I'm always amazed how quickly
we get to this point. Last message. It's been quite
some weekend. I knew when I began planning
this, I knew who I wanted to be our first speaker. I wanted
John Chapman to be our first speaker. And having Henry's sons
come back home and preach to us, I knew who I wanted to be
last. Paul May. pastor of the Central Grace Church
in Rocky Mount, Virginia. Every time I get a letter from
Brother Henry, before I even open the envelope, I know a sentence
that's going to be in that letter. Every letter he's written me,
he tells me how much he and Doris enjoy going to services and hearing
the messages from their pastor, Son Paul. He underlines, Son
Paul. And I thought this morning I'm going to write him and tell
him how much I enjoyed the message from your son, Paul. Paul, you
come preach the message God's given you. I don't think you have pressure. You know you've enjoyed a message,
been blessed by it, when you're scheduled to preach second and
you hear every word the man said and rejoicing it. I was so blessed. I thank the Lord for that message. If you don't have a title for
it, I have it, okay? Let's be glad. I was glad I heard
that. Aren't you? That's what the psalmist
said. I was glad when they said unto
me, let's go to the house of the Lord. They, you know who
they said, let's go. You're not here by accident.
A lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. He arranged this. He arranged
for you to be here. And if you were here and you
loved that message, you must be his bride. And they are the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are the bride. It said,
the Spirit and the bride say, come. And we came. And I was
so glad. So glad. It's a great honor and
humbling thing to be asked to preach anywhere, isn't it? And an awesome thing, a fearful
thing. Unbelievably, I've been preaching,
trying to preach, for nearly 35, 36 years I guess. I remember asking
my father back 25 years ago when I first started, does it get
any easier? And he said, no. I didn't want
to hear that. But now I know. But it's an honor. privilege to be asked to preach
it all, let alone the last message, a great honor bestowed upon me. It's just something I don't take
for granted or take lightly. And I thank you for having me. I don't deserve this, but I thank
you. And let me thank this church and all who have done everything
you've done to make to bring this conference about. Your pastor,
first of all. I know what it takes to go through
there. And his wife, Janet, and all
the work that's involved, all of the preparation. There's lots
of it. And see these men carrying these
tables and chairs and the ladies fixing all this food. And I thank you ahead of time
for the food. I know it's going to be good.
Brother Darwin was talking about Kathy. preparing for these men
to come preach in these Bible conferences made me think of
something my dad told me one time. He said he and Scott were
going somewhere to preach together at a Bible conference. And Scott
said, I hope they don't have casseroles. He said, I get so tired of casseroles. Everywhere I go, they fix me
casseroles. Well, Dad said, I know these people. I've been to this
church before, and I know these ladies as good southern cooks,
and they won't be a casserole there. When they got there, Darwin,
every dish was a casserole. And I saw, Carrie, you prepared
a casserole. I thank you for it. We don't
deserve it, do we, brother Darwin? These men expressed, beginning
with Brother Frank, their appreciation for our pastor, our pastor, Henry
Mayhem. You know, Frank said he was 50-some
years. Well, I'm just a little bit longer
than that. I was born and raised in the church. 1955 was when
the church was established and meeting and putting them junior
high school at the time. And I was a babe. I was born
when that was happening. And I literally grew up in the
church hearing the gospel. And there were men and women
like Paul. Paul thanks God for Timothy's
mother and grandmother, didn't he? who taught him the scriptures
from a child that were able to make him wise unto salvation.
And I can say the same thing. I am so thankful for your dad,
Cessna. Your dad. Jeff Thornberry. So many others, you know. Brother
Dale's dad, Armour Simpson, his mother. What leaders, what supporters,
patriarchs, as it were, in the church that made such an influence
on me, taught me, and I'm so thankful for them. Aren't you,
brother? Your dad was a faithful, Frank Tate was a faithful teacher
and preacher, but he learned so much. I'm so very thankful
for these men. If you haven't heard Brother
Adam, where's Adam? He was telling me the story about
Armour Simpson first hearing the gospel. You need to ask Adam
that story. It's such a blessing, such a
blessing. I so thank the Lord for men and women like that,
that made such an impression on me and taught me the scriptures,
not only in word but in example. It's a great blessing, great
blessing to grow up under the sound of the gospel. the greatest
of blessings, like Brother Darwin was saying. These young people
don't realize it. I didn't. When I was 12 or 13,
I thought I was going to be one of those children that would
die in the service. You've heard that, I remember.
