Seeking the Lord's help and guidance
of the Spirit once more as we come to the Word of God, I'd
like us to turn in our Bibles to the chapter that we read together,
Philippians chapter 2, and the text you'll find in verse 6. Who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. to make sense
of the verses we need to read from verse five. 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 fashioned
as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Because of this, wherefore 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 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. I know over this
time of year particularly, we remember the birth of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We sing the lovely Christmas
carols that tell us of God manifest in the flesh, that tell us of
our God contracted to a span, that tell us of the wonderful
way in which the angels proclaim the message of the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ, for unto you this day is born in the city
of David, a saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And it is a
wonderful time of year to focus upon the wonder of God coming
in the flesh. And to many, the Lord Jesus Christ
is just a prophet. His beginning was at Bethlehem. But we know, and according to
the scriptures and by faith we lay hold of it, that Christ had
no beginning and he had no end. He had a beginning in the sense
that he was born of a woman under the law, yet prior to that he
has always existed. And the text which we hope to
look at tells us who, being in the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God. We looked at, on Wednesday, the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking to the Pharisees and saying to them, before Abraham
was, that I am. And as he declared that statement
to the Pharisees, they picked up stones to stone him. They acknowledged that what he
was saying, that he is putting himself in an equal position
with God. And to them, that was blasphemy. To them, that was worthy of death. Verily, verily, or truly, truly,
I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. In the prayer of the
Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 17, when he is doing his priestly
prayer, speaking to his father, he acknowledges that he was with
God, before the foundation of the world. John 17, verses four
and five, it says, I have glorified thee on earth. I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. And so Jesus acknowledges with
his own lips that he was with the Father before the foundation
of the world. And before the foundation of
the world, they entered into a covenant of salvation to save
his people from the consequences of their sins and to enable him
to do that. the Lord Jesus Christ was going
to have to come down from that eternal realm, the spiritual
realm, and put on flesh as a man and enter into his own kingdom,
his own creation, through the womb of the Virgin Mary. Glorify me with the same glory
which was with thee, and I had with thee, before the world was. And so it's a vital doctrine. People don't like doctrine. People say dry doctrine. And
doctrine of itself is dry. Doctrine with the Spirit is not
dry. Doctrine with the Spirit fills
us with an understanding which we didn't have before about the
Lord Jesus Christ. And if we didn't have doctrine,
if we didn't have teaching, you wouldn't understand why the Lord
Jesus Christ came. You wouldn't understand for what
reason he was born under the law of God. You wouldn't understand
for what reason he died upon the cross. You wouldn't understand
for what reason the Lord poured out his wrath upon him. You wouldn't
understand for what reason he was raised again on the third
day. And so doctrine, teaching, is essential to the believer
to enable them to fully understand and appreciate all that the Lord
Jesus Christ did for them. And the whole scripture is filled
with teaching, filled with doctrine, to enable us to understand and
appreciate the great sacrifice and the great lengths that God
went to to save his people from the consequences of their sin. Doctrine without the Spirit.
