[0:00] Seeking the Lord's blessing and help, let us turn back to the portion of scripture that we read together. Paul's letter to the Philippians chapter 2, and we'll read again from verse 5.
[0:16] Having this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.
[0:30] But made himself nothing, taken the form of a servant, been born in the likeness of men, and been found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
[0:50] Now we started looking and reflecting on this portion in the morning, and we'll just continue this evening. We spent a lot of time on the first part of our text, and tonight we'll focus on the second part of the text.
[1:08] The Apostle Paul knew the church at Philippi well, because it was the first church that he established in Europe. And in this part of the letter that he wrote to them, he exhorts them to be united together as humble servants.
[1:28] Paul's purpose in this letter, and particularly this chapter 2, is to create such a behavior among the believers that he deems appropriate for those whose citizenship is in heaven.
[1:44] Paul is reminding the believers that they are citizens of a far greater and infinitely more glorious kingdom than Rome, that they are the citizens of heaven where Christ their Lord and Saviour reigns at God's right hand.
[2:02] Therefore, he insists on this oneness and togetherness among believers. Because of the social culture of the day, the congregation at Philippi was in danger of breaking down because of a competitive spirit creeping in among the members through self-ambition and conceit.
[2:29] And so in verse 1 to 4, Paul urged them to practice humble, self-sacrifice, and self-denying service. And then in verse 5, he asks them to have the same mind which is theirs in Christ Jesus.
[2:45] Have the same mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. In other words, to have the mind of Christ. And in verse 6, he illustrates what he means by pointing to Christ as the model or the example for behavior, the motive for behavior.
[3:06] The humble mindset that was evident in Jesus must be seen on all those who follow Jesus. And so Paul urged the church at Philippi to follow the example of Christ, who humbled himself.
[3:24] He has already urged them to act in a way that is proper for those who are in Christ, those who are united to Christ, those who love Christ and who are followers of Christ.
[3:36] They are to think about each other as those who have a shared identity in Christ. They were to have among themselves the frame of mind and disposition or mindset that he has just described here in verses 1 to 4.
[3:56] As those who have the mindset of Christ. They were to develop this attitude by following the example of Christ, which he sets out in verse 6 onwards.
[4:11] Paul begins by taking us to consider Christ in his pre-incarnate state. He was in the form of God.
[4:21] He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. What Paul is telling us or pointing to us is that the pre-human Christ shared fully in the very nature and essence of God.
[4:38] To borrow from the creed, he is the very God of very God. We use the Shorter Catechism to keep ourselves focused, which teaches us that there is only one true living God, but three persons within the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
[5:01] Jesus is God, equal with God. But he made himself nothing, or he emptied himself, or he made himself of no reputation.
[5:16] And he did so by taking the form of a servant or a slave and being born in the likeness of men. Now, what does that mean?
[5:26] Well, we noted this morning, Christ, being equal with God, had glories or prerogatives or rights or the privileges that belongs to deity.
[5:42] He had the rights of being immune from suffering and pain and poverty and so on. But he did not cling to them in a grasping way.
[5:52] He did not regard them as something to be taken advantage of. Instead, he took upon him the form of a servant or the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men.
[6:09] The pre-incarnate Christ, the pre-existent Son, regarded equality with God not as something to excuse him from the task of suffering and dying to bring about our redemption, but actually as uniquely qualifying him for the mission that he purposed to fulfill in the world.
[6:38] Thomas Aquinas wrote, He emptied himself not by laying down the divine nature, but by taking human nature. Or Augustine who wrote, Thus he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, not losing the form of God.
[6:58] The form of a servant was added. The form of God did not pass away. So we have the God-man, Jesus Christ.
[7:13] Paul is saying that Jesus took the form of a servant, that it wasn't merely the external appearance of a servant or of a slave.
[7:27] Christ did merely take on the outward appearance of a slave, that he should look like a slave, though possibly he could have taken that external appearance.
[7:39] But this goes much deeper than that. He's not saying that Christ distinguished himself, or disguised himself rather, as a slave.
[7:53] But rather he meant that Christ took the nature or characteristic attributes of a slave. He was distinguished as a slave, a true slave, a true servant of the Father.
[8:11] Slavery in the Roman world meant the lack of rights. A slave in the Roman world was a piece of property to be bought and sold.
[8:22] Slavery denied a person the right to anything, even his own life. Unlike other people, a slave had no inherent rights. To ascertain to Jesus, therefore, the status of a slave was to assign to him a position of greatest humiliation and scorn in the social world in which these people moved.
[8:48] It meant more in the world of this day than it does for us tonight. To be a slave in the ancient world really was to have nothing.
