Philippians 2, John Lasken

Cornerstone Church

1 view

July 1, 2024

Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org Philippians 2

07:57: Welcome you this morning as we gather together. If you're in the sanctuary go ahead and find a seat.
08:04: If you're in the hallway come on up and join us. It's awesome to be together this morning.
08:12: I gather the temperature still hasn't gotten too high has it? No? Okay.
08:19: I want to start us out by considering John 5 .39. John 5 .39
08:25: it says you search the scriptures for in them you think you find eternal life.
08:31: This is a good thing. This is a good thing for us to spend time in the word to spend time understanding the word.
08:38: In fact we are exhorted to be prepared to give a to give an apology in season and out of season.
08:45: So spending time seeing what the word has even memorizing the word knowing the word is a good calling.
08:52: It's a good spiritual discipline. Let me finish that verse for you. You search the scriptures for then in them you think you find eternal life but they are they which testify of me.
09:05: The real power of that verse is okay study the scriptures and this is a good thing but the real power of that verse is how well do you know
09:16: God? How well do you know the creator? How well do you know the son of God?
09:23: What is your relationship with Jesus Christ? You search the scriptures for in them you think you find eternal life but they are they which testify of me.
09:32: We gather together we're going to open up the word of God. We're going to study the word of God. We're going to hear what the word of God has to say.
09:40: All scripture is given by inspiration is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction instruction and righteousness.
09:46: This is all good stuff but I think that then when you take it to that next step and you use that time spent in scripture to know
09:55: God and to have a closer relationship with him it comes so much more deeply alive in your heart.
10:02: This is where we're going to be going today as we turn into the book of Philippians so be ready for that.
10:07: I have some announcements this is now almost the end of June. Not to get you all excited but pride month ends today.
10:23: You can put your rainbow up because God gave us the rainbow. You put it already up?
10:29: I love it thank you all the time but we got lots of stuff going on so let me give you a quick rundown on what's happening after second service.
10:38: If you are like me technically challenged I don't even know how to spell app much less use it but if you would like to know how to use your technology getting on the church app and stuff like that there's going to be a technical exchange this afternoon after second service so if you want to learn what can you actually do with the app what are these things all about?
11:06: Drew help me out I'm floundering here. Okay so lots of opportunities to be able to be
11:20: I guess encouraged and given extra stuff through the technology instead of being afraid of it.
11:28: Also tomorrow morning gentlemen is our first Monday of the month breakfast so I encourage you to assign set up your clock early and join us six o 'clock for our time of fellowship with the men.
11:42: Again prayer meeting tonight at six o 'clock here. We have an activity called Trail Mix.
11:48: Now Trail Mix is a ministry that we're launching here. It kind of comes off of something called
11:56: Trail Life. It is a Christian alternative to the Boy Scouts. Then there's another one for the girls what's that called?
12:05: Anybody know what's that what the girls Trail Life called? That's the youth pastor's wife she doesn't know.
12:18: There is something for the girls but they don't do it together. The girls have theirs the guys have theirs.
12:24: We're launching something where the girls and the guys will be together at the appropriate age group so we're calling it
12:30: Trail Mix. Ah now you get it. Okay the actual
12:35: Trail Mix is probably going to launch sometime in the fall but we're having an early event. This will be more of a family event.
12:43: It's on the 24th. That's a Wednesday. We'll be leaving here the church building early in the morning and going up to some mount in North Jersey.
12:51: It's not Mount Sinai. What mount is it? Am I making you feel uncomfortable?
13:02: Okay anyway there will be a some sort of an outdoors event for the family.
13:07: It's on the 24th. The very next day on the 25th the the
13:13: Domenna family will be here in the church at seven o 'clock for an update on their missions and their missions ministry.
13:20: So it's open to the whole church. That's on Thursday the 25th. We have some classes coming up.
13:27: These are lookaheads for the fall time. There will be a Marriage Matters class which will be launched.
13:34: We've had many of them. They're very very powerful. If you're at all interested you can see
13:40: Bill and Janice Biddle about it. I don't know Drew if you could help out with that too.
13:49: Is that what that is? Okay so there's a Marriage Matters class coming up and there will also be a financial stewardship class coming up sometime in the fall.
14:02: Also in the fall that we are going to have another baptism. If you were just so encouraged by the baptism that we just had out here a few weeks ago we are going to be having another baptism in the fall down the shore.
14:13: So if you are if you are interested in it we would like to be able to work with you. We will have baptism classes sometime.
14:20: We have to find out when the date is and then there'll be three weeks of classes sometime before that. You can contact me,
14:27: Jeff, any one of the elders so that we can make sure we can get you involved in that. And so right now
14:32: Drew I'm supposed to ask you to come up. Yes I'm here because I have the right shirt on.
14:43: This is the VBS shirt for this year. VBS is August 5th through the 9th.
14:48: It's 6 o 'clock to 8 15 at night and approximate ages of children are 4 to 12 and we're hoping you're going to register soon.
14:56: And that was also up here right now with the QR code and you'll see it's flipping by with other things that we can sign up for.
15:04: But it's also on the church app and on the website and importantly right after church today there's a
15:11: VBS staff meeting. So if you're interested in helping out with crafts, music, snacks, all of those things please come to the meeting right after church.
