We're going to be continuing
our study in the book of Psalms. If you'd like to turn with me
in your Bibles to Psalm 126, Psalm 126. I've titled this message
declared, not delivered from captivity, delivered from captivity. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come into Thy holy presence knowing that we are in complete need of Thy
dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to stand in our stead, to present
Himself to Thee on our behalf. to be found in him, not having
our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that righteousness,
which is by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, you
said that if he'd be lifted up, that he would draw men to himself. And Lord, we pray that you would
cause Christ to be lifted up in our hearts, We pray that you
would bless your word. We pray that you would cause
us, Lord, to find all our hope and all our salvation in him. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. I wanna look at Psalm 126. in
three parts, the first two verses, and then verses three and four,
and then verses five and six. So those are our three points
that we're gonna try to follow. And the basic message is we have
been delivered from captivity. verses one and two, we are being
delivered from captivity, verses three and four, and we one day
shall be delivered from captivity, verses five and six. This is the believer's hope that
through the Lord Jesus Christ, he has delivered us from the
captivity of sin and the curse of the law. Let's read these
six verses together. When the Lord turned again, the
captivity of Zion, we were, we were like them, that dream. Then was our mouth filled with
laughter and our tongue was singing. Then said they among the heathen,
the Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done
great things for us, whereof we are glad Turn again, our captivity,
O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears
shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth weeping,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. Ever since the fall of man, Men
have been looking for a way to be right with God. In Job chapter
25, Job said, how can a man be justified with God? How can he be clean that is born
of a woman? There are only two messages of
salvation in terms of being delivered and being made right with God. One is true and one is not. Both of them are illustrated
at the very beginning of the fall when Adam tried to cover
his nakedness and seek reconciliation with God to hide his sin by making
aprons of fig leaves representing the gospel of works. And when
the Lord himself took a lamb and slew that lamb in the garden
and shed its blood and covered Adam with the fleece of that
lamb is the message of grace. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ laying down his life as the lamb that was without spot
and blemish for his people to reconcile them to God. That's
what we're in need of. We're in need of being reconciled.
We're in need of being delivered. Those pictures continue all the
way through the scriptures. The next one we see is Cain and
Abel where Cain takes the fruit of his labor and he offers that
up as a sacrifice to God and God is not pleased with the sacrifice
of Cain. And Abel, on the other hand,
learned from the experience of his father that God required
a blood sacrifice and so Abel sewed a lamb and God was pleased
with the shedding of the blood. of that lamb. The scripture says
without the shedding of blood there's no remission for sins,
there's no deliverance from the captivity that we are in and
from our estrangement from God. Now, this covenant of works in
the covenant of grace is seen clearly in Galatians chapter
4, if you'll turn with me there in your Bibles. The covenant of works is what
Adam was put under before the fall. Do this and you shall live. That was the requirement of the
law. God knew that Adam was not going
to keep the law. The law was never was never given
as a means of salvation. The Lord knew that Adam couldn't
keep the law, but he put him under the law in order to glorify
Christ. That's the purpose of the fall,
is that it brings all the glory for salvation to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Galatians chapter 4, if you
look with me at verse 21, tell me ye that desire to be under
the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid and the other by a free woman.
