A Soul Winning Promise?

“A SOUL WINNING PROMISE?”

Psalm 126.5-6

We begin by reading Psalm 126:

A Song of degrees.

1 When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.

2 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.

3 The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.

4 Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.

5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

“This psalm is generally thought to have been written by Ezra, or some good man returned from the Babylonish captivity, and on account of it.”[1] It is only one of fifteen short psalms, Psalm 120 through Psalm 134, that are labeled “A Song of degrees.”

There are differences of opinion about the significance of this title, whether it refers to psalms that are to be sung by the reverent while approaching Jerusalem to worship God, or to signify that these psalms were to be sung at an elevated pitch, or perhaps referring to the fact that each psalm in this group was to be sung by the priests as they ascended the fifteen steps from the Temple’s court of women up to the court of Israel, one psalm sung for each step.

However, the different psalms so labeled came to be used over the centuries to remember the great things that God has done, there is not much doubt that Psalm 126 was originally written to commemorate God’s deliverance of the people from 70 years of Babylonian captivity.

Consider the psalm with me, keeping in mind that it was written more than 2,500 years ago, or more than 500 years before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ:

First, A PROPHECY IS FULFILLED

This is the focus of verses 1, 2 and 3:

Verse 1:

“When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.”

Jeremiah had predicted that the Babylonian captivity would be 70 years long.[2] But who had ever heard of a mighty empire allowing a conquered and dispossessed people to return to their ancient homeland? Such a thing was unthinkable. Nevertheless, predicted by naming Cyrus two centuries before he was born, Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled to the letter.

Second Chronicles 36.21-23:

21 To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

23 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.

When they were freed to return to Israel they “were like them that dream.” They were dazed, stunned, in shock. It was a thing they thought was too good to be true.

Verses 2 & 3:

“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.”

Try to visualize in your mind what was taking place. The Persian emperor Cyrus decreed that they were free to go. At first, they were dazed, “like them that dream.” Then their mouths filled with laughter. And then they began to sing. Oh, what a glorious celebration. But they were living in a foreign country. They had been an oppressed minority. But now they are rejoicing. What did the heathen onlookers have to say about this turn of events? What did they say among themselves? How did they explain what was happening to the Jews?

“Then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.”

There could be no other explanation. And the Jews acknowledged that the heathen were correct:

“The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.”

By the way, a heathen is an irreligious person,[3] someone we would now recognize by the fact that he does not attend Church.

Next, A PRAYER IS OFFERED

Verse 4:

“Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.”

A person who criticizes the Jews for praying for more after God had done so much does not know the mind of God and has an unscriptural view of the nature of God. To be sure, after seeing what a great thing God had done for them, they rightly asked for even more.

“Turn again our captivity, O LORD” asks God for more. Keep in mind that not all the Jews who were in captivity in Babylon immediately returned. In Jesus’ day, some five centuries later, there were still far more Jews living in and around Babylon than in the Promised Land.[4] So, this is a prayer by those who first returned that was offered up on behalf of those yet to come.

But that is not the only thing they prayed for. After all, the reason God sent them into captivity, if you recall from your Bible reading, was so the land could lie fallow for 70 years, because the people had disobeyed God by refusing to observe the Sabbaths every seven years, and the year of Jubilee every fiftieth year, to let the land lie fallow.[5]

So, for 70 years the land had been untilled and uncultivated. What those returning from exile wanted, as they expressed at this point, was not just the land God had given to them. They were asking God to restore the land to what it had once been, a land flowing with milk and honey. The phrase “as the streams in the south” refers to the southern desert, what we call the Negev, that could suddenly be turned into a flourishing and flowered landscape by a springtime rain.

This prayer looks back to those who have not yet come out of captivity, while looking ahead to the land they shall possess. It should be noted that this prayer has not yet been fully answered by God, since many Jews have not yet returned to the land.

I have observed a remarkable transformation of the land over the span of my travels to Israel, with great progress being made to restore the land to its flowing with milk and honey description as it once did, and as it most assuredly will when Jesus comes to establish His millennial kingdom here on earth. Though an as yet not fully answered prayer, it will be answered someday. It was not a prayer prayed in vain.

