All right, let's open our Bibles
now to Psalm 68. I titled the message, Gifts for
Men. I took the title from verse 18
of Psalm 68, where David says, Thou hast ascended on high. Thou
hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men. I have four simple points about
these gifts in the form of questions. Number one, how were these gifts
purchased? Number two, what are these gifts?
Number three, where are these gifts found? And number four,
who are they for? All right, number one, how are
these gifts purchased? Now, before a gift can be given,
it's got to be purchased, doesn't it? Well, who purchased these
gifts? Well, the purchaser is the Lord
Jesus Christ, our God, man, mediator. We know that's who David's talking
about here. Because when Paul quotes him
in Ephesians chapter four, the passage we read just a few minutes
ago, he told us so, that's who he's referring to here, the Lord
Jesus Christ. All right, how did Christ purchase
these gifts for men? We purchased them by what he
accomplished as a man on this earth, when he came to this earth
as a man. Now somebody might think, David
is not talking about Christ's first coming anywhere in these
verses, but he is. What is David talking about when
he said that Christ ascended on high? Well, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the son of God. He's already on high. He never,
even when he was on this earth, he never ceased to be with the
father. He's already exalted over everything. He's already
made higher than the heavens ruling and reigning over everything. Well, then how did he ascend
even higher? Well, first by descending. He was able to ascend because
he first descended. Now look back in Ephesians chapter
four. This is what the Apostle Paul
tells us. He gives us some commentary here on what David wrote. In
verse eight he says, wherefore he saith, he's quoting David
here, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive
and gave gifts unto men. Now he that 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 fulfill
all things, that he might fulfill the word of the will of God.
He ascended because he first descended. And Paul says he descended
into the lower parts of the earth. Now, what does that mean that
Christ descended into the lower parts of the earth? Well, it
means that the son of God humiliated himself. to come down as low
as He could go, and to take on Him flesh, to take on Him human
flesh, because He came to save His people, who had been brought
so low by their sin, and they're in the flesh, and He came as
low as He could go. He came in their flesh, in their
nature, to redeem them from their sin. Now look over at Psalm 139. This lower parts of the earth. I'll tell you what that means.
It means the womb. The womb of his virgin mother,
Mary. I know that's what it means because
David defines us here, the lowest parts or the lower parts of the
earth. When Christ descended to the lower parts of the earth,
first he descended into his mother's womb. Psalm 139 verse 13. For thou has possessed my reins.
Thou has covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee for
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works,
and 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. That's when he was, David's talking
about when he was conceived in the lowest parts of the earth
in his mother's womb. Even then, he says, thine eyes
did see my substance, yet being imperfect. And in thy book, all
my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned,
when as yet there was none of them. So when we talk about Christ
going into the lower parts of the earth, he means exactly the
same thing David meant when he descended into the womb of his
virgin mother, Mary. And then when he was born, he
kept up this dissension. He descended as he went through
the earth, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He descended
again when he was made sin for his people. He descended again
when he suffered the death as a substitute for his people's
suffering. the death that they deserve. And he even descended
to go to the grave, to go in the tomb where he rested from
his finished work. Now that's how Christ purchased
all these gifts for his people. It's by his perfect life and
his perfect substitutionary death when he descended for his people
to save them from their sins. And the obedience of Christ in
his life, his obedience to the law, his obedience to his father's
will satisfied all of the holy requirements of the eternal holy
God. His obedience brought in everlasting
righteousness. His life satisfied God and His
death satisfied God's justice for the sin that was laid upon
Him. Now, how do we know that? How do we know that Christ's
sacrifice pleased the Father and satisfied God's justice?
Because He did lay in that grave for three days, didn't He? But
the grave couldn't hold Him. Death could not hold him because
the sin laid on him was gone. He was all put away under his
precious blood, so he must arise from the grave. But that's not
the ascension that Dave is talking about here. About 40 days after
he arose from the grave, he ascended back on high. Went up in the
cloud, received him up in the air, and the disciples just stood
watching, their mouth hanging open. Those two men, angels,
came and said, Why are you looking at me? This one who you saw sin,
he's going to come again in a like manner. He ascended back to the
Father because he did what he came to do. He got the job done. By his blood, he had purchased
every blessing Almighty God has for sinners. And try to imagine
that ascension when he ascended back to the Father. He returned
to heaven as the mighty conquering general, returning victorious
from the battle. And he got there and he sat down
on the right hand of God. He sat down as the successful,
victorious savior. And that's how all those gifts
were purchased. Christ earned them by his life
and by his death. You might remember last week,
I told you that David wrote this psalm at the time when he brought
the ark back up to Jerusalem from Obed-Edom. And that was
a wonderful day. The people were glad the presence
of God was coming back to Jerusalem. But here, David's writing about
something a whole lot more glorious than that. Not just the ark coming
back, he's writing of the Lord Jesus Christ ascending back to
glory and victory because he had purchased all these gifts
and satisfied his father. All right, number two, that's
how the gifts are purchased. Number two, what are these gifts
that Christ has purchased? Well, there are too many to list,
but look at Colossians chapter 2. There are too many to list
because Christ purchased every blessing that God has for sinners. But I'm going to give you ten
of them very, very briefly. And several of them are listed
here in Colossians chapter 2. The first blessing is this. It's freedom from every enemy. David says, Thou hast led captivity
captive. You set us free from every enemy.
