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Testing #61.
Philippians chapter 2. Let's start with verse 14. And if I'm my brother, go ahead and read the whole chapter from verse four. That was verse five. Start with verse 5.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery of 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 fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that is, 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. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, 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 you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.
Holding 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. Yeah. And if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all, for the same cause also dejoy 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 you know the proof of Him, that as a Son of the Father, He has served with me in the Gospel. Him therefore I hope to sin 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.
Yeah, I suppose it's necessary to send to you, Aphrodite, my brother and companion in labor, and fellow soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that he had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick nigh him to death. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I sent him, therefore, the more carefully that when you see him again you may rejoice.
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And that I may be the less sorrowful, perceive him, therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in reputation because of the work of Christ. He was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.
He's been dwelling on the subject of the way of practical salvation for the assembly with regard to the work of the enemy from within and creating disunity. In the 1St 2 verses he's insisting on the necessity for practical unity, and then in verses three and four he shows that this can only be reached by having a lowly mind.
This raises a question as to how the lowly mind is possessed.
Are produced in a believer and he directs our attention to the Lord Jesus in verses 5 through 11 as the perfect example of what a lonely mind is. And so Christ is the example for us going down in umm to reach the lowly mind that is so necessary.
For practical unity.
The two enemies.
Of, uh, practical unity.
His strife and Vainglory, and he's mentioned that in verse 3.
Strife is dealt with in chapter 2, but Vainglory is more before you in chapter 3, making something of oneself and so on. And he deals with that in that third chapter. But these two enemies are greatly, uh, used the enemy of our souls to, to disrupt unity in a, in a local assembly. And, uh, it's necessary that these expectations will be given, directing our heart to the Lord Jesus.
In his humility.
Did we comment on verse 4?
Don't think there was too much said.
Look, not every man on his own things, or I think that could be translated qualities.
But every man also on the qualities of others.
So we're to look for what is of God that's been produced by God by the Spirit in our brethren and appreciate that rather than to be looking for and finding their faults or shortcomings and so on. Dwelling on what Christ has produced in the soul by the Spirit of God is surely a, a, an important thing for us to keep focused on. Those are moral qualities, right? Moral qualities, yes.
And that's really the thrust of chapter 4 and verse 8, isn't it?
We often refer to that as the whatsoever one of the whatsoever verses.
But if we read it with verse 9. Philippians 48. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, what sort of things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things, those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you. There the God of peace identifies himself with his people.
And really they are just as Paul Drex himself. Those are the qualities that they had seen and learned and received from him. So that's what we should, uh, feed on of our brother. And we know we often provide our brethren more of less than noble attributes that they might speak about. But the burden for us is that that's what we single out with our brethren. And it's, uh, a great challenge to our hearts, isn't it? Is, can I say a good word about everyone of my brother and sisters in Christ?
I might be able to say a negative or we're going to a good word.
And the result of that feeding on these things that are noble and honorable and praiseworthy things with a influx of, of, uh, joy and peace that would bring to an assembly rather than the other, that just is so destructive.
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The Spirit of God brings before us.
The example of the Lord Jesus and as He brings it before us.
There's no comparison.
He just occupies us with the Lord of glory going down and going down and going down. And if we have really him before us, his mind is going to be produced and we're not going to have low thoughts of self. Even there will be no thoughts of self be occupied with the Lord of glory going down so low. It's, it's, it's beyond us to, uh, take it all in. But if he is before us, it will produce in US likeness to him.
As we have in 2nd Corinthians 3 and 18, beholding the glory of the Lord will change the same glory from glory to glory.
Same image from glory to glory story.
He gives us the example of three men who walk this path, the Apostle Paul and Timothy and Epaphroditus. Paul was ready to give his life for the Saints.
So I think that, uh, the flesh is in a believer and it's no different than it is in the world. When you walk through the checkout counter at Safeway or some store, they have these magazines telling about the failures and the gossip and all the, the things that people of this world have gotten themselves into. People buy those things. Well, if we're occupied with the failures of the Saints, it's no different. It's a flesh in it. It's not spiritual to be occupied with.
All the failures of the Saints. Like the brother says, we ought to see what we can see of Christ in the Saints instead of their failures. What do you expect from the flash, whether a man be unsaved or whether he be a believer?
