(From notes on the SYMPHONY OF LIFE SEMINAR by Frank Garlock of Bob Jones University)

LECTURE - 1

"YOU'RE PUTTING ME ON"

If a person is carrying water from one place to another and they have a hole in the bottom of the bucket, they will lose all the water, even if the hole is small. Proverbs 17:14 says, "The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water..." We live in a generation where we have a hole in the bottom of our spiritual buckets. Hebrews 2:1 says, "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." Christian young people in our day have punched a hole in the bottom of the bucket and all the water is running out. Unsaved people there is no bottom to the bucket.

When you go to a Christian school, (or church for that matter) and you got little or nothing out of prayer and reading the Bible, you have a hole in the bottom of your spiritual bucket. Our spiritual lives are leaking out because something is punching holes in our bucket of faith and convictions.

We will use the Bible and draw charts and if what I say cannot be backed up by the Bible, I'll take back what I have said. Let's look at Ephesians 5:10 - "Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." Please try to memorize this verse and read Ephesians 4, 5, & 6.

Ephesians 4:22 says, "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." In this lecture we are calling it "You're Putting Me On." We see three things being said here in Ephesians. 1) Put off the Old Man. 2) Be renewed, and 3) Put on the New Man.

The Bible has a lot to say about new things in our lives. In II Corinthians 5:17 it says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." When the Bible talks about all things becoming new, it is also talking about music. We as Christians need to realize that when we got saved, God wanted us to have a new kind of music in our lives. Whenever the Bible tells us what to do it also tells us how.

Ephesians 5:10 gives us the key to all that God wants to teach us because He will show us how through the word of God. "Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." Proving means testing. God wants us to test everything in our lives by the Word of God. If it does not measure up, we need to make a change. Imagine if you will that you get on a plane to fly to a distant town. Then imagine how you would feel if you found out that the plane had never been tested. Imagine further if you found out that the pilot had never flown a plane before. How long would you stay on the plane?

It is the same thing with spiritual things. Daniel 1:8 says, "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." In verse 12 Daniel said, "Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink." God always tests us beyond what He requires of us. God wants to see what we are made of and how dedicated we really are to Him.

People always say that music is a mater of personal taste. They have the mistaken impression that there is different music for different types of people. They think that young people have young music, and old people have old music. The question is not whether we are young or old but WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DOES GOD WANT? Again we get back to Ephesians 5:10 which says, "Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." Imagine if you will two circles. Between those two circles is a line connecting the two circles. The one circle represents being sold out completely to the world. Ephesians 6:12 says, " For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." When one is sold out to the world they are at the mercy of the rulers of that world and they are serving Satan. The other circle represents being completely sold out to God. Anyone who is a Christian is supposed to be sold out to God and opposed to the world. That means that we Christians are to DO WHAT GOD SAYS. Let me ask you a question. DO YOU WANT TO DO WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO DO?

Suppose that I could take the Bible and show you in the Bible that rock music is wrong and that it is the world's music. Suppose that I could show you that rock music does not belong in the life of a Christian. Would you say, "If you could show me that rock music is wrong, I'll have nothing to do with it."?

Our problem is not that we do not know what to do, but that we do know what to do and we do not do what we know and it becomes a hole in the bottom of the bucket that lets all the water run out of our spiritual lives. Teenagers today love sound more than they love God, they love the sound of the world's music more than they love God. I would hate to think that it was my love for the music of the world that made a hole in the bottom of my spiritual bucket. I would hate to think that it was my love of rock music that kept me from the will of God for my life. I would hate to stand before God some day and have to say, "I couldn't serve you because I love the rock music sound."

A young man came to Frank Garlock and asked him the question, "Why do I hate myself?" Mr. Garlock took him to the chart described above and asked him where on the line between the two circles he would place himself between being totally sold out to the world, and being totally sold out to God. He placed himself in neither circle but at some point on the line between. You who are reading this article, place yourself between the two circles that we have drawn in your mind. Where do you stand?

