So I want to just take a few
verses out of Psalm 68, beginning at verse 18, and I want to talk
to you this morning about the God of salvation. The God of
salvation. I'm just going to read a few
verses. Verse 18, it starts off with thou. Now thou is referring
to the God of salvation. We refer to him by many names. One of those names is Jehovah.
That's kind of like the most basic of all names that we see
in scripture. And when you see that the name
Jehovah, many times what you'll see in the King James Version
is the name Lord in capital letters. In the King James Version, that's
the way they did that. Lord in capital letters. And
that's the name Jehovah. And what that's referring to
is the God of the covenant. A covenant God. God who made
a covenant before the foundation of the world to save his people
in and by his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's the patriarchs. And the
reason he's identified that way is because the promise of salvation
as it was worked out in God's providence on earth, would come
through those men, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You know, Isaac
was called the child of promise. It was through him that Messiah
would eventually come through that nation. Messiah being the
Lord Jesus Christ. Also, Jehovah refers to the God
of all grace. This is the God who saves sinners
by his grace. He's not the God who's obligated
to me or you or any human being on this earth. He doesn't save
in reactionary ways. In other words, it's not you
do your part and then he'll respond. No, that's not Jehovah now. That's
a God of men's imagination. That's a false God. Well, look
what it says about the God of salvation, verse 18. Thou hast
ascended on high. That's an interesting phrase.
because God in his very nature has already, you know, he's high
above us, the scripture says. He doesn't start low and then
ascend. That's what that means. This
is a God who was down here and then went up. And when we consider
God in the trinity of his persons, for example, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, one God in three persons, We're
considering a God who is so high above us, we can't comprehend
him, we can't bring him down on our level. But yet here it
says, thou hast descended on high. Now keep that thought.
Next it says, thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts
for men. And it says, yea, for the rebellious
also. Now that's just a further explanation
of the men that he received gifts for. It's not just that you gave
gifts to good men and then the rebellious men. No. The men that
he received gifts for are rebellious men. That refers to the nature
of mankind fallen in Adam. And he says that the Lord God
might dwell among us. Dwell among us. You see where
this is headed. God among us, all right? Verse 19, blessed
be the Lord who daily loatheth us with benefits, even the God
of our salvation. And that word Selah, you know,
that's a musical term that meant for a pause to come. And in poetry,
as you read it and not sing it, it just means pause and consider
this. Stop and think about what you've
just read. This is important. It's all important. This is something
you really need to think about. The God of our salvation. In
verse 20, he that is our God is the God of salvation. That's
good news, isn't it? And under God, the Lord belong
the issues from death. Salvation. What is salvation? That's what I'm going to be teaching
on this week in this series. Well, people think of salvation
in so many different ways, but basically, Salvation is the deliverance
of our souls from sin. It's curse, sin's curse. Even
sin's dominion, sin's consequences. Ultimately from the presence
of sin, the influence of sin, the corruption and contamination
of sin. All of those things. We're going
to be looking at in our series of salvation in four different
realms. And I call them realms because
salvation in essence is a kingdom. Christ is the king, the king
of kings. And those who are saved are his
subjects. They're citizens of the kingdom.
So I call them four different realms of salvation. And I start
with the eternal realm. Salvation is a matter of eternity. When we talk about the God of
salvation, we're talking about an eternal God. We're not talking
about a God who tries and cannot, who wills and cannot fulfill
his will. We're not talking about a God
who tried one thing and then that didn't work and now there's
plan B. No, salvation is a matter of eternal purpose. eternal will
of God. God, before the world began,
the scripture says, set forth in the everlasting covenant of
grace, covenant with the Son and the Spirit, to save his people. Secondly, salvation is a legal
matter. We talk about the legal realm.
Now, salvation is from sin. We've seen that. But salvation
must be established upon righteousness. Now why is that? It's because
God is holy. It's because God is just. It's
because God is a righteous judge and cannot judge wrongly or he
cannot corrupt judgment. He cannot diminish judgment.
