Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Psalm 68. Psalm 68. And our text will be found in
verse 18. And we're going to try to stick
close to the text here. And I believe, as you can see,
the text will easily divide itself. And so every one of these statements
in this verse is pretty much a point in the message. And the
title of the message is The Gifts of Christ's Ascension. The Gifts
of Christ's Ascension. It says in verse 18 of Psalm
68, Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men. Yea, for the rebellious also,
that the Lord God might dwell among them." As you can see,
it divides itself. The first is, thou hast ascended
on high. The second, led captivity captive. The third is, received gifts
for men. The fourth is, for who? The rebellious. And fifth, the purpose that God
might dwell among them. So, if you've got that, you've
got the message. There it is. It's all divided for you by the
Holy Spirit Himself. Scripture here is given. We have
in this text a most essential doctrine declared in prophecy
And that is the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to the
throne after His victorious salvation. The ascension of Christ is most
central and necessary for the gospel to be preached. Without
the ascension of Christ, there is no hope for sinners. Without
the ascension of Christ, there are no gifts of spiritual gifts
that He receives without His ascension. Now Paul, he reveals
the importance of this concerning the resurrection and the ascension.
He says this, if Christ be not raised, if Jesus Christ was not raised
from the dead, if He has not ascended into heaven itself,
then our faith is vain, and you are yet in your sins. Now you see how essential that
is? If Christ be not raised from the dead, then there's no salvation.
There's no hope. For by man came death, even so
must by man come the resurrection of the dead. And that first resurrection
of which we, believers, have been made partakers is the new
birth. If you have been born again of
the Spirit of God, recognize that this is a product. This
is a result of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The reason we are born again
is because He has ascended. And God, by this resurrection,
He has exposed our sin and need of righteousness. He has quickened
us to faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we know that He has
ascended. How do you know He has ascended?
Have you seen Him? No, not with these physical eyes,
but I know this, by the regeneration of my heart, by the resurrection
of my spirit in my flesh, God has given me His Holy Spirit
that testifies with mine that Christ is risen from the dead.
I know He is risen from the dead. This is not a debatable subject
with me. I don't ever debate with anyone
about this. God's Word settles it for me. And the Spirit of God that testifies
in me settles this matter. Christ is ascended. He is ascended. and send it to glory. But in
order to ascend, doesn't one need to first descend? Doesn't he must, in order to
go up, must you already be down before you go up? That's what
Paul says. If you go over to Ephesians,
you hold your place here, but Paul uses this very same text
in Ephesians 4. And we can flip back here in
a little while, but I just want you to see this first that he
talks about his descension first before his ascension. Ephesians
chapter 4. And look at verse 8, Wherefore
he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive,
and gave gifts unto men, now that he is ascended, what is
it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill
All things. Now, Jesus Himself said, I came
down from heaven. This is in John 6. He said, I
came down from heaven. So Christ, before the world was,
He was already ascended. He was God, very God. The Son of God. And the Son of
God who is above all things, created all things, first, in
order before He ascended as a man, He must first descend to become
a man. Now why? This is Christmas time
and everybody's all about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Which one is that? Okay. Is he all right? Can you check on him? You can
check on him, baby. Go ahead. Okay. All right, that's all right.
Just want to check on him, make sure he's all right. All right.
Now then, so first Christ must come down, and what did he come
to do? Everybody's talking about Christmas and the birth of Christ,
but what did he come to do? This is altogether important.
Christ came down to become a man in order to do the will of God. That's what He said. I came to
do not mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. Lo,
in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will,
O God. Now what was the will of God
that He descended to do? He says in John 6, 39, this is
the will of Him that sent me, that of all He hath given me,
I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. The Father's will was the salvation
of all of His elect that were given to Christ. Do you want
to know the difference between the true Christ and every false
Christ? John said there are many antichrists. There are many antichrists gone
out into the world and there are many false teachers of antichrist. Paul says these men preach another
gospel, which is not another. And herein is the difference
between the real Christ that descended and antichrist is this,
even his success His victory over sin, death, and hell. His victory in redemption and
salvation of His people. Remember that the prophecy said,
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. This is not a questionable matter.