Finally, A PROMISE IS CLAIMED

5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

You folks are beginning to realize this Biblical principle of receiving blessings from a promise not yet fulfilled, as the writer of Hebrews mentions in Hebrews 11.13:

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

The whole basis of the prayer offered up in Psalm 126.4 is the promise that is stated and then restated here in verses 5 and 6.

“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” This speaks of the Jews returning from Babylonian captivity by faith and being confident that they will someday receive the promise. They don’t know when. Will there be tears along the way, as they arrive in a land now desert and barren from 70 years of neglect? Yes. Will their hearts break from disappointment and discouragement along the way? Of course. That’s called life.

But at the end of the road, when all is said and done, the land will be fruitful and they will rejoice. By faith, they knew they would rejoice:

“He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

How very blessed it is to turn to such passages in the Old Testament and see how God worked in the lives of His chosen people. In this psalm, we see the aftereffects of God dealing with their sin (the reason they went into the Babylonian captivity); fulfilling the prophecies given by His prophets, and seeing His people engaged in prayer as they lay hold of His promises.

It is encouraging to see God’s faithfulness to His people and their response to God’s chastening. They set an example of prayer and their hope in God’s promise, an example that should be followed by one and all.

Let me now change gears by reading from Dr. J. Edwin Hartill’s popular book, Principles Of Biblical Hermeneutics:

“The principle by which an application of truth may be made only after the correct interpretation has been learned ... When the meaning is learned, then you may apply it to the life of an individual, of a community, etc., but first of all discover the real meaning of the text. There is a great difference between application and interpretation. There is much confusion in the church today because men have taken the Word of God and made application without any true reference to the interpretation. All Bible students should be agreed as to the interpretation. There may be many applications, but there is only one correct interpretation.”[6]

We examined the 126th Psalm together. I have rehearsed the proper interpretation of this psalm, its occasion, and its meaning with you. Let me proceed to the body of my sermon dealing with the most common application associated with our text.

I know of no thoughtful pastors or Bible scholars anywhere in the world, who would disagree with the portion of Dr. Hartill’s book that I read to you a few moments ago. Only charlatans or fools would deny that when studying the Bible, one must first arrive at the correct interpretation of a passage, of which there is only one before one makes applications, of which many can be made.

Now, please, let us read again the text of my sermon, Psalm 126.5-6:

5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

If you have attended independent Baptist Churches that energetically seek the conversion of the lost for any length of time, it saddens me to say that you have probably heard any number of sermons preached on soul-winning using these two verses as the text for the sermon.

It is also typical that somewhere in the sermons preached on these two verses (it is almost always the case), either stated or implied, they are used to promise the prospective soul-winner success in his soul-winning endeavors. Always.

I know from my Bible college days that these two verses were very typically used as incentives to young preachers taking courses in personal evangelism, purporting to show that if you go soul-winning, and if you shed tears as you go soul-winning, bearing the precious seed of God’s Word as you go soul-winning, you shall doubtless come back to the Church house having led souls to Christ. And if you didn’t, there is something wrong with you.

I must admit that for many years, even as a decisionist,[7] I was troubled by the persistent use of this text to guarantee soul-winning success. Yet I did not know how to verbalize and formulate my objections. I could not define the issues as clearly as I can now.

As you will see during this sermon, there is something wrong when one of the main support structures upon which contemporary evangelistic theory and practice stands is based upon a key passage that is not only thoroughly misinterpreted but is also tragically misapplied.

Several indisputable facts along this line will trouble some of you and may thrill others of you:

First, OUR TEXT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SEEING SINNERS SAVED

Study Psalm 126.5-6 thoroughly. Read it repeatedly, taking note of its context, keeping in mind the occasion of its writing, and its use over the centuries. The inescapable conclusion of such consideration? These two final verses in the psalm, not to mention the entire psalm, have nothing to do with evangelism, or what has come to be called soul winning.

“But pastor,” it might be objected, “preachers do not insist that this passage should be interpreted to deal with evangelism or soul winning. It is only used by application to the topic of evangelism and soul winning.”

