Alright, Psalm 68, there are
35 verses in this psalm, and I think I'll read the first 21
verses tonight. I won't read the entire chapter.
So let's begin with verse 1. It says, Let God arise, let his
enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate him flee
before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive
them away. As wax melteth before the fire,
so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the
righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God, yea, let them exceedingly
rejoice. Sing unto God, sing praises to
His name. Extol Him that rideth upon the
heavens by His name, Yah. and rejoice before him. A father
of the fatherless and a judge of the widows is God in his holy
habitation. God setteth the solitary in families,
he bringeth out those which are bound with chains, but the rebellious
dwell in a dry land. O God, when thou wentest forth
before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness,
Sila, 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. The Lord gave the word,
great was the company of those that published it. Kings of armies
did flee apace, and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. Though you have lain among the
pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with
silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. When the Almighty
scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon. The hill of God is as the hill
of Bashan, an high hill, as the hill of Bashan. Why leap ye,
ye high hills? This is the hill which God desireth
to dwell in, yea, the Lord will dwell in it forever. The chariots
of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels. The Lord
is among them as in Sinai in the holy place. 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. Blessed be
the Lord who daily loadeth us with his benefits, or with benefits,
even the God of our salvation, Selah. He that is our God is
the God of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong the issues
from death. But God shall wound the head
of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such in one as goeth
on still in his trespasses. All right, and this song goes
on with a lot more verses, but I want to just focus on kind
of the overview tonight and the first few verses, maybe to verse
three. So I wanted to read to verse
21 because as you can see in verse 18, 19, and 20, he speaks
of what is quoted in Ephesians chapter four in the New Testament. Ephesians chapter four quotes
verse 18, and it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ in his ascension. And if you were to turn to Ephesians
chapter four, I'll read this to you, in Ephesians chapter
four, is talking about the church. He says in verse 7, unto every
one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ. Wherefore, when he saith, when
he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts
to men. Now that he ascended, what is
it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill
all things. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ. that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the slight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby
they lie and wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working
in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in love." Now that's an extended text of
scripture that I read there. You can read the first verses
of that chapter and it's really speaking about the Church of
God. And in verses 8 through 10 or
11, as you can see, speaking about the ascension of Christ,
he ascended up into heaven after his resurrection. And it was
at that point he gave these gifts to the church for the purpose
of building up the church in order to bring his body into
a perfect man, a complete body, which means throughout the whole
era, After the cross, the gospel would be preached and believers
would be added to the church, as many as the Lord would call,
and he would complete the work of building his church, as he
told Peter upon this rock. I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So you can see that
from Psalm 68, verse 18, where it says, thou hast ascended on
high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts
from men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might
dwell among them, it's speaking of the same thing as in Ephesians
chapter four. It's speaking about the ascension
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what this psalm really
is. The main theme of this psalm
is the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it turns out
that this psalm makes reference to many historical things. For
example, it makes mention of the Lord at Sinai in verses seven
through eight. Oh God, when thou wentest forth
before thy people, when thou didst march through 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. And then he goes on and talks
about other historical things about Bashan. If you remember,
the king of Bashan fought against Israel and God gave them victory.
over that king, and other things are spoken of here in this psalm.
But all of it, even though it has its roots in the history
of the Old Testament, in the books of Moses, yet it was then,
and here this psalm is gathered together in order to teach us
about the Lord Jesus Christ, and particularly about His ascension. Now, the Lord did ascend. If you want to turn to Acts chapter
one, you can see where the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven. Remember
the disciples had been with him for 40 days after the resurrection,
and they were there with him when he departed from them in
Acts chapter one. It says in verse 9, when Jesus
had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up,
this is Acts 1 verse 9, he was taken up and a cloud received
him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly
toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them
in white apparel. which also said, you men of Galilee,
why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which
is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner
as you have seen him go into heaven. All right, so the Lord
was taken into heaven, and the angel is telling the church,
these disciples who are watching him go up into heaven, The angels
told them he's going to return in a like manner. In other words,
he went up in their sight, he will return in their sight. He
went up in the clouds, he will return in the clouds. And in
fact, if you look at 1 Thessalonians chapter four, in 1 Thessalonians,
I'll read this also to you, related to the Lord's coming. Since the
angel said as he went up, he shall return. Let me read this
in 1 Thessalonians chapter four in verse 16. He says, for the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. Okay, so
he ascended after his resurrection. Now in this verse he's going
to descend again. He was in heaven and then he
descended in the incarnation when he became man and then he
completed his work on the earth he went to the cross, he suffered
death, he was buried, he rose again the third day, and then
after 40 days with his disciples, he ascended. And it says here
that he will again descend. And this second descending of
Christ, it says in this verse, in 1 Thessalonians 4.16, the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. So, what we see, there's a couple
of things to observe here. First of all, Jesus Christ is
God, and he became man. He wasn't always man, but he
was always God. And when he took on our nature
as man, He came into the world. He was born. He was born of the
Virgin. And God prepared Him a body in
the womb of that Virgin. He was conceived by the Holy
Spirit without a man. He was called the seed of a woman.
