Thank you, Brother David, for
your reading and for the prayer. I just, I have to say this. I
didn't know your family was going to be here. It was the providence
of God that your grandfather and your father was reading today.
And I pray that you'll listen to the words that he said. It's
certainly the gospel, isn't it? Thank God for it. I'm thankful
to have everybody here this morning. Today, I'm going to talk to you
a little bit about the grace of humility and selflessness,
which is inspired by the Lord Jesus Christ himself as he has
presented and preached out in the gospel, because that's what
this message is about. The title is Let Christ's Mind
Be in Us. Let Christ's mind, the mind of
Christ, you think about that, That's an awesome thing to think
about. But what happens here in Philippians
chapter two is the Apostle Paul, as he's inspired by the Holy
Spirit to write these words to the church at Philippi, he continues
the theme of unity in the faith that brings us together in the
cause of Christ, showing that we're here for the glory of God
in Christ, we're not here to meet our, as people say, quote,
felt needs, unquote. But we're here to glorify God.
That's what worship is. It's glorifying God. We're here
to brag on Christ, not to brag on ourselves. And that's what
he's ultimately showing forth, as the Philippian believers already
know. In verse one, he shows the ultimate
motives to pursue and cultivate unity among brethren. He says
in verse two, he talks about the characteristics of that unity. In verses three and four, he
shows us how to attain that unity. And then in verses five and 11,
he gives us the perfect example of humility and service exhibited
by Christ himself in our common salvation. Look at verse one,
he says, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, any
comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels
and mercies. That if there is not a conditional
if, it's an evidential if. In fact, some translations translate
it this way, and I think a better translation, since there is consolation
in Christ. And of course, that's speaking
to believers. Those who are sinners saved by grace, who know the
Lord, who believe the gospel, and that consolation that he's
talking about is the assurance of grace. It's the consolation,
the comfort. To be consoled is to be comforted. And to be comforted, in the word
of God, is to have the assurance of salvation, which assurance
is not based upon our performances. You see, any assurance that you
have, of your own salvation that's based upon your performance or
your works, let's say. You know what the Bible calls
that? Self-righteousness. If one were to ask you, are you
saved? And you say, yes. Well, why do
you believe you're saved? Well, back when I was 12 years
old, I got baptized. Or back when I did this or did
that or did the other. That's a bad consolation. That's
an unscriptural consolation. Why do I believe I'm saved? Why
do I have any assurance of salvation? Look at it. If there be therefore
any consolation in Christ. My consolation is that Christ
came to this world obeyed the law perfectly, suffered on the
cross for my sins charged to him, drank my damnation, the
damnation that I deserve dry by his death on that cross, was
buried and arose again the third day and is now seated in the
right hand of the Father ever living to make intercession for
me. That's my consolation. Christ is risen. And we celebrate
that every day, every Sunday. That's the gospels Brother David
said in his prayer. Why did he arise again from the
dead? Because he settled the issue, he settled the account,
he paid the price of the salvation of his people who are all that
the Father had given him before the foundation of the world,
whose names were written on the Lamb's book of life before the
world began. Their sins were charged to his
account. It's like an accounting. Sin
runs up a debt. And by nature, we owe a debt
to God's law and justice that we cannot pay. We don't even
have the first penny. But Christ, before the foundation
of the world, became surety for the people of God. And all of
their sins were laid to his charge. And that's why he had to be made
flesh to dwell among us. He's the son of God eternally. but he was made flesh, a human
body created for him in the womb of the virgin, and he united
himself in his deity with that perfect humanity. He's God and
man in one person. That's our consolation. Since
there's consolation in Christ, who he is, God manifest in the
flesh, not a lesser God, but true and living God, equal with
the Father and the Spirit in every attribute of deity. He
is, this is what salvation, his name shall be called Jesus for
he shall save his people from their sins. Our consolation lies
in who he is. And then our consolation lies
in what he has accomplished on the cross. He didn't come to
try to save people. He came to save his people from
their sins and he accomplished it. All of the conditions of
our salvation were laid upon him. That's what the Bible means
when it says the government was on his shoulders. That's the
government of grace, the government of the kingdom of God. It was
squarely placed upon his shoulders, not yours, not mine. If it was placed on my shoulders,
it'd be a failure. I know that because I know myself.
