Good afternoon, everyone. Wow,
we've filled up. It's good to see you all. We
trust the Lord will be pleased to bless us today. Thank you
very much for your introduction, Alan. Let's have a wee word of
prayer. Almighty God, we approach thee
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we turn to thy
word, we pray that thou wilt speak. As we wait upon thee,
we pray that thou wilt address the issues that appertain to
those who have gathered here this day. We pray that there
will be a voice that will be heard, that voice who is the
eternal word, that voice which first was raised in the eternal
councils of the Godhead, and that voice that is the Lord Jesus
Christ, our blessed Saviour. And we pray that this day, no
matter what we have come with in our heart, no matter what
we are thinking of in our mind, that the Lord Jesus Christ will
take that front and center place, that he will be lifted up, and
that the glory of the salvation which he has wrought will be
the portion of each one gathered in this place. We thank thee
for all that thou hast done. And as we turn to thy word, we
pray that thou will take it and minister it to our hearts. For
Jesus' sake, amen. Well, it is a pleasure to be
back again before you and with the privilege of addressing this
gathering. This is the first time that I've
been here to the church, and that's not to say that it's the
first time that I've been invited here to the church, but I'm delighted
to be able to, yes, to be able to come and preach today. Turn with me, please, in your
Bibles to Psalm 126. Psalm 126. It's a very short
Psalm. Psalm 126. And we'll read from verse 1. Psalm 126, verse 1. 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 hath done great things
for them. The Lord hath done great things
for us, whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord,
as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall
reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. I trust you noticed in the opening
verse here that it is the Lord, it is the Lord who turned again
the captivity of Zion. The Lord Jesus Christ has turned
again the captivity of Zion. What is the captivity of Zion? Well, we're going to think about
that a little while this afternoon. We're going to address one or
two points that might direct us and indicate for us what the
phrase the captivity of Zion means. But I want to emphasize
at the very outset that it's the Lord who turned the captivity
of Zion. Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ
in his mediatorial capacity, the Lord Jesus Christ in his
covenant role, the Lord Jesus Christ in his coming into this
world is given this Job, this purpose of liberating the captives. It is one of the principle descriptions
of Christ's saving work. And we read these Old Testament
passages with New Testament eyes. We read these Old Testament passages
with New Testament understanding. We see them through the prism
of the Lord Jesus Christ's work. And I tell you, they open up
like a beautiful flower in the springtime. They open up with
a loveliness. They open up with a glory. When we see these great truths
of Old Testament times, we read about the characters and the
circumstances and the times and the places with a New Testament
Christological understanding. And I trust that as we address
this little psalm here today, that we will be able to see something
lovely, something beautiful, something new about the Lord
Jesus Christ and his work. We discover that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the great deliverer, the great liberator, the one
who turns again the captivity of Zion. Sin binds. Sin binds, it ensnares, it captivates,
it disables. And unless we understand something
about the nature of sin, we will not begin to understand anything
of the nature of deliverance from that sin. Unless we grasp
the immensity and the degree to which our sin has disabled
us, has rendered us incapable of approaching God, we will never
properly understand the extent of the nature of the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a pride and it is a vanity
to imagine and to suppose that any sinner can have any spiritual
understanding, any spiritual involvement with God until the
chains of sin have been broken. And it is vanity to imagine that
that is a work that can be carried out by man's own strength and
ability. The point about captivity is
that the captives are rendered incapable of liberating themselves. And free will and the efforts
of man's own ability will never bring us into freedom. It is
the Lord Jesus Christ It is the Lord who turns the captivity
of Zion. Those who teach a free will gospel,
those who preach free will salvation are deceiving countless numbers
in these days into thinking that they have a role in their own
salvation. It requires almighty, effectual,
sovereign power to turn again the captivity of Zion. And it
must be a sovereign Christ or it's no Christ at all. Zion is
a picture of the Lord's people. And as we consider these things
this afternoon, we're going to consider that role of the deliverance
of the Lord's people. that the Lord Jesus Christ has
effected. The disciples of our Saviour
once said to the Lord, it was in the occasion of the meeting
of the rich young ruler and the Saviour, the disciples were intrigued
by this man. They were puzzled. He had everything. We were hearing prior about the
fact that the blessings of God are often thought to be, or the
blessings that people experience in life are often thought to
be directly correlated, paralleled to God's pleasure with them. And here was a man who had everything.