Colossians 2 verse 15, and having spoiled principalities and powers,
he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Now we can understand what Paul
is saying here by thinking back to his day, how it is that those,
especially the Roman generals that he would have seen in his
day, how those Roman generals came back to town victorious. They had a big parade, they knew
the army was coming, there was a big parade. First one, first
one in the parade, the general, he sat out there in a chariot,
first one coming through the parade. And behind him were all
the soldiers that went to battle with him, won the victory. And
then behind them were everyone they captured. All those captives
that they caught in chains, coming behind the army humiliated And
the more humiliated the captives were, you know, the greater they
were before they were captured, the more power they had before
they were captured, the lower they'd sunk to be in these chains
coming behind the army, the more glory the general got. That's
our Lord Jesus Christ. He led captivity captive. He
defeated every enemy by his death. And he makes a show of them openly.
He makes an open show of how he defeated them to his glory.
And those enemies are all defeated in shame because Christ, our
mighty conqueror, defeated every one of our enemies with their
own weapons, with their weapon. I'll show you what I mean. Sin
is our enemy, isn't it? Well, Christ conquered sin by
being made sinful. putting it away with his blood.
Christ conquered the law. The law is against us. We can't
obey it. Well, Christ conquered the law. He defeated the law,
took it out of the way by obeying it for his people. Christ conquered
death by dying as a substitute for his people. He conquered
the grave by going to it and coming out of it by his own power.
And he conquered Satan. He conquered Satan with his own
weapon. Satan set a trap for Christ at
Calvary. Christ went there willingly.
He willingly went into Satan's trap, allowing his heel to be
bruised so that he could crush Satan's head. See, that's how
the captain of our salvation, he's so great, he's so mighty,
he conquered every enemy with their own weapons. So his people
have freedom from every enemy. And then here are the other parts
of Colossians chapter two, he lists some other gifts. The second
one, Christ gives his people the gift of a new heart. Verse
11, in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ. Now this isn't talking about
the circumcision of the flesh. This is talking about the circumcision
of the heart. It's talking about cutting away
that old stony, cold, dead heart and God giving his people a heart
of flesh in the new birth. See, there's some other people
who are behind this parade of Christ, our mighty conqueror.
They're his people who are following after him. See, he's conquered
them by capturing their heart. He captured their heart by giving
them a new heart, by making them his willing, loving bond slaves
and making them willing in the day of his power. And he's given
them a new heart and they follow him. They follow him and serve
him in love and thanksgiving because he's given them a new
heart. Then thirdly, Christ gives his people the gift of eternal
life. Verse 12, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you're
risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who
hath raised him from the dead. The same power wherewith the
father raised the son from the dead is the same power he raises
his people to new life, causing them to be born again and giving
them eternal life with our risen savior. And fourthly, he gives
his people the gift of forgiveness of their sin. Verse 13, and you
being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all
trespasses, all sin, all trespasses, all iniquity is forgiven in the
blood of Christ. And fifthly, Christ gives his
people the gift of freedom from the commandments of the law.
Verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing
it to his cross. When Christ suffered and died,
he satisfied the law's last demand. Throughout his life, he obeyed
the law perfectly. And when he was made sin for
his people, he satisfied the law's last demand, there's got
to be death for sin. When he died, The law was completely
taken out of the way. If you believe Christ, you have
zero relationship with the law. Christ took it out of the way.
You don't serve Christ by following the law. You serve him out of
love. You serve him out of thanksgiving, not by following the law. He's
given his people freedom from the commandments of the law.
The law doesn't require anything else of anybody who believes
Christ, because Christ already did it. He fulfilled it all.
