Alright, go back to Philippians
2. I believe the writer of that
hymn knew the gospel, don't you? A woman, Kate, I forgot her last
name already. She would have it so. She would
have us forget her name. But she said, him exalting, self-abasing,
this is victory. That's what John said, that he
must increase, I must decrease. That's victory. Victory over
self. Alright, let's read verses 1-4 again, chapter 2. If there
be therefore any consolation in Christ, any fellowship of
the Spirit, if any bowels of mercy, fulfill ye my joy that
ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord,
of one mind, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.
But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than
themselves. Look not every man on his own
thing, but every man also on the things of others." Verse
5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. This mind. The church at Philippi
was a special place to Paul. All the churches were, but if
you remember Lydia and the jailer, he commended the church at Philippi
greatly to others. He said they were an example
to others. But he still exhorts them to
be like-minded and not have any strife or vain glory. Don't think
of themselves, but think on things of others. And this church is,
to me, very special and an example to others, and I commend you,
this church, to everyone I know, everywhere I go, commend you,
and you commend yourselves. When people come here, like John
and others, they say there's no place they'd rather preach,
and it's so. And like Paul said, I'm confident
that God has done a work in you and He'll finish it. But even
at that, we're still liable to these things that Paul warns
about and instructs and exhorts about. And so we need that. We're sinners. And we'll need
these admonitions and exhortations until the day we die. Our greatest
need is to be done with ourselves. That's our greatest need. Be
done with self. Our Lord said, if you're going
to follow me, you've got to deny yourself. Self's got to go. And
be like Christ. And what this is all about is
the mind of Christ, how He thought what He did, He denied Himself. He made Himself of no reputation. So this is what I want for you
and for me. Don't think of ourselves, but
think like Christ. Think on others. He said, let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Verse 6, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant,
made in the likeness of men. He said he was in the form of
God and equal with God. I thought about that. I mean,
the form of God. The image of God. has the express image of God,
Hebrews 1 says. All the fullness of the Godhead
in a bodily image is Jesus Christ. Everything about God is pure
and lovely, and Christ is the embodiment of all that. But He
was in the image of God, and He is right now in the image
of God. Which image we haven't seen.
His glorified body we have not seen. The Scriptures call it
a glorious image. More beautiful and lovely than
any man or woman ever. More so than Adam and Eve who
were created in His image, but inferior. Just as the moon, you
know, reflects something of the Son, but nowhere near the glory
of the Son. But he had an image in the beginning,
and he has that same image now. Altogether lovely. Without spot,
without blemish. Scars, but without fault, without
flaw. And I can't describe that. John
does in Revelation 1, but we can't really enter into that.
But here it says, that he took the fashion of a man, took upon
him the form of a servant, verse 7, was made in the likeness of
men. And the likeness that he took
was in the likeness of sinful flesh, but without sin. He took
a body, Scripture says, without form or comeliness. If you could
choose to look any way you would want to, what would you take? Come on now. Every man or woman
here is so full of vainglory that you would choose to be something
or someone beautiful to look at, wouldn't you? Not our Lord. He could choose any body that
He would. And He chose a body. A body was
prepared for Him without form or comeliness. That is, nothing
unusual about it, very common. No beauty. Scripture says when
we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. No
outward attractiveness in His flesh. Nothing about His flesh
that would attract you to Him. As I said, how vain we are. How
image conscious we are. We're so conscious of our image. When image means nothing, it
means nothing. Our Lord showed that. That the
image means nothing. What you look like means nothing. That true beauty is character. True beauty is Christ's likeness,
character, the beauty of holiness. That's what the Scripture
said, that worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The most
beautiful person on earth, be it man or woman, can be a very
ugly person, can't they? because of pride. There's nothing
uglier than pride and nothing more beautiful than humility
and kindness and tenderness. There's nothing more beautiful.
