I'll start by saying hello to
everyone and thank you for stopping by this evening. I haven't met
everybody there but my name is Lorne and I'm filling in for
Brother Norm tonight. He's down on the other side of
the continent here and he's I'm sure enjoying well I guess he's
in the airplane now but I'm sure he has enjoyed the sun and frolicking
on the beach there in North Carolina. And while he was there, preaching
some gospel to the attendees of Brother Gary Shepherd's church
there in Jacksonville, North Carolina. As to our study tonight,
you might want to open your Bible to Philippians chapter 2. I'm going to be reading the first
11 verses, but we're going to be paying special attention to
verses 6, 7, and 8. So, Philippians chapter 2, let's
pick up reading there in verse 1. Therefore, if there is any
consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship
of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by
being like-minded. having the same love, being of
one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish
ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others
better than himself. Let each of you look out not
only for his own interests, but also for the interest of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who,
being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery, to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taken the form
of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of man and being
found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself and became
obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the
name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on the earth and
of those under the earth. And every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
So Paul starts out by laying the groundwork of the main point
that he is going to be, that we're going to be addressing
here in this part of Philippians. He's encouraging them by bringing
out some of the many attributes that Christians share with Christ,
fellowship with the Spirit, and then an important one as far
as this study goes, humility. There is no room for selfish
ambition or conceit but instead humility, we are looking out
for not our own interests, but the interest and needs of others. He then points us to Christ by
telling them to let this be the mindset which was also in Christ
Jesus, as we will see as we continue on into the study. He goes on
to speak to them of the great example that Christ has left
them, and that is the subject and title of tonight's lesson,
The Humility of Christ. Right away, we are introduced
to that humility of Christ as we look at the first verse of
our main text, verse 6. There, we are told that Christ,
being in the form of God, did not consider robbery to be equal
with God, but made himself of no reputation. In other words,
he was equal with God, yet he did not choose to come to this
world to make a big deal of his relationship with the Godhead,
but instead he took the form of a bondservant and came in
the likeness of man to take on the role of a servant. He made
himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant in the
form of man. He was God, in fact, the God-man. That was his essential
being, but on the outside he appeared as all-man. In fact,
that's what people thought of him. He was nothing but a man. He looked like a man. He talked
like a man. He walked like a man. He was
a man. He was a man in appearance, but
never was he not the God of glory. Other translations say he did
not consider his equality with God something to be grasped.
Well, they all mean the same thing, meaning he was not going
to treat others as his servants, placing himself as their master
who they should bow down to. Instead, he came to be a humble
servant of the very people he created, even to the point of
giving up his life in service to others. This is what Paul
was driving at in the first few verses of the chapter. But like,
be like Christ and follow the pattern he has given, as Paul
says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1 11. Follow my example as I
follow the example of Christ. Now I want to just make a quick
mention of a few more examples of Christ being a great example
of humility that we are given in the Gospels before we go on
to the big one in Isaiah 53. In Matthew 20, 28, we read this. Just as the Son of Man did not
come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom
for many. This is another verse that speaks
to Christ's ultimate act of humility and service as he speaks to the
reason he was sent onto this world to serve even to the point
of giving his life for the ransom of many. Just what we see Paul
refer to in verse 8 of our text here in Philippians. It was also
a lesson to them that they should follow Christ's example and be
a servant to each other as he was a servant to them. Not that
he was expecting them to go to the cross as he was prepared
to do, but as believers we should always have the attitude of a
good servant towards each other, having that mind of Christ that
Paul speaks of earlier in Philippians. Another example we have in the
Gospels of Christ's humility is when Jesus washed the feet
of his disciples, which is found in John 13. This, even though
the disciples were taken aback by the thought of Jesus washing
their feet, he explained to them, again, the importance of having
that mind of Christ when it came to being humble servants, even
towards each other. Now, these are powerful illustrations
and short descriptions of them, Powerful illustrations of humility
through the example of Jesus Christ. The whole passage shows
that true humility involves considering others as more important than
yourself. And it speaks to believers to
adopt a mindset of service and selflessness. Imitating Christ's own example
of emptying himself and becoming obedient even unto the cross.
