Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Psalm 146. I'm reading for
our text the latter part of verse 7. The Lord looseth the prisoners. Psalm 146 and verse 7. We have a catalogue of things
in the context here of what the Lord does. We have in verse 6
the creation, which made heaven and earth, the sea and all that
therein is, which keepeth truth for ever. And then we have a
list of these things in which our text is a part, which executed
judgment for the oppressed. which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners.
The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind. The Lord raiseth them
that are bowed down. The Lord loveth the righteous. The Lord preserveth the strangers. He relieveth the fatherless and
widow. but the way of the wicked he
turneth upside down. We have a catalogue of those
things that the Lord does. May none of us think that we
have a God that is helpless, that is unable and not able to
do exceeding far above all that we can ask or think. The Lord says I will being inquired
of by the House of Israel to do it for them. God is a performing
God and we see right through the Old Testament history and
we have laid up in store for New Testament church a living
God ascended in the right hand of God and to appear for and
to help his people. Now, with our text, and it is
this last part of verse seven, from my spirit, the Lord looseth
the prisoners, it brings with it some questions as we look
at the verse. Quite often I think of this when
I have a text laid upon my spirit, there's often questions relating
to that text. Who are these prisoners? And how are they imprisoned? And where are they? And how does
the Lord loose them? Does the Lord loose all prisoners? Or just some? And if just some,
why some and not others? All of these sort of questions
when you come at a verse like this. How does the scripture answer
that? What is the Lord speaking to
us and teaching us through even a short text like this? The Lord
looseth the prisoners. What are we to picture when we
look at a word like this? Well, I want to look then at
three points. Firstly, prisoners as pictured
by all men. And then secondly, the prisoners. The Lord looses the prisoners. And who are they specifically? And then lastly, the Lord's loosing
of them. and the various situations in
which he loosens them from. But firstly, prisoners, all men. When man fell and there came
upon him the sentence of death, in the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die, in effect, man was put, like we are used
to hearing of those that have been condemned to death in America,
and very often they are not put to death straight away, they
go on death row, and they have that sentence over them, and
some might be on that death row for 20 years, but that sentence
is there, and they are a prisoner waiting for that execution. And really, every one of us,
as we are born into this world, we are under that sentence of
death. Whether we live a few years,
a very short time, whatever it is, whether it is 100, 105, we still spend our days as a
tale that is told, and we are waiting for that time when the
sentence of death shall be executed. Another sense of it, already
it has been executed, because we are spiritually damned, and
we are held then, and we are bound under a spiritual death. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned. We are bound hand and foot with
sin. We are prisoners by sin and by
Satan. We are held fast and by nature
all men are under that condemnation. And as we're born into this world,
we cannot escape out of it. Once we are in it, there is only
one way out of it. We cannot escape the judgment. We cannot escape appearing in
the presence of God. When Job was afflicted, he wished
he'd never been born. But once in that situation, he
couldn't escape out of it at all. And it's a realization of
this. We can't as like say if we had
a job that we didn't like and things were going badly and everything,
we thought we've got to get out of this situation, I'm going
to resign and we're going to start afresh and we're going
to go somewhere else. We can't do that with life. We
can't escape in any way. So in that sense, we are prisoners,
we are held forth and all men are in the Like condemnation,
the same condemnation. In the Word of God, we have many
pictures that are given us of those that are in prison or in
captivity. This is what we think of here
in captivity. We've sung about the the Ark. It's a beautiful type actually
of the safety in the Ark. In one sense though, Noah and
all that were with him, they were captives in that Ark. They
had to stay in that Ark for that just over a year until the Lord
loosed them and brought them out of that Ark. But it was a
happy, as it were, captivity of safety. in that sense. Then when we look further on
in the word of God, and we have the children of Israel in Egypt,
but even before they came into Egypt, we have Joseph, and Joseph
was brought into prison as a captive, and until his time came, the
word of the Lord tried him, there was nothing he could do to release
himself from that prison. He tried, he asked the butler
to remember him, but the butler forgot him. But, as I said, at
a point in time, he was loosed from that prison and brought
then to be next unto Pharaoh. And so we have a picture there,
and of course Joseph is able to clearly say that God overruled
his brothers in bringing him there to preserve their lives
by great deliverance. We have then the picture with
the children of Israel in Egypt, and it might not have appeared
at first that they were really prisoners at all. Yes, they had
hard labor, they had to serve with rigor, and they groaned,
they cried to the Lord. But it wasn't until the Lord
began to deliver them and send Moses that then it really appeared
how much of a prisoner they were. Because all of the signs and
wonders that were wrought, Pharaoh would not let them go. If at
