Ephesians chapter 4. And we didn't even get finished with verse 7, which is the first verse. And I thought, well, maybe we'll get through verse 11. I don't think so. I think it'll have to be next time. You know, it's just sometimes you it's probably happened to you on occasion where a passage is so Blesses you and you and God shows you so much That you spend more time on that and maybe another one that you come across is just the same God's Word but it's just something about it and I attribute it to God wanting Detailed exposition of this text for this church at this time and that's the only way I can explain it because it's not something that I had purposely planned I and I intended to get done verse 11 and last week or week before actually and so but this is of course gifts again, we're talking about giving glory to God in his church and and gifts given in this particular passage, verses 7 through 11, to glorify God in His churches. And we, of course, recognize that salvation by grace alone is the greatest gift that God ever gave to us. But it's not the only gift that he gives. He is generous with his children. He gives gifts and gives gifts and gives gifts. You know, I think about my parents. They were very generous. I mean, they gave us gifts all the time, and I appreciate that. made sacrifices so that we could have these, not only just our daily bread, but giving us other gifts and helping us to succeed. They made sacrifices. And I appreciate what they did. And you know what the whole idea of gifts ought to do? Just like we think of our parents, how they sacrificed to give us, and they did without to give us. What does that do? Their love constrains us to love them back, right? Now think about that in terms of Christ. He gives and gives and gives. He gave us the gift of eternal life, the greatest gift that could ever be given. And He has given us other gifts and more gifts. And He just overloads us, overwhelms us with His gifts. And it's no wonder that the Apostle Paul says, the love of Christ constraineth me, motivates me, energizes me to go out there and show my love to God as I love His people, as I love even my enemies who are persecuting me. And so this is something to me as I think about it, how it ought to cause me to love God, to want to specifically here for us. We're in a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been given the privilege to be members of a true church. and to give glory to him. You know, there are special gifts that God gives only to his churches and to no one else. That, again, is the love of Christ that ought to constrain us as we take in consideration these things. And of course, Ephesians 3, 2 and 1 says that God gets his glory through his churches in particular. And we had noticed here that there is a unity in the church that had been previously speaking of in the previous verses, and there is also, as we've dealt with somewhat, a diversity. There's a unity and a diversity. at just a first surface kind of glance it seems to be contradictory, but in reality it is a seamless concept, it is a seamless application across the board when we speak of it in terms of the context that's mentioned here, and that is in the local church. But we want to first of all kind of recap just briefly on what we had dealt with previously in verse 7 in particular, that gifts given to members in particular to, in other words, we're individualizing and personalizing here. We're not just talking about a body, but we're talking now individually. And we dealt with verse seven, which says, but unto every one of us is given grace. Every one, all of us, all of us that are in this body. Every one of us have grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ." So, what we're having here is that we saw the word, but, it sets in contrast what it was said before in the first six verses that dealt with unity, but we're looking at it from a different angle now. The same concept, but a different angle. And so we saw that the Holy Spirit directs our attention now from the unity of the church, in the previous verses, to the uniqueness of the individuals, the particular members. And then we also made mention of the fact that in verse, the second part of that verse, it says, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. The Lord has distilled it down, okay? He's distilled it down to a science. He's measured it out, we mentioned this before, like a formula in chemistry. He's the divine chemist, and he puts out the perfect compound, the perfect solution for each particular body, each particular person in the body, at the particular location that we are, at the particular time in history. It's a perfect chemical solution, if you will, to bring glory to him. And then we also recognize, of course, this is not really so much the gift as far as the power of the gift to function to the honor of the Lord. That's the main point, is that there is the emphasis on the power of the gift to honor and glorify God. It's not about how undeserving we are of the gift, which it is true, we are undeserving, But this particular part, according to the measure of the gift of Christ, has more reference to the fact that there's the power of the gifts to function to honor God within the body. And then we recognize, of course, that these gifts are sovereignly distributed. That's not something you ask for. And a lot of people, I want the gift of the Holy Spirit. I want the gift of tongues. People talk about that. Never in the scriptures does anyone ask for those particular gifts. It is sovereignly given by God. That's how it's done. As he wills, the Spirit of God divides it severally as he will. So for us to be jealous or envious of somebody else that has a particular gift that we covet after, then we are really saying that the Holy Spirit was wrong in doing it and giving it to that person or giving a greater measure of that particular gift to that person instead of us. A lot of times it's just selfish. Oh, I want to receive the applause or the praise of men or anything like that. But we recognize that God has especially formulated it just exactly right as He has done. He has sovereignly elected us, He has sovereignly equipped us, and He has