Psalm 126. And the title of the
message this morning is, The Captive's Dream Come True. The
Captive's Dream Come True. The Scripture says, 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, and 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 and weepeth
bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing
his sheaves with him. Captive's dream come true. Now
this psalm is the 7th of 15 psalms called the Songs of Degrees. You can see that title there
just below Psalm 126, Song of Degrees. This is the 7th of 15
psalms with this title. Now there are many differences
as to what this means. We truly don't fully know when
or where this had reference. Some think it was when David
ascended up carrying the Ark of the Covenant from Obed-Edom
that these songs were sung during that procession. Some believe
that it was the priest as he went up to the temple. They said
there were 15 steps. I don't know. Fifteen steps,
and every step they would sing one of these psalms. Some think
it's when they went with the feast days and all of the Israelites
traveled together in bands. And they would sing these songs
as they went along to the temple. Regardless, it doesn't matter
which instance, all of them are very viable to me. It sounds
good to me, all of them. The important thing is, is this
word ascend. Every one of them agree that
it is a song of ascension. A song of ascension. Ascending
up. And so we by the Holy Spirit
may apply these songs to our soul this morning. As we are
ascending up. to worship God. All of those
were ascending up to worship. And that's exactly what we're
doing here today. We are ascending to before the throne of God to
offer praise and thanksgiving for Jesus Christ our Savior. Isn't that why we're here? We're
here to ascend up. So this song, as well as all
of the songs of ascension, may be ours. They're ours. They're
for our ascension to worship. the Lord our God, to praise His
work. And so then this psalm, like
all these songs, are prophecies. Prophecies concerning the One
whom we worship. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
all of them are. And this one is no different.
This song is a prophecy of the redemption of God's elect people,
the deliverance of our captivity. the deliverance of the captivity
of spiritual Israel. It was there, this is the theme
of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver us from sin, death, and
hell. And that's exactly what He did
on Calvary's tree, wasn't it? He dealt the death blow to our
captors. He dealt the death blow to sin,
to Satan, to hell. He also, and by doing so, is
offering His blood. He paid the redemption price
by which we were set free. This is the message here described. And we can see this, even that
this psalm is in its right place, because the one before it says
this. Look at that in Psalm 125 and verse 3. This is a promise of God. It
says, "...for the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the
lot of the righteous." lest the righteous put forth their hands
into iniquity." In other words, he's saying, look, there are
captives. The rod of the unrighteous is
upon the righteous, but it won't stay there. And so then God,
in fulfilling that promise, opens up this Scripture when He says,
when the Lord turned again. The captivity of Zion. And that's my first point. Captivity
turned. Captivity turned. When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion. Behold, this psalm is one of
conversion. Turning is a very important word
in this psalm. Turned. He turned. And then in
verse 3, verse 4, turn again our captivity. This word means
conversion, to return or to turn around our captivity. This psalm is one in which the
Lord turns the captivity of His people, and they in turn rejoice
and deliver to the Lord service. Now it was the Lord who had delivered
Israel many times. Now which deliverance this is,
speaking of, I can't say for sure. All of them would be applicable. Every deliverance that the Lord
delivered Israel from would be applicable to this psalm. You
remember He delivered them from Egypt. When He delivered them
from Egypt, He did so by the hand of Moses, but who was doing
the delivering? It was God. God delivered them
by the hand using Moses. When they were oppressed by the
Midianites, remember, God used Gideon to deliver them. When
they were in the bondage of the Philistines, God had used both
Jephthah at one time and David at another time. To do what?
To turn their captivity. But I think one of the best things
about, one of the better ways to illustrate this turning was
that of the captivity in Babylon. Captivity in Babylon. You remember that they were captive
in Babylon for one reason. Sin. Sin. It was because of their sin,
God had decreed that they should be delivered over into their
captors. The captors of Babylon. But remember,
it was also God's decree to deliver them by Cyrus, 70 years afterwards. Go over to Jeremiah. Go to Jeremiah
chapter 25. Jeremiah chapter 25. This is just one of many scriptures
you could turn to to see this. Jeremiah 25 and verse 4. It says, And the Lord hath sent
to you all His servants, the prophets, rising early and sending
them. But you have not hearkened nor
inclined your ear to hear. This is what the prophets said,
Turn ye now every one from his evil way and from the evil of
your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given
you, and you and your fathers forever and ever. And go not
after other gods to serve them or to worship them, and provoke
me to anger with the works of your hands, and I will do you
no hurt. But what was their response?
