Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Ephesians 5 and verse 14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.
And Christ shall give delight. See them that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wearing a success, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart.
To the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves 1 To another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves into your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the whole of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the Church is subject under Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the Word, that He might present it to himself. A glorious Church, not having any spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that I should be holy and without blemish. So what men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherished it even as the Lord, the Church.
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery.
But I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let everyone of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the whites see that she reverence her husband.
That 15th 1St see then that she walked.
Carefully, it says in Mr. Darby's translation, Not as fools, but as wise.
We have so many opportunities redeeming the time because the days are evil again. He's got a note on that, which I think is worthwhile reading. Redeeming the time.
Is seizing every good and favorable opportunity. I'll give you a little illustration. I was talking when I was just had recently been saved and I was very evangelist and evangelistic and I was talking to a friend of mine who wasn't the Lord and and he used the Lord's name in vain and he would been talking about his mother. And I said to him, why don't you talk about someone you know?
Oh, I know my mother. I said, oh, no, no, no, no. I don't mean your mother. I met that other person you were talking about. I didn't talk about anyone else. I said, oh, yes, you did. You use the Lord's name? Oh.
That resulted in a 2 hour discussion. I'm just using that as seizing every opportunity. We don't realize how many opportunities the Lord gives us, whether it be at work or at school or wherever it might be. He gives us opportunity upon opportunity and we should seize those opportunities to witness for the Lord.
I'd like to just say a word about the exhortation in the previous verse that we began with in connection with sleeping because it's something that I trust we all take to our own heart. It's a warning to us. It shall I say, a wake up call. And let's just read a similar portion in similar words in the book of Romans.
Romans, chapter 13.
Romans chapter 13, And I'll begin reading at verse 11. And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. And so here we have another exhortation to awake out of sleep. And sleep is looked at in different ways in the Word of God. When a person dies in faith, they're looked at as sleeping. The body sleeps, not the soul, but the body sleeps because it's a temporary state of things. We lay the body of a loved one who's died in Christ in the grave. It's a temporary thing until the resurrection.
00:05:26
There's also, uh, so there, there's also physical sleep. Of course. Last night we lay down and we slept. It was a temporary state of things in the normal course of things of life. We had every expectation that we'd wake up this morning and we'd go on our way. But here sleep is taken up a little different. This is, if I can put it this way, spiritual sleep. It's sinking into a lethargic state as to our position and our responsibility here in this world as the children of light.
We're not to sleep. We're not to become spiritually lethargic. I've often thought that it's a very solemn thing when you read the parable of the 10 virgins. And when we read that, we often take it up in the Gospel.
And we stress the fact that the five foolish had no oil and so on, and rightly so.
But there's a remarkable comment made about those 10 ladies. It says they all slumbered and slept. And I think there's something very good for us to consider in connection with these exhortations and what we have in our chapter. If you looked at those 10 ladies sleeping, you couldn't tell from outward appearances who was real and who wasn't. What a sad condition those five wives had fallen into. Now, brother, if we're not careful, we can fall into that condition.
Fall down like eudicus to the level of the world outwardly it seems that there's no life. Thank God. The Lord knows them that are his. Thank God for one in a lethargic state like that there can be an awakening if there's a heating, the warnings of God's word and so on. And so we're told in our verse. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead are among the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Then it says, see them that you walk circumspectly earth, as brother Chuck has pointed out carefully.
I looked up this word circumspect in Webster's dictionary one time because I wanted to see what a secular dictionary would say. As to the word circumspect, I was struck by what the dictionary said. Circumcise circumspect to careful to consider all circumstances and consequences. You know, brethren, that is how we are to walk through this world. Careful to consider all circumstances and consequences.
In the light of God's word and the light of God's presence, of course. But every step we take, we talked in the previous meeting about our walk and how we are to walk. Every step we take in the path of faith has a consequence, a consequence for good and blessing, a consequence for for that which is not so good. For sometimes we bring down the government of God even in our lives because of the steps that we take and the consequences that we that result. And so let's be careful to walk circumspectly, careful to consider.
All circumstances and consequences, and I'll just say that. That's why in Proverbs 29 it says where there is no vision, the people perish. If a person only lives for the moment and isn't careful as to their actions today, considering the consequence tomorrow, then it's not there's not going to be blessing and fruit in our Christian life. Let's seek to reawake and to walk circumspect. It says Jim, not as fools, but as wise.
When we waste time, that's foolish. We should use every moment He gives us to promote the gospel and to reach souls, redeeming the time.
Well, we don't have to get up in the morning and pray for opportunities. What we need to do is get up in the morning and pray that we will be walking in a way that we will avail ourselves of the opportunities as they present themselves. Because we all have to admit, if we're honest with ourselves, there is no, are no shortage of opportunities to live and speak for Christ and to be a testimony and a witness in this world. They're there on every hand. For myself, what I have to hang my head and say is there's sometimes a shortage of diligence.
And watchfulness on my part to use or buy up the opportunities that present themselves. And that's really, it's been said, the thrust of this, uh, this portion to redeem or to buy up every opportunity. So it's always good to have some tracks in your pocket so that you can hand it out when needed.
00:10:21
The nice question here in verse uh 17 because it says wherefore be not unwise, but understanding.
What the will of the Lord is. So we have to always say, dependent upon the Lord and say, Lord, is this the right thing for this person or is this the right thing for this time? We can ask him and He will always answer if our desire is to honor him. But it, it makes it very plain. The implication surely is that, uh, we could be unwise and not understanding what the will of the Lord is for that particular sort of situation.