So men measuring themselves by themselves, they're not wise, Paul said to the Corinthians, or comparing themselves among themselves. And that's often what happens when we get our focus off Christ and our focus on our dear brethren. And thank God they are dear brethren. But when we get our focus on them, then we begin to compare ourselves with them. Then we begin to think, well, I'm a little more pious than they are. I'm a little better than they are. I have a little more gift than that person or whatever it might be.
And that is often what leads then to contention. That's the that's Vainglory that's going to lead to to strife. But when we have our focus on Christ, as someone has just said, then there's no comparing ourselves among among ourselves. And when our focus is on Christ, then we are going to see Christ in our brethren. As Bill said, there's lots of faults, David said, or the psalmist said, I've seen an end of all perfection.
If we're looking for perfection in the flesh, brethren, we're gonna be disappointed. You say, well, so and so let me down. But I'm sure that brother, I'm sure that sister, they'll never let me down. Oh, be careful. As soon as you start saying that they're gonna let you down, we're going to see an end of all perfection. But we won't see an end of all perfection if we're looking for it in Christ. When the bride enumerated the qualities and glories of her bridegroom in the Song of Solomon, she had to conclude by saying He's altogether lovely.
There's always going to be those things, and I believe the great work of the enemy is to get the Saints of God to be occupied with the idiosyncrasies and faults and shortcomings of the people of God. And if I can go just a little step further, the great work of the enemy, too has always been to get us to be occupied.
With the idiosyncrasies and shortcomings of those that God has raised up in a place of leadership and influence amongst his people. Whether it, as we had this morning in in local office, those overseers, bishops, overseers, local shepherds, whether it's those that labor administer on a wider sphere. It's so easy, isn't it, to get occupied with their shortcomings and failures, as I say, even maybe their idiosyncrasies or those little things about them that just rub us the wrong way.
But if the enemy can get us occupied with those things, brethren, then it's going to close our ears to their ministry and that which they present to us of the Lord Jesus. I'd like to say one more practical thing in that regard. And I, I can only point my, the finger at myself and speak to my own heart, but I would like to speak to fathers and mothers particularly for a moment. You remember in the Old Testament when the man of God after Elijah, I believe, was caught away.
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Elisha went up toward Bethel, and there were some children that came out of the city of Bethel. They were not the children of the heathen, they were the children of the people of God. And they came out and they cursed the man of God.
And I don't want to read more into that story than there's there. But I've often wondered in reading that story what those children heard that made them come out and cursed the man of God. Children repeat what they only what they hear. Impressions are formed in the home around the dinner table. And my mother, as I was growing up, often used to say, we don't wanna come home on Lord's Day and have roast brethren for dinner.
It still rings in my ears and brother, and we need to be careful to sanctify our brethren in the ears of our children and young people.
As long as we can a brother, I believe he's here and I hope I have the story right. But he said to me one time, he said, you know, growing up, I thought the gathered Saints were perfect because I never heard anything in my in the home from the my parents that made me think otherwise. In fact, it was quite a shock to him as he got a little older and began to hear things outside the home. Later on went to brothers meetings to find out it's not so. But I say we need to sanctify our brethren in the ears of our children and young people as long as possible.
And again, and I say it, I trust.
With all humility, I believe there have been many young people turned aside, many who are not going on at the Lord's table today because they heard too much criticism of their brethren. It may have been true in itself, but it formed impressions in their youth that caused them to think I'll of the people of God and has turned them aside from going, maybe not from following the Lord, but going on at the Lord's table. And I say we need to be careful. So men measuring themselves.
What I've enjoyed that I've read from another, it's not my own thought, but that looking on your own qualities is measuring yourself against Christ as you look at him. And then you're going to find all the failings, all the weaknesses, all the inconsistencies, all the things that aren't like Christ. But when we look at our brethren as Christ looked upon them the work that Christ has done in their lives and the value that Christ.
Puts on them then we're no longer looking at our own qualities are we were looking at their moral qualities that have been produced through Christ. I'd like to emphasize what's just been said I.
Because I think it's really the key to having a lonely mind and it the very challenging aspect of it is in verse three, is the word better?
Better equality is one thing. Uh, we may look at something within ourselves and recognize it as a work of God, something that God has given in moral virtue. This is already mentioned. Some of this is not so much gift, but moral qualities that are seen later in the epistle. And so there may be some self sense of that. And then one looks at someone else and sees something as well and a brother positive that's been.
