How the message is tonight, past
deliverance and hope of present and future deliverance. Past
deliverance and hope of present and future deliverances. Here it is, Psalm 126, a song
of degrees. 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 with singing. Then
they said 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 and weepeth,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him." Here is the seventh of the Psalm
of Degrees, as the children marched in their pilgrimage toward Zion. And since this is the seventh
step in this Psalm, we should expect this to be a very High
and good and comforting song. Seven is a number of completeness,
a number of perfection. Surely this psalm has great purpose
and great meaning. And so as we read this psalm
together and as we study this together, I pray that God would
give you such special comfort and that He would use this psalm.
He would use this psalm to benefit you. And I've got three points
in this message. This psalm could be divided into
three different points. First of all, the remembrance
of past deliverance. It says, when the Lord turned
again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
This is talking about past deliverances. They were remembering a time
in the past when the Lord delivered Israel. And then you see the
benefits of that. It's like a dream. Our mouth was filled with laughter,
our tongues were singing, and so great was this deliverance
that even the heathen took notice. The heathens said, look, the
Lord did great things for them. And this resounded within our
own hearts, Israel said, when, yes, the Lord had done great
things for us. This is past deliverance, remembrance
of past deliverances. And then in verse 3, you're going
to see this, the second thing, a hope of present deliverances. Look what he says. Turn again
our captivity. Oh Lord, as the streams of the
south. You see now they have been back
in to captivity. They have been brought back in
under bondage and have great need of deliverance now. And this is going to be the cause
of that captivity. It's going to produce tears.
They sow in tears, but here's the promise, they shall reap
in joy. And then the last point is, who is this that's going
to deliver? Who will deliver Israel? Who
has delivered Israel? Who is delivering Israel? And
who shall deliver Israel? Here he is. He that goeth forth
and weepeth, bearing precious seeds, shall doubtless come again,
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. This is Christ. The
Christ the deliverer. And so those are my three points.
And now let's go through each one of these and hopefully the
Lord will help us to glean some truths that we can take and hold
on to tonight. First of all, the remembrance
of past deliverances. He said, when the Lord turned
again the captivity of Israel, we were like them that dream.
These pilgrims, as they were traveling, were troubled and
burdened with their travels. And the psalmist begins here
to stir their memory. to stir up their memory, their
remembrances of past deliverances. They were compelled by the Spirit
to look back at times of national darkness, times of bondage. They were to remember when they
were kept in chains and made to be slaves of godless men. They were to remember how powerless
they were, how weak and helpless they were to deliver themselves.
But now in remembering the darkness, God is not wanting them to dwell
on their chains. Notice, He does not say, remember
your captivities, period. No. He said, remember when the
Lord turned again your captivity. He wants you to focus not on
your captivity as much as your deliverance from captivity. He doesn't want you to remain
in that black and dark place, but rather look immediately to
the time when Jehovah came in power. And so it is, remember
when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion. Remember how
God turned them from Egypt? Delivered them from Egypt? with
that strong and mighty hand. That was unmistakable, wasn't
it? You couldn't mistake it was God doing that, could you? No. He did it by blood. He did it
by the Passover lamb. That angel of judgment came through
that night. God came through that night in
judgment over all Egypt. And only those who had the blood,
God turned again their captivity. That night, didn't he? One night. It's amazing what a night will
do. It's amazing what God could do in a night. One night they
were slaves. The next night they were free. And not only deliver them by
blood, He delivered them by water, didn't He? He went through the
Red Sea. And I want you to know this, everybody went through
the Red Sea. Israel went through the Red Sea,
and so did Pharaoh go through the Red Sea. But only one made
it. Only one got out. Only one got
to the other side. And that was the ones God delivered. And the rest were crushed by
the same seed. The one seed delivered them,
and the same seed crushed the other ones. You see, God delivered
them. There's plenty of deliverance
of Israel. You can pick multitudes of... How many times did God
deliver Israel? Can you count how many times He delivered them
from their enemies? No, you can't. It's constant. It's perpetual.
