Thank you, Brother David, for your reading and for the prayer. I just, I have to say this. I didn't know your family was going to be here. It was the providence of God that your grandfather and your father was reading today. And I pray that you'll listen to the words that he said. It's certainly the gospel, isn't it? Thank God for it. I'm thankful to have everybody here this morning. Today, I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the grace of humility and selflessness, which is inspired by the Lord Jesus Christ himself as he has presented and preached out in the gospel, because that's what this message is about. The title is Let Christ's Mind Be in Us. Let Christ's mind, the mind of Christ, you think about that, That's an awesome thing to think about. But what happens here in Philippians chapter two is the Apostle Paul, as he's inspired by the Holy Spirit to write these words to the church at Philippi, he continues the theme of unity in the faith that brings us together in the cause of Christ, showing that we're here for the glory of God in Christ, we're not here to meet our, as people say, quote, felt needs, unquote. But we're here to glorify God. That's what worship is. It's glorifying God. We're here to brag on Christ, not to brag on ourselves. And that's what he's ultimately showing forth, as the Philippian believers already know. In verse one, he shows the ultimate motives to pursue and cultivate unity among brethren. He says in verse two, he talks about the characteristics of that unity. In verses three and four, he shows us how to attain that unity. And then in verses five and 11, he gives us the perfect example of humility and service exhibited by Christ himself in our common salvation. Look at verse one, he says, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies. That if there is not a conditional if, it's an evidential if. In fact, some translations translate it this way, and I think a better translation, since there is consolation in Christ. And of course, that's speaking to believers. Those who are sinners saved by grace, who know the Lord, who believe the gospel, and that consolation that he's talking about is the assurance of grace. It's the consolation, the comfort. To be consoled is to be comforted. And to be comforted, in the word of God, is to have the assurance of salvation, which assurance is not based upon our performances. You see, any assurance that you have, of your own salvation that's based upon your performance or your works, let's say. You know what the Bible calls that? Self-righteousness. If one were to ask you, are you saved? And you say, yes. Well, why do you believe you're saved? Well, back when I was 12 years old, I got baptized. Or back when I did this or did that or did the other. That's a bad consolation. That's an unscriptural consolation. Why do I believe I'm saved? Why do I have any assurance of salvation? Look at it. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ. My consolation is that Christ came to this world obeyed the law perfectly, suffered on the cross for my sins charged to him, drank my damnation, the damnation that I deserve dry by his death on that cross, was buried and arose again the third day and is now seated in the right hand of the Father ever living to make intercession for me. That's my consolation. Christ is risen. And we celebrate that every day, every Sunday. That's the gospels Brother David said in his prayer. Why did he arise again from the dead? Because he settled the issue, he settled the account, he paid the price of the salvation of his people who are all that the Father had given him before the foundation of the world, whose names were written on the Lamb's book of life before the world began. Their sins were charged to his account. It's like an accounting. Sin runs up a debt. And by nature, we owe a debt to God's law and justice that we cannot pay. We don't even have the first penny. But Christ, before the foundation of the world, became surety for the people of God. And all of their sins were laid to his charge. And that's why he had to be made flesh to dwell among us. He's the son of God eternally. but he was made flesh, a human body created for him in the womb of the virgin, and he united himself in his deity with that perfect humanity. He's God and man in one person. That's our consolation. Since there's consolation in Christ, who he is, God manifest in the flesh, not a lesser God, but true and living God, equal with the Father and the Spirit in every attribute of deity. He is, this is what salvation, his name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Our consolation lies in who he is. And then our consolation lies in what he has accomplished on the cross. He didn't come to try to save people. He came to save his people from their sins and he accomplished it. All of the conditions of our salvation were laid upon him. That's what the Bible means when it says the government was on his shoulders. That's the government of grace, the government of the kingdom of God. It was squarely placed upon his shoulders, not yours, not mine. If it was placed on my shoulders, it'd be a failure. I know that because I know myself. If it was placed upon your shoulders, it'd be a failure too. Don't take that as an insult. That's just the truth. I know something about all of us. We're all sinners. And there's only two kinds of people in this world. You're either lost in your sins or you're a sinner saved by grace. And the Bible says grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Our