So dependence is always appropriate. So go ahead. Can we apply it perhaps from a little bit different standpoint I was thinking of here. Perhaps it's not a direct application, but think about how we ought to know what God's time is for us. We know where to redeem the time, but then God has His own timetable written for us in the Word of God. The example was given of all the 10 virgins who fell asleep.
Well, we look at that and then the example given of how Utica's two fell asleep. We know that there was a picture in a sense of how the church will fall asleep, and we know that through the Dark Ages the church as a whole has fallen asleep. But was that the end of that? No, there was that revival in a sense, wasn't there? Eureka was brought back to life. Paul came down, in a sense, if you think of Utica's case.
Paul's ministry was not heard.
We knew that from the Word of God that his ministry was sort of forgotten and throughout those ages, those times it was forgotten, but then it was revived and we find that the truth going to the Word of God, uh, showing us what the period would go to. This afternoon, our brother mentioned about the seven churches. Can we look at that in a form of redeeming the time? As we go through, we see the degradation.
Of the churches, perhaps we can look at it from the individual standpoint. Perhaps we can look at it as a church space, can we not how things begins with we have left our first glove to the very point that at the end we say to the Lord, I don't need you Lord, I'm rich and I need not of nothing. What I'm trying to say here is we need to learn more what the word of God tells us what what being really.
Amazed me the last while is in my work, I come across, uh, some contact with Christians and I find how many Christians want to do good. They want to present the gospel, which is very well, we ought to, don't we? But I find that the Lord's coming is almost not mentioned. Uh, don't they don't want to deal with that at all. Oh, we know that the Lord has a time. And one of the things that the truth was recovered back in the 1800s was that.
The the coming, the soon return of our blessed Savior should be fresh in our hearts. In fact, let me digress just a little bit. There was a few things that that I believe the Spirit of God recovered for us. Uh, one was that the word of God was the supreme authority to our lives that has been forgotten by many Christians. We want to do things our way. We want to come up with reasonings. We had a brother that left US1 Time he went to another church.
And because of the knowledge that he had on the Word of God, they made him an elder. And before long he got in trouble because they said every time a decision was made, he would open up his Bible and contradicted the decisions. So he was told not to bring his Bible with him. And that was enough reason to let him know that he was in the wrong place. So the Word of God should be the supreme authority. The other thing, let me digress a little bit. Is that the truth of the one body?
Oh, and the power of separation that was forgotten, that's in the Lord's timetable, isn't it? That's been brought back and the Lord soon returns if we have those objects before us. And then the way we redeem our time, brethren, I believe would be very different. Knowing that there are many problems in this world we cannot fix. We can pray for the government of this world to take care of things, but we know the Lord has that table for I say and that.
00:15:09
Not to forget his soon return.
Sorry, I remember the time in my 20s, I had recently gotten saved and I was with the KLCS at the time, Brother Walter Wise. He was an evangelist, very bold man. And he used to go up and down the street and he'd see a bar, a Tavern, and he'd go in and he said real loud voice, I want us.
Strongest drink you've got?
And the bartender brought one out.
He didn't, I don't think he's just, he said, no, it's not not strong enough, not strong enough. And by the time he got through and going through that ritual for a while, he had the attention of everyone that was in the Tavern, everyone in the Tavern. And then he preached Christ to the no, I didn't. I wouldn't have the boldness to do that, but he did. And so it says, be not drunk with wine, wherein is in excess.
He wasn't drunk with wine, he was drunk with the, the word of God and he gave it to them and they listened. They listened. Umm, I'm, I'm using that as another example of redeeming the time. Every opportunity God gives the summer much bolder than others. I like that turn to Luke 21, uh, in connection with understanding the will of the Lord and what we're talking about here, umm.
Because I think it'll help us in our Christian pathway.
It doesn't take a lot of scriptural knowledge to to know what God's plan is for our lives the the day we live in. And the Lord himself gives us some warnings here in Luke 22 about the signs preceding his coming and what's gonna come as a snare. And I think this is very applicable to us today in Luke 21, verse 34.
The Lord speaking says, And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting.
And drunkenness and cares of this life. And so that day, that's the coming of the Lord.
Come upon you unawares, for as a snare shall it come up on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Wherefore a watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
The Lord is speaking here of the signs that were would proceed His coming, and it's a warning to watch and He specifically tells them that.
Drunkenness, surfeiting, and the cares of this life would so engross people that they wouldn't discern the time and they would be taken off their guard and the judgment would come. I believe, brethren, we're getting close to that today.
The and especially in the Christian so-called Christian lands, Christianity has reduced itself down to be somewhat of an earthly blessing.
And things occupation with earthly things and people get so engrossed and so.
Taken up and so busy in their lives that they forget the heavenly calling. They forget that the Lord is coming to take us out of this world.
This is where we need to be widespread. We need to be careful that we don't let the earthly side of our life take such predominance in our lives. We sit so and get so engrossed with sometimes what we may think of necessary cares. And there are some necessities in these, in these lines, but we can let it have too much of a part of our life and then it becomes a care and it, it, it defeats our purpose. Our purpose isn't to live long on earth. Our purpose is to be taken home to heaven.
And in this book of Ephesians, this is what the truth especially brought out, the heavenly calling, and that we're waiting for the Lord to come. And so I think these verses in Luke are very appropriate to consider with understanding the will of the Lord.
Forward we we so many Christians don't realize. They forget that the rapture is coming and we're gonna be taken home before the judgments fall on the earth. I know it doesn't distinguish here between the rapture and his coming and manifestation and glory, but we have to distinguish those things. And these things have been taught among us. And I believe in general we are understanding these things.
