Psalm 126, a song of degrees,
reads as follows. When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our
mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then
said they among the heathen, the Lord have done great things
for them. The Lord have 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. When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our
mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then
said they among the heathen, the Lord have done great things
for them. Great things. This further song of degrees
as the children of Israel climb higher towards the city of Zion,
towards their ultimate destination, rises up with joy and rejoicing
and praise at the deliverance of God. 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. We were like them that
dream. The captivity, the bondage this
people were under had gone on for so long, was so absolute,
their situation was so hopeless, their hearts were filled with
such despair, they never imagined what would come. their hope as it were had gone
out so long had been the captivity they'd given up hoping for deliverance
they'd given up hoping for salvation it never came this is born out of the hearts
of a people who in their natural experience knew what captivity
meant in a real and a desperate way Israel had been captive in
Egypt for hundreds of years, slaves to the Egyptians under
hard labour and hard bondage. They had been taken again in
captivity into Babylon. Their own deeds, their own rebellion
against their God had brought them back into bondage. They were strangers in a strange
land. And so desperate was the situation. Their hearts failed them. Will
we ever be delivered? Will we ever be saved? Will we
ever be released? This just goes on year after
year, decade after decade, generation after generation. They knew nothing
but bondage. It seemed like it would never
end, they'd given up hope. So it may be with you and me. The bondage, the captivity that
our own sin has brought us into is so absolute, is so desperate
and it goes on so long. That even if we know of the Lord's
salvation, even if we've heard of the Gospel, even if we know
of what Christ has done for his people, we can be brought to
a state of feeling like that, this salvation will never come
to us, this deliverance will never be ours. We pray unto God,
we call out for mercy, we cry to be delivered and the heavens
are dark above us. There's no answer. There's no
answer that we're aware of. Our situation carries on the
same. Year after year we feel our captivity,
we feel our sin. And where is God and where is
his answer? Where is his coming unto me in
particular? We seek some answer from Him,
some evidence that we are one of His, some evidence that we
are one of His children for whom Christ died, whom He has delivered
by His blood, but here we are and we hear nothing. We read
of the facts on the pages of Scripture, we know the truth,
we know that God saves, and we cry out under Him, but where's
the answer? We feel much like this people
felt. Year after year in the darkness
and the captivity in which they dwelt, they cried out unto their
God, but nothing changed. It seemed like they'd been forgotten,
abandoned. It seemed like they were where
they were justly, rightly, and they were. Their sins deserve
the captivity they found themselves in. Just like us. If God were to leave us to ourselves,
if he were to leave us in captivity, if he were to leave us in the
bondage of sin and the ultimate judgment that that brings upon
us, eternal wrath, then he would be just, he would be right. We
have no claim on his mercy, no claim on his deliverance, no
claim on his blessings. We don't deserve them. We deserve
the captivity, we deserve the judgment. We deserve to be left
in darkness. And here's a people left in captivity. in the most awful bondage with
hard taskmasters. It's difficult in our modern
age to imagine what life would have been like in some of their
circumstances. This was not a life of ease.
In hard bondage, decade after decade, generation after generation,
they dwelt. But in the midst of the darkness,
in the midst of their captivity, when they thought there was never
going to be deliverance, the Lord came and He opened the doors
and He set them free. When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream, He came unto
them in their night, in their darkness, when they could not
see, when they could not see any way out from their circumstances. When they could not see any hope,
He came unto them. And He opened the doors and the
light shone in and He led them forth. And they were free. And they were like them that
dream. Is this real? Can it be? He's remembered us. He's set us free. It's like a
dream. How often God does this. How
many times we read in the scriptures of God coming in the night hour
unto his own by way of a dream. to make known unto them their
salvation. In the New Testament the Lord
came unto Mary in a dream and spake of that child that she
would bring forth which would be her Saviour and the Saviour
of God's people. He came unto Joseph in the night
hour in a dream and said, fear not This child which shall be
born unto Mary shall be my son Jesus. He shall deliver his people
from their sins. He came unto them in the darkness
and spake deliverance. And that that they dreamt was
a reality that came about. And this reality that came about
unto Zion of old, unto the Israelites of old, when God delivered them
from captivity, when he delivered them from Egypt, when he delivered
them from Babylon, was a reality so great, so wonderful, that
came as light shining in their darkness, that they were like
them that dream. The people that dwell in darkness,
that sit in darkness, have seen a great light. Too wonderful,
too amazing to comprehend. But real. So it is when God comes
unto a sinner, in the darkness of their sin, in the bondage
that sin has put them, in their blindness, in their depravity
having been awakened to their condition by the gospel the alarm
having been sounded in their heart they sit in the darkness
crying unto God to deliver them but there's no answer and they wait and there's no
answer and they pray and there's no answer And they turn to that which they
think might bring them deliverance. They try to escape. Like those who are in bondage,
in a jail, in a cell. Might do all that they can to
escape. They might scrabble at the door.
