Great blessing. Someone 33 behold how good and
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down upon the beard. Even Aaron's beard
and went down to the skirt of his garment. There's the oil
of gladness that our Lord was anointed with the oil of his
spirit who he promised to send. when his people gathered together
for worship as the dew of Herman and as the dew that descended
upon the mountains of Zion. For there, the Lord commanded
his blessing, even life forevermore. Here, I will meet with you. In case you weren't in here the
first hour, We announced that or shared that Peggy Avila is
struggling for life in the hospital at Princeton. And Henry and Clarissa
are here with us this morning. Lords, pray for them. You have your bulletin, you notice
with me the him on the back of your bulletin, Oh, Lord, our
Lord, how wondrous great is thine exalted name. We've come here
to exalt his name. And he said, if I even I be lifted
up, I will draw all men to myself. So As we lift up Christ, we trust
him to draw our hearts to him in worship. Let's stand together.
Tom, you come, please. O Lord, our Lord, how wondrous
great is thine exalted name! The glories of thy heavenly state
let men and babes proclaim. When I behold thy works on high,
The moon that rules the night, And stars that well adorn the
sky, Those moving worlds of light, Lord, what is man or all his
race who dwells so far below that you should visit him with
grace and love his nature so? ? That thine eternal Son should
bear ? ? To take a mortal form ? ? Made lower than His angels
are ? ? To save a dying world ? Please be seated. Would you please turn with me
in the word of God to Philippians chapter one. Last night, I got a text from
Brother Greg saying, would I read this morning? And I thought,
well, that's kind of unusual. He's very good about giving warning.
And then I realized this morning, it's the providential of God. And I hope the words we read
will be of comfort to Henry and Clarissa and to all of us. I feel perhaps somewhat qualified
to talk about what we're gonna talk about. Verse 20, Paul is
writing, he said, according to my earnest expectation and my
hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all
boldness is always. So now also Christ shall be magnified
in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I want not. For I am in a strait betwixt
two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which
is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful of you. And having this confidence, I
know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance
and joy of faith. It is the desire of every child
of God to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our hope and our
desire. And yet, this flesh, Paul struggled
with this, to die or to live. And he says, to die is to gain. Carissa and Henry, I want to
give you some words of comfort. I feel somewhat qualified that
There was a time I was in this position. Some of you may not
know, but yes, I was. I was on life support for, and
I don't remember any of it, but I remember when I finally, the
Lord chose to let me live. There was great disappointment
because it is our heart's desire to be with Christ. That's where
we want to be, free from sin, free from this flesh, free from
worry to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is
our hope. But yet I also realized that
we will die in his time, not in our own. For us, I would tell
you and your father, it is your mother's desire to be with Christ. And yet she has a desire in her
heart, even though she can't express it, to be here with you. And I can tell you, when I did,
this is out of place, but when I did, you know, the Lord saw
fit to let me live, the first thing I did was pray. I made sure I had a living will.
And I told my daughters, the one in charge, not my wife, because
I know she'll make it. I said, we went over, well, if
this happens, do you want to sustain? No. Well, what are this? No. I said, just put no on all
of them. And I believe that, and I want
that. And that's where our sister is
at. And I pray God gives you wisdom. Clarissa, for you and
your dad. And you know, the hard part is,
as a church, and of course for a family, I thought about this
a little bit and I said, we grieve, but yet how can we grieve for
one who is going to be with the Christ? We grieve for ourselves,
don't we? But whether Peggy shall live
or whether she dies, We take comfort in knowing that either
way, it is the hand of God and that it is right and that it
is good. And we thank you and be encouraged.
I know I want to tell you and your dad, I'm so encouraged by
your handling of this. And Fred, no offense, but the
medical world don't understand. So they asked me, well, you need
to do this. No, I don't. I remember Maurice Montgomery.
I said, you need to start having chemo again. What'd he tell them?
Am I going to live better? No, you're going to live longer.