Sixthly, Christ gives his people the gift of freedom from religious
ceremony. Verse 16, he says, let no man
therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respective
and holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which
are a shadow of things to come. but the body is of Christ. Now, we don't hear that those
of us who've been here a long time, those of you who've been
raised here, it's hard for us to imagine this bondage of religion
and meats and drinks and holy days and new moons and Sabbath
days. We just don't observe those religious
ceremonies and put those things on people, make people observe
those ceremonies in order to please God. But the rest of the
religious world does. My daughter, Savannah, was in
college. She went on a study abroad trip
to Europe, several different countries in Europe over the
course of a few weeks. And she called home one night.
They were in Rome. And she called home in tears.
And of course, she's in Rome, Jan and I are in Brussels. You
know, why is she crying? We're worried to death. And she'd been down there to
the Vatican that day. And she said, I can remember being a
little, little girl and hearing Henry talk about bondage of religion. She said, Daddy, I've heard you
talk about it. I've heard Todd talk about it. And I believed
you. She said, but today I saw it.
And it just broke her heart that all those rules and regulations
that they just pour on these poor people, trying to make them
do something to please God. You listen to me, Christ has
set you free from that. If you believe Him, you are free
from that. Free. Oh my goodness, what freedom
there is in Christ. He's done it all. Then seventh,
Christ gives His people the gift of peace. Peace with God, which
He purchased for us by the blood of His cross. Now look back at
Luke chapter 24. Here's the eighth thing. Christ
gives His people the gift of understanding, to be able to
understand the Scriptures. Now, we certainly don't understand
all things, and we don't understand every verse there is in this
book. But if you believe Christ, you understand the meaning of
the Scriptures, the message of the Scriptures. Here it is, Luke
24, verse 44. Get on the right page here. And he said
unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while
I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which
are written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the
Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures and said unto them,
thus it is written and thus it behoove Christ to suffer and
to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission
of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning
at Jerusalem and year witnesses of these things. Now this is
after the Lord's resurrection and right before his ascension.
He came and talking to his disciples one evening. My goodness, what
a prayer meeting that was, wasn't it? There he was, he appeared
with them. And he opened their understanding. He gave them an understanding
of the scriptures. They knew the scriptures, they'd
heard them read. every week in the synagogue. They heard these
things read, but suddenly they understood what they meant. And
they understood what they meant when they understood this, that
it's all Christ. It's all written of Him. Monday evening, we had a dinner
with Nancy and Norm Wells over at Bob and Carla's. And Norm
told this story. I thought I'm going to use this
Wednesday. He said the first time he heard the gospel was
from Brother Henry, and he didn't like it. And he had lots of questions. He'd been in religion. He had
lots and lots and lots of questions about this thing, or this thing,
or this thing, or this thing. And he'd write Brother Henry
a letter. Or he'd call him on the phone asking, what about
this? And what about this? And what about this? He said,
Henry's answer was always the same. He said, Norm, that's not
the issue. And Norm said, now that's my
favorite line. For people that bring it, that's
not the issue in everything. The issue is Christ. The issue
is this. What think ye of Christ? That's
the issue. Whose son is he? And when the
Lord opened their understanding, the understanding of his disciples,
they understood all these things are written upon us. They're
written to show us Christ. They're written to draw us to
Christ and draw our hearts to him. And that's the understanding
that God gives all his people. I certainly don't understand
everything about it, do you? I don't understand everything
there is to know about the gospel. I don't understand every verse
of this book. But I do understand what the
message of it is. It's Christ. He's the issue.
I go to Him. Then ninth, look at John chapter
14. Christ gives His people the gift of the comforter. Here in
John 14, the Lord had just told His disciples He's going away
and their hearts are troubled. And look what he tells him, John
14 verse 16. And I will pray the father and
he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever.
See, I'm going away, but this comforter is coming to you forever.
Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him for he
dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you
comfortless. I will come to you. I will come
to you in the person of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Oh, what a gift
this is. But in order for his people to
receive this gift, the Savior first had to die. He had to be
buried, he had to be resurrected, and he had to go away. He had
to ascend back to the Father. Then the Holy Spirit could come
and be the Comforter of his people. All right, how is it that the
Comforter comforts God? The answer is what I just told
you. The issue is Christ. The Holy Spirit comforts God's
people by showing them Christ. Look at verse 26. But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your
remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. The Spirit comforts
God's people by showing them Christ, by pointing them to Christ.