God did deliver them. And they're all good examples
of what? How He delivered us. Every one of them. You can pick
any instance that God delivered Israel and you could say this
to you and to me who believe in Christ. Remember when God
turned your captivity. Remember when God turned your
captivity. This is what is intended by the
Holy Spirit to you, believer in Christ. You who believe in
Christ, this is for you. When the Lord turned again our
captivity, we were like them that dreamed. Now let our minds
right now recall our great captivity. We were surely great captives. We were so bound to our sins
and the lust of our flesh that we could not break free. Do you
realize that about yourself? That if left to yourself, you
could do anything evil. Anybody doubt that? Now I want
you to be very clear tonight, listen to me, don't doubt it. We are capable of any evil, believer,
any evil, anyone. How do you know that? Because
I know myself. When God delivered me, I know
what He delivered me from. I know what I am. By nature,
we were captives. We were held captive by Satan
until God in power delivered us. The Apostle Paul, talking
to the young preacher Timothy, he tells him how to preach. He
says, preach in meekness. That's a good thing for preachers
to preach it, isn't it? Meekness. You know what? I cannot look down on anyone
preaching. I just can't. Why? I know where I came from. I know
what I am. I know what God has delivered
me from. Preaching in meekness to those
who oppose themselves. You know, people, if you don't
believe in Christ, you're opposing yourself. You are your worst
enemy. Isn't that right? Your worst enemy. We preach for
this reason to you who oppose yourself. If God, peradventure,
if God, peradventure, give them repentance and acknowledging
of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of
the devil who are taken captive, taking captive by Him at His
will. This is true of us all. Believer,
is it not your experience in this? Don't you know something
about this captivity? We were held captive by Him at
His will. Why? Because our nature was sin. Our nature was sin. It's only
sin. It's always sin. And how easily
it is for Him to manipulate our nature. We were captive. We were bound. We could not break
free. In fact, those who are even now
chained cannot break free, nor do they want to. Tell a man to come to Christ
and see. He says, well, I don't want to. He doesn't realize that
he can't. Now, he really feels he doesn't
want to. But he doesn't want to because he cannot come. No
man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me. Draw
him. We would not come because we
could not, but I want the Lord to stir up our minds and hearts
to remember the grace of God. Remember the grace of God. We were in our captivity. That's
where He found you, wasn't it? Did He find you righteous? Did
He find you pure? Did He find you holy? No, He
found you sinful. He found you wicked. He found
you in the slime of your sin and death. He found you in the
pit. He found you in bondage. And you know what? You weren't
even trying to get free. You weren't even trying. He didn't
come to wait till you're better, did He? I'm so thankful He didn't
wait till I was better. I'm so thankful that He didn't
wait till my change. I loosened my change enough.
I'm so thankful He didn't wait. He came because of His sovereign
love and grace. Remember that our deliverance
was something on purpose. God purposed our deliverance.
He planned our deliverance to the greatest detail. He purposed it even before we
were ever held captive. It was God in justice who sentenced
us to this death, didn't He? Our chains are actually of God.
God sentenced us to those chains of death. He sentenced us to
the judgment in Adam. When Adam sinned, we were all
sentenced. We were born in chains, born
slaves to sin. and could not break free. But
even before sin and justice was handed down, God purposed and
planned in great wisdom and specific detail how it is that He could
be just and justify the ungodly. It was by the grace of the Father
who chose us and gave us to the Son. It was divine wisdom who
purposed this great escape. Divine wisdom. He purposed that
Christ should be made responsible for all our salvation. The scripture says, but of God
are you in Him. Are you in Christ Jesus? See,
there's salvation in it. Salvation comes by union. Union
with Christ. And how is it that we were made
one with Christ? God made us one with Christ. He did that and made Christ to
be wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The whole package. He's everything. He's all of
it. Therefore, you remember, as you
are now in your chains of your depravity, look and see that
Jesus Christ is the one that God sent to accomplish and purchase
your freedom. Your freedom was purposed before
there was ever captivity. But how was it to be purchased? It was only through the blood
and righteousness of His Son. That's what God planned. That's what God purposed. Jesus has come to accomplish
and purchase your freedom. Now listen, He purchased you
not from Satan, but from His own justice. It was God's justice
that demanded our death. And if we are to be rescued,
we are to be rescued from the justice of God. And the only
way to be rescued is that sin be removed, that sin be punished,
that sin and justice, that justice be satisfied. That's the only
way to be free from God's wrath, from God's justice, is that sin
must be punished. How is this freedom then purchased?
