For our scripture reading, if
you would open your Bibles to Psalm 126. Psalm 126. 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. Then
said they among the heathens, 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 in weeping,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together. our Most High, Holy God and Heavenly
Father. Lord, it is with hearts that
are full of thanksgiving that we come and bow before your throne
this evening. So thankful that we, sinful men
and women as we are, can come before your throne accepted in
the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we beg of you
that you would Hear our prayer for Christ's sake, not because
of anything that we've done, but for Christ's sake, for who
he is and what he has accomplished. We ask that you would accept
our praise and our thanksgiving for Christ's sake. Hear us for
Christ's sake. Father, we thank you. Oh, how
we thank you that you're God alone. How we thank you that
you always accomplish your sovereign purpose and that you have told
us in your word that your purpose is to save your people from their
sins. Father, we're so thankful. We
could have salvation no other way. We could have righteousness
no other way than the obedience of your son. We could have cleansing
from our sin in no other way but the sacrifice of your son.
Father, how we thank you. And Father, I beg of you that
this evening that you might enable us to worship you in spirit and
in truth. Enable us to lift up the name
of Christ our Savior. And Father, enable your people
to see. Enable your people to hear and believe in the heart.
Enable us to leave here truly rejoicing in Christ our Savior. Father, enable us to forget about
the cares and the burdens of this life, real as though they
may be, as heavy as though they may be. And even in spite of
them, enable our hearts to be lifted up in joy at who our Lord
Jesus Christ is and what he's been pleased to do for his people.
Father, I thank you for the many blessings of this life, how richly
you blessed us. We freely confess. We're the
most blessed people in the face of this earth. You blessed us
in every way, materially, and especially spiritually. Father,
we're thankful. And we beg your forgiveness for
the times that we are not near as grateful as we ought to be.
Forgive us, Father, for Christ's sake. Father, I pray that you
bless your word as it's preached here and preached in other places.
Father, bless your word for your great namesake. and for the good
and the edification, the fulfilling of your people. Father, all these
things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of Christ our Savior, amen. And we're gonna
take a break from our study in the book of Exodus and look at
this Psalm 126 tonight. As I studied this week, the Lord
did not see pleased to give me a message from the beginning
of those plagues in Egypt, but he did give me some light on
this Psalm 126, and I want us to look at it tonight. I titled
the message, It Seems Too Good to Be True. Now most writers
think that this psalm was written about a time when, at some point
in the future, that the Lord would set Israel free from bondage
in Babylon. It seems like it was written
a long time before Israel even went into bondage in Babylon.
And Lord gave them this prophecy of how he promised he would deliver
his people, Israel, from bondage, so that when they're in bondage,
that they'd be forced to look to him, that they would be forced
to have hope in Christ, in Christ alone, in God's promise alone.
And I know this for sure, that this psalm is a picture of God's
promise to his people. God has a promise to his people,
that he's gonna set them free from bondage, condemnation of
their sin. That's God's promise to his people.
And I hope you and I will find some blessing and some encouragement
from it tonight. Now, Psalm begins, verse one,
when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like
them that dream. You know, the Jews who were in
captivity, when the Lord finally came and delivered them, and
brought them back to Jerusalem. They said it seemed like a dream.
We've been in bondage so long, we forgot what it was like to
be free, and the Lord did something for us so wonderful to set us
free from this slavery and bring us back to Israel. It just seems
too good to be true. Now remember, as I said just
a second ago, the Lord delivering Israel from bondage in Babylon
or different places, wherever they were carried off bondage
is a picture of what God does for spiritual Israel, for his
elect. When God saves a sinner, he completely
saves them. First, God saves his people from
himself. If we would be saved, we must
be saved from God's wrath against our sin. God saves his people
from himself. And when God saves a sinner,
he saves them from their sin. He saves them from the condemnation
of their sin. Their sin cannot condemn them
anymore. He saves them from the ruling
power of sin. Their sin cannot rule over them
anymore. They can't rule over them in
this way. All we still do is sin. We try to sin and we can't,
so we feel like sin's ruling over us, but it's not. Sin does
not rule over God's people in this way. It cannot stop you
from believing Christ anymore. It won't rule over, you'll believe
Christ. And someday, the Lord's gonna deliver you from even the
presence of sin. You and I can't imagine that,
can we? We cannot imagine living without sin, without a nature
of sin. That sounds too good to be true,
doesn't it? That the Lord will deliver us even from the presence
of sin? I'm telling you, if the Lord
ever reveals himself to you in that way, you'll say, This seems
too good to be true, but it's not, but it's not. Now, if we're
gonna understand why God's salvation seems too good to be true, we're
gonna have to understand some things. We're gonna have to understand
some truths about who God is, and we're gonna have to understand
some truths about us, who we are. You know, many religious
people, people that I know personally, and I hear talking in different
things. When they talk about how God
saved them, I got saved. They're experienced with that.
