Chapter number 8 is the verse
that we want to consider this morning. Verse 8, And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. It seems to me from
what I've read in this chapter, the first there are four verses
here, that the desire of the writer, who is the Apostle Paul,
is to unite the saints at Philippi. There seems to be some schism
or division that has developed in this body of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Paul's desire is to unite
these people that they might be of one mind. Let nothing be
done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let
each esteem other better than themselves." There seems to be some contention
here, some division in this group. that Paul is writing to, and
his desire is to unite them in one spirit, that they might be
of one mind, that they might have one reason and purpose. So, he takes them to the cross. Verse number 8, our text. He
takes them to the cross. And being found in passion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death on the cross. Now you see, if this is so, if
it's Paul's desire, or if there is some schism and division here,
if that's so, and it is Paul's desire to unite them that they
might have the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ, then I believe
that he takes them to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think,
brethren, there is a cure for every spiritual disease at the
cross. At the cross, at the cross where
my Savior died, there is a cure there. The well is never dry. There is always living water
at the cross. And I guess that I'm not mistaken
in this, that the best thing that any man can do for me, the
best thing that anyone can do for you, that is the best possible
service that can be rendered in our behalf by anybody, is
to take us where He is, is to take us to the cross, take us
to the Lord Jesus, that we might Learn of him. I believe that
when a man is willing to be least, when he is willing to say that
I am less than the least of all the saints, when a man desires
to place his brother higher than himself, I think that then there
comes an end to a party spirit. divisions and schisms are vanished
and put away. Now, in order to create this
lowliness of mind in the saints at Philippi here, Paul, under
the teaching of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, speaks
about the lowliness of Jesus Christ. Now, I think he'd have
us to go down. We need to go down. We need to
come down off our high horse. We need to come down into the
dust from whence we sprang. We need to be divested of our
pride and vainglory and this spirit and attitude of thinking
that we're somebody. We've got nothing wherewith to
boast of. What do you have to boast of? Fred read to us there in
the book of James that every good and perfect gift cometh
from above. What do you have that you did
not receive? You're not a self-made person. All that you are, all that you've
gained, all that you hope to be, you owe to the grace of God. And so Paul, wants these people
to come down, to go down in lowliness of mind in regard to who they
think they are. And we need to go down there. We need to follow the same steps. We need to follow the same footpath,
the same trail that these people are about to follow. So He would
have them go down, so He takes them to see their Master going
down. And any place that you can learn
a humility and humbleness and genuineness, sincerity, firmness
of faith, anywhere you can learn that is the place we ought to
be. And Paul says the best place
to learn these things, the best place to learn humility, is at
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just the other day I was thinking
about this, and I read this verse here, and I want to read it to
you if I can find it. I think it's in 1 Peter somewhere. Where does it say, He giveth
grace to the humble? here in 1 Peter. Is it chapter 5? I read it. I should have marked
that down. I thought I'd remember it. Chapter 5, verse 5? Yes. Likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another." Now this is what Paul is talking about here. There's
a party spirit. There's some division here. He's
going to unite these people. In order to unite them, he takes
them to the cross that they might see the lowliness of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of you be subject one to
another and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud."
God had nothing to do with proud spirits. He gives grace to the
humble. If you and I are ever, and I
say this honestly, if we are ever to become the recipients of the
sufficiency of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, he's
going to have to break our proud hearts. Now, I think this is
true, brethren. Every man that winds up at the
feet of the Lord Jesus Christ is a man, woman, boy, or girl
that God has broken. God only fills that which He
empties. You must be emptied before you
can be filled. You must be naked before you
can be clothed. You must be without strength
before you can have strength. You must be brought down before
you can be brought up. That's all there are to it. Every
person that ever winds up down at his feet, every person that
ever winds up there is a person that has been stripped and broken. Now, I don't say that every man
is broken alike, but every man is going to be broken and stripped
of his self-conceit of his pride. Now, you're either going to be
stripped of it before conversion, or stripped of it after conversion,
because one thing for sure, you're going to be stripped of your
pride, and you're going to be broken. And you're going to be
brought to see your nothingness before God. Now, that's a must. Because those that are being
saved are being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they are, to a degree, going to have an attitude as to the
mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. They may not have the mind of
Christ in maturity, but they are going in that direction.