In God's court, the punishment must fit the crime. Now that's
so. And this is one of the many,
many, many things that people are missing today concerning
the gospel, what they call gospel. You know, what do people call
gospel today? Well, God loves you, Christ died for you, you're
a sinner, admit that, answer these four questions, pray this
prayer, and bam, you're saved. Well, that's not the scripture,
that's not salvation, there's nothing even like that from Genesis
to Revelation, that's a concoction of man. That's what the old preachers
used to call easy-believe-ism. It's kind of like you walk into
a church, give me what I need today, let me go home and get
about what I really want to do. And that's salvation. And no
matter what happens, and they make that decision, if they do
it when they're young, no matter how they live their life the
rest of the time, when they die, the preacher's got to preach
them into heaven. Now you know how that is. But that's not salvation. And one of the most valid, serious,
missing notes concerning people's view of the gospel today is this
subject, salvation, must be established upon righteousness. Now that's
stated here in Psalm 68 in verse 18, thou hast ascended on high,
thou hast led captivity captive. In those words. Now what do I
mean by that? All right, now think about this.
The moment you make the statement that God saves sinners, and that
statement is scriptural, isn't it? We can think of so many passages. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Paul said, this
is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Now the moment you say that God
saves sinners, or the moment you say that God forgives sin,
you have just brought to your mind a major, major, major theological,
legal, and ethical problem. Because let me tell you something,
God cannot just simply forgive sin the way men think of it today.
I'll give you an example. If there was a known, convicted,
guilty murderer in this town, everybody knew he was guilty.
Let's say the man even admitted he's guilty. He murdered someone
and he goes up for a judge, before a local judge. And let's say
that judge looks down at that man and says, now, I know you're
guilty, but I forgive you. Go free. Now, what has just happened
there? Justice has been perverted. You
can't do that, judge. Justice has to be done. That
man's guilty. He murdered someone. And you've
got to pronounce the sentence. in order for the law, for justice
to be done. You see, now a human judge could
possibly do that. You know, we all the time talk
about, you know, throwing yourself at the mercy of the court and
the judge saying, well, this is your first time. I hope they
don't do that with murder, but with other crimes, they say it's
your first time offense, so we'll let you off, you know. Well,
you know, we might applaud that, especially if it was one of our
children or somebody like that, but you know what? He still perverted
justice. Hadn't he? Righteousness has
not been done in that court. Now, an earthly judge can do
that, but the heavenly judge cannot. He cannot do that. Why? Because he is truth. He is holy. He is righteous. He is just. He always judges
according to truth. Now somebody says, well now wait
a minute though. Doesn't the Bible say God is
love? Yes, it does. And boy, I thank God it does,
don't you? But not the kind of love men and women talk about
in religion today. Doesn't it say God is gracious?
Yes, it does. But not the kind of graciousness
that men and women talk about today. Isn't he merciful? Yes,
he is. But let me tell you something,
salvation and God's love and God's grace and God's mercy must
be established upon righteousness. That's the only way it can happen,
in God's court. That's why in Romans 521 when
Paul wrote, he said, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might
grace reign. And that word might there is
not a may or may not, it's a word of purpose. You know, this is
the purpose of grace. might reign or grace reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And
so unless men and women are confronted with this issue of how God can
be just and righteous, a righteous judge, and still forgive and
save sinners, they've never even come close to hearing the gospel. Now that's right. I don't care what else they do.
