Philippians chapter 2. Let's read verse 12 again. This
is the title and the verse that we want to work
up to. In verse 12, Philippians 2 says,
Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in
my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work
out your own salvation. Now, I don't need to tell most
of you, that we do not save ourselves. You know that. You know that
plainly. In case someone in here does
not know, we are not saved by works. We are not saved by our
works. We do not save ourselves, but
we are saved by the grace of God. One hundred percent salvation
is a gift of God. Which Christ gave us, which Christ
earned. We're saved by the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the Savior. We're the saved. He does the saving. We have been
saved. Saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. What the apostle is saying here. He said many things leading up
to this. He said many things. And what
he is saying here, very simply, is work it out in your own heart
and mind whether or not God has saved you. You see that? That's what he's
saying. Work it out. Work it out. Southern say. If you work it out. Meaning figure it out. Find out
whether it's so or not whether you're going to say with fear
and tremble. With fear that is not with presumption. Nobody wants to presume or. You
know. We don't want to deceive ourselves,
do we? We want to know if we are deceived. The Lord shows
us. And trembling. Trembling. You read with me there
in Psalm 72, where it says, They shall fear the Lord as long as
the sun, moon, and earth. Now, as with all of the epistles,
is it that warm in here? I see several of you fanning
yourselves. I tried to turn it down on this. As with all of the epistles.
This is written to those who profess to be believers this
is written to the church in Philippi. Those who profess to be believe. The old writers called it the
visible church that is those who look like to act like who
were in the assembly of the believer of the church. God knows everyone
is not. Only assembled together, God
knows. And so, but he says to us, and
you know, the only folks that are going to listen to this. The only folks are going to hear.
The only ones that will heed it. The only ones that will really
Work it out. Is those who have been saved? But may the Lord be pleased to
use his word to. Give life. New life. He says in verse one, I look
at it all with me. We look up or lead up to verse
12. If there be therefore any consolation
in Christ. Do you find consolation And the Lord Jesus Christ. The
word consolation comes from the word to console. If you ever
needed consoling. That is, you've been troubled
and fearful and upset and just torn up and and somebody had
to console you. Come on now. This is the gospel
of Christ console you. But is it does it easier troubled
mind. Says it any. Does it ever. I recognize I know our frame
I'm just like you. I don't always want to come here.
Most of the time I do. Most of the time I do. I really
do. Honestly. Don't you? But not
always. Let's be honest. Not always. Well is there any. Consolation in Christ. I am so
glad after I read this again, I was so glad he put the word
any. Don't say it's great. I read
the old writers, you know, all these biographies and I see these
men and I think I'm not like them. I'm not as, you know, pious
as they are, but it doesn't say it's just great. You find great
consolation. Well, at times I do, Nancy. At
times I find great consolation. At times I feel like Enoch. I
just walk on in the glory. Other times I feel like Lot. It seems that one that mocketh
Anybody. Was there any. Consolation. Is there any if there be any
comfort of love. Any comfort. Of love, that is,
do you find any real comfort. In the fact that God Almighty
loves you. I know men say that and we don't
say it enough. You know, I am ashamed of that
fact that we don't say it enough, and the reason being is because
the world is so abused it, right? But, you know, really, that's
the theme of salvation. It really is. I don't care what
this. world is done with it, it's still
it's what the saints and glory are singing about right now,
right now unto him that loved us. You find any consolation,
you don't find much comfort in your love. So you do. That's not where your greatest
comfort comes from. God's love, Christ's love. The
love of the brethren, you find any comfort in your brethren
that they love you? And we love the brethren. I really
do love you. And we don't say that all the
time, do we? Because words are so cheap and
people just abuse that and we don't want to sound, you know, But we do. And I take comfort
from that. There was a time when I didn't
want anything to do with God's people. But now I don't want anything
to do with anybody else. Do you? Any comfort in that? Any comfort? What about fellowship
of the Spirit? Do you find any real fellowship here where the gospel. This is
what the Holy Spirit does. He gathers the sheep together
in one fold and they hear of Christ. We're going to hear in
a moment. I hope, boy, I hope we hear him
high and lifted up. But do you find any fellowship
here? Honestly, and this is the well. There's no place I'd rather be. Just didn't. And you feel the
same way, many of you just nodded your head. Fellowship, any fellowship,
the spirit, any bowels and mercies. Bowels and mercies. Any inner longing Bible Scriptures
talks about the bowels. You know, that's the that's the
where the your life depends on everything. If you take a wound
there, you're gone. No. Western, you know, if a man
was gut shot. Give him up. But have you been
gut shots? With the arrow of God's Gospel.
