It's been a good year. I'm very
thankful. Now, Paul, in the beginning of
chapter two here, he begins an exhortation to the believers
for unity of spirit, for real love and care and concern for
one another, for us to be of the same mind and to have humility
of mind. This is what he's exhorting us
to do. And notice as we go through here, the motivation that he
uses, the arguments that he uses will only appeal to the new man. The things Paul is talking about
here will have absolutely no appeal to unregenerate man, that
old hard heart that we're born with. But these things have a
great impact on that new heart that God gives his people. So
notice that as we go through here. He begins in verse one. If there be, therefore, any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any vows of mercy, fulfill ye my joy that ye be
like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and
of one mind." Now Paul says, if there be any consolation in
Christ. That word consolation means comfort. Do you find any comfort in the
Lord Jesus Christ? Do you find any comfort in the
salvation that we have in Christ? Do you find any comfort in being
dressed in His righteousness, being washed in His blood? Do
those things comfort your soul? Do you find any comfort? Do you
find any real depth of joy in your soul in hearing the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you? Believers do. God's children do. Look over
in 2 Thessalonians 2. We have this because this is
what the Lord gives us. In 2 Thessalonians 2. Verse 16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which has loved us and has given us
everlasting consolation and a good hope through grace. He gives
us an eternal consolation. And that consolation, that comfort,
is Christ Himself. It's in Him. It's from Him. It's
all in Him. Now that being true, then let's
evidence, let's show some evidences of that comfort by loving one
another and having the same mind with each other. Then Paul says,
do you have any comfort in love? Do you find any comfort in God's
eternal love for you, that love that passes all human understanding?
Do you find any comfort in knowing that God loves me? We should be amazed at that beyond
words and find comfort in the fact that God loves His people
and His Son. Do we find any comfort in the
love of Christ who gave Himself for us? Do we find any comfort
in the love of the Spirit who comes and gives us life, who
shows us the things of Christ, who is our comforter? We should
find comfort in the love of the comforter, certainly. Do you
find any comfort in your love for God? Now, that sounds like
a strange statement. I'm not saying that we find comfort
because our love is perfect. We all want it to be better,
wish it was better, wish it was more mature, more perfect. It's
far. from what I want it to be for
what He deserves. But I do love Him. Now, I do. And there's comfort in knowing
that because if you love God, it's because He first loved you.
And He put that love in you by shedding abroad His love in your
heart. Do you find any comfort in the love of the brethren?
Well, you do. Then we should abound in love
and be like-minded with each other. Do you find any joy in
the fellowship of the Spirit? Do you enjoy communion with God
through His Spirit by reading the Word? Do you have any joy
in the fellowship that you have with the Father in coming to
Him in prayer? Do you have any joy in the fellowship
that we have with the Father when the Gospel is being preached?
Then we ought to love the rest of the family and worship together
in peace and unity. Do you enjoy the fellowship and
the bond that we have with each other because we have the same
Spirit? Our Spirit bears witness with
your Spirit. Then take care of that. Take care of that relationship
and cultivate it and love one another. Are there any vows of mercy in
your soul? Is there any real depth now to
mercy in your soul when the believer there is? So cultivate that. Cause it to grow. Think of the
bowels of mercy that the Lord has towards us. The depth, untold
depth of mercy of Christ. Is there such a thing as bowels
of mercy in you that's moved with compassion and love towards
one another? Then show it. Show it openly
by loving one another, being compassionate towards one another.
That will promote peace and harmony, being of one mind. Children of
God have a heart that responds to love and mercy. Now you might
meet people out there in the world that just don't respond
to that. But God's people do. They have a heart for it. They respond to the love and
the mercy of God. And they respond to the love
and mercy of their brethren. So show that. Cultivate that
so we'll be of one mind. And Paul says, if you'll do that,
you'll fulfill my joy. This kind of conduct and shown
in our attitude just brings a pastor's heart joy. It does. He can see
that his labor has not been in vain. He says, fill up my joy
or complete my joy. Now, we have joy when we see
a new baby born, don't we? There's so much joy and happiness.
But it would be awful sad if that child died in infancy, wouldn't
it? But there's joy in watching that baby grow. Grow to a child. Grow to a young adult. Have some
maturity. Gain some responsibility. Become
a fine young adult. And eventually they grow to being
parents themselves. Now your joy is full, isn't it?
Complete. The same thing is true spiritually.
