Address—C. Hendricks
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Philippians chapter 2 There are some expressions.
In this chapter, the way they're translated.
That are somewhat difficult to understand from the King James and also from Mr. Darby's translation. So what I did this morning got up quite early.
And I went to my library. I have many, many translations of the Bible there, and I pulled one in, another out.
And read this chapter, this first part of the chapter.
With.
The different ones, and I'm going to read from some of those, but we'll read.
Here at first with our King James of course. Philippians 2 verse one.
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ.
If any comfort of love.
If any fellowship of the Spirit, if any vowels and mercies fulfill ye, my joy that ye be like minded having the same love.
Being of 1 accord.
Of one mind.
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory.
But in lowliness of mind let each esteem other.
Better than themselves.
Look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
There's not much in those four verses that are this difficult to understand.
That last verse looked not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Might be hard to grasp what is meant.
And then we come to.
Verse 5.
Let this mind.
Be in you. We were noticing this morning in the 1St chapter. It's the gospel mind here. It's.
A lowly mind, the Lord Jesus.
And then the.
Perfect mind.
Chapter 3 and 4.
Mind that continues on presses on to the end.
But here, he says to these Philippians.
Can't help but think of the trouble that's occurred up there in Ottawa.
You know, if they only had had these verses before them with real exercise of soul, we might not be faced with this sorrowful situation.
But this mind be in you.
Which was also in Christ Jesus.
Who being in the form of God.
Thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Now that's the expression that could easily be misunderstood.
I'm just going to pause at that expression and read it in this translation, which I think is very, very good. Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God.
Did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.
But emptied himself.
Taking the form of a servant.
That's really the force.
Of this expression.
Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery? It's a picture of a, you might say a invading army that conquers a town. They enter the town, the soldiers one goes in.
And sees something in a house that he's always wanted.
And he grabs it. He says this is mine. I'm not going to ever let this go. This is mine. I've always wanted this. Now I have it.
And that's the thought here. He's, he's robbing, he's coming in as a robber, and he takes what he wants and he seizes upon it and he holds it.
Well, that's that's just the expression that the Spirit of God uses.
It says.
And this translation gives it.
Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped and held on to.
The whole subject of this chapter is humiliation and humbling oneself and taking the low place, and we had much of that this morning.
But how important?
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We have the supreme example in the Lord Jesus.
Let this mind be in you.
Which was also in Christ Jesus.
What was his?
His mind was not like some of the great ones of the earth would think there in high station and.
Maybe a police police officer might stop them and they they might say to the police officer, do you know who I am?
Do you know who I am?
The Lord Jesus didn't have that attitude at all. It's just the opposite.
His mind was being who he was, the highest in the universe.
I think of the verse in Isaiah who will go for us?
And the response here am I.
Send me.
The Sun saith says to the father.
I would go.
I will go to redeem lost mankind.
You know, it was so bad back there in Genesis 6, God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he made man. He said, I'm going to wake him up.
Wipe them out the whole start all over again.
But Noah found grace in his sight.
And only 8 souls, Noah and his wife, their three sons and their three wives were spared.
So we have two federal heads. We have Adam and we have Noah. We come from both of them.
Everyone else was destroyed for flood, almost the whole race of mankind.
And if he looks down today and sees the state of things?
Is it any better?
Than it was back then.
But the difference is that he did come.
Lay the basis for God to receive man now and be righteous in doing so through the death of His Son.
But here we have his mind.
His mind was I will go send me.
I will go.
And he came.
He took the lowest place, he who was the highest.
And when he was here, he traced his footsteps.
He was the most accessible.
Of all men, you know, the great ones of the earth, they're not accessible at all. You look at the book of Esther and Mordecai said to Esther, you've got to go in and plead for your people. You've got to go into the king.
Oh, I haven't been called into his presence. No one dared to go into the presence of the King without being called the Great ones of the earth. They're so unreachable.
They're so far off. Who can have access to them? Well, she went into the court and he looked up and he saw her and he did her to come. He held out the golden scepter and she was accepted. Had he not done that, she could have lost her life.
But here's one that's infinitely greater, higher, more wonderful, more holy.
More majestic, more righteous, more pure.
More powerful.
More understanding.
He came.
For the likes of you and me.
He came.
He said father.