consolation is in him who fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf. As David prayed, I don't have any righteousness to brag about to you this morning. As I go through life, I tell you this, I tell our congregation this all the time. We should try to be the best people we could ever be in every way, in everything that God has given us, every role that we play, we should try to be the best we can be. And I could say, well, I'm trying to be the best I can be. You know, not always I don't try to be the best I can be. I don't do that always. Sometimes I just give up on myself. But even on those moments when I do the best I can do, I still don't do enough to make myself righteous in God's sight. That's why Christ, one of His names in the Old Testament and in the New, is the Lord our righteousness. And that's what the Gospel tells us. We're such sinful people, we cannot save ourselves. We cannot make ourselves right with God. Salvation is based upon a perfect righteousness that can only be found in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And so the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ becomes much more than just historical fact. They are historical facts. He did die. He did live. He did die. He was buried. He did raise from the dead. But it's more than just history. It's salvation to God's people. It's the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Christ. You can't do anything to get God to forgive you. Christ did it all. Look unto him, the author and finisher of our faith. So if there's any consolation in Christ, now that's to believers, since there is consolation in Christ, he says if any comfort of love, the love of God to us, First John 4.10 says, herein is the love of God. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Do you know what that word propitiation means? It means a sin-bearing sacrifice who brought satisfaction. You hear that? A sin-bearing sacrifice. Who's that? That's Christ. who brought satisfaction. Satisfaction to what? To God's justice for his people. He laid down his life for his sheep. That God might be just and justify the ungodly. And that's the love that the Spirit sheds abroad within the hearts of God's people that brings us together in that Christian fellowship and unity. He says, if any fellowship of the Spirit. What is the fellowship of the Spirit? It's not how you feel. It's not jumping up and down to religious music. It's not rolling in the aisles. It's not getting baptized. You know what the fellowship of the Spirit is? It's one big word, truth. Truth. How do you know if the Spirit is present in a service? I'll tell you how you know. Is the guy up here preaching, is he telling you the truth? Now he can make you feel good. He can make you laugh. He can even be able to make you jump up and down, whatever. They can do a lot of things. But if he's not telling you the truth, it's not the fellowship of the Spirit. The Spirit is sent forth from Christ to give life to the dead. Through the preaching of the gospel, the Bible says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believeth, and who believes? Those who have the gift of faith. Do you know faith is a gift from God? You don't have it naturally. I read that in 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man, that's as we are naturally born in sin. He receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, That's why Christ told Nicodemus, you must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. The spirit comes and he convicts us, he convinces us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment through the preaching of the gospel to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first, the Greek also. In other words, there's no economic, there's no ethnic barriers here. And he says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. What is the righteousness of God? That's the merits of the obedience unto death of Christ. What he accomplished in his obedience unto death for the salvation of his people, and he says, from faith, that's knowledge revealed by God in his word, by the Spirit, to faith, that's knowledge received, for it's written the just shall live by faith, the justified. Am I justified? Are you justified? You know what it is to be justified? It means that all my sins are forgiven. Even the ones I haven't committed yet. On what ground, on what basis are they forgiven? Well, I'm gonna try to do the best I can. No, no, the basis and ground of forgiveness is the blood of Jesus Christ alone. Don't add anything to it. What is it to be justified? It's to be counted righteous in the sight of God. Now think about that. God knows your every thought. He just heard you say, preacher, would you hurry up and get done? He just heard you say that, if you did. And I'm not a long-winded preacher, the folks here will tell you that. God knows our every thoughts. He knows our motives. So then, given that, how can I stand before God and be counted righteous? Without sin, there's only one way. And that's through Christ's righteousness imputed to me, charged to me, accounted to me. That's what substitution is. Christ is the substitute. Christ is the surety. All my sins were laid upon Him. Christ is the substitute. He took my place under the law. Isn't that what the scripture says? God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. He took my place on the cross and He redeemed me from my sins. He paid the full price. of the justice of God to secure the salvation of His