Okay, we are in Psalm 68 tonight. This is actually the third part
to this psalm. Now, I'm not going to review
this week as I did last week because I want to get right into
the place where we are. We left off with this verse,
verse 7. We had covered verse 6 and in
verse 7 it says, O God, when thou wentest forth before thy
people, when thou didst march through the wilderness, Selah,
the earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence
of God, even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God,
the God of Israel. Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful
rain, whereby Thou didst confirm Thine inheritance when it was
weary. Thy congregation hath dwelt therein. Thou, O God, hast prepared of
Thy goodness for the poor. All right, now let's just pause
there and we will try to get beyond that, but let's consider
those verses. First of all, as I mentioned
last time, this psalm is what I call a grandiose description
of the gospel times when the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God,
having accomplished his work on the cross, rose from the dead
and then ascended to heaven and was enthroned, exalted at the
right hand of God to bring about for his people the salvation
that he accomplished and obtained for them. So the psalm is about
the ascension of Christ. We see that from Ephesians chapter
4 and in verse 18 of this psalm where it says, Thou hast ascended
on high, Thou hast led captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts
for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might
dwell among them. So in the middle of the psalm
we find that verse and since that is explained in Ephesians
4 as pertaining to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are certain that this
psalm is about Him. Men like to use the word messianic
psalm. There's nothing wrong with that.
I try to just use simpler words, but it's true. It is a messianic
psalm. All of the psalms really are
messianic psalms when we understand them. But in this verse, in verse
seven, it's referring back to a historical event. It says,
oh God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou
didst march through the wilderness, Selah. Now, the Lord, who is
Jehovah, in verse 7, he says, O God, the Lord is the one who
was with his people in the wilderness and went before them. And he,
it says in this verse, marched through the wilderness. And in
another text of scripture, I think it's Exodus 15, it says that
God is a man of war. So we understand by that scripture
and this one that God himself was with his people, with a nation
of Israel, and that that nation was called the people of God,
even though in actuality most of the people in that nation
did not believe, as we read in Hebrews chapter 3, And because
they didn't believe, most of them perished in the wilderness
without entering Canaan. Nevertheless, God reveals that
in the New Testament, that nation was a shadow of the true Israel. Now, you know a shadow is produced
by something, and whatever that something is that produces the
shadow is greater than the shadow that it produces. So that the
historical nation of Israel being just a shadow of the true Israel
of God, we see that the psalm, therefore, even though in its
language is very flower, what do they say, very colorful, and
flowery, that it speaks of a much greater event than just the God
going with the nation of Israel in the wilderness. Now, it's
true that God was with them in the cloud and in the rock, for
example, and 1 Corinthians chapter 10, it talks about that. And
we know that the God who was with them is the God of Israel
and that this Psalm calls the God of Israel calls God by that
name, but also we understand that the God of Israel is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, so in this psalm it says
God went forth before the people of Israel. That would be the
people who were typified by the nation of Israel, but were actually
the true Israel of God who are those who believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Galatians chapter three, verse
26 and 29 emphatically states that all believers are the true
Israel, the true children of Abraham, and none other are that
true Israel. So the Jews, as you could read
John eight, for example, the Pharisees were debating with
Christ, they claimed that Abraham was their father and therefore
God was their father and that they were they were, that God
was their God, and Jesus said, no, that's not true, you were
physically born to Abraham, but you are not spiritually Abraham's
children, and you're certainly not the people of God, you don't
know God, and God is not your father. In fact, he said in John
chapter eight, that their father was the devil, because they didn't
do what Abraham did, But they did do what the devil did. They
lied and were trying to murder Christ. So we see from John 8
and Galatians chapter 3 that the true Israel of God is not
the physical descendants of Abraham, but those who are spiritually
descended from Abraham. And you can only descend spiritually
if you're born of the Spirit of God. So in verse 7, when God
went forth before the people, He's speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ as God going before His people. His people, those who
are redeemed by Christ's blood, who are born of the Spirit of
God, who are adopted from eternity by the Father and by Jesus Christ
in time, and were given the Holy Spirit, as you can read about
in Ephesians chapter one and Galatians three and Galatians
four. But here we see by that language,
therefore, that God went before his people. We know that the
Lord Jesus Christ went before his people in everything. Remember,
well, we'll get into that in a minute here. But you can think
about that. The Lord Jesus Christ goes before
his people in everything. He went to heaven having accomplished
our redemption. And he said in John chapter 14,
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where
I am there you may be also. Those words are so comforting
and so hopeful, meaning that they give us an expectation that
because Christ entered heaven, therefore we also being his people
will enter heaven. Because He is our God, therefore
He goes before us, that means He's bringing us with Him. And so that's what this verse
is saying here. He says, when thou didst march through the
wilderness, and this is showing that God's favor, His distinguishing
favor, was toward the nation. as in reality, God's distinguishing
favor is towards his elect, those who were chosen in Christ, given
to Christ, who were born of the Spirit of God and therefore believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, so then he says in verse
eight of this psalm, back in verse seven still though,
so the Lord Jesus Christ went before his people, he went before
them to the cross, He went before them to the grave, to death in
the grave. He went before them in resurrection.