If it was placed upon your shoulders, it'd be a failure too. Don't
take that as an insult. That's just the truth. I know
something about all of us. We're all sinners. And there's
only two kinds of people in this world. You're either lost in
your sins or you're a sinner saved by grace. And the Bible
says grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Our consolation is in him who
fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf. As David prayed,
I don't have any righteousness to brag about to you this morning. As I go through life, I tell
you this, I tell our congregation this all the time. We should
try to be the best people we could ever be in every way, in
everything that God has given us, every role that we play,
we should try to be the best we can be. And I could say, well, I'm trying
to be the best I can be. You know, not always I don't
try to be the best I can be. I don't do that always. Sometimes
I just give up on myself. But even on those moments when
I do the best I can do, I still don't do enough to make myself
righteous in God's sight. That's why Christ, one of His
names in the Old Testament and in the New, is the Lord our righteousness. And that's what the Gospel tells
us. We're such sinful people, we cannot save ourselves. We
cannot make ourselves right with God. Salvation is based upon
a perfect righteousness that can only be found in the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ. And so the death, burial, and
resurrection of Christ becomes much more than just historical
fact. They are historical facts. He
did die. He did live. He did die. He was
buried. He did raise from the dead. But
it's more than just history. It's salvation to God's people. It's the forgiveness of sins
by the blood of Christ. You can't do anything to get
God to forgive you. Christ did it all. Look unto
him, the author and finisher of our faith. So if there's any
consolation in Christ, now that's to believers, since there is
consolation in Christ, he says if any comfort of love, the love
of God to us, First John 4.10 says, herein is the love of God.
Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Do you know what that word
propitiation means? It means a sin-bearing sacrifice
who brought satisfaction. You hear that? A sin-bearing
sacrifice. Who's that? That's Christ. who
brought satisfaction. Satisfaction to what? To God's
justice for his people. He laid down his life for his
sheep. That God might be just and justify the ungodly. And
that's the love that the Spirit sheds abroad within the hearts
of God's people that brings us together in that Christian fellowship
and unity. He says, if any fellowship of
the Spirit. What is the fellowship of the
Spirit? It's not how you feel. It's not jumping up and down
to religious music. It's not rolling in the aisles.
It's not getting baptized. You know what the fellowship
of the Spirit is? It's one big word, truth. Truth. How do you know if the
Spirit is present in a service? I'll tell you how you know. Is
the guy up here preaching, is he telling you the truth? Now
he can make you feel good. He can make you laugh. He can
even be able to make you jump up and down, whatever. They can
do a lot of things. But if he's not telling you the
truth, it's not the fellowship of the Spirit. The Spirit is sent forth from
Christ to give life to the dead. Through the preaching of the
gospel, the Bible says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
To everyone that believeth, and who believes? Those who have
the gift of faith. Do you know faith is a gift from
God? You don't have it naturally. I read that in 1 Corinthians
2.14, the natural man, that's as we are naturally born in sin. He receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God, That's why Christ told Nicodemus, you must
be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You cannot
enter the kingdom of heaven. The spirit comes and he convicts
us, he convinces us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment
through the preaching of the gospel to everyone that believe
it, to the Jew first, the Greek also. In other words, there's
no economic, there's no ethnic barriers here. And he says, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. What is the
righteousness of God? That's the merits of the obedience
unto death of Christ. What he accomplished in his obedience
unto death for the salvation of his people, and he says, from
faith, that's knowledge revealed by God in his word, by the Spirit,
to faith, that's knowledge received, for it's written the just shall
live by faith, the justified. Am I justified? Are you justified? You know what it is to be justified?
It means that all my sins are forgiven. Even the ones I haven't
committed yet. On what ground, on what basis
are they forgiven? Well, I'm gonna try to do the
best I can. No, no, the basis and ground of forgiveness is
the blood of Jesus Christ alone. Don't add anything to it. What
is it to be justified? It's to be counted righteous
in the sight of God. Now think about that. God knows
your every thought. He just heard you say, preacher,
would you hurry up and get done? He just heard you say that, if
you did. And I'm not a long-winded preacher,
the folks here will tell you that. God knows our every thoughts.
He knows our motives. So then, given that, how can
I stand before God and be counted righteous? Without sin, there's only one
way. And that's through Christ's righteousness
imputed to me, charged to me, accounted to me. That's what
substitution is. Christ is the substitute. Christ
is the surety. All my sins were laid upon Him.
Christ is the substitute. He took my place under the law. Isn't that what the scripture
says? God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law. He took my place
on the cross and He redeemed me from my sins. He paid the
full price. of the justice of God to secure
the salvation of His people. How do you know who they are?
