So we've been looking at the
deity of Christ here in Philippians chapter 2. So turn to Philippians
chapter 2. Be looking at the deity of Christ and it's so clearly
bought forth in this passage of scripture. To me, and several
of the commentators have said, it's one of the clearest presentations
of the God-man. Of the fact that Christ was God
and he was man. And it started off in verse 5
when it said, let this mind be in you that was in Christ. And
we saw that's a mind of humility, right? That's a mind of servitude. And then in verse 6, it says
this, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. This shows us our Savior's pre-incarnate
state that he is God before he comes to this world. He's equal
with God. Now he's still God when he's
here on this earth. Let's never forget that. He didn't
lay aside his deity. He laid aside his glory, but
he didn't lay aside his deity. So now he's the God-man. He becomes
something that he wasn't before, right? He becomes a man. And we're going to see in the
scripture, it says it's made in the likeness of sinful man. The likeness. He's 100% man. But yet he's 100% God. So the
likeness would be in our form, right? Like a man. But he's sinless.
See, we're not. He's made in the likeness, he's
100% man. I know we can't always grasp
this stuff, can we? And I don't think we're supposed
to, but we just believe it, don't we? So he's 100% man and he's
100% God. How do we know that? How do we
know that? Well, first of all, let's read
verses five to eight in Philippians chapter two. Let this mind be
in you which was also in Christ Jesus, that's the mind of humility,
which we saw humility brings unity. Because no one's trying
to vault themselves over another. And then it says this, who being
in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, so this is speaking of our King, the Lord Jesus Christ,
that he is God. He was God before he came to
this world. Right? And then it says, but
made himself of no reputation, we looked at that in the Greek,
and it was he emptied himself, and it took upon him the form
of a servant, and was made, look at this, in the likeness of man,
fully man, but yet without sin. Brother Travis, when we were
born, and Brother Charlie, when we were born, and Brother Jim,
all of us, when we were born into this world, we, our parents
are human, therefore we're human, but we have the sin nature. He's human, but with no sin nature,
because he's conceived by the Holy Ghost. This morning's message
in Acts, we're gonna look at the Holy Ghost. He's God. He's God. He's as much God as
the Father and the Son. He won't speak of himself, but
he's fully God-beloved. And Christ, the scripture says
a body was prepared for him. He was conceived by the Holy
Spirit of God. Oh, it's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. So it says here, And took upon
himself the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of man,
and being fashioned as a man. This is what we're going to look
at next week. We're going to probably spend a few more weeks
in this verse because there's multiple things here. Being found
in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient. Who's he being obedient to? Someone
tell me. The Father, yeah, amen. He's being obedient to the Father,
right? That's what he came to do. He came to do the Father's
will. He's not here to be obedient to man, he's here to serve. But
he's serving, he's serving God, and he's actually saving his
people from their sins. Well, he's walking upon this
world, right? Because he's living that perfect life, and in that
Calvary's cross, that's where he saved his people from their
sins, at the shed of the blood. But he's living that perfect
life for us, remember that. All the time. Oh, it's amazing. And I was talking to the fellows
at McDonald's the other day, and we were talking about how
Jim brought up, he said, he said, Christ didn't have to offer a
sacrifice for himself because he's sinless. The high priests
in the Old Testament, they had to offer a sacrifice for themselves
before they offered a sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. Christ
didn't have to do that. He offers himself up as a sin
offering to our great God, beloved, to save us from our sins. May that just be on our minds
this week, beloved. Vicki and I were talking the
other day and I said to her, I said, God saved us. Not just a mere man, God saved
us. Fully man and fully God, but
God saved us. And she said, the one who created
the universe, The one who just spoke it all into existence is
laying in the arms of Mary, becomes incarnate to save us from our
sins. And we were both just in awe
as we were talking about this, that God saved us. Beloved, if
you're a believer, God saved you. God did that. We see it in this text, don't
we? We see his deity and we see his humanity. And it says he
became obedient, what? Even obedient unto the cross,
where he redeemed our eternal souls, Brother Charlie. God saved
us, man. That's amazing. That's incredible. Never let that become commonplace,
beloved. Never let that become commonplace.