I want my bride and in order to have her, I must go made-up of people like you and me.
Bright, clad in pure fine white linen. That's the way we'll appear in that day, not a stain upon us.
Though we have many now.
Yet He has removed the mall through his precious blood for us.
But if that is anyone in this audience this afternoon that doesn't know Him as your Lord and Savior, your stains are all upon you.
His mind was I will go.
I'll take that place of rejection.
I know what's ahead.
I know what's ahead.
He steadfastly set his face. It says to go to Jerusalem. He knew what awaited him there.
Nothing could determine from that. Nothing could stop him from that.
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I heard, I heard a man, a preacher that I always thought was a modernist.
I think he is.
But I think it was something like the high priest that said he know nothing at all, only not that one man must die for the nation and the whole nation perish. Not this he said, not that he believed, but because he was a high priest and God made him utter those words. And I think that's what it was with this preacher.
Who was not really questionably whether he's really the Lord's. He was talking about this film about the passion of Christ and and they were arguing who put him to death, the Jews or the Gentiles who put him to death. And he said that's foolish.
And he gained my attention when he said that neither one put him to death.
No one could take his life from him.
Unless he permitted it.
That's what he says in John 10, isn't it? No man taketh my life for me. I have power to lay it down and power to take it again. This commandment if I received of my father.
No man put him to death.
Did not die on martyrs death.
He died an atoning death.
Laid his life down.
Because of his infinite love.
For the likes of us.
The likes of us.
This sevenfold descent here starts with the mind.
That is in Christ Jesus. He says to these Saints, that Philip I.
They had some problems, slight problems that not bad.
But uh.
He exhorts them, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, very form of deity, that proves that He is God. Of course, no creature can be in the form of God, but He, the Creator was in the form of God.
Esteem did not.
Something to be retained and held up and seized upon. He didn't take the attitude. I am God. I'll never consider being anything less than God.
No, in order for him to reach you and me, he had to come to where we were.
You had to take.
Humanity upon him.
Had to become a servant.
In exchange, the form of God for the form of a servant tremendous. That means a slave, by the way, a bond slave.
That's all though, he came.
From how high he was the form of God to the form of the servant.
In order to reach.
The likes of us.
Poor Sinner that's standing here talking to you this afternoon.
Saved by grace now.
I once was a Sinner, now I'm a St. He may not see it too much, but that's what God calls me.
And that's what counts.
Thought it not something to be grasped and held onto.
But he emptied himself.
Our King James says he made himself of no reputation. Liberty he emptied himself.
He didn't empty himself at his deity, but he emptied himself of all the glory that he had as the form of God.
He answered himself.
And took upon him the form of the servant. He said the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
The form of a servant. He was made in the likeness of men.
Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.
He didn't go through this world as one of the upper crust of society, no.
How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
By what authority doest thou these things?
I'll ask you one question. Baptism of John, was it of heaven or of men?
And they talked among themselves, and they said, we cannot tell. And he said, neither tell are you by what authority I do these things. He had the authority of God behind him in all that he did.
They wouldn't have it. They wouldn't have it.
Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself first. He emptied himself. You don't get that in our King James. It just says he took, he made himself of no reputation, which is true. But that's a paraphrase and it's not the literal He emptied himself.
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And that's I remember a brother questioned me on that one time and the second stanza of 27 Oh, what wondrous love and mercy thou didst lay thy glory by.
He emptied himself of that glory.
And for us did come from heaven as the Lamb God to die. I think the closest one that would come to the Lord Jesus in his life was the Apostle Paul. He was the upper crust of society.
He sat at the feet of Gamaliel. He was taught by the highest. He was educated. The other 12 were just fishermen.
They they didn't have a great status in society, but the apostle Paul did.
Saul of Tarsus did.
And he's the one that suffered the most.
He was most like.
His master, he came from the highest place, the strata of humanity. Saul did, and he went down to the lowest.
To the lowest.
Just like his master, he says in Philippians 3. And we'll come to that probably tomorrow.
That he wanted to be just like his master.
Even in death.
Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.
Now he did that.
And he starts that, He starts that road down with, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Now let's back up to the first part of the chapter. Can't help but apply these verses to what's.
Going on in another place where the Saints are loggerheads with one another, let's see what the word of God says.
There be therefore, any consolation in Christ.