God resisteth the proud, the proud. You proud? We got some
proud flesh, you and I. We got some proud parts in this
body of flesh. We need to put our foot on this
proud flesh like a man would put his foot on the neck of a
chicken. We need to drive it out. It lurks in every secret corner
of our souls and it needs to be driven out. And the best means
and cure for this spiritual ailment and spiritual disease is that
we be brought to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and see
the lowliness and the humility of the Lord Jesus. You're going
to be humble, you and I. We're going to be humble. There's
going to be some humility in our lives if we ever wind up
in God's eternal glory. He's going to humble us. I don't
know what it takes. He may have to break a few arms. He may have to strip that which
we hold the dearest to our bosom. He may have to take that away.
He may even have to kill us. But I'll tell you this, He's
going to make us humble. That's all there is to it. Because
He said, God resisteth the proud, and He gives grace to the humble. That's who He gives grace to.
Not this proud, cocky individual that knows everything, cannot
be told anything, that has his own rules, goes by his own whims
and desires, who has the attitude, no, I'll do it my way or it'll
not be done. No one has to tell me anything. I'll not be led by him or I'll
not be led by this or that. You'll have to be broken. If
that's your attitude or my attitude, we'll have to be stripped of
that. We'll have to be stripped of it. We'll have to be brought
to see our nothingness before God. And the best place, the
best place The only place that we can see that is at the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul here, under the teaching
of the Spirit of the living God, speaks about the lowliness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse number 6, look at that.
He said, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. Now, we can't have any idea,
we can't have any notion whatsoever of how high an honor it is to
be equal with God. Can you visualize it? Can you imagine? Can you kind
of crowd it into your brain or into your heart here this morning?
What it means to be equal with God. I don't think so. I don't
even think we can come close. I know I can't. Maybe you can.
I hope you can. I can't even come close. I can't
even get a thimble full of what it means to be equal with God. How can we measure the descent
of God Almighty or the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ when
our very highest thoughts, when we're at our very best and have
our highest thoughts about spiritual things, when our highest thoughts
can't comprehend the height from which He came, the Lord Jesus
Christ? He says that he thought it not
robbery to be equal with God. You see, we can't measure the
descent of the Lord Jesus Christ when our highest thoughts can't
even grasp, can't comprehend, can't lay hold of the height
from where He came from. You remember the Scriptures say
and teach that He laid aside His glory for a while, for a
little while. It says that he is very God of
very God, and that he dwelt in the highest heaven with his father. It says that he was rich, but
for our sakes became poor. It says that he made of himself
no reputation. Now the text here that I read
to you, verse number 8, the text does not speak so much of the
humiliation of Christ in becoming a man. And that was certainly
a form of humiliation that Jesus Christ became a man. He could
have become an angel. An angel was a higher elevation
than you and I as regard to holiness and so forth. But the text here doesn't speak
so much of the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ in becoming
man, but it speaks of His, now listen to me, I want you to get
this, but it speaks of His humbleness, of His humiliation, of His going
down after He took upon Himself our nature. After He took Himself
our nature. You see, It says, being found
in passion as a man, he humbled himself. He humbled himself. He was the Creator. But now we see him as a creature. The Creator become a creature. Creator who made heaven and earth,
and without whom was not anything made that was made. Yet, as we
read the Scriptures here, we see Him, we see Him, in a sense,
lying in a virgin's womb. The Creator becoming a creature,
Lying in a woman's womb. He was born and cradled where
the horned oxen feed, in the stable. The Creator is also a
creature. The Son of God is the Son of
Man. Strange combination, isn't it?
The Son of God is also the Son of Man. the infinite to be joined
to an infant. That's a strange combination.