He was rich. He was young. What more do you
need? And he had position. He had authority. He had respect. He had dignity.
Here was a man who had everything. And the Lord sent him away sorrowing. The disciples were intrigued.
They thought, how is this possible? If this man, if this man isn't
going to be saved, then who can be saved? The Lord Jesus Christ
said this. Matthew, the writer says, Jesus
beheld them, that's his disciples, and said unto them, with men
this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Now we know that. We've learned
that. I trust that those who have gathered here today know
that. But I want to just draw something to your attention that
perhaps you haven't quite noticed before. We're told explicitly
that the Lord Jesus Christ beheld his disciples as he informed
them of this fact. He beheld them. I think there's
some significance in the fact that Matthew tells us that the
Lord beheld them. Because I think what he did was
transfixed their eye. I think he held them. He held
their gaze. I don't know whether he paused.
I don't know whether he turned and he stared at them. I don't
know what the body movement was, but his disciples asked this
question, who then can be saved? And the Lord beheld them. He
looked them in the eye and he said, you get this right. You
understand what I'm about to say to you. You understand that
as far as salvation is concerned, with man, it's impossible. but with God all things are possible. And those disciples carried that
message. How easy it would have been for
them to have fallen into the pattern of man-made religion. How easy it would have been for
them to have compromised in those early days of the church when
there were so many other religious groups happy to identify with
them on their terms. but they stood for what the Lord
had taught them. He beheld them, and they understood
the significance of a sovereign Lord. When the Lord turned again
the captivity of Zion, then we were like them that dream. Psalm 126 is called a Song of
Degrees. It is one of 15 short but glorious
psalms that we have in the Book of Psalms. Perhaps it's from
the time of the exile when the children of Israel were in captivity. Perhaps it has to do with songs
that were sung en route to the temple as part of the religious
worship of the day. And don't let us imagine that
the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ failed to perform the
religious activities of their time. They understood both the
symbolism and the reality behind the symbolism. But these psalms speak about
practical matters of the heart. Indeed, there's a deep spirituality,
I believe, in these psalms, these hymns or songs of degree. There
is a moving of the Lord in the hearts of His people revealed
in these Psalms. We might go so far as to say
there is a wrestling with God in some of these songs of degree. Psalm 120 is the first one in
the list. It says, In my distress I cried
unto the Lord, And He heard me. Now I know that there are people
here today who have experienced the distresses of life. I know. I'm looking around and
I see your faces. And I know that since we've last
met, you've been through some hard times. The Lord's people
go through hard, difficult experiences, distressful times. And yet those same distresses
of today were the experience of the Lord's people of yesterday. And they have experienced what
we experience today. We imagine ourselves to be much
more advanced, much more evolved, much more aware of what's going
on around us. These basic needs, these heartfelt
needs are common to every generation and one of the lovely things
about the Psalms is that we can go to them and we can find the
experiences of the Lord's people down through the centuries being
rehearsed and represented to us and they resonate in our own
souls and in our own minds. Psalm 123 verse 2. Listen. Our eyes wait upon the Lord our
God until that He have mercy upon us. Our eyes wait upon the
Lord our God until that He have mercy upon us. I despise the
religion of the day which treats the Saviour like a glorified
slot machine, that He's waiting, that He's
anxious, that He's pleading for any kind of movement on man's
part in order that He might pour out His blessings upon the individual. Listen, our eyes wait upon the
Lord our God. hoping that he might be merciful
to us. Because if he's not, we have
no hope in this world And like the child that depends entirely
upon its parent for everything that happens to it. That child
is going to be fed, the parent must supply. That child is going
to be cleaned, the parent must supply. That child is going to
be looked after and cared for, the parent must fulfill all the
obligations. Our eyes wait upon the Lord. Psalm 130, another Psalm of degrees. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Do you know anything of that?
Do you know anything of crying before the Lord? Of weeping before
the Lord? Of coming to Him and there out
of the depths of our losses, out of the depths of our hurt,
out of the depths of our distress, crying to Him for help and for
comfort and for mercy. The lovely thing about the Songs
of Degree is that we also find in the experience of the Lord's
people that not only is there a longing but that there is a
satisfaction, that there is a provision, that there is a help and a comfort. Psalm 130 verse 7 and 8, With
the Lord there is mercy, writes the psalmist. Yes, we wait on
Him. Yes, we watch Him. Yes, out of
the depths we cry to Him. But what have we discovered?