What they talk about does not sound too good to be true. If
you think about it, it doesn't. They made a decision and you
know that, and well of course God's gonna accept me, you know,
because I made a decision, well of course God's gonna call me,
I'm good, I do everything just right, of course God's gonna
bless me and save me and you know, that doesn't sound too
good to be true. If you earned something, you
ought to get it, shouldn't you? But God's salvation seems too good
to be true. And first of all, it's because
of who we are. We have to consider some truths
about who we are. You and I are sinful. We don't
just commit sin. We are sin. We are sin. Here you go, we're all stepping
on people's toes now. Are people going to be mad at
me, still talk to me after this? We don't just commit sin. We
are sin. I mean, that's what we are. And
our worst sins, The worst sins of people in society are not
the most vile acts that people commit. You know, we think of
just heinous sin, everybody's got something come through their
mind, you know, some horrible, horrible thing. That's not really our problem.
Most people think of vile sins as something someone else does,
right? That's what somebody else, I
don't do that, somebody else does that. But if we're gonna be amazed
at God's salvation, His grace to us, that He would deliver
us from our sin, we're gonna have to see sin is what we are. We are vile. Something that's
vile is not something somebody else does, it's what I am. Now
if we're gonna be amazed at God's grace, we're gonna have to understand
that. There is no sin, not one that
you can think of, that you and I are not guilty of committing.
James 2 verse 10 says this, whosoever shall keep the whole law, I mean
the whole law of God, yet offend in one point, one minor point
that might be buried in there so much you don't even know it
exists, whosoever shall offend in one point, he's guilty of
all. He's guilty of breaking every
commandment of God. And our Lord told us to even
think about sin. is to be guilty of that sin.
So there's no doubt. There's no argument. You and
I are guilty of breaking every point of God's law. Every one
of them. You know, we can never say, at
least I didn't do that. I mean, I didn't do that. You
know, I'm not that bad. Oh yes, we are that bad now.
Because whatever it is, we've done it. We're guilty of it.
And worse yet, if I can say worse yet, A demonstration, a worst demonstration
of the depravity of our nature is this. It's our refusal to
love God, even though he's never done anything but good for us.
It's our refusal to believe on God's son that God sent as a
savior of his people. Do you know when we hear the
gospel, the gospel of Christ, I'm not talking about just religion,
I'm talking about hearing the gospel of Christ and we do not
believe on him. We do not fall at his feet and
beg him for mercy and forgiveness. Do you know what we've done?
We hear the gospel and say, I don't need that. We hear of Christ the Savior
and we say, I don't need him. We spit in his face. That's what
we've done, we spit in his face You and I are just as guilty
as the people who screamed outside of Pilate's house, let him be
crucified. Do away with him, destroy him.
Give us Brabus and destroy Jesus. We're as guilty as spitting in
the face of Jesus Christ as those Roman soldiers were. We're guilty
of mocking him. We mock his sufferings. When
we hear of Christ's suffering for sin, how by his suffering
he put away the sin of his people. The depths of his love, that
he would do that for sinners, the depths of his power, that
the blood of one man can atone for the sin of untold millions
of people, and we do not believe it, we're mocking, we're mocking
his blood. We're guilty of lying on him.
