Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. In this
chapter, using the Apostle Paul, the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching
you and I who are members of His body, of His church, you
and I who were chosen of God before the world was made, who
Christ has redeemed fully by His precious blood, who have
been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. He's speaking to His
church, those He's called by His grace. And He's teaching
us here that to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we're
called. And He says in verse 2, with all lowliness and meekness,
with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing
one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. And then He told us we're one.
We're one. He gave seven things there that
makes us one with each other. But then he said, but we're different.
We have gifts of grace that differ according to the measure that
Christ has given unto us, according to His will. And then when speaking
of Christ's given gifts, he quotes a verse from Psalm 68, and he
says in verse 8, Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on
high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. And
then just as soon as he says that, he speaks about that ascension
in verse 9. And catch what he says here.
He says, Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended
first into the lower parts of the earth? He also descended
first into the lower parts of the earth. I want us to get something
here that I've said several times recently, and this is the point
to get from this. With God, the way up is first
down. Down. The way up is first down. He also descended first. Christ is preeminent in everything.
He even descended first. He's first in descent. He also
descended first. Now who descended? This one who
descended, who came down, is God the Son. He's equal with
God. Paul said when he was writing
to the Philippians in Philippians 2, he said he was in the form
of God. That means he is God. He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the great God. Writing to Titus in chapter 2
and verse 13, Paul said, We're looking for the blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior
Jesus Christ. They're one. The great God and
our Savior Jesus Christ is one. He's the brightness of His glory. He's the express image of His
person. He's the maker of all things.
In John 1.1, He said, In the beginning was the Word, And the
Word was with God. And the Word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. He made everything. And without
Him was not anything made that was made. Now, our Lord, speaking
to Nicodemus, said this. He said, No man hath ascended
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son
of Man which is in heaven. That's some of that eternal language.
That's that language that just makes us Let's scratch our heads. He never, when He left glory
as God, He never ceased being in glory. He never ceased being
in the bosom of the Father. He was always in the bosom of
the Father. This is eternal language. He said, No man hath ascended
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son
of Man which is in heaven. And when He said that, He was
standing on the earth talking to Nicodemus. He never left one
place and went to the other. As God, He's always in the heavens. But He did come down. He came
down. This is God who is over all things. He says in Romans 9, 5, as concerning
the flesh, Christ came who is over all. God blessed forever. And He came in the flesh. Now,
will God dwell on the earth? Will God dwell here on this sinful,
cursed earth? Will God who is the maker of
all things, will God who is The very God of very God who is the
Word, who is from the beginning, before the beginning, who is
the maker of all things, the upholder of all things, very
God, will He come and dwell among sinners like us? He did. He came down. He descended. It
was proposed to Him in the eternal counsel and covenant of peace.
God the Father said to Him, in order to redeem Your people,
You have to be made flesh with them. You have to go down and
be made one with them. You have to descend to where
they are. And Christ agreed to it. He agreed to be made flesh
to come into the earth and do for His people what we could
not do for ourselves. Lo, I come, He said, in the volume
of the book it's written of Me, to do Thy will, O God, Thy law
is within my heart, He said. He came to do God's will. Now,
here's my second question. First of all, this is God we're
talking about. God descended. Now, secondly,
what does it mean when it says here, He descended into the lower
parts of the earth? It tells us how far God our Savior
descended. He descended into the lower parts
of the earth. First, let me tell you what this
does not mean. It does not mean what the papist, the so-called
Catholic Church, says it means. They say that Christ descended
into a place that they described as this place of limbo between
death and hell. They say that all the Old Testament
saints, because Christ had not come yet, when they died, they
couldn't go to heaven because Christ had not accomplished redemption
yet. And so they went to this limbo place and that's where
they stayed until Christ came and finished the work of redemption.
