Philippians (Quality: Poor)

[0:00] The second chapter of four disciples to the Philippians, and we will read verses 5 to 6.

[0:11] Second of the Philippians, verses 5 to 7. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, for did not robber any people with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took up in the form of service that was made in the life of God.

[0:48] This is the Christmas story. It is profoundly deep. You and I some years back did try many things from this before us.

[1:06] But, well, never, never will anyone be able to get to the depth of the meaning of the word telegraphy of Ray.

[1:19] Remember, I'm sure of that. It is with a great degree of hesitancy one has dared to read it as the basis of his remarks to you this morning.

[1:34] You may say, well, then why read it? Well, because it's kept talking to me, repeating itself again and again and again. And that's how I like it.

[1:46] And that's how I like it. If it doesn't do much of that to me, I don't make it up. I dare you. I should be afraid of being tied up in knots.

[1:58] Absolutely. The burden of course. I do not forget that this is most probably the greatest scripture about the incarnation that we have in the whole of the body.

[2:19] The greatest scripture. How different from that beautiful story of it that we have been reading out of the second of the book.

[2:31] The shepherds keeping guard by night. They come into Bethlehem. And there, in all these beautiful simplicity, they find the body.

[2:45] Wrapped in a swaddling load, lying in a manger. It's all so simple as we read it. We see it in the thing.

[2:56] We can understand it. Yet here, in the words I have read by the way of the text, you have the deep, the character beneath, that beautiful, sinful, bestowed.

[3:12] We've been reading this book. More than 40 years ago, I remember reading a remark of a very great Scott theologian.

[3:29] I mention this because I want you to realize what an enormous scripture this is that I brought before you this morning. He was professor of divinity in the Free Church College classroom.

[3:46] And he said to me that the diversified opinions of men, with regard to the meaning of the words I have read to you, were sufficient to give the student mental paralysis.

[4:07] But I don't expect you to read a book like that. But I'm immediately sure, for we expect the priest's lips to teach knowledge as the Bible tells you.

[4:22] And I assure you, were you to try to go through the multiplicity of things, with regard to the meaning of these words, you knew what I would have done.

[4:37] Give it up. Give it a love. And turn back to Matthew, and Luke, and the opening chapter in John, and say there is the third beautiful symbol, beautiful place.

[4:54] And they've got a love. And you can. First of all, and this is most important, the incarnation of God's dear Son is primarily the basis of the eternal redemption of the eternal redemption.

[5:20] It is the spiritual salvation of his people that he primarily had in view. There are secondary things, but this is the outstanding, far and away the outstanding thing that God had in view in the changing of his own and the eternal kingdom of God's Son.

[5:49] It was the case of God coming into the human race as today the modernist expresses it. It is not merely God God demonstrating what a wonderful affection he had for ordinary and common and universal humanity.

[6:12] And he must be better than that live in the incarnate story. A beautiful word of the angel to Mary explain to this person to Mary explain to this person that I came.

[6:29] Thou shalt call this name Jesus free to save this people from that's good.

[6:46] How sweet the name of Jesus in a new year he soothes his colony heals his wounds and drives away his fears.

[7:03] Jesus the very thought to thee with sweetness filled my breath the sweet of thy life face to see and the new life.

[7:19] Dear old Williams the African explorer in the last days of his wandering through Africa just prior to his death when he was found on his knees in prayer day it was a single Jesus Jesus the very court the sweet of his filled my breath the sweeter power by the face and the new life and the new life better.

[7:54] A beautiful translation of an old 12th century hymn written out of the eve by Vernon through and all how much more beautiful Jesus and all well this is the secret the grand secret of the incarnation he was born and what even the accursed death and for whom the love God was to receive his chosen people from the world and the world was to receive his chosen people from their sins and the soul in eternity will be their new charity and I too come to live the life and wash loose from our sins to him to him to him to him alone and that forever and ever be the glory but then there's a second truth I want to bring forward to you this morning and that is this that the incarnation of God's dear son is used as the grand motive for practical godliness in the second of the Corinthians the apostle is talking of the liberality of the massivarian churches in their liberality to the poor and he encourages them not by saying you ought to do it you must do it if you don't do it you'll be destroyed no he doesn't by this we have the grace of our

[10:29] Lord Jesus Christ who though he were rich yet to your saves began for that ye through his poverty might be made rich ah that don't make the popularity nothing but nothing we don't have need to tell our congregation what they ought to do and what that if they don't do it slashing to them over here that's not the gospel at all God's people born of the spirit living in his fear walking in his path they have a heart they have a heart that despite all his heart years of time they have a heart that is attached to the person and to the work of Christ and they only need to be reminded by the preacher that Christ loved them and gave himself for them and this will produce obedience to the priest and is that just the obedience of the world having?