But he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh, but
he of the free woman was by promise. Ishmael, what was Abraham trying
to do? He put his hand to the work of
God, trying to help God out, wasn't he? You know, let's do
our part. That's what that's what salvation
by works is all about. You know, God needs us to make
a decision. He needs us to pray a prayer. He needs us to perform
a work. He needs us to do our part in
order for him to be able to save us. That's that's that's a gospel
of works and. And. The Lord had another purpose,
didn't he? He was going to save his people. By the. promise of a child that
would be born miraculously. And Isaac is a type of Christ
in that regard. And so these, the scripture says,
are allegories, for these are the two covenants, the one from
Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. It's
the mountain of the law. So this thing of law and sin,
Romans chapter seven makes it clear that the purpose of the
law is to make sin utterly sinful. And that without the law, Paul
said, I would not known of sin. But when the law came, sin revived
and I died. And so the purpose of the law
was never to save people. It was to expose us for what
we are. I was thinking it would be, but
men run back to the law in hopes of being saved. It's kind of
like being diagnosed with cancer and saying to the doctor, let's
do some more CAT scans and some more biopsies. Perhaps that will
cure my problem. The radiation from the CAT scans
and the probing of the biopsy is only gonna aggravate your
cancer, it's not gonna cure it. But that's what men do. They
go back to the law in hopes of curing their sin problem. And it only aggravates the sin
problem. And that's what the Lord's saying
here. And that's what, we're gonna go back to our text and
see how this applies. Look at verse 26, but Jerusalem,
which is above, is free. It is the mother of us all. I
think I missed verse 25. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is. He's talking about
that city of Jerusalem, which was promoting a works gospel. If you'll do this, then God will
reward you for what you do with salvation. But Jerusalem, which
is above, that new Jerusalem, that heavenly Jerusalem, the
holy city is free, free. That's what we need. We need to be set free from the
curse of the law. We need to be set free from the
bondage of sin. We need to be set free from our
estrangement from God as a result of our sin. And that's the captivity
that Psalm 126 is speaking of. Look at verse 27. But it is written, Rejoice, ye
barren, that beareth not. Break forth and cry, that travaileth
not. For the desolate hath many more
children than she which hath the husband. Now we, brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then, he that
was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit,
and so it is now." These two messages are in conflict with
one another. And the gospel of God's free
grace in the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
satisfied all the demands of the law and put away our sin
by the sacrifice of himself, stands in opposition to this
message of works. Nevertheless, what sayeth the
scriptures? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not
children of the bondwoman, but of the free. That's what I want
us to do every time we come together. I want us to cast out the bond
woman. I want us to do what Abraham did with Hagar and Ishmael and
cast them out into the wilderness that we might enjoy the blessings
of the promise that comes through Isaac. Verse 5, chapter 5, verse
1, stand fast, therefore, in the liberty. That's when the
captives are set free, they have liberty. Stand fast, therefore,
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Go back with me to our text. As I said, the law exposes our
sin. It doesn't cure our sin problem. It cannot deliver us. And the
direct context of Psalm 126 is the captivity of the children
of Israel in Babylon. That's when they were held captive
in 600 or around 600 BC. You know, Nebuchadnezzar, the
king of Babylon, came in and besieged the city of Jerusalem
and ended up overthrowing that city and taking those people
captive to Babylon. And they spent 70 years in captivity,
representing the captivity that we have in this world. I was
watching a YouTube video the other day and some guy was promoting
Babylon as the United States of America. That's not what Babylon's
about. Babylon goes all the way back
to Genesis chapter 11 in the city of Babel. What was the city
of Babel about? Let us make a name for ourselves. Isn't that what they said in
Genesis chapter 11? Let us make a name for ourselves. And that's
what the covenant of works is all about. That's what a free
will works gospel is all about, making a name for ourselves. And the Lord is not honored in
that. He's glorified in the covenant
of grace. He's glorified in a message of
salvation where Christ does everything. Let us make a name for ourselves
and let us build us a city. And let us build a tower in that
city that reaches up into heaven. That's where Babylon began. The
principle of Babylon goes all the way back to the garden when
Adam tried to cover his nakedness, but that's the beginning of this
Babylonian theme that we see all throughout the scriptures.
and they had brick for stone and they had slime for mortar
and the Lord saw the wickedness of man and he came down and he
confused their speech. And that's what Babylon is, that's
what Babylon means. It means confusion of speech. What do we need to be delivered
from? We need to be delivered from the confusion of man-made
religion and it is so confusing, is it not? It's so convoluted,
it's so complicated. You know, it says one thing and
then it says something contrary. It says, well, God is almighty.
He's almighty, he's sovereign. Until he comes up against man's
free will. And then you have an irresistible
force coming up against an immovable object. And what's the result
of that? Well, the force resists. The force is resisted and the
object stays firm. And man ultimately becomes God. You can't make sense of that.
