Alright, let's open our Bibles
again to Psalm 79. I titled the message this evening,
The Sighing Prisoner. Asaph is the writer of this psalm,
and he wrote this psalm apparently in a very miserable time in Israel,
when the enemy had come in and destroyed Jerusalem, killed many
people. But if we make a spiritual application
to this, like we're supposed to do with every scripture, we'll
see our fall into ruin in Adam, and we'll see the sinners cry
for mercy from God. We'll see the sighing prisoner.
I took the title from the beginning of verse 11 that says, let the
sighing of the prisoner come before thee. Now our sighing
began and our fall in Adam, which we see beginning in verse one.
Oh God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance. By holy
temple have they defiled. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
Now, the heathen who have come in, we don't know exactly which
enemy Asaph is talking about here specifically, but we're
using this as a picture to see a spiritual application. The
heathen who have come into our bodies that God created and ruined
them is our sin. That's the enemy that's come
in and ruined us. Our sin has defiled these bodies that God
created. Our sin has ruined these bodies
and made them just a waste heap. Now, some of us might look young
and strong at the moment, but I tell you what always happens
over time. Sin's going to win. Sin's going
to destroy this body. And we ought never think that
we're so young and strong and healthy that we won't have to
face this being made a waste heap for a long time. These bodies are nothing because
of sin. There's no strength, there's
no soundness in them because of sin. Sin has come in and brought
death and destruction to us, to our bodies, and to all of
God's creation. Look at verse two. The dead bodies of thy servants
have they given to be me under the fowls of the heavens. flesh
of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have
they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none
to bury them." Now Asaph paints a picture here of a great battle
where we've all been killed in one great battle and all the
carcasses are just lying there on the battlefield, lying out
there in the sun. The birds and the animals come
to feast on those carcasses. There's nobody to drive the beast
away. There's nobody to come bury the bodies because every
last one of us is dead. That's what happened when Adam
sinned. Every one of us died. This is our situation spiritually. We're just an ugly scene of death
and destruction. And our sins brought reproach
on us. Look at verse 4. We are become a reproach to our
neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round about
us. The heathen look at God's people
and they say, well, they're a reproach. Look what sin's done to them.
They're no different than us. Sin's brought reproach upon us.
And Asaph cries out verse five. How long, Lord? Would thou be
angry forever? Shall thy jealousy burn like
fire? How long, Lord? How long will you pour your wrath
out upon your people? You'll notice Asaph isn't saying
we don't deserve God's wrath. No, he's saying this is our fault.
Our sin is our fault. And I tell you, nobody will ever
be saved until their sin is their fault. It's not Adam's fault. It's not my parents' fault. It's
not my environment's fault. My sin is my fault. And if God
damns me, He's given me exactly what I deserve. That's what I
know I deserve from God. But the question that Asaph and
I are asking is this. Will God be angry forever? Is
there mercy with the Lord? I know there's judgment, justice
with the Lord. Is there mercy with the Lord?
Verse six, he says, pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that
have not known thee and upon the kingdoms that have not called
upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste.
