Gooding, David: 8 - The Procession of the Lord

Tonight's study, gentlemen, is arranged to go on until eight fifteen, And I begin with an apology in advance, that at this late hour of night, I have no option but to make you work hard. That is how the program has worked out, and at the end of this day, I'm sure you are tired. I can but do what the program requires, and if halfway through or even before you find the study intolerable, then all I can advise you to do is to stamp so loudly with your feet that continuation becomes impossible, and I will take the hint and decease. But last night we began our study of the third oppression of the Israelites recorded in the book of Ju- uh, of Judges. That oppression was under Jabin II, king of Hazor, and in particular, the oppression and the battle was led by his commander-in-chief, a certain Sisera. We noticed then, as an incidental detail, that Sisera is said to have come from Harosheth of the Gentiles. We then thought that it was unlikely that the Canaanites themselves called Harosheth, Harosheth of the Gentiles, that this was probably a name given by the Israelites to distinguish one Harosheth from another, and therefore they called it Harosheth of the Gentiles. Using the terms such as Matthew late in later, much later centuries, talks about our Lord's ministry in Galilee of the Gentiles. Taking that as a hint, we took an enormous leap and went across to the New Testament and sought to apply practical lessons, both from the teaching of our Lord and from the teaching of his Apostle Paul. From the Sermon on the Mount in chapter six, we let our Lord remind us that we are not to pray as the gentiles pray. There is a Gentile way of praying. We are to avoid it. Then we considered the motivation for our daily work. What is our prime motive, aim, and object in our daily work? And in that, our Lord told us we are to be different from the Gentiles. The Gentiles' prime motiva- prime motivation is generally their food, clothes, and so forth. We need these things. Daily work is a means of providing them, but these things should not be the prime motivation in our going to our daily work. My motivation, if we would avoid the Gentile idea, is that we seek first as our first profit, uh, dividend from daily work. We seek first the kingly rule of God and the righteousness that comes and is built up, the righteousness of character that is built up within us if in our daily work and all its tests and trials, uh, and examinations, we seek to follow the rule of God and thus develop a righteousness pleasing to him. Then we turn to the epistle to the Ephesians and chapter four, where we heard Paul, uh, witness and testify to us. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart. And here we are being exhorted to be wary of the Gentile mindset. Later in that paragraph, which we didn't read, Paul exhorts them to put away as concerning your former manner of life, the old man which grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind. As we go back tonight over the ancient story in the book of Judges, we, and then ponder the applications that are made of it in the Psalms and then in the epistle to the Ephesians, we shall see, I think, that we are here witnessing a battle for the mind. Now, this particular incident in Judges, this story in Judges, shows its importance to us because it is mentioned four times in the Word of God. First, in the book of Judges, we have the prose narrative of the oppression and the battle and the deliverance of God's people. Prose narrative account in Judges four. Then in Judges five we have another account, this time given not in prose, but in poetry, in the course of Deborah's triumphant song. And in the course of it, she puts the, the battle and the oppression and the, and the delivery in its historical context and in its practical implications. Then we shall find it is referred to again in Psalm eighty— uh, sixty eight, and we shall have to study some of the details in that Psalm and ask what relevance the historical situation was it had in the time of the Psalms to the story of the Gentile oppression in the book of Judges. And finally, it is referred to in Ephesians chapter four, as we shall presently discover. Four times over, therefore, hence the magnitude of the topic. I shall try just to, uh, uh, select some of the leading points from each chapter, but then there is to be a time of questions where you can make your additional contributions. So first of all, to the historical narrative in chapter five, which very early on points out to us the leading figures in the battle. There was on the one side Sisera, commander in chief of the Canaanite forces. There was on the other side, not Barak. He did lead the Israeli army. He wasn't a leading figure. The leading figure and director of the Isra- Israelite campaign was a certain Deborah. So that it invites us to contrast, in the first instance, Sisera, uh, of the Haroshet of the Gentiles with Deborah. It was Deborah who, under God, won the battle as she dictated the tactics. What was the difference between them? Well, as we observed last night, the northern Canaanites were, in their day, advanced