Mentioned the importance of seeing the positive, but the human heart will accept it on the basis of equality. But it isn't gonna say better. It is not gonna say better. And so the subtleness, we may say, well, we're all sinful, we're all sinful creatures and it's the working of the flesh and so on. But then we we make it quality.
My brother's flesh is no better than my flesh. My flesh is flash, but it's it's at least there's no badder than your flash, if you will, in in that aspect of it and consequently.
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When the thought is with respect to the comparison to a fellow believer, we will not.
Look at them really as having more virtue than ourselves. And yet what has just been said is really the key to it. I'd like to refer to a verse that I think brings it out a little bit in John's first epistle.
Umm in first John chapter 3.
And verse two, it says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God? And it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when we he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure.
This is beholding the mind of Christ. What John is saying is I know that when I get to glory, I'm going to be in the presence of the perfect person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And for me to be in that glory, it's a necessity that I be like him. Anything less than moral conformity to himself has no place in the glory. And so I look at that and I say, that's what I'm going to be like. I'm going to be like.
Perfectly like God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But am I like him now?
Can I say I'm like him now? No, every man that hath his hope, that's what I look forward to being. Purify himself even as he is pure. There is therefore the necessity in the present walk of life to recognize myself in the presence of what he is.
And what it reveals to me that I am not in my present condition of soul that humbles, that brings the soul down the ladder, if you will, of self esteem to that recognition that when I look at my brother or my sister in Christ, I can look up and see the virtue and the characters that are in them. I'm not aware.
As I should be of myself in the presence of the Lord, that which may be deficient in them.
But I can in the presence of the Lord, and it's not something that happens instantly or overnight. It's a lifelong path and in the of humbling and at which is brought about by being more and more in the presence of God and in the purity of light, because it manifests that which is not in US and it humbles the soul.
Job said I've heard of the by the hearing of the year, but now mine eyes see if he's a believer, he's talking and he says I abhor myself and repent and dust and ashes when he actually gets into the presence of God. The apostle Paul multiple times in his life refers to himself, but tracing his recognize differences of age and time in his life, we see practical references of the apostle to himself become increasingly humbling.
In their expression, because during his life he was going through the process that he's telling the Saints was necessary here, that would reach that point where his going down.
Practically, and the experience of what he was before God was that which made him look up and see his brethren in a different light. And just not to take more time on it, but in Mark's Gospel Chapter 9, which Jim referred to this morning.
Where the disciples wanted to know which of them was the greatest and they were arguing over which of them had the most. And Jim referred to some aspects of that chapter that are were to humble the disciples. The last one in the end of the chapter is.
Every sacrifice is sacrificed with salt. Have salt in yourselves, and brethren, it is the conscious.
Sense of the necessity and blessing of the working of the Spirit of God in us. That brings us to that point of humility. As the apostle Paul said, by the grace of God, I am what I am and he was and he immediately connects it with I'm the least of all the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle. The working of grace in the soul in the sense of I'm nothing but God has done this to me has that humbling effect upon us.
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That produces the results that we want to see carried out practically in this chapter. And so we're focused on the Lord Jesus Christ and we see them. But in seeing Him, we see the infinitely greater humility than anything that is realized in any soul that's in this room at this point.
He was a chief. He was a chief of sinners.
And then it was the least of all things, wasn't he?
Yes, and he keeps going down in that progression. He refers to himself different ways, and each one of them is a little more humbling statement about himself. So he had to learn it too. He could preach it. He could tell the apostle the Saints in Philippi. But like the rest of us, the apostle Paul in a practical sense of the word, over a period of years really was learning the same lesson that we have to learn.
So John the Baptist said he must increase and I must decrease. And that's really the process, isn't it? Because the more he increases in our soul, the more value we have of the person of Christ and the more we're in his company, then we there's going to be an unconscious humbling of ourselves. I guess I say that because there are certain things that we ought not to as Christians pray for. And one is we ought not to pray and ask the Lord to humble us.
If I pray and ask the Lord to humble me, I don't know my own heart, and the Lord may lay his hand very heavily upon me. And there are three times in the New Testament that I can think of where we're told to humble ourselves. In Matthew 18, the Lord Jesus told his own to humble themselves as a little child. In the book of James, we're told to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. And Peter we're told to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.