He said, no, thank you. We live. Our life is Christ. He is our life. And to die is
gain. Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Oh, Lord. We thank you that you are a gracious
and forgiving God, a loving God that has loved his people from
eternity and has saved us, not because
of anything in us, but because of your love for us, a love that
never goes away. And we thank you for our sister. And for Henry, our brother, and
for Carissa, we pray that you give them wisdom and you give
them grace. And that we as a church family,
pray for them, pray for your will to be done, but give us
all the grace to know that whatever you determined, it is right and
it is good. And that we would praise you
for that. cause us to look to you, to rest in you, to believe
in you, and see you, have no hope outside of you, and that
you would be glorified. We ask today that you would be
with Greg and your other gospel preachers. Enable him to declare
Christ truthfully, boldly, and simply. And as your people, we
ask, Lord, that you would give us the faith to believe what
is preached. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 340 from the hardback timbrel. 340. Nearer, still nearer, close to
thy heart. Draw me, my Savior, so precious
thou art. Fold me, O fold me, close to
thy breast. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Nearer, still nearer, nothing
I bring, not as an offering to Jesus my King. Only my sinful, now contrite
heart Grant me the cleansing, Thy blood doth impart. Grant me the cleansing, Thy blood
doth impart. Nearer, still nearer, Lord, to
be Thine. ? Sin with its follies I gladly
resign ? ? All of its pleasures, pomp and its pride ? ? Give me
but Jesus, my Lord crucified ? Give me but Jesus, my Lord
crucified. Nearer, still nearer, while life
shall last. ? Till safe in glory my anchor
is cast ? ? Through endless ages ever to be ? ? Nearer, my Savior,
still nearer to Thee ? ? Still dearer to thee ? Please
be seated. We're gonna have special music
now by Caleb, Lacey, and Mary. When peace like a river attended
my word When sorrows like sea billows
roll Whatever, my Lord, Thou hast
taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul It is well, it is well With my
soul, with my soul It is well, it is well With my soul Though Satan should bump it though
trials should come, let this blest assurance control. That Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate, and hath shed His own blood for my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought, My sin not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I
bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. For me, be it Christ, be it Christ,
hence to live, If Jordan above me shall grow. No pain shall be mine, for in
death, as in mine, Thou will whisper Thy peace to my soul
It is well with my soul It is well, it is well with my soul But Lord's is for thee, for thy
coming we wait. The sky, not the grave, is our
goal. A trumbly angel, a voice of the
Lord, Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And Lord, haste the day when
thy faith shall be sighed, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound, and
the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Thank you all. Will you open
your Bibles with me to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. You may not know that the man
that wrote the words to that hymn that was just sang had just,
before writing that hymn, suffered the loss of all of his children. And he was able to say, it is
well with my soul, because he knew that his sin, not in part,
but the whole, was nailed to the cross. And he bore them no more. No
more. I listen to a lot of preaching
and read a lot of things in preparation to stand before you, and it seems
like more and more I'm hearing this message that the salvation
of our souls is a means to a greater end. That's the message that
I'm hearing in the world. The greater end is your happiness
in this world. The greater end is for you to
have a better marriage, for you to be a better person, for you
to be more content and more at peace, and that you need Christ
to save you so that you can achieve that greater end. The greater end is the salvation
of our soul. And whether or not we are able
in God's providence to enjoy The things that he sends us in
this life is irrelevant. Is irrelevant. Because when you
come to the end of this life, there's only one thing that's
going to be matter. There's only one thing that's going to matter.
Only one thing. Not what kind of marriage you
had. Not what kind of legacy you left. Not how much you accumulated
in this world. None of that will matter to you
at all. The only thing that will matter
is that your sins were nailed to the cross and that you bear
them no more. And then it will be well with
your soul. You see, the truth is it can
be well with our soul when things aren't well anywhere else. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 119. Look at verse 141. David is speaking prophetically
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've seen that over and over
and over again in studying the Psalms. I am small and despised. I want to speak to you for just
a few minutes about the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone
asked John Calvin one time, what were the three greatest graces
in the Christian's life? And he said, that's easy. Humility,
humility, and humility. Humility, like forgiveness, is
the result of the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
we're going to be able to forgive one another, we have to be forgiven.
And if we're forgiven, forgiveness will just be the natural result
of being forgiven. We're not talking about forced
humility or fake humility or feigned humility. Nothing is
more offensive than to see someone trying to act humble when they're
not. Humility comes as a result of
looking in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for all your righteousness
before God. When the Lord said that they who follow him must deny
themselves, take up their cross and follow him, he wasn't talking
about denying themselves. dessert after dinner or some
other pleasure in life. He was talking about denying
that they themselves have anything to do with their salvation. Denying
any contribution that they could possibly make in order to satisfy
the demands of God's holy justice. Taking up your cross is looking
to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and knowing that you are
crucified with him. Nevertheless, you live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. And following Christ is looking
after Christ. That's where humility comes from.