the start they failed to be prisoners, surely after those nine signs,
they would have known fully that they were prisoners. We could
think of someone being under house arrest, and they might
be in their house, and they think, this is not too bad, I can go
to the kitchen, I can go to the lounge, I can go around, that's
alright, now I'm going to walk out the front door. Well, you
can't go any further, and you suddenly realise there's a bound,
and they are prisoners, even though they have a bit of liberty
in their home. And the children of Israel would
have found this, that they could not just walk out of Egypt, they
were not free to do so, and it was the Lord then that brought
them out. We think later on in the case
when they were sent into Babylonian captivity, and the Lord said
that they would have 70 years of captivity in Babylon, and
nothing would release them from that captivity until the Lord's
a point in time. Then he would release them and
they would go back into their own land. And right through the
scriptures we have these illustrations of prisoners, of those held in
a position until God saw fit to remove it, to bring them out
of it, and nothing that they could do or did do would make
any difference until the Lord's appointed and set time. And so when we read the Lord
looseth the prisoners and we think of prisoners and the prisoners
of the earth, it is a very vivid picture, a very vivid illustration
that really all men share in under sin and upon this earth
and under Satan's bondage and under the decree and sentence
of God. We are not our own master. We
don't have our own free will to exercise, to loose ourselves
and to set us free. Our text clearly says the Lord
looseth the prisoners and the implication here is that there
is no other one that doth. This is unique, this is what
the Lord's work is. And all men, the day of death
is appointed, the day that they shall be taken from this world. But what a solemn thing, we are
still under the spiritual death, we're still under sentence of
eternal death, and we must appear before God and receive that judgment
depart from me cursed into everlasting fire. But our text says the Lord
looseth the prisoners. And on to look then secondly
at the prisoners. That is those that are loosed. The Lord looseth the prisoners. Does the Lord loose everyone? that is born into this world? Does he lose them from Satan's
bondage? Does he lose them from spiritual
death? Does he lose them from being
in captivity to this world? Does he lose them from being
in bondage to their own will? And the answer is no. Many, many
go on their way until death comes. And that which is said here is
for a specific people, the prisoners. In the prophecy of Zechariah,
we read there of the Lord's dealings with his people. And it is spoken
this way in Jechariah 9 verse 11. And as for thee also by the
blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thine prisoners out
of the pit wherein is no water. Turn you to the stronghold, ye
prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare that
I will render double unto thee. We may say this, that the prisoners
are those of God's elect people, those that are chosen in Christ
from the foundation of the world, those that have been loved with
an everlasting love, and therefore with loving kindness the Lord
has for all men, it is those that the Lord looseth. And the very mark of being the
people of God is that he does loose them. If the Son shall
make you free, the Lord said, you shall be free indeed. And he said that to those that
believed on his name. He said to them, if you continue
in my word, then shall you be my disciples indeed. You shall
know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And the
picture is those that are in bondage, those that are in captivity,
and yet through the Lord Jesus Christ and through a knowledge
of his name and a knowledge of salvation through his death and
sufferings, they are to be set free. And we must be clear on
this, that the Lord does have his prisoners, the same as in
the time in Egypt and Babylon, he does have his people that
for the time he has appointed, they are in bondage. Paul, when he writes concerning
the Jews, he says that at that time they were in bondage, shut
up under the law until the gospel should be revealed. They were
looking for salvation from their own works and they were shut
up under that. They couldn't see, they couldn't
understand any other way of salvation. We are Moses' disciple, thou
art his disciple, they said to the man that had been born blind
and given signs. There is a set time to favour
Zion. There is an appointed time when
this, the people, are brought forth out of their pit and set
free. And in that, they are shown to
be the people of God. But even before that time, before
they are loosed, I venture to say this, they are known as the
prisoners or the Lord's prisoners in that they feel the bondage. They feel to be in captivity. They feel to not have liberty. They want it, but don't have
it. And they're brought to such a
word as this, and this word is like the gospel. It is good news
to them. You know, if we had one that
was literally in a prison and told, there is this person, and
they set prisoners free. You say, well there is a ray
of hope in that person that I might be set free. The justness of the sentence. The Lord is just, we have sinned. He is righteous in all that he
does. But really in this is the The
gospel of good news to those who feel in captivity, who feel
that they are bound. Remember with Joseph, he was
bound where the king's prisoners were bound. There's a better
thing to be in a spiritual sense, where the king of king's prisoners
are bound. waiting to be set free, waiting
to be delivered. You have other pictures you might
say of that. When our Lord was on earth, the
woman with the issue of blood, 12 years, she was bound by that
and just one touch and she was set free. 38 years at the Pool
