got it. All right, Philippians
chapter 2. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
bless our study this morning. May we see in here the thinking
and character of your Son, and may we learn to use that as our
pattern. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now we're gonna begin reading
in verse five, let's just read the whole passage, five through
11. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus,
who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with
God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking
the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. and being found in appearance
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death,
even the death, or even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted
him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now, this passage that we have
just read, and we actually, I think, dealt with it some last week. But anyway, this passage is among
the most definitive declarations of the glorious success of Christ
in the sure salvation of his elect. It begins with Christ
being in very nature God. And then it speaks of Christ
not considering that equality with God something to be grasped. That is like a kid, you know,
if he wants something, he holds on to it and you can't get it
out of his hand. You know, it's not something to be held on to.
Even though he had every right, he did not consider it a thing
to be held on to, he made himself nothing. Here's the condescension
of our Lord. And he took the very nature of
a servant. He became like, he was made in human likeness and
in appearance as a man. And he became obedient, submissive. Now imagine this, we started
out, he's the very nature of God. Now we're talking about
him being submissive. He's the ever-living one, and he's submissive
to what? Death. And then God exalted him to the
highest place. We read that, you know. And now
he's back in glory, seated at the right hand of his father.
He is there, worshipped as God, adored as he once was before. And so that's the proof of his success. If he hadn't
been successful in what he did, he wouldn't be where he is right
now. But we're gonna deal with that in more detail in the next
lesson. But as we saw in our last lesson,
it is the believer's mind that Paul is addressing. In chapter
one, verse 27, It says, whatever happens, conduct yourselves in
a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then whether I come
and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know
that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man, that is
with one mind, for the faith of the gospel. And then chapter
two, verse two. Then make my joy complete by
being like-minded. having the same love, being one
in spirit and purpose. And then in verse five, your
attitude, and our translation, I mean, that's legitimate, but
the technical translation would be your mind should be the same
as that of Christ Jesus. It uses the word for mind. So
in essence, what Paul is saying here in this exhortation is think
like this. I think the King James puts verse
five is, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ
Jesus. So the mind of Christ is to be
the pattern of our minds. Now the point we're stressing
here is this is a matter of the mind, the way a person thinks. The way a person perceives things,
the way a person values things, what he holds important, what
he holds is unimportant. Now that's the mind of a person.
Now, this is not merely a generic exhortation, it is a broad exhortation
regarding having the mind of Christ, he is applying it to
a specific aspect of the way we think. And what he means here,
or the specific area he's speaking of, is we are to think about
one another the same way Christ thinks about the Father. Now, I've often preached from
verses five through 11, and always used it as simply a general exhortation
to humility. And it can be used that way,
but if we keep it within the context in which Paul is writing,
he's saying, I want y'all to be like-minded, you know, and
all these things, and he says, your attitude should be the same
as Christ's. And then what does he set forth about Christ? What
does he tell us about Christ? How he related to the father. How he thought about the father
and how those thoughts caused him to act in a certain way. We know that our Lord addressed
the mind when he told his disciples not to despise one another. Remember
how they were, from time to time anyway, trying to figure out
who was the best among them, the most important among them,
and even James and John. One says they asked this, the
other says their mother asked it, but, you know, you can see
how it could involve both. And, you know, I want this one
to sit at your right hand and this one to sit at your left
hand in the kingdom. So here these men were, they'd already
been given such magnificent grace that they are among just 12 men
that the Lord Jesus called out of the whole Well, out of the
whole world, but you know, we might say out of all those Jews,
only 12 of them. And they're arguing about who's
going to be the best among them, who gets the place and seat of
honor among them. And so our Lord says to them,
not to mind down or think lowly of your brothers. Now, Paul is speaking like this
because circumstances had come up which tend to make people take sides. Remember back in
chapter one, we're talking about different preachers and they
were all preaching the same thing. They were all preaching Christ,
but some out of good motives and some out of poor motives.