You just a daughter. For Christ's sake. The gospel's
sake. His people. Any bowels? Do you find any inner
yearnings? David said, Oh, how my soul longeth
for the courts of God. Remember that? Do you find any
real yearnings within you? If you're away from it? One of
our sisters who was laid up for a while, Just broke down in tears
talking about how she. This is just it's just not. Well,
let her tell you. Any bowels, any inner longing,
yearning, desire? Bowel and mercy. What about mercies?
Any mercies? You find any mercies within you?
That is, you find any need for mercy? And do you have any feelings
of mercy for your breath. We talk about our young people
that God would give us a. A constant burden for our children. Not only as parents. But as the church, if God doesn't
save our children, they are the church, right? We're the fathers of the children. May God give us a burden, not
only for our own children, but others, other children. Any bowels, any mercies, that's
what he's saying. Verse two, he says, fulfill my joy. Fulfill
ye my joy. This was all these things that
Paul asked them about. See, we're working it out. Work
it out. Examine yourself. Is there any? Work it out in
your own hearts. Now, notice with me, folks, all
the way through your own. Work out your own. Don't be thinking
about anybody but yourself. Right now, let me examine myself,
not others. Don't be saying, well, so-and-so,
I hope he's hearing this. If you say that, you need it
worse than he does. Work out your own salvation.
How many times have we said, I wish so-and-so had been here
to hear that? Well, they weren't. Why? Who determines who hears
what? But we did. So what we should
say and pray is, Lord, I hope I heard that. Arthur Pink used to, he didn't
believe in tapes, cassette tapes. It started about, they started
making tapes about a time later on in his life, and he didn't
believe in them. He said the Holy Spirit's not
present where a tape is, or where two or three are gathered. Along that line, the tape is
no replacement, none whatsoever. I recognize God can use to a
degree, but this preaching is alive. That's where God is, Christ
is. He said, fulfill my joy. The
apostle, this was his own heartfelt feeling. The things he wished
for them was his feeling for them. He said, fill me with joy. Fill me with joy that you be
like minded. I think he's saying, and he said
this on and on, he said, my heart's desire and prayer to God is,
he said, God is my record. I thank God upon every request
for you, your fellowship and so on and so forth. He said that
from the heart, didn't he? Fill me with joy that you be
like-minded, that you feel the same way toward one another.
Having the same love. The same love. One accord and
one mind. The psalm says how good and how
pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And that's what we're to strive
together for, to strive together, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the spirit. Now, verse three, he says, let
nothing be done through strife or vainglory. That is, striving
for recognition, vainglory, name or place. And that's our flesh
in it. Flesh wants some recognition
for something, whether it's cutting the grass or preaching a message. Flesh wants some recognition
for it. You know God Almighty uses those who are the most self-abasing
and anonymous. We're going to see that in a
moment. He says, do nothing for strife or striving for this or
that or vain glory. Whatever glory it is we want
is vain. It's fine but in lowliness of
my verse three in lowliness of my humility. That is thinking
low thoughts of yourself let each esteem other better than
themselves. Better than himself. You know
what a Pharisee is our Lord preached where our Lord. Spoke a parable
in Luke chapter 18 it says unto certain. to certain who trusted
that they were righteous and despised others, meaning they
thought they were saved and other people weren't. They were better,
higher, holier than that. He preached and he told that
great parable of the Pharisee and the publican. despise others. Well, here he
tells us, in lowliness of mind, esteem others better than yourself. Anybody need to hear this? Better
than yourself. There was a time when Peter thought
that he was better than the rest of the apostles. Didn't Oh, it
was the Lord's mercy to make him take the greatest fall he'd
ever taken. Wasn't it? And from that day
forward, he was just glad to be in the
presence of Paul and the brethren. There was a time when he said,
everybody else may forsake you, not me. And then a little later,
by God's grace, he thought, if anyone, I'm the one. Anybody
lost here, it'll be me. That's what it means to esteem
others better than yourselves. Why does the scripture tell us
to think low thoughts of ourselves? Why does God tell us to think
low thoughts of ourselves? Because we are. In other words,
we are we ought to. You know, Scripture says, don't
if many a man thinks he's something when he's not. It's better to
disdain yourself low because that's what you are. Right. Think high thoughts, don't
think too highly of other people, but think higher of them than