The Word of God. who was with God and was God,
was made flesh. That's how this freedom, as we
remember our captivity, as we remember how the Lord turned
again our captivity, how did He turn it? He turned it by becoming
a man. He came into this world to represent
us. He came into this world as our
high priest, as our representative man. came in the flesh. And this man, he was a man, so
that he should fulfill and satisfy the law of God in perfect obedience,
and by his one offering and death upon the cross, he should purchase
forever the redemption of his people. Our deliverance from
captivity was by purchase. Purchase. A price that we could
never pay. Christ came into the world to
pay, and look now and see that Jesus Christ has freed you. When did the Lord turn again
your captivity? He turned it at the tree. He turned it when sin, when He
made Him to be sin for us. When that spotless Son of God
bore our sin in His own body on the tree, and the full vengeance
of God, the full wrath of God fell on His own Son, it was then justice demanded
all His people should go free. Justice demanded it. How do I
know that? Because he rose again from the
dead. He rose again from the dead. Friends, don't you see
that your deliverance was costly? This was no small price. How
little do men think of the death of the Lord Jesus? How little
do they preach the death of the Lord Jesus Christ? They preach
it little because they think little of it. Friends, my whole
life depends on that death. My whole freedom depends on that
death. It was very costly. Our deliverance was accomplished
by untold suffering and pain. But the price that we could not
pay and the pain we could not endure. But God was not willing
to impute your sin to you. You know that? When you were
delivered, I want you to know why you were delivered. You were
delivered from captivity because God was not willing to charge
you. How many times do you feel like God is charging you? You
feel like that. You've sinned. You've sinned
and you feel like God is charging. Friend, God is never charging
you with that sin. He's chastening you for that sin, yes. He will
chasten His children. But He will never charge you.
Why? He was not willing to impute our sins to us. And never willing
to impute our sins to us. He is not willing that any of
us should perish. You got that? God's not willing
for any of His people to perish. But that all come to repentance.
He's not willing. God is willing rather to set
us free. But the only payment that God
could and would accept is the death of His Son. So how are
you set free? You are set free by the blood
of the Son of God. And now that God has raised Him
from the dead, what does this mean? It means my sins are gone.
All of them. Every one of them. They're gone.
Because He rose from the dead, it testifies that this, that
death could not hold Him because there was no sin left. My representative rose from the
dead and was freed from the chains of death because there was no
sin in Him. And God hath highly exalted Him
and given Him a name that is above every name. Why? He hath
led captivity captive and gave gifts. on the man. He led captivity
captive. Where's your captivity this morning?
It's captive. He led it away. It's gone. I
always loved that picture of that scapegoat. And someone said
this and I just keep getting this good picture of that. That
man, that big old man, he's right in front of you and he's got
that goat on his shoulders and he's walking. And the further
he gets, the smaller he gets. And the further he gets, the
smaller he gets until what? You can't see him no more. That's
what God's telling you. I can't even see your sins no
more. They're gone. They're gone. But let me ask
you this, you that have been freed, is that how God found
you? No, He found us in captivity. He found us. This deliverance was not known
to us, was it? In truth, though the captive
price was paid and our deliverance was purposed before the world
began, yet we were born captives. Go to Ezekiel 16. You know this
picture very well, but it's a beautiful picture. It's a wonderful illustration
of our conversion. It's a wonderful illustration
of our freedom, of our deliverance. Ezekiel chapter 16, look at verse
2. He's talking to Ezekiel, he said,
Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abomination. That's
not very pleasant, is it? You suppose that's the theme
of modern religion today? That men should know their abomination? No, that's God's theme though.
