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The deliverance here intended is one which is brought to us by redemption, and comes by the way of the great sacrifice upon Calvary.

I. WHO ARE THESE FAVOURED MEN?

1. Guilty men (ver. 11). Hear this, ye sinful ones, and take heart! God has wrought great wonders for a people whom it seemed impossible for Him to notice. If they came into prison through rebellion, you would expect Him to leave them there. Yet rebels are set free by an act of immeasurable grace. The Redeemer has received gifts for men, "yea, for the rebellious also."

2. Doomed men (ver. 10). It is your condemned condition .which needs free mercy; and, behold, the Lord meets your need in His boundless grace!

3. Bound men (ver. 10). You long to be delivered, but you are unable to cut the cords which hold you. Jesus Christ has come on purpose that He might proclaim the opening of the prisons to them that are bound.

4. Weary men (ver. 12). "Come unto Me," etc.

5. Downcast men (ver. 12). The Lord Jesus delights to lift up those that lie at His feet.

6. Helpless men. What a word that is — "None to help"! The proverb says, "God helps those that help themselves." There is a sort of truth in it; but I venture to cover it with a far greater truth: "God helps those that cannot help themselves." When there is none to help thee, then God will help thee.

7. They did at last take to praying (ver. 13). There is that about prayer which makes it a token for good, a pledge of blessings on the road, a door of hope in dark hours. Where is the man that cries? Where is the man that prays? That is the man of whom it shall be said, and of others like him, "The Lord brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death," etc.

II. HOW HAS THIS DELIVERANCE BEEN WROUGHT?

1. By the Lord Himself. There is no salvation worth the having which has not the hand of the Godhead in it. None but the Trinity can deliver a captive soul from the chains of sin, and death, and hell.

2. Next, the Lord did it alone "He hath broken the gates of brass." Nobody else was there to aid in liberating the prisoner. When our Lord Jesus trod the winepress, He was alone. When the Spirit of God came to work in us eternal life, He wrought alone.

3. By the Lord's own goodness. He gives the alms of His grace only to the undeserving.

4. Most completely — light, life, and liberty.

5. Everlastingly. O child of God, you were once shut up as with gates of brass, and bars of iron, and the devil thinks that one of these days he will get you behind those gates again! But he never will, for the Lord "hath broken the gates of brass." The means of our captivity are no longer available.

III. WHAT IS TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS?

1. If the Lord has set any of you free — record it. Say, "The Lord hath done great things for us."

2. When you have recorded it, then praise God with all your heart, every one of you, every day. When you have praised God yourselves, then entreat others to join with you. The oratorio of God's praise needs a full choir.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.

WEB: He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bonds in sunder.