Alright brethren, let's go back
to Psalm 68. Whenever we see our sins and
see what great, great sinners we are and we're troubled and
we see our inability to put off the old man and put on the new
man as we ought, when we have trials of sickness and other
troubles and see our inability to overcome what appears to us
like mountains as obstacles. Whenever we have loved ones that
we mourn for, that we want to hear the gospel and we know we
can't give them a new heart, we can't make them even come
to hear the word. When we have troubles in our
homes and in our jobs and there's just nothing you can do to fix
it. You have trouble with self-righteousness and become lifted up in pride
and arrogancy and you hate it and yet it's always there, always
so easy to overcome you. And when you're growing older
in years and you're drawing near to the time when you're going
to take your last breath. All of these things that we encounter
in this world, we know by God's grace, we know we have no strength
in ourselves. So what is our comfort? What
is our security? What is it that lets us know? When we look at this world and
see this world in a riot and know that how corrupt things
are, what's our security? What's our comfort? Here it is,
verse 18, Psalm 68, 18. Christ has ascended on high. Thou has led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might
dwell among them. Now we know that speaks of Christ
because Ephesians 4 tells us, the Holy Spirit speaking through
the Apostle Paul says, unto every one of us is given grace according
to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he said, when
he ascended on high, he led captivity and gave gifts unto men. That
speaks of Christ. Here's our comfort. Here's our
security. Here's our hope. Christ conquered
all our enemies. Child of God, Christ conquered
all our enemies. He put away all our sin. He satisfied God for us, and
He's now ascended to His throne in heaven's glory at God's right
hand where He has all power over all things, and He's filling
all in all. Everything is under the supreme
rule of our sovereign Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything. what's happening to you in your
life, what's happening to me in my life, what's happening
to our brethren in their life, in his church and out of his
church. Everything that's coming to pass
is right on track. There's not even a leaf falling
off a tree that he hadn't ordained for it to fall. Everything is
right on track. The hairs of our head is numbered. He's doing everything according
to his sovereign will. Christ is supreme, the head,
the ruler, the governor, the man Christ Jesus. One who's in
a glorified state in our very nature as God and man is ruling
everything. And this is the one who laid
down his life for us. This is the one who shed his
blood to purchase us. This is the one who says, I'll
never leave you nor forsake you. That's my comfort, my only comfort. You think you got comfort in
something else? You think there's something else that's security
for you? If there is, if we just sang the words to that song,
search me and know me, purge me, purify me. If there's something
else I'm taking security in, something else I have pride in,
something else I think I'm getting comfort from or it's gonna save
me. If you want that song to come true, he will take it from
you. Because it's the best thing for
us. And we don't have to doubt that. We don't have to wonder,
will he really do that? Yes, he will really do that.
Because he's ruling. He's doing everything that is
best and right for his children, and he shall not fail. I want to look at this and just
divide this verse, and I want to first begin by looking at
Christ's ascension. Verse 18 says, thou hast ascended
on high. Our God, our Father has testified
to the universe, to all men throughout all time, to angels and principalities,
to the whole universe. God has testified that he's satisfied
with his son and his finished work. And the testimony is this,
he raised him from the dead to sit at his right hand. We don't
worship a dead redeemer. We don't worship a failed redeemer. We worship a living redeemer
who's seated at God's right hand. He's finished the work and the
proof is God raised him to his right hand and he's seated at
God's right hand. Go to Acts chapter 2. Let's know what Peter said on
the day of Pentecost. Acts 2 29. He says, men and brethren,
Let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David. He's
both dead and buried, and his sepulcher's with us unto this
day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn
with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according
to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne,
he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ. Whenever
David wrote, his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh
did see corruption. He said he was writing of Christ.
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
God provided us witnesses. They watched him ascend up. Therefore,
being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of
the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost. We're gonna see in
a moment that God promised him and gave to him gifts to give
to men. Peter says the Holy Ghost is
one of them. He received of the Father the promise of the Holy
Ghost. He has shed forth this which you now see and hear. These
men preaching the gospel to you in their own tongue, Christ has
done this through the Holy Spirit. For David's not ascended into
the heavens, but he said to himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore,
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
that same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Brethren, that's all our hope, that's all our joy, that's all
our security. We have a living Redeemer seated
in the heavens. Do you believe God? You believe
that? I'm telling you, I know we're full of unbelief, and I
know that there's times when you just find yourself unable
to believe, but there are times when I just know that certain.
I believe God. We have a living Redeemer in
our very nature ruling everything in heaven. At the end of Ephesians
1, he said all power was given to him in heaven and earth. All
power over everything in this world and in the world to come.