for his people. He said, say, thus saith the
Lord unto Jerusalem, thy birth and thy nativity is as the land
of Canaan. Thy father was in Amorite, thy
mother was in Hittite. You bastards! See what he's saying? That's not very pleasant, is
it? But that's our birth. That's our nativity. That's how
we were born. We were born bastards. We were
born to heathen parents, an abomination to God, an outcast to man. That's what we are. This is what
we were in Adam. before our birth into this world,
but now we are born, this is our nature, look at verse 4,
now as thy nativity, in the day that thou was born, thy navel
was not cut, neither was thou washed with water to supple thee,
thou was not salted at all, nor swaddled at all, none I pitied
thee to do thee any of these unto thee, to have compassion
on thee, But thou wast cast out into an open field to the loathing
of thy person in the day thou wast born." What a great picture. That's me. Friends, that's us
at our birth. We were cast out into an open
field and left to die. What could a baby do in the middle
of an open field to save himself? Nothing. Helpless. Despised. Rejected. By birth, we were still attached
to that navel cord of sin, and that's all the nourishment we
had. We were unwashed, had no offering for sin, none pitied.
The law of God never pitied you. You know that? The law of God
never pities a man. None pitied them. We were getting
exactly what we deserved. We were all like them, cast out,
left to die under the just sentence of God. But notice this, God
purposed something better. God purposed to deliver us from
this. To save us from our captivity.
Sent Christ to satisfy the justice of God and wash us with His own
blood. This same God in grace came to
us in our captivity. He came into the darkness of
our heart to set us free. Therefore God appointed a time,
verse six, when I passed by thee, I saw thee polluted in thine
own blood, and when thou, and said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood,
live. You see, when, when did, what
did God say? Did he wait for you to get out of your blood?
Did he wait for you to get better? No, it was in your blood, in
your sin. in your despicable condition,
that's where God set you free. Found you. And He said, live. Then he gives us proof of his
affection in verse 7. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field. Thou hast increased and waxen
great. Thou art come to an excellent ornament. Thy breasts are fashioned,
thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now
have I passed by thee and looked upon thee. Behold, thy time was
a time of love. I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness, and swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee. Thus saith the Lord. and thou
became mine. Then I washed thee with water,
I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and anointed
thee with oil." You see this? What is He doing? He said He
covered us with the robe of His righteousness. That righteousness
is Christ. He covered you so that you're
no longer naked before God. You're no longer sinful in the
eyes of God. God covered you with His righteousness. God washed you, and He said,
how did He wash you? He said, I washed you thoroughly
from your blood. You don't have any more of your
blood there. No more tainted, no more sin.
That's what it is to be free. It is to be made holy and acceptable
before God. It is to have that imputed righteousness
of Christ, that imparted nature by the Holy Spirit. And I'm going
to ask you right now, have you been set free? Do you remember
when you were set free? Do you remember when this happened
to you? This is the experience of grace. How do you know if
you've been set free? Do you believe on Jesus Christ?
This is the question. Once I did not believe because
I was not free to believe. I was bound and could not believe. But now I believe. That's freedom,
friends. That's freedom from the heart.
God gives you a new nature, a new heart. Do you remember that?
What was it? Go back to your text. When you
believed, what was it? We were like them that dreamed.
This is too good to be true. Isn't it? Isn't it too good to
be true? Isn't this so surreal that God
sees me in His Son And I am perfectly holy before God. That's a dream,
isn't it? Isn't that what you want, believer?
Isn't that what you desire? That's what you have. And he
said this, laughter. He said, Then were our mouths
filled with laughter, and our tongue was singing. And listen, when
God saves a man, He doesn't keep it a secret, does He? He said,
Then the heathen, they even noticed. God had done great things for
them. And what's the response of those who've been delivered
from captivity? We say, that's right. I confess. God had done great things for
me. I was a slave to sin and self and unbelief and the devil
and every... and the justice of God and now
by the grace of God I am made free. Free. but notice this i want you to
see this is very important that's past deliverance in that the
reason he's telling you to remember these things is because you still
need present deliverance but you what he says now in verse first four he says turn again
our captivity turn again our captivity This is the second point. Present
deliverance is still needed. Now believer, when you were made
glad, when you believed on Christ, it was a joyful thing, and you
thought for a while that this thing would just stay this way.
