Thank you, Mike, for choosing
that song. I absolutely love that song. First time I heard
it was in Rescue California, and I believe it was Brother
Mike Loveless who sang that. And oh my, I had never heard
a song like that before. It was wondrous. It's now one
of our favorites. We sing it at home here and there,
along with Only a Sinner. That's a wonderful one too, isn't
it? But thank you, Mike, for that song. It's just so wonderful. So wonderful. Again, it's an honor to be here
to preach. Privilege. I thank you for having
me. I thank God for allowing me to
come and be with you guys. And it's just a great honor. Turn again to Philippians chapter
two. So far, we've looked at how Christ
is equal with God. And in the last message, we look
how he took upon himself the form of a servant, was made in
the likeness of man. And tonight, we will see him
go to the cross. Go to the cross. We'll read verses five to 11
again. So far again, we've looked at
verses five to seven. Tonight, we'll look at verse
eight, which brings forth the whole reason that Christ came
to this earth, to save his people from their sins. And how's he
gonna do that? By giving his life on Calvary's
cross, by dying and shedding his precious blood to redeem
his people from their sins. Verse five of Philippians chapter
two, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, emptied himself
and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the
likeness of man. And being found in fashion as
a man, look at this, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death. obedient unto death in our Roman
place. It's wondrous. Even the death
of the cross, the death that was reserved for
non-Roman residents, the death that was reserved for criminals, the sinless, perfect, spotless
Lamb of God, becomes obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth. Everybody's
gonna bow to Christ. For some, here be a savior. For
others, here be judge. My. Folks say, I don't believe
in him. You're going to bow to him. What did Henry say? Better to
bow to him here than to bow to him in judgment. Better to bow to him as Lord
than to bow to him in judgment. and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. My oh my. Verse eight. In being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. This brings forth the great work
of salvation that the word of God, God incarnate in the flesh
came to do. He lived as our substitute perfectly. He died as our substitute perfectly. fully satisfying the law of God. In His righteousness, that coat
of righteousness that He wove, beloved. The old timers used
to say, the coat of righteousness that He wove is given to us. And we stand forever, that white
robe in heaven is the righteousness of Christ, beloved. We will stand
in heaven, and we stand right now. Isn't this amazing? Clothed
in the perfect, spotless, righteousness of Christ. And as one old preacher
said, I love this, when God looks upon us, he sees Christ. He sees Christ. Isn't that wondrous? It's wondrous, eh? I'll tell you. The sinless one. the perfect one, the holy one,
dying for the ungodly ones. That's us, born dead in trespasses
and sins, at enmity with God in our minds, hating God. We might not have said it, we
hated him, but by our actions, beloved, we sure did. And yet,
we don't receive condemnation, because God has not appointed
us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Isn't that wondrous? Scripture calls us vessels of
honor. How long have we been vessels
of honor? From eternity. That's wondrous,
isn't it, brother of mine? Wondrous. Do we feel like vessels
of honor? Nope. But we are. Because God
said we are. It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. Again, Christ the lawgiver becomes
the law satisfier for us who broke the law willingly. Unconsciously sometimes. Drinking
sin like water. And here comes the one who gave
the law and he fulfills it in our room and place. No wonder
we say hallelujah, what a savior. What a redeemer is Jesus Christ
our Lord. He offers himself up, beloved. See, who did we sin against?
We sin against one another. But ultimately, who did we sin
against? God and God Almighty. He's the offended party. The
offended party sends the Savior. That's amazing. Because we can't
save ourselves. This is wondrous. And Christ
must die. He must. He must die for us or
else we'd never be saved, right? And praise God he did. I love
what the scripture says, he shall not fail. And he didn't, beloved. It is finished. I remember Tim James one time
saying, it is perfect. Praise his mighty name. It's
wondrous, I'll tell ya. So marvel here before us. He
is God himself. The God-man has obtained eternal
redemption for us. And it's he who gives it to us.