And he's fulfilling everything and filling everything. That's
what Christ is doing. We have such a high priest set
on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heavens. And
he's the minister, he's the shepherd, he's the He's the king and priest
of his sanctuary, of the true tabernacle, the church, which
the Lord pitched to not man. So we ask this question, who
is he that condemneth? Who is he that condemneth, Paul
said. Who's gonna charge anything? He said, it's Christ that died,
yea, rather that's risen again, whoever liveth to make intercession
for us. When you sin, John said, Remember
this, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sin. He's the place of
mercy with God, and he's our advocate. He's pleading our case
with God. He's alive, he's living, our
Redeemer. Now secondly, let's look at his
victory. Verse 18, thou hast led captivity
captive, That's what I've titled this, captivity captive. There's
two things this means, and really it's, they mean basically shade
of the same meaning, but first of all, it means he led our captors
captive. We were, we had captors. We were
captured by our captors, and he led those captors captive. Satan was our captor. Sin was
our captor. The world, death, hell, every
spiritual enemy we have, these were all captors that held us
in captivity. And Christ conquered them all.
He led our captors captive. That's what he did. Go over to
Colossians 2, and I'll tell you what this is picturing. In days in the past, when they
would have these big empires, when a king went out with his
army and went to war with another empire, when he captured them,
when he defeated them, they would take the captors that they took,
the prisoners of war that the king took, and they would put
them in chains. And they would have a big parade
as they marched back into town and all the people would come
out and there would be this open show and the king would be riding
on his big stallion and these prisoners would be coming along
behind them and they're all in chains with their heads hung
down and he's showing that he triumphed over them. And he's
making this big show, this big open show that he conquered his
enemies. That's what scripture says Christ
did. Look here at Colossians 2.13. You being dead in your
sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. Now here's concerning our captors. Having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. He's taken the devil in chains. He's taken sin in chains. He's
taken powers and principalities in chains, and he's marched them
before us, showing you, I've openly showing you I've triumphed
over them all. Christ has. He spoiled principalities
and power. When a king would spoil another
king, he would go in and take him captive, and he would take
the spoils of victory, he would take all his valuables from him,
and everything that gave him power, and everything that made
him a king, he would take those spoils from him. Well, Christ
has taken the spoils from our captors, and the spoils are you,
children, who are his. He took us from him. from our
captors. He's a victorious king. He's
a lord. He's enthroned in glory as a
conqueror over sin, death, and hell. He conquered. He conquered. Never an earthly king ever returned
from a victory and entered into his city with the pomp and the
glory that Christ our king entered into heaven's glory with. The
angel shouted, lift up your heads, O ye gates, be ye lift up, you
everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. He's
the King of glory. The cross was not a failure.
Men look at that and say, well, that's the greatest weakness
there ever was. That's the greatest triumph there ever was. In that greatest of willing obedience,
that greatest display of willing submission and lowliness that
you see on the cross, that's the height of glory. That's the
height of triumph that Christ accomplished on that cross. Scripture said he said he would
come and he would bruise, the serpent would bruise his heel,
but that he would wound the serpent's head with a death blow. That's
what he did. He come and put away the sin
of His people so that we were all our lifetime subject. We
were subjects to the devil. We were kept captive in fear
of death. And He put away our sin and He
makes you know that so that the devil has no more power over
you anymore. He has nothing to accuse you
with. And the devil can't do anything but what Christ permits
him to do. He's on a chain that Christ has
him on as the conquering king has the prisoner of war and he
only lets him do what serves his purpose. It also refers to you and me
who are his elect as being made his captives. We were captivity. and he led us out of the captivity
of our captors and now he's brought us into willing submission to
him and made us what scripture calls willing bond servants. We're his lawful captives, he's
taken us. We were captive under the curse
of the law, he redeemed us from the curse of the law being made
a curse for us. We were captives in our sin nature, he gave us
a new heart and brought us out of that captivity and made us
his lawful captives. And this is a captivity you want
to be in. This is a good king. This is
a kingdom where everything's provided and you have the best
of the best and you want to serve this king. So he's let us out. When He sent it on high, He let
captivity captive. He freed His people. He opened
the kingdom of heaven for His people. You and I were in Egypt
in bondage. We were in Babylon in bondage.
