Alright, Rev. Psalm 126. Our subject is sowing in tears,
reaping in joy. Sowing in tears, reaping in joy. Now as we read the first part
of this psalm, I want you to get the picture here of the brethren
thinking about when the Lord brought them out of captivity
and the great things the Lord did for them. Watch what they
say. Verse 1, when the Lord turned
again to captivity of Zion, 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. Even the heathen said this. And
this is what we said, the Lord hath done great things for us,
whereof we are glad. Now they're thinking about that,
but now watch. The second half, we find out
they're in another captivity. And they're asking the Lord to
deliver them. Look, turn again our captivity,
O Lord, as the streams in the south. See, they're in captivity. And they're thinking about that
former deliverance out of captivity. And it brings them to cry out,
Lord, turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the
south. Now here's the lesson of the
psalm. This is the whole lesson of the psalm, verse 5. They that
sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. You see, the second part of this
psalm is the lesson the Lord teaches us when the Lord brings
to pass the first part of this psalm. The first part could be Israel
being delivered out of Babylonian captivity. That could be what
they're thinking back on. But we know for certain that
the Lord sending Cyrus and bringing him out of Babylonian captivity
is a picture of the Lord sending His only Son and Christ Jesus
delivering His elect out of captivity. That's what it pictures. When
the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that
dream. You know, when the Lord first reveals to His child that
He's delivered us, it is like a dream. It is like a dream. Too good to be true. It's the
Lord alone who turns again the captivity of His child. They
said, when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion. You know,
the Lord sent Christ to deliver His elect like He sent Cyrus
to them. And Cyrus delivered that whole
nation out. Well, you know what? Christ delivered
all His people out. When he cried, it's finished,
he had redeemed his people from the curse of the law. He completely,
totally, by himself redeemed us. He, by himself, justified
us of all our sin. By his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us, eternal deliverance, purchased us, bought us out of
captivity, eternally. It will never be turned back,
it will never be changed. 1 Thessalonians 1.10 said, Christ
delivered us from the wrath to come. That's what He did. By
paying the debt we owe to justice, by bringing in everlasting righteousness
for us, He delivered us from the wrath to come. No more condemnation.
He redeemed us by being made a curse in our place. When the
Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, And it's our Lord and
Savior alone who delivered us from the bondage of our sin nature.
He sent the gospel to us. You think back on that like they're
thinking back. And you just marvel that the
Lord sent this good news to you. There's so many people in this
world that never hear the gospel. And the Lord sent a gospel to
you. He does that for all those He saves. He sends the Word to
them. He establishes His Word in their
presence. And establishes them under the
sound of His Word. And He prayed the Spirit and
the Holy Spirit came in and gave you life. One day you were sitting
there full of enmity and hating what you were hearing and having
no interest in it and just looking at the clock wondering what time
it's going to be over. And all of a sudden, Over a course
of time, you started finding that you started hearing something. And the Word came into your heart
and you started seeing, whereas before, you heard the Word against
you. When you heard about God electing
a people, you thought, well, we all just think you're better
than we are. You always heard it as being for them and not
for you. And then the Lord turns that around and He makes you
see, wait a minute, if He had chosen me, I wouldn't have chosen
Him. I've been sitting here this whole
time rejecting Him. If He hadn't chosen me, I wouldn't
have chosen Him. And He makes you see what Christ has already
come and accomplished for His people. And He makes you see
by that, you really are the sinner because you saw it took God coming
in human flesh to put away your sin. God wouldn't just look over
our sin. He had to be just in the way
He dealt with us. And He sent His own Son to deal
with us in a just way. And He accomplished putting away
that sin and accomplished justifying His holy name. And He made you to know and believe
Him. And you started believing Him.
