People of God, believers, are
in a captivity. We're not where we belong. We're not in the new Jerusalem. And so we weep like these earthly
Israelites did. They're mourning the fact that
they're not home. Have you ever done that? Paul did that a little bit, didn't
he, when he said, I'd rather be at home with the Lord. That'd
be far better. Where is our home? We know from
2 Corinthians 5, verses 6 through 8, the apostle says, I'd rather
be absent from this body and present with the Lord. And I've
told you many times over the years that that word, present,
The same word used home in that same context where he says to
be absent It uses the word home in the
very same context and what he's saying is I want to be home with
Christ So these Jews picture us we're
in a strange land where I free in the eternal sense, but
captive in another. These Jews were the people of
God, wherever they happened to be on the planet, whatever their
geography at this certain time was. All of the promises pertained,
of course those promises were spiritual promises, they worked,
to the earthly nation of Israel. They're not all Israel, which
are of Israel. But those who are of the faith
of Abraham are God's true Israel. And those promises didn't go
away at the state line when they left their homeland
and were taken captive. And that's true of us, but there
is a sense yet that we're not home. Hebrews 11 13 says these all
died in faith not having received the promises But having seen
them afar off and Were persuaded of them and embraced them and
confessed That they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth this
world is our Babylon and like these Jews we are captive and
we'll look at that and By nature, we're captive to the law of God.
We're under the law and guilty of violating God's law. What
the law says, it says to them that are under the law. And by
nature, we're bound by God's law, captive and taken for ransom, subject to the consequences.
But we're, though we're guilty and accountable to God by nature,
we've been set free from that bondage. By the Lord Jesus Christ,
Galatians 5.1, stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free. And be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage, the bondage of the law, the bondage of having
to keep the law perfectly in order to please God. We're free
from that. We're free from the bondage of
God's law. We're not under the law, but under grace. And Christ
himself has made us free. Christ hath made us free. That's
the key words in that verse. He said to the Jews in John 8,
36, if the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free
indeed. So tonight, I speak to us as
believers that are free. In the ultimate sense, we're
free. He's freed us from all manner
of bondage in Galatians 5 there We're debtors to the law. We're
in bondage to the law by nature debtors to do the whole law and
Christ shall profit us nothing Except that he have mercy on
our souls, and he has if we believed on him We love him because he
first loved us, and we're free from that bondage By nature we're
in captivity to Satan This world doesn't understand that. 2 Timothy
2.25, in meekness, Paul told Timothy, instruct those that
oppose themselves. If God peradventure will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may
recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken
captive by him at his will. Ever since the garden, we've
been in that snare of the devil. And the thing about a snare is
the more you try to get out of it, the more snared you are. The more you do, the more you
sin. The more you struggle against it by saying, well, I've been
good to my mama and all that, usually the snare is just that
much tighter. The way you get out of a snare is somebody lets
you out of the snare. And that's the Savior, the Savior. Christ has made us free from
the power of the devil. First John 3.8, he that committed
sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning.
For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might
destroy the works of the devil. In Matthew 12, our Lord compares
the devil to a strong man who rules over a house. And then
he pictures himself, the Lord pictures himself as one stronger,
who binds the strong man and takes that house away from him. And we are that house. By nature,
we're in captivity to sin. But Christ has, by his death,
made us free to serve him and not sin, Romans 6.6. Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Doesn't
mean we don't sin. But we have a new master now.
We're not in bondage to sin anymore. Romans 6 12 through 18 if you'd
care to read that later We're free from bondage in all these
ways But in Romans chapter 7 the Apostle Paul like these captives
in Babylon he weeps He hangs his harp in the tree And he says how can I sing the
Lord's song in a strange land Listen to Romans 7, 23. But I see another law in my members. Paul said, I love the law of
God after the inward man, and all believers do. We desire to
please God. We would do that, which we cannot
do. We find not within ourselves
the ability being in this sinful flesh. the depravity of our wicked
hearts by nature. But we would. But there's another
law in my members, Paul said, warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members. We're free from the bondage of
sin. We're free from servitude to sin in a sense The Lord has
freed us from our sins But he did say that my this body the
body of this death in the body of this death I'm in captivity to the law of
sin Everything I do is sin still Everything I do is Tainted with the sinful flesh
that is who I am by nature. And we're in this strange land.