He gives it to us freely. Oh, it's wonderful. And how did he obtain it? By
the death on the cross. His death on the cross? Let's
read verse eight again. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself. God himself did this. The word
of God. For sinners such as we, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. So let us marvel at the great
humility set before us of our Savior. This is great humility,
it's amazing. Are we deserving of this? No,
but he gives it to us. Salvation that he obtained. We're mere receivers, beloved. Right? For by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not yourselves. It's a gift of God, a gift of
God, not of works. There are no works of ours. We
can't even, we don't even enter into the equation, except for
our sin. We're professional sinners, aren't
we? Yeah. We have our masters of
sinnership, don't we? Yeah. But praise be to God. We have a great, great, great
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem
us from our sins. He stooped so low, beloved, to
save us from our sins. But marvel, when he was raised
from the dead, he was exalted so high. far above this world. Think of this. Our king is far
above this world, far above all the troubles of this world. He's
victorious. And we'll soon be with him. Again,
as I said, I think a couple nights ago, our life's just a vapor,
just like that. My, oh my. It's wondrous. And you know how long we'll be
with him? For eternity. We'll be with him for eternity. And think of this, he said, I'll
never leave you nor forsake you. Has he ever left us? Even when we were dead in sin,
he was watching over us. When we were conceived, he knew
us in our mother's wombs. When we were little, he watched
over us. Think of how many times I can
look back, and I'm sure you can too, and think, how many times
could I have destroyed myself by something I did? Either a
car wreck or doing something reckless. And we don't do those
things to tempt God, do we? But we were just doing them as
young people. Or even as older people. And
yet he's preserved us. I can count three or four times
where I should have died when I was young. That I know of. But it wasn't my time. And he preserved me, saved me,
and now he's gonna take me home, and you too, isn't that wondrous?
That's wondrous. It's absolutely incredible. Why? Because he saved us from our
sins. At Calvary's Cross. My oh my. And he's exalted far
above, high above, high above. Wherefore, look at verse nine,
wherefore God also hath highly exalted him. We're gonna look
at that tomorrow, nine to 11. Highly exalted, give him a name
which is above every name. And nobody became obedient unto
death. Now this does not mean that he
was not master over death. Doesn't mean not. He was always and still is master
over death. He died as no other individual
in this world. There's no other individual ever
died or ever will die. He died of his own volition. He gave up the ghost, remember
the scripture says that? He gave up the ghost. He gave
his life for us. He willingly laid down his life
for the sheep, for all the elect of all the ages. John chapter 10 verses 17 and
18 says this, therefore doth my father love me, because I
lay down my life for the sheep, that I might take it again. Isn't
that wondrous, brother? It's wondrous that he included
us, and that we're one of the sheep, and we learned he laid
down his life for us, that we might be saved from all our sins
and spend eternity with him forever. He says in John 10, 18, no man
taketh it from me. He's dying on the cross. No man
took his life. No, but I lay it down on myself,
he said. My oh my. I have power to lay
it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment have
I received of my father. That's God in the flesh saying
that, beloved. That's our Redeemer. And you
know what? Where he is, we shall soon be.