He went before them because He delivered us from all of our
enemies. He was delivered for our offenses.
He was raised for our justification. So He went before us in being
justified by God. God justified Him and us in Him. And so all that Christ did was
to go before us. And since God has known his works
from before the foundation of the world, therefore, when it
says in Ephesians 5, 25, that Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it before we were born, when we were in Adam, we
were enemies of God, sinners and ungodly. Yet in the Lord
Jesus Christ, he went before us and redeemed us by his precious
blood. He did it in pledge from eternity. He did it in actuality at the
cross. and He obtained that eternal
redemption for us. So in verse 8 then, let me just
add this one more thing. The Lord Jesus Christ also went
before us in all of His temptations in His life and in the ministry
of the Gospel. So you know He, after His baptism,
the Spirit of God led Him into the wilderness where He was tempted
by Satan. God didn't tempt Him, but Satan
did. And in God's providence, he led Christ, his son, into
the wilderness to be tempted, because as Adam was tried in
the garden, so Christ, the second and last Adam, was tried by God
in the wilderness. And Satan tempted him, and Christ
went before us in that temptation. And he was victorious. He told
his disciples in Luke chapter 10, or maybe 17, I can't remember
the chapter now, but I think it's in Luke 10, he told them
that Satan, he saw Satan fall from heaven as lightning. So
Satan was conquered because the Lord Jesus Christ went before
us and endured that temptation and was victorious over Satan
in it. And so the Lord has power to
deliver us from Satan and his temptations. He went before us
in all these things. All right, now verse 8. In verse
8 it says, when the Lord did this, when he went before his
people in the wilderness, the earth shook. The heavens also
dropped at the presence of God, even Sinai itself was moved at
the presence of God, the God of Israel. Alright, so imagine
this, God himself going before his people, marching, the Lord
himself marching through the wilderness. Now that conjures
up in our mind God as a man of war, as the captain, and the
Lord Jesus Christ in Hebrews 2 is called the captain of our
salvation, just as Joshua led Israel, victoriously led Israel
into Canaan and conquered all of the enemies of Israel so that
they could take possession of that eternal, or that promised
inheritance. So the Lord Jesus Christ, whose
name actually is Joshua, Jesus, he went before us into our eternal,
to fight, to battle with our enemies and obtained our eternal
inheritance for us, which is heaven itself and eternal salvation. But here it says that when the
Lord was doing this, the earth shook in history. The earth shook,
the heavens dropped at the presence of God. Sinai itself was moved
at the presence of the God of Israel. All right. So in Scripture,
God gave the law, we know this, and when God gave the law to
Israel, Sinai, the mountain, it says in Hebrews chapter 12,
shook. It also says this in the Old
Testament when it actually occurred in the book of Exodus, that the
mountain shook, it quaked. and it was on, it smoked, it
was on fire. Moses strictly charged the people
not to come near the mountain, and even if a beast were to come
near it, it was to be killed. All right, so God came to the
mountain, God came before his people in the wilderness, and
at that time, it says, Sinai shook, and the people trembled,
even Moses was exceedingly afraid. And we know that that God is
Christ. And it shows us that when we
are required, as God does require in the law, to approach God only
on the basis of our own obedience, that we have nothing but fear. We have nothing but dread and
fear and terror because the law commands us to be obedient and
curses us for disobedience. And this is such a fundamental
principle. And we're going to build on this in a minute. But
the point here is that when Sinai shook and God gave those warnings,
he was saying no one dare come near God. The Lord Jesus Christ
is God. No one dare come near God on
the merits of his own obedience. Not even to God's law. I mean,
God has given that law. In God's law itself, God's own
law, he tells us to do this in order for our life. Obey these
things, these required laws, and if you do, you'll live. This is God's Word. And if you
don't, if you disobey, then you die. All right, that's the law.