Yet you have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord, that you
might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your
own hurt. Therefore, saith the Lord our
host, because you have not heard my words, Nebuchadnezzar, the
king of Babylon, my servant, Behold, I will send and take
all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar,
the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this
land, and against the inhabitants thereof, against all the nations
round about, will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment,
a hissing, and a perpetual desolation. Moreover, I will take from them
the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, and the voice of
the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, and the sound of
the millstones, and the light of the candle. this whole land
shall be desolation and astonishment and these nations shall serve
the king of babylon listen seventy years it should come to pass
seventy years i'll punish the king of babylon for his iniquity
and the land of the chaldeans i will make a perpetual desolation
now in this i want you to see both the severity and the grace
of god severity in judgment against their sin. They were held captive
by another nation because of their iniquity, turning to other
gods. That's the reason for their captivity. But even in the midst of their
prophecy of their captivity, God is still giving grace. He says, but is determined. It's only for a short time. They
will be captive and then I will punish their captors and deliver
them. This is the promise of God concerning
Israel. But how should He do it? By a
normal way? Listen, friends, God doesn't
normally do things by a normal way. He does it by a miraculous
way. You remember He had determined
that Cyrus King of the Persians should deliver them. He named
Cyrus as their deliverer 200 to 300 years before his birth. That's how sure God was that
this man was going to be his man. He said, I'm the God that
declares the end from the beginning, calling my ravenous bird from
the east so that he might deliver Israel so that they might worship
me. Cyrus the King, that's the one
he had chosen. And that's exactly how it happened,
is it not? You cannot deny the history of
this to be true. It is exactly as God determined,
as God purposed. He purposed their captivity,
and you listen, He purposed their deliverance. Now we know that Israel is, in
Scripture, has a purpose. Its purpose is to testify of
spiritual Israel. They are a type, a picture, and
a shadow of the true Israel of God, the elect, the church. That's who they are a picture
of. And so then, let us now take
this and apply this to ourselves. If we are believers in Christ,
we are able then to identify with this. Spiritually, we are
able to identify with both their captivity and their deliverance. Both of which were purposed of
God. Our captivity was purposed of
God because of what? Our sin. And listen, our deliverance
was purposed of God not by our works, but rather the works of
another, a King, Jesus Christ. And so then let's see this. Our
captivity, first of all, we by nature are captives because of
our sin. Like all of Adam's fallen race,
we all fell in him. This is vital. Why do we say
this over and over? Why do we continually, perpetually
show you this? Because when you get this wrong,
you miss it all. You're wrong on the fall, you're
wrong on it all, one said. It's true. If you miss this,
if you miss that man is absolutely, utterly depraved, you cannot
get to the Gospel unless you understand this. We and Adam
all fail, and when our father as our representative died and
rebelled against God, he became a slave to sin. He became dead in trespasses
and sins. And therefore, all he could do
is sin. This was proven when God called
him and he ran, which is sin. God commanded, where are you?
And he took off. Instead of appealing to God's
mercy, he began to try to cover his nakedness with the fig leaves
of the works of his hands. This is proven in all of us.
Every one of us have done this. We have all tried to hide from
God and we try to cover our sins, justify ourselves and our actions
before God. We always do. Which is sin. Because there is no justification
for our actions. There is no reasoning. There
is no blame. Our father said, the woman, what do we say? Well,
that's somebody else's fault. They, the devil made me do it.
How many times, the devil made me do it. No, you did it because
you wanted to. You did it because you wanted to. You did it because
you are a liar and a sinner and a thief. That's all you are.
How do I know that? It's all I am. That's all I am. By nature, that's who we are. Now let one try to break free
from it. Who has ever been successful
to break free from sin? Who can break free from His chains?
None of us. Why? We are captive. We are held
captive by our sins. The holy justice of God has shut
us up and shackled us by His justice in chains of darkness. And rightfully so. He is just
to do so. We're all captives like Israel.
Man by nature is born not free, but bound. Yet man, he runs about
sinning, thinking what? I'm free! Isn't that what he
thinks? You see, you believers, you guys
are bound. You guys are shackled. Oh no,
we're free. You're bound. Man is bound by the chains of
his sin and he can't break free. He says, well I don't want to.
