Philippians 2

I'll get mine cut in a couple of weeks. Short, short. I can't stand this hair.

All right, you're alive now, so we don't need to know any more. Family secret, right?

That's right. Well, good morning. We're going to be reading out of Philippians chapter 2.

Brother Bert, would you open us up in prayer, and we'll get going.

Our Father, as always, we thank You for another day. We thank You for help.

We thank You for bringing us here on this Lord's day to hear Your Word taught and hear

Your Word preached. We thank You for those opportunities. Bless Matt, bless Mike now as he teaches us in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, so it said if you would turn in your

Bibles to Philippians chapter 2. Go ahead and read that.

Read the whole chapter. We'll only be getting through probably half of that.

God's Word reads, If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the

Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like -minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

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, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God 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 the earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, now as in my presence only, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is

God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.

Hold forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.

Yea, and if I be offered up upon the sacrifice and service of your faith,

I joy and rejoice with you all, for the same cause also do

I joy and rejoice with me. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send

Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when

I know your state. For I have no man like -minded who will naturally care for your state.

For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ, but ye know the proof of him, that as a son with the

Father, that he hath served with me in the gospel, him therefore

I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.

But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.

Yet I supposed it necessary to send you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but as your messenger and he that ministered to my wants.

For he longed after all and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.

For indeed he was sick, nigh unto death, but God hath mercy on him, and not him only, but also on me, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

I sent him therefore the more carefully that when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.

Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in reputation, because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.

So as we moved into chapter 2, two weeks ago, we saw the continued theme concerning unity amongst the body of Christ.

And in short, we read in verse 1, If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the

Spirit, any bowels and mercies. So we saw how all this tied together back to verse 27 of chapter 1, and following where it read,

Only let your conversation, and that's not just your speaking, but that's your manner of life, let it be as it becomes the gospel of Christ, standing fast in one spirit with one mind that is not divided, but this is a resolute mind, this is a mind that's united, it's striving together, it says, for the faith of the gospel.

They were struggling together, they had a commonality and goal.

This isn't striving against each other, but striving alongside of someone. And they weren't frightened of the common enemies, for God in his grace had not only called them to himself, but to a salvation that was completely foreign to them.

Also in his grace, he had called them to suffer for his sake, just as Paul was called, even at that time of his writing, to suffer for the gospel.

And with all this in mind, if the gospel is a message of reconciliation and peace, of unity with God, how then will the lost be convinced that Christ reconciles to God if we as a church can't reconcile with one another?

Disunity will always have the effect of turning a Christian fellowship in on itself.

It'll cause it to waste its energy such that it's like a battery, that there's not much juice left in it, like a flashlight that's dying, it's poorly equipped, that we can't let our light so shine before men that they will see our good works.

Or it's like salt that no longer has its flavor and so what's the sense?

It's useless. We're called to be united in fellowship that the lost would see our good works and glorify our

Father which is in heaven. So now Paul, subtly but with gentleness, all this mixed with this finesse, he hints that he knows.

He knows that there's frictions, he knows that there's tensions in their fellowship. And as we mentioned a couple weeks ago, these will be things that he'll address just as the letter is concluding.

But here, like I said, with that gentle finesse, he shows them as well as us that this unity is based not only on a commonality of direction but more importantly on a humility of spirit.

When we see a Christian or an entire fellowship failing, our tendency is to be critical and to push them and to urge that they immediately make improvements, shake it off, snap out of it.

And there may be a time for this approach. Here though,

Paul, his response is wise in that he recognizes that it is through grace that he would best be able to change and develop these patterns of transformation in their lives, both in their attitudes as well as in their actions.

And as we have read and will continue to do so, he is appealing to their privileges of grace before urging them to the obedience of their faith.

And as such here, he says that if these things are true, then we have these implications that should follow.

Verse 1 of Chapter 2 contains four what -if statements. Not that Paul is doubting concerning their devotion to Christ.

Rather, it would be more the case of since or because these

Christians have experienced so much blessing, they ought to exhibit the effects of grace in their lives.

And those four blessings are, first, consolation in Christ, comfort in Christ.

It's the word periklesis. And it's similar to our word perikles, which would mean to come alongside, which in itself is a blessing, but it's more than that.

It's more the total package here that's set before us. It's these blessings of consolations in Christ.

Paul wants this reality to dawn on them that this favorite term of his is nothing more than a summary of being a

Christian. He wants them to know that to be in Christ is to share all the blessings that he has gained for us.

Blessings such as being chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world, dead to the reign of sin and its power, and raised up in a newness of life.