His dwelling place. Now I know that justice must
be satisfied for my sin. My sin is my enemy. Now I don't know who the enemy
is that's coming here to destroy Jerusalem. And certainly if there
was an enemy at the door trying to kill folks, I would pray that
the Lord destroy him, wouldn't you? But we're making a spiritual
application here. God's good providence has not
happened to us. But I tell you, the enemy that has come in and
destroyed us is sin. Sin's coming in and devouring
us. And what we're asking God to
do is destroy the enemy. Destroy the sin that's destroying
me. Could God pour out His wrath
for my sin, not on me, but on Christ, my substitute? If He'd
do that, that would put an end to my sin forever. God's anger
would end because my sin would be gone. The sacrifice of Christ
is the only way that sin can be defeated. But right now, Asaph
sees it's not been defeated. And then he gives us, in the
rest of this psalm, nine cries of the sighing prisoner. And
the first sigh is this, don't remember our iniquities
against us. Verse eight, he says, Oh, remember
not against us former iniquities. Now, how can God who knows everything
and God who remembers everything not remember our former sin? How can he not remember our sin
against us? Well, it's because God promised
not to remember the sin of his people because of the sacrifice
of his son. Look over at Hebrews chapter
eight. This is what we've been studying in the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 8, verse 10. God promised that he would not
remember the sins of his people. Hebrews 8, verse 10. For this
is the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws into their mind
and write them in their hearts and I'll be to them a God and
they should be to me a people. And they should not teach every
man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, no, the Lord,
for they shall all know me. from the least to the greatest,
for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. And if you look over
a page of Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14, here's how the Lord
Jesus Christ made that happen. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. For of the Holy Ghost
also is a witness to us. For after that he had said before,
This is the covenant I'll make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I'll put my laws into their hearts and in their minds
while I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more. God doesn't remember the sin
of his people because there's no sin to remember. The blood
of Christ's sacrifice has put it away forever just exactly
like God promised that it would do. God won't remember the sin
of his people against them because God's taken away the sin that
made God angry. The father made Christ sin for
his people at the cross. He took all the sin of his people
and made it all belong to his darling son. And then he killed
him. Christ took all of that sin away
from his people, and then he put it away by the blood of his
sacrifice. So there's nothing left for God
to remember. See, the sighing of the prisoner
is see me in Christ, wash my sin away in Christ so you don't
remember my sin anymore. All right, the second sign. Let
your tender mercies go before us. Verse eight, he said, let
thy tender mercies speedily prevent us, for we are brought very low.
I love the reason for Asaph's cry. He cries, Lord, don't remember
your former iniquities, our former iniquities against you. And here's
why I'm asking you to not remember my sin. It's because of God's
tender mercy. He doesn't say now forget that
sin because I didn't mean it. He's not saying forget that sin
because I'll do better next time. He says, forget my sin because
of your tender mercies. I look that word, that phrase,
tender mercies up, and it means the love that a mother feels
for the fetus that's in her womb. That's a mighty powerful love.
Every mother in here knows that love, and every mother in here
in an instant would give your life for your children. That's
the love that a mother has for the fruit of her womb, for that
fetus that's in her womb. You'd be willing to do that for
your children, wouldn't you? God did. God did. See, God gave His Son to redeem,
to save those people that He loves. Our cry for mercy is always
based on God's immeasurable love, that love wherewith He loves
His children. And Asaph says, let your tender
mercies prevent us. And that word prevent means to
precede or go before. Now saving mercy has to always
go before us. If it's saving mercy, it has
to have been before we were. Let me show you what I mean by
that. I need electing mercy to go before me. I need God's electing
mercy to be there before I fell in Adam. I need God's redeeming
mercy to go before me. I need God's redeeming mercy
to have already gone before me before I was lost in Adam. I
need God's justifying mercy to go before me. I need his justifying
mercy to be there before I send an atom. If it's not, God's going
to destroy me. I need regenerating mercy to
go before me. I need God's regenerating mercy
to be there before I died an atom. If it's not, I can never
be made alive in Christ. I need God's keeping mercy to
always go before me, to be there preserving me every step of the
way. I need mercy to be given to me
before I ever sinned. Because this I can promise you,
I'll never do anything that would give God a reason to have mercy
on me. So I need his mercy to be there before I sin. I need
a salvation that does not depend upon me in any way. That's why
I need God's mercy to go before me. I need his mercy to be there
first. because we are brought very low.