It's always to humble ourselves, and I say that because I have heard of those who've prayed and asked the Lord to humble them, and they have experienced some very difficult things. Job didn't know his own heart. The Lord did have to lay his hand upon Job, and the Lord brought Job down. But if we can learn our own hearts in the presence of the Lord and have an increased sense and value of who He is, that is going to humble our humble us.
Shall I say without even trying really. And so when John got into the presence of the Lord, he said he must increase. That was first, and I must decrease. We will decrease in the measure in which he increases in our souls. And that's what we have in verses 5 through 11, isn't it? That's the mana. It's the gospel of the grace of God, that the Lord Jesus came down from heaven, came to us right where we were, just like the Good Samaritan.
And, uh, picked us up and the more we're occupied with him, the natural reflex of the new nature is we become more like him, not something we have to consciously work at, but it's the natural re reflex. Our brother Hail used to say, I, I understand that, uh, we can have as much of Christ as we want in our lives, show how much we want. That's the natural reflex of what we've been feeding on, isn't it?
Remember, uh, I'm sure many have heard this before, but it struck me, and I'm sure it bears repeating, that is her brother Eric Smith used to tell the story about two brothers that weren't getting along together in South America. I guess it's easier to talk about them than it is about ourselves up here. But any rate, they weren't getting along together in a certain assembly. And he went to that. He was visiting that assembly and one of the brothers said, I just can't stand the sight of that brother. Well, that's a sad thing for a Christian to admit it out loud, isn't it?
We should judge all such bitter feelings, but.
Brother Smith gave a very wise answer, as I'm sure many of us have heard. But he said you go and you look at that brother through the Lord's eyes.
And he did, He visited that brother some time later and he asked him if he had done that, and he said he had, and that he admitted that that was a beautiful brother. Well, that's the secret, isn't it? Is we're occupied with Christ, the manna from heaven, the natural reflexes that we become more like him because our new nature rises up to its source, and that source is God himself.
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So if we can't, if we find it hard to see Christ in our brethren, we can at least see our brethren in Christ. And that makes a difference, doesn't it?
You know, going on here in verse five, it says, uh, let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. And I understand that Ange could be amongst and the word you is, uh, often used, if not exclusively for attractive side of things in the King James translation. So he's really saying that this is something that would be worked out in a collective sense among these things. Let this mind be among you.
And you'll get more of that in verses 12 and 13 when he speaks about working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. He's talking about a collective salvation of the assembly from the workings of the enemy from within him to create disunity. And the way of salvation is he's going to show us here now is in emulating the mind of Christ or the attitude of Christ. Some translations put the word attitude. And we need to have that spirit, that attitude, that mind that the Lord Jesus had.
And it's often been said there are some seven steps you can count that he stepped down and his condensation, his condescension and his, umm, self abnegation. It's so beautiful as God, he emptied himself as man. He humbled himself all the way down to the death of the cross. That's the pattern for us. And after giving us the pattern.
He then says, Now, brethren, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I've given you the pattern. This is how it should be done. Each of you have this mind, and it will result in a collective saving of the assembly in this very practical way.
It was in the form of God at his starting point is.
Absolutely, infinitely above ours if we want to go down. So it's absolute humility. We can never.
Measured or come to that.
She came down from the glory.
Can't we go down a bit?
Just thinking, Bruce, there's a little track again that illustrates what we've been, what we've been speaking about, and that is that there was AI believe, I believe the setting was the Louvre and, and, uh, Paris, France, where some of the greatest artworks in the world are exhibited.
And, uh, a visitor came in there once and he, he was extremely vocal in his criticism of the artwork.
And finally one of the curators came up to him and said, Sir, it's not the artwork here that's, uh, being, uh, tested. It's the visitors. And so as far as this chapter goes, it's the same thing, isn't it? If I'm acting, if I'm not acting like Christ, I'm telling on myself, aren't I? I'm showing what I've been feeding on. And it's not Christ. I'm feeding on Christ. These are the characteristics that will be exhibited.
If I'm not, I'm telling on myself. I'm telling what I've been cheating on.
Like to look at the first one that's brought out here in verse six, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God or to read the new translation.
Subsisting in the form of God did not esteem at an object of repine to be on an equality with God.
Satan wanted something above himself.
And he grasped for it.
This starts here with the that which is humbling is almost the very first aspect of it is not to grasp for something above us.