Christ freed us, and He's taking us now across the hot desert
sands, and He's the way, and He's leading us, He's guiding
us, and He's taking us to Jerusalem, heaven's Jerusalem. All of those
things that are pictured there in Psalm 68, He went before the people in
the desert. He marched through the wilderness before them. That's
what Christ is doing for us right now. He's marching through this
wilderness before us, with us, in our midst. The earth shook,
the heavens dropped. He satisfied the law. He put
an end to the law for his people so that he's overturned that
old covenant way. He shook the whole heavens and
the whole earth and he opened up a new way for us, the covenant
of grace. It says there, thou didst send
a plentiful rain and confirm your inheritance when it was
weary, just like he rained down literal rain on them in the wilderness.
He's raining down on us right now, the gospel and the spirit
of God and whatever we need to keep us fed and clothed and comforted
and strengthened and going through this wilderness. The congregation dwelt in that
plentiful reign. We dwell in this plentiful reign
of the Gospel. We dwell in this plentiful reign
of the Spirit. We're in the Spirit. We're in
the Spirit. If so, be the Spirit of God dwell
in you. You're in the Spirit. We dwell here. And we're on a
march with Him to glory. He's led us captivity captive.
We're his purchased possession, so he will not ever let one of
us go. He will not let us to be taken
captive again. Once he conquers, there's nothing
else they can conquer. Paul gave that long list in Romans
8. He said, tribulation, distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death, life, angels,
principalities, powers, things present, things to come. The
weakest, weakest, weakest believer is more than a conqueror to Christ
Jesus, who conquered all these enemies for us. And we're His,
we're under His power, under His rule, under His protection,
and He's never gonna let us go, and He's never gonna let anybody
harm us. They never will. Nobody can harm
you, brethren. Anything that happens to these
bodies of death, that's not harm to us. That's for us. That's
for our good. The real you is the new man that
he's created in you that is one with Christ. Nothing can harm
you. Nothing. You have eternal life. Nothing can do you any harm.
There's no sin in that new man. There's no death in that new
man. There's nothing but righteousness and holiness in the new man.
And this body of death, we're carrying around a dead body. And sadly, we treat that dead
body like it's alive. We treat it like it's just, oh,
we gotta pamper it and protect it and care for it. We're gonna
put it off. He's brought us into his good
care and his captivity, and he won't let us go. Now look at
this next thing. He's done all this by giving
us gifts. All these things I've been talking about are gifts.
Everything we have is a gift from him. Look, thou hast received
gifts from me, and yea, for the rebellious also. You remember
Isaiah 53. We read there where, look there
in our text, and he says, verse 12, kings of armies did flee
apace, and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. The she
that stayed at home, this was the bride that stayed at home
that didn't go out to battle. She stayed at home. She didn't
do any works. She did no fighting. She did
nothing in this battle. The king went forward and he
dispersed all his enemies. He conquered his enemies. Kings
fled from him. And once he conquered them, then
he opened up for his bride who had been at home, who did no
work to come in to the empire and spoiled those kings and take
all the gifts and he gave all the gifts to her. That's what
Christ has done for us. That's exactly what he's done
for us. God said in Isaiah 53, 12, I will divide him a portion
with the great. I will give the spoils to my
son. I'll give all the gifts to my
son, God said, because I'm satisfied with what he did. And what's
Christ going to do with those gifts? And he shall divide the
spoil with the strong. Well, we're not strong. No, that's
your strength. We're not strong in ourselves,
but he's our strength. And he divides the spoils with
his people. He gives gifts to his people
that he purchased, that he won the victory, that he spoiled
from the enemy, he gives those gifts to you and me. Our Lord,
you remember how Joseph, Pharaoh, when they were entering
that famine, Pharaoh put Joseph over the storehouses. So if anybody
wanted corn, when they came to Pharaoh, Pharaoh said, don't
come to me, go to Joseph. Joseph has the key to the storehouse.
And so they'd go to Joseph and Joseph would give them corn.
Well, brethren, Christ has the key to the storehouse. He has
the key to the storehouse of grace. All the gifts are his.
God the Father says, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased,
hear ye him. There's one way to come into
God's presence. God says, you go to my son. Everything
you need, everything you need for acceptance with God, everything
you need for forgiveness of sins, everything you need for redemption
from the curse of the law, everything you need for life and your walk
of faith, everything you need in this life, everything, go
to Christ. He has the key to the storehouse. God has given him the gifts to
give to his people. You think about what we needed.
We needed, first of all, we needed the Holy Spirit. We needed the
comforter. Peter said, he sent this forth. He sent forth the
Holy Spirit. That's a gift from our Lord Jesus.
