Brethren, let's turn to Ephesians
chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. Let's read verse 8 together. Ephesians 4 verse 8. Wherefore
he saith, When he ascended up on high, speaking of Christ,
when Christ ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and
gave gifts unto men. Now this is taken from Psalm
68, verse 18. When you read something like,
wherefore he saith, or as it is written, it means he's quoting
scripture, Old Testament scripture. Let's go back and see Psalm 68,
verse 18. It's worded a little different
in Psalm 68, verse 18, and there's some things that are included
in the Psalm and in the Ephesians 4, which gives us the full meaning
here. Psalm 68, 18. He says, Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men. Our text says He gave gifts. He received them first. And then
He gave these gifts to men. Thou hast received gifts for
men, yea, for the rebellious also. It doesn't mean that in
addition to receiving gifts for men, he received some gifts for
rebellious people too. It means these people he received
gifts for are rebellious. All of them are rebellious. And
he says here that the Lord God might dwell among them. Now let's
go back to our text, Ephesians chapter 4. And I want to show
you four things this morning. I want to show you first of all
that Christ has ascended. And then secondly, His victories,
what He accomplished by it. And then thirdly, the gifts that
He received for men. And then fourthly, the great
end for which He bestows these gifts. I have some assurance
that Christ's Church, that Christ's Church is healthy, it's established,
It's right where it's supposed to be and it shall continue to
be so in this world right now because Christ has ascended and
Christ is working in the midst of His church, effectually. Now,
when I say church, I'm not speaking of what most men refer to as
church. I'm not talking about the visible thing you see. I'm
not talking about that body that's made up of believers and unbelievers
where people gather. I'm talking about god select
people i'm talking about those that he's called out and assembled
by his own power and give a faith to rest in him i'm talking about
his church his church is fine they're fine and we get a vaccine
said he said i hate the lord added to the church daily such
as should be safe i don't have to worry about that i'll have
to worry about is there is that we got to get more folks in here
i want to see more folks come Well, I can trust my Lord. He
asked to the church daily such as should be saved. And Brother
Scott just read that Paul told the Ephesians, he said, I commend
you to God in the word of His grace who's able to build you
up. Do I have to worry about growing
you? No. God's going to grow you. He's going to build you
up. And I know this too, that He's able to give you an inheritance.
That means He's able to keep you until that day by His power. Why is all this true? Because
Christ has ascended and He's the head of His body, the church.
That's why. He's working in every member
effectually in His body. Here's the first thing we see.
Christ has ascended. Verse 4 says, when He ascended
up on high. In Psalm 68, did you notice it
said, Thou hast ascended up on high? 2,000 years before Christ
went to the cross and ascended up on high, God moved David to
write, Thou hast already ascended. You have ascended. Thou hast
led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men. Well, how could that be so? How could it be said He's
already done it in the past tense when He hasn't even been to the
earth yet and been made incarnate? It's because God is eternal.
It's because God sees the end from the beginning so that the
future is as solid and established as the past is, brethren. Let
me show you who God is. Look at Ephesians 1. This is
not the God that men are preaching in our day. This is not the God
who wants to if you'll let Him. This is God. Look at Ephesians
1 and look at verse 13. I'm sorry. Let me find it here.
Verse 11. in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of God
who works all things, all things after the counsel of His own
will." That's the God we're talking about here. That's the God we're
talking about. He works everything after the
counsel of His own will. So He could say already, He's
ascended. He's ascended. There's no possibility
He's not going to ascend. Alright, where did He ascend
to? Our text says He went up on high. He went up on high. He went to the right hand of
the Father. He went to heavenly Mount Zion. We're not looking
We're like Abraham. We're looking for a city whose
builder and maker is God. We're looking for heavenly Jerusalem
in heavenly Mount Zion. That's what Hebrews 12 tells
us we've come to. You've come not to Mount Sinai.
You've come to Mount Zion. Paul said in Galatians, we're
of heavenly Jerusalem. We're of heavenly Jerusalem.
Not Jerusalem below. Jerusalem below is in bondage
with her children. She's trying to come to God by
the law. We're of heavenly Jerusalem.
We've been born again and raised to God. Psalm 68 was written
on an occasion that gives us a beautiful picture of this.