This is why he's asking for mercy here. Asaph says, because we've
been brought very low. We've been laid so low we can't
rise up again. We can't climb out of the pit
that we've dug for ourselves. But God's tender, compassionate
mercy for His people will always go before them. It will always
be where they are at because His mercy is eternal. And that
mercy that goes before them will lift them up from the pit. God's
tender mercy will be exactly what we need in every situation. A child of God can take comfort
in this. Wherever it is you go, God's mercy is going first. God's
mercy is there waiting for you. That's the mercy we need, isn't
it? All right, the third sign. Help us. God, help us. Verse
10, help us, O God, of thy salvation, for the glory of thy name. ASAP
is asking for help here. He's asking for a very particular
help. He's asking for help and salvation.
He says, help us, O God of our salvation. Now that word help
can be can be misconstrued. You and I don't need help in
being saved. We don't need God to help us.
It's like, you know, when you use the word help, it's like,
well, I can do some and you can do some. That's not what we need. We need God to do it all for
us. But you understand what Asaph
means here when he uses the word help. Lord, help me. Help me. Help me believe because I can't
believe. Help me repent because I can't repent. Help me see. Help me hear and understand the
gospel because I can't see. Help me love you because I can't.
Lord, help me by making me believe. Help me by making me repent.
Help me by making me seek. Help me by making me love you. That's the kind of help I need.
Lord, help me because I'm helpless. Help me because I can't help
myself. If Lord only helps those who
help themselves, we're in a heap of trouble. Lord, help me because
I'm helpless. I need you to be all of my salvation. So here's comfort for God's people.
The writer to the Hebrews said in chapter 4 verse 16, let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to what? Grace to help in time of need.
Do you need help? Come boldly to the throne and
find grace to help in time of need. Look if you would at Mark
chapter 9. This is the best example I could
think of of someone crying for help. It's
the father whose son was possessed by that evil demon. Mark 9 verse
22, the father describing the situation to the Lord, he says,
and oftentimes have cast him into the fire and into the waters
to destroy him. Can you imagine how desperate
this father is right now? But thou can't do anything. Have compassion on us and help
us. Help us. You know, this father,
he asked for tender mercies, didn't he? He asked for compassion
and he asked for help. Same way Asaph did. You know
why? Every needy sinner instinctively
knows to ask for tender mercies and help me. Lord, help me. And
you know what the Lord did? He cast out that need. Just by
the word of his power, Now that's the kind of help a sinner needs.
Lord, help me. Do it all for me. And I love
the reason that Asaph gives in his plea for help. Why should
the Lord help me? Look at us. Why should the Lord
help us? Asaph says, for the glory of
thy name. Lord, I'm so lost. I am such
a hopeless case. You would get a whole lot of
glory to your name if you'd help me and save me. I am such a great
sinner. There's no sinner as great as
me. You'd get so much glory to your
name if you'd show your tender mercies upon a sinner like me.
No one but a great God who's full of tender mercies could
or would save a sinner like me. Lord, you get so much glory to
your name. He'd save me. I heard Brother Todd Nyberg say
many times, the Lord will save every sinner where he'd get all
the glory and say, this is a good cry. Lord, save me. Have mercy upon me for the glory
of your name. All right, here's the fourth
sign. Lord, deliver us. It says in
verse nine, and deliver us. I look back at Genesis chapter
32. Here's the first time that the word deliver is used in scripture. It's used by Jacob as he's going
back to meet his brother Esau. And he's praying in Genesis 32
verse 11. He says, deliver me, I pray thee,
from the hand of my brother and from the hand of Esau, for I
fear him, lest he will come and smite me and the mother with
the children. Now this is Jacob's cry, Lord,
deliver me from Esau. Esau has a legitimate reason
to kill me. I cheated him out of the birthright.
He's got a legitimate reason to kill me and he's plenty powerful
enough to do it. And I have no power to defend
myself. So Lord, deliver me. Now that
is exactly the sinner's plea before the Lord. Lord, deliver
me from your justice. I've given you every reason to
condemn me. But Lord, deliver me from your
justice. I'm powerless to pay for my sin.
I'm powerless to do anything in this situation. My only plea
is that in your tender mercies, you'll deliver me. Not because
I deserve it, but just because you would. Now, there's only
one reason that the holy God would deliver sin from his justice.