Nothing. It can take a positively unlovely looking person and make
them look beautiful. Then, you know, someone says
we should not try to make ourselves look nice then. We should not
try to look pretty. Well, some of us can try all
we want to and it won't make any difference anyway. And I
keep telling you ladies, you don't need that. You ought to
tell your daughters that from the start. They don't need any
of those things. But you do anyway because you
want to look lovely. You want to look attractive for
your spouse. There's nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing wrong with that. If you can adorn yourselves to
be attractive to your spouse, that's fine. And do it without
vanity. That's fine. When Peter said
this, I'm saying this for your comfort, those of you who Try. When Peter said the adornment
to the wives, let your adorning not be, let it not be that outward
adorning such as the plaiting of hair and the wearing of gold
and the putting on of raiment. He's not saying you can't do
those things. You can't put on raiment? No,
he's not saying that. You can't wear gold? No, he's
not saying that. Not saying that at all. Not forbidding
that at all. But he said, the ornament which you need more
than anything else is a meek and a quiet spirit. That is what
will win your husband. That's what he said. And I'm
reminded of the child in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 16, when the Lord found
that child very ugly to look at. And the Lord took that child,
and the first thing it did was wash it and clean it up, and
then put bracelets on it. And I know all that's a picture,
but nevertheless, He did. He put all this beauty and earring
and so forth and decked it out. Solomon was arrayed gloriously,
wasn't he? But then the child in the field,
what did she do? Her beautiful through His comeliness. He's the one that made her beautiful.
Okay? But what she did? So she trusted
in her beauty and played the harlot. And that's when she got
ugly. So, there's nothing wrong with
the outward adornment of the flesh, but our Lord is teaching
us here by example. He made Himself very common.
He made Himself of no commonness to show that true beauty is inward.
And also, that men might not be attracted to flesh, but to
Spirit. You see? True marriage is not,
you know, when you're dating and all that, you become infatuated.
And there's not a person who's not attracted physically to that
person if they start dating, okay? But after, there's got
to be something much deeper than that. It's got to be something
much deeper than an outward attraction, doesn't it? It's got to be an
inward attraction. And our Lord, this is the faith
of God's people. Nobody saw any outward beauty
in Him that they should desire Him. Nobody. But the disciple,
and He looked just like a man, any old man to anybody else,
but the disciple saw something in Him. by the grace of God,
saw something in him. God in him. Father in him. So that's why our Lord took on
a body, a form of a man without beauty or without company. And
it says, look at this, it says he was equal with God. He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. Equal in glory. Equal in honor. Equal in authority
and power. Worshipped as God by angels,
seraphs, cherubs. Worshipped as God because He
was God. Because He is God. That's why
they worshipped Him. Even God said that. Thy throne,
O God, is forever. Hebrews 1.8. God said that about
His Son. God the Father said he was God.
Call his name, wonderful Counselor, the mighty God. Why do we believe
Jesus Christ is God? Because he is. The everlasting
Father. He said to Philip, have I been
so long time with you and yet you haven't known me. See, they
couldn't get past this flesh sometimes until he would show
them who he was. He said, he that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. And so he's God. But he thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but verse 7, made himself
of no reputation. Took upon him the form of a servant. Made himself of no reputation. Now reputation is what you are
reputed to be by others. Reputation. Reputed to be. What
others estimate you to be. Their opinion of you. It's what
others think of you. And there's nothing men or women
or young people are more concerned with than what people think about
us is. Our Lord did not care. Oh, to be like that. Huh? Oh,
to be like that. To not be concerned about my
reputation. Our Lord did not. How we appear
before men. What others think about us. Pride,
vainglory, self-worth. That's reputation. Self is what
that is. Be concerned about our self.
We want people to think highly of ourselves. If we're not so beautiful, we
want to try to appear beautiful. If we're weak, we want to appear
strong. If we're poor, we don't want
them to think we're poor. If we're ignorant, we don't want
them to think we're ignorant. We want them to think we know
something. We try so hard to form a reputation when Scripture
says we're nothing. If any man thinks himself to
be something, he's nothing, anything at all. A bunch of worms trying
to impress other worms. I wish I could get that through
mine. I wish this mind was in me. That I would not be concerned
with what other worms think about this worm? They're taller than
I am. Goodness gracious. My, my. Let this mind be in you. Oh, for the mind of Christ. He
whom angels praised cared nothing for the praise of men. He only
cared for what God thought about him. We would be so much happier if
we were that way. The praise of men, he didn't
pay any attention to. He knew that they would be turning
on him at any moment. The disapproval of men, the lies
told on him, he committed himself to the Father. Oh, to have the
mind of Christ. And look at this, it says, "...he
took upon him the form of a servant." If you could be anything you
wanted to be, what would you be? If you could have any position
on earth, what would you take? Come on now. Would you be a foot
washer? If you could be anything on earth,
What would you be? Would you be a maid in somebody's
house, washing dishes and cleaning clothes? That's what the God
of heaven did. My, my. Christ did. The King
of Heaven came down to wash feet. That's what He said. He said,
you call me Lord and Master. You say, well, for so I am. That's who I am, Lord and Master.