But I literally did. I thought it was torture. You
know, Brother Darwin, my dad and mom used to take me on vacations
to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to hear 15 preachers. That's just not
where I want to spend my summer vacation. There's some people in here that
knew me, that knew this Particle Son, And you, like me, just can't
believe I'm standing here. But it's by grace, all right.
And you're looking at it. You're looking at the grace of
God. My father was my pastor. And long before I knew it, then
when the Lord revealed himself to me, he became my pastor before
my father. I thought of him as my pastor
for years, even before I thought of him as my father. That takes
grace. That's a change. Frank was right. He had six sons
that are here this weekend. But he had more than that, didn't
he? Nearly everyone in here, sons
and daughters. And I'm not, you know, This is
the work of God, but he does it through men. And he uses men. These are the means. They're
just the instruments that he uses. But we don't despise the
means, do we? We're so thankful for the means
and thankful for the men that he raised up. And there were
six sons here, Brother Darvin. Sorry, but Darvin's the oldest.
But he wasn't the oldest, was he, Darvin? Dad had a son that
was older than him. Brother Herman proved it. Many of you remember Brother
Herman. He was in that preacher's class. He was 75 years old, wasn't
he, brother? Born in 1905 or something like
that. The Lord taught him the gospel. And he was like a child. Didn't you love Brother Herman?
Oh, my. That's him. That's him. You see him walk up there? That's
Herman. Oh, Brother Herman, what a blessing he was. What an inspiration
he was. He was a babe in Christ at 75
years old. But what an inspiration to all
us young fellas. I got to tell this story on your
dad. He was a Nazarene preacher, wasn't he, for years. And, you
know, up in his 70s. And so things are ingrained in
you. Words and phrases and things
that you preach all these years. You can't just, like grave clothes,
you can't just get them all off at one time, can you? He was
scheduled to preach one Saturday night, like we used to meet and
the men would stand up and preach. And Brother Herman approached
my dad before that, and big old tears running down his face,
and he said, Brother Henry, he said, you will please forgive
me if I say something I don't mean. If something comes out
of my mouth that I've said for so many years. What a dear man. What a dear man. And I learned
from those men. And I don't feel any jealousy
at all to be counted as just one of the sons. Oh, no. In fact, I am honored, greatly
honored to call these men my brother. And
you know, this is the grace of God. If you ask me what perhaps
is one of the clearest marks and signs that God has done a
work of grace in someone's heart, it's when God's people become
their real family, even over and above their bloodshed. Now
that's of God. Nothing thicker than blood, is
it? Family? But buddy, when the Lord puts
you in His family, Those brethren become your brothers. We were
talking about this one with Gene. Got some unconverted brothers.
I have one. My oldest brother is alive. My other brother's dead. Dead
and sick. He doesn't know. There's still
hope in him. But these are my brothers. These
are who I'd rather spend my time with. This is who I want to be
with. Oh no, there's no jealousy at
all. I love these men. I'm thankful for them and I highly
esteem them. Highly esteem them. Now turn with me to Philippians
2. Let's get to the text. And as Frank said, our pastor
would not want us to speak of him at all. And, you know, I
actually got one of his messages. I thought, what am I going to
preach? What am I going to preach? And I got one of his, actually,
I've got all his sermon notes. And, no, Bourbon, you can't have
them. They're unfinished. But I got
one out, and I thought, I'm going to preach that. I'm going to
just preach it. No. He wouldn't want me to. Spurgeon told this story
one time. His grandfather was a preacher. Charles Spurgeon was scheduled
to preach and he was late getting there. And so his grandfather
stood up and just started preaching. He took a text and he started
preaching that message. And then Spurgeon walked in. Charles walked in. And so the
old man stopped and said, well, I'm going to let my grandson
Pick this up. The exact same text, by the way.
