========================================================================
  PSALM 126
  by Manley Beasley
========================================================================

Summary: Revival is the captive being set free, where a person is
delivered from bondage and lives in freedom, seeing things as God sees
them.

Duration: 48:16 Topics: "Psalms"
Scripture References: Psalm 126:5

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

In this sermon, the speaker expresses his joy and delight in being able
to share the gospel with the listeners. He acknowledges the support of
the listeners in sustaining their office through their financial
contributions. The speaker shares a personal experience of finding
freedom and a new perspective when faced with his wife's cancer
diagnosis. He recounts a visit to a church where he meets a blind man
who prays daily on a pillow and learns about a path around a stake that
represents God's presence in the church.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, greetings friends, such a joy and a blessing to be with you today,
such a joy and blessing always to come and be with you in this ministry.
I am challenged from month to month to dig and work on a message that
will be fresh and real to me as well as to you. And so that's always a
challenge to me and it's always just a real joy and a delight to come
and sit down at a mic and talk to you.

I wish I could talk to you face to face. I wish I could just really tell
you what's on my heart and that I could look in your eyes and heart and
see what's on your heart and we could have just a good time
fellowshipping because you are a special group to me. You're a special
group to me for several reasons.

One reason is that you allow me the opportunity to share the gospel with
you, the new things that God is sharing with me, the burden that's on my
heart at any given time, and then you are special to me because your
support through what you pay for this tape really operates our entire
office. Now the Lord sends in special gifts that help us in a beautiful
way and we're grateful for that. But it's your payment on these tapes
that really keep the office operating and we're grateful because we're
able to operate an efficient office that is run without going into any
kind of indebtedness and such like.

And so I'm praise God for you. You're special people and you stand as a
group that will pray for me in special times, you know, for special
reasons. And for all of this I just really praise God and thank God.

Now there's several things that I'd like to share with you and I think
these are things that are worthy of your prayers and I want you to write
them down if you want to or somehow get them in your heart so you'll be
sure and not forget them because I want you to pray. And these will be
things that are coming up and by the time you get this tape they will be
right on us. So do pray.

On some of these things involve people going places at certain times and
I hope that you'll be aware of the time that the people will be gone on
these trips so you can especially pray. For instance the first request
that I have for you is concerning Martha. She has been invited to go to
Brazil and she and several other ladies are going to Brazil for a month.

Now they will be leaving the third week in October. The last two weeks
in October they'll be in Brazil plus the first couple of weeks in
November. Now I wish you would just really pray.

I am looking forward to this trip for Martha. So much. Now it's been a
long, long time since we've been separated for a month but I think the
Lord will give me grace and I know Martha will be caught up in what
she's doing and she will be so excited that she'll not even miss me.

Now she might miss her grandson but she'll not miss me. She has been
invited to come down there and do some special meetings all over Brazil.
So she's going to be traveling all over the country and speaking and I
think this will be a blessed event for her and so you just pray for her
that the Lord will just mightily, mightily use her.

The Lord has raised up the money for her to go and we're excited about
that and so you pray for her on this. Then another thing in relationship
to the family that I want you to pray for is our son Stephen Beasley. He
has just finished his first revival as a preacher and God did some
things for him in it.

I saw some real maturity in his life after it was over and so I'm
excited about Stephen. He is our second son, our third child and I just
believe that God is going to mightily use him and God's going to bless
him. Now while we're on Stephen, before I talk to you again, Stephen and
his wife Monica Gale will have our second grandchild.

I almost said grandson. That would be a little ridiculous without a word
from the Lord but our second grandchild. I'll not say son because we're
expecting that second grandchild and we're hoping for just a child that
is healthy and blessed to the Lord and so it wouldn't bother us now if
it was a son but I think if we had our brothers, we'd like a little
daughter, granddaughter.

Nevertheless, we're going to be having that baby before I talk to you
again. So you pray for us at that point. I think you'll have time to
pray and then I want you to pray for something that's going on across
the country that's really beautiful.

Here in the office and on the road, I receive messages from churches
that are building buildings but they want to build them by faith. Now
there's a real turn to this in our nation today. People are wanting to
trust God.

Now this really excites me. It really does because I feel that the
churches should not go deep into debt. I feel like they ought to be
sovereign and I feel that they need to have the opportunity of learning
to trust God and I believe they ought to have a blessing of seeing the
glory of God move as an individual.