15:20: And by the way if you are on staff you're going to get a t -shirt today because all the t -shirts are here.
15:26: So please come if you're interested in serving. Thank you. Thank you,
15:33: Drew. And be in prayer. This is an opportunity for the children of our church and the children of our community to come into this activity where the gospel message is given.
15:45: So be in prayer for the children that will be receiving it. Let's turn to Father we come to you knowing that you are the
15:51: God of all. You are the creator. You are the supreme God. We come to you wanting to know you better.
15:59: We thank you Lord that we can open your word and see what your word has. It teaches. It instructs us.
16:04: It perfects us. And I pray as we spend time in your word that our hearts would be opened to know you better and better in Jesus' name.
16:12: Amen. All right well good morning everyone.
16:19: Today we gather to worship and honor please rise our
16:24: Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and as we reflect on the beauty and majesty of Jesus let us be reminded of the opening hymn fairest
16:33: Lord Jesus which exalts him as the ruler of all nature and the source of our souls glory joy and crown and Colossians chapter 1 verses 16 through 17 we read for by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created through him and for him he is before all things and in him all things hold together
17:25: Jesus oh
17:57: Will I honor, though my soul's glory, joy and crown?
18:14: Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands.
18:26: Robed in the blooming garb of spring.
18:38: Jesus is fairer,
18:44: Jesus is purer. Who makes the woeful heart to stay?
19:08: Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight.
19:20: And all the twinklin' starry hosts
19:32: Jesus shines purer,
19:37: I heard Jesus shines purer
19:44: Than all the angels in heaven can boast
20:03: Beautiful Savior, Lord of all nations
20:15: Son of God and Son of Man Glory and honor, praise and adoration
20:39: Now and forevermore be
20:46: Thine Now and forevermore be
20:58: Thine Was a wretch,
21:44: I remember who I was I was lost,
21:51: I was blind, I was running out of time
21:56: Sin separated, the breach was far too wide
22:04: But from the far side of the chasm, You held me in Your sight
22:12: So You made a way across the great divide
22:19: Left behind heaven's throne to build it here inside There at the cross,
22:32: You paid the debt I owed Broke my chains, freed my soul, for the first time
22:41: I had hope Thank You, Jesus, for the blood of night
22:51: Thank You, Jesus, it has washed me white
22:59: Thank You, Jesus, You have saved my life
23:07: Brought me from the darkness into glorious light
23:21: You took my place, laid inside my tomb of sin
23:28: You were buried for three days, but then You walked right out again
23:35: And now death has no sin, and life has no end
23:43: For life appears yet small, but the blood of the
23:50: Lamb Thank You, Jesus, for the blood of night
23:58: Thank You, Jesus, it has washed me white
24:06: Thank You, Jesus, You have saved my life
24:14: Brought me from the darkness into glorious light
24:22: There is nothing stronger than the wonder -working power of love
24:36: Love that calls the stars and dawns
24:42: We are ransomed by a fire through Your blood
24:49: Love, love There is nothing stronger than the wonder -working power of love
25:02: Love that calls the stars and dawns
25:11: We are ransomed by a fire through Your blood
25:18: Love, love Thank You, Jesus, for the blood of night
25:30: Thank You, Jesus, it has washed me white
25:37: Thank You, Jesus, You have saved my life
25:45: Brought me from the darkness into glorious light
26:08: Glory to His name
26:14: There to my heart was the blood of night
26:23: Glory to His name
26:53: Reaches of heaven, starry eyes
27:03: Lights of the evening, dancing in silent skies
27:14: Brilliance of morning, breaking days
27:24: Oh, let them praise Him, praise
27:30: His name Oh, praise
27:37: His name Let all
27:46: His wondrous works declare
27:51: His praise Mighty as mountains, peaceful place
28:11: Snowfall and fire, thundering ocean waves
28:21: Kings and their kingdoms, age to age
28:30: Oh, let them praise Him, praise
28:35: His name Oh, praise
28:42: His name Oh, praise
28:48: His name Let all His wondrous works declare
28:56: His praise Oh, praise
29:01: His name Oh, praise
29:07: His name Let all His wondrous works declare
29:16: His praise Jesus, come in majesty
29:31: All things made by His decree
29:37: Hear creation's melody Praise Him, praise
29:46: Him Everything with life and breath
29:51: Everywhere from east to west
29:56: Every harvest from the dead Praise Him, praise
30:05: Him Angels echo the refrain
30:11: Jesus, Lamb or sinner slain Name above all other names
30:20: Praise Him, oh, praise
30:26: His name Oh, praise His name
30:34: Let all His wondrous works declare
30:40: His praise Oh, praise
30:46: His name Oh, praise His name
30:53: Let all His wondrous works declare
31:00: His praise Oh, praise
31:13: His name Oh, praise His name
31:21: Let all His wondrous works declare
31:28: His praise Oh, praise
31:35: His name Oh, praise His name
31:43: Let all His wondrous works declare
31:50: His praise Okay, this next song is called
32:11: More Like Jesus and it is a prayer for transformation seeking more of Jesus and less of ourselves.
