Thank you, Joe. Let's go to Philippians
this evening. Philippians, the second chapter. Last Lord's Day evening, I tried
to speak to you on the subject of our Lord's humiliation. I want to follow that with a
few more remarks about his humiliation and then begin to speak to you
about his exaltation. And I'll give you a few things
this evening and then a couple of Sundays, two weeks from this
evening, I'll intend to enlarge upon the subject of our Lord's
exaltation. Permit me to read Philippians
Chapter 2, verse 1, if there be therefore any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any bowels and mercies 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 vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this
mind, this attitude 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 in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. 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. There's no question but what
our Savior humbled himself in joining his deity to our humanity. He left the honors and glories
of heaven. He stooped to be born into this
vile world and was conceived in the womb of the Virgin by
the power of the Holy Spirit. We read in Galatians 4, but when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. He who made God's law. He was made under the dominion
and authority of that law. There's an interesting verse
in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 3, and I apologize for in a sense
taking it a little bit out of context, but it does make a point
that I want to stress. Galatians 5 and verse number
3 says, For I testify to every man that is circumcised, he's
a debtor to do all of the law, a debtor to do the whole law. Our Lord Jesus submitted to be
circumcised. And when he submitted to be circumcised,
he put himself under obligation to all of God's law. He was not
only under parental law. He was not only under civil law. He was under God's law. He's the real man, Christ Jesus,
who came into this world. He entered into this world the
same way that you entered into this world, born of a mother. Real flesh and bones and blood
and muscles. And when He entered into this
world, He was in His humanity as helpless and as needy as you
were when you entered into the world. He was fully dependent
upon his mother for his nourishment, for his provisions, for his clothing. She took him under her breast
and fed him. That's God Almighty we're talking
about. That's the Son of God. He who forever enjoyed the glories
of being with the Father and the Spirit, the Three, the Trinity,
He who was worshipped by the angels the moment He created
them, He who made all things by the very power of His own
Word, He who from heaven's everlasting
glory dictated and ordained all things that would ever happen,
He who governed everything as they happened, He who in His
providence was directing everything that has happened, He left heaven's
glory. He was Spirit. He had no body. He was not made of flesh and
blood and bones and muscles. He was the invisible God, but
the invisible God became visible as a little baby. And therefore we read in 1 Timothy
3 and without controversy, And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. That is a mystery. that he who
is the eternal God would robe himself, rather clothe himself,
rather join himself to our humanity and become as real a young man,
as real a baby, as real a teenager, as real a young man, as real
an adult as you are. Now that is a mystery. And all the while he was in this
world, he veiled his glory except on a rare occasions. And he gave to his disciples
a little glimpse of who he was. And He showed them His glory. And John wrote about that. He
said, We beheld His glory. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. John 1.14. The Word, the Eternal God, the
Alphabet of God. All that God has to say about
Himself in Christ Jesus the Lord. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and John said, and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. That man, Christ Jesus,
was full of grace and full of truth. And he was really God and really
man. He humbled himself. He who was rich rich beyond your wildest imagination. You can't imagine how rich he
was. He's so rich, he just owned all
things. There was nothing that he didn't
own. Somebody said he owned the cattle
on a thousand hills, and he owned the hills too. The whole universe, everything
He created is His property. And He came down here to one
of His properties. And the reason He came down here
to this little globe upon which we live is because this is where
His elect lived. And He had to be made likened
to one of us for the suffering and death of the cross of Calvary. And all the while, He's still
God over all, blessed forever. He humbled Himself. And this was a humbling that
was purposed from all eternity. You see, his submission to the
Father, his humility, it didn't happen as a result of the fall
of Adam. because the fall of Adam in some
mysterious way was purpose from old eternity. You see, his coming into this
so vile world, it was an everlasting decree of God. The Lord doesn't
react. He wasn't reacting to what Adam
did. This has always been the design
of God. You see, God is the Savior of
sinners from old eternity. He has loved us with an everlasting
love. And in order to save us way back
when there was no one but the Father, the Son, and the Spirit
in the Trinity of His persons, Way back then, everything all
the way to the end was ordained of God. And the Lord, He determined that
on this earth a great drama would take place. On the stage of the earth. And
the great drama would be Redemption. Salvation. The rescue of a multitude
which no man could number. This was all determined in the
covenant of grace. And our Lord Jesus, even from
then, He was purposed to endure this humiliation, this submission,
to the redemptive will of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit."
This was a purposed submission. I'll tell you something else.