Now in Ephesians chapter 4 again, here's the last gift that we'll
mention. Christ gives his people the gift
of pastors and teachers. That's a gift from God, pastors
and teachers who will preach and teach Christ. Now Ephesians
4 and verses 9 and 10 are a parenthetical statement, so we're going to
skip those. It won't hurt the meaning of the verses at all.
Beginning in verse 8, wherefore he saith, When he ascended up
on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. And
here's the gifts, verse 11. He gave some apostles and some
prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for, here's the reason he gave them, for the perfecting of the
saints and for the work of the ministry and for the edifying
of the body of Christ. Our Lord gives his people the
gift of pastors and teachers so they can be taught Christ.
so that his people will grow and mature in Christ. I saw a
article in my newsfeed or something today. I clicked on this article
because I just had to see what they're going to say about it.
And I saw the headline of it. I just thought, oh, that God
would give us pastors and teachers that would teach Christ, preach
Christ, article was from a religious magazine and they were sent out
to survey to a bunch of people, thousands of people, and they
were horrified to find out that people don't know anything about
God. They don't know any of the true,
just bedrock doctrines of the Bible. They don't know anything
about it. And this is what they said. And
I agree with them here. The problem is in the pulpit. More preachers will preach the
person of Christ. The doctrine will be right. God gives us pastors and teachers
who will preach the person of Christ. The doctrine will be
right. People will be blessed. That's
a gift of God. We could go on and on and on
and on. I mean, just what wonderful gifts Christ has bought and has
to give to his people. Now, let me ask you. These are
wonderful gifts. Are you interested in them? Would
you like to have them? Well, here's my third point.
Where are these gifts found? They're all found in Christ. Look back in our text, Psalm
68, verse 18. Thou hast ascended
on high. Thou hast led captivity captive.
Thou hast received gifts for men. And that gifts, received
gifts for men, literally translated is, you've received gifts in
the man. In the man, Christ Jesus. All these gifts are found in
the man. In the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I sure am glad for that.
I sure am glad God put these precious gifts in a place where
they'd be saved. In the man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we say that these gifts
are in Christ, and that's true. But I tell you, it would be more
accurate to say these gifts are Christ. Because Christ Himself
is the gift of His people. Christ is every one of these
gifts personified when He read it for us in the study tonight.
Who has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. They're all Christ. The Father
put all these gifts in His Son. And His Son gives them all freely
to His people. Now, do you need any of these
gifts? They can go to Christ. He gives them all freely. Our
Lord said in John 17, His great high priestly prayer, Father,
You've given me power over all flesh for this reason. You haven't
given me these things to hoard them up and keep them from people.
You gave these things to me that I should give, freely give. eternal life to as many as thou
hast given me. He gives them freely and abundantly. Look here at verse 19 in our
text. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits,
even the God of our salvation. Our Savior gives these gifts
to his people in such abundance David says he loads us with benefits. He just gives us heaping helpings
of these gifts so that we say with David, my cup runneth over. He just has heaped his blessings
upon me. And he does it daily. Daily he
loads us with benefits. The Lord is wise in all his dealings. He doesn't give us a huge storehouse
of grace. and give it to us all at once,
and count on us to manage it so we don't run out of it before
we end this life. No, He holds the key. He's got
an exhaustless storehouse of grace. And He holds the key to
it. And He gives us what we need
daily. Daily. He gives it to us every
day without exception, loading His people with these benefits.
Because He's so generous to His people. See, Christ is the one
who bought all these gifts. So they're his to give, aren't
they? He's the God of our salvation. Salvation is his to give. He bought it with his obedience.
He bought it with the blood of his sacrifice. So salvation is
his to give, and he gives it freely. Verse 20. He that is
our God is the God of salvation. And unto God the Lord belong
the issues from death. Now unto Christ belong all the
issues or all the results that flow from his death. That's what
David means there. They all belong to him. And he
never fails to give the benefits of his death freely to his people. No one for whom Christ died will
ever perish. Every last one of them shall
be saved because he loads his people with salvation. He loads
his people with righteousness so richly, it's a righteousness
they can never lose. He loads his people with life
that is so rich and so strong, it's eternal life. He loads his
people with untold riches of his mercy. He loads his people
with grace that's greater than all of our sin. He loads his
people with his immeasurable love. It's immeasurable. You
can't measure the length of it, the breadth of it, the height
of it, nor the depth of it, but you can know it. You can experience
it if you know Christ. And Christ loaded his people
with these benefits by emptying himself of Calvary as the sacrifice
for his people so that their salvation would be secure. And
it is secure. David is telling us here, if
you pay attention, David is telling us This salvation in Christ is
sure. This is at least 1,000 years
before Christ was ever born in Bethlehem. 1,000 years before
he descended into the womb of his mother Mary. 1,000 years
before that, David's already talking about his triumphant
ascension back into heaven. He says here, 1,000 years before
Christ was born, thou hast ascended. Past tense, you've already ascended. That is how sure salvation is
in Christ. He can't fail to purchase it,
and he'll never fail to give it to his people because he's
so generous. All right. Now, before too long, we're all
going to be setting up Christmas trees, going out buying Christmas
presents. When the tree gets set up, you
kids come home from school, and there's presents under the tree.