They might try to unpick the lock. They might try to climb
up to a window. They might try to break out through
the bars. They will do all they can to
escape and they find it futile. So too, the lost sinner, when
he knows he's a sinner, when he knows what's coming upon him,
might do all that he can to escape his situation. He might start
to try to turn unto God. He might hope that God will hear
him through his much praying. or by reforming his life and
reading the scriptures and finding out how he should be and trying
to live as God would have him. He may do all that he can to
seek deliverance and seek salvation. He might come to the scriptures
and come to the law and live according to the law and pray
according to the scriptures and seek the Lord with all his heart.
He may do all that he can in his own strength to deliver himself
For he can do nothing else, there he is, he's lost. And yet the
more he strives, the more he works, the more he tries to bring
about his own deliverance, the worse things get. The more he
tries to reform his own heart, the blacker his own heart becomes,
the more sin he sees multiplying. The good that he would he cannot
do, and the evil that he would not that he does. O wretched
man that I am, he cries out, who shall deliver me from this
body of sin and death? Everything I try makes things
worse. Rather than my efforts to turn
unto God, bringing about deliverance, I get worse. My sin multiplies. My guilt increases. The condemnation
and wrath I feel upon my head grows darker. The clouds above
me seem to get darker and darker. The thunder roars. And where
is God? Where is my hope? There's nothing
we can do to deliver ourselves. There's nothing we can do by
our own works or our own will to make God here and to bring
about our salvation. And the more we strive, the longer
we will wait because God will come when we've given up. God will come when we come to
see that our works and our will rather than bringing about salvation
rather than bringing about a righteousness in our hearts which is pleasing
unto God, actually separates us from God. The more we do,
the more sin we multiply, the more we're puffed up in pride,
the more our self-righteousness stinks before a holy God. The more we strive to escape
our captivity, the more the chains around us tighten. And only when
we come to see that our doing, our working and our will has
nothing to do with salvation whatsoever and will damn us, the more we come to see that,
the more the skies will begin to open. and the more a glimmer
of light in the gospel will start to shine in. For when God brings
us to an end, an absolute end of ourself, such that we are
in darkness, blind, without strength, without any ability, having given
up any hope in self of saving ourselves or delivering ourselves,
then when we think we're lost, when we think that everything
we have done and are doing is going to damn us and God has
abandoned us and rightly abandoned us, then when we're lost, he
comes in the gospel. Unto Zion, captive Zion. captive sinners, and calls out,
come unto me, all ye that labour on a heavy laden. And he comes
unto us as unto those disciples in the jail, where the doors
were opened, and they were led forth. And
the jailer feared for his life that they were delivered. He
comes unto us and he delivers us from that which is impossible. The doors were far shut. We could
not be saved. It's impossible. We could not
be delivered. There's no way. And yet God comes
and opens the door and shines in the light. When we could not
see a way out, then he comes in the gospel and says as it
were unto Lazarus, dead in the tomb, come forth. And life enters in and we rise
up and we walk forth because he does all the work. God comes
in the gospel unto dead sinners and makes them live. He comes
unto you and I when we are blind and touches our eyes and makes
us see. When we're deaf and he makes
us to hear. When you have no interest in
the gospel, no ability to save yourself, when we are dead and
lost, he comes in the gospel in power and causes us to live. When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. It's like we
were dreaming. He's actually come. He's actually
come in the gospel. He's opened our eyes. I heard
this for years and never understood. I looked upon these words and
read them time and again and I never saw Christ until this
day. And then he's come. And suddenly the door is opened. Suddenly there in the scriptures
that I read before, Christ is before me. Suddenly that which
was all darkness unto me is full of light. Suddenly that which
to my carnal heart felt like death and bondage is all life
and salvation. The Lord has come. Suddenly those
words that I heard in the gospel which once were just the words
of a man speaking unto me I hear the word of Christ in power coming
unto me in particular and calling me by name come forth and I am
as one that dreams can it be? Then was our mouth filled with
laughter and our tongue with singing. Then said they among
the heathen, the Lord have done great things for them. Oh, the joy that comes with salvation. The joy that comes when you've
been brought to know you're captive. brought to know you're lost,
brought to know you're dead in your sins, brought to know that
the wrath of God in eternity to come is all that awaits you. When you've been brought to know
the terrors of the law and the terrors of judgment, When you
felt yourself as it were like one of those shut out of the
ark in the day of Noah and the storms come down and the world
is flooding and you're drowning and there's no hope when you
feel like you are lost. The joy that comes when you find
yourself taken and picked up and put in the ark and delivered. when you find your eyes opened
and you see Christ crucified for you, when you feel His blood
sprinkled upon your heart and you feel the forgiveness of your
sins, and the God that you felt was furious with you and your
sins, you now know is at peace with you. For in Christ you are
righteous before a holy God. When you're brought there, your
mouth will be filled with laughter and your tongue with singing.