God left heaven, God the Son left heaven to save our souls. And he gave his life, shed his
blood to do that. And we're regenerated by God
the Holy Spirit and given faith to believe. My, what a gift,
what an honor, what an honor to be one of the Lord's people.
Because we're not deserving, are we? Oh, it's absolutely amazing. I'll tell you why. It says, Now turn if you would,
okay, to John chapter 1. I know we went through this a
couple verses ago when we were looking at how he was equal with
God, but I'd like to bring this up again because these verses
here are very pertinent to what we're looking at. And I'll read
our verse again, but was made but made himself of no reputation
So emptied himself in the Greek and took upon him the form of
a servant And was made in the likeness
of man, okay now look at John chapter 1 right verses 1 to 3
In the beginning was the Word And the Word was with God and
the Word was God Look at that. So we know there's
the Father, the Word, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, right? And the three are one, according
to John 5-7. Look at this. The same was in
the beginning with God. They were God. The Word was God,
it says here. All things were made by who?
Him. That's what Vicki was bringing
out. The one who created the universe. The one who spoke it
into existence by the word of his power. God is our savior. If God saves us, can we be lost
again? No. That's why he says, all that
the father giveth me shall come to me. And him that come to me,
I will no wisecows do. And he's able to save to the
uttermost, isn't he? All who come to God through him.
That's why we say come, come to Christ, flee to Christ. Flee. Someone says, oh, you sound like
an Armenian. I'm gonna preach, listen to this.
I'm gonna preach whosoever will for the rest of my life, Because
I don't have a clue who the elect are. Right? Whosoever will, let him come.
Let him come. I don't know who they are. I
don't know God's people, but I know his elect will come, won't
they? Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, the king said.
We found rest, Aaron, my brother and sister. We found rest. We're part of the whosoever will.
Isn't that wonderful? See, after the Lord saves us,
we find out we're part of the whosoever will. The Spirit and
the bride say what? Come, come, come. People say, well, well, that's an invitation. That's
what the Bible says. I know that whosoever come is
going to be drawn by the spirit. I know that. You know that. But
should it stop us from saying, come to Christ, flee to the one
who can save sinners, the only one who can save sinners? My,
oh my. Bruce Crabtree told me he got
accused of being an Armenian because he'd say that all the
time. Go ahead and accuse us, whatever. Whichever will, let
them come. Right? Flee to Christ, the only Savior
of sinners. Oh my, it's wonderful. It's wonderful,
isn't it? My goodness. And look at this
now. John chapter one, so all things
were made by him, verse three, and without him was not anything
made that was made. Oh my goodness. That's telling
us that there's nothing that we see or don't see that Christ
didn't make. And who's the word? We're going
to find out. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. God our Savior. God our Savior, beloved. My Look at verse 14 this Okay,
so in verses 1 to 3 we see God in eternity right God in eternity
Remember what our verse was Remember what our verse was it's
But made himself of no reputation that took upon him the form of
a servant was made in the likeness of man, right? Look at verse
14. And the word was made what? Amen. Flesh. He became a man. The one who spoke everything
into existence. The one who was sent by the Father
to save the Son of God. Fully God. As much as God is
the Father and as much God as the Holy Spirit. The Word. The Word. The One who was in
the beginning with God. The One who spoke everything
into existence. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And now people can be accused
of crime. They can be sentenced for crimes by eyewitnesses, right? Eyewitnesses. You know why I believe the Bible's
true? Number one, because God's given me faith to believe it.