Adam and Eve in the garden, their fall came through the same Ave. that Satan, he put before them something and he said if you get this you'll be like God.
Having the knowledge of good and evil and God doesn't want that of you. And sometimes what we don't go down is because we start out with the desire to go up.
We have something within ourselves that we want. A man wants honor, a man wants power, a man wants fame. He wants something that is not given to him of God that he desires, and so he will grasp after it. The Lord Jesus couldn't go up in the sense that He was supreme as in His being.
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There was nothing to grasp after, if you will, for him. But it's brought out to us in a way that we might recognize our own tendency in it and be led by the Spirit of God not to grasp after something, but rather be willing to go the opposite direction and to give up something that we already have. And so.
The humble person is one who doesn't take offense because they don't have something of reputation that they see within themselves to hold on to.
But they are willing to give it up. And the Lord Jesus in the first step was that step in which he was in a position, but he was willing to go down from it, to leave it, to humble himself. And of course, I hope it goes without saying that in doing so, and then we see what the Lord Jesus did, It's presented to us in such a way that we would never dishonor him and our thoughts or our hearts.
By thinking that He ever gave up anything which was essential to His deity, He is and was and always will be the eternal Son of God. But Christ Jesus, the one that's presented to us here is the one that we know is the man Christ Jesus. And so He did give up those things in becoming a man that would show us and was true of Him as a man, the most humble man that ever walked the face of the earth.
Lord Jesus never said to somebody else.
You are a Sinner and I am not.
And uh.
When they asked that man in John 9.
About the Lord Jesus, they said. We know that this man is a Sinner.
He would say.
If he is a Sinner, I know not, but I know that he has.
Made me see.
And that's the point with.
And and that he did not make himself corroborate to be equal, equal with God.
Been one of his.
Disciples asked him.
About.
Seeing the Father or seeing God, he would not say when you look at me, you see, he said if you look at me, you'll see the Father. The qualities of the Father were in the Lord Jesus, and that's the important point.
When somebody looked at him, he saw the quality of God the Father, and nobody could ever say and sing bad of God, because God always proved himself to be a God of love and a God of compassion.
So how would anybody ever dare? Of course.
A real hard man would do that. Anything bad of God?
Be the Lord Jesus didn't make himself greater.
As men could see him.
Verse seven it says.
News, translation. He emptied himself.
He emptied himself.
From all eternity there were glories associated with his person because of who he was.
In John's Gospel, where we have him as the Son of God presented to us when it was a question of returning to the Father, he says, Glorify thou me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
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He dwelt in light which was unapproachable because of the brightness of the glory, as First Timothy 6 springs before us. And so now it's a question of His coming a man and dwelling among men. And really the only proper way that he could take the place that was given to him, fulfill the work which he was to do, was to empty himself.
Of those official and proper glories, not the glory of His person. He couldn't do that. He couldn't become less than he was. He should not, He did not. He would not become less than He was. He remained who He was. But in taking manhood and unity with His deity, He comes into the world having emptied Himself of those things which were rightfully His, connected with His personal glories.
That such that when he came into the world, he didn't come into the world immediately as supreme overall creation among men as King of kings and Lord of Lords, if you will, in in that way, but he comes as the babe born into the Manger. He comes in that way which expresses the results of him what he had done in order to.
Take his place among us. He emptied himself. And brethren, we might not understand it very well, but.
May I, may it touch our hearts.
May it recognize the tremendous willingness of himself to become a humble man among men that he would so act and so he's presented to us, that we too might be willing to put aside anything that associates with ourselves in some way of honor. We can't do it as he did it.
Because we're little creatures, but there is at least the moral intent in us, with us as we read it of himself as an example, that there would be that willingness to voluntarily put aside anything that makes something of self and that would bring to the place of servanthood. He emptied himself and became a servant.
Quite a contrast with the verses that tell us about Him who fills All in all.
And in Him our fullness was pleased to dwell, and in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
So there, there's a difference than obviously a different. Maybe someone could explain it a little more between emptied himself has been taken up and humbled himself.
But it it doesn't seem, or maybe I'm wrong, but I ask that there's a question, it doesn't seem to ever be right to say he humbled himself as God, but humbled himself as a man, as God. He emptied himself. And it's two very different thoughts.
Very important difference.