And then when he finished the work of redemption, they say
then Christ descended into this place of limbo. And he took those
Old Testament saints out and delivered them out. And they
say these are the captives that he led captive. And that's not
so. That's not so. You see, men speak
in finite time language and we see in time language and we understand
time. We don't understand when Christ
could say, Here I am standing on the earth, but I'm already
in heaven. We don't understand how that Christ, before the foundation
of the world, could become surety of His people. Not meaning He's
going to work out a righteousness if they can't. Meaning from the
beginning, He's the righteousness of His people. From the beginning,
God has made us accepted in the Beloved. in him, so that those
Old Testament saints, when they died, they went to glory with
God right then. They didn't have to go to a place
of limbo. It was no possibility Christ wouldn't put away their
sin before God, the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. So no, that's not what this means. And he didn't
descend locally into hell. He did not do that. They say
he went into locally, in body, went to down, down, down, into
hell. No, he did not do that. No, he
did not do that. There's no such a place like
that that exists. No limbo. That thief on the cross,
Christ said, today you'll be with me in paradise. And he was
with him in paradise that day. Alright, the lower parts of the
earth here refers to the whole of Christ's humiliation when
he walked this earth. It refers to the whole of his
life and spirit and acts and works and deeds from the moment
he descended until he ascended. Speaking of him descending. Look,
first of all, the Son of God descended lower than the angels.
Look at Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 9. We see Jesus, who was
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. Now we see Him crowned with glory
and honor. But he came down lower than the
angels, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for
every man. I've told you before, whenever
you see every, applying to Adam or you see it applying to Christ,
it means every man, each of them represented. Adam represented
everybody, because everybody came from him. Christ represented
his people, because all his people come from him. He came down lower
than the angels. lower than the angels. What do
you think the angels thought of that? The angels see God,
they say God who created them, God who's upholding them, God
who chose them, they see God coming down below them to the
earth. That's where He came. And secondly,
look at Psalm 139. This is what it means. Psalm
139, it means that Christ came down and He descended into the
womb of a virgin. where He took flesh and became
one with His people. Look here at Psalm 139.13. Our text said He descended to
the lower parts of the earth. Now listen to this. Psalm 139.13.
This is Christ speaking. Thou has possessed my reins.
Thou has covered me in my mother's womb. In my mother's womb. I
will praise thee for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous
are thy works that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was
not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. He's talking about
the womb of a virgin. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there were none of
them. His body was prepared, his body was made, and it was
made in the womb of a virgin. And Christ descended to the lowest
parts of the earth. He entered into a womb. What's
more helpless than an infant? That's the most helpless thing
there is. Christ came into the womb of
a virgin. He came to, as He said, seek
and save that which was lost. He came to save sinners who were
lost, sinners who could not save ourselves, sinners who were desperately
wicked, in need of salvation by another. And He came to save
us. And He came to save the chief
of sinners. This is the glorious good news
of the gospel. Paul said, this is a faithful
saying. This is worthy of all acceptation.
Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief.
This is who He came to save. But to do that, He's got to be
made of a woman. He's got to be a man to represent
men. He's got to be made of a woman.
Here's God who is not only the lawgiver. He's the law, brethren. He is the law. God is the law. That's who he is. He's the law.
The precepts are extensions of who he is. He's the law, brethren. And he came down and was made
under the law. Made under the law. He's got
to keep that law. He's got to establish that law
for his people. He's got to fulfill the law. Uphold it, magnify it, honor
it. So he's made under the law. He became our kinsman redeemer. We sold ourselves into bondage.
We sold ourselves to our creditors. We were in debt. And so He came. Only the kinsman redeemer, only
the redeemer who is the near kinsman could redeem, God said. And so Christ came and He took
flesh to become our near kinsman so that He could pay all the
debt that His people owed to justice and redeem us from sin
and iniquity and death and hell. This was the errand He came into
the world for. So he came down to the womb of
a virgin. He made flesh. In order to accomplish
this, he spent his life in the lower parts of the earth. His
very spirit while he dealt here was the lowest parts of the earth. His spirit was. Scripture says
he made himself of no reputation. Here's one who had every reason
to make himself of reputation because he had a reputation.