32:20: To reflect His love and grace, it echoes the call and the scripture that we're going to study today,
32:26: Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 7. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
32:41: Himself by taking the form of a servant. You came to the world
33:08: You created Trading Your crown for a cross
33:19: Innocent life paid the cost Doubting Your status as nothing
33:30: The King of all kings came to serve Washing my feet
33:39: Covering me with Your love
33:45: If all of You means less of me
33:51: Take everything Yes, all of You is all
34:00: I need Take everything You are my life and my treasure
34:19: The one that I have lived without Here at Your feet
34:28: My desires and dreams I lay down Here at Your feet
34:37: My desires and dreams I lay down If all of You means less of me
34:50: Take everything Yes, all of You is all
34:59: I need Take everything If all of You means less of me
35:10: Take everything Yes, all of You is all
35:18: I need Take everything Oh Lord Change me like only
35:30: You can Here with my heart in Your hands
35:37: Father, I'm begging for life
35:42: Jesus, this world Is dying to know who
35:49: You are You've shown us the way to Your heart
35:55: Father, I pray make me more like Jesus, oh
36:04: Lord Change me like only You can
36:10: Here with my heart in Your hands Father, I pray make me more like Jesus, this world
36:24: Is dying to know who You are
36:29: You've shown us the way to Your heart
36:34: Father, I pray make me more like Jesus, oh
36:43: Lord Jesus, I pray make me more like Jesus, oh
36:54: Lord If all of You means less of me
37:04: Take everything Yes, all of You is all
37:12: I need Take everything If all of You means less of me
37:23: Take everything Yes, all of You is all
37:32: I need Take everything I didn't expect this during first service.
38:05: I came up here not knowing it, so it was really kind of cool. This time, Elliot, thank you for picking that song.
38:11: You basically preached my sermon. We are dismissed. Psalm 19.
38:23: The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech.
38:29: Night unto night showeth forth knowledge. I love that passage. I love that psalm, the reality of the general revelation of God is evidence to all who would just have eyes to see.
38:43: And then it goes on in the second verse and it says that day unto day uttereth speech. Creation even speaks to us about the majesty of who
38:52: God is. Night unto night standeth forth knowledge. The question I want to ask you is what knowledge?
39:02: My family had the privilege this past week of going out to Kentucky and we spent one day in the
39:09: Creation Museum and the second day in the Ark Encounter. Anybody here that has done that, been there?
39:16: Oh my goodness, more than first service. You guys win. I found it absolutely intriguing and fascinating.
39:25: I want to speak more about the Creation Museum, but it's similar to the Ark. You see, you can go through these exhibits and especially in the
39:35: Creation Museum, there are a lot of aspects that take us through the walk of creation.
39:41: And on these exhibits, they will have two explanations. They will have the worldview explanation and then they will have the biblical explanation.
39:52: And clearly, one is a old earth, one is a new earth. Clearly one starts out by accident and continues on by accident.
40:04: And clearly the other has God as the creator in his design and in his timing, creating the world.
40:13: Six days. Now the book of Genesis, in the Hebrew, the word for day is yom.
40:19: And I think Jeff mentioned this maybe a couple weeks ago. In the Hebrew, if yom is attached to a cardinal number, like first, second, third, it invariably all the time refers to a 24 -hour time period.
40:34: More than that, if yom is used in conjunction with a descriptor in the morning and it was evening, it emphasizes the fact that we are talking about a 24 -hour period.
40:48: And so the Creation Museum, without any apology, it just says, on one, they're making suppositions based on what we see today, projecting it as what it would have been like, so what is today always was.
41:03: The other one has an eyewitness account. That would be God. And they speak much about this.
41:11: One of the things that is evidenced and is emphasized is this phrase that if you tell a lie often enough and loud enough, people will believe it's true.
41:24: And so as we go into our schools today, it is no longer the theory of evolution, it is evolution.
41:33: It is no longer the theory of how things came to be, it is how things came to be.
41:41: They have said it loud enough and often enough so now that it's just presumed to be true.
41:47: Much of the decisions about the age of stuff uses something called carbon dating.
41:55: There are a set of sedimentary lava rocks that have gone through carbon dating and have found to have been 340 ,000 years old.
42:11: We believe that the Earth, based on God's eyewitness account, is 6 ,000 years old.
42:17: But these rocks are found by carbon dating to be 3 ,400 years old.
42:23: Here's the rub. Those rocks came from Mount St. Helens in 1980. My math says they're 43 years old.
42:32: But by carbon dating, see they take things that they consider can't be changed, it's unchangeable, and so they take what they understand now and they backdate things and they come up with dates.
42:44: Now as you go through the Creation Museum, you do see much of this.
42:50: And as I go through this Creation Museum, I can go through it, in fact I did for quite a bit, go through it looking for information.
42:58: I'm going to be leaving Saturday. Sunday I report in for 6 weeks up at Cooperstown, New York.
43:05: I umpire 12 -year -old baseball. And there will be hundreds of people there, umpires, coaches, parents.
43:11: And I like to go equipped because I don't hide my faith. I get into conversations.
43:18: And I like to be equipped with the logic behind it. I am an engineer. I'm a scientist. I do like logic.
43:25: And so going through the different displays and reading them for information, that was okay until I realized what
43:35: I really was missing was the best reason of all to be going through that creation.