That's the principle of law in Scripture. And we can't come
to God that way. Scripture says it many different
ways. One way, he says, all the world is guilty before God. By
the law, every mouth is shut. Romans 3.19, he says, Whatever
the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. Okay,
so we can't be approved, we can't be accepted by God. We can't
draw near to God if we attempt to do it by our own obedience. That's the message of the law.
That's the reason that Sinai shook. Now, I want you to realize
that, and we're thinking about this and understanding this particular
verse, that since the very beginning of time, when God put Adam in
the garden, God put Adam under a law, remember? He said, you
may eat of the tree, every tree of the garden, and you can even
eat of the tree of life, but you cannot and you dare not eat
of that tree, which is called the tree of knowledge of good
and evil. Because that tree gives knowledge
of good and evil, You are not to eat of that tree. Do not attempt
to live or to find satisfaction or to... take it into yourself in any
way that principle of living by the knowledge of good and
evil. And in Romans 3 verse 20 it says,
therefore by the law is the knowledge of sin. Okay, so I say that in
support of the claim that the human race since Adam has been
under law. Now, that's a long time. That's
a long time, isn't it? It's so entrenched in us. And
the law of Moses was formally given by God, and all of Israel
was put under that law, too. In fact, all of the human race
was still under the law. And it says in Galatians chapter,
I'm sorry, not Galatians, Romans chapter two, that the Gentiles
who have not the law are a law to themselves because they show
the work of the law in their hearts when they either accuse
or excuse one another. Okay, so even the Gentiles who
were not given the Ten Commandments have the principle of the law
in their hearts and they know it's right and wrong and they
therefore can accuse one another or excuse one another based on
that innate knowledge that God has shown to every man. But the
law formalizes it and makes it clear that obedience to the law
is required and it must be complete and it must be perfect or else
the law will curse us. And so all of humanity has been
under the law since that Garden of Eden, okay? And they were put under the law
formally in Exodus and other books of Moses. Now I say that
because what happens by that is that this is the case of the
whole humanity. in our present day too. Governments
and churches, religion let's say, whether it be Buddhists
or Muslims or Catholics or Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons or Baptists,
it doesn't matter who they are, every person in government and
in churches have this sense of if they can keep what God requires,
if they can meet the requirements of God, then God will bless them.
And if they fail, then they are in trouble with God in some measure.
Every religion does this. And I could give you examples,
I'm not gonna do that right now, but the point is is that the
whole human race knows this principle. They were born and raised under
this principle that acceptance with God is obtained or obtainable
by our own personal obedience and our own personal disobedience
forfeits that favor and blessing from God. When things happen,
bad things happen to people, they go through this philosophical
analysis to either explain or explain away why those bad things
happen based on their own personal obedience or disobedience. And
so you'll see people who seem to be doing well boast in their
moral uprightness. Or you'll see people tell you,
if you would do better, things will be better. Job's friends
were just that way. That's the argument they made.
