Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of Philippians. We'll be in chapter two, Philippians
chapter two. Continue our study in this wonderful
book, written by the Holy Spirit of God and authored through the
pen of Paul, but the true author is God, the Holy Spirit. Paul's
under house arrest in Rome at the current time, that he writes
this epistle. It's a wonderful epistle, and
he writes to the saints who are suffering in Philippi. They're
suffering from within by divisions within the body, and they're
suffering from without by their own countrymen persecuting them
for their faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. And we come to this
portion of the scripture in this wonderful book where Paul is
talking to him about humility with each other. And we've seen
that earlier in this chapter where he said, esteem others
better than yourself. He's talking about within the
body that we're to esteem each other better or others better
than ourselves. So take a selfless route when
it comes to the body of Christ and actually when it comes to
everyone, even people out in the world too. You know, Charlie
and I were talking, and the world is very selfish. And we still
have that too in us. We still have it in us too. It's
in all of us. By nature, it's in all of us.
It's the opposite though of what Christ was. Christ, we're gonna
see today, emptied himself, which means he set self aside. And he's God. If anyone's to
be worshiped, it's to be Christ, right? But he set that aside
to do the Father's will. And he said, worship God. Worship
God. Worship God the Father. Oh my,
it's wonderful. So we come to this portion here
again. This portion that clearly brings
forth the deity of Christ. Last week we looked at verse, Six who being in the form of
God thought it not robbery to be equal with God speaking of
Christ and how he was Equal with God and he's equal with God.
He's the Word of God in incarnate. He's the Word of God from eternity
He is the Son of God the second person of the Trinity And he
became flesh and dwelt among us So let's read verses four
to 11 today to see the context of our verse, which will be verse
seven. But with verse seven today, we
are only going to be looking at the first part of the verse,
which says he made himself of no reputation. And then next
week, Lord willing, I think we're gonna have to finish up a little
bit from this week, next week, and then we'll look at how he's
a servant. And he's a servant to the Father.
He's a servant to the Father. Look at this. Let this mind be
in you. So he's been talking about esteeming
others better than ourselves. And now he says, let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And this is a mind
of humility. who being in the form of God
thought not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of
no reputation. You see the words there, made
himself of no reputation? In the Greek, that's one word.
One word in the Greek, and it means emptied himself. He emptied
himself. Remember, he's God, right? He's
being worshiped in glory. And he comes down to this earth
in humility. And now he's a servant. Now he's
a servant. Who's he serving? God the Father. God the Father. And he's in servitude
to God the Father, perfectly living the life that we couldn't
live. He lived it for us. He's fully
man and fully God, and fully man yet without sin. He's God
in the flesh. See, God can't die, can he? But
man can die. So Christ becomes a man to die
for us, to satisfy his own law and his own justice. Isn't that
amazing? In our room and place. This salvation
through Christ is absolutely incredible. It's absolutely amazing. It should just leave us filled
with awe that he's done this for us. It's just amazing. My
oh my. But made himself of no reputation,
he emptied himself, and took upon him the form of a servant.
That means he became a man. But look at that, he took upon
himself the form of a servant. Oh my. And was made in the likeness
of man. Bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh, beloved. And being found in fashion as
a man, he's fully a man and he's fully God, and yet he's without
sin. He humbled himself, and look
at this, and became obedient unto death. That's for us, beloved. So he was obedient to the law
of God and the justice of God right through to his death. Who'd
he do that for? Amen, Brother Charlie. He did
it for us, didn't he? And you know he did it willingly?
He was sent, but you know he willingly came. Isn't that amazing? Because we're
his bride, aren't we? We're the objects of his love
for maternity. It's just mind-boggling, isn't
it? But it's true. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. That's why the scripture says, greater love hath no man
than this, and the man laid down his life for his friends. That's
speaking of Christ. Now men may lay down their life
for their friends in the battlefield and things like that, but this
is talking about God himself in the flesh laying down his
life. His people are called his friends. Laying down his life
for a multitude that no man can number. because he loves us with an everlasting
love. Wherefore, because of the death
of the cross, because of what he did, wherefore God hath highly
exalted him, given him a name which is above every name." Oh,
Jesus Christ, right? He's Lord. Look at this. The name of Jesus, this is what
we're talking about, Charlie. This is talking about the end.