As Henry used to say, where the head is, the body will soon follow. Oh my. Turn, if you would, to
John chapter 19. John chapter 19. We see here,
he gave his life up for us. John chapter 19, verses 28 to
30. My, oh my. freely submitted his soul into
the Father's hands. Remember, I'll read John 10,
17, and 18 again before we look at this. Therefore doth my Father
love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down on myself. I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received of my Father. Now let's read John
19, verses 28 to 30. After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel of
vinegar, and they filled the sponge with vinegar, and put
it upon Hyssop, and put it to his mouth. Now note here, when
Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. That's our salvation. That's
our redemption. And look what it says next. And
he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. That is exactly what
he was saying in John 18. No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. Willingly. That's what our Savior
did for us, beloved. My, oh my. He bowed his head
in death as one dying and freely submitted his soul unto the Father's
will. Into his hands, at the stroke
of death, he gave his life. He gave his life for us. He committed
his soul and spirit into the Father's hands, beloved. He committed
himself to the Father freely. This is free grace, beloved. Free and sovereign grace. Freely
laying down his own precious life, which no man could take
from him to save us from our sins. Oh my! Tell me more! Tell me more! This is wondrous. Look at verse eight again, let's
go back to Philippians 2.8. Oh, this is incredible. Being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Note the words, and became obedient
unto death. The word unto is a translation
of a Greek word which means up to the point of. Up to the point of. So marvel
is our Lord was obedient to the Father up to the point of his
death. There was never a time when he
wasn't obedient to the Father. Isn't that amazing? That's why we're clothed in the
perfect righteousness of Christ. He was obedient fully to God
because we never could be. That's amazing, isn't it? That's
absolutely amazing. See the words, even the death
of the cross? The Apostle Paul is bringing
forth the character of Christ's death as it was the death of
the cross. Its nature was one of humiliation. The crucifixion was a death of
humiliation. Crucifixion, again, was a kind
of death dealt out to criminals that they couldn't crucify Roman
citizens, you know that? Wasn't allowed. Wasn't allowed,
but they could sure crucify non-Roman citizens, non-Romans, criminals,
and again, This was the kind of death dealt out to criminals,
beloved. I told you last, the other night
about Spartacus and they crucified 3,000 of them 150 feet apart
from each other. My, oh my, because they had rebelled against the
empire. They were criminals in Rome's
eyes. Listen to the Greek translation
by Wiest, a Greek scholar, and he said this about this verse.
In being found to be an outward guise as a man, he's fully man and yet he's God. The outward guise of man, he
stooped very low. having become obedient to the
extent of death, even such a death as that upon a cross. And he did it for you and I,
beloved of God, that we might be saved from all
our sins. So much so, and I marvel at this,
so much so, that the Father says, your sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. God doesn't forget, does he?
Your sins and iniquities, will I remember no more. So that's
a contradiction. No, it's not. It's because Christ
paid for it all. Isn't that wonderful? They're
not counted against us because Christ bore it all for us. My oh my. So the character of
Christ's death upon the cross was both painful, shameful, it
was an accursed death. And it showed that he bore the
curse of the law because he was made a curse for us. Again, Galatians
3, 13 and 14. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
curse is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessings
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ,
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Wonder of wonders. And the death of Christ is the
greatest instance of humility that this world has ever seen. And our humility and anyone else's
humility doesn't even come close. You know what happens? I'll tell
you a little story. This is funny. When I first met
my bride, Vicki, she said, Oh, you're meek. And I'm like, I'm
meek? Well, I had to go look it up.
It means quiet strength, right? So I go around the job I was
at in Canada and I'm like, my fiance says I'm meek. I wasn't
meek. She's never told me, because
I got proud real fast. Right? My, my oh my. Isn't it funny how we are? The
humility of Christ is absolutely outstanding. Absolutely amazing. God becomes a man, becomes obedient
unto the cross, unto death, even the death of the cross, to save
us, beloved. This is amazing. This is absolutely
amazing. The death of Christ, again, is
the greatest instance of humility this world has ever seen. And
look at how the Holy Spirit preserves it for our learning. The scripture's preserved for
our learning, isn't it? We're going through acts like
you guys are, and I keep telling the folks back home, I keep saying,
this is recorded for our learning. It's wonderful, right? It's wonderful. Do you ever think
of this? When Christ died, I'm gonna say
this again, I've said it multiple times, but he died for all the
elect of all the ages. A number that no man can number. And I had someone ask me one
time, well, how could he die for all those people at once?