We're guilty of bearing false witness against the son of God
himself. Remember when the Pharisees were trying him and they found
many people who are willing to lie on the Lord, but they couldn't
find anybody that agreed. Their lies had to agree. We're
guilty of bearing false witness on the son of God himself. When
we hear who He is and what He's done for His people, we hear
the commandment of the gospel, you believe on Him, and we don't
believe on Him, we're bearing false witness against Him, saying
He's not what I need to save me. We're guilty. Now that's how serious our unbelief
is. Now I want you to think about
that for a minute. The seriousness of our unbelief is a personal
affront to the Son of God. What do you expect from the father
when we do that? I heard a story today of a toddler
who was quite a bit bigger than my grandson, who's a toddler,
who at story time knocked him over and stomped on him. What do you think that child
could expect from Papa? I mean, I mean, I'm two hours
away and I'm mad. Our unbelief is a personal affront
to the son of God. It's calling God a liar, saying
we don't need a savior. You know, if murdering another
man makes us deserving of hell, what do you think the father
says about us murdering his son, his only begotten son? Now I'll
tell you why Israel found themselves in captivity in Babylon. It's
for the sin of idolatry. Now God warned them about this
sin of idolatry. You worship me and me only and
you'll be blessed. But if you worship, if you fall
into idolatry, you're gonna be carried away into captivity.
And sure enough, they committed adultery and they found themselves
carried away to be slaves in Babylon. They're slaves to modern
day ISIS. I mean, you think how, horrible
we think that that would be. That's what happened to Israel,
that's who they were slaves to. And when Israel was slaves in
Babylon, they were getting just exactly what they deserved, just
what God promised them that they'd get. But now their lives, I mean,
can you imagine their lives? Their lives are nothing but misery.
And they had no hope of deliverance because they were guilty. they
must be punished because the holy God says the guilty cannot
go free. God, the judge of all says he
will by no means clear the guilty. And we're guilty. We're guilty
of breaking every sin. We're guilty of breaking every
commandment of God's law. We're guilty of hating God. We're
guilty of rejecting God's son that God sent to save sinners
So not only are we guilty, we're plumb dumb. We are so dead in
our sins, we've rejected the only savior of sinners that's
ever been seen. So what we deserve is God's wrath. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. What
we deserve, and there's no denying it, what we deserve is for God
to cast us into hell. Hebrews 10 verse 26. For if we sin willfully, after
that we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for
of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three
witnesses. Of how much sore punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God? and accounted the blood of the
covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done
despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that said, Vengeance
belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord, and again the
Lord shall judge his people. Oh, it's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. There's no denying that's
what we deserve. What a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of a living God who will give us what we deserve
for our sin. And if you look back at Matthew
chapter seven, we start to think, okay, it's a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of a living God. I'm guilty. What can I do
to get out of it? That's the human reaction. What
can I do to get out of this? Do you know even our very best
religious works will not get us out of this sentence of death
that God has against our sin. Look at Matthew chapter seven,
verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? In thy name have cast out devils,
in thy name done many wonderful works. And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. And you'll notice the Lord didn't
say, you didn't preach in my name and you didn't cast out
devils and you didn't do many wonderful works. He said, what
you've done is work iniquity. It's not trusting Christ. Depart
from me, ye that work iniquity. Now look at Revelation chapter
six. Now there's no escaping this thing. this thing of God's
judgment. We can't hope to find a place
that we can hide from God and escape his wrath against our
sin and rebellion. Revelation 6, verse 15. And the kings of the earth and
the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the
mighty men and every bondman and every free man hid themselves,
they're trying to hide themselves from God in the dens and in the
rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall
on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne
and from the wrath of the land. For the great day of his wrath
has come and who shall be able to stand? None. None will be
able to stand, none will be able to hide. That's the end of this
thing with our sin. So we're guilty, you and I. I'm not talking about the whole
world out there, you and me. We are guilty, we're under the
sentence of eternal death, and there's not one thing we can
do to escape it. That's the truth about us. Now here's the second
thing. If we're gonna have some understanding
of why it is that God's salvation, his grace, is just too good to
be true, we got to consider something about who God is. Now God is
the opposite of everything that we are. God is holy. That means God cannot accept
anyone in their sin. He can't accept any sin into
his presence. God won't overlook our sin. That's
the believer and unbeliever alike. To every son of Adam, God will
not overlook our sin. Almighty God will not accept
the best that we can do. God demands absolute perfection. If you would come into his presence
accepted, he demands absolute perfection. And I ask you, isn't
that only right? Isn't it right that God and his
perfection and his holiness would demand that of you and me if
we would be in his presence? Why should God have to accept
our unholiness in his holy presence? Why would he be expected to do
that? Why should God have to put up with us defiling his holy
presence? He shouldn't, should he? He shouldn't. So God is holy. God is also just. This is the very nature of God,
to be just. God must give everyone pure justice,
exact justice for what they've done. God must punish every sin
with eternal death. I go back to what I said earlier.