You started believing that Christ had saved you. And you didn't
realize what happened at the time, but there was a mighty
deliverance that had taken place. The Lord came and you were like
a prisoner in a prison house in darkness, in chains and bondage
of your own sin nature that wouldn't let you believe. And He had come
and just secretly entered in in spirit and created a new spirit
in you. and created faith in you, and
made you to see Christ for the first time, and you really began
to realize, He has delivered me, He did this for me. Paul said, Christ was declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead. And Paul said it, by whom? by whom we have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for his name's sake. Paul said, he's the one that
called me when I was on the road to Damascus. He's the one that
delivered me out of my bondage of my nature. And he said, among
whom are you also the called of Jesus Christ. He delivered
you, he called you, he brought you out from the bondage of your
sin nature. When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, And brethren, there's been so many times since
the Lord delivered us where He's chasing us, He sends providence,
it brings us into captivity, we become sorrowful, we become
troubled, we become cast down, and you can't bring yourself
out of that. You can't create peace if the
Lord don't give you peace. You can't have joy if the Lord's
not your joy and He's giving you joy. And He'll put you through
some providence and you're in captivity or whenever this old
sin nature that's still with us brings us into captivity.
Inward struggles with sin and even outward struggles with sin,
but you're brought into captivity again. And Lord's the only one
that can deliver you from that. Paul said, I delight in the law
of God after the inward man. That's so of his people. We delight
in the law of God. Every word of this gospel, we
delight in it, in the new man. But I see another law in my members,
don't you? Warring against the law of my
mind. It's not just two polite neighbors
living in this duplex. It's two neighbors that hate
each other. The old man and the new man,
they war against each other. And they bring me into captivity. Into captivity to the law of
sin which is in my flesh, in my members, in my old man, in
my old nature. Who, O wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. When the Lord turned again to
captivity of sin, and in each case when the Lord did that,
in each case, it was like a dream. The joy of our Lord feels almost
like it's too good to be true. When He first made you know Him,
and then when He made Himself known again and again and delivered
you out of whatever providential trial or whatever other captivity
you've been in, when He's done that, every time He does it,
it's just, it's like a dream. When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. We're like them
that dream. Oh brethren, I remember thinking
when the Lord first called me, I remember thinking, you mean
I'm robed in the righteousness of Christ? You mean I have the
righteousness that God demands and I didn't do a thing to earn
it? And He even gave me the faith
to believe on His Son that He's done it for me? I remember thinking,
I'm free from the curse and condemnation of the Lord. You mean that I'll
never come under the condemnation of God? No, Christ bore that
condemnation. That's what he was bearing on
Calvary's cross for his people, and he put it away. He satisfied
justice. You mean I'm his and he's mine?
That's just too good to be true. He won't lose me, he won't lose
any that are his that he died for. You mean I'm his and he's
mine and he's gonna keep me? He's my shepherd? Going before
me and behind me and underneath me and above me and he's got
me hedged all about. He's my shepherd? Oh. And so every time He brings you
into a trial, and whoa, it's suffering and it's captivity
and it's bondage and it's trouble and it's, you can't look up. All you can see is the flesh
and the earthy things and the troubles in this life and the
things that are going on about you. But when He turns you to
Him and He brings you out of that captivity, you find out
then that the affliction And what he taught you in the affliction
far outweighed the sorrow and the suffering that you went through.
That's what Paul said. He said, these light afflictions
work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Why? I'm just going to put it in everyday
language. I'm going to tell you what Paul said. Because the Lord
reminds us again, nothing in this life is permanent, it's
all temporary, and it's not what's important. It's the spiritual,
the eternal, it's what Christ, who He is and what He's accomplished
and what He's done for us, that's what's important. And He turns
you to what's really important. He said that, 2 Corinthians 4,
He said He turns us from looking at the things that are seen to
the things that are unseen. Because the things that are seen
are temporal. It's the things that are unseen
that are eternal. And we know, He reminds you again
and again, that He's accomplished His salvation. And you have an
eternal home. You have an abode, an eternal
house in the heavens that He's provided. and it's far greater
than the affliction. You say with David, it's been
good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn his statutes,
learn his gospel, learn how true grace he is, and learn that it's
not just a doctrine going forth from a pulpit, it's a person,
it's the Lord Jesus, and it's what he's doing every day in
the lives of his people in our midst. And then the sinner, saved by
God's grace, gives our triune God in Christ all the glory.
Whether it was the first day He called you, or whether it's
delivering you out of the trials, you give Him all the glory. Look,
they said, verse 2, then was our mouth filled with laughter
and our tongue was singing. You just picture them down there
in Babylon. They said they hung their harps on the willows and
they're weeping and they're mourning because they're in captivity.
And here comes Cyrus and proclaims they're free and the king of
Babylon couldn't do a thing about it and brought them out of there.