00:20:30
But as to a practical reality, sometimes our walk isn't that close to what we, the doctrine that has been taught among us and that we hold. And so brethren, it's, it's good that, uh, as you have a family, let me just be in just a little bit practical here. We had a family and grew up and you have to be careful if you have a family that you let too many activities take precedent in your family. So there's no time for Bible reading or time for prayer meeting.
And so on.
This is one of the places we're being attacked on, brethren, maybe with not the open persecution that it I that we've been hearing about in other lands, but I believe that Satan has been a little more successful in this country and the other Christian lands around us here.
In dragging Christians down in their Christian pathway by getting them taken up with the things of this life, I'm not talking about necessarily the bad things.
It can be good things, it can even be going to shopping or things like that. It can be sports, it can be lots of things that in themselves, maybe they're wholesome and clean. But brethren, if they they get to taking so much a part of our life that we are losing sight that the Lord is coming. And if the Lord came tomorrow, what would that matter? Really? What would it matter? And so that's understanding the will of the Lord.
He's called us to be a heavenly people.
To take us out this snare that's going to come. We're we're seeing it it it didn't Christ Christians. It's getting nominal Christians taken up and for some of them that's all they they they see in it. They're not maybe a real born again Christians. We all that are ought to be awake and wise as to these things and not sleepy and and UN understanding.
Mm-hmm. 19 I think it's directly what you've been bringing before us, Brother Doug, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord that can fill up the time much more profitably. You can. It's not.
There's two thoughts in the thought of redemption here. Redeeming the time. It's buying it back and setting it free, both because, you know, the enemy of our souls wants to steal our time, take it captive. And today we have the habit perhaps of maybe not subscribing to one newspaper, but maybe two, and maybe not one trade magazine, but maybe two or three. And pretty soon we find our time is taken. But we need to.
Buy it back, as it were, and set it free for the Lord to use for the Lord's things. I just wanna refer to a verse in, in, uh, Proverbs chapter 4 that, uh, brings out a little bit of what Jim was talking about earlier in verse. Uh, we'll read the three verses, 2526 and 27. Proverbs 4 and 25, it says, let thine eyes look right on. Let thine eyelids look great before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet.
And let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left, removed by foot from evil. And this word ponder means to weigh carefully, weigh carefully in the presence of God. So you could read it this way. Wake carefully in the presence of God, the path of thy feet, and let thy ways be established. And so that's a present thing. Every one of us needs to take stock and to buy back as much time and those things that are frivolous, that are stealing our time.
And that's, uh, really, quite frankly, rob us from the time to read ministry and to read the Word of God and to perhaps attend every assembly meeting. Those are the things that we need to judge and to remove from our lives.
Verse 20 is something I feel for myself. I am not sufficiently attentive to giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I have to confess that I readily accept all of the comforts of modern living. Uh, for example, just consider how easy it was for us to come here from distances.
00:25:28
All different directions. What would it have been, say, 150 years ago to have a conference like this for all of us to get together? The modern day in which we live affords us many conveniences, affords us, uh, many opportunities, discretionary years of our time. So what we're being told in this portion is we must keep time for the Lord, seeking to ourselves in psalms and hymns and so on.
And being thankful.
I know every time we can relate to the Lord in prayer, He knows what's in our hearts and when we can articulate and say, Lord, we thank thee for this shelter we have, we thank Thee for the food we have, we thank thee for the country and let's we live with freedom. We have No Fear this afternoon of anybody in government coming in here as a well might in other countries. We have so much for which to be thankful.
And I think there's another place someone probably named it immediately, though it makes it very plain. Every time we pray, we should do so with Thanksgiving. We have so many blessings we can hardly count them on. I'd like to just say a word about singing before we pass on, because singing has always been a way for the people of God in any age to to express their appreciation of the truth and their joy in the Lord.
I say in any age that is from a redeemed people on the banks of the Red Sea.
Singing in the 15th chapter of Exodus till you come to Revelation 5 and you find a little thief into the heavenly scene.
Where the redeemed are gathered around the Lord Jesus in a coming day, and there they're singing the song of redemption.
And I fear brethren, and I'm going to say this very practically, and I'm going to be very blunt for a moment, because I fear that the breath, the Saints of God are not the singers that we once were. You know, when I was growing up, if you went to visit somebody, I'll remember often as children my father and mother would take us out to visit somebody. And some of the brethren on a Friday night or a Saturday evening, why you always stood around the piano and sang some hymns before you left.
When we were young people, if there was nothing else planned on a Saturday night, why we got together and we had a hymn sing. We sang in the home when I was growing up and I just want to encourage those of us who are parents. First of all, I know some of us can sing better than others, and some can carry a tune better than others, but learn to sing in the in the home. I'm thankful that when we our girls were younger, we had the exercise to sing in the evening around the table before we.
We've, uh, closed our Bibles and before we prayed and I believe we need to teach our children and young people to sing. We can't expect our children and young people to all of a sudden open their hymn books one day and have a, and have a desire to sing. And brethren, we have a wonderful heritage, a rich heritage of good scriptural hymns, hymns that are based on the doctrines of God's Word. And let's learn to speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
And I know you've experienced it, too. You're driving your car. Something's pressed upon your soul, and the words of a hymn come to you, and it's a comfort to you. You wake up in the night and you're praying about something, You're exercised about something, and you go over the words of a hymn that you've memorized. Real help and blessing. You ever notice, sometimes in ministry, in a public way, that the brother who's ministering will quote the words of a hymn? Why is that?
Because there's perhaps no better way to express some truth than has already been expressed in the lines of a hymn.