Now, in your mind, draw a circle around the whole area between the two circles. Revelation 3:15,16 says, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Proverbs 9:10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." We as Christians need to fear the Lord. We need to fear the presence and power of God in our lives. The story is told of a girl who was playing a prank in class. She was drawing an ugly picture of the teacher on the board at the front of the class. The teacher sneaked into the room behind the piano. She kept drawing and drawing. The rest of the class was cracking up because they knew the teacher was there all that time. When the bell rang, she started to go back to her seat. As she walked by the piano, the teacher stood up, RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER. She turned every shade of red and the expression on her face was that of horror and dismay, BECAUSE OF THE PRESENCE AND POWER OF THE TEACHER.

When you become aware of the presence and power of God you will realize that you cannot hide anything from Him and you will suddenly have the fear of the Lord come into your mind. The reason that people do not fear the Lord today is that they have forgotten that God is a holy and righteous God that cannot stand the sight of sin. When you become aware of that fact, you will have the fear of God. If you don't have this reverential fear, then you don't know God.

The verse above in Revelation says that when we are in the middle, God wants to spew us out of His mouth. Revelation 3:17 says, "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Do you see what happens? When you are not either sold out to God or the world, you are in the middle. That means you are lukewarm. That means that you are wretched and miserable, and poor and BLIND, and naked. God actually says that when you are neither cold nor hot, you have become blind. Let's learn the principle of blindness.

I Corinthians 2:7,8 says, "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:" The strange thing about the wisdom of God is that the Devil is blinded by his own evil. The very place where he thought he was winning, Christ won instead. But after all these years, he still has not changed. He thinks that he will win. II Thessalonians 2:10-12 says, "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." Read these verses again and answer the question, who sends them the strong delusion? The answer is, God does. When you will not receive the truth that God has for you, He will send you a strong delusion to believe in, a lie. Anton Levay, minister of the Church of Satan in California a few years back, had 5,000 members of which 2,000 members came from fundamental Bible believing churches. These are all people that heard the truth but did not act upon the truth that they heard. Because of that, they are worshiping the devil.

When you study the field of rock musicians shows the same thing. Alice cooper said that his father was a preacher. Elvis Presley grew up in church. Joe Cocker and Tad Stevens have the same story. James Taylor said "Don't give us any of the cop out, 'The Bible tells me so,' we don't want that kind of thinking." There is a group that sings "Heaven is a four-letter word."

You may be reading this or some other things that have been said about rock music, and you may say, "I just don't see it." WATCH OUT! John 3:3 says, "Except a man be born again, he CANNOT SEE the kingdom of God." Maybe you're thinking, "He has some good points, but I've got some good points too." Then James 4:17 is true, "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." There is a difference between not being able to see, and seeing it and not doing it. If you can see it and still won't do it, it is a sin.

In II Peter 1:1 the phrase "like precious faith" is talking about people that are saved. Then in verse five it says, "add to your faith." Ephesians 4:15 says, "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." God is teaching us in these verses that we should be growing, never standing still as a Christian. You are either getting closer to God or getting further away. Peter says in II Peter 1:9 "But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." This is talking about a Christian that doesn't obey the truth. This means that a person has become blind because he is lukewarm. He is neither how nor cold. He is neither sold out to the World, nor sold out to God.

Here is a statement that you should write down and remember: Character is a set of beliefs that result in consistent behavior.

The Mafia has character, but it is bad character. They are, at least, consistent. Christians should also be consistent. Have you ever heard someone that cannot carry a tune? If they cannot tell what is wrong but they say that they will sing right just for the teacher, they will sing wrong again when they leave to go home. If the teacher can get the student to hear what he hears, then the student will be like the teacher. That is what Christian Character is all about. We get close to the Lord and he teaches us through the Word of God and after awhile we begin to think like God does.

You can be born again but remain lukewarm if you never learn Christian Character. The way to get Christian Character is to say, "I want God's best for my life, I want to be sold out for God." The interesting thing is that people who are sold out to God know what is going on. Also people that are sold out for the world have better eye sight than those that are lukewarm. Let me show you what I mean.