I have spent the last forty-five years reading books on soul-winning, listening to preachers preach on soul-winning, going to pastor’s schools where soul-winning was the main topic of consideration, and purchasing and listening to countless tapes of soul-winning courses and sermons on soul-winning. I can state that I have never, not one single time, on not one occasion, ever heard a preacher or teacher, or ever read an author point out the actual interpretation of these two verses. Never! Not in forty-five years. Does that not strike you as strange? It strikes me as strange. Always has.

This even though many of those teachers and preachers had the hermeneutics text in Bible college or had as a resource book in their library, Hartill’s book Principles Of Biblical Hermeneutics (or a book much like it), which clearly states,

“The principle by which an application of truth may be made only after the correct interpretation has been learned ... When the meaning is learned, then you may apply it to the life of an individual, of a community, etc., but first of all discover the real meaning of the text ... There is much confusion in the church today because men have taken the Word of God and made application without any true reference to the interpretation. All ... should be agreed as to the interpretation. There may be many applications, but there is only one correct interpretation.”[8]

I submit that harm is done when any practice is justified based on a mere application of a Scripture passage, without concern for that passage’s actual interpretation. A great danger lies in misapplying a passage because your interpretation of the passage is incorrect. You cannot be right about the application if you are not right about the interpretation. And how likely this is when sermon after sermon, book after book, tape after tape, seminar after seminar, for year after year, does not refer to the passage’s interpretation.

I am afraid that many preachers, teachers, authors, seminar leaders, and so-called soul winners do not refer to this passage’s interpretation when they cite and then make an application of the passage, either because they do not know what this passage teaches (which is sad), or because they do know what this verse teaches but want to go ahead and use it because it suits their purposes. That is really sad.

Next, THOUGH JESUS LIKENS GOD’S WORD TO PRECIOUS SEED, MODERN DAY SOUL WINNING ALLOWS NO TIME FOR THE SEED OF GOD’S WORD TO GERMINATE

There can be no doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ, in His parable of the sower, in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8, likens the seeds that are cast by a sower to the Word of God, which is preached. But that does not mean that in every verse in Scripture in which seeds are found, it is appropriate to draw a parallel to evangelism. Remember, the proper application of a passage can only follow when the correct interpretation of that passage is first known.

Therefore, we should ask, is it appropriate to apply these two verses to soul-winning? Before we answer that question, let us consider two things:

First, no seeds known to man do not require some time period for germination from seed to plant, much less to fruit bearing. But how long do most contemporary soul-winning advocates expect their efforts to take before the fruit of a new convert is produced? Fifteen minutes? Thirty minutes? An hour? Suppose the phrase “bearing precious seed” applies to evangelistic efforts. In that case, one should reasonably expect some parallel between what happens when literal seeds are sown and what happens when Scripture is preached. Is this not a reasonable expectation?

Also, how can “bearing precious seed” be likened to the Word of God being preached when there is no disputing the fact that the promise that contains this phrase is a promise that has not yet been fulfilled in Israelite history but will be fulfilled only at the Second Coming of Christ! So you see, the proper use of an application, even when using an application to accomplish noble goals, must be based upon a correct understanding of the passage.

So, let us return to whether applying this passage to soul-winning is appropriate. Not. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of verses in God’s Word that can encourage evangelism, extoll the virtues of evangelism, show the rewards of evangelism, and so on. The Bible does not leave us such beggars that we must misuse a passage to achieve the desired effect. Therefore, it is essential first to interpret correctly and then apply properly, which is not the case when this passage is used about soul-winning.

Finally, MISINTERPRETATION OF THIS PASSAGE FAILS TO RECOGNIZE THAT THE PROMISE OF THIS PASSAGE HAS NOT YET, IN 2500 YEARS, BEEN FULFILLED!

Though I have just raised this point a moment ago, allow me to expand. This entire 126th Psalm was written to commemorate the return of the exiles from Babylonian captivity. They were taken out in 606 B.C., they returned 70 years later. Verse 4 is a prayer requesting that God restore all exiles to the Promised Land, #1, and restore the land to its former fruitfulness, which flowed with milk and honey, #2.

