Open your Bibles with me to a
very familiar portion of Scripture, Ephesians chapter 2. And listen
to what God has done for His people. And you hath He quickened who
were dead, as our brother said last night without strength,
dead in trespasses and sin. wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, that spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversations
in time past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others, but God." There's our hope. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
are you saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come
he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus and two good works, which God hath before
ordained, that we should walk in them." Let us pray. Do you
know how rare that is to bury young men? to stand up, young men who know
the true and living God, the true Christ, know and love the
truth, and sing the truth as unto the Lord, not to be seen,
but rather for His glory and honor. You know how rare that
is? By grace, we are saved, Houston. That's it. My, my. What a blessing. What a blessing. You can be turning
to Philippians chapter two with Book of Philippians chapter two. And I cannot stand up here without
thanking the Lord for this congregation. We do go back a long way, don't
we? My, my. and your dear pastor and his
dear wife, Shirley. We did have a good time in Dingus. That's a lovely place, isn't
it? You know, we're sitting here this morning in a heavenly place,
aren't we? That's what Roland read to us. He's made us sit together in
heavenly places. This is one of those, and Dingus
is one of those. God's people, heavenly places,
and we had such a good time. Brother Donnie asked me to bring
this message to you that I brought up there, and I'm gonna do just
that by God's grace. Philippians 2, and this is written
to the saints. This is written to believers.
This is written to the people of God. This is written to set
forth the Lord Jesus Christ in all his glory and all his beauty. To magnify the Lord Jesus Christ
and him crucified. To set him forth that we might
look to him for our salvation. and that we might look at him
to become like him. That's the only way, the only
thing that will transform us into his image is beholding the
beauty of the Lord. This is what Paul wrote in 2
Corinthians 3. He said, we all as with open
face beholding as in a glass, this scripture, the glory of
the Lord and are changed into the same image from glory to
glory. even as by the Spirit of God
who takes the things of Christ and shows them to us and conforms
us to his image. This is written to promote unity. This is written to promote love
among the brethren. This is written for us to behold
Christ that we might, our minds might be transformed into his
mind. Let this mind be in you. This is written that we might
take our rightful places as servants to God, to his cause, and to
one another. That's what this is written for.
Read with me these familiar verses, beginning with verse 2. Fulfill
ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of
one accord and of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory. Any glory is just that, it's
vain. But in lowliness of mind, let
each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man
on his own thing. And Paul lamented, now in verse
21, that all seek their own and not the things of pride. Let
this mind, verse 5, be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, because he is God, he is equal with God.
But he 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, since he
did this, God hath 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, and in heaven, things in heaven, things
in earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father that sent him. The title of this message and
the subject is found in verse 7. He made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant made in the likeness
of men. He made himself. The self-made
man. Self-made man. Not for cleverness,
but this is what he did. He made himself to be what he
was. Now many boast that they are
self-made men and women, don't they? You hear it all the time.
He's a self-made man. She's a self-made woman. They
said of our president that he made his fortune, he started
with a mere $1 million loan from his father. and made his fortune. He made himself a self-made man. None are. No one is a self-made
person. Scripture says by the grace of
God we are what we are. Know what we know. Can do what
we can do. What do we have that we have
not received? Every good and perfect gift comes
from above, doesn't it? Let not the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
their riches. Why is that? Because the Lord
gave it. Whatever you have, the Lord gave,
right? So all glory, any glory of man,
glory in his face, his place, even his grace. It's vain glory. It's empty glory. It's robbing
God of His glory. God will not share His glory
with another. There's a scripture that I remember reading as a
young man that greatly impressed me and I memorized it. It says,
God had purposed it to stain the pride of all glory and to
bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. Anything that's
highly esteemed among men, admired by men, the glory, the beauty,
the works of man is an abomination to God. There's no room for boasting,
is there? No flesh should glory. What do
we have that we have not received? But now, if you could make yourself
to be anything you wanted to be, any way you wanted to be.