Harper Valley Magazine, April 1972, in an article by Joan Pazer who writes for the Sunday New York Times and also writes for Rock magazines, rock books and is not opposed to rock music but is in favor of it, makes some statements. She was asked to go to New York City, not some southern town in the Bible Belt. She interviewed music students who were studying to be musicians. After several weeks and thousands of students at schools like Juliard, she had a report. Of all the thousands of music students, she found only ONE student that liked rock music named Marty. She told him that she had not found one student that had come to SERIOUS MUSIC from ROCK. He answered, "The problem with Rock is that it's defining limits are visceral rather than cerebral." Visceral means physical or sensual. Cerebral means intellectual or mental. He says, "It is a visceral form of self expression and volume is often used to cover up a lack of technique." He says this and likes it. Conclusion? Real serious musicians in New York City say that rock music is junk, not worth having. They can see better than lukewarm Christians.

YOU CANNOT USE ROCK MUSIC TO REACH OUT TO THE WORLD BECAUSE IT DOES NOT COMMUNICATE TO ALL THE WORLD. Norman Nadel, when talking about "Jesus Christ, Superstar" says, "Jesus of Nazareth deserves far better." Time Magazine said of the rock opera, "Rarely has so much conceit, commercial cynicism, bad taste, musical ignorance, and all around incompetence been within the grooves of a single LP, it has something to offend everyone." Time Magazine of July 30, 1973 in talking about the film version of Superstar called it, "an epistle from the Philistines." Newsweek Magazine in July 9, 1973 talking about Superstar says, "It's one of the true fiasco's of the modern Cinema. It has fatal foolishness everywhere. We danced and sand and Jesus was crucified and a good time was had by all, Lord forgive them, they knew not what they were doing."

That was years ago. At that time there were stupid Christians that thought of the rock opera as a way to get the Gospel out to the lost world, while the world was saying that it was trash. They were obviously lukewarm Christians.

There was a book out a few years ago called THE GREENING OF AMERICA. In that book, it talks of a revolution in our country called, "Consciousness Three." Charles Ryke of Yale University wrote it. He talks about two things that give away who is in the revolution. On page 251, he says, "A good place to begin is clothes, for the dress of the new generation expresses a number of the major themes of Consciousness Three in a vary vivid and immediate way. The clothes are earthly and sensual." DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DRESS PROPERLY AS A CHRISTIAN? There are five standards that God gives us. Men should dress like men, and women should dress like women. Men ought to look like a man without any question, and a woman ought to look like a woman without any question.

I Timothy 2:9 says, "In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;" Shamefacedness means being embarrassed toward men and with meekness toward God. Sobriety means having good sense. I Peter 3:3 says, "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel" (4) "But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." Here, notice the words, "meek" and "quiet spirit." God is saying that we should dress to draw attention to our character. The reason that the world dresses like it does is that they don't want you to see their character. What part of the body shows your character? The answer is your face. You should dress to draw attention to your face.

Continuing the quotation from the book above, "The clothes are extremely expressive of the human body. They make one conscious of the body. The new clothes make the wearer conscious of his own body. They are a declaration of sensuality." Continuing on page 254 it says, "These costumes do not hide the real person, they show a state of mind and thus reveal him to us." Page 257 says, "The new clothes express a new set of shared attitudes and values." This is Charles Ryke of Yale University. He is describing the dress and attitudes of the world. IF CHRISTIANS DO NOT BELIEVE LIKE THE WORLD, THEY SHOULD NOT DRESS LIKE THEM. The world says that if you dress like them, you share their attitudes and values.

Don't you hate a hypocrite? The worst ones are people that are born again Christians to try to look and dress and act like the world. You are trying to tell the world that you are not different from them. Dr. Jack Hyles was with two long-haired hippies that claimed to be saved. He made the statement that he could not tell by appearance. "That is the trouble with you fundamentalists, you are always judging by appearance," they said. "How did you know I was a fundamentalist?" Dr. Hyles said, "That's the trouble with you hippies, always judging by appearance." About that time a Sailor came walking by. "Hello, soldier." Dr. Hyles said. "That's a Sailor, not a Soldier," replied the hippies. "That's the trouble with you hippies, always judging by appearance."