Of course you don't, you're bound. You can't break free. Man by nature is not free. He's
spiritually bound, dead in his sins, bound by the justice of
God with the sword of justice looming over his head, held by
one breath. And yet what? He dances and defies
God in the face of his justice. Peter speaks of these false preachers. He says they speak great swelling
words of vanity to allure men by their lust. While they promise
liberty, they themselves are enslaved. Isn't that what men
promise about the will of man? It's free. Make your choice.
Do as you please. They speak great, well, swelling
words. They have no foundation in holy writ, mind you, but they
speak great swelling words. You know what happens to them?
They're even overcome by their sins. Which shows, what about
their will? Their will's not free. Why? Because
their nature's not free. It's bound by sin, it's incaptive,
it's enslaved. It cannot break free. Thus this
proverb, the dog returns to his vomit and the pig returns to
his mire. So does these boasters, these
proud professors of faith in Christ. They eventually forsake
all the gospel and follow after their sin. They fall for their
family. They fall for fame and wealth.
They go after other things. No man's will is free but is
bound by the chains of his sin. And by no means or effort of
the will or religion can men escape their depravity. May God instill in you to show
you the thickness of these chains. That you can never break free. This should make you feel helpless. Why? You are helpless. You cannot
break free from your chains. You remember that man, the Lord
said that he had seven evil spirits and they were cast out of the
man. And he swept and garnished his house, started living right,
he started doing well, going to church, getting better, and
then what happened? Seven more spirits, worse than
the first, came in and the man was overcome. Why? He couldn't
break free. He was given a little reprieve.
So he thought of his sin. He thought he was getting better.
And he's overwhelmed by it again. Why? Show how enslaved he is.
He can't break free. You listen. In the flesh, no man can please god that means by any act of the
will or the hands of religion of education by no means can you please god
or merit your Liberty. Why? There is none righteous,
no not one. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seeketh after God. They are all together
become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. What about the law? Therefore
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be set free. No flesh
be justified in the sight of God. That is the law. That's
all it can do is condemn you. It can strengthen the chains,
but it cannot break you free. Still in Jeremiah, go over a
few pages, Jeremiah 13. Jeremiah 13. Look at verse 22. If thou say in thine heart, Wherefore
come these things upon me? Why am I captive? Why can't I
break free from my chains? Here's the answer. For the greatness
of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered and thine heels made
bare." His skirts discovered and his
heels made bare. In other words, you know what
they do to slaves? They strip them and take their
shoes. Because of the greatness of your
iniquity, you are stripped and you are barefoot. That's it. You have no righteousness. You
have no way of escape. Then, can the Ethiopian change
his skin or the leopard his spots? Well, if so, then you can do
good. If they can do that, you can do good. They can't and you
can't. So then may you also do good
who are accustomed doing evil. Therefore I will scatter them
as the stubble that passeth the way by the wind of the wilderness. This is thy lot, the portion
of thy measure from me. Now who's doing this? You bet
God is. Because thou hast forgotten me
and trusted in falsehood. This is thy condition, O sinner. This is thy portion. This is
thy nature. You are captive to sin because
you serve false gods. You have forsaken the true and
living God and served the pleasures of sin. You are so easily fooled
by emotions and vain philosophies. You're scattered like the chaff
in the wind. This is why people bounce from
church to church like chaff just being blown from one place to
the other. No foundation, no solid resting place. Always moving,
always changing. Why? They're captive. They're bound. They're moving. Is there hope? I cannot paint the picture black
enough. I can't show you the utter ruin of our nature. as it must be displayed only
by the Spirit of God. But if God ever show you that, you'll cry, is there hope? How
can I be free? If I can't free me, how can I
be free from my sin? Well, as an ambassador of God, I am here to tell you there is
freedom for captives. There is freedom. Isn't that
what our text tells us? Isn't that what the Lord hears?