And when it pleased God at the appointed time, in the fullness
of time, it says in Galatians chapter 4, that He was made of
a woman, made under the law, in order that He might redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. And because we are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. So Christ in glory, eternally
the Son of God, equal with God, equal with the Father, equal
with the Spirit of God. All three persons in the Trinity
are equal. equal in power, in wisdom, in
glory. They are all eternal. They are
the one God. There is but one God, and the
one God is three, and the three are one. And this is a fundamental
truth revealed to us. We could never know this, but
God has revealed it to us in Scripture. And the importance
of this truth is quite a bit of importance. We won't get into
that today, but we're going to see some of it here. That when
the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, eternally with the
Father and with the Spirit, came into the world, He then took
on our nature as man. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. In
Hebrews chapter 2 it talks about Christ's incarnation. He says,
And I'll have to jump in the middle here, because I don't
want to take a diversion to build this up, but it says in verse
10, for it became him, talking about God the Father, it seemed
good to him, or became him, for whom are all things, and by whom
are all things. This is Hebrews 2, verse 10.
Listen to what it behooved him. It became him for whom are all
things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.
And that's a distillation of the truth of the gospel. Before
Christ came into the world, God the Father was pleased to make
him with his brethren one with them as he was also one with
God, but in different, in the sense that he was one with God
from eternity in nature and in being. But with man, he wasn't
forever man, but he was designated and ordained and chosen to be
united with his people from eternity. And so in that sense, Christ
has forever been joined to his people in God's eternal election
and in the eternal covenant of God's grace. But because of that,
because God's works and his will are eternal, there's no beginning
to them as there's no beginning to God, and no end to them as
God's works are known to him from eternity and they are eternal.
So here it says that God the Father wanted to bring, he used
the word wanted, it was in his will to bring many sons to glory,
and in that will of God the Father, he would do that by making the
captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings, and hence
he had to be a man. So he goes on, verse 11, Hebrews
2 verse 11, for both he that sanctifies or makes holy, and
they who are set apart to God, made holy, are all of one, for
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. So Jesus
Christ now is the one who sanctifies, according to verse 11 of Hebrews
2, and those he sanctifies are his brethren. They're all one,
they're one household of God. They're one, he is the son of
God, they are sons of God, they're brethren. He goes on, And so,
for both he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are
all of one, for which cause 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. This is the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says he's not ashamed to call
his people brethren. What a stoop that the Lord Jesus
would call people on earth and sinful people his brethren. And
he calls them to church. He says, in the midst of the
church, I will sing praise unto thee. So this is what he says
in John 17. He revealed his father's name
and his words to his disciples. He goes on in verse 13. And again,
I will put my trust in him. So Jesus Christ, as a man now,
had to trust God. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. So those who were his brethren
were the children of God by adoption, and they would become the children
of God through the new birth, the spiritual birth. And then
in verse 14, for as much then as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily, he took
not on him, Christ, he didn't take on angels. It says here
the nature of angels. But since he's talking about
being one with those he sanctifies, he's talking about taking them
on as his brethren. So he didn't take on angels,
and he didn't take on the seat of Adam either. He took on the
seat of Abraham, and that's significant here because the seat of Abraham,
according to many places in the New Testament, such as Galatians
3 and 4, and Romans chapter 2 and 4 and 10 and 11, 9 and 11, and many other places. We could really just run through
Scriptures a long time. The children of Abraham, according
to Scripture, are the spiritual children of Abraham, those who
are given the same faith as Abraham had, faith in Christ. So he took
on the seed of Abraham, therefore he had to be made like them.
It says in verse 17, wherefore in all things it behooved him
to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation,
or the word is propitiation, for the sins of the people. So
now this is a long another long text of scripture here, but it's
showing that the reason Christ took our nature is because he
took on us. He took on God's elect. He took
on the adopted children of God as his brethren, and he took
them on in order to make them holy. And he is the one who performs
that. He is the one who sets them apart.