And you can imagine that there would be some who would, well,
might be impressed by those preachers and others offended by them and
take exception to them. And that begins to cause a division
within the congregation. And people exalt themselves according
to what side they've taken. And they look with a suspicious
eye at the people on the other side. Regrettably, I've seen
this kind of thing happen, even among or within the churches
that we associate with. And it's a very sad thing, and
it can be a horribly destructive thing. Yet it happens. And so when people begin to take
sides, Once you have a side, or once you have two sides, then
obviously in the human mind, one side must be better than
the other. Well, he's saying, let this mind
be in you. Such was in Christ. Now, the
uniqueness of this entire passage is that it is comparing how we
are to act with how Christ acted, how we are to conduct ourselves
in our relationships with one another, and how that is illustrated
for us in how Jesus Christ conducted himself in his relationship with
his father. So, the key here then is that
the believer is in Christ. All believers are in Christ. And the moment we describe people
as being in Christ, it means that all our judgments regarding
them and their relative value compared to us must not take
into account what a person is naturally. Because he's not naturally in
Christ. All that we are to consider As we behold one another's conduct,
when we notice one another's conduct and that quite naturally
brings within us a sense of judging their conduct and judging their
relative value before God or their value within the church,
we judge that according to the things we see them doing. But the fact of the matter is
the only way we are to perceive our brethren is under this umbrella. He's in Christ, just like me. And what does that do? That means
every difference, every natural difference we see makes no difference. After all, do we not want God
to perceive us in Christ? That's the only way I want him
to look at me. Therefore, we are only to look at our brethren
under that category, he is in Christ, she is in Christ. Has
she done things that I didn't like, didn't approve of, or he's
been mean this time, or it seems to me they're not as faithful
as they ought to be. We can say all these things, but when it
comes right down to it, the one description that fits all God's
people and forbids us from passing judgments about who is better
or worse is this simple thing. When it comes to the church,
the only thing that matters is in Christ. When it says in Christ,
there's neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, Male or female,
all this, that's true. That's true. Smart, not so smart,
none of that matters. Sweet as can be, prickly as a
porcupine, that's natural stuff. I'm not saying that we're approving
of those things. It's just when it comes to our
relationship to them and how we perceive them. We do it under
that one category, in Christ. Now, to set this comparative perspective, Paul,
being inspired by the Holy Spirit, holds what we are to think about
our brethren over against what Christ thought about his Father. He's not saying, submit to the
Father. like Christ submitted to the
Father. He's saying submit to one another
like Christ submitted to his Father. Now, we don't, you know,
if it says submit, if we take this simply as submit to the
Father as Christ did, we might even find some way to glory in
how submissive to the Father we are. And we would say, we probably
think, you know, it's not that hard to submit to the Father. But he's saying, no, you submit
to one another the way Christ submitted to the Father. Well,
now that's something different, something different altogether. Now, to think that we are to
follow that pattern, that's kind of overwhelming. But he's not
saying here that we are supposed to understand how it is that
Christ made himself nothing or all that. He's talking about
a process of thinking. We don't have insight like Christ
does. And we cannot understand, actually,
what it says of him here. If all this is, is a doctrinal
assertion regarding what Christ did, the moment we jump into
it, we'll find immediately we're in over our heads. How does him
who is in very nature God, how could he ever have the mind that
he would not think equality with God was something to cling to. And then, how could God ever
submit to death? Well, these things are above
me. David said, such things are too wonderful for me. They're
high. I cannot attain to them. But while we cannot understand
all the details of the doctrine and everything, we can certainly
see the example that Christ laid down. Now, he says, excuse me, that this has begun with the
concept of equality. Verse six, who being in very
nature God. Jesus Christ was and is and always
has been equal, equal to his father so far as his essence,
so far as his value and glory is concerned. And then we know that he considered
himself to be equal with God because he did declare himself
to be God. He says, unless you believe that
I am, you will die in your sins. He says, before Abraham was,
I am. And they understood what he was
saying. And they accused him when they
were bringing him before Pilate have him crucified. And he said,
well, what's the charge? He said, well, he calls himself the son
of God, which means he's saying he's equal to God. And Pilate
said, well, I got nothing to do with your Jewish law. That
was essentially how he answered that. He said, I don't care what
the man calls himself. But that's what they understood. You know,
him referring to himself as the son of God was to claim equality
with God. So Jesus Christ recognized his
equality with God. There was No essential difference
between him and the Father. Now, this suggests the equality
among the brethren. It stands to reason that if we
understand that we are equal and that it's only by grace,
the grace of God, that we are equal, it will govern how we
think of one another. When we're thinking about one
another as members of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, well,
anyone who's a member of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ
is so by virtue of the grace of God. So we look out over a congregation
of people, and we're going to see natural
differences among them. But every last believer is equal
with every other believer, so far as their essential value
and so far as how they are esteemed in the sight of God. And if we'll
do that, if we will perceive them as God perceives them, we
will begin to treat them differently. There is no hierarchy in the
church. Though each member in the body of Christ differs from
the others in its particular function within the body, there
is no difference in the essential value of each member. The example
in the thinking of Christ is this. In the work of salvation,
the role of the son is subservient to the role of the father. It
talks about submission. He did all this in submission
to the Father. And so we see within the working
of the salvation of God's elect, the Son, God the Son, takes a
subservient role to God the Father. Yet there is no essential difference
in the value and glory of the Son and the Father, such that
he could say to Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So the whole time, Christ declares
himself to be equal with the Father, yet he takes a subservient
position to the Father. This is a hard truth for many
to grasp, and they sometimes become quite confused, as on
the one hand, the Father and Son are presented as equals,
but on the other, Christ is seen in submission to the Father.