When Christ came, this matter was already purposed and determined
of God that He should succeed. The success of His work determines
whether we believe in a true or a false Christ. Did He who
descended accomplish the will of His Father? Should He lose
one of His elect? Will there be one for whom Christ
died that should ever perish? Will one elect soul fail to hear
the gospel and believe on Christ as all their salvation? Listen
very carefully. No, not one. Not one shall ever
perish for whom Christ died. Not one of them shall ever fail
to hear the gospel and believe on Christ. Not one of them shall
ever fail to continue to believe on Christ. I had talked with
a man recently that believes that salvation is something a
man could lose. And so he's talking about the
universities and how bad they are for our children. He said
this one boy that came to him, he professed Christ and then
he went to college and he gave up his profession. I said the
man was never saved to begin with. If he ever gave up Christ,
he was never saved to begin with. Why? Christ will not lose one. And if your Christ can lose one,
your Christ is not Christ. Because our Christ is a very
successful Savior. Matter of fact, this text that
we are studying was written over a thousand years before the ascension
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does it say? Thou hast
ascended. It's already been done in the
purpose and mind of God. God has already said it in past
tense. It's already been done. Even
before He came to do it. How can you be so confident?
How can we be so dogmatic? Are you sure, Pastor, that Christ
was successful? How can you be so sure? We're
sure because Jesus, who died for our sins, who suffered the
full measure of God, said, It is finished. Salvation Done! That's the gospel. Salvation
is finished. We are sure that Christ is a
success because He, by His own blood, entered in once into the
holy place and having obtained eternal redemption. You see,
the scripture says He's obtained eternal redemption. Hebrews 9 and 26 says, Now once
in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself, so Christ once bare the sins of
many. Notice that term once. If you
read Hebrews chapter 9 and chapter 10, you should underline the
word one and once in those chapters, because that's all it took. Those
high priests offered how many sacrifices? Thousands and thousands
of them. And they never sat down. They
never were finished. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice forever, sat down on the right hand. That's how
I know he's successful. He sat down. He's finished. He's obtained eternal redemption. We can be sure of this, that
God was pleased with His one offering because He raised Him
from the dead. You know, if God was not pleased
with Christ's offering, Jesus would still be in the tomb. If
He had not put away all the sins of His people that He bare, consider
this, He bare our sins in His own body on the tree, and had
He not paid for them all, He would still have sin, and then
He could not be raised from the dead. But the apostles in Acts 2, he
said this, this same Jesus whom you killed, God loosed from the
pains of death. Why? Because it could not hold
him. You know, you put an innocent
man in prison. If the law is just, it cannot
hold him. Even so with Christ. Christ,
if He'd be innocent, if He'd put away our sins, the grave
has no more power over Him. And so God loosed Him from it,
raised Him from the dead. And you know what? He promised
beforehand this would happen. He said by the mouth of David,
He said, that the Holy One, shall not see corruption. Even so, in our text, it says,
thou hast ascended on high. Jesus, being exalted, having
received the promises of the Father, received the Holy Ghost,
has shed forth on the day of Pentecost his power to save. Christ is ascended. The Lord
said unto my Lord, sit thou. I like that word sit. You're
sitting. Why? You're resting. That's when
the work is done, you sit down. My dad always used to get mad
because I'd sit down before the work's done. I always used to
sit down before I finished. And he'd be upset. He'd rightly
be so. I should finish the work and
then sit down. Christ finished the work and he sat down. And
not just anywhere, he sat down on the right hand of God. He
sat on the throne of God. And God hath declared him to
be both Lord and Christ. And I tell you, God could not
declare Him to be Lord and Christ had He not put away our sins. And now that He has risen from
the dead, listen to me, Jesus Christ is Lord. God testified
of it. And so this morning as you read
that text, Thou hast ascended on high, you should see Jesus
Christ who is ascended on high, a successful Savior, has ascended
on high and He is Lord of all. All power is given to Him in
time and eternity. All power, providence, thrones,
dominions, principalities, all things in heaven and in earth
are in the hands of Jesus Christ right now. You and I are in His
hands. He will do with us as He pleases.
