Music of Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a church musician, organist, music director, avid coffee drinker, and one of the greatest composers of all time. He was also a devout Christian who sought to honor God through his music. He once said, “the aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” Many of his scores he signed with SDG (soli Deo Gloria) to the glory of God.

Bach lived from March 21, 1685 to July 28, 1750. In celebration of his birthday I have posted some of his music arranged for classical guitar. Download the free PDF sheet music and enjoy. One of my favorite is the chorale “Herr Gott dich loben alle wir” (Lord God, we all praise You). It is a wonderful setting by Bach of the tune OLD 100th, also known as the Doxology.

Sufficient Is the Word of God

Bible Sketch

Sufficient is the Word of God
That we may know His will,
And trust each day His providence
By faith content and still.
The secret things belong to God;
Our lives are His to lead.
But He has given us His Word
And that is all we need.

How vain the questions in my heart
To know what lies ahead,
When I neglect to read His Word
And know not what He said.
I need not look beyond His Word
To know His will for me;
If I but walk within its light
My path I’ll plainly see.

Our God has purposed and designed
Each moment of each day,
And though we rise and make our plans
‘Tis He directs our way.
Thus we should say when we arise:
“Lord-willing I shall stand.”
For we, except His Word reveals,
Know not what He has planned.

For who can search the mind of God,
Know what tomorrow brings?
And who can grasp His providence
To understand all things?
Our future rests within God’s hands
And we must leave it there;
Content to walk each day by faith
Within His loving care.

Tomorrow need not cause us fear,
For God knows what will be.
Sufficient that we know His Word
To walk obediently.
Where He has spoken, Let us hear,
Upon His Word we stand.
Where He is silent, Let us rest,
And trust His kind, good hand.

Words ©2000 Kenneth A Puls

This hymn is a reminder that God’s Word is sufficient for us to know His will for us. We “do not know what the future will bring” and so we must learn to say “if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:13–17). “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29). We do not know what the future holds, but we can trust God in His providence and walk in obedience to His Word.

I wrote the hymn during a time of uncertainty. I had graduated from seminary, but was still searching for full time employment in teaching or ministry. I needed to preach truth to myself and rest in God’s providence. In an interesting turn of providence, in the same month I wrote the hymn (July 2000), I also began training to develop online courses and teach as an online instructor at Dallas Baptist University. I later used the knowledge from that training to develop the Founders Study Center when God gave me a full time job with Founders Ministries in 2003. God is good in all He provides.

Download the lyrics and  free sheet music (PDF) for this hymn, including chord charts for acoustic guitar, an arrangement of the tune for Classical Guitar, and an arrangement of the tune for Instrumental Ensemble.

—Ken Puls

The Fallacy of Talkative

Faithful: Well, I see that saying and doing are two things, and hereafter I shall better observe this distinction.

Christian: They are two things, indeed, and are as diverse as are the soul and the body; for as the body without the soul is but a dead carcass, so saying, if it be alone, is but a dead carcass also. The soul of religion is the practical part: “Pure religion and undefiled, before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” This Talkative is not aware of; he thinks that hearing and saying will make a good Christian, and thus he deceives his own soul. Hearing is but as the sowing of the seed; talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life; and let us assure ourselves, that at the day of doom men shall be judged according to their fruits. It will not be said then, Did you believe? but, Were you doers, or talkers only? and accordingly shall they be judged. The end of the world is compared to our harvest; and you know men at harvest regard nothing but fruit. Not that anything can be accepted that is not of faith, but I speak this to show you how insignificant the profession of Talkative will be at that day.

Faithful: This brings to my mind that of Moses, by which he describes the beast that is clean. He is such a one that parts the hoof and chews the cud; not that parts the hoof only, or that chews the cud only. The hare chews the cud, but yet is unclean, because he parts not the hoof. And this truly resembles Talkative; he chews the cud, he seeks knowledge, he chews upon the word; but he divides not the hoof, he parts not with the way of sinners; but, as the hare, he retains the foot of a dog or bear, and therefore he is unclean.

