I have had on my mind over the last couple weeks just that whole thought of the season that we're in and preparing our hearts for Christ's coming and to give our attention to this. truth that we've come to consider again and again, to look at it, bring it before our attention as we prepare our hearts for Christmas, as we prepare our hearts for worship of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ coming. And to do that this morning, I want to take you to a place that it's been a few years since we've been at, and maybe a text that we don't typically think about in terms of this time of year. Turn with me to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, whenever we open Scripture, whether it's for our personal study or we're gathering here as a church, we are giving our attention to divine truths that have been revealed by our Lord. And for us, it's a joy to feast on them, and for us as believers, they genuinely serve the purpose of inciting our hearts to worship. So often when we look at things like we have before us this morning, there are truths that stop us in our tracks, and we've already talked about that word. I think Stephen brought it up earlier that the church was gathered in awe, the early church was when he's preaching, teaching through Acts. And when we open up these truths before us, they really generate a sense of awe in us. And it's one of those texts that we've returned to. Again and again and again, a doctrinal truth that we're really eager to explore because in a sense, I think as we look at these things, we just can never get enough of them. Our curiosity is really never satisfied because of the depth of what we're confronted with being really beyond our total comprehension, and all of it, again, cultivating worship in our heart. And that's what we return to, again, this time of year, even this morning as we return to the doctrine of the incarnation. When we say that, what are we talking about? We're talking about the coming of Christ into the world. as He takes on flesh to redeem sinners. We return to that glorious truth this morning. John Murray, a theologian from years ago, said of the Incarnation this, he said, quote, it is a high and heavenly doctrine and for that reason it's of little appeal to dull minds and darkened hearts. He said, it is the mystery that angels desire to look into, but also the delight of enlightened and humble souls. They love to explore the mysteries which bespeak the glories of their Redeemer. What he's considering there is this doctrine of Christ's coming, this doctrine of the incarnation, being such an event that it not only captivates our minds that can scarce comprehend its magnitude, but also that it really captures our hearts that overflow with delight from this act of our Savior revealing His glory. Peter, in 1 Peter 1, verse 10, was really captivated by all of this when he wrote those words that you're probably familiar with where he said, as to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, made careful searches and inquiries seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Things, he says, into which angels long to look. That's where Murray's getting that from. These are things into which angels long to look. This is what we really have before us this morning, things into which angels long to look, a high and heavenly doctrine that renewed minds and transformed hearts eagerly return to this coming of Christ. Now, as we come back to that once again this time of year, one of the aspects of all this I think that we marvel at is the humble nature of everything that you see in the Incarnation. about our Lord's birth. You think of it presented in the gospel accounts. It's there in Matthew with Joseph planning to secretly send Mary away in order to not disgrace her anymore because she was with child before they were married. The text says before they had come together. There's a lowliness to that. Those events that surround Christ's birth, they're so unique, it required an angel from heaven to appear to Joseph to reveal what was actually going on so that Joseph could respond faithfully. Luke's account of Christ's birth also captures its humble character. When He's born, it's Luke that tells us He was wrapped in clothes, laid in a manger because there was no room for Him in the inn, Luke chapter 2 verse 7. All of it humbling. All of it not exactly what you'd expect when you find that God is coming into the world. All of those scenes give us a picture of the humble circumstances into which the King of glory enters creation. Yes, there's angels that are praising God, Luke 2.14, and there are shepherds glorifying and praising God, Luke 2.20, but there is no national proclamation about His birth. There are no celebrations amongst the peoples that the Lord has come. There is no widespread rejoicing that the one who upholds all things has been born. There is no gathering in pronouncement that the One who came to save you has finally arrived. In this world, the event was rather modest and lowly. And that's why I want you to look at Philippians 2 this morning. This is another passage that I want us to consider that describes Christ coming from a bit of a different perspective that particularly highlights what I would submit to you is His immaculate humility. Immaculate humility. This is the Apostle Paul taking us behind the scenes, showing us this high and heavenly doctrine where we find the most profound display of humility the world has ever witnessed. Look in chapter 2 of Philippians in verse 5. Paul says this, have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Paul is writing to believers, he's writing to the church in Philippi. And here in chapter 2 verses 6 through 8, he's presenting them with Christ's work of salvation that demonstrates radical humility, the likes of which are