It's just like the Babylonian captivity. And he cried this,
oh, wretched man that I am, who shall save me? Who shall save
me? That's how dire our situation
is. Don't we still cry that? Lord,
save me. Save me, because we experience
what Paul did here. He's continually, perpetually
saving us. Who shall save me from the body
of this death? Free from sin as an eternal punishment of wrath against us,
free from sin as an overwhelming bondage that we have That it
rules over us that it rules all of our thoughts and mind and
heart But we're still in the body of this death. We're still
in this body of flesh We still have that old heart. We're in
this world as well a strange land and We in this strange land
were mocked like they were Sing us a song of Zion. That wasn't
anything but pure mockery. The psalmist said, how are we
going to do that? We're not singing you a song
of Zion. We do gather and sing as believers,
but not to this world and not for this world. We're strangers
to them and they to us, but the very cross of Christ, we're crucified
to this world and the world is crucified to us. We're not singing
to you. I was asked one time to join
in a Christmas cantata that the college girl was having a big
Christmas cantata and we were invited to come bring our choir
and be part of it. Asked the man that sent me the
email a couple of questions and I Said we can't we can't take
part in that We sing the songs of Zion, but not in this world
in the sense That this world has anything to do with it Nor
do we have anything to do with this world when it comes to the
worship of God I I'm tired of seeing those who profess to be
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ say that we need to get prayer
back into schools. We need to be reading the scriptures
of the Bible in the schools. Stop saying that. Who do you
want praying with your children? Who's going to lead the prayer?
What God are they going to pray to? The God of this religious
world? But when they read the scriptures,
if they make a comment on it, who's going to be making the
comment? What's the condition of their heart? When my children
were in school, I wanted them to learn math, reading, and writing. And then you send them home.
That's what the schools are for. When we're gonna worship our
Lord, we're gonna do it with his people, the way he prescribed
in his word. That's how, that's when the scriptures
are opened. When the gospel is preached and
we rejoice in our savior, and we find all of our hope in him,
The world has no part in that. I don't want this world having
any part in that. Don't sing the Lord's song in
a strange land. We come together to do that,
worshiping from our hearts. We're praising God for his grace
in Christ Jesus, for his precious sin atoning blood. We sing of
the blood. We sing of finished redemption.
Christ the solid rock I stand and all other ground is sinking
sand His accomplished salvation for us we sing a free grace in
Christ we sing of Calvary We're singing from our hearts not just
our vocal cords And we're giving thanks always in song to our
Savior the world has no part in that and We sing the word
of God, we sing what we preach. The gospel of free and sovereign
grace. In and by the son of God, we sing that he saves whom he
will. If there's a song that suggests otherwise, we will not
sing it. So not only are we out of place
in this world, this world is out of place here. Not gonna
sing about their God, not gonna sing of their false Christ. We
sing that he's plenteous in mercy toward those That can't help
themselves We sing that salvation is not of him that willeth Or
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy Colossians 3 16 let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom That's where this
passage starts. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you but just something you read for your read through the
Bible in a year, or when we come together and we read, someone
reads the scripture, let it dwell in your heart. Let all of your
passion and that which motivates you, that which, from the very
seat of where you live, let the word of God dwell richly there
in all wisdom. Teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, but it's got
to be in here Singing with grace in your hearts To the Lord is
that how we sing? We're not singing to this world.
We can't sing with this world. We won't be involved in your
Christmas cantatas. We're not going to pray with
you We're not going to have any part in what you're doing It's not because we're better
than you but we will not see our Lord blasphemed. We will
not sing his song in a strange land. We don't sing on demand
for this world, especially of our Savior. Religion is in the business of
bringing people into bondage. We already know enough about
bondage. We don't need any more of that. It's all religion does,
all the songs of Zion are to them as a source of entertainment,
and you can count us out. This is the Lord's song, and
we sing because we remember. So look at verses five and six. How shall we sing the Lord's
song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem.