When the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion. I've come to tell you that their
captives, sinners, can be delivered. This is my message because this
is the message of my Master. This is the message of the one
who has delivered me from my sins. This is his message and
this is my message. Freedom for the captives. Now
turn over to Luke. Read his message. Read his word. Luke chapter 4. Our Lord's first public address that
we have here. Luke chapter 4 and verse 18. Our Lord stands up to preach
in the synagogue and he opens to Isaiah and he reads this,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal
the brokenhearted. to preach deliverance to the
captives, recovery of the sight to the blind, listen, to set
at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. You see, his message was to the
poor, to those poor and could not their freedom. Isn't that what it was when you
had one of those, it was a man had sold himself, became a bond
slave. He was in debt and he sold himself
to his master to pay his debt. When could he ever work enough
to get out? He couldn't, that's why they
had that law of the year of Jubilee, because there had to be an end
to this captivity. You see, we were bond slaves.
We were poor. We bankrupt and could not buy
our freedom. Christ says, I've got a message
for the poor. He said, My gospel is for the
brokenhearted, those who realize they're poor. Now, all men are
poor. All men can't buy their freedom,
but only some recognize it. Only some are able to be brokenhearted
about their lack of freedom, their bondage. of sin. He said, My gospel is for the
captive sinners who can by no means or power of the flesh or
will deliver himself. My gospel is for the blind who
can by no means see a way of deliverance. My gospel is for
those who need liberty, who are bruised, crippled. You know old
Mephibosheth? Isn't that right? He was lame
on his feet and the king commanded him to come. Couldn't come if
you called him. He was lame. Couldn't come. What'd
he do? He sent people to fetch him.
Fetch him. And they brought him in. And
he bowed himself before. Lame on his feet. Could do nothing.
Deserved freedom. Deserved death. Being a son of
Saul. And what did David say? I come
to show you mercy for Jonathan's sake. I went and fetched you
to show you mercy. And this is my gospel. God fetches
captives. Those who are crippled can't
come. He brings them and He shows them mercy. This is my gospel. Delivery, the acceptable year
of the Lord. What does that mean? The acceptable
year of the Lord. God, from the beginning, has
been preaching deliverance. God, from the beginning, preached
to our Father who fell, He preached deliverance. He said, the seed
of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent. How? By
the bruising of His heel. By the crushing of His heel,
He should crush the head of the serpent. God has been preaching
this gospel from the beginning, and now Christ has come, and
the acceptable year of the Lord has come. When He came into the
world, He came to obtain for Israel righteousness, the righteousness
of God. He came to make an offering for
them that they couldn't make for themselves. What was He doing?
He was buying our freedom. He was purchasing our freedom. He was giving God what God required
for our freedom. Do you know what God requires
for your freedom? Perfect righteousness. In order
for you to break free from sin and death and hell and the justice
of God, you must be righteous. What was Christ doing? He was
earning your righteousness is what He was doing. He was meriting
for you what you could not merit yourself. And what did God require
as far as payment? You see, in order to get us out,
we must pay our debts. And He was doing that on the
cross. He was paying our debt. God hath made Him to be sin for
us. And when God made Him sin, make
no mistake, God poured out all of the justice, all of His wrath,
all of His vengeance that was due you. God put it on Him. God made Him to be an offering
for sin. You know, when the Lord said,
I thirst. You know what that reminds me of? That man in hell
who claimed for one drop of water to be sent down. When Christ
said, I thirst, you realize that He was suffering the pits of
hell for us in body and in soul. He was suffering the justice
of God. He said, I thirst! For what?
Mercy! I thirst for mercy! I thirst
for God! Now a rich man didn't thirst
for that, he just wanted real water, but Christ was thirsting
for mercy. He was thirsting for God to come
and restore him. God forsook him because of our
sin, and you listen, that price is paid. It's done. You realize there remains no
more sacrifice for sin? Why? There was only one sacrifice
for sin and Christ made it. All of the others pictured His.
They didn't do anything for sin. They didn't take away one sin.
All of the blood of all of those animals did not take away one
sin, but His offering did. His one offering did it forever. It removed the sin of all the
people of God, all of the elect of God. And I'll tell you, when
the justice of God was extinguished, Exhausted. I can't imagine God
being exhausted. But I tell you this, His justice
was exhausted. It was plum out of breath. Couldn't
do anymore. Couldn't ask anymore. Jesus had
done it all. And justice looked at it and
said, man, that's enough. There's no more to require. I
can't require anymore. And Jesus, to show us, He said
this to captives, it's finished. It's finished. If you are a captive,
do you need freedom? Then I'm telling you of one who
paid the freedom price. I'm showing you one that did
it all. If you desire to be free, stop
trying to be free. Stop trying to merit your freedom.