This is talking about the final judgment. When the sheep and
goats are divided, But every tongue, every tongue. People we know who said, I don't
believe in God, every tongue. People we know that say, that's
just a fairy tale, every tongue. The saints and all who glorify
God, every tongue. Us included as believers, every
tongue. Unbelievers we rub shoulders
with, every tongue. In the name of Jesus, every knee
shall bow of things in heaven and things on earth and under
the earth. And every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord. If you say, I don't believe that. You're going to believe it one
day. You're going to bow your knee to it. You won't believe it savingly,
but you're going to know. And you're going to bow your
knee to it. Jesus Christ is Lord. Look at that. To who? To the
glory of God the Father. Everything Christ did here on
earth. He did to glorify the father Do you know the The salvation
of we sinners glorifies the father Does doesn't it? He's magnificent,
isn't he? He purposed and planned our salvation.
That's wonderful, isn't it sister? And that he included us He included
us My oh my It's absolutely wonderful. Makes your heart sing, doesn't
it sister? Makes your heart sing. It's wonderful. So verse seven
is our text today. Look at this. Let's read this
again. Speaking of Christ, but made
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of man. So we see in this passage
set before us that Christ being God condescended to become a
man. And not only did he become a
man, but he took, he became a servant. He became a servant. Oh my. And this humiliation it's called,
and the old time we used to call it the humiliation, because he
humbled himself and became a man. This humiliation was willful. He willingly did it. He willingly became a servant. Bond slave, it's called in the
Greek. Bore my ear, Lord. Remember the
bond slave in the Old Testament? He could go free. He said, bore
my ear, I'm yours. Christ became a willing bond
servant of God. God Himself in subjection to
the Father. How do we know that? Not my will,
but thy will be done. Oh my. And see the words there? Made
himself of no reputation. In the Greek it means he emptied
himself. And we see he emptied himself and made himself a servant. Oh my. So today we'll look at
Christ emptying himself. And then he takes upon himself
the form of a servant. The word form in verse seven
is the same Greek word that we studied in verse six. And the
word servant is a translation of the Greek word which Paul
used in Philippians 1.1 to describe himself as a bond servant. Listen to this verse in the Greek
literal Bible. but emptied himself, having taken
the form of a servant, having been made in the likeness of
man." My, oh, my. He's the king of
glory before he comes here. Angels are bowing down, worshiping
him, crying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Isaiah 6,
you want to get a glimpse of Christ on the throne? Read Isaiah
6. There he is, high and lifted up. Seraphs have got to cover
their eyes. He's so holy and righteous. And he condescended and became
a man. Left the throne of glory and
became a man, yet still God. We can't grabs that, can we,
Brother Brian? Well, but we believe it. By faith, we believe it,
don't we? Oh yeah. This is our, our Savior is God. Our Savior's not some mere man.
Our Savior's God, beloved. God himself. Oh my. So what do the words mean, having
taken the form of a bondservant? Well, the form you remember is
referred to the outward expression. We looked at that earlier in
the chapter. It refers to the outward expression. That one gives of their inward
being. So Christ, if Mary said, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father, he's the outward expression of
God. Isn't that amazing? And Vicki
and I were talking yesterday. And isn't it amazing? We're going
to look at this later on. We're probably going to spend
two weeks on this portion because there's just so much here. But
in Isaiah, we're going to see he didn't come in pomp and circumstance. He made himself of no reputation. He was calmly. He didn't stand
out amongst the other men. Isn't that incredible? So he came as a servant, as a
lowly servant. My oh my. It's incredible. And the words, again, form of
the bond slave, mean the outward expression of his innermost being. And the words, heaven taken,
tell us that the expression was not true of him before. Look
at verse seven again. Look at verse seven again. but made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant. He wasn't a servant
before, was he? He took upon something he wasn't,
beloved. Now here's the great mystery
of God becoming a man. And he went back to glory as
the man Christ Jesus. Oh, my. This is amazing, beloved. This is amazing. He took upon the form of a bond slave. He's
God Almighty before. Being worshipped and adored.