You know, God raised up hymn writers in the days of the recovery of the truth. God raised up hymn writers to put these things down in a way that we could express them in, in, in a song. And I believe that the Spirit of God allowed that. And so we have these hymns and we sing them in our homes. We sing them individually, we sing them in the assembly. But let's learn to sing, brethren. We're going to sing for all eternity. And I know there'll be no discordant note there, but let's learn to speak to ourselves. And it's interesting in Colossians, there's a similar verse.
00:30:09
It says admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You talk to somebody or again in ministry, something's brought out and it's expressed in the lines of a hymn and you remember it. But Brother Jim, I got a question. Won't an iPod do what? What was that? Well, not an iPod do for singing. Well, I believe that that the very that's the very difficulty and one of the things that has led to the fact that we are not the singers we once were. It is so easy to plug something in.
Go for a walk to drive in our car. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with I I enjoy ACD or whatever of good, good singing, scriptural hymns. I like good music as well. But let's be careful, brethren, that we don't let that replace opening our mouths. You know, it says the fruit of our lips not giving thanks to his name. And he's put a new song. Not in my heart that I trust that's true, but in my mouth.
Even praise to our God, whoso offereth praise, not silence, but whoso offereth praise glorifies me. Brethren, I believe we need to learn to open our mouths and to praise the Lord in song. Yeah, and you need to go farther down than the mouth. You gotta start from the heart and that's the difference in an iPod and, uh, and a thing, uh, a him out of the heart. Uh, I again, I don't wanna be, uh, facetious and find fault with our.
Modern technology of music.
Uh, but there's a difference in listening to ACD or uh or uh.
Any other form of modern music but brethren, uh, as uh, those means, umm, are the not starting from the heart. I'll suggest briefly that difference if we, if our heart is enjoying what God has given us, the song starts there comes out of the mouth sometimes in some of our mouths. It's not quite in tune even.
But the heart can be in tune even when we can't carry a tune with our mouth. And I suggest that the emphasis is a little backwards and the other way around. If we just listen to good music, uh, I mean, I, the music in itself, I'm not trying, trying to find fault with that. But brethren, it's, it's a, let me, let me go back and recount the memory I have of my, one of my grandmothers.
She was a a happy woman. It was said of her by somebody prominent in the community that when she passed away, the most influential person in the county was gone. Not because she sought a place, because her her Christianity came from her heart out. And every time she worked she was humming a tune. I can still hear her humming a tune a little bit off.
And it created an impression to me. She was always happy in what she was doing, singing and making melody in her heart. And I, I would suggest that we seek to cultivate that rather than putting the melody in our heart from the CD or iPod. Get the melody in your heart and then let it come out.
What are those three things? Would you give it? Give it to us? Psalms and spiritual songs, what are they?
And I'll give you, I'll give you 2 of them and let the third one for you.
Are are are songs that are directed towards God and sung to Him, not about him, but to Him. We address God in hims and they are to His ear to hear. It's not for the audience ear necessarily. We joined together.
But hems are the highest order of, of character for us to sing, I believe, because we sing to God and give him praise, whether the Father or the son by the Spirit of God. And so those many of our hymns in that little flock and other hymn books are addressed to God. Spiritual songs are songs that are umm a about spiritual things, but they're re relate to our Christian walk and other things that we experience.
00:35:06
They're more Christian experience songs about life and difficulty in overcoming etcetera. And those are spiritual songs. And I'll leave you for the for the Psalms Bill, you help us. What's the Psalm?
Got 150 of them.
The way I handle the, the hems, uh, I love hems and I, I let everything about me suggest him to me. If I see one word, that's enough to recall to him to me. For instance, I looked out the window a number of times and I saw this crossover illuminated. So right away I repeated the, the cross, the cross. So that's our game. Because on that the land was claimed was there the Lord?
Was crucified was there for us, the Savior died. What wondrous cause can move thy heart to take on they are cursed and smart while knowing that we should ever be so cold, so nitrogen of thee. Because now when I come to the Las Sanja, the cause where it says the cause and so forth. Tears were in my eyes. Why? Because I was thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ. If I'm standing in the bank line and I see the word gain up there.
I I I would think of a hint.
Be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood died he from me who caused the pain. I don't care what word it is. My wife will tell you. I'm riding down the road. I see a word. I think a hymn with it. I like you got it in your heart, brother. It's been a blessing to my soul.
It says speaking to yourselves on him here, who you know, And one thing I'd like to say about him, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's a great teacher. Hims are a great teacher. Some of them are very deep. Now you mentioned him that are directly addressed to God. That's the highest type of worship. And I was just going over with him. Uh, we were talking about him that, that breakfast table and you have some of the deepest truths in him. Like for instance, I think it's wig room's hymn.
And, and umm, what raised the wondrous thought, or who did it suggest that we the Church, the glory brought should with the sun be blessed? Oh God, the thought was thine, thine only it could be fruit of the wisdom, love, divine, peculiar unto thee. I love Him. And I know, I know hundreds and hundreds of them, but they're a big part of my life and they've kept me walking in communion with the Lord. I would say to young people here.
Memorize him.
Memorize him so lovely, beautiful hymns and there's some of them are not worth memorizing and you well know that some of them take us back to du du day and ground. Some of them don't even rise up to the level of of a a finished work of salvation.
What's this song?
Well, I can only say this that to me a Psalm is that which is distinguished from a a hymn and a spiritual song because it was written and expressed in a day before the truth of God as we know it, and the whole revelation of God was given out. And so we can enjoy the Psalms and we can, if we know that people in past generations put them to music, we know that.