And humility, like good works, you know, the scripture says
that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which he has ordained that we should walk in them And
God's people do good works, they do. But as soon as you look at
a work that you performed as good, it no longer is good. And
the same thing's true with humility. If you think you're humble, you're
not. Simple as that. If you think
you're humble, you're not. The ones who are looking to Christ
and seeing His humiliation and experiencing that in their own
lives are convinced that they are filled
with nothing but pride. Nothing but pride. They don't
see their own humility. You heard about the fellow that
won the badge in the church for being the most humble, but they
had to take it away when he wore it. You know, that's the way
humility is, isn't it? The scripture says that he resists
the proud and he gives grace to the humble. I need God's grace. Humble yourself and therefore
under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you in due
time. in due time. And that due time
may not be until you draw your last breath. Being humble, standing in the
presence of a holy God, looking in faith to Christ alone for
all your justification, all your righteousness before God. Whosoever therefore shall humble
himself as a little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom
of heaven. And whosoever shall exalt himself
shall be abased. And whosoever shall abase himself
shall be exalted. This word small, In our text,
I am small and despised is beyond our comprehension. And yet we know it's true. We
know it's true. The first time that the word
small is used in the Bible is found in Exodus chapter 16, verse
14, where it says, after the dew went up, children of Israel
have already come out of Egypt. They're in the wilderness. The
Lord's feeding them with manna every day. They wake up every
morning and the scripture says, as the dew went up, there lay
a small round thing, small as the hoarfrost on the ground.
These small little pieces of manna laying everywhere and they
had to brush them up somehow. And the Lord said that he is
the bread that came down from heaven. He's that small round
thing. When the angel spoke to Mary. He said that holy thing in thy
womb. How could? How could the creator
and sustainer of all the universe? Be. A baby in the womb. of a woman. And yeah, here's
the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He humbled himself and
became a man. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Yet we do learn from him. He
is our teacher and the scripture says they shall be all taught
of God. But here the Lord speaking to
us and he says, learn of me, learn who I am. For I am meek and lowly of heart
and your soul shall find rest. You shall find rest for your
souls. My burden is light. I'm meek. Here's the infinite
omnipotent God calling himself small, meek, lowly. And he says, in me, you shall
have rest for your souls. After the death of John the Baptist,
the Lord said to the disciples, no man born of a woman is greater
than John. Yet, he that is least in the
kingdom of God is greater than he. And when the Lord said that,
he was talking about himself. He's talking about himself. He's
the only one greater. He's the one greater than John. And he called himself the least
in the kingdom of heaven. We often quote this verse where
God says, man at his very best state is altogether vanity. Who
is the man who was at the best state of a man could ever be? And yet he emptied himself and
became a servant and was obedient even unto death. Who was it that
humbled himself to wash the feet of his disciples? Oh, who is
it humbled himself to bear the sins of his people on Calvary's
cross? This is an incomprehensible,
glorious truth, and yet it's believed by every child of God
that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal God, the one who spoke
the entire universe into existence, the one who holds all things
together by the word of his power, the one who says the earth is
my footstool and the heavens cannot contain me, He set the
boundaries on the oceans, and he filled them with more creatures
than we could know. He's the one in whom we live
and move and have our being. He gives us our life and our
breath. He's the potter, and he has the
sovereign right to fashion from the same lump of clay some vessels
of honor and some of dishonor. No man can say unto him, what
doest thou? He's God. And that he was conceived in
the womb of a woman that he created. This is the condescension of
Christ. This is the condescension of
God. This is the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
was born on the backside of an inn in a stable. in an obscure village in a small
country. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes
and you think, what does that mean? Well, he came into this
world to die and they wrapped him again when he went into the
tomb after they took him off the cross. And so here, a baby,
yes, a baby, completely dependent upon the care of its mother,
of his mother, was wrapped in grave clothes. and laid in a feeding trough. There's a picture of what our
Lord did when he left his rightful place of glory and was willingly
born of a woman, born under the law. He says, I'm small, I'm
despised. Remember, humiliation is a great,
a great virtue. And yet it only comes as we're
enabled by the spirit of God to look at the one who truly
became humble, truly became humble. God was made flesh. Yes, the scripture says, even
in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that when men looked at him,
they didn't even know it was God. I mentioned this recently,
I think the greatest example of total depravity in the scripture,
you know, we think of depravity as some sort of horrible living. And I'm so thankful for that
message we heard. We are lepers and everything
about us is full of sin. But the evidence of our depravity
is our inability to know God. That's the evidence of our depravity.
