Ephesians 5 now. Go to Ephesians
5. I didn't send you the text. I told you in the bulletin though,
Sunday. And let's read these verses we've
been studying, as you know, through Ephesians and coming to the end
of it. We ended verse 14 last Sunday. or whenever the last time we
looked at it. Verse 15 through 20 is our text
tonight. Ephesians 5, 15 through 20. See
then, that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming
the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk
with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with spirit, speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns, spiritual song, singing, 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. This is written to believers,
as you know. To the saints, he said in chapter
one. To the faithful in Christ Jesus. Those whom God has chosen before
the foundation of the world. Those whom God has redeemed,
predestined to be his children. Those whom he has redeemed through
the blood of Christ. Those whom he has revealed the
mystery of his will and his good pleasure in Christ to you. Those
whom he has given an inheritance, you may join heirs with Christ.
And on and on it goes. Those who have given the Holy
Spirit to believe, sealed, shut up to faith by the Holy Spirit.
Those who have been quickened, chapter 2, and you hath been
quickened, who were dead, who walked, and we're going to look
at this again, who walked according to the course of this world.
direction the world was headed. That's where you were headed.
You walked with the world. Not any more. Not any more. According
to the prince of the power of the air, under his influence,
not any more. Under grace, we're led by the
Spirit of God. We belong to another. We're married
to Christ. He's our ruler. Among whom we
all had our conversation in times past, not any more. Not anymore. Our conversation didn't hit our
life. Christ hit our life. So this is to God's people. God's
people. And chapter 5, this is how it
began. Chapter 5 is where we're at.
Be ye therefore followers of God. Those who have been born
of God. Believe God. Who of God are in
Christ. Who of God is made unto us. All those things. Wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, redemption. So he says, be followers of God,
that is, follow him, what he says. Walk before him. Remember, Abraham's the father
of the faithful. You remember when he said to
Abraham, walk before me? He came to Abraham and said,
you talk to him, face to face. And our Lord speaks to us. He
says, walk before me. Abraham walked with God. Noah
walked with God. Enoch walked with God. All of
God's people walk with God. Not like we want to, not like
we want to, but they do. They pass from death unto light,
from darkness to light. And so he says, walk as children
of, look at verse two, as dear children, walk in love as Christ
has loved us, given himself. Here's the motive in it. Here's
the motive, here's the reason. As Christ gave Himself for us,
an offering, a sacrifice to God, a sweet-smelling savor, He laid
down His life for us. What does it say? What does John
say we ought to do? Lay down our lives for the brethren
and His cause, Christ our life, His people, His kingdom, our
life. He says walk seven times. You know, some may think, well,
you're dwelling on this too much. I'm being faithful to God's Word. That's what I'm trying to do. I quoted Solomon. You remember
Solomon said, Lord, I don't know how to come or go. I don't know
what I'm doing. Please lead me and guide me. Brother Ed, you read that Psalm
119, 131. Order my steps in that word.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. He delights in his
way. I don't want my own way. I don't
want to have my way. Do you? Have thine own way, O
Lord. Lead me, guide me. How many Psalms
does he say, lead me, guide me, direct me, keep me, speak to
me? So, help me to walk aright. Don't you love that song? Help
me to walk aright. More by faith, less by sight. Leave me in heavenly
light. Have thine own way. Walk in with
God. Christ, following Him, by faith. Scripture talks about walking
by faith, not sight. I want to walk by faith, don't
you? Not sight. I may preach Sunday on things
that cannot be shaken. If I do, I'm going to ask some
questions, see if I can shake your faith. See if I can shake
you up. See if I can make you not believe
what you believe. I'm going to ask some worldly questions that
the world thinks they pose difficulty, difficult questions. and see
if I can shake you from the foundations, y'all. Might do that. I don't
know. But we walk by faith, not sight,
not the hearing of the ear. Not what we see and not what
we're hearing, but rather what we hear and see here. We walk in the light. I want
to walk in the light, don't you? Not darkness. Not darkness. The light of His Word. Christ
our light, don't you? I don't want to be in ignorance.