They can turn over a new leaf. They can reform outwardly. They
can get baptized a thousand times. They can join a church. They
can preach messages. But until they're confronted
with that issue, they have never even come close to hearing the
gospel of salvation and understanding the God of salvation and what
salvation itself is. Now notice what it says here
in verse 18. Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity
captive. What's he talking about? Ascended
on high. Well, he's speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ as the savior of his people. And what did he do
to save his people? Well, before he ascended, what
did he do? He descended. Didn't he? He came to this earth. He became
incarnate. And look over at Romans chapter
10 with me. The Word, the Lord Jesus Christ,
was made flesh and dwelt among us. Why did he descend? Well, look at Romans chapter
10 and verse 4. It says, for Christ is the end
of the law, the fulfillment, the finishing, the completion
and perfection of the law for righteousness. In other words,
it has nothing to do with my works, your works, your best
efforts, your worst efforts, your mediocre efforts. It has
nothing to do with what we do for God. You know, people say,
well, in the end, the only thing that's going to matter is what
you've done for the Lord. Now, I'm going to tell you something. We who are truly saved, sinners
saved by grace, we ought to live our lives for the Lord. And it's a shame when we forget
that and we neglect that. But the issue and ground of salvation
is not what we do for the Lord. It's what he does for us, has
done for us. For Christ is the fulfillment,
perfection, finishing of the law. For what? For righteousness. Now that's his righteousness,
and it's to everyone that believeth. What does that say? To everyone
that believeth, Christ is the Lord our righteousness. I'm going
to talk about that in the next message. What righteousness is
this? This is the perfection of the
obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ that is imputed,
charged, accounted to his people. This righteousness is the reason
that he ascended on high. Look at verse five. It says,
for Moses described at the righteousness, which is of the law. That's by
the works of man. He says that the man, which do
with them, those things shall live by them. In other words,
if you're going to be righteous, accepted, justified, not guilty,
cleared. If you're going to be righteous
before a Holy God, what does it say here? Well, the man which
doeth those things shall live by them. In other words, you've
got to keep the law. Not part of the law, not part of the time,
but perfectly. In other words, whatever Christ
did to be the end of the law, which is the completion, the
perfection, the fulfillment of the law, if you're going to make
it to heaven, if you're going to be saved by your works, you've
got to do that same thing. And he says in verse 6, but the
righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not
in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven. Now remember what
it said over in Psalm 68, thou hast ascended on high. Well,
sinners can't say that. That's what he says here. Say
not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven. That is to
bring Christ down from above. as if to say that I can work
my way up to God. And he says, or verse seven,
or who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring Christ
up again from the dead. But what sayeth it? The word
is neither, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the
word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now
what is that all about? Well, most preachers today say,
well, that's about your believing. Well, faith is there, isn't it? Believing is there. But that's
not the ground. That's not the cause. That's
not the condition. What is it? He's already said
it. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it. You see, it's not my believing
that makes me righteous. It's Christ. He's the end of
the law for righteousness. What do I believe? I believe
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Christ is
my righteousness. Turn over to John chapter 16.
Here he's talking about his work on the cross. He tells his disciples
he's going away. Where's he going to? He's going
to suffer, to bleed, to die on the cross of Calvary. He's going
to be buried. He's going to be raised again
the third day. And he's going to ascend unto
glory. Unto his father. That's what
it says in Psalm 68, 18, thou hast to send it on high. And
it says in verse eight, talking about the Holy Spirit, he told
him, he said, now, if I don't go away, the Holy Spirit's not
going to come and do his work. He said, when he has come, the
Holy Spirit, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. And I'll tell you what, if people
would learn those three things right there, according to scripture,
you'd find the gospel. He says of sin because they believe
not on me. What that means is that without
Christ, I'm nothing but sin. Do nothing but sin. Christ is
the savior from sin. Without Christ, you have no savior
from sin. Salvation is salvation from sin. Without Christ, you have no salvation
from sin. And then he says in verse 10,
of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no
more. That's what it's saying in Psalm
68, thou hast ascended on high. Christ has ascended to the father.
Hebrews 4, 14 says this, that we have a great high priest who
has passed through literally into the heavens. He's ascended
on high. How can he do that? He did it as God's man who established
righteousness. He put away my sins on the cross. My sins were accounted, charged,
imputed to Him. He became accountable, responsible
for the debt of my sins. The wages of sin is debt. He
became legally accountable for it. He suffered, He bled, and
He died. And He put them away. He paid
that debt in full. And that's what it means over
here in Psalm 68, 18 when it says He led captivity captive.
What that means is that he took all our enemies into captivity. Everything that held me in captivity,
my sin, my flesh, Satan, the curse of the law, Christ took
it away. He took all our enemies into
captivity. He took them away. And what did
he do? He died so that I may live and
he says because I go to my father and look at verse 11 of judgment
because the prince of this world is judged in other words my sins
were judged and condemned and The sentence of death was carried
out upon me in the person of my Savior as my sins were charged
to him And I have his righteousness Over here in Psalm 68 it says
he gave gifts that he now has received gifts for men. What
is that gift? That's all the gifts and blessings
of salvation. That's justification before God.