But here's the thing. When Christ came, something happened
so dramatic that it was, as God describes it, the shaking of
everything. Everything was shaken when God
in the Lord Jesus Christ came to fulfill the new covenant which
would be made in Christ's own blood. So here in verse 8, the
earth shook, the heavens dropped at the presence of God, Sinai
itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel, He's
speaking about the fact that that quaking and shaking of God
being there on that mountain and giving his law, which required
men to flee in terror, really stay away, and that principle
that's inbred within us through history and through our conscience,
that that very principle, those principles on which governments
are founded, on which religions hold their people accountable
or punish them or whatever they do, they make them feel comfortable
or uncomfortable. It's all based on personal obedience
and failure to do so. So it's a system of punishment
and rewards based on our own performance. But no one could
do the law, and the law was not given in order for us to come
to God by the law. The law was given for the very
opposite, to show that we were sinners and that we could not
in any way do anything God required in order to be accepted by God,
which is the way Romans develops beginning at verse 18 of chapter
1 through verse 20 of chapter 3. And then he says, but now
the righteousness of God is revealed. And that righteousness is not
by the law and not by our own personal obedience to the law.
It was witnessed by the law and the prophets. But it's actually
the righteousness of God, which Christ fulfilled. So this is
the gospel. And when the gospel, when Christ
came, the earth and all of humanity, all of the foundations of governments
and religion were shaken to the core. Even heaven itself was
shaken. And you can read about this in
the book of Hebrews chapter 12, and maybe I'll just take you
there quickly since that's what we're looking at here. Hebrews
chapter 12, it's before the book of James, Hebrews is. And it
says this in chapter 12 and verse 24. Hebrews 12, 24. He says, well, let me read from
verse 22. Let me read from verse 18. How about
verse 17? No, 18. You are not come to the
mount that might be touched. You're not come to Mount Sinai.
You're not come to the mouth that might be touched. In other
words, you're not under that legal order, that legal covenant of
things. You're not come to the mouth
that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness,
and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of trumpet, and the
voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the
word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could
not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. But you, notice, you are come
unto Mount Zion. Mountains are important in scripture,
and Zion is God's dwelling place. This is the church. You are coming
to Mount Zion unto the city, that's where God dwells, his
people are, the city of the living God. Philippians says we're citizens
of heaven. And the heavenly Jerusalem, which
is another name for the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and to
God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood
of sprinkling, which speaks better things than that of Abel. Now,
see that you refuse not him that speaketh, that's Christ, for
if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, Moses,
Much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that
speaks from heaven. So he's raising the extreme great authority of Christ in
contrast to Moses. Christ is from heaven, Moses
is on earth. Christ is the son, Moses the
servant. Christ is God in human nature. Moses was just a man and a sinful
man. So you must give heed to the
word of Christ much more than Moses. Verse 26, whose voice
then shook the earth, God's voice, Christ. Now he has promised,
saying yet once more, notice, I shake not the earth only, but
also heaven. Now, how is heaven shaken? You'd
think, well, heaven can't be shaken, can it? Oh, yes, it was
shaken. Remember, Jesus said, I saw Satan
fall as lightning from heaven. Heaven was shaken. The angels
who kept not their first estate were cast out of heaven. When
the Lord Jesus Christ overcame Satan, And so, heaven was shaken,
and not only that, but remember, in 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, it
says, God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit,
and the next part says, seen of angels. Now here, the angels,
it says in 1 Peter chapter 1, around verse 10 to 12, it says,
the angels desire to look into those things. of Christ and his
sufferings and his glory. And then in Ephesians 3, 17,
that by the church, the manifold wisdom of God is made known to
the principalities and powers. So in the death and the resurrection
and ascension and exaltation of Christ, in the sending of
the gospel, the Gentiles here, the Gentiles believe, and angels
look on in heaven. They see something dramatic.
They see something Incomparable in all of God's works, they see
the Lord Jesus Christ, they see the Son of God become man, and
as man, they see Him obey God fully. and overcome the sin of
his people, and rise in victory over their sin from the dead,
and take his place in glory justified by God, and all of his people
justified in him, and they're shaken. They're shaken by that.