Our church would trust God and I think that God wants this opportunity
to work in a local church and there are some churches across this
country that are really facing God with this issue of trusting and I
wish you would pray. You know that God would raise up the message they
need for this occasion and that God will raise up the courage they need
for this occasion and I believe you'll be blessed by just blessing and
praying for these churches. I think of the church I just finished a
revival in yesterday and boy that church is wanting to trust God for
hundreds of thousands of dollars and just really move on out you know
with the Lord and power and might and blessing and so you pray that the
Lord will bless these churches and then I want you to pray seriously and
earnestly concerning the nation during this election year.

I have many friends now that are getting deeply deeply involved in
politics as preachers and a lot of people have a lot of different ideas
about how deeply involved should preachers get in politics and of course
I have chosen the route not to get involved in politics other than just
praying for you know the case and then personally coming to a conclusion
as how I stand and I have not taken my stand as to whom I will vote for
in the pulpit. Now I have discussed it with individuals and I have
contributed to other men that are involved in political activities. Now
that sort of thing I have done and so I am that deeply involved in
politics and I doubt seriously if I get any more involved than that but
anyway some of my friends are very deeply involved and so I'm keeping up
with what's going on to some measure and I'm deeply concerned.

I'm deeply deeply concerned so pray this year that God's will might be
done in light of all of the satanic activity that's taking place in our
nation because I'll tell you this is a very very very very crucial
crucial crucial year and I know God will bless you if you will seek his
face. I know the Lord wants us to pray and I realize that he may want
you as a personal individual get deeply involved in this thing. Now I
know this that a lot of the criticism is coming about and people saying
preachers should not get involved in politics.

Well I'll tell you what the heritage that you and I enjoy right now is
God's people. Is a result of preachers getting involved in politics. If
you'll read American history and you know I you may not know I probably
don't know that I of course I love history and American history is one
of my favorite subjects and and I've studied everything I can get my
hands on in relationship to American history and in the early days of
America preachers were very very deeply deeply deeply involved in
politics and God used them to help shape the policies of this nation.

So that may be of some interest to you but nevertheless let's pray this
year that God will have his mighty way that the Lord will really have
his way. What I find is that a lot of God's people are being deceived.
They're being deceived like people saying like this born again concept
this born again thing people are just saying well this man says he's
born again I'm going to vote for him.

We've got to learn to get beyond a word man's testimony as to whether we
believe this or that about him and we have got to learn how to discern
the spirit and this is a real test to us. I feel that God will never
send revival on this nation until this Christian gets to the place that
they can discern between the soul and the spirit. And and we're going
we're having some battles right now in the world where we are being led
astray to believe things that are not real when people are saying
they're real.

So we need to have a real discerning spirit in this election year and
really move with God on on these matters of president a president and so
on according to the direction and leading of the spirit of the living
God and not on the basis of what we hear in our minds and so on and so
forth. Well amen I trust that you'll pray and trust that you'll seek the
face of the Lord and really look on to him for what we do in our nation
this this year this year. Well this month I have been working in the
past month I have been working on a psalm psalms 126 psalms 126 and I
want us to discuss this psalm this month.

I would have loved to have preached it and send it to you and I made
some efforts to do that but it just never developed where I could preach
it as a sermon from a pulpit and send it to you. It's much easier for me
to stand in a pulpit and preach it to live people because it just
preaches better when I preach it to live people than it does when I just
preach it to you over this mic. But this psalm has always been one of my
favorite psalms.

It's been a psalm that I have loved since I got saved by the grace of
God and since it's a psalm that has so much to do with soul winning
winning people to Jesus I guess it's been a part of my life ever since I
got saved because I have always had a deep deep desire to win people to
Jesus. And this psalm definitely tells us about how to win people to
Jesus but I'm discovering that this psalm goes deeper than just a soul
winning some soul winning instruction. I find that it goes to the depth
of revival and it has definite revival principles here and we're going
to discuss it in the light of revival.

And when we talk about revival we're talking about a person having
drifted away from the reality of God the facets of reality and then
being brought back to the reality of God and the many facets of the
reality of God. So I want to read this psalm to you and I want you to
listen to it and I believe that you will find this psalm to be
interesting to you. I want to read this psalm to you out of the King
James translation and then I want to read this psalm to you out of the
new international version of the bible.

So just hold on as I get to 126. When the Lord turned again the captive
of Zion we were like them that dream then was our mouth filled with
laughter and our tongue was singing then said they among the heathen the
Lord hath done great things for them the Lord hath done great things for
us thou we are glad turn again our captive oh 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. Isn't that beautiful? Amen.

A beautiful portion of scripture. But now let me read it to you out of
the new international version of the bible.