Now, as for perhaps the ultimate example of all this, let's turn
to Isaiah 53, where we will look at a couple of the passages that
bring out the humility of Christ that I think is only Isaiah 53
can do. There are several places we could
go, but one of the reasons Isaiah 53 is so widely used when speaking
of Christ's service and humility is because it is such a vivid
portrayal of what and whom we are speaking of and what the
conditions were that he had to bear. So I'd like to start at
verse one of Isaiah 53 and read for right now the first three
verses. Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm
of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no
form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is
no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
by man. a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised and we did not
esteem him. So Isaiah is presenting to us
here a person who had no special attributes that in any way stood
out. He had no form or comeliness,
he says. He had no beauty or majesty to
attract us to him. nothing in his appearance that
we should desire him. All of that goes pretty much
hand in hand with what we read throughout the scriptures when
we read how Jesus was rejected by his own people, despised by
many, imprisoned, hung on the cross, ridiculed, scorned, and
ultimately crucified. We can see all of these if we
were to continue reading on through Isaiah 53, but we get a glimpse
there at the end of verse three where Isaiah goes on to describe
him as one despised and rejected by men. But now let's drop down
to verse seven. So verse seven of Isaiah 53 goes
on to say, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened
not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his
mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment and who will declare his generation? where he was
cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions
of my people, he was stricken. So now we get down to the real
nitty-gritty of this messianic prophecy of Christ as we read
how Christ took on to himself what should have been our humiliation. He was, as the reading said,
oppressed and afflicted during the time that he was here in
the world. And of course we know he is still
despised and ridiculed even now. And he was the lamb led to slaughter
and it was with great humility, speaking not a word as he was
led to the top of Calvary and then nailed to the cross. Isaiah
says, for the transgressions of my people, he was stricken. And you know what that means. He was stricken for each of us. He died upon that cross because
of our sins. What is hard for me to wrap my
mind around is what he requested of the Father not long before
he took his dying breath. In that time and with the utmost
of humility, he asked the Father God to forgive them, Father,
for they know not what they do. There, dying on the cross, our
Savior was advocating for us. Forgive them, Father, for they
know not what they do. He is advocating for all His
elect. If your name is written down
in the Lamb's Book of Life, He is there dying for and advocating
for you. He is there requesting of God's
forgiveness for you. We all must know that He died
for our sins and with that death and a subsequent resurrection
from the grave, He was completely victorious over sin and death
for us. Oh, they are still very much
present in this world, but they have no effect on the elect of
God. And woe to those of the world
who deny that this Messiah ever existed." And continuing with
that thought for just a moment, it's amazing what you can come
across when you type a query into Google. I was skimming different
commentators about different things that I was thinking about
as I was working on this study, and I came across this thread
in a forum, which I've already forgotten the name of it, so
please don't ask. But to be fair, this comment was made by a very
conservative, traditional person of the Jewish faith. But he revealed
such a blatant denial of Christ and spoke to how we as Christians
twist historic events in the Old Testament because we just
really want this Jesus to be real. I'm not going to go into
it in any detail, way too much was said, but the opening sentence
of his diatribe was in bold type, which was what caught my attention,
and then my attention was kept to some degree because of his
nonsense. It should be also said the type was bold because it
was used as the title of the thread. The title statement read
like this, there is not a single prophecy in the Old Testament
that predicts specifically Jesus as the Messiah. That was the
title of this post, then that started a huge thread. He went
on to single out Isaiah 53 as the most cited chapter that is
used to attempt to prove that Jesus was the Messiah. Well,
let's turn in our Bibles to 1 Peter 2, and we'll start reading at
verse 20, just for a little dose of truth serum here. Just as
an aside, comment as you are turned to 1 Peter. Many years
ago, we had a preacher from Lexington, Kentucky, named D.J. Ward, who spoke at one of our
earlier summer camps. He mentioned in one of his sermons,
he preached that in seminary, He had an old professor that
emphatically denied that Christ was in the Old Testament. And
all these preachers going around and preaching about Old Testament
pictures of Christ, well, they were just plain wrong and making
things up. The facts, according to him,
was the Old Testament was nothing more than the history of time
leading up to Christ, and that was it. Well, Brother DJ couldn't
help but think to himself what he believed about a comment like
that. and how he was pretty sure at
the time he himself was lost, but that professor, he was loster. And yes, that is the way DJ talked. Well, I have to wonder if the
guy heading the thread was maybe DJ's old seminary professor.
I sure don't know. But I sure don't know what either
of those two guys, the author of the thread or the professor,
would say about this in 1 Peter chapter 2. But it pretty much
proves that Christ was the subject of Isaiah 53. Okay, enough of
that diversion. Let's get to 1 Peter chapter
2 and verse 20. But how is it, to your credit,
if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But
if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable
before God. To this you were called because
Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should
follow in his steps. He committed no sin and no deceit
was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults
at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no
threats. Instead, he entrusted himself
to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his
body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for
righteousness. By his wounds, you have been
healed. So I don't know about you, but
that sounds pretty much like what we read in Isaiah 53 as
it prophesied about the coming Messiah. And thankfully, I could
say that there are also some pretty good commentators online,
and many of them have very insightful things to say about Isaiah 53.