Everything now appears in clarity to pivot on the Lord Jesus Christ. They knew that he was the object
of God's delight and love, and that they were commanded to worship
Him and serve Him, yet now they see in His work, they see that
they are now the servants to Him, to the heirs of salvation,
and this shakes things up, doesn't it? It sets in a whole new principle,
and they learn by what Christ did, and by the Church, by the
way, the manifold wisdom of God. So, in that sense, heaven was
shaken, But also the church, the church in heaven, was established
on the foundation of Christ and Him crucified. So in that way,
it was shaken in a sense that it was given a sure foundation.
Christ built His church. He went to heaven to prepare
a place for us. Everything is based on what happened
at the cross. and heaven and earth are shaken.
Besides that, all the kingdoms of this world have become the
kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. In Revelation 11, verse
15, and Daniel 7, verses 13 and 14, it says everything was given
to Him. He was given all dominion, that
every kingdom and nation should be subservient to Him, should
serve Him. It was shaken, wasn't it? And
here, back now to the principle of the law, let's revisit that
now. Humanity, which has lived since
creation under the law now, has heard this joyful sound. and
a command with that joyful sound to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ
and His righteousness by trusting Him that His obedience and His
blood alone fulfilled and could fulfill God's holy law so that
He becomes the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Romans 10 verse 4. So what we
have here now is in verse 8 of Psalm 68, a whole encapsulation
of the accomplishments of Christ in the cross and in his resurrection,
ascension, and his seeding, his session in glory. This is phenomenal,
isn't it? That everything would be shaken,
and it would be established on Him. Christ is the foundation
of the Church. The walls of this building are
salvation, and the stones in it are living stones. They're
the people of God, put there by God Himself. And it's a glorious
temple. God himself dwells in it. And
the people of God see the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the beauty of that temple is beyond words, beyond description,
given in Revelation 21. And there's a river that flows
from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And that river gives
life to all those who drink of it freely. for all eternity everyone
and so things are shaken aren't they the tree of the life was
Forbidden after Adam ate from the tree of knowledge and good
and evil but by the cross now the tree of life Christ crucified
and That tree is, Jesus said, unless you eat my flesh and drink
my blood, you have no life in you. But if you do eat my flesh
and drink my blood, believing in Christ who gave himself for
our salvation and our life to fulfill all of the requirements
of God so that we come to God now only by him, trusting that
all that God requires of me is Christ and him crucified. That's
shaking us up, isn't it? He's raised us from the dead.
Is that a shaking? Of course it is. And he's consigned
others to eternal death. And that's a shaking also. Everything
was established and shaken up by this. This is the cross. So
the earth shook then, but that was a type, a faint shadow of
the substance that's much more real than the type. Then it says
in Psalm chapter 68 and verse 9, it says, Thou, O God, didst
send a plentiful rain, whereby Thou didst confirm Thine inheritance
when it was weary. Now, in the wilderness, the Lord
did send a plentiful water, and in the land of Canaan He was
always sending rain. The point of this text here is
that God gave an abundance of grace to his people because of
what Christ has done. In Romans chapter 5 and verse
21 it says, grace reigns, that means it rules, grace reigns now through righteousness
unto eternal life. That's an abundance of grace.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That is, sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's
a reign, R-E-I-G-N, the reign of Christ, the reign of grace.
But this R-A-I, reign, is a metaphor for the outpouring of the blessings
of God by the grace of God because of the sacrifice of Christ accepted
by God for his people. Everything depends and is given
in Christ because of Christ. because he did the will of God,
because he gave himself for our sins, because he sanctified the
people with his own blood, because he perfected forever all those
who were sanctified by that one offering, because he put away
our sins and fulfilled that everlasting new covenant. And because He,
by His blood, is our access to God and the very presence of
God in all of His glory, we are clothed in His righteousness,
made holy and accepted in love as the children of God because
of Christ. Now, that's what he's talking about here, an outpouring
of an abundance of rain. In the wilderness, it was a type.
In the fulfillment, it's given to us because Christ accomplished
our salvation. He says, Thou didst send a plentiful
rain And it refers to this abundance of grace given to us in Christ,
because of Christ, given to us by Christ, since He ascended
to His exalted throne. And this grace is so plentifully
given by Him that it confirms His people. It confirms us. We heard, but now we know these
things to be true by the gospel. Okay? And it says, whereby thou
didst confirm thine inheritance. All of his people are called
his inheritance when it was weary. God's people are weary. We're
weary in this world. We were weary in history because
of the reign of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ has unburdened
us. He has lifted our sins from us.