We're new creatures. Old things have passed away. All this and more, all encompassed in just those two words, in Christ.

And he could have stopped there, but he continues. Secondly, any comfort of love.

And although it is a general statement of love, still it's in the context of any comfort of Christ's love.

Had he not died for them, and hadn't they experienced what Paul wrote of in 2

Corinthians 5, for the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

Thirdly, any fellowship of the Spirit, any koinonia. We have been born again and bound to the

Spirit, to Christ through the gift of the Spirit. And as we said a couple of weeks ago, there is only one

Holy Spirit, and that same Spirit that dwelt in our Lord dwells in our hearts as well as fellow believers, such that we are one with them in the fellowship of the

Spirit. Fourth and lastly, any vows of mercy.

That's to say any affection, any sympathy. Literally, it's the word for spleen.

Because they considered that was the seed of emotion. So I love you with all my spleen.

So our Lord exhibited meekness and gentleness and mercy and kindness, and if we belong to his family, it should only make sense that we would bear the family resemblance or characteristics produced in us.

Verse 2, Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like -minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

So if or since these things, any or all of them, in the least manner, if they're accompanying these privileges we have in Christ, there will come with these certain responsibilities.

So Paul is going to shift from the ifs to the thens, and although the actual word isn't there, if we've received all these blessings in Christ, then we will be responsible to live for him.

And it's in this context that he spells out what this means.

It means that being willing to put others first in several different ways, and he leads off with something that at first sounds kind of self -serving, but in reality it was more of a challenge to him as he calls him to consider which is more important, self -indulgence or giving to Paul.

Now remember, Paul is the one who has brought the gospel to them, and the joy of seeing them live in a mature

Christian life is the highlight for Paul. Now we hear enough less favorable things about people, even those of our own family or those of our church families, so when we are made aware of favorable reports, we should be filled with joy.

Paul desired his joy to be fulfilled by the knowledge that his church was united to Christ.

And so it is that Paul exhorts them, as any good preacher would, using nearly the same words to describe unity in order that it would emphasize his point.

He says, like -minded, same love, one accord, one mind. And it's interesting that this plea, for lack of a better word, is made to a church who is already committed.

They're already a committed group of Christians. They knew the truth, and still that is not enough.

Living the truth as the Bible exhorts us to do is more than just a matter of knowing right doctrine, as necessary as that is.

But to live in the truth means more than having just our theology right.

It also includes living out all it implies through lives that are permeated with grace and humility as it's laid out in the

Gospel. Think about it this way. Where there's only a superficial commitment to the

Gospel, there is very little chance of a serious division. Why fight over something that's deemed unimportant?

But where there's zeal, where there's fervor, the danger will be greater if it's not accompanied with a healthy dose of humility.

Lack of humility has probably been the downfall of more churches than lack of zeal.

Henceforth, the importance that Paul attaches to this humble unity. This is non -alcoholic.

If you go to Arizona, you can get one at the grocery store too. Verses three and four.

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

So Paul urges them to place value on others and not only on themselves.

Counting others more important than themselves. Yet as a people, seemingly hardwired for selfishness, this is something that is next to impossible for the unregenerate, and still it's hard in the extreme for those who are in Christ.

And that, even when we have the perfect example to follow in the person of Christ.

He counted our salvation more important than his own life. And being in Christ as we are, we're to become like him.

So the opposite of what we're called to is at the head of that sentence, and it's not merely that of a so -so

Christian, but he speaks of strife and vainglory and rivalry and conceit.

We have to remember from the pre -introduction back in November, I guess it was, that Philippi is no longer this podunk,

Keystone Heights town anymore.

This is a Roman colony. And in most Roman circles, humility was not highly valued.

And for that matter, the whole world is still that way wouldn't you say? Yet we'll never be more like Christ than when we live with humble -mindedness.

Dr. Francis Schaeffer had a 10 -part documentary that we would watch when we were homeschooling the kids.

It was a work that he's probably best known for concerning the rise and decline of Western thought and culture, and man's only hope being to return to God's absolute biblical truth revealed in Christ through the scripture.

And it was titled, How Should We Then Live? And interesting enough, part one of the series began with the

Roman age. And something he stated repeatedly was that Rome's demise was not from without, not from some barbarian invader, but rather through escalating internal corruption.

They were rotting from the inside out, from their core, and it was via a self -serving spirit of pride.

Still, they for the most part made no claim on the name of Christ, and as such, should not be surprising that this would be their end.

Unfortunately, how sad then it would be that if we who claim to have received all these privileges and union with Christ and comfort of love and communion in spirit and affection and mercy still bear none of the fruits.

