I invite your attention to Philippians
chapter 2, the epistle of Paul the apostle to the church in
Philippi, second chapter. My text is in verses 9 through
11. But I'm going to begin reading
from the first verse, Philippians chapter 2. My subject this morning
is the exaltation of Jesus Christ. Philippians 2 verse 1, if there
be therefore four things, first, any consolation
in Christ, second, any comfort of love, third, any fellowship
of the Spirit, fourth, any bowels and mercies. If there be those
four things, then fulfill ye my joy, that ye be four things,
like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, and
of one mind." What a blessed situation there is. when those
eight things are found, the four things that are found in believers
and the four things they will do. Paul continues in verse 3,
let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but 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. Now there's a reason why he's
given this exhortation and he's about to give us our exemplar. He says, 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, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. God also hath highly exalted
him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
and of things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. the exaltation of Jesus Christ. Set forth to us here in this
passage, better than in any other, the exaltation of Jesus Christ. We will here consider these four
aspects of the exaltation of Jesus Christ. First, its reason. Second, its author. Third, its
degree, and fourth, its purpose. So consider that first point.
The reason for the exaltation of Christ Jesus, by the way,
that is the name that is given to Him earlier in this passage.
Jesus is His name. It denotes that He is the Savior
of sinners. You shall call His name Jesus,
for He will save His people from their sins. The word Christ is
a title. It identifies Him as the Messiah
and as the Son of God, having the same nature as His Father,
co-eternal and co-equal with Him. Christ Jesus is titled in
His name, and He was exalted. Why? Well, in our text, We read
that it was wherefore or therefore. Therefore! God has also highly exalted him.
Therefore what? Well, the reason for the exaltation
of Jesus Christ is in the verses preceding. We know that because
Paul has explained to me, he says, therefore, because of what
I just told you, God has highly exalted him, Christ Jesus. We look back in the preceding
verses, verses 6 through 8, and we find that in simplest terms,
the reason why God exalted Jesus Christ is because Jesus Christ
humbled himself. And the further he humbled himself,
the higher God exalted him. Therefore, now, here in verses
6 through 11, in the preceding verses, we have what are commonly
identified as the two states of Christ Jesus in his incarnation
and as a son of man. In those verses, first, his humiliation,
verses 6 through 8, and His exaltation in verses 9 through 11. Those
are the two states of Jesus Christ with regard to His incarnation,
His time here on earth, as the Son of Man. Now, I want you to
notice that the humiliation of Jesus Christ in which He humbled
Himself, it was like walking down into a basement, going down
this step. And then he went down another
step, and then he went down another step. He went all the way to
the bottom of the basement in his humiliation, in humbling
himself. Consider the way that he did
so. Consider his downward steps. We read in verses 6 through 7
that he, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. Now consider that Jesus Christ
is here considered before he humbled himself in his heavenly
glory, which is his essential glory. Who? Being in the form of God. That's His deity, folks. He is
deity with divinity. Who? Being in the form of God. He is co-eternal and co-equal
with God, His Father. Who? Being in the form of God. He could so much as say, if you
have seen me, you have seen the Father. Who? Being in the form
of God. But he did not consider his glory
in heaven something that must not be taken or given up by him. He did not consider it robbery
to be equal with God. He was not robbing God of any
of God's glory. It belonged to Him. But there's
something more in this verse. It means that He did not consider
His glory something that had to be grasped and not let go. It may be as though the Father
says, Your people need to be redeemed and the only way they
can be redeemed is for you to go to them. Okay, I'll go. Well,
if you do, you've got to lay aside your heavenly glory. Oh,
no. No, no, no. That's not Jesus. Let this mind
be in you. He laid it aside. He said, this
is my glory. It is not robbery for me to be
equal with you, but I'm not going to hold on to it. If that means
that sinners cannot be redeemed. I'll lay it aside. And there
in heaven he took his glory, the heavenly glory that was his,
took it off and laid it down and said, I'm going to earth. I'm going to earth. How did he,
or what did he do then? He voluntarily emptied himself
of his existence in that manner. He did so in order to redeem
sinners. Had it not been that sinners
needed to be redeemed, there would have been no need for Him
to lay it aside. But the only way that sinners can be redeemed is for God to lay aside His glory
and take on their humanity and become one of them. I'll do it,
he says. I'll do it. He emptied himself
of his glory. Now, that does not mean that
he ceased to be divine. I do not want you to think that
he laid aside his divinity. He could not do that. For you
see, deity is eternally immutable. It can never be attained. It
can never be greatened. It can never be lessened. It
can never be surrendered. Deity is eternal. Deity is changeless,
immutable. And even when he was here on
this earth, his deity is still there. But he has laid aside
his exercise of it. He has laid aside the glory of