yourself. Low thoughts. of yourself, esteem others better
than themselves. Look not, verse 4, on every man
on his own things. Look not every man on his own
things. What's your own things? It's yourself. Anything to do
with you. You, your feelings, your wants and wishes, your rights, your well-being, your family,
your family in preference to God's family. Your happiness,
well, I'm just not happy, so I'm going to make everybody else
miserable. No, you won't. Not in God's family you won't. Not stay there. Look not on your own things,
but every man also on the things of others." Now here he gives
us the greatest example of all of it. One who had this mind. One who thought this way. One
who truly did have bowels and mercies. One who truly looked
not on his own things, but on the things of others. and incredibly
esteemed others better than himself. One who said about himself, I'm
a worm, oh man. Who? Jesus Christ. Look at it. He said, let this
mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ, the mind of
Jesus Christ. Verse 6, he says, who being in
the form of God, express image of God. Men like
to think they're little gods, don't they? Remember that story
of Herod who spake and men said, it's the voice of a God. Boy,
he loved it, didn't he? He loved the sound of that. what God did. God showed him
quickly. He said he was eaten by worms. Well, Christ, who was in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. It's robbery
for any man or woman or anyone to take anything that belongs
to God. Now listen to me now. It's wrong
for anybody to take to themselves anything
that belongs to God only. That's robbery. That's the reason
the Lord said, call no man father. That is spiritually. Father,
so and so. Monsignor, or padre, or father,
in the sense of my spiritual father. There's one father. He gets all the glory. He hath
begotten us. No man begot us, but God the
Father did. Call no man lord. You've got one lord. One master. Call no man rabbi. That is, doctor. Reverend. What about reverend?
Holy and reverend is his name. It took some of us a long time
to learn that, didn't it? Men used to take that title,
but no more. God revealed reverend. Do not
take anything that belongs to God, any credit, any glory, any
honor. Render honor to whom honor is
due. Who's all honor due unto? The people in heaven say unto
Him be the power, the dominion, the glory, the honor, the strength
and so on and so forth. Unto Him. Him. We don't render,
we don't pray unto men, we pray unto Jesus Christ. There's just
one. They don't pray unto Mary. She's not the queen of heaven.
There's but one king. We pray unto him. And it says,
he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation, high, holy, and separate from sinners, the
Lord of glory, who truly was holier than thou. Jesus Christ truly was the only
holy man who ever lived. And people, men like to think
they are, don't they? They like what other people think
they are, God knows. Jesus Christ was holy, holy,
better than us, better than us. The whole book of Hebrews talks
about him being better, better than anybody, greater than Solomon,
greater than Jonah. Greater than Aaron. Better than
Aaron. Better than everything. Better than anyone. Above us. He said, I'm from above. Nobody
can say that but Jesus Christ. I'm from above, he said. You're
from beneath. We're all from beneath. We're all a bunch of
nobodies. He's the only one who ever walked
this earth that was somebody. I mean really somebody. Above
us. High above us. Separate from
us. Not anything like us. You know,
that's what the word holy means. Other than. That's a definition
for holy. Other than. Something other. Man is sinful. Everything about
him is full of sin. Christ is other than that. Opposite of that. Wiser than
us. But not the wise man glory in
his wisdom. A lot of folks like to think
they know something. A lot of men and women like to, and young
people. That's the reason this thing
runs all the time. This tongue, this mouth runs
all the time. We're trying to show people how
smart we are. All it shows is how smart-aleck
we are, how proud we are. He who did know everything, Jesus
Christ did know everything, does know everything. But when he
was a man, he truly knew everything. We didn't run around Showing
off. He shall not cry or cause his
voice to be heard in the streets. It wasn't showing off that he
came to reveal this wisdom to his people. Not to show himself
off. Truly wiser than us. Infinitely
wiser than us. What does this say about men
and their attempts at high sounding words and persuasible words of
men's wisdom? Letting scripture say, have not
God made foolish the wisdom of this word? Men like to show off
their vocabulary and their intellect and how smart they are, and they
impress other worms, you know. He who made the mouth came and
spoke in one and two syllable words in simple parables, and
they couldn't understand what he was saying. But that's wisdom. That's an intellect to take a
simple story, a very, very simple childlike story and say it in
such a way that the doctors and lawyers can't figure it out.