What a joy we have. When we see someone fall in love
with the Lord Jesus Christ, you see life there that wasn't there
before. And they fall in love with Christ. There's a look in
their eye. There's an interest when the
gospel is being preached that wasn't there before. That's such
joy to see them confess the Lord. But wouldn't it be sad to watch
that fade away and find out it really wasn't real? That'd be
so sad. But our joy is complete. It's
filled up to watch that person grow in grace, to grow in maturity,
to see that faith and love last because it's real. Paul said,
when I see that, my joy is complete. It's filled up. And if you've
found any benefit from God's salvation, if you've found any
comfort from the Gospel that's been preached to you, then Paul
says, fulfill my joy. Fulfill the joy of your pastor.
who preaches the gospel to you. And be like-minded. Show love
one to another. And he says in verse 3, let nothing
be done through strife or vainglory. But in lowliness of mind, let
each esteem other better than themselves. Don't do things,
be motivated by strife. Strife is just fighting and contention. Just dividing into armed camps
and your motivation is what's best for my camp. and what would
harm his other camp. The believer is not motivated
by that. We want what's best for the whole
body. We don't have any interest in dividing that body into two
different camps. Not through strife, but for one
body. I've said this before, not be
willing to contend for the truth. But don't allow yourself to become
a contentious, bitter person who's always looking for a reason
to strive over words and different things. Don't fall into that
trap. And don't be motivated by vain
glory. Just getting personal glory and
recognition. One of the first things a child
of God is taught, this is the ABCs of the Gospel, is that we
don't have anything to glory in ourselves. That's one of the
first things we're taught. So don't seek that. Act like
you've been taught something. Don't be like the Pharisees who
wanted the high seats, you know, the seats of preeminence. They
wanted the big names, the titles after their names, you know,
so they'd have the glory from all the people. That kind of
attitude doesn't promote harmony. No. The believer desires the
glory of Christ. Not my glory. His glory. And Paul says, have lowliness
of mind. Have some humility. See yourself
for what you are. Look over in Romans chapter 12.
He told this to the church in Rome too. In Romans chapter 12. Verse 3. For I say, through the grace
given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of
himself more highly than he ought to think, but think soberly,
according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."
Don't think too highly of yourself. Remember who you are. Remember
where God found you. And remember that everything
you are is because of His grace. He gave you that measure of faith.
So don't think of yourself too highly now. And we'll see this
as we go down through these next verses. The Lord Jesus himself
set the example here. The Apostle Paul, he set an example
for us here. I don't think there's any argument
that the Apostle Paul was a chief apostle. Yet what did he say? I'm less than the least of all
the saints. Yes, I labored more abundantly than they all, but
not me. Is Christ in me? Paul didn't
set himself up to be somebody. How did he describe himself?
The cheapest of sinners. The lowest of the low. And if
we're truly humble, if we see ourselves for what we are in
this humble state, we'll esteem others better than we esteem
ourselves. The thing is, we know ourselves,
don't we? We know our imperfections. We
know our unworthiness. We know the awful thoughts that
go through our minds. How humiliated we'd be if somebody
could really read our minds. Oh my goodness sakes. I couldn't
show my face in public again. I know that about myself. So I have to think. You've got
to be more mature than me. You must have had more spiritual
growth than me. You have to have. You just can't
be what I am, because I see that in me. When we esteem others
better than ourselves, we're quick to see our faults and shortcomings,
but slow to see another's, because we think the best of them. And
we'll assume the best of others, and we'll be ready to give way
to them give way to their judgment, give way to their needs. And
I'm not saying that, you know, there's believers who are old
in the faith, strong, just stood for years. I'm not saying that
that person should give way to a babe in Christ in judgment
and let the babes run the place. I'm not saying that. But there's
times that the mature believer can just give way to that younger
As I was sat in my study this week, I thought of you grandparents. You give them kids anything. I mean, you just... Oh, my soul. It's just amazing. A lot of you,
I knew when you had little children. I saw how you were with them.
Now I see how you are with your grandchildren. The world of difference,
isn't it? But, I mean, you'll give me... There are times that you won't. Wait, because you love them.
You won't let them do something to their detriment. You won't
let them act up and act ugly. But there are times, and it's
the way it is with you grandparents. Most times, you just give them
anything they want. In a very real sense, that's
the way we should be as believers here. The grace of humility,
and this is a grace that God's got to give, is a beautiful ornament
of grace. Now where? Just where? And Paul
says in verse 4, look not every man on his own things, but every
man also on the things of others. Now he's not meaning here to
have a total disregard for your family, for your family's needs,
to supply them what they need. He's not saying just give everything
away to somebody else and don't take care of giving your family
the necessities of life. He's not telling us to ignore
our job responsibilities and things. And he doesn't mean to
ignore taking care of our own spiritual good and, you know,
only looking at things for others. But what he's saying is be just
as concerned for your brethren as you are for yourself, both
physically and spiritually. Don't think selfishly now. Whenever
you're thinking about doing something or some situation, don't just
think how this is directly going to affect me. Think how it affects
everybody else too. We've got to take one another
into account because we're part of the same body. And a selfish
attitude is contrary to grace. It's contrary to spiritual life.