He's sinless holy God. And yet he made himself of no
reputation. And here we are, got no reason
to boast, no reason to make ourselves of reputation. We're dirty, rotten,
no good, sorry sinners. And yet we try to make ourselves
of a reputation. He was in the world and the world
was made by him. And the world knew him not. And
he didn't try to make the world know him. He did not try to make
the world know him. He didn't act like religion acts
in our day. He didn't. His life was attended
with the greatest poverty, difficulties and sorrows. Everything. He was
born poor, born to poor parents. He lived in poverty. When he
started out his earthly ministry, he said, I don't have a place
to lay my head. I don't even have a place to
lay my head. Do you know who this is that said that? This
is he that is spoken of in the Psalms. Him doing the speaking.
In Psalm 50 verse 12, he said, If I were hungry, I would not
tell you, for the world is mine. and the fullness thereof. He
owns all the cattle. He owns the hills the cattle
are on. He owns everything. And yet He came into the earth
and He did not have a place to lay His head. Then He descended
even lower in this regard. The Son of Man came not to be
ministered unto, but He came to minister and to give His life
a ransom for many. He took upon Him the form of
a servant. He came to serve. He asked His
apostles this one day, they were all sitting down at a table.
And they're sitting at the table. And He's walking around serving
them. Like a server in a restaurant.
Like a waiter in a restaurant. He's waiting on them. He's serving
them. God is serving them. He's showing them what He came
to this earth to do. He came to this earth to bring
us to His table. He came to this earth to serve
us the bread from heaven, which is His flesh and His blood. He
came to give us righteousness. He came to make us accepted of
God. He came to do everything necessary
so that He can take us into glory in a just and holy manner. That's
why He came. And He's walking around this
table serving them just everyday bread. And He asked them, which
one's greater? Which is greatest? The person
who sits down at meat and is served or the person who does
the serving? Which one do men consider to
be the greatest? Well we consider the man who
gets to sit at the head of the table, the man who's sitting
at the table and being served, he's the greatest. And yet Christ
said, I'm with you as one that serves. He descended to the lowest
parts of the earth. Was there ever a more broken
and contrite heart as our Savior? He said, I'm meek and lowly in
heart. As he served sinners, he spent
his life suffering affliction. He was wounded. He was a man
of sorrows from his cradle to the cross. Temptations from Satan,
temptations from his own disciples, and from his own people, the
Jews. This is who shall declare his generation. His generation
in which he lived treated him barbaric. They treated him with
utter contempt. And which ended up in Him going
to the cross and laying down His life and suffering that cruel
death on the cross. But all of that was determined
before. And He determined it before. And yet, He descended
and submitted Himself to every bit of it. We don't like to submit
too much to suffering. We don't like to submit to suffering
at the hands of our enemies. We don't like to submit and descend
lower than the one that we think we're above. Christ did. Christ did. And then look at
this. 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians
5 verse 21. He descended even lower when
He was made sin for His people. Here's this spotless one. And
here's what the Scripture says. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. He
hath made Him. He did this. He did this. God did this, and He's God. He
hath made Him to be sin for us. That's substitution, brethren.
He made Him to be sin for us in our place, in our room instead.
God took our sin and put our sin on Him. How could He bear
our sin? He knew no sin. That's how he
could. He couldn't have done it if he
knew sin, but he knew no sin, and so he could bear sin. And
he who knew no sin was made sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. This is why he came. Galatians
3.13 says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.