Isaiah 3:9 says, "The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves." What the Bible is saying here is that their appearance is a DEAD GIVEAWAY. A mature Christian can tell who are the rebellious teens in a church by their countenance. Picture, if you will a person trying to describe joy with a frown on their face. How convincing do you think that they would be? Picture again a guy walking like a girl and claiming to be a real man. IF YOU SAY THAT YOU ARE A BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN THEN YOU BETTER LOOK LIKE IT.

What else does Charles Ryke from Yale University say will tell who is in the revolution? Page 260 says, "When we turn to the music of consciousness Three, we come to the chief medium of expression, the chief means by which inner feelings are communicated. Music has become the deepest means of communication and expression for an entire culture. It expresses raunchy, sweaty sex."

We live in a country that has become sensual in every aspect of their lives. The way they dress, the way that they talk, the things that they read, their music, and even their religion has become sensual. Romans 13:14 says, "...make not provision for the flesh." The truth is that as Christians, WE SHOULD BE DIFFERENT FROM THE WORLD. I John 2:15 says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." James 4:4 says, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

Matthew 7:13,14 says, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." It is not popular to dress like and have the music of a Christian. The world is going down a broad road to destruction. We should not be like them. We will be thought to be strange. But it does not matter. People can see what we are by the way we dress and the type music that we like.

In the 70's the musicians that were influencing the teens were Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, and Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper would take a couple of live hamsters and squeeze them in his hands unto the blood runs out through his fingers. He would take a doll and pour out what looked like blood, chopping off the arms and legs and throwing them out to the audience. He even did a simulated hanging of himself. People said, "I know that is wrong." But they were not against the Partrige family, Bobby Sherman, Jackson five, who is now Michael Jackson. Today we have Madonna, Ozman Brothers and others.

You say that it has some elements of good along with the bad. Let me ask you a question? What if you had a steak and it was 50% steak and 50% salt. Would it be good? How about 75% steak and 25% salt? Both would be bad, wouldn't they?

Parade magazine, in January 21, 1973 said, "Young girls are attracted to safe figures with whom they can engage in sexual fantasies." Talking about the Ozmans, it says, "the Ozmans provide that safe, secure, non threatening image. That's why the teeny-boppers identify with them, their music and their by-products. The basis of it all, without Michael (Jackson) and Donny (Ozman), the Jackson five, and the Ozmans would lack the Sexual catalyst to attract that breed of pre-teens, so eager to buy their own records, attend their concerts, and indulge their preconscious sexual fantasies, that basis of it all."

Mild rock is the Marijuana of the rock field, and the step mother to the harder stuff. Soft rock is the step to the harder stuff, and so is Christian Rock. Even melancholy music, moody blues, has the world's philosophies, and country music is where rock used to be.

We do not get what is going on. A man was trying out chauffeurs. He decided to test them to see who was the best. He took them to a mountain road with a steep drop off. He asked the first one how close he could get without going off the edge. He said within two feet. The second said that he could get within one foot. But when he asked the third one, he replied, "I don't know about the other two, but I am going to stay as far away from the edge as possible." We as Christians should not want 50%, 25%, 10%, or even 5% salt. We need to get all the way back to God's standard. WE NEED TO STAY AS FAR AWAY FROM THE EDGE AS POSSIBLE.

II Corinthians 10:12 says, "For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." We are so stupid. We can always find someone worse than us. The problem is that if we do that we are not wise. WHAT WE NEED TO START DOING, IS TO MEASURE OURSELVES BY WHAT GOD WANTS. "Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." Ephesians 5:10.

DO YOU WANT WHAT GOD WANTS FOR YOU? Then you need to be willing to be Sold out to God, EVEN IF IT MEANS CHANGING YOUR MUSIC AND STYLE OF DRESS.

(Written from lecture one by Frank Garlock)

In Christ, David Williams - Forum Host

Expect to see: "THE MUSIC IS THE MESSAGE" soon!