel. No I've got my hands firmly over my ears. I don't hear it.

That's inexcusable because it is willful blindness. Paul just pulls out of him here to the nation and beyond that sung by Moses and he says You know what you're accountable and your anger and your bitterness prove that you understood all along. Let me make one closing comment and challenge that comes out of this. Number one here's the statement and then I'll give you the first and last challenge. The music of the gospel points to a divine conductor.

The music of the gospel points to this divine conductor their voices heard around the universe which would point us to a conductor composer. So here's the challenge. Worship him. There's nothing less that we can do than that. Obey him. Worship him.

Follow him. We're part of this grand scheme and one day we're going to see him and oh my let's tune it up now. Let's sign on and let's sing along. We who have accepted the seed of the gospel and have joined the choir we say our God is great. Tune it up and we surround ourselves with music that is sacred and glorifying unto him that raises our affections toward him and points our eyes toward him because we're being tuned up for the great day when with unfettered souls and unhindered natures we sing glory to God like we have never sung before.

So sing it out. I hope that this challenge from God's word has encouraged you today. You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. We're thankful that you took the time to join us.

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