Even in our Little Flock Him book, there is, I suppose, the 23rd Psalm in so many words brought out in song, and it's perfectly correct. On the other hand, there's a limitation there in some of the expressions in the Psalms that we have to watch because there are expressions in the Psalms that don't entirely suit Christian experience. But there's wonderful devotedness and wonderful expressions in them that are very appropriate for you and me to take up. And so I guess I would just simply distinguish them from.
Hymns and spiritual songs as being that which does not necessarily embody all the light that you and I enjoy under Christianity, but yet still bring before us God's love and His care and what He is to His people. I, I can't go any further than that. I'd just like to add this. Don't get accustomed to seeing an unscriptural hymn or song or whatever, right? If it's in, if it's not according to Scripture, put it on the shelf. Mm-hmm. The same truth, in other words.
Same truth, and then you'll get established in the present truth. Amen. I agree with that.
00:40:00
Only in your heart, without a song, a hymn, or a spiritual spiritual song.
They were helping this all might help on our music and sometimes helps to bring it out in a in a way that expresses well, have you ever been in a condition or a place in time where it was scripture that was brought before you and it brought joy in your heart? Yeah. What happens if you just sing it out?
It's not a something that isn't indicated. Isn't it song? I know in some of the deepest, darkest moments of my life, there's been a verse or something that God has brought before my heart, and in those dark moments I began to sing it.
I can't hardly hold a tune, but it helped my soul and that's how the Lord used it to raise me up out of a dark, dark moment. There are times of great joy too, where some verses come across.
Sing it out.
Because it says speaking to yourself and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So they don't have to be melodic, they have to be meaningful. Let's sum up what we've said about singing with the words of a hymn. Let's practice what we've been speaking about.
Oh Lord, we know it matters not how sweet the song may be. No heart but of the spirit talk makes knowledge of thee. Melody would come in under singing too, wouldn't it?
And the Lord knows that we are emotional creatures. He's made us that way, and He's made us with a sense of music, as you say, to a greater or lesser degree with some of us. But the world knows that too. And if the world wants to impress something evil on your heart and mind, they will put it into a song. And then the constant repetition of that song.
They know, and the devil knows we'll have a an effect on you and me.
Whether we want it to or not, that is the way to get the point across, put it into a song because man is made that way. And that's I believe, why God has put it that way too. I know I can still remember a dear brother who was, I wouldn't say he was tone deaf, but he didn't have a lot of appreciation of music. And he made a comment one time in a reading meeting. I forgave him for it, but he said, you know, it's just noise.
And uh, yeah, I can see some of you wincing. I winced too. And he made that comment. Because if that's the case, then we ought just to read the hymns. We ought just to read them out, just so we got the words. But singing them has a far, far deeper effect on us. Doesn't. Oh, yes, yes. And that is why we have this here. And that's why, as you say, Brother Sam, sometimes the Lord put something in my heart. And.
Maybe.
As you say, bursting into song is wonderful, but maybe I'm in a situation where I can't do it. It would be inappropriate, but I can still enjoy it in my heart. And then there may become another occasion when I can give it out. So what a wonderful thing it is to have the precious truth of the Word of God expressed in song. And we are very, very blessed because I think I'm probably on safe ground by saying that.
In the English language, there are more good hymns than in any other language that I'm aware of.
With the Jewish, uh, people, even as of today, when they read the word of God, the when they say they read it, they really don't read it. I believe they sing it now we often thought of the songs that we have is what they sing, which is true. I believe they sing even the almost anything in the, as they call the Torah, the five book of Moses, when they read, they sing. It's a special way of singing it.
As a different donation, if you ever listen to them saying it's like they were, they were chanting, it's not the melody that we're, uh, accustomed to. And, and psalms often spell out words to help us understand. I just wanna go back a little bit. And, and I believe sometimes the reason we don't think is back to what we've been talking about. We have not been occupied with the Lord. We have not been enjoying the Lord. I'd like to turn to a Psalm just to Ill illustrate that. Psalm 22.
We, I'm sure we know that chapter very well in the 22nd Psalm, the psalmist says.
That the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want what? We say that too, don't we? And we have set this probably since we were a child. I mean 2013. I'm sorry. 22nd song, our 23rd Psalm. Thank you.
00:45:10
I'm a little bit dyslexic on that.
And in verse 2 is what I had in mind. There he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. But why does he have to make me to lie down? Well, I, some of you know, when I was in Lawrenceville learned that I really don't know much about farming. And I remember quite a few came up to me, made remarks to me saying they'll teach me more about farming. But I dare to say one more thing and please correct me if I'm wrong.
With cat oats I understand that when they eat.
They eat quickly and they put in one stomach, and when they have that quiet time to lie down, they kill the cat, do they not?
We need to do the same, do we not? We, we, we tend to gorge things down, you know, sometimes to tell the story when I I hope my wife doesn't mind. The first time I met them going down to meet this Americans, I was sitting down at a family meal and not used to eating quickly. I remember I was still cutting my meat when I looked up. The rest of them are looking at me because they finished. They learned to inhale food. And I think that's how we often do it here. Well, it doesn't do much good, does it? We need to chew the CAD We we tend to bring this in.
And I don't believe the word of God tells us to to learn it quickly. Think on it. We're told to meditate on his words, are we not? In fact, the Psalm, the book of Psalms start off by saying that blessed is demand. What is the blessedness about that man? He meditate on his word. We need to have those time to set aside and this world has created a condition so that we have no time to think, you know, when it comes to the gospel which we present that the people do not have time to think about.
Salvation, we hear that all the time we find tell story how even grave sites now have tombstones that are lying flat on the ground so there's no reminder of debt while they can go a bit further as we've been reminded now He attacked us in a way that he takes that enjoyment away from us by using the lack of time that we created ourselves. And here is what's been happening. He attacked our enjoyment and what happened when we do not enjoy the word of God.