One example I read and appreciated very much was Matthew Henry and
what he had to say about these first few verses of Isaiah 53. So just a small part of one quote
that I found to be eye-popping was this, and I quote, our sins
deserve all griefs and sorrows, even the most severe. We are
saved from the ruin to which by sin we become liable. by laying
our sins on Christ. This atonement was to be made
for our sins, and this is the only way of salvation. Our sins
were the thorns in Christ's head, the nails in his hands and feet,
the spear in his side. He was delivered to death for
our offenses. By His sufferings, He purchased
for us the Spirit and grace of God to mortify our corruptions,
which are the distempers of our soul. When I read this bit from Mr.
Henry, I was surprised at my reaction. He lays out so well
in this 53rd chapter, how Isaiah speaks to Christ's suffering
as he died to atone for the sins of the left. And of course, we
just read how it'd be preached by Peter so many years later
in a very clear manner, revealing that it was Christ, the true
and only Messiah that Isaiah was prophesying of. Matthew Henry
then goes on to lay out how it's our sins that are deserving of
even the most severe griefs and sorrows. But it was not us that
took that punishment, that scorn, and that humiliation. We know
that Christ went to the cross to atone for our sins, and it
was He that suffered greatly in our stead. The crown of thorns
on Christ's head, the nails in his feet and hands, the sword
piercing his side, I have always seen as God's pouring out his
wrath on him. And that certainly is the case.
That's why Christ cried out from the cross, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? His pain and his suffering was
more than our minds can grasp. I read Matthew Henry describing
how those thorns in Christ's head were representative of my
sin. The nails in his hands, they
were my sins. The nails in his feet were my
sins. The sword piercing his side,
my sin. I was really taken aback because
I had never seen my role in the Savior's suffering while on the
cross put forth in such a way, impacting me in a way that I
don't have words to describe. I, of course, know that our sins
are what put him on the cross, but I just never seen it presented
in a way that made it so personal to me. But what a relief to know
the best has yet to be heard, which is that we have the good
news of the gospel to sustain us through all the times of guilt
and self-doubt. And the good news of the gospel
is summed up in what Christ said on the cross, forgive them, Father,
for they know not what they do. And that was despite all the
suffering our sins had caused him. Yet by the grace of God,
his suffering mortified our corruptions, meaning in this sense to completely
do away with them. Those distempers of our souls,
that sickness of our souls brought about by the fall, the self-doubts,
the times of little faith, and all the other evils that reside
within. But at the end, he still asked
of the Father, forgive them, Father, for they know not what
they do. After that, he said, it is finished. What men had done, they had meant
for evil, but God had meant it for good. And that good was that
by Christ's stripes, we are healed. By his death, he saved his people
from their sins. Now let's turn in your Bibles
if you're following along to Hebrews chapter 12. Knowing what
we know about how much Christ suffered on the cross, I think
a reasonable question is why did he Why was he so humbly willing
to go to the cross? The writer of Hebrews makes that
answer very clear in chapter 12, verse 2, when he says, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame
and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For the joy that was set before
him, that is why he willingly went to the cross. And what was
that joy? Well, if we were still back in
Isaiah 53, we would read these words. After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied. By his knowledge,
my righteous servant will justify many. That joy the writer is
speaking of was Christ accomplishing the assignment given him back
in the council halls of eternity to go and reveal that light of
life and redeem his people. He joyfully accepted that assignment
of being the humble servant who would willingly go to the cross
and redeem his people, not for our sake, but for his holy namesake. He will see the light of life
and be satisfied. I just used the word assignment,
meaning someone gave a person a task to do. I was, again, looking
back to our preacher friend DJ, who has unfortunately passed,
but some time ago, someone, probably from his church, posted on YouTube
an excerpt from one of his sermons where he states that the death
of Christ was not an attempt, it was an accomplishment. He
goes on to say when someone accomplishes something, it means that somewhere
he was given an assignment to accomplish and that assignment
given to Christ was, like his name implies, he was Jesus and
he would save his people from their sins. As I was preparing
for tonight's study, I came across another well-known and respected
commentator who used pretty much the same thought of Christ's
happening assignment that was given to him back in eternity
to accomplish what was to be his reason for leaving his place
in glory and taking on the role of an obedient being its servant here on earth.