in technology. They had nine hundred chariots to start with, and they were iron plated in various parts, Nine hundred chariots of iron. Canaanites were good civil engineers, witnessed the tunneling and the shaft you will still find if you go to Harthor or else to Megiddo or even to Gibeon. I- it is a Canaanite, the great pool, so-called pool there. Marvelous civil engineers. And Sisera, being commander in chief of the forces in particular, uh, commanding the charioteer, the chariotry, was an experienced general in battle. You may surely picture him with quite a masterful intellect, risen to such a commanding position in that technological civilization. He was beaten for all his army and technology, beaten by a couple of women. The one who dispatched him, a certain Jael, dispatched him with a humble tent peg through his brain. It seems evident as we read the stories of these triumphs that the way the enemy was dispatched is not insignificant. God seems to go for a man's strong point. The king of Moab, indulgent, was killed through his belly, but not Sisera of the Gentile, not killed through his belly, killed through his brain. He stands in contrast to Deborah. I don't know what her intellectual powers were, but the thing that marked her was she was a prophetess and knew the mind of God and was pr- used to pr- uh, to prophesy that God would intervene in the battle, as indeed he did. When she told Barak, up, Barak, go down the mountain, is not the Lord gone out before you? That was the very fact. And what would otherwise have been a suicidal move on the part of General Bayrak to take his foot sultry down among the chariots o- o- of Sisera turned out to be a brilliant tactic, because at precisely that moment there came an overwhelming rainstorm that turned the little wadi Kishon into a raging torrent that overflowed its bank, made a marshland of the plain, in which case Sisera's chariots were no use, in fact, a positive hindrance. And being bogged down, they became sitting targets, whilst the Israelite infantry depended on a woman who had the mind of God. And the spirit of God. Now we must be careful. It is not our Christian duty or position or inclination, I hope, to despise modern technology and modern science. What a magnificent thing it is. And I have to be very careful not to cast aspersions on modern technology, because the very instrument by which I speak to you tonight and, uh, sits here in front of my mouth is a bit of modern technology. Nothing wrong with modern technology per se, nor science per se. What a magnificent pursuit both of them are. I was taken down to your Mount Kennedy or Kennedy Space Station yesterday. What a thrill it was, and filled me with admiration. And since we are creatures of God, commissioned by God, put over the works of his hands. What a marvelous thing it is for creatures of God, as sons with the Father, to explore their Father's handiwork. You will have noticed Psalm eight, will you not? Lord, when I consider the heavens, the works of thy hand, and the stars, and all the multi-million planets and stars and suns and everything else, what is man? And you would think at that point that the Hebrew poet was going to say, what do you think of man? Well, he's nothing more than a little ant, a tiny little ant crawling in the dust of this funny little planet. Not at all. The very opposite sentiment is expressed. When I consider the works of thy hands, what is man? Marvelously glorious. Thou's crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of thy hands. What man is. Created in the image of God. To be placed as God's viceroy over creation. And charged with ordering it, administering it, where need be, subduing it. Do notice the verb subdue in Genesis chapter one. Adam was created, amongst other things, to subdue the earth, which presumes a certain amount of opposition. In company with God, the fall has caused this unfortunate rebellion and inspired people to be independent of God. There is, of course, the danger of science and technology. People come to think they are substitutes. You cannot any be- longer believe in God, and at least you don't need to. Man can solve everything by his unaided reason and technology. When man does that and becomes independent of God, then it not only affects his morals, but it affects his thinking, and he becomes becomes vain and empty and ultimately futile in his thinking. So Pa- Paul warns us, uh, do you see, uh, not to walk like the Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds. And as we said last night, if people deny the Creator because they feel they're so rational and they can work out the secrets of the universe by their unaided intellect and needn't believe in God nor think of God as creator, found the solution in mere evolution, the ultimate implication is that even their reason is the product of mindless forces. They have created this rationality without knowing they have. Then our rationality shows us by our science that one day these mindless forces will destroy our sun, and therefore Earth, and humankind, including its rationality. And when those mindless forces have done it, they won't even know they've done