unparalleled in all of creation. A humility that if you look in verse 9 through 11 there, the Father commends. And don't miss verse 5, it is a humility that He exhorts to be reflected in the church. Now, we'll give our attention to verse 5 in a moment. We'll do this in a little bit of a backwards way. But the first thing that I want you to see this morning is what's at the core of this section, where Christ's humility is on display. And you find that in verses 6 through 8. So the first major heading I'll give you is this, Christ's humiliation. Verses 6 through 8, Christ's humiliation. And here, there's going to be five perspectives that Paul gives us of the Son's condescending work that's going to show us what immaculate humility looks like. You get to see a glimpse of perfect humility, of divine humility, of humility that's right, that's free of any sort of selfish motives. unlike all other displays of humility that you can think of in this world. And if we sat here, we could go around the room and go, oh, remember this person, they were really humble when this took place, or this was…this was an example of humility. But there's nothing like this example of humility in all of creation. This humility that's found here, look in verse 7, it really hinges on this word, but emptied himself. Do you see that? This is the hinge that humility swings upon in this verse. Emptied is that Greek word keno, meaning to nullify, to make of no effect. Your translation may say emptied himself there, or it may say made himself nothing, or it may say made himself of no reputation. Now, this is a dangerous verse in some sense, and we have to be careful so as not to impute any sort of meaning that Paul never intended here. In this emptying, Jesus did nothing that put his being God at jeopardy. He did not divest himself so as to be anything less than God himself. To give up being divine would be to render the work that he's coming to do really ineffective. And it would actually detract from the character of humility that you find here. Paul is clear, as he's writing this and as he writes other letters, that Jesus is God. Colossians 1, verse 15, he is the image of the invisible God. 2 Corinthians 4, 4, Christ is the image of God. Paul is clear in his theology and his thinking about the divinity of Jesus, who Jesus is. And we're going to see that in a moment. So if we take Paul's words here, and that's what we have to do, if we take Paul's words here, we find that who Christ is in eternity past, being God, is going to transcend here the incarnation, that this is a transcendent dignity of Christ. How do we understand in those words, if it all hinges on this here, emptied himself, how is it that we're able to understand what he means by that? Well, we let the context of what Paul's describing here, all that surrounds it, we let that explain it. And when you do that, you see this high and heavenly doctrine of Christ's humiliation. You see immaculate humility in all of its profound beauty. So, the first sub-point here is the first perspective that he gives you in order for you to see what this humility looks like. And it's there in verse 6, his divine nature. Verse 6 says, who, meaning Christ, although he existed, that's the key word, in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. Paul is describing here who Jesus is, and he's describing where he came from before being born to Mary. So if we're to observe the humility that Paul intends us to observe here, then we must be settled about who Christ is and where Christ comes from. And Paul is clear, Christ Jesus is God. What Scripture gives us in Philippians 2 verse 6 is that there is no greater nature by which any person can be described in the divine nature that's attributed to Christ found there in that verse, that word he existed. Now look, we're going to use big boy and big girl words today and thoughts today, okay? So hold on here. You want to go deep in Scripture, and this is what Paul is giving us. He existed. That means to be present, to be in a state of existing. It is the very word there that means to be. It means being. What's it joined to? Look at the words. In the form of God. The word form is a Greek noun that describes the outward appearance or the shape of something. It's meaning though is not limited to the external or only what's visible. Why? Because of what we talked about a second ago. The context of what the author is saying determines the meaning. Based on what Paul is describing here and how he uses this word form again in verse 7, form is describing what truly makes up the substance of an object. Form is describing the very essence of the thing. One Greek scholar describes form as, quote, that which truly characterizes a given reality. So think with me here, and I think this is where John Murray is incredibly helpful. He uses the word dignity when he's talking about what Paul is describing here. The dignity of something, what is that? It describes its quality, the quality of something, the state of something, its worthiness, it's worth being honored or esteemed. So what you find in verse 6 is that the quality or the state of Christ being described, look, it's not being conferred upon Him. Do you see that? But it's that of being. Let's use a big boy and girl word here, ontological. What's that? That's related to or based upon something's very existence. that it is that. You are human, right? Nobody came along when you were five years old and said, oh, let's make you human at this moment. It's the very nature of who you are. And you see that here, this dignity that's here, that He is God, this is intrinsic. It belongs to the essential nature of who Christ is. He existed in the form of God. It is His being. Why? Because He is God. Nobody came along and said, oh, now you are God. That's the very thing Paul is using