And if you read Hebrews 10, verse 10, he did that when he offered
himself to God, by the which will, by the will of God the
Father that he offer himself We are sanctified by the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ. So he sanctified his people that
were given to him. He was one with them in the eternal
covenant. that God made with him for them,
and he therefore took them on not only to save, but he had
to take on their nature because it seemed good to God the Father
that he would be the captain in their salvation through sufferings.
Now that describes his coming, and it describes the purpose
of his coming. But the Ascension celebrates
the accomplishment of all that he came to do. OK, so the ascension
of Christ is the is the. Capstone, if you will, the crowning
achievement of his time in the world, and so that's what Psalm
68 is talking about. And now if you want to turn back
to Psalm 68 and hold your finger there and look at Psalm 47, I
think we mentioned this when we went through this Psalm, but
if not, I'm going to mention it now. Look at Psalm 47 in verse
five. It says in Psalm 47, five, God
is gone up with a shout. The Lord with the sound of a
trumpet. Okay. Now remember what we read
just a moment ago in Acts chapter one, where the angel said, as
you have seen him go into heaven, so shall he return in like manner. Remember, he went up from the
earth in the clouds and taken out of their sight, so when he
returns, his people will see him coming in the clouds. In
Acts chapter 1, where Christ ascended and the angel spoke
to the disciples after his ascension, there was no record there of
a shout. But in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse
16, where we read a minute ago, it says, the Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel
and the trump of God. So put those two things together
now. As he went up, so shall he return. And in Psalm 47, 5, God has gone
up with a shout. So if the Lord went up with a
shout, he's going to return with a shout. We know he is going
to return with a shout, therefore he must have gone up with a shout,
even though it's not recorded. Now, look at Psalm 68 and verse
1. So all that that I said before
was kind of an introduction to this psalm, the ascension of
Christ. Christ descended first. He who is God, the Son, took
our nature because He took us in the everlasting covenant God
made with Him. It seemed good to the Father
that Christ should be the captain of our salvation, and the way
He would overcome our enemies is by suffering. The captain
would be perfected as the captain in sufferings. And the sufferings,
of course, were the sufferings that ended in His death on the
cross. And so his whole life was given
to accomplish that will of God, to sanctify his people. And when
he finished that work, then he went up with a shout. He ascended
into heaven. And that's what Psalm 68 is speaking
of. Now, when the Lord came the first
time, He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and that's a
quotation from Romans chapter eight. In the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, God condemned sin, our sin, in Christ's flesh. Romans chapter eight, verses
one through four. But, so in his first coming,
to all appearances, he was an ordinary man. all outward appearances. And yet, in John chapter one,
in verse 14, it says, the word was made flesh and dwelt among
us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. So the glory of God
that we saw, we meaning now, as we read the gospels and scripture,
and them, the disciples who saw him, what we see in Christ is
not the the brightness of God's almighty power or his bright
holiness in the sense where no one can approach or look upon
God. But what we saw when we saw Jesus
Christ in the incarnation, in his life, his ministry, his sufferings,
his death, and all that he did while he was on the earth, we
see grace and truth. And this is so significant because
In this we see the very heart and the heartbeat of God, don't
we? We see the heartbeat of God.
And we could, again, we could take a divergence on this. But
just think about how Jesus told his disciples, if you have seen
me, you have seen the Father. And then let those words from
John 14 that we beheld, His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Let those words sink
deeply because when Moses declared God to Israel, they exceedingly
feared and quaked, and so did Moses. But when the Lord Jesus
Christ came and made known the glory of the Father in grace
and truth, sinners were drawn to Him. But yet, yet, in that
view of Christ, His glory as the Son of God was veiled in
flesh. Remember the psalm, I mean the
hymn that we sing, holy, holy, holy. I like that hymn. It says,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see. Remember
that? And so when the Lord Jesus Christ
was on earth, we couldn't see the glory of God in its brightness
in the sense that the eternal God the unapproachable God, the
God who is light that no man can approach to in his holiness,
or as the seraphim in Isaiah 6 cried, holy, holy, holy, and
they hid their face and their feet when they flew with two
of their pairs of wings, and with the other wings they flew
and they cried, holy, holy, holy. And so that was Christ in his
glory that they were praising. And Isaiah said, I can't, who
am I? I'm a man of unclean lips. And
the Lord took tongs and a coal from the altar and put it on
his lips and took his sin away, signifying that Christ would
take away the sins of his people. But what I'm trying to get to
is that when the Lord came into the world, it says in Philippians
2, he made himself of no reputation. He laid aside His outward visible
glory, so much so that people couldn't see God in Him. And
yet they could see grace and truth because He spoke and He
acted perfectly in accord with the heart of God, because His
heart was the heart of God. Starting there, think about what
happened when he ascended. What happened then? Remember
in John 17? Let me read that to you in John 17. We're talking about the ascension
of Christ and the significance of it, but we're building up
to this because it's important that we see the glory of Christ
in everything that he did, and in this case, in his ascension.