The omnipotent joined to the feebleness of a baby. He humbled himself, the Scriptures
say. Well, he might have been among
those who were born in king's palaces. He might have been born,
had it pleased him, in marble palaces, in a marble
hall. He might have been clothed in
purple and fine linen, but he chose not to do so. If it had
pleased him, he could have skipped over the period between childhood
and manhood. If it had pleased Him, He could
have been born as a man. But He was born as an infant,
that is, the Creator God, the very God of very God. And He could have jumped over
this period of between childhood and manhood, if it's so pleased
him. But he humbled himself. That's
what I want us to see. I want us to have this word stuck
in our craw here this morning. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself. When he went to Jerusalem and
listened to the doctors of the law, He astonished them, he amazed
them by his questions and by his answers. Yet he went home
with his parents and he was subject to them. That is, he submitted
unto their authority. He wasn't a petted and spoiled
and pampered child. There's 30 years of silence in
his life. There's nothing said after he was 10 or 12 years old
until the time he was 30 years old. Not a thing said. There's
a period of silence there. Well, 30 years had passed. Still, there was no sermon on
the mount for the Lord Jesus Christ. He must wait until his
appointed time. He humbled himself. I think about
some Fellas, they want to be preachers, you know. Want to
be a preacher. They think a year or two years
or three years of education is a little bit too much for them.
That's too long. I got something to say and I
want to say it right now. I can't wait. They kind of want
to go forth to fight without even buckling the armor on. And
when they go forth, you know what it amounts to? like a chicken
with its head cut off, just flop around, is all that they accomplished. But our Lord Jesus Christ humbled
himself, humbled himself. Personally, in his body, he suffered
weakness, weariness, hunger, and thirst. And the Scripture
said he was constantly known as the man of sorrows, because
he was sorrowful. He allowed the devil to tempt
him and put him to the test. It says, the prince of this world
cometh and find nothing in me. He allowed himself to be called
a drunken man. They called him a wine-bibber. He is a drunken man, a wine-bibber. He allowed his miracles to be
ascribed to the devil. They said, He hath a devil, why
hear ye Him? You see what I'm trying to say?
I'm trying to say here, brethren, that our Lord Jesus Christ humbled
Himself. He allowed these things. He permitted
these things. He was going down and down and
up. And Paul said, if there is a
party spirit here among you all at Philippi, he said, I want
to take you to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. where there
is a cure for every spiritual disease, and I want you to see
Him. I want you to see Him in His
going down, His lowerness of mind, that you might have the
mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. That your attitude might be like
His attitude. Where are we going to learn this?
At the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is where you learn
all spiritual truths. You don't learn these at other
places. You only learn these at the cross. You don't learn them at college.
You don't learn them at the monastery or the seminary. You don't learn
them nowhere except at the cross. And the reason why we don't know
much, the reason why you and I don't know much about spiritual
truths is because We don't go to the well very much. We don't
go to the cross very much. We don't draw nigh unto Him. He said, if you draw nigh unto
Me, I'll draw nigh unto you. But we, we, I don't know why
we find that that's such a hard task to go to the cross. Well, our Lord's way of humbling
himself. That's what I want to talk about.
This is what I want to dwell on. What was the Lord's way of
humbling himself? I believe that our Lord's way
of humbling himself was by his obedience. Look at it now. And
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient. We don't like that word. We don't
like that word. Anyone start talking about obedience,
first thing you know we say, well, he's a legalist. It doesn't
have anything to do with him. He's a legalist. He wants men
to be obedient. Well, our Lord's way of humbling
Himself was by obedience. Now, I want you to notice that
he did not invent any particular method of making himself ridiculous. He didn't put on a certain type
of clothing in order to draw attention to his poverty. He didn't do anything like that.
No, but he humbled himself by His obedience. That's the rule. That's the rule then, that's
the rule now. That if we know anything about
humility, we're going to find it at the cross. And the rule
of humility is obedience. under the will of Him who is
our Master. And a lot of folks try to humble
themselves by what is referred to as will worship. I remember
reading one time about, and probably this still goes on, there's this
group of men who give themselves to their religion and they seclude
themselves in behind stone walls, in monasteries. They used to,
back in three or four hundred years ago, they hid in caves
or stayed in caves. And they whipped themselves. You know, every night before
I go to bed, I generally have a little something to eat. A
little something. I was with Brown one time. We
went hunting one time. And every night before we went
to bed, Darius had to have a bowl of cereal. He told them, I got
to have a bowl of cereal every night before I go to bed. Got
to have it. I only say that to emphasize this. Those monks in
those monasteries, every night before they went to bed, they
had to give themselves a whipping. They whipped themselves every
night before they went to bed. They put lashes on their back.