He has undone all that the enemy thought to do to us. And now
we live by faith in Him having accomplished everything for us.
And we live in hope. that in the experience of our
own person, we will receive the consummation of that accomplishment
in glory, because he's there for us, because he did it all.
We are dependent upon him, and everything that he did, he did
for us. Everything given to him is given to us with him. Romans
8, 32, if God spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not also with him also freely give
us all things? Everything given to Christ is
given to us with Him. All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places were given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
Ephesians 1 verse 3 and following. All right, so we see that this
is a great comfort to us in all the weariness of our life. We
learn that God's will is to conform us to the image of His Son and
He shall do that without fail because God is God. Alright,
let's look at verse 10. He says, Thy congregation hath
dwelt therein. Thou, O God, hast prepared of
thy goodness for the poor. Christ's people are the congregation. He says, He is not ashamed to
call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren
in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. That's
in Hebrews chapter 2. But here, the congregation that
he's speaking of here are the people of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the elect of God, those given to him by the Father, those he
redeemed by his precious blood as a shepherd of their souls.
And it says in Ephesians, not Ephesians, Hebrews chapter 1
verse 14, that they are the heirs of salvation. They inherit as
an allotment given to them by God, they inherit salvation. What an inheritance. Canaan typified
a land and that land that it typified is the land of salvation,
the land of eternal life and eternal glory, all because of
Christ, all in Christ. We have all things in him, don't
we? And so our great God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
has prepared of His goodness for us. This was all out of His
goodness, wasn't it? He gave Himself to God for our
sins. That's His goodness of humility,
love, grace, truth, righteousness. He established our everlasting
righteousness, as it says in Daniel 9, verse 24. And in 1
Corinthians 1.30, He is our righteousness. God made Him so. He's the end
of the law for righteousness. He was made sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5,
verse 21. He rose from the dead for our
everlasting life. He reigns and ever lives to save
us to the uttermost. It says in Romans 5, we are now
justified by his blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to
God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, notice,
we shall be saved by His life. The Lord Jesus Christ lives. He ever lives, and Hebrews 7.25
says, because He ever lives, He's able to save us to the uttermost
who come to God by Him. See, we come to God trusting
Christ. Like the publican, God, be propitious to me, the sinner.
That's coming to God by Christ. Okay? So Christ's congregation
here, he says, thy congregation hath dwelt therein in the inheritance
of the land of salvation, the eternal rest. Thou, O God, hast
prepared of thy goodness for the poor, the poor. We, the congregation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, are utterly spiritually bankrupt
in ourselves. We not only have no spiritual,
life, knowledge, or blessings in ourselves, but we also are
in debt. We have a debt of sin. The wages
of sin is death. We can't pay our debt. We certainly
can't produce spiritual life. We can't bring spiritual blessings
to ourselves. So we're poor, spiritually bankrupt,
spiritually in poverty. So because we are poor in ourselves,
All that we have must come from the King. Christ is rich. He is rich in grace. He's rich
in righteousness. He is life. He is truth. He's
the way to the Father. Eternal glory is by Him and given
to us because of Him. So we have in Him, we have all
spiritual blessings. So even though in ourselves we're
utterly poor and bankrupt and in debt, in Christ, our debt
has been paid by His precious blood. and we've been given all
things. And this is what this verse is
talking about. His congregation has dwelt in
the inheritance Christ earned for them and obtained for them
through his victory on the cross. He prepared all of that of his
goodness for them, and they in themselves are poor, but in the
Lord Jesus Christ, they have the riches of their Redeemer,
just like Ruth had the wealth of her husband, Boaz. All right,
the Lord provided all things for them by himself. When Judah
stood before Joseph, the governor of Egypt, pleading for Benjamin,
his little brother, he pledged to Joseph himself. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
has pledged and given himself for our life, for our freedom,
to go back to our father again, with our brethren, and this is
the riches of God." This is the riches of God, Christ's grace. He who was rich for your sakes
became poor that you through his poverty might be made rich. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Theirs is the very kingdom of heaven. Now that's riches, isn't
it? Okay, in verse 11, he says, the
Lord gave the word, great was the company of those that published
it. The Lord is Christ. The word that he gave is the
gospel. When he rose from the dead, he told his disciples,
you go preach this gospel to every creature under heaven.