In fact, and we don't have time to turn there, but in 1 Corinthians
15, beginning at verse 24, having just spoken about the resurrection,
then Paul says, then comes the end, when the kingdom that Christ
will, Turn the kingdom over to God. Christ will turn the kingdom
over to God. Said he must reign till he makes
all his enemies a footstool for his feet. And when that's done,
he will turn the kingdom over to God and be in submission to
God. Wait a minute. How can that be
if he's God? Well, again, that question is
over our heads. We don't know how. But we know
it's a fact. Though he is God, he's in submission
to God. And while we cannot understand
how it was done, we can follow the pattern. Though we count
ourselves as equals, yet each of us is to submit to everyone
else. Now, even Though the roles assigned
to the individual members of Christ's body may make it appear
that some are more important or more valuable than others,
there is actually no difference in the essential value of any
of the people of God. These differences among the members
are ordained according to the will of God. In 1 Corinthians
4, verses 6 and 7, well, actually, just in verse 7, Paul says, who
makes you to differ? And what do you have that you
did not receive, meaning did not receive as a gift? And if
you received it as a gift, why are you boasting about it? Now,
he says, who makes you to differ? What's he saying? There are differences.
I mean, we have our natural differences. There are also differences in
grace. Now, not the grace of salvation,
but we're talking about those graces which enable a person
to operate usefully, if that's the right word to use, usefully
within the church. And that was what was becoming
a problem there in 1 Corinthians. As the Holy Spirit was enabling
various members to do this and that, some people's gifts were
more obvious than others. And then that was causing their
flesh to rise up in pride and make them think that they were
more important than the others. And so Paul said, well, who is
it made you different? Why do you think that I'm up
here? Why do you think that I'm the
pastor of this congregation. Now the world looks at that and
they see a hierarchy. He's higher up than the others. No, that's not the way it is.
I have a function. As one of the members of the
body of Christ, I serve a particular function. But why is it that
I serve and am able to do this? Was I able to do this before
I was called to do it? I was called to this before I
existed. I was ordained to this before
I knew Christ. So certainly God did not look
down there and say, well, he would make a good pastor. There's
nobody who naturally would make a good pastor. God did not say,
Well, he's got a quick mind or a good mouth. It just goes on and on and on.
He can talk a lot. No. You know, the example here is
Paul. God meets Paul or Christ meets Paul on the way to Damascus
and then, you know, and blinds him and unhorses him. And so
he led by the hand to Damascus. And when he's there, God sends
a person named Ananias. He says, I want you to go tell
well they were calling him Saul at that time, Saul, that I have
ordained him to represent me among the Gentiles. Now wait
a minute, God had ordained him even while he was a blasphemer,
even while, Paul wasn't chosen because he had the talents and
gifts necessary to do the job, he was given those talents and
gifts because God had chosen him to that work. And so what
I'm saying is when we see people operating within the assembly,
we don't look and say, well, that person's more valuable.