That was wheel washing. You see, this was their way and
is their way even to this day of humbling themselves. Now they whipped themselves every
night before they went to bed, and I'll tell you this, they
probably deserved all they suffered. Give themselves a number of lashes
on their back and figure that's some sort of humility. Some try
to humble themselves by talking in a very pious and humble language,
while at the same time being as proud as the devil. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, His way of humbling Himself was by obedience. Want to learn humility? Go to
the cross. He humbled Himself That's what
it says, and became obedient. Want to learn about humility? You can read Scripture after Scripture here
that has to do with a conduct and practical Christianity. And
you may, to some measure, yield yourself to it and outwardly
appear to be obedient. But you'll never learn true obedience
and true humility. You'll never learn true humility
until you go to the cross. That's the only place you're
going to learn it. You see, He humbled Himself. the Scriptures
say, and became obedient. He obeyed his father. There's
no humility like obedience. He obeyed his father. We have such a time in our generation
of young people refusing to be submissive to their elders, to
be respectful to their elders. They just won't do it. In the 60s, I guess it was, and
part of the 70s, why, parents couldn't do anything with their
children. Sent them to college to burn the college down. Fight
and just carry on. Well, I tell you, there's no
humility like obedience. To obey, the Scripture says,
is better than sacrifice. To obey. You could kill a thousand
oxen and catch the blood of every one of those oxen that you sacrificed,
and it would be an abomination in the sight of God if a man's
heart wasn't right in the sacrifice. To obey is better than sacrifice. And our Lord Jesus Christ obeyed
while He was here His Father's will. He said, Lo, I come in
the volume of Thy book. to do thy will, O Lord." He was
interested only in the will of God. And he obeyed his Father's
will. His Father's will. He said, I
do that which the Father sent me to do. He said, that which
I do, he said, I heard, I've seen from my Father, I dwelt
with my Father. and I do His will. We need to
learn obedience and humility by looking to our Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, He humbled Himself and
became obedient unto death, even death on the cross. Now listen
to this. even death on the cross. He died. The Lord Jesus Christ really,
actually, literally suffered in anguish and pain, and his
blood came from his brow, through his hands, through his feet,
and through his side, and run to the ground. And finally, and
finally, he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. He died. He
died. Our Lord Jesus Christ died. But listen to me, He died willingly. Willingly. Ah, you need to write
that down. You need to write down, Our Lord
Jesus Christ died willingly. I'll tell you why. Now you and
I, unless the Lord should come quickly, will die. Now you write
that down too. Unless he comes quickly, you
and I will die. It is appointed unto man once
to die. Now, unless he comes quickly, we will
die, whether we are willing or not. Most of us won't be willing.
We won't be willing to die. I was talking to my mother on
the telephone last night. She said, she said, have you
been eating your oatmeal? I said, yeah. I eat a dish of
it every once in a while. Well, you want to be sure and
eat your oatmeal. It's good for you. It's good
for you. Eat a bowl of it every now and
then. I said, well, I said, About the only way to get out of this
world is to die. Well, she said yes, but said take care of yourself
now. Just talk like it. Just talk
like I wasn't going to die. Just talk like if I could, you
know, I could, well, I'm not going to be willing to die. You
know, we're all going to be reluctant to die. But we're going to die
whether we're willing or whether we're not willing. But what I
want us to see is the Lord Jesus Christ became obedient unto death. He died willingly. See that? He died willingly. You won't
die willingly and neither will I. We'll be reluctant to go.
We'll be holding on. We'll be holding on. to the very
last second. Death will have to just sit on
top of us to snuff the life out of us. We'll never bow our heads
and give up the ghost and die willingly like the Lord Jesus
Christ. He needed not to die, yet He
was willing. He was willing. to lay his life
down. He died willingly. But at the
same time, he did not die by his own hand. That is, he did
not take his own life as a suicide. He died obediently. He waited until his time came. See that? He waited. He said, my time is not yet. Not yet. So he waited. He waited. He waited. He didn't
take a gun and stick it into his ear and blow his brains out.
He didn't take some poison. He didn't jump off a bridge.