It's unbelievable. That which was impossible has
been made possible. That which you could never bring
to pass, God has brought to pass. He's done great things for you. Things that you could never imagine. Things you could never bring
about. Great things. great things, so great that even
the heathen round about see what God has done for his people in
Zion. Even the world, even the heathen,
even those that reject God, that hate God, even unbelievers can
see that God has a people whom he has kept, whom he watches
over, whom he has delivered, for whom he has done great things.
Even the heathen in Israel's day saw what God did. They saw how God delivered the
Hebrews out of Egypt. They saw how God gathered the
people back to Jerusalem from Babylon. They saw his wonderful
hand upon them. The heathen did. In this, we immediately see two
people in this world. We see Zion who was once captive,
delivered as those that dream. And we see the heathen who look
on. We see those that dwell in darkness
look on upon the children of light. We see Zion and the heathen around. Israel, the Jews, God's Jews,
God's Israel, and the Gentiles. There are two people in this
world. There is a distinction made between them. It's always
been and always shall be. And we are where one stands or
where the other stands. We are either amongst those who
have been delivered from the darkness and the captivity of
sin, or we are yet in the darkness with the heathen who have no
time for God, no time for Jesus Christ, no time for the Gospel,
whose heart and whose will takes them another way. We either love
this world and the things of this world and the things of
time and sense, we either love ourselves and our own desire
and our own will and our own glory, or we love God, his son,
his will, his desire, and his glory. There's a distinction. And the only thing that made
this people differ from that people was that God came unto
Zion in the darkness. He came unto his own and he set
them free. He said, you are my people and
I shall be your God. He came unto a people that were
not his and he called them forth out of the darkness into the
light. Salvation. is of the Lord. They did not
seek him any more than the heathen around about them sought him.
They could not save themselves any more than anyone else could
save themselves. And yet the Lord came in their
darkness and set them free. He set his love upon them, he
chose them eternally, he said thou art mine. And he gave his son a ransom. for that people. He offered up
his son as a sacrifice for their sins that he should deliver them
from their sins. He gave his own son that he should
set a people in him free. Where are you? Has he chosen
you? Has he brought his gospel unto
you? Has he shone the light in the
darkness where you dwell? Or do you yet love the darkness? Salvation is of the Lord. Entirely
of the Lord. It's of grace. and He saves those
whom He chooses to save. It's entirely of God. He does
the saving and He chooses whom He shall save. We don't have
any part to play in how He saves us. We don't have any part to
play in whom He saves. We cannot force Him to save us
and we cannot force Him to save another. God chooses, God does. God elects. God chose Israel
and left alone the nations around them. He never chose to bless
the Philistines or the Amorites or the Hittites. He chose Israel. He saves his own. How man hates
this truth. because we like to sit upon God's
throne and make the decisions. We want to have the choice. We
want to choose if we are delivered or not delivered. We want to
choose whether we follow God or not follow God. We want to
be in control. And the idea that God is in control
and we are nothing but his creation, with whom he can do as he wills. is that which we rage against.