God said he will by no means clear the guilty because God
is just. God is just. God will judge everyone
in righteousness. That's what he said, he'll judge
everyone in righteousness. And what that means is, he'll
give everyone exactly what they deserve. It'll be a righteous
sentence that he hands down. And you know who the judge will
be? The judge will be the very one sinners rejected and crucified. In John 5, 22, the Savior said,
the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto
the Son. That's sobering, isn't it? The
one that we rejected, the one that we spit in his face, the
one that we would not have, is the judge. The judge of all.
God is just. God is righteous. God is holy. That's his nature. But thank
God, God is also merciful. Mercy is the very character of
God. Just like God must be just, God
must be merciful. Because that's his character.
When religious hardliners try to explain God's sovereignty
and salvation, they say God could have sent everyone to hell, or
God could have saved everyone, or God could save some of Adam's
race. That's his prerogative because
he's God. They say that trying to explain
God's sovereignty. But that statement's only partly
true. God could have saved every son of Adam. by his mercy and
by his grace through the blood of his son. God could have done
that. And God could and did save some of Adam's fallen race by
his mercy and his grace through the blood of his son. That's
true. But God cannot damn every son
of Adam. He can't do it because God's
character, God's nature is merciful. Mercy is part of the character
of God, so God will show mercy to somebody. But when God shows
mercy, it'll be just. When God shows mercy to a sinner,
it'll be right for him to do it. Now here is the question
of questions. How can God show mercy to sinners
like you and me? Guilty, vile sinners. How can
God show mercy and forgive our sin, yet be just when he does
it? That's the question of questions.
How can God punish sin, yet not condemn the sinner to hell? That's
the question of questions. And that brings me to my third
point. If we would understand why God's salvation seems too
good to be true, we have to consider how and why God saves sinners. Now, before God created anything,
the Father elected a people that He would save. He chose a people
out of the lump of Adam's fallen race to save. They were sinful
people. Now, they weren't less sinful
than anybody else. They were sinful people who would
deserve hell because of their sin. They would never choose
God. They would never love Him. They
would never willingly come to Him, but the Father chose to
save them anyway. That's God's electing love. And
I'll tell you why the father did that. Because he's gonna
show mercy to somebody. Because God's merciful. And the
way that God shows mercy to sinners is in justice. The father sent
his son to this earth to be made flesh to die the death that his
elect deserve. Remember I told you they're guilty. They deserve to be sent to hell.
But the father sent his son into this earth to die the death that
his elect deserve. The death of Christ would satisfy
God's justice that would enable him to be merciful to those people
that he chose to save. Look at Galatians chapter three. When God sent his son into this
world, God delivered his people from the curse of the law by
making his son a curse for them. Not to just bear the curse for
them, mind you. but to be made a curse for them.
Galatians 3 verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Christ has made a
curse for his people, and he put that curse away so that,
verse 14, the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith, but we can only receive that promise if Christ was made
sin, or if he was made a curse for his people, and he put that
curse away. Now, the father loves the son. Before the father created
anything, the son was with the father, and he was daily the
delight of his father. He delighted his father. As a
man made under the law, He pleased his father so well, the father
spoke honorably from heaven and said so. Far as I can tell, he
didn't say that about anybody else, but he said it about his
son because his son pleased him. He loved his son. Yet the father
made his son a curse for his people. And the curse of his
people is eternal death. And the Lord Jesus Christ willingly
suffered and died Bearing that curse for the sin of his people
so that his people would never bear that curse. Never, it had
never touched them. That's why John told us what
he saw in heaven in the book of Revelation was this, there
should be no more curse. There's no more curse left for
God's people because Christ took it away when he was made a curse
for them. He didn't just hand write a pardon. He had to be made a curse. and
put it away by the sacrifice of himself. That sounds a little bit too
good to be true, doesn't it? Then look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. Christ delivered his people from
their sin. There are sinful people. Like
I said, the people that the father elected to save, there are sinful
people. Son's got to be done with their sins. So you know
what God did with it? He made his son sin for his people. 2
Corinthians 5, 21. For he hath made him sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Christ took the sin of his people
away from them and he made it his. Even though he never committed
a sin, he made it his sin so that he became guilty of it.