David wrote Psalm 68, but he wrote it under the inspiration
of God. And at the time he wrote it,
this is what had happened. David had conquered all his enemies
and he had established his kingdom in peace. And so then David took
the Ark of the Covenant that had never had a settled place
yet. It had never been settled. And he took that Ark of the Covenant
and he ascended up to Mount Zion with the Ark of the Covenant.
And he set that Ark of the Covenant in Mount Zion where it was established
and settled and set. Now that's a beautiful picture
of Christ, brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ is pictured
in that ark. Here's some ways. The book of
the law. There's just one book. It's the book of the law. It's
not moral and ceremonial. It's the book of the law. And
the book of the law was put in the ark. And that's where the
law was. It was in Christ, our ark. To fulfill it and establish it
forever for His people. Every jot and tittle of it. Because
you and I could not do it. and can't do it. And then on
the top of that ark was a mercy seat, the propitiation is what
it's called. And the exact dimensions of that
mercy seat and that propitiation was the exact dimensions of that
ark so that it exactly covered that broken law in that ark. Christ Jesus is the propitiation. And His offering, His person
and His offering to God is the exact dimensions to cover all
our sinfulness and all our breaking of the law so that He has completely
fulfilled it for His people. And just like David defeated
all his enemies and established his kingdom in peace and then
ascended up to Mount Zion with that ark, Christ Himself, He
conquered our enemies He established His kingdom in peace and then
He ascended up to the Father where Christ Jesus is set down
right now in Heaven's Mount Zion. That's where He is. Lift up your
heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Who is
this King of glory? The Lord of hosts is the King
of glory. It's Christ Jesus. God our Savior. Now, Christ entered the holy
place not made with hands. A holy place not made with hands.
He entered into the presence of God. Now sinner, listen to
me. Whether you believe or you don't believe, listen to me carefully.
The assurance, the assurance that Christ has come, that He
has accomplished conquering all His enemies for His people, established
us in righteousness, and that we shall be saved by His power
and grace is this. There is a man, just like us,
without sin, seated in glory right now. There is a man seated
there. A man in glory. Verse 10. He says, He that descended is
the same also that ascended up. Now this is the foundation of
our hope, brethren. This is the sureness of our hope. This is the joy of our hope.
This is what's going to It's going to conquer all Satan's
accusations. It's going to purge our guilt.
It's going to relieve our doubt and our unbelief. It's this right
here. We have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the
righteous and He is the propitiation for our sins. He's the mercy
seed. He's the mercy seed. In Israel
when they sinned, you know what they had to do? They had to go
find an animal without spot, without blemish. They had to
put him up and observe him and make sure he had no spots and
no blemish in him because it had to be perfect. The lamb had
to be perfect. Then they brought it and then
they had to have a priest between them and the holy place. And he took that and he went
in and he killed that lamb and he went in and presented it to
God for them. And God received them in another,
in a high priest and then a lamb. Brethren, listen to me. We don't
have to put up a lamb. We've got a lamb. We've got a
Lamb. He is the Lamb seated at God's
right hand. And He's perfect. And God accepts
Him. And He's our High Priest. And
He says to you and I, we have access to God. When we sit against
God, we can come to Him and just pour out our hearts to Him. And
He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins because He's paid
the debt of our sins. He put our sins away. We have
such a high priest, set on the right hand of the majesty in
the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord pitched and not banned. Now, who is he that's
going to condemn us? It's Christ that died, it's Christ
that's risen, and that ever lives to make intercession for us.
Isn't that good news? That's such good news. All right,
look here now. Look here now. His ascension
glory is this. He is exalted on His throne of
glory and given all power, all power in heaven and in earth.
Look back at Ephesians 1, 21 and 22. This is where He is. He sat at His right hand in the
heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might
and dominion and every name that's named, not only in this world,
but also in that which is to come. And He's put all things
under His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to
the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him. And He's
the one that fills all in all. Our text tells us in verse 10,
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above
all heaven. that He might fill all things.
So brethren, we not only have an advocate with the Father,
we have a head who is filling all things. He fulfilled all
righteousness for His people, and now He's filling all His
people. He's filling us with the Spirit. He's filling us with
the truth. He's filling us with faith. He's filling us with righteousness.