He said, I'm going to let my grandson. He said, now my grandson's
a better preacher than me. But he hadn't got a better message
than I did. He can preach the gospel better
than me, but he doesn't have a better gospel than I do. And
I can say the same thing about my pastor. Same message in it. Same message. Look at this, in Philippians
2. Now, there's no better example of the gospel and the application
of that gospel. I am thankful, and Frank will
concur, and so will Brother Darvin and these other men, that our
preacher preached Christ. He did, didn't he? And Him crucified. Have you noticed how that's worded? He preached the person of Christ,
the beauty, the glory, the wisdom, the power, the person, personality
of Christ, and him crucified. Why he came, what he did, the
person and the work of Christ. That's what this book is all
about, the person and the work of Christ, who it is, what he's
like, God manifested His blood. And why He came. Why He came
here. What He came to do. And our preacher
taught us this and did it and taught us by example. We heard
him. You heard him. He preached Christ. He declared
the gospel. And he applied it. He applied
it. This salvation. You know what
this salvation is about? You know why God saves a people? To make them like His Son. to save them from their sin,
not only from the penalty of it, but from the very power and
the presence of it, to make them like His Son, the altogether
lovely Son of God. There's no better example of
that in the Scripture than Philippians chapter 2. This is written to
the saints in Christ. It's written to the church point
us to Christ, to look to Christ. We look to Christ for our salvation,
don't we? Look to Him for salvation, for
peace, for joy. And this is written to promote
that peace and that love and unity among ourselves and to
teach us humility and lowliness of mind by looking at Christ.
Nobody has a problem with the word example, do they? I know
that religion, that's all religion teaches and preaches, that's
all they do. Christ our example, Christ our
example. But He is our example. Peter
said that, who left us an example that we should follow. Now the
only thing that will save us is by looking to Christ. The
only thing that will save us is by looking to Christ. And
the only thing that will conform us to His image is looking at
Christ. In 2 Corinthians 3 it says we're
changed from the beholding as it is in the glass. This book
is about Him. The glory of the Lord and as
we behold Him, thank God, we're changed into the same image from
glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord who's conforming
His people to the image of Christ. I want to be just like Him, don't
you? You see, God's people, like that
bride, have fallen in love with Christ. He's altogether lovely
to them, and they want to be just like Him. Read these verses with me. You've
read these so many times. Philippians chapter 2, he says
in verse 1, if there be therefore any... Up in chapter 1, he says
it's given unto you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on Him, but also to suffer for his sake. And he says in verse
1 of chapter 2, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, any
comfort of love. Now all our consolation is truly
in Christ and love, His love, God's love in Christ. Any fellowship
of the Spirit and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son. The Spirit of God unites us in fellowship around the body
and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel. Any bowels in mercy,
deep-felt inner feelings of thanksgiving and praise and love for the Lord
Jesus Christ, His mercy. He says, read on, fulfill ye
my joy. Fulfill ye my joy. Give me joy
that you be like-minded. You have the same mind of one
love, of one accord. One spirit, one mind. Let nothing,
let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. In lowliness of
mind. Let each esteem other better
than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. 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. He made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the
likeness of men. Now you and I just don't understand
what that means, what condescension that was for him to make himself
a human being. and being found, verse 8, in
fashion in the flesh as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. My, my. I want to talk to you just a
little bit about the self-made man. Self-made man. I feel like, and
I know Brother Darwin felt the same way, that we're kind of
like Abraham's servant, that old fellow that was sent down
to get a bride for Isaac. Isaac is an altogether lovely,
beyond understanding rich son of Abraham, and he's sent to
get a bride for Isaac. How helpless he feels. And she's
not to see him. She's not to see Isaac. But she's
going to be brought to him. And the old servant has the task
of trying to describe Abraham's blessed son. And he felt so helpless. But the Lord made her willing
to come. The Lord caused her to fall in love with someone
she'd never seen and brought her by the means of that old
man. What a miracle. I feel like that. I'll talk to
you about the altogether lovely son of the Most High God, who
is sufficient for these things. And you're not worthy to hear
this. I'm not able and not worthy to
tell it, and you're not worthy to hear it. You know that? Oh,
my. Self-made man. He made himself. Now, many boast Many boast that
they're self-made men and women. You've heard of that. He's a
self-made man. It's not true of anybody. What do we have that
we have not received? That. Now if we've received it,
why would we glory as if we had not received it? Whatever it
be, riches, honor, strength, beauty, ability, whatever it
is, it's God-given. By the grace of God we are what
we are and have what we have, do what we do, know what we know,
isn't it? Completely, 100% by the grace
of God. There's no room for boasting
in any human being because whatever you have, whatever you know,
whatever you can do is a gift of God, isn't it? This is why
the scriptures call it vain glory. Vanity of vanity. All flesh is
vanity. Every man at his best state is
altogether vanity. And whatever someone boasts in,
they're robbing God of His glory. Right? By the grace of God we are what
we are. What do we have we have not received? The Lord maketh
rich. The Lord maketh poor. Promotion
doesn't come from the East or the West. It comes from the Lord. Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom or a mighty man in his might or riches, rich man
in his riches. That's vain glory. That's robbing
gods of his glory. Nobody's a self-made man or woman. But let me ask you a question.