Verse five, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. This is the introduction to what is one of the greatest

New Testament passages on the person and work of Christ. It's as if Paul sums up verses one through four with this one thought, be like Christ.

Imitate the thinking of Christ. Develop the mindset of Christ in your fellowship, which is the only one constant with those who are in Christ.

Pride is to act out of character with those who are Christ. Our Lord Jesus personified humbleness, so then if we are in Christ, we should become more humble for we are called to it, and we are being changed to that Christ -like humility.

This verse of exhortation opens the door to verses six through 11, which are this great

Christological passage or more rightly a hymn dealing with Christ's incarnation.

With his deity and his humanity, many believe that he penned it under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit as a means of addressing a myriad of theological questions in a way that being in the form of a song would be easier to understand and remember, and I would say that for myself,

I lean in that direction. We used to teach our kids scripture memory, and we would teach them via scripture memory songs, and I know

I don't have any of my kids in here with me today, but Stephen was a kid back when we were learning those songs, and I could start off a tune, and he could finish it out, and I'm sure.

I'm not going to do that to you, but if you want to do that even for yourself, it's amazing that they're still lodged very deeply in our minds, and now we've got grandkids, so we teach them the same thing as they...

It seems like we've gone from grandbabysitting from one set of grandkids to the other here recently, and so I'm thankful for that.

Still... Where are we at there? So either way, whether it was meant to be just a scripture memory device or whether it's a form of worship, what we must not forget is that at its least, at its most basic building block, it was meant to foster unity amongst those who were called by the name of Christian.

Verse 6 begins, Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God?

Literally, who being in the form of God who subsisted, who persisted, who endured, who prevailed.

In other words, he, Christ, prior to his incarnation was in the very form and nature of God.

Paul in this statement is establishing Christ's equality with God. And for any that may have balked at Paul's assessment, our

Lord himself made this statement among others in John chapter 10, verse 30.

He says, I and my Father are one. A statement which elicited quite a hostile response in that they took up stones to stone him again.

Jesus answered him, Many works, good works, have I showed thee from my

Father. For which of these do you stone me? The Jews answered him, saying,

For a good work we stone thee not, but blasphemy, because thou art being a man, makest thou self

God. The writer of Hebrews states it this way, and it's another one of those scripture memory things that,

Hebrews 1 through 3, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his

Son. He's speaking of Christ, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, that's

God upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of majesty on high.

So based on these texts, who would you consider would be the contrast of Christ here?

Who else was created in the likeness and image of God? Adam the first, right?

Adam and Eve, that Adam? The difference being that he did grasp after equality with God.

Remember in Genesis 3, it says, For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil, such that they both of them,

Adam and Eve, they took of the fruit, and by Adam's sin, death is passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Even before Adam, there was one who grasped after equality with God. We know that didn't end up well for him.

Do you remember who that was? Lucifer, right? How art thou fallen,

Isaiah. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, morning of the sun of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations?

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

I will sit upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the Most High. You hear a theme there?

What greater caution can there be than when you hear yourself or others saying,

I, I, I, I. When you begin lifting yourself up, beware, as great will be the fall of it.

Proverbs 16, 18 says, Pride will go up before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

So Christ, we read in the latter portion of verse six, is that second

Adam. He thought it not robbery to be equal with God.

Robbery means a violent seizing. The ESV reads grasp. Christ did not imagine that having equality with God should lead him to hold onto his privileges at all cost.

It was not something to be grasped, to be kept, to be exploited for his own benefit.

Instead, he had a mindset of service. He did not come to please himself.

Paul made it clear in Romans 15, for even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me.

So again, this is the mind that we are to have. Let this mind be in you.

He counted himself in the interest of others more significant than those of his own, not pleasing himself.

Verse seven, but made himself no reputation. It took upon him the form of a servant and having made in the likeness of men.

Jesus made of himself nothing. He emptied himself. The Greek word there is kenosis, and it doesn't mean to spill out.

It means to pour out. It's intentional. Not that he ejected all of his power of deity.

He still remained the Lord of glory. Although he emptied himself, he did this not by some form of spiritual subtraction of his divine attributes.

Instead, it was by the addition or the assuming of the human nature. During the

Christmas season, the words of the angel of the Lord spoken to Joseph are repeated time and time again, and she,

Mary, shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name

Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.

God with us, fully God, and yet fully, truly man, and one who came to serve as both.

Can you think of any, quote, God other than Christ that came to serve?

All of them were there, if you can say they were there, to be served, right?

To have oblations and offerings brought before them. And I find that service is difficult.

For me, personally, for myself, it's easy to be a servant when you're not being treated like a servant.