it. How's that for futility? But the Gentile mind not only is vain at that level, but when it denies the Creator and becomes independent of him, then gradually its morals go skew whiff. For morality no longer has true authority behind it. If one is going to teach ethics at all, then very soon on in the teaching of ethics will arise the question, who said so? You try to tell a teenager that you shouldn't do that and you should do this. They're very likely to turn around and tell you who said so. Who said so? And who are you to tell me? Therefore, ethics raises the question of the authority behind morality. If there is no ultimate God, then morality is ultimately determined by simple, crude power. So then, coming back to the prose story in Judges four, the two leading personages in the battle, Sisera on the one hand and Deborah on the other. She ordered Balak to go take ten thousand men up to the north, towards the kingdom, of course, of Jabin, king of Hazor. He confessed his fear, I will not go unless you go with me. She said she would go with him and told him straight that the battle he went on, the road he went on, would not lead to his glory, for the Lord would deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman, namely jail, of course. She told him to take these ten thousand men to go up north towards Mount Tabor. So he took ten thousand men. When he got up to Mount Tabor, being a canny commander, he took them up Mount Tabor. So what I've done, not that I know anything about military strategy. But you see, Caesar had chariots of iron, and to bring on a battle with these nine hundred chariots a-wizzing around, when all you had was foot soldiers, would have been a dangerous affair. So he took his soldiers up Mount Tabor, and therefore had the advantage, because you can't drive chariots of that kind up mountains. And if the forces of Caesar tried to rush him up the mountain, well, at least they would be up above and able to roll their boulders down on their heads and this and that and the other, and have the advantage to fight the force that was trying to come up the mountain. So I can understand Barak taking his forces up the mountain. But at a certain time, you'll see, uh, uh, verse fourteen of chapter four. Deborah said unto Barak, up, for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand. Is not the Lord gone out before thee? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him. Which would have been suicidal. If Deborah hadn't proved right. As he went down the mountain, Barak and his troops, the Lord went before him and organized the rainstorm, as we read of in chapter five that made the use of chariots, uh, uh, uh, useless, and Barak was able, with his foot soldiery, to deal with and destroy the enemy. So Caesar- Cicero lighted off his chariot, and as we know the story, it need not spend any longer on it, went to the tent of Jael. He brought him in, laid him down, gave him, uh, milk and so forth to drink, covered him, and he went to sleep. And she punched a tent peg through his brain. That then is the story. Let's look now at J- Deborah's song of triumph. Remember, as we read it, that this is no longer sober prose. This is a prophetess speaking poetry with all sorts of poetic metaphors that are suitable and hyperbole suited to the poetic mode, you see. But notice how she puts it in context. Chapter five, verse four: Lord, when thou wentest forth out of Seir, that is the kingdom of Edom, when thou marchest out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, yea, the clouds dropped water. The mountains slowed down at the presence of the Lord, even yon Sinai at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel. Now Deborah is thinking historically, and she's thinking not merely of Israel coming through the desert and eventually reaching the promised land. In her poetic prophetic mind, she sees the great company of God, the great procession of God, as God came down on Sinai, and Sinai skipped like a goat at the presence of the God of the universe. And God made himself known to Israel and went before them in a pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, you'll see, and led them through the wilderness. And when at last they got round to Edom, as they did at the end of the forty years, ready for their triumphal march into Canaan, it was the God of Sinai that was leading them. But then... what happened to interrupt the procession? Look at verses six and seven and eight. In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through the byways. The rulers ceased in Israel. They ceased until that I, Deborah, arose, that I arose a mother in Israel. They chose new gods. Then was war in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among the forty thousand of Israel. Led by the procession of Almighty God from Mount Sinai. How do we account for it that Israel got into the land and then chose other gods, like the gods of the nations, turning from the living God. The result was, of course, war in the gates. Dissension amongst the people of God. It led, of course, to Israel's disarming. Or if Israel is going to give up faith in the living God and go across to other gods, it