I invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter 1 and we're going to read in a few moments from verse 27 all the way down to verse number 11. You might be wondering why this message for today. I'll give you three basic reasons. Reason number one is this, humble pie is best and sweetest when eaten voluntarily. You may say, what in the world do you mean by that? Well, my understanding of certain phrases in Philippians 2, 5 to 11 was challenged very recently, and so after going back to the books and back to study and research, I realized that I need to correct how I have explained and taught that text in times past. So if you're looking for a church with a perfect pastor that preaches perfect theology every Sunday, I have one piece of advice for you. Keep looking. You haven't found him. I'm not it. Sometimes I make mistakes, innocent enough, but sometimes it needs to be corrected properly and make sure everybody understands what the text is really saying. Second reason is this. Considering the humility of Paul and Apollos, this seemed a good interlude to Acts. It's just a focus on this issue of humility. And secondly, or thirdly, sorry, as I was starting the passage through, I started with Philippians 2, 5 to 11 and realized the context kept pushing me backwards and backwards. And I wound up all the way back up at verse 27 of chapter one. So we're going to look at that and work our way through it. But to give you an introduction to the letter, Paul is writing this friendly letter to the Philippian church. He's writing from prison in Rome in about 61 or 62 AD. A few months ago, we saw in Acts 16, the Philippian church planted by Paul and his friends as they were traveling through there. It's made up of Christian Gentiles and Roman citizens. You'll remember Lydia and her household, the jailer and his household, and others who were also obviously saved and brought into that church. It was a healthy church. It was enduring the usual hardships and persecutions associated with the gospel, as Paul was doing. It had the usual struggles in their faith and walk with the Lord, as we all also do. It had the usual conflicts that happen in churches, and they needed to be stirred up to pursue Christian spiritual growth. But it's a very friendly letter, and Paul writes to communicate his affairs and hear how they're doing, and encourage and strengthen and build them up. He writes to thank them for their recent gift that came through Epaphroditus. He writes to reassure them of his abiding joy in the Lord despite his imprisonment and to encourage them in their faith and to explain what spiritual progress lords but looks like, but the center point, the highlight of the whole passage, the whole letter, is this passage, Philippians 2, 5-11, this beautiful, what's called the Christ Song, and we're going to spend a bit of time looking at that. To give you the flow of the letter, up into our text, In verses 1 and 2 of chapter 1, Paul identifies himself and Timothy as the authors, although we would take it that Paul is writing the vast bulk of the letter. He addresses the Philippians and greets them, grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. In verses 3 to 8 of chapter 1, he states his thanksgiving to God for them. And in verses 9 to 11, he reminds them of the things that he prays for them for. By the way, if you ever struggle with how to pray for Christian brothers and sisters, I don't know about you, but I do, sometimes you just don't know how to pray for people. A great way to do that, to pray, is to go through the epistles, pick up Paul's letters, find the prayer sections, there's several of them, and write them down, and you can pray those same things that Paul prayed for them. We can pray into each other's lives today. It's a very helpful way to learn to pray. He tells them about his prayers in verses 12 to 26. Paul tells them of his situation and the progress of the gospel where he is in prison. And that brings us to Philippians chapter 1 verse 27. So we're going to read from there to verse 11 of chapter 2. And again, I call you to give attention to the words of the one living and true God. He says, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear to be in me. If, therefore, there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, 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. Do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others. 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. And being found in the appearances of men, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And we trust that God will add blessing to the reading of his word. So why do we need to hear the message in the text? Why do we need this message for today? Because we will very soon certainly be enduring the same hardships and persecutions that Paul was and the Philippian people were. Because we all have the usual personal struggles associated with following Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. Because every church has conflicts. Tensions, disagreements, disputes, petty and sometimes not so petty jealousies rear up. You put a bunch of people together, we're saved, but we're still dealing with the old nature. There's going to be tensions and struggles. So how do we deal with those? And this passage gives us a great answer. Because as verse 27 says, we are to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. We're to live the gospel. We're to live with unity. We're to live for others, and we are to live like Christ. So first