Simply bow before God and confess your chains. Confess your need
of Him. Oh, if you tarry till you're
better, you'll never come at all. Come now. Why? I'm telling you. Look at your text. Read it. Read
it with me. When The Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion. Turned. Now then, are you an
English scholar? Because I'm not. But I think
that's past tense. When Christ died and rose again,
you mark it. He turned the captivity of Israel. He turned the captivity of Zion. He did it. He turned. He paid the price. And what was the result of this
price that He paid? Listen, you're free from the
penalty of sin. Penalty is death for the least
sin. And yet Christ paid it all. So
then, there is no more penalty for sin to those who are in Christ.
No more penalty. Why? God says enough. God says
enough. Free from the penalty of sin,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justified us. It's Christ that died. Who is
he to condemn me? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again. Not only free from the penalty
of sin, we are free from the power of sin. If you've come
to Christ, you are free from the power of sin. What does that
mean? It means you've got a nature that's sinless. God has made
in you a nature that is absolutely perfect, and holy, and righteous,
and it cannot be chained. It cannot be bound by sin. It's free. Completely free. Cannot be tainted with our sins. It's a new nature. Now does that mean one who is
free is free from sinning? No. No. Why? You still have the old one. You
still got the old man of death about your neck, pulling you
to the earth. And therefore, in a new man,
in a free man, we struggle with sin. Whereas before, we didn't
struggle with sin, did we? Why struggle? We were chained. Couldn't get out of it. Didn't
want to get out of it. But now we're free. And we don't like
this old man. We despise him. We have a new
nature about us, free from the power of sin. In other words,
I don't want it anymore. I don't long for it. I loathe
it. And this is my hope of a freed man is this, we're free one day
from the presence of sin. free from the penalty of sin,
free from the power of sin, and one day free from the presence
of sin. This is our hope. We who are free, we hope one
day, and I don't mean wish, I mean we are confident that one day
we shall never sin again. What a day. What a day. That's
our hope. To who? Those whose captivity
has been turned. Now then, what is the result
then of one who has been set free? Well, Christ has done those
things for us. Now then, listen to one who has
been set free. We were like them that dreamed. You know, when the nation of
Israel heard that decree, they were surprised. Don't you think
they were surprised? This had never been done in the
history of nations. That a king would return captives
along with all the treasure they had taken. Never done before. This was it. And it was done
by a man who did not even know God. God sent this man Cyrus to return
them to their captivity. And what they were, are we dreaming? How can this be true? This has
never happened before. We were like them that dreamed. We woke up and said, oh, is this
a dream? Is this real? Are we really going
back? And how is this to you, believer?
Is it not sometimes as though it's a dream? Sometimes you're afraid you might
wake up and find that it's not true. How often do we doubt and fear
concerning our deliverance? I often think of Rebecca going
to see Isaac. You know, that servant had promised
her a lot. And he gave her those little
diamonds and jewels and things as tokens to show that her master
was wealthy, that her master... And what did she do all the way?
She said, tell me more about him. Tell me more. Are you sure? Are you sure about Him? Is He
as wonderful as you say He is? This is us all the way to glory. Oh Lord, is it true that You
should save a wretch like me? And when it comes in, what is
our voice? It says, and then our mouth was
filled with laughter and our tongue was singing. Isn't that
what it is when God reveals this to you again? You're not dreaming. This is real. You're not dreaming. It's real. You're saved. You're
free. You're free. And what is it? Our mouth is filled
with joy? You know what our mouth is filled
with? The word to tell others. And when God comes to save a
sinner, there's a change, isn't there? There's a change in the side
of the person. It's not that he quits completely
sinning. We know that can't be with this
old man. There's a desire for that. But I tell you this, there
is a change in a man when he now loves the things that he
hated. He now loves the Gospel. He loves
God's people. He loves to be around them. He
loves to encourage them. He loves to strengthen them.
He loves Christ. He loves to hear the Gospel.
And he loves to preach the gospel. He loves to tell others of the
gospel. This is the nature of a free... You know what? God
set me free. God set me free. Me, of all people. He set free. He set me free. And this is our laughter. This
is our joy. All the way to Zion. All the
way to glory. This is our message. And what
does it do to others? Look at this. It says, The heathen
said, The Lord hath done great things for them, They couldn't
deny it! That had never been done in the
history of mankind, that a nation that held them captive delivered
them, and now look at us. This had never been done. How
in the world could this be, that we would be delivered? They look
at me and they say, well man, I'm sure other people could have
been saved, but not him. But I tell you, something's done
with that man, something's changed. Remember that woman at the well?