We needed to hear the gospel. Look at Ephesians 4. He says,
he received gifts for men. Ephesians 4 tells us what some
of those gifts are. He says, He that, verse nine,
he that ascended, what is it? But he also descended first in
the lower parts of the earth. He that ascended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill
all things. And he gave, here's some of his gifts, apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors, 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,
till every one of his members of his body is brought into the
body. He gave ministers. And he's feeding
us through the ministers that he gives. And then what does
he give us through the preaching of the gospel? Well, He gives
you the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit gives you a new heart.
A new spirit I'll put within you, He said. That's these gifts
that God gave Christ the glory to give it to us. He has the
glory to give everything you and I have. What do we have that
we didn't receive? You need faith and repentance.
That's a gift of God. Brother Art just read it. A gift
from who? A gift from Christ. He said there
in Ephesians 4, to every one of us is given grace according
to the measure of the gift of Christ. Grace there means grace
is. It means everything you need
for spiritual life and spiritual growth and spiritual walk and
it's all of grace and it's all given as a gift from Christ in
measure as he would have it measured out to each of his people. He
doesn't give everybody the same measure, he doesn't give everybody
the same gifts, and he does that on purpose. Just think, if you
had everything a person could have in this world and you were
independent of everybody and didn't need anybody else, you'd
be on an island somewhere by yourself. but by not giving you
everything and not giving you all the gifts. And he does this
in his church so that he fits his body together because we
all need each other. Not everybody has the same gift. Somebody else has it. And you
compliment each other because together we're making up one
body, his body, of whom he's the head. And that's why he's
fitly framed his church together and gives these gifts. Every
good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. And
he promises you there in verse 13, though you've lain among
the pots. You picture the old pots that
they used to cook over the fire. He's comparing you and me to
just an earthen vessel. And that's what we are. But you
take those old pots that they would use to cook with and you
know if you cook over a campfire like they were cooking, it just
gets black and sooty and they just run your finger over one
of those old pots and it's just black and covered in soot. That
was us, brethren. And he says, though you've lain
among the pots, you shall be as the wings of a dove covered
with silver, whose feathers are covered with yellow gold. You'll
be white as snow. That's what Christ makes you.
It's the silver of his riches and the gold of his righteousness.
And he said, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
white as snow, purged in his blood. These are the gifts he
gives, free forgiveness, justification from all our sins, from which
you couldn't have justified yourself by the law of Moses. The promise
of a good hope that you always have because you behold Christ
entered into God's right hand seated there in heaven. All these
gifts, what do you have that you didn't receive of God? Everything's
a gift of his grace, everything. Now here's what makes this so
valuable to us and makes us so amazed. He did this for the rebellious
also. He received these gifts for the
rebellious also. He just said back up there in one of these verses, oh, he
said in verse six, he said, but the rebellious are gonna dwell
in a dry land. Well, weren't you rebellious?
I was, and I still am. Is that not you? So how come
you don't dwell in a dry land? How come you have this plentiful
rain poured out on you? It's because for some of these
rebels, God gave them to Christ, and Christ did this work for
us, and now he has the glory to give you these gifts, though
you're rebellious. We ourselves also were sometime,
long time, foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving different lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one
another. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Not by works of
righteousness we've done, but according to his mercy he saved
us by washing us in regeneration through his blood. He washed
us. And it keeps washing you. We
just keep getting the soot on us again. We just keep getting
dirty again. We just keep being rebellious
again. And it keeps on purging your conscience. Keeps on washing
you. Keeps on cleansing you from your
sin. Keeps on keeping you on Christ. In whom you have a perfect righteousness. Perfect sanctification. That's what makes these gifts
so precious. It has to be pure, free, sovereign
grace to give gifts to rebels. Is that not right? You contrast the freeness and
the greatness of these free gifts with the rebels that we are by
nature. That'll show you something about how free these gifts are
and how grace, how they're gifts of grace when you think about
what sinners we are. I'm not excusing our sin. There's nothing that makes a
believer more and more than the fact that we sin against God. But a believer is honest. He
don't try to hide it and act like he don't do it. He's honest
about it. He took me, alienated from God,
and made me one with Christ. How on earth could we ever turn
our back and try to alienate ourselves again from Him? He
took us, found us polluted in our sins, polluted in our own
blood, and He took us and washed us and wrapped us in swaddling
bands, and He brought us to His bosom to give us this milk of
the gospel. How could we ever walk away from
it and go back into that filth that he brought us out of. And
yet, he shows you sometimes left to yourselves, that's exactly
what you're constantly trying to do if he didn't keep pulling
you back and keep you willing to sit at his feet and learn
of him. Rebels. Rebels. And yet he has these
gifts for rebels. You know, it's painful that we
still live in a body of death. It's painful that the least little
thing can stir up unbelief and rebellion in us. I mean the least little thing.