[11:54] it's the obedience of a slave not the obedience of a child suppose you you and I had been the old slave markets put up the sale as so many human beings had been and someone kindly came along and paid the market price for it but directly he made it the price to the slave owner he came to you and to me and he said now you're going to love me for you would you want to be told to love that purchaser?

[12:38] to owe value to serving? no well such pages have literally been known to be true and I'm sure spiritually it's true let a poor dear sinner bow beneath his sins and crux as he feels today and do him to destruction forever let him have a heart touch of the redeeming work of Christ for him oh he will say what can I do to show all his praise well the Lord said that as much as he is doing unto one of the least of you my dear one he is doing unto me then he'll do it out of this beautiful attachment that he has to his firm and work of Christ and it follows that so he keeps the three saints with one regard the glory and honor of Christ he doesn't do it to be cursed man in any place of worship or to have his name in the newspapers the gossip it is it is called a crash now in this chapter when I have taken our text the three saints is again connected with it and it is this in the night it is if there be any fellowship of the spirit if any thou in worship for it is my joy that you be like mine what a beautiful word people were Christians to be like minds. What are cause in their minds? No disarm, no quarry, bitterly, scrapping among themselves. Blending together in one mind by reason of what? Ah, not because they all watched. How would that be true? That is cruel. Christ, who was in the form of God, and thought it not wrong to be true with God, made himself of no reputation, but humbled himself, and became obedient and dead in the next of the cross, received the spring motive. Why we should be like this.

[15:33] Like minds, of course, in the King of God. And he goes on, let nothing be done through strength or vain glory. A lot of things can be done, and are done, in flames of worship, through self-conceit, which I think is the meaning of the word vain glory.

[16:00] Self-conceit. A person thinks in care for herself, just a little bit better off, a little bit higher up in the scale, and so-and-so. And because of that, well, I am living as you do. I am to be obeyed.

[16:17] I am to be obeyed. Do you know? Well, who has not met with that ungodly? What's the pure boring? Not standing over that burgeon and plucking them with a wing? That will never do it.

[16:31] But if he should be, he should be, God, to break their heart, with a sight of the saints, of how Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, no vain can speak with him, no crown with him, no standing on his dignity with him, to be active himself, and became obedient to death, says the holy apostle.

[16:58] In quality art, in my hope, in this chapter. Beautiful. Then he goes on, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.

[17:12] Look not every man on the kings of others. If Christ had looked on your kings and my kings, where would he be?

[17:27] In the name of the saints, in the name of the saints, in the name of the saints. Why should you and I be occupied with looking only on our kings and forgetting other people's sins, says the holy apostle of the earth.

[17:42] No. Forget yourself. Remember other people. Think of those that are indeed this through the spirit, this through the practice of the dear Redeemer.

[17:56] And in some manner, until we have some little spirit of this in our hearts and lives, we have an end to, in the spirit of the birth of Jesus Christ.

[18:14] And he teaches his injunction with regard to all these different precepts with this, to let this march, let this disposition be in you, we would all serve in Christ Jesus.

[18:32] And then he brings before us, in the second place, what Christ was before he came here. What was it? Through being in the form of God.

[18:49] The word for here, something anything that's doubtful, shadowy, a mere outline of something.

[19:01] For the very next word, we read that he was equal with God, shows us that the word form has a very deep reality, a substance.

[19:22] Christ said to himself to the people of his day, you have not heard his voice, nor seen his shape, at any time, nor have you.

[19:35] No, in fact, the word form here has a significance of reality, essence, the essential nature of God.

[19:49] He did not think it was robbery to be equal with God, because he was, and knew he was, equal with God. I and my father are one.

[20:03] It is beautiful testimony to the reality of what he was, even before he came here. Before the apostle is dealing with that question.