This comes from one of this commentator's writings and is titled The Satisfaction
of Christ, which I think could also be stated as for the joy
set before him. This is what commentator John
Gill had to say about this assignment given Christ. It's a little longer
of a quote than I normally would like to use, but it's very easy
on the ears to hear and should be a blessing to all God's people. From John Gill, The finishing
and making an entire end of sin, this was Christ's work, assigned
Him in covenant and asserted in prophecy, and which was done
when He made reconciliation or atonement for sin. Not that the
being of sin was removed thereby, for that remains in all the justified
and sanctified ones in this life, but the damning power of it was
removed. Those for whom Christ has made
satisfaction shall never come into condemnation nor be hurt
by the second death that shall have no power over them. Sin
is so done and put away and abolished by the sacrifice of Christ that
no charge can ever be brought against his people for it. The
curse of the law cannot reach them. nor light upon them, nor
any sentence of condemnation and death can be executed on
them, nor any punishment inflicted on them. They are secure from
the wrath to come. That's always one of the favorite
things that we talk about when we're fellowshipping together,
is how great the gift of God is and what he has accomplished
for us in Christ. But doesn't that remind you of
what Paul writes about in Romans 8? where he declares that there
is nothing in all creation that is able to separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. What power that
humble servant brought so he could complete his assignment,
which was to save his people from their sins. Turn now if
you will to 1 Timothy chapter 2. And let's take a look at what
Paul has to say as we continue looking at the servant Christ
and his humility as a servant to man, and then in his perfect
obedience to God the Father. He gave himself a ransom to save
his people, his name being Jesus, which means he will save his
people. So, in 1 Timothy 2, verses 5
and 6, for there is one God and one mediator between God and
mankind. the man, Christ Jesus, who gave
himself as a ransom for all people, this has now been witnessed to
at the proper time. A few things to look at here. First, Paul starts out with the
Old Testament truth that the God of the Bible is the only
God who actually exists. This statement is the foundation
for the law stating, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is
one. You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
might. He is the one and only God, but
yet he purposed to come down and dwell with mankind in the
person of his sons, Jesus. And a major part of Jesus' servant
is to bring people to God. We could not do that alone. We
needed a mediator, and there was only one mediator that God
will accept. As Acts chapter 4, verse 12 says,
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other
name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Paul then points out the humanity of Christ Jesus when he calls
him the man Christ Jesus. He is God in human form, 100%
God and 100% man. And this God-man, as his assignment
given to him required, he in humility and perfect obedience
gave himself as a ransom and saved his people. and as a reward
for that humility and perfect obedience, he has ascended into
heaven and now sits on the throne at the right side of the Father,
ruling and reigning and being forever our mediator with God. And then just one more thought
that I thought we might have time to look at tonight would
be found in 1 John chapter 2. We just finished a good study
of 1 John 2 that Mike Richardson spent several weeks or months
leading us through. But I want to go back and take
a quick look at how Christ in his humble service also took
on the role as our chief advocate. As we saw there, even on the
cross, he not only came to serve as our mediator, but also as
our advocate. He says, my dear children, I
write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody
does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous one. So he advocated for us here on
earth, and he continues to advocate for us as he sits on his throne
alongside the father. In Paul's letter to Timothy,
which we just read, there is one God and one mediator between
God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus. Paul is, in a sense, saying
this is how he, the man Christ, came into this world in the flesh,
in the form of a man. As we read in Philippians 2,
when we began the study, he came to us in the likeness of man. He took on the role of a bond
servant. and he humbled himself and became
obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. So when
the man Christ Jesus came, as Paul calls him, and for good
reason, because he was God in human form, 100% God and 100%
man, here to serve those he has created. So we get to close a
little early. I thought I'd have a longer study
than this, As we close, I would like to remind us that every
marvelous blessing, every privilege that we have is a merciful gift
of divine grace, and Ephesians 1 makes that clear. Praise be
to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. And those blessings include the
blessing of Christ coming to this world as that lowly, humble
servant. He was also Christ the Messiah
who would save his people. And as we read from Matthew Henry,
he mortified the corruptions of our souls by removing forever
the distempers that have plagued us. If you are one whose name
is written down in the Lamb's Book of Life, Christ coming to
this world in all his humility has given you great rewards and
it's a gift by the grace of God. May you in return Let this attitude
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. As I like to do
so often, I'd like to close with just this short verse of the
hymn and become pretty much one of my all-time favorite hymns
that speaks to Christ's humility. And that is from His Robes for
Mine. I'd like to read this the last verse. His robes for mine,
such anguish none can know. Christ, God's beloved, condemned
as though his foe. He, as though I, accursed and
left alone. I, as though he, embrace and
welcome home. So thank you for spending the
time and listening to this study.