Is it not so that there is mercy with the Lord? Has He inspired
these longings and then denied us the satisfaction of the blessings
that He desires to give us? He shall redeem Israel from all
his iniquities. Psalm 129 verse 8, the blessing
of the Lord be upon you. And here's a lovely one. This
is only for some of you. Psalm 127 verse 2. He giveth
his beloved sleep. He giveth his beloved sleep.
Have you ever sat up all night grieving and then the Lord has
given you sleep? What a blessing. What a blessing
when the Lord is kind and gracious and merciful to his people. These Psalms are full of passages
concerning the experiences of the Lord's own dear people, the
people of Zion. Full of passages to do with the
troubles of their lives, of their weaknesses and their trials and
their failures and their doubts and their disappointments. but
also of the blessings, blessings which they receive, which maybe
they don't speak to anyone else about. Maybe they harbour up
and keep in the depths of their own hearts and in their own souls,
because the Lord has given them a token of his mercy and of his
help. But here are answers given. Here
are mercies granted. We don't believe in degrees of
holiness, but we do believe in degrees of spiritual experience. And the Lord's people enjoy the
experience of the Lord when he comes, as he did to Paul in the
darkness and in the night, and he stands beside us and he says,
Paul, Paul, He speaks our names, the Lord knows them that are
His. And as we cry to Him, He answers
our prayers and He comes to us. The wise man said, there is a
time to weep and a time to mourn, but there is also a time to laugh
and there is a time to dance. Does the Lord ever amaze you?
Lord have I come to you and so thrill you, we heard it in our
prayer, so thrill you that you could go out of the room skipping. Because the Lord has come and
ministered to your soul. He's given you something completely
unexpected. In the midst of the darkness,
in the midst of the gloom, in the trials, in the problems,
in the hardship, in all of the doubt that has been generated
because of those who've forsaken, or the problems that have arisen,
or the losses that have been incurred, the Lord gives you
a token. Just a little thing. But it is
so meaningful. So meaningful. It's like we're living in a dream
when the Lord blesses us like that. When the Lord turned again
the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. We could hardly believe that
the Lord has done these good things for us. when He saves,
when He delivers, when He answers and directs, when He comforts,
when He returns, when He comes to His people with tokens of
love and mercy, dispensations of grace, it's like a dream. We say, can this really be true? Are we so blessed? Let's consider
what the psalmist means here by this captivity of Zion. The captivity of Zion, I believe,
is experienced by the Lord's people. We're speaking here about
a people who belong to God, a people whom He has identified, whom
He has set apart, whom He has chosen. And we don't know who
that people are. We cannot tell. We can't tell by looking at the
outside of an individual whether or not they're one of the Lord's
people. But one of the wonderful things
about the privilege of being a preacher is that we come with
a message. which calls out from this world
those that are the chosen of God, those who are the elect
of God, those who are the people upon whom He is pleased to place
His love and to reveal Himself and to show them their interest
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This people of Zion,
they are in captivity. They are in captivity in sin
and after their sin has been forgiven and that has been applied
to their hearts in conversion. they still find themselves in
many different ways in this world bound up as in captivity. So I'm saying to you this afternoon,
my friends, that it doesn't matter where you are right now in your
Christian experience or perhaps with no Christian experience
at all. There is something pertinent
for you here in this psalm, and that's the beauty of the psalms.
They address us all constantly. Whether you're a believer or
whether you're not, listen to the way that the Lord Jesus Christ
turns again the captivity of Zion. The captivity of Zion,
I think, is something which is experienced by the Lord's people
who struggle daily, and hourly, sometimes constantly, with the
effects and the consequences of this body of sin. We feel
a battle rages in our soul. We feel that there is a battle
between the flesh and the spirit, between the old nature and the
new man. Paul speaks of this captivity
of Zion in Romans 7 verse 19 when he says, For the good that
I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do.