sovereignly enabled us. That's through his gifts. Again, he doesn't throw us to the wolves and say you need to have unity, you need to give glory to me in this church, but he gives gifts as a means to bring, he didn't have to, he could do it any other way he wanted to, but he was sovereignly chosen and ordained that this is a way in which you will be able to bring glory to me and to serve me. Now, I just wanna touch on a few scriptures as we take this whole idea of gifts into account, and there are several passages that we could look to and look into great detail, but I just wanna just point some of these out and not delve in a lot of detail about these other texts and stay within the texts that we're dealing with. But in 1 Corinthians 12, verse four, it says, now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit, There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. You know, it's not a cookie cutter religion, and everybody's the same. God has made us different, and he gives glory out of that. I mean, how boring would it be if we're all the same? But that's not the way the Lord does it. It says, and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. Not all in some, but all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. And that's the whole thing. If there's no profit, you know how you profit? It's just like in business, if you don't apply yourself, you're not gonna make money. If you don't apply the gift that you got, then where's the profit? You know, there's got to be an application. It's like getting a gift. It's all wrapped up nice and pretty and we just set it right there and we never unwrap it and see what it is and use it. And so he's given us these gifts. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man prophet withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, another word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, and to another work in the miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits. to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues. And the next classic passage that deals with this is Romans chapter 12. In Romans chapter 12, beginning in verse six, it says, having then gifts differing according to the grace. It's a grace thing. It's not something that we earn necessarily. I mean, somebody practices, let's say, a musical instrument. Okay, but there's something about it. You know, I can practice something over and over and over again, but if I don't have the gift, it's just not gonna click. I don't have time to tell you all the things that applies in my life. I've tried and practiced and practiced, and I just gave up. I don't have the gift for it, so I might as well just move on and use the gifts that God has given me. And so now it says there, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us with a prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, our ministering, let us wait or serve on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth them do with simplicity, that ruleth with diligence, and he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. And then the last one, which we're gonna be dealing with probably next week, Lord willing, Ephesians 411. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. And what we're gonna be dealing with is a parenthetical, if you will, that where it talks about gave gifts to men, verse seven, we have basically in verse eight, nine, and 10, a kind of parenthetical. And then going back to those gifts, which he mentions there in verse 11, But all gifts will, even some of the same gifts, will have varying degrees and varying areas of emphasis. You just take a preacher, for example. Brother Prater has a particular way in which he presents the truth. I have a way in which I present the truth. Joe Wilson had a way in which he presented the truth. Just all these different preachers, same gift, but there's an emphasis. One might emphasize the instruction of the passage. Another one may emphasize the application more so, the taking it and running with it aspect. It doesn't mean the other one doesn't, but there seem to be more and more, that's what they major on, that's something that they are gifted in, in that particular being able to give illustrations that apply to the text. Some are masterful at doing that. Others don't have the gift so much or they just have a lesser degree of the gift. Either way, it's a gift from the same Spirit, and we ought to rejoice in that. Some people talk faster, some people slower, you know, all these, some people are louder, some people are softer, spoken. If they're apt to teach, and they're a preacher, and they're a pastor, and they're called of God, they have a gift, but it varies according as the Spirit gives them the gifts. That's when I think somebody was talking about one young preacher. I'm not going to mention any names, but anyway, who was, you know, would sound one way one week and another way another week, and you know, trying to figure out, you know, where they fit in. You hear different preachers, and they do make an impact. I mean, I have a little bit of Joe Wilson, a little bit of Willard Pyle, you know, all the different ones that God has used to minister to me down through the years. And so God uses, God brings us in contact with particular people. But we have gifts that are given in different combinations. And, you know, we're kind of like, we're like snowflakes, right? No, none of them. Let's say there's none of them. I don't know who counted all the snowflakes and looked at all of them to make sure. that there's none of them that are the same. But they say that snowflakes, they're all different, not fingerprints. That's the way that we are. God's made us different. And it's like, again, God's special chemical compound that he produces in an individual and in a church. And it's like a painting. you know, with the various, you know, textures and the palette and the Holy Spirit takes the brush and applies all those various colors to make a painting, to make someone with their particular gifts as he willeth. And then you got, you add this too, you got different personalities. You got some people, again, who are more serious. Some people are more