He Humbled Himself

In the men's study this morning, Joe read Psalm 23. And as I was listening, I was also counting the times that the Lord was referred to. He's referred to 12 in different ways. He's referred to 12 times in Psalm 23. 12 is a significant number. It represents the church, his elect. The disciples were 12. So what he is saying is, that for his bride, he has provided everything. I loved that, I loved that. Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Philippians chapter two.

Here in our text, we have the hope of God's elect, every child of God hopes because of what's in our text. Because what was required by God, we could not provide it. We couldn't perform it and we couldn't do it. And it's clear here because he describes what had to be done, described what our Lord did, what he accomplished, how he accomplished it. And we see that there's no way that we could have done what he did.

This hour, we're going to be looking at our Lord when he humbled himself. That's what I've titled the message. He humbled himself. That's what it says in our text. So let's read it together. Philippians 2, 5 through 11. Let this mind be in you. which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant." Now think about that. God became a man. God became a servant. A servant. And was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

In Revelation 13 verse eight, it says, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him. All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life, written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Why is every, we're going to look at the highly exalted next hour. So we're not going to talk too much about the knee bowing and the tongue confessing this hour, but why is it that every knee is going to bow And every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord because he humbled himself.

He humbled himself and God highly exalted him. Our surety, our savior, Our substitute humbled himself to the point of death, death. Not just becoming a man, not just becoming a servant, but he humbled himself to the death of the cross, the most gruesome of deaths.

It's unfathomable. He said his visage was marred beyond recognition. You couldn't even recognize him. That's nothing in comparison to his soul being made an offering for sin. The physical, the shedding of blood was necessary, but his soul being offered up unto the Father and the Father pouring out his eternal wrath upon his soul. We can't imagine how much our Lord humbled himself. He humbled himself.

Of all the mysteries in the Bible, very few are as mysterious of the eternal God that reigns in heaven, the creator of everything, the sovereign over all, how that he has no beginning of days and no end of days, no beginning of life, no end of days. It's called Melchizedek, if you remember, in Hebrews. How he's eternal, how he's immortal, and yet he died. Explain that.

Can't, but he did. We know that's our only hope, isn't it? It's our only hope that perfection, perfection, his perfection, he had to die in order to please the father. You and I couldn't produce that. You and I couldn't humble ourself. Do you know why? Number one, it wouldn't do us any good, but we can't by our nature.

Our nature is prideful. Our nature is prideful in every way. Not just a little bit prideful, but completely prideful. You say, well, somebody might say, I am not. That's pride. We naturally are prideful. We naturally defend ourself and our honor. We naturally protect our children. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's all about pride. It's all about pride.

Listen to what 1 Timothy 6, 15, 16 says, which in the times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only he alone hath immortality. He's immortal. Immortality, dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.

Yet it says, everlasting God, in verse 8, in being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." It's a mystery. It's a great mystery. There's a lot of mysteries in the Scripture. And it would be a foolish thing for me to try to explain how an immortal, our immortal Savior how he could die. That's not my responsibility. My responsibility is to declare it because that's what it's clearly telling us. Jesus Christ is God, and God died. It's impossible for him to die, yet he died. It's a mystery. He humbled himself to that point. The holy, incarnate, immortal one suffered and died as a man. Why would he humble himself to that degree? What would cause him to do so?

To honor his father, the love that he had for his father, to purchase his bride, the love that he had for his bride. Before time ever began, God elected a people and gave them to the son to redeem. And the spirit agreed to, he sends his spirit and power in time and regenerates his people. This is called the covenant of grace.

This is why he came and died. The only way you and I could possibly have hope of any kind is that our Lord died. And we say, well, we understand that he died, but it was impossible for him to die. It's mind boggling. It's not something we say it. And as if it's something that's a simple. But oh, the condescension from going from the highest heaven to the lowest hell on the cross, from becoming, and I'm not taking away from his godliness when he was upon the earth, he was 100% man and 100% God, which is another mystery. But he was also immortal and mortal at the same time. Explain all that to me. You can't. It's glorious. It's glorious. Because when he died, it accomplished something. You and I are not immortal. You and I are not perfect. You and I are not righteous.

We're prideful, and yet he humbled himself. If he didn't humble himself, we would have had no hope. Our humility don't mean anything as far as salvation's concerned. Scripture says in Luke 14, 11, he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. He that exalteth himself shall be abased.