He's filling His people. He's doing this. Now, let's see
Christ's victory. Verse 8. Verse 8. He led captivity captive. He
led captivity captive. Everyone that He came to save
is in captivity to our sin nature. We were in captivity to our sin
nature. Everybody that Christ is going
to save is a captive under the power of Satan, under the power
of sin, under the power of death. We are captives. We send an Adam
in the garden. and we died in that first representative.
Thankfully, God has a second representative. It represents
all those Father gave to Him. He came into the earth and He
lived for His people and He died for His people. And our Lord
Jesus Christ is the only one who can deliver us from the captivity
of our sin. Now, when we were bound in our
sin, this is how bad the captivity is. Listen to me. We are bound
in our sin. This is how bad it is. We were
too blind too bound to see that we were captives, that we could
not come to God ourselves. We went around boasting about
our free will, about what we were able to do and what we had
done for our imaginary God and how we'd let our imaginary God
do something. Did you see who that God is I
just read about, who does all things after the counsel of his
own will? Do you think a puny little maggot like me and you
is going to let him do something? Why don't you let the sun rise
tomorrow? You'd sooner prohibit the sun
from rising tomorrow than prohibit God from doing what He will.
And yet we go around bragging about our free will, what I let
God to do. Here's the truth of the matter.
In our sin nature, your sin nature is like a prison. In your sin
nature, you only have the ability, your sin nature is bound by the
ability that you're able to accomplish. You can't get out of the confines
of your sin nature. A man in his sin nature can't
believe the God I'm preaching. He can't. He'll brag about his
free will but he can't make himself let go of his works and his vain
righteousness and his vain deeds and bow himself to this God.
He can't do it. He's a captive. He's a captive. Satan has him bound at his own
discretion and he will not let him go. He will not let him go. He's the one to whom the glory
was given to come into this earth and conquer Satan, put away the
sin of His people, and conquer death for His people. That glory
was given to Him. It wasn't given to me and you.
It was not given to us. Why do you preach that a man's
will is bound by his nature? Why don't you just say a man's
will is free? Because it's Christ's glory to make a man willing in
the day of His power. And you're not going to have
it. Let me be honest with you. The God I'm preaching to you
does it all. He does it all. A to Z, He does
it all. And He gets all the glory, all
the glory from A to Z. So why are you upset about that?
If a man is sitting here going, I don't like this, I don't like...
Why are you upset about it then? Is this the rub? He gets all
the glory and you don't get any. That's the rub. That's the rub. Because Satan, from the beginning,
has wanted to be God. And everybody that he dwells
in, that he has in captivity, the nature of a sinner is, I
want to be God. That's true. I tell you the nature
of every religious man, no matter how religious he is, this is
his nature. If he could go to heaven without
having to do with God whatsoever, and spare himself from harm and
danger and hell, he'd do it in a heartbeat. He'd do it in a
heartbeat. But God's going to get the glory.
And Christ is that glory, brethren. It was said in Genesis 3, the
seed of woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. Christ is
the seed of woman. He's the only one ever born of
a virgin. The only one ever born that didn't
come from Adam's corrupt seed. He came forth holy and just from
the womb, brethren. So He's the only one that could
fulfill the law. He's the only one then who could
go and take the sin of His people upon Himself and put away our
sin by the death of Himself. And He's the only one, because
He's the eternal God, He's the only one that could accomplish
that eternally for His people, then come out of the grave. And
now that He's come out, He's led captivity captive. He came
out of that grave having purchased all His people by His blood. That was the ransom price. You
were held captive by Satan and Satan would not let you go. God's law said they're lawfully
Satan's captives. God wasn't giving Satan anything.
He wasn't paying Satan a ransom. But the law of God said they're
lawfully Satan's captives because they've sinned against the law.
They've sinned against God. And He's got them lawfully. And
Christ came, He had to pay God. He had to pay God. He had to
pay His own ransom. And so He came and He paid the
ransom of His blood. And by paying that ransom, the
law says they belong to Him now. They're His purchased possession.
Satan has no more claim to them whatsoever. Look back at Ephesians
chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, let me find
it here. Somebody find it. Oh, verse 14.
He has given us the Spirit and He says, the Spirit is the earnest
of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. He has given us His Spirit, brethren.