He didn't hang himself. He knew what the end was. He
knew he must die. But he died willingly, willingly,
and he waited, and he waited, and he waited until his appointed
time. He died willingly. He humbled himself unto death
and became obedient unto that death, our Lord Jesus Christ. And he was able to say at the
end, it's finished. The work that thou hast given
me to do, I've completed, I've performed it, it is finished. It's finished. He humbled himself. You see, Isaiah, let me read
this to you. Over here in the book of Isaiah. Chapter 53. Isaiah 53. Listen to this. It says here, He was wounded
for our transgressions. He is bruised for our iniquities.
Verse number 6 says, All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to His
own way. Verse number 7. He was oppressed,
that's the Lord Jesus. He was afflicted, that's the
Lord Jesus. Notice this now. Yes, He opened
not His mouth. What's that mean? He opened not
His mouth. He humbled Himself. He opened
not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter. And as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He opened not his mouth. Not one time in the Bible can
you find where our Lord Jesus Christ spoke a bitter word against
the priest against the scribe, against the Roman soldier, or
against the Roman governor. When the women wept, he said,
O ye daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for
yourselves, and for your daughters, and for your sons. He didn't
even have a hard word for his executioners. Those soldiers
that laid Him down. And He laid Himself down willing.
They didn't have to force Him down. They didn't have to take
a rope and put it around His neck and drag Him to Golgotha's
brow. He went willingly, cheerfully. He went! He went! And when He
was there, and there was the cross, they didn't have to knock
Him down. He laid down on that cross. And
those soldiers that took His hands and glued the nails to
His hands, And those that lifted up the cross and put it in its
place. And those that jeered and wagged their tongue and spit
upon Him. And those soldiers that took
the spear and thrust it into His side. He never had one bitter
word against those fellows. He humbled Himself. You see what
I'm talking about? He humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, gladly and willingly. And he never one time
said, well, there'll come a day, there'll come a day, you fellas,
you've done this to me, there'll come a day when I'll... Nah,
he didn't speak a bitter word against him, no sir. He didn't
have a hard word for him. He gave himself up to be our
sin bearer without murmuring at his Father's will, even to
the death of the cross, the worst kind of death, violent death. He did not fall asleep gently
as good men do whose end is peace. extremely painful death, a violent
death, lingering agony. He died not like a hero in battle
or as one who dies or perishes while trying to rescue a man
from fire or flood. He didn't die that way. He died
as a criminal. He died as a criminal, our Lord
Jesus Christ. Not as a hero, as a criminal. Now, let me go farther than that
and say that he died as a curse! God Himself said that. I didn't
say that. God said, CURSE, said this ever
one that hangeth upon a tree. He died as a curse, not as a
hero. He died a criminal's death. He
was made a curse for you and I. Oh, my soul! Our Lord Jesus Christ. Can you
learn humility from this? What can we learn from this this
morning? Just three or four things and
I'll let you go. First, you can learn from His
humiliation a firmness of faith. That is, faith is born at the
cross, nowhere else. It's born. Does not the Scripture
say, look and live? Look at what? Not just look at
anything. But if I be lifted up as the
brazen serpent was fixed upon that pole, and every man bitten,
if he'd look upon the serpent, he'd be healed. And Jesus said,
I'm fixed upon that pole, fixed upon that cross. He said, if
any man looks at Me, he'll be saved. Faith is born at the cross, not
anywhere else. You can listen to some today
and read some things today, and you think that salvation is by
determination, or salvation is by Confession, or salvation is
by profession, or salvation is by chance, or salvation is by
accident, or salvation is by the sinner's will. I will to
be saved, so I'll be saved. Well, I'll just become religious
and I'll go to heaven when I die. I'll be good enough. I will be
good enough that God will have to accept me. I'll just start
going to church. I'll start reading my Bible.
