I want to bring a message this
morning called The Condescension of Christ, Christ Emptying Himself,
Christ Coming Down. It says here in verse 6, Colossians,
or Philippians 2, who being in the form of God,
Christ, who being in the form of God, thought it not wrought
be to be equal with God. that 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." That word humble means he emptied himself, poured himself
out, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Now, in light of that, in light
of him coming down, wherefore God also hath highly exalted
him, and given him a name which is above every name." Now, in
these three verses that I just read to you, we trace our Lord's
path from the very highest glory, being in the form of God, down
to the deepest humiliation, when He humbled Himself and became
obedient unto the death of the cross, and then God took He took
him back to glory and set him at his own right hand and gave
him all power and majesty in heaven. Since he did his name,
every knee is going to bow. And every knee in this universe,
one of these days, is going to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. All them Mohammedans, all them
people that love the Pope, all them people that follow Buddha,
all them people that follow Confucius, All them people that follow these
false gods and false idols, every single one of them is going to
have to bow down. And everyone is going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is the Creator and Sustainer
of this universe. That all life and all power and
all glory is in His holy name. And He got to that seat at the
right hand of God by way of a bloody cross. And everyone going to
acknowledge that one of these days. No matter what or who they
worship here, they're going to have to, they're going to do
that, ain't they? And all of it. Now, remember, I want you
to remember this. We always have to view the scriptures in the
context in which they're in. And as we do here, see, we see
what the apostles intention here is and the Holy Spirit, what
he wants us to see and understand. Starting here in verse one, he
did this. He exhorted believers. He says, if there is any consolation
in Christ, and this is rhetorical. We know there's consolation in
Christ. Comfort of love in Christ. Any fellowship of the Spirit
that we have in Christ. If any hearts, that word bows
means the heart, your inward heart, your inner being, and
mercies. He said, this is what I want
you to do. I want you to fulfill my joy. That you'll be like-minded. That you'll have the same love.
that you'll be of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done
through strife. Don't strive over things. Don't
do it because of vainglory. If you want glory, it's just
vainglory, so there's no sense in striving over who's the best,
who's the wisest, who's the strongest, who's the most dedicated. That's
just vainglory. But in loneliness of mind, let
each esteem others better than themselves. And look not every
man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. So what he's doing here is exhorting
us as believers, as Christians, to spiritual fellowship among
ourselves, to be like-minded, to love one another, to be of
the same mind, same heart, same accord, to be humble, to be lowly,
to esteem others better than ourselves. Now, what does he
do to enforce this teaching? What does he do? What does he
do? Does he start telling you what you need to do? Start telling
you how you need to act? How you need to start living
in this world? No, no, no, no, no. How does he do it? But he says this right here,
by setting forth the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what you always
do in the Scriptures. No matter what expectation you
have, they always bring you to Christ. And when you go on past
that, he brings you back to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
what he says, I want you to be this way. And here he said, this
is the way it's going to be. Let this mind, verse five, let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who thought
it not robbery. And he goes to tell us about
the mind of Christ. Let the mind, let the spirit,
let the habit, let the self-denial, let the mind of self-sacrifice,
let the mind of obedience, let the mind of loneliness and humility
that our Lord had. Let that mind be in you. Let
it be in you. And so the Holy Spirit, He takes
us back to the position that our Lord occupied in all eternity. All eternity takes us back there.
where He had all the supreme dignity and honor and glory that
was due Him and was given to Him. And then He takes us and
shows us the unfathomable, unfathomable depths of condescension and humiliation
our Lord went into for our sakes. Look what it says. Let this mind
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Watch this. Who being
in the form of God, being in the form of God, You know what
this tells us? That Christ was absolute deity. He is God. He was God. No creature, I don't care how
high his position, no human being, no creature, angel, devil, the
highest position in this world that a man may attain to, he
can never be in the form of God. could never attain that, could
never be in the form of God. I know that they have people
that they exalt above God, and I know there's people that they
say that they come to God by them and that, but this was Christ
as the form of God. And these words describe the
son's relationship to his father and to God. He was in the form
of God. He existed in that form. And
it's seen in him alone, the form of God only in Christ. There's,
you know, they say God's in a tree. You can worship nature. God's
in a building. God's never in a building. He
said, I don't dwell in temples made by hand. And they say, boy,
you can see Him in that stream. You don't see God in the streams.
You don't even see God in the stars. You see the Creator. You
see Him who made and upholds it by the word of His power,
but you don't see God. Because that's not the form of
God, that's just the handiwork of God, that's just the creation
of God. If you want to see God in form,
it's in Christ, it's in Christ alone. And look over here in
Colossians, right over to the right, Colossians 1.15, look
what it says here. Not only is he in the form of
God, it's seen in him alone. You know, I'll tell you what,
back when Mary and I were hippie years and years ago, and there's
still people this way, they had a newspaper they put out called
Mother Earth. You know, everybody was supposed
to be green back then, what they call green now, Mother Earth.
Earth ain't no mother. The devil just got something
he always throws in your way to cause you to worship, keep
you from Christ. And so look what here, but God,
Christ is the form of God. Look what it says here in verse
15, Colossians 1. Here's what I'm talking about.
Who is the image? Who is? Christ is. He is the
image of the invisible God. Now, if God's invisible, how
are we going to see Him? Christ took on the form of God.
God is Spirit. You can't see Him. God's everywhere,
but yet Christ took the form of God. God took form, and He
took that form in the person of His blessed Son. And you know
where He says the glory of God's at now? He said if you want to
see the glory of God, you want to see where God's glory is manifested
at, where God revealed His glory to us at? It's in the person,
the face of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me show
you another, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. Just to show you what it means
for Christ to be in the form of God. Hebrews 1.3. First it shows how the relationship
of the Son is to the Godhead, to the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Look what it says there in verse 3. I was talking about Christ
who being the brightness of His glory, now listen to it, and
the express image of His person. What's the expression? You know,
they'll say, boy, he's the spitting image of his father. The spitting
image of his mother. That's what they're saying. He's
the express image of God. You want to know what God looks
like? Christ took the form of God. Christ is the visible God,
invisible God made visible. Christ is the express image.
God, whatever He looks like, is Christ. He took the form of
God. And I tell you, beloved, the
whole nature of God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That Christ
declared God out and expressed God to us. We wouldn't know God. We couldn't know God. We couldn't
find God. We couldn't discover God. So
God came in the form. And He took a form, and it was
in the person of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
look what it says back over here in Philippians. There in verse
6 again, it says, Who be? Who be? You can't speak of somebody,
a divine person as existing. You know, he's self-existent.
He don't want to start existing. He's self-existent. You and I
are not self-existent. We have to live on something.
We have to live by certain things. We can't exist without food,
without water. Without God, without life, without
heart, without blood. But God don't need any of those
things. He don't need to be fed. He don't
need the sunshine. He don't need to grow. He don't
need water. He don't need anything. He's God. He's self-existent. Who, me? So our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He says here, is in the form of God, He was always in
the form of God. When he was in eternity as he
was with his father, he was in the form of God. God never expressed
himself except through his son. He never manifested himself to
anybody except through his son. When Moses was standing on that
mountain and that bush caught on fire, who do you think that
was? He said, who do you think spoke
out of that bush and take off his shoes? You stand on holy
ground. That was Christ. And all of His
visible glory, all of His majesty, all of His sovereignty from eternity,
the Son was clothed with deity. He took the form. He was in the
form of God, always in the form of God. And then look what it
says next to that, who being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God. And what in the world does
this mean? The Son did not reckon Equality
with the Father and the Holy Spirit is usurping any authority
from Him. That's what that means. Now, if somebody else sought
to make themselves equal with God in any way, it would be robbery. It would be robbery. You see,
our Lord Jesus considered equality with God as what was justly His.
It was His right to do that. Huh? Now I want to show you something
over here in Isaiah 28, or excuse me, Isaiah 14. You know, our Lord said, all
that came before me were thieves and robbers. And when we hear
somebody lying on God, we hear somebody dishonoring God. And Eric, do you know how many
people in this world who claim to be the Son of God? who claims
to be the Messiah? Do you know how many are in this
world right now that claim that? Do you know how many people are
in Israel over there with long hair, got a robe on, saying that
I'm the Messiah? Do you know how many are over
there right now? Do you know that there is people
in this world that got people that worship them who claim to
be the Son of God? There's a black man in Florida
that claims to be Yahweh being Yahweh, Son of God. And he has
got hundreds and hundreds and thousands of followers. Claims
to be the Son of God. Now, is he equal with God? Does
he have any equality with God? He's equal to me. He's a man.
He's equal to me. He's a sinner. He's equal to
me. He's dependent on God. He's equal to me. He's got to
breathe to live. He's equal to me. He's got a
heart that beats. But there's nobody equal with
God. Anybody that claims equality
with God is robbing God. That's why our Lord said, all
that ever came before me is a thief and a robber. And it disgusts
us and angers us when we see somebody that claims any kind
of equality. There's people that command God
to do things. And our Lord said, our Lord esteems
such equality as he did not take any prerogative from God, to
all the honor and glory of God. Look what it says here in Isaiah
14, 12. Here's a person who tried to
have equality with God, and look what happens. How art thou fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut
down to the ground, which disweakened the nations? For thou hast said
in thine heart, watch it now, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the cloud. I will be like the Most High
God. As Satan, claiming equality with
God, look what happened to him. yet thou shalt be brought down
to hell to the sides of the pit." Oh, our Lord had equality with
God. Let me show you this. Look in John 5. This is one of the reasons why
they crucified our Lord. It's because he claimed to be
one with God. And you know the Jews said here,
O Israel, the Lord our God is one, and truly God is one. One, there one in will, one in
purpose. Our salvation is by God, is by
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, one God in
three persons. I don't know how to explain that,
but that's the way it is. God the Father purchased our salvation.
God the Son purchased our salvation. God the Holy Spirit applies that
salvation and works it in us, what Christ done for us. And
so our Lord Jesus Christ, they despised Him and hated Him because
they said, here's God and God can't be seen. God can't be touched. God can't be handled. God's glorious. You know, we don't even use His
name. The Jews wouldn't even use His name, Jehovah. But here's this man who comes
into this world and he says, I'm God, but I and my Father
are one. Look what he said here in John
5.18. Verse 17, look what he says, But Jesus answered them,
My Father worketh, his the two, and I work. Therefore the Jews
sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken
the Sabbath, that's bad enough, but said also that God was his
Father, making himself equal with God. Look over at John, John chapter
10. Now, if you know, I was in the hospital years and
years ago with a fellow. He decided one day that he was
a prophet and God called him and he took off all of his clothes
and started walking down the street preaching. And of course, I wasn't in the
best mental condition at the time, but they brought this fella
in. He was the son of God. He was going to go out there
and preach and convince everybody he was. God told him, take off
all his clothes and go tell about it. And that's when they put
him in a mental hospital. And you know, there's lots of
folks in that condition, because they claim there's equality. And oh my, when Christ claimed
equality, He wasn't lying. He claims He was equal with God. Is He equal in power? Is He equal
in honor? Is He equal in glory? Is He equal
in sovereignty? Huh? Is He equal in creation? Did
the father ever do anything apart from the son? Did the son ever
do anything apart from the father and the father's will and the
father's purpose? Look here in John 10 30. I and my father are one. Then the Jews took up stones
again to stone him. Our Lord answered them, Many
good works have I showed you from my Father. For which of
those works do you stone me? Now watch what they said. Now,
Jews answered him, saying, We're not going to stone you for a
good work. No, no, that's not the reason. We're going to stone
you for blasphemy. Because that thou being a man,
make us thyself God. Who be in the form of God. Oh,
my. The Lord Jesus. And this is something
about human beings. We don't want to be equal. You
remember when the Lord went out and the husband went out one
morning, six o'clock in the morning, hired some fellas to go to work.
Nine o'clock, he went out and hired some more. At noon, he
went out and hired some more. Three, he went out and hired
some more. And at five o'clock, they worked from six to six.
At five o'clock, he went out and hired some more. Those fellas
that came in at eleven o'clock, They was the last, and he was
the first one in line to get paid. And he agreed to it for
a penny. They're all going to work for
a penny. Those fellas that came in for 11 hours, they lined up
to get their money. The last shall be first. And
here they come, and they give them a penny. That fella come
in at 12 o'clock and said, that's my ride. That fella come in at
9 o'clock in the morning, that's my ride. are making them equal with us,
and we've labored all day long. And you want to make them equal
with us? They can't be equal with us. And that's the way this
religious world is. We're so far above everything
and everybody else that you can't be equal with us. The Pharisee
says that the publican can't be equal with me. But, beloved,
you can't turn your head for the difference in any member
of the human race any time. I mean, you can't do it, can
you? That's why man, he don't want people to be equal. Everybody
wants to be just a little different, a little better, a little stronger,
a little wiser, a little bit more dedicated. But here Christ
was equal with God. The Lord Jesus possesses, did
possess on earth a glory equal with God's with a right to that
glory and thought it not robbery to claim it. Now, if he was just
a finite man, there can't be no equality between the infinite
and the finite. There can't be no equality between
the eternal and the temporal. There can't be no equality between
the creature and the creator, can there? No. Even when we have the body of
Christ, we enter into eternity, we're still, you think we're
going to be equal with God? There's no way, shape, form or
fashion. We'll still be dependent on God.
We'll still be living by grace. We'll still be trusting Him.
We'll still be worshiping Him. We'll still be obeying Him. We'll
still delight in Him. The only thing is, we won't have
this strength to continue it. But we'll never, ever be equal
with Christ. Never be equal with God. We'll
still be the Creator. We'll still be the creature. And it's impossible for there
to be any equality. God said, I am God, and who,
who is like unto me? Christ said, I am. And everybody
said, Amen. For any creature to reckon himself
to be equal with God would be the highest robbery and the highest
blasphemy. You know that. And then look
what it says again in our text here in Philippians 2. Not only
was he in the form of God, he was always in the form of God.
God manifested himself only in Christ. He was the image of the
invisible God. And then he wasn't robbing God
to be equal to God. He never claimed something that
wasn't his right, that wasn't his glory, wasn't his honor,
that belonged to him. If I did it, I'd be a robber. I'd be an idiot. I'd be a fool.
But he made himself. Here's this man who is in the
form of God. Here's this man who's equal to
God, has all the glory of God, the power of God, the majesty
of God, the sovereignty of God, equal with God in every way.
But look what he did, made himself of no reputation. Instead of our Lord Jesus insisting,
this is what I'm talking about. He started out up here, this
high form of God, not robbery to be equal with God. Then he
comes down, makes himself of no reputation. Instead of our
Lord insisting upon His right as a member of the Godhead, you
know what He did? He voluntarily gave Him up. He willingly set aside His glory
as the Creator. Look what it says, "...and took
upon Him the form of a servant." Oh my, he's not only that, but
went on down and says this, and was made in the likeness of men.
Here's God. Here's one equal with God in
every way. But everyone cursed him and blasphemed
him, made him of no reputation. Well, he said either. He took the form of a creature,
took the form of a sermon, and came in the likeness of fallen
men. He left the highest position
of supremacy and came down here and became a creature, a servant. This is why I'm talking about
it. When he was washing his disciples' feet, he came to Simon Peter
and he says, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? You'll not wash
my feet. That's what he taught. He took
the form of a servant. Peter says, you're not going to do
that. Our Lord said, if I don't, you ain't going to have no part
with me. Only way you have a part with
me is you to enter into this humility with me. And oh my,
for what I've done, and that's what he did, he took this form
of a servant. And he, for the joy that was
set before him, even though he was equal in majesty, equal with
glory with his Father, He resigned himself to his father. He said,
I came down from heaven not to do my will, not to do mine, but
the will of him that sent me. That's my real reason to be here.
And what condescension, what lowliness, what humility, that he who was in the form of
God itself, let his glory be hid, let it be eclipsed. And
His honor laid down right in the very dust. Right in the dust. When He was in that garden, He
got down and prayed till His sweat became as great drops of
blood. He let men slap Him. He who made woman was made of
a woman. He who created this world was
made of creature. He who upholds man and gives
man his very being and existing in him, whose life is the light
of man, humbled himself and made in the
likeness of sinful man. And not only that, but he humbled
himself to the most shameful death, the death of the cross,
the death of a criminal, the death of one that You don't crucify
a man unless he's guilty of a crime. And Christ humbled himself and
became obedient to the death of the cross, this shameful death,
and there he is hanging, humiliated, and shamed, and cursed, and wagged
at, and blasphemed. Said he's saved others, but he
can't even save himself. He starts sending lawyers and
lawyers, and they said, he calls Elijah. Let's send Elijah to
come and save him. He says he's God. Let's send
God to come and save him. Fellas walk around the cross
and clear their throat and spit at it. It's God! Here's one who's equal with God,
with all of his glory and all of his power and all of his...
Now he walked on the water, he fed five thousand with two fish
and five loaves of bread. He's full! Lazarus come forth,
and the he that was dead came forth. He stood on the helm of
a little boat and said, Peace be still, and a storm laid down
at his feet. He was equal with God in every
way. But he emptied himself. Master,
they had to wake him up, don't you care that we perish? There's
his glory eclipsed. Stood at the helm of that ship
and said, peace, be still. There's his glory manifested.
And so he emptied himself of that. Let himself become utter and
absolute weakness in the form of asserting the likeness of
man. And let them do what they would with him. You want to slap
me? Slap me. Prophesy. You're a prophet. Who smokes
you? Say yourself a king. Here's your
scepter. Here's your reed. We went out
and got this out of the river. Here's your reed. Hold this reed.
That'll be your scepter. You say you're a king. Here's
this purple robe. Let's put this You say you're
a priest, that you're offering yourself a sacrifice for others.
If you're a priest, save yourself. Come off that cross. He saved
others, but he can't save himself. Oh, my. That's what he did. He humbled himself to the most
shameful, ignominious death that anybody's ever suffered in this
world. I don't care what a human being has been subjected to in
this world. It's just one sinner subjecting
another sinner to some kind of humiliation. But here you're
subjecting the eternal God. He that's holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. One whose very soul was holy,
body was holy, mind was holy. It was sinful men creating the
sinless to the deepest shame and humiliation ever known in
this world in time or eternity. I know you say, boy, I do. I
read about things that people have done. They've burned people
at the stakes, the Romans turned. They'd take Christians and light
them up at night and use them, burn, set them on fire and use
them to light up the streets where the folks walk up and down
the street. But that's just one creature mistreating another
creature. That's just one sinner mistreating another. But this
is the whole human race. attacking the most holy, glorious
being, eternal God, who did no guile, who did no sin, no guile
found in His mouth, who dwelt in eternity. The high
and lofty One, the Holy One, we took Him when we got our hands
on Him. We mistreated him like nobody's
ever been mistreated in this world. Because it's who it was
that was mistreated. That's what it says, he took
upon himself the form of a servant. And when he took upon him the
form of a servant, he didn't cease to be what he was. He still was the form of God.
He still was equal with God. But he became something, assumed
something he had not never been before. Here is the form of God.
Now he takes upon him the form of a man, the form of a servant. And oh me, God cannot cease to
be God, no matter what form he takes. No matter what they do
to him, he cannot cease to be God. No more than he's not God
can become God. When our Lord, in taking upon
Himself the form of a servant, gave up none, not one, of His
Lord's attributes, not one of them. Do you know what sovereignty
it took for Him to submit Himself to the hand of men? Do you know
what might it took for Him to be led as a slam to the slaughter?
Do you know what might and power it took for Him to be made to
be sinned? Do you know what power it took
for Him of those seven utterances from the cross to fulfill every
verse of scripture concerning him. You know what power it took,
you know what might it took, you know what glory it took,
you know what strength it took. So he didn't lay aside any of
his attributes when he took upon himself the form of a servant. But His majestic glory was obscured
when they looked at Him. They couldn't see God there.
They couldn't see His attributes. They couldn't see His majesty.
They couldn't see His strength. They couldn't see His power.
All they could see is weakness. All they could see is humiliation.
All they could see is the shame and the power they had over Him. But, oh, my. But listen, two
different things. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory as the glory of the Only Begotten
of the Father. But before we saw that, Isaiah 53 says, He
was a root out of dry ground. There was no beauty about Him,
no glory about Him, no form about Him, no countenance about Him
that we should desire Him. Both in the same person. He was
the form of God, equal to God, and now he is the form of a servant
in the likeness of men. There he is in his glory. There
he is in his flesh. Still God. Still powerful. Who is this? Look over with me
in verse 10. Who is this? Who was this that had the ability
to empty himself, to conceal his glory from the world by becoming
a servant? 1 Timothy 3.16, and I'll show
you. Who is this? Who was this that
had the ability to empty himself, to humble himself, to become
obedient unto death? Who, as in the form of God, thought
not Robert Eagle to be equal to God, but took him in the form
of a servant, found in likeness as a man, hid his glory. Who is this that became the servant?
Verse 16, 1 Timothy 3, and without controversy, great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
the form of God. Justified in the Spirit, the
Holy Spirit claimed to show His equality with the Father over
and over and over. The angels saw Him. And oh my,
He'd been preached unto the Gentiles. And he believed on Him. We saw
His glory. We saw His emptiness. We saw
Him come in His glory. We saw an empty self in His glory.
Saw Him ascend back to glory. Believed on Him in the world.
And what is He? Received back up into glory. Oh my, this is it. And it says,
He took upon Him the form of a servant. This is the great
condescension. It's impossible, absolutely,
utterly impossible for me to grasp how far our Lord stooped. The scripture said in Psalm 113,
verse 6, the Lord humbles himself to behold the things that are
in heaven. Now, God humbles himself to look at things that's going
on in heaven. You know why he has to humble
himself? Because everything's beneath him. And Christ, if He's
God, do you know how far God humbles Himself to see what's
in heaven? How far down our Lord Jesus Christ stooped? How far
down He came? How low He came? In the form
of God, to be equal with God, taking upon Himself the form
of a servant, to be found like me and you as a man. And not
only that, but then humbling Himself, intoning Himself, To
death. The death of the cross. He entered into an office which
placed him below God. He told his disciples, he says,
you know, if you loved me, you would rejoice. You would rejoice. For I'm going
back to my father. My father is greater than me.
That's how he humbled himself, even to be subjected to the will
of God. And for a season, he was made a little lower than
the angels. Why? That he, by the grace of God,
should taste death. And all night, he who stood on
the mountain and took his finger and wrote those ten commandments
on the law, on those stones, he was made under the law. He
who made a woman was made of a woman. And he was made lower
than the ordinary condition of a man was. And let me show you
this in closing, Psalm 22. He was made lower than any ordinary man. And I
would not say this. I would not. I was talking to
a dear brother the other day. There's no way in the world we
would use such language. We wouldn't even enter our mind
to think of God and think of Christ this way had not Christ
Himself said it. Talking about his humiliation,
his coming down, his condescension. Look what it said in verse 6. Psalm 22, But I am a worm and
no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. Men don't even want to be called
a worm. God said, O thou worm, Jacob. And Christ said, I'm a
worm, and no man. Now you talk about humiliation. They change hymn books because
they don't want to be called wretches anymore. Don't want
to be called sinners anymore. And our Lord Jesus Christ Took the form of God. He was
in the form of God. Was equal with God. Humbled himself. Took upon himself the form of
a servant. He waited on us. Waited on his people. Done for
his people. Humiliated himself for his people.
Subjected himself not only to God, but to the hands of sinful
men. Can you? Can you believe that
He would humble Himself and empty Himself? Do you see His glory?
Do you see the glory in Him being like that? Do you see the glory
of Him emptying Himself? Do you see the glory of Him humbling
Himself? And do you see now His glory
where God says, wherefore God is highly also exalted Him and
given Him a name? Oh, God gave Him a name. What's
in the name? In Christ it's everything. What's in a name in Christ is
salvation. What's in a name in Christ, it's
all power. What's in a name in Christ, it's
all authority. What's in a name in Christ, it's
all glory. Do you see it? Do you see it? Will you in your heart say, Lord,
I'm going to bow my knee to His name right now. I'm going to
confess in my heart That he's Lord. And oh, I'm going to in
my heart say, God, to you be the glory. To you be the glory. Great things you have done. Would
you do that? Can you do that? God help you
to do it. Our Father, in the blessed, glorious
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing us to
meet here today with your people with your saints. Thank you for
the gospel. And, O Lord, I know we have this
treasure and it's in earthen vessels, just an earthen clay
pot, that the glory might be of God, that the power might
be manifest. It's of God. And, Lord, take
the gospel today. O Holy Spirit, take these things
of Christ in spite of the vessel and make it True to the heart. Make it true to the mind. Reveal
and open hearts and minds to where men and women can see the
Lord Jesus Christ in His glory. His glory even in His humiliation. God help us please to honor and
magnify Him and Him alone. We ask it in His holy name. Amen. Amen.