And He said, if I then, your Lord and Master, have washed
your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. I've
given you an example that you should do as I've done unto you.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than
his Lord." He's talking about himself there. He said, I washed
his feet. Nothing is beneath you because you're under his
feet. Nothing is beneath us. The servant's
not greater than his Lord, neither is he that sent greater than
he that sent him. If you know these things, happy
are you. Happy are you if you do them.
Christ is that blessed man, that happy man. It pleased Him for
the joy set before Him to serve. And I have to use my children
again. I'm sorry. Guess what grandparents do? Parents
do it, but grandparents are worse. When you get to be a grandparent,
you don't have to apologize for it. You don't care. They just say, well, he's just
an old grandfather. Well, fine. But there's nothing
gives me joy any more than doing things for them. When they come
over and spend the night with us, I'm Mr. Mom. I just do anything and everything
they want me to do. They want to fix pancakes every
morning. They want to help. Oh, man. They can't help much. They can help mess up. But it
doesn't matter. I love it. I just enjoy being
with them and doing for them. I'll clean up the biggest mess.
It does not matter. It gives me great joy. Well,
Christ for the joy. set before him, came to this
earth and took upon himself the form of a servant, one who serves
others." A servant is one who's thinking of the comfort of others.
One who's thinking of the well-being of others. A servant's not thinking
about himself. He's thinking who he can serve.
How he can serve. The needs of others. Never about
self. And our Lord used in Isaiah, He said, Behold My servant. 42. My servant. Talking about
a butler. One who is in charge of the house,
yet doesn't get the glory. He's a servant. He's entrusted
by the Lord and Master of the house to care for his estate. And he doesn't get the glory
for it, but he gets the privilege of being a servant and he does
all that. And the Lord said, Behold, my
servants. and whom I delight, mine elect." That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said it's more blessed to
give than to receive. It's more blessed to serve than
to be served. He said if you knew these things,
you'd be happy. I haven't learned this yet. I haven't learned this
yet. A servant never says, why can't
somebody else do it? Something needs to be done. A
servant sees that something needs to be done and they do it. Why?
Because it needs to be done. Out of love to the one they serve.
I haven't learned that yet. I'm too selfish. How about you? Verse 7, he says, he was made
in the likeness of men, in the fashion of a man. He who robed
himself in light robed himself in wool. Plain working clothes. The king on a throne came down
and put on common clothes. Humbled himself. That's it. Humbled
himself. He's the only one that deserves
honor and glory and praise. The only one that could be proud
and not be sinful. And yet he humbled himself. You
know, humility should come easy to us, shouldn't it? It should. It shouldn't be hard
for us to think lowly thoughts of ourselves. That's what he
said up there in verse 3. Lowliness of mind. Have lowliness
of mind. Our Lord said, I'm meek and I'm
lowly. My, my, my. It shouldn't be hard for us to
think lowly thoughts because we are lowly. But the fact of
the matter is, it's impossible. It's impossible for us to be
humble unless the Lord does it. Unless the Lord humbles us. And
He does it. His people. This is the difference
between God's people and the people of this world that are
lifted up in pride. Those that walk in pride, He's able to obey.
And the work that God does in every one of His people, the
first work He does in all of His people to make them like
Christ is to humble them in His sight. All flesh is going to
be humbled someday. The lofty looks of man are going
to be brought down. And the first thing the Lord does for a human
being is to bring them down, to see what they are. How does
He do this? What's the principal way that
He humbles us? To show us Jesus Christ. to put us standing beside the
Lord Jesus Christ and our beauty melts to corruption. Isn't that
what John said? Isn't that what Job said? Isn't that what Daniel said? Our beauty melted to corruption. That's why he said here, let
this mind be in you. You keep in mind who Christ was
and what He made Himself. You keep in mind where Christ
came from and what He came to do. You keep that in mind and
that will keep you lowly. God humbles us in many ways. He humbles us through trials.
He humbles us through failures. Failures are good. Somebody says,
I learned through trial and error. You'll learn more through error
than anything. Failures. What you'll learn is God is merciful. God is gracious. God is long-suffering. And I am nothing. Without Him,
I can do nothing. I can't stand up for a minute.