I don't want to be in superstition. I don't want to be in tradition.
I don't want to be in the darkness. Do you? I want to walk in the
light. His Word. I want to walk in His
Word according to His Word. Don't you? Paths of righteousness. Order
my steps in that way. I want to walk in love. Walk in love. I want to walk
with God. There was a time I did not have
any of those desires. The furthest thing from my mind.
Why? Because I was dead in trespassing sin. I believe the Lord's done something
for me. And you too. Are those your desires? So, we're
going to talk a little more about this wall. We're going to talk
about the wall. Listen to 1 John 2. He said, Brethren, he that saith
he abideth in him, Ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. And all through that. And Ephesians,
as we've seen, I listened to my father preach from this. In 1992, he was 66 years old,
younger than me. But it's such a good message. And he said then, he said, this
is the man that would take issue with me over this, but he said,
this is just as vital. Just as vital as the faith you
say you have. The faith without works is dead.
Be a doer of the word, not a hero, right? Conceiving ourselves. So this is just as important. It goes along with it. We saw
that in Ephesians 2, 10, didn't we? That's what it's all about.
So this walk, we ought to walk as Christ walked, what he tells
us. We're not in the dark. He tells us that. All down through
here, he talks about to the wives. He tells the wives, you want
to be a good wife? Well, he tells us. It's not up
to Sigmund Freud. What is his name? Who cares?
It's not up to the philosopher of this world. It's what God
said. Husbands? You want to be a good husband?
Want your marriage to last? I do. Right here in the end.
Talks about children. Want to be a good child, want
to be a good parent, want to be a good servant, a good employee,
an employer, and on and on. He tells us that. I'm so glad.
So glad. The title I've given this is
Walking, Talking, Singing, and Praying. The world's got these
silly slogans that people think are so deep and so moving. Pray,
laugh, live, love, and linger long. I don't know. You know
what they say. Pray, laugh, live, love. Not
pray first. Laugh, love, pray first. But the title here is what he
gives us here in this Ephesians 5 is walking, talking, speaking
to yourselves, singing, and pray. And the last giving of thanks
is prayer. That's the title. That's the
subject. And so, you know, he said, all right, look at verse
15. See then that you walk circumspectly. And what does that mean? Circumspectly has a few meanings. It means diligently, carefully,
watchfully. You know, if you don't watch
how you walk, you'll trip, you'll stumble and fall, won't you,
Mindy? Mindy's so prone to fall. You
know, she's a little bit of a hurry sometimes. But anyway, and her
eyesight and her dependence. But if you don't walk, here's
the point. If you're not careful, you'll
stumble and fall. But how much more should we watch
how we walk carefully? Where we walk, how we walk, who
we walk with. Right? You'll stumble and fall.
There's pits and there's snares and there's traps. If you don't
have your eyes open, you're going to fall in a pit. You're going to
fall for the things, the traps, snares, the nets. How significant
is it that the world calls this thing that everybody's caught
up in the internet? Surf the web. God's not mocked. He's mocking
men. Everybody's caught up in this
web. Don't be. Don't be. So where am I? We need to watch diligently,
carefully. What opens our eyes? What is
it that keeps us from stumbling and falling? Walk in the light.
Christ said, you walk in the light, you won't stumble as those
in darkness. The word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path. Here's the way, walk in it. The world says, here's the way.
No, no, no. You know, Pilgrim, in Pilgrim's
Progress, He was in the way, and he went by Vanity Fair and
all these Bypass Meadow and all these places, and they lured
him. Oh, that looks so nice. It won't hurt to take a little
nap over here in Bypass Meadow. I'll just get out of the way
and go over here and take a little nap. Slumber. What happened? He ended up in
Dowding Castle under giant despair, and he didn't think he was ever
going to get out. So, walk circumspectly. His Word
is our light. He says in verse 16, redeeming
the time, because the days are evil. Redeeming the time. We
don't have much time. You know that? Time is short.
All through the epistle. And we just read in Psalm 90.