And they're on their way and he tells them, you're going back
to Jerusalem. I'm delivering you to Jerusalem
and you're going to be able to go back and build the city. They
said it's like a dream to us. They said our mouth was filled
with laughter and our tongue was singing. You ever woke yourself
up from a dream laughing? Something so funny in a dream
you just woke yourself up laughing? You ever hear me or you hear
one of Christ's preachers preaching and we're talking about these
things and we just start laughing? It's cause it's good, it's good
news. It's called glad tidings for a reason. He fills our mouth
with laughter and our tongue with singing. Sometimes even
the heathen acknowledges it. He said, verse 2, then said,
they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them.
You think about how strong Babylon was, and you think about how
weak the children of Judah were and helpless, and here comes
a king from a foreign land and delivers them out and takes them
back. You'd have to acknowledge the
children of Judah didn't do it. They didn't do it. And they were
singing praises to the Lord and giving Him all the glory. And
even the heathens said, well, the Lord's done great things
for them. Sometimes He works so mightily
in our lives that even our unbelieving family and our unbelieving neighbors,
they hear about it and they have to acknowledge. The Lord did that for them. They
might not believe Him. They might not want to have anything
to do with Him. But the Lord works it in such a way to make
them know. And usually they're going to
ascribe it to luck or to something like that. And you end up telling
them, no, the Lord did this. The Lord did this. And that last
day, brethren, the whole heathen world that leave this world without
trusting Christ, all are going to be made to know what the Lord's
done for His people. They're going to be made to know
it fully and bow and praise the Lord that did it. But God's grace and power is
personal to God's saints. It's personal to His elect. It's
personal to them Christ's redeemed. Verse 3, this is what we say,
the Lord has done great things for us and we're glad. Oh, we're glad. Shout at God.
Do you want, you know the Lord said, let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven. You want that to happen? You
want to let your light shine before men? then constantly be
glorifying your Father, be glorifying your Redeemer for having worked
it all. I mean everything. Constantly
glorifying Him and telling people if He's enabled me to do anything
in this world, He did it. He did it. He gets the glory.
The Lord has done great things for us. They weren't saying,
yeah, we marched right out of that prison. Oh, yeah, it was
our will to leave that prison. Well, you know what? The Lord gave them the will to
leave Babylon because some didn't. And some that heard that good
news that they were free to go stayed in Babylon because they
liked it in Babylon. It took the Lord giving His true
people a heart to come out. Same with you and me. The Lord's
done great things for us. And that's so in any good work
you do. That's so in any trial you're delivered out of. Give
Him the glory. You don't have light except by
Christ the light. We're going to let your light
shine. Well, whose light is it really? It's His light. Give
Him the glory. Oh, He's done great things for
us. Now secondly, and I want to get to this part right here.
Due to God's purpose, due to God working His will in everything,
we can be sure it will not be long. When He's brought us out
of captivity, we can be sure it won't be long. We're going
to have to cry again. This very cry right here. Now
notice, they're in another captivity as they remember that former
deliverance. And they say, verse 4, turn again
our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. You see
what they're doing? They're thinking of what He done
for them when He delivered them. They're thinking of those former
deliverances. And it brings them to cry, O
Lord, turn again our captivity. like you turn the streams in
the South. Now sometimes it may be that
we get to thinking we can stand. Oh, we're so meek and brought
so low when He brings you out of that captivity, brings you,
first converted you, but it don't take long because of this sin
nature and we get to thinking we're doing a pretty good job
standing and we can stand. Or other times we try to take
to ourselves part of the glory that belongs to the Lord. start
patting ourselves on the back rather than giving Him the glory
and acknowledging He's done it all. Sometimes we come into captivity
due to our sins and our unbelief just to have a terrible fall. Other times the Lord doesn't
reveal why He has sent to trouble and a chastening. He just don't
reveal why. He's doing it to teach you more
of Him. That's why. But as far as whether you've
done anything or not, He just don't reveal it to you. He's
doing it to teach you, and maybe you hadn't done anything. He's
doing it to teach you more of Him. Salvation is not a one-time occurrence
brethren. It's just not. God saves from
beginning to end. We're converted when the Lord
comes in power. He said, the flesh prophets nothing.