lighthearted. And, you know, I know we can take both of those to an extreme, to where we never smile, you know, or somebody that's always cutting up, and they're never serious or hardly, you know. So there's a tricky balance. And some of, some people may more easily receive a teaching from one that falls in that category and others from the other category. But nonetheless, you have all these specific personalities, background, education, and so unity and uniqueness are both necessary in the body, as God has particularly designed it and ordained it in this particular body. And then we also take into account this, that as we grow and as we mature, our responsibilities and our capacities may change. They may grow as we grow. They may change you know, to where, you know, if you were younger, I'm just taking preachers, I'm familiar with that, but, you know, they grow and there's a certain, maybe they're just preaching. And then as they mature, then eventually, we trust they'll come become pastors, okay? And then they become seasoned pastors, and so on. But as they get older, they may not have the capacity to do as they once did. And it may be that they cannot pastor anymore because of some physical infirmity that they might have. Maybe their memory goes and they cannot. We see that. We mentioned Stephen West and the brother over there that he's going to minister to Chester Powell. He's got that problem and it happens. So it doesn't mean that he's done away with and put on the shelf. He's got a different ministry now. He can pray, he can pray, he can be there, he can be supportive, all these things. And so you got all these various dynamics in play here as we think about the various gifts. And we can, the divine chemist, our Lord, has made this very specific compound, this solution. It's too complex for us to figure out. I mean, given all those different scenarios that come up, as far as gifts is concerned, balancing the unity and the uniqueness of the church and using them according to His will for His glory, it's just too complicated for us to be able to figure out and decide for ourselves or decide for somebody else, especially when we're talking about particulars. I'm very, very slow to say you have the gift You know, and you ought to be a pastor. You ought to be ordained and all this kind of stuff. I like for their actions and their word to speak for themselves. And you know what? It's the church that's supposed to decide that. The church is supposed to set those aside. And so, anyway, the right chemistry is here. You speak of, you know, the chemistry just right with this group or with that married couple. But you know, God sees to it the chemistry just right. You know what happens though? We don't take the cork off the test tube of our cells and pour it in. And so the chemistry's not there because it's missing. Our particular makeup is missing and we don't apply ourselves properly. And so, we need to, again, get, you know, well, they looked at me wrong, or they didn't, you know, say amen when I preached, or whatever. All these kinds of things that people get offended at, we need to, we need to act as a gift no matter what, period. Doesn't matter what other people do. Well, if they stone us like they did with Stephen and with Paul, we're still to carry out what God has called us to do. And we will be awarded to some degree how we use those gifts that God had given to us. Every member of this church is indispensable to give glory to God at the time in which you're here. Every one of us are important and valuable. We ought to be able to celebrate that about each other. You know, the world celebrates a lot of things that they really shouldn't. And I know in the school system, they celebrate, celebrate diversity, you know, and I know what they meant by it. But, you know, the only institution that can truly and rightly celebrate diversity is a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we look at it in this context here, biblically speaking. Because it has a stamp of approval of God. This kind of diversity. You know, there's people from every kindred nation and tongue that's going to be in heaven. You see. Not to mention all different kinds of gifts and so on. And we have that in various churches throughout the world. And it has been down through history. And, of course, we can use all these principles that we've been talking about in verse 7. We can apply them to the family, we can apply it to the workplace. I mean, the applications are endless. And the context and the utmost concern, though, are within the true churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let's look now in verse 8. We had been dealing with gifts given to members in particular. Now secondly, we want to look at, beginning in verse 8, is gifts gotten by Christ in particular. Got gifts given to members in particular, gifts gotten by Christ in particular. Let's look, verse eight says, wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now, this is a passage that's, if you ever read the commentaries, there's a slew of different kinds of opinions and about what they think it is. And it gets awful confusing when you're studying. when you see all those things. Just praying, Lord, just show me what's right. They got all these arguments and so-and-so said, and the Jewish manuscript said this, and so on. John Gill's notorious for that kind of thing. But I appreciate all the scholarly work that he did to come to his conclusions. But this is a reference here, in this passage here, in verse eight, to Psalm 68, 18. And that's what, it's an allusion to that. It's not a direct quote, but it's an allusion to that. And we see by the fact that as we see the rest of the passage in Ephesians four, verse eight and following, that it is a reference to Jesus Christ. You know, if you wanna find out what an Old Testament passage means, The first thing we ought to do is see if it's mentioned and quoted or alluded to in the New Testament. And you'll find out a lot of insight given to you to be able to figure out what that really means. And this is what Paul did, except he had the blessing to have the Holy Spirit inspire him to give the interpretation for this. But this was a psalm, and