Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. As I said
earlier to you all, that I couldn't wait to preach this message today. It's such a wonderful topic. It's about Christ being exalted.
That he rose from the grave and is exalted by the Father and
given a name above all names. And we know that the name of
Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. Even
people, Brother Brian, who despise Him, they're going to proclaim,
Jesus Christ is Lord. They're going to proclaim. And
we will proclaim too. to the glory of God the Father.
And remember, the whole reason that Christ came to this world,
right, was to save us from our sins. But in doing so, He's glorifying
the Father. And all through His life, He's
glorifying the Father. He's glorifying Him. Oh, it's
magnificent. It's absolutely wonderful. And
so as I was putting this together, I was getting so excited about
this text. Just incredible. And we're just
going to spend the one message on him being highly exalted,
but I'll tell you what, we could spend months on each of these
verses we've been going through. It's absolutely amazing. So turn
if you would to the book of Philippians chapter 2. Let's read verses
5 to 11. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. We saw that was just a mind of
humility, serving the Father, right? In servitude. who being
in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, this is talking about him in heaven, and he's God, the
Word of God, along with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit,
right? He's equal with the Father and
the Holy Spirit, but made himself of no reputation. He emptied
himself of his glory and came to this world 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, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore,
so as a result of that, as a result of that great sacrifice, as a
result of that incredible obedience, perfect obedience, God, look
who's exalted him. God also hath highly exalted
him. Who took us out of the dunghill
of this life? Who came to us? Amen, brother. He came and he
exalted us, didn't he? Oh my, we're seated in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, it's amazing. So God is the
one who did this. God also hath highly exalted
him. See, we can't save ourselves.
God has to save us, right? God has to take us out of the
pit that we're in. Or else we're never coming out
of it. Oh, look at this. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. We're
going to look at that next week. That at the name of Jesus. Look
at this. Every knee. Every knee. Everyone who ever
lived. Everyone. This is at the great white judgment
throne. Every knee shall bow of things in heaven, and things
on earth, and things under the earth. Every single thing. And that every tongue Oh, that's
every language, right? Tongues, remember, is knowing
languages in the Greek. So that's knowing languages,
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. my oh my what a what an incredible
portion of scripture we have set here before us now again
we've been looking at the humanity of christ our lord who was in
the beginning with god and as our context tells us here he
emptied himself right he he emptied himself of his glory came to
this world and lived as a servant to God the Father. And Brother
Travis to save us from our sins. To do what we could never do.
He did that for us. And he took upon himself the
form of a servant. Oh my. And he was fully man and
fully God. Made in the likeness of man. Why in the likeness of man? Because
he had no sin, sisters. He had no sin at all. We're sinners. He had no sin at all. None. He
is perfect. He's absolutely perfect. It's
amazing. Oh my. Made himself in the likeness
of man, again, yet without sin. And then he humbled himself.
This is incredible. He humbled himself and became
fully obedient to God the Father. So he's a servant. He's a servant
to the Father. He's perfectly doing what we
could never do in our room and place. And remember, he's sinless.
So he's doing it for us. He's fulfilling that law of God,
weaving that code of righteousness for us. By his obedience, that's
the key, by his obedience, and then by his death, he secured
eternal salvation for us. And when it says even the death
of the cross, again, that's talking about the form of the death.
He died by crucifixion. But we see he was obedient, and
think of this, when does life begin? Well, in conception though, right?
Life for us humans begins in conception, right? No matter
what people say. When we're conceived. So, think
of this. This blew my mind when I was
looking at it. From the moment of conception to the moment of death, he's
fully obedient. How can he do that? He's a perfect
baby. He's conceived without sin. Isn't that amazing? So from conception
to the grave, He's fully obedient to the Father for you and I. That's wonderful, isn't it, sister? That's the most wonderful news
I've ever heard in my life, that He did that for sinners such
as we. And you know, I was thinking about this, I was thinking about
this this week, and I think I'm going to mention it in the main
service too. People get all, well what if I'm, what if I'm
not one of the elect? Do not worry about that, okay? Who are you trusting? Yeah, amen,
Christ, right brother? And if we're trusting Christ,
We're one of the elect. Isn't that amazing? So I even
have unsafe folks say, well, what if I'm not one of the elect?