Christian: You have spoken, for aught I know, the true gospel sense of those texts. And I will add another thing: Paul calls some men, yea, and those great talkers, too, sounding brass and tinkling cymbals; that is, as he expounds them in another place, things without life, giving sound. Things without life, that is, without the true faith and grace of the gospel; and consequently, things that shall never be placed in the kingdom of heaven among those that are the children of life; though their sound, by their talk, be as if it were the tongue or voice of an angel.

Faithful: Well, I was not so fond of his company at first, but I am as sick of it now. What shall we do to be rid of him?

Christian: Take my advice, and do as I bid you, and you shall find that he will soon be sick of your company too, except God shall touch his heart, and turn it.

Faithful: What would you have me to do?

Christian: Why, go to him, and enter into some serious discourse about the power of religion; and ask him plainly (when he has approved of it, for that he will) whether this thing be set up in his heart, house, or conversation.

Christian Faithful and TalkativeIn the previous post Christian exposed the truth about Talkative. Talkative speaks like a pilgrim, but his life does not bear the marks of a pilgrim. Now Christian explains the fallacy of Talkative’s thinking. Talkative believes that simply hearing and speaking the truth makes him to be “a good Christian.” He craves conversation but not commitment. He delights in doctrine but not devotion. Talkative has a dangerous disconnect in his thinking. He does not grasp the vital relationship between faith and works.

Talkative has presumed that since we are saved by grace alone, our works are of no regard. In one sense he is correct “for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (Galatians 2:16). Salvation is certainly by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Our works cannot save us.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).

But in another sense Talkative is gravely wrong. Works must certainly follow our faith. We are not only justified (declared righteous) in salvation, but sanctified (made righteous). We are saved—set apart— for good works. Paul follows Ephesians 2:8–9 with verse 10:

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

Good works are the necessary fruit of true faith that bear witness to the glorious salvation that has been wrought in us by God. False faith produces assent but not action. True faith is a faith that works.
Christian makes three references to Scripture to emphasize this important connection between faith and works:

1. Speaking truth and living truth “are as diverse as are the soul and the body.” We read in James:

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also (James 2:26).

Christian explains to Faithful: “for as the body without the soul is but a dead carcass, so saying, if it be alone, is but a dead carcass also.” A faith without works is a dead faith. We read in James:

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only (James 2:14–24).

2. “The soul of religion is the practical part.” Our love to God is made manifest in our actions and obedience, not our ideas and theories.

If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world (James 1:26–27).

“Pure and undefiled religion” is defined in terms of doing, not in terms of knowing, hearing or saying. It’s not what we know or hear or say that matters most, but what we do with what we know, hear and say. Again we read in James:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does (James 1:22–25).

3. At the last day “men shall be judged according to their fruits.” We see this in the parables that Jesus told in Matthew 13 and 25. In Matthew 13 Jesus explains the parable of the sower as it relates to fruitfulness:

Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty (Matthew 13:18–23).

Christian notes: “Hearing is but as the sowing of the seed” and “talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life.” Fruit is the evidence of a new heart and a changed life. It is made evident in our obedience to God’s Word. It is fruit that will be gathered in at the harvest.

… at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew 13:30).

Faithful then draws out an analogy from the Law of Moses. In Leviticus 11:3–8 and Deuteronomy 14:6–8 God describes that food that Israel was permitted to eat and the food that they were to avoid. Two traits were required for animals to be considered clean:

“And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals” (Deuteronomy 14:6).

“Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud—that you may eat” (Leviticus 11:3).

Talkative resembles the unclean because he lacks a significant trait. He “chews the cud” (he reads and ponders the Word of God) but does not “part the hoof” (he does not turn from sin and walk in a way that is pleasing to God and in obedience to His Word). Christian concludes by drawing yet another illustration, comparing Talkative to a “sounding brass or clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1) and to a lifeless instrument that makes an uncertain sound (1 Corinthians 14:7).

Faithful is now ready to be rid of Talkative’s company. He has seen through the false veneer of Talkative’s profession. Christian encourages Faithful to speak again with Talkative and confront him concerning the power of the gospel to change hearts and lives. This, Christian tells him, will either drive him away or, if God touches his heart, will turn him away from his deception and to the truth.

A Guide to John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress
See TOC for more posts from this commentary

The text for The Pilgrim’s Progress and images used are public domain
Notes and Commentary ©2016 Ken Puls
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV) ©1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.