And Paul summarizes this by crying out, O wretched man that I am. There's a captivity in my soul,
even as one of the Lord's people, a captivity in my soul that I
cannot get beyond the fleshiness. I cannot get beyond the lusts
that afflict and affect me. I cannot get beyond the paltry
nature of the graces of God in my life's experience. Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. We're captives, we're Zion's,
we're the Lord's people, but we are still constrained by the
limitations of these bodies and this sin and these passions which
rise up in our hearts. Oh wretched man that I am. Psalmist
goes on to say, they that sow in tears The people of God sow
in tears. It always has been and it always
will be. We long for the time when our
tears will be passed. But friends, it won't be this
side of eternity. We long for the time when these
sorrows will be lifted, but I fear It won't be before we are called
to enter into his presence more immediately. We continue to carry the cause
of our tears in our own bodies because we're weak, because we're
beggarly, because we are profitless in this old nature. And we have
tears of self-pity because we feel the weight of our guilt
and we feel a need for repentance and we feel the cause for regret. We mourn the sins that we've
committed and we carry the consequences of those sins sometimes all the
days of our life. Mistakes that are made when you're
young can haunt you for years and years. Troubles that we've
encountered. Losses that we've incurred. The
absence of those that we love. These things, they cause us to
grieve in ways that we didn't know were possible until the
events overtake us. And there's a lack of passion
for the things of God. A lack of passion for the things
of Christ. Tell me if it isn't so. And we feel the wretchedness,
even perhaps more aggravated now as the Lord's people, as
believers, as the children of Zion than ever we did before. And we feel that we are subject
to a man-centeredness and that every lust is possible. Every
lust is possible in our hearts. And we have tears for others.
We have tears for those that we have lost. We have tears for
those who are disappointed. We have tears because we are
fearful about the spiritual state of those that we love. These
things afflict us. Because we are Zion's people,
because we are the Lord's people, Genesis 23 verse 2, there's a
little phrase and it's just so profound as it speaks about the
experience of one of the Lord's people because of his loss. It says there in verse 2 of Genesis
23, Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. You see? That's the experience
in this natural man. That's the experience in the
flesh. We feel the weight of our losses. Sometimes we think
a little bit wider than that and we might be able to identify
something of the case of Samuel. When the Lord said to him in
1 Samuel 16 verse 1, Samuel, how long wilt thou mourn for
Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Sometimes we look around in our
society and we say, look at all the terrible things that are
happening. Look at all the way that morality is crashing. Look at the way in which people
seem to be so careless, heedless of the things of God. We don't need to mourn for these
things. The Lord's choice, the Lord's
purpose, the Lord's ways are being worked out in our day in
His ways. Who can forget the tears of Job
upon whom every kind of loss was visited? Property, health,
children, wife, friends, reputation, all loss. And true, it is that we are reminded
that we do not sorrow as others who have no hope, yet we do mourn. The Lord's people mourn in this
world for so many reasons. Let us remind ourselves what
the Lord said to his disciples as he anticipated his own demise,
his own death. He said in John 13, verse 7, What I do thou know'st not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter. What I do thou know'st not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter. I did a series of studies recently
on the early chapters of 1 Samuel and I encountered there the priest,
the high priest Eli. And I read those passages and
I read those passages and I looked to see if I could find something
in the life of Eli that would give me hope that that man's
in heaven. And I struggled to find it. He
lived all his life in the light of God's revelation. He lived
all his life in the service of the altar. He received the worship
of men and women who came faithfully there to Shiloh in order to make
their sacrifices. And I don't know whether that
man is in heaven. I find no reason to suppose that
he is. But here's what he said, and
if there's anything, then this is it. Though I fear it may just
have been fatalism. It is the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. That's what we need to take from
Eli. If that was a statement of faith,
then let us lay hold on it ourselves. For you who've suffered, for
you who've mourned, for you who've wept, for you who've encountered
loss, we will know why the Lord has done this by and by. But it is the Lord. It is the
Lord. let him do what seemeth him good. In all this, the writer says
in Job 1.22, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. We are subject to natural affections. We feel losses as keenly as the
next man and the next woman. The people of God in this life
sow in tears. And the sower must labor, wearily
sometimes, in that activity upon which he is engaged. He must
break up fallow ground. He must remove stones. He must
get to where the weeds are. He must harrow the land. He must
get his hands dirty. He must engage with this world.
And that's what happens in our flesh. We are getting dirty in
this world. We sow in tears, but the Lord
promises that we shall reap with joy. Good soil is hard won, and
it's not easily maintained. The stones that are deep there
in the ground, they habitually rise to the surface. And so you
have to go back over that field. And you have to take those stones
away again. And Satan's temptations, they
blow in like dandelion clocks. Seeds that come in in the wind.