It's the word that I speak. The words that I speak is spirit,
and it's truth, and it's life. He's the one that has to speak
and deliver us. And he comes to you just like
he came to Peter in the first hour. And he says, follow me,
Peter. Calls you by name. Follow me. And you start following
him. And then you'll go a little while and you'll get puffed up
in how much you've been taught by the Lord, how much you've
learned, and the Lord will say, you're going to deny me. Peter
said, oh, I won't. They might do it. I love you
more than they do. That's what he was saying. I
love you more than these. They might do it. I won't do
it. Peter, it's written in the scriptures. It's going to happen. Oh, well,
it's going to happen with them. It's not going to happen with
me. What did the Lord say? He said, Peter, I've prayed for
you that your faith fail not. That's the only reason his faith
didn't fail. I've prayed for you. I interceded for you that
your faith fail not. When you are converted from this
pride and this arrogancy, when you're converted from thinking
you're somebody and you love me more than anybody else loves
me, then you teach your brethren what I've taught you. You get
what I'm saying? He was saved when the Lord called
him the first time. He said, Peter, follow me. He
was converted. He followed the Lord. So were
you. But then when the Lord worked
that work, he said, Peter, when you're converted, converted from
this pride, from this trial, from all that you're going to
fall into, teach my brethren what I've taught you. Salvation
is not a one-time thing. God saves beginning to end, brethren.
We're not looking back to time and saying, well, that's when
I got saved. I can tell you the time and the place, and most
of the time when people tell you that, they tell you this
is what I did, and I did this, I did that. No. We're being saved
by the Lord every moment of every day. He's saving us from beginning
to end. He's saving us from beginning
to end. We not only need to be delivered
again and again, God does it so that we thank Him for delivering
us and praise Him for delivering us. That's why He does it this
way. Go to 2 Corinthians 1. Here's an example of needing
to be delivered again, being saved again. 2 Corinthians 1.8,
you're very familiar with it. Paul said, we would not, brethren,
have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia. Who
sent that trouble? The Sovereign God of Glory sent
it. Why did He send it? We were pressed out of measure,
above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. But
we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should
not trust in ourselves, but in God which raised the dead. That's
why. That's why. That we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God which raised the dead. Watch.
Who delivered us from so great a death. He's talking about back
there at the cross He did that. And he did it for them that in
Asia. And he does deliver. He keeps delivering us. He delivered
us from this, Paul said, and we trust he will yet deliver
us. He gonna save us. He has, he is, and he shall.
Now watch this, ye also helping together by prayer for us that
for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons,
thanks may be given by many on our behalf. You see, God brings
all his people to start praying to the Lord, Lord, turn our captivity,
oh Lord, as the streams of the south. And when he's done it,
he brings every one of his children involved to give him all the
thanks and all the praise and all the glory, saying, oh, what
great things our Lord's done for us. Ah brethren, now here's the reason,
this is the purpose why he sends his child into captivity again
and again. Here's the lesson the Lord teaches
us over and over. Verse 5, they that sow in tears
shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth
bearing precious seeds shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. This is not some of God's saints.
He's not talking about some of God's saints. This describes
all God's saints. We pass through this veil of
tears, sowing in tears. Tears falling like seed. We got
the precious seed within us. We got Christ the seed within
us. We got the life within us. We're bearing, sowing the gospel
as we go forth in this world, but we're sowing with tears.
We weep over our sins and our unfaithfulness. We mourn over
our brethren. who are in troubles. We mourn
over the unconverted family we have and neighbors we have. We
mourn our losses. And our Lord said that's exactly
how it will be. In this world you shall have
tribulation. But blessed are those that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. That's what He said. This is
God's purpose to teach us. They that sow in tears shall
reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seeds, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. What's this joy? What are these
sheaves he's talking about? It's everything we just saw in
the first half of the Psalm. It's beholding Christ and His
righteousness and His holiness and His wisdom and His full redemption
accomplished. It's beholding what God's done
for us and saving us by His grace. It's beholding the joy we have
in Christ Jesus. The peace we have, my peace I
give unto you, not as the world gives to you. It's this right
here. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were
like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with
laughter and our tongue was singing. We said the Lord had done great
things for us whereof we're glad. That's the joy. The sheaves are
the joy. It's just a metaphor for all
this. What do you call it? If you plant
some seed and wheat comes up, you gather them into a sheave.