[20:16] He is dealing with the matter of what Christ was, prior to his incarnation. He was being, being, being, being, being, being, or subsisting, being, the form of God, equal with God, and was with God, and he was God, as the person John beautifully tells.

[20:44] Now, is it profoundly wonderful, I'm afraid we lost the sense of the form of God.

[20:56] Let me, with humbling self, to, for a time, veil that glory, that equality, with God, veil it, and come here.

[21:13] In the lightness of his people. He must have had a love for his people not. Ah, and there is something else.

[21:27] There must have been a deep reason for this. What think you were the deep reason of?

[21:39] Could he not save his people by speaking? No. He could speak the world into being and giving.

[21:50] He's faith and it was done. When it comes to the redeeming of his children from their sins. It cannot be done so. Why not?

[22:04] Because sin is that damnable thing that God hates. He hates. He hates.

[22:15] He hates. He can never tolerate it. He can never look upon it with anything else but thankful. Now that's the very thing that is future.

[22:28] So, the question is, how can this damnable being saved? Is God? Is God? Is God?

[22:39] And Christ is the answer. His incarnation is the answer. He who was in the form of God will take upon him the form of a servant.

[22:54] And being made in the likeness of God will, in that same body, condemn him in his own way.

[23:06] And that's the solution of an otherwise insolubable way. His way is through, rich as toning blood, demanded by holiness and justice and given by divine love.

[23:33] Now, was he becoming in his birth here? For he, he thought it not robbery to be equal, his God has made himself of no reclamation.

[23:48] Those words, made himself of no reclamation, have a very important renders. He emptied himself.

[23:59] And I think that is the primary meaning of the word here. He emptied himself. And what a lot of made separate concerning pain about that.

[24:18] I hope you've never heard it, and I hope you never will hear it, for many of our reasons. But he has been saved. Christ laid aside his glory.

[24:32] He did no such thing. No such thing. That were impossible for him to do. New things for you.

[24:48] Let me give you one or two simple illustrations of this profound theological and doctrinal point of the gospel. Do you remember the story of the wedding in Cana of Galilee?

[25:04] How they ran short? But why? And you know how his mother Mary said whatever he said to you, you knew, you knew, you knew all right.

[25:16] Well, he didn't do any point of that. But he turned the water into wine. Concerning which we read that he manifested his glory.

[25:32] Oh, it was there. His glory. His glory is eternal, godhead, and power he never made himself. He couldn't make himself.

[25:43] How could he, undefined himself, make himself cease to be gone over all, let it fall in the war?

[25:54] No, he could not. See the day when he stands around the grave of Lazarus. The land comes in.

[26:05] He that was dead came forth. Our land comes in the grave of Lazarus.

[26:18] Many of us who could arise to death. But he, true, at least true to that grave, the weakening, his brook, so he, the only, an ordinary man, not the rest, his brook.

[26:39] But in the weak death of his human nature, there was still the thought, his broken, and he, laziness, cumpel, and death of the grave, his way of his own way.

[26:57] I mention these things to you, dear friends, because something of this illustrative kind is far better than a half an hour, spotted on.

[27:10] Take one more, true illustration, that he did not lay his glory aside when I do. You have the disciples in that boat, the sea, the sea of Galilee.

[27:28] They came told by you to go up there, and they went, and a great storm came down upon that lake, and you know the sun was a fire.

[27:40] And, they were all afraid, and they cried out, you must save him, or we carry him, there he was, up to sleep in the lake.

[27:55] Look, there you have the weakness of the matter, the reality of the matter.

[28:06] He needed sleep, like you and I needed sleep, and had he laid aside his glory, and now he rebuilt the wind and the sea, and there he was great.

[28:23] What manner of man did this day do, that even the wind and the sea obey him? Ah, he's more than that.

[28:35] He's God and Lord, bless him forevermore in that boat. Similarly, when you and I passed through the storm of life, it may illumine it, he's passed with me, with regard to you and me, taking no regard, just ignoring it, and esteem.

[29:04] And we know we deserve to be in your, we could have raised a discordant note against him, did he ignore us? Yes, the storm keeps raging, and you keep begging, and pleading.