43:41: It was to fall more and more in love with the Creator. Isn't falling in love with the
43:48: Creator better than building a mind full of information?
43:54: There's a phrase that's called it is better to know the God of the
44:00: Bible than it is to know the Bible of the God. We'll explain that more as we go, but see here's the difference.
44:08: If I know the God of the Bible, I am spending my emotions and my thoughts on something that is immutable, unchangeable.
44:16: It is eternal. It is God. But if I'm spending my time on the Bible of the
44:22: God, then I'm looking at words. I'm looking at phrases. And that really was how critical thinking came to be, was taking a look at what was stated in words and phrases in the
44:35: Bible and determining it if by reason I can accept them or reject them. And that's critical thinking.
44:42: More on that later. Today we're in the Book of Philippians. I get the chance when
44:47: I'm in the pulpit. Tim is following after me. We're preaching exegetically through the Book of Philippians. Pastor Jeff, of course, right now is preaching through the
44:56: Book of Romans. We love to preach. Where does the Bible take us next? That's where we take.
45:01: So today we are in chapter 2, verses 5 through 11. Let me read these for you.
45:09: So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the
45:14: Spirit, that's the beginning. That's Chad's verse 1. Let me start at 5. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equity with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
45:33: Being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
45:40: Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Christ is
45:53: Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Now, the book of Philippians is going to talk a lot about joy, about how we live life in enjoyment, how we live life to the fullness through our relationship with Jesus Christ, through the power of God.
46:11: So why is this teaching on Christology, and that's what I'm going to call it, in the middle of this letter?
46:19: How does this passage impact who you are? I'm going to come out with a statement that where your worldview is founded will impact how you see things and how you react to things.
46:31: What do I mean? If your worldview is the world naturalistic view, then you're free to make suppositions like the carbon dating effort at Mount St.
46:43: Helens. You're going to be using scientific reason, logic, and everything else, but if your worldview is
46:48: God, then you're going to see things through a lens that understands that truth is found in God.
46:57: There are a couple of scientists that are on display at the
47:04: Creation Museum. One of them is a gentleman by the name of Charles Layell. He's a
47:10: Scottish geologist. He was known for natural causes, explaining everything about Earth's history.
47:17: He didn't need God. This was his quote. The goal is to free science from Moses.
47:25: Did you get that? The goal is to free science from God's given word to Moses recorded in the
47:34: Pentateuch. Science can have nothing to do with that. You see, science explains everything.
47:39: We don't need to go to this myth, to this irrelevant book.
47:46: We need to free science from Moses. And then Richard Lewontin, who was an evolutionary biologist in the 20th century, around 1980, he said, materialism is absolute.
47:59: Did you get this? If you tell a lie often enough and loud enough, people believe that it's true. Materialism is absolute.
48:09: We cannot allow even a foot of the divine in the door.
48:18: Materialism is absolute, and any of this stuff about God is just fabrication.
48:26: It's mythology. We can't even let him get a foot in the door. So that's the degree to which it's gone.
48:33: So my question to you this morning is what's your view of Scripture? We go to Scripture and we study
48:40: Scripture, and this is an important thing. I quoted John 5 .39
48:46: at the opening. You study Scripture, for in them you think you find eternal life. There is value to going to Scripture and spending time in Scripture, because you learn truth.
48:56: You learn it from the very word of God inspired. It's profitable. That verse goes on, but they are they which testify of me.
49:04: Is your view of Scripture to gain intellectual knowledge so that you can win an argument, or is your view of Scripture to learn about the
49:14: Creator? Are you seeking the God of the Bible, or are you satisfied with the
49:21: Bible of the God? Let's pray.
49:27: Father, we are in your very, very presence this morning, and we are seeking in your word what you have given to us, what you have taught us.
49:36: Hi, Father. I pray that our time together, spent together, will encourage us to know these words, but also, more important, to know you, that we would have a foundation for life.
49:48: In Jesus' name, amen. So I strongly want to encourage you to understand that how you perceive the
49:58: Lord Jesus Christ is actually going to impact how you live your life, how you respond to life, how you see things occurring.
50:07: And there are two influences that are of importance, and the first one is going to be responding to God's desire to have a relationship with you.
50:17: Did you know that God desires to have a relationship with you? I do like how the
50:23: Westminster Confession of Faith starts out by saying, the chief goal of man is to glorify
50:28: God and enjoy him forever. It does not say that the chief goal of man is to learn everything that they can about God.
50:39: Not that that's a bad thing, to use God's revelation to learn him, but the chief goal of man is to glorify
50:46: God and to enjoy him forever. See, God has spent, so far throughout creation, the emphasis on revealing himself to man.
50:57: It started out in the garden, Genesis 2 and 3, God created man, said it was very good. God created
51:03: Eve, man said, whoa, man, that was woman. That was supposed to be a joke.
51:08: Anyway, thank you. But he did walk in the garden in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve.
51:16: He spent time in relationship with them until the fall. Then Genesis 12,
51:22: God comes to Abram and he gives him a covenant promise on how things will be done.
51:28: And then in Exodus, God encourages them to build a tabernacle that would go with them as they wandered through the wilderness.
51:35: And they would set it up and they would set a holy of holies in the inside. And when that was set up, the Shekinah glory came down into the holy of holies and abided in the midst of the camp.