And he takes a lowly position. Now we can see what it means
by the humiliation of Christ when he became a man. The world
had no room for him, did they? The inn was full. Scripture says
he didn't have a place to lay his head. Oh my. My, oh my, oh my. And when expressing himself as
a bond slave and he came to serve. He necessarily, think of this,
he necessarily exchanged one form of expression for another. He became something he never
was, a servant. And he did it for you and I,
beloved. He did it that we might be saved. from all our sins. By his precious death, he became
obedient unto death as a servant, right? My, oh my, what love! What love! What love does he
have for us that drove him to do that? Willingly, too. Willingly,
brother. Willingly. What love he has for
us! I don't think we can fully even
begin to comprehend it, but we believe it. We believe it. You
know, I love my bride and I love my children and I love you guys,
but the love that I have for all of you and for my family
doesn't even come close, doesn't even come close to the love that
God has for us. Think about the person you love
the most in this world. That love doesn't even come close
to how God loves us. He loves us so much that God
himself became a man. It's like this. Oh my. It's amazing. And verse 6, verse 6 speaks about
his pre-incarnate, right? Look at this. Who he was before,
which we looked at before last week. In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. John 1 verses 1 to 3. Look at
this. Who being in the form of God
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. It's speaking
of his pre-incarnate. before he even came to this world.
He's God. He's God. And then verse seven speaks of
him coming in the form of a man. But made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the
likeness of man. Wonder of wonders, God became
a man. And the whole reason he became
a man Well, we see in verse 8. And being found in fashion as
a man, so he's fully man, but yet he's sinless. He humbled
himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. My, oh my. This is amazing. This is incredible. So in verse
six, speaks of his pre-incarnate state, him expressing himself
as deity. And in verse seven, he expresses
himself in the incarnation as a bond slave. God became a servant to God. And do you know on the cross
that God the Father forsook God the Son so that we'd never be
forsaken? My oh my. Remember he cried,
my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? We can't even enter the depths
of that, can we? But he did it for you and I,
beloved. I've never seen an expression
of love like that anywhere else, have you? My oh my. So just meditate on that this
week. Let that just soak into our hearts
this week. The great love that he has for
his people. Weiss brings forth this in Matthew
7, 2 of the transfiguration. So we see that he became a man,
right? He becomes a man and he's a servant
to God for us, living that perfect life for us. Weiss brings forth
this about the transfiguration. He says we could translate it
this, in the mode of his outward expression, remember we talked
about his outward expression earlier, the form? The mode of
his outward expression was changed before them. Because remember,
right before their eyes he was transfigured. Before them. And his face did
shine as the sun, and his remnant was white as light. See, his glories veiled in human
flesh. But he let it come out a little
bit, the transfiguration. Oh, that's our King, beloved.
That's our Savior. He shed His blood, and He was
a real human, right? And the Scripture says the life
of the flesh is in the blood. He shed His blood to save us.
He gave His life to save us. He was obedient even unto death,
the death of the cross, for us, beloved, for our sins. Because
we've sinned against God the Father. He's sinless. What magnificent
love. What a magnificent Savior is
Jesus Christ our Lord. My, tell me more, tell me more
about him. He's wonderful, he's wonderful,
he's magnificent. Oh, so our Lord's usual mode
of expression while on earth, previous to the resurrection
was that of a servant. He said, the son of man, in Matthew
20, verse 28, he says this, the son of man has come not to be
ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom
for many. He didn't come to be ministered
to. He didn't come to be glorified. He came to glorify God the Father.
I'll read that again. The son of man came not to be
ministered unto. but to minister and to give his
life a ransom for many." And the believer can say, Sister,
we can say, I'm part of that many. Praise God. Oh my. This is wonderful. But now his outward expression
has ceased, right? He's in glory. He's in glory. Oh my! His expression as a servant has
ceased. He's now our mediator in glory. But you know, he gave a little
bit of an outward expression of his deity at the Mount of
Transfiguration, didn't he? Just a little bit. And those
guys, they were falling on the ground. We'd be doing the same.
Oh my! Oh my, what a Savior, what a
Redeemer. Now when Christ emptied Himself
of His glory, He did not empty Himself of His deity. He's still
God. He's still God. But He's the God-man. He's the express image of God. He's God manifested in the flesh. That's why He said, if you've
seen Me, you've seen the Father. They're one, aren't they? The
Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, they're one. The three are one. And he humbled himself and became
a man. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. Now, I love this because we read
Isaiah 53 all the time, but look how it ties into this section
here. You'd be amazed. It ties in so beautifully because
here he is, he's God, right? And then he becomes a man, and
he's a servant. He's a servant. He's a willing
bond servant of God the Father. For us, brother. For us. Isn't that wonderful? Make your
heart sing, doesn't it? Makes your heart sing. Oh my,
look at this. This is so clearly brought forth
here. He humbled himself and became
a man so that he might die in our room and place. Look at this. Isaiah 53, starting in verse
1. Who hath believed our report?
Who believes the gospel? Well, no one would by nature,
right? But by the grace of God, we do. Right? Born again of the
Holy Spirit of God, given faith to believe. And to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed? That's Christ. So who's Christ
revealed to? His people. Sinners. Right? Look at this. For he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant. and is a root of dry ground. He has no form nor calmliness.