If you could make yourself to be what you would, how would
you make yourself? Be honest. Come on. Be honest. Everyone in the world, everyone
would make themselves rich. Nobody would make themselves
poor. You would make yourself rich.
You would make yourself famous. No one would choose to be completely
unknown or despised, let alone despised or rejected. You would make yourself beautiful,
good to look at, wouldn't you? Sure you would. You'd make yourself
strong. I know, I admit it. If I could
have made myself, I would have made myself be six foot tall.
And I'd have cleaned all you out yesterday on the basketball
court. And don't ask me who won a game of horse, it was a girl. Really? No room for pride among
you fellas, huh Mitchell? I thought I was bad. But I remember,
I've always been short, born short. Stayed that way, but I
remember, where's Sammy at? I wanted to be tall, and I saw
in one of these magazines, Joe Weider, Muscle Building Magazine,
where you make you tall, you know. This program you send off
for, and I saved my money. It's a lot of money, $9.95 or
something. Make you tall, and they just
sent me some instructions, and basically what they told me was
get you a bar hanging in the doorway and just hang from it
every morning. And it'll stretch you. Waste of money. I would have
made myself to be tall, big, strong. Everyone would, wouldn't
they? You'd make yourself to be served by others. You'd make
yourself to have a long life. And if you died, it would be
a quick, painless death, wouldn't you? The Lord Jesus Christ made
Himself to be the exact opposite of everything we would make ourselves
to be. He who was rich made himself
poor. No beauty that we should desire.
No form. Not head and shoulders above
everybody. Just common. Nothing good to look at. He's
teaching us a lesson here. I'm going to try to tell you
the gospel as to why He did this. And then He's going to teach
us a profound lesson in wisdom of what is true beauty. And what
is truly to be desired. It's the opposite of what flesh
thinks. It's the opposite of all that
flesh thinks you need to be happy or content. He made Himself to be poor who
was rich. He made Himself to be unknown.
Have you ever thought about what He was doing for 30 years before
He spoke His first message? You know, we're so anxious, aren't
we, as young preachers. We think we've got something
to say. People ought to hear from us. Thirty years he was
silent. He could have preached better,
Brother Darwin, at twelve years old than you and I ever thought
of, couldn't he? No, he's silent. What's he doing? Faithfully serving,
cleaning tables, making tables, serving his neighbor, going about
silently, quietly, unknown, Unrecognized, doing it for the glory of God
and the good of others. Learn less from that. And then
when it's time, time for him to speak. And the world never
heard the last. Unknown, no reputation, humble. He made himself of no beauty.
More than that, he made himself to be despised and rejected. He chose his birth. He chose
to be born in a barn. King's daughters, we were born
in, that sounds, back when you were born, Darwin, that was just
a one room shack. Look at it now. He chose to be
born in a barn. He chose his parents. Who were they? Kings? Unknown. Common, poor working class people. Most of our genealogy don't.
Everybody likes to get on the web and look up their genealogy
to find out that they're Irish. People, I'm sorry, but the Irish
were a bunch of heathen. That's why you're like you are,
not me. He chose his parents. He chose
his genealogy. He was numbered with the transgressors. In his lineage, there were three
harlots who were his grandmothers. Would you choose that? There's
a reason. He chose his upbringing, Nazareth. They say anything good. It's
like being born in Pikeville. Tom doesn't mind me saying that. Rock Hill. Anything good can come out of
Rock Hill if the Lord does the work it will. If it's of the
Lord. But the world despises it. That's
why He chose to be praised. He chose his friends, nobodies. He chose his life. Would you
choose the easy life? Yeah, you would. He chose to
be hard working at the carpenter shop. He chose his friends, low
life. He chose his death. He chose
to die. Man, his secret thought is that
he's going to live forever. And he'd ask him, he'd say, I
want to live forever. I don't ever want to die. And
he chose to die. He didn't have to die. Did he? And it was a short life, wasn't
it? We want to live a long life. He showed us. He chose a short
life. Thirty-three years. Nothing.