Isn't that altogether different than modern religion? They want
Jesus in your hands. I tell you, if Christ is in your
hands, He's not Christ. Because He is Christ, you are
in His hand, and He will do with you as He pleases. Christ is
Lord. I declare to you that God has
highly exalted Him and given Him a name that is above every
name. And listen, all men, All men everywhere, all men in every
time will bow down to Christ. They will. You will either bow
in this life or you will bow in eternity, but you will bow. You will bow. Now He is your Lord. I'm not,
this is not, I don't come up here and say make Jesus your
Lord. He is your Lord. You should bow. You should bow
down. You should hail Him. You should
worship Him. You should honor Him. You should believe Him. He is Lord, because He is ascended
on high. Therefore, God has sent His preachers
to declare this, that you should repent, that you should repent
and believe on Him alone. That you should see that all
your righteousness, all your goodness, and all your religion
are dumb, are worthless in His sight. And you should come to
Christ. The Scripture says, Kiss the
Son, lest He be angry with you. Lest His anger be kindled but
a little against you in the way. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in Him. See the difference? The difference
between the lost and the saved are this, the saved bow down
and believe. The lost are obstinate against
Him and will not bow. They will not bow. Therefore he is ascended and
you should believe on him because he's successful now that what
is he successful to do look at our text? Second part of this
thou has led captivity captive This if you go over to Colossians
go to Colossians for a second look at this Colossians chapter
2 Verse 15 Verse 14, he says, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinance against us, which was contrary
to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.
It's our sins. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. Now, this phrase, a show of them
openly, This has to do with the custom of ancient rulers or conquerors. As they would conquer a city,
there would be a great parade afterward when they came home.
When the general came home, he would parade before the people,
and behind him were his captives. Those people he conquered, he
would have them in chains and he would be leading the procession
and they would be following behind as his captives. And the higher
the captive, the greater the glory of the general, the conqueror. And this is the same illusion
in our text, lead captivity captive. It has to do with the parade,
a procession of a conquering hero. parading those that he
made captives. And Jesus made a show openly
of his victory over the very things that held us captive. We who are believers in Christ,
we were captives. We were slaves. But now we see
the procession. We see our victorious leader,
our Lord, has ascended to heaven and he has led in a procession
those things that held us captive. What are they? The law. The law. That held us bound. The law bound us. Did not the law of God hold us
in bondage? For the law, the scripture says,
gendereth bondage. The law of God condemned us,
but could not save us. In that it was weak through the
flesh, the law by no means could bring us to holiness or to be
a guide or rule of our life. What a silly thing that is to
say that the law is a rule of life. That's to say they were
opinions, right? Well, if it's just a rule, you know, you keep it or not.
