It's good for us to contemplate
the things of eternity, isn't it? I'm not sure about you, but
I can just speak for myself. I think I try to, but I certainly
do contemplate what it's like to actually stand in the presence
of the Lord at the end of this mortal life. I think I probably
do it every day, and I don't know how many times I do it every
day, but I think it's a healthy thing. I think it's a good thing
for us, especially for someone standing in my position to contemplate
that there will be just a breath, there is just a breath between
us and eternity. There is just this short window
of opportunity and time and this short place that the Lord has
put us in, in this world, to proclaim His glory. I was saying
to someone on Sunday, I was really struck thinking last couple of
weeks ago, this is the only opportunity in all of our existence where
we will have the opportunity to exercise faith. This is the only time isn't it,
when we get When we leave here and go to eternity, we don't
have any need for faith, do we? Faith has disappeared, isn't
it? We have no need for hope. The one thing that survives is
love. Imagine what it would be to love
the Lord and to love each other without the impingement of sin,
the entanglement of sin in this world. What a glorious Saviour
we have. And there's a verse that's been
going around, a few verses have been going around and around
in my head for a couple of weeks now and I'm hoping just briefly
to unburden myself this evening if you don't mind. But it's in
Psalm 68 if you turn there. And this is a Psalm, a triumphal
Psalm about, in the original context was about apparently
the bringing of the Ark up to Jerusalem. and the triumph of God's people
and the declaration of the Gospel, the declaration of the character
of God. But there's a verse in verse 18 that you will probably
remember because Paul quotes it directly in Ephesians chapter
4. Verse 18 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. Blessed be the Lord, who daily
loaded us with benefits, even the God of our salvation." And
that word sealer is a punctuation mark, written as it were, and
it's sung stop. Stop and contemplate. Take the time to think about
what it is to have this God, our God, the God of our salvation,
what it is to praise Him, to bless Him, and what it is to
contemplate that He daily loatheth us with benefits. He is, verse
20, He that is our God, is the God of salvation and unto God
the Lord belong the issues from death. And that phrase, that
verse has been going around and around in my head for some weeks
and I can't deal with all of what this says tonight, but we
can look at some of it, but I want to spend most of my time in those
verses there. But the beginning of it, in verse
1, is a phrase, isn't it, that I don't know about you, but when
you contemplate and you read the scriptures and we read of
the awesomeness of the God of the scriptures and we read of
the power of His judgments, judgments upon the world at the flood of
Noah, judgments upon nation Egypt, judgments upon the professing
Church of God, nation, natural nation Israel, and we just think
of the awesomeness of the judgments of God and of course when we
come to the cross of the Lord Jesus we are left in no doubt
whatsoever that a holy God will and must punish sin. If that
is the way he dealt with his son when he found sin on him,
what on earth will become of this creation, this world, this
civilization that we live in? But again and again the question
arises, as is so often asked in the Old Testament, where is
thy God? I don't know about you, I don't
watch a whole lot of television, but I have done one thing of
late, since Lisa's mum's arrived, she's been getting the Sydney
Morning Herald or something equivalent to it for 90 something years
now, so she likes to get The Sydney Morning Herald, she doesn't
find much in it, but she's just part of her ritual of life. And
you can't get it delivered to where we are, we're in a little
sort of black hole down there in our part of Tarrara. So I
go into town each morning and I get my cup of coffee and I
get the Sydney Morning Herald and I flick through it. And again
and again and again, as you would expect, from a paper like that,
the God of the scriptures is blasphemed in the most appalling
and open ways. It was one that I read this morning
from that guy that wears the red bandana thing, I forget his
name. But anyway, it just leaves you firstly very angry that that
he's been led to contemplate that he can just mock God in
such a blasphemous and such an open way and mock the scriptures
and mock the Lord Jesus and who He is and what He's done. You're
angry about it, you're angry about the religion that he's
been through that's been very much a part of him having that
sort of attitude towards the Lord and then you have I am overcome
often by just a sense of dread, just shocking dread. This fat
guy will meet the Lord Jesus. He will meet Him and he will
go to an eternity that he mocks Him for now. This is the one
opportunity he has to raise his voice. When he meets him, he
won't say a word. Every mouth will be stopped. On the great day of judgement,
there will be silence from billions as they stand before the Lord.