And then he traded his people his righteousness. The righteousness
that he earned as a man under the law, he traded it to his
people and he made it theirs. It belongs to them because he
gave it to them. And Christ suffered and died as a sacrifice for the
sin of his people. His sacrifice satisfied his father's
justice. Christ took the sin of his people.
He took it away from them. He put that sin away by the sacrifice
of himself, by his blood. So now, God's let go free, not
because God's overlooking their sin, They go free in justice
because their sin was punished in the person of their substitute.
That the Son of God will become the substitute for the likes
of you and me. That the Holy Son of God would
be made sin so the likes of you and me could be made righteous. Sounds a little bit too good
to be true, doesn't it? When you consider who He is, and who we are. It just seems too good to be
true. And I'm telling you, the sacrifice of Christ got the job
done. God wasn't playing games. The
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now when I look at myself, all
I see is sin. I don't see myself near as vile
as I should, as I am. But all I see is sin. Yet I read
that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, has cleansed me from
all sin. Now how can that be? Sounds a little bit too good
to be true, doesn't it? And that even as our Savior suffered
and died in agony of body and agony of soul when he made his
soul an offering for sin. Agony you and I can't begin to
imagine and never will. Do you know what he did? He prayed to his father and said,
Father, forgive me. These ones who are causing me
so much pain and so much humiliation, these ones who hate me so much. Father, forgive them. Now, whoever it was that the
Lord Jesus Christ was praying for at that moment, I can promise
you this, they are forgiven of their sin. And you know why? It's because of the very bloody
sacrifice the Savior was offering as He hung on the cross You ever prayed for somebody
causing you a fraction of that kind of suffering? The Savior
did. Almost sounds too good to be
true, doesn't it? It seems too good to be true
that the Son of God would come into flesh to suffer and die
to redeem a people who are his natural born enemies. It seems
too good to be true. It seems too good to be true
that the Savior would come and suffer all of this for a people
who hated him without a cause and would never believe on him.
Unless he gave him a new heart to do it. It seems too good to be true.
But it is true. It is true. The angel who announced
the Lord's birth, you know what he said? Here's why he's come.
He shall save his people from their sin. And he did. It's not
too good to be true. That's what the, that's what
the book tells us. Look at Romans chapter five. You know, it seems
too good to be true that the holy God would have the capacity
in his holy righteous nature to love a sinner like me. That
seems too good to be true, but it's true. Romans five verse
eight, but God, Committed his love toward us and that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being
not justified by his blood, we'll be saved from wrath through him. For if we were enemies, we are
reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. That's true. God loves his people
and the proof of it is he sent his son to die for them. He sent
his son to be the propitiation for their sins. It seems too good to be true
that the suffering and the death of one man could redeem, could
justify an untold number, millions, millions of people. Those people
for whom Christ died that will all be brought into heaven are
a number no man can number. It seems too good to be true.
One man by his suffering and death could redeem us. It seems
too good to be true, doesn't it? But it's true. Look at Romans chapter eight.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. It's true. There's no condemnation to any
of God's elect because Christ suffered the condemnation for
them. There's no condemnation, none. No condemnation to anyone who's
in Christ Jesus because of the death of one man took their condemnation
away. Look at Hebrews chapter nine.