If any comfort of love.
If any fellowship of the Spirit.
If any bowels and mercies.
Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded.
He said if you want to just complete this and justice, fill my heart with joy overflowing, be like minded.
Those that I was thinking of and talking about were not like mine.
Having the same love, they didn't have the same love.
Not the way it seems.
Being of 1 accord, they were not of 1 accord.
Of one mind.
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory. All of that if they had just read these verses and searched their souls. All of us by pointing my finger at anyone. Because we're all God is speaking to, every one of us, to all of us. There's not any of us better than the other.
We're all sinners saved by grace.
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem other better than themselves.
Look, not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others. That is always be serving, helping others wherever there was a need. And there's plenty of needs everywhere.
In this world.
When you read these verses like this and how the apostle just gave exactly what was needed to meet the condition of things that has existed.
Many times in Christendom.
In different churches.
Groups of God's people.
Even amongst those gathered to his precious name, they just read this from this other translation.
So if there is any encouragement in Christ.
Any incentive of love?
Any participation in the Spirit?
Any affection and sympathy complete my joy of by being of the same mind.
Having the same love.
Being in full accord and of one mind.
Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better.
Than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests.
But also to the interests of others. That I think is clearer to understand for me than this way it's put here. Maybe not for you.
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Now here's another translation.
If therefore in.
Relationship with Christ there is any encouragement?
If there is any persuasive appeal of love.
If there is any fellowship in the spirit.
If any deep felt affections and sympathies, then make my joy complete, Paul says. By your mutual identity of purpose, your common object of love, your fellowship of feeling, and your harmonious thinking.
You will not act from factional party spirit, that is, from factional motives or out of vanity, but with humble mindedness. Each will regard the other superior to himself.
Low place that the Lord Jesus, who is in the highest place took.
Laid His glory by.
And for us came down from heaven as the Lamb of God to die.
So he relinquished his glories.
He just said I'm going to come into the lowest, the lowest place.
Down here.
And even let's read it, verse 8, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross, even the death of a common criminal, that's what the cross was.
The very worst punishment man had ever devised to heap upon a fellow man.
And that's what they gave to the Lord of glory.
So he relinquished all his glory, set aside his robes, and all that would attach to him in the form of God.
And.
Became a lowly Carpenter, born in a stable lady in a Manger.
No place to lay his head.
You know, on the cross. He finally found a place where he could lay his head.
He said it is finished, and he laid his head on his own bosom.
A resting place. It is finished.
And until it was finished, he didn't have a place to lay his head.
When it was finished.
He said I'm finished, it's done, I can rest now.
Because I've secured the salvation for them that is necessary so that I can have my bride, Verse 9 says, Wherefore because he did all this, he went to the extremity of suffering.
God also hath highly exalted him.
And given him a name which is above every name.
That at the name of Jesus.
Every knee should bow things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth.
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So what he set aside, and what he reminquished, he laid his glory by. Now he gets it back, and then some in resurrection.
As man.
It's all his.
It's all his now.
The way up is down.
In God's school.
Just the opposite to the way man thinks in man's psychology and all that.
Philosophy. Just the opposite.
But he took the very lowest place. Impossible to go lower than he went, impossible for man to go higher than he is gone.
And we'll be there.
Very shortly.
To be with him.
How wonderful.
That is.
God also had highly exalted him. This time it's a man.
The one that laid aside is glory, the form of God, and took upon him the form of the servant, and being founded, fashioned as a man, he humbled himself, and now God has glorified that man.
And we'll be in the presence of that man for all eternity.
God is a spirit, and you can't see a spirit, but you'll see that man.
Philip said to him, Show us the father, and it sufficeth us. And he said, Philip, have I been so long time with you and yet that I has not known me? He that has seen me has seen the father.
And when we are in the presence of that man in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.
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In that man will see the father.
Like father, like son, we use that expression even in life here. Like father, like son.
Father was eating a peanut butter sandwich.
Spread the peanut butter on the bread and he folded it over.
Started to eat it. This little girl said you fold it over daddy. Well, he said my dad always did it.
And so I do it.
Because I love my dad.
And so the next minute, just before she bites, she pulls it over.
And takes a bite and sandwich.
Because she loved her dad too.
And that, blessed man, is the closest picture that God could give.