Maybe you break a rule. No, these aren't rules. These
are commandments. These are something God demands
of you and they're immovable. Therefore the scripture said
cursed is everyone that Continueth not in all things written in
the law to do them you think you're going to earn your way
to heaven Then you should all earn it by obeying every precept
in the law. I Don't see many people running
around with with goats Do you or sheep? Law said you should
make sacrifices What you just gonna skip that
part You're going to just narrow the law down to ten precepts,
ten commandments, huh? No, the law is the law is the
law. You can't break up the law. And cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
The law cursed us, the law condemned us, and could not save us. What then is our hope? Behold,
the ascended Lord hath led the law captive. How? By triumphing
in it. By obeying it, by honoring it,
by providing by His death under the curse, He satisfied the law
against us. He said blotting out our transgressions
as a thick cloud. And as our representative believer,
He is risen from the dead and that broken law could never curse
us again. You know what it is to be in
Christ? It is to have the law fulfilled. You know, in that
Ark of the Covenant, there were those three things, right? The
manna, the Aaron's rod that budded, and the law. You know, I've thought for years
that that was the broken law. No. That law was not broken in
there. That was the second time that
the Lord wrote those commandments and gave them to Moses. That's
the one that was put in there. Why? Because in the ark, in Christ,
the law is not broken, it's fulfilled. It's fulfilled in Christ. And
so, what would keep us from glory, believer, now that our Savior
has led captivity captive? Should the law keep us? No, we
are not bound by the law, for Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You believe on
Christ? You believe on Christ? That's
the end of the law for righteousness. To everyone that believeth. This
is the message of grace. Now secondly, he led death captive. Death. Does death at times cause you
to fear? When we get sick, the first thing
that enters our mind is that cold shadow of death looming
over us. We begin to know our mortality
more in sickness, don't we? You're just as mortal when you're
well as when you're sick, but at that time of sickness, you
begin to feel it more. And the apostle said in Hebrews
2, he said that death held us captive We were in bondage to
death, subject to death all our lifetime. We were under the weight
of it, the fear of it. But I tell you, because Christ
has died and is now risen again as our representative, we are
able to see what is prepared for us. He has abolished death. He's already risen from the dead
and he's abolished death. Christ led death captive. You know, the only people that
really seem to fear death more than anybody else are saints.
Lost, they don't fear death hardly at all. They may, when they get
sick, they don't think about it much until they get sick or
until someone else dies. But the believer thinks about
this often. Do you not think about this all
the time? I do. I'm in my study all the time.
You know what I'm confronted with? Death all the time. Judgment
all the time. Every time I read this book,
every time I study this Word, I'm confronted with sin and with
death. And the believer thinks about
it all the time. You remember Asaph? He found that to be true.
In Psalm 73, listen to what he said. He said, There is no bans
in the wicked's death. Their strength is firm. In other
words, they don't fear death. They're not troubled like other
men. Neither are they plagued like
other men. See, they don't fear death because
they're already dead. You don't have any fear of God
and of hell or judgment. It's because you're already dead
and you're insensitive. You can lay a corpse right here
and you just start poking that corpse. He feels nothing. And so when I preach the gospel,
you feel nothing. This doesn't affect you at all
because you're dead already. But we who are alive, we are
sensitive to these things. These things mean something to
us. Sin means something to us. Judgment means something to us.
Eternity means something to us. And we are quickened. We know
our sin. We know that the soul that sinneth
it shall surely die. But what is our comfort? Thou
hast ascended and led death captive. So why would we fear death? Jesus
tasted death for every man. He in our stead tasted death. So then all who are in Christ
shall never taste it. Death to us is but a shadow. I know people are afraid of their
own shadow, but really, what is there to be afraid of a shadow? There's no fear there. Why? Because Christ hath abolished
death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
We have in these past few years, have we not seen our brethren
die How many of our brethren in this congregation have we
seen pass in the last few years? We've seen a lot of them pass.
We've seen a lot of them die. But you listen very carefully.
They are not dead. Now, they laughed at Christ when
He said it, didn't they? The damsel is not dead, but sleeping. And they left him to scorn. Nancy
is not dead. Gil is not dead. Madeline is
not dead. You got that? They're not dead. They're alive. And they're very
well. Very well. Their body sleeps. But the moment
they expired in this life, they were ushered into the presence
of God, where they are alive forevermore. Though we desire to see them,
to speak to them, to hold them, let our hearts be encouraged
that they are safe and alive. For our conquering Savior said,
Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Do you believe that? He said
they didn't die. Isn't that what he said about
Lazarus before he got back? He said, Lazarus is not dead.
He's asleep. How could he say that? Because
he conquered death. And they're not dead. They're
just asleep. And one morning they'll wake
up and be completely refreshed. And thirdly, he led sin captive. Oh, the sin of Adam surely put
all of us in chains to lust and passions and self-righteousness
and sin, which by nature we love. Isn't that strange that a prisoner
would love his chains? Yet this is what men do. Men
love sin. And they think it's freedom to
sin more. Isn't that what the world calls
freedom? Sin! Let's sin more and we'll be free! All you're doing is adding chains.