of all, we must live the gospel. Notice verse 27 again. He says, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. The word for conduct there, it draws on a political terminology. So what Paul means is conduct yourselves as good citizens. Not of Philippi or Melbourne or Pakenham or Noble Park, but infinitely greater, we're to conduct ourselves as citizens of God's kingdom. We're to conduct ourselves worthy of the gospel. We're to live out the gospel of Christ. So what does that mean? I mean, what does it mean to live out the gospel? It's a question we should ask. It's by not living any longer as spiritually dead, unforgiven, and alienated from God, but it is to live continuously as spirit-filled, regenerated, forgiven, justified disciples and citizens of Christ. We are to become what we already are. That's the whole process of sanctification. We are set apart in Christ, and God is working in us to practically make us more like Jesus. We're to live out the gospel. It's to live life by the enabling grace of God, in the Spirit's power, by faith in God, and continual repentance of sin. And there's so much more Packed up into that phrase, live in a manner worthy of the gospel. I could spend another couple hours just unpacking that, but I can't. I gotta move on. So, what will it look like? What will we look like if we're living in a manner worthy of the gospel? Well, Paul defines it in verses 28 or 27 to 30. He says, we'll be standing firm in one spirit, standing firm in the power of the Holy Spirit. We'll be laboring together. We'll be working alongside of one another with one mind for the faith of the gospel. In verse 28, we'll be not alarmed by our opponents. And in verse 30, we'll be experiencing the same struggles and conflicts we see in Christ, because that's the truth of it. If we live the gospel out, we will provoke our neighbors, those around us, the unbelievers, to anger and jealousy. They don't like it. The gospel is confronting. You don't get to tell people they're sinners and they're going to hell and walk away unscathed. Like there's something wrong if we do. And so that will provoke struggle, will provoke conflict against us. When we're all living the gospel, there will be unity. Notice our standing firm is in one spirit. Our laboring is with one mind. It's a unity that... Sorry, I'll try again. It's a unity that does not come from being forced into a mold. It's a unity that comes from being transformed from the inside out as Christ works on our hearts and our mindset and our thinking and our attitudes to change them so all of what we do on the outside is changed by the inside. He works his way from the inside out changing us. If we want to see an example of what living the gospel looks like, turn over the page to Philippians 3, verses 7 to 11, and you read Paul's account of his own experience, and you'll see there exactly what living the gospel looks like. But we won't today for sake of time. Secondly, we must live with unity. In chapter 2, Paul continues building on the unity idea that he's begun in chapter 1, that, therefore, my NASB could be rendered as for this reason, and it relates what he's saying in chapter 2, verses 1 to 4, back to verse 30. So because they are now experiencing the same conflict and sufferings that Paul was, he then asks a series of conditional questions, if questions. They're in verses one there. The reality is those conditional questions are so sure that they can be written as since. So if you rephrase verse one, of chapter 2, you could say, since there is encouragement in Christ, and since there is consolation of love, and some would say of God's love, since there is fellowship of the Spirit, since there is affection and compassion, then We are to make Paul's joy complete by striving for unity. We are to be of the same mind and thinking. We're to maintain the same love. We're to be united in spirit, intent on the same purpose. It's all describing Christian spirit-filled unity. So how are we, who all come from so many different backgrounds and mindsets and ages and cultures, how are we to have unity? I was sitting in my study yesterday, just kind of chewing over how that works, and I suddenly thought about a pattern. In carpentry, one of my jobs was I would get to cut rafters for roofs, and so when you have a long roof like this where all the rafters are the same length and size and shape, the way we calculate how the slope works is we lay it all out, we use calculators, and you measure it out, you mark it all out, and then you test the first one. Then you don't go back and cut, measure, and recalculate every single one, because they'll all be different. Your tape measure will jog a little bit, or your pencil mark will be off, or your calculation will be off. What you do is you start with one that works, and then you trace every other rafter off that one pattern, and you cut them all from the same pattern. What's the point, you're wondering to yourself? How do we get unity in the faith? It's because God works to conform us all to one pattern, right? And who is that one pattern? Christ. We're conformed. We have that unity of the same mind, the same love, the same spirit, the same purpose, because we're all being conformed to the one person who is Christ. So having the same line, the same love, the same spirit comes from being shaped and conformed to the singular pattern, which is Christ himself. If Christ and Christ alone is the one we are all following, we're all increasingly living and walking and believing