We do not enjoy the Lord. The next thing is then the family fabric started to get destroyed. When the family fabric got destroyed, the next thing we see is we see the problems of this world that brought into the assembly. We run the assembly as if it was a business world and eventually He thinks that He can destroy that. So brethren, we need to redeem the time. We need to be able to meditate, spend the time to read His Word.
Moses and the children of Israel saying they contemplated the Lord's great deliverance at the Red Sea.
I knew Moses couldn't say turn to such a such a number in the in the song book because it was he was just contemplating with the Lord just done and delivered them and and he sang this song with the chore of Israel must have been wonderful. It was spontaneous from the heart.
And uh, and his sister Miriam sang with the with the sisters. How sweet it is to be in a state of soul so enjoying the the precious things and what, what the Lord has done.
That our heart burst into song may not be a song that's been written before. That's the first song in the Bible, isn't it? Yes. And the enemy was destroyed, and they were set free, delivered.
I wanted to just, uh, mention a couple of scriptures, David, it's good for us to have the word of God to, to just reinforce what you just said in uh, Chapter 9 of Ecclesiastes. In verse 17, it says the words of wise men are heard and quiet.
Very important. We need to have that quiet time ourselves with the Lord. The world is noisy and it doesn't want the quiet. Otherwise the conference will be exercised. And then the other verse I think that helps us is, uh, Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 27.
The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of a diligent man is precious. And so here we are at a conference. We're hearing things, we're enjoying things. The definition of hymns and spiritual songs and psalms are given. Are we going to go home and meditate upon these things, or perhaps even in our room tonight just to meditate upon them and chew the cut, as it were, roast that which we took in hunting. And they're going to have to be diligence.
00:50:26
Individually to meditate upon the word of God, that it might be of good to us.
At the risk of, uh, being forced to walk the plank.
I would like to make, uh, some comments about contemporary Christian music because I'm sure it's a question that many people's minds.
First, I'd like to go back and the very first comment that was made by Jim, uh, why we don't sing as much, You know, in the economic world, there's, uh, producers, there's consumers and in the main with music tend to be consumers rather than producers. And that's just, uh, seems to be just a, a fact both in our culture and certainly among Christians.
So how did you say that? We observed that there's quite a proliferation of contemporary Christian music right now. And it seems that there is a cycle. There's been many cycles in the Christian, uh, uh, era where there's been more music kind of put out and there seems to be a lag. And then there's other years when there's more music put out. And for some reason, we seem to be in a time right now when there is a, a growth of Christian music. There's at least two factors.
One is that there is an audience that we are consumers of music, and the other is, at least in Christian circles, there's now money involved, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it is a factor.
Some of these contemporary, uh, Christian, uh, songs are very good. They really are. And, uh, a lot of the lyrics I quite frankly don't always follow because number one, I'm not very musically, uh, inclined and sometimes I need an interpreter, if that's OK. Uh, I find that there are some very, very good things that are being produced in contemporary music and there's things that are very shallow.
And I want to comment on that because it seems like in Christian circles for centuries, there's always been songs that have been shallow.
Even reading the preference of our Little Flock hymn book that when some hymns were culled from the original version that Mister Darby says that he was. I'm gonna not say the exact words, but anyway, it was hard, hard pressed to find a replacement.
So even though we might look back in time and say, well, they had a more spiritual outlook, and I think that they did, but we're a client just to write that off and just and think that every song that came out back then was.
Was a great him, but that's not true. Mr. Darby had to go through lots and lots of hymns to find ones that he thought were suitable. And there's lots that he had to leave by the wayside and the same now, yes, there's a lot of contemporary music out there, Christian circle and some of it is good. There's a lot that should be cold and maybe not made popular among us. So I was just, uh, I, I trust that, uh.
Some helpful comments and I hope balanced as well.
That we do need those songs that are according to the word of God and that bring forth a, a scriptural and, uh, godly perspective. And there are some of those hymns being produced nowadays that we would commonly call contemporary Christian music. But be careful, like always be careful.
You need to prolong this, but we see consistency from scripture that.
Singing Satan would try to destroy that. Just a quick example won't take long. If you go to Azure chapter 2, we saw the remnant of the people when they returned back to the land and you'll see that there were very few that were seniors. Uh, just quote a couple of quick verses here as you were chapter 2 in verse 64. You'll find that in that verse, it tells us that there were 42,360 that we turned back to the land. And how many were singers? Well, they want to make sure they weren't a whole lot in verse 65.
You'll find that only 200 or some of you can do percentage faster than I can. You'll find out that's a pretty low percentage. Isn't a 200 singers? The Lord want us to be able to sing praises to Him. There were more ***** and camels than there were singers that we turned back to their land.
00:55:09
It was enough that the, umm, Exodus 15 is the first time seeing this.
Mentioned in the Bible. I think that is because The thing is the privilege of those who are conscious of being redeemed. We notice that angels don't sing. Angels don't sing. They haven't experienced with them. We have experienced with them and that is the theme of all our songs. I believe all our Christian shores are based on that theme of redemption. I think that's very important, David, because angels pray. They do give praise and glory. But it's interesting that it's always saying.
At at the Annunciation to the shepherds, they were saying.
And if I just want to give you this little hint, when you go through Revelation four and five, when it's just the redeemed, it's singing when all creation joins in, it's saying the Spirit of God is very careful. And I think it's very helpful to realize, as you say, that it is only the redeemed in Scripture that sing the world has its light song for the world has the song of the.