They stand before him in all of his glory. They stand before
him arrayed with the trophies of his grace, arrayed there with
his church. But the question must come to
us, doesn't it? Because those people, in a sense,
in their mockery are saying, where is thy God? Where is He? The psalmist speaks of it. Joel
is harassed with those questions. It's been going on for thousands
of years. If your God is as big as you say, if He's as awesome
as you say, if He's as sovereign as you say, where is He? Why does He allow these people
in our public world to mock him and to blaspheme him and to treat
his people with utter contempt so openly. Where is he? And no doubt the psalmist, David
the psalmist, was mocked again and again for his simple faith
in the Lord Jesus. And what does he say at the beginning?
He says, let God arise. Let God arise. Awake O God, gird on your sword
again and again. The Bible writers led by the
Holy Spirit are calling upon God to do something. Think how
Noah must have been mocked for all of those years. For all of
those years a preacher of righteousness, mocked and mocked and mocked.
I think the thing that We need to bear in mind is that the longer
the judgment of God awaits, the more severe and the more intense
it will seem to be when it does come. Our God will arise. Let God arise, let His enemies
be scattered, let also them that hate Him flee before Him. as
smoke, just as smoke. That's how much strength they
have in them, just as a puff of wind can blow the smoke away. As smoke is driven away, so drive
them away. As wax melts before the fire,
so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the
righteous be glad. Let them rejoice before God.
Let them exceedingly rejoice. Sing unto God, sing praises to
his name, extol him that writeth upon the heavens by his name,
Yah, and rejoice before him. A father to the fatherless and
a judge to the widows is God in his holy habitation. Israel seemed to be like an orphan
nation, didn't it? But God was a father to them.
God is a father to his people. They were singing these songs
as they brought the ark up into Jerusalem. God settleth the solitary
in families. He bringeth out those which are
bound with change, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. And they
continue singing His praises, O God, when Thou wentest forth
before Thy people, when Thou didst march through the wilderness,
sealer, just have a think about it. He went before His people
as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire, and they marched 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. Thou, O God,
didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine
inheritance when it was weary. Thy congregation had dwelt therein. Thou, O God, hast prepared 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 spoils,
though ye have lean among the pots. Yet shall ye be as the
wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with
yellow gold. They'll be adorned in glory,
even those that remain behind from the war. When the Almighty
scattered kings in it, it was white as snow on Mount Salmon. The hill of God is as the hill
of Bashan. a high hill, as the hill of the
Shahn. Why leap ye, ye high hills? This is the hill which the Lord
desireth to dwell in. Yea, the Lord will dwell in it
forever." The Lord will dwell in Zion. The Lord will dwell
with His people. It's His dwelling place. The
chariots of God, verse 17, are 20,000, even thousands of angels. The Lord is among them. as in
Sinai, in the holy place. And these are the verses I'd
like us to spend a little bit of time looking at. Obviously
this is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou hast ascended
on high. Thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord might dwell
among them. Obviously this is talking about
the triumph, the triumphal reign, the triumphal exaltation, the
triumph of our Lord Jesus returning to that glory. Thou hast ascended
on high. Why don't we turn to Ephesians
4 and you can have your finger open there for a bit because
there's so much of Ephesians 4 which beautifully parallels
this psalm that we're looking at, which is why no doubt The
Holy Spirit led Paul to write these words. I think we might start at verse
1 and just read down to where Paul quotes these words. I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and
one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who
is, I love this description of our great God, who is above all
and through all, and in you all." Talking about his people. But
unto every one of us, no doubt, these are these extraordinary
gifts, aren't they? They are to every one of us,
every child of God, every child of God has gifts. unto every
one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ. It's an extraordinary verse,
isn't it? We don't have time to unpack it, but I think our
psalmist does a great job in describing it. in verse 19, Blessed
be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits. Even the God
of our salvation, every day, He just loads us up with benefits.
Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure
of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, He saith, when He
ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto
men. Now that He ascended, What is
it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? And He that descended is the
same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might
fill all things. These are his gifts, aren't they?