And the seeing eye and the hearing ear come from the Lord. If the
Lord doesn't give us a new heart, if he doesn't birth us spiritually,
give us eyes to see, we'll not come to Christ. And the Lord
Jesus had half brothers and sisters that were the children of Mary
and Joseph that he grew up with 30 years. And towards the end
of his ministry, one of his brethren came to him and said, you know,
What you're doing is kind of out of the ordinary. And, you
know, if you want people to really follow you, you need to go, you
know, make friends with the Pharisees. They didn't know. Here he had. They had grown up
with God and they didn't know he was God. Why? Because they
were spiritually dead, just like you and I are. And if the Lord
doesn't give us eyes to see, we'll not see that he's God. Scripture says in the book of
Isaiah unto you, a child is born, a child, a son
is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders. Oh, he's
the He's the omnipotent, sovereign, eternal God who carries all the
government and carries all the weight of the burden of our sin
and our lives on his shoulders. And his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. You see, everybody wants to experience
the peace of God in their life. That's the goal. That's the end. You know, I just want to have
peace in my life. but they have no interest in
having peace with God. That's the goal. That's the goal. How are we gonna have peace with
God? How are we gonna find acceptance in the presence of a holy God? Only through the humiliation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore our sins in his body. made
us acceptable unto God, put them away, gave us a new nature. And then the real humiliation
of the Lord Jesus Christ is seen on the cross, isn't it? He saved others. Let him save himself. Come down
if you be the son of God. Men wagging their heads and tongues
and speaking words of blasphemy against the Son of God who had
humbled himself even unto death. What did the Lord say to the
disciples? When he came out of the garden
of Gethsemane after he had prayed to the Father and said, Father,
if there be any way this cup can pass from me, what was the
cup of sin? We pray that. We pray that right
now. Henry? There'd be any way this cup can
pass from me. Let it be. No, you can't. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thine be done. And Peter took a sword and cut
off the ear of one of the soldiers and the high priest's servant,
and the Lord said to Peter, put away your sword. Do you not know
that I could ask the Father right now and he would send 12 legions
of angels to deliver me. How many examples we have in
the Bible where one angel comes down and wipes out tens of thousands
of the enemies of Israel, one angel. a legion of angels, 7,000
angels, times 12. And the Lord said, do you not
know that all I would have to do? Don't you know that when
our Lord was hanging on Calvary's cross in his greatest hour of
humiliation and condescension, that all the angels in glory
had their flaming swords pulled and they were all standing on
the precipice of heaven, waiting for God the Father to say one
word, Go. That's all God had to say, was
go. And they would have all come
down and delivered him. But when he said, did you not
know that I could ask my father in 12 legions he would send of
angels? And then he said, but then how
would the scriptures be fulfilled? How would the scriptures be fulfilled? The fulfilling of the scriptures,
the salvation of God's people. Our Lord humbled himself unto
death. In order to fulfill all scriptures,
he said, I did not come to destroy the scriptures or the law, but
to fulfill them. Everything in this book is about
him. It's all about his accomplished work of redemption for his people.
It's all about his glorious condescension and then his glorious ascension,
taking his rightful place so that we have an advocate with
the father right now, interceding on our behalf. I am small and despised. He became small and he was despised
of men. And yet look what the rest of
that verse says. Verse 141, yet do I not forget
thy precepts. If I was to call 12 legions of
angels to come and deliver me right now, how would the scriptures
be fulfilled? I have not forgotten my precepts.