Yes, we complain about just head knowledge, and head knowledge
of itself would not save anyone, and an understanding of doctrine
would not save anybody. But as a believer, as a believer,
we're told to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is growth to be had through an understanding
of doctrine, through the teaching of the Scripture, that you may
be able to appreciate the work and the humility that Christ
undertook to save you and me from the consequences of our
sin. And so Christ always has existed
as the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God. Right from the
beginning of Scripture, we read, let us make man in our image. Let us. Not let me make man in
my image, let us make man in our image. And through the Old
Testament, we read, as we looked at on Wednesday, different occasions
when Christ appeared in his pre-incarnate state. Before he was born, he
appeared in the Old Testament at different times to communicate
and to reveal the will of God to one and another of the saints
in the Old Testament. One of the Psalms tells us, The
most quoted psalm in the New Testament, Psalm 110, tells us
something that David saw, something that David heard by the Spirit. Psalm 110, verse 1, the Lord
said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. the Lord. If you look in your
Bibles you will see that the first word Lord is written in
capital letters. We know if we go back to the
original languages that that would be the direct translation
of the name of God, Jehovah. And so it's written in capital
letters for us to distinguish it from the other ways in which
it is written. So it says, Jehovah said unto
my Lord, The other Lord has a capital L, which is the word Adonai,
which means sovereign or master. And so as David is almost listening
to a conversation of the Godhead saying, Jehovah, God said to
the sovereign one, sit thou at my right hand. The right hand
is the right hand of power, the right hand of privilege, the
right hand of authority. And that position we know as
we look into the New Testament is given to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so David, before Christ was
even born, saw or heard by faith through the Spirit, the Trinity
as it were, communing one with another. The Lord said to my
Lord, sit down at my right hand. Verse four tells us there are
a priest after the order of Melchizedek. We know in the book of Genesis
it tells us there that there was that priest of Salem called
Melchizedek who met with Abraham and who blessed Abraham and who
received of Abraham 10% of his properties, having no beginning
and no end. The scripture tells us in the
New Testament that Christ is the high priest of the order
of Melchizedek, having no beginning and no end. And David is enabled
to see by faith His son that would sit on the eternal throne. There are a priest after the
order of Melchizedek, who was David's Lord. He says, the Lord
said to my Lord. Psalm 23, David tells us there,
the Lord is my shepherd. But here he uses the name of
God, capital letters, Lord Jehovah. Jehovah is my shepherd. I shall
not want. He makes me to lie down. And
so as David listens to Jehovah speaking, he confesses that he
is speaking to my Lord also. That God is his and that Christ
is his. and he has always existed and
he always will exist. Jesus, quoting from this psalm,
asks the Pharisees a question. Matthew 22. In verse 42, Jesus is with the Pharisees
and he asks them a question. What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? They said unto him, The son of
David. He said unto them, How doth David
in the spirit call him Lord, saying? The Lord said unto my
Lord, Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy
footstool. If David then call him Lord,
how is he his son? No man was able to answer him
a word. Neither doth any man from that
day forth ask him any more questions. You see, they were totally confused
by what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying. If Jesus, if the Christ,
the Messiah, is going to be the son of David, how is David able
by the Spirit to call him Lord and Master and Sovereign One? David was promised, wasn't he,
by the prophet that his kingdom was going to, that he was going
to have one that would come who would sit on an eternal throne,
an eternal kingdom, that he would sit there forever and forever. In the book of Acts, when Peter is preaching on the
day of Pentecost, He uses the same account, the same words. Acts chapter 2. For David is
not ascended into the heavens, but he said unto himself, The
Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make
thy foes thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. The Lord said to my Lord, sit
thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
David's God yet David's son? And the Pharisees couldn't answer
the question because they couldn't put the two together. They couldn't
comprehend how he could be David's son and yet David's Lord at the
same time. They couldn't get it into their
minds that God was to put on flesh. and to come down to earth
by the means of the virgin birth. In the book of Luke, as we read
on Wednesday, chapter one, the angel makes it clear. And the angel, verse 30, and
the angel said unto her, fear not, Mary, for thou hast found
favour with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus. We know he's called Jesus because
he shall save his people from their sins. He shall be great. He shall be called the Son of
the Highest. and the Lord of God shall give
unto him the throne of his father David. You see in that one verse
the two are reconciled together. He shall be called the son of
the highest, the son of God, but his father David. son of God,
son of man, son of David, reconciled together in one flesh. And we
see as we look through the genealogy of Christ, all the way back to
David, both Mary and Joseph come together under the providence
of God to bring a son into this world via the kingly line of
David, yet Joseph had no intervention into that relationship, in conceiving
that child. We know the Holy Spirit came