Somebody step in front of you in line at the supermarket. You
got a murderous, idolatrous rebel on your hand. We find ourselves murmuring against
God's providence. We know that everything God does
is right and is best for us. And how much do we, when we see
a cloud in the sky, oh, it's gonna rain. Rebels. Rebels. We murmur against his chastening
hand. When he sends a trial and it
hurts and he keeps it on you and keeps it on you, you will
come to a place where you'll say, Lord, is your mercy gone? Question God? Question our Heavenly
Father? He's doing it because we need
it. Rebels. But He keeps giving these
gifts to us rebels. He brings you to the place where
when you see your sins, You ask yourself, you ask yourself this,
despiseth thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads
you to repentance? We need to ask ourselves that
question. Do you despise his goodness? His forbearance, his long-suffering,
it's God's goodness that's leading us to repentance. And how often
do we find ourselves murmuring against it? These are free gifts
given to rebels like us. We're such rebels, this is the
bad thing, everything's a free gift and we're such rebels we
don't even want the gift sometimes. Thankfully, he gonna see to it
you receive the gift. And be glad. Be glad. It's not our meekness, it's not
our humility, it's not any goodness in us that makes him pour out
these gifts of grace on us. Can you agree with that? You
know, we'll get to a point where we feel like, well, I'm just
not, I'm not being meek enough, I'm not being humble enough,
I'm not being good enough. And you try to straighten your
act up. And he don't lessen the trial.
He don't let up on you. Why don't he? Because if you
could do those things and that made him let up on it, you'd
think that you caused, you earned it. You earned the gift. He keeps
doing it till he makes you, he will make you meek, he will make
you humble, he will make you turn from whatever he forbids,
but he's gonna do it in such a way so that you know it was
a free gift to you. He didn't do it because of your
meekness and because of your humility, he did it by his grace. But I'm thankful for that because,
oh boy, if we had to earn it, if we had to earn it, it wouldn't
be a gift. And if we earned it, we could lose it. But it's a
gift, and we can't. We can't give Him simply because
of His blood and His righteousness. Well, look at this fourth thing.
Here's the purpose. Here's the purpose. Verse 18,
that the Lord God might dwell among them. Ephesians 2 tells us now, because
of Christ doing this work, we are the habitation of God. Every
one of you that are a believer, Christ dwells in you, in spirit. That we can't comprehend or understand,
but it's true. He dwells in you who are here. And as his church, he dwells
in our midst. He dwells, he says, where you're
gathered together. There I am in the midst of you.
He said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Lo, I'm with
you always. He's with his people. And we dwell in him. in whom
all the building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple
in the Lord, in whom you also are built together for habitation
of God through the Spirit. You're built up to dwell in Him,
and He dwells in you. And all of this is because Christ
accomplished this work on the behalf of His people. So listen
to this, I'm gonna end with this in verse 19 and 21, we'll look
at this another time, but just listen to this and don't forget
this brethren, because of what Christ accomplished in putting
away the sin of his people, he bore the sin of his people, he
put it away, he brought in everlasting righteousness and he's ascended
and he's giving free gifts to you and me who are rebels. And
here's what we can say, verse 19, blessed be the Lord. who
daily loadeth us with benefits, even God of our salvation. 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 as one as goeth
on still in his trespasses. If I could leave you with one
thing, it'd be this. When you behold chaos in this
world, terrible things happening, sinners rebelling like they're
doing, when you behold trouble in your life, when you behold
the sin that's still in your flesh, and you begin to be troubled
by these things, don't forget Christ is seated at God's right
hand, working in our midst, dwelling in us, daily loading us with
benefits. Daily. And you don't have anything
to worry about. And if you're not His, you're
counted as that enemy that He's going to wound. And if you dwell
in the dry land, But if you're His, these blessings are yours
and they're free gifts He purchased with His blood that He will guarantee
you'll get them all. And one day He's going to bring
us into glory with Him and we're going to be with Him for eternity.
This is real. This is real. This stuff that
we see going on now, that won't be here then. This won't be here
then. That will remain. That's what can't be shaken,
what He's established in His righteousness. Seek those things. Seek those things. Whatever you
do in this life, just do it so you can get through it. But don't
make this your home, don't make these your riches, don't make
this the end all be all of what your life's about. Because if
you're His, this is not your life. Christ is your life. Seek
Him. I pray God will bless that.