You add weight to your judgment by adding sin. You don't become
more free. Job 15 verse 16 says, How much
more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like
water? You see, dead people are not
sensitive to sin. They're just not. We are. We who believe are sensitive
to sin because we know what it is. We know who we are. God's people are very tender
to sin. Because we've been quickened,
we've been alive to feel the weight of our sin. And what do
we do with this sin? We groan in our flesh because
of it. We groan. Do you groan because
of your sin? Do you pine because of it? Is it a weight on your shoulders
too heavy to bear? It is if you're quick and you
know what that's like. And so the only light and warmth
and freedom we feel is that Christ has led your sin captive. He's
led your sin captive. And by His one offering for our
sins, He purged our sins. He washed our sins. He broke those chains and bars
of iron that bound us and He ascended. Was there anything to bear down
on Him from ascending? Like a balloon. You take a balloon
full of helium and let it go. Is there any weight to keep it
down? No, it ascends lightly. And because there was no sin
in Him, He ascended to heaven and glory to show us, your sins
are gone. I've let them captive. I've taken
them out of the way. So far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our sins from us. Behold, I,
even I, thy God, Jacob, have blotted out thy sins as a thick
cloud, and thy transgressions as a cloud. Return unto me. Is that not the constant word
that comes to us, believer? Return unto me. Return unto me. And what do we do? We're always
coming to Christ. We never stop. We never stop
coming to Christ. Coming to Christ is not one thing
you do one day and then forget about it. It's something that
God does in you continually come to Christ. We continually turn
from sin, continually look to Christ who has led our sin captive. And look at this. Go back to
your text now. Look at the third thing. He received gifts for
men. Well, who did He receive gifts
for? Not all men. He did not receive gifts for
all men. If He had received gifts for
all men, surely all men would have these gifts. But He did not. But rather He
did this for you, His elect. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath given us... Here are these
things He received. All spiritual blessing. in heavenly
places in Christ. When did he get those? Well,
he had them from eternity. He said, these are for my elect,
those chosen by the Father. Now, these men, these elect,
were fallen men and worthy of no gifts at all.
Are you worthy of Christ's gifts? Look within. Tell me how worthy
you are to receive anything of his hand. Are you worthy? Well,
I've been a I've been a good person No, you're not you're
not a good person. I Just let's be honest. You're
not a good person How do you know that God said you're not
a good person? Scripture said, There is none
that doeth good, no, not one. So who's worthy of these gifts?
No one is worthy. And so then if these gifts are
to be given, they must be given by grace. And listen, these gifts,
these gifts that God ordained for His elect, Christ earned
them. He received these gifts for men. How did He receive them? By merit. He earned them. What gifts did
He receive? Eternal righteousness. Eternal salvation. Eternal redemption. These are what the scriptures
tell us He received. everlasting righteousness. That's
what he received. And who are these gifts for?
Look at your text again. He received these gifts of salvation. For who? For the rebellious. Now see, if you were a good person,
you've already disqualified yourself from these gifts. These gifts are for rebels. These
gifts are for traitors. These gifts are of grace toward
sinners and only sinners. This is the confession of all
who receive these gifts, is it not? You see, I know my place. That's me. In that text, that's
me, rebel. That's me. I did not merit these gifts. I would have never chosen Christ. I would have never come to Christ
had he not called me. I would have never believed had
he not given me faith to believe. For by grace you are saved. If you're saved any other way
by grace, then by grace you're not saved. Salvation comes only
by grace. And it comes only through faith
to believe on Jesus Christ. And listen, that faith is not
of yourself. It, faith, is a gift of God.