I said, because he's God. And man, and his sacrifice is so perfect
that God is fully satisfied with the redemption that we have through
Christ in him alone. All the elect of all the ages
saved. He said, it's finished. It's
done. And there's nothing we can do. It's finished, it's perfect.
Can't add nothing to perfection, can you? What happens if you
add something to perfection? Especially we sinful humans.
It's ruined. I remember Jean-Claude telling
me a story one time. He goes, grace is like a helium
balloon. Or like a balloon. All full of
air, right? Beautiful. You take a pin. just a pin, and
you gently prick that balloon, right? And what happens? You add a pinprick of man's works
to the grace of God, and it's no longer grace. It's works,
and it'll damn us all to hell. But praise be to God. We're saved
by the grace of God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
to cover all our sins. All of them. As I said the other night, I'll
say it again, he extinguished the wrath of God. I love that. I deserve the wrath of God, but
he extinguished it. that was against me and against,
if you're a believer, against you. And he did it one time by his perfect, sin-atoning death
upon Calvary's cross. Oh, isn't this wonderful? For
God's people, this is the most wonderful news we've ever heard.
Scott Richardson used to say, ever since I heard the good news,
I not heard no bad news. We know what he means, literally.
It's wondrous. Oh my. So his precious blood
was shed to redeem our eternal souls. It's wonderful. His blood has washed away all
our sins. God does not remember our sins
and iniquities against us. Remember when Moses struck the
rock twice? He was only supposed to do it
once. Because Christ can only be smitten once for our sins,
beloved. And he was. And he saved us by
his perfect word. All we do, by God-given faith,
we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I love it, we were going
through Acts, and I said to the folks, I said, look at this,
the Philippian jailer. What must I do to be saved? Now
if there was ever a time when something would be added, see
man says, man says in their religion, you have to be baptized to be
saved, or you have to believe this, to be saved, or you have
to, oh, you gotta go to this certain church to be saved. If
you're not in this church, you're not, you're not saved. And Paul
says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall, there's
that little word again, be saved. And God's people say, praise
the mighty name of Jesus for saving my soul. My, my oh my. What happened, that Philippian
jailer was born again, wasn't he? Oh yeah. And he was given
faith. And then he took, look, he took
Paul, he washed his stripes. Oh my, I love that portion of
scripture. And they had sweet fellowship
together, beloved. And he was baptized in his household. And that's not his children. Can a baby believe? But if you're born again and
given faith to believe, you believe. Oh my. Oh my. My, oh my. Listen to Titus chapter
two, verses 13 and 14. Listen to this. Looking for that
blessed hope, that's our king, that's Christ, and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our savior, Jesus Christ, who
gave himself for us. We sinned against God. Christ
gives himself in the room and place. He gave himself for us,
beloved, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
unto himself. Oh, this is wonderful. A peculiar
people, zealous of good works. It's wondrous. It's absolutely
wondrous. If we're born again blood-washed
saints, we're sinners still on this earth. But we're just as
justified now as the saints in heaven. It's wondrous. Let's read verse eight again.
Philippians 2.8. In being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Oh my. So let we who are the
redeemed keep looking to He who is the author and finisher of
our faith. Let's keep looking to Him who humbled Himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, for us.
For us. Now we don't look at Him with
the natural eye, do we? But with the eye of faith, we
sure look at Him, don't we, Brother Mike? Oh, we see Him with the
eye of faith. And we've never seen him in the flesh, but we're
gonna see him. That verse you quoted in Job,
man, Job said, I know my Redeemer lives. You're gonna see him. Oh my. And we're gonna see him
face to face, aren't we? My. One may ask, who is it that
we're redeemed of the Lord look to? It's Christ and Christ alone.