And that's the earnest that we're going to receive that everlasting
inheritance. He's going to come back and He's
going to redeem. He's going to take to Himself
that which He has purchased for Himself. He purchased us. He purchased us with His own
blood. We just read it in Acts. And we're His purchased possession.
So now what's going to happen? Here we are. We're in our sin.
We're going around making our boast about God. And Satan has
really worked a number on us. He's got us not only where we're
lost, And in our sin nature, He got us religious. He got us
religious. He got us to take on a form of
religion somehow. So that now we're not only lost
and dead in sin, we're doubly lost. We think that we know God
and that we got a claim on God by what we're doing. And so we're
working our way to heaven. We're climbing stairs trying
to get to God. And God said, if you come up
ascending on stairs, it's going to be polluted. You're going
to show your nakedness. And there we are, working, working,
working, trying to come to God. How in the world are we going
to be made to know we've been set free? We've already been
set free. Christ, He's purchased us. We're
His captives now. How are we going to be made to
know this? He comes to where we are. He
comes to where we are and He has to give us the gifts to make
us see that we are delivered from captivity. He does it. He
gets the glory for doing this. Now listen to me sinner. Do you
see yourself as you are in your flesh? Do you see yourself as
being bound in sin? Do you see yourself as being
dead and trespassing sin? Or do you see yourself as so
helpless there is no way you can do one thing to save yourself?
That is the only kind of sinner God saves. Period. Man will say, if you'll just
take the first step, God will do the rest. If you can take
the first step, you can take them all. If a dead man can take
the first step, he can take the rest of the steps. It ain't the rest of the steps
I'm worried about, it's the first one. A dead man can't take the
first step. So what's going to have to happen?
Here are the gifts from Christ. Look at verse 18. I'm sorry. Let me just read this. Psalm
68, 18. He says, Thou hast received gifts for men. He purchased these
gifts and God the Father gave him these gifts and gave him
the glory to give these gifts. And he says, Yea, for the rebellious
also. For the rebellious also. I've
titled this Gifts for the Rebellious. That's who we are. Rebellious.
And it says in our text, And he gave these gifts unto men.
He received them from the Father. And he gave them to his people.
Now, do you remember when Joseph ascended from the lowest parts
of Egypt to the chief seat of honor and government in Egypt?
He was in a prison in Egypt. He was at the lowest part you
could go to in Egypt. And he ascended to the highest
place you could go. The only one ahead of him was
Pharaoh. And he was equal with Pharaoh.
And when he ascended to that place, brethren, You know who
he did that for? You know who benefited more than
anybody else from all that? His rebellious brethren. His rebellious brethren. It was
because of his own brethren, those that he was one with. They
tried to kill Joseph, and then they decided they'd just throw
him in a pit. And then they decided, well, we'll just sell him. And
Joseph ended up down there in Egypt. And God overruled all
their evil for the good of those very rebels who hated Joseph
and caused him all that suffering. He overruled it. And afterward,
after God raised Joseph to that ascended place, to where he had
the key to all the storehouses in Egypt, to all the corn, all
the oil, everything they needed, Joseph had the key to everything.
And then you know what he did? God sent a famine in amongst
His brethren. He gave them a need. He showed
them, you can't provide nothing for yourself. You're about to
die. You're dead and dying. You've got no bread. And He drove
them by that down to Egypt where Joseph was. And you know what
happened when they came to Joseph? They came down there. They didn't
come down there on a high horse demanding of Joseph what they
was going to let Joseph do. They didn't come down there saying,
we believe we are going to let you give us some corn. How stupid
is that? No, they came down there on their
faces before him saying, would you be merciful to us and give
us some corn? We got nothing to give you. And
Joseph took the key to that storehouse and opened it up and gave them
all the treasures of Egypt. And they had everything they
needed. Brethren, that's Christ. That's Christ. Our sins made
Him descend to the lowest parts of the earth. Our sins put Him
on that cross. Our sins made it so that He must
be lifted up on that cross. Our sins made it so that God
must be the justifier and justify His people from our sins. And
Christ came and He accomplished that work and all the mistreatment
He received of men, all the things that we did to Him, God overruled
every bit of it. And now He's ascended to the
right hand of the throne of God. And He's given Christ Himself
the glory. He has power over all. And you
know what He's going to do for each one of His people? He's
going to send us a famine of bread. Every one of us. Some
of us, boy, we think we're eating fat. We're in our religion, doing
all our deeds, and we really think we're feasting eye on the
hog. And He comes and makes us see we're feeding on ashes. We're
just eating death. That's all we're feeding on.