his deity in order to redeem sinners. What did he do? God made himself of no reputation. He who is God made himself of
no reputation. Four things to be considered
here. First, Christ surrendered his position with regard to God's
law in order to be subject to it and fulfill it and thereby
sanctify God's elect. Jesus Christ is God and therefore
the lawgiver. But now, the lawgiver has humbled himself to become
the law keeper. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his son born under the law. He gave that
law. And then he says, I'll be born
under it. And the father may say, well,
son, nobody ever kept that law. I will. I will. I will keep that
law. Your law is in my heart. I delight
to do your will, O my God. And the lawgiver became the law
keeper. Christ surrendered his heavenly
riches in order to experience earthly poverty and thereby make
his people rich. He lived in heaven's glory. On earth, he said, Birds have nests and foxes have
holes and I have nowhere to lay my head. He walked around living in poverty
voluntarily, voluntarily. When he died, he was wearing
his entire wardrobe, an inner garment an outer garment, a belt,
sandals, and a turban. It's all the clothes he had,
folks. In heaven, he had every delight
you could imagine. And here on earth, he had no
earthly comforts. He never owned an inch of land. He never owned a house. He never
rode an animal, of which we have record, except when it was time
for him to go into Jerusalem the last time. He lived in poverty
so that we could be rich. That's what he did when he humbled
himself. He surrendered His heavenly glory in order to possess no
beauty that we should desire Him. He's just an ordinary man,
folks, walking on this earth, look just like all the rest of
us. No beauty that we should desire Him. He surrendered His
independent exercise of authority in order to do His Father's will.
His independent exercise of authority What do you mean? On the six days of creation when
God created the heavens and the earth? Jesus did that, for all
things were made through Him. Nothing was made that was not
made by Him. He says, let there be light! And He did not ask anybody's
permission to do so. Let the waters teem with fish!"
And they did so, and He asked nobody's permission. Nobody's
permission. But here on earth, I did not
come to do my will, but the will of my Father in heaven. Not my
will, O Father, but let Your will be done. I can do nothing,
he says, apart from my father. I must have my father's permission
to do this and to do that. I speak only as he says to speak. He had no independent exercise
of authority here on this earth. He gave it up when he humbled
himself. Then at the end, he says, and
now, oh father, Glorify me together with Yourself. Now I want you
to think about that for a moment. Glorify me together with Yourself. Meaning that before I humbled
myself, I had Your glory. And now glorify me together with
Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world
was. Now this is the humiliation of
Jesus Christ. a self-humiliation. Number two,
taking the form of a servant. Taking the form of a servant,
the divine master of all became the servant of God and even the
servant of men. I did not come to be served,
he said. I came to serve. And that's what
he did. He was not a servant in heaven.
but he was a servant here on this earth. And coming in the
likeness of men, the immortal God assumed humanity. God became a man. You never read
of any such thing anywhere else except with regard to Jesus Christ. He came in appearance as a man,
in likeness as a man. He humbled himself even further.
He became a lowly mortal. And he became the only man who
ever lived who humbled himself in such a manner as this. He
became obedient. He became obedient. He had to
become obedient because there was no need for him to be obedient
before. In heaven, he's the ruler. On
earth, He must learn obedience by the things he suffered. He
was obedient to his parents, subject to them, obeyed them
in everything they asked of him. He was the perfect child, never
disobeyed his parents, was as obedient to them when they were
not looking as he was when they were gazing upon him. He was
obedient to God, and he was obedient to man's law. Never broke it.
Never broke it. Lived in complete conformity
to both God's law and to man's. Became obedient to the point
of death. His obedience knew no bounds. He has now come to the very last step. He'll die, but it will not be
just any death. He takes the final step downward. He has now reached as far as
he can go down. He became obedient to death,
even the death of the cross. The cross. What is the death
by the cross? People say, well, that was a
very painful way to die. Well, yes, it was. Yes, it was
a very painful way to die. But worse than that, God said, accursed is any man
who is hanged on a tree. So where did Jesus go to die? To a tree. To a tree. And there became a curse for
us on an accursed tree. Folks, he has humbled himself
as far as he can. He cannot go any further. From
the throne of heaven, he has humbled himself to an accursed
tree on earth. Therefore, That's why the word
therefore is therefore. Therefore God has highly exalted
him. He has humbled himself as far
as he can. Therefore God has highly exalted
him. Consider the author of his exaltation. God did it. Why? Because no one else could and
no one else would. The elements of nature, consider
them for a moment, they obey him. He's out with his disciples on
the Sea of Galilee and a terrible storm arises. The scripture says
that the waves were now washing into the boat. Jesus is asleep. Now He knows what's going on,
but He's asleep. His disciples, now consider them
for a moment. These men are seasoned fishermen. If anybody can handle a boat
in a storm, these men can. They know how to row. They know
how to bail water. They know how to set the sail.