This is what we need to be delivered from, the Babylonian babble of
man-made religion. They will say out of one side
of their mouth that Christ died for everybody, but not everybody
died for is going to be saved. You know, say it was salvations
by grace and then put you back under the law. This is the captivity
that's being spoken of. This is what you and I need to
be delivered from this, the spirit of Babylon. that is all over
the world. It is the world. It's not the
United States of America, it's the world. It's what seems right
to man. There is a way that seems right
to man, but in the end, that way leads to death. What is the
way that seems right to man? Well, there ought to be something
I can do in order to build myself a tower unto heaven. And so I'll
use slime for mortar and brick for stone, and I'll find a way
to justify myself with God by something that I do. You see,
the Babylonian captivity, which lasted for 70 years, is an allegory. It's representative of your life
and my life, three score and 10 years in this world. And Psalm
126 is rejoicing that the Lord has delivered us from Babylon,
is delivering us from Babylon, and shall deliver us from the
captivity of Babylon. We see that all throughout, all
throughout the scriptures, all the way to the end of Revelation,
when that mother of all harlots, the great whore Babylon, is destroyed
in the final day of judgment. That's the whole world that you
and I need to be delivered from. Look, Look with me to our text. When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, we have a need to be turned. And that's exactly what the Lord
does in the miracle of the new birth. in regeneration. He turns us away from the confusion
and the bondage of a works gospel and he delivers us. You remember when Joshua brought
the children of Israel across the Jordan into the promised
land and God gave them the whole land and they went to battle
against Jericho, this great fortified city, and the walls came down
and everything in Jericho was to be dedicated as a sacrifice
to the Lord. The gold and silver to be put
into the temple, anything of any value was to be kept for
the glory of God. And the instructions were very
clear. Don't put your hand on anything. So after the destruction
of Jericho, they went to this little town called Ai. They thought,
well, God brought Jericho down. How can Ai be any trouble for
us? And they were routed at Ai. And
many of the Israelites died at Ai. And the Lord revealed to
Joshua what it was because someone had taken something that belonged
to the Lord from Jericho. Remember who that was? Achan.
What did he take? What did he take? He took a Babylonian
garment. That's what he took. a Babylonian
garment. Can you imagine how beautiful
that garment was? How ornate it must have been?
Embroidered with precious stones and silk and linen and all sorts
of beautiful colors. And Achan saw it and he thought,
that's what I need. And he took it. And God judged
Israel for that. Can you imagine the clothes?
I know that the clothing that the Israelites wore for 40 years,
the scripture says, never wore out. They had just come out of
the desert. They'd been in the desert for
40 years wearing exactly the same clothes they wore 40 years
earlier as slaves when they came out of Egypt. You can imagine
what they looked like. And Achan saw this Babylonian
garment and he desired it. That's what the flesh does. Achan
died and God's judgment came. As it will, come against Babylon
always. You see the flesh, the flesh
glories in that which is appealing to the flesh. Something that
I can do to get glory to myself, to stand out different. And that's
what man-made religion is all about. men priding themselves
in what they've done and competing with one another to see who's
more righteous. And the Lord says, no, no, I'm
gonna get all the glory to myself and I will not share my glory
with another. But as descendants of our father,
Adam, if the Lord doesn't deliver us from the captivity of Babylon,
we'll be just like Achan. We'll be just like those people
of Babel, trying to build a tower to heaven. And what's the Lord
telling us here? I have delivered you, I've turned
you. I've turned you away from that
which is appealing to the flesh. I've turned you away from that
which is of the world. And I've shown you, I've shown
you who you are. and most importantly, I've shown
you who you need. I've revealed to you the glory
of Christ and God's people are rejoicing. Look at our text. When the Lord turned again the captivity of
Zion, and there is a time when he turns the captivity of Zion. We were born in Babylon. We are citizens of Babylon by
nature. Our thoughts and our hearts are
Babylonian. And we are in need of the Lord
turning us. And here God's people are rejoicing. The Lord turned me. He caused
me to see. As the prophet said, Lord, turn
me and I shall be turned. That's what we're in need of.
We're in need of being turned away from this self-righteous,
man-glorifying gospel of works, the spirit of Babylon. And we're
in need of the Lord to turn our eyes upon Christ, to set our
affections on things above, where Christ is seated. Why is he seated? See that Old Testament, the Old
Testament rules and regulations never allowed for the priest
to sit down. When you read about all the different
things that are in the tabernacle and in the temple, there's one
piece of furniture that's conspicuously missing. It's a chair. Why? Because the sacrifices were never
done. There was always more blood to
be shed. There was always more work to
be done. And when we look at that tabernacle in heaven, There
is one piece of furniture that is most conspicuous, and that's
the throne of God, where the Lord Jesus Christ is seated,
having finished his work. Sit down here at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. What a hope. You see, one is that we've been
delivered from this damning a message of salvation that gives to man
glory. And we've been turned to see
where Christ is. He's seated. He's finished the
work. Hey, he laid down his life for
a sheep and he said, it is finished. It's finished. Everything that
God requires from me and you, the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
it. Here's our hope. And the believer, the people
in Zion are saying, oh Lord, I've been turned. Turned from a freewill gospel
where man says, I will decide, turned from our own righteousness. And look at verse two, then was
our mouth filled with laughter. You see, as long as a person
is under the law, as long as they are looking to something
that they do or have done to earn favor with God, to be reconciled
with God, then if that person's honest, there can never be any
laughter. There can never be any peace.