51:46: God would reveal himself. Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God. And we know that at the end of time, nobody is going to be able to deny.
51:58: He is going to reveal himself to everybody. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess.
52:04: Even those who in life have chosen to deny him, every knee will bow.
52:09: Every tongue will confess. Everybody does get a chance to see and we'll see. The second half of this relationship then is man's response to God.
52:19: God expresses his desire for man to worship him. The Ten Commandments.
52:25: I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt love me with all thine heart and all thy soul and all thy mind.
52:32: Deuteronomy 6, 5 is one of three passages in what's called the Shema of Israel. And the
52:38: Jews were to in the morning and the evening recite these three passages and all three of them emphasize love the
52:45: Lord your God with all your heart. God is setting up a desire, an expressed desire for man to respond to him in worship in Mark 12 when challenged,
52:56: Jesus said the first and the greatest commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.
53:03: The second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. But you see, God expects, he desires that man will respond.
53:09: He has revealed and he seeks this response. But there's a second influence in the world and that's
53:15: Satan. Prince of the power of the air. The spirit that now works in the children of disobedience among them also.
53:22: We had our conversation in time past. Ephesians 2, 2 and 3. Satan is in a battle for man's heart.
53:32: God proclaimed to Moses, I am. Peter proclaimed when challenged, thou art the
53:40: Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus said, blessed art thou Simon Bar -Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven.
53:50: Man gets the opportunity to hear, to see, to know. But you see, Satan, and we know this when he was
53:57: Lucifer from the book of Isaiah when he was in heaven as one of the highest angels.
54:03: Perhaps the one that led worship up there. Wasn't satisfied.
54:09: I will make myself like the most high God. And God banishes him down.
54:15: And from that time on, Satan has been doing everything he can to deny
54:20: God so that he can be elevated into that position of being God. That's Satan's agenda.
54:29: I will make myself like the most high God. It started out in the first phase before the Messiah actually came.
54:35: Satan understood that there was a Messiah to come. Now he's not omniscient, but he is quick, he's a quick learner.
54:43: And so he knew that there was a Messiah to be prophesied and he had to stop that Messiah. And so in the time of Esther, the decree that all
54:54: Jews would be killed, stopped the line, didn't happen. Every time
55:00: Satan tried something, God protected his people. Messiah, I got news for you,
55:05: Messiah came right when God ordained that he would come. Satan couldn't stop it.
55:11: So now he's in phase two of his agenda. He couldn't stop Messiah, but now what he's trying to do is he's trying to contaminate the gospel.
55:20: We have the gospel, we have been told, going to all the world preaching. After that,
55:26: I give you power. We are given the gospel message to give the world so that the world can hear the good news, so that the world can respond through his grace by faith.
55:36: But Satan's agenda now is to contaminate that gospel, making something less than it really is.
55:44: There have been various stages of this. Shortly after Christ's death, the church is coming and the
55:51: Judaizers came in to be. You have to do certain works because just faith alone isn't enough.
55:58: So they added works to faith. The Gnostics said there is special knowledge.
56:03: If you have that special knowledge, you will be a Christian. You have to have the special knowledge, the Gnostics. The Aryans claimed that Jesus was nothing more than a created being.
56:16: You see the contamination of the gospel message trying to influence the spread of something that was meaningless.
56:23: Jeff's book, War -Torn Church, it identified several of them.
56:29: One of them was the downgrade conspiracy where they challenged that Scripture was ever inspired and that the authority of Scripture is not to be taken for granted.
56:39: The Babylonian captivity, there was a time where the church dogma and doctrine held individuals captive to the doctrine and dogma instead of truth.
56:52: And then the Scopes Monkey Trial where evolution became the word of the day.
56:59: In the 18th century into the early 19th century, another of these attacks came to be.
57:05: It's called the Canonic Theory. More on that one later. But what this is is the challenge to the full deity of Christ.
57:15: And it comes out of Philippians 2 .7. True Christology, which is captured in this
57:24: Philippians 2 .5 -11, is what we should understand and hold onto about Jesus Christ without compromise.
57:33: Now the book of Philippians is a book about joy. It's about fulfilled life. Some of the verses that are important in it, and you can see how this book just encourages us to walk with him.
57:45: I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ.
57:51: 1 .6. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. 1 .21. Complete my joy being of same mind and the same love in full accord and of one mind.
58:01: 2 .2. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
58:08: 2 .12. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassed worth of knowing
58:14: Christ Jesus my Lord. 3 .8. I can do all things through God who strengthens me.
58:21: Rejoice in the Lord. These are verses that are the message of having a fulfilled life, knowing joy because of who
58:27: God is. And so in the middle of this, now we have chapter 2. And chapter 2 has this little section in it, 5 through 11.
58:38: And as I read this, it seems like it's a parenthesis almost. So follow what
58:44: I'm going to do. I'm going to read the beginning of the chapter and then the end of the chapter. And you can see that in the middle, there's some teaching here that why did he put it there?
58:54: Here's a clue. If you're reading scripture and you come across a passage and you say, why is that there?
59:00: Stop right now and study that passage. Because if it doesn't seem to fit the flow, it's there for a reason.
59:06: And it's there because all scripture is given by God. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, starting in verse 3.