And he gave some apostles and some prophets, some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers. And this is the reason for all
these gifts, isn't it? 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 the cunning
craftiness whereby they lie in 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 supplied, according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part, making increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love." Paul was talking, isn't he? He's
a witness. He's a witness. A delightful
witness. to the resurrection, ascension
of the Lord Jesus and those gifts that He bestowed. Our Lord descended,
it says, doesn't it? He descended, says Paul. He descended
to a manger. He descended to be a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. He knows the hurts and the pain
that you feel. He knows all of them. He knows
them better than we know ourselves. He descended to be obedient to
death, even the death of the cross. He descended to being
laid in a grave. There were no depths of humiliation,
no depths of temptation, no depths of affliction which our Lord
Jesus didn't go through. And finally on that cross He
descended, didn't He, to that place where He cried out, My
God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? he descended, he descended
that he might ascend on high. But I love what the verse before
us says of the verse that Paul quoted. Thou hast ascended on
high, from that depth he has ascended on high, and thou hast
led captivity captive. He's taken those who were captives,
weren't they? What captivity were we in, in
our unregenerate state? We were captive to Satan and
we didn't even know it. We were captive to sin and we
didn't even know it. We were under condemnation and
spiritual death. We were captive to lust. We were
captive to evil thoughts. We were captive to error. We were captive to deceit. We
were in a strife, whether we were religious or
whether we were just profane. We were in a place of deep and
dark darkness and we had no idea. We had no idea. We thought it
was freedom and yet we were captives. We needed someone to come like
that mighty man to overcome so that this house could be plundered. And he's made captivity, he's
made those captives captive to himself. What a glorious captivity it
is with the Lord Jesus. Trophies of His grace were made
willing captives of His power, made to adorn His triumphal ascension,
His triumph in glory right now, His triumphal return. Captive. Someone penned these
words. Great King of Grace, my heart's
subdued, I would be led in triumph to, as willing captive to my
Lord, to own the conquests of His Word. I love that He takes
us captive and He conquers us through His Word. His Word made
spirit and life to us. And as we read in Ephesians 4,
the verse goes on to say that it's all His, isn't it? He has
ascended on high, He has led captivity captive, and He has
received gifts for men. Rebels is what we are described
as, isn't it? Rebels, subdued by His love,
captivated by His presence, captivated by who He is. He's won our hearts. by sovereign grace and infinite
love and mercy." And he continues, doesn't he? He continues to win
us over to himself. Continually, as we run and wander
astray like lost sheep, he comes and he rescues us and he takes
us back into his fold. We don't want, I don't know about
you, but I don't want to be a rebel to him. The thing that I want
most in life is to enjoy the presence of His fellowship, to
enjoy Him, to just rest in who He is, to find Him, peace and
comfort. And that's what this verse goes
on to say, He has received gifts for men, all those glorious ascension
gifts, those promises, that glorious promise that you know well in
Isaiah 53, where it says, isn't it, he shall see the travail
if he saw. and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoiled with the strong, because he has poured out his
soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he
bared the sin of many, and he made intercession for the transgressors."
As we spoke on Sunday and Cole spoke from the John 15, there
is just more, isn't it, than him just being triumphant. There is a purpose in all that
God does, isn't there? And it's gloriously laid out
before us, isn't it? He's ascended on high. He's taken
his people captive by his love and his grace. He's bestowed
those gifts on them, for the rebellious also, and this is
the end result of it, isn't it? That the Lord God might dwell
among them. We read in Ephesians 4, didn't
we, that it talks about those ascension gifts being related
to Him entirely, but to Him One God and Father of all who
is above all and through all and in you all." So that's what
makes the body of believers a precious thing, doesn't it? That's what
heals the body of believers. That's what causes us to be united
together. It's not a whole bunch of religious
activities and someone whipping people into line and causing
people to be busy that we can all do these things for each
other. It's actually a spiritual life, isn't it? It's a life of
God in the souls of His people, dwelling among them. He dwells
among them because they are fit and proper people for Him to
be with. I love how Ephesians 4 finishes
and says, Be ye kind one to another. Ephesians 4.32 Be ye kind one
to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, Even as God, for Christ's sake,
has forgiven you. If I look out and see my brothers
and sisters, I see someone for whom the Lord Jesus has died
and set his love upon them. How dare I hold something against
them. when He accepts them. If He accepted
me in all the wickedness of our rebellion, dear oh dear, we ought
to find ways to accept our brothers and sisters. And the Lord will
find a way, won't He? He'll find a way through the
wilderness of this world and through the wilderness of our
stony hearts of flesh. and He will bring showers of
blessing, that the Lord might dwell among them." That was the
whole purpose of it, wasn't it? That God would dwell with us,
dwell in us. That's where When he reigns,
doesn't he? He ascended on high in a great
triumphal victory and he reigns over his captives. He's taken
them captive and he reigns to dwell with them. The rebels now
are sons, heirs, co-heirs with Christ, loved by God, loved by
God. See the Mount Zion that this
psalm initially refers to has become the dwelling place for
our Lord, wasn't it? It was His house. It was His
house in the midst of His people. And now His house is with His
people and in His people. Living stones, Peter says, built
into a living temple. The ascension of the Lord Jesus
is the reason for the descent into our hearts of the Holy Spirit. He will come and take up His
residence in us and He will make sure that those gifts of the
Lord Jesus' work is that He'll take the things of the Lord Jesus
and He'll reveal them to us, the things of His that He has
earned. That comforter comes down. And
that's why the next verse says, Blessed be the Lord who daily
loatheth us with benefits. Not just a few and not light
benefits, but He loads us with benefits. Not here and there,
daily loads us with benefits. Grace for today. I don't know
about you, but so many of the troubles and cares we have in
this world are related to what we've done in the past. What
on earth can we do about it when the Lord's put it away forever
and it's in His hands and so many of us are concerned about
what might happen into the future. And my future is in His hands.