it was a psalm that was a psalm of victory. It was a psalm of victory to celebrate the conquests of the Jebusite city of Jerusalem. the once Jebusite city of Jerusalem. This was a celebration song. And King David ascended there to Jerusalem with the spoils, with the enemy's prisoners, with the king's soldiers who were held prisoner by the enemy, and he recaptured them. and brought them as he went on his way to victory. The captives were recaptured and set free. And this is, again, an obvious reference to Christ. It says, where he saith, that is David under the inspiration of the Spirit. It says, when he ascended up on high, This is Mount Zion, or Mount Moriah, where Abraham went to sacrifice. There, Isaac, remember that? Same place. It's interesting how that way back in Genesis, we have it taking place. And who would have known, but that's exactly where Jerusalem and and the temple and all that was that. It was just God had predetermined, and we even see that Jesus is going to split the Mount of Olives there and cleave it in two. That's where the temple and the tabernacle were placed. Sacrifices were made outside the gates. The ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ was made. But again, it goes on, ascended up on high. What does that mean? It means that, in terms of David, there in Jerusalem was up on a hill. He captured the high ground. And Jesus, what he did, he captured the high ground. The most desirable, the most defensible, and the most difficult of the ground. That's what Jesus Christ captured when he went to Calvary, returning now from the battle. Remember when he rose, what did he show himself at? Jerusalem. That's where he did it. He showed himself, he ascended up on high from the battle that took place as he was in the grave as he had died and he rose again. He returned victorious. to the heavenly city with his trophies of grace, his great victory, and we're going to be talking about this a little bit later on, but it says he led captivity captive. Those who were imprisoned And of course, we talked about David again, we talk again, of course, of Christ, and it refers to those who have been imprisoned by Satan, their cruel task, but who enslaved them to the hard labor of enslaving and devastating sin to be taken captive and set free. But we will see a little bit later that it involves more than just that. And gave gifts unto men. Now, we have different words for gifts in the Greek. We have the word doria, means the undeservedness of the gift. We have the word charismata, which means the special gifts, especially the revelatory gifts. That is, prophecy, tongues, and all that kind of stuff. And then we have this word that's in our text, is the Greek word domata, which describes the comprehensive nature of the gifts. In other words, the abundance of the gifts that Christ gives and what he gave. So now he comes like a triumphant king, Jesus. He distributes the spoils of his subjects amidst his kingdom. And the Lord distributes his people abroad in his kingdom. And so after Christ was ascended into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit gave more gifts to men, and to his churches in particular. The church is what? It's the vehicle that is authorized to give glory to God, using the gifts in particular to glorify God, Ephesians 3.21. But now moving on to verse 9. Now he that ascended, which is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. And so we have this explanation now of Psalm 68 verse 10 here. It says, now he that ascended, that is speaking of Christ, being taken up to heaven from earth, okay, according to Acts chapter one. Remember when he ascended up into heaven, and they were all gazing up there, and angels were wondering, what are you, what are you doing? He's coming back in the same light manner. He's gonna come in the clouds. But he is taken up into heaven to forever reign as Lord, especially of our salvation with the Father. Now that he accomplished the work What is it but that he also descended first? Ascended referring to Christ ascension into heaven. Then the one who descended, speaks of Christ coming down from heaven to earth. It's speaking of the incarnation of Christ that came before his glorification, as it says there, and speaks of Christ being a servant and was made of no reputation according to Philippians chapter two. But then it says into the lower parts of the earth. And there we get a little more of the detail. And if you will, an elaboration of what was spoken of before. Into the lower parts of the earth. This really describes the depths of the condescension and humiliation of Christ. And I think that as we look at this, we need to look at some other passages. Now speak of the same kind of thing, namely Psalm 63 verse 9. But those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. What is this talking about? It's talking about death, okay? The place of death. So we have that passage. Now we have another passage in Matthew 12, 40. For 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. This speaks of simply being in the whale's belly. Then we see Psalms 139 verse 15. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. What is that a reference to? A child being formed in the womb, okay? This is all gonna come together nicely and apply to Christ as we look at it. Then in Isaiah 44, verse 23, sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the earth. Break forth into singing, ye mountains of forest and every tree therein, for the God hath redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel. It's simply speaking of the earth, the mountains, right? The forests and the trees of the forest. According to the context here. So we have all these various applications, various references that we mentioned that mention that same idea of lower parts of the earth. Now how do we apply this? Well, we can apply this to Christ's incarnation all the way across the board. First of all, his incarnation. He was born of a virgin, right? We see that reference to being in the womb, okay? Then we see that he lived on the earth, right there. Speaking of the mountains, trees, and the forest, right? He lived on the earth. And then he was buried in parallel to Jonah