He paid the ransom. He came to give His life a ransom. What's the ransom price? His
life. He came to give His life a ransom
for many. And He's redeemed us from the
curse of the law by being made a curse for us. Christ, the spotless, pure, holy
One, was made a curse? Yes, He was. He was made a curse
for us. made a curse for us. And then
on the cross Christ descended lower. He descended lower. You
mean descended lower than being made sin? Yes. He underwent the
fierce fury and judgment of God the Father. God the Father turned
His back on Him. God the Father forsook Him. That's
as low as you can get. Indeed, Christ did suffer hell.
He didn't descend locally into a place called hell, but He suffered
hell. He suffered it on the cross because
that's the equivalent of hell. It's for God to forsake you.
That's judgment. That's justice. God will forsake
you one day if you meet God outside of Christ. And that's judgment. That's justice. That's the worm
that never dies. To know God, to know Him fully,
to know His holy, glorious character, and to know you rejected Him.
To know Him and to know that you sinned against Him all your
days. To know Him and to know that
you're separated from Him. There's a great gulf between
you and Him, fixed. Christ suffered this for His
people. He was separated from His people.
He who knew no sin suffered this for His people on the cross. And He cried out, My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Why are You so far from the words
of My roaring? And He sent that brethren to
give us the information. He turned right around and He
said, It's because I'm a worm and no man, and you're holy. You're holy. He vindicated the
holy justice and righteousness of God which He came to uphold
and He came to declare before the whole world. He said, I'm
aware because I've taken the place of my people. And you're
holy, God. That's why He must be forsaken
for His people. He's declaring the very righteousness
of God. And if you meet God outside of
Christ, you're meeting God a worm standing before a holy God trying
to tell God why He ought to receive you. And He won't. He just won't. He's holy. He can by no means
sweep our sin under the rug. He can by no means clear the
guilty at all. And he bore that wrath, and he
did it in the place of his people. And by bearing it, he satisfied
God. He propitiated God. He made atonement
for his people. And God satisfied towards everyone
for whom Christ died. By the grace of God, he tasted
death for everyone for whom he died, brethren. But then our
Savior went, descended lower. His body literally descended
into the lowest parts of the earth. He went to the grave. He went to the grave. He said
it this way, As Jonas was three days and three nights in the
whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth. His body was buried. Our Lord
and our Savior descended into the lowest parts of the earth.
His whole life, His whole life, His whole ministry on this earth
was one of descending into the lower parts of the earth. The
places men you don't like to go and won't go. Now thirdly,
let's stay with the context. I want you to see why the Holy
Spirit says this to us. He says now, verse 9, now that
He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into
the lower parts of the earth? I was going to preach a message.
I was going to start here. He descended first. And then
I was going to preach about He ascended. And then I was going
to preach about Him leading captivity captives and giving gifts unto
men. That was going to be my point. But I got hung up, I couldn't
go past this. This phrase kept leaping off
the page at me. He also descended first into
the lower parts of the earth. In verse 8 he says Christ ascended
up on high. And none ever ascended to the
great glory that God our Father exalted His Son. He went to the
greatest glory. And everybody wants to ascend
up on high. Everybody wants to ascend up on high. We all do.
We want to do it in our secular profession. We want to do it
in our religious profession. We want to do it in our life
and we want to do it after we die, in the life to come. Nobody
wants to go to the lower parts of the earth. Everybody wants
to be up on high in every regard, in accomplishments, before our
friends, amongst brethren in the church, We get so snobbish
about our music and our food and our clothing. Just snobs
about it. I hate that. I hate it. I despise
it. Just snobs. We want to be high. We want to go to heaven. Nobody
wants to go to hell. Not a soul wants to go to hell.
Everybody wants to go to hell. Everybody wants to be first.
But we want to do it with our chest poked out. We want to do
it with everybody exalting us. We want to do it with everybody
bragging on us. We want to do it stepping on
everybody else and walking our way up and boasting about our
goodness and our merit. That's how we want to do it.
But brethren, sinners are not going to be received by God.
until we've been brought down, until we've been brought down.
As quickly as the Holy Spirit says Christ ascended, He said
He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth.