Sin must be punished. Every sin must be punished. So
there's just one reason the holy God would deliver anybody from
his justice. And the reason is because he
delivered his son into the hands of justice for them. He delivered
his son as a substitute for his people and he gave his son all
the punishment that the sin of his people deserves. So God looks
at the sacrifice of his son and says, deliver him from going
down to the pit. I found a ransom. I provided
the ransom in the person of my son. And if we would beg to be
delivered on those terms, God will deliver us. That's the only
hope of deliverance a sinner has. All right, the fifth sigh. Lord,
purge away our sin. At the end of verse nine, he
says, purge away our sins for thy name's sake. That word purge
means to cleanse. It means to make my sin so that
it doesn't exist anymore. And the only way that's possible
is if our sin is put under the blood of Christ. This is what
Asaph is saying, Lord, purge my sin, make an atonement for
my sin with the blood of Christ. And you know, that's a mighty
good plea with the Father, because that's exactly what Christ came
to do. He came to purge away the sin of His people when He
had by Himself purged our sins. He sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on I. Christ sat down because the work
of purging is done. All of the sin laid upon him
is gone, purged away under his blood. Again, Asaph pleads here
now, Lord, purge my sin for thy namesake, for the glory of thy
name. I am a great sinner and I'm asking
great deliverance. I'm asking for a great redemption. I know my sin is far greater
than I can imagine, but just the tip of the iceberg that I
can see is enormous. And I'm asking for a great deliverance. I'm asking for deliverance from
a great God. Lord, you would give so much
glory to your name if you would put away this mountain of my
sin by the blood of your That's a good plea, because that's why
the Lord saves His people. He doesn't save His people because
we've been good and deserve it. He said, I do not this for their
sake. I do this for my great namesake.
They profaned it, but I'm going to make my name right. I'm going
to save them for my great namesake. And if we begged God to save
us for His namesake, that He would get so much glory in saving
such a great sinner like me, He'd save us for His namesake. All right, the sixth side is,
Lord, show yourself as God over all of the earth. Look what he
says, verse 10. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is their God? Let him be known among the heathen
in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants,
which is shed. Asaph's saying, Lord, these heathen
that are attacking us, they don't believe you. They look at us
and they say, where's now their God? They say God's promised
tender mercies to his people. Where are they? They sure look
mighty helpless to me, don't they you? God's promised forgiveness
and justification to his people, but look how sinful they are.
Where's the promise of his justification? Where's the fulfillment of that?
Where's his promise of a new birth? He says these people are
born again. They look just like all the rest
of the heathens look like to me. Where's the promise of His
coming? He said He's coming to gather
His people. Where is the promise of His coming? Since the fathers
fell asleep, all things remain the same. Nothing's changed.
And our cry is, Lord, let the heathen know there's a God in
Israel. Defeat all of our enemies, just
like you defeated Goliath and the Philistines. We should in our prayer say,
Lord, defeat those enemies. in your mercy. I think we need
to be very, very, very, very careful in asking God to pour
out judgment and wrath upon folks. We'd be on a whole lot better
ground, considering God's a merciful God, to ask him to show mercy
to the heathen. So they'll know the power of
God's mercy. So they'll know the power of
God's grace and the power of God's salvation. I just think
that's a much better prayer. Because God's greatest glory
is what? God said his greatest glory is
showing sovereign mercy to sinners. Showing mercy to whom he will
show mercy. Then our prayer should be, Lord,
show the heathen that you're God by showing mercy to them
and making them know you. God did it for this sinner. Maybe
he'd do it for others. All right, now verse seven. or the seventh thing is in verse
11, hear the sighing of the prisoner. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before you. Now, no one is ever gonna be
saved until they see themselves as a prisoner. Nobody who believes
in man's free will can be saved. It's an utter impossibility because
man is not free. Now we say, well, I'm free to
choose to do this, that or other, go here, go there. Well, that's
true. But we're a prisoner to our sinful
nature. The decisions that we make are
controlled by our sinful nature. We cannot do good because evil
is present with us. We cannot up and decide to believe
Christ because we're dead by nature. We can't say I'm going
to love God because our nature hates God. and we're powerless
to change that. That is just exactly what a prisoner
is. I watched yesterday as they handed
down the verdict of this drug lord, El Chapo or whatever his
name is. That guy used to rule the roost
and now he's a prisoner. I mean, he's a prisoner. A prisoner
can't decide when to come and go. No, he can't decide where
to sleep. He can't decide when to eat.