We don't look to ourselves, we cease from our labors. We look
to the only savior of our souls, the Lord Jesus Christ. We who
are the redeemed of the Lord look to Jesus, our savior, who
was appointed and sent by God to be our redeemer. our representative,
our ransom, and our mediator. We who are the redeemed of the
Lord look to the Lord Jesus, who is the author and finish
of our faith. Now it is not in us by nature
to believe, but by his grace, the grace of the Spirit of God,
the Holy Spirit of God, he's led us to believe we're born
again by his almighty power. It's the Holy Spirit of God that's
given us that wondrous faith that has one object, right? One
object, eh, brother? The Lord Jesus Christ. I remember
in religion, I used to look to myself. I didn't know good. And then
I was looking at others, saying, what are they doing? Oh, surely
they can't be a Christian and do that. Oh, Lord, please forgive
me. And what happens, we see, I'm
the chief of sinners. I said, back home, people, I
said, you know what problem in some of the churches, is they're
all looking at each other, and then the pastor's looking at
them, and no one's looking to Christ. I know when I preach and Brother
Norm preaches, we point you to Christ and Him alone. Don't look
to the preacher. We're safe sinners. We're just
safe sinners. Look to our Savior. Look to the
one we preach, the Redeemer, the only Savior of sinners. Again, we who are the redeemed
of the Lord, look to the Lord Jesus, who's the only object
of our faith. He's like the hub and the wheel. Remember our bike wheels, they
had the hub? And all the spokes went out of that? He's the hub,
beloved. He's the hub. Oh my. And we who are the redeemed of
the Lord look to Jesus again, who's the author and finisher
of our faith. It's amazing. Who gives us faith to believe?
On him. And he's the one who brings it
to maturity. We're being, isn't this wondrous?
We don't even know and we see ourselves as more and more sinners.
Do you know what happens when we're seeing ourselves more and
more sinners? You know what happens? We're being conformed to the
image of the son, beloved. We're growing in grace. We are. It's amazing. Let's read verses five to 11
again of Philippians chapter And we'll see the steps in the
humiliation of the Son of God when he became a man. And then
we'll see the exaltation of our wonderful, merciful Savior in
seven points. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of man,
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore,
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, our King,
our Savior, our Redeemer, every knee should bow, of things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth."
This is wondrous. And every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So we see that the death
of Christ and the sham of it, which made it such a stumbling
block to the Jews, his death is the cause of our
salvation. Oh my, because the Lord by himself
and by his perfect obedience saved us from our sins. Here
are seven successive steps in the Lord's humiliation from verses
five to eight. Christ Jesus our Lord thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. So we see that in verse
six. Number two, the Son of God, the
Word, Jesus Christ made himself of no reputation, emptied himself,
verse seven. The word of God, who is Jesus
Christ, we see, took upon him the form of a servant. So marvel
again that the sovereign king became a servant. We see that
also in verse seven. The word of God, who is the Lord
Jesus Christ, was made in the likeness of man, also in verse
seven. He's perfect, he's sinless. Number
five, the word of God, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, was found
in fashion as a man, and he humbled himself, and was and is the servant
of servants. Number six, the word of God,
who is the Lord Jesus Christ, we see, became obedient unto
death, in verse eight. Number seven, the word of God,
who is Jesus Christ, dies in our room instead, our room and
place, and during the death of the cross in our room, the sinless
one dying for sinners. That's also in verse eight. Here
are seven steps upward in his glorification and exaltation.
They're given in Philippians 2, verses nine to 11. Number
one, God highly exalted the Lord Jesus Christ, verse nine. Number
two, God the Father has given Christ Jesus our Lord a name
above all names, verse nine. Number three, at the name of
Jesus, every knee should bow, verse 10. Number four, everything
in heaven will bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord, verse
10. Number five, everything in earth
will bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 10. Number six, everything
under the earth will bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 10. And then look at verse 11. This
is the seventh and last point. Every tongue of everyone who
has ever lived will proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. What a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. And marvel, beloved of God, He
has fully and completely saved us from our sins. What do we say? Hallelujah. Hallelujah,
what a savior is Jesus Christ our Lord. See y'all.