of Bethesda and the Lord passing by and he immediately loose from
that infirmity. The picture's right through the
Lord's Word. He is changing the path of one
that has been held in a situation and could not get out of that,
but in a moment with the Lord, He changes it. He looses them. He does what they could not do
for themselves. Thirdly, at the Lord's loosing
of them. I want to consider first of all
the very work that is done by our Lord at Calvary. Because all that the Lord does
is just and righteous, and he cannot be charged with unfairness. A debt, if owed, it must be paid. We couldn't go to one in prison
that owed a great debt, and say, well, I just want that person
to be free, but don't worry about the debt, I'm not going to pay
that for them. It would be an unjust loosing of that prisoner. But the Lord must pay the debt,
and he has for his people. I believe it's very important
for us to realize that a just way to just balance. Without
the shedding of blood there is no remission. That which the
Lord does is a redemption, a setting free by the payment of a price,
a settled debt, a ransom, a ransom payment that has been paid that
then guarantees the loosing of those that are being held until
that ransom is paid. And so with the Lord Jesus Christ
coming, he had to be made a woman, made under the law, to deliver
them, to set them free who were under the law. He's made a curse
for us that we might be brought out from underneath the curse
of the law. All what the Lord has done at
Calvary has made it possible that he can rightfully, justly,
in the experience of his people here below, loose them and set
them free. And so the Church of God has
always got to remember this. Our Lord is lifted up on the
pole of the everlasting gospel, determined, says Paul, to know
nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. The Lord came to set his people
free. to pay the debt. The blood that
he shed is always to be remembered by the church of God. This is
the blood that the New Testament shed for you. It is the blood
of the everlasting covenant, that which God has enjoined,
that he set his people free through the payment of the blood. Now
if we go back to what we said about the children of Israel
in Egypt, with all those signs and those wonders, they were
still not set free. But as soon as the blood was
shed, as soon as the Passover was instituted and observed,
they were thrust down. There wasn't any small thing
done. It was a great thing that was
done, an instant thing that was done. The thing was done suddenly,
we read, and it certainly was in that case. And so, The Lord
says with desire, I decide to eat this last Passover with you
before I suffer. And he institutes then the Lord's
Supper. But in his sufferings, he was
to release and set his people free. But that then has to be
imparted to his people. In the Old Testament, they, by
faith, look forward to Christ. We have that list of those by
faith. In Hebrew, it's not exhausted.
Just because their name is not there doesn't mean they weren't
saved. But they trusted that Christ would come and would settle
their debt. David says, although my house
be not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. and although my house
be not so, although he make it not to grow, the hope that he
had was in the Lord Jesus Christ, what he would do for him in loosing
and setting him free from his death. Thou shalt not die, the
Lord hath also put away thy sin, the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. But for us, in the Gospel day,
it is through the preaching of the Gospel, it is through the
lifting up of the Son of God in the ministry of the Word,
through the preaching of the Word, that faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of the Lord. And it is then in a day
of grace, in the experience of God's people, that he sets them
free. First of all, to be brought under
the law, to know that they are under the law. The Lord's work
is to bring them out from under the law, that by the deeds of
the law shall no man living be justified, there shall not be
a setting free in that way, and that way must be stopped up first. And Paul speaks of those that
he longed to be saved, in Romans 10, but were in bondage under
the law, like Hagar, and shut up under the law. But all of
God's people are first, until the Lord reveals the gospel. I remember when the Lord brought
me in the law work, or under the condemnation of the law,
wherever I looked in the word of God, whether it be the Old
Testament or new, Every verse, it condemned me. I could not
see a ray of hope. I could not see the gospel anywhere
in it. Wherever I turned, that word
condemned me. But when the Lord blessed my
soul, then he turned the word the other way around, and wherever
I looked, there was the gospel. I saw it at Sinai. I saw it right through the Old
Testament. I saw it in the New. All the
time there is the gospel, the good news of salvation through
Christ. And it is the Lord that openeth,
and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. It is a blessed
thing to have our eyes open. That's why the psalmist prayed,
open thou mine eyes, that I might behold wondrous things out of
thy law, The two on the way to Emmaus, their eyes were holden
that they could not know him. But as he preached to them and
as he opened the scriptures in all things concerning himself,
their heart burned within them, then he made himself known to
them. And in the experience then of
God's people, there's these two signs. One is as a prisoner. The other one is a prisoner at
loose. One is in captivity, the next is in that captivity being
loose from that. One is under condemnation, as
Paul speaks of in Romans 7, and then therefore no condemnation
set free. And those contrasts, when it
says the Lord looseth the prisoners, if we were a literal prisoner
and loose, wouldn't we know it? Wouldn't we know the difference?