Like Samson's riddle. And only those that revealed.
Wiser than they listen to this. I've lost most of you, but listen,
all right, listen to those of you who've been in on this study. We just studied where the Lord,
Wednesday night, we all ascended a mountain and saw the Lord's
glory. Those of you who were with us,
it says Moses and Elijah appeared there with Him in glory. They
were glorified beings. At that time, Moses and Elijah
had the mind of Christ, the knowledge of Christ. They were as Christ. They were glorified beings at
that time. Are you with me? And the Lord talked with them
there. It doesn't say how long He talked with them. Maybe a
long time. Matthew Henry wrote it. I read
him on it. He said it must have been a great
relief for the Lord to talk to someone that had some sense. They've been dealing all these
years with all of these lowly children, just dealing with talking. Sam, what if the only person
you had to talk to was Kelly? All your day. You understand what I'm saying? You finally got to get with somebody
else to express yourself and talk to you. Matthew Henry said
it must have been a great relief to the Lord. to finally talk
to someone who had some sense. He was truly infinitely wiser
than us, wiser above us. Now here, but here's greatness.
Here's greatness of character, greatness of mind. Is the one like that equal with
God? Verse seven says, but he made
himself of no reputation. As I said, the reason we're to
think low thoughts of ourselves is because we're low. The word
reputation, the word repute, you know, reputed, he's reputed
to be, meaning folks think he's this way. They say he's this
way. They say he's this way. They think he's this way. He's
reputed to be. Reputation. Okay. We, man, people live their
whole lives, spend their whole lives trying to be held in high
reputation. Trying to be reputed by other
people as being something. When we're nothing. We're nothing. We dress ourselves up. We go
to great lengths to try to look this way and sound this way and
that way. When we do all that, all we can do to it, we're still
nothing. But now here's greatness. And
people strive to greatness. Are you with me? They endeavor
to be something great, to be something that they're not. that
they never can be. But the Lord Jesus Christ, who
was great, reputed by angels, worshipped
by angels, whom God admired, whom God had in admiration, whom
God said unto Thy throne, O God, made Himself of no reputation. I'm trying my best, but I can't
do it. I cannot convey this. This is
greatness for someone who is great to condescend to men of
low estate, to become a nothing. It's not really great that any
man does that, because man are men. But now God became a man. He made himself of no reputation. He voluntarily, willfully made
himself a nobody. We try to make ourselves somebody.
Are you with me? We try to make something out
of ourselves. The devil will never be nothing but us. He who was something. And it
did not appear to them what he was. See the difference? We're in the world, but not of
the world. The world knoweth us not. The world knew him not.
The world thinks we're nothing, but they think of him. And we
think we're nothing. That's good. Well, anyway, it says he made
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant. A servant. The goal of most people in life
is to be so great that people serve them. Serve them. His purpose in life
was to be a servant. The king became a pauper. The
Lord became a servant. I thought about this. The altogether
lovely one. that came out of it. One of the largest industries
on earth is the makeup business. You know that billion, multi,
multi, multi-billion dollar business, people trying to make themselves
look beautiful to the outward eye. He who was altogether Made himself
ugly and. Scripture says no form of commerce
about made himself ugly. Who does that? Nobody does that.
He did. Made himself ugly. It says he
put on the fashion he found, in fact, made in the likeness
of men. I wish I could convey this made
in the likeness of men. found in fashion the word fashion
we get the word the word habit here that you put on clothing
the priest's habits. That's what they call it. Priest's
habit mean their garments. Now do priests and all these
people in religion do they put on sackcloth and ashes when they
stand? No, no, no, no, no. They put
something beautiful on to make themselves appear to be beautiful.
Underneath is a is a ugly mass of wrinkled old flesh, just like
you take all that clothes off, take anybody's clothes off. And
they're all you'll see all the thoughts you see flesh for what
it is. Our Lord put on the habit, put
on the likeness of sinful flesh. Put on the likeness, he looks
like a lowly man. Do you understand something of
what it was for him to do this? No, you don't. I don't either. If I became a dog, would anybody
want to be a dog? Anybody in here, would you like
to be, you know, the Hindus want to be reincarnated as something?