I'll quit this and I'll quit that, and I'll take on other
habits. That's not the way it is. That's
not the way it is. Salvation is by grace. Salvation
comes when a man sees the Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted
up as the sender, the sender. He offered himself. He became
obedient. unto death, even the death of
the cross, we see in this that He offered Himself in the stead
of poor sinners and paid their due. And when we see Him as a
substitutionary sacrifice, as an offerer, as the offering,
when we see Him in that respect, faith is born at the cross. That
great gash in His side opened the way to His heart. His wounds
let out His lifeblood. I can't, brethren, think that
the Lord Jesus Christ bore all this agony, all this punishment,
all this grief, all this humiliation. I can't think that He bore all
this in a human body, and even death on the cross, and then
the sufficiency of what He did. Can you? My soul, this morning
as we look at the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ, at
the going down, the lowliness of the Lord Jesus, then it ought
to firm up our faith in Him. And we ought not to doubt. People
say, well, I just hope maybe I'll be saved in the end. Well,
what you're saying is You're trusting in yourself, that's
all. When you talk like that, you say, well, I hope that in
the end maybe I'll be saved. You're saying, well, I just hope
that my works will merit God's attention and somehow my works
will be commendable and God will show mercy. God won't show mercy
on you. You're trusting in yourself.
You need to come to the place that you see your nothingness
before God. You need to see that you've got
nothing that is commendable in yourself to God, and you need
to see that all the hope of eternal life is in the Lord Jesus Christ
offering Himself in your stead, place, and room until you see
that you've got no hope. But once you see it, once you
see it, then don't doubt the sufficiency of what He did. Don't say, well, I just don't
know. Well, I know that what He did
is sufficient to save every sinner who looks. And I can't doubt the sufficiency
of the offering of our Lord Jesus Christ. I see by Him offering
Himself, how God can be honorable to His law and at the same time
be the justifier of the individual who looks to Him. And the second
thing we need to learn is that we need to develop or cultivate
a hatred for sin. Sin killed Christ. Your sin and
my sin killed the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what made Him
go down? You know what made the Creator
become a creature? The Son of God become a man?
The infinite joined to an infant? You know what? Sin did that!
Sin brought Him down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down,
down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down,
down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down,
down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down,
down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down,
down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down,
down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down,
down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down,
down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, That's what
brought him down. What brought him down? Your sin,
my sin brought him down. Brought him down. Need to develop,
cultivate a terrible, terrible hatred for sin. Sin. Don't let
any sin climb upon the throne in your heart. Drive it out. Kill it. Kill it. Then we need
to learn thirdly, obedience. You see, if He humbled Himself
and became obedient, ought you and I to be obedient? If He did, Listen now, he humbled God, the
very God of very gods, who I'm talking about. I'm not talking
about Scott Richardson or Pat McGinnis. I'm not talking about
President Reagan or some other nobility. I'm talking about the
very God of very gods. That's who I'm talking about.
I'm talking about Jesus Christ. It says here that he humbled
himself. He humbled Himself. Don't think
you won't humble yourself. God will humble you. You can't
do it in the flesh. Only by the Spirit of God and
the look of the Lord Jesus Christ can God destroy the brag and
boast in you and bring you down to where you belong. But He'll
bring you there. If He ever saves you, He'll humble
you. You'll not go around with your nose up in the air. You'll
not go to church and say, well, they've insulted me and they
have no respect for me. I'll not go back. God will drive
that out of your heart. He'll make you to be content
and satisfied. He'll humble you. He'll break
you. He'll break or kill you, one of the two, or send you to
hell, whatever pleases Him. I'm telling you, you're going
to learn obedience. I'm going to learn obedience. That's all there
are to it. And maybe you say, well, preacher,
you ain't got much of it now. But I will have if I belong to
Him. I will have. Because He who humbled
Himself and became obedient, I'll have to do likewise. I'll
have to be obedient. I'll have to learn obedience.
Learn obedience. I'm amazed. I'm amazed that people
even raise the question of obedience. Should I do this? Should I do
that? Raise the question. My soul, there's no question
to it. Whatever the will of God is,
as revealed here in the Bible in your heart, do it. Do it.
Do it. When He speaks, do it. Don't
say, You think maybe I will if things look like it would be
profitable or to my advantage while maybe I'm moving that?
No, no, just do it! Do it, do it. Learn obedience. Our Lord Jesus Christ learned
it. Learn self-denial. Did He humble Himself? Practice
the same then. I hear some say, I've been insulted. Go down, go down. You haven't
been insulted. Go down, go down. Wait until
God exalts you. Our Lord Jesus Christ humbled
Himself. He went down, He went down, He
went down! He didn't say, well, they don't
treat me with no respect. I went down there to the synagogue,
and the fellow said, Hear the devil, don't hear Him. I went
down there through the crowd, and some of them said, What?