I mean, there's a period there that's just so surreal that the
believer, there's sunshine. You know, it's sunshine, blessed
sunshine. I've got sunshine in my soul
today. And you think that that's just
going to keep on and everything's going to be better now. The world
is now bright and the light is shining and everything is good
and your walk is so pleasant and you feel so strong. Oh, and
a young believer feels so strong he's ready to take on the devil
himself. I remember that. You? I remember having that strength
and courage and faith of a young believer. What we don't realize
is that doesn't last, does it? Because we still have this old
man of sin. We still have this old nature
that we are not yet fully aware of what he's capable of. Are
you aware of what you're capable of? The moment you think you are
aware of what you're capable of, you've already fallen. You've
already gone. How many times have we fallen
back into captivity of our own sin? How many times have we backslidden
so far that we can't see God anymore? We begin to wonder if we were
ever delivered to begin with. I remember my freedom, but now
it seems so distant. It seems so far away. My sin
has overwhelmed me, and I can't look up. What do we say? Lord, turn again my captivity. I need present deliverance, don't
you? Tonight, right now, I need Him to keep delivering me from
my sin. Keep delivering me from these
self-inflicted wounds. We load ourselves with chains, burdens too grievous to be borne. And God tells us what to do.
Remember that I did deliver you. And if I did deliver you, I will
deliver you. Look what he says. He says this. Turn again our captivity, O Lord,
as the streams of the south. There's a portion in Israel where
there's a seasonal floods. And these floods, they go all
the way down from the north and they flood to the south and the
water covers the barren desert. That's what he's saying. He's
saying, Lord, my heart is barren as a desert. Lord, turn again
my captivity. Send the floods of joy back into
my soul. Isn't that what David said? Lord,
restore the joy of my salvation. Have you lost the joy of your
salvation? I tell you, we do. What is the
prayer? Lord, please give it back. Don't
let me go another day. I want to know Your presence.
I want to know Your peace. I want to know Your comfort.
I want to know Your forgiveness of me. Am I His or am I not? I want to know. I want to know. If I've never been delivered,
deliver me today. Deliver me now. He says this in verse 5, They
that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Here's a promise. I'll
tell you what, sin makes us weep. It is a bitter, bitter evil thing,
and it causes us to weep. Good. You know why? Because joy. Joy is promised to those who
weep, to those who lament their sin, to those who repent, to
those who turn, to those who continually believe. Joy is promised. Now, how do you know joy is promised?
A lot of people crying. Sin is painful to everybody,
isn't it? The lost and the believer's sin is painful. How do you know
that we're going to receive joy? Because I know our Deliverer.
Look at the last verse. Here's the last point, the Deliverer. Verse 6. He that goeth forth
and weepeth, bearing precious seed. This, my friend, is the
Lord Jesus Christ. How did He come forth? How did
He come into this world? He came weeping. He came suffering. He came bleeding and bearing
a precious seed. What is that seed? It is our
salvation. It is the Word of God. It is deliverance for the
captive. He came and He planted this seed
through His suffering and death. And notice what it says. This
one shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing His sheaths
with Him. This is a promise. If God has
delivered you, He will presently deliver you. And because your
deliverer was so successful, He will come again and take you
to Himself. This is doubtless. This is doubtless. This is without a doubt. So then remember your past deliverances. How He found you. That's important. That's important. It's important
for us to remember so when we need present deliverance, we
know that we will have it. If he found you in sin before
and you're in sin now, what's the difference? He delivered
you then. How will he not deliver you now?
And I'll tell you, it's going to be through tears. It'll be
through pain. Sin is painful. And we must repent. We must turn and seek the Lord. And I know He'll deliver me because
my deliver is successful. He's victorious. He can't fail
at delivering. You know that? He doesn't try
to deliver anybody. He delivers. and so in our pain
we can be sure that he will deliver you. Without a doubt. That's how good he is. That's
how good he is. That's how gracious he is. I
pray that God keep these things in our mind. Let's be dismissed
in prayer.