Does anybody in here like to come back as a dog? Anybody? How about a worm? If we became a dog, it would
be less condescension than when the Lord Jesus Christ became
a man. Now, we can't enter into that because we think we're worms
because all we can see is worms. Well, he's a beautiful worm.
Isn't she a beautiful worm? God looks on the inhabitants
of earth as grasshoppers. The Lord looked down upon and
said, sees nothing but a writhing mass of maggots. Have you ever
seen a mass of maggots? Have you ever looked in your
trash can? One time we hadn't taken the
garbage away. And I don't want to gross anybody
out here, but this is what the word worm is in Scripture. Maggot. One time we hadn't taken the
garbage out in a while. Men, they went to put something in
it. And have you ever seen them? They're awful. Little white Awful. They writhe all over each other.
What are they eating, Hannah? Dead things. They don't eat live
plants. They eat dead meat. Carnage is
where the word flesh comes from. That's what maggots are. That's
why, Jennifer, we're called maggots. Worms. That's how God sees us. So I don't believe that. You
don't believe God, do you? And those that believe God, though,
God shows them. Fear not thou worm, Jacob. Christ became a worm. Would you do that for other worms? Would you do that? He did. He did. Read on. It says, and
he put on this habit, this likeness of sinful flesh of men found
in the fashion became obedient unto death. Became obedient unto
death. In other words, he agreed to
die. We don't have to do that. We
don't do that. We don't agree to die. We don't
voluntarily and willfully say, well, I accept death. I'll obey
it. No, sir. It's our duty. The wages of sin is death. That's
what every one of us have. There's nothing we can do to
stop it. We try our best to stop it. He said no man can kill me. None. Nobody can kill me. No man take up my life from me.
I lay it down. I volunteer for it. Men try to
avoid it. Men and women and young people
are trying their best to avoid it. They're not going to be able
to. His goal in life, listen to me. His goal in life was to
die. Are you with me? His goal in life was to die. Men's thought, their secret thoughts
are that they should live together, and they live for that purpose,
to live forever. He came to die. How? The death of the cross. How do
you want to die? My uncle, who was an unbeliever, His brother. Far as I'm concerned
one of the greatest gospel preachers in our generation. But he cared
not for his gospel. Rarely ever came to hear him
pray. But when he did, he wore his uniform. He was a lifer in
the army. Became a colonel. His next step, as a matter of
fact, he was up to be a major general. Great soldier. And they buried him in Arlington
National Cemetery, and that's only afforded or accorded the
greatest. Now, it's not much room, he said,
and they only grant that to high ranking officers and great men
like John F. Kennedy buried there. Anyway. And they held a full procession
like they would a president, you know, with the riderless
horse and the boot turned around, the casket on the wagon and so
forth. A great procession of a great
man. He had no God. How do you want to die? The Lord agreed to die as the
worst criminal on earth. That's what he did. Criminal. By criminal death. Cross. The
cross is reserved for criminals. And that's why he came. His mind
was the only way he could elevate us is to bring himself down. I'm failing miserably dismissed. If I just read this, God would
be honored and glorified. And you would be edified if you
just read it. But who can tell this? Who's sufficient to tell
what Christ really did? Agreed to die. Let me die the
death of the righteous. Don't you? I want to die the
death of the righteous. Christ said, John, are you with
me? Christ, in that covenant before
the world began, he said to his father, he said, let me die the
death of a sinner. Let me be the worst sinner who
ever lived. That's the only way I'm going
to save my people. Let me take their place. They deserve all
of it. Let me take their place. Let
me become them and let them become me. I agree to it. I'm willingly
obedient to this. Where? This is why Paul says,
therefore, therefore, therefore, because of this, I might preach
a little bit now, therefore, because he did this, because
he did this, God hath highly exalted him, nobody else, him. One time, Paul and some of them
were preaching, and people thought they were gods, didn't they,
Jeanette? They came bowing down to them, and God gave them a
few gifts, you know. And men started bowing and scraping
to them, and they began to rip their clothes off. Look, I'm
flesh! That's what they did. They were
ripped off. Look, I'm just flesh like you are. We're just men.
Paul didn't die for you. Mary didn't die for you. There's
only one who died for men. There's only one who's deserving
of all this. One! See thou doest it not, the
angel said to John, don't bow before me. God hath highly exalted one.