upon her. And she conceived a son and called
his name Jesus. So both fulfilling the promise
given to David at his father's throne, son of David, yet son
of God. And you can understand why the
Pharisees didn't understand what Jesus was talking about. You
can understand how they couldn't reason it out in their minds
as people still can't reason it out today. The Muslims cannot
understand that God would put himself into human form. It's
impossible. If he's here, who is there? They
cannot understand that nothing shall be called impossible with
God. The unbelievers cannot understand that Christ, both fully God and
fully man. And yet the scripture reveals
it to us. He was no less God than he was
no less man. God and man reconcile. who being in the form of God. As God, as a second person of the Trinity, being equal with the Father,
the Lord Jesus Christ possessed every single attribute that God
the Father possessed. God manifest in the flesh. Every characteristic of God was
found in the very person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was
holy as God is holy. Christ was eternal as God is
eternal. In Psalm 90, It tells us there of God and how he is from everlasting. Psalm 91 and verse 1 it says,
The Lord, Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man
to destruction. Thou sayest, return, ye children
of men, for a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday,
when it is past, and as a watch in the night. And so if that
is the characteristic of God, if that is how God is, then that
was the same for the Lord Jesus Christ. Before ever the mountains were
brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. And so for Christ,
that is Him also. From everlasting to everlasting,
He is God. And yet, when the fullness of
time came, God who exists outside of time, a thousand years in
His sight are just as yesterday. Yet when the fullness of time
came, that specific period that He had decreed, He sent forth
His Son into the world. And as God is, ever-present. So Christ is also ever-present. There is no place that we can
go and hide from God. David tells us, if I go up to
the mountains, thou art there. If I go and make my bed in the
depths of the earth, in hell, thou art there. And some Latin
words that you can use for that, which you may have heard, omnipresent,
which means all present. that God is in all the places
at all the times which is why we can minister today and we
can say that those who are online can also be blessed with the
presence of God because God can meet with us, he can meet with
them, he can bless us by his spirit, he is not limited to
the bodily limitations that we have. His omniscience, His all-knowing. He knows everything. He knows
every single thing about me. He knows every single thing about
you. He knows the very thoughts of
our minds. He knows the intent of our hearts.
He knows the reasons why we do the things that we do. Everything
He knows about. We as people just discover the
things that God has already known. Those things that are hidden
from us are hidden because God has hidden them. But he's also omnipotent, all-powerful. And each of those attributes,
we see them in the Lord Jesus Christ. He had them before. Yet we say
he added unto himself human flesh, so in a sense he had limitations
of a human body. He was tired, he was hungry,
he was weary. And yet, as we look at his life,
we see that he still possessed those attributes that were rightfully
his. when he was calling the apostles.
And Nathaniel came to Jesus. Jesus says to him, I saw you under the fig tree. Yet through the limitations of
his human body, he couldn't see. He could only see as we see.
Yet as God manifest in the flesh, his divine nature, he was able
to view Nathaniel in another place. Though he was still omnipresent. It was about the lady at the
well. As Jesus sat down because he
was weary and the lady was there. And he tells her, you've had
seven husbands. He was all-knowing. He knew everything
about her. He knew that she would be there.
He exposed her heart. And what does she declare? Come
and see a man that told me all the things that ever I did. Natural a man, yes. But through
his divine nature, he was able to understand every single thing
about that lady. He knew her past sin and he exposed
it and rooted it out and she confessed that he was a prophet. We read, don't we, of Jesus being
asleep in the boat, human nature tired after preaching, weary
of the day. And we find him standing up and
rebuking the wind and the waves and the disciples saying, what
manner of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?
And so we see in those times his human nature and his divine
nature at one. Having the power over the wind
and the waves to be able to bring about a great calm. We're being in the form of God.
He was God. He is God. Thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. Now this is quite hard to understand. Some versions translate it, he
thought it something to be, he didn't have to grasp it, because
it was already his. If we are robbed of something,
If someone steals something from us, they are taking something
that is rightfully ours, something that belongs to us. We say, if there's a show or something,
or if we've got children playing, we say that one of them has stolen
the spotlight from another. What was rightfully theirs has
been stolen by another. They've outshined the other one. Sometimes when we go to a wedding,
the ladies say, well, she outdressed the bride. Her garments were
more beautiful than the bride's garments. She stole the glory. Every eye was upon her rather
than that eye being upon the bridegroom. I was once at a certain place and I was
speaking to a man and I said to him, oh I hear you're a joiner. Now in the building trade, each
trade believes that their trade is the best trade. and the most
skilled trade. And so you have a carpenter and
you have a joiner. The carpenter believes that he's
better than the joiner and the joiner believes he's better than
the carpenter. But then there is another field.