Our Lord saved her. Do you suppose she stayed with
that man? Do you suppose she still lived
in sin? No. No. She loathes it. And what do the heathens say?
They usually say there's something wrong with that man. There's something wrong with
him. He doesn't run in excess with us anymore. What's wrong
with him? But they know something's wrong. They know something was
done. And they know the Lord did it. Why? That's what we tell
them. Look at what we say. You're right.
God has done great things for us. You see, I know it's a false
sense of humility when we try to hide that. When God has done
a work of grace in our hearts, a lot of times we try to in vain
humility, try to lessen it. No. No, He's done great things
for me. He's done great things. See what
kind of vile wretch I was, and look what God came down from
heaven, choosing me, died for me, and is seated on the throne
interceding for me. You bet God has done great things
for us. For us. God has done great things
for us. Now notice who He did it for.
He returned captivity of what? Zion. Zion. Why didn't it say Israel or Judah?
You ever wonder why that is? Why Zion? That's where the temple
was. That's where the temple was.
He returned them from captivity to do what? To worship Him. Now
what has God turned our captivity for? Why has Christ died and
rose again for us? To turn our captivity so that
we should worship Him. We should worship Him. We should
serve Him. The Lord had done great things
for us. Now notice in verse 4 this. We cry again, turn again our
captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. Now what does this
mean, turn our captivity? Didn't he turn our captivity
already? Well this has two purposes here. First of all, the believer
is constantly struggling with sin. Constantly we feel captive,
even though we're free. because of the old man. And so
what do we say? We say, Lord, please turn again
this captivity. Do away with my sin. Father,
keep me. But I think this has a better
illustration of this. It's a prayer of God turning
the captivity of others. Now imagine this. Israel was
headed, for the most part, they were headed back to Zion to establish
the worship of God, but not all Israel went. There was a lot
of people that stayed. There was a lot of their family
members that stayed in there even though the decree had been
given. And what was their prayer but that their other brothers
should come in? That their other brothers should
hear of the freedom and come back to Zion. Now is that not
the prayer of the church? Turn their captivity, Lord, and
bring them in. Isn't that what we just sang?
Lord, that thy churches be full, that you should bring others
in. This idea of the streams of the
south, that has to do with these desert wastelands where the water
current was underneath the earth, and at one time of the season,
it would flood. It would flood out. Isn't that
what we want? To see a flood of people come
in. Lord turn the captivities like you did in the south. Raise
up life in the barren deserts of men's hearts so that they
too would come. Now how do they come? How do
they come? Look at this. In verse 5 and 6 he says, they
that sow in tears shall reap in joy. This is a proverb. Proverb
and they see the fulfillment of that proverb in verse 6 he
that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed Shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing bringing his she's with him. This is the
picture they came back and Israel was barren I mean, they'd been
devastated. They'd been destroyed. That whole
land had been destroyed. So now then, they had this seed
that was given them, and they were to cast this seed out to
try to grow things in the land again, to make it prosperous.
Don't you think that seed was precious? What little seed they
had, they had to spread it out, and then what? What could you
do after you threw the seed? What do farmers do after they
throw the seed? I can throw some water on it. They can't do anything about
the growth. I tell you this, as your pastor,
I sow in tears for you. I long that God would bring in
captives. I want you all to be free. But they that sow in tears shall
reap in joy. In other words, I don't always
see the end result of it. But I know this. Whenever the
seed of the Word of God is sown, it accomplishes everything God
sends it to do. So then, in all things we are
victorious. And listen what the promise is.
He that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless, doubtless come again, bringing in his sheaves. You that have been freed, what
has God promised you? Victory. Success. Not in the things of the world,
but in the seed of the word shall bear fruit. Isn't that what?
Abide in me and I in you and you shall bring forth much fruit. You know, the church is as full
as it can be. Right now, it's as full as it
can be. Why? God has done it. If God
wanted more, there would be more. You are His seed. You are His precious seed. And
He will bring you in. All of it. Isn't that something? That not one grain of wheat,
not one grain shall be missing from His barn. I pray God bless this to your
hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.