will take away their chief armory. For God is their defense. It will leave them before paganism utterly unarmed. And gentlemen, if in our educational system our young folks abandon faith in the Creator because of scientific pressure. It will leave the people of God unarmed. Disarms. And then you notice that the governors ceased. The highways were o- occupied, and the travelers walked through byways. It led to the fellowship between the tribes being broken. And Israelites in their own land didn't don't dare walk down the road in full daylight and skulk through the little bypass, lest they be found and ashamed of themselves. It happen- sometimes happens, you know, that believers get a minority complex and are ashamed to go forth into the big, big world. And as believers, we've nothing to fear, have we? Why should you fear going off into the big world, be it of science or university or technology or business or whatever? Afraid you can't stand? Do you secretly think that the world has got a better arguments? And that you should be ashamed of your faith and keep it dark or something? That's what happened to the f- folks, do you see? But then, when Deborah arose, she now expresses her gratitude to the elders and the governors, do you see, of Israel, that under her stimulation offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the Lord for it. Let her song tug at our hearts, gentlemen. It's we as older folks, perhaps, that must stand by the young folks in this modern world. We can't afford to retire and let ourselves take ease. While our young folks are out in the big, big world, hostile to God. We must prepare them and train them. To meet the big world. And we must train them with the evidences of our faith. Yes, of course, I know that we read the Bible and we believe every word of it. But then the Bible itself gives us the evidence for the truth of our gospel. And we need to teach people, don't we, the evidence. That we can provide them with biblical arguments against the atheism around them. Men, I remember once being asked to give a short series of af- Sunday afternoon talks in an assembly, and I won't say where it was. And I chose to take for the occasion, you'll see the four occasions, the Gospel of Matthew from the end of chapter thirteen on towards the end of chapter eighteen. that, as you will remember, concentrates on the deity of the Lord Jesus. And it's a remarkable passage because it records the actual experiences when people like Peter and the apostles, walking with Christ and watching Christ, came to see that Jesus was the Son of God. And I raised the question, what was it that led these men to see that Jesus was the Son of God? And of course, you can say, if you like, well, the Lord revealed it to them, surely. As our Lord said to Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father which is in heaven. It's a revelation from God. Yes, of course it is a revelation from God. But what do you suppose happened? That one night Peter woke up, or one morning, and as he lay in his bed, God said, Peter? Yes, Lord. Jesus is the Son of God, you know. Oh, really, says Peter. Yeah, well, if you say so, I believe it. Of course I believe it. Jesus is the Son of God. But tell me, Lord, who on earth is this Jesus? Wasn't so, was it? Peter had now been living with the Lord for a year and a half at least, or more, watching him, hearing him, working with him and for him, observing him, and bit by bit the evidence was collecting. And now God reveals the significance of the evidence. The Gospel of John is written to provide evidence. Many other signs did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Evidence on the basis of which we come to believe by God's own revelation, as he shows us the significance of the evidence that Jesus is the Son of God. Towards the end of those, those talks, one of the elders came to me and expressed his opinion that it was a very dangerous thing to talk about the evidence for the deity of Christ. Says he, what would happen if the evidence weren't enough or something. John says in his epistle, who is he that overcomes the world, save he that believes that his sins have been forgiven. Because if Jesus Christ isn't the Son of God, your sins haven't been forgiven anyway. And he doesn't say, uh, uh, who is he that overcomes the world, save he, uh, that believes, uh, that he is saved and going to heaven. Because if Jesus isn't the Son of God, there isn't any salvation. And the world brings its pressure upon us, doesn't it? To make us conform. The secret of overcoming the world is a vigorous faith that Jesus is the Son of God. And ever since I noticed it as a young man, I've been tucking up under my cap all the evidences that scripture will give me that Jesus is the Son of God. It is good to believe that Jesus is the Son of God because our parents told us if they did. But it will hardly do to go out into this hostile world and preach the deity of Christ, and when people say, how do you know he's the Son of God, to say, well, my mummy told me he was. We need to train our young folks, don't we? As elders, rigorously train. Give them the evidence and give them the arguments