Are you trusting Christ? See, you're putting the cart
before the horse. Right? The only reason we know
we're one of the elect is because God's given us faith to believe
on Christ. And have we exercised that faith?
Absolutely we have, haven't we? We ran to Christ because he made
us willing. So I always tell people when I'm witnessing, has
God made you willing? Is Christ your savior and your
redeemer? I got to talk to a fellow, I had the honor of talking to
a fellow this week that had never heard that Christ was the God
man. He had never heard it. He'd never
heard that Christ was God in the flesh. And I thought, boy,
this is wonderful opportunity. So I just presented Christ to
him and who he was. Who he was. He's God in the flesh. And how the conversation talked,
he was talking about spiritual stuff that goes on with supposed
ghosts and all that. And I said, I said, well, I know
what all that is. And we got talking and I said,
do you know who's greater than all those things? And I got to
tell him about the Gadarene demoniac. And how the Lord shut their mouths. And how they were terrified of
him. And he said, well, why? And I said, because he's God.
He's God in the flesh and they're all at His command. Every knee
shall bow. Every tongue shall confess. Oh my, isn't that incredible? Everything's gonna bow down and
proclaim that Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
So he was obedient unto death. Now today we're going to look
at verse 9. Let's get right into this. We're going to look at
the first portion of verse 9. So what people would call this
verse could be broken down into A and B. The first part being,
wherefore God hath also highly exalted him. That's A, and giving
him a name which is above every name, that would be B in the
verse. That's how some people break down verses, just to let
you know. If you ever see that in the commentaries, where somebody
will say, well, the A part of this verse, that's all they're
doing. They're just breaking down the verse so that it's easier
for us to study. So we'll look at the first part.
You always hear me just say the first part. We'll look at the
first portion of this verse, which is this. Wherefore God
also hath highly exalted him. So that's our focus today. Now this is talking about the
exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's finished the work
of redemption. So our salvation was complete
2,000 years ago. Like I always say, I preach a
finished work, don't I? It's already done. There's nothing
for us to do. We just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we do that by God-given faith, don't we? But he had to be raised
from the grave, right? Because the scripture declares
that he's raised for our justification, which means that we are fully
justified before God. Brother Travis, God sees no sin
in us because Christ justified us. Amen. We're clothed in him, brother.
And we are fully justified. Fully. So he must be exalted.
But look where he's exalted. He's exalted to a spot high above
everyone. Our king is above everyone and
everything. Think of that. So we get worried about the circumstances
in this world. Where's our king? He's way above
them all, isn't he? Oh, see, that's why Paul tells
us, and Vicki and I were listening to these podcasters yesterday,
and they just kept saying, look to Christ, look to Christ. That's
why. That's why, because he's above it all. He's in control. So if we're looking to the one
who's in control, the things down here won't unsettle us as
much as we would think they would. Now, we do need to be aware of
what's going on. I wouldn't say, we're not ostracists.
We don't put our heads in the sand, do we? No, no, I would
never say that. But be aware, but don't let it
make you spiral. Know that we have a sovereign
king who's in full control and he's above all this. He's been
so highly exalted, beloved. He'd been given a name above
every name. It's wonderful. So let us never forget, though,
he was raised for our justification, right? He humbled himself that
we might be saved. Do you ever sit there and just
ponder that sometimes? He humbled himself. He did this,
that we might be saved. Otherwise, we'd never be saved.