My past is in His hands. I rest in Him and who He is and
what He's done. And that's why this great God,
this great Saviour is called the God of our salvation. He
loads us with benefits. He bears our burden. He carries
us. I love how the scriptures, Isaiah
especially, mocks the gods of this world. They're all around
us with all sorts of different names these days but they're
still doing exactly the same things in the hearts of people.
But in Isaiah 46 there's a great contrast between the works of
men in religion and the works of God. He speaks of two of the
gods of that time, Bell, Bowth, Down, Nebo, Stoops. Where are these gods? In India
the gods are always on the back of chariots and they used to
put them on these enormous chariots and they have thousands of people
march these chariots around town. But here they are trying to take
these idles away. Their idles were upon the beasts
and upon the cattle. Your carriages were heavy loaded. They are a burden to the weary
beasts. They stoop and they bow down
together. They could not deliver the burden.
But they themselves have gone into captivity. Hearken unto
me, listen to me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of
the house of Israel, which are born by me, carried by me, he
says, from the belly, which are carried from the womb. and even
to your old age I am He. Even to whore hairs will I carry
you. I have made, I will bear, even
I will carry and deliver you." He takes captivity captive. He
loads them daily with benefits, even to the rebellious. that God might dwell among them.
And then we are to contemplate the name of our God. He's the
God of our salvation. He's the God of our salvation. His name signifies His glory,
but in His name, in the revelation of His character to us, is our
comfort and our consolation. It's our hope, isn't it? He's
pledged everything upon the glory of His name. Saved. What an amazing word. What a
word that's treated so lightly in this world. To be saved really
is simple, isn't it? It means to have our souls delivered
from sin, from sin's curse, from sin's dominion, from sin's consequences,
and ultimately from the very presence of sin itself. It's
to be completely restored to God. to be made the very righteousness
of God, to be made by God to be holy, to be made by God to
be fit for heaven, to be made by God to be a fit dwelling place
for Him, to be made by God to be fit for the new creation. And that's why I love what he
says there, isn't he? He's taken captivity captive. Salvation is not an experience,
but I love what Don Thornton says, it's an emancipation. It
is freedom, like calves set loose from the stall. Free, free at
last. Free from the consequences of
sin. Free from any effort whatsoever
to establish any righteousness. It's not a decision, it's a deliverance. It's not just a reformation,
it's a restoration, it's a new creation. And everywhere in the
scriptures where salvation is mentioned, and this is one of
them, isn't it? Salvation is always by grace alone, it's always
through faith alone, it's always in Christ alone, and it's always
accomplished. Entirely without any works, without
any works at the beginning, without any works to sustain it, without
any works to bring it to completion. He's taken captivity captive. He's given gifts to men. And on to our Lord Jesus said,
come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden. and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon me, the yoke
of my captivity." You'll find it easy, you'll find it comfortable,
you'll find it suitable for all the circumstances of your life.
And you're supposed to contemplate, that's what that Selah word means,
you stop and take rest. As surely as He is our God, He
will save His people from their sins, and He'll save them to
dwell with them. To have Him dwelling with you
is to be safe. To have Him as your friend means
that it doesn't matter what anything, whatever happens in this world. If He is your friend, you are
safe in His arms. And as this psalm goes on to
say, to have Him dwell with you, to have Him as your God, is to
know that all your enemies will be subdued. He will triumph over
all things. And that's what this verse goes
on to say, doesn't it? To Him belong the issues from
death. If He's conquered death, if He's
conquered your death, and you cannot die, then all of the other
things that will come into you in this world are relatively
insignificant, no matter how big a deal they seem to be. He
came from heaven to earth, he went to the cross and the grave,
and then when he came back, when he rose, what did he do? The
very first thing he does is he goes to be with his There's not
one resurrection appearance to any of the reprobate. He had
the most extraordinary opportunity to declare the most amazing triumph. He could have gone back to Herod
and mocked Herod as Herod had mocked him. He could have gone
back to Pilate and revealed to Pilate what a weak coward he
was and how courageous the Lord was. What an opportunity he had
to stand in those temple courts with all of those Pharisees.