here when he says that we're being. What Paul is describing about Jesus here, look, this is nothing new. This is the very truth that Jesus proclaimed about Himself. John 8, verse 58. You'll remember that text. He said, before Abraham was born, what? I am. And when he said that, everyone that was there around him knew exactly what he meant. There was no question. I wonder if he means that he's God. They knew what he meant because they charged him a blasphemy and they attempted to kill him that very moment as punishment. John 17, verse 5, Jesus said, Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. He's very clear in who He is when He says something like that, that even before creation, before even there was a world that came into being, Jesus was, and He was with the Father, and He was glorified. This is truly God. To understand that He existed in the form of God, that is essential to be able to see where Paul is going here with Christ's humility. I think we can think of it sort of this way. If you had been in the presence of the Son before He came into the world, there would have been no doubt in your mind, not for one moment, that you were in the presence of the Divine. Moses, you'll remember, you'll recall, wanted to see the glory of God in Exodus 33, but he was told that he could not see the face of God, and he must hide in the cleft of the rock as the glory of God was passing by. The glory of the Son! would have been so radiant that you could conclude the same thing. If this is God passing by, this is the Triune God passing by, then this is Christ, the Son, here with the Father and with the Spirit passing by. And if we were to gaze upon Him, we would be unable to do that, first of all, but even to know that that Presence was passing by of the Son, we would go, surely this is God. Surely this is God. One commentator says of this here that the pre-incarnate Christ occupied a position of the highest imaginable eminence. So Paul here in Philippians 2.6 is showing us the resplendent and divine glory of Christ. And even there, think about this, what you have here, even there, in unveiled glory, truly God enjoying the presence of His Father in this way, in the worship of angels, in the worship of saints, Paul says even there, there was humility. Look at verse 6, that he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. Even in glory, Even in heaven, even in this exalted place, there's humility in him. Even as he occupied this position of what MacLeod, this commentator said, of highest imaginable eminence, even there he was not regarding equality with God a thing to be grasped. The Son, if we take those words there, regard, meaning to think, to be chiefly concerned with, about His equality with God, being here in the form of God alone, a thing to be grasped, to be seized, to be retained for one's own advantage. He's being deliberate and intentional. This is purposeful. He's not accidentally doing this. Paul is describing Jesus here refusing to be selfish. He refused a mindset that would have said, well, the Father and the Spirit are not going to assume humanity and die. Why should I? I don't have to do this. So even there in unveiled divinity, you see perfect and holy humility. You see a willingness to condescend, to be made low, which fits with the second perspective that Paul gives you there in verse 7, his lowly position, his lowly position. There's your word, but emptied himself. How did he empty himself? What does that mean? Well, Paul tells you, taking the form of a bondservant, emptied himself, it swings on what comes before it and what comes after it. How does the divine son of God empty himself? It's not by divesting himself of his dignity. That would be impossible, first of all, because it's intrinsic to who he is. It would be impossible because it's necessary to facilitate the mission that's ahead of him, because only God can save us. Paul is not saying that he gave up anything, but what's Paul saying? That he takes something. He's taking hold of here. He's grasping. Over on the one side we saw humility in verse 6 by what He's not taking hold of. Here it's what He's deliberately doing. Taking the form of a bondservant, there's your word again, form, what truly makes up the substance of an object, what truly characterizes its given reality. Christ Jesus truly is what? A bondservant. What's the Greek word that you're probably familiar with? Doulos, right? Slave. Would you just note what's taking place here in one and a half verses? Paul has shown you the sweeping breadth, this distance of his humiliation. He has occupied the position of highest eminence. He has taken the position of lowest inferiority. That of a slave. A slave, what's that? A slave is a servant, right? Who is subject to another, whose duty it is to perform a task. That's what he took. That's what he seized. What's the task? I think we can just simply let Isaiah tell us what the task is. Isaiah talks about the servant. What's the servant's task in Isaiah? Isaiah 53 verse 4, surely our griefs he himself bore, our sorrows he carried, pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, rendered as a guilt offering, bore the sins of many, interceded for the transgressors. There's the servant's work. What Paul is describing is the Son who had every right to His place in divine glory, intentionally and purposefully taking hold of, grasping the inferior position of a lowly servant for what would be a lowly and humiliating task, but what would be the most significant task for us that we can ever possibly imagine, a task that we could never accomplish on our own. This is the basis here of the gospel. We're seeing that where we're seeing humility here. It's humility that's driving the gospel message that we know and we proclaim and we trust as the basis for our salvation. This is a profound