He is the potter and we are but the clay. And he can take of
that clay and he can make vessels of mercy, whom he saves. Or he can make vessels fitted
unto destruction, whom he destroys. He's the potter. And we rage
against this. We rage against the fact that
God is God and we are but man. And say this is not fair. When we would have it none other
way. If God came unto us and said,
very well then, you choose. I will leave you to your choice.
If you want your choice, you can choose to follow God or you
can choose to go your own way. If you want your choice, that's
exactly what God comes unto you this day and says. Do you want
a choice? Here's your choice then. Follow
Christ or follow your own will. Which choice do you make? Which
choice have you made? Which choice do you continue
to make? You and I both know that when
God has given us the choice, we've chosen our own way. We've chosen our own path. We've chosen our own reprobate
hearts, desires. We've rejected God, we've rejected
his gospel, we've rejected his son, we've rejected his salvation. If I stood up before you today
and say, here's your choice of salvation, choose today. Will
you believe in Jesus Christ and be saved, or will you bury your
head in the sand? What will you do? Given the choice
by nature, you'll bury your head in the sand, you'll go your own
way. then where is our complaint against
Almighty God? In what can we complain? We ask for our own will and our
own choices, He's given us our own choice and we go and we take
it and we go off unto destruction. There is none that willeth, there
is none that runneth, there is none who chooses God. None whatsoever. There is none who by nature have
sought God. There's none who have done good.
There's none who are righteous. You or I included. We have no
grounds to shake our fist at our maker and say it is not fair
because he has given us our will. He's given us over to our will. As it says in Romans, When they
knew God, when you knew God, we glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful, but became vain in our imaginations and
our foolish heart was darkened. Professing ourselves to be wise,
we became fools. and changed the glory of the
uncorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible man,
and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore
God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own
hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who
changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served
the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. God gave us up to our own will. For this cause God gave them
up unto vile affections. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient, being filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers,
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant
breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who know
in the judgment of God that they which commit such things are
worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in
them that do them. That's what we are. God has given
us over to our own will, and we know what it will bring, that
it will bring judgment, that we are worthy of death as a result,
and yet we continue to do these things and have pleasure in others
who do the same. If salvation were down to our
free will, no one would be saved. God has given man over to his
own free will. Every single one of us, he said,
all right, you do what you want to do. You have what you want
to have. You go where you want to go.
You believe what you want to believe. And every single one
of us has turned his back upon God, has gone his own way, has
thrown out the gospel. and has put ourselves on a pathway
to destruction. But God comes in the midst of
this heathen, dark, evil world unto a people whom he has chosen
and he delivers them from themselves. He delivers them from themselves. I am glad that though I chose
to go madly following every sinful way and every sinful desire that
I wanted to follow that though I wanted to turn my back upon
God and have my own way and fill my own heart up with this world
and its ways and my own glory that God said no that God came
and stood in my way, that he came and stood in my pathway
and stopped me in my tracks and delivered me from the bondage
of my sin, delivered me from the captivity of my own mind,
my own will. He delivered me from my own will
and my own righteousness and my own beliefs and he opened
my blind eyes to see the truth. He opened my deaf ears to hear
his son in the gospel. He delivered my captivity. I'm glad he came and he changed
my will. My people shall be willing in
the day of my power, God says in Psalm 110. That's what we
need, that he should make us willing who were once unwilling,
that he should come and change our hearts, that he should change
our will, that he should change our desire, because left to our
own will, left to our own desire, we're lost. But when he comes
in the gospel, and stands before us as he stood before Saul on
the way to Damascus when we're raging against him and says unto
us, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? When he shines a great
light round about us and in our hearts in the gospel then our
will is changed, then our heart is changed, then our captivity
is turned and then we are like those that dream our mouths are
filled with laughter and our tongues with singing and then
even the heathen round about will say the Lord have done great
things for them and we will echo and say yes the Lord have done
great things for us whereof we are glad The Lord have done great
things for us, whereof we are glad. The heathen who say the
same can see what God has done. They can see the impact of the
gospel, whether they believe it or not. And as those who are amongst
them, as those who are in the darkness like them, just as they
are, children of wrath just as others, just as blind, just as
lost. How thankful we can be that God
has said that he will deliver his people from amongst the Jews
and the Gentiles, from amongst all the nations of this world,
from all four corners of the earth, Galatians 3.8 we read,
And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying,
In thee all nations shall be blessed. As he brought that gospel that
he preached unto Abraham, unto you. That gospel which makes
known great things, Great things which God has done for us, whereof
we are glad. Great things. God did great things for Zion.