You see why everything is anti-Christ that's not giving him all honor,
all glory. I don't care how little honor
and glory it is to people. You pray to this person, don't
do that. I saw a movie where they enter in this little booth,
you know, and pray to this wretched man back there with his collar
turned around who might be a homosexual or a child molester, confessing
their sins to that vile fellow. He needs to confess his sins,
and there's only one to confess them before, Jesus Christ. He's right now sitting to hear
confessions. And while they can just hear
it and their minds are seething with all their corruptions about
it, he can actually do something about it, put it away. Why would
you want to go to somebody else? Hmm. Wherefore God hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, a
title, honor, a name, recognition, reputation, because he made himself
of no reputation. Therefore, God has given him
the highest reputation of all, the highest name, the
highest honor of anything in heaven, earth, or hell. And verse
10 says, Upon hearing this name, the name of Jesus, And this is
why I say that men of our generation don't know who this is. When
they talk about him in the same language, the same voice as they
would anybody else, when they put his name on their bumper
sticker, they're either plumb, ignorant, or lost, or both. Anybody
who could call this name as you would anybody else's name
doesn't know him. Because Scripture says at the
mention of his name what should happen? At the mention of his
name what should happen? Kick the dirt! What if back in the old days
in Solomon's reign, the greatest, Scripture says peace all around
the battle. If anybody made war, he snuffed
it out. stuff that greatest of all the
kingdom you talk about Alexander you talk about the kings of Persian
all that Solomon was the greatest of all historians don't acknowledge
that they don't even think he exists in that the irony of it
all in that the depravity of man they don't even acknowledge
his existence they say David didn't even exist religious professors
say that But the greatest king of all was Solomon, and everything
and everybody around him, he had absolute reign and rule over.
What if he was coming through? Here comes Solomon. Samuel, just Samuel, the prophet,
came into town one time. Remember that? We studied it.
Samuel came into town one day, and everybody trembled. Everybody
trembled. I said, you've come peaceably.
Yeah, I've come to make sacrifices. You see the picture of that,
Wesley? You see who that's talking about? Much greater than him. And it's the name of Jesus. What
do you think when you think of Jesus? You think of some fella
hanging on a cross? Huh? You think of some fella
bowed down on a rock like old Custer or Wild Bill Hickok? Hmm? You think of some fella
outside your door knocking and standing in the rain wanting
in? Is that who you think of? No! Because flesh and blood hadn't
revealed this unto you, but our Father which is in heaven revealed
to you, Wesley Hudson. Not your brother, not your sister,
not this person, that person, you. Who is? You have I chosen
of all people that you might know that I am. Who? God. Kick the dirt. That's why we call Him Lord.
He said, You call me Lord and Master. You say, Well, that's
what I am. Young people, listen to me. Don't
mention God's name. Don't even bring it up unless
you're doing it in praise and worship or Jesus. Don't ever
get used to it. Am I getting carried away here?
Somebody needs to in our generation, huh? At the name of Jesus. Arise, you saints. Salute your
King. Better yet, bow the knee. Bow
the knee. Every knee will bow. Every knee. And every tongue
confess. Here's salvation, is if God right
now causes us, you know, we don't have to, we don't go through
these motions, we don't have these corners and benches, we
don't go, we all don't kneel in prayer and all that. People
do that to be seen. That's why they're doing that.
They're doing that to be seen. That's why they're doing that.
To impress other people with their humility and their piety. We can be standing here bowing.
We can be seated here standing. We can be weeping. Huh? God lives on the heart.
And all of God's people, when they hear the name that's above
every name of Jesus, who He is, what He did, why He came, where
He is now, their hearts bow. Their spiritual knees hit the
dirt. Like old Thomas who fell down at His feet. Like the leper
who fell down at His feet. Like everybody, Mary who came.
Everybody saw Him, Kelly. Everybody saw Him as He was.
Every sinner that needed a Savior, hit the dirt. Now any other day to come to
you. He's a lowly as well there it
is another dog story that's all right everybody likes. Anything new to say I really
don't. Have any company. If you raise your voice at all. Comes crawling. Will you ever cast her out gave
not a dog love He had this dog brought into
his home. You going to cast her out? Your
beloved loves her. Isn't that a good picture? This
dog was given to you by somebody else. Isn't that a good picture? Do you know of any better illustrations
of dogs? Tell me and I'll tell them. Every nail will bow. And every
tongue confess. What? that Jesus Christ is Lord,
capital L. He's only one. The only one. The only one. The only mediator.