The rains fail. The floods come. It seems as
if the Lord has left us alone. And when all is done, It seems
that all that we can do is so meager and inconsequential. And yet here is a word of comfort
for us today. It is the Lord who turned the
captivity of Zion. And when he turns the captivity
of Zion, when he gives those mercies, when he gives those
graces, then there is joy in the mourner's heart. Mourners
in Zion, even in this world, the Lord Jesus Christ rises in
their spiritual sight with healing in His wings. He comes to them
in the depths of their need. And He begins to bind them up,
and He begins to pour in that oil, and He gives them a joy
in their soul, and a peace that passeth understanding. That you
couldn't explain, that you couldn't rationalise, that people would
look from the outside and say, well the Lord must have done
this because I can't understand how it could happen otherwise. So the testimony of the heathen,
the Lord hath done great things for them. Surely the Lord's people
re-echo that sentiment. The Lord hath done great things
for us, whereof we are glad. The Lord Jesus Christ has risen
with healing in His wings. The Lord Jesus Christ comes to
His people and He comes as Isaiah in 66 verse 3, to appoint unto
them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes. the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they
might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that
he might be glorified. And so the Lord himself says,
blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Psalmist
says, this is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath
quickened me. Friends, our troubles in this
world are designed to bring us closer to the comforter. They're
designed to make us bend the knee. They're designed to bring
us to that place of humbly acknowledging the need that we have before
the Lord. He won't have any pride in His
presence, and He'll take away anything that He needs to remove
in order to bring us into that place of supplication, where
we look to Him to give us all that we require. Being brought
to our knees is nevertheless a hurtful experience, but it
is needful and it is ultimately fruitful. Humility, dependence,
trust, faith, hope. It has to be won in a battle. It has to be won on a battlefield. And the scars of the lessons
learned tell the tale in the lives of the Lord's people. He
brings us into these experiences in order that he might bind us
up, pour in that healing oil, and bestow upon us his graces
and his mercy. We will discover that we are
richer, not poorer, for the tears that we shed. Joel 2.25 says,
I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten. We often say, I wish I had never
done that, or I wish I had never gone there, or I wish I had never
said that. And we regret opportunities,
and we rue time that has been misspent, or trust that has been
betrayed, damage that has been done. And we try to the best
of our ability to replace those things, like Zacchaeus. I always
smile at Zacchaeus. If I've taken from anyone, I'll
repay it fourfold. Well, That's all very well if
you can measure your offense in monetary value. But when you've
betrayed trust, when you've lost something deep, when you've had
that experience of crying to the Lord in your distress, then
how can these things ever be returned and restored? I don't
know how the Lord will restore the years that the locust has
eaten. Somebody might say, well, what
he means by that is that if there was to be a harvest and that
harvest was lost that year, then the Lord would give double the
harvest the next year. Well, that's not what it says. He said he'll restore the years. The years. Time. What is time? The passing of
time, it's gone forever. Well, who's the Alpha and the
Omega? Who's the beginning and the end?
Who is the eternal God with whom there is no time? The Lord says
he will restore the years that the locust hath eaten. The Lord
says that he will withhold no good gift from his people. No good gift. Wherever our losses
have been, my friends, the Lord will withhold no good gift. He will swallow up death in victory,
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and
the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the
earth, for the Lord hath spoken it. When the Lord turns again
the captivity of Zion, we are like them that dream. We say,
is this real or is it a dream? For the joy that we experience
at the mercies of his hand. Paul says, I reckon that the
sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. We are heirs,
joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall have all that
he has. All that he has as our head shall
be ours as his body and as his bride. The Lord's people sow
in tears, but they shall reap in joy. So too, gospel preachers,
Ah, we change the picture for a moment. Gospel preachers sow
in tears, but they shall reap in joy. Tears for the lost that we have
as individuals. Tears for those who are wandering. Tears for the poor in spirit.