humility that's in the sun that is refusing here to, on one hand, cling feverishly to His place and glory that would prevent all of this from happening, but it's also the same humility in the Son that's willing to take hold of here this position that's required for the task of saving sinners. Another description of immaculate humility, number three, His human nature is there in verse 7. and being made in the likeness of men. Being made is tied here to the Son. The Son, truly God, becomes something that the Son was not, truly man. Paul is clear, Christ became human. There is no, let's be clear, there is no being made in the likeness of God. Why? Because He was existing always as God. The Son is uncreated, always existing as God from eternity past, but He was not always human. In humility, that we've already seen there in glory, not regarding equality with God a thing to be grasped, He was made in the likeness of men while in no way diminishing His deity or giving up His attributes or being made anything less than God. Remember, transcendent dignity, transcendent from heaven here to earth, made in the likeness of men. This is the way in which the Son gives expression to this attitude of a servant, this position of a servant that we just looked at, being a slave that was necessary to be made in the likeness of men. This is humility. Look, it would be an improvement for an earthworm to be made a man. Why? Because a man is made in the image of God and an earthworm is not, and he's an earthworm. This is different. This is stooping low. For the divine Son to be made in the likeness of man, that's stooping low in humility, and it's remarkable on an extraordinary scale. This dignity transcends, His dignity transcends being made in the likeness of men. If He's diminished as a deity, robbed of His attributes, He ceases to be divine. He does not cease to be divine. In verse 6, look what's going on. Verse 6, we've established He's truly God. By the end of verse 7, He's truly God and He's truly man. This is transcendent dignity. What has happened? What has happened? What has happened is that being made in the likeness of man, he will be able to feel every lash of his scourging. Being made in the likeness of man, he'll be able to feel every thorn of the crown pressed upon his head, every nail driven through his flesh, all as a man. As a man, he'll be able to experience the horror and the weight of the cross that's before him. As a man, he will be there in the garden agonizing over the hours ahead and what is going to take place as he is forsaken. As a man, he will experience that last agonizing breath there on the cross. Truly God, truly man. Paul gives you a fourth description here. His unassuming appearance, verse 8. Being found in appearance as a man. We've established this. The Son was once not found in appearance as a man. This has changed. We've established that if you would have looked upon the pre-incarnate Christ, there would have been no doubt that you were gazing upon the presence of God. You would have actually, as we said, been unable to do that. But if you had looked upon the man, Christ Jesus, born there in Luke 2, You'd have looked upon a man who found himself to be hungry and thirsty and who grew tired and weak and whose hands and feet you could literally touch. And there's no doubt that as you looked upon him, you would have been able to rightly conclude, I'm in the presence of a man. In his pre-incarnate glory, like Moses, Exodus 33, you would have been unable to gaze upon his face, but there in the gospel accounts, people are looking at him constantly. People are looking at him going, is he going to feed us? People are looking at Him going, is He going to heal us? They're desperate to see what He's going to do. And at the same time as they're looking upon Him, there's people that are looking upon Him going, I hate Him. I want to kill Him. People are looking at a man, being found in the appearance of a man. His appearance was once that of God, but again His deity veiled in flesh emanates humility. And He would look like us, so much so that He would not be distinguishable if He came in here amongst us. There would be nothing noteworthy. And isn't that what Isaiah told you about Him? Isn't that what Isaiah said to anticipate Isaiah 53 verse 2? He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. Like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised and we did not esteem Him. So what is emptying? Taking a lowly position, becoming a man, assuming an appearance that's not striking or noteworthy. Maybe you've never really thought about the scope of Christ's humiliation. Here is perfect, selfless humility that has extended from heaven to earth, from the radiance of being divine to veiling that deity and seeing the normality of just human flesh. A fifth and final perspective that he gives us here, maybe it's most striking of all, is his submissive obedience in verse 8. His submissive obedience. Look, He humbled Himself by becoming. That's deliberate, that's intentional again. By becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. The key word there is becoming. That the Son is again active, intentional, deliberate. Becoming obedient to the point of death. That is the extreme of human existence, right? Life and here death. And the extreme is even laid out here in its most horrid form. even death on a cross. He's only able to be obedient in the way that's described here, the point of death, because of the perspectives that we've already considered that have come before this. Humility has really brought him here by taking on humanity. And in his humanity, he's allowed us to see humility. If all this is taking place behind the scenes in the spiritual realm, how do we even see it? But He's allowed us to see it because He's taking on humanity. So not