Right, and that's one who doesn't know the peril of the position he's in. He's unconscious to the peril of the position he's in. That's the state the world has to be in before he can see. But the question privilege is to to recite songs that speak of redemption. And I like to think too of this verse as speaking to yourself. You saw psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making no view in your heart to the Lord. Did he say anytime?
No, it's something that goes on continuously and I like to like that link that with that continual phone offering, those that voluntary offerings that we bring to the law, not just on Wednesday morning, but day by day. Maybe when we're at that work as as humans pass through our mind or around the house, doing things around the house. There's that continual firm offering going up to the Lord from every all the questions in the world as they have these thoughts and they have brought to them in form of the song in their heart. And there's that control.
But isn't that the sacrifice of praise to God continually? That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. And just to get back to our chapter now in the next verse, the 20th verse, if the 19th verse is true of us, brethren, if we have, if the joy of the Lord is such in our souls that we're singing and making melody in our hearts, and the singing and making melody in our heart is based on the Word of God and good scriptural hymns and so on.
Then what is going to be the result? Giving thanks always. I Mr. Darby's translation is the same, almost, but it gives a little deeper thrust to it. Giving thanks at all times for all things. You know, that's not my experience. I have to hang my head and say I don't give thanks at all times for all things. But if verse 19 was true of me, was true of you, then we would give thanks at all times for all things you say at all times.
You know, I think of the Apostle Paul, he had a lot of times of sorrow in his life, no doubt time when he felt down and discouraged and right at the bottom, but he said sorrowful yet always rejoicing. He had the song of the Lord in his heart. He had that melody in his heart and he could rejoice. Doesn't mean we're always bubbling over, doesn't mean we're always vivacious and so on. But to have that joy in our soul so that no matter what happens at all times.
For all things. That's to me even harder than at all times. For all things? Yes, for all things. Does that mean that everything is going to be sweet in our lives? That every circumstance is good in our lives? Not necessarily. But we know it comes from the hand of a good God and a good Father. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. And brethren, it's easy to cultivate.
A grumbling spirit. It's easy to get under the circumstances. It's easy to become like the children of Israel and complain and even murmur. But brethren, what we need to do is have the song of the Lord in our hearts so that we can give thanks at all times for all things. You really have to know your true Christian position to to do this. For example, if you don't have eternal security, how can you really be a worshiper of God if you look thought you could lose your salvation?
01:00:01
Or if you doubt that all things work together for good, how can you give thanks, uh, in all things?
It's it's when we know our position before God through in Christ that nothing can be against us and that how we are chosen to be the bride of Christ and we're called to be a witness to praise God for what he's done. When you know your position in that way, then you can fulfill this verse of giving thanks as it says.
Umm, and in that connection, uh, some of the Psalms for example.
Speak of the Jewish position of things, and they called on the vengeance for their enemies. Well, we brethren, that's not Christian position. We don't call the vengeance on our enemies. We seek to save them. We seek to bless them. We preach the gospel to them. That's Christian position. And so it's important for us to, to, to understand, uh, distinguish at what the Lord's called us to and then to fulfill that role in the giving of thanks.
Uh, it, as Diver says before we get off of the hymns, that I think the first hand in the English language that was sung in the church was written by Isaac Watts, if I'm mistaken, not back in the 1600s. And prior to that it was all psalms and hymns and so forth. But one of the things I've made an observation on is that some of the women hymn writers have given us some of the deepest hymns. Mary Boley.
Look, in the little plot book on the mayor, bolder Francis Bevins, and of course we have Bandy Crosby. I mean some of these women.
Had had.
A great theology. They, they, they really put it into such beautiful language. I mean, I was really impressed as I think of the some of the the songs that have come from women.
One Lord Steve morning every SAS song that we sang was Mary Bowie's Everyone I just want to read in Acts 16. It says in verse 22 in the multitude rose up together against them, Paul and Silas.
And the magistrates read off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely through. Having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.
What a testimony that was. Hmm. I remember some time ago brother track one chapter was commenting on that passage that he said no, that it wasn't until midnight that they sang praises and I I appreciated that because in the book of James it does seem that the Lord would allow that if I am suffering evil. He said let me pray. It doesn't say let him sing songs. I hardly agree with everything that's been said but.
So that we wouldn't have a bad conscience if we're not rising up and singing a song when, when some evil has overtaken me. James does say, does anyone among you suffer evil? Let him pray.
Is any happy Let him sing songs. Could we allow that? Yes, it's beautiful that the God held back the earthquake until they sang.
Brother Chuck, you read in the 16th chapter of Acts, I'd just like to refer to the 10th verse. Go ahead. And it says there that after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. And so here they had a conscious sense of doing the will of the Lord, and that they were sent to Philippi. And here all this tragedy seemed to descend upon them.
And yet they could see it from God's perspective, from the perspective of faith, that God was working something out here that they didn't understand. And so they could pray and they could sing. And so when those circumstances come into our lives.
We can trust the Lord for them. I just want to repeat something that our brother Gordon used to often say, you know, at Otter Lake in, in Hammer Bay used to say, you know, young people, life is not going to turn out the way that you thought it would turn out. There is going to be tragedy and sorrow. There's going to be heartache. But when you have a trial that the Lord sends in your life, you get down on your knees and you thank God for that trial. You may not understand why the trial is there, but you thank him anyway. And there may be tears flowing down your cheeks.
01:05:10
But you thank them on your knees, and he goes, he's going to bring a blessing into your life if you'll just submit to the trial. And here, isn't it lovely, the apostle Paul, who writes in Ephesians in this way, he could do that. He practiced what he preached.