You and I exalted ourself from the womb. We came from the womb speaking lies. Why do you lie? Why do we lie? To protect ourself, to make ourself look better. It comes down to pride, doesn't it? Every time. Yet our Lord did not have pride like you and I do. He offered himself to the Father on behalf of his people. As their substitute surety, he humbled himself to death for them. Can you imagine God Dying for creatures of dust, wretched, vile sinners made from the dust that we sweep up and try to get out of our house. That's what we're made of. We always try to throw it out, try to get rid of it. We don't like dust. My wife, she hates it. So she's always cleaning something. I'm like, well, I'm glad you ain't got rid of me yet. I'm made of the same thing. He died for dust. He died for dust. He set his affection upon his people, his elect creatures of dust. Oh, the humility in his condescension, in his life living perfectly as our substitute, in his death as our substitute before God.

Giving us a new history, putting it to our account, everything that he did. The Lord's, you know what I love so much about the work of salvation? God doesn't look at you and I, if we're in Christ, and say, and see our pride anymore. He doesn't see that pride anymore. He sees perfect righteousness. He sees perfect righteousness. His son's perfect righteousness.

No wonder John said in 1 John 3, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now, now are we the sons of God. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that we shall be like him when we see him, for we'll be Now we're the sons of God. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. We'll see him as he is and be made just like him. He loves his chosen people. He loves his father. Therefore he lived a perfect life in our room instead.

Died a perfect death that we could not die. Resurrected, we wouldn't have been resurrected. We would have stayed in hell. That's exactly where we would went if we'd offered ourself up and yet The Lord would not let his righteous one see corruption. He resurrected him after three days and three nights. My record and myself proves I'm a guilty lost sinner, wretched and vile. So he had to take my place on the cross. He had to take, he had to bear my shame. Scripture says he bore our sin in his body on the tree.

Can you fathom the humility that it took for God to do that? In order to save his people from their sin. That's why it's so blasphemous to say that he died for everybody. Because if he did, everybody's saved. You're going to be, it's done. No, he died for his people and put their sin away with his precious blood. Brethren, the penalty of our crimes is death. So that means God had to die as my substitute. Penalty for your crimes is death. That means God had to die for your crimes. The Lord will not acquit the guilty. The Lord will not acquit the guilty. So you know what our Savior did? He said, lay their charge to my account. Lay their charge to my account and I'll make them perfectly righteous. Isn't that incredible?

All the bad that we are, all the pride that we have, all the sin that we have, Lord said, I have laid upon him the iniquity, the iniquity of us all, his people. I love the precious thought that he chose to become responsible for me. That's what a surety is. He chose to become responsible for you and I, his people. So I'm going to assume full responsibility. I'm going to be their surety. And he already knew.

And I think we talk about surety the next hour or maybe Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the next hour we talk about surety. So I don't want to get too much into that. But a surety is one that assumes responsibility. In the event that you cannot pay your debt or you cannot perform your duty, they assume responsibility as the responsible party for the outcome. They have to ensure that it's done. They become responsible for it. So in other words, you're off the hook, more or less. That's what he said. I'm going to set them free. I'm gonna pay their debt. He paid a debt he did not owe. I owed a debt I could not pay. By his precious blood, he washed my sins away. If God did not lay the iniquity of his people on his son, then he would not have put him to grief. He was put to grief. Do you know that's why we grieve over our sin now? He was put to grief.

We see what it cost. for you and I to be redeemed. We see it, and every time we do sin, and we're conscious of it, and we sin all the time, but when we're conscious of it, the Lord makes us conscious of it, we grieve. I don't want to do that. That's what Paul said, which I would do, I do not, but that which I would not do, that's what I find myself doing over and over again. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? We know the cost by which our sin was taking away. All our sins were taken away. We know what it cost.

Turn with me to Colossians 2. Next book over from Philippians if you go right. Colossians 2. Look at verse eight. lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

There's a lot of that going on today, isn't there? Vain deceit, philosophy, people argue theology, people argue doctrine, people argue all kinds of different things. And they get twisted up in all kinds of different notions and all different beliefs and whatever else. There's something called a catechism, and it defines the Bible, literally. But the problem with it is, is they believe it's, they act like it is the Bible. And it takes away, it attracts, it takes the focal point off of Christ. So really, it's a bunch of rules and bylaws is what it comes down to, how you should live your life, how you should do this and that. What's my point? My point is, is that Christ is all in salvation. Christ is all in salvation. Don't let no man deceive you over what he said here, philosophy, vain deceit after the traditions of men.