The miracles does this man perform as a scribe to Beelzebub? They didn't have no respect for
our Lord Jesus Christ. He went down, He went down, He
went down, and He awaited His appointed time, and He went to
the cross, a violent, violent death, and even God denied Him
His very presence. He said, My God, My God, why
have You turned Your back on Me? Why have You denied Me Your
comfort, Your presence? He became obedient unto death. Ah, he denied himself. You'll
have to learn it and I'll have to learn it. I don't care if
you have been insulted, I can't help it. If you haven't been
treated with respect, you'll have to go down and you'll have
to wait. Wait. That's hard, isn't it?
But you'll have to wait and I'll have to wait to what? Till God
exalts me. If I'm ever exalted, it'll have
to be God that exalts me. Ah? Quit trying to exalt yourself. If you're at a place that you're
not noticed, be satisfied with it. Maybe God will exalt you.
Maybe, I don't say that He will. You don't have to. But maybe
He'll exalt you. Maybe. He exalted the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read something to you
here. It says, He became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. That's humiliation. I haven't even touched it. I
couldn't touch it. I just don't have the spiritual
understanding. I don't have the intellect. I'm
not equipped in no way, shape, nor form to tell you the depths
of the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ. But just reading
the Scriptures, we see that in that 8th verse, the humility
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He went down, He went down. Notice,
it says in verse 9, Wherefore God, that's the difference, also
hath highly exalted Him. Brother, He went down. You know
that fellow on the television, that comedian, he says, I don't
have no respect. He says, I don't have no respect.
He says, I don't get no respect. Our Lord had no respect. Our
Lord had no honor. Our Lord achieved nothing of
any earthly value while He was here on this earth by way of
self-recognition, none whatsoever. Treated Him like a criminal,
like a criminal. He died like a criminal. He died. Just like a common Roman citizen
couldn't even die this way. It was against the law of Rome
to crucify a man. They crucified Him. Therefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name, the
name of the Lord Jesus." Now listen to what it says, "...that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every
tongue, yours and mine, should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father." Learn self-denial. Wait until God exalts you. Quit trying to exalt yourself.
Wait, and God, maybe, if it pleases Him, He'll exalt you. And then
fifthly, learn this. Learn contempt for human glory. Our Lord Jesus Christ wouldn't
have nothing to do with it. They said, well, we'll make you
a king. That's what they said. They said, come on. We'll make
you a king! And it says that he fled from
the present. It wasn't his time. He looked
with contempt upon human honor and human glory. Listen, I'm not worthy to sing
this morning, Jesus, lover of my soul, for I do not in any
measure return that love to Him that He richly deserves. Oh,
may God humble us. May God cause us to be obedient.
And the only way that will ever come to pass is if we come to
the cross and see Him. As Paul determined to unite these
people at Philippi through or under the instruction of God
the Holy Spirit, Paul brought them to the cross. They might
see the lowliness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the Lord
bless us, help us use his word for his own glory to achieve
His own purpose in you and in me. Let's stand and we'll sing
a verse of some hymn and be dismissed till this evening. We'll meet
again at 7 o'clock this evening. Hymn number 489. Down at the cross where my Savior
died Down where for cleansing from sin I cried There to my
heart was the blood of Christ Glory to His name Glory to His
name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. Second stanza. I am so wondrously
saved from sin. Jesus, so sweet, He abides within
There at the cross where He took me in Glory to His name Glory
to His name Glory to His name There to my heart was a flag
of life Glory to his name Oh gracious mountain that saves
from sin I am so glad I have entered in There Jesus saves
and keeps me clean Glory to His name! Glory to His name! Glory to His name! There to my heart was the blood
of life Glory to His name! Come to this fountain so rich
and sweet, and cast thy poor soul at the Saviour's feet. Let's sing it. Come to this fountain
so rich and sweet, cast thy poor soul at the Saviour's feet. Plunge in today and be made complete. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. God will help us in all kinds
of things. The Lord help us to be calm inside. Help us to learn peace. To learn
to lower our minds. To learn to be full of surrender
to God. Help us to learn this in God's
name. Help us to learn peace. In our pride, our ambition to
be someone, Lord, let us live our lives in your way, in your name. West, I work, north,
I move. North, I sing.