It seems too good to be true that one man's death on the cross could redeem all of God's elect
by just one sacrifice of one man. Seems too good to be true,
but it did. Hebrews 9 verse 11. But Christ,
being come in a high priest of good things to come, by greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say not of this building, he's talking about his body,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place. And what did he do when
he did that? having obtained eternal redemption for us. One
man's sacrifice, that just took a matter of hours, obtained eternal
redemption for all of God's elect. Look over at page of Hebrews
10, verse 11. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. But this man, After he had offered
one sacrifice, just one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool, for by one offering, he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. By the one offering of Christ,
he has made all of God's people holy by one sacrifice. Now preacher, you mean to tell
me that the son of God became a man so he could be the representative
of a low down sinner like me? That's too good to be true. You
mean to tell me that the son of God became a man so that he
could suffer and die in my place so that I could go free? Me? That's too good to be true. You mean to tell me that God
will save me purely by his grace, and I don't have to do one work
to earn it? I don't even have to do one work to keep it? You're
telling me that salvation, God's salvation is all by grace freely
given to a sinner. Preacher, you're out of your
mind. You must be dreaming. Well, I grant you, that would
be too good to be true. if we didn't read it straight
from God's Word. It would be too good to be true if God didn't
tell us it's so. And I'm telling you this, if
the Lord ever reveals His Son in you, so that you trust Him,
you will be so amazed, you'll say, this is too good to be true.
But by God's grace, I believe it anyway. I believe it anyway. Look back in our text. Psalm
126. You'll find yourself You believe it anyway, you'll
find yourself rejoicing in Christ Jesus. Verse two. Then, oh, it
seemed like a dream, but it was reality. Then was our mouth filled
with laughter, and our tongue was singing. Then said they among
the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord
hath done great things for us. The Israelite said, you're right,
the Lord hath done great things for us. We're of, we're glad. You know, the heathen will say,
Oh, the Lord's done great things for his people. We don't understand
it, it seems too good to be true, but the Lord's done great things
for his people. And his people say, you don't know the half
of it. It's like the queen of Sheba, the half hasn't been told.
The Lord hath done great things for me. I didn't deserve it, but he did it anyway. And that
just makes me laugh. That just makes me sing his praises. You know, God saves his people
by his mercy and by his grace. And do you know it's that same
mercy and that same grace that keeps us looking to Christ? God's
grace keeps us dependent on Christ so that we keep crying out, Lord,
save me. Lord, deliver me. Look at verse
four. Turn again our captivity, oh
Lord, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall
reap in joy. He that goeth forth weeping,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. Now God saved his people, saved
us by his grace. It makes us rejoice, it makes
us laugh, doesn't it? Yet as God's people go through this
world, we got plenty, plenty, plenty, plenty of reasons to
weep. We will go forth sowing in tears. We will go forth weeping,
bearing precious seed. We will, now we will. Maybe we're
doing it right now, could be. But while we're going through
that, let's never forget. Now God's got a purpose in this.
I don't know what it is. God's got a purpose in it that
he's gonna accomplish in this. But even if I never see the purpose,
you know, I told someone recently, I know, I know in everything,
in every trial I've ever been through, I know this. I know
God had a purpose in it, a purpose for good. I know that. I believe,
and I know he accomplished it. Most of the time, I haven't seen
it though. I didn't see what good he accomplished from it,
but I know he did. I know he did. So even if we
never see what God's purpose, what good that it is that he
brought out of our suffering, let's never forget this. We have
such great reasons to rejoice, to laugh, to sing. Let's never
fall into the trap of being like those old Puritans that just
always had to be so down on the mouth, you know, and they never
could find a reason to rejoice. Let's not do that. God's given
us a reason to laugh, to sing his praises and to rejoice. And by God's grace, That's what
we're going to do. As much as he'll enable us to
do it, that's what we're going to do. All right, let's bow together. Our father, how we thank you
for these precious promises in your word. These promises of
your mercy and your grace, these promises of salvation that's
been accomplished through your justice. Father, how we thank
you. We could not believe these things
are true. if you didn't tell us that they're
so in your word. We still couldn't believe that
they're true unless you gave us a heart of faith to believe
and cling to, trust in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray
that you'd make us a joyful people. Despite of all the difficulties
and heartaches and sorrow and the effects of sin that we endure
in this life, Father, make us a grateful, thankful people to
always find some reason to laugh and rejoice at your grace that
seems too good to be true. Father, it's in Christ's name,
for his sake we pray, amen. Well, the psalmist said we laughed
and we sang a song, you come lead us in a song, we'll have
that opportunity, won't we, to sing praises to our God before
we go on.