being in the whale's belly. He even made reference to that. And then, of course, the place of death, he died. So all those passages have to do with Christ. And we can apply that to the interpretation of this passage, but it goes even further than that. We find a passage there in the New Testament, 1 Peter 3, verse 18. It gives us further insight. It says, for Christ also, hath once suffered for sins, or just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." Now this gives us additional insight of what that passage means. This denotes that Christ, though he was dead physically, he was alive spiritually. He preached in Sheol. He preached in Hades. He preached in the place of the dead to proclaim his victory over death, hell, and the grave, over demons who were in the prison, no doubt seeking to keep him down so that he wouldn't rise from the dead. He preached right there in the very pits there in Sheol. And this was a victory proclamation when he preached, when he went down there. He was heard by the unrighteous dead, like the rich man who was in flames there. He preached and he heard him. Those that were tormented in the flames, that same rich man who saw Lazarus and Abraham's bosom, heard this proclamation! And then Christ proclaimed His eternal victory by putting them to open shame. I love this passage here in Colossians 2.15. It says, And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Put them to shame, didn't He? He proclaimed the victory. He proclaimed the victory with His Word, and with his resurrected life as he rose from the dead. He announced to those in Abraham's bosom. Now remember, Sheol was like this, right? It was with the rich man in hell and then we have Abraham's bosom as a great gulf. Okay, that's the way that it was at this particular time. So not only did these unsaved There in hell hear this proclamation. Not only do these demonic spirits hear this proclamation, but also those who were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. That is, who is dead then? Lazarus? He heard it. All the Old Testament saints heard it. John the Baptist heard it. They heard this proclamation and the Lord Jesus Christ, like the victorious kings of old, recaptured those captives and freed them so that they can live eternally in heaven as the everlasting free children of God. That's what He did. So what happened? The Scriptures tell us the graves were opened. Right? The graves were opened, the resurrection of the Old Testament saints, John the Baptist, and all those others occurred, and they went to be in the presence of the Lord, and thus hell was enlarged for the unrighteous dead. And so now the Apostle Paul can say, along with us, there in 2 Corinthians 5.8, we are confident, I say. and willing rather to be absent from the body, that is to die, and to be present with the Lord. Now his confidence wasn't in himself. Because you know what? Christ fulfilled the gospel. He fulfilled it. He made the proclamation not only in his words, but in his person. He not only preached a gospel that involved his death, burial, and resurrection, but he also was a living testimony, if you will. He died and was buried, and he rose again. And so Paul could be confident in that. Now, verse 10, he that ascended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things. Here we see that sharp contrast of the condescension of Christ who is ascending far above all heavens. You know, as he made his way from way down there in the lower parts of the earth, and he came up and proclaimed that message, having spoiled principalities and powers. You know where he went when he ascended? He went to the domain of Satan, the prince and power of the air, and proclaimed. Kind of like in your face. as He went up to far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. In other words, His universal sovereignty, all the assigned tasks and all the prophecies and Christ's divine presence, power, and might of His absolute sovereignty over all things for all time. He fills the entirety of the universe with His blessings. especially, again, His churches. Now, this really, as I thought about how that should cause us to want to glorify God in this church, when we think about what Jesus did, look at what He did. Now, we can't fully come to grips with that, or at least come close to coming to grips with that, until we realize what we deserved. What do we deserve? We deserve to hell. We deserve to suffer all that. But yet Christ, out of love and mercy, did that for us. Ungodly sinners who still sin. But he's not gonna take his promise away. He's gonna see to it that he fulfills his promises. He went to the depths and the heights and the lengths and the breadth to secure eternal redemption for us. All is elect, but I want us to especially think about it in terms of us as a church. You know, I have a hard time having hard feelings toward a brother or sister when I realize Jesus died for that person too. I have a hard time harboring ill thoughts and feelings. When I thought, you know, and I know I'm a sinner too. I could have gone to hell. As much as the other person. But Jesus died for me and died for them. He loved them. He loves me. I tell you, when it comes to unity, Christ died, was willing to die for a person before any good or evil was done. But when we know ourself, we know that, hey, you know, I'm still sinning. And maybe they sinned against you. We ought to love them. You know what? Christ keeps loving even after we sin. He keeps loving. And when we think about the gifts that he gives, and the unity in spite of the diversity, and the love, I mean, that is such a testimony. The world gets in their little cliques. Well, I'm part of this group, and I'm part of this group, and I'm part of the elite. I'm a poor peasant stock, but I'm proud. I'm proud. I'm poor, but I'm proud. You know, all these various different categories people put in themselves, and they're, you know, always at each other's throats. And then for them to see all different kinds of people in different backgrounds, different gifts, to love each other in spite of all that, that is such a testimony. So may the Lord help us to exemplify that, show that in our lives as His people in this church.