As as God, God doesn't humble himself. It's not appropriate to his being for God to humble himself. Uh, He is supreme and it is a necessity with God that he remain in that place of supremacy with respect to everything in relationship to himself. So God doesn't humble himself.
As God. And so if the Lord Jesus was going to come among men, it begins with the voluntary act of emptying himself to take the place among men. But having taken that place among men, then man's place in humility is very appropriate to man in relationship to God, and so he perfectly having become a man.
Takes the humble place, not only the humble place, but far more difficult, the humble spirit. We sometimes are willing to take a humble place without a humble spirit. Uh, it's the subtlety of the human heart. But uh, as has been said, you can be proud of your own humility. Uh, and it's not true humility. Is also has already been commented as Mr. Darby made the comment.
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True humility is not thinking so much. Little thoughts of self is not thinking of self at all.
And uh, that's the only way that practically there is true humility is being delivered from self occupation, even in thought of humility. Uh, but with the Lord Jesus, he was truly humble and positioned servant's position, but he was also humble of spirit.
So, so do we get in verses 6 and seven that he emptied himself, and in verse eight he humbled himself.
Is that right, Bruce? OK, I see him shaking his head. So, just so we have, we're talking about it, but just so we have verses that make distinctions about these things that can be seen from Scripture. Bruce mentioned it earlier, but this is where it's brought out, right? It's the Insignia of His glory that was laid aside. He didn't lay aside his deity, for crying out loud. That would be terrible to say, but he laid aside the Insignia of His glory, His right to act as is God.
In the Godhead he.
The Army, I don't know if it's four or five star, but whatever the case is there he is and all of his uh, position and rank and he's got this uniform with all the stars on it.
Show that, and at the end of the day he can come home and he can take off that uniform, lay it across the chair he may have laid across. He may have taken off the Insignia of his position as a general, but he sees it does not cease to be a general. So he laid off his uniform, but he still was a general. And so when the Lord Jesus came into this world, he laid aside the Insignia of His glory in the Godhead.
But he still is, is every bit, uh, deity in his person than he ever was. And I think that's important for us to understand that he didn't, uh, cease to be what he always was by what he became as a man. Do do you get that in the, in the word where it says here was made? That's not right, is it? No. So, so he became what he wasn't before. Doesn't mean he set aside what he was indeed.
He became a man, was made, should be translated, taking a place.
So we didn't have a Halo around his head like you see in these pictures.
I want to be a part of his outward glory and some wrong concept.
How do we reconcile the verse like Matthew 11 and 28 where the Lord says.
I am meek and lowly in heart. Is not the heart of God full of meekness and loneliness? Not because He has to, but because that's what He is.
He laid apart the form of God. That's what the brother is saying, the uniform and.
But not his deity. That never changed his nature, just his state.
Yes, and is the perfect man. He was meek and lowly in heart, wasn't he? And we have to be careful here, don't we? Because this is a mystery. There's a mystery about his person that no one knows but God himself. So it's holy ground, isn't it?
I think it's, I think it helps a little. It's often been mentioned, I think, but it's, it's well to mention it again. And that's that, uh, Mr. Belladonna's little book on the moral glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, uh, brings out three glories. Others have perhaps mentioned others, but I think that it's helpful to see those 3 glories and how they were manifest in the Lord Jesus himself. On the one hand, the Lord Jesus as he brings out there, this is in the little book, the moral glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He brings out that the Lord Jesus had an official glory as God is the whole universe and that was veiled in this world. As Bruce said, he laid aside the Insignia of it. Only on occasion was was it brought out. Perhaps the most significant occasion was on the amount of transfiguration where he was clearly seen for who he was officially, but he veiled that glory in the as he walked through this world as a rule.
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A second glory that's brought out is his personal glory, the fact that he was God the Son. He looked like a man and he was a man, but he was also God the Son. And that was discovered to faith, wasn't it? Those that walked in this world, they discovered, like Peter, He discovered that this was the Son of God. But then there was his moral glory.
And that's the simple fact, and what we're really reading about here to a certain extent is moral characteristics. But his moral glory was the simple fact that he could not be less than perfect in everything he did that could not be hit. And that's the theme of that little book that's so highly recommended. I understand that.