and protect them with, uh, and provide them with the weapons to meet head on the assaults of the enemy. I worked, as you know, in a university. It was lovely to see Christian young people out of Christian young homes come up to university. Lovely to see them stand for the Lord, as most of them did. But then some of, most of them were in subjects where questions of faith don't arise anyway. But too many who came up professing to be believers went down unbelievers. Their faith couldn't stand the assaults they met with in that context. I was in Czechoslovakia at one stage, in the bad old days. They had a large conference, and I was asked to address this conference, and then many other preachers better than I, of course. And so I chose one night to, to preach from the story of the turning of the water to wine in Cana of Galilee. Afterwards, I was taken to a hotel where the believers, who were allowed one annual conference a year, I think, were allowed to take over a couple of hotels for the occasion. And there were nearly two thousand believers there from all over the place. And I spoke to the young man who had been my interpreter. And for something to say, I said, do you ever use the signs in John's gospel to preach to your communists and atheist friends the evidence of the deity of Christ? No, he said, I don't. I said, what do you do then? Well, he said, we let our, our Christian behavior speak to our atheist friends. Well, that was marvelous. And I said, but on what ground do you ask them to believe in the deity of Christ then? No evidence? No, he said, no evidence. I said, well, what would be the difference then betweev- between believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing the devil. He said there would be no difference to start with, you would only find out later on. Really? Deborah praises the elders who finally came down to the rescue of the people of Israel prepared and encouraged them to do battle. They didn't all come. Many of the northern tribes came, summoned now because of the critical situation, and came to help the armies of Barak. They didn't all come. Verse seventeen of chapter five says, Gilead abode beyond Jordan. And Dan? Why did he remain in the ships? And the armies of God in the northern part were fighting it out on the battlefield. Too much occupied with his fishing and the need to get daily bread, perhaps. Who knows? Not for us to cons- con- uh, uh, to criticize him, maybe. But the question remains hanging in the air. In the day of battle, why did Dan remain in the ships? Before we leave the, uh, these few remarks about Deborah's triumphal song, let us notice now her stirring cry as she remembers it in verse twelve. Awake, da- awake, Deborah, awake, awake, utter a song. Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinawan. What does that mean? It would appear to mean one of two things. Either lead a multitude of captives, a Hebrew way of saying a multitude of captives, or it may be a phrase indicating that Barak turned the tables, and those who had been the captors were now defeated, and the people that had been their slaves were now set free and led away captive like that by Barak. The phrase is to be noted because it, um, reoccurs then in the Psalm sixty eight and in Ephesians four. Let us finally notice from the song how Deborah imagines Sisera's women folk. Verse twenty eight, through the window she looked forth and cried, did the mother of Sisera through the ladders, why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariots? Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself. Have they not found, have they not divided the spoil, a damsel, two damsels to every man, to Sisera a spoil of diverse colors, a spoil of diverse colors of embroidery, of diverse colors of embroidery on both sides, on the necks of the spoil. And all in vain. Sisera's women folk expecting beautiful, rich spoils from Sisera's victory, were sorely disappointed. Sisera lay dead. It was Barak that took the spoil and distributed it among the Israelites. Let's turn briefly, therefore, now to Psalm sixty eight, written many centuries later. Psalm 68. Verse seven to start with. O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness, the earth trembled, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God. Even yon Sinai trembled at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Once more, the psalmist, though centuries later, is echoing Deborah's words, isn't he? She thought of God coming through the wilderness at the head of Israel, their great possession, and even Sinai trembled at the presence of God as God came down on Sinai, and God went in front of Israel, moving his people towards the Promised Land. So here too, the psalmist is talking about Sinai once more, and the great procession of God through the wilderness, you'll see. But the final goal this time is different. It is, you'll see, uh, that God is to move towards his mountain where the temple is to be built. The temple in Jerusalem. This is Psalm 68, verse 29. Because of thy temple at Jerusalem, kings shall be pre- bring presence unto thee. See the history being repeated. From the deliverance from Egypt, to