If you could, how would you make yourself? Be honest. 100 out
of 100 people would make themselves rich, famous, well-liked, loved
by all, admired by many, by all. Beautiful, strong, I'll just
be honest with you, I've been short all my life. It's obvious,
isn't it? Brother David Collier, where
is he? I was talking to him last night. A giant of a man. Where
is he? There he is. What do you have
that you have not received? He's six, whatever, five, and
I am not. But I would make myself to be
a little taller than I am. I'd be a head full of hair. But
you would, too. You'd make yourself to be beautiful
and strong. You'd make yourself to be admired
by most. You'd make yourself rich and
famous. You'd make yourself to be served
by everyone, wouldn't you? Long life? Not this man. He chose it. We don't have a
choice in these matters, do we? We have no choice in these matters. God has ordained everything about
us. Even the hairs of your head are
numbered. I remember as a young boy, 13,
14 years old, I had two older brothers and an older sister,
all athletes, and we had fierce competition, and I was always
small, you know, so I wanted to be taller, and I remember
sending off for, I saw where somebody claimed you could make
yourself taller. So I sent off, I saved my money,
hard-earned money back then, about $19 I get, $19.95. guarantee success. And what they
basically sent me was a packet of advice and things to do, exercises. One thing they said to do is
just hang a bar in the door and hang from it every morning. I'm telling you, nobody knows
more than I do that you cannot add one cubit to your stature. You can't do it. Our Lord made
himself, everything about himself to be as he was. It was exactly
the opposite of what we would make ourselves for a reason.
He chose to be unknown, unheard. For 30 years he was silent. Do you understand that? For 30
years he did not speak publicly. Now you know he was not In his
home and around the neighbors and the community he was witnessing,
but he never stood up publicly to preach. This is the word of
God. This is God manifesting the flesh.
He didn't speak for 30 years. A young preacher. Boy, where's
my pulpit? They need to hear what I have
to say. They need to read my articles. He made himself unknown,
unheard, no reputation. humbled himself. He made himself
with no beauty. No beauty. Scripture says he
had no beauty. If you don't have any beauty,
what does that mean? You ugly? Huh? It says there was no beauty
about him that we should desire him. No form, no company. He
wasn't taller than anyone else. He couldn't be distinguished
in the crowd for his outward form. He was despised. He made himself. He chose to
be despised and rejected of men. He chose his birth. He chose
to be born in a barn. He chose his parents, poor working
class people, not nobility. He chose his upbringing in a
despised, despicable place called Nazareth. Everybody, can anything
good come out of Nazareth? Well, if it does, it has to be
of God's money. Prove him that. He chose his
life, a life of hard work, not to be served but to serve, a
life of hard work and labor and toil all his day. He chose his
friends. They were sinners, they were
lowlifes, they were nobodies, looked down upon like himself.
He chose his death. He chose to die. It is appointed
unto us once to die. Death happens to us. For him
to die, he had to will it to be. He had to lay down his life. He had to choose to die. Death
is the wages of sin. He had no sin. He had to lay
down his life. He had to be made sin in order
to die. He had to make himself to be
sin to die. You and I wouldn't choose to
die. He chose the manner of his death. If you could die, how
would you die? If you know you have to, if you
could choose the manner of it, how would you die? Not a slow
and painful death like our Lord, but a quick, painless death. In honor. He died in shame. He died a slow, torturous, the
death of the cross. He made himself his burial. And since he did all this, For
whom he did all this and why he did all this, God has given
him a name above every name. And he tells everything that
hath breath. You bow your knee and you sing
his praises and quit glory. Why did he do all this? To relate
to us? No. Although I love the thought
Hebrews expresses that he's, we don't have a high priest who's
not touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but is in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He's touched
with a feeling of our infirmities. I love that. That gives me great
peace and comfort, doesn't it? But he did this primarily, first
and foremost as our substitute. Now listen to it. When God made
man in his own image, he made him flesh and bones, didn't he?
Flesh and blood and bone. And when God looked at man, his
image, the likeness of his image, he said, it's good, didn't it?
It's good. Before sin, it's good. Flesh
is good. It's beautiful. The image of
God. But man sinned, didn't it? Man rebelled against God. And
that sin marred that image. to where it no longer even resembles
the Lord at all. Sin made man the opposite of
God. Sin made man filthy. Sin made
man vile. Sin made man corrupt. The Lord
looked down before the flood and said all flesh had corrupted
his way. That flesh is corrupt. God sees
flesh, sees mankind as nothing but corrupt. That's what the
scripture says, doesn't it? It says from the sole of our
feet to the tops of our head. No soundness in it. How ironic
is it? You know the term proud flesh.