He can't even decide what to wear. He is under the control
of someone else because of crimes he committed. That's what a prisoner
is. Well, that's you and me. We are prisoners to sin. And
the proof of it is we can't stop sinning. I mean, I think most
of us would just assume not sinning, but we can't stop sinning. You
know why? We're a prisoner to sin. We're a prisoner to God's
justice. We cannot escape damnation for
our sins. It's appointed unto men once
to die, and after this, to judgment. Now we're prisoners to that.
We cannot avoid coming before the bar of God's justice. We've
trapped ourselves in this prison by our sin, and we can't break
out of it. We're just helpless, sitting
in a little cell of our own making in the prison house, and all
we can do is sigh. But look back in Exodus chapter
two. It's a good thing. It's miserable, but it's a good
thing. When God brings his people to
the place where all they can do is sigh, when all you can
do is groan, you're a child of God. God's brought you to a good
place. Look here at Exodus two, verse
23. And it came to pass in the process
of time, that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel
sighed by reason of the bondage. And they cried and their cry
came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their
groaning. When all they could do is sigh
and all they could do is groan, God heard their groaning. And
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with
Jacob. And God looked upon the children
of Israel and God had respect unto them. Now, why did God have
respect upon those poor slaves down there in Egypt? Because
he saw them in Christ. He saw them in the covenant that
he made with them. And when he brought them to the
place, all they could do is sigh, and all they could do is groan. God remembered his covenant and
sent the good. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
came to do. He came to set the sighing prisoner
free. You remember our Lord's first
recorded public message. He chooses his text, Isaiah 61,
which says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the
Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
the opening of the prison. Those who are sitting in the
prison, all they can do is sigh. Christ came to open the prison
and to set them free, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
That's the year of jubilee when all prisoners go free. Christ
came to set his people free. And when he does, one day they're
going to be through with all this silence. Remember the verse
we read to open the surface, Isaiah 35 verse 10. The ransom
to the Lord shall return and come to Zion. with songs and
everlasting joy upon their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness,
sorrow and silence. But the prisoners are going to
be done with sighing forever because the Lord gave them the
seventh fruit. Then the eighth sigh is this, O Lord preserve
me. It says here, according to the
greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed
to die. Lord, don't just save me and then set me free. Expect me to preserve myself.
Lord, save me and preserve me. Lord, don't save me and give
me a clean slate and say, all right, now you're all fixed up
and I'll go keep your slate clean and you'll be saved. I'll be
lost in the hunt. Lord, save me and preserve me. Save me and keep me safe. Lord,
save me by the greatness of your power and then preserve me by
the greatness of your power. I'm so weak, I can't preserve
myself. I can't take a single step by
myself. So Lord, preserve me. Maybe my greatest fear is that
the Lord would ever leave me to my own devices. Lord, preserve
me. And you know, that's a good sign.
Let me give read to you three passages of scripture talking
about this preservation. Psalm 37 verse 28, the Lord loveth
judgment and forsaketh not his saints. They're preserved. The Lord's going to preserve
his people. He'll never forsake them. Psalm 116 verse six, the
Lord preserveth the simple. I took my daughter, Savannah,
I had to take her last week to a doctor's appointment at a big
university hospital. The parking garage was just enormous.