people. How do you know who they are? God brings them to believe in Him, rest in Him. Do you believe in Him? Not as you think Him to be, but as He's revealed and identified and distinguished in the Word, in the Bible. That's the fellowship of the Spirit. He says, if any bowels and mercies, the bowels, that represents compassion. That's a word in the New Testament they'd use for compassion. Because there is feeling involved there. If God has been merciful to me, if he's been compassionate to me, how do I know he has been? Well, it means I'm healthy and wealthy and rich and wise, no. How do I know God has been merciful to me and compassionate to me? because I rest solely in the glorious person and finished work of Christ. If that's your state, God's been merciful. He's been compassionate to you. Now, let us be merciful and compassionate to one another. And so Paul says in verse two, fulfill ye my joy that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Be together in these things. And then he says something that just hits you in the head like a sledgehammer. Verse three. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. Arguing, self-serving, but in lowliness of mind. That's humility. Let each esteem other better than themselves. And what that means is that we're to be more concerned with the things of others than the things of self. And you know, I was thinking about this when I was reading this, studying for this message. It's something I've known for years, but it kind of just hit me in the head like a sledgehammer. When you read passages like that, you know the key to understanding them the way the Spirit intends them? Don't read them like a microscope or like a telescope, looking outside of yourself to other people. I mean, you read a verse like that, you might have somebody in mind, you say, well, they sure don't do that. Read it like a mirror. Let this mind be in you, he says in verse five. Be in you, be in me. This is written to me. I hope it's written to you, but from my viewpoint, it's just me. And if I read this verse thinking about how everybody else treats me and I don't feel like I'm being treated right, you've missed it. You've missed the Spirit's intent here. Have I caused strife and served myself? And I'm convicted over that, aren't you? Lowliness of mind, that's a grace, that's a gift, humility. Verse four, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. That's a tough one. Should we all strive in those areas? Yes, we should. But what does that show us mainly? It shows us that we are sinners in need of salvation by God's grace. And then he pulls a good one on us. He gives us the supreme example of all of that. And where is it? Is it the Reverend Dr. So-and-so? Or is it in Mom and Dad? Well, Mom and Dad, I hope you are good examples to your children. I hope you are. I hope I've been a good example to much of you. But here's the supreme example. Here's the supreme go. Jesus Christ, look at it, verse five, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Now what do you mean let this mind be in you? It means think like this. Here's how we as believers are to think. That's what he said. The same way that Jesus Christ thought. And you might say, well how in the world can we think like Christ? How do we even know how he thought? Well we read over there in 1 Corinthians, you remember it says we have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2. How in the world can I say I have the mind of Christ? Because I know my mind. You know your mind. There's still evil thoughts in my mind. We're in a struggle. If you're a believer, your state on earth here is a struggle. You're in a struggle with yourself, your thoughts. It's hard for, now let me say this. It's hard for you to keep your mind on what I'm preaching to you. Now, you say, well, I don't want to feel bad about myself. Listen, that's just reality. Sometimes it's hard for me to keep my mind on what I'm saying. That's because we're just such pitiful, sinful human beings. Somebody said, well, I didn't come to church to get this. I want to feel good about myself. I don't want you to leave here feeling good about yourself. I want you to leave here feeling good about Christ. That's what I want, if there's any consolation in Christ. But we have the mind of Christ. Well, how do we have the mind of Christ? Well, number one, we have the spirit of Christ. We have the Holy Spirit who indwells us. Number two, we have the word of Christ written on our hearts by the spirit and revealed in his word. This is how Christ thought. That's how we know what he thought. He tells us. in his word. And then we have within us the life of Christ. If we've been born again, we have spiritual life within us. And here's what he's saying here. When it comes to Christ thinking about his people, he had absolutely no thoughts that derived from thinking about what we have done to him. And what did we do to him? Well, we crucified him. He said, well, no, wait a minute, I wasn't there. You were there in spirit. That's fallen humanity. We disobeyed him. We didn't do him right. That's what sin is. But in his working, And in his dealing with his people, he had absolutely no thoughts of revenge. You ever have any thoughts of revenge? I want that person off. You know, that's usually my first thought when somebody does something to me that I don't like. I say, oh, get that guy. He had no thoughts of revenge. And that's awful now. Now let me tell you, I'm not justifying that. Vengeance belongs to God, the scripture says. In