That's why we read that. Time is short. Days. Teach us
to number our days. You know, remember I told you
70 years is like 25,000 some odd Days. Well, I only had a few thousand
days left. Some of you, you're on borrowed
time, aren't you? It's over. Those days, those
allotted days are over. It's just any day now. It really
is. So, teach us to number those
days, to apply our hearts to what? Wisdom, he says in verse
15, not as fools. Fools don't think about God.
Fools don't think about eternal life. Fools only think about
this life. Fools say, I'm going to tear down my barn and build
a bigger one. The Lord says, thou fool, tonight your soul
will be quiet. Fools don't listen to wisdom.
Fools don't hear wise counsel. Oh, no. Fools don't even think
there is God. There's no life after death.
This is all there is. That's a fool. That's a fool.
So, be not a fool. Redeem the time. Redeeming the
time. Now, redeem means it. Redeem
means to ransom or rescue from loss. Our Lord redeemed us, didn't
He? How? Ransom. A ransom was found. Deliver them from going down
into the pit. I found a ransom. What's that?
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son. Ransom, we've been redeemed,
not with corruptible things, silver and gold, your vain conversation
received by tradition of the elders, but with the precious
blood of the Lamb. I quoted that because I never
get tired of quoting that. God forbid that we should ever
get tired of that. That's our redemption. That's our song in
heaven. That's our song now, and that's what we're going to
be singing. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it. Your son loved that song, didn't
he? Redeem. Ransom. Rescue from loss. That's
what our Lord did for us, didn't He? But He says redeem the time.
Redeem the time. Buy the truth. Sell it not. Spend
your time wisely. Have you ever thought about how
much we use the word time? Huh? What time is it? Do we have
enough time? We're out of time. He's not on
time. There was a time when Once upon
a time, we're such creatures of time. We're bound by time.
Everything. And the time's short. Time is
short in redeeming. Don't waste it. Don't waste time. Oh, the time I've wasted. I've
wasted about 24 years of my life. Waste. Wasted on myself. Wasted. What a waste of time.
My whole youth was a waste of time. I wasted my mind. I wasted
my heart. I wasted my body. My life was
spent on vanity. Wasted time. Wasted time. Anybody? A lot of you. That's why psalms like this say
this. Listen to these psalms. I tell
you what, everybody turned to Ecclesiastes 12, especially young
people. All you young people and all
you old people that have a Bible. Turn to Ecclesiastes 12. But
we read Psalm 90, it says, teach us to number our days. And it
says in verse 14, satisfy us early with thy mercy that we
may rejoice and be glad all our day in the Lord. And it satisfies
early as young people. Well, if the Lord doesn't save
you when you're young, you're going to get out there in this
world and it's going to get a hold of you. It's something you'll never completely
get over. If you don't get a full taste
of it, you know what I'm trying to say.
But if you're out there and live in it for a long time and get
a taste for it, it'll haunt you the rest of your day. It satisfies
early. Listen to Psalm 119, verse 9. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way? young woman. How? By taking heed
according to his word. Here's the way. How many proverbs? All the proverbs. My son, hear
me now. Do this and you'll live. Did
we? John, did we? We sure did not. Don't you wish we'd have listened?
Easy. Waste of time. Almost destroyed
ourselves. But God. But God. Ah, boy. Ecclesiastes 12. You
got that? Ecclesiastes 12. Verse 1, Remember
now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Remember now thy Creator. Think on God, young people. Old
people. Think on your Creator. God in
whose hands your breath is and all your way. Call upon him.
Call upon him. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Don't wait. Don't say, well, when I get older
and more convenient time, when I get, you know, settled in this
world, you don't know. Young people die too, don't they? Remember now. Today. Today's the day of salvation.
For the evil days come now, and the years draw nigh, when you
say, I have no pleasure in them." The Lord doesn't save very many
old people. He saves some. He sure doesn't. Listen to Lamentations 3. Some
of you love Lamentations 3, don't you? Listen to this. It's good
for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. The yoke of Christ. It's easy. His burden is light. The way of the transgressor is
hard. A hard taskmaster. Sin, Satan, this world is a hard
taskmaster. It's good for a man to bear his
yoke in his youth. Ask him, Lord, put the yoke on
me. So he says, redeem the time.