the same. If we all model ourselves on this, you ever watch teenagers on a bus? I know you haven't been on the bus for a long time, some of you, but I remember as a kid growing up, you go to school and you could see that a new style came out, right? I was around in the 80s in high school, I admit it openly, and they had this thing called the owl haircut. Anybody here remember that? Some people are shaking their heads. I think they're saying, I don't want to remember that. It was this horrible haircut. The kids had their hair up on their head like this, and they'd all come down the front. And you see one kid walk in, and the next day there'd be four, the day after there'd be twelve. And all these kids would follow along. They'd all look at the one guy who was the leader, and they'd model themselves after him. That's exactly how it works here. We're being conformed to the image of Christ, so our mindset changes, our love changes, and we love the things that Christ loves. We have the same unity in the spirit and the same singular purpose because we are being conformed to the one person, the one person of Christ. Turn page. If we all strive to see Christ and be like Christ and be conformed to Christ, then there will be unity. And by the way, unity does not mean uniformity. It means we have the same love, but we'll love different people. We'll express that love in different directions. We all have the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit in us, but to each one is given different gifts. It's the same Spirit, but different gifts to express themselves. We all have the same mindset. We all think the same because we base our thinking on Scripture. but we might use and exercise our gifts, exercise our ministries in a whole bunch of different areas, but we still have unity, not uniformity. God didn't make us to be like just punched out of a mold like that sense. You are still you and God is gonna use you the way he uses you, but as he conforms you to Christ, he's gonna use you in your own unique and special way wherever he places you. but there still will be unity as the brothers and sisters of Christ. Thirdly, we must live for others. Notice what he says in verse 3 of chapter 2. He says, my NASB says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit. When I looked at the Greek, and I had a fun time doing this, You could take the do right off and it would literally read, nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as surpassing yourselves. That's a very literal reading of the text. Nothing from selfish ambition. Notice what Paul does here. He uses a common construction. He uses it a couple times in this text already, and we'll see it again in the song about Jesus. He uses something called a not this, but that construction. So not from selfishness, but with humility consider others. And Paul gives us two devastatingly harmful attitudes that can creep into a church that will destroy spiritual unity. It's selfishness, number one. So he says, not with selfishness. Don't do anything from selfish ambitions. We're not to exercise and act with rivalry in our hearts towards one another. We're not to have the strong drive for personal success or advancement. In other words, we're not to be like Judas, who used the money for his own personal advantage, his own personal uses. He was pilfering out of the money bag. The lives of God's people are not to be lived with selfishness. You say, what kind of a model can we have for that? And, of course, it's Christ, and we're going to see just how in a moment. Secondly, it's not to be with empty conceit, meaning not prideful, not arrogant, not with a great lofty attitude about ourselves towards others. Example, this would be Lucifer himself who fell, having decided without any grounds or justification that he would assume the seat of the Most High God. His selfishness and empty conceit were rewarded with eternal judgment. And then Paul gives the extreme opposite. He says, not with selfishness, not with empty conceit, but with humility of mind. And humility is to have a right and a modest perspective of ourselves. Humility is knowing who we are before God, that we're sinners saved by grace to be saints. To be humble, to have humility, is knowing who has bought us and the price of our redemption. For God has bought us with Christ's precious blood. Meditating on that will bring humility. Humility is knowing whose we have become. We are not our own. We are Christ's servants, his disciples, and citizens of his kingdom. Humility is knowing who we worship, who we serve, who we obey. We serve God in the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The key to spiritual unity and living out the gospel is humility. And Paul gives us the actions that follow from those attitudes, not selfish, conceited, prideful action, but with humility of mind, considering others, considering others as excelling ourselves, to seeing others as having a greater value than we have. Brothers and sisters, when we see our brothers and sisters in Christ, to regard them, to hold the opinion that they are of a greater value than we are, to serve them, to be looking out for their interests, not just the interests of our own. Father, to, sorry, to see others as important and act in their behalf, to live for others, not live for ourselves. As a story told about Booth, General Booth, the Salvation Army guy. Apparently he was supposed to speak at some conference, probably in New York, one of those big places. And everybody gathered on the day he was supposed to be there, and all they heard was that poor General Booth was sick. that he couldn't make this big meeting. And so they wondered what would happen. And then all of a sudden the telegram came and they recognized that had been sent from General Booth. And it was his entire message for that conference. And they went up on the platform and everybody gathered and everybody sat down waiting to hear what General Booth would say. And they opened the telegram and there was one single word right in the middle of his telegram. You know what it was? Others. That was his message. Others. In a sense, he was taking what Paul was saying here. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests for others. So conducting ourselves in a manner that is worthy or fitting with the gospel is to live out the gospel, is to live in unity, and is to live for others. What did Jesus say? He said, by this they will know you are my disciples if you have love one for the other. How do we display the reality of our salvation to the world watching us? It's the love we share and display toward one another. May I suggest that living for others is to see Christ in our fellow believers, is to see them as made in the image of God, is to consider them as those for whom Christ has died, to consider them as those in whom Christ is working to transform them into his image, is recognizing And this is one for, especially for those of us, maybe who have been in the faith for a lot longer, and we look around at some of our other brothers and sisters, and they're brand new to the faith, and they're maybe not as far along in their journey, and we start to nitpick and criticize. Wow, you know, did you hear what he said? Oh, I wish, oh. And we start doing that, don't we? It's to recognize that, you know what, be patient with them. God's not finished with them yet. And they're being patient with you because God's not finished with you yet either. God is working to grow us and we're all in that process of growing. So it's a humility. It's a living for others. That's how we live out the gospel. That's how we conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. Which brings us to the best part of all, the command and the supporting example. And I want to just give a note of caution and warning as we go into this passage. I'm going to read it again in a second. This passage in verses 5 to 11 is one of, if not the highest Christological expression in the New Testament. It's also a sermon illustration, an example for us to follow. It's written as an early Christian hymn. It's written in poetical form. Its main point I'll never forget, gonna preach a message on this text, and I've been chewing over the text, and this is years ago, and I was walking down the aisle way to go up to the pulpit to start preaching, and all of a sudden it hit me that the main point of the text wasn't about glorifying Christ, which it does in a beautiful way, but the main driving point of the text is actually in verse five, have this attitude in yourselves. So Paul is giving us not just an exposition of who Christ is and all the glories of Christ in his humiliation and his exaltation, he's giving us a command to think the way that Christ thought, to have this attitude in ourselves. So why did I spend that time working from verse 27 all the way to here? It's because Christ is giving us this section, not only to glorify Christ, but also as a vivid illustration and example for how we're to keep those commands that he gave us. So let's work our way through this beautiful text. I'm going to unpack it and explain it as we go. In verse five, you see, he says, have this attitude in yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus. I kind of hinted this already, but the command is actually in the word attitude. It's the word franiti, and it's an imperative command. But you can't command somebody attitude, right? It doesn't make sense. I could say, run, or leave now before it goes to another hour, and you could all get up and leave now, or you could run away. You can do those actions, but attitude is not an action I can command you to have. But that's actually what the way the command is. One scholar wrote it like this, he said, you could translate it, think this, in yourselves, which Christ also thought. I thought, that's actually a really good way to translate it. But we'll take it the way it's written in the NASB, have this attitude, or take this attitude. The example is Christ who had this attitude and lived according to it. So how will we live the gospel? How will we live with unity? How will we live for others? By taking the same attitude that Christ had and living it out. It's a command to be obeyed. It's not a suggestion to be considered. Well, you consider it, then you obey it. Put it that way. Then in verses 6 to 8, Paul unpacks Christ's attitude for us. In verse 6 continues, who, although he existed in the form of God, I'm going to stop there. Another translation of that would be something like this, who eternally existed in the very nature of God. And Paul is making a very clear statement that the pre-incarnate Son of God existed as truly God. John 1, verse 1 makes the same point, that the Word was in the beginning, He was with God, and He was God, or truly said He is God. In the form of God, that phrase there means that his very nature is truly divine. The Son of God is truly God, as the Father and the Spirit are truly God. The Son has every attribute of deity, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, as