He did great things for this people of old. And he's done
great things for everyone for whom he sent his son. He's loosed
the bands of death and set them free. He's opened the eyes of
the blind and made them to see. He's touched the ears of the
deaf and made them to hear. He's come unto us in the darkness,
sent us the gospel, and not in word only but in power. He's
come unto us in the person of His Son from on high. And He
comes and He preaches the gospel to those who sit in the darkness,
to those who are captive sinners, dead in trespasses and sins,
to the lost. He comes and He seeks out the
lost. He seeks out the lost sheep of
Israel. He finds them wherever they are
and He comes with the gospel and He preaches it unto them.
This is a great thing to hear the gospel and to be sent the
gospel. And it's an even greater thing
if God comes unto you and gives you ears to hear the gospel,
for that's what we need. We need ears to hear the gospel. And we need faith to believe
the gospel. You and I have heard the gospel
many times outwardly. You may be hearing the gospel
in word only today. You may be hearing it outwardly
today. You know the words, you know
the facts. But has God come unto you and
given you the ears to hear it? Has he put faith in your heart
to believe it? Does it come unto you in more
than just words, but in power? in the Holy Ghost with much assurance? Does it come unto you as the
words of life from Jesus Christ? Have you been brought to see
that there's nowhere else that you can go? There's nowhere else
to go but to sit and hear the Gospel, to hope that God will
come unto you in the Gospel, to hope that he will bring you
life in the Gospel. To whom else shall we go, said
Peter? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. To leave Christ, to leave his
gospel, to turn aside from it, is to go into the darkness, is
to go into destruction, is to go to hell. Oh what a great thing, what a blessing
to be sent the gospel. Oh that God would give us ears
to hear it. to hear it, faith to believe
it, life from God on high, life from the Spirit of God. O may
ye quicken us to life, to live and to hear and to believe the
great things that he hath done for his own. Great things in
calling out a people, in choosing a people, in electing a people,
in electing Zion, Israel, a people of God chosen from among all
the nations of the world to come and be gathered under the gospel
to hear the Son of God preach. What a great thing to be chosen
of God unto salvation. What a great thing. that God,
in choosing a people, should send his Son to where they are,
to the darkness and the depravity of this world, to the valley
of darkness, the veil of tears that this world is, that God
should come in Christ from heaven's glory to be made a man, to assume
human flesh and the humanity, to have a human soul, to be born
a man, to be both God and man to come into this world and to
walk in the place of sinners in order that He should bear
their sins and take their sins away. Oh, a great thing that
Christ came into the world to save sinners. It's a great thing,
a wondrous thing, a mysterious thing that God, Emmanuel, that
God was with us. that God is with us in the person
of Christ, that God should come under his own in this world and
walk amongst them and go to a place of execution as the Lamb of God
to be offered up in their place, to take the sins of his own,
to be made sin, and to take the judgment and wrath of God which
was due unto them, Do you want a you and me believer to take
that judgment and to bear it? What a thing that he should come
and be nailed to a cross. To have his hands and his feet
nailed to a cross and to be lifted up in the darkness to die for
sinners. What a great thing that he should
hang there as the substitute of his people. What a great thing
that God should perform a great exchange in which he took the
sins of his people and laid them upon his son, that he should
take the righteousness of God in him. and make them to be the
righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. That he who knew no sin
should be made sin, that they should be made the righteousness
of God in him. What a thing that he exchanged
sin for righteousness, that he died that they should live. What
a thing that he should deliver us from our sin, from captivity. from death itself, from eternity
in hell. What a great thing that he should