only does He live here in the flesh, but what does He do? He dies in the flesh. And not only does He die in the flesh, but He dies the most humiliating death, beaten beyond measure, stripped and nailed to a cross. There He is even subject to cruel forms of mockery, even from both sides of Him, right? In the most cruel form of execution. None of it is accidental. All of it is deliberate that He would be submissive to what was required to save His people from their sins. He is obedient here to His Father's will. And this is the way in which He'll redeem His people. This is humility. It's selfless. Humility that's loving. This humility that's found in his obedience expressed that he loves his father. John 14.31, he says, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded me. What does pride do? Pride keeps you from submitting, does it not? I'm not going to submit to whoever authority told me this. And pride is unloving. Humility and obedience here expresses genuine love, love for the Father. I think that's clear. We see that in John 14, but it's also a love for those that He came to save. So this greatest display of humility is compelling when you consider His godly nature. It's convicting when you see His lowly position. It's sobering when we consider His human nature and His unassuming appearance, and it's loving whenever you see His obedience. I think this humility that Paul is captivated with here, that he's giving to the church, that he's setting before us, it captivates his attention in other letters. Romans chapter 8 verse 3, he writes, for what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin. He writes in Galatians chapter 3 verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us. He writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor so that you through His poverty might become rich. Peter even writing 1 Peter 3, 18, for Christ also died for sins once for all the just for the unjust so that He might bring us to God having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit. God the Son put to death in the flesh. That's humility. This is immaculate humility that's flawless, right, pure, divine. This is selflessness, sacrificing and holy love for the good of others. This is profound. And this is what must be found in the Son if any of us are to be saved. If you were saved this morning and you are sitting here, it is because there is humility in the Son. This humility flowing from our Savior who was patient, teaching the spiritually blind, who was kind as He considered the needs of people, who was not jealous, not envying others, never bragging, never arrogant, Never a humility that was unbecoming, never selfish, never taking into account the wrong suffered, never rejoicing in unrighteousness, but this is a humility that's always rejoicing in truth. It's a 1 Corinthians 13 love-based humility. This is a humility that's marked by love. And He takes on humanity. He takes on the position of a slave. He assumed an unassuming appearance. He submitted in obedience to death. That ought to cause us every time we come upon this to stop in our tracks and return here again and again to look at truth and to gaze in awe at the saving work of the Son and the great cost at which it came. Now, look at verse 9 and 10. So our first heading was Christ's humiliation. Verses 9 and 10, number 2, gives us Christ's exaltation. There is a shift that takes place here. And what is taking place is, look at the text, the Father is responding to Christ's humiliation here in verses 9 through 11. In verses 6 through 8, Christ the Son is the active party. Do you see that? But now in verses 9 through 11, it's the Father who in response to Christ's humiliation, what? Highly exalted Him. Superior exaltation. He has raised him to the most important position of honor and power, supremely exalted. There is no higher place to be exalted than to where the Father has exalted him. Brought low, stooping low, now exalted. Do you see the magnitude, the scope here of what's taking place? It's massive. In Christian, what you see taking place there is the very truth that Jesus taught about how God responds to humility. Matthew 18 verse 4, whoever then humbles himself, Jesus said, is this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 23 verse 12, whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. You see the same thing in Luke, you see the same thing in James, you see the same thing in Proverbs. Humility that is truly selfless, loving, God-honoring is commended by God. And if there's no higher, more perfect humility than the immaculate humility that's displayed here by the Son, what greater exaltation, right? So note also here, the Father not only exalts the Son, but what's the other thing the Father is found doing? Bestowed on Him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Guess what? That's everywhere, right? And that's everybody. And that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is the humble son who is now exalted, acknowledged by everyone, everywhere, every place, every time. In what way? How? Knees bowing, tongues confessing. Tongues confessing that what? The slave is Lord. The servant is Lord. And what does this do? This brings glory to God. This is the name which is above every name. What is that that's in a name? In the case of Jesus, the answer to that question is everything. He has this name because you go back to Matthew 1.21, it says that this would be His name because He would save His people from their sins. And every person has a sin problem, and yet every knee is going to bow before the Son, whose name means the Lord is salvation. that the knee of the unrepentant, according to this text, will bow and the tongue of the unregenerate will one day confess that indeed Jesus is salvation before they go off into punishment, eternal