Mr. Chapter Brown used to say that that was, in his opinion, that was the closest thing to inspiration he'd ever read outside of inspiration itself. And I encouraged everyone to be very familiar with the little book, The Moral Glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ. But three types of glory is official glory, which was veiled as a rule, His personal glory, which was discovered only to faith, and then his moral glory, which could not be hit. He could not be less than perfect in everything he did.
So don't we get those free glories in verses between verses 6 and 11? You get His essential glory in.
Verse six You get this moral glory in verses 6 and eight, and you get his official glory in verses 9 through 11.
Right. Good. Yeah, good.
So we hear the verses read in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 7 through 9. I was wondering if somebody could read that here on speaker and then tie in how that fits our shadow.
Was that Hebrews 27 and 9:10?
Yeah, I made it seem a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hands. That was put all things in subjection under his feet. From that he put all in subjection under Him. He left nothing that is not put under Him. And now we see not all He had, all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.
And so we find, don't we, that great one of the great reasons he became a man, the primary reason perhaps is so that he could go to Calvary's cross and lay down his life. He didn't take the nature of angels, he took the nature of man. And that's made very clear in the book of Hebrews connection with the context of the verses that Ted has suggested. And he took upon him a body that was capable of death, not subject to death, but capable of death.
And so, as it says in our chapter, He became obedient unto death. Obedience is connected with His manhood. And He was not only obedient in His pathway, his perfect life, but He became obedient unto death. And not just death, but the death of the cross. He bore the curse, cursed. It is every man that hangeth upon a tree. And so the fall of man brought in a curse. And it was necessary that the Lord Jesus then should taste death for everything, every man or everything is.
Translates that verse that was read in in Hebrews. And so it's important to realize that as the Lord Jesus said in John 10 concerning his life, he said no man taketh it from me. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. That's what he's saying here. He became obedient unto death. The Lord Jesus was sent of the Father. The Father sent the Son.
And why did he send the Son? John tells us he sends the Son to be the Savior of the world, but the wages of sin is death. And so the Lord Jesus had to go into death. He had to taste death. It says prophetically of him. He, he was brought into the dust of death. Not that his body saw corruption, but he was brought into the dust of death. We, we hesitate to say something like that if it wasn't the language of Scripture, but it was necessary. And so he didn't just become obedient unto death.
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But even the death of the cross. So what's the result now, brethren? Oh, there's a great result, isn't it, Mr. Barry? Norman Berry, when we were young people, he used to illustrate these, these steps down and then the glory on the other side as not so much AV but a check mark. Because on one side you have these steps down, but on the other side the line is even higher, isn't it? It's not just that He's back to the Father where he, he came.
It's true the Lord Jesus said to the disciples that he had come from God and he must return to God, but it was more than that. Now he is highly exalted and God as his Amen to the work of the Lord Jesus here in this world. He has raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand and given him a name which is above every name and what the Lord Jesus has obtained now because of his obedience.
Is far more I can, I want to be careful, but it's far more than he had in the beginning. And we can distinguish, and it has been distinguished between intrinsic glory and acquired glory. The Lord Jesus as God had certain intrinsic glories, but he also acquired glories too. And so as you say, brother, it was a check mark really, wasn't it? He has gained much more glory, uh, than had he never become a man.
This is really the joy that He had in going to the cross. You know, we often quote the verse, the well known verse in Hebrews chapter 12, and we misapply it a little bit. It says there who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and it sat down at the right hand of God. And we often think of that in connection with His joy as to His people getting a bride and so on.
But I don't believe that's we we lose something if we only limit it to that. No doubt there was a joy as he thought of the results and he's gonna see of the travail of his soul and he's gonna joy over us with singing in a coming day. But that is a very limited thought. And I would suggest that the joy there in Hebrews chapter 12 was the joy that he had before him of returning to the Father.
Knowing that He had accomplished to the glory and satisfaction of God the Father, everything that had been given Him to do in this world, He had. He said, I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work that Thou gavest me to do. And can you just imagine what we can't, but just try to imagine the joy of returning to the Father, knowing that nothing was left undone?
Of the work that his father had given him.
And to return and sit down and bath in the joy and love of the Father because of that complete obedience. What a feeling must have passed between the Father and the Son, as the Father receives him back there and the Son sits down in all the joy of having accomplished that work. Hebrew servant said, I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free. The master was first, wasn't it?
Is that is this not though not exactly atonement here, but isn't it something that we can follow him in? So the Lord's death had different aspects. One was atonement, but here it said, let this mind be in you. So this is something as an example for us. We can follow him. This is really his martyr death, isn't it, that he he would go down and down and he would even go to the cross.