There's no beauty in him. He looks like a regular fella.
See, that's what Vicki and I were talking about. He could have
came as a king. Couldn't he have? He could have came as the most
beautiful man in the world. But he didn't. See, he didn't want to draw attention
to himself, did he? He's here to serve the Father. He's here
to save His people from their sins. Remember He said, I'm not
here to be ministered to, but I'm here to minister to. He didn't
want people to give Him glory. He wanted the Father to be glorified.
And He comes as a servant for you and I, beloved. This is the
greatest news we're ever gonna hear, isn't it? that Christ came
to save sinners, such as we. He hath no forb nor calmliness,
and when we shall see him, there is no beauty in him that we should
desire him. There's nothing that stands out about him. Nothing. Look at this. He's despised and
rejected of men. That happened. The who's who
of religion, they hated him. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we, even we, think of before
we were saved. Brother Charlie, we didn't want
nothing to do with the Lord, did we? We talked about it. We hid our faces. I don't want nothing to do with
that. No. Keep that away from me. Right? See, that was our nature, wasn't
it? But God's given us a new nature now, hasn't he? We're
born again now. Now we desire Christ. And we can look back
and go, my oh my, I'm not even the same person I used to be.
Can't we, sister? Isn't that wonderful? Oh my,
we hid our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely, look at this, surely he hath borne our griefs.
He did it. and carried our souls. Yet we
did esteem him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions." He's wounded for our sins, beloved.
Remember, he's sinless. He's wounded for our transgressions,
mine. Every believer can say, mine. He was bruised for our iniquities,
my sins. The chastisement of our peace.
The only way, the only way for peace with God was through the
blood of the Lamb. And He's the Lamb of God, right?
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes,
oh praise God, we are healed. The precious, precious blood.
We've been dipped in that fountain of Christ's blood, haven't we?
And we come out whiter than snow. Because of his death, because
he was obedient unto death, we are saved from all our sins. All we like sheep have gone astray.
That's our natural state, right? We have turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
All the iniquity of all the elect of all the ages was placed upon
Christ, right? He's still sinless when he's
dying on that cross, isn't he? But they're imputed to him, and
then what happens? His perfect, spotless righteousness
that he earned and wove. I like the old times to say he
wove the coat of righteousness by his perfect works, which is
he was obedient as a servant, right? To everything God demanded
for us to be saved, he was obedient to it all and without sin. My, we can't even be obedient
to one thing God wants us to do, but he was obedient to all
of it in our room and place. And all our sins were laid upon
him. So much so, brother, and the redemption is so, so perfect
that God says, I don't remember your sin no more. Isn't that wonderful? That's glorious, isn't it? That's
glorious, beloved. So marvel at Christ taking the
form of a servant before the Father and setting aside his
legitimate and natural desires and prerogatives as deity. What's
a natural prerogative and the natural desire of deity? To be
worshiped. To be glorified, right? What's
the chief end of man, the old confessions say? To glorify God
and to enjoy Him forever. Right? And Christ is God. He set that aside, beloved. Don't
glorify me, glorify the Father. Oh my, we see the humility here,
don't we? My, oh my! And you know what
he did? He set self aside. Charlie, we were talking, this
world, man, it's all about me in this world, isn't it? And
even as believers, we all struggle with that too. But Paul's saying
to us, through the example of what Christ did, we're not God,
we can't be, but to have that mind of Christ, that humility. If we esteem others, I was talking
to Vicki about this and it's so neat because the cure for
division within the body of Christ is humility. Esteeming others better than
ourselves. I believe we have that here. I believe we're so
blessed here because we're all just fellows in the ship right
now fellowshiping, aren't we? My oh my. And Christ is the pilot
and the ship man, and he's taking us home to glory My oh my And
and how do we know how do we know that Christ didn't seek
the glory well listen to this I in Luke chapter 22 verse 42. He's in the garden of Gethsemane,
right? A lot of commentators believe
that he's already feeling the weight of the sins of his people
being placed upon him. He's already feeling the weight
of that. And he says this in Luke chapter 22 verse 42. And
this is Christ as a man, right? Look at this. He's saying, Luke
22, 42, saying, Father, if thou be willing, if thou be willing, remove this
cup from me. Nevertheless, look at this, not
my will, but thine be done. That's a servant. He's in full servitude. Look
at that. This is God in the flesh, Brother Brian, and he's in full
servitude. He's saying to the Father, not
my will, Father, but Thine be done. He's feeling the weight
of our sin being placed upon Him. Not my will, Father. Nevertheless, not my will, but
Thy will be done. In full servitude. Those words
are so powerful when you look at it in the aspect of Him being
a servant to God to save us from our sins. It's incredible. It's incredible. Turn, if you
would, to Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two. He's fully submissive to the
Father in taking upon himself the form of a servant, and he's
willingly obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. In Luke chapter two, our master
brings forth that he's here to do his father's business. Now he's just a young man here.