59:14: But in humility of lying, count one another's as more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only on his own interests, but also on the interests of another.
59:23: Verse 4, jumping to 12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed. The therefore goes back to that beginning part.
59:31: This stuff in the middle is a special message. And it's a message on Christology and it's a message for us because it's something
59:39: God wants for us to see, to understand about Christ so that we emulate who Christ is.
59:55: Therefore, as we go into chapter verse 5, therefore have this mind among yourselves, is taking us back into these two thoughts.
01:00:04: In verse 3, count others more important than yourselves. In verse 4, look out for others.
01:00:10: These are not the way of the world. Having others as more important than yourselves, having your desire, your emphasis to look out for your brother, that's not what the world is trying to teach you.
01:00:24: But here's the thing, we are now a new creation, so we can understand it. We are able to think it.
01:00:30: Ephesians 2, 1 to 3, you are dead in your trespasses and sins, culminates at verse 4 with but God.
01:00:38: We become something new. 2 Corinthians 5 .17 says that we are a new creation.
01:00:46: Old things have passed away, all things have become new. And so although Adam and Eve lost the relationship, we are given a new relationship through Christ, but yet our response to that relationship is not guaranteed.
01:01:00: Romans 7, that which I know I shouldn't do, that which I do, Paul's confession of difficulty.
01:01:10: Through all of this, Scripture teaches that from all eternity, he knew every single one of you in this room.
01:01:20: His sovereign will was that you would be sitting here, that he has a plan for you, that he will bring it to completion.
01:01:27: He says that in Philippians 1 .6. Our role is actually to make a choice.
01:01:37: It says have this mind. That's an imperative. It's an action you need to do. It's a direction you have to take.
01:01:45: It implies the fact that there is a choice. Have this mind, don't have this mind.
01:01:51: It implies that there is a choice. It implies that you can be aware of this choice.
01:01:57: So your choice, your command, your edict is to choose the better. I want you to imagine that I had brought up on the platform here a box that had $1 ,000 in it, in nickels.
01:02:16: 20 ,000 nickels, $10 ,000. When we were at the
01:02:23: Ark, we were listening to a gentleman by the name of Brian Osborne. Phenomenal guy. I want to get him here to the church.
01:02:29: Phenomenal guy. He was talking about accepting just a little bit of contamination and how bad just a little bit of contamination can be.
01:02:39: He had the picture of a rat poison box. He zoomed in on the ingredients.
01:02:50: 99 .995 % pure food. The rat would eat it because it tastes good.
01:02:58: 99 .995 % pure food. 0 .005 % rat poison.
01:03:07: That was enough to kill the rat. So here's my box of 20 ,000 nickels.
01:03:12: I take one nickel. What's left is pure. I took one nickel and let that be contaminated.
01:03:22: The rat poison only required one nickel to come out of that $1 ,000 box to kill the rat.
01:03:30: And the message there is, if your gospel message is 99 .995
01:03:38: % pure, it will kill you. Taking one nickel out of that box is to compromise the truth of Christ.
01:03:47: And when you take one nickel out of that box and you deny the deity of God, you deny the truth of God, you're defining that nickel, and that's enough to kill you, was the message there.
01:04:03: So I want you to consider the two worldviews. On one, we're going to see, when you have a pure view of Jesus, how that impacts life.
01:04:13: But here's the thing. If your view of Jesus is anything short of pure, if you just take one nickel out of that box, you're walking down a bad path.
01:04:22: So Philippians 2 is now going to give us a picture of true
01:04:27: Christology. The sovereign humility of Jesus is found in the hypostatic union.
01:04:34: Fully God, fully man, throughout all of eternity.
01:04:40: You must believe this without compromise, or you're making Jesus to be something less than he really is.
01:04:48: Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equity with God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.
01:04:59: Being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
01:05:10: Christology demands that we see God as he really is. In the beginning of this, there are four aspects to God that we cannot deviate from.
01:05:18: One is that Jesus is fully God. He was fully God through all eternity.
01:05:26: When Jesus came at the conception and for 33 years walked this earth, fully
01:05:32: God. And after his ascension up into heaven, fully God, no difference, 100 % fully
01:05:40: God, always was, always will be fully God. And that as he walked the earth, he knew that he was fully
01:05:46: God. This is important when we consider the humility of Jesus. He is fully
01:05:52: God. He knew that he was fully God, but he did come to earth in the form of man. That song that you led us in is amazing.
01:05:59: When you consider the extent of the creator of all, bringing himself down to be a man, to walk on the earth.
01:06:10: Now in the passage it says, Jesus, though he was in the form of God, the Greek morphe, it connotes the essence of God, the attributes of God, the unchangeable nature of God.
01:06:24: Not to be impacted by circumstances in any way, shape, or form.
01:06:30: He is the morphe, the form, the essence of God. Even as man, he had righteousness, holiness, infinite, self -existent, immutable, faithful, loving, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.
01:06:46: This is Jesus. And if you find anything less than that, you've taken a nickel out of that box.
01:06:53: We cannot take a nickel out of that box. Philippians 2 is gonna emphasize then his humility.
01:06:59: You see, he is perfectly, fully holy God, yet he humbly became a man.