Thirty-three years. He chose the manner of his death.
You wouldn't choose a slow, painful, shameful death, would you? He
chose his burial, unknown, unattended by anybody. No funeral. Stuck in a cave. Why? Why'd he do all that? He made himself to be all of
that, to do all that, to go through all that. He made himself. Number
one, as our substitute, as our covenant head. Let me see if
I can make this clear. He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh without sin, in the fashion of man, found in
the fashion of man. God made him to be flesh. Now, when God Almighty made man,
he made man in his own image, flesh and bones, didn't he? And when God saw man, that He
made man in the beginning with flesh, He said, it's good, isn't
it? And man was in the flesh. And
He said, it's good. He made man, He said, this is
very good, isn't it? Made in the likeness of God. In the likeness of Jesus Christ.
Because He's the express image of God. The only image of God
ever. And man was made in that likeness and he was made in the
flesh. But man, in willful, wicked rebellion
against God, shook his fist in the face of God, no less than
Satan himself, and said, I'll be God. And then that image became marred. That image was corrupted flesh
until finally God said before the flood, God said, All flesh
have corrupted my way. All flesh. Until he said there
is nothing good in the flesh. I can't find any flesh anywhere
in anybody. God looked down upon the sons
of men to see if there were any. He said all flesh is corrupt. Didn't it say that? It said stinking. Dead flesh. Now, I'm not painting
the picture as it really is. We can't do it. We couldn't stand
it. You see something of what man
has become. I thought the 60's were bad.
I thought the 70's were bad. It's worse now. Maybe not worse
in the... There's just more of it. And
it's more open. Like Isaiah 2, I think it is
said, they declare their sin like Sodom. They hide it not. It's always been that way, but
now it's just open and God beholds all that. And to Him it's nauseating. And there's only one way you
can get rid of the stench of flesh. It's to burn it. And that's
what He's going to do. Now that's the fact. That's what
this book tells us. No flesh. That which is flesh
is flesh, no flesh. Flesh profiteth nothing. No good
in the flesh. None good, no not one. In the
flesh, Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. You think
that's the way about yourself? But God. Rich in mercy, Scripture says.
For he, You can't describe man like he
really is, us like we really are. God, rich in mercy, for
his great love with which he loved some of these creatures,
not all of them, none of them deserve to be loved, let alone
many. But God's so rich in mercy that
He chose many to love Him. He set His love upon them, didn't
He? He set His love. He had to, brother Darwin. There's
nothing lovely about them. In their flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Now what's He going to do about that? He's going to
become flesh. God is manifest in the flesh. But not like you think. Not like
you think is beautiful. Are you with me? He made himself
to be flesh, and in the flesh condemned sin, in the flesh.
He's our covenant head. He's the second Adam, the first
Adam, created in the image of God in the flesh, in the flesh,
beautiful, glorious, righteous, holy, without sin. But he sinned,
didn't he? And became increasingly That's
why God decreased the number of years that man has lived over
the years. It's as if God said, I can't
put up with man. He diminished it from 800 and
900 years to 120, didn't He? And He said, no, 70. As if to say, that's all I can
put up with. But the Son of God came, made
flesh, and dwelt among us. and everything about His flesh
was beautiful to God. We dishonored God and our flesh
became corrupt, but He came down and became beautiful in holiness. Here's beauty. It's not outward. It's not outward. He had no beauty,
no form or comfort, nothing outward that would appeal to our flesh.
But it was inward. Here's true beauty. Are you hearing
that? It's not outward. It's inward.
He had no form or countenance, no beautiful countenance to look. He does now and is glorified
by it, but not then. But do you not know that his
face, his countenance was the most beautiful person to ever
look at? You know what's beautiful? Humility. There's nothing uglier,
listen to me, young people especially, there's nothing God hates more
than a proud look. Nothing. And there's nothing more beautiful
or comely or lovely than humility. Beauty of holiness. Not outward.
No form. God seeth not as man seeth. can
only look on the outward counts, but the Lord looks on the heart.