When the Lord brought back the captive to Zion we were like men who
dream our mouths were filled with laughter our tongues with songs of joy
then it was said among the nations the Lord has done great things for
them the Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy
restore our fortunes oh Lord like streams in the negave or the south
those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy he who goes out
weeping carrying seeds to sow will return with songs of joy carrying
sheaves with him now what a psalm beautifully put isn't it well what i
want to do is just go through this psalm just statement by statement
almost and discuss it with you for instance when it says when the Lord
brought back the captive to Zion we were like men who dream when the
Lord brought back the captive

well what we are looking at here is a country a nation that had been
taken captive the children of God the Israelites had been taken captive
by the Babylonians and they'd been taken away and they had spent time in
captivity they had spent time under bondage and here all at once God
delivers them from this bondage and when they're delivered from this
bondage all at once they are free now here is revival here is a picture
of revival isn't that beautiful all these people living under bondage
and all at once they are living in freedom they have been set free they
have been under captivity and now they are set free that's revival it's
one of the greatest definitions of revival that i have ever seen one of
the greatest definitions of revival i know revival is the captive being
set free the

captive being set free as i sit here and talk to you did you know you
are probably aware of areas of bondage in your own personal life and you
are captive it may be that it's some habit that has you captivated it
may be that it's some weakness that's got you captivated it may be that
it's some sickness that has you under bondage but you feel yourself
under bondage beloved revival is coming back to the Lord and being set
free being set free now let's look and see what it means to be set free
from captivity to be set free in the bible the bible teaches that a
child of God can be delivered can be delivered from a number of things
it may be that you might even find yourself needing deliverance in these
areas the bible teaches us that a child of God can be set free from sins
that's so

interesting look at this in romans the sixth chapter the child of God
can be set free from sins no you're not that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death therefore we are
buried with him by baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the father even so we also should walk in
newness of life for if we have been planted together in the likeness of
his death we shall also in we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection knowing this that our old man was crucified with him that
the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve
sin for he that is free dead is free from sin now i i believe that when
we are liberated delivered we can be delivered from our sin that doesn't
mean that uh we do not

sin but it does mean that we do not have to be a slave to sin we do not
have to be a slave to sin not only can we be be delivered from sin but i
believe that according to the word of God we can be set free from self
look at romans the eighth chapter it is something the first verse there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who
walk not after the flesh but after the spirit for the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death i
believe if you read the rest of these verses for instance about the next
three or four carefully you'll find that if you walk in the spirit if
you walk in the spirit you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh i'll
tell you if you're just sensitive to the holy spirit the holy spirit
will enable

you to have freedom from self not only do we have freedom from sin we
are not a slave to sin we have freedom from self and we're not a slave
to self and i believe according to galatians the sixth chapter the 14th
verse we have freedom from the world the bible says that we can be dead
to the world and the world is dead to us for god forbid that i should
glory save in the cross of our lord jesus christ by whom the world is
crucified unto me and i unto the world for in christ jesus neither
circumcision availeth anything no uncircumcision but a new creature now
listen this and as many as walk according to the this rule peace be unto
them and mercy upon the israel of god i'm saying this to you that when
god restores us delivers us we have freedom from being enslaved by the
power of sin we have

freedom from being enslaved by the power of self we have freedom from
being enslaved by the power of the world not only that but according to
the word of god we have freedom from being enslaved by the power of the
law now you might say well what does that mean well there is a law that
works in our members according to romans 7 and that law is constantly
bringing us into conflict now if that law was done away with then of
course there would be no conflict but the law not one jot of tittle will
ever be done away with so we're going to always have this conflict
within our person feeling that uh the good within me wants to do good
the bad within me wants to do bad and we will never have any victory
over this conflict until we have been liberated from law and you say
well how can you be

liberated from law then law has to be done away with if you're going to
be liberated with law oh no you do not see law ever done away with you
find that man is brought to the place where he cries out according to
the 24th verse of romans 7 oh wretched man that i am who shall deliver
me from the body of this death i thank god through jesus christ our lord
so then with the mind i serve myself serve the law of god but with the
flesh the law of sin so you see the law is lived up to and fulfilled and
completed and carried out and satisfied by a child of god being freed
delivered from the law delivered from the law so praise god it's
wonderful that a person can be definitely set free so what does it mean
to be delivered what does it mean to be delivered what does it mean to
be brought back from

captivity well it means that we have been set free set free from sins
being enslaved by sin we have been set free from being enslaved by self
it means that we have been set free from being enslaved by the world it
means that we have been set free from being enslaved by the law and it
means something else that we have been set free from being enslaved by
satan john first john first john 3 8 says he that committed sin is of
the devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose the
son of god was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil
john first john first john 3 8 says he that committed sin is of the
devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose the son
of god was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil so
when we set free and