01:07:06: He's accepted the existence in the form of a created being. We know he submits to the
01:07:12: Father's will, and we know about his obedience going to the cross.
01:07:18: We know this to be our God. Considering these truths, we should become more awed by what he did.
01:07:28: It can be almost nonchalant to consider that the creator of all came down and took on the form of a man.
01:07:40: We can almost nonchalantly accept that. Okay, fine, don't. Be awed because he is the creator.
01:07:46: All of these attributes, the morphe, never losing them, he comes to Earth and takes on.
01:07:53: The form of man. Now, we know that the
01:07:59: Bible is true. We accept that the Bible is true. But critical analysis is going to take words and parse these words and consider these words because now it's more important for me to be able to evaluate the words that are given than to just be in humble obedience to God.
01:08:20: Satan could not prevent the coming of Messiah, but he can encourage man to use his cleverness and figure out what words may or may not mean.
01:08:33: So the words of import here are etau ekenesson.
01:08:39: In the Greek, etau ekenesson. Etau, he himself. Ekenesson, emptied himself.
01:08:48: That's the words that are now being challenged. That's the word that is going to create an attack by Satan.
01:08:56: Etau, he himself. It was his doing. He was not forced into it.
01:09:02: It was his voluntary doing. Ekenesson, that there was an emptying, but what does that emptying mean?
01:09:10: So enter the attack and enter kinetic theology.
01:09:17: 1800s or the 1900s, early 20th century, British theologians, they postulated that etau ekenesson is
01:09:29: Jesus abandoning these attributes. And so while he walked on earth, he did not have these attributes as part of his.
01:09:41: My brothers and sisters, that just makes Jesus not fully God. May it not be so.
01:09:47: They say that Jesus exchanged his divine nature for human parts, and that explains a lot of things.
01:09:54: Some of their examples is they say that he gave up his holiness, his pristine nature, with regard to the law, because it says he made him to be sin who knew no sin.
01:10:04: So okay, he threw away holiness. That's gone. Then they say that he threw away his rightful ownership, even though he was the creator, because you see, he had to borrow a place to be born.
01:10:16: He had to borrow a dining room for the last supper. He even had to borrow a tomb. So throw away his divine ownership.
01:10:22: They get rid of that. They throw away his heavenly glory, because he says, glorify me in your own presence with the glory
01:10:29: I had with you. Throw away the glory. That's gone. We don't have to have that one.
01:10:35: Throw away divine knowledge. He says, I don't even know that when I'm going to come back, only the Father knows. Throw away divine knowledge.
01:10:43: Throw away authority. I do nothing of my own authority, but speak as the Father taught me.
01:10:48: You see, they have taken the knowledge, the essence, the beauty, the glory of Jesus, and they have said because of these things, these sentences taken, we now say that Jesus is less
01:10:59: God while he is man. So follow me here. Fully God, less
01:11:04: God, returns to be fully God. And that's the kinetic theology.
01:11:13: If he is not fully God, if he is not perfect God, who went to the cross? It was not a perfect sacrifice.
01:11:21: Our sins are not forgiven because the sacrifice, the penalty has been made.
01:11:28: Kinetic theology used and developed a theology where they studied words, and it ended up compromising the deity and diluting the word of God.
01:11:38: May it not be so. So what does et al. echinessen really mean? What does it mean?
01:11:45: If it didn't mean that he gave these things up, what does it mean? Well, we know that the
01:11:50: Son of God came to earth in the form of man. He became fully man while retaining the nature of God.
01:11:56: We know the true story, the account. We know that Mary, a virgin, was the mother.
01:12:04: We know that the Holy Spirit came upon Mary so there was no earthly father. We know these things. He's fully
01:12:10: God, fully man. I'm an engineer. How can one plus one equal one?
01:12:16: I don't know. God does. See, this is the sovereignty of God.
01:12:22: This is the miracle of what God has done for us. A human mother. God is the father.
01:12:30: Okay, so what did he surrender? I believe, and I've studied this, and I've read
01:12:38: MacArthur, I've read John Henry, I've read the Bible Knowledge Commentary, everything I can say, they all come down to the same thing.
01:12:45: When Jesus is on the earth, he did not surrender his attributes ever.
01:12:51: What he did was he intentionally chose to lay aside the prerogatives of using those attributes.
01:13:00: He was still omniscient, but he chose the prerogative of not being omniscient in all cases.
01:13:07: In cases he definitely was. Think about when Jesus met the woman on the well. He knew everything about her.
01:13:14: Think about when Jesus proclaimed to Nathaniel, I saw you under the tree. Think about when he talks to the
01:13:20: Pharisees. He knew their heart. But in times, there were times where he chose his prerogative to not use it.
01:13:27: Omnipresence, they couldn't capture him one time because he just slipped right through their hands. How did that happen?
01:13:34: Now, he's not omnipresent, but he chose to not always have the prerogative of using that.
01:13:43: He retains the omnis. He doesn't use them to their extent. He prayed to the
01:13:51: Father when calling the 12. Then he said in the garden, not my will but thine. So he set aside, intentionally set aside.
01:14:02: If we believe in the kinetic theology approach that he removed his attributes, where's the humility in that?
01:14:13: If he laid aside the ability to do certain things and then he doesn't do it, okay, well, that's just the nature of who he is.