They know how to take it down. These are expert seamen on the
Sea of Galilee. But then they cry, Lord, save
us. We are perishing. So Jesus wakes up from his sleep
in the bottom of the boat. and he stands. Now folks, listen,
when your boat is going to and fro, and I've been in this situation
a few times taking ferries across to the islands, island to island,
the last place you want to be is on the deck standing. It is
the worst place to be. Jesus stands, looks around and he Wind, quit blowing. Waves, stop
billowing. He rebuked them. And everything
got deathly quiet. And the disciples looked at him
and they said, who can this be that even the winds and the waves
obey him? Yeah, they do. They do. The winds
and the waves obey Him. They'll do whatever He says.
But they are incapable of exalting Him. They are inanimate. They
cannot exalt Him. Well, let's see. What else? Angels. Would they exalt Him? No, they
cannot. Angels worship Him, but they
cannot exalt Him. because they are inferior to
him. He's the archangel. He's the
greatest of them all. He is the angel of Jehovah. And
Hebrews 7, 7 says, Now beyond all contradiction, the lesser
is blessed by the better. The better, the greater can bless
the lesser, but the lesser cannot bless the greater, and angels
are lesser than Jesus Christ. They cannot exalt Him. They worship
Him, but they cannot exalt Him. How about Satan? Well, no, there's
going to be no exaltation from Satan. Satan is the arch-adversary
of Jesus Christ. The arch-adversary. There has
been enmity between Christ and Satan from the dawn of creation. Well, let's say Satan has imitated
toward Christ, and Christ finally showed he is toward Satan, but
in this, Satan is wanting to be just like Jesus Christ. Satan is not going to exalt him.
No. Satan is the ruler of this world,
the god of this age, the prince of the power of the air, and
he does not like any competition. So he will not exalt Jesus Christ. Demons! They have no desire to
exalt him. They have no power to exalt him
because they are subject to him. Matthew 8, 29 through 31. Jesus
comes upon the scene and the demons have possessed a man. Jesus shows up and the demons
see him coming and they say, what have we to do with you,
Jesus, you son of God? It's interesting. They know who
he is. They know who He is. Have you come to torment us before
the time? It's not judgment day yet, is
it? No, it's not. Then the scripture
says, so the demons begged Him. Begged Him. Consider, Jesus walks
on the scene and demons get down on their knees and beg Him. Now,
they're not going to exalt Him. They cannot. They will not. Men
in their natural state, No, they will not exalt him, they despise
him. He is despised and rejected by
men and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised
and we did not esteem him. So men in their natural state
will not exalt him and he will not exalt himself. We just saw
what did he do? He humbled himself. Well, okay. The elements of nature cannot
exalt him. The angels cannot exalt him.
Satan will not. Demons will not. Men will not. What have we got left? God. No one else would exalt him,
so God did. Christ refused to exalt himself,
therefore God has highly exalted him. Point number three. The degree
of the exaltation of Jesus Christ, God has highly exalted Him. Highly exalted Him. How high? In Hebrews 7.26, we read that
He has become higher than the heavens. In Ephesians 4.10, He
is far above all the heavens. Where is God's throne? In the
third heaven. That's the highest heaven. And
at the apex of the highest heaven, there you're going to find Jesus
Christ. That's where God has exalted Him. God has exalted
Him in three steps. We left Him on a tree when we
looked at His humiliation. From there, they put Him into
a tomb. And God sends an angel down to
visit the tomb. And then God raised Jesus from
the dead, opened the tomb, three steps in his exaltation, resurrection
from the dead. He walks upon this earth for
40 days, showing himself to men and teaching them. And on the
40th day, God said, son, come home. And Jesus is received by
angels, ascended. And men watched Him going up
into heaven. That's the second step. Third
step, He reaches glory. He reaches heaven. And when He
reaches heaven, God the Father says, come up here, son. Sit
down on my throne. Here on my right hand, I'm exalting
you to my very throne. from the tomb through the heavens
and on to God's very throne. God has highly exalted him. In so doing, God has done two
things here. First, God has given to Jesus
Christ a supreme name, verse 9. God also has given him the
name which is above every name. It is the name that excels the
name of every creature, of everything else in this universe. There
is one name that is greater than all other names, and what is
that name? It is God's name par excellence. It is the name that distinguishes
God from all others. One of his names is El. Well,
he didn't call their gods by that name, but there is one name
that belongs to him and to him alone, and it is the name Jehovah. I am who I am. What does that mean? I am whatever
I need to be. I am whatever I choose to be. I am Jehovah, the self-existent
one. God has given that name to Jesus
Christ. He was declared to be the Son
of God, meaning that he and his Father both have the divine nature.
He was declared to be the Son of God with power according to
the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Peter
says, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that
God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and
Christ. He is Jehovah. God has given
him that name. He is called the Lord of Lords
in Revelation 17, 14. King of kings and Lord of lords.