An open wound, you know, that's angry looking. It's called proud
flesh. Well, that's how God sees flesh. The flesh of man. The works of
man. The beauty, so-called, of man.
The glory of man. It's like proud flesh. It's like
an open wound. A bruise and running sores. Isn't that what the scripture
says about man? God doesn't see as man sees. We're impressed
with the flesh, aren't we? We're easily impressed by the
flesh and admire the flesh. Not God. That's not what God
sees when he looked at flesh. He sees us as worms. And the term is maggots. Have
you ever seen a pile of maggots? And by the way, maggots only
live on one thing. What's that? Dead flesh. I'm not making this up. Those
of you who know the scriptures know this is what the scripture
says about mankind. Does it not? Flesh is not beautiful
to God, it's corrupt. It says in Psalm 14, He looked
down upon the sons of men and said that all together become
what? Filthy. The word is stinking, rotten,
corrupt. You can't paint the picture bad
enough. You cannot. We cannot see. God does not And
mercy and grace does not let us see ourselves for what we
are, mankind for what it truly is. But if you'd open up everything
to be seen for what it is. Here's what the scripture says
about flesh. It says that which is flesh is flesh. It says the
flesh profiteth, how much? Nothing. And no man in the flesh
can please God. Isn't that what the scripture
says? In my flesh, Paul said, dwelleth no good thing. No good thing. We are vulnerable
and filthy by nature to God's flesh, but God's. Oh, it thrilled me when I heard
you say, open the Ephesians 2. You who are by nature children
of wrath, even as I have been, abominable, filthy, God in mercy,
rich in mercy, for His great love were with you to love some
of these rotten creatures. Send His Son. He was made flesh. Listen to me now. Christ was
made flesh and dwelt among us. In the likeness, verse 7 says,
He was made in the likeness of men, being found in fashion as
a man. We don't realize, we cannot understand
what it was like for Christ, the Son of God, to become a man.
To be made a man. What condescension it was. It
would be like us becoming a worm, in fact. Psalm 22, the song of the cross,
Brother Todd quoted and preached from. The first verse is, My
God, my God. And he goes on to say, and this
is Christ speaking. What did he say? I am a worm.
I have become a worm. He had to. He had to become a
worm for sin, to condemn sin in the flesh. But first, as a
substitute before God, as a man, as a flesh and blood man, he
had to glorify God in The flesh. That's why God created man. To
glorify him with his flesh. And Christ came. And glorified
God in his flesh. But it was an outward beauty.
He said this is not, the beauty is not in the outward flesh.
But the scripture says it, the beauty of holiness. He came in
the beauty of holiness. It was an outward beauty. He
had no beauty. No cumulus. No form. But oh,
he was altogether lovely. in the flesh. Do you understand? We're learning a lesson here,
a profound lesson in what true beauty is. It really can't be
seen. It's beauty of holiness, it's
love, it's mercy, it's grace, it's beauty of beautiful heart,
beautiful mind. Somebody made a movie not long
ago, Beautiful Mind. Seriously. There's only one beautiful
mind that ever walked this earth. Pure mind. was for the glory of God, for
the care and concern and mercy and salvation of His people,
service of others, every thought. That's a beautiful mind, isn't
it? Beautiful in love, beautiful
in mercy, beautiful in heart, mind, soul, and body. The works
of His flesh were all good. The Scripture says He went about
doing good. He is full of goodness. When
God said in Exodus 33, He said, I am going to make all my goodness
pass before you. That goodness is a person. All
the goodness of God, all the glory of God pass by us in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Good, went about doing good.
His hands were pure, clean. I am certain though that His
hands were the dirtiest hands in Nazareth. The most calloused
hands in Nazareth. Nobody worked like He did. Dirt
under His fingernails. But that's not dirt. That's not
the filth of what Scripture says about our hands. That's good,
we call it good, honest, hard work. No one worked like He did. His whole life spent working
out our salvation. But working in the flesh to glorify
God, which God created man to do. His hands were pure, His
hands were clean, though dirty. His feet walked in paths of righteousness. They weren't swift to mischief,
they were swift to mercy. Every step He took was in the
direction of saving one of God's people. His whole life, His whole
life He never spent one moment for Himself. The only selfless
man that ever lived. This is why God hates self. Deny
yourself. Christ did. His eyes were pure. You look into His eyes. There's
no guile. Nothing but purity and honesty and integrity and
purity like dove's eyes. Mercy. Nothing hidden. His mouth. Not full of cursing
and bitterness like us. Not the poison of ash under his
lip but full of praise and honor and glory. It says grace poured
from his lips. No man spake like this man. Never
had and never will. Altogether lovely. He presented
himself to God as a chaste virgin in mind, body and soul. And this
is our lamb. This is our substitute. He says,
your lamb. God said to Moses, your lamb
will be without spot. You're going to observe him.