I stand before God justified in Christ, washed in his blood,
clothed in his righteousness. God does not hold my sins against
me because Christ put them away. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. And so I stand before God cleared. I stand before God righteous
in Christ. A perfect righteousness because
it's not mine that I made. It's mine as a gift. He gave
it to me, but it's not mine in its origin. I didn't make it.
Didn't have anything to do with it. It's a righteousness that
cannot be taken away from me. God imputed it to me. He charged
it to me so that now I can say with the Apostle Paul, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. You see, the problem has been
solved in Christ. That theological, legal, ethical
problem, how can God forgive sin? It's been solved by Christ. But let me tell you something.
No religion of man in the history of mankind Not even that religion
which comes in the name of Christianity but denies these truths has even
come close to answering that question. But God has the answer,
and it's in the gospel. He hath ascended on high. He's
led captivity captive. He's given gifts to men. And
that God, and he says, and for what kind of men? Rebellious
men, not for men who were actively even seeking him. Somebody says,
well he did all that for everybody, now you've got to do your part.
That's not what this book, there's nothing in this book from Genesis
to Revelation that even comes close to that. You can take the
word all and the word world, you read them in their context,
they don't even come close to teaching that. The Apostle Paul, before he was
converted, when he was Saul of Tarsus, he was not seeking the
Lord. He was seeking to arrest and
kill Christians. And that's the kind of people
it says here, for men, yea, for the rebellious also. Sinners
who cannot save themselves. Sinners who do not want God's
way of salvation. And he says that the Lord God
might dwell among them. Now how does the Lord God dwell
among his people? When you go back to the Old Covenant,
you remember the mercy seat? And of course you know that's
a picture of Christ. And the sacrifice, you remember the high
priest would come into the holiest of all one time a year on the
day of atonement with the blood of the lamb. And he'd sprinkle
that blood on the mercy seat. And that was a picture of propitiation,
satisfaction to God's law and justice. That's how God forgives
sin. That's how God saves sinners.
And that was a picture and a prophecy of the lamb of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, giving himself in the place of his people as
he bore our iniquities and put them away. And righteousness
was established so that God could be just and justify the ungodly. That's salvation. That's the
ground of it. And he said, it's here. I will
dwell with you. That's how God dwells with his
people in Christ. And so he says in verse 19, blessed
be the Lord who daily loaded us with benefits. These things
never stop. And we haven't even began to
see the end of them. Y'all have heard me tell the
story about the two farmers from West Virginia. Oh, they've got
to be about 80 years old. And they got to talk and they
said, well, you know, we've always wanted to see the ocean. Maybe
we could travel over there and see it before we die. So they
made a trip over to the Atlantic coast and they're standing on
the shore there. And one of them looks at the
other and he said, you know, he said, I didn't believe it
was, it was this big. He said, I had no idea it was
this big. And the other one looked at him. He said, yeah. And he
said, that's only the top of it. And that's the way it is with
these blessings of salvation. We really only seen the top of
it, you know. Well, he says, even the God of
our salvation, he that is our God is the God of salvation,
and God the Lord belong the issues from death. The issues from death
do not belong to us. They don't. We can fight it,
we can complain about it, we can sorrow over it, we can cry,
we can flood money into medical research, but we cannot save
ourselves from death. We can, you know, I know that
the Bible says that our days are numbered, the hairs of our
head are numbered, but from our limited viewpoint, and it's very
limited, we think, well, we can extend our lives. And so we try,
we take our vitamins, we exercise, we eat right, do all that stuff. We go see doctors, take our pills.
And we, you know, think about old Methuselah. He lived 969
years. And here's his epitaph, and he
died. He died. You see, the issues
from death do not belong to me or to you. They belong to God.
Somebody says, well, salvation is salvation from death. It is.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law.
Oh, the law? Yeah, well, righteousness comes
up again. There it is. You can't get away from it if
you know the gospel. You know what that's saying when
it says the strength of sin is the law? It means the power of
sin will condemn us where the law imputes or charges sin. Now, how am I going to get out
from under that? Only in Christ. only in he who
hath ascended on high and has led captivity captive. That's
the God of our salvation. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for the word of truth of salvation in Christ and pray that you would
keep our eyes fixed upon him, guide us and direct us throughout
this day and this week. For it's in his name we pray,
amen.