And He gives you a famine of bread in your soul. He makes
you see you're lost, dead, good-for-nothing sinner. And by Him making His
law effectual, making you to see that very law that you thought
you were keeping, that law you thought you were fulfilling and
making God pleased with you, He makes that law to come alive
to you. And when that law comes alive
to you, sin becomes alive in your very being and you die. Oh, that man that you thought
was so righteous, he died. You just look at him and say,
you are dead, no good, nothing. And then He brings you, He drives
you, He drives you, and He draws you, and He brings you to the
feet of Christ. And you don't come in there to
some arrogant little nobody making your demands. You come there
bowing on your face to Christ, saying, Lord, be merciful to
me, a sinner. Be merciful to me, a sinner. And Christ Jesus opens up the
storehouse. He opens up the storehouse. And
He gives us everything that we need to come into God's presence,
brethren. Now, I want you to notice something.
It says, Christ received gifts from men, yea, for the rebellious
also. And it says that He gave these
gifts to men. Now, what else? What else but
pure, free, sovereign grace? receives and bestows gifts upon
rebels. Would you answer me that? What is it but sovereign, powerful,
able grace, free, unmerited grace? What is it but grace that reserves
and gives gifts to rebels who are sitting there shaking our
fist at God and cussing God and trying to come to God another
way? What but grace does that? So we're going to see here the
freeness and the greatness of His gifts and the character of
those gifts by looking at how rebellious we are. That's how
we see how gracious He is. You see, you won't appreciate
grace until you see something of what a rebel you are against
Him. And the more you see that, the more you're going to appreciate
His grace. And isn't that growth in grace, brethren? Growth in
grace is seeing more and more how horrible I am. And by that,
I'm brought down. Constantly brought down. Constantly
brought down. And constantly brought to trust
Christ more and more and more. It's just the reverse of what
religion teaches. It's the reverse of what vain
religion teaches. They teach you to get better and better
and better and better. And one day you're going to be so good,
you're going to bust out of your britches. And you're just going
to come into God's presence and He's going to receive you because
you've made yourself so perfect. And all along the way, their
chest gets poked out, poked out. And more and more they say, stand
over there now. I'm more holy than you. Don't come around me. That's the opposite of how God
works. Satan imitates God, but he does
everything the opposite of how God does it. Christ gives these
free gifts of grace to ungodly rebels. So much so, we didn't
even want grace. We didn't want to be saved by
grace. We wanted to be saved by our works. We didn't want
His grace, and yet Christ magnified His grace by freely giving us
that thing we didn't want. That magnifies grace. He gave
us what we did not want. Irresistibly, He gave us grace. We didn't want it. We just did
not want it. And we despised the truth of
God. We despised the truth of God.
We were going along thinking, thinking this. I know that it
says it pleased God to save by the foolishness of preaching,
but I believe God saves another way. Do you? You believe he's going to save
another way than his son? If you believe he's going to save
another way than what he says in one regard, why not believe
it in every regard? The Arminian says, I'm saved
by my will. Well, maybe he saves him by your
will and he saves you by sovereign grace. If I'm going to deny one
truth, I might as well deny them all. There we were going along. And his preachers, we'd hear
his preachers and we'd think, we reproach them in our heart
because we think they're disrupting my peace. They're disrupting
my peace. They're stealing my refuge from
me. And I don't have anything to
do with them. And so we spoke reproachfully against them, we
reviled them, we opposed them, if not in our words, in our heart.
And yet, you know what he did? Look at verse 11. He gave some
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and
teachers. He gave us pastors and teachers
anyway, and they taught us the truth. And then when our dearest
friends and our nearest loved ones submitted to the gospel,
you know how we treated them? When they submitted to the gospel,
we treated them as though they had become our enemy. They had
become our enemy. We treated the believer, while
we were in our false religion or just in our rebellion, whichever
it was, moral rebellion or immoral rebellion, it was all rebellion.