surely as the Father and the Spirit are. He is unchangeable in his person, his promises, his purposes, as surely as the Father and the Spirit are. He's holy and righteous and just and good. So the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are of the same essence. They are indeed one God. And Paul is making it absolutely clear that Christ is truly God. He is one of the three persons, but they are all one God. The Trinity is one of those things that you study for a while, then take headache medication because it's just hard to get your head around it. So the question is, is there an application for us from that? How would we apply that particular section of scripture? Listen, we will never, ever become God. I don't want you to ever make that mistake. We who know Jesus Christ as Savior by grace alone, through faith alone, we are adopted sons and daughters. We are, from the moment of regeneration, eternally related to God. We can never lose that relationship, that adoption. It is ours as, if you like, a regenerational birthright. The moment you are born again, you are eternally God's son or God's daughter. You never lose that, can never be taken away from you. As God has, his spirit has worked in you to make you alive. You will stay that relationship with God, the father for all of eternity. If we can see ourselves in that eternal relationship with God, it will free us to live the gospel, even if it leads to suffering and prison and death. To live with humility. Seeing ourselves that way will free us to live with humility, even if it leads to being taken advantage of by others. To see ourselves in that sort of eternal relationship will free us to live for others because every desire of ours is satisfied in our relationship with Christ. Moving on. Second part of verse 6 and the first part of verse 7. The Bible reads, "...who eternally existed in the very nature of God, but did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself." And the key word to understand that sentence is the word for grasp. It's the word harpagmos. And that word, according to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, means something regarded as gain or utilized. The TDNT, that's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, suggests that the verse is best translated like this. He did not regard it as a gain to be equal with God. One scholar expanded and paraphrased it to like this. Listen, he says, the son of God did not conclude that being equal with God consisted of selfishly grasping or looking to use his deity for his own gain or advantage, but in stark contrast, he made himself of no reputation by taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of men. I'm going to read it again. The Son of God did not conclude that being equal with God consisted of selfishly grasping or looking to use his deity for his own gain or advantage, but in stark contrast, he made himself of no reputation by taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of men. Notice again, he uses the not this, but that construction. Okay, so if you go back to my NASB, it says, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. So not that, but that. The son did not regard it as a gain to be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation. The two need to go together in order to clearly understand what Paul's saying. So you can see that Paul is repeating the two extreme opposites from back in verse three. Not with selfish ambition, but with humility of mind. The Son of God did not use his being equal with God as a means to gain, but the extreme opposite. He emptied himself. Don't lose sight of the fact that he is truly God all the time. That never changes. So again, we ask the question, is there an application of this for us? were to take the same attitude, the same thinking that Christ had. So our place, our adoption as sons and daughters of God in the family of God is never to be considered as a means to selfish gain or personal advantage. Pastors and elders, leaders in the church must never use their position to lord it over the flock for selfish advantage. And we have all seen that happen. We've seen it happen where leaders, pastors, elders start using their position of flock for financial gain, for all sorts of gain, for their own advantage. And the example of Christ is not that. The opposite of that. So how will we live and conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel? How will we live with unity? How will we live for others? By living with the same attitude and thinking that Christ had, by concluding that our relationship with God is the opportunity for us to follow Christ's example by emptying ourselves and making ourselves of no reputation. Which brings us to verse 7. Verse 7, the NASB reads, "...but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men." In verse 7, the New King James has a different rendering, and I like it because it gets the idea across a little more clearly. "...but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men." And again, we have a difficult word to understand. It's the word for emptied himself, and it's the word ekkonesin, or ekkonosin, however you say it in Greek. One lexicon defines that as to completely remove or eliminate elements of high status or rank by eliminating... Try it again. Let's start from the beginning again. One lexicon describes this as to completely remove or eliminate elements of high status or rank by eliminating all privileges and prerogatives