Tears for the needy. Tears as those who labor all
night and caught no fish. Ecclesiastes says, cast thy bread
upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days. And is this not the lesson of
the sower that went forth to sow? So much good seed seemed
to be wasted, feeding the birds, choked by weeds of worldly care,
withered by the heat of opposition. So the Lord teaches us that it
is rare to see immediate results from preaching. But sowing good seed is what
the sower is called to do. The means is certain and sure. There has been a sower, there
has been a sower for every redeemed soul here today. There has been
a sower. And maybe he never saw you. Maybe
he never knew about you. Maybe he never had the joy of
knowing that the tears that he shed over your soul were tears
that the Lord saw and honored. And someone else has reaped where
he has sown. That's a good scriptural principle as
well. One soweth, another reapeth,
but the Lord has a harvest. And if you are called to engage
in any way in the Lord's service and the Lord's work, as we contribute,
whether it's from this side of the pulpit or that side of the
pulpit, as we uphold the ministry of the gospel, as we support
it by our efforts, by our time, by our resources, as we seek
to honor the Lord's calling and commission, we are told for certain
that there will be a harvest, and for every tear that is shed
there will be the reaping that will bring joy. He goeth forth
and weepeth, says the psalmist, bearing precious seed, and he
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves
with him. You and I might sow in tears,
but we will reap in joy. Preachers might sow in tears,
but they will reap in joy. The church as a body sows in
tears. John 16 verse 20 says, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but
the world shall rejoice. And ye shall be sorrowful, but
your sorrow shall be turned into joy. The hymn writer says, though
with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed, by schisms
rent asunder, by heresies distressed, yet saints their watch are keeping. Their cry goes up, how long? And soon the night of weeping
shall be the morn of song. Pilgrims! in a barren land, cry
unto their God. Turn again our captivity, O Lord,
as the streams of the south. Give us moments of refreshing. Give us blessings from heaven. Show us those things which will
warm our hearts and encourage our souls. The Lord replies, The Lamb which
is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and they shall
lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes. Isaiah 51 verse 3 says, For the
Lord shall comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste
places. and he will make her wilderness
like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and
gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of
melody. Does the Lord give us blessings
in our labours? Sure he does. This is a blessing. This is a blessing for me. I'm
blessed to be able to come and share fellowship and worship
with you people here today. My experience, my Christian life
has generally been lived amongst a handful of saints and usually
most of them have got so many troubles and problems that you
lament that there's anything substantial ever being built
at all. But the Lord brings his people
together and the Lord will cause us to rejoice with the blessings
of his people around us. Bless the Lord Jesus Christ,
what a comfort we have as his people in the midst of a wayward
generation. Finally, I want to draw your
attention to another aspect of this, turning again of the captivity
of Zion. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
sowed in tears and he reaped in joy. He is the picture that
the psalmist here speaks about. The tears of the Lord Jesus Christ
are an amazing thing for us to consider. And there is much to
be learned from the fact that Jesus wept. So united is he with
our humanity. So touched is he with the feeling
of our infirmities. So loving, so caring, so empathetic. He shared the deepest longings
of his people, the deepest griefs of his friends, so that the people
could declare at Lazarus' tomb, see how he loved him. And yet there were no tears and
no sorrows like unto the Lord's sorrows. He was called the man
of sorrows. In Lamentations 112, he says,
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see
if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto
me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. The Lord's life was full of opposition. Maybe you think your life is
full of opposition. The Lord's life was full of opposition. And whether we think about those
moments when it is most keenly observed, such as Gethsemane
or at the cross, all hell raged against the Lord. He was forsaken
by friends. He was taunted by enemies. He
was tortured by his father. He was abandoned. He was bereft
of the comforts of human friendship. He suffered in body. He suffered
in soul. And the Lord wept. Hebrews 5
verse 7 tells us who in the days of his flesh when he had offered
up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard
and was heard But our Saviour too, who sowed
in tears, reaps in joy. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and shall be satisfied. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife
hath made herself ready. Oh, the Lord suffered much for
the redemption of His church. The Lord suffered much for the
salvation of His people. The Lord suffered much for you
and for me. When He hung on the cross and
the Lord God took that sword and pierced Him. He suffered, but he has the joy
of reaping his church and gathering his people and presenting her
in all of her purity and glory as his bride. What a joyous occasion
a wedding is and what a joyous occasion will be that wedding
feast when we enter into glory with our Savior. Hebrews 12 verse
2, I'm sorry, says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. Therefore, the redeemed of the
Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting
joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and
joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. Three times
in scripture we are told that the Lord shall wipe away all
tears. And here is a promise to conclude
with this afternoon. God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death. There shall
be no more death. Neither sorrow nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed
away. 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 hath done great things
for them. And the people of God said, the
Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Amen.