That's what we'll learn. I am not as big as I think I
am. I am not as brave as I think I am. Abraham learned that, didn't
he? Verse 8, he says, He was found
in the fashion of a man, and he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death. Our Lord didn't have to die,
but we do. So he died that we won't. If you would ask the average
person, and if I were to ask you, maybe not knowing what you
know now, would you choose to die if you didn't have to? No, you wouldn't. Brother Gabe was
honest about it, wasn't he? Would you choose to die if you
didn't have to? No one would. They'd want to live forever.
Would you die for someone else? Someone else is scheduled to,
it has to die? And you don't? And you'd take their place? Would
you? I mean really, would you? And our Lord said this, for scarcely
for a righteous man would one die. I might die for Brother
John there. I love Brother John. I think
I might. I don't know. If you hold a gun to my head,
I don't know, John. Do you? We don't know. Yet, peradventure for a good
man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love
toward us, and why we are sinners, death row inmates. I would not
do that. I can tell you that right now.
I know I wouldn't do that. Would you? Such as the mind,
the love, the greater loving? No man can do it. I'm obedient unto death.
He didn't have to die. He had to willingly submit to
die. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I lay it down unto myself. And he didn't do it for good
people. That's why we're going to be
singing unto Him that died for us. Someday we'll know. We'll really know and appreciate
that. Given a choice, we wouldn't,
but He did. Obedient to the Father, obedient to the will of the Father,
agreed to die even The death of the cross. Now, we might agree
to die a noble death, to say someone, but an ignoble death?
A shameful death? To be put to open shame? To be
ridiculed by everyone? To die for the very ones that
are ridiculing you? Come on now. Sometimes I can't think of another
word to say when I think about these things other than, this
is unbelievable. Un-be-lievable. That's not the way of man. See,
that's why God says, My ways are as high above your ways as
the heavens are here. You wouldn't do this. This is
what makes Him God. This is what makes Him love. God is love. You want to know the true meaning
of love? Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. Amen. Let this mind be anew. Even the death of the cross,
it says, he humbled himself, became obedient unto the death
of the cross. Hebrews 12, oh how I love that,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For
the joy set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame.
Despise the shame. That means he thought nothing
of it. He didn't care. He didn't mind hanging naked
on the cross for everyone to ridicule him and make fun of
him because he knew it was the only way he could save those
that he loved. He wouldn't have. He didn't have. We would do that
for our children, I believe, wouldn't we? It would still be
a horrible, shameful thing since he thought nothing of it. I thought
nothing of it. The death of the cross. That's why Paul said, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross. Or what Christ did on
the cross. Who died on the cross. And so
it says in verse 9, wherefore. Wherefore God hath highly exalted
him. and given Him a name which is
above every name, Lord. Given all things in His hand.
That the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Things in heaven,
things in earth, things under the earth. He deserves to be
bowed to, doesn't He? By men, angels. That every tongue should confess,
verse 11, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father who sent Him. The Father didn't have to send
Him. But God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son. My, my, my, my. You want the motivation to be
like Christ is? It's not the law. It's this right
here. It's love. There's no greater
gospel passage than this right here, and there's no greater
motivation to God than this, to Christ like this, than this
right here. You see why He said, look at verse 1, He says, if
there be any consolation in Christ, consolation in Him, His glorification. You know, He went through shame
and He was hated and He was despised and He died a shameful death,
but He is right now glorified and whatever we go through, it's
not going to last long. There's consolation in Christ,
whatever we go through. We're not rich, we're not beautiful,
we're not this or whatever. Christ made Himself of that way.
He was content. If there be any comfort of love,
His love, He has loved us. If He loves me, why should I
worry? If He loves me, why should I worry whether or not everybody
else loves me? I want to be loved, you want
to be loved, don't you? But if He loves me, what does
it matter? If any fellowship of the Spirit, any fellowship
with Him, fellowship with His children, any bowels and mercies,
any yearning for Him, yearning for each other, I believe we
have that, don't we? He says, fulfill my joy. He said,
this will make me happy. That you be like-minded, be like
Christ, having the same love, one accord, that is in harmony
with one another, of one mind. What will do this? There's only
one thing that will do this. Looking to Him, let nothing be
done through strife or vain glory. Vain glory? Be done with self,
He says. Vain glory? Any glory we take
is vain. Strife? But in lowliness of mind,
let each esteem other better than themselves. If we really
believe we're the chief of sinners, if we really believe that, We will esteem others better
than ourselves, won't we? Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. That's
what Christ did, didn't He? What are the things of others
that we should look on? And I'll close with this. The things of
others. Well, you know, our things are
our health. We look to our health. We're
concerned about our health, our wealth, our financial condition,
our family. We have a family. If we're married,
our wife, our husband, our children, our grandchildren, we're concerned
with them. That's just love, isn't it? We're concerned with
them. If we go through sickness, we're concerned about ourselves.