This is a voluntary submission. It's a voluntary humiliation. Though equal with God in every
way, he willingly took the form of a servant. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, He is in the form of God. But he took upon himself something
that was not in him before. Flesh, blood, and not just a
body, also a soul. That's important too. How can God have a body and a
soul? I don't know. I don't know. But you know, the
Scripture lays it out for us pretty simply. The Word was made flesh. There was a committee of ladies
sitting over here when I came into the auditorium. They were
visiting, talking, and I mentioned to them something I mentioned
to Nancy when we were coming to church tonight. I was thinking
about our Lord's words there in John chapter 10. He said,
I am the door. I'm so thankful the Lord was
a simple preacher. I'm glad that he, if there was
ever a man who could have spoken a scholarly manner as an intellectual, that
was our Savior. But he spoke in a simplistic
way. I wish I could preach like that. Why, he's the very wisdom of
God. But he spoke in such a way that
the people could at least understand his words. And in understanding his words,
they got the idea, they got the meaning of them to some degree,
and some of them hated him because they did understand what he was
saying. He never talked over anybody's head. Let's not ever
do that. We're not here as scholars. I'm not here as your professor.
I'm not here as a learned man. I'm a simple preacher. And we've
got to communicate to people the gospel of God's grace in
a way that they can grab hold of at least the words that we
use. And when we read in the Bible,
we read of our Lord's condescension, we read of His voluntary submission, I can't comprehend, I can't begin
to comprehend all of this, but it's written to us in a way that
we can grasp how far the stoop was. From way up here to way down
here to being made lower than the angels. for the suffering of death. His
was a purpose submission. His was a voluntary submission. He was moved and motivated certainly
by the purpose of God, but love, love sent him. Love for us. It's where it all started. His
everlasting love for His covenant people. That's what sent Him. And He would have had to have
humiliated Himself no more and no less if you were the only
one He came to save. He had still had to have done
everything that He did to redeem you, to reconcile you, to save
you, to be your propitiation, which
is a Bible word that means the satisfaction of divine justice. And he did it for all of his
people. And he did it voluntarily. And his, number three, was not
only a purposed submission and humiliation and a voluntary submission
and humiliation, his was a solitary, a solitary submission and humiliation. I have trodden the winepress
alone. And he said in Isaiah 63, and
of the people, there was none with me. The shepherd was smitten and
the sheep scattered. Zechariah 13 says that. But not only did his people forsake
him. His father forsook him. And that's something else I can't
begin to comprehend. But it really happened. And we
hear his agonizing cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And in Psalm 22, you read a couple
of verses further, it says, for thou art holy. That's why. Because all of the sins, the
guilt, the iniquities, the transgressions of God's people were made to
meet upon the head of our great surety. Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. And the Father forsook him. This is a solitary submission. Nobody could go with him into
that darkness. No hand could help him. And his followers had deserted
him, and there he hung. For heaven couldn't have him, and earth wouldn't have him. And that bleeding, suffering,
bleeding, dying man whose body had been butchered,
as it were, when he made his soul an offering for sin, when
the wrath of God was poured into him, when the errors of God's
justice found their target, their mark in his holy soul, Justice dealt with him as a man
laden with the guilt of all of his people. That's solitary submission. That's solitary humiliation. And his submission and humiliation
was an obedient submission and humiliation. He agreed to be
the Savior, the surety, the Father's sacrifice. Why did he submit to all of this? To deliver us from danger. preaching through Exodus on Wednesday
nights. We're about to get to the blood
of the Passover lamb. The Lord, as we shall study,
said, and the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses
where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And listen
to this, and that judgment, that plague, it shall not be upon
you. I like that. It shall not be
upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. Our Lord Jesus, the Son of God,
why did He submit Himself? Why did He humiliate Himself
to deliver us from danger? Behold the blood of the just
one who died for the unjust to bring us to God. His bowels of compassion and
love and affection for His people moved Him, moved Him to rescue
us. He saw our dilemma. He saw our
helplessness. And He who made the worlds came
down here to save us from our sins, to deliver us from danger. Look over at 1 Thessalonians,
if you would. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 9. 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 9 and
10. Here's what Paul writes to this
church and says, For they themselves show of us These preachers who
are giving him a report show of us what manner of entering
in we had under you and how you turned to God, verse 9, chapter
1 of 1 Thessalonians, and how you turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from
heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us He delivered us from wrath to
come. I like reading Young's literal
translation from time to time. Robert Young was his name, not
to be confused with the guy who played Marcus Welby on television. I think that's what he played.
But anyway, Robert Young, He says on this last verse, who
is rescuing us. That is the correct tense. Who
is rescuing us from the anger that is coming. You see, all are deserving of
the anger and wrath which is coming. but the people in whose
stead Christ died, we will never partake of any of the anger and
wrath and judgment and vengeance of God. Never, never. Not one drop of wrath is ever
gonna fall upon your soul. You're not gonna feel any anger
from God. All you're gonna know is the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. You see, number one, I give two
reasons for that. Number one, as it says in 1 Thessalonians
5, 9, we weren't appointed to wrath. We're appointed to salvation. Look at it, 1 Thessalonians 5,
verse 9. 1 Thessalonians 5, 9. For God hath
not appointed, He has not designed us, He has not destined us to
wrath, but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, We should live. We should live
together with Him. I'll tell you why we're not going
to feel a drop of God's wrath. Because we're not destined for
wrath. We're not appointed to wrath. We're appointed to obtain salvation. Have you obtained salvation?