Listen to this. Listen to what Simon Peter said. He said this in 2 Peter 3. He
said, all these things are going to be dissolved. What manner
of persons ought we to be? In all manner of holy conversation,
God was looking for, hastening the coming of our God in the
day. The heavens will be on fire and
be dissolved. The elements melt with a fervent heat and it's
all over. Then what? Did anything matter? It didn't matter if you had an
education. It didn't matter if you had a
family. It didn't matter nothing. Paul
said, the time is short. It remaineth that those that
are married be as though they're not married. Have wives, be as
though they had no wives. Had children, no children. None
of that's going to matter. Matters not at all. What you
did, what you accumulated, what you knew, what you accomplished,
Nothing matters. Do you know Him? Or rather, does
He know you? Listen to Brother Scott. The
Lord gave an old coal miner from West Virginia great wisdom. Scott Richardson. I've had this
in the bulletin several times. I'll put it in there again. There's
some things not worth it. He said there are many ways to
waste precious time. If books not worth reading, television
not worth watching, thoughts not worth thinking, places not
worth going, games not worth playing, buildings not worth
building, wars not worth fighting, victories not worth winning,
arguments not worth winning, Friends, not worth making. Songs,
not worth singing. Appointments, not worth keeping.
Pain, not worth causing. Enemies, not worth hating. You could stop and think about
each one of these things. Prayers, not worth praying. Sermons,
not worth preaching. Lessons not worth learning. And
he ends it by saying, thank God for eternity. You know, there's
coming a time, time after time, and there'll be no time. You
won't have to think about time. Won't be subject to it. And I'm here to tell you, the
Lord tells us, it's a good thing to give thanks. What we're doing
right now is not a waste of time. This is time well spent. This
is the best way you can possibly spend your time. This is how
you redeem the time. And how many things fight against
you to keep you from coming here? Your own self, your own mind,
the thorns, the care, the foul of the air. Don't they try everything? The husbands and wives. Why is
it that you get in an argument or something on Wednesday? It happens sometimes, doesn't
it? We're not wrestling with flesh
and blood, but with principalities and power. His great aim is to
keep you from hearing this gospel. He knows what the power of God
is. He's seen it take people from his dominion. He's seen
it. He knows. He knows. Job, he said, Lord, I can't get
near Him. You're hedging Him about. Isn't
that wonderful? The same is true of all of God's
people. I want Him. He said, Simon Peter, Satan hath
desired to sift you like wheat. He can't do it unless I let him. The same with all of His people. This is time well spent. This
is time worth redeeming. So you need to set aside this
time. You need to set everything else
aside for this time right here. Redeem this time. This is just,
this is the same as Sunday morning as the Lord's Day. It's no different.
Do you see me acting or dressing or doing anything differently? This is worship. We're approaching
the Lord. I treat this like the Lord's
Day. It is the Lord's Day. Every day is the Lord's Day.
Every time God's people meet together, the Lord is with them.
That's time we'll spend it. We'll spend
it. I urge everyone, drop what you're
doing. Anybody hearing this over the
Internet? Drop what you're doing and go
worship the Lord with God's people. He said in verse 17, I'll tell
you. Be not unwise. Understanding what the will of
the Lord is. And so many times he talks about
the will of the Lord. Romans 12, 1 Thessalonians 4. Paul said, this is the will of
the Lord, your sanctification. He said, I pray that you'll be sanctified
wholly. I pray that your whole spirit,
soul, and body be preserved. That is, chaste virgin. He said,
I want to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Given to Him
totally. When? Now! Now. Will of the Lord. Oh, rescued, redeemed, delivered
from this present evil world. Isn't that what you want? When?
Now! He's given us precious promises
like this to help us escape. Verse 18, speaking of escape,
in verse 18 it says, Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excel.