We'd never be saved. But he did it for us. What love
he has for us, beloved. What love! And that love is manifested
at the cross. And think of this, too. The love
of God the Father and the Holy Spirit is also manifested for
us, too, in the fact that Christ died for us. Because He was sent
by the Father, wasn't He? Right? And then He sends the
Holy Spirit to regenerate us. Right? The Holy Spirit is the
Spirit of Christ. He comes and regenerates us and
gives us faith to believe. It's absolutely amazing. It really
is. This is incredible. So he finished
the work. And because he, see, this is
the thing. Because he finished the work, he's been exalted. If the work wasn't finished,
he wouldn't be exalted, would he? But think of this, and Vicki
and I were talking about this. Vicki brought this up. This was
wonderful. She goes, think of that. Not only did he die for our sins
at Calvary's cross and paid it all in full, But he died for
every one of the elect of every age, all at once. So much so, so much so, that
God sees his people robed in that perfect righteousness, brother,
like you've mentioned, and sees us in Christ, and says, and I'm
gonna say this again, I'm gonna say this till the day I die,
your sins and iniquities to his people will I remember no more. Why do we drag ourselves through
the dirt? We do, don't we? Think of this, too. Remember
this, that God's favor is not in what we do, although we desire
to serve him, don't we? God's favor is in what Christ
has done, and that's shown to us because of Christ. We're saved
for Christ's sake, right? Isn't that wonderful? What liberation,
what freedom we have in Christ, beloved. What joy can be ours? Just thinking of that fact. God became a man and died for
me, each believer can say. For me personally, and took away
all my sins. That's good news, isn't it, Brother
Brian? Oh my, that's the best news anyone's ever told us. My
oh my, and that's scriptural too. That's from the scriptures,
what we're seeing here. So the whole reason why he was
exalted to the right hand of the Father is because he finished
the work. It's done, it's complete. So
he, marvel at this, he empties himself, he strips himself of
his glory for the Father's glory. He does this for the Father's
glory. He strips himself of his glory for the Father's glory.
He empties himself of his personal honor for the Father's honor.
For the Father's honor. And by this process, think of
this, by him doing that, right, by him coming to this world,
emptying himself, dying on the cross for us, and being raised
again, he has opened up a revenue of God's glory even more. You know why? Because now we're
all glorifying him. all his people. He's bought even
more glory. Christ did it, not us. We don't
add anything to God. Christ has bought even more glory
and honor and praise by his complete perfect work to the Father. And here we are, products of
that work, right? Because he saved us, he did it
all, and now we give him glory and honor and praise. Isn't that
magnificent? It's wonderful. What an honor
to be a believer. What an honor. to be a believer,
to be able to rejoice in Christ and to give Him all the glory
and praise the Father, because we certainly didn't do that before
we were saved. And here we are now, by the grace
and mercy of God, rejoicing in this text, rejoicing in this
marvelous truth. Oh my, and how did He bring that
about? By saving us from our sins, that's
what Christ did. He accomplished it, He saved
us from our sins, and so He's being exalted now. And where
he is, right? Think of this. Where the head
is, what happens? The body soon falls, doesn't it? Right? Our head don't go nowhere
where our body don't fall. Oh, isn't that wonderful? So
he's being highly exalted. Guess what? We're going to be
highly exalted. Isn't that wonderful? All because of Christ's work.
All because of what he's done. Oh my, this is beautiful. So
marvel at this, beloved God. It must be found that Christ,
as the sinner's representative and made a surety by God himself,
has done more to honor God than all the sin. Now think of this.
He's done more to honor God. This is magnificent. This is
not mine. This is, I found this. He's done more to honor God than
all our sins did to dishonor God. Isn't that amazing? I'm going
to say that again. Him, by His perfect sacrifice,
has done more to honor God's glory than all our sins did to
dishonor Him. I had to bring that out, beloved.
Isn't that wonderful? That's what Christ's done. That's
what He's done, beloved. It's magnificent. Oh, and think
of this, his sacrifice is so infinitely precious to God, so
great that we can't calculate it. in redeeming his people,
so vast in merit, so vast in merit, by the shedding of his
precious blood and by the giving of his life and the putting away
of our sins by the sacrifice of himself, that over and above
the honor restored to God by the Lord Jesus, there's a vast
ocean of merit, a vast ocean of merit, By Christ, right? Done by Christ. Think of this. That can never take away the
whole payment of our sins. Paid in full for eternity. Nothing will ever be bought against
us, Brother Travis. Because it's God who justified
us. Nothing, my dear sisters, shall
ever be bought against us. It's God who justifies. Brother,
that's wonderful. Oh my, make us want to be shouting,
right? Get a little excited here. It's
wonderful though. I love it. I was so excited,
as I said, as I was putting this message together. Let's look
at verse nine again. It says, wherefore God also hath
highly exalted him, given him a name which is above every name.