Of who he is.
He had to come as a man. He had to come to where we were. He had to come so that that we could see Him, feel Him, touch him, handle Him, as as John says in in first John. That that which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen, which we have looked upon in our hands, have handled of the word of life. Well, the life was manifested and we have seen it. And declare unto you that eternal life that was with the Father.
Manifested to us. Manifested as a man.
How well do you know him? How well do I know him? How well do we know that man? We're going to spend eternity with him.
You know he was the luminous man on Earth.
They didn't understand him, his own. His own disciples didn't understand him.
And yet he loved them with an eternal love.
I think Mary Magdalene who out of whom he had cast 7 demons, she got to know him in a way that Peter and John didn't because they they want their own home and she stayed there right at the tomb and so she met him as the risen Christ and he said Mary.
Mary. And at that sound of his voice giving out her name, he calls his own sheep by name.
And leads him out. He lead, feeds her out of Judaism into Christianity. That's the picture. He says, touch me not, I've not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and tell them, I ascend unto my father, and to your father, to my God and to your God.
And she goes back and says to the brethren.
He called you my breath, man, He said. Go to my brethren and tell them I ascend to my father, and your father to my God and your God.
And if I was one of those there, I would have said, would you please repeat that?
What did he say? He called us, brethren, after we all forsook him and fled.
Left him alone, dying on the cross.
Some later went went there. Peter denied him with oaths and curses. Judas betrayed him.
You think you're any better than Peter?
Who denied him? No, you're not.
I'm not.
So thankful for Peter.
He was restored.
And he said feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed my sheep gave him the very, very responsible place in the early church.
He uses failures.
He uses those that aren't perfect. Thank God he does because it required perfection. There wouldn't be anyone.
Preaching the Gospel.
Anyone giving out the word?
Because we're all failures.
But he's the great, He's the great physician. He can fix failures perfectly.
And use them for His glory.
Let's turn back, we have the time to John 17.
He has in view in this chapter.
It's his prayers, the sons of the Father.
He has in view the glory that he's going to enter into.
He has.
Though this was uttered before the cross, he is in his soul beyond the cross, after the work was accomplished. I'll show you why he says why I say that.
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come, Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.
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How does the Son glorify the Father now? He gives eternal life to as many as the Father gave him.
As thou has given him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him, that you are a love gift of the Father to the Son, and He gives eternal life to you, to me, to each one of us.
This is life eternal. What is it? What does it consists of?
This is life eternal, that they might know thee, Father, good Father, the only true God.
And Jesus Christ to my son. That's the Son to know the Father and the Son.
That's life eternal.
That's the fullness of it. And then he says, I have glorified thee on the earth. Now He uttered those words before that was finished the work, but he speaks as though it's finished. And this whole prayer was uttered before He died, and applies after His death and resurrection.
I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was, but now as a man.
Read it again.
A man addressing his Father, he says, Now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee as the eternal Son, glory I had with thee as the eternal Son of God.
Glory, which I had with thee before the world was. But he's asking for it as a man now, the risen man who has put our sins away.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. What a statement.
He says his disciples, the men that the Father had given him out of the world, they have kept thy word.
What he did is he looked at their faith.
And imputed to them the value that he saw in their faith.
They kept.
Thy were.
Peter denied him three times. How could he say that of Peter? Because he looked beyond the failure to the faith that Peter had.
And that was real. And that's the only thing that lasts. All our failures don't last. They're gone.
Washed away by the precious blood.
But what is of himself will never go away. It will always be there.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. That's what these accompanied with him when he was here below. They've come to know that.
All things whatsoever thou has given me out of thee.
So all the works that he did and the words that he spoke, they were of the Father. And he tells us that in the Gospel of John, the words that I speak of the Father's words, the works that I work are the Father's works.
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them.
And have known surely, that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
How precious it come to know the father sent the son.
To be the savior of the world.
I pray for them, he says, and that includes all of us. We haven't come to that yet in this chapter, but we will in a moment. I pray for them now. He's talking about his disciples accompanied him with him when he was here below.
I pray not for the world.
World is under judgment.
But for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine. Just that exchange of minds and vines show how that he is one with the Father, Co equal with the Father.
He says they are thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine.
Only one who is Co equal with the Father could say such words, but he speaks these words as a man.