Number two, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are written by eyewitnesses. The scripture says out of two
witnesses, right? Man can be guilty. How about
12 of them? Oh my, they were eyewitnesses
of what Christ done. John is not, John's the one who
laid his head on the bosom of Christ. He's an eyewitness to
the things of Christ. He probably forgot more because
he said if everything was written about this man, about Christ,
that the whole world couldn't even contain all the books. So what was, what is written
down is what the Holy Spirit wanted us to know. But how much
more did he do? We will never know. Well, we
probably, I hope the Lord teaches us when we get home. I hope he
reveals some of that to us. Wouldn't that be marvelous? That
would be absolutely wonderful. I don't know. I'm not going to
speculate. Speculate gets you in trouble.
But wouldn't that be wonderful if that happened? Somebody asked
me, will there be animals in heaven? I said, well, I don't
know. I'm not going to speculate. But
if there is, I sure hope my dog's there. But I don't know. I can't
say yes or no. This is what it says in the scripture. I hath not seen, nor ear heard. So the most beautiful thing we've
seen the most the most beautiful thing we've heard now Sometimes
you hear singing and oh, it just lifts your heart right up right
the most beautiful thing we've seen the most beautiful thing
we've heard I have not Seen and neareth not heard the things
that god has prepared for who for those that love him Travis, we can't, in the wildest
imagination of our imagination, even come close to what God's
got in heaven for us. And the number one thing for
us is we're going to see Christ in all his glory. It doesn't
really matter what's there. Christ is there, right? I'll
tell you why. You don't hear about the saints,
all the saints are walking, going on the park. No, what are they
doing? They're singing, worthy is the Lamb. They are so enamored
with the Savior that nothing else matters. We are going to be enamored.
We're already enamored with Christ here, but think of being enamored
and in love with Christ with no sin. Can't fathom that, can we sister?
We can't fathom that. We just cannot even, we can't
even, ah, I'm not, but it's true, true. Okay, now let's turn. Let's go back to Philippians
2, 7 quick, but put your finger in 1 Timothy 3. This is really
neat. We're gonna see, we're gonna
see the correspondence here. Okay, so we just saw that the
word was God, and now we've seen the word was made flesh, so he
became a man and dwelt among us. And then now we're going
to go back and read verse seven, but made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant. So he's in servitude
to God, the father was made in the likeness of man. Now go over
to first Timothy, first Timothy chapter three, and we'll read
verse 16. We see here a clear presentation
by the Holy spirit of God. that Jesus Christ, our Lord,
was God incarnate in the flesh. The second person of the Trinity,
the word of God. Look at verse 16. This is amazing. And without controversy, this
is not up for debate. Okay? That's what that means. This is not up for debate. This
is truth. Like the whole scripture. great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Now that alone right there is amazing. The incarnation is
absolutely incredible. Look at this. Justified in the
spirit. That means the spirit, or we'll
look into that later. That means that he was, that
the works that he did, they were approved by God. Justified by
the spirit. Scene of angels. See, the angels
didn't even know the full significance of salvation's plan. Oh my. Preached unto the Gentiles. Praise be to God. We're a bunch
of Gentiles here. Right? Believed on in the world. Some believed. Some still believe, right? And
there's some who will believe by the grace of God. Received
up to glory. Look at what, it's just showing
us the whole span from pre-incarnation all the way to glorification. Did you notice that in that verse? It spans all of what Christ has
done in one verse. I was looking at this going,
there's a five-point sermon in there. Isn't that amazing? See
the word mystery? Now this is amazing. It's used
in the New Testament to refer to truth previously hidden. Truth previously hidden, which
when revealed is understood by the believer. We didn't understand it before,
did we, sister? Did we, sister? Now we understand it by the grace
of God. And he's still giving us light
in the scriptures by illuminating the scriptures and teaching us
the things of Christ. As we grow in grace, he illuminates
the scriptures. Isn't that amazing? Truth, truth
previously hidden. My oh my. So when we're talking
to our friends and our family members who don't know Christ,
give them grace. The truth is hidden from them. Just like it was hidden from
us. I was religious. This is all
get go. I thought I knew Christ. Oh,
I could spit doctrine out like crazy. But I had no grace. Vicki will testify to that. I