Now, this expression is quite interesting. Lord of lords. There can only be one Lord of
lords, right? I mean, there are many lords,
but there is one Lord who is Lord over all the other lords.
The Lord of the lords. We read of Him. In Deuteronomy 10, 17, that Jehovah
your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty
and awesome. That's who He is. Mighty and
awesome. That's the name that God the
Father has given Him. Then He's given Him to the supreme
position. Notice, He has the supreme name
and He has the supreme position. Ephesians 1, verses 20 through
22 tell us that God raised Him from the dead and seated Him
at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality
and all power and all might and all dominion and every name that
is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to
come. And He put all things under His
feet and gave Him to be head over all things. So, when you
look upon the throne of God, whom do you see? You see Christ
Jesus who has been highly exalted. His name is Jehovah and he occupies
Jehovah's throne. We may say that in his exaltation,
he is higher than perhaps he was when he left. He had left heaven's glory, but
now everything's under Him. Everything. Every nation, every
person, every power. His name is Jehovah on Jehovah's
throne, and He has the highest position. Fourth point, the purpose of the exaltation
of Jesus Christ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the
earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. And I want you to look
at that for just a moment At the name of Jesus, every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall confess. At His name, at His name, every
creature is down confessing. Every creature! Are you absolutely certain? Well,
yes. Those in heaven. The angels will
do it. Oh, they gladly will. They gladly
will. Those on earth, that's all mortals
walking around. And those under the earth, who
would that be? All those who come from the gates
of hell. Satan and his demons. Demons
not only will beg of him in that day, but they will be down on
their knees confessing Jesus Christ is Jehovah. Jesus Christ
is Jehovah. Satan is not the Lord, Jesus
is. Every knee shall bow. Here's
the fulfillment of the prophecy made by Jehovah in Isaiah 45,
23 when he said, I have sworn by myself Now, you know, he's
the only one who can swear by himself and it means anything.
And if he has sworn by himself, he has sworn by the highest.
There's nothing higher than him. I have sworn by myself. You have
my word on this. The word has gone out of my mouth
in righteousness and shall not return. that to me every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall take an oath. Jehovah, did you say that every
knee will bow to you and every tongue shall confess to you?
That's what I said. But then Did you also say that
every knee shall bow to Jesus and every tongue shall confess
to Jesus? Yeah, that's what I said. Well,
which is it? It's both. In bowing the knee to Jesus,
you bow the knee to Jehovah. In confessing Jesus is Jehovah,
you have confessed Jehovah himself. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess, and the oath is this, Jesus Christ is
Jehovah. Paul, the apostle, refers to
the same prophecy in declaring that we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. For as it is written, as I live,
says Jehovah. Wait a minute, Paul. You said
the judgment seat of Christ, right? Yeah. Well, now you're
going to talk about Jehovah's seat? Yes. Which is it? Jehovah's seat is Christ's seat,
and Christ's seat is Jehovah's seat. As I live, says Jehovah,
every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to
me, to God, and so each one of us shall give an account of himself
to God at the final judgment. We all will give an account to
God the judge. Who's on that throne? The Father
judges no man but has committed all judgment to the Son that
all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. When
you stand before the great white throne and you're there before
God the Judge, He is going to judge you in the person of Jesus
Christ. We must all stand before the
judgment seat of Jesus Christ. And everyone will confess, yes,
God has highly exalted him. Every tongue shall confess that
Jesus Christ is Jehovah. Everyone will. We believers do
so in this present life. I've done it this morning, have
I not? Have I confessed Jesus Christ is Jehovah? And I can
tell from the looks on your faces you're agreeing with what I say.
We agree on this, do we not? Jesus Christ is Jehovah. Well,
there are many people around here who will deny that. There
are people claiming to be witnesses for Jehovah who deny that Jesus
is Jehovah. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
the fright on their faces at the final day? when they are required to bend
their knee, bow on their faces before Jesus Christ and confess
He is Jehovah. We denied Him. We denied whom
and what He is. But we confess now He is Jehovah. It will be too late then. Too
late then. Do you desire the salvation of
your soul? Confess Him now. He humbled Himself
for the salvation of sinners. God exalted Him so that He could
save sinners. And now those sinners are saved
to bow their knee in this present life. Bow to Him as their Lord
and Master and confess He is Jehovah. I tell you, you deny
the deity of Jesus Christ. No one has hope for your soul
except maybe yourself. You cannot deny the deity of
Jesus Christ and expect God to save you. Won't happen. Will
not happen. God says, I have exalted Him.
You need to trust Him. And oh God our Father, we trust your son we even now bow our knees to
him we confess that you have highly exalted him and we confess
Jesus Christ is Jehovah to your glory in Jesus name we
pray amen