You know, that's something that a lot of churches get caught up into also is tradition. We have a tradition and we're gonna keep doing it. We're gonna keep doing the same tradition no matter what. Well, the scripture is clear that what we're doing is not right. And that tradition needs to leave. We understand that. Let God be true and every man a liar. It all comes back to pride, doesn't it? It all comes back to pride. So the Lord had to humble himself to save us from ourself, from our thoughts. Or we'll get called up in vain tradition as well.

Verse nine, for in him Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. If anybody ever tells you that Jesus Christ is not God, tell them what about Colossians 2 verse 9. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was God manifest in the flesh.

And ye, I love this, get this, and ye, his people, are complete in him. which is head of all principality and power in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

He's talking about the heart. He's talking about the heart. And then he says here, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins, the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." Don't you love that word, forgiven? He's forgiven you of all trespasses. How can that be?

Because we were buried with him in baptism. He's talking about the baptism of death. He's talking about the baptism of the cross. We're going to take the Lord's table today, and we're going to recognize the Lord's body and the Lord's blood. The other ordinance that we use is baptism. And the reason that we do that is a commandment of God, number one. But number two, we're baptized to be buried to say, I was, my only hope is, is I was buried with him in baptism, wherein also is risen with him through the faith, the operation of God who has raised him from the dead.

That's why we're baptized. To confess him. To confess him. I wrote an article. You might be, I don't know if everybody's read it or not, but it's talking about baptism. A believer won't be baptized. They just, they just will. Not as part of their salvation or their righteousness, they just don't want to, to confess Him.

Look how He did it. Forgiving you all trespasses by blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shoe of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Try umping over them in it. He nailed the handwriting of ordinances that was against us to his cross and put them away.

Put them away. He humbled himself. He humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross. Now most think salvation The natural man thinks salvation's up to them, when in fact, it's always been up to God. It's His choice, and it's all by His grace alone. He humbled Himself as a man unto death. Not just any death, but the grueling, agonizing death of the cross.

You know what's amazing to me? They're mocking Him at His trial. Has anybody ever been spit on in here before? Boy, you talk about blood pressure going up in a hurry. It's insulting. It's insulting. And your flesh will hate it. Your flesh will hate it. They spit on him and he opened out his mouth. They plucked his beard.

And I'm not trying to make you feel sorry for him. He was obeying, he was looking to the father the entire time. His affection was upon you and his affection was upon me the entire time. He set his heart like a flint to the cross. He was not going to be, he wasn't going to quit. He wasn't going to fail. It didn't matter what they did.

They smacked him. They blindfolded him and they beat him. And they said, well, tell us, prophesy, tell us who smacked you. He knew who smacked him. And some of those men that did that on the day of Pentecost, the Lord, he was dying for them. Think about that. The very ones that was plucking his beard, he was dying for them. That's humility. He humbled himself. What's greater than that? They mocked him by putting a crown of thorns upon his head. They beat him with a cat of nine tails 40 times. He was marred beyond, you couldn't tell who he was.

And on the cross, he's hanging there with nails in his hand, nails in his feet. He says, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. That's you and I right there. We would have done the same exact thing. We would have done the same exact thing. And yet he said, father, forgive them. Forgive my sheep.

They know not what they do. That's humility. That's humility. And then the Lord blacked out the universe and poured out his eternal wrath upon his son, made his soul an offering for sin. put our iniquity upon him. He says, he hath made him to be sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's humility.

He humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross. This death was the most gruesome and harsh death imaginable to make some elected dead dog sinners the righteousness of God in him. Every time I have a wrong thought, I say wrong words. Every time I transgress, he died for that. He died for that.

In so much that the Lord don't even see it, it's gone. Isn't that crazy? Before you even do it, It don't exist. Explain that. I can't. I'm just telling you what scripture talks about. He cast our sin as far as the East is from the West. He said, your sin and your iniquity, I'll remember them no more. Why? Because they're gone. Cast them into the depths of the sea. He won't remember them anymore. He said, I won't. God can't lie. He can't lie. I love the fact that the Lord don't remember our sin.