And the beauty of holiness, he came. And what is holiness? It's not what man calls it. It's love, mercy, grace, kindness,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, beauty,
holiness. Scripture says he is holy, harmless,
separate from sin. He's not like us. He looks just
like anybody else, but he's not like us. He's holy. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beauty of meekness,
humility, loneliness, faithfulness, righteousness, strength. Strength's
not as you think. Strength's not of body, but of
character. Strength of heart, mind, will,
purpose. Strength of love. Strength of
faith. Rich. Riches is not money. There's
he that hath much, Scripture says, but hath nothing. And he
that is poor in heaven. That's the Lord. In the works
of his flesh, you see, in the flesh no man can please God.
We're not saved by the works of the flesh, can't please God
by the works of the flesh, he didn't. See, He's made our substitute. He's made our covenant head.
This is the second Adam from above. And in the flesh, everything
He did in the flesh was completely altogether lovely to God. The
flesh. His hands. His hands. All His hands, all His life,
Wayne, was spent in serving others and helping others. You know they were the most calloused
hands of all. Dirty. Dirt is not dirt as in dirt. His hands were perhaps dirty. Cleanest hands ever. Who shall
ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Psalm 24. Dirt's not dirt as
it is on the floor, but it's the filth of sin. And he had
no sin. He had clean hands. That's the
hands we lift up in the brotherhood. This is what I'm trying to do,
lift up His holy hands to show you that He came in the flesh
as our covenant head to glorify God in the flesh. Man was created
to glorify God in the flesh. He sinned and came far short
of that glory. In fact, He so corrupted Himself
that everything about Him is corrupt. The works of His hand,
out of His mouth like a sepulcher. Grace poured from His lips, seasoned
with song. His feet walked in paths of righteousness. Oh, the scripture says how beautiful
on the mountain are the feet of Him that have glad tidings. Oh, never more beautiful feet.
That's why Mary always was at His feet, wasn't she? The most
beautiful feet she ever saw. Although they were probably the
most callous, perhaps the dirtiest. Yeah, He'd go into places and
they wouldn't give Him water to wash His feet. But buddy,
she did with the hair of her head. Beautiful feet. God sees
those feet. God saw those feet. And they
were never so beautiful as when they had scars in them. Nailed
to that crop. His eyes, pure, harmless. As Dove's eyes, true and honest. No guile, no deceit. You look in his eyes, he'll tell
you the truth. and do it and love it. Does it
appeal to you? Is this appealing to you? It
does to God. God didn't speak out loud for
years, hundreds of years. God didn't speak out loud because
there's no flesh. Beautiful to him. When he saw
his son, he couldn't help himself. He had this! Look at him! Beholden, my son in whom I'm
well pleased. Brother Barnard used to say,
you know, God took one look at his son one morning and he determined
to have a whole bunch of boys just like him. That's what salvation's about.
Do you feel it? I want to be like him. But he
came as our substitute, our covenant head, out of his mouth of grace
and salt and altogether lovely Son of God. He presented himself
as a chaste virgin. None of his bride was that way.
They're all forlorn women. But he presented himself to God
as a chaste virgin. As the spotless lamb of God. And God said, well pleased. A
man approved of God. I accept him for the works of
his flesh. A man approved of God. Well pleased. Look at verse 8. in our town. So he made himself. No reputation
took upon him the form of a servant made in the likeness of men,
but without sin. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself in ultimate humility, became obedient
unto death. He had to agree to die. He had
to be willing. As I said, we wouldn't choose
to die. He did. And he chose. He was willing to do, to be killed
in the most horrific way, willing to be made sin for us. We try, don't we, Brother Frank?
We try to tell you what that means, but we can't do it. When he was made flesh, you know,
I can't, no man can described the condescension of the Lord
of Glory leaving heaven where everyone praised Him to come
to a place where everybody hated Him. To leave an altogether lovely
place like that and come to what Scripture calls this present
evil world, this despicable cesspool of iniquity called planet Earth.
We think it's beautiful. But God is absolutely nauseous. for Him to leave where everyone
is praising Him and glorifying Him and loves Him to come to
a place where everybody hates Him and says, go back. Why would
He do that? I wouldn't do that. No, He didn't.
Because He's God, that's why. Because that's what makes Him
God. Such love, such mercy, such condescension, such grace. And
became obedient unto death. The soul that sinneth it must
surely die. It shall. It shall. Going to. Going to. Maybe some in this
room. Really? I worked on the railroad one time.