And then he ascended on high and took his place at the right
hand of God. And from there he sent his Holy
Spirit. And the Holy Spirit enabled his
apostles to preach the gospel with power, and it also enabled
those who heard it to be converted by it, and they believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ, all who were ordained to eternal life, all
those that seemed good to God to add to the church, who were
to be saved. And Christ therefore made his
people willing in the day of his power, as it says in Psalm
110, verse 3. Christ gave the gospel, and the
company of those who preached it or published it were great,
because all of the Church of God is involved in that. The
Church of God is referred to in Scripture as the mother of
us all, because it is through the Word of God that the Spirit
of God births us to God, and so the Word preached by the Church
is that Word through which God gives birth to his people, wherever
they are throughout the world. What a gospel that is. Remember
how Jesus told his disciples that even hell itself could not
stop him from building his church. And that means he has to go and
find and bring his sheep back to his fold. And he does all
this through the preaching of the gospel. It says in, is it
2 Timothy 1, 9, who has saved us and called us with a holy
calling, not according to our own works, but according to his
purpose and grace, which were given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. And then he goes on in 2 Timothy
1, And verse 9, he says this, because I didn't have that part
memorized, he says, verse 10, he says, Hold on, I'm in 1st
Timothy, 2nd Timothy 1 and verse 9 and verse 10 he says, but now
all this is made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus
Christ who has abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. That's what this great company
is preaching and that's what is being accomplished here. The
light of the gospel is the light of life. Jesus said this in John 8 verse
12. He says, I am the light of the
world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The gospel is the light of life
because it's about Christ and him crucified and him rising
in victory and ascending and reigning and interceding for
his people. And then in verse 12 of Psalm 68, it says, Kings
of armies did flee apace, and she that tarried at home divided
the spoil. Now, kings of this world and
the religions of this world, which are really the kingdom
of Satan, fled when Christ rose and sent his apostles to preach
his gospel. They were afraid. They tried
to cover it up. They tried to hide it. They paid
people. There were men who swore with
an oath that they wouldn't eat or drink until they killed Paul.
They were intent on killing Christ and all of his people. And so
they were scared. But the church, which is the
woman here in this verse, kings of army did flee apace. She that
tarried at home is the church. Remember Revelation 12, the woman
in Revelation 12 gave birth to the man child. and the man-child
was snatched up into heaven, and then Satan was cast out of
heaven. That's Christ crucified, being
born, coming in the flesh and being born of a woman under the
law, keeping the law, redeeming them by his own precious blood,
and then rising again and ascending to heaven. and victory over Satan. Well, it says here, kings of
armies did flee apace because the kings of this world were
conquered because Satan was conquered in the death of Christ. He nailed
the accusations of God's law that were against us to his cross.
He delivered us from Satan. He translated us into the kingdom
of his dear son, God did. And also he spoiled principalities
and powers. He displayed them in shame. publicly shamed them in the preaching
of the gospel. And now, we're always saying
this, Christ defeated Satan. For this purpose, the Son of
God was manifest that he should destroy the works of the devil.
He did it. He has disarmed, he has defeated,
he has bound Satan. Satan, this quote, strong man,
close quote, was defeated Christ stronger than he bound him and
took, Christ took his own captives. that were captive to Satan, took
them from Satan's palace and just ravaged his palace because
the kingdoms of this world and the kingdoms are become the kingdoms
of our Lord and of his Christ. So the armies of this world did
flee apace and Revelation 12 talks about this and also in
the book of Luke, in Luke 17, not 17, but in Luke chapter Luke chapter 10, he says this,
verse 17, the 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils
are subject to us. How could devils be subject to
the disciples? Because they were Christ's, because
they were subject to Christ. The disciples belonged to him.