delivered beloved the lord works in our lives until where satan's work
is literally destroyed within our person and doesn't mean that we're set
so free that satan doesn't work but it does mean that it what he does
work in our lives has to work for the eternal glory and purpose and
benefit of the lord so what i'm saying to you is the person that has
been liberated has been liberated uh from sins that enslave us self that
control us the world that dominates us the law that brings us
condemnation and satan that would defeat us on every hand now let's look
back again at this psalm when the lord brought back the captives to zion
in other words he set that bunch free i wonder if you have ever been
brought back to where you've been liberated well that's where god wants
you and that's where god

wants me he wants us liberated people he wants us free people and that's
what the lord can do for us well let's look on into this psalm and see a
little more we were like men who dream i think here that we're beginning
to get into the result of god setting a group of enslaved people free i
think we can see once they were set free they had all of this freedom
from sin and they're able to see things just like god sees things and
when they come out of that prayer room brother they bring you out what
god has to say about something rather than what man has to say about
something brother now that's what i'm talking about that's what i'm
talking about and i don't know that god could even allow us to all live
in that kind of atmosphere all the time but i think that in every given
situation in

life we ought to be able to see things ourselves like god sees things i
really do and i believe that this is the will of god so i i believe
that's that's what we're seeing in this this portion of scripture i
believe we're seeing people so liberated by the spirit of the living god
by the glory of the presence of god they were them they were as those
that dream dreams they lived in another world they were caught up to the
glory world i think a good illustration of this uh was on the mountain
of transfiguration when the saints of god were gathered there with jesus
they saw things as god saw things well uh this is it so i i believe this
is one of the first things that god will do for us when we have had
revival when we as captive are people that have been captured are
brought back to liberty

and freedom by our precious lord jesus christ and um and then he says
our mouths were filled with laughter boy that is something filled with
laughter well when you see things like god sees things then i got news
for you friend you're going to you're going to change your way of acting
i remember back now a year and a half ago when doctors told us that
marty had cancer well i mean friends i was brought under bondage and i
was captured by circumstances that was so devastating but i turned to
the lord and on thursday night of that week the lord set me free
liberated me and i saw things as god saw them you say what do you mean i
saw this thing of marty's problem just like god saw it as an opportunity
for him to work glory and power reveal himself and let the world know
that he wasn't only a

god of the bible but he was a god that was living now and doing great
things and so brother i tell you when i saw this i was able to see
things as god saw them i i was made happy but that wasn't all that was
on thursday night and the next morning marty went back to the doctors
and of course they begin to find in that god had just touched her during
the night she'd been healed and we didn't know this but that morning by
myself in my hotel room i got to laughing and i was so embarrassed i
said oh why can't i laugh when everything is so bad and then i'd have
flashbacks to how god saw this thing and i'd get to laughing and i
laughed all morning well i had some people to come in so i quit laughing
because i didn't want them to think i was a plain fool and that
afternoon they went to get a car

to drive me over to the hospital to see the doctors and i got by myself
and got to laughing again but that laughter that laughter was a result
of seeing things like god saw them and that seeing things like god saw
them was the result of being brought out of bondage out of captivity and
being set free free and you're set free you say well might just stop
here i i may ought to just stop here and go further the question just
keeps coming up to me um um as i discuss this with you how in the world
is a person set free how in the world is a person set free and i'm going
to just put a parenthesis around this and insert this in this message
how in the world is a person set free because i may never get to the end
of this message how in the world is a person set free well they are
they're set free

first of all by confessing their sins having their sins confessed up to
date that's right you say well what do you mean by that i mean by asking
god to show you the sins in your life that stands between you and god
and your fellow man and getting all those sins right with god well you
say well what else i believe then you're set free by coming to the end
of yourself end of yourself being brought to the end of your person to
where you are dead to everything except what god himself wants and i
believe that's it i believe that's it i know in my own case in this
situation i've already shared this but i feel like i must share it in
this illustration i had to be willing to let martha have cancer and then
i had to be willing to let her die and that wasn't hard in comparison to
what else i had to

be willing to do i had to be willing to let her suffer for months and
years and die but when i came to the end of myself to the end of the
rope and said whatever you want lord then the glory came and i was set
free and then i saw as he saw uh we were like men who dream dreams yes
sir oh boy and then my mouth was filled with laughter yes sir you don't
that's revival folk our tongues were songs of joy songs of joy can you
see it you say what do you mean there it was a spontaneous expression a
spontaneous expression not something worked up not something pumped up
not something manipulated not something that man could take the credit
for beloved it was god it was the glory of god just gushing out paul
said i labor and i strive but it's according to his workings which
worketh in me mightily