That's why I'm doing this. I'm doing this to fulfill all
that God promised and all that God's doing to save His people. That's what it's all about. You
know, we get so bound up in the things of this world. You ask
Henry right now, what's important? And that's going to be that way
for every one of us. These things we get so caught up in, really
not important, are they? Turn with me to Proverbs chapter
six. We looked at this passage recently,
but I want you to see it again in light of what we're talking
about right now. The humiliation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And there may be some evidence
of humility in your life to others if you believe yourself to be
full of pride. Look at Proverbs chapter six
beginning verse one. My son, and this again, in the
volume of the book it is written of me. These words are prophetic. These words are speaking of Christ. My son, the father speaking to
the son, if thou be surety for thy friend, No longer do I call
you my servants, for a servant doesn't know what his master's
doing. I call you my friends. We have a friend that sticks
closer than a brother. If you become surety for your
friends, what is a surety? One who makes all things sure. He's secured, he's done everything
necessary to pay the debt and to secure the souls of his people
for salvation. And father speaking to him now
said, son, you're going to become surety for your friends. If thou hast stricken thy hand
with a stranger, Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth,
thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Do this now, my
son, and deliver thyself when thou art coming to the hand of
thy friend. Go humble thyself and make sure thy friend." That's
what the Lord did. He humbled himself and he made
sure his friends That's why David, speaking of Him, says, I am small
and despised, yet I have not forgotten my precepts. Oh, what a Savior. What a Savior. Turn with me to Isaiah 53. Isaiah
53. Verse 1, who hath believed our
report? To whom hath the arm of the Lord
been revealed? That's who will believe. And the revelation of who Christ
is and what he's done in faith to our souls comes through preaching. That's what we're doing right
now. We're preaching Christ in hopes that the Lord will give
us faith to believe on Him. For He shall grow up before Him. Now the first He is Christ, the
second Him is the Father. For the son shall grow up before
the father as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness
and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him. Nothing in us that's attracted
to him. The Lord has to give us the mind
of Christ. He has to put Christ in us. The
scripture says that Christ in you is your hope of glory. Where
is your hope in glory? Hope is not for a better life
here. You're going to be sadly disappointed
if that's your hope. If that's your goal, that's your
objective, is to just have a better day tomorrow? Christ in you is your hope of
glory. There's our hope. Set your affections
on things above, not on things of the earth. He's a tender plant. Look at
verse four. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him. We did esteem
him, stricken and smitten of God. You know, the world, they listen
to what we believe. They would say, man, there's
a whole bunch of people with really low self-esteem. Low self-esteem. No. If esteem means to value
my life and to hold my life up as if it was something of great
value, then every child of God can say, I don't have low self-esteem.
I have no self-esteem. No self-esteem. For I esteem
Christ. He's the one of value to me.
Now, we're not talking about being insecure. Insecure is motivated
by our fear of man. And we all have some degree of
insecurity, don't we? But believers are the only ones
who really have no reason to be insecure. We're secure in Christ. Yet, we have the greatest reason
for security. and no self-esteem. Isn't that
a great place to be? That's freedom. That's liberty. It's truth is what it is. You
see, really, we have an accurate view of ourselves. We believe what God says. Verse 5, But he was wounded for
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, The chastisement
of our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed. We are healed, not we will be
healed. If we do our part, pray this
prayer, make this decision, perform this work, show some religious
humility. Don't do, don't try to be humble.
Yeah, it'll be famed humility, won't it? Just look to Christ
and look how humble he became. And what does the scripture say
in Philippians chapter four? Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made of himself no reputation. He emptied himself.
He became vain. He became empty. He humbled himself.
The Lord said, just look to Him. You won't have any reason to
be proud if you look in faith to what God did to redeem you. You look how far He came, how
humble He became, how much He suffered. You won't have any
reason to be proud. Look at verse 10 in Isaiah 53,
yet it pleased the Lord. It pleased the father to bruise
him. It was God almighty that saw the holy God, that saw all
sin on his darling son, who had become sin for us that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. And God had no choice
but to pour out his justice and his wrath against the sin of
his people. Christ became the sacrifice of that sin and put
them all away, all by himself, once and for all. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. God made the soul of
the Lord Jesus Christ the offering for sin. Jesus did not, you know,
you've heard me say this many times. I'll say it again in case
somebody hadn't heard. Jesus did not come into this
world to offer you salvation, to be accepted or rejected by
your will. No, he came into this world to
offer himself to his father. And his father, the scripture,
the next verse says, and the father, verse 11, he shall see
the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied, for by his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, not all, but many, for
he shall bear their iniquity. This is, this is humiliation. I am small. Child of God. If God before me, who can be
against me? We all suffer the fear of man
to one degree or the other. But here's the truth. If God
before me, who can be against me? We have a sin bearer that has
made all things sure. God enable us to look in faith
to Him. We esteem Christ. Listen to Colossians 3. You may
want to turn here in your Bibles. Colossians 3, beginning at verse
1. If you then be risen with Christ,
If Christ Jesus the Lord is your only life before God. He's all your life before God.
His perfect life of obedience, His humiliation is your humiliation. His death is your death. His
resurrection is your resurrection. His ascension is your ascension.