So when we look at these precious truths in this verse and in the
verses that we've been studying from verse five to now until
verse 11 and all through this book, we see that we're like a man or a woman
who has ascended a mountain. Remember Paul said, we see through
a glass darkly. So we have limited understanding,
don't we? But what we understand is absolutely
incredible. But we're like men and women
on the very top of a mountain. And you can look out from that
top of the mountain, you can see for miles, right? You can
see that beauty, but you know there's so much more going on,
isn't there? There's a fish swimming in the stream. There's animals
teeming in the forest with life. There's microscopic organisms
that we don't even see at work in the ground and in the air. There's so much more, isn't there? So we see the deity of Christ
and Christ becoming a human and dying for us, and there's so
much more. It's so incalculable. We can't
calculate this magnificent, we are just
in awe with our limited, finite minds, aren't we? And think of
this, we never knew anything about this before the Lord saved
us. So everything we've learned,
we can't even go, oh, look what I've learned. We have to give
him all the glory and honor and praise. And we do it willingly,
don't we? When we stand up and teach, brother, we do it willingly. We just want to brag on Christ.
We just want to brag on him. And we're scared to death to
say something wrong. Travis always says, and that's so true. That's
so true. We just want to glorify him.
We just want to glorify him. So think of this, we're standing
on top of a mountain with a vastness, but we're only seeing in part,
aren't we? So we look at these verses and we see in part. Oh my, but there's a vastness
there. We only contemplate what we see. Oh, and then we have
in verse 9, the fact that Christ having completed our salvation
by the sacrifice of himself, and being raised from the grave,
and God's highly exalted him and given him a name above every
name. There's so much there. There's so much there, beloved.
My, oh, my. So what praise is due to our
great God? Oh, he's worthy. That's why the
scripture says he's alone. He alone is worthy. Christ alone
is worthy of our praise for what he's done. The Father alone,
the Father and the Holy God alone. God, the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. They're the only ones worthy of our praise. Right? No one else. Oh my. So what a blessing for us to
look at this text and see our king dying for us and to see
him. He's our priest we know, right? But now he's exalted. He's a
risen king, isn't he? He was king while, think of this,
he was king before he came. He was king while he was on this
earth and now he's a risen king. Oh my, it's beautiful. Oh, and
we see Him, don't we? We see Him in His beauty. We
see Him as prophet, priest, and king for us. He's everything
to us. But what a blessing for us to see Him, to behold Him
with eyes of faith. Oh, and we see Him as the God-man.
We see Him as our mediator. We see Him as our Savior. We
see Him as our only God. Right? God the Father, Son, and
the Holy Spirit are one. The one true, living God. That's
who we worship, don't we, sister? That's who we cling to. God saved
us. Oh my. Listen to this in Hebrews
chapter 2 verse 9, it says, but we see Jesus. We didn't see him
before, did we brother Brian? But we've been given eyes to
see him and behold him by faith now. We see Jesus. We don't see
him as we see each other, but by faith we see him, don't we?
Oh my. We see him. We see him. Listen
to this. Who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death. Notice that he was
made a little lower. God had a body prepared for the
word of God to come into. Sinless, spotless. For the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor. Name above all names. That he, by the grace of God,
should taste death for every man. Now people say, oh, it says
every man. That's for every one of the elect. Men and women. Men there being
mankind. But not all of mankind. He didn't
die for everyone. He didn't taste death for everyone.
But praise God, he tasted death for we who believe. That's the
question. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Oh my, it's wonderful. So we see how in this verse that
Christ our Lord was made flesh, and through suffering and death,
he experienced death for every one of his people in Hebrews
2 verse 9. And it's the Holy Spirit who
moves upon a sinner, upon a sinner's heart, to give us the light of
the knowledge that we now see Christ by faith, who we didn't
see before. That's why you must be born again.
That's why we must be born again. Otherwise we can never see Christ.
No, we're dead in trespasses and sins in our natural state.
We must be born again. We must. And. Do you see Jesus by faith? Do
you see him as a God man? Do you see him as the savior?
Your savior, my savior, then rejoice. Because God's done that. God's done the work. And when the heart is regenerated,
when we're born again and made joyful in the Lord, we're never
the same again. Right? Made joyful in the Lord,
the knee of faith and the love that we have for him bends our
knee, doesn't it? bends our knee to him. And what
happens? The tongue that once cursed his
name now breaks forth in praise to his name. That's a miracle
of God. Isn't it, sister? That's amazing.