had no grace. Only when the Lord saved me did
he change me. Only when I was born again. And
I always still think, and don't each of us think, I don't have
much grace with people. Now, that's just normal for us
to feel that way. Because we're just sinners saved
by grace. and see the word manifest? And
without contrary, great is the mystery of God. In this truth
previously hidden, God was manifest. Do you know what that word means
in the Greek? To make visible. That blew me away from earlier
when we looked at having the form of God. Remember, he's the, all the fullness
of the Godhead dwells in him bodily. He says, if you've seen
me, you've seen the Father. And God's spirit, right? Now he's visible. Whoo! I told Vicki, I had to
stop, yesterday I was finishing up the notes, and I had to stop
and pause. with this message so many times,
because I was just left in awe of these truths that are set
before us here. I couldn't wait to come and preach
this. This is wonderful, isn't it? So truth previously hidden,
now revealed to we believers by God, the Holy Spirit, right? And then God who's invisible,
we find out made himself visible fully god and fully man bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh yet without sin my why to save what the scripture
says in matthew 1 21 call his name jesus for he shall save
his people from their sins that's why he came beloved That's the
whole reason he came to this world. To save his people from their
sins. You want to sum it up, the people?
Just say Christ came to save his people from their sins. He
came to save sinners such as we. And whosoever will, let him
come. Flee to the only savior of sinners. My oh my. God in his nature is spirit,
beloved. Spirit. God is an incorporeal being. He doesn't have a physical body.
He's therefore invisible, but in the incarnation, Let this
this is amazing in the incarnation the invisible Son of God the
Word of God becomes visible That's mind-blowing isn't it
and he does it now willingly He willingly does that to save
us from our sins knowing he's going to suffer.
Remember, he's the lamb slain from before the foundation of
the world. He knows, he knows why he's coming. He knows why
he's coming into time and space at that exact time. The time ordained by God, right?
To save us from our sins. What a savior, what a redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. He, so the invisible God takes
upon himself a body. You know, you've heard me preach
a message a while back called the impeccability of Christ.
He could never sin. He couldn't. He's God. Can God
sin? No. And that's why when the scripture
says he was made sin, it was by imputation, beloved. We don't understand what's going
on there. But our sins were fully laid
upon Him, and God treated Him as if He was the greatest sinner,
yet He's without sin. And His perfect righteousness
is imputed to us. Who doesn't? We don't deserve
it. That's grace. That's mercy, beloved. Beyond
measure. Beyond measure. Now take note, too, of the summary
of this great verse, the summary of these great truths that's
set before us in this verse. We're gonna concentrate on 316
here of 1 Timothy. It's incredible, the great summary
upon which the church is built, of which the foundation of the
church is, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. to whom pastors and deacons and
all the servants of God, right, all believers are devoted to,
dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. See, we're motivated by love
to serve the King. We're not motivated by duty.
I'll tell you what, someone who's motivated by duty, it won't take
long for them to stop. They're going, going, going,
and then they're gone. a friend of mine there, trying
to get us involved in a food pantry that one of the churches
up the street was doing. I said, I'm not getting involved
in that. Let me preach the gospel to them, and then I'll give them
some food. Oh, he can't do that. I said, well, then I'm not getting
involved. Right? Well, he was going around all
over, getting all these things and all this, and then found
out something happened, got a nose hair, and he's left the church.
He's off somewhere else. And he always has to be doing
something. I've noticed that with this fellow. I really like
him, but he's always got to be doing something. Let us just be ordinary Christians. What's an ordinary Christian?
Rest in Christ. Live our life each day for the
glory of God. knowing that He loves us and
He gave Himself for us. And if the Lord opens the door
for us to speak to somebody, praise be to God. If He doesn't,
worship Him during the day. Praise His name. Sing a hymn. Or just be quietly
thinking about Him. I tell you what, when I start
quietly thinking about Him, it doesn't take long for me to start
shouting. Right? about how great he is. Nobody
in the house and I'm like, praise be to God. Man. Nothing wrong with that, is there?