But whenever somebody was saved to the truth of God, by the truth
of God, we considered them apostate. They're apostate. You've apostatized
from this world's religion. You've departed from what the
rest of the world believes. You've gone off into a cult.
And when our brethren did that, though they were in our house
with us, we'd consider them defectors. You've defected to the other
side. And you're my enemy now. And yet, Christ in His infinite
goodness gave us the gifts of faithful fathers and faithful
mothers and faithful sisters and faithful brothers that just
kept telling us Christ is the one thing needful. There we were holding the law
and the authority of God in contempt. Sometimes we'd admit we were
sinners. I mean, after all, everybody's a sinner. But we were not the kind of sinners
that have no ability to save ourselves. We still imagined
we could do something to please God. That something we did had
to count for something. So we compared ourselves to others.
And this was our hope. I'm not as bad as that fellow
is. Or at least I'm not as bad as that guy. And we thought God
was going to receive us on that. But we didn't know that before
the Lord we were all sinners. We didn't know before the Lord
that everybody's a sinner and we have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God and He's not looking at any of us. We
had no idea that was so. And yet, we went off through
our days and we were rejecting Christ and we were bad-mouthing
Christ and we were... And how are we doing it this
way? Well, I believe our words count
for something. Well, I believe that God's going
to... He's going to... Look, it's something that our good
is going to outweigh our bad, at least. And then Christ is
going to make up the deficiency. By all of that, we were taking
Christ and putting Him under our feet and just treading on
Him, treading on Him, treading on Him. And yet, the Son we rejected,
whose authority we despised, kept using that very authority
to provide us gifts of providence. He kept feeding us and clothing
us and providing a job for us, keeping a roof over our head,
all the while we were despising that very authority and power.
And when the Gospel declared that God would receive nothing
less than the infinite wisdom of His Son, the perfect righteousness
of His Son, the perfect holiness of His Son, the ransom price
of His Son's own blood. We, in our rebellion, had the
audacity to say, I believe my righteousness is just as good
as His righteousness. How did you say that? You didn't
say it in those words. You said it in these words. Well,
I believe I'm keeping the law. You have never kept the law a
day in your life. You've never kept the Sabbath.
For one, the true Sabbath was on a Saturday. But for two, the
true Sabbath is Christ. And the only way you can keep
the Sabbath is to rest in Christ. We were adulterers. If you'll
read Romans 7, he said the whole time we were trying to come to
God in love, we never brought forth any fruit to God, ever. But now, now, And if we would
have been married to Christ while we were dead and we were in our
sin and we were under that, we would have been adulterers. But
now Christ has come and He's satisfied the law and He's went
to the grave for His people so that we died and before the law
we're dead, we're dead, that we may be married to another,
to Christ, that we may bring forth fruit unto God. How are
you going to bring forth this fruit? He says here, Christ ascended
to give us the gifts. Christ is the husband and His
people are His bride. And a husband? Women? Nowadays,
Satan is trying to just erode the truth every way. Nowadays,
you can have a child, you don't even have to be married. But
you know what? You can't bear any fruit unless
Christ is your husband. Because just like it takes a
husband to put seed into a woman and produce fruit in the womb
of that woman so that she brings forth fruit into the world, Christ
Jesus is the only one, the husband of His bride is the only one
who can put the incorruptible seed into the heart of His people
and cause us to bring forth fruit unto God. Philippians says, fruits
of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and
glory of God. What are these fruits? They are
these gifts we are talking about here. He gave us everything we
need, brethren. He gave us a new nature. He gave
us eyes to see. He gave us ears to hear. He gave
us the gospel to hear in truth. I get so sick of hearing people
say they were saved under false religion, under lies, under false
religion. If God has the power to send
you the truth and He says, I'm going to save you with the truth,
that's how He's going to save. He's going to save you with the
truth. He's not going to save you with Satan's lies. This is
the gospel of truth. It's the Holy Spirit of truth.