Therefore, whenever Satan goes up there, he's called the accuser of the brethren. When he went up there before the Lord to talk about Job, you remember that? He appeared before the Lord. He said, The only reason Job's serving you is because you have a hedge about him. You remove that hedge, I guarantee he'll cuss you. That's, I'm paraphrasing. That's exactly what happened. He said, okay, okay, I'll remove the hedge.

And that day the Lord allowed Satan to kill or cause his 10 children to die. He lost thousands of cattle of all different kinds, uh, camels and donkeys and sheep and every, he had lost everything. It was just him and his wife that was left and the house had fallen in upon his children.

And you know what Job said? The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Now what causes a man to say that? God. God. He gave grace unto Job. He gave grace unto Job. And when he went back the second time, Satan said, well, you haven't let me afflict him. And the Lord said, OK, you can do whatever you want to him, but you just cannot take his life. You have to let him live. He cursed him with boils all over his body, sores. And his wife said, why don't you just curse God and die? He said, you speak as a foolish woman, a foolish woman.

Every time that Satan goes to accuse you and I, his people of sin, just like he did accusing Job of, he's gonna deny you, he's gonna curse you, he's going to, whatever, all he said. Every time he goes before the Lord and said, see Caleb right there, he just committed that sin, the Lord says, what sin?

All I see is the blood. All I see is the blood. That's just like Naaman parading Mordecai around the city, isn't it? I love that. He sees the blood. And you know what he said, and we're gonna take communion, I'll probably repeat this again, but he said, when I see the blood, I'll pass by you. I'll pass by you.

He spilled his precious blood, shed it on the cross of Calvary for his people, washing our sin away forever. He humbled himself unto death until God's justice was satisfied, because it had to be satisfied. The Lord would not acquit the guilty. You are guilty.

So he took our place. He did that which we could not on our behalf, that we would be set free from the wrath of God. He literally said by his obedience, lay their charge to my charge. He became our substitute. He became our substitute. He was saying, I'll bear the shame. I'll bear the guilt. I'll bear the curse that we deserved. That's humility.

We're talking about the perfect, Lord, perfect Savior, perfectly righteous, holy, undefiled, separate from sinners, saying, I will be surety. I will be their substitute for the elect. And he did just that. His precious blood washed them all away. Somebody said, well, it sounds like you're saying that the sacrifice was tainted. No, I'm not. He couldn't be tainted. He's God. He was perfect. He was perfect. It says he was without sin, but he had to be made guilty or God killed him unjustly. Somebody said, well, I don't understand that. Well, we don't have to understand it. We just declare it. He was the perfect sacrifice before God. I like to think of it this way, that whenever, as soon as the sin was laid upon him, the blood washed it away because his blood couldn't be defiled. Think about that. I think that's a perfect way to put it. As soon as sin touched him, it washed away, gone, right? Because, listen to this, this is why, Habakkuk 113, thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. Thou canst not look on iniquity.

What does that mean? That means as soon as he sees it, he destroys it. That's what that means. As soon as he sees it, he destroys it. He can't look upon it and let it slide, let it pass by. No, when he sees it, he must destroy it. Brethren, he's long suffering, but on this day, when his son died, he was not long suffering to his son.

He poured out his entire wrath. He held nothing back until he was satisfied. This is how salvation was secured, by his sacrifice alone. Until his holy law was met, until his righteousness was made to be my righteousness, made to be your righteousness, made to be all the elect's righteousness, he humbled himself to death. You ever heard somebody say, I love you to death?

That's a Southern thing, I think. I don't know. Maybe not. I'm not getting a nod. So the way that I say it makes me think that it's a Southern thing. I love you to death. He loved us to death. He really did. He didn't just say it, he did it. He did it.

It's amazing to me, so many people, as they're trying to be romantic in relationships, they'll say something along the lines of, I would die for you. You ever heard that before? Somebody say that? I would die for you. The question is, would you live for me? Because he lived for me, and then he died for me. So a lot of people's willing to maybe die just real quick, but living for somebody?

I heard something that's interesting. And I have to change it a little bit in order for it to apply. But I learned what having to hold means. We take vows. We say to have and to hold. Well, we live in a generation, we live in a time where everybody wants to have something.