That's a miracle of God. You know, my mom used to say
something all the time. And then when I first read, she
used to use Christ's sake as a curse word. Right? But when I saw in the scripture
that Christ died, that we're saved for Christ's sake, how
precious that is, how precious those words are, that Christ
died, that we're saved for Christ's sake, because of Christ, because
of his perfect work. Oh, it's beautiful. It's beautiful. So when the hearts regenerate,
we burst forth in praise to his name. And we lovingly proclaim
and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, don't we? To the glory
of God the Father. Look at verse 9 again. Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which
is above every name. So take note of the one who exalted
Christ. God did, didn't he? Amen, sister.
God exalted Christ. God did that. Who brings us up
out of the dead? Spiritual death. Who brings us
up out of our spiritual death? Amen. God, right? God raised
us from the dead spiritually. He raised Christ from the dead
spiritually. It's wonderful, beloved. See the parallels here?
He was physically dead, we were spiritually dead. Oh my. So God himself is the very one
who does it. The very one who sent Christ raised him from the
dead. Oh my. And Christ humbled himself
and became a man, and God highly exalted him. In the Greek word,
the word exalt means this. I thought this was magnificent.
To exalt to the highest rank. You can't get any higher. To
exalt to the highest rank and power. To raise to supreme majesty. This is in the Greek. To raise
to supreme majesty. And I like this, the latter part,
to be exalted beyond measure. We can't measure how high he's
being exalted, beloved. Isn't that beautiful, sister?
That's our Savior. That's our Lord. God's done that. And where the head is, the body
soon falls, right? And the scripture actually says
we're already seated in heavenly places in Christ. Oh, it's beautiful. Oh, it's beautiful. So the first
step, think of what was the first step of Christ's exaltation?
Him being raised from the dead. Him being raised from the dead.
Oh my. When he had glory given to him
as a man, his body was raised in corruption, right? He's sinless.
In glory and power, he has a spiritual body. Turn if you would to Ephesians
chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. We're going
to break down these verses and then I'll finish. Because these
verses totally tie in wonderfully to what we're looking at here
in verse 9. I'll read verse 9 again. Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which
is above every name. Okay. Look at verses, we're going
to look at verses 17 to 23 in Ephesians chapter 1. Look at
verse 17. that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of glory,
may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and
knowledge of Him. So these people already have
been born again. They've been born again, that's
indicated by their faith in Christ. But this is a prayer for the
increase of that knowledge, right? Which we know only the Holy Spirit
can give us. He gives us an increase of knowledge
as we sit under the gospel. We hear the gospel preached at
Berkeley. He enlightens us. He illuminates the scriptures. Spurgeon used to pray all the
time, please, Lord, illuminate the scriptures for us. Teach
us the things of Christ. Look at verse 18. Why? That the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Look at that. That
word, you know that word? The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. It has an understanding of being flooded
with light. flooded with light. We are flooded
with light when we're born again. We were in pitch darkness, brother,
we're flooded with light. And that so ties in with that
we're translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of
his dear son. Isn't that beautiful? That the
eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you may know
what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints. So the natural man being in darkness
neither sees nor understands. And what are we enlightened to? Our sinfulness, right? What we
are. We're also enlightened to the
insufficiency of ourselves, of us to save ourselves. We can't
save ourselves. And number three, we're enlightened
to the beauty and suitability of Christ as the only Savior.
The only Savior of sinners. Oh my. And then look at the second
portion of verse 18. It says, that you may know what
is the hope of his calling. Now if we see something, we don't
hope for it, do we? But by the eye of faith, we see
Jesus. And this is the hope of external happiness. Christ, who
is our hope, the grace of hope, which is the exercise of faith,
are all three. For the hope of eternal glory
is, who's our hope of eternal glory founded on? Christ, in
Christ alone. We have no hope outside of him,
do we? But all our hope is wrapped up in him. It's beautiful. Oh, and that hope lives in the
heart. God put it there, didn't he? God put it there. Oh, that's
why as we hear the gospel, we learn more and more what is the
hope of his calling. We're gonna one day be with him.