In John chapter 17, he says this in verse one. These words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hour has come, glorify thy son. Well, there's a couple of things
we could say about that. Number one, as a man, he was
waiting on God to do that, to glorify him, to reveal him to
be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead, as it says in Romans chapter
one. So he says, glorify thy son. that thy son also may glorify
thee. As the man, he could not glorify
his father unless his father glorified him. As thou, verse
2 of John 17, as thou has given him power over all flesh, that
he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him.
And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Isn't that a
promise of the New Covenant? They shall all know the Lord. They shall all know the Lord.
Isn't that a promise of the New Covenant? It is. It's a blessing
promised in the New Covenant. Here the Lord Jesus Christ is
praying according to the blessings promised in the New Covenant.
which he put into effect by his own blood. He met the conditions
necessary for those promises to be fulfilled by shedding his
blood. In verse three, he says, and
this, I read that, but I'll read it again, this is life eternal,
that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work thou gavest me to do." You can
tell that even before the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
of his work as accomplished, already accomplished. All of
his life he had accomplished the work, and now he's going
to accomplish it without a doubt in finishing that work in going
to the cross. But here he speaks of it as if
it's past. He says in verse five, and now
because of this, because I have finished the work you gave me
to do, listen to this, and now, oh Father, glorify thou me with
thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. All right, how many gods are
there? There's but one true and living God. Jesus Christ prays
to his Father, glorify me with your own self. This is a very,
this is an indescribably close union between God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying now that the work
is done, glorify me with your own self, the glory of the Father,
given to Christ, openly manifested as God. He who accomplished the
work of our salvation is God over all. And that's why when
we read Psalm 68 in verse one, it says this, let God arise. let his enemies be scattered,
let them also that hate him flee before him." The Lord Jesus Christ
is God, but in the days of his flesh, when he was on earth,
he appeared in weakness. It says he was crucified even
in weakness. He had all of the weaknesses
the bodily weaknesses of sinful men, even though he had no sin.
And he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief or sicknesses,
not sicknesses of his own, but the grief of sickness, which
he bore because he took the infirmities of his people, and he healed
them because he was taking their infirmities, as it says in Matthew
8, verse 17, and Isaiah 53, verses four through six. So the Lord
Jesus Christ was a man of weakness in the days of his flesh, but
in his ascension he rose from the dead. That was the justification
of the Spirit when he raised him from the dead. And then he
ascended up on high. He led captivity captive. He
gave gifts to men for the rebellious also. This is God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. God, who is God with us. Matthew
1.23, Emmanuel. God, who is Jehovah, salvation. Matthew 1.21. God, who is the
son given. the child born to us, the mighty
God, the Prince of Peace, the everlasting Father. All these
things spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord, Jehovah
our righteousness, Jehovah our shepherd, Jehovah the one who
provides all for us, the one who is the banner of victory
for his people. The One who is our peace. All
these things spoken of Jehovah in the Old Testament, Christ
is. He is God over all. Blessed forever. And what was done here in the
Ascension? Well, glory was given to Christ. Glory was given to Him. Honor
and glory, blessing and strength and authority over all. I want
to take you to a verse in Daniel, chapter 7. Daniel chapter 7 describes
this and it says in this prophecy of Daniel that he saw this in
prophecy and he spoke of this. He says in Daniel 7 verse 13,
I saw in the night visions and behold one like the son of man
came with the clouds of heaven. That's the ascension. and came
to the Ancient of Days, to God the Father. And they brought
him near before him, and there was given him dominion and glory
and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should
serve him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which
shall not be destroyed. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was the one who was given all this in 1 Peter 3. It says
it this way. It says, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his
resurrection, he's gone into heaven. This is 1 Peter 3, verse
22. He's gone into heaven. and is
on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being
made subject to him. This is God, man, our mediator,
the Lord Jesus Christ, ascended, ascended, seated, enthroned,
exalted, glorified with the person of the Father. God, the Father,
glorified Christ, the God-man. returned the glory to Him that
had been veiled, that had been laid aside for the purpose of
accomplishing our redemption. But it was returned to Him as
not just the Son of God, but as the Son of God and Son of
Man. And all things were given to Him. He is called the heir
of all things. Everything is given to Christ,
the Son. not only a son, but man. All
things were put in subjection to man, it says in Hebrews 2
verses 5 and following, and it was speaking in reference to
Christ, the man. who not as Adam, but as the second
and last Adam was given all things because he tasted death for every
son given to him by God to save as our surety and as our substitute
and so God has exalted him and he ascended to receive that glory
and that honor and that place. Now, what is the significance
of Christ's ascension? Some things immediately come
to our mind. Revelation chapter 5 talks about
the search that was made for one worthy to open the book that
was sealed and could not be opened until the lamb was found who
was worthy to open the book and to reveal the things that were
written in that book which he himself accomplished. And that
is the entire chapter of Revelation chapter five is devoted to the
worthiness of Christ because he accomplished our salvation. And so he is highly exalted.