01:14:22: But if he still has those attributes fully within himself and he intentionally decides not to use them, now he's demonstrating his humility.
01:14:34: I could ask you to give me an example of a time where you acted in humility and I imagine there could be some amazing stories, but none of them are gonna match
01:14:43: Jesus fully God laying aside the prerogative to use his attributes as fully
01:14:50: God. That's the message in this here. Jesus fully God lays that all aside.
01:14:58: The theology of the hypostatic union says this. He was once for all a sufficient sacrifice for sin because he was pure and because he was
01:15:10: God, because he went to the cross. Once for all, Jesus, sacrifice for sin.
01:15:15: And though he was tempted in all ways, he was sinless, he was pure, he was perfect.
01:15:21: He is the focus of our adoration for mankind. Through him, we even see the father.
01:15:28: This is our Jesus. And he reconciles everything to God by the blood he shed.
01:15:34: Because he is fully God, it was done. I found this quote on the internet. I have no idea who to attribute it to, but I thought it was kind of good.
01:15:44: Ideally, God would not accept any sacrifice by any man since sin had already entered into the one and he was a pure.
01:15:52: How can a sinful man give this sacrifice that was needed?
01:15:57: One person who lived without sin was Jesus. So he was the only one capable of being offered as a sacrifice for our sins.
01:16:06: The kinetic theology makes Jesus less than a pure God. It doesn't make sense that that could be the adequate.
01:16:15: Now, at the end of this passage, Paul goes on to talk about therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.
01:16:25: So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under earth, every tongue confess to the glory of God.
01:16:35: His humble obedience is on display as coming to the end when Jesus restores him, not returns to him, but the prerogative of not utilizing them.
01:16:46: Do you see the obedience and the humility of Jesus to his father?
01:16:53: He's allowing his father to be the supreme, even though he is fully God, the extent of the humility that he has.
01:17:02: Every knee shall bow at the end and every tongue confess Jesus will be restored. This was all understood before the creation.
01:17:10: To God be the glory within the Trinity, there is equality and superiority. Jesus is the second person of God.
01:17:18: So how do we apply this? What difference does it make? And I've tried to say a couple of times,
01:17:24: I want you to know the God of the Bible. Now, it's not bad to know the
01:17:30: Bible of the God, but don't let that be your force. Know the words of Scripture, be ready, be equipped, but I want you to be driven when you study the
01:17:38: Scriptures to know the God of the Bible. See, Jesus provides a blueprint.
01:17:44: The moment of conception he retained his full deity, his willingness to empty himself patterns for us what it would be like to be humble and not demand our own.
01:17:57: MacArthur has two quotes. In the light of the profound reality of Jesus, full and uncompromised deity, his incarnation was the most profound possible humiliation.
01:18:10: And if he can take it to that step, we can follow after him and not claim
01:18:16: I'm good enough. We need to follow after him. The way of humility is not the way of the world.
01:18:23: We have an example that denies the teaching of the world. Even when the world introduces heresy, teaching that Jesus is less than fully
01:18:31: God, we know his sacrifice. We follow after it. Second quote, it is that attitude of selfless giving on one's self and one's possessions, power, and privilege that should characterize us who follow after Christ.
01:18:49: Have this mind in you that was in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Father, our
01:18:54: Lord and Savior came from heaven, took on the form of man, humbling himself to be human, a servant, even going to the cross.
01:19:04: We do not accept that he is less than God. We know, Lord, the fullness of his sacrifice, fully
01:19:11: God, fully obedient. I pray, Lord, that we would know him and that we would seek to be like him in Jesus' name.
01:19:19: Amen. I love you,
01:19:34: Lord. Oh, your mercy never fails me.
01:19:41: All my days I've been held in your hands.
01:19:48: From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head, oh,
01:19:56: I will sing of the goodness of God.
01:20:04: And all my life you have been faithful.
01:20:13: And all my life you have been so, so good.
01:20:20: With every breath that I am able, oh,
01:20:26: I will sing of the goodness of God.
01:20:33: I love your voice. You have led me through the fire.
01:20:42: In darkest night you are close like no other.
01:20:50: I know you as a father. I know you as a friend.
01:20:58: And I have lived in the goodness of God.
01:21:06: And all my life you have been faithful. And all my life you have been so, so good.
01:21:22: With every breath that I am able, oh, I will sing of the goodness of God.
01:21:36: Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.
01:21:44: Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.
01:21:51: With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now. I give you everything.
01:21:59: Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.
01:22:07: Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.
01:22:14: Your goodness is running after, it's running after me.
01:22:20: With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now. I give you everything
01:22:28: And your goodness is running after, it's running after me
01:22:36: Cause all my life you have been faithful And all my life you have been so, so good
01:22:51: With every breath that I am able We'll sing of the goodness of God We'll sing of the goodness of God And all my life you have been faithful And all my life you have been so, so good
01:23:28: With every breath that I am able I will sing of the goodness of God I will sing of the goodness of God Encouraging words at the end of Joshua, Joshua 24
01:24:00: Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt And serve the
01:24:09: Lord And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord Choose yourselves today whom you will serve
01:24:15: Whether the gods or the Amorites in whose land you are living But as for me and my house, we will serve the