redeem us with his own blood. He offered up his own life, his
own blood, that he should redeem us from our captivity, that he
gave himself as a ransom. He was the price, the ransom
price to be offered up to set us free. What a great thing that
He justified us with His own blood, He made us righteous before
a holy law and a holy God. What a great thing that He set
us apart, He separated us, He sanctified us in Him, in His
blood, in Christ, He set apart His people, sanctified, made
holy before God. What a great thing that He made
us to live. He breathed life into the hearts
of those who were dead. He rose from the dead and we
in Him rose in Him. We were resurrected in Christ
our Saviour. We were crucified with Him. Nevertheless
we live. Yet not us, but Christ liveth
in us, and the life that we now live in the flesh we live by
the faith of the Son of God. He set us apart, He made us righteous,
He made us holy, separate unto God, He washed our sins away
in His blood. What a great thing that Christ
went to the cross by faith. trusting in his God, that God
would justly lay upon him the sins of his people, that he would
justly be made sin and that God would justly condemn and judge
that sin and take it away and justly bring in righteousness
in Christ for his own. What a great thing that that
faith was rewarded that when Christ gave up the ghost, when
he gave up all in the darkness, when he extinguished his last
breath, when he gave up everything and as it were jumped from on
high and went falling into the abyss, he trusted, he believed
that God would do all that was promised, that God would catch
him as it were and bring him out of the grave. that he would
rise again victorious and that all that he did would bring about
the salvation of his people. What a great thing that his faith
was rewarded and what a great thing that that same faith is
that faith which he then gives to his people to believe on him
as he believed on the father. that that people in the same
darkness of death, when they are as far off from God as Christ
was made to be upon the cross, when they were lost were brought
to life. in him by faith, not a faith
that they have by nature, but the faith of Christ who is the
offer and finisher of faith, the captain and the end of faith,
the one who went to the cross for them, that his faith should
be made their faith, that they should look under him and live.
What a great thing has he made you to look and to live in Jesus
Christ. What a great thing that all who
do are made to rise with Him and to sit with Him in heavenly
places, that they are made priests and kings in the earth in Jesus
Christ, that they sit with Him in glory on high. What a great
thing that He brought in for them an eternal inheritance,
that He gave them everlasting righteousness and an eternal
inheritance that He has gone to prepare a place for them.
He's gone to prepare a new heavens and a new earth for them in which
they will dwell in Him where there is no sin, where there
is no death, where there is no sorrow, where there is no unrighteousness. where there is just the everlasting
life and glory, where He is the light of the world, where there's
no sun because Christ the Son of God is the light. What a great
thing that the tree of life is theirs and the fruit of the tree
of life, Christ, is ours in Jesus Christ. That though we in Adam
sinned in the garden when we turned against God, when we went
and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, when we turned to our own way, our own will, when we turn
to the works of the law and our own righteousness and we ate
of that fruit and we ate of that evil legal religion that condemns
and damns all men, when we turn to free will, works, religion
and damned ourselves, What a great thing that God came unto his
own, and took those who'd eaten of that fruit, and brought them
to eat of the fruit of the tree of life. He brought them unto
Christ, he delivered them from all that condemned them, that
all that set them apart, and he brought them to life. The
Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Have he done these things for
you? They are great things. Things that cannot be imagined.
Things that cannot be measured. Things that cannot be comprehended.
The love of God in Jesus Christ that took him to the cross to
save his people. We cannot measure it. We cannot
fathom it. We cannot fathom what he suffered. We cannot measure what he suffered.