Our text forms the promise on which that prayer is based, verses 5 and 6. But as I have shown you on other occasions, and as Hebrews 11.13 reminds us, promises claimed by faith are frequently not realized in one’s lifetime. Some promises are not realized even at one’s age. Again, Hebrews 11.13 reads,

Our text is such a promise. Those Jews who returned from captivity by faith clung to a far-off promise. Surprising to some, that promise of restoration has not yet been fulfilled. Two thousand five hundred years later, there are only now more Jews living in the land than outside the land (Did you know that?), and despite significant progress, the land is not yet flowing with milk and honey. Much of it is still a desert. How can an application of this passage to soul-winning possibly be correct when the interpretation it is based upon is so wrong? The answer is it cannot be correct.

In James 1.18, we read, “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth ....” That statement asserts that God uses the Word of God to birth people. In other words, God uses the Bible to get sinners saved, to bring sinners to Jesus, and to bring about the conversion of the lost.

But what do you think happens when “the word of truth” is grievously misinterpreted, is sadly misunderstood, and is criminally handled without proper and diligent study?

I think bad things happen. Don’t you? I think that a misunderstanding of this passage is part of a larger pattern of misinterpretation and misunderstanding that results in a slipshod handling of the Gospel, a mistreatment of sinners, and an appalling number of false professions of faith in Jesus Christ by those who are not genuinely converted.

Some of you are not converted to Jesus Christ. Humanly speaking, for you to have any hope of being saved, you will need some mature believer or minister of the Gospel to carefully and cautiously, need I say correctly, use God’s Word to guide you to Christ.

Most Christians and pastors these days are persuaded that if they want you to be saved, if their heart aches for you to the point of tears while they witness to you, then they have a promise from God that you will eventually be saved. And they reckon it to be a promise. But I have shown you that such is not the case. God has made no such promises to Gentiles, as Paul made clear in Ephesians 2.12:

“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”

And God is not bound by anyone’s misunderstanding of what He has said in His Word. He is bound by what He said and what He meant.

I advise you to stop seeking the advice and counsel of the people you know, especially those you think know their way around a Church house. Why?

Chances are, such people have likely been so tainted by the errors I have preached about in this message that they will be useless to you in getting your sins forgiven. They will give you bad advice, especially if they are not discerning Bible students.

You need to follow the advice and counsel of someone who is spiritually mature, a student of God’s Word, perhaps a man whom God calls to preach the Gospel, a man you have confidence in, a man whom God uses to bring sinners to Christ. Of such men, the writer of Hebrews once wrote these words:

“whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.”[9]

Find such a person. Listen to him teach and preach. Pray that God will use that fellow to bring you to Jesus Christ and the salvation of your soul. Only Jesus saves sinners from their sins, but here we find He has chosen to use such called men to show sinners the way to Him.

Stop listening to people who know their way around the Church. Start listening to a man who is a real Bible student who has been called by God, and let him guide you to Christ. Let him guide you to Christ.

__________

[1] John Gill, John Gill’s Exposition Of The Old And New Testaments, Vol 4 (Paris, Arkansas: the Baptist Standard Bearer, Inc., reprinted 2006), page 252.

[2] Jeremiah 25.11-12; 29.10

[3] Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1996), page 883.

[4] Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah: New Updated Version, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1993), page 6.

[5] Second Chronicles 36.21

[6] J. Edwin Hartill, Principles of Biblical Hermeneutics, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1947), page 44.

[7] Decisionism is the belief that a person is saved by coming forward, raising the hand, saying a prayer, believing a doctrine, making a Lordship commitment, or some other external, human act, which is taken as the equivalent to, and proof of, the miracle of inward conversion; it is the belief that a person is saved through the agency of a merely external decision; the belief that performing one of these human actions shows that a person is saved.

Conversion is the result of that work of the Holy Spirit, which draws a lost sinner to Jesus Christ for justification and regeneration and changes the sinner’s standing before God from lost to saved, imparting divine life to the depraved soul, thus producing a new direction in the life of the convert. The objective side of salvation is justification. The subjective side of salvation is regeneration. The result is conversion.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Hebrews 13.7

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