punishment. Why? Because at that point it'll have been too late. They never bowed the knee, they never confessed with their mouth in this life. but you'll be their church. The knees of those whose faith is in Jesus will bow and the tongues of those who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ will rejoice to confess the Lord is salvation. You'll be doing in that moment what it's been a joy to do in this lifetime, confessing Jesus Christ is Lord, that the name given to Him in Matthew 1, when He took the form of a slave, that it is absolutely true, and your salvation and your hope is based upon it. When He was made in the likeness of man, when He was found in the appearance of man, and there even in obedience, that He goes off to die, that you see all of this wrapped up there in that name. And this is His name today, and this is His name when He will return in glory. the name that is above every name, and the truth that Christ is worthy of worship. And this is the song that we sing regularly, is it not? All hail the power of Jesus' name. We sing it. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth a royal diadem to crown Him Lord of all." We're acknowledging who He is and that He's been exalted. Ye seed of Israel's chosen race, ye ransom from the fall. Hail Him. That's an exalted response. Hail Him who saves you by His grace and crown Him Lord of all. Ye Gentile sinners, ne'er forget the wormwood and the gall. Go spread your trophies at His feet and crown Him Lord of all. yonder sacred throng we at His feet may fall." That means what? He's worthy. He's exalted. Join us in the everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all. We join that song because He saved us by His humiliation. We're incited to sing that because we see the beauty and profound nature of His humiliation. We're incited to sing because of His exaltation by the Father. This is holy humility in the Son that we've beheld from heaven to earth. It's brought Christ exalted, that brings glory to God. The Father is glorified, the Son is glorified, the Spirit is glorified in this triune manifestation of unparalleled demonstration of immaculate humility and creation. Christian, we rejoice to turn to this again and again, to the heavenly doctrine of the humiliated Christ who is now exalted. There's one final component, and this is your application. Paul gives it to you. It's an exhortation for believers that comes there in the verse that we skipped. Number one, Christ humiliation. Number two, Christ exaltation. Verse five, number three, Christ church exhortation. Christ church exhortation. And what's the exhortation? Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. That whole core section there, verses 6 through 11, Paul says should be found amongst us. That's the context. It should be found in the church. So not only then has Christ's humiliation revealed a profound humility that was responded to by the Father in Christ's exaltation, but it has a direct impact upon you as a Christian. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. The reason that Paul, you see this, is giving us this high and heavenly doctrine that angels seek to gaze upon, that incites our worship of Jesus as Lord, is that it might lead you to humility. When we seek Christ's humility, it ought to humble us. This is what was required for your salvation. Our salvation comes at a striking cost, does it not? The Son departing glory, taking on flesh, dying as a man. This is the gospel. This is the gospel that we proclaim. It's a humbling truth, and it humbles us. The very nature of salvation by grace, the very nature that we're saved this way is humbling. At its entry point, your salvation demands humility. You have to confess that you can never save yourself, you can never do enough good deeds to counter your sins, that you can never reconcile yourself to God, that you can never cleanse yourself from your inequities, that you can never escape the just wrath of a holy God, that you could never pay the price of your redemption, that you could never offer a perfect sacrifice, that you could never satisfy justice, that you could never make yourself righteous. It's all by grace. That's humbling for us, isn't it? I can't accomplish this. God gives you humility when He saves you to recognize this and to look to the humble one, to look to a slave to save you. Humility looks to the God-man, verse 6-8 there, for your salvation. And then, when you come to Christ in humility, you're finally free, as we've looked at in Romans, from being a slave to sin. Meaning, you're free from being a slave to pride. So that you can grow in humility. That's the only reason Paul's telling you this. Paul's writing this to the church. He's not writing a letter to the general population in Philippi. Hey, go have the same attitude in you that you found in Christ. That's impossible. They can't do that. They can't grow in that way, because their heart's never been changed. Do you grasp this? That verse six through eight, what is that? That is the gospel, is it not? This is how you're saved. And that he tells you, have the same attitude in you. He's basically describing here that the gospel ought to make a very humble people. The gospel makes a people that are humble, like their Lord's is humble. What does this attitude of humility look like in people? Look at verses two through four. Make my joy complete by being of the same mind. That's unity. Maintaining the same love, unity. And then he says it, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Is that humility observable in you? Is there a Christ-like humility in you? Do you regard others as more important than yourself? Are you found amongst the congregation serving one another and caring for one another and putting others in a position that's higher than you are? Is this humility demonstrated