We nurse ourselves. We nurture ourselves. If we go
through trials, we're down and depressed and we want somebody
to help us, we say, don't think about yourself. Think on others. Think on the pains of others. Think on them. Don't think, how
can I use this for myself? What's the motivation? He who
was rich, yet for our sakes became poor. What did he give? Everything. Would you do that? Would you
do that? Give up all your earthly goods
for somebody else to have. Maybe your children. But he did
that, didn't he? He did that. Think on the things
of others. The health of others. The wealth of others. The family
of others. We're so concerned with our children,
as we should be. Our grandchildren, as we should
be. Think on other people's children. Think on them. You know, God,
you know how God operates. Something about how He operates.
That if you do unto others, He'll do it unto you. Won't He? It's
always been that way. That's the way He is. That's
the way He is. He's promised. Tell me, if your
children do something kind or something charitable, will you
not repay it? Did you not when they were little?
Did you not to try to teach them to do that? Because you're caring
for them. And whatever they have, they
got it from you. And if they share that, nothing
makes you happier. Nothing makes you happier than
that. God loves a cheerful giver. He loves a cheerful giver. He
loves a cheerful giver. You know what He'll do? He'll
give it to you cheerfully. Give it to you. Family, children,
and unsaved My wife is a believer, but there
are people married to unbelievers. And I can't imagine what that
would be like. Can you imagine what that would be like, Mary,
to go home to a husband that hates the gospel? Tear down everything
you heard. You came to worship and you go
home and he tears down everything you heard. We have ladies that
go through that. We ought to be thinking about them. praying for their spouses, and
vice versa, husbands and wives that don't love the gospel. We
ought to be thinking that. Our Lord did. But this man, he never
thought of himself. He never prayed for himself,
except one time. One time in the garden when he was getting
ready to be made sin, and his holy character recoiled at the
thought of being separated from the Father and being made sin,
which he was the opposite of, and he said, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, thy will be done. The trials of others. We go through
trials. We go through troubles of our
own. But our Lord said His grace is sufficient. He said think
on the things of others. Think on their trial. If we'll
look hard enough, we'll find somebody going through one tougher
than ours. Every time. Every time. My dad, we just had to get him
a walker. A walker. He had dizziness and
trouble around the house. A walker. Now that's humiliating
for a man that was once strong and able to do anything for himself. Humanly speaking, an independent,
strong, proud man. You know what I mean? to be reduced to, you know, being
helped a lot, a walker. But then we started talking about
people that don't have any legs. They'd love to have a walk behind
a walker. People don't have any arms, can't
even hold on to a walker. People paralyze from a neck down. They can't even feed themselves. Oh, my. Somebody worse than that. Think on things of others. And
when he talks about others, he's not talking just about the family
of God, the people of God. I met a man yesterday. Well,
I didn't meet him. I saw him again after many years.
And I did some business with him. I hadn't seen him in a long
time. And he told me his wife's been
in a nursing home for eight years. She's got something akin to Alzheimer's,
but it's worse. And she's been in his nursing
home for eight years and he's gone to see her and take care
of her for eight years. Every day. I can't imagine. Can you? I can't imagine. I hope I do
that. I believe I would, but I don't
want to go through that. But I thought, that poor man.
And the scripture says pray for all men. Pray for them all. Our Lord prayed for people. My, my. God loves a servant. God loves a selfless, sacrificial
servant. God loves a cheerful giver. God
hates the selfish. So let this mind be in you, this
loving, selfless mind of Christ who, being God, it became a man. We don't know what condescension
it was for God to become a man. I have those worms, you know,
and I often try to think of what it would be like to become a
worm. I can't do that. I just can't.
I can't do it. Well, that's what he said in
Psalm 22, I'm a worm. The only high potentate, King
of kings and Lord of lords became a worm. What would be to us a
worm? to die for one and live for one.
Let this mind be of you. Okay, stand with me.