a time of bondage, a time of freedom, a time of inability,
no liberty, and yet a time of liberty. There's that which then
goes on in the day of grace. And it applies in other things
as well. We spoke of it as being under
the law and not able to see the gospel, not able to see how Christ
saves or not able to see that it's for us. We want to, but
we can't. And the word is just shut to
us and we cannot attain to it. Those times we can be snared
under a particular temptation. a particular bondage that we
cannot get out of. The way I remember it with myself
so very clearly was when exercised on the ministry, and I was for
some 13 years, but five or six years into it when the Lord first
began with me and a sister in faith died and I took the funeral
and because I was exercised on the ministry, I preached on that
occasion. And I thought in my mind if I
was faithful then the people wouldn't receive the word very
well. Well they did and they were very pleased. And then afterwards
I was, well before actually, I was given an envelope from
the funeral directors and afterwards I opened it and found it was
money for the service and I thought, you've been a Judas, you have
denied your Lord, you have not spoken faithfully, you've been
given this money, the people are all speaking well of what
you've spoken, and it put me right into bondage. And the people
of Melbourne, they pleaded with me to continue preaching, But
I could not do it. Before that, I used to read services. I read services. I'm still reading
them. But often I used to comment on
various parts. I'd stop reading. I'd put in
some comments of my own. But from that time, I could not
do that. I could not bring myself to do
it. We had prayer meetings to try
and loose me from that bondage so that I would preach. I said
to the deacons, I said, I am exercised on the ministry, but
I cannot, until the Lord looses me, until he brings me into liberty,
I can't preach. And however much they tried,
I couldn't. I couldn't change how I felt.
I couldn't force myself to do so. And that went for seven years. Maybe it's like that, with one
desiring to walk in the paths of baptism and feel the restraint
as strong and powerful as that. But I certainly found it so. And I said to the deacon that,
well, when the Lord sets me free, then I'll come and see you. We
cannot have these meetings anymore. They're not working. And the
Lord suddenly did set me free, reading on my own one time through
Ezra that the Lord granted us a little reviving in our bondage. And as I read that, and I thought
I would need such a reviving that was impossible, I couldn't
reach it, but a little reviving. And as if my faith grasped hold
on that, And as I looked at it, it seemed to open up and I felt
the bondage start to go. And when we had the next service,
which I think was a, it was a midweek service, and I was reading a
sermon of Mr. Ramsbottom's. And I said to the
friends, before I read this sermon, I want to speak to you just for
a few minutes on this text. I spoke from that, the sun shall
make you free. We shall be free indeed. And
in speaking, just in 10 minutes, I realized the Lord had set me
free. And I spoke to the deacon, and
we decided that I would speak from the desk until Robert Field
came a month or so later. He'd been booked up for 18 months
before, and that he was the chair of the meetings. And from that
time then, I was was able to preach. But those seven years,
I knew what it was to really want to walk in that path, but
just couldn't. I couldn't force myself. No one
could force me. And maybe in relating this and
thinking of the text here, maybe a help to some of you here, that
maybe in that situation, Do you want to change things? Want to
walk in a different path? Want to walk in the Lord's ways
perhaps? But you feel such a restraint
that the best picture or way of describing it is, Lord, I'm
in bondage. I'm held fast, I'm a prisoner. May this word then be a word
from the Lord for you. The Lord looseth the prisoners,
and no, in my case, the Lord did. I could never anticipate
how he would. If someone would say, the Lord
will cause you to read one word of scripture, and that one word
will be so blessed to you, he'll undo all your bondage, he'll
set you free, I could hardly have believed it, but that's
how it was. If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. One word to loose them and it's
a better thing when that is the case. There's other situations
as well. Maybe in providential things. We spoke of the miracles that
the Lord did to those that were sick or those that were in some
infirmity. And we can do that as well and
have that as well. My own dear wife went 10 years