Be filled with the Spirit. Drunk means intoxicated. Drunk
means under the influence of anything, not just wine. He speaks
of wine because it's so prevalent, so easy, and it's so widespread. That sure does describe our generation
as never before. Young people are just... It's sad, isn't it? This present evil world is all
about eating and drinking. Their God is their belly, isn't
it? Having a big old time. And they use these things, I
know, they use these things, drinking and drugs and all, to
escape. It's an escape, to forget about whatever. An excuse to
just let your tongue loose. You know, being drunk on this
wine or beer or whatever it is, causes it to loosen the tongue
and to close. And inhibitions. And you become
an absolute fool. And it's a mocker. You think
you're something. You think everybody's listening
to you and they're laughing at you. And you're acting like an
idiot. And you're not in your right mind, are you? And you
can be drunk. Scripture talks about being sober. Be sober. You can be drunk on
many things. You can be intoxicated by and
under the influence of and not in your right mind over many
things. Right. A job. People give themselves
where they're totally, you know, their career is everything they
live for. That's you're not in your right
mind. You're working, you do all this stuff, and then you're
going to retire and live off all this money. Oh, are you now? Home, people get all caught up
in their home, you know, decorating it and fixing it up and all this. Family? You're going to lose
all this stuff. Money? It's intoxicating. Does it earn money? Deceitfulness
of riches. All these things deceive us into
thinking it's going to make us happy and secure the security. You know, he has financial security. Really? Boy, isn't that a delusion? Boy,
you can lose like that. Lord, easily. People get all
intoxicated over sports. I know. Recreation. You can just be concerned with
it. You're not in your right mind. You're not thinking straight.
What are you doing? Playing games. Music? Man, oh man, John, can you not
get caught up in music? I love music. I do love music. Ever since I was a boy. And everybody
in my family plays some kind of music and instrument. And
man, I got caught up early. And here are some songs not worth
singing, and I tell you, it will consume you. You get caught up
in it and it will absolutely, you're consumed. Well, you don't
think about anything else. Right, John? Right? Jeanette
back there now. Music, all these things. Now,
there's some legitimate things to enjoy. Home, job, family,
money and possessions, all these things, food and clothing, sport,
recreation. The Lord doesn't deny us these
things, but when you get consumed with them, when you become just
intoxicated by these things, all you think about, you're drunk
on this world. He tells us here in our text,
be filled with the Spirit, not drunk. I heard a preacher just
ignorantly said to him, be drunk with the spirit. No, no, no.
When you're drunk, you're out of your mind. You're not thinking
straight. The field with the spirit is the opposite. You're
not, you are thinking straight, like that gathering demoniac. You're in your right mind now.
You're not talking like a fool. You're talking more like a wise
man. Your mind's not crazy. Your mind's finally thinking
straight. Thinking on things above. And
I've heard, you know, this Pentecostal world uses verses like that,
don't they? To excuse their... It's demonic,
if you've ever watched. It's demonic. And they use verses
like that. Be drunk with the Spirit. No, no, no. Filled with the Spirit. Filled with the Spirit. You know,
whatever you eat and drink is what fills you up, doesn't it?
What are you eating? What are you drinking? The bread
of life. The meat, the body and the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The water of His Word. Starve
that old man. Feed that new man. Feed him. Oh, we need to be filled with
the Spirit. We're not going to be filled with the Spirit if
we don't ask for the Spirit. If we don't pray for the Spirit. John said, I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's Day. How did he get in the Spirit?
Did he drum up the Spirit? No, no. He asked. He prayed. How much more shall the Father
give the Spirit than ask Him? What does the Spirit of God,
the Spirit of Christ do for God's people? It takes the thanks of
Christ. Christ crucified, everything
He said, tells us. And so, you know, the world tries
to escape through these means, through drinking and drugs and
so forth. We want to escape this world
too, don't we? We want to escape, don't we?