God brings them to believe in Him, rest in Him. Do you believe
in Him? Not as you think Him to be, but
as He's revealed and identified and distinguished in the Word,
in the Bible. That's the fellowship of the
Spirit. He says, if any bowels and mercies, the bowels, that
represents compassion. That's a word in the New Testament
they'd use for compassion. Because there is feeling involved
there. If God has been merciful to me, if he's been compassionate
to me, how do I know he has been? Well, it means I'm healthy and
wealthy and rich and wise, no. How do I know God has been merciful
to me and compassionate to me? because I rest solely in the
glorious person and finished work of Christ. If that's your
state, God's been merciful. He's been compassionate to you.
Now, let us be merciful and compassionate to one another. And so Paul says
in verse two, fulfill ye my joy that you be like-minded, having
the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Be together in these
things. And then he says something that
just hits you in the head like a sledgehammer. Verse three. Let nothing be done through strife
or vainglory. Arguing, self-serving, but in
lowliness of mind. That's humility. Let each esteem
other better than themselves. And what that means is that we're
to be more concerned with the things of others than the things
of self. And you know, I was thinking about this when I was
reading this, studying for this message. It's something I've
known for years, but it kind of just hit me in the head like
a sledgehammer. When you read passages like that, you know
the key to understanding them the way the Spirit intends them?
Don't read them like a microscope or like a telescope, looking
outside of yourself to other people. I mean, you read a verse
like that, you might have somebody in mind, you say, well, they
sure don't do that. Read it like a mirror. Let this mind be in you, he says
in verse five. Be in you, be in me. This is
written to me. I hope it's written to you, but
from my viewpoint, it's just me. And if I read this verse thinking
about how everybody else treats me and I don't feel like I'm
being treated right, you've missed it. You've missed the Spirit's
intent here. Have I caused strife and served
myself? And I'm convicted over that,
aren't you? Lowliness of mind, that's a grace,
that's a gift, humility. Verse four, look not every man
on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. That's a tough one. Should we all strive in those
areas? Yes, we should. But what does that show us mainly?
It shows us that we are sinners in need of salvation by God's
grace. And then he pulls a good one
on us. He gives us the supreme example
of all of that. And where is it? Is it the Reverend
Dr. So-and-so? Or is it in Mom and Dad? Well, Mom
and Dad, I hope you are good examples to your children. I
hope you are. I hope I've been a good example
to much of you. But here's the supreme example.
Here's the supreme go. Jesus Christ, look at it, verse
five, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Now what do you mean let this
mind be in you? It means think like this. Here's how we as believers
are to think. That's what he said. The same
way that Jesus Christ thought. And you might say, well how in
the world can we think like Christ? How do we even know how he thought?
Well we read over there in 1 Corinthians, you remember it says we have
the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2. How in the world can I say
I have the mind of Christ? Because I know my mind. You know
your mind. There's still evil thoughts in
my mind. We're in a struggle. If you're a believer, your state
on earth here is a struggle. You're in a struggle with yourself,
your thoughts. It's hard for, now let me say
this. It's hard for you to keep your
mind on what I'm preaching to you. Now, you say, well, I don't
want to feel bad about myself. Listen, that's just reality.
Sometimes it's hard for me to keep my mind on what I'm saying.
That's because we're just such pitiful, sinful human beings.
Somebody said, well, I didn't come to church to get this. I
want to feel good about myself. I don't want you to leave here
feeling good about yourself. I want you to leave here feeling
good about Christ. That's what I want, if there's
any consolation in Christ. But we have the mind of Christ.
Well, how do we have the mind of Christ? Well, number one,
we have the spirit of Christ. We have the Holy Spirit who indwells
us. Number two, we have the word of Christ written on our hearts
by the spirit and revealed in his word. This is how Christ
thought. That's how we know what he thought.
He tells us. in his word. And then we have
within us the life of Christ. If we've been born again, we
have spiritual life within us. And here's what he's saying here.
When it comes to Christ thinking about his people, he had absolutely
no thoughts that derived from thinking about what we have done
to him. And what did we do to him? Well, we crucified him. He said, well, no, wait a minute,
I wasn't there. You were there in spirit. That's fallen humanity. We disobeyed him. We didn't do
him right. That's what sin is. But in his
working, And in his dealing with his people, he had absolutely
no thoughts of revenge. You ever have any thoughts of
revenge? I want that person off. You know, that's usually my first
thought when somebody does something to me that I don't like. I say,
oh, get that guy. He had no thoughts of revenge.