He's going to be observed by all, to be without spot and without
blemish. Christ stood before man, men
and devils, didn't He? Before God said, who convinces
me of sin? One sin, let somebody bring one
true charge of sin against me. All together, lovely. And God, who did not speak, who
does not speak out loud, can I say it? Could not contain Himself. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Now you better hear him. He sent him as a substitute. You men of Israel, isn't that
what Peter preached? You men of Israel, hear these
words. Never been said before or since. A man approved of God. Mind, body, and soul. In the
flesh he glorified God Look at verse 8. Now he was found in
fashion as a man, he humbled himself. What humility, what
condescension it was for Christ to become flesh, to be made flesh,
and a body was prepared for him, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them who are under the law, to be made a curse for
them. He became obedient unto death. The obedience of Christ was beautiful
to the Father. an obedient son, obedient daughter. They're beautiful, aren't they,
to a parent? None like Him. None truly obedient like Him. Obedient even unto death, the
Scriptures say. The death of the cross. Now,
we say this, we always say this. Every preacher stands up and
says this. Every true preacher says this. God is holy. God is
just. And that's because He is. God
must punish sin. Because he's just. God is holy. He must punish sin. Mustn't he?
Sin must be paid for. Can't sweep it under the rug.
In that sense, God just can't forgive sin. It's got to be paid
for. So God became a man. Christ became
a man. Was made flesh to glorify God
in the flesh. And then the scripture says,
in the flesh, he condemned sin in the flesh. He took, this is
the mystery. Where is Todd? Todd, where are
you? There you are. In the flesh, somehow, mysteriously,
we don't even try to explain it anymore, do we? This is where
we have to fumble and falter, don't we? When it says He condemned
sin in the flesh, somehow, someway, God made Him to be sin. And He is God. He made Himself
to be sin. He made Himself to be sin. He
agreed. He became obedient to the Father.
This is what must be done, son, to redeem some of these despicable
creatures. You must become flesh. That is
condescension enough. But you must be made sin. Take this into yourself, into
your body to become one with it. Though you are not going
to commit it, it is all going to be put on you and in you. Made a curse. As Brother Todd
said, willingly, obediently agreed to be cut off from his father. We can't, we can't appreciate
that. And this is why God says, let
everything that has breath. Who did he do this for? Who did
he do this for? Talking about these worms. Not
the good, not the righteous, but the ungodly and sinners,
right? That's who he did it for. Those
scriptures called filled with wickedness, filled with maliciousness,
full of envy, malice, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, haters
of God. He didn't do this for those that
love God. He came to this earth for those who didn't want him
to come. Death row criminals. Death row
criminals. You've seen these death row criminals,
haven't you? How ironic is it? Profoundly
ironic that those fellas are so despicable. You can't find
one single spot of flesh on them that's not defiled. And now we
want to look like them. We're warped, aren't we? We're
sick. Death row criminals. You've seen those fellas. Their
eyes look like animals. Because they are. Would I deliver
my darling only, I have an only daughter whom I love dearly. And she is beautiful to me. Inwardly
and outwardly. Would I deliver my darling daughter,
if there's some way that I could save one of those death row criminals,
one of those hardened thugs full of hatred and malice and murder. Would I deliver my only child
to save one of those families? Would I do it? No way. No possible way. I'll just be
honest with you. I wouldn't do it for any of you.