How? How do we escape? We run to our refuge, to our
Lord. Hide, O my Savior, hide, till
the storms of life be past. Come unto me, he said, all you
that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you bread. We run to
him, don't we? He's given us exceeding precious
promises whereby we might escape corruption. We escape our troubles,
how? Gospel. Word. Now look at verse 19. He said,
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing, making melody in your heart to the Lord. This is good
for us. This is good for us. Speaking
to yourselves. Is he talking about you need
to talk to yourself or speak to one another? Both. Do you ever talk to yourself?
Do you? Go ahead, admit it. Just don't
answer. Said to myself, self, but in
this sense, I know you've all done this and turn to Colossians
3 real quickly, Colossians 3. I know you've all done this,
said to yourself, rebuked yourself and reproved yourself. What,
what, what are you doing? Why are you doing that? Why did
you say that? David wrote that in one of the
Psalms in anybody's mouth. What's wrong with you? Do you
say that to yourself all the time? What's wrong with you? Get a hold of yourself. Speaking to yourself, speaking
to one another in Psalms and hymns This sounds like Colossians,
doesn't it? The whole Ephesians sounds like
Colossians. I love both books. Colossians 3, verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another. See, here it talks clearly about one another, talking to
one another, speaking to one another. And hymns? See, it's the Word that admonishes
us. You can't do it. Very few people
can take admonition and correction face to face. They better love you, and you
better love them, or they won't receive it. A brother offended
is harder won in the city. You rebuke a wise man, he'll
take it. He warned and rebuked somebody that really didn't want
you to, and you may never see him again. Sad, isn't it? Admonishing one another in Psalms
and hymns, you know, we bring up the Word of God, and that's
the power of God, the Word of God. You and I can't convince
anybody of anything. We can't even be convinced by
somebody. The Word of God's got to convince us. God's got to
convince us to His Word. I don't know how many times I've
preached and preached and preached and quoted scripture and scripture
and somebody come up to me and said, you know what I read the
other day? Look at this. This is what I read. I said,
yeah, I've been reading that to you for 20 years. But it doesn't
matter. The Lord's going to have to do
it. Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Whatever you do
in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Give
Him thanks to God. See how vital all this is? He
keeps telling it to the churches. I go back to the text. He says,
so speaking to yourself. Speaking. Like Sunday, didn't
you enjoy thinking about Rebekah and Abraham going all
the way back to meet Isaac and what all they were talking about.
And this is Queen of Sheba. Speaking to you, I love the story
of Pilgrim's Progress so much. Pilgrim and Christian faithful
were walking along. I loved it. I loved it. And one of them said to the other,
he said, Brother, let's have some profitable discourse. That's
time well spent. Don't you feel like the time
you spend together with one another and it's just a bunch of foolishness
carried on, that you feel like it's just a waste of time? You
could have been anywhere with anybody else doing that. It didn't
profit you one bit. So this is our admonition. Speak
unto yourselves in psalms and hymns. The psalm, don't you love
the psalm? And so often you text me a psalm
that you were reading. John texted me a psalm today,
Psalm 26. He said, have you read this recently?
It was just wonderful. See, he was reading the psalm. He said, this goes right along
with what we're looking at. And it does. And I went back
and read it. So good. So good. Hymns, don't you love these hymns? Oh my, spiritual songs, that
means hymns that whoever writes, singing, making melody in your
heart to the Lord. Who are we singing to? The Lord. See, these things, talking to
one another, speaking to one another in songs, hymns, spiritual
songs, is glorifying to our Lord. Singing is commanded. How many
times in a psalm does it command? Sing. There's one psalm, five
times it's sing, sing, sing, sing, sing. In the three verses
it keeps saying it, David. Sing, sing, sing, sing, sing. Why? Because it glorifies our
Lord. You can't complain when you're
singing. You can't murmur when you're singing, can you? We ought to be singing all the
time for the mercy and the grace that our God has shown us today.
The birds do. They don't have a place. That's how our Lord upbraids
us in the Sermon on the Mount. Consider the birds. They sing
all the time. You think about it, in the dead
of winter, in sub-zero weather, where the Lord takes care of
them. And they wake up freezing. Their water bowl is frozen. Sing
it. What do we complain about? We are sorry a lot, aren't we?