[29:21] Haven't you seen it in days past? Nothing less than his divine power, working for you, you know you have. You said, this is no ordinary man, this is my God, I've got, I've waited for him, now I've seen him, clearly, distinctly, in this work of deliverance for me.

[29:44] I know he is God over all, and I, to do what he has done for me. We beheld his glory, said God.

[29:57] It was, and they decide. It was valuable, it was covered, it was there. We beheld his glory, the glory of the old begotten of the past, all gracious.

[30:14] And we see us of that glory, in that connection too. When you see him coming to you, in the power of his beautiful gospel, putting a pound of laughter on your earth, taking the sting of guilt out of your conscience, battling the devil with his temptations from your mind, whispering in spite of all the arguments you imparted against him, telling you, it's all right.

[30:53] I have put away your sins. I am not remevalent against you. You are one of mine. I have loved you. I have redeemed you.

[31:05] Fear not. Fear not. Fear not. Ah, what glory, grace, and mercy, and truth, and love, and divinity too.

[31:18] Shined in the dear Emmanuel at such a time to enforce you. Well, he took of any the fall of a servant, or anchored himself as they say, but not so as, that he was not God.

[31:38] And what did he do? He took the fall of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man, to form all the reality of a servant.

[31:56] He was saved of a slave, for a sowing rod, and a slave had no human rights whatsoever.

[32:07] He could be treated anyhow, and was. Saint Jesus, please do listen to this.

[32:18] Saint Jesus, I am a word of, and no, despised, and rejected. That's how I was treated him.

[32:31] And he took this, for a sowing of a servant, a word of, and no, and trodden, ignoring, despised, and a slave.

[32:49] Treat him as worth, as a word. Yet all the time, he was God, the Lord, blessed him. A slave could be scourged, and nobody raised any attention, and so, what Jesus Christ, took him, scourged him.

[33:15] That must have been raised in the world, and he worked, to him, to endure. A strength, but calm you, breathe between the lungs.

[33:27] He was groomed, for our iniquity. By his throat, we are kneeling, in his power.

[33:39] Here is his glory, shining through his deepest chains. Shame of the cross, the most glorious spot on earth, to a sinner, who knows, and feels unable, of this wonderful, wonderful, grace of God.

[33:55] Paul was about to be scourged, but he wouldn't have it. He said, on her own, I have rights, and you can't scourge me. and they didn't affect us. Jesus Christ, didn't talk about his Christ. Why?

[34:06] Because he was God's servant, to obey the Lord, and he was the firstborn, and he was the firstborn. He was the firstborn. in all matters, and ready, and willing, and willing, did he do this?

[34:17] And finally, all this morning, he said, you know, I have rights, and you can't scourge me. And they didn't affect us. Jesus Christ, didn't talk about his Christ. Why? Because he was God's servant, to obey his Father, in all matters, and ready, and willing, and willing, did he do this?

[34:39] And finally, all this morning, he was made in the likeness of man, that he really and truly so, with all his willy, and his liby nation, but with his sinless infirmity, that he might condemn sin.

[35:02] The flesh of the sustenance, the flesh of the incarnate Son of God, sin has been condemned, and we, that is, all God's people, have been condemned in him, and the condemnation removed, from him and from them, so there's no condemnation for them, who are in Christ Jesus, and they rise in awe, the beauty of his righteousness, so that God can say, Thou art all here, my love, for there is no sponsor.

[35:49] And I say, to come back to where we started, that the incarnate is here used as an argument, as a motive, for obedience to the precepts of the word, which one of your eyes feel like quarrelling, after a country like this?

[36:11] It's impossible. It's impossible. It's impossible. It's impossible. It's impossible. Who do you like acting with self-conceived and pride, and bombastic air?

[36:23] Who does? Who could? In the life, have such a glorious theme, and a feast, if Christ did all this?

[36:34] Well, remember what the holy ghost of Jesus said, If ye do well, and suffer for it, so did Jesus Christ.

[36:46] But remember this, did ye suffer with him, and shall also reign with him, for he did reign, and does reign now, following his teeth, and his two million people.

[37:05] What I hope, means God, I have said nothing contrary to our physical challenge. I hope too, that you will be able to pick up something, that will stand you in life's journey, but in that great moment of death, that you will be able to pick up something, that when you will die, one crash, right in the future.