And that word Jerusalem is the place of peace. Or it means the
foundation of peace. What is, in spiritual terms,
the foundation of peace? How is there peace? Why is there
peace? Christ made peace by the blood
of His cross. We sing because we remember.
We remember. It's the Lord's song. Because
it's of Him and from Him. He giveth songs in the night.
Paul and Silas were able to sing, convinced that they would die
in the morning. They could sing the Lord's song
together in worship. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember
thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not the foundation
of peace. if Christ crucified is not above
my chief joy. And so we sing in remembrance.
Again, these all died in faith. They didn't receive the promises,
but they saw them. We've seen them. We've seen Christ. We've seen what's prepared for
them that love him. We've seen his mercy. We've seen
the glory of God in his face by faith. That's how we can remember. We remember what he's shown us
by faith. He's shown us himself. We saw,
we've seen the promises. We've received the promises and
we've seen the fulfillment of them afar off, but we've seen
them. We're persuaded of them. We've embraced and confessed
that we're strangers and pilgrims in this earth. because of what
He did for us. We don't belong here. That's
why we cry. We do groan, waiting for the
redemption of our bodies. All the promises of God in Christ
are yea and amen. If you know the Savior, then
you've seen His promises. You've experienced it. You've
seen the fulfillment of them. in what He accomplished on Calvary. And He has also sealed us, 2
Corinthians 1.22, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in
our hearts. We have the pledge of it. Though we haven't seen
Him face to face, we have the pledge of His glory, His forgiveness,
His righteousness in our hearts. The spirit, the pledge of the
spirit, the earnest of the spirit, he takes the things of Christ
and shows them to us. That's our pledge. That's our confidence in what
will be. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. So we have evidence of him and
what he did for us. The substance of things hoped
for, and by faith we remember him. We remember him. We dwell in Jerusalem, don't
we? We've dwelt in Jerusalem, even though the new Jerusalem,
we haven't experienced it yet. But we know what the foundation
of peace is. We live there. The peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, keeps our hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. What's the purpose of the ordinances?
Of course, they're to picture and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ,
but what do we do to that end? What is it that glorifies Him?
Take this bread that's broken. He broke it and said, take it.
This is my body, which is broken for you. This do to remember,
to remember. If we forget, If we forget the
foundation of peace, how could we ever do that? And
he took the cup when he had supped, and he said, this cup is the
new covenant in my blood. This do ye as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me. Why do we preach the gospel?
Simon Peter said in 2 Peter 1, 10 through 15, I think it's the
right thing to do, as long as I'm in this body, to put you
in remembrance of these things, though you know them. We're not
here to learn something new tonight. We're just here to be reminded
about what we already know, because there's nothing any better than
that. What we already know about His grace, it doesn't get better
than that. What else would we learn? So they wept, they remembered,
And they prayed. Finally, they prayed. And what
did they say? In verses seven through nine. Lord,
you remember. They prayed that he would remember
them. Remember what your enemies did to us. Remember us in our
plight. Remember us in our circumstance
not just the physical conflict that they had with the Edomites
is just a picture Remember us in all of our conflicts now in
this world We dwell amongst Antichrist We're in a strange land. We're
captive here in a sense in the body of this death We remember
you Lord But more importantly, even if we forget you, you remember
us. That's the point. Remember us. And he does, doesn't he? He does. God in dealing with his spiritual
Israel always does so with an act of that covenant of grace
in Christ Jesus. And deals with us consistent
with all the precious promises of that covenant. You remember
what they are? He said, you're not just gonna
learn about me from your parents and grandparents anymore. I'm
gonna put my word in your heart. I'm gonna be your God. It's not
gonna be up to you. In the new covenant, it's not
up to you. I will be your God and you shall be my people. That's
the covenant of grace, unconditional. There's no condition that you
meet because Christ is the fulfillment of all of the promises, all of
his promises are yea and amen in Christ. And that pertains
to the covenant. I will be merciful to your unrighteousness
and your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more. The covenant that he remembers
is a covenant that says, I won't remember your sins. Christ is himself, God remembering
that covenant. Christ is the fulfillment of
that covenant. Listen to, turn with me to this
one, because we'll be through in a minute here. And let's read
one together, Luke 1, 68. Luke 1 verse 68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
for he hath visited and redeemed his people Zacharias now this
is the This is John the Baptist father Zacharias when he saw
who was born, when he heard of the babe being born, he said,
blessed be the Lord God, for he hath visited and redeemed
his people. Before the Lord ever went to
the cross, this man saw in a person the redemption of God's sheep. That's the right place to see
it. That's the right place to see it. and hath raised up in
horn powerful salvation for us in the house of his servant David.