Nope. Nope. Oh my. So, look at the greatness
and importance of this truth that Christ was God incarnate
in the flesh. It's so bought forth in this
verse. And again, the church is built on the foundation of
Christ Jesus our Lord. So here's the truth set before.
before us god was incarnated in the flesh justified in the
spirit preached unto the gentiles believed on in the world and
received up into glory and in reading this it draws it draws
devotion thoughts of devotion to our king doesn't it see i
don't have to say oh let's all let's be more joyful let's be
i read a verse like this i get more joyful this is wonderful my And again,
the believer in Christ is motivated to serve our great God out of
love and reverence. God save me. God save me. This is wonderful. The one who came to save me from
my sins is God himself. So marvel what's set here before
us. God was manifest in the flesh. He became flesh and dwelt among
us. He's justified or vindicated in the Holy Spirit. Seen of angels,
preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and
raised up in the glory. Turn if you would to Mark chapter
16. Mark chapter 16. Oh my. So the rock that Christ
builds his church on is himself. It's himself. He's the foundation. He's the foundation. Again, without
controversy, no, without debate, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed unto the world,
and received up the glory. That's not up for debate. Isn't
that wonderful? Look at this, Mark 16, verses
15 to 20. And he said unto them, Go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Just preach. Leave the results in God's hands.
Right? Like Norm said, we'll just...
Just trumpet the truth. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. Now, the
church of Christ take that and say, see, you gotta be baptized
to be saved. That's not what that means. Notice
the second part, but he that believeth not shall be damned. Yeah, doesn't say and be baptized,
does it? No, just says he, because the
believer in Christ will desire to be baptized after they make
a confession of faith. That's why we call it believer's
baptism, right? And these signs shall follow them that believe.
In my name shall they cast out devils, and shall speak with
new tongues. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink
any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands
on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after that the Lord had
spoken to them, he was received up in heaven and sat on the right
hand of God. And that's where he is right now. And they went
forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and
confirming the word with signs following. Amen. Now don't go
around grabbing deadly snakes. No. Paul did that, but by the
grace of God, right? Yeah. My, oh my. Look at this too. So let's look at sections, and
let's go back to 1 Timothy 3.16. I'm going to be real quick. I
got to close this up quick. There's different sections in
this verse. This would be a great outline
for anyone that wants to preach this text here. So here's the
sections, the whole outline here. Then first of all, the mystery
of godliness, the fact that God was manifest in the flesh, which
ties right into our verse in Philippians 2.7. The next section,
God was manifest in the flesh. So first is the mystery of godliness.
Second, God is manifest in the flesh. And then we see a testimony,
and notice this too, it's just so slight in here. We see the
fact of the two natures as the scripture declares that Christ
our Lord is God and man. That truth is, the hypostatic
union, being the God-man, is fact in this verse. God was manifest
in the flesh. God became a man. My, oh my. Then thirdly, we see
that God, the Holy Spirit, brings forth the fact of two natures
and distinction between the two natures. When on the one hand,
he calls him God, and on the other, he expresses his manifestation
in the flesh. So he was truly God and truly
man next in the verse we see the unity of the person When
he declares that is one the same who was God and who was manifest
in the flesh. They are the same They're the
same we and of course you can tie that in with John 1 3 and
Therefore, in this text, we see the truth of Christ's incarnation
and the fact that he is fully God and fully man, and it's clearly
declared, isn't it? It's so clear for we who believe. So marvel at this. And marvel
at the contrast. God became a man. The sovereign
became a servant. The sovereign became a servant.
Think of this. How wide is the difference between
God and man? Oh, my. Yet marvel at the truth
set before us. Christ, in Christ we behold the
infinite glory of God, united to our flesh, yet without sin. Yet without sin. And in such
a manner that they become one. He's the glorified God, man,
isn't he? My, oh, my. Brother Travis, can you close
this in prayer?