We didn't have a handicap parking sticker yet. And right there,
we come around the corner, right there was a parking spot with
a wide open space next to it for me to get her out of the
car. And she said, oh, I'm glad the Lord left this parking space
just for us. And I quote that verse to her,
the Lord preserves the simple. We came down here without a plan,
didn't know what in this world we were doing. The Lord preserves
the simple. It's spiritually. We don't know
a thing. We don't know how to go in, how
to go out. We've got no sense whatsoever.
The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low, David said.
He helps the simple, preserves the simple. Psalm 121, verse
seven, the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall
preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this day forth. That's a good sigh,
isn't it? Lord preserve me. And our last
sigh is this. Oh Lord, deal with our enemies.
Verse 12. and render unto our neighbors
sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have
reproached thee, O Lord." Now, like I said a minute ago, I'm
just utterly convinced that it's wrong for us to pray that the
Lord deal harshly with people, because we'd do it selfishly,
wouldn't we? I mean, just be honest, we would
do it selfishly. Asaph is praying here for the Lord's sake, deal
this way with those who have reproached thee, O Lord, I think that's ground we better
tread real carefully upon. Because how did the Lord teach
us to pray? He said, love your enemies. Pray
for them, which despitefully use you. Pray for them, not against
them. But at the same time, I know
this. I don't pray that ever that the
Lord would bless anybody in their rebellion. I never pray the Lord
bless a false prophet in his message. Never do I do that.
That's not okay. David said, do not I hate them
that hate thee, O God? All right, both of those things
are true. So how can you reconcile? Well,
I know this. I know the Lord is going to give
every rebel who refuses to bow to him exactly what they deserve. It's not going to be any more.
It's not going to be less. Their damnation will be just
and nobody in hell is ever going to be able to say the Lord is
too harsh on them. They'll never be able to say
that. And when he does, we'll rejoice. And that day we'll rejoice. But until then, until then, let's
pray that the Lord be merciful to our enemies. Because in eternity,
we're going to praise God. We're going to praise Him to
the glory of His grace. We're going to praise Him with
a perfect heart for His grace and mercy to sinners. And at
the same time, with a perfect heart, we'll be able to praise
Him for His justice. We'll be able to do that then
for God's glory. Not for our own vindication,
but for God's glory. And until then, I think the best
thing, the wise thing for us to do is to pray for our enemies,
don't you? And then lastly, here's our response
to God's tender mercy. The response to God's people
when he hears our sigh is verse 13. So we, thy people and sheep
of thy pasture will give thee thanks forever. We will show
forth thy praise to all generations. Oh, how thankful I am that God
hears the cries of His people. Aren't you glad He hears the
cries? He hears the groans, the sighs of His people. We can't
even put it into the right word. God hears the cries of His people. I'm thankful that the Lord seemed
fit to give us these opportunities to praise Him, to praise Him
to all generations. to show the next generation the
praise of the Lord. Isn't it wonderful to think that
the Lord has heard our sighing? We're not done with sighing yet. I wish I could count how many
times a day I sigh. We're not done with sighing yet.
But when Christ returns, God's people are going to be done with
sighing, sorrow, and pardon What a day that's going to be.
What a day. And that's what Mike's going
to lead us in singing our closing song after we bow in prayer. Our God, we don't even have the words
to express the thanksgiving of our soul to know you hear the
sighs of your people. You hear the silent sighs and
groans and cries of your people. And in your compassion, your
tender mercies, you come to them. Save them by your grace. Preserve
them by your grace. Encircle them with your tender
mercies. Father, how we thank you. Father,
we pray this evening that you take your word as it's been preached,
that you bless it to the glory of your name. Father, save the
souls of your people to the glory of your name. Comfort and feed
and strengthen your sheep through the preaching of your word, to
the glory of your name, because it all belongs to you. Father,
how we thank you. Bless us, we pray. We ask that
she would see us and hear us only in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his blessed name, for
the glory of his name, we pray and give thanks.