Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by: April J. Buchanan

One of the most troubling things is when, out of nowhere, a song comes to mind like a friend but is a foe. As it plays, I begin to think about the words, and suddenly I have to hit eject and search for another song to play in my head.

I actually love the phenomenon of unbidden songs that return to mind, songs that surface without warning. I sing them, though I cannot carry a tune. I wake with songs in my mind. I fall asleep with them playing quietly in my thoughts. Not always. But when so, it truly is a gift.

And yet, even though years have passed since I left false doctrine and the music that accompanied it, those songs are still there. I wish they were not. I wish I could erase them entirely and remember only what is theologically sound.

But even in that frustration, I am reminded of something Voddie Baucham once said: “You can’t take my memories of my sin. I won’t let you.” Why would he say such a thing? Because those memories remind us of what we were. They humble us. They show us how vile our sin is. In doing so, they help us see the cross rightly. If we could not remember our sin, we could not be broken over it, nor could we fully grasp the magnitude of God’s grace in saving a wretch like us.

So while I despise the songs I once loved, as they recall not only some errors in the songs but the weight of bad theology hidden beneath their surface, they remind me not only of God’s mercy in saving me, but of His kindness in rescuing me from theology that was dangerously wrong, though I once thought it anointed and powerful.

Dear saint, it has wisely been said, though I know not by whom, that men are often better catechized by what they sing and by their jokes than by their arguments. What we sing matters. And much of what is most popular in “Christian music” today is either theologically erroneous or flowing from churches that are fundamentally corrupt.

We often remember songs better than sermons. I wish that were not so. I wish we remembered them equally. But the reality is that we can recall songs we have not sung in decades, while often struggling to remember the sermon we heard just last week.

If your pastor faithfully exposits the text, he is a gift to the church. Yes, I said that correctly. A gift. In His grace, God has placed a man in your midst who opens the Word and explains it faithfully. Even when you cannot remember everything he said, you can return to the text itself, now better equipped to understand it, to know God more clearly, and to see the richness of Scripture unfold over time.

A faithful pastor teaches you more than the content of the passage. He teaches you how to hear God by showing you how to study His Word rightly. Many sit under teaching that conditions them to depend entirely on the pastor to tell them what God is saying, because those men do not open the text or exposit it. They claim to hear God, but they do not rightly handle His Word.

When God uses faithful exposition to shape your understanding, and that truth wells up into praise, worship is no longer merely singing. It becomes a life lived before God, formed by truth, anchored in Scripture, offered in Spirit and in truth.

Dear saint, if our doctrine is wrong, everything else will be wrong as well. What we sit under matters. Sound theology leads to sound doxology. It sanctifies the believer and glorifies God.

Many test how good the church service was by whether they felt something or had an experience. That is not only subjective, but it is quite arrogant to think that in order for the service to have been good we must have felt something or had an experience. The music, the message, the atmosphere in such churches is then designed to make sure you have an experience so you can walk away claiming God is moving in that place and there is something special there. No. You wanted to have an experience, they designed everything around you having an experience, and you got what you wanted. It was not God.

And that is the kind of music many seek. They do not like theologically rich songs. They want something that is going to speak to their experiences and move them emotionally. They get what they want and claim it is God moving. No. You are being emotionally manipulated and you want to believe it is God, so your worship is all about you, your experience, your felt needs, your miracle, your breakthrough, your encounter, your difficulties. That is not worship. That is not praise. You can have that experience at a concert. All you have done is add Christian language to your experience.

Friend, sound doctrine sanctifies the believer and leads to true praise and true worship in godly living. That is not what many want when they think of church, sermons, or music. They want an experience. They want their miracle, their breakthrough, their own personal word from God. Sadly, there are false teachers and men bankrupt in conviction, ready and eager to give you what you want.

It is, as Voddie Baucham once said, because Scripture is true. That is why these men are in pulpits and that is why the most popular “Christian music” today is unbiblical and dangerous, because people will not endure sound teaching and they heap up men who tell them what they want to hear. Many know the verse, they are just so disconnected from sound doctrine that they do not realize it is speaking of them.

What we sing is to be tested by Scripture, not by how it makes us feel, how it speaks to us in the moment, or how it moves us. Sound theology leads to sound doxology. If our test is subjective, we are not seeking truth or worshipping in truth. We are seeking an experience and worshipping with the desire to have an encounter and get what we want from God. Many do not sing praise or worship God rightly because their doctrine that informs their worship is wrong. Test all things by God’s Word, by sound doctrine.

Grace and peace, y’all.
Soli Deo Gloria