There can never be any joy. There can never really be any
hope because the nagging question in the back of the mind is, have
I done enough? How sincere was I when I prayed? Have I really satisfied what
God requires? Have I laid enough bricks in
Babylon? You see, and there's no peace
there, there's no hope. The Lord Jesus Christ said, my
peace I leave you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives,
not as Babylon gives when they say peace, peace, when in fact
there is no peace. You know, God's peace is sure. It's sure. It's based on a sure
sacrifice. It's based on a sure hope. It's
based on the promise of God, not the promise of man. That's
the difference. My promises are, you know, how
faithful am I to my promises? How many times I broke my promises?
How many times I, you see, if our salvation is dependent upon
anything we do, There's no laughter, there's no joy, there's no happiness,
there's no peace. Men play the hypocrite, but when
he turns us, when he turns us, and when, here's a picture of
when you first see Christ, and your heart is just filled with
hope and faith, and it's like, scripture said, like a dream.
When you first wake up from a dream and you think, was that real?
Was it real or was it not? And when the Lord gives you eyes
to see Christ, you think, could this be true? Could this be real? Yes, according to God's word
it is. Then was our mouth filled with
laughter and our tongue with singing. Then said they among
the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them. Oh, what
great things he has done. He's the end of the law for righteousness. He's fulfilled the law. He's exposed the error of Babylon. He's done great things for us
in making us sinners. You know what? The unbeliever
is offended to be called a sinner. When you define a sinner properly, Sinner is not just what we do,
it's what we are. Everything about us is sinful
in the sight of God. And you tell an unbeliever, if
you offer to God the most virtuous, the most sincere thing you've
ever done in your whole life, and that's the only thing that
you have to offer, everything else can be excused, everything
else can be forgiven, you're gonna go to hell for it. Men are offended by that. You
know what God's people think? You've told me this. I love being
called a sinner. Thank you. Thank you for reminding
me that there's no hope of salvation in me because it's only when
I come to realize again and again and again how sinful I am that
I find my hope in Christ. God's people delight in being
reminded of how sinful they are because that causes them to find
all their salvation in the person and work of Christ. So the first two verses speak
of being delivered from captivity. And the next two verses speak
of, I'm sorry, of being delivered from captivity in regeneration. And the next two verses speak
of being delivered in sanctification. Here's our hope. I said this
Wednesday night, we looked at the previous Psalm, Psalm 125,
Wednesday night. The one sin that a believer cannot
commit is apostasy. He cannot. What the Lord starts,
he finishes. If he gives you faith, he'll
never take it back. And you can never depart from
the gospel. You can never, no, not, you can't. We look away every day, all the
time. We're prone to wander, but the
Lord keeps his sheep. We're kept by the power of God
unto salvation is the way the scripture puts it. And that's
our hope. Look what the Psalm says in verse
three. The Lord hath done great things
for us whereof Are we glad? Oh, we're glad. He continues,
this world has an influence on us, doesn't it? That's why the
Lord said in Romans chapter 12 after the first 11 chapters of
Romans is the clearest declaration of the gospel in contrast to
Babylonian salvation that there is anywhere in the Bible. The
most comprehensive, Declaration of the Gospel, comparing and
contrasting law and grace, the first 11 chapters of Romans.
And how does chapter 12 start out? I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, in light of everything I've ever said, I beseech you,
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourself
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. and be not conformed to this
world. The world's always trying to
press us into its mold, isn't it? That's what that word conform
means. It means to be pressed into the
mold of the world. And that's where we live. We
live in Babylon, and we need to be delivered from the temptations
of this world to press us into its mold, to deny Christ His
glory and salvation. Be not conformed to this world,
but be ye, what, transformed. And you know what that word is?