No, they're not. Anything they do that may appear
to be useful in the kingdom of God, they're doing it entirely
under the power of God's grace. Whatever they're doing in the
flesh is just wood, hay, and stubble that's going to be burnt
up. work is more visible than others. But as I was preparing for this,
I was thinking, you know, Brother John DeBryan, you know, well, I didn't realize how much
he meant to me and how helpful he was to me until he was gone. Because whatever it is that God
enabled him to do, he did rather quietly. It was done simply by
him being here. If nothing else, his faithfulness
to worship, which revealed an obvious desire for the things
of God, was an encouragement to me. And that's why it became,
you know, a little bit of a thing I had to deal with every time
I'd look over there and he's not there. So, probably no one, and
most of all, not himself, knew what he was doing. He thought I was something wonderful.
No, we're just a couple of sinners saved by the grace of God. God
put me up here to do a certain work and set him right there
to do a certain work. The scriptures speak about, or the Lord in a
parable talk about those who bear a harvest 30-fold, some
60-fold, and some 100-fold. But since their function within
the body is ordained by God, each member actually produces
100% of what God ordained them to do and designed them to do.
Nobody is failing. Nobody within the body of Christ
is failing to fulfill that work which God ordained for them. Now, this is simply a recognition
of a fact. When the Lord talked about 30-fold,
60-fold, and 100-fold, that's simply a fact. Take, for example,
preachers. There are some preachers that
have a widespread effect. And we say, oh, they were of
great value to the Church of God. I think of Brother Henry
Mahan. I was talking to another one
of the brothers last night, and he said, in my opinion, in my
day and everything, he said, nobody preached Christ like Henry
Mahan did. And you know what? I'll agree
with that brother about Henry. But you know what? Henry, as
Henry, was nothing more than me or you or anybody else. And
in the body of Christ, as to his person, nothing more. Anything
he did, Anything accomplished through and by him was entirely
by the grace of God. And he may be one of those hundredfold in the kingdom of God. And I'm
down here, maybe I'm clear down to a tenfold or something like
that. Both of us are doing 100% of what God sent us to do. And so are you. You say, but
I don't know what I'm doing for God. That's probably good. And even though I know that I
am a preacher, I don't really know what's being accomplished
by it. I know what I do. I don't know what God is accomplishing. But never did our Lord tell 30-fold
members to try to be 60-fold members, or 60-fold members to
be 100-fold. You just, all the time, pursue
Christ. Worship Him. Love your brethren. And God will see to it that whatever
was intended to be done through and by you will be done. Nothing
lacking. So, this means for us who believe
that there's no possible scenario in which we may look down on
our brothers and sisters. Period. This may be shocking, but this
involves everything. This means if it seems like our
brothers and sisters are not acting as faithfully as they
should be, well, none of us are. And if you are acting more faithful
than they are, it's because God, by grace, enabled you to do that
to fulfill a purpose. So you can't boast in it. That brother is still one with
us in Christ has to do with understanding, has to do with personalities.
You know, there are just some people easier to get along with
than others. Does that mean they're more valuable? No. And it has to do also with whatever
particular sins may prove to be troublesome to them. And we got this hierarchy of
sin. And it's true that God deals
with sins in this life, one sin differently than another. But
as far as eternal matters are concerned, sin is just sin. And so when we are within the
assembly and we look upon whoever the Lord is pleased to bring
among us, We might find others who have a horrible background,
as the world would count horrible. And yet we didn't get in so much
trouble outwardly. But we're not any better than
them. But now it gets even more difficult for us to receive.
They may be in more trouble right now than we think we are. They may be doing things that
we think, I'd never do that. And maybe you won't ever do that.
But if you don't, it'll only because God restrained you and
didn't let that happen. That doesn't mean that the church
ignores sin. In first Corinthians, I believe it was, Paul talked
about a man who was having an affair with his stepmother and
Paul said, that's awful. If he won't repent of that, you
need to put him out. Because what he's doing then
is giving evidence that he really isn't one of the Lord's people. But as soon as a man repented,
he said, bring him back in. Don't put any more burden on
him. Don't make him go through probation. Don't look askance
at him. We're equal, even though we look
different. Well, I can't give any more detail
about this. Maybe I'll finish it up. We'll
finish it up next week and also try to understand a little bit
doctrinally about what that passage means. But here's the exhortation
to us believers. Yes, there are differences among
us in the flesh. There are no differences among
us in Christ. And the only way that we're going
to ever be able to acknowledge the equality among us is for
each of us in his own mind to count himself as less worthy
than everybody else. Our equality, our equality in reality, is learned
only when we begin to think of ourselves as less worthy than
those among whom we live as the people of God. All right, you
are dismissed.