And that's awful now. Now let me tell you, I'm not
justifying that. Vengeance belongs to God, the scripture says. In
fact, when he was on the cross, remember one of the seven sayings,
Father forgive them, they know not what they do. He had no thoughts, listen, when
it comes to his dealing with his people, his sheep, those
who are brought by God to believe in him, he had no thoughts of
giving them what we deserve. Because all we deserve in God's
mind is death. The wages of sin is death. That's
why salvation is by grace. That's a free gift. That means
you don't earn it and you don't deserve it. And let me tell you
something. That certainly involves salvation. But that also includes the next
breath you draw. Did you know that? The next breath
you draw is a gift from God. Did you know that? Unbelievers
don't recognize that. They just think, well, hey, Everything we have that's good
and perfect comes from the Father of Lights. Look what it says,
and I'll run through this in a hurry. I'm not gonna keep you
here too long. But he says, let this mind be
in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Verse six, who being in
the form of God, that's a phrase that literally means the likeness
or a portrait. He's the exact likeness of God. He is God. He's in the form of
God. He's not just some form. But
the word actually means the likeness, equal. And he thought it not
robbery to be equal with God. He is God. He claimed to be God.
He said, he's the great I am. He's God manifest in the flesh.
If he's not, then he's no savior. If he's not God, he cannot create
and give life. If he's not man, he cannot die.
He had to be God and man in order to die for the sins of his sheep.
And when he's resurrected, he's resurrected as God-man. He exists
right now at the right hand of the Father. The resurrected Christ
is God manifest in the flesh right now, making intercession
for his people. That means he's pleading the
merits of his own work on behalf of his people. That's our consolation. He's not pleading the merits
of your work. You understand that? Christ is not before God
saying now, oh, Lord, Father, look at Bill and look at what
all he's gone through and look at what he's, no. He's pleading
his merits on my behalf. That's my consolation. Do you
understand that? And he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. If any man or woman claims any
attribute of deity, you know what that is? That's robbery.
trying to rob God of his glory. But it wasn't for Christ. And
then verse seven, but made himself of no reputation. We spend our
lives trying to build a reputation, don't we? And that's not a bad
thing. You want to have a reputation
of being honest, of being kind, of being generous. All of those
things are good. But in order to save such sinful
people as we are, Christ had to make himself of no reputation. and he had to take upon himself
the form of a servant. He's called the servant of the
covenant, the servant of grace. He served his father and he served
his people. How did he do it? By going to
the cross and dying for our sins. And he was made in the likeness
of men. Let me give you a little perspective on that. The very
men who drove the nails in his hands and his feet, who put the
crown of thorns on his head, who put the spear in his side,
and who spit upon him, he was their creator. Think about that. The wood that the cross was made
of, he created it. Made himself of no reputation.
made in the likeness of men without sin now. He wasn't made a sinful
man. And then verse eight, and being
found in fashion or in that state as a man or in that body, that
human body, that housing, God manifested in the flesh. He humbled
himself and he became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. You see, the cross did not sneak up on him. It didn't
take him by surprise. His death on the cross was an
obedience unto the Father. That's what he came to do. When
Peter tried to stop him, remember what he told Peter? He said,
get thee behind me, Satan. This is why I came into the world,
to die. He came into the world to die. And his death was a victory. And that's why he arose from
the dead. because righteousness was established. Sin demands
death. Righteousness demands life. He died for the sins of
his people. He arose because he brought forth
righteousness because of our justification. He became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. And verse nine says,
for this reason, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him,
given him a name which is above every name. That's the authority
and the power that Christ has as the sovereign over this universe. And that at the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow and things in heaven, things in earth, things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. When you think about Jesus Christ
going to the cross, don't feel sorry for him, feel sorry for yourself. Do you
know that's what he told as he was on his way to the cross and
the women on the side were crying, he looked at them, he said, don't
cry for me, cry for yourselves. We're the sinful people. He's
the Savior from sin. And His people will bow to Him
now. If you're one of His people,
before you leave this world, you will bow to King Jesus. You will submit to Him as the
Lord your righteousness. You will. And then when He comes
again to bring His church unto Himself, this whole universe
will recognize that He's the Lord of Glory. And even His enemies
will bow forcibly. It's an amazing thing. Now let
this mind be, when we're dealing with each other, and I need to
learn this lesson too, folks. Listen, I'm not just preaching
at you, as they say. When we're dealing with each
other, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. I pray the Lord will bless that
to our hearts and our minds.