God has given him a name above every name and has rewarded him. So the first thing we see about
the significance of the ascension of Christ is the reward. It was
a reward given to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, because I have
finished the work, now glorify me with your own self, with the
glory I had with you before the world was. He is subject to his
father. He humbled himself. He became
obedient as a man, as a servant. He loved his father. He loved
his wife. He loved his children as the
Hebrew slave in Exodus 21. He would not go out free. He
put his ear to the post, and his ear was bored through with
an awl, as it were. He was marked as God's servant,
a willing bond servant who loved his father, his wife, and his
children that his father gave to him. And he would not go out
free, but would serve him forever. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And because he so humbled himself, Because He so glorified His Father
in His death on the cross, in the salvation of His people by
accomplishing His Father's will, at full cost to Himself, the
Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't hold anything back. He loved
His people, He loved His Father, and gave not just something,
He gave Himself in total. So the Lord has exalted Him.
And when you think about it, in fact, let me take you to John
chapter 12, and this is a very significant, they're all significant,
but this is significant in this context too. In John chapter
12, the gospel of John chapter 12, listen to these words in
verse 23. This was after Philip, And Andrew came and told Jesus
that these Greeks were seeking for him. And verse 23, Jesus
answered them saying, the hour has come. The hour has come that
the son of man should be glorified. All right, so there we have it. This is the time of Christ's
glorification. But notice what he speaks of
as his glorification. He says, verily, verily, I say
unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. So here we see something twofold. First of all, the glory given
to Christ, as we've considered it so far, was a reward for his
obedience. But notice, think about this. That glory was the glory of God,
the glory of the Father, His own self. But how was that glory,
what was it that Christ did that was the cause for that high reward? What was it that He did? It was
this. He, like a corn of wheat, He
fell into the ground and died to bring forth much fruit. In
other words, He laid His life down for His people. He bore
their sins. and endured the wrath of God
due to them for their sins. He substituted himself before
God under the law and under the curse of the law with their sins
in order to condemn sin in his flesh that we might be justified. by His blood. That's what He
did. Now that was the act that was worthy of the reward of setting
Him at His own right hand. So what does that tell you about
the significance of Christ's death? It tells you that it was
worthy of this infinite reward by God the Father. God the Father
gave Him everything. Everything. Nothing left out. Angels and authorities are made
subject to Him. All people, in order that He
might give eternal life to as many as God the Father gave Him
to save. His people are His portion. They're
His inheritance. But God the Father gave Him everything.