I was talking to a fellow about trying to witness to him, you
know, and he said, oh, I know I'm, if I died today, I know
I'd go to hell. Said, you don't believe a word
of that. You don't believe that. If you really believe that, you'd
be on your knees right now begging God for mercy. You know, the two things that
it's impossible for us to do, the Son of God did. Two things
impossible for us to do. Number one, it's impossible for
us in the flesh to give the credit to someone else for something
you've done, something you made or something you did, something
wonderful, to give someone else completely, totally the credit
for it as if they did. That's impossible. We want the
credit, like an article. We write an article and somebody
else's name is put on it. And that's happened before. They put my dad's name on it. I thought, well, that's OK. Our Lord did that. He gave us
His righteousness. And then the second thing it's
impossible for us to do is take the blame for something someone
else has done. To be wrongly accused and take
it and be silent. And take it. And say, yeah, I
did it. Remember, Frankie did both that.
Amazing, isn't it? Who'd he do this for? Who
did he do this for? Righteous? Paul wrote in Romans
5, for scarcely for a righteous man, a religious person, a person
who thinks they're righteous. They're not. You don't like self-righteous
people. Look, I don't. I can smell them
coming. You wouldn't die for a person
like that. Or what about a good man, a moral man, an upright
man, a pretty good, fine fellow? You wouldn't do that. You sure
wouldn't have your child die for that person, would you? You
wouldn't dream of it. But God commendeth his love for
his people, his children, in that while we were yet sinners,
the very ones that had no interest in him, the very ones that said,
I don't need him. Indifference is to say, it's
to hate him. God did that for him. God hated
him. You know, I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't deliver my darling
daughter or granddaughters, one of those, to die for anybody. I feel like I might lay down
my life for one of you, but I would not deliver my daughter to die
for anybody. Would you? Would you? No. But
God did. Think of John 3.16 again, would
you? For God so, in this manner, loved
the world. The assent is only begotten son. To die for whom? I wouldn't do
that. I wouldn't do that. You know, I got to say this. Religion is not just error and
doctrine. False religion is not just ignorance. It's willful rebellion. It's an abominable rejection of God and the Son
of God, stealing His glory and His honor. And they say things
like that. They say, try Jesus. Don't. Try Jesus. If you don't like Him, send Him
back. Would you do that, Eric? Would
you do that? Would you give your son or would you give one of
your daughters to a bunch of fellas, despicable fellas, say,
try her out. If you don't like her, send her
back. Does that put that in the light
that it ought to be put? Huh? You don't do that. You don't
do that. That's abomination to God. But
here's the mercy and the grace and the love and the amazing
salvation of God is that He would send His Son down to this place
to die for the likes of us But if I did that with my daughter,
if I had sent my daughter to die for some unworthy, worthless
fellow, I tell you, it would accomplish something. Her death
would not be in vain. It would be effectual. I tell
you what, that fellow would know what I did and he would thank
me forever. He would know what my daughter
did for him and he would thank her forever. And there would
be a change wrought in that fellow. It would be an everlasting change.
He wouldn't take any credit at all for it. He'd give her all
the glory. That's what God does in His people. All of them. It's
not an offer. It's an act of God. God sent His Son down here to
die for despicable people and He brings a change in them. And He makes them to know who
did this. God so loved. So loved. Sent His Son. Why would He do
that? And they're amazed. Like Brother Darwin said, why
would he choose me? Why would he marry me? Why would
he do this for me? And there's a change wrought
in them from that day forward. As it is in every child of God,
so it is. So Christ made himself. He made
Himself, look at these verses in light of that. You know there's
only one thing that will make us like Him, is by seeing what
He did for His people. And as I said, He showed us what
true beauty is, what true greatness is, serving others, true love,
lay down your life, give yourself, sacrifice, true love, true blessedness,
give. Not received. Look at verse 2
again. Read this with me again. Fulfill ye my joy. You be like
minded. How minded? Like Christ. Having
the same love. What kind of love? Sacrificial,
giving love. One accord. One mind. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory. How could we have any vain glory? You know, the only thing that
will reconcile it, Paul said, if any have a quarrel against
one another, forgive one another as God, for Christ's sake, forgave
you. There shouldn't never be any
lasting quarrels or grudges or strife or division among God's
people if you consider what Christ did, how Christ went to Calvary's
tree to reconcile us to God. Is there anything that any of
us have done to one another that is not forgivable? It seems like
what we did to His Son is unforgivable. Freedom. But in lowliness of
mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every
man on his own thing, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you. Isn't that what Christ did? Thought
not of himself. He who was rich, yet for our
sake became poor. Set his heart, his mind, his
affection on things below. The reverse of what he tells
us. How could he do that? This is a great God. What about
us? Let's look on the things of others.