with depression, And in that affliction, and again, many,
many prayers over that time. And at the end of that time,
I had a dream. And I dreamt that I was praying,
and praying for my dear wife. And I was so ashamed of my poor,
poor prayers. And in my prayer, in my dream,
I saw that though there were poor prayers, she was getting
better. And two weeks later the Lord brought her out. She's never
been back into it again. And those 10 years appointed
by God in that affliction and then loose and brought out of
that. And so it can be in that way
as well that the Lord looseth prisoners where he's determined
a particular trial, adversity, situation in their lives has
not come by chance. There's coming a way that is
held fast and there are prisoners in this way. And you think this
is going to be, the rest of my life is going to be held like
this, it's going to be patterned like this. But the Lord says,
no, there shall come a time that I'll change that captivity, I'll
change that providence. I'll make it different and bring
you up out of that. Now Hannah might have thought,
well the rest of my life I'm going to have benign and she's
got her ten children and I've got no children. And this will
go on from year to year to year. But then there came a year it
was different. And the Lord changed it. And
the Lord gave her Samuel and then other children with her. Might have been the case with
Rachel who thought the same and Leah was having the children
but not her. And then the Lord changed it.
The Lord gave her those children, the children of Israel and Egypt
or in Babylon again. The Lord knows how to change
the providential path and experience of his people. And so this is then a day of
grace, the Lord loosing them through His Word, through His
blessing, through preaching, through the appointed time coming,
through moving others in providence, through bringing these things
about, and it's been said when it's looked upon, this is the
Lord's doing, is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which
the Lord hath made, we rejoice and be glad in it. But then there
comes a time that there's to be losing the prisoners through
death. It's a sacred thing when we see
those in Bethesda or Pilgrim Home and you see them, they're
the Lord's people, they are blessed, they know and they feel that
hope beyond the grave. But the infirmities that they
have, They long to be released and set free, and I'm sure many
of you have seen those. They wait the appointed time,
but they're like the Apostle, that they long to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better. And then the Lord comes,
and the Lord looses them and sets them free, and brings them
home to himself. Sometimes we wonder why is a
poor soul left to go from year to year in infirmity and weakness
and pain and suffering? Why does the Lord not lose them?
And the Lord knows why. The Lord knows that he has said
that they shall bring forth fruit in old age from me as thy fruit
found. And the patience, the waiting,
the enduring, The looking is a witness to all that come and
see them and hear them. Here is a people that are waiting
for the Lord, not with fear. They, knowing whom they have
believed, have the hope beyond the grave. They're like the Thessalonians,
to wait for his son from heaven. And it's a blessed thing to have
that expectation. An expectation shall not be cut
off. that with the Lord's people who
have been loosed in the day of grace, that loosing at death
is releasing the soul to return to God, the body returns to the
ground, but that is redeemed as well, and that the Lord's
coming, that shall be raised again, and body and soul redeemed,
alive with the Lord. So shall we ever be. with the
Lord. Our day of death is appointed
by God as the loosing from this world and from this body of death
and to be with the Lord. Truly the Lord looseth thee prisoners. But it's a blessed thing if we
are amongst thee prisoners that we can look in the day of grace
and say the Lord loose me from that, and the Lord loose me from
that. The Lord set me free. I wasn't left in bondage in darkness. With the Lord there is that liberty,
the glorious liberty of the sons of God. May the Lord give us
that hope, that blessed hope beyond the grave. May we have
that liberty and joy here below and be found amongst the people
of God, really amongst those that are the loosed prisoners
that can be so in the day of grace, no longer under the law,
no longer under Satan's dominion. no longer in captivity, but are
brought into liberty, the sons of God. The Lord looseth thee
prisoners. May we know it in our experience. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.