"The Lord looseth the prisoners” (Psalm 146:7).
I recall visiting a prison some years ago. A certain prisoner who was sentenced to death was awaiting the execution of the sentence. When I entered into a special high security block, a signboard read: "These men are condemned to die.” Those were terrible words and soon I passed cell after cell with prisoners. Their faces were a picture of death itself.
The cell to which I was taken was no less than the anteroom of hell. The inmate, a man who had killed his wife, was beside himself. The memory of his wife’s murder seemed to prey upon his mind. I could hardly speak to him, for he was in no condition to understand. But outside his cell I stood and prayed for him. Later I came to know that the Governor had stayed his hanging and had commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. There came a marvellous change in that prisoner’s life too.
I came face to face that day with the fear, terror, mental anguish and hopeless remorse in the minds of those who had to meet death, in a day or two, with a guilty conscience.
What a relief the commuting of his death sentence must have been to him. The Bible tells us emphatically: "The Lord looseth the prisoners” (Psalm 146:7). Yes, He the King of kings has the power and the authority to loose the prisoners. And He is releasing them now.
When I sit closeted with men, in heart-to-heart talks, when the veil is drawn away and they reveal the truth about themselves, invariably I find that in some quarter of their lives or some part of their personality they are prisoners. Then they tell me of their efforts at self-improvement and their desperate longings for release.
Some speak of booze and alcoholism, others of drugs which were too easily accessible in the hospitals where they worked and they were hooked; yes, even doctors were hooked. Still others speak of a long struggle to shake off tobacco; some tell of strange fears and nocturnal oppressions; many speak of sex-perversions of a seemingly infinite scope and variety; an increasing number of people have problems in their marriage; suspicion and strife is just killing them.
Most people have some measure of longing for release but when they look around them, they are convinced that there is simply no other way but to live with this inner bondage. Then to cap it all, they see some religious people too floundering miserably and putting up a false front of apparent well-being. Forthwith fatalism becomes the shrine at which they worship. "This is my fate, I must endure it,” they say, and thereafter they seek no deliverance from their misery, heartache and tears.
The ostrich method of escaping from its pursuers by burying its head in the sand seems to have become the universal method of escape for men today. "Try to forget your worries, shake off that cancer in your mind by the movies or by burrowing deep into the seat before the television. Or seek some variety in your sex life,” the devil and his friends tell you.
But the Bible says, "The Lord looseth the prisoners”.
Then I see men who are blind with hate. They are prisoners of hatred. Hatred is their religion. They hate the Lord Jesus, they hate men like me who speak to them of love. Hatred is the theme and ruling passion of their lives. A Hindu workman in a mill, paralysed by a long strike and crippled financially … had suffered much, yet he was so well tutored in all the true and imagined crimes of the management against the workmen, that he could give me today in a few minutes a convincing recital calculated to inspire hate, concerning the misdeeds of the management. He had been tutored to hate. He came to me seeking prayer.
The world needs love, not hate. But the friend who had brought this man to the meeting was himself one who had once hated Jesus. He had been given to drink and brought much suffering to his wife. The Lord Jesus had met him and transformed him. As a foreman in a factory, he is now helping to liberate many with the Gospel of love.
One of my listeners, who had chanced upon our broadcast, wrote: "Will you pray for me, here are my problems. I know that most broadcasters, broadcast for money. I was a communist but I have turned to Christ…”
I wrote him: "We will love you and pray for you even if you are the poorest man in the world.” Here is a fine, thinking young man beset with sorrows and problems. He had been tutored into thinking that all this service is done for money. If such were our motive, there would not be that blessing of God upon this broadcast.
What it costs me in terms of strength, time, prayer, thought and even money amidst my heavy schedule, people cannot know. Yet one soul liberated from sin and uncleanness is worth more than the greatest treasure on earth. Remember, to release a prisoner, a ransom has to be paid, or a Redeemer has to be found. I cannot think that anyone would like to take another’s place at the gallows or on the electric chair. But Jesus took your guilt and sin and your death upon Himself. Then why do you lie in irons still? The Bible says: "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered” (Joel 2:32). Yes, that "whosoever” includes you.
Call on the Lord Jesus and put Him to the test. Is this all just a piece of commercialism or is Jesus true and as good as His word? Souls, bound and chained and even incapable as it were of sane and balanced thinking, blinded by pride, hatred and prejudice were released in a moment, when they turned their eyes upon Jesus and believed Him.
This loving Saviour waits now for you to release you.
The great Gen. MacArthur, the legendary hero who liberated the Philippines and finally ended the Second World War, has this to say of the release of the American prisoners of war, held in a camp north of Manila. A spectacular dash was made to capture the camp and to prevent a possible massacre of the 5000 POWs.
"When I arrived, the pitiful half-starved inmates broke out in excited yells. In their ragged, filthy clothes, with tears streaming down their faces, they seemed to be using their last strength to fight their way close enough to grasp my hand. … I was kissed. I was hugged.”
Dear listener, the Saviour and liberator Jesus stands by you, He wants to be your Saviour too. Open your eyes and see His love now. Open your heart and kiss Him in. "The Lord looseth the prisoners.” Bow your head and let us thank Him.
Lord Jesus, you came to release us from our inmost bondage, we thank you, for your love.