fact, when he was on the cross, remember one of the seven sayings, Father forgive them, they know not what they do. He had no thoughts, listen, when it comes to his dealing with his people, his sheep, those who are brought by God to believe in him, he had no thoughts of giving them what we deserve. Because all we deserve in God's mind is death. The wages of sin is death. That's why salvation is by grace. That's a free gift. That means you don't earn it and you don't deserve it. And let me tell you something. That certainly involves salvation. But that also includes the next breath you draw. Did you know that? The next breath you draw is a gift from God. Did you know that? Unbelievers don't recognize that. They just think, well, hey, Everything we have that's good and perfect comes from the Father of Lights. Look what it says, and I'll run through this in a hurry. I'm not gonna keep you here too long. But he says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Verse six, who being in the form of God, that's a phrase that literally means the likeness or a portrait. He's the exact likeness of God. He is God. He's in the form of God. He's not just some form. But the word actually means the likeness, equal. And he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He is God. He claimed to be God. He said, he's the great I am. He's God manifest in the flesh. If he's not, then he's no savior. If he's not God, he cannot create and give life. If he's not man, he cannot die. He had to be God and man in order to die for the sins of his sheep. And when he's resurrected, he's resurrected as God-man. He exists right now at the right hand of the Father. The resurrected Christ is God manifest in the flesh right now, making intercession for his people. That means he's pleading the merits of his own work on behalf of his people. That's our consolation. He's not pleading the merits of your work. You understand that? Christ is not before God saying now, oh, Lord, Father, look at Bill and look at what all he's gone through and look at what he's, no. He's pleading his merits on my behalf. That's my consolation. Do you understand that? And he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. If any man or woman claims any attribute of deity, you know what that is? That's robbery. trying to rob God of his glory. But it wasn't for Christ. And then verse seven, but made himself of no reputation. We spend our lives trying to build a reputation, don't we? And that's not a bad thing. You want to have a reputation of being honest, of being kind, of being generous. All of those things are good. But in order to save such sinful people as we are, Christ had to make himself of no reputation. and he had to take upon himself the form of a servant. He's called the servant of the covenant, the servant of grace. He served his father and he served his people. How did he do it? By going to the cross and dying for our sins. And he was made in the likeness of men. Let me give you a little perspective on that. The very men who drove the nails in his hands and his feet, who put the crown of thorns on his head, who put the spear in his side, and who spit upon him, he was their creator. Think about that. The wood that the cross was made of, he created it. Made himself of no reputation. made in the likeness of men without sin now. He wasn't made a sinful man. And then verse eight, and being found in fashion or in that state as a man or in that body, that human body, that housing, God manifested in the flesh. He humbled himself and he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. You see, the cross did not sneak up on him. It didn't take him by surprise. His death on the cross was an obedience unto the Father. That's what he came to do. When Peter tried to stop him, remember what he told Peter? He said, get thee behind me, Satan. This is why I came into the world, to die. He came into the world to die. And his death was a victory. And that's why he arose from the dead. because righteousness was established. Sin demands death. Righteousness demands life. He died for the sins of his people. He arose because he brought forth righteousness because of our justification. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And verse nine says, for this reason, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, given him a name which is above every name. That's the authority and the power that Christ has as the sovereign over this universe. And that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. When you think about Jesus Christ going to the cross, don't feel sorry for him, feel sorry for yourself. Do you know that's what he told as he was on his way to the cross and the women on the side were crying, he looked at them, he said, don't cry for me, cry for yourselves. We're the sinful people. He's the Savior from sin. And His people will bow to Him now. If you're one of His people, before you leave this world, you will bow to King Jesus. You will submit to Him as the Lord your righteousness. You will. And then when He comes again to bring His church unto Himself, this whole universe will recognize that He's the Lord of Glory. And even His enemies will bow forcibly. It's an amazing thing. Now let this mind be, when we're dealing with each other, and I need to learn this lesson too, folks. Listen, I'm not just preaching at you, as they say. When we're dealing with each other, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I pray the Lord will bless that to our hearts and our minds.