in your relationship with believers? Is it demonstrated in your relationship to the elders? Christian, you were not born sinless like our Savior. We were born prideful. We were born prideful people into a prideful world that's urging us to be all the more prideful, that you wouldn't be of the same mind. Why? Because I want all you to be of my mind, right? I don't want to be of your mind. Pride is saying I want all of you to be of my mind. And unlike humility that leads to unity that you see there in the church, pride leads to fractures in the church, a broken up church. And when we find an absence of humility amongst men, an abundance of pride, I think it's not Christ that we see there, not at all, but what we really find is a devilish picture. One more place I'll take you to, Isaiah 14. Jesus used this verse in Isaiah 14 to describe Satan in Luke chapter 10. It really has as its context the king of Babylon, but again, Jesus directs us towards its detailing the pride of Satan. Isaiah 14 verse 13, it's really a contrast to Philippians 2. It's almost an anti-Philippians too, an anti-example here of what we've just considered. You read this, again, of Satan, but you said in your heart, I will ascend. I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will set on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high. What did Satan do? He regarded equality with God a thing to be grasped. And how did the Lord respond to that? Nevertheless, you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit. Verse 15. Verse 12, how you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, sun of the dawn. You have been cut down to the earth. This is where pride leads. Pride leads to being thrust into the pit, found there in Isaiah 14, but the humility of Christ has found Him exalted when we come to the end of that section of Philippians 2. Pride is a devilish quality. Humility is a Christ-like quality. Humility is cultivated in the church. Humility, you even enter there, as we said, by the gospel, in the church. Church, He saved us to walk in humility with one another. And when we do that, we look most like Him, do we not? So not only has this demonstration of humility through Christ glorified God, it has saved the church. And as a result of saving the church, the church is now able to reflect a Christ-like humility amongst one another in the body. This humility has not only led to our salvation, but it's also led to our having the ability to reflect what we find and what we see there in the text in him. And when the beauty of humility is observed in the church, it's nothing short of the humility that first came from heaven to save you. It is a gospel-proclaiming humility when people look at us and they go, oh, you don't live and function and interrelate with each other as the world does. Humility that is like this that was in the eminence of the throne room, the humility like you find there in the manger, humility like you see in the face of the man without any stately form or majesty, humility like you see there in the man on the cross, that that can be found here in the church. It's the same humility that's to mark us, to be found in us. It's good for us to revisit all of this. It's good to revisit this humility that was demonstrated by Christ's coming, to look at Philippians 2 again. It's convicting because it's a true example of humility. It's exhorting us here to reflect the same thing in our life and in our church. It's good to look upon this because it's a means of driving our sanctification and our Christlikeness. It's providing here for us the perfect model to shape Christlike humility in us. It's really sobering when you look at all of this because it ought to root out pride within our own soul, and in all of it, it ought to incite worship. He is giving us doctrine, high and heavenly doctrine, that is stirring truth really to incite worship. It's truth that leads us to worship. The truth of our Savior's love demonstrated in humility, that is more than enough to cause our hearts to sing. And we pray that they do sing as we gather this morning for what our Savior has done. Father, we thank You for showing us Christ this morning from the text. And we thank You for showing us this attribute of His humility and allowing us to gaze upon what humility looks like that is not tinged by sin. And our heartfelt prayer is that that humility is found in us as a congregation, it's found in us as believers, because there's a humility that you've given us to recognize that we cannot earn our own salvation, but we must come before you in humility and trust the one who died for us to deal with all of our sins. And so, Father, I pray for those that are amongst us this morning that are lost, that You would convict their heart with what they see here in Christ coming, Christ coming to save, and that they would see that this was what was necessary in contrast to what they think that they can do. They can't do what He has done. Lord, give them a humility to trust Christ this morning for the first time. Give them a humility that cries out to you that there is nothing I can do to save myself and that my sins are many. Give them a humility to thank You for showing Christ to them, and give them a humility that has faith. Faith in the One that's presented here in a most striking way. Lord, that You would do that would be so kind and so merciful, and that it would be a demonstration of how patient You've been with us, rebels to Your will, and yet You've found it that You would save us. Thank You for showing us this morning how You saved us. And we pray that as we are humbled by our Lord's work, that it would indeed fill our heart this morning with a love for Him, for doing what we certainly do not deserve, and that that may be expressed in our worship, we pray. In Christ's name, amen.