And so I said to this man, I hear you're a joiner. And he said,
no, I'm actually a cabinet restorer. You see, he was hurt by my mistitled
him. His training and his apprenticeship
had got him to that great position of a cabinet restorer. And I
had brought down his education, as it were, to the level of a
joiner. I stole some of his glory. I
stole something that was rightfully his to have. And it was not robbery to call
Christ God. because he is God. You're not
robbing anything of him and you're not adding anything to him by
calling him the son of God or that he was with God or that
he is in the form, the very form and image of God. Jesus is not
robbed of anything. We're just declaring what he
actually is. If you say to a child, one of
my children, you say, oh, you must be about 10. And they're
13. They will not be happy. Because
you've robbed them of something that they hold dear to, that
they feel that they're big because they're 13. And you're calling
them 10. And so they feel you've stolen
something, some years from them. But by calling Christ God, You're
not robbing him of anything. You're giving him the glory that
he deserves because that's what he is. You're being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God because he is
equal. Yes, we know in the Trinity that
each one has their specific roles in salvation. God chose the people,
Christ saved those people, the Holy Spirit reveals the saving
work to those people. And yet they are of one mind,
they're united of one essence. There's never any disagreement
between the individual natures and the individual characters
of the Godhead. But as the Bible tells us about
God, and as the Bible tells us about Christ, and it doesn't
rob Christ or rob God of any single glory, so that means what
it says about us is also true. We are not equal with God. The book of Romans, chapter three, It tells us there. In verse 10 it says, there is
none righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
With their tongues they have used deceit. Their poison of
asps is under their lips, whose mouths is full of cursings and
bitterness. And so this is what God declares
that we are like. There is none righteous. No, not one. Verse 23, for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so in that
declaration of who we are, God is not robbing us of anything.
He's telling us this is exactly how you people are. This is how
I see you from my holy position. This is the effect that sin has
had on every single one of my created beings. Those who are
created in my image and my likeness have been corrupted by sin and
as I look down from my holy heaven and through my pure eyes I see
this is what you are like. You see it's not what we think
we are like. The Bible tells us we go to the
mirror and we look at ourselves and we think well we look pretty
good and then we walk away and we forget what type of people
we actually are. It is what God sees. And God sees us, that we have
sinned and fallen short of his glory. And you know how bad we
are and the extent of our depravity is seen in the means by which
God has used to save us. You see, you could have just
said, you know, I forgive you. You know, you've been bad people. I'm just going to let you off,
say you're sorry and all will be OK. But the extent of our
sin and the hardness of our hearts and the inability that we have
to save ourselves is seen in this birth of the Lord Jesus
Christ. the extent that God had to go
to save a people is seen at Bethlehem. That Christ, who ever was, and
who always will be, and who lived in eternal union with the Father,
having limitless power, limitless presence, limitless glory, having
the angels shielding their eyes from him, worshipping him, and then being contracted to
a span, adding to himself human flesh,
that he may save his people from their sins. You see, the greater the inability for a person to
save themselves, the greater need is used to save them. Think of, often think of actually,
of those young boys who were trapped in the cave a few years
ago. I've forgotten where it was.
And they went on, I think it was a football club, they went
on a cave exploration with their coach. And as they were there
in the cave, the rain came down and the water within the cave
rose up and trapped them. And there was an international
outcry for people to come and save these children. And the
extent and the money that was thrown at this group to save
them was immense because they were deemed worthy of being saved. And so all means, at all costs,
was used to save them. Now, we do not see ourselves
as worthy to be saved, but God, by his grace, because they pulled out all of
the stops to save a people who don't even want to be saved. And for us to be saved by God's
grace, he first has to work in our hearts to give us a desire
to be saved. Like the lost sheep, he doesn't
know it's lost until it's dark all around about him and then
only he cries out. And so God's mercy and God's
love is seen in giving us this child of the Lord Jesus Christ
and as many as receive him. We can't even receive him until
these things are opened up unto us. And may it be today that
the Spirit will open our eyes that we may receive the Lord
Jesus Christ, the God-man, God manifested in the flesh. Not
only was he born in Bethlehem to sit on the eternal throne
of David, son of God, son of man, but he was born so that
he may live. that he may live a life without
sin, that he may die upon the cross and be the perfect substitute
for sinners, that the sins of his people may be laid upon him,
and that his perfection may be credited to their account. And
then he rose again on the third day. 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. I may be enabled this afternoon
then to look at the verse 7. We know the humiliation of the
Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.