Before Christ ascended, He descended. He went low and lower and lower
and lower and lower until you have a lifeless body in a grave. Is that not the course of the
believer in this life? God finds you way up here and
He starts bringing you down. And all our days in the inner
man, we're going down, down, down, down. And we're going to
end up a lifeless corpse in a grave. The old man, my outward man must
perish. It must, it must decrease. That's the only way the inward
man can increase. That's the only way we can come
up to God is to come down in our flesh. That's the only way,
brethren. With God the way up is first
to come down. And this is important. The Holy
Spirit is telling us here to walk with all lowliness. and
meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another. And so
he tells us Christ also descended into the lower parts of the earth.
He did that first. Turn over to 2 Kings 5. Remember
Naaman the leper? 2 Kings 5. Here's old Naaman. He was a proud
man. He thought he was a king that
just happened to be a leper. But he was a leper that just
happened to be a king. And he comes to the prophet Elisha's
house. And he comes there, and he brings
his entourage. He brings all his posse with
him. He's got all his homies with
him. He's got his horses and his chariots and all his men
of honor, and they all come to Elisha's house. And he comes
to the door, but he stops at the door. He won't go through
the door of this man's house. There's a whole bunch of folks
that's come here today, but you've stopped at Christ's door. You
won't go through that door. And you know what the prophet
did? Look at verse 10. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him. He didn't even go out to the
man. Here's a king. Imagine the president of the
United States coming to my house, my house, and I don't even go
outside and meet him. I send somebody out there with
a word. We'll go tell that man this is what I said. This is what he did. He said,
Go wash in Jordan seven times. Jordan. And thy flesh shall come
again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth,
and he went away. And he said, Behold, I thought,
I thought he'll surely come out to me. He'll surely come out
to me. Surely this man's gonna come
down to me. He's gonna come out to me, bowing
down and kissing my hand and telling me what a great man I
am and what a great king I am. He don't, doesn't this man know
who I am? and stand and call on the name
of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place and recover
the leper. I had all this great ceremony
and vision that he was going to do and draw all this attention
to me that he's doing all this for me. He said, Are not Abna
and Parpar rivers of Damascus? That's where he was from. That
was his place. pride of place. Are not the rivers
of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash
in them and be clean? And so he turned and went away
in a rage. This man's dignity was offended
and it needed to be. He needed to be made to see who
he is. Now look at verse 13. And his
servants came near and spake unto him and said, My father,
If the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing, wouldest
thou not have done it? Sure he would have. He would
have done it in a heartbeat. He just talked about this great
thing he thought the prophet was going to do. Would you not
have done it? How much rather than when he
says to you, wash and be clean? Senator, if I preached to you
and said that Christ bid you to do some great thing, would
you not have done it already? I guarantee you, if I said, you
can be saved if you'll just be baptized, we couldn't keep folks
out of the swimming pool. They'd all be in it. But Christ has said, descend. He said, come down. He said,
come unto me. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for I'm lowly and I'm meek of heart. To do that, you're
going to have to come down. You're going to have to come
down. Now, why won't you rather do this and live? Just come down. That's what he said. Come down.
Take my yoke on you. Verse 14 says, Then he went down. Then went he down. and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the
man of God, and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of
a little child, and he was clean. And look at this, and he returned
to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and
he stood before him, and he said, Behold, now I know that there
is no God in all the earth but in Israel. Now therefore I pray
thee, take a blessing of thy servant. You see this? You see this? Center the way
up with God's down. Christ first descended. He descended
and accomplished the salvation of His people. He descended to
accomplish establishing the law for His people, to satisfy justice
for His people, that God could be merciful to His people. And
now He tells you, you descend. You do sin. You come down. You're
going to have to come down. Confess your sins before Him.