It's the word metamorphosis. That's the word there in Romans
chapter 12, verse 2, but be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind in Christ Jesus. Then you shall know what is the
good, pleasing and acceptable will of God. The Lord has to
transform us. He has to do us like he does
those ugly little worms when they turn into butterflies and
put us in the cocoon of Christ and give us the mind of Christ
and enable us to believe what he's done. Lord, and that's a
daily experience. As you received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in him. We live in a world that is completely
contrary to the gospel of God's grace. It's at enmity with God,
it hates Christ. The spirit of antichrist, the
spirit of Babylon is all about us. And that's why the Lord said,
father, I pray not for the world, but I pray for them that thou
has given me out of the world. Friendship with the world is
enmity with God, isn't it? And we know that. And we continue
to toy with the word, Lord, turn me again. Turn me again. Look,
look at the Lord had done great things for us whereof we are
glad. We are glad every day. And that's
why we're here right now is to hear once again what Christ has
done. to reconcile us to God. Look
at verse 4. Turn again our captivity, O Lord,
as the streams in the south. Now, the southern part of this
land, the rivers would run dry in the summer. And you'd have
nothing but a trickle of water going through a rocky, dry riverbed. And then the spring rains would
come. water would come down Mount Hermon
and flow into these rivers and they'd be refreshed once again. How many times the scripture
speaks of that as the lamp that needs to be. The Lord said that
he would not snuff that lamp out. He's not going to let that
river become completely dry. He's going to send the water
of his grace. It comes from the throne of God.
It comes from the river that's clear as crystal. And that's
what we're in need of all the time. Lord, give us the drink. Give us. Isn't that what the
woman at the well said? Oh, that I might drink from that
well. It's an inexhaustible source of grace is what it is. And it
gives to Christ all the glory. And here's what we're praying,
Lord, deliver me again and again and again. Turn back with me
just a couple of pages to Romans, Psalm 80, Psalm 80. That's why we don't. We don't
talk like the. The freewheeler talks. Looking back to an experience
that we had as the hope of our salvation. Most of us, if we're
honest, cannot pinpoint a moment in time where the Lord. Where
the Lord saved us. And the reason for that is if
we're We're constantly being saved. You don't hear a believer
use this phrase, I got saved, when such and such happened.
No, we don't talk like that. We're always in need of being
saved. Look at Romans, Psalm 80, look
with me, verse three. Turn us again, O God, and cause
thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Look at verse seven
in that same chapter. Turn us again, O God of hosts,
and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Look at
verse 19 in that same chapter. Turn us again, O Lord God of
hosts, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Lord,
we're always in need of being turned, always in need of being
delivered from the captivity of this world. from the captivity
of our sin, from the rigors and judgments of the law. And when
he turns us, he turns us to Christ. And we find all our hope in the
glorious person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All right, let's look at the last two verses of our text. Abraham looked for a city which
hath foundations, the scripture says. And when God sent Abraham
from the Ur of the Chaldees to Palestine, as we know it today,
there were cities there, there were lots of cities, but Abraham
couldn't find one. He couldn't find a city that
he fit in. And so he remained a Bedouin
the rest of his life. looking for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker was God. Abraham's the
father of the faithful. And there's the believer's lot
in this world. We're pilgrims in this world.
The scripture says we're strangers in this world. This world is
not our home. We are sojourners in this world. Look at our text. They that sow
in tears shall reap in joy. There's so much that's tearful
about this world, isn't there? And our experience in this world
is contrary to everything that we long for and hope for, everything
that we believe in. And so our affections are set. Ahead to another world and here's
God's promise I'm going to deliver you from your tears for in that
day There'll be no more tears No more sorrow No more death
all the things that cause us such conflict living in Babylon
the Lord promises to take away he's going to deliver us from
every bit of this and He that goeth forth weeping,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. It's what we're doing right now. We're scattering the seeds of
the gospel with a weeping heart, knowing that there are people
that are hearing that don't believe. knowing that we have friends
and family members and children and spouses and grandchildren
that have not heard. And Lord, cause these seed to
take root, cause them to see how hopeless Babylon is, deliver
them from the captivity of their sin, even as you've delivered
me. And Lord, we have this hope of
knowing that one day, One day, all the sheaves, all the fruit
from the labor of the gospel in this world will be harvested. The Lord is gonna separate the
wheat from the chaff and all the wheat will be taken into
the barn and we shall be delivered. from all the captivity that we
have in this world. Let's take a break. Thank you.