associated with status or rank. But the problem is Echinocen or Echinicen has the idea of emptying. It's the idea of subtracting, taking away, emptying out, removing. And I struggled, I stumbled over that phrase, emptying out, how to understand that. But it's poetry. It's not used the same way as prose is. And here in this particular case, the act of emptying out, Christ doesn't stop being God. He doesn't lay aside his glory. This is where I made my mistake. I confess my misunderstanding of this. I understood for years that his emptying himself meant to lay aside his visible glory. And I make my apologies. That's not true. Hebrews 1 verse 3 tells us that the Son of God is the radiance of God's glory. His glory is intrinsically His. He cannot simply lay it aside. He cannot lay aside any of His attributes. They're His because He is God. So we understand his emptying or making himself of no reputation as, like this, he veiled his glory so that it could not be seen as he lived out his life on this earth. You go to the Mount Transfiguration, what happens? In a way, if you like, the Lord pulled down that veil just for a second. And the disciples all standing at the Transfiguration were amazed at what they saw. And after a few moments, a cloud covered them again, and that glory was hidden. He veiled his glory so it could not be seen as he lived his life on the earth. So to recap it, the son did not conclude it as a gain to be equal with God, but on the contrary, he made himself of no reputation. Another scholar put it like this, he poured himself out. And Christ is the perfect example of humility, of selflessness. How did he make himself of no reputation? By taking the form of a servant, or more literally, taking the form of a slave, and by coming in the likeness of men. And here we have his humiliation, his condescension, like no other. He did it in love and obedience to God the Father. He did it in love and grace for us, his people. He did it for the purpose of reconciling us to bring sinful men to God, reconciling us not only to God, but also to each other. And again, we ask the question, how do we apply this? I mean, he's saying, have this attitude, and he's talking about things like emptying ourselves, or taking the form of a bonds, or all that kind of stuff. How do we apply it? Paul commands us to take Christ's attitude. He emptied himself. It was totally voluntary. He did it of his own accord. No one forced his hand or compelled him to it. His humiliation, his making himself of no reputation was a striking form of love. And go back to what we've been reading earlier. He's talking about conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. What's it require? It requires us making ourselves of no reputation. It requires us emptying ourselves. It requires us of our own. in quotation marks, free will, putting everything off to make ourselves. It's the picture you have in John 13, right? Jesus at the table, all his disciples are there, their stinking feet aren't washed yet because nobody wanted to go wash them. So what did Jesus do? He rose from the table, went to the outer corner of the room where there was a bowl and a jug of water and a towel, took off his outer garment, wrapped his waist with a towel, poured the water into the bowl, picked up the bowl, went around the back side of his disciples and washed their feet for them. And what he got done, what did he say? He said, I've given you an example for how you should love one another. He voluntarily, in a sense, emptied himself or made himself of no reputation by taking that role of a servant. But it wasn't like he put aside something of his glory or put aside something of his attributes of deity. He kept all those and added to them his flesh and blood and that servanthood that he added. Oh, brothers and sisters, if we would live the gospel, if we would live with unity, if we would live for others, if we would live like Christ, like little Christ, here is where we must begin. Here's where rubber hits road and hits it hard. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who made himself of no reputation, He took the form of a bondservant and he came in the likeness of men. One fellow said it wasn't that the form of God was exchanged for the form of a servant. It was the form of God taking on the form of a servant. And there in that, in tremendous humiliation of himself and his taking on human flesh and blood and taking on the servanthood, we see the glory of God as love, beautifully and perfectly displayed. Because love is what acts for the betterment of the others, of its recipient. And so Christ was willing. Nobody compelled him of his own free will. He laid aside, sorry, no, no, no, don't say that. emptied himself, he made himself of no reputation in order to take on human flesh and take on servanthood, that he might serve his Father, he might serve us, he might become truly God and truly man, that he might live this life and suffer on a cross that we might be saved. That's love. That's love like no other. Notice in verse 8, the Bible says, "...being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Paul's already made a great case for the deity of Christ, the equality of Christ with God. He is truly God. We've already said that. He is now found in appearance as a man, and he is truly man. He's the absolute perfection of humanity. He is man, yet sinless, tempted in every way as we are, yet sinless, yet without sin, without even the possibility of sin. He is man in the image of God, as