the coming to Sinai, to God's self-revelation at Sinai to Israel, to God leading this triumphal procession through the wilderness and now into the land. And when they come into the land, lo and behold, confederacy of kings, like Sisera the first, coming against the people of God and against the very ark of God and against the presence of God and his determination to lead the people in and conquer that land. You'll see. And now the recent oppression under Caesar- uh, under Jabin II, and how God, rallying the forces of Israel and coming out on their behalf and doing this spectacular miracle at the River Kishon, has scattered the enemy and is leading his people on in triumph. The Psalm takes it a stage further. The God of Sinai has now led his people, says the psalmist, and he's brought them into the promised land and chosen Jerusalem as the mountain where God will now inhabit his temple. And Sinai has now become to be in the temple at Jerusalem, if you see. That is the goal of the journey. And in the course of that, and he thinks of the opposition, and he makes the point, verse seventeen, eighteen: the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them as in Sinai in the sanctuary. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led thy captivity captive, thou hast received gifts among men, yea, among the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell with them. All I want to emphasize at this late hour is the theme of God's procession leading the people of Israel down to their great goal, which under David was Jerusalem, where the temple of God should at last be established in spite of all the opposition. The psalmist speaks mysteriously, thou hast ascended up on high, thou has led captivity captive and received gifts to men. That is what Paul is now going to quote as we finally turn to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter 4. And the goal. Spoken of here, verse eleven, he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and to the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The goal. Uh, that can be told in simple terms, but it is a majestic theme. Our sending of his son into our world. And to quote the words of Psalm two, quoted by the apostles in Acts chapter four, At Calvary, the kings of the earth came together, Herod and Pilate, along with the rulers of the Jews, and conspired together. Come, let us tear their bands asunder, they said. Took the Christ of God and put him to a tree. As Psalm two prophesied, God replied, and God raised him from the dead, and God set him at his own right hand in glory. Supreme, triumphant, at the right hand of God. But that isn't the final battle. The big battle that's going on now is the preparing of the body of Christ. As we now hear Paul say, the body of Christ should grow up unto him who is the head, and to become adequate to be the body of the Son of God. For you see, Christ is going to be the sovereign of the whole universe to come. And whereas the present body, a present universe, is run by angels under God's authority, the universe to come is not to be under angels. One in a certain place testified, what is man? The universe to come is to be run by Christ and his body. The body of Christ, my dear brethren, is not just a little metaphor for the way we ought to run the churches. The body of Christ is being prepared for its administrative responsibilities in the vast universe to come. When instead of running the universe by angels, Christ is going to run it through his body, he being the head and his people the body. And the insistent need is this. The head is already enthroned, but will the body grow up enough to the full measure of the stature of Christ, so that the body can behave as an adequate expression of the administration planned by the head. That is the bo- that is the great aim and object of the procession, till we all attain unto the stature of the full knowledge of the fa- full body of Christ. Yes? If that is so, therefore, gentlemen, the great need in the church is for us, his body, to grow up, become adequate vehicle for the administration of the head. And that, says Paul, is beset with difficulties. You'll see, verse fourteen, fifteen, sixteen: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men in craftiness after the wiles of error, but speaking truth in love may grow up in all things into him, which is the head, even the bo- even Christ, from whom all the body, fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh increase of itself, the building up of itself in love. And you perceive how the opposition is described. There are sinister forces aimed at stopping the body of Christ growing up, aimed at keeping us still children, infants, not able to take strong doctrine, children still, not able to bear spiritual responsibility, children still. And in God's cosmic purpose, that would be a sorry state of affairs if the body of Christ didn't grow up properly to the stature of the fullness of Christ. And here comes the victory song. How shall God ever achieve it? And so does a, uh, the Paul quotes Psalm um sixty eight verse seven: but unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the