He's faithful and just to forgive you. Come clean with God. Be
like a child with God. Come to God, depending on God. Casting your care on God, depending
on Him. And He'll save you. He'll save
you. Now, this word, believers, is
especially for us, though. Now, listen to me. Listen to
me. Remember when our Lord When He
stood with His disciples, and it says, they were talking about
who's going to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And He
said this to them, He said, He that is least among you, the
same shall be great. He that's the least among you,
He'll be the great one. Christ became the least. He became
the very least. I mean, you can't get lower than
he can. He descended to the lower parts of the earth for the purpose
of glorifying God, highly exalting God and glorifying his people
and saving his people. And that's what he did. But he
was made least to do it. And now he's the greatest. Now
he's ascended to the greatest heights God has given him. And
so the Spirit tells you and me here, brethren, here's the will
of the Father for you and I who believe in Christ. He says in
verse 1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that
you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. The
man who's being used to write this to us is in prison. He was
the highest, mightiest, loftiest, most known man in Israel when
he was a Pharisee in false religion. And God saved him and brought
Paul down, down, down, down, and here he is in prison. He's
got one more step to go. He's going to die. And he's writing
and saying, I beseech you now to walk with all lowliness and
meekness, with longsuffering for bearing one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. I won't read it
to you. You know Philippians 2. If there's
any consolation in Christ, If there's any comfort of love,
any fellowship of the Spirit, He says, fulfill my joy, be like-minded,
be of one mind, be of one accord, don't let anything be done through
strife or vainglory, trying to exalt ourselves, trying to be
high and mighty. He says, but in lowliness of
mind, lowly, let each esteem other better than themselves.
And don't everybody look on our own things and say, well, I just
need to take care of my business. Mind your own business, for sure.
But also, when your brother's in need, take care of their business.
Bear their burden of taking care of their business with them.
Help them. And he says, let the mind of Christ be in you. This
was the mind of Christ. This is what he did. He didn't
just look on his own business. He came and took care of our
business for us. saved us. In doing so, he highly
exalted God. And it says, wherefore God also
has highly exalted him and given a name above every name. At the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, every knee is going to bow and
every tongue is going to confess that he is King of kings and
Lord of lords. Now look at what he says to us, brethren. Turn
over with me to 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. This is what He tells
us now, brethren. I'm just about done here. I want
you to see this. 1 Peter 5. Christ descended also
first into the lower parts, and doing so He highly glorified
God, wherefore God also has highly exalted Him. Now here's what
He says to me and you. Look here. Humble yourselves
therefore. Come down under the mighty hand
of God. Who's that mighty hand? It's
Christ. Come down unto Christ. 1 Peter
5 and verse 6. Come down unto Christ, the mighty
hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. You see that? Christ humbled Himself under
God's mighty hand, that God might exalt Him in due time. And He
did. And now He says to us, Humble yourselves therefore unto the
mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. How do
I humble myself? Casting all your care upon Him,
for He cared for you. That's how He did it, brethren.
Justification of His people, making His people righteous,
putting away our sin, bringing us to God and making us accepted
in God. Satan was not defeated with pride. Satan wasn't defeated by haughtiness.
He's the father of pride. He loves that. Satan was defeated
with lowliness. Satan was defeated with humility.
Satan was defeated by Christ ascending. Satan was defeated
by long-suffering. He was defeated by forbearance. He was defeated by love. He was
defeated by Christ upholding righteousness, by Him doing right,
upholding the truth so that God could be merciful to us. That's
how Satan was defeated. And brethren, that's how we're
going to defeat Satan. It's not by our doing. It's not
by us being high and mighty and strong in ourselves. It's by
us casting all our care upon the hand of Christ, our Conqueror,
in whom we're more than conquerors through Him. That's how we're
going to defeat Him. Humble yourselves, therefore, to Him. Well, that's
what he says. And he says now, he descended
first. So therefore, Paul says, as the
prisoner of the Lord, I beseech you, you walk worthy of this
vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness,
with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Amen. It's a 1050.