I wouldn't do it for me, that's for sure. But that's exactly
what God did. But if I could, if I could, if
I did deliver my darling to the dogs, If I delivered her up,
this is the only way I could save one of those fellows. And
I set my heart, I set my love upon one of those fellows that
doesn't deserve to be loved, that deserves to be killed. if
I set my heart and my love on one of those fellows, two of
them, let alone a million of them. Set my heart and my love
on them. And the only way I could deliver
one of them is for my darling daughter to be tossed into the
midst of that and become that, to bring them out. I would make
sure it would accomplish that, wouldn't you? It's not going
to do it in vain. Not one drop of her blood will
be shed in vain. That's what God says about His
Son. This is the only thing it took to redeem God's people. This is why it's such an abomination
to God that man to talk about anything he does to add to the
work of Christ. It took nothing less than 33
years of hard labor and then the death of Christ on the cross,
separation from God, going to hell to save one sinner, all
sinners. And any addition to that or subtraction
from it is an abomination to God. And I would make sure if
I could do that, if I could, I would make sure that that criminal
was changed as a result of that. What does this say about all
these slogans in religion today? They make God's people angry.
They're not cute at all. What does this say about Try
Jesus? Huh? Would I toss my daughter
to a group of men and say, try her out. If you don't like her,
send her back. Huh? Buddy, he sent his only
begotten son in this world to save sinners. And he did it. And they're changed. How are
they changed? They're changed by that very work. by seeing
Him crucified for them. Miraculously, amazingly, mysteriously,
the Spirit of God takes the preaching of Christ on that cross and shows
this worthless sinner that Christ died for him. And in a moment,
in an instant, changed! They bow their knee. Hearts are
broken over sin. Their tongues confess. Chief
of sinners! That's what happened to the thief
on the cross, isn't it? That thief saw Christ's beauty
and glory through the blood. Christ's visage was marred more
than any man. They've never... These images,
they're graven images, but you could not paint that picture,
could you? You wouldn't want it hanging on your wall. But
his vision was marred more than any man, swollen and bloodied,
caked with blood. Like that ark, you remember the
ark of the covenants? There were so many sacrifices
of blood poured out on that mercy seat. Then it was caked with
blood, wasn't it David? It was brown, caked with blood,
but underneath was gold. And that thief on the cross looking
over, in a moment, in an instant, God opened his eyes, not to see
outward beauty, but Chicana glory. The Son of God. He saw through
that. He saw glory. And in a moment,
he was changed into that image. Lord. Everybody around the cross,
Lord. The most beautiful, ugliest man
we've ever seen. Oh, that thief said he's the
most beautiful man I've ever seen. If Christ was beautiful
in his life, he was even more beautiful in his death, wasn't
he? Surely hanging on that cross
was the most beautiful sight to his father. It certainly is
to his people. Oh my. And Christ made himself
that as a substitute, you see. And in all this we are shown
a divine, profound lesson in true beauty. It's not outward.
Man's beauty is vain. Man's beauty is imagined. Man's
beauty is made up. How many of you men would be
married to your wife if there were no makeup? Seriously, it's made up. Their
beauty is from Revlon. True. It's true. And so is religion
in it. Made up. That's what the scripture
calls these Pharisees. Widened sepulchers. It's inward
beauty. It's beauty. Beauty of character.
Strength. It's not strength of body. It's
strength of character. Spirit, will. Purpose, resolve. Faithfulness. That's Him, isn't
it? Greatness. Greatness is not being
served. It's serving. Greatness is not
obtaining all these things. It's giving. Oh, He gave Himself. And blessedness and happiness
is not serving self. Oh, our Lord exhibited this,
didn't He? It's not in serving self. You
can't make yourself happy. You cannot appease that man.
You cannot please that man. did anything for himself, but
for everyone else. So he says, in light of that,
look with me at these verses again. He says in verse 3, let
nothing be done through strife or vain glory. We don't have
any. But in lowliness of mind, let
each esteem other better than themselves. Oh my, look not every
man on his own thing, but every man also on the things of others.
That's what Christ did. Let this mind be in you. Which
was also in Christ Jesus. Who made Himself of no reputation.
Became a servant. So God is highly exalted in Him. Giving Him a name which is above
every name. See Christ didn't come to marry
a beautiful bride. But an ugly one. An ugly one. And He came to marry
her to make her beautiful. Like the child in Ezekiel 16.
Cast out in that field, ugly, loathsome in his person, but
her beauty, she became beautiful. How? Through his companyness. That's why, oh, that's why God
says, don't you dare glory in anything. If you're gonna glory,
you glory in my son. He well deserves it, doesn't
he? To God be the glory, amen.