And he sent his people out with gospel, and the devils had to
submit. They had to stand down, because
he is the Lord. And that's when he said in Luke
10, verse 18, that he beheld Satan fall from heaven as lightning. Okay. Now, in... In Psalm 68, this will be the
last verse, verse 13. It says, Though you have lined
among the pots, yet shall you be as the wings of a dove covered
with silver and her feathers with yellow gold. This seems
like a difficult verse to me. What does it mean? Well, L-I-E-N,
line, as it says in the King James Version, means lane. We
use the word lane, though you have lane among the pots. And
the word pots here, in the Young's Literal Translation of the Bible,
if you were to look on the Blue Letter Bible online, you could
find it easily. It means boundaries. boundaries. It's also, by J.P. Green, Sr.,
in his literal translation of the Bible, it's translated sheepfolds,
or folds, as you would put sheep in. So boundaries or sheepfolds. And then in Strong's Strong's
mentions that it can also mean a double stall for cattle. So
it seems therefore that this verse speaks of God's people
who though they lie between two boundaries shall have the blessing
of a dove which is covered with silver and her feathers with
yellow gold. What does it mean? It's kind
of a cryptic metaphor, isn't it? So the boundaries are the
boundaries of our life which is our life with Christ in this
world, and the other boundary is our life with Christ in glory,
as I understand it. And the dove in scripture, of
course, refers to the Holy Spirit. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
anointed by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit justified
Christ and his people in his work. And he also speaks peace
and gives hope to his people through the preaching of Christ
in the gospel, Romans 15, verse 13. So we can conclude that God
has given us all the blessing he has given to the Lord Jesus
Christ if he gives us his spirit. Whatever God gives to Christ,
he's given to us if he has given us his spirit. We know we have
his spirit if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Because he
says, whoever believes Jesus is the Christ is born of God.
Therefore, between our life in this world and our life with
Christ in glory, how do we live? Well, we live by Christ's life
in us. We live by the Spirit of God,
Christ in us. He is our hope of glory. And
the dove with wings of silver, silver is a white metal, and
it signifies purity. And in the Old Testament scripture,
there was an atonement money given, which was silver, half
shekel. And then also his wings are with
yellow gold, which, you know, gold is riches and what kings
consider treasure. So the Spirit of God gives us
life and faith and every grace to us. So the Spirit of God,
who is holy by the signification and from heaven by the signification
of the silver and gold, gives to us life now and brings us
to the second boundary, which is eternal life in heaven and
glory. As we live in this world, We
are given the Spirit of God because of Christ's righteousness. God's
law is fulfilled by Christ for us, and that righteousness of
God's law fulfilled by Christ for us is fulfilled in us because
Christ has given us his Spirit. If the Spirit of God is in us,
it means we have everlasting life. If we have everlasting
life, we have fulfilled the law. Because that's what the law gives.
It gives life to the obedient. And we can only be obedient in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, so that's kind of my understanding
of this verse. It means that between our life
in this world and our life in glory, we're led by the Spirit
of God to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And believing Him,
we have all the blessings of God. We have all the blessings
Christ earned for us, and the principle one is that we have
the Spirit of God living in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory. All right, we've run out of time.
We're at verse 14. Try to remember that next time,
and we'll pick it up there. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your word. It's deep beyond our own understanding. We cannot plumb the depths of
it. We only see through a glass darkly, and yet we pray, Lord,
that by your grace you would give us to see the Lord Jesus
Christ, now by faith, in the gospel, and in hope, knowing
that we shall see him, enduring every trouble in this world with
joy, because we've been given the wealth of over a million
worlds in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us not be bothered by the
trifles of this world, but let us, as kings, to rule over this
life by faith in Christ and to return all of our thanks and
praise and worship to him who loved us and gave himself for
us for our sins to bring us to God and to give us all the blessings
of heaven. What a Savior, what a God. We
thank and praise you for who you are, for the Lord Jesus Christ
you gave to us and for us that we might know you. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen.