If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Philippians chapter two. I'm gonna pick up right
where Joe left off in his reading this morning. I've titled the
message Christ Exalted. This is a subject I love to think
about. I love to preach on the kingship
of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
When he arose on high, as Brother Joe read to us, he was exalted
by the Father to be Lord over all. He's king over everything
that you can think of. And here's the reason that I
love to think about, I love to preach about the kingship of
Christ. If the Lord Jesus Christ is not king of all, if he's not
Lord over everything, then we have no gospel to preach, we
have no hope of salvation. But if the Lord Jesus Christ
is King of all, and He is, then we have a gospel to believe.
We have a salvation that's not a wish. We talk about the hope
of salvation. Well, that hope is not a wish.
It's an expectation. Normally in scripture where you
hear this word, the hope of expectation, or hope of glory, the word means
an expectation. This salvation of God's people
absolutely must happen. if our Savior has been raised
to be King over all. And since the Lord Jesus Christ
is King over all, there's salvation to preach to the lost. There's
a Savior to point them to. And there's peace, and there's
comfort, and there's hope and assurance for the hearts of God's
people. And that's what I pray the Lord
will enable me to do this morning. But before we look at the exaltation
of Christ, we have to see why Did the father exalt the son
to be Lord overall? It's not nepotism. I don't know
if anybody here has ever worked in a in a family business, but
now you can just expect in a family business or nepotism. The son's
going to get, you know, put up to the be the president of the
company, whether he good at it or not, you know. God, the father
did not exalt his son to be king overall because the family. The
father didn't exalt the king, his son, to be king overall,
even though there's somebody else more qualified who was not
family. The father exalted the son to
be king overall because there's nobody else qualified for the
job. The Lord Jesus Christ earned
the right to sit on the throne of God because of his humiliation
and his substitutionary death for his people. Remember when
the Lord met those disciples on the road to Emmaus, Luke 24. He told them, ought not Christ
to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory.
See, he had to suffer those things first and then enter into his
glory. That's the way it had to be.
And that's just what he did. So first, I want us to look at
how it is that Christ our Savior suffered in his humiliation. And he had to suffer everything
he suffered. You read those accounts. from
where he was taken by that mob and his mock trial and how the
Roman soldiers abused him and his crucifixion. He had to suffer
every detail of everything that he suffered in order to redeem
his people from their sins and then be glorified to the throne.
So first Christ suffered the humiliation of appearing in human
flesh. Look here at verse six of Philippians
chapter two. 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. You know, it was not robbing
God of his glory for the Lord Jesus, this man, this Jew from
Nazareth, to say, I'm equal with the Father. I and the Father
are one. It wasn't robbing God of his
glory to say that. We would be robbing God of his glory if we
said it, but not him, because the Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is one with the Father. I
love saying this, the Lord Jesus Christ is God. Jesus of Nazareth is God. He's
not a lesser version of God. He's not God 2.0. He's not God
similar to God in some ways. The Lord Jesus Christ, Mary's
baby boy, is the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. He is God, and this high and
lofty one, This one who in the book of Revelation tells us is
the light of glory. There's no need of sun there,
the sun, the moon. Christ, the lamb is the light
of it. The light of glory, the prince of glory. I mean, how
high and lofty he is. God himself humbled himself to
come into flesh, to be the representative of a sinful people. The eternal
son humbled himself to become an embryo in Mary's womb. He had to do it because that's
the way you and I come into the world. He had to come into the
world that way if he's going to be our representative. And
in the flesh, he limited himself to human weakness, the flesh
of human weakness, because that's the nature of the people he was
saving. Now, we know he had all power.
We know the miracles and things that he performed. But in all
those miracles, you'll notice this, he never one time performed
a miracle for himself. Because you and I can't do it.
He performed those miracles for others, but not for himself.
When he was thirsty, he had to ask a sinful Samaritan woman,
would you get me a drink? When he was hungry, he couldn't
turn the stones into bread, because we can't do that. He came to
be our representative. He limited himself that way.
He came to obey God's law in the flesh. See, we were made
sinners by a man in the flesh. Well, if we're gonna be made
righteous, it's gotta be by another man in the flesh. He came to
obey God's law in the flesh with all the weakness of our flesh
so that he could be our representative. Now, all of us know what it feels
like to be embarrassed and humiliated. It's because we've done something
wrong, done something dumb. The Lord Jesus endured a constant
feeling of shame, being exposed in the weakness of our flesh,
and he did it to be the representative of a people. Then second, Christ
suffered the humiliation of obedience. Verse eight says, in being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Now the Lord and Master
of all, remember he washed the disciples' feet. He said, you
call me Lord, Master, and you say, well, for so I am. Lord
and Master of all humbled himself to become a servant. He first
became a servant to his father. He gave up his power, his rights,
if you will, as God, to come as a man and be the servant of
his father. He's equal with the father, but
he gave up those rights and he came as a servant of his father.
to serve his father and obey his father's law so he could
establish everlasting righteousness in the earth. And what's even
more humiliating than that is Christ our Lord and master humiliated
himself to become the servant of his people. He came not to
be ministered to like the big boss. He came to minister to
his people by giving his life a ransom for many. And you know
what? It was his delight to do it.
It wasn't just something he did because he had to do. You ever
done that? I used to get up for 25 years. I got up at five o'clock to go
to work. There was no delight in that. I did that because I
had to. He didn't do this because he
had to. It was his delight to do it, to honor and glorify and
please his father and to save a people that he loved. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the one who appeared to Moses on Sinai and with his
finger wrote those 10 commandments in tables of stone. Now he's
the lawgiver. He's the judge of all, yet he
humbled himself to come in the flesh and obey his very own law.
Now you name me a king that's ever done that. They make laws,
but the law doesn't apply to them. Our king gave a law and
put himself under it to obey it for his people. He was obedient
to his parents, who were just, they're his creatures. They get
their life and their breath and their intelligence and their
ability to move, they get it from him, yet he was obedient
to them. He was utterly dependent on that
milk from Mary's breast, and he was the one that had to give
it to her. I mean, what a mystery of godliness. And how this had to grate on
his nerves. He was obedient to the law and
the ceremonies of religion. He never missed a Sabbath day.
Even though that had been so defiled by men, he was there
every time. He never missed one. He was perfectly
obedient to a very imperfect people, wasn't he? And then his
obedience, oh, it went further. He's obedient unto death. The
father, it's like the father and the son had a conversation.
The father said, son, you must be made sin. You must suffer
and you must die to put away the sin of my elect. It's the
only way my holiness and my justice can be satisfied. It's the only
way righteousness and peace can meet together. It's the only
way. And the son obediently said, I'll do it. And he gave himself
to be crucified. God's son humbled himself to
become a man who would die. God humbled himself to live in
that holy body that the father prepared for him so that he would
have a body to be sacrificed for the sin of his people. And
when it came time to die, this wasn't a quick death, where they
chopped off his head or they sedated him and then gave him
drugs that would kill him. He had to die a cursed death
on the cursed tree. He had to be made a curse for
his people so that he could deliver his people from the curse. He
died being made sin for his people to take the sin of his people
away from them and his own precious body on the tree and put it away
by sacrificing himself, everything that he is. He sacrificed His
life blood to put that sin away in justice. Now this thing has
to be done in justice. It was just and it was right
for Him to pay the sin debt of His people because the Father
made that sin to be His. He took the sin of His people
and made that sin to belong to Christ. Now I can't explain that,
but this is what I know about that. If Christ didn't take my
sin away from me, into his own body and put it away, it's still
on me. And he took the sin of his people.
How humiliating that had to be for the holy son of God. That's
why he sweat great drops of blood. That's why in Gethsemane's garden,
he said, I think I'm just gonna die just even thinking about
this. It was being made sin. And he suffered all of that willingly
and lovingly so that he could honor his father's every act
of love. and he could save his people from their sins and give
them eternal life so that when the time comes, he can take them
to himself to be with him forever. He wanted those people that he
loved to be with him forever, so he gave up his life to redeem
them. Now that's the suffering of Christ. Now let's look at
his exaltation. Paul says in verse nine, wherefore?
Because of all this, wherefore? God also hath highly exalted
him, and given him a name which is above every name. By his humiliation
and his suffering, Christ the Savior fully satisfied God's
laws. He satisfied his father's justice. As the servant of his
father, he did everything perfectly that the father sent him to do.
He pleased his father so well, in his time of humiliation, the
father exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name.
As he was caught up into those clouds, can you imagine the homecoming
when he got, oh my. See, like I said earlier, that
wasn't nepotism, was it? The father wasn't giving somebody
something to his family even though they didn't really deserve
it. The humiliation and the suffering of Christ made it right for the
father to exalt him to be king over all of God's creation. Christ
has earned his kingship by his suffering for his people. And
the exaltation of Christ It's just, it's the exact opposite
of his humiliation. He suffered because he was made
sin for his people. Well, he's exalted because he
put that sin away. He paid for it with his precious
blood. How he was brought low by sin. He brought low in that
state of humiliation, but he's exalted higher than the heavens
because he put that sin away. So wherefore, Paul says, wherefore? Here are some results of the
exaltation of Christ. Number one, the humiliation and
sufferings of Christ earned him a name, which is above every
name. And when we talk about the name
of Christ, this is not knowing the name of Jesus. His name describes
who he is. It tells us who he is. Who is
it? This is the name we preach, the character of the Savior that
we preach. The sufferings of Christ earned
him a saving name. a name that is so powerful, everybody
who believes on it is saved. The Apostle Paul, or Peter, preaching
to those Jews in Acts chapter four, he said, neither is there
salvation in any other, for there's none other name, none other name
under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. If
you believe on this name, you must be saved. The Lord Jesus
Christ earned a saving name. And the good news for sinners
is if you believe on him, you believe now, not not the Jesus
of your imagination. Now, please understand me. I'm
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ as he describes himself
in this book. You believe on him, you'll be
safe. You don't have to know a bunch
of doctrine. You don't have to know a bunch of all that. You believe
on him and you will be safe. That's how powerful his name
is. His character is. Number two,
because of his humiliation, Christ is king over all of God's creation,
all of it. He's king over things in heaven,
things in earth, and things under the earth. How about covers it,
then, Walter? That's everything, isn't it?
Well, since Christ is king everywhere in God's creation, there isn't
some place that God's people can fall. that are outside of
his jurisdiction. They can't go anywhere. They're
outside of his power to save. None of God's people can be so
lost that they're outside of God's reach to save them. His
arm's not short and it cannot save. Since Christ is king everywhere,
he saves a people from everywhere. You've heard about the long arm
of the law. You can't outrun the long arm of the law. Since
Christ is king everywhere, you can't outrun the long arm of
grace either. He's gonna find his people and
save them, because he's king everywhere. Wherever people are,
Christ is king of them. I love that. Third, since Christ
is exalted, there's salvation to be found for sinners at the
feet of Christ. Look here at verse 10. That the
name of Jesus, every knee should bow. The 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. Now, there's no salvation in
accepting Jesus as your personal Savior. You know, when people
talk about this, it's like you're doing him a favor, you know?
Paula did me a favor, cooking all this food and stuff, you
know, I preach. But you just accept Jesus, you're doing him
a favor. If you just let Jesus into your
heart, why, you know, aren't you nice? Letting Jesus have
His way in your life. What is people to give your heart
to Jesus? What does He want with your cold,
dead, sinful heart? When God saves His people, He
takes that thing and throws it away and creates a new one. There is only salvation in bowing
at the feet of King Jesus. Until we get this fact straightened
out, we'll never worship God. We will only worship a sovereign. If I can get him to do something
for me, if I can influence him to do something for me, if I
can obligate him to do something for me by doing different things,
I'll not worship him. But if he can damn me and be
just, or he could save me and be just. That's a God I'll worship. If I'm in His hands to do with
as He pleases, I'll worship Him. This is something that human
nature simply cannot understand. God doesn't have to save me.
He doesn't have to. He doesn't owe me anything but
wrath for my sin. So the question is not what am
I going to do with Jesus? The question is what's He going
to do with me? And salvation is found bowing at the feet of
King Jesus. I've read this book, and I challenge
you to find one place in it where there was ever a sinner that
came bowing to him he didn't show mercy to. There's not one.
This is worship. Remember that leper of old? I
like to think about that fella. He's full of leprosy. Law says
he's not even allowed to go around people. Somehow, it seems to
me like, he must have snuck close enough to listen to our Lord
preaching there on that mount. We call the Sermon on the Mount.
And he heard the Savior preach, and he couldn't stay away. The
law said, don't come near me. He came anyway, and this is what
he said. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Now, I don't know if you will,
but I know you can. And we come before Lord and say,
Lord, if you will, you can save me. If you will, you can make
me clean. Now, you can damn me and you'd
be just in doing it. And that's the very reason I'm
begging you for mercy. I don't want justice, I need
mercy. Lord, give me mercy for Christ's sake. Because of his
humiliation, because he satisfied you, give me mercy for Christ's
sake. And if you show me mercy for
Christ's sake, you know what? You'll be just too. Because you
punished my sin and my Savior, and I'm asking you for mercy.
And I'm staying right here. I'm staying right here at your
feet begging for mercy. You may not show it to me, but
I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving because there's
no salvation anywhere else. I bow to Him as King. And you
know, it's very interesting. How is our Savior rejected by
men? as king. This is the charge they
put over him. This is the king of the Jews.
They mocked him with the crown of thorns and that purple robe
and the reed for a scepter. They rejected him as king. But
if you and me are gonna be saved, we're gonna bow to him as king.
And if we do, there's salvation at his feet. Number four, sinners
see the glory of God when we see how it is God saves sinners
through the death the burial, the resurrection, and the exaltation
of Christ. Verse 10 in our text says that
Christ did what he did to glorify his father. He saved his people
from their sin to glorify his father. This is the purpose of
everything he did. It was to glorify his father.
The father got glory in choosing a people to save and sacrificing
his son to save them. Now, we don't know everything
there is to know about God, but I know this. The Father will
never let His glory be tarnished. If He would lose just one of
that innumerable host for whom Christ died, if He'd lose just
one, He'd lose all of His glory, and He's not gonna allow it.
You see, the Father's justice is satisfied, isn't it? Because
of the death of Christ, the Father's justice is satisfied. He's gonna
see to it, his mercy is satisfied. God's mercy is gonna be satisfied
when Christ finally comes and puts an end to this thing. And
the Son stands before the Father, he says, Father, I and the children
that thou hast given me, every one of them's here. And God's
mercy will be satisfied. The Father's gonna see to it
that that happens. You see, it's impossible to preach the gospel
unless you preach a sovereign Savior of sinners who saves whom
He will, when He will. He saved the elect people that
the Father gave Him to save. Christ the Sovereign didn't die
to give people a chance to be saved. If He did that, none of
us are going to be saved. The sovereign Savior saved everyone
for whom he died. He saved everyone he intended
to save and he cannot fail to save them because he's the sovereign. And his will always happens. If he's willed to save a people,
they're gonna be saved. And in closing, let me give you
a number of scriptures here. I wanna leave you with some peace
and comfort and assurance in your heart by trusting our Savior
who has been exalted over all. And we won't turn to all these
scriptures. For time's sake, there's too many of them. We'll
turn to a few of them. You can jot them down if you want and
look at them later. But the first one is Psalm 68, verse 18. Thou
hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive. Now, if Christ is not exalted
over all, You and me are still held captive by sin. He led captivity
captive. He led captive everything that
held us captive. If Christ has not ascended on
high, we're still held captive by the law and sin and death. But since Christ is exalted,
he set his people free from sin. free from the power of sin, free
from the condemnation of sin. He set his people free from the
law. He set his people free from the
fear of death. He set his people free from Satan
because he's led captivity captives. Now I want you to turn to this,
Isaiah 53. I know this, probably everybody
here can quote this, but try to look at this and read this
like you've never read it before. Since Christ has died and he's
now exalted, the salvation of God's elect is sure. And Isaiah
wrote this about 700 years before Christ was born in the flesh.
Verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord. It pleased
the Father's justice and holiness. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief, and thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and he shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Since Christ is exalted, Isaiah
could say 700 years before he was born in the flesh, they shall.
This thing is certain. In John 16, verse seven, the
Lord told his disciples, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it's expedient
for you It's necessary for you that I go away. For if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if I go away,
I'll send him. I'll send him to you. You see,
if Christ is not exalted, there's no Comforter to send to God's
people, is there? But since Christ is exalted,
he sends the Comforter to his people. And how does the Holy
Spirit comfort God's people? by taking the things of Christ
and showing them to us. That's how he comforts people.
And since Christ is exalted on high, boy, he's got a glorious
Savior to show us, doesn't he? Now look over to Acts chapter
two, if you would. Acts chapter two. In verse 29. Men and brethren, let me freely
speak unto you of the patriarch David. He is both dead and buried,
and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore, being
a prophet, and knowing that God hath sworn with an oath to him,
that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would
raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this before
spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not
left in hell, or not left in the grave. Neither his flesh
did see corruption, This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we
are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this, which you now see
and hear. If Christ is not raised and Christ
is not exalted, God's a liar. He can't keep his word. David
prophesied of the death the resurrection and the ascension of Christ,
even before Isaiah lived. David prophesied of that. But
since Christ is exalted, you can be sure of this. God's gonna
keep his word. Every line of this book, you
can hang your soul upon it. Now, you may not understand it,
but you can bank on it. hang your eternal soul upon it,
and you and I will not be saved until we believe on this exalted
reigning Savior. Because look at what Peter says
in verse 36. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom you've crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard
this, they are pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall
we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent, and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise
is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. That salvation
is sure, because Christ the Savior is exalted. If the Savior wasn't exalted,
Walter, why would we bother preaching? Why would we bother? Peter said,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. That's exactly
why we're preaching. God's gonna call out his sheep
to the preaching of this exalted Savior. Then in Acts 5, verse
30, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged
on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his
right hand to be a prince and a savior. for to give repentance
to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. Since Christ is exalted,
all of the sin of all of God's elect is forgiven. If he's not
exalted, it's not. But since he's exalted, it is.
And he's gonna grant repentance to every one of them. He's gonna
turn every one of them. Repentance isn't just being sorry. You know, mostly what we're sorry
about is we're sorry we got caught. We're sorry God's just. We're
sorry God's gonna send me to hell for my sin. That's not repentance.
Repentance is a turning. It's a turning to Christ. Well,
nobody turned to if Christ is not exalted, is there? But since
He's exalted on the throne, we can turn away from everything
it is that we used to trust Him and turn to Him and trust Him. In 2 Timothy 4 verse 8, Paul
says, henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that
day, and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing.
If Christ is not exalted as king and judge over all, he has no
righteousness to give his people. But Christ is exalted. And we
know there's a righteousness that he gives his people that
makes us accepted with the Father. Hebrews 1 verse 3, who being
the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had
by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. If Christ is not exalted, he
hasn't put away the sin of anybody. So he had to put sin away before
he could sit down in the right hand of the majesty on high.
Well, Christ is exalted. There he sits on the throne of
heaven. That tells me he's purged away the sin of his people. And
as bad as it ever looks, not one of them can ever be dead.
Not one. And here's the last thing. Hebrews
9, verse 24. For Christ has not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the truth,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us. If Christ is not exalted in the
heavens, we don't have a mediator before the Father. If Christ
is not exalted, there's nobody appearing in the presence of
God for us. But Christ is risen, and since he's risen, since he's
exalted on high, we have a mediator. And our mediator doesn't say,
now Father, they didn't mean it. The Father just overlooked
that. That's not the way He pleads
with His Father. When He pleads with His Father, He pleads His
blood as a sacrifice for our sin. And as He sits there on
His Father's right hand, the Savior doesn't even have to say
a word to His Father. There are the nail prints in
His hand and His feet. There's that scar on His side
There's the scars must be in his head where they thrust that
crown of thorns down upon his head. Those scars in his body
are the visible evidence he's sacrificed for his sin. And the
father sees those scars and he smiles. I fully recognize, I don't know
the depths of my sin. in my depravity. But the part
of it that I do know about makes it seem impossible that the Father
would ever smile on me. The only way he can is in the
sacrifice of Christ. And since our mediator is seated
on the right hand of God, the Father smiles on his people. Now between here and glory, it's
gonna get rough. But because our mediator is there
on the right hand of God, one day we're gonna lay down this
clay prison. And you know what's gonna happen
when we do? We're gonna open our eyes in
glory. to the smiling face of our Redeemer, well pleased with
us for His sake. Now if that don't make you trust
Him, and that don't make your heart have such peace, you don't
know Him. And I pray God will make us know
Him, you and me both. God bless you.