truly God, in perfect relationship with God, His Father. That's what we were created for. He was enjoying as truly God and truly man what we were created as man for, which is to be in the image of God, relating perfectly with God, our heavenly Father, in fellowship and communion and love and communication. He enjoyed it and knew it as truly man. He is man without the weakness, sorry, he is man knowing the weakness and limitations of humanity, but without sin. He is man knowing weakness, tiredness, hunger, thirst, pain, sorrow, sadness. And Paul repeats the concept he's already described earlier, just as he humbled himself in his deity, so also he humbled himself in his humanity by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Hebrews 5, verses 8 and 9 say this, How could He, as the Son of the living God, truly God and truly man, learn obedience? The idea, as I understand it, behind this is that he learned it by experiencing it. No, he had perfect knowledge. He didn't need to learn as an information. He learned it in the sense of experiencing it. He obeyed without hesitation or limit. He obeyed, submitting his will to the will of the Father. Matthew 26, 39, look at what it says. He went a little further beyond them, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, My Father, If it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. Matthew 26 and verse 42. He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, My father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done. For Christ's obedience knew no limits or exceptions. He poured himself out fully. He humbled himself totally. He obeyed perfectly. What an example to set forth before us. And again, we ask the question, is there an application for us in all of this? And immediately, we can know what it is. To live, to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. It's knowing who we truly are, the eternal, eternally adopted sons and daughters of God. It's never selfishly using that relationship for our own personal gain or advantage. It's making ourselves of no reputation in order to love and to serve God and others. It's obedience to the word and will of God. What is discipleship if it is nothing else? It is obedience. Sometimes you just gotta stop and sit back and you just kind of shake your head in absolute amazement and wonder. It's obedience. How do we get into this mess? Disobedience. Why are we all, every one of us, in this mess? We were born in sin and we started to disobey the moment we could. Already had a sin nature. Disobedience is the problem. And the call to discipleship is a call to obedience. And the very beginning of that obedience is believing the gospel. The first words coming out of Jesus' mouth, recorded in Mark 1, repent and believe the gospel. It's a command to be obeyed. The gospel is not a suggestion, a nice, brightly packaged gift for us to consider and take or leave if we want to. It is a command to be obeyed, and disobedience to that command will reap God's judgment. And so the attitude that we are to take on that Christ displayed so beautifully and so fully was obedience, obedience to the point of death. It begins by obeying the gospel. It continues throughout this whole Christian life as we steadily conform our lives to Christ, but it's never a labor or a chore. Somebody once said to me once, you know, Nelson, you never have to be talked into doing the right thing. He said, but you're always going to be talking to the wrong thing. You ever notice that about yourself? You got something, you know, you want to do. Right? I mean, there's two things on the menu. Green salad with all the healthy vegetables or a bacon cheeseburger with fries and gravy. And I got to talk myself into the bacon cheeseburger, which may surprise you. Because I know the right thing to do is to have the green salad with the horrible dressing and all that stuff. That's the right thing. I know immediately that's what I should do, but I got to talk myself into doing the wrong thing. We find it. We know what the right thing is to do. But the sin nature rears up and says, don't do it. Run away. Do something else. That's boring. Do something fun. Isn't that true? And the whole of the Christian life is a wrestle between that old sin nature that keeps popping its little head up and telling us what he thinks we should do and the work of the spirit of God inside us to bring us that point of obedience where we do what we know we should do. And the Lord Jesus set us this perfect example of obedience to his father. Obedience that didn't say, you know what? I'll take on flesh and blood, no problem. I'm happy to walk around the Judeans and the Galileans. I'm happy to walk along the beach. I'll heal the sick. I'll raise the dead. I'll cast out demons and cleanse lepers. I'll do all that stuff. I'm happy to do that. But the cross, oh, now just a moment. He didn't stop there. The Bible says, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross and despised the shame. And we are talking a moment about God exalting him and his returning to the glory of heaven. But brothers and sisters, he set us the tremendous example of obedience. And Paul says, have this same attitude, think this way that Christ also thought. So my question for us this morning, we'll ask one hard application question. What has God laid on your life that you know you need to do, but you keep saying, whoa, no, no, no. I'll go to church, no problem. I'll quit smoking or I'll quit drinking or I'll quit this other thing, but I'm