You know, when those who you're serving are grateful, when they praise you for your servant spirit, or even when it's something that you enjoy doing anyway.

The true mark of a servant is acting like one when you're being treated like one.

That's a different matter. We were sinners, and we loved it.

Romans 5, 8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. We were spiritually dead. We followed after the enemy of God, and we gobbled up sin like it was candy.

And we were naturally minded. And yet, we read these words from Paul in Ephesians 2,

And you hath he quickened, and is made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins.

We were the enemies of God. And yet, he continues a few verses later in chapter 2, verse 15,

He abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto

God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.

Christ didn't come to save good people. He came to purchase the base, those who scorned him, those who cared not one bit for him.

We are the ones he served by laying aside his glory and laying down his life.

God allowed men like Paul, the chief of sinners, he called himself, men like John Newton, who penned the words,

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now

I've found, was blind, but now I see, or Isaac Watts.

Alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away, it was there by grace

I received my sight, and now I'm happy all the day. And so much does this emphasize where our society is going, even as Christians.

Isaac Watts' hymn, where it says, Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?

was how he penned it. And then, a few decades later, the hymnals were changed.

Would he devote that sacred head for sinners such as I? But now we think even better of ourselves.

Would he devote that sacred head for someone such as I? We just have a really good thought about ourselves.

We're not as bad as all that. God allowed these men,

Newton and Watts spiritually, and Paul both physically and spiritually. He reminded them of the vastness of their sin, and yet the greatness of this one who had saved them.

Some may say how horrible it must be to look at one's depravity from that which they've been saved.

But for Paul, he would argue that it's not until we can begin to grasp it that we will come to see and love

Christ rightly. He is the one who, verse 7 says, being found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

And again, the comparison of Adam and Jesus comes up before us again. Romans 5,

For as by one man's disobedience, that would be Adam, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, that would be

Christ, shall many be made righteous. Our Lord came to undo the disobedience of Adam and to experience the judgment of God which

Adam had brought down on the human race. And in order to do this, he had to become obedient to his

Father's will and plan. And he was obedient throughout his whole life, from the cradle to the cross, even praying the night before, saying,

Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.

It is this Christ, this last Adam, who through our union with, we should imitate.

He did not stand on his rights, nor are we to stand on our so -called rights, but to be willing to give them up for the sake of others, for the sake of the gospel.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ. So how does that look?

If you removed all the Christ -only stuff, we could say, verse 7, we could make of ourselves no reputation.

We could pour out ourselves for others. We could be a servant despite serving sinners.

Verse 8, setting aside our pride and humbling ourselves, become obedient servants, who though are probably not dying physically, yet we're told to take up our cross daily, die to ourselves, follow

Him. Sounds like a good start, right?

For growing a unified church. Verse 9, wherefore,

God also hath highly exalted Himself, and given Him a name which is above every name.

So what do we see happening here? In verses 9 -11, we're going to see a stark shift, a shift from Christ's humiliation to His exaltation.

The Baptist Catechism concerning Christ's humiliation and exaltation gives a very clear understanding of the two.

First, what do we mean by the exalted Christ's humiliation? By Christ's humiliation, this is the question and the answer.

By Christ's humiliation, we mean that He was born and that in a low condition, that He was made under the law and underwent the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross, that He was buried and continued under the power of death for a time.

And then the question, what do we mean by Christ's exaltation? By Christ's exaltation, we mean

His rising again from the dead on the third day, ascending up into heaven, sitting at the right hand of God the

Father, and coming to judge the world at the last day. Christ's exaltation is, if we will look carefully at it, twofold.

It begins with the highest, wherefore God, so it begins with deity, and it rightly ends with the lowest, humanity.

Every knee shall bow, all created beings. But before we run off with this beautiful description of Christ's exaltation,

I want us to be sure we remember the context that the wherefore carries with it.

I think we're going to have to stop there. Anybody have any questions?

I covered a lot. No? It's been odd that Brother Mike has been preaching.

It just worked out that way that he's preached on again, off again for these past couple of weeks.

I'm not sure when I'll be back, but I have it in hard copy form, so I know where to pick up.

Brother John, would you close us out in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity,

Lord, to join back together again as a body of spending a week apart.

Lord, study at the feet of this dear brother Mike who prepared so exhaustively for this study.

Lord, we just thank you for him. We thank you for just the presence in this church of humble servants who strive to put others in front of themselves.

Lord, we just thank you for that example. Lord, prepare us now as we move into the sanctuary for the sermon being brought to us by our brother

Bert. Lord, we ask all this through your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.