He's the God of truth. And He saves with truth. And
the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth. The
truth, the truth, the truth. That's what He saves with. He
sent us the truth. And then He gave us faith to
believe the truth. Faith to believe Him. And He
made that everlasting covenant in our hearts. And then He gave
us righteousness. He robed us in His righteousness. He made us holy by His holiness. And now He's keeping us all of
it, brethren, is by Him. He gave us the tongue to cry
out and ask Him for mercy. And now He's given us the tongue
to praise Him for everything He's done for us. He gave us
the gift of reconciliation to God our Father. Peace with God,
never again to be interrupted. This is the glory. And He's been
doing this since the beginning. When you read, God spoke to Abraham,
who do you think is speaking to Abraham? There's one mediator
between God and man, it's the man Christ Jesus. It's Christ
speaking in His pre-incarnate appearance to Abraham. And it's
so with everybody He saved. Christ is the one who's been
giving these gifts from the beginning. It's just that now that He's
come, we see Him in His glory doing it, brethren. in His glory. This was the rebellion of the
rebellious. This was our rebellion. We assaulted
Christ and His authority and His government, defying His power,
resisting His will, trampling underfoot the blood of Christ
by our unbelief. That was our rebellion. And this
is the heart of every dead sinner towards God and His Christ, and
it was our rebellion. Now it's true, brethren, enmity
of the carnal mind may not rage with equal fury in every sinner,
but every carnal mind, nonetheless, hates God. Hates God. He's not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can he be. And he that's
born after the flesh always persecutes him that's born after the spirit.
These two can't mix. You cannot mix works and grace.
You can't mix them in the gospel you preach. You can't mix them
in the gospel you believe. And you can't mix the wheel worker
and the man saved by free grace. Oh, they can get along talking
about their favorite sports team or whatever don't matter. But
when it comes to God, you sooner mix oil and water, or fire and
water, or snow and fire. It's not going to mix. It's just
not going to mix. That was our rebellion. Every
time we heard God declare in the preaching of the gospel,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him,
in our hearts we cried out, we will not have this man reign
over us. But you know what we didn't know?
Christ won't take no for an answer. And He came, and all these gifts
are summed up in one way. Christ entered our heart and
He gave Himself to us. He gave Himself, the unspeakable
gift. And now we have everything. We're accepted of God in the
Beloved, brethren. Now lastly, the great end for
which Christ bestows these gifts. Why did He give us these gifts?
Why did He give us all this? Turn back to Psalm 68 verse 18.
Psalm 68 verse 18. And look at the last part there. Here's the great end. That the
Lord God might dwell among them. That the Lord God might dwell
among them. You see, by this work Christ
has done for us and in us, we've been made a habitation of God.
We're one in God and He's one in us. Look at Ephesians 2.21.
Ephesians 2.21. in whom all the building is fitly
framed together and grows unto a holy temple." Where at? In
the Lord. We're a holy temple in the Lord. Now watch this. "...in whom ye
also are built together for habitation of God through the Spirit." We're
in Him and He's in us. One last place, John 17. John
17. I just want you to see this.
I want you to notice here however things by Christ's gift. And
this oneness is the result of Christ's gift. Look here now.
John 17, look at verse 7. He says, up there he talks about
how he gave them and manifested to them the name of God. Christ
did. And then he says in verse 7,
he's speaking to the Father. Christ did. He says, now they
have known, now they've known that all things whatsoever thou
hast given to me, are of thee." What did Psalm 68 say? He received
gifts for men. He says here, everything you
gave me, Father. And he says he gave gifts to
men. He says, I've given them to them. And he says, and now
they know that everything that I've given them came from you.
It all came from the Father. And look, for I have given unto
them the words which thou gavest me. and they have received them,
and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me, I pray for them. I pray not
for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am
glorified in them. Look at verse 20. Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word, that they all may be one, as thou, Father,
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that
the world may believe that thou hast sent me." You know what
Christ said? He said, this is how the world's
going to know that you're my disciples. You love one another. You love one another. He says,
and I've done this work that they may be one in the Father
and in the Son and with one another that the world might know you've
sent me. He's saying that they might love
one another. Now look here, verse 22. And
the glory which thou gavest me, you gave me this glory. He gave
him the glory to give us all these gifts. That's his glory.
The glory you gave me, I have given them. I have given them
that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them Thou and
me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world of
mine elect may know that Thou hast sent me and hast loved them
as Thou hast loved me." Everything we have, we got from Christ.
Now, if I say there's anything that I got on my own, I'm trying
to steal that glory from Christ. And God won't have it. He just
won't have it. Amen. All right, brother.