When I am glorified in them. Tremendous statement.
He's glorified in US.
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. You see, He was past being in the world. He was past that in his prayer. And though he was in the world when he said these words, but the the prayer applies after he had left this scene. I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to the Holy Father. Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me.
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For they that they may be one as we are one.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost. But the son of Perdition. That was Judas Iscariot, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
The Lord says friend.
What thou doest do quickly betray us, thou, the Son of man, with a kiss.
Do quickly.
Good word for that man that he had never been born.
And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
We were talking about joy in Philippians and he says I want you to have my joy.
That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them.
Now through verse 13 of John 17, he's talking about the intimacy that he has with his own, his own, and now he talks about the world, the enemy, the enemy.
And he says.
Verse 12.
Verse Verse 13 And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. That's the end of that first part of the prayer, and then the second part where the world is brought in. I've given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
We are, as much as he not of this world.
We are like him.
You know what the world did to him.
They hate us.
If we stand for Him, you can talk about God in a very vague and general way, but bring in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I remember when I got saved in college, I took a course in religion. It was a mistake, The man that was.
Teaching the course was not not a believer. Definitely not. He ridiculed the Bible.
And whenever I talked about the Lord Jesus Christ, I told given his full title, the Lord Jesus Christ, and they looked upon me with anger. Don't, don't call him that. Don't call him that no more. They said that the more I call them Lord Jesus Christ. I hate that name. They hate that person. Why?
Because they're the world, and the world hates Christ.
And now come I to thee.
And these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I've given them thy word, and the world hath hated them.
Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil.
Remember. Remember these verses in John 15 where he says how the world hates us?
Because we belong to Christ.
And here he says it again.
He says to the Father, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. He's left us here to be a witness for Him to an evil world.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. He repeats that.
We are to be as separate from the world as he was, and yet the most accessible of all men, the one that was always there to to meet every need and so on. We should be like that, but not of it. We're in it, but not of it.
And then he said, sanctify them through thy truth. That's what sets us apart. That's what enables us to to live a godly and a holy life is the word of truth.
Thy word is truth.
As thou has sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world. Father sent the Son, now the Son sends us.
To witness for him and for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified.
Through the truth.
He sets himself apart on high.
That he now prays for us and leads us through all the difficulties of the way lasers of this world.
He says for their sakes, I sanctify myself. I set myself apart to.
Guide them through this world system.
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That they also may be sanctified for the through the truth. And then now here's where he opens his prayer up to include us. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word. Up to that verse. He was just praying for the disciples that were around him when he was here below. But now he extends it to all that would believe through the centuries on him.
That they all may be 1.
As thou Father art in me, and I am Thee, that they also may be one in US, that the world may believe that thou hast sent the oath. If Christians, if we would only let these verses come into our souls.
He's made US1 with himself and with one another.
How can there be trouble? How can there be dissension? How can there be divisions?
Makes you weep.
Grieves his heart.
And all their affliction he was afflicted.
It ought to grieve our hearts as well.
But there's a coming day of glory. If we had only remained in unity, the Church, throughout the century, the world would believe that the Father sent the Son. That's what he says there in verse 21, That they all may be one as thou Father argued me, and I envy that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
But there's a day coming.
The same 7 remained together in unity. The world doesn't believe it. Why should they believe our testimony? Why should they believe what we tell them? We can't even get along among ourselves. They'd say that's that.
But there's a coming day of glory, and the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them.
That they may be 1 even as we are one that's of Oneness in glory that's coming. He speaks of it here as though it's already accomplished. I am them and vowing me that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know.
Not believe now, but that the world may know that Thou has sent me and more how thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.
They'll know that when they see us in the same glory as the sun, when he comes back and we come back with him.
They will know that He solved us that way.
Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.
This is final part of his prayer.
Positive part there, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me.
For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. That's a special glory which is only conferred upon Him.
But will be privileged, The only ones I believe. I don't think the angels will see this, will behold that glory, that special glory.
For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. And then he talks about the world once again. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou has sent me.
These have known that thou hast sent me, You and I have known the Father has sent him.
That separates us from this world system completely.
And absolutely.
And I have declared unto them thy name, the name of the Father, and will declare it.
That the love wherewithal has loved me.
Maybe in them?
And I and them.