If I own a 2020 whatever car and a new one comes out, it might have just one more feature. Well, I want to have that one now because I want that one feature. It has heated cup holders. I want heated cup holders. And now I'm going to trade this in and get a new one. Now I have this one.

A lot of people doing a lot of, they're doing a lot of having, and I have a point to make, have a point to make, but a lot of people ain't doing a lot of holding. Holding doesn't mean affection. Holding means to hold on to it, to never let it go. To never let it go.

We had a washer, or a dryer one time, it was like a 1975 dryer. I could work on that thing. I could do anything to it. I had it tore apart, put it all back together. I knew exactly what to do, and I could get parts for it. She said, Bobby said, we have the money. Why don't we just go buy another one? It broke down twice this week. And I said, there's nothing wrong with it. It's just got to be fixed. And so I fixed it. We kept going and kept going. Well, we eventually got rid of it because she wanted other features, but that's not relevant, I guess. I held on to that. I held on to that dryer long as I could.

In relationships are the same. If you love somebody and you say, I'm going to have you and I'm going to hold you, that means you have them and you hold on to them forever. Our Lord. holds his people in his hand. He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. In order for him to do that, he had to humble himself all the way to death, even the death of the cross. He said, I'm gonna have you and I'm gonna hold you. I'm gonna hang on to you. I'm going to keep you by my power, according to my grace. And that's how his people are kept. He holds his people. The question I would ask us is, how do I know if I have his righteousness? How do I know?

Well, are you doing anything? Or have you stopped doing anything? Whereby you say, I don't do that anymore, I do this, or I started doing this, I have decided, I prayed a prayer, I did this. If you can say any of those, you don't have his righteousness.

That's self-righteousness. If the Lord was to say, depart from me you that work iniquity, what would you say to him? Would you say, but Lord, I went to church. But Lord, that's your righteousness then. That's your righteousness. Would you say, but Lord, I did this. Lord, I did that. Start defending yourself, because that's the pride. That's the sinful pride that we have. We're going to defend ourself. Or would you say, truth, Lord, I deserve hell.

Truth. But I know if your son died for me, I know if he humbled himself to death, the death of the cross, that I know he washed my sins away and made me perfectly righteous because he said so and he cannot lie. If you can say that, that you know the Lord's just and right in sending us to hell and your only hope is in Christ alone, then you have his righteousness. He's made you to have his righteousness.

Can you say of truth that I have no righteousness of my own? I need yours. I have nothing to offer but my sin, but I can't give that to you. I can't even give you my sin. Scripture talks about casting all our care upon him for we care for us. We can't even do that.

He has to take it. He has to take it from us. And that's exactly what he did. I don't want to devalue it by calling it the great transaction, but I believe that's a good way to put it. That's what happened on the cross. It was a great transaction that took place. He took my sin and gave me his righteousness. He took my iniquity and made me as holy as he is. He took my transgression and he made me perfect in his sight. That's what he did for all the elect. That's what he did for his people.

If you believe that, you don't have to fear anything, because if he's given you that belief, he's given you faith to believe him, all you're gonna hear is, enter in, thou good and faithful servant. Can you imagine God looking at you and saying, you've been faithful. You've been faithful. Enter in. You've been faithful.

How is that possible? Because he humbled himself. because he humbled himself. Here's why. Read with me again our text. Go back to Philippians chapter two. This is why we hear, by God's grace, enter in thou good and faithful servant. Verse five in chapter two of Philippians says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself 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 to death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also has highly exalted him and given him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue and every of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and every tongue should confess, Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. How is it that we're supposed to have this mind in us, this humility, this servitude?

By realizing you can't and looking to Him. Realizing you can't and looking to Him. Because if you continually try to be humble, you continually try to be a servant you'll make a work out of it. Look to him and you'll find yourself serving one another. You will, looking to him. He's the greatest example of servitude. He's the greatest example of humility. Look to Christ. He humbled himself that his elect might be exalted.

Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would take this and bless it to our understanding for your glory. Lord, what a magnificent salvation you have given to your people. Thank you for humbling yourself and we could not humble ourself In Christ's name we pray, amen. Let's take a break.

He Humbled Himself

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He Humbled Himself

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About Caleb Hickman

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