The length to which his love took him. Oh, if God has brought
you unto faith in Christ and delivered you from such darkness,
you will be as those that dream. You will cry out in laughter
and with a tongue that sings, and you will cry out, the Lord
hath done great things for me, whereof I am glad. Are you glad,
believer? Or do you look down? Do you look
out at the sin in the world? Do you look inward at the sin
in your own flesh? Are you cast down? Oh look up,
look up unto Christ your Saviour, your victorious Saviour, who's
seated on high. Look up and be glad, He have
done great things for us. He have done all things well. Great things. And yet the psalm goes on. Turn
again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. The psalm goes on,
despite all that God has done. We still find ourselves turning
into captivity. Why? because as we journey through
this world, until that day when God takes us out from these mortal
flesh of this mortal world, when he brings us into that new body
that he's prepared for us, when he causes us to rise up in glory
with Christ until that last day when this world is no more and
he separates his people Zion from the heathen round about
when he separates the sheep from the goats when this world is
rolled up like a scroll and burnt with fire until that day we still
journey through in this body of flesh and the flesh brings
us down into captivity The evil that we would not, that we do,
and the good that we would, we do not. Who shall deliver me
from this body of sin and flesh, O wretched man that I am? We
still feel the captivity in our flesh, and we cry out unto God,
turn again our captivity, O Lord. Send a gospel, set our gaze upon
Christ. Lift up our faith to look unto
Him and trust Him alone. Turn us, O Lord. Deliver us. Salvation's continual, it's every
day. Every day that we journey in
this world with this flesh that casts us down, we need to be
saved and delivered from it. It needs to be mortified. We
need the gospel every day. We need the same gospel that
quickened us unto life to renew and kindle our faith every day. We need to be lifted up. Because
our walk in this world is a walk in which we sow in tears, but
in which we shall reap in joy. How easily our flesh brings us
back into captivity. But oh the joy that we reap in
the gospel in Christ, who has delivered us from all things. He that goeth forth and weepeth
bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing
his sheaves with him. The gospel brings fruit He that
goes and preaches this gospel bearing precious seed shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him. The gospel
works, it saves, it brings fruit, it's full of power. Though we know the tears and
the sorrow of this world. Though we know the hatred of
men against God and his son and his gospel, though our own natural
flesh hates and despises it, this seed, this gospel saves. And all those who know it, All
those who have had the seed planted in their heart and had it grow
up like a tree within. All those who grow up as trees
of righteousness planted of God will come again with rejoicing
bringing their sheaves with them. All those who preach the gospel
scattering forth this seed in amongst those around and about,
when that seed lands on good ground and it comes forth and
saves souls, they will come again rejoicing at what wondrous works
their God has done. This world exists today, you
and I are here today for the preaching of the Gospel. in order
that God should send forth this gospel, in order that he should
scatter the seed and bring forth fruit. That's the only reason
we remain here, because he's still preaching, he's still saving. And you, O sinner, as you come
and sit under the gospel, be thankful that you are alive today
because of this gospel. and do not despise it. Because
outside of Christ and outside of this message, you are lost. But if God should deliver your
captivity and give you ears to hear, then you will live forever. The gospel bears fruit in souls
saved, in growth in grace, But it's a gospel that bears fruit
because of he who went forth weeping, bearing precious seed,
he who goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed, and who will doubtless
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Not just
us, not men, not just all those who believe in Christ, not just
those who preach the gospel, but primarily Christ himself. He's the one that goes forth
and weeps. He's the one that bears the precious
seed of the gospel. And he's the one that shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him. He came
into this world to save his people. He was rejected by all. You and I included. He came into
the darkness and the darkness hated him. It rejected him. We love the deeds of darkness
rather than come into the light. He came into this world that
hated him, this world that put him to death. But he came because
he loved his own. and he died for his own, and
he suffered for every single one whom the Father gave him,
and every one for whom he died will in time be brought to hear
this Gospel. He sits in glory on high preaching
it every day. He sows the seed of this Gospel
every day. He comes again today and says
unto you, live. He says unto you, come unto me
all ye that labour and are heavy laden. He says unto you, look
unto me. He says unto you, behold the
Lamb of God. He comes and He declares what
He has done, great things for His people, whereof they are
glad. And He says, believe. He comes in his gospel. He sets forth the work of God
in salvation. He makes it plain. He makes the one way of escape
from judgment to come plain in the gospel. He comes and he declares
that there was a man named Noah. who was moved of God to the building
of an ark. And he preached all his days
the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. And he built that ark,
though all around him the heathen mocked and scoffed and said,
what are you doing, Noah? And when he said what he was
doing, they laughed and sneered and said, what do you mean? What
rain? It's never rained. What judgment? It's never coming. What God? Where is God? and he built and
he built his ark and he preached and he preached Christ and the
world mocked and the world scoffed and yet the day came when God
took Noah and his house and put him safely in the ark and shut
the door. And then the storms gathered,
the clouds gathered and the rains came and the judgment of God
came down upon the world and everyone that was outside of
that ark perished. But God delivered his people.
He delivered Noah and his house. And he brought him through the
other side to another world. And God today comes. His Noah
comes in the gospel. His son Christ comes and preaches
and says, there's an ark. To the saving of your soul, that
ark is me. If you're in the ark, when the
storms of judgment come again, you will be saved. Go to the
ark, believe on Christ and live forever. When the Lord turned
again the captivity of Zion, we were like them. that dreamed. 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.