So these things are often a testimony, as we've been saying, to the world around us, not just to one another, but to the world around us. The world can sing and have a sense of happiness when things go well. The world can be thankful when things go well. They get their grades at school, they get their promotion at work, they get the house they wanted and everything seems to be going well. But you just introduced something adverse into the unbelievers life. He's not thankful for all things at all times.
He's not singing because that song isn't in his heart. That song, that happiness, depends on his outward circumstances. But I've often thought again of Paul and Silas when they sang at midnight. Perhaps they realized the import of that verse in the 119th Psalm that says at midnight will I arise and give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgment. They realized, as Robert has said, that what God was doing was right.
That he had allowed them to be in prison. They weren't considering the second 'cause which was the ones that took them and put them there. And the jailer who was in charge of them, they were, they were considering the right, the first 'cause and that the Lord had allowed this and that if he had allowed it, it was right. I think I would have been grumbling and saying, well, Lord, I thought I got a vision to come over here and to help somebody and what good am I going to do now? I'm, I'm, I'm sore. My, I'm cold. My feet are fast in the stock. But their tongues weren't fast. They couldn't hold their tongues. And so they sing. And what was the result?
Why? The jail keeper got saved. The prisoners heard them. It was an assembly established in Philippi. It was a wonderful testimony because the joy of the Lord that was already in their hearts was expressed in songs of praise and Thanksgiving.
Again, not to prolong this, but it is, I think, important to realize that God has given man the capacity to produce music. And I know you didn't mean it this way, Brother Dave Perry, but everything that the world writes is not always the song of the drunkard, is it? There is that about it. But God has given man the capacity to write.
Beautiful music and to sing beautiful lyrics. I'll mention one name that is familiar to everyone here in the United States, Stephen Foster. I don't believe he was the Lords, but if you listen to the tunes he wrote and the verses he put together, beautifully English, beautiful music. But what is this world's music, essentially?
It is, for the most part, the sorrow over the loss of paradise, or the wistful anticipation of, we'll say, a transfigured world, that something better is ahead. And all of man's art ultimately has that underneath the surface. That is, it is a seeking from a creature that was made for eternity, not for time.
To have that which he knows his inner being wishes for and strives for, and yet ultimately is not available to him. And so man produces beautiful music, and even when he is sad, he can produce the most beautiful melancholic music. And some of the great composers were men who had terrible fits of depression and difficulty. What is the difference for the believer?
Again, I heartily agree with brother Dan Leaning. There are times when the believer may not feel like lifting his voice and singing.
There are times when he may bow in prayer. I can still remember quite some interesting articles in.
Uh, FW Patterson's, FT Patterson's periodical words of truth over whether it was appropriate to sing at the funerals of our brethren. And one said, yes, it is because it's victory over the grave. The other one said, oh, I haven't got the heart to sing. When sudden tragedy hits like that, we're both right. Yes, they were. And so it's a matter of discernment before the Lord as to what is appropriate. But the difference for the believer is.
01:10:20
That he can look beyond at all. He can see the end of the journey. And so he can lift his voice and sing because he knows that there is going to be a transfigured world. He knows that long before that he will spend eternity with Christ. And so he doesn't have to sing a song that in essence.
Celebrates regret of something that was lost or something that is not there. He can say thank God I have it in my heart. That's the difference in what the believer can sing.
Verse 21 Says submitting your.
Yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And then those precious verses to the wives, to the husbands.
We're right there, wives. Submit yourselves onto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.
And He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything, and then the husbands love you wise, even as Christ also loved the Church, gave Himself for it that He might sanctify, and plants it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself. A glorious church, without having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.
That it should be holy and without blemish. Sought men to love their wives as their own bodies. In the love of his wife loveth himself. Or no man ever, yet hated his own flesh. But nourisheth and cherish you did, even as the Lord, the Church. I've I've in bookstores, I've seen book after book after book written on marriage. Nothing can come close to this passage.
The wife being subject to the husband, the husband loving the wife. What does the wife want? She wants her husband's love. What does he want? He wants his wife's submission to him owning his headship that leads to a happy marriage. You can't improve upon it. It's right here.
So precious.
It's interesting that all this is umm. Verse 21 is introduces this part of the.
Subject matter here submitting yourselves 1 to another in the fear of God. He says that before speaking to the wives of her special place of submission that so we all of us, uh, are under the fear of God or under God and we are all in that place of submission 1 to another. I think this is sig significant brothers between brothers. We, we need to learn to submit to one another. Uh, God is.
Allows our brethren to contradict us, to say, say things, to straighten us out, and so on. And we need to recognize one another. Younger brethren, older brethren and older brethren, younger brethren submitting ourselves one to another, don't we?
MMM.
I'd like to make an observation about the last two birds that we've been talking about going back to verse 18. It starts off with be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess and I think we all know how to get drunk. Just drink enough alcohol and you get drunk. The contrast brought as Christians is to be filled with the spirit. And I think we've just spent the last half hour or 40 minutes. We just touched on the last subject. There's three.
Words in the verses 1920 and 21 That end in ING and they start off with three different ideas that we've been discussing. One is speaking in verse 19, the 2nd is giving in verse 20, and the third is submitting in verse 21. And I believe what the Scripture has been before us here is if we practice these things, we'll find that our life filled with the Spirit of God and that will enable us to live the kind of life.
01:15:06
That God wants us to live and help us to do the things.
That are gonna be brought before us in terms of family relationship, work relationship, our connection with the world. And so I've enjoyed for myself.
That, uh, these are three things that I can practice in my life to, uh, enable me, not that I do it well, but to, uh, practice and to enable the Spirit of God to fill my life, to have the kind of rejoicing and joy in my life that the Spirit of God would generate.
If that's, uh, that is the way to, uh, answer the problems we talked about in the first part of the chapter.