Every man is not on his own thing. Let this mind be in you that
was in Christ Jesus in the form of God, equal with God, made
himself. Had no reputation. Became a servant,
made in the likeness of man. and in fashion as a man humbled
himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Wherefore, since he did this, God has highly exalted
him. He who was made lower than the
low, who abased himself, he who was high became low, he who was
exalted became abased, he who was loved became unhated, he
who was altogether lovely became unlovely. So God said Let everything
that hath breath, let all beauty be ashes, all
glory, God is purpose that sustain the pride of all glory and to
bring into content all the honorable of the earth, the scripture said,
that no flesh should glory in the presence. How could you in
the presence of one who did such a thing as this? There's no room,
no room. Let everything that hath breath,
God's given him a name which is above every name. That at
the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, things in heaven,
things under the earth. And every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. What do you
say to that? Self-made man. Now, Brother John
began this whole meeting by saying, quoting our Lord, who said, don't
let these things slip. Now let us consider Him. Consider Him who endured such
contradictions of sinners against Himself, lest you be weary. And
go not weary in this work. This is us. Brother Frank, God's
still calling out His people. This is how He does it. Thank
you for having me. May the Lord give glory and honor
in all that was said and done. Amen. If anybody were to ever ask me,
Frank, could you define for me the difference between preaching
the right doctrine and preaching Christ? Preaching the person
of Christ and Him crucified. I'm going to give them a copy
of this message. That's preaching Christ. I don't know if you've
noticed like I have, but each day of the conference, Each message
just dovetailed into each other, didn't they? That's the bridegroom. Can you get over who he is? Can
you get over what he's done for the likes of us? I want to be
married to him, don't you? Oh, I want to come to him, be
married to him. I don't know a lot about heaven.
Scripture is silent on much of it. But I'm pretty sure of this,
that heaven will be eternally that marriage feast, that marriage
supper, where we are overwhelmed with the glory of Christ the
Lamb, who He is, and what He'd do for sorry likes of us. Oh,
we got a taste of it this weekend, didn't we? We got a taste of
it this weekend, I'm thankful. Ladies have prepared for us a
feast, and we'll have a time of fellowship, meet together,
hope you all stay, and let's visit in fellowship. You men stay out of their way
for a few minutes. They've got this thing, military precision.
They'll get everything ready for us. The men will set up some
tables in here for us to eat, and we'll start to line through
there and go through and get us something to eat in just a
few minutes, all right? Before Mike leaves us in the closing
song, let's bow together. Our great God, Lord, we bow. We bow before you. So unworthy in and of ourselves,
completely unworthy to come before you. In the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ, how we thank you that we could come boldly before
the throne of grace, that we can come in Him accepted. How we thank you for your infinite
love, love that for sinners that we cannot fathom. How we thank
you for your mercy, your grace, that you apply it to the hearts
of your people, that you reveal your son to us and in us through
the preaching of your word, through what we have, by your grace,
been able to hear this weekend. Father, how we thank you for,
we thank you for your son. We thank you for the unspeakable
gift of your son. We thank you for the glorious
gift of your gospel that you've given to us to hear, to preach,
and by your grace, believe. Father, don't let us just have
this weekend gone through the motions of religion, but as we
heard from the very beginning, don't allow us to let these things
slip, but plant them firmly in our Don't let us just be a hearer
of the Word, but enable us to be a doer of it, that we believe,
that we believe the Lord Jesus Christ, that we quit all of our
self-righteous works, we quit all of our works of religion
and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us a heart that believes
Him and loves Him. Give us a mouth that is enabled
in this life to praise Him and glorify Him. Father, how thankful
we are. Forgive us. Oh, how we beg your
forgiveness for our sin. We beg your forgiveness for the
times that we take for granted this blessed privilege of worship. Father, we thank you for this
food that we're about to partake of and thank you for this time
of fellowship. Blessed, we pray. Bless those
who are traveling back home today. Give them traveling mercies.
Father, return us back Wednesday to one more time hear your gospel,
the gospel of your darling son. It's in his precious name, his
glorious name we pray.