stature of Christ, a measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now this he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some as apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors of teaching, for the perfecting of the saints unto their work of ministering to the building up of the body of Christ. Let us finally enjoy the poetry once more. Thou hast descended up on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast given gifts to men. And it goes back to Psalm sixty eight, and its phraseology goes back to Barak and to Borah and the wonderful victory. But as Paul is thinking of it, or does that sound mean? Thou hast ascended up on high. Who has ascended up on high? Can't be God, can it? Because God is at the supreme point. He could never go higher. He doesn't try, of course, but he couldn't go higher. He is always at the highest point. Well, who is this then that has ascended up on high? Can't be God the Father. Who is it? And Paul sees at once who it is. It is, of course, the Son of God. He that ascended, therefore, is one who first descended into the lower parts of the earth. Oh, thank God. For the wonderful victory. When, uh, Barak went with his ten thousand troops, he went up the mountain, didn't he? Then at Deborah's command, he had to rise up and go down the mountain. The Lord had to go out before him, and the Lord went down the mountain in front of Barak, and the great tempest took place that turned the plain into a quagmire by the overflowing storm, and it brought the victory. Ah yes, but we think of a greater descent. He that ascended is he that first descended. As we close this Sunday de- uh, this Sunday, and we have remembered him, let us think of it. He first of all descended. All see him, my brothers, coming down from the mountain to fight the big battle against Satan and his hosts, to rescue us captives that were in the power of darkness and deliver us, who through fear of death were all our lifetime subject to bondage, and he came down and gave his life for us at Calvary. He that descended is the same now that has ascended far above all principalities and powers, that he might fill all things. But see, our risen Lord has gifts in his hand. The Psalms said that he would receive gifts. Ephesians says that he gives gifts. It's about two sides of the one coin, isn't it? Barak would have got the gifts from the submitting Canaanites as they would pay their tribute to him. He would go back home and give those gifts to his fellow friends in Israel. So our blessed Lord came down to this world, conquered Satan, and released some of his captives and brought them back out into his kingdom, and then took those very captives of Satan and gave them to the church. You say, what captives? What enemies? Well, take the man who wrote Ephesians. The biggest enemy of Christ that ever was. Determined to blot out the name of Christ from the earth. Christ brought him to his knees, didn't he? And you know how he did it. And saved him from the power of darkness. And gave the converted apostle, uh, Saul of Tarsus as an apostle to the church. What a tremendous gift he was to the church. In the same little sense, the risen Christ has delivered you, gentlemen, hasn't he? Who once were enemies, saved you, and given you to the church as gifts of apostles may be, or prophets, but teachers, pastors, shepherds, evangelists, given you to the church for the building up of the church, that the church might now grow until the body is complete, adequate for the head of the body to use as the vehicle of his administration of the age to come. Now that's a very long talk, I apologize for it, but it's a long s- a long story. We have five minutes of questioning now, according to the clock, but it might be better if we pondered these things together, and for our first sessions tomorrow morning, when our minds are clearer and we all are more awake than at present, um, uh, we might find we have waking up with problems next morning and saying, what on earth did he say last night? Uh, you'll see, and what was that strange notion he had? And all this kind of thing, my brothers. These are seminars, after all, aren't they? They're not preaching sessions, and you might like to begin our session tomorrow morning with a discussion of these things, and in particular the questions that naturally arise from a consideration of the words in Psalm, uh, in Ephesians four. I am aware, of course, that there is much debate about the what the words mean. He has took captivity captive. There is much discussion about the phrase he descended to the lower parts of the earth, and I very much doubt whether my exposition has satisfied you, merely sharpened, I should think, your own views on the matter. But tomorrow, if the Lord hasn't come, we can spend the first half an hour or so, if need be, the whole time of the first period, we shall have time enough to consider it together and then come to a considered opinion as to Ephesians chapter four anyway, and how it relates to the stories of Psalm sixty eight and Judges four and five. So my sympathies lie with you, and I wish you eventually a peaceful sleep, in spite of my many words.