see the christian life is a spontaneous life and songs of joy indicate a
spontaneous life and then listen to this i must go on then it was said
among the nations the lord has done great things for them in that
beautiful boy there amen one one year when your life is spontaneous the
lost and dying world will say look look jesus has done great things for
them they will recognize jesus in you they will see they will see rahab
the heart had had it right when she said listen when we heard and when
we saw the great things god did for you our hearts melted and we wanted
to get in on what was going on with you when we saw and heard what great
things god did for you what great things god did for you now beloved let
me tell you something i want what this whole world is looking for today
is to see a

manifestation of god in you and me now i'm not saying you're not
supposed to testify and let the world know that you know jesus and all
of that but when they can see god in you when they can see god in you
then they'll want to know the lord you know boy and that's what happened
right here that is exactly what happened right here they um they
recognize god in these people the lord has done great things for us and
you see they they literally turn to the lord because god did great
things for these people i mean they just said well praise god uh you
know uh since we see god in you and working for you we want to get in on
this and i've already alluded to it very have the heart she's the great
illustration of what i'm talking about boys i mean they just got right
with god and got in on it and

the lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy and see
they then are filled with joy so see they got saved by the grace of god
this is what happens when we see ourselves brought back from captivity
and set free god does a great work in us and then the people of the
world see it and they believe it and they get in on the great work
themselves well then you hear the uh psalmist turn to what i consider my
recommendation for a saint it says restore our fortunes oh lord you see
obviously these people had been stripped of everything and they they um
said restore our fortunes oh lord like streams in the negave are in the
south i understand from my study about this psalm that he's talking
about here that the streams in the south would have just trickling
little trickling or just

a little just a little water trickling through but every now and then
there would come a flood and just these little streams would get out of
banks and they just bless everybody with water now i believe he's
talking about that restore our fortunes like that amen restore our lives
like those streams in the south and then he says those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of joy he who goes out weeping carrying the seed
carrying the seed now will return with songs of joy carrying sheaves
with him let me tell you about an old man that will illustrate what i
see here i see here that the word of god is teaching us that we as
individuals should go out with the word of god in our hands and tears in
our eyes sowing the eternal seed of god and if we do we as individuals
will come back with

rejoicing bringing our sheaves with us back some years ago back some
years ago i was in a church in revival and back in those days i i walked
with jesus as closely as i knew how and i even after all these years i'm
not ashamed of the way i walked with jesus back then i probably did not
have to be so ignorant back then but i i was at least honest sincere
dedicated surrendered i mean i was committed and uh i saw god come in
one of in the church i'm thinking about him great power and god's people
just begin to get right and the lost people begin to get saved and i
said to myself i said lord my stars but how did you get in this place
like this and the pastor took me visiting and when i walked in this
place i i met people that i knew had been in the revival meeting but the
pastor didn't seem

to linger much in the living room when we walked in he said i have a
special man i want you to meet so we went on into another room and there
seated in the chair was a blind man i never will forget it i wasn't
aware that he was blind i'd reach my hand out to shake his and our hands
missed then i took a second look and realized the man was blind after i
was introduced to this man i was asked to take a seat and i noticed a
strange object on the floor and it was a pillow with two holes in it how
strange and i really wondered about those two holes well we left that
place we walked out through the front yard and uh pastor said i want you
to notice this front yard there was a stake in the middle of the yard
and about 15 to 20 feet out from that stake there was a path that went
around and around

that stake he said you see that path you see that stake you see that
rope i said yes i do he said i'll tell you something about it he said i
know you've been wondering how god has been getting into this church he
said you know that old blind man i said yes sir he said well let me tell
you something he said did you see that pillow in his room i said yes sir
he said that man kneels on that pillow daily to pray and he said did you
see that path around that stake i said yes he said they bring that old
man out and hook him to that rope and that stake so he can get his
exercise and pray and says all he does is quote scripture and wear it
walk and pray and brother i want you to know something i begin to see
that he that soweth in tears shall reap in joy i went back to visit that
old man and that

old man was not surprised that god had blessed all over that country
that week you know why because he'd been sowing in tears he'd been
sowing the word of god in tears and they that sow in tears shall reap in
joy now i pray that you will take that instruction and let god speak to
your heart and bless your heart it's been a very sweet time for me to
share this month with you i just took this psalm out and i almost
apologize for it except it has been a blessing to me and i pray that it
has been a blessing to you and will be may god richly bless you and do
pray for us and stand with us in those prayers and we'll appreciate it
may god richly bless you is our prayer

========================================================================
Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/26/SID26235.mp3
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/manley-beasley/psalm-126/
========================================================================