And you find now that the only hope that you have is to be in
the heavenlies, in Christ right now? If you then be risen with
Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things
above, not on things of the earth, for you are dead. He didn't say
you will be dead, you are dead. Here's our self-esteem, here's
our humiliation, for you are dead. And your life is hid with
Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life,
shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory. Here's the goal. Glory's the... Heaven's the goal. I don't know what God has ordained
for us in this life. We may have some very difficult
days ahead of us. But that's not what we're here
for. We're going to trust Him. Whatever He does is right. It'll
be good. Christ, who is your life, shall
appear, then you shall appear with Him. Him, Lord. When the Lord called Moses to
go get the children of Israel out of Egypt, he said, who am
I? Who am I that I should go? And
that I should go before Pharaoh and bring forth your children?
Who am I? When David was given Saul's daughter
to wife, he said, who am I that I should be the son-in-law to
the king? You see, there's what we say,
isn't it? Who am I? Who am I that I should be brought
out of Egypt? The unbeliever, the self-righteous,
the freewheeler, the works religionist person, when they hear what we
believe about election and about particular redemption, about
what God did in Christ to secure the salvation of his people,
their first response is, that's not fair. God owes us all a chance. No, he doesn't. That's not God. That's making
man to be God. The child of God responds to
the gospel with Moses and David and Solomon. When Solomon was
told to build the temple, Solomon said, who am I? Heavens cannot
contain God. Who am I should build in my house?
That's what we say. Who am I? Why would God have
mercy upon anybody? And most especially, why would
he have mercy on me? What a proud, sinful man I am. Who am I? Paul said, I die daily. Michael
read this passage earlier, to live is Christ, to die is gain.
When the Lord told that Syrophoenician woman that she was a dog, she
said, truth, Lord, truth. Job heard from the Lord, said,
behold, behold, I'm vile. I've quoted part of this passage
a few times already. Let's turn to it and then we'll,
and then we'll ask God's blessings on his word. Philippians chapter
two. Philippians chapter two. Verse one. If there be therefore any
consolation in Christ, are you consoled in Christ? Is He your consolation? Is He
your prize? Is He your hope? Is He your life?
If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love,
if any fellowship of the Spirit, and if we have not the Spirit
of God, we're not of His, it's only the Holy Spirit that can
give us life in Christ. If any bowels of mercy fulfill
my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of
one accord and of one mind. What a sweet thing that is. When
brethren dwell together in unity, what is the unity that we have?
We all have different circumstances, different interests, maybe different
concerns and different thoughts about the things of this world.
We've got lots of things we could differ on. But the one thing that we are
united on is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's his humiliation, his work,
him saying, I am small, I am despised, yet I've not forgotten
my precepts. The hope of our salvation in
Christ. It trumps everything else, doesn't it? It just makes
everything, whatever other difference which we have are irrelevant.
And that's what the Lord's saying. Be of one mind, of one accord.
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness
of mind, here's the humility of the gospel. Let each esteem
others better than themselves. Let me ask you a question. Do
you believe yourself to be in need of grace more than anybody
else? You do, don't you? Truth is, you know your sin and
your own unbelief better than anybody else's, don't you? You
know that you've been blessed with more light and grace and
opportunity and truth, and yet you see the unbelief that remains
in your heart and you say, Lord, how can I esteem anybody less
than me? Paul said, I am the chief of
sinners. That publican would not so much
as even look up, but said, Lord, have mercy upon me, the sinner,
the sinner. I'm the only sinner in the whole
world. Lord, I'm the one that needs to be saved. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man on the things of others. Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the
form of God, The fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. All the attributes, all the power,
all the nature of God in a man, the God man. And he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. When they accused him of blasphemy,
you being a man, make yourself out to be God. He didn't say,
oh no, wait a minute. You misunderstood me. No, he
thought it not robbery to be, he claimed to be God. But he made himself, he made
himself of no reputation. He emptied himself. And he took upon him the servant,
the form of a servant. and was made in the likeness
of men and being found in the fashion of a man, as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. He was obedient right to his
dying breath. Father into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. He fulfilled the scriptures. He said, I could call 12 legions
of angels, but then how would the scriptures be fulfilled?
He fulfilled the scriptures. Wherefore, wherefore God hath
highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every
tongue confess. Things in heaven, things in earth,
and things under the earth. that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. I am small and despised, yet I've not forgotten
thy precepts. Our merciful heavenly father,
bless your word by your spirit. Give us hope and rest ye in Christ. For it's in His name we ask it.
Amen. 125. Let's stand together. 125. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find thy power
and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I, were
by thy grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in
the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete. Jesus died my soul to save. My lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Yeah.