Now, I know what you always want to know, and really, I'll tell
you, let you on a secret, adults want to know the same thing.
Which one of those is mine? How do you tell? There's a whole
big boatload of presents there. Jan says every year, I'm scaling
back on Christmas. I'm scaling back on Christmas.
And every year, just the tree can't hold them. How do I know
which one of those is mine? My name's on it. That's it. Here's my fourth point. Who are
these gifts for? You can find out if your name's
on it or not. Is this gift for you? How can I know of all these
gifts that Christ has purchased, that they're all in Him? He gives
them so freely. How can I tell if He's going
to give any of them to me? Well, I tell you, they're not
who you think they're for. These gifts of God's grace are
for the rebellious. Verse 18 again. Thou hast ascended
on high. Thou hast led captivity captive.
Thou hast received gifts from in. Yea, for the rebellious also. for the rebellious also, that
the Lord God might dwell among them. See, these gifts that we've
been talking about, these gifts that are in Christ, these gifts
he gives freely, they're gifts of God's grace, aren't they?
Well, if they're gifts of God's grace, it's got to be for the
rebellious. If they're gifts of God's grace,
it's got to be for people who do not deserve it. It can't be
for the self-righteous. They think they deserve it. No,
it's got to be for the rebellious who don't deserve it. Now think
about how great God is in His grace and His mercy and His love.
He gives these gifts to people who were born rebellious, who
were born hating God, who were born not wanting God to rule
over them, who are not wanting to be dependent on Christ for
all of their salvation, who don't want to give Christ all the glory,
at least let me have a little bit of it. by making it dependent
upon my decision or making it dependent on me keeping it by
my good living, at least make me get a little bit of credit,
those people are rebellious. Those people, in short, are people
who do not deserve it and cannot earn these gifts. But Christ
gives it to them anyway for you. Now that is the gift of grace. And here's how you can tell if
these gifts are for you or not. Do you deserve Him? Do you deserve
God to give you all these wonderful things that are found in His
Son? Or do you deserve God's wrath? Well, if you deserve God's
wrath, and you know, now, I want God to save me, but I know God
would be just if He sent me to hell. If that's you, I got a
mighty good hope that these gifts are for you. Because these gifts
are for the rebellious. And here's the last great gift
that we'll mention tonight that God gives the rebellious. It's
the gift of his presence. God gives them these things that
he may dwell among them. That he would dwell in their
midst where two or three are gathered together. There he is
in the midst of them. God dwells in the midst of his
people. He dwells in their hearts. The
father set his love on a people in eternity. He chose to save
them. He made them the objects of his
covenant grace. He's the God of our salvation,
covenant God. And the Son, He came to fulfill
that covenant, that He might fulfill all things. That's what
Paul said, speaking of this passage. This all happened. Christ might
fulfill all things. He came to redeem those people
by fulfilling the covenant, by His obedience and keeping the
law for them, and by His death as their substitute. And the
Spirit comes and gives those people faith. He gives them life. The Spirit joins Himself to God's
elect by living in their heart by faith. And they have the presence
of God everywhere they go. They're in Him and He's in them. That's what salvation is. Salvation
is a living union with Christ. And that's the gift that Christ
gives to the rebellious. Now what a gift. Isn't that a
wonderful gift? I pray. The Lord said He gives
those things richly, abundantly, daily, loading us with those
benefits. I pray He'd do that for every
one of us tonight. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for this precious portion of Your Word that so clearly reveals
Christ our Savior, the successful, victorious, mighty, conquering
Savior. Father, how we thank You. How
we thank you that every gift you have for sinners is found
in Him. It's not left up to us to earn
it or to get it or to merit it, but it's all in Him. And you
give Him to us freely. Father, we're humbled. We're
in awe of your mercy and your grace, your generosity to your
people. We pray that you give us faith
to believe Him. Give us faith to believe Him
Give us comfort our hearts through faith by looking to Christ our
Savior and ever learning more of Him. It's in His precious
name we pray and give thanks.