That salvation which is in Christ Jesus, and you look to Him only,
you believe He is the Son of God with power. The reason you
look to Him for all things is because of divine appointment. That's the reason. You just take
yourself out of the idea that it has something to do with you
doing something or other. No, no. You're God's by divine
appointment. So you can't perish. And I'll
give you a second reason you can't perish because Christ is
already suffered in you still. all of the judgment of God due
to your sins, it's already fallen upon the scapegoat. He bore your sins away. It's
already fallen upon your substitute. He stood in your wrong place
instead. It's like he told that crowd
that came to arrest him that night, if you seek me, let these
go. And I'm telling you, we get off
scot-free. Justice has got to let us go. In fact, justice really has always
let us go. Because Christ is a Lamb who
was slain from before the foundation of the world. And God's always
looked to Him. He'd never look to you for anything.
Good thing, because you can't do anything anyhow. You can't
satisfy justice. But the Son of God did in your
stead. Why did Christ humble himself? Well, to deliver us from danger. And he delivered us fully. Why did he humble himself and
submit to such a horrible death and the agony of the cross? Number
two, to make atonement for our sins, that is, reconciliation
between God and His people. If, Romans 5 says, if when we
were enemies, We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. When we were enemies, we were
reconciled. Sin was the big problem, but
it's not a problem anymore. We've been reconciled to God.
Well, what has happened? That mountain of our sin, that
immovable mountain that seemed permanently to stand against
us, it has been moved plenty of the way. In fact, it don't
even exist anymore. Not in the mind and eye of God.
That's due to the submission and humiliation of the death
of our Lord Jesus. He humbled himself to deliver
us from danger, to make atonement for our sins. And number three,
he humbled himself to purify his people and purge us from
our sins. We're made in him the righteousness
of God. We're justified and we're sanctified,
both the results of his death. You see, justification is the
imputation of righteousness to us. We're forgiven of all of
our sins. We're righteous before God. And
sanctification, which is also the result of the death of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that has to do with our purity and our holiness
in him. Look over at 1 Corinthians 6. And I can already tell I ain't
going to get very far in this message tonight. But I'll go
here a few more minutes and I'll quit. Look at 1 Corinthians 6. Look at verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you, Paul
writes in his first letter to the church at Corinth. But then he says, but ye are
washed in the tents as ye were washed. And ye were sanctified. and ye were justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." You've
already been washed. You've already been sanctified. You've already been justified
in the name of your substitute. having been taught by the Holy
Spirit. We're justified and we're sanctified. And I'll tell you, this is not
progressive. You're not progressively being
justified and you're not progressively being sanctified. You are justified, you were justified,
and you were sanctified. You're pure before God. For God
has made Christ to be to you wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification. You know what that is? That's
holiness. And redemption. That according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Our Lord Jesus, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death. He was submissive in order to,
and I'll give you this one finally, in order to confirm the New Testament
in his blood. You see, God's covenant of grace
was ratified, sealed, confirmed by the blood of the Lord Jesus.
Hebrews 9, 16, for where a testament is, there must also of necessity
be the death of the testator. You see, the will of God's in
force. The Son of God wrote his last
will in testament in old eternity. And he has died. And that will
is in effect. And all the blessings and all
the benefits bequeathed, legally bequeathed to his family are abundantly confirmed and
secured in that humiliating death that he died. You see, typically,
when a man makes a will, the recipients of the benefits,
his assets, his savings account, stocks, bonds, whatever, typically, it's assigned to the
family. Not strangers, not people he doesn't know, but relatives, spouse, children. And that's true in the covenant
of grace. A stranger has no part in the
last will and testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. Only the family. Only the family
of God. Only the spouse. Only His church. Only His people. And all the
blessings and benefits of the covenant of grace are ours. Why? The testator has died. And he's been exalted. And I'll give you this, and I'll
work on these more in two weeks. He's been exalted in His resurrection. He's been exalted in His ascension
back to heaven. He's been exalted in His session
at the right hand of the Father, where He rules and reigns over
all things. And He's been exalted to be the
judge of the quick and the dead. He's been exalted, for God made
Him Lord. That God-man, He's the Lord of glory. And one
of these days, He'll come back to this earth. and he's gonna set everything
straight. And God's gonna judge this world
in righteousness. Listen to the language of Acts
17, 31, by that man. That's what it says in it, Alan. By that man. By that man. Oh, what a man. Who is he? The God-man. And He's the one who sealed our
pardon with His blood. And we're made the righteousness
of God in Him. And if that don't help your poor
soul, you just can't be helped. If that doesn't float your boat,
your boat ain't gonna float anyhow. Oh, what a Redeemer. Christ humbled Himself, and He's
been exalted by God. May the Lord bless the reading
and preaching of His Word today. I'm thankful He's the Lord. And we're going to sing the last
song, 143, Rejoice.