not doing that. What is it for you? Because, brothers and sisters, that's what discipleship is. That's what conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel is all about. Yes, it's living as regenerated, born again, save people, and that requires obedience. So my question for all of us this morning is, what has God laid on your heart? What one thing that God is calling you to do, and you know you need to do it, because no one has to talk you into it, because the scriptures are clear, and it's absolutely crystal clear, and your conscience is steadily banging away at the side of your head saying, you know you need to do this. Because the example set for us is obedience. Obedience all the way to death. And just as Jesus, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross and despised the shame, so also we, for the joy of relationship with God, can endure and despise the difficulties and the hardships of this Christian life if we would obey. But moving on, for this reason also, God has highly exalted him. How many here watched the coronation last night? A bunch of us, yeah. I gotta admit, I was sort of drawn into it for a while. And I watched, and pardon me, I hope I don't offend anybody by saying this, but I watched all that religious service go on, all those beautiful words, all that interesting imagery and all of that, and I watched one man who is involved in turning the Anglican Church to opening up to homosexual marriage and so on, he's leading the service. I watched as a Catholic man stood in the same group and offered the blessings. I watched as a family that came in and there's dissension and disruption and the family's torn apart. I watched King Charles, God bless him. I hope and I pray that some of the things that were done last night, the Spirit of God would use them to powerfully open that man's eyes to the truth of the gospel. But what I saw was words coming out of a mouth and a heart that was a million miles away. I thought all that guilt, all that finery, all the robes, the crown, the orb, the scepters, the swords, all that stuff. And what struck me as I was thinking, sitting there on the couch beside Heather and John, we were watching this thing, and all I kept thinking about was God has highly exalted him. Forget the finery, forget the gold and guilt. The Lord Jesus Christ ascended and into the heights of heaven, and he was enthroned in the highest throne in existence, never to be removed, never to step down. He doesn't die and somebody take his place. He has been highly exalted and given a name which is above every other name. How many times did they say, God saved the king last night? Dozens. He's King Charles, he signs Charles on one of those documents, and that's the only document he signs between him and the people, all that stuff. It's a name. He's King Charles what, the third or fourth or something, fifth, I don't know. Third, Charles the Third, yeah. There's only one Jesus. He's been given a name that's above every name. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. We saw one son get up out of his chair, come around to the foot of Charles's throne, kneel before Charles's throne, take kings in his hands and his, and swear fealty to the king, stand up and kiss his father on one cheek and go back. And the other son wouldn't get up out of his chair. I get it, he's got his reasons, whatever, put that aside for a sec. You know what? The day to come when the name of Jesus is pronounced, every knee. Stop and think about that. You need a calculator. If there's 7 billion people alive on the earth today, and you go back through all the ages and generations, try and calculate how many people have been born since Adam first walked through the garden until the very last one is born. And a day is gonna come when every single one of those knees will bow before Jesus. Every single one, and they will declare, He is Lord. Oh, no, no, just the believers, the ones that like him will do that. And the rest, no, no, no, no. What does the text say? In heaven, all the heavenly creatures will confess that he is Lord. On earth, every single believer on earth will declare and confess he is Lord. Under the earth, it implies hell. So every single person standing in the fires of hell for all of eternity will still say with everybody else, he's Lord. I was wrong. I'm here because I would not believe, but He is Lord. He's right. Everyone, to the glory of God the Father. You say, how do we apply that text? Brothers and sisters, you know, the end of the golden chain in Romans eight. What's the last one? Glorified. No, we will not have the same glory as the sun. Don't don't make that mistake. But glorified with him. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we're called to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel. The call to live out the gospel in unity, in humility, to take the same attitude that Christ took. To make ourselves of no reputation, to humble ourselves, to serve one another, being willing and ready and obedient, even to the point of death, a death on a cross, and a day to come when all this is over, we're going to be raised to be with Jesus and glorified alongside of him and seated with him in the heavenly places. What a Savior, eh? Hallelujah. What a Savior. Actually, can we sing that again? Does anybody mind? Doesn't matter if you mind or not, we're gonna sing anyway. Brayden, can you go back up to Hallelujah, What a Savior, and we'll sing that one, and then we'll do the communion, okay? Thanks, buddy.