and proclaim himself as sovereign God, and he didn't do any of
it. He came to his own, because that's
what he did it for. They are who he did it for. That's why when it seems as if
his cause is trampled in the streets of this world, we need
to keep being reminded, as this psalm reminds us, our God reigns. He reigns for a purpose, he reigns
for his people, he reigns in his people, he reigns over all
things for the good of his people in this world. His concrete death
But to Him belong the issues from death. To Him belong all
of the gifts and the benefits of His death. He is the one that
has them. They belong to Him and they are
His to give. Where, O death, is your sting? Our death has been swallowed
up in victory, he's ascended on high. And his people, his
people will enjoy the triumphal gifts of his glorious victory. We don't have much time but we'll
just look briefly at some of these verses towards the end
and we'll see that there is a purpose in it. In verse 26, it says,
Bless ye God in the congregation. It's all about the gathering
of a congregation together. If you go back to verse 22, he
says, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring, how does
he describe them? I will bring my people again,
even from the depths of the sea, I'll bring my people. They're
not lost wherever they may seem to be. Verse 28 is a glorious
verse isn't it? Thy God has commanded thy strength. It's a command of God, the strengthening
of His people. And then there is this response,
isn't it? Strengthen, O God, which Thou
hast wrought for us. What a great prayer that is.
Strengthen, O God. Arise. Let God arise. Strengthen, O God, what Thou
hast wrought for us. Strengthen it in our hearts.
Strengthen it in our witness. As David said, after he received
all those promises from the Lord, from the mouth of Samuel, he
says to the turn of Nathan, he turns to the Lord in prayer and
he says, just do what you said you can do. You've commanded
strength. Strengthen, O God, what you have
wrought for us. And the Lord's children, will
sing. Sing unto the Lord, unto God. Verse 32. You kingdoms of the
earth, sing praises unto the Lord. Verse 34. Ascribe strength unto God. Don't let the circumstances of
this world and the circumstances of your life cause you to think
anything other than that our God is absolutely sovereign,
immensely, wonderfully, gloriously sovereign over all things. Ascribe strength. His Excellency
is over Israel. His Excellency, His glory is
over His people and His strength is in the clouds. O God, Thou
art terrible out of Thy holy places. The God of Israel is
He that giveth strength and power unto His people. His people. That's the purpose
of it all. Blessed be God. We trust on the basis of the
testimony that we've heard that Simon's mum didn't have much
opportunity to share in the congregation
of God's people here on earth. But what a glorious, glorious
scene she is witnessing right now. Our great and glorious Father
in Heaven, we do thank you that we are called upon to call you
our Father, call you Abba Father. because of the relationship that
we have with You. We had it in eternity and it's
in and through Your dear and precious Son, Heavenly Father,
that we can now cry out to You. We praise You, Heavenly Father,
for the many, many witnesses in Your Word of Your strength
and Your power. And now, Father, we pray that
as we live in this land where Your glory and Your name and
Your Word are so openly trampled underfoot that Heavenly Father
You might arise, that You might arise in our hearts to give us
the grace and the strength to stand firm in the midst of all
of the infirmities of our flesh and all of the doubts and other
things that swamp in Heavenly Father and that we might find
ourselves again and again going to your word and saying that
you are a God who cannot lie and faithful is our God and he
will do it. We praise you Heavenly Father
for the glorious work of the Lord Jesus and we thank you for
those ascension gifts. Heavenly Father we may not see
them in ourselves and we may not see them around us very much
But we pray, Heavenly Father, You would cause us just to rest
in what You have promised. Strengthen, O God, what You have
commanded to be strong, that we might just live lives of simple
and childlike faith, looking to Your dear Son and being glad. Give us songs in the night, Heavenly
Father, as we contemplate what it is for us. rebels like us
to be taken captive by Him and to know Him and to know that
He lives in us and amongst us. And what He has begun is the
work that He has promised to bring to completion. We praise
you Heavenly Father that our salvation is not in the things
that we do that is entirely, entirely wrapped up and sealed
in what your dear and precious Son has done on behalf of his
people. Find us at rest, Heavenly Father.
Grant us your peace. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.