He even gave Him His own glory. Glorified Him with His own person,
His own self. And what was it that was weighty
enough for the justice and righteousness and truth of God to so reward
Christ? It was the death of Christ on
the cross. It was what He did. What He did in order to save
His people from their sins. What an obedience that was, what
a humility, what a giving, what he gave of himself. He humbled
himself. That's what it was. It was the
humility of Christ. He stooped to suffer humiliation
of the worst kind in order to save a people, a sinful people
who were not worthy of anything from God. And the cross was the
crown. The cross was the cause of his
glory. And so he's revealed now as not
just a man, but as God. God did this. It's the blood
of God that saved his people. So he says, let God arise, let
his enemies be scattered, and let them also that hate him flee
before him. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
exalted. Ascended, exalted, made known
as God, God the Son, and God the Son of Man, sitting on heaven's
throne because of the greatness of his person, of his offices,
of his heart's labor and love and humility. He said, learn
of me, I am meek and lowly of heart. The lowliness of Christ,
the meekness of Christ, the humility of Christ is the most disarming
thing that you'll ever find in all of the universe. throughout
all time, the humility of Christ, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through
his poverty might be made rich. So these things, they warm our
hearts, don't they, to the love and the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He who is high was first made
low. That He ascended, it says in
Ephesians 4. What is it but that He descended
first into the lower parts of the earth? So when you see Christ
in glory, know that it was because of Christ on the cross. Christ
stooping to take our nature. What a humiliating thing that
was, to bear the nature of man, and not just man, but the appearance
of sinful man, and then bear the sins of his people as his
own before God. You can't describe this with
words. We can talk about it, we can
understand it in part, but really, How can we measure it? How can
we say anything in proportion to it except this is the glory
given to him because of what he did? The measure of the reward
is the measure of his accomplishments. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
God himself. So let's see. I better not take
up too much of your time. I want to point out here, though,
the next two verses, just real briefly, he says, "...as smoke
is driven away, so drive them away, as wax melteth before the
fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let
the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God, yea, let
them exceedingly rejoice." Here, two kinds of people are spoken
of, the wicked God, they're going to be blown away like smoke is
blown away by the wind. You'll never see it again. Just
smoke is gone. Easy to get rid of. Just turn
the wind on and it goes. And so they're going to be like
that. The wicked are like smoke or they're like wax. There's
no way wax can stand before the fire. It just melts. It has no power against fire.
So it is with the wicked. They have no power against the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, but let the
righteous be glad. Completely opposite. Infinite polar opposites
here. The righteous are to be glad.
No, exceedingly rejoice, he says. The cause here is because when
Christ ascended, he not only ascended for a reward given to
him, but a reward given to him for his people, because that's
what he did this for. He did it for them. He did it
for them. His reward that he received,
he received from God for them, for the rebellious also. Ephesians chapter four. And here
he describes the wicked as those who are gonna be melting and
blown away like smoke. And the righteous as those who
exceedingly rejoice. So we see that somehow in connection
with the ascension and exaltation of Christ, his glorification,
Wicked are described, and the righteous are described. And
the difference between these two is seen prominently in the
New Testament when God describes in Romans chapter nine how that
those who didn't have any name put upon them as the people of
God, the Gentiles, the elect among the Gentiles, they had
no name that they could be known as God's people, and yet they
were called God's people. He says, I will call them my
people, which were not my people, and her beloved, which was not
beloved. They're the beloved of God. And then he goes on in
Romans chapter nine, he says, but Israel, which followed after
their own righteousness, they did not attain to that righteousness
because they sought it not by faith, but by the works of the
law. And in Romans 10, he says that even though he has a desire
that Israel be saved, yet they stubbornly refuse to submit to
the righteousness of God, which is Christ. So the wicked here
are those who are disobedient to the faith. The gospel is preached
for the obedience of faith. And the wicked are those who
are unbelieving and stubbornly hold to their own righteousness,
whereas the righteous are those who submit in faith to Christ
because of that God-given grace. They're made to see like a blind
man. Their eyes are open and they
suddenly they're persuaded. They're like Abraham. They were
convinced God was able to do this. And so that's the second
part of Christ's ascension, is that the wicked, those who refuse
to submit to him in the obedience of faith in the gospel, they're
going to be like smoke and wax before the fire. But the righteous,
those who are given to Christ and given his spirit, because
he's ascended on the throne, he gives them his spirit through
the preaching of the gospel, and they are made obedient to
the gospel, and they are to exceedingly rejoice, not because of something
in them, but in God who has gone up with a shout, who has who
is, his enemies are going to be put to shame before him and
his people are going to be saved. And that's what this ascension
has to do with. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your greatness, seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his humility,
in his truth, in his grace, that you would give us such a gospel,
such glad tidings of such a great savior, such a great salvation,
and one who is so great that was stooped so low, and then
you would give him this highest of all places, because he would
give this salvation to his people with all the authority of God
and all the authority of the God-man mediator. And Lord, we
pray that these things would sink into our hearts and souls.
We would think on them and pray about them and desire to see
them and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ who is so exalted
because he accomplished our salvation as the captain of our salvation.
Thank you for this grace, Lord. Help us to trust Him. Help us
to follow Him and count our lives not dear to ourselves, but to
be laid down for the Lord Himself. In His name we pray. Amen.