One of the best examples I could think of is our nursery. Now we've got a bunch of little
children in there. That nursery is staffed every week. Two of
you are in there every week. A lot of times it's staffed,
but some of you ladies don't have children anymore. You don't
have little children anymore. But you go in there and serve
so the young mothers can come out. Now it might not be what's
best for you at the particular moment to have to go stay in
the nursery. I understand that. But you do it because out of
love. Because it's best for these young mothers if they get to
come to the service too. And in a way, that's what Paul's
talking about. Now, in verse 5, he pulls out
the big guns. He says, let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now, Paul's been encouraging
us to unity of spirit, unity of mind, to show real compassion
for each other. And he brings out the irresistible
argument to every believer. When He shows us the example
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that reaches right to the inner being
of every one of His children. You cannot help but be affected
by the example of Christ. What was the mind of the Lord
Jesus? Without a doubt, He had great
love and great compassion for His people, didn't He? He was
always of one mind with the Father. He had the deep bowels of mercy
for his people. Our Savior never did anything
out of vain glory or strife, did he? He never thought what
would just be best for him and his physical body. He always
thought about what's best for his spiritual body. He always
thought about what's best for my Father's glory, who sent me.
What's best for my people that I came here to redeem?" And because
of that, he agreed to be made sin and to suffer the wrath and
judgment that our sin deserves for our benefit. And our Lord
set the example of humility. Now, you think about this. He's
God Almighty, yet he limited himself to human flesh. And the human mind can never
comprehend how far down God's Son had to come to be a man. But He did. And when He came
as a man, even among men, He was humble. He was a nobody. He didn't come as a celebrity.
He came as a lowly carpenter. Look over Matthew 11. In every
way, He showed meekness and humility. In Matthew 11, verse 29, take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find
rest under your salts. Now let that humility that was
seen in Christ be seen in our conduct. That's what Paul's telling
us. And if Christ is in us, we have His mind. If Christ is in
us, our lives and our conduct should bear some resemblance
to Him. It won't be perfect, but it ought to bear a resemblance
to our Lord. If we died in Him, we should
live like Him. Our lives should bear that resemblance.
So Paul goes on in verse 6, he says, who, being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Now the
Lord Jesus Christ was and is God. In every way, He is equal
with the Father. He's God. And it wasn't robbery
for Him to say, He's God. He didn't have to try to steal
that like Satan did. He didn't have to try to round
up a whole heavenly host to throw God off His throne and take His
place. No, He is God. He didn't have to steal it like
Adam did. Adam's rebellion was, I'm going to be God. I'm going
to be like him, so that I don't have to submit myself to him.
I'm going to be God. He tried to steal it. But Christ,
he is God. He was God from the beginning.
In the beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God. He is God. Look over in Colossians
chapter 1, just a couple pages. Colossians 1 verse 15. He is
in the form of God. Paul says in Colossians 1, verse
15, who's the image of the invisible God? The firstborn, the King
of every creature. He's the image of the invisible
God. In Hebrews 1, verse 3, who being the brightness of His
glory and the express image, the exact image of God's person. That's who He is. Now He's God.
Yet He came as a man. And as a man, the Lord Jesus
never felt like he had to show off to show who he was. He never
had to show off to try to grab for attention from people. You
know when a football player scores a touchdown, it's become commonplace
for them to put on a big show. For those football fans, this
afternoon, if Terrell Owens scores a touchdown in Philadelphia,
he's going to put on a show that will last five minutes. He's
grabbing for attention. And I thought of Barry Sanders. He never did. He's one of the
greatest football players to ever play. And when he scored
a touchdown, he never made a show. He always flipped the ball to
the referee and walked off the field. Never made a show. Because
he said, act like you've been here before and act like you're
coming back. He didn't feel like he had to
grab for attention. And our Lord never felt like
he had to grab for the attention. of this world. He wasn't here
to try to gain the attention and praise and glory from this
world. He was here for the good of His people. Now let that mind
be in us, that we're not trying to get this attention and vainglory
and recognition of the world, even of each other. But think
about for the good of the body. Let this mind be in you, which
was in Christ Jesus. In verse 7, back in our text,
Paul goes on, even though he was equal with God, he made himself
of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and
was made in the likeness of men. Instead of coming and showing
himself in all the glory that he had with the Father before
the world was, instead of showing himself in all the glory that's
rightfully his, Christ stripped himself. He emptied himself of
all his glory. and dwelt in human flesh, the
rags of human flesh. Now all that glory still belonged
to Christ, didn't it? The fullness of the Godhead dwelt
in that body. But he veiled it for a time,
made himself of no reputation, and revealed himself as a lowly
man, the friend of sinners, someone that sinners felt comfortable
coming to. That's who he was. made Himself
appear. And He didn't come as a king,
even though He's King of kings and Lord of lords. He didn't
come to earth as a king. He came to earth as a servant.