Then you look at the latter part of verse 18, it says, that you
may know the riches of his glory, of his inheritance, and of the
saints. So marvel at this truth, the Lord's portion and inheritance
in whom he's glorified and will be glorified. We are the Lord's
inheritance. We are God's elect. And this seems to be speaking
of the heavenly inheritance, too, which the Lord is preparing
for us. There's no words to describe it. Look at verse 19. And what
is the exceeding greatness of his power to us word who believe
according to the working of his mighty power? Now, look at that.
Why do we believe what's according to the mighty working of his
power? Because we wouldn't believe by
nature. There is none that seeketh after God. There is none that
understandeth. This is magnificent. And this
is the power of God in our conversion and faith given to us. The power
that regenerated us and raised us from the dead nature that
we were in. And verse 19 ties right into
our scripture in Philippians 2.9 about the exaltation of Christ. Look at verse, now let's look
at verse 20. which he wrought in Christ, talking
about, okay, let's read verse 19 as well. And what is the exceeding
greatness of his power, so this is talking about God's power,
to usward, who believe, according to the working of his mighty
power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead
and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places. The
same power of God that was used to raise Christ is the same power
of God that raised us from the death spiritually. Isn't that
amazing? Absolutely incredible. It's all
God. It's all God. And Christ was
raised for our justification. We've learned that. And he's
our representative. We live because he lives. That's
the only reason we live. That's the only reason we have
eternal life, because He's obtained it, and He can give it to whomever
He pleases. And it pleased Him. It pleased God the Father to
choose us in Christ. We will never know why. It's
all according to His grace and mercy. That's what the scripture
tells us, and we rest in that. We still say, me? But just rest in the fact that
it's according to God's grace, because it pleased Him to do
so. My, oh my. I don't think we're ever going
to get over that, are we? It pleased God to save us. And in the likeness of his resurrection,
think of this. His resurrection is called the
beginning. He's the first begotten from the dead. Our regeneration
is the term the beginning. His human body was lifeless.
He was dead, just like we were spiritually. We were lifeless. We were dead. His human body
couldn't raise itself. We can't raise ourselves and
give ourselves spiritual life, can we? No. His resurrection
was the pure, unaided work of God, just as our regeneration
is. You see, God doesn't need our
help. God doesn't need us to pray a
prayer, supposedly, to be saved, or walk an aisle, or say, I'm
going to do this for you, Lord. God saves us because it pleases
him to do so. It's all according to his mercy
and his grace. We couldn't save ourselves and
he saves us from all our sins. And his resurrection led to what?
His exaltation. Our resurrection from spiritual
death and the deadness of our sins will lead one day to what?
Our exaltation. We'll be in heaven, Sister. My, see the parallels, beloved? That's why I'm so excited to
preach this. This is wonderful, isn't it? Look at verse 21. Far above all principality and
power and might and dominion in every name that is named,
there it is, not only in this world, but also in that which
is to come. So Christ our Lord is exalted
far above all rule or authority, above all power and dominion
in heaven and earth and hell. Everything's subject to him.
He's above every name that's named, every title that can be
given in this world, oh my, or even in the world to come. He's
over everything. So let us rejoice, beloved of
God. He has authority over all, especially his church. He's going
to take care of every one of us. Now look at verse 22, and
that put all things under his feet and give him to be the head
over all things to the church. See how high he's exalted. Look
at verse 23, which is the body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all. Christ has all authority. He
is the supreme head. He's of the church. He's the
leader of the church. Oh, and that headship is an honor,
honor for him. It's a glorifying gift to him
by the father. Oh, but it's also a gift to the
church, isn't it? Because we're in Him. We're in Him. Our salvation's
all wrapped up in Him. Let's read verse 9 again of Philippians
chapter 2, and we're close. Look at this. Oh my. It's wonderful, isn't it? It
says, Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him. and given
him a name which is above every name. So rejoice, beloved of
God, this week as we walk through this world. Our great King, our
great God and King, has been exalted. Our wonderful, merciful
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is at the right hand of the Father,
and he rules and reigns in all power and might. Let us have
that on our hearts and in our minds this week, and let us remember
this, beloved, our God reigns. Glory to God. Glory to the great
God, our Savior. Brother Brian, can you close
us in prayer?