The only intercessor. The only savior. The only king. The only reverend. The only high priest. The only
one. The only one. He's it. He's all. Name something. He's it. He's it. Things in heaven, that's what
they're doing right now in heaven right now. Everybody in heaven
right now is doing perfectly from the heart with all their
might, all their might. Doing what we can only hope to
do and long to do or try and do. Somebody right now, and I
believe I know who it is, is preaching who Christ is and doing
a mighty good job. The whole story is being told
and everybody there is listening carefully and understanding every
word. And their hearts are leaping and their mouths are rejoicing.
And loving him with a perfect time, worship him in him with
the top of their lungs. Things in heaven, things in earth,
if you're going to have a meeting, it's going to be in God's name.
Christ better be the center of it. Or God's not there. It's just a playhouse, right? Things under the earth, devils.
They don't like to admit it. But they're forced to do so. Don't you love, you know, reading
stories, seeing movies or whatever, where the bad guy is just, he's
just forced to, just, just forced. Say it. Say it. Every time. To the glory of God the Father. That's why Christ came, what
he did. That's what this is all about.
Now, it says, wherefore, my beloved. It all led up to this. Wherefore,
my beloved, now, not just as in the past, but now also, work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling. In other words,
examine yourselves. Work it out in your own hearts
and mind. What do you really think about yourself? Let's work
this out, okay? Let's come to a conclusion here.
Let's come to a conclusion here. Everybody in here. What do you
really think about yourself? What do you really? God knows. God knows. What do you think
about yourself, really? What do you think about these? But. What do you really have and you
said work it out now. The love of not knowing my God. What do you think about Jesus.
I mean what do you really think about Jesus. That's why he said that you see
why I said that. Work it out. What do you think about you think
of yourself? What do you think about others?
What do you think about Jesus Christ? He went on to say, I'll
tell you what God says about him. Now, he says, work it out. Work it out. And he says, if
you've worked it out. If you've come to this conclusion
from the heart, if you believe from the heart, I'm a nothing,
I'm a nobody, I'm worthless. Oh, he's worthy. And my brethren
all, I love my brethren, esteem my brethren, I do. Not as I should,
but I do, I really do. Peter's a good closing illustration,
Peter. As we said before, he was all
puffed up with a sense of his own vainglory. What? Yeah, they'll leave you,
not me. So the Lord showed him. And after it was all over, the
Lord said, now you call my disciples. And Peter heard the most blessed
words he'd heard ever in his life. And Peter. Somebody said, the Lord's calling
us. We're all going to go meet with
the Lord. He's risen. He's risen. He's not dead. He's
risen. Thomas, James, John, oh, wonderful. Let's go. Oh, Peter, he said,
you can come to. You see, Barbara, now you see
now he. He knows himself. And he came back and then when
the Lord asked him, work it out, Peter. Peter, do you love me? Same sense of. Do you love. You have to stop think about
it. And most about it from his heart
he said yes. You know he's ashamed of himself
don't. You know he's utterly embarrassed
and humiliated. But he did. And if you do. You love him because
he first loves you, because it is God which worketh in us. God in you, Christ in you, the
hope of glory. God which worketh in us, both
the will and do of his good pleasure. What's his pleasure? Every knee
you bow, every tongue confess, and if you do this now in salvation,
oh, blessed are you, Wesley Bar-Hudson. Blessed are you. I'm blessed
too. We're both Jacobs. There are Esau's in our family.
Why me? Why me? Please God. The work
is great work. Well, I don't know of a more important
message for you. Church, individuals, glory of
Christ, Scott would say it's the best I can do. Okay. Let's stand and sing hymn number
16. Him number 16 will sing the first
and last verse. The Lord is King. Lift up, lift up thy voice. Sing His praise, sing His praise. All heaven and earth before Him
now rejoice. Sing His praise, sing His praise. From world to world the joy shall
ring For He alone is God and King From sky to sky His banners
fling Sing His praise, sing His praise The Lord is King throughout
his vast domains. He is all, all in all. The Lord Jehovah evermore shall
reign. He is all, all in all.