What is that? That's the fruit of the Lord's growing, isn't
it? That's what these sheaves, this joying in the Lord and being
grown to see He's not left you and forsaken you. He's going
to keep you. That's the sheaves. The blessings our Lord's provided
for us. Now let's hear God's word about
sowing. And this is a very practical thing. I want you to get this
now. I had Brother Adam read that passage out of Galatians
6. And Paul there, he's dealing with giving to support the preacher. He's provided to preach for you.
But this applies to these troubles too. It applies to our son. He said there, whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap. That's just a general rule. with
the Lord. What you sow you shall reap.
Now listen. For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh
reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Let us not be weary
in well doing. In due season we shall reap if
we faint not. Now listen. All God's saints
to some degree or another, so to our flesh. Now that's just
so. You do and I do too. But none
of God's saints are going to reap eternal corruption because
Christ justified us. Christ promised he's going to
keep his sheep and he's going to save us. So that's not what
we're looking at right here. But when we are in captivity
of any kind, when we're in trouble of any kind in this life, a sorrowful
trial of any kind, listen now, listen to what I'm about to say.
So long as we are talking about the trouble, I'm talking about
you just call up somebody and you just tell them about your
trouble. Next time you talk to them, you just tell them about
your trouble. Next time you talk to them, you're just talking
about your trouble. So long as we're focused on the waves and
focused on the wind You're going to do what Peter did when he
turned and started focusing on the wind and waves. He just sank
down, down, down, down. Why? That's so into the flesh. That's looking at these temporal
things. That's looking at the actual temporal, whatever it
was the Lord used to send the trial to you. Somebody's offended
you. Somebody did something wrong.
You lost the job. Your health is bad. You're looking
at these physical things. And I know it's hard for us not
to do it. But if all we focus on is that, and we think, if
that was changed, then I'd have this joy. No, no, no, no, no,
no. You would have just, your confidence
would be in those things. As long as you had good things
in your life and good providence in your life, oh, you're happy.
But take that away, now I'm just terrible. What's the Lord teaching
us? by these afflictions. He's teaching
us our joy is not in these troubles. Our joy is not in these things. He brings His child to the end
of our self in the trial so that we have to cry out to Him alone
and say, turn us again. Turn our captivity again, O Lord. Like you turn the streams in
the south. Turn us again. You know what
that is? That's sowing to the Spirit. And then you start thinking
about how He delivered you in the past like He did in the first,
and you start thinking about what mighty great things the
Lord's done for you, and you start focusing on those things,
and talking about those things to one another, and reading about
those things in the Word. That's so into the Spirit. And
you know what you'll find happen? When Peter looked at the Lord
and kept his eye on the Lord, he walked on the water. And when
you sow to the Spirit, the Lord will see to it, you have this
joy that we read about in the first part of this Psalm. And
it'll be Him, my peace I give to you. Not like the world gives
it to you. He don't have to take away, He
don't have to take you out of the trouble. He can give you
peace in your heart in the midst of the temporal things going
on. You know, there's going to come
a day when we're going to be in this body of death and if
we're living and we're of an old age and we're dying slowly,
it's not going to be merely comfort in your soul by Him giving you
health. He's not going to give you health.
The joy in that hour and the grace in that hour is going to
be to turn you to Him to know He's right there. And in just
an instant, when you close your eyes, He's going to deliver you
out of that captivity of this old sinful flesh. You're going
to see Him as He is, and then you're going to be like one that's
in a dream. Then we're going to say, oh, we're going to see
and say what great things the Lord has done for us. Well, it's
so in all these little trials, in the present captivity, you
think back on the old, you think back on how He delivered you
before, and look for Him in His Word, and read about how He's
delivered you at Calvary's Cross, and read about how He came and
sent the Spirit and delivered you from your flesh, and think
about all the trials He's delivered you through, and call out to
Him, Lord, Lord, turn our captivity again. That's so into the Spirit. And He won't let you down. He
will deliver you. He promises, they that sow in
tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth
bearing precious seeds shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. That's what the Lord will do.
Sow to the Spirit, look to Him, focus on Him, immerse yourself
in His Word and His Gospel, and pray to Him without ceasing.
It's His promise. They that sow in tears shall
reap in joy. That's His promise. Amen.