And even, I mean, even in the death and even the death of the cross, he wasn't in some backroom where somebody injected him with, uh, with something that was put into sleep. It was, it was a ignominious death. He'd do that. He'd go down, down, down. And so it's more of, isn't it more of a martyr's death here? Well, the Lord, the Lord distinguished that with the disciples too, in connection with their future, because Peter wanted to follow the Lord into death. But as far as the atoning suffering.
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Peter could never follow him. There was a cup that he was given to drink by the Father that only he could drink. But he did tell the disciples too, there was a cup that they were going to drink of. They were going to follow him, I suppose all but the Apostle John, they were going to follow him and drink of a cup that he had drank. But that was the physical suffering in connection with death, the martyred death of the Lord, as you, as you put it. And so I think it's good that we just, we distinguish that.
We will never follow the Lord.
In the in connection with his atoning death. And we cannot lay down our lives in the way that the Lord did. Only the Lord Jesus, he's the only man that could lay down his own life. A person may take their own life, a person may take another's life, but only the Lord Jesus could lay down his life. Those disciples that followed him in death on the host of martyrs that have followed since.
Their lives were taken in one way or another.
By those who had no have no use for the Lord Jesus or his followers. Well, here it says in verse five, Let this mind be in you, and then it trails a life of an obedient man that glorified God in every way. And then in verse nine it says, Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him. And so it's in view of his moral life, isn't it?
And so there.
Is that aspect in which we're called to follow the Lord to go down like he did, take that low place and humble life that would not only give God the glory, but but God would identify, he would recognize the work that we have done in obedient life and raise this up to glory in connection with him. So this is this isn't atoning at all, is it?
No, it really isn't always. I'd like to just build on what you say, Brother Vern, because it's very beautiful to look at and consider the cross and the different places that's brought before us in the Epistles. It doesn't always have the same bearing in force. For instance, when Paul brings the cross before the Corinthians, he says, I determined not to know anything among you say Jesus Christ and him crucified. What does that mean? That doesn't mean all that Paul preached with the gospel, but in reference to that intellectual assembly, he brought in the truth of the cross.
And they who made so much to the mind of man, he applied the cross to that, and said it was the mind of man. It was the wisdom of man that took the Lord Jesus to the cross. So it brings the truth of the cross in to set aside man in the flesh, and set aside man in his wisdom. The Galatians were glory and circumcision in all these religious rites, and so on. And the apostle can say to them, God forbid that I should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was that which would deliver them from religious flesh and pride in a religious way.
Hebrews has been mentioned there where we read about the Lord Jesus, he who umm, endured the cross is that last and full measure of devotion and doing the Father's will. But as you brought out here, Bell just mentioned another one, Colossians, God has made peace by the blood of his cross, that is Godhead. The Godhead has made peace to the blood of Christ cross, the basis for blessing, eternal blessing, universal blessing. But here it's not that, but it's the end of this lowly path of condescension and grace that ends and not just death.
But the death of the cross, and this just as we consider something of the Lord Jesus those last 24 hours of his life, to consider that one that was first hauled before the the religious leaders must sit upon later. He was before the soldiers and they spit upon him. We look at the descent to which he went and that lowly path of service, and it ended in the death of the cross, a criminal's cross. That's how it ended for him.
Not a death of dignity, not going out in a blaze of glory, but in lowliness of shame. And so as we see that pathway that led him all the way even to the death of the cross, to see what he endured, not to put our sins away, but as an example for us to follow. Well, we can just appreciate it. Just to just to mention to, to think of ever being spit upon, Joel could say.
Of his enemies, how they, they nurse not to, uh, to spit in his face. And yet the Lord Jesus endured that not once, but twice.
As well as the many other sufferings that he endured and then ultimately being hung between two thieves. Well, as we consider that and what he went through my how it should gird us and we realized just how far, how far short we fall and having that mind in US in a very practical and real way.
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Home. Patience, Father.
Maybe we could read together. Exodus 21 has been referred to. Now. These are the judgments which thou shalt set before them if thou buy in Hebrew servants. Six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
If his master have given him a wife, and she had borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself.
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges, and he shall also bring him to the door or onto the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through within all, and he shall serve him forever.
N.