He's talking to the teachers and they're astonished. Look
at this in Luke chapter 2 verse 47 to 50. And all that heard him were astonished
at his understanding and answers. These are the teachers. He's
in the temple talking to the teachers. And when they saw him,
they were amazed. And his mother said unto him,
son, Why hast thou dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I
have sought thee sorrowing. Small F. Do you notice that? Look what he says in verse 49
with a capital F. And he said unto them, How is
it that ye sought me? Wished ye not that I must be
about my father's business? And they understood not the saying
which he spake unto them. In John, chapter 5, our Lord
Jesus Christ proclaims that He has come to do the Father's will.
In John 5, 30, it says this, I can of mine own self do nothing.
As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine
own will, but the will of the Father which sent me. And what
was the Father's will for us, brother? Christ came to save
us from our sins, didn't He? Nevertheless not my will remember,
but I will be done. Oh My So our Lord Jesus Christ
lived a selfless life beloved Which is the opposite of us in
our natural state Because we are all by nature
selfish and even after the Lord saves us that doesn't get shed Does it But as we're conformed
to the image of Christ, that starts to change. We start to see, I'm selfish. See, my wife will tell me, sometimes
she says, you're so selfish. And I agree with her. I said,
I know, I'm so sorry. And I know I am. I'm a selfish man. but reading this portion and
knowing that and trying to, you know, we do try to change ourselves,
but we should be praying, Lord, change me. Take that from me,
Lord, please. Make me more of a servant, right? Oh my. So we're called actually, with
Paul using it, Using that that example of Christ. We're called
to a life of denying self Take up what's Christ. They take up
my cross daily Right So we're called to deny ourselves And
how can we do that can we do it by our own power? No, I've
tried we can't I'll tell you that I'm already gonna tell you
that I've tried to change myself. I can't change myself. The only
person who can change me is God, right? And he has, right? He
has, doesn't he, brother? Now I'm a work in progress. And I'll be a work in progress
till I breathe my last breath. And it's God who's working on
me and on you too, right? Remember, we're stones being
made ready. He's chipping away those things on us. Oh my. And we can only do this, we can
only die to self by the power of God. By the power of God,
working in us and through us. And as a result of that, when
we're with the brethren, it'll bring unity. See, when one person's trying
to be it all, there are gonna be trouble. You've all experienced that,
right? before I even got here. It don't work. See, Brian, myself, Travis, and
Dan, we're servants to the body. First and foremost, we're servants
to the body of Christ, to this local assembly. We don't lord
over anyone. We're fellow soldiers. Right? That's how it should be. It's wonderful. And that brings
unity, doesn't it? That brings unity within the
body. And marvel here how the Lord
empty himself of self. And this agrees with the context
of our text because he's an example of humility and self-denial. And he did all that for you and
I, beloved. He did that for his people. He
perfectly fulfilled the law of God for us. He perfectly satisfied
the justice of God in our room and place. How? By his perfect
sin-atoning death. He did it for us. So Paul's bringing
forth that if each believer, each of us as believers, would
set self aside, then unity would prevail. And it has, hasn't it? Brother
Brian, you said it's totally different. It's because we have
unity together. We're one in Christ, beloved. My oh my. So, a wonderful illustration. Oh, we can't even get there.
Okay, I'm gonna stop there. I'm gonna stop there and we'll
continue next week. I only got through four of seven
pages, but that's okay. There's so much. Isn't there
so much here? So much here. Next week, we'll
look at where Christ, he shows us the servitude by washing the
disciples' feet. The King of glory washes the
disciples' feet, beloved. Oh my, oh my. Brother Brian,
could you close us in prayer?