Sorry. Sing. Sing unto the Lord. Sing unto Him. Not to be heard,
but sing to Him from the heart. Singing glorifies our Lord. As
I said, you can't murmur, you can't complain, you can't be
too angry or bitter to sing when you're singing. You can't. You
can't be full of unbelief when you're singing. You can't be
too sad. You can't stay sad if you're
singing. David, in one of the songs, John, it says, they asked
us to sing a song of Zion. He said, we hung our harps on
the willows because we were in bondage. And they told us, sing
one of these songs. Entertain us. He said, we can't
do it. Too sad. Sing. It's good for us to sing. Paul and Silas. Don't you love
that story? They had been beaten bloody. Have you ever taken a fall and
been beaten up, Mike, Mindy? We all have. We've all fallen
sore. He said I was beaten five times
with 40 stripes. Once with, twice with rods. Think
about it. And he and Silas are in prison
in a dark, damp jail cell with irons on their feet. Sore from
head to toe. Eyes closed. Swollen shut. Bleeding. Well, that's bad. Who did that? And Paul said, through bleeding
lips, Brother Silas, they beat us. But this ain't
gonna beat us. God did this. We're his prisoner. Christ did this. They did this
to Christ. Brother Silas, they did this
to our Lord. We did it. I did it to Stephen. This is what we deserve. Let's
sing. Let's sing, Brother Silas. Let's
start singing. Oh, how merciful. How merciful. This is mercy,
Brother Silas. This is mercy. He hadn't dealt
with us according to our sins, Brother Silas. He's been good
to us. Anything this side of hell is mercy, Brother Silas.
Let's sing. Oh, how merciful. You know what happened? Chains fell out. Chains fell out. The door, the
dungeon. Somebody heard them. It's good for us. It's good for
us to sing. It does our heart good. It's
glorifying to God. And it's good for other people.
It's a testimony. It's a witness. Somebody heard
them singing. There's a fellow out there, John, you've been
dealing with. There's an old jailer out there that was responsible
for them being there. Thrust them in the prison. And
he heard them singing. How can those guys be singing? How could they do that after
what I did to them? What is this joy they have? I want that. He came running
in with a light. The Lord saved the old boy. Singing is good for us. It's
good for others. Sing. So they sang. Singing. Look at the next thing. It says,
giving thanks. And here it is. Prayer. Verse
20, and I quit. giving thanks always for all
things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. If we realize that all things
are of God, if we realize that the bad things as well as the
good things, the trials, the troubles as well as the, you
know, easy times, the sickness as well as the health, it's all
of the Lord. If we realize that. We'll give
thanks, Lord. We'll give thanks. You remember
in Psalm 98, it said, Make us glad according to the days that
you've afflicted us. God doesn't do that to the world.
He lets them have everything. And then when it's all over,
He takes it all away and takes them away. He casts them out.
But as we said recently, He's slowly weaning His people. We're
going through everything Job went through. You know that? All of God's people go through
every single thing that Job went through in a few days. We go
through, it takes 70 years. What's he doing? Showing us.
The Lord gave it. The Lord take it away. He's taking
you out of here. This is not your continuing city. You look for someone to come.
This is not your, not of this world. You don't live for this
world, you're mine, God said. And he says, in everything give
thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. Boy, what a testimony that is
to the world, isn't it? If you tell people that you have
some sickness or something happened, or you lost a child, or lost
a mate, or the worst thing the world could think of happened
to you, and you tell them, God did this. Religion is saying God didn't
want that to happen, aren't they? That's what religion says, cross
the board. God didn't want that to happen. How in the world could
that comfort anybody? They can't. The only comfort
is this is the will of God. He did this. And He doesn't give
an account of His matters, but someday we'll know. So give thanks now and one of these
days. Like Scott said, and boy did
he go through trouble. He said, if you knew what God
knows, you'd order your life exactly like He orders it. He
wouldn't change a thing. He wouldn't change a thing. And one of these days, He's going
to show us. Look, look, I had to do this for this and this
and this. Lord, I'm so glad. Okay, stand with me.