You know, don't think lightly of your faith. I don't want you
to think, I don't want you trusting in it, but I wouldn't want you
to think lightly of it either, because it is a gift. It is what
Christ received. And He gives faith to you. Now, why is it you have not gone
away? You believer, how long has it been since you first trusted
in Christ? And yet, you're still here. You
still believe. Why is that? Because you've been
given faith for today. The only reason I'm here is because
He gave me faith. Faith is not of myself. Faith
is a gift of God, not of works. And who does He give it to? Rebels,
to those who have no faith. We who do believe know that our
faith is a gift of God. And I'll tell you, our love for
Christ is another gift, isn't it? Believer, remember when you did
not love him. Remember when you despised his
name. And now when I cannot feel his
presence or know his love, I weep and I mourn for my sin because
I love him. That is a gift that he gives
to the rebels. And I'll tell you another gift,
he gives love for each other. That's a gift. Any man say he love God and hate
his brother, he is a liar. I don't know how many men profess
faith in Christ who will not darken the doors of God's assemblies
and meet with the saints. I tell you, if they won't, they're
lost. If they don't do that, they don't have a desire to be
among God's people, there's something incredibly wrong with that. Because
I don't want to be anywhere else but with you. Do you realize
this is, I've told you this, Wednesday and Sunday are my highest
days. because I get to spend them with
you. They're my best days. And they are for God's people
because there's no other place we would rather be. There's no
other message we would rather hear than of his glorious victory. And I'll tell you another gift
he gives is hope. Not, gee, I hope so, but confidence. That's another gift, isn't it?
Confidence. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God. Not we might have, not maybe
we have. We have peace with God through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. And how does this faith increase?
How does this hope increase? How does this love increase?
Trouble Newton said I asked the Lord
that I might grow in faith and love and every grace You know
what he said he said the hell had been unleashed on his soul
I He said the demons of hell assaulted his soul, and he cried
out to God and said, why? Why would you let your worm perish? And he said, you ask to grow
in every grace, and this is how I do it. You want to grow? Here's some trouble. Here's some
difficulty. Here's some trials for you. And
he gives them as gifts. You remember Paul said that I
will glory in what? My infirmities. Why? Because that's how we see
him. That's how we love him. That's
how we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. He gives
these gifts. And listen, how does he give
these gifts? And for what purpose? Look at
the last part there and we'll close. He said for this purpose,
that the Lord God might dwell among them. I want to show you this. Go back
over to Ephesians. Ephesians, look at this. I want
you to see the difference. And I'll show you how all these things
come. These gifts and how do we know these things to be true?
Well, look at this. Look at the difference between
what Paul uses in Ephesians 4 and what we have in our text. Ephesians
4 says, when he hath ascended up on high, verse 8, He hath
led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Notice the first
one in our text, he said he received gifts for men. But in Paul's
epistle here, he writes it that he gave gifts unto men. What are these gifts? Some apostles,
some prophets, some pastors, teachers. You know what the gift
is? The gift is his men to preach
the gospel to his people. That's a gift. How many are without this gift? And I tell you, if they're without
it, God's people weep. Without preachers, Nobody can hear of Jesus Christ.
If nobody ever hears of Christ, they will never believe on Him
and be saved. But through preachers, well,
what do we do? We just declare to you what God
says, and you are encouraged, strengthened, built up in the
faith through this gift of preaching. Now, what does the world think
about preaching? Foolishness. You know what? They're wrong. To us who believe, it is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Preaching
is a gift. And so as we look at this, believer
remember your Lord has ascended on high and he rules all things. Believer, your Lord has led captivity
captive. The law, death, sin, Satan, none
of them will stop you from entering into glory, not even your flesh. He let it captive. And he gives
gifts unto men, faith, love, hope, joy, peace, meekness, temperance,
all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And you know what? He gives this
to rebels, to sinners, that he might dwell among us.
Isn't that what he done this morning? Did he not come and
dwell among us? Isn't that what the disciples
felt when they were on the road to Emmaus? Did not our hearts
burn within us while he dwelt with us on the way? That's what
it is. Thank God for his ascension,
his victory. Go in peace. Let's stand and
be dismissed in prayer.