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, this is what the
prophets have been talking about since the beginning, which have
been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all that hate us to perform the mercy
promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. Zacharias said this this child
being born is God remembering that covenant Christ himself
is that remembrance Simeon saw the Lord Jesus Christ as a baby
in Luke chapter 2 next chapter and he said I've seen God's salvation
and He never saw him hanging on a cross. He didn't see his
precious blood dripping down, but he saw God's salvation, and
that's because salvation is a person. It's not an event, though the
event was a necessity. Though the event is glorious,
though the event of his crucifixion glorified God in every aspect
of that event and in every aspect of his character, God was glorified. But salvation is a person, a
baby, a young man, who did always those things that pleased his
father. A chooser, one who chose his
disciples and his apostles, and made a point of it, to tell
them, I chose you, remember? Remember who chose who? Spiritually
speaking we do remember It's good to remember Christ
as he's told us to he gave us an ordinance by which to do that You know I think about this quite
a bit it's You know I may preach a message, and I hope every sentence
of it is Christ But if in the in the process of writing a message
and trying to preach what the Lord put on my heart if somehow
Christ gets lost in the mix if I if ever I dwell on Facts and
not a not God's Son The Lord brings us back to the table and
The Lord said this is my body and this is my blood Maybe it's hard to remember.
Maybe I get in the way during a message. But what the Lord
has ordained, there's nothing in the way. It's as simple as
it can be. It's as clear as it gets. And
I hope my messages one day will be as clear as that table. As
the message that the Lord gives us at that table. Who he is and
what he did. His person and his word. And
he says, remember, without distraction, without any possibility of any
shenanigans, unless you go to religion that doesn't know him
and what he did, and then they make something weird out of it. But in the simplicity of that
bread and that wine, he says, remember, remember. Simeon said I've seen God's salvation
Zacharias saw Christ in Luke 1 and said God has remembered
his covenant with us And it's good to remember him
as he's told us to in the ordinances and in the preaching and hearing
of the gospel Like Simon said it's just me putting you in remembrance
of what you already know But here's our hope Here's our salvation
Isaiah 49 14 turn there with me in closing Isaiah 49 And verse 14 But Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me, and
my Lord hath forgotten me. Now that's what we say. David
in the Psalms a time or two said, Lord, have you plumb forgotten? Have you plumb forgotten me?
We feel at times maybe as though God has forgotten, and we cry,
and we remember, and we pray, like the psalmist in our text,
Lord, remember. No, we say he's forsaken. No,
we say he's forgotten, and we fear it, and we feel it. The Lord responds to us in the
gospel. Here's the good news. Can a woman
forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Surely that's the last forgetfulness
that would ever take place on this earth. But the Lord said, even if they
do, yet will I not forget you. That's our hope. If my mind becomes
so weak that I can't even remember the precious blood that bought
me, the Lord will never forget me. And I'm gonna lay my head down
on my pillow tonight. And I pray that that truth will
be in my heart as I do. And I'll both lay me down and
sleep in peace, for the Lord only maketh me to dwell in safety.
Amen, let's pray.