As a servant to His Father, always doing His Father's will. And
as a servant to His people, He washed the disciples' feet. That's the job of a servant.
And He went beyond that. He washed our souls. in His own
blood. Let this mind be in us. Even if you are superior to your
brethren in many ways, don't show it off. Look for ways to
use that to help your brothers and sisters. Let this mind be
in you. Verse 8, And being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was
a real man. Not just in appearance now, but
in reality. He lay in the womb for nine months,
just like every other baby that's born. And when He was born, He
was a helpless baby. Somebody had to take care of
Him, just like they did you when you were born. And Scripture
says He grew in wisdom and stature. As He grew, He was submissive
to His parents, and He knew what it was to be hungry. He knew
what it was to be thirsty. He knew what it was to be tired.
He knew what it was just to be in pain. He was a real man because
God didn't use smoke and mirrors to save us. He did it in reality. This man was made sin in reality. In reality, he suffered and he
died. A dead corpse lay in that tomb
for three days. That man died. And he rose again. He rose again as a man in glorified
flesh. He wasn't a ghost. He was a man.
And when he arose, we arose in him. And we are in reality made
the righteousness of God in him. Now, look-alikes in reality. And it wasn't enough For our
Lord to come, live as a man, to humble himself, be obedient
his entire life to the law, to his own law, wasn't enough that
he just live a life of obedience to his Father. He was obedient
and willing to go further than that, to be mason, to suffer
the wrath that our sin deserves. It wasn't enough that he just
humble himself to be a man. He humbled himself to go to the
cross. Now, He didn't just die. He went
to the cross. And when a man goes to the cross,
he's cursed. That's a cursed death. Cursed
is every man that hangs upon a tree. And death on the cross
was reserved for slaves. A free man didn't die on the
cross. A slave did. Our Lord humbled Himself to die
the death of the slave because He came as a servant. Now, look
how far. Our Lord condescended for our
good. Let this mind be in you. Let this be our motivation. Christ
is all. He is all to the believer. He's
our wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's
our sanctification, and He's our redemption. And He's our
example. Now follow Him. Follow that example.
Let this mind be in you. In verse 9, Wherefore, God also
has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name, that 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. Now, because the Lord Jesus was
a perfect servant, the Father has highly exalted him. Does Christ appear in humility?
Not in any way. He has all glory. That man that
came to this earth, the man, our Redeemer, our Savior, our
Mediator, has been glorified to sit at the Father's right
hand. And He's the firstfruits. There'll be many more to follow.
Not just did He receive the glory that He had with the Father before
the world was, but that man was glorified. And because He opened
the way, there's going to be many more to follow. And He has
a name that has more dignity and more honor than any other
name. You think about the name of Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's salvation in that name.
There's life in that name. In that name, we're accepted
by the Father. That's the name He's given us,
His Father. The songwriter said there's just something about
that name. And the reason there's just something
about that name is the Father gave it to him. The name of all
dignity and honor. And the Father gave Christ a
kingdom. It's not just a little kingdom you see somewhere on
a map somewhere. This kingdom reaches everywhere. It goes from heaven to earth.
Everywhere in the earth. Even below the earth. His kingdom
reaches both to the living and the dead. It's everywhere. And
one day, that dominion is going to be seen by everybody at once. I know everybody doesn't see
it now, but one day they will. And that day, every knee will
bow. Every tongue is going to confess
that He's Lord. That's what they should be doing now. And I know
in that day, His enemies will bow. But that's not what I look forward
to about that day. I don't look forward to that
day seeing them bow. See, you should have bowed before,
but you wish you'd have bowed before, don't you? Tell you what I look forward
to about this day. I get to bow to Him. Yeah, others
will. I get to. Can you imagine, can
you begin to grasp what it will be like to see Christ face to
face, to see Him and be like Him in a perfect body, a perfect
mind, a perfect heart, to have no more trace, not even a trace,
of sin in this body or in the world around us. And in that
state, to bow before Him, to perfectly
say, Well, I wish I could say now, He's Lord. He is Lord. And God is my helper. I'll follow
His example. I pray He'd give us that mind.