[9:03] To have nothing. And Christ was like a slave. He voluntarily became a slave, laying aside all his prerogatives as the Son of God.
[9:16] Laying aside all his glories, all his privileges as the Son of God. He veiled all his rights by clothing himself in human nature.
[9:28] As stated for us in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, where he says, 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 by his poverty might become rich.
[9:49] Now, when a rich man becomes poor, his manner of existence is changed, but not his nature as a person.
[9:59] Christ never ceased to be the divine Son of God. Yet he veiled up the riches and the prerogatives of heaven for the lowliness and poverty of our life in Palestine.
[10:18] Taking the form of a servant or a slave was not God minus, but it was God plus. Taking the form of a servant was not God minus, but God plus.
[10:35] He became the God man. Christ taking the form of a slave meant that he became dependent on his Father and became dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit.
[10:53] As we go and as we reflect through the gospel, even up to the point of the cross, we must remember that he was the Father's servant.
[11:06] From the very beginning of his life in this world, until he said it is finished and commended his spirit into the hands of the Father, he was a servant.
[11:18] He was a servant. Christ taking the form of a slave meant that he, as we already noted, became poor.
[11:30] He said, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. He puts himself voluntary into the circumstances wherein people mocked him.
[11:46] They spat on him. They made fun of him. He was treated with rudeness. He was treated with contempt. His glory was veiled, and he was despised, and he was rejected of men.
[12:03] They saw no beauty in him that they should decide him. He was a root out of a dry ground, without form or comeliness. He was born in the likeness of men.
[12:20] He was born or made in the likeness of men, which immediately suggests a beginning or becoming of men.
[12:30] It marks the assumption of something new. Jesus became something he had not previously been.
[12:44] The Word became flesh. As we have already noted, he added a human nature to his divine person, so that, in accordance with our catechism, he had two distinct natures, a divine nature and a human nature.
[13:07] Now, we must remember, and it is important for us to remember, that these natures were not mixed. They were distinct natures, a divine nature and a human nature, in one person, it's not two persons, in one persons.
[13:24] Two distinct natures, that is, divine and human, but he remained one person forever. Again, we have the God-man, or, to use the biblical term, we have God manifest in the flesh.
[13:41] He was not part man and part God, nor a mixture of both. Two distinct natures, but one person. As another person has said, he became what he was not, but continued to be what he always was.
[14:01] God, not God minus, but God added. He added a new nature to himself that he didn't have before, a human nature.
[14:17] Now, the method by which this was achieved was miraculous conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary. In Galatians chapter 4, Paul wrote, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.
[14:36] Luke records for us the words of the angel to Mary, the mother of Jesus. When the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
[14:53] He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
[15:10] And Mary replied, How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered out, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
[15:21] Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. The eternal Son of God became the earthly Son of Mary.
[15:36] He became the last Adam. Whereas the first Adam, he had a beginning, but no birth. The last Adam had a birth, but no beginning.
[15:50] Christ took everything that is involved in becoming truly human, except one thing, sin.
[16:04] From the moment of his conception in the womb of his mother, everything about his humanity fell with the normal, natural parameters. He developed normally inside his mother's womb.
[16:18] His development took about nine months, and when he was born, his mother felt all the birth pains, and he was born just like any other baby.
[16:29] Although, eternally, he was God, and remained God, but he became man. He had a human body.
[16:42] He had a human soul. He had a human mind. He had a human will. Christ had two wills. He had a divine will and a human will.
[16:56] He grew up just like any other normal boy. Luke writes for us, that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.
[17:08] He grew from being a baby to childhood, from childhood to being a teenager, and from being a teenager to adulthood. He had to learn to walk and to talk.
[17:23] He was hungry. He was tired. He was thirsty. He was, like any other human baby, dependent on his mother. He had to be washed and fed by Mary.
[17:38] Remember how, on a certain occasion, that he asked a Samaritan woman, will you give me to drink? He knew what it was to be hungry, tired, and thirsty.
[17:50] He experienced a whole range of human emotions. He experienced love and anger and sorrow and joy and compassion and many more.
[18:02] There is no record in the Bible that Jesus ever smiled or laughed. But I think it would be ridiculous to suggest that he never did either.
[18:13] John Calvin says, those who imagine that the Son of God was exempt from human passions do not truly and seriously acknowledge him to be a man.
[18:27] There is not simply the physical and emotional life of Jesus, but also the spiritual life. He was tempted in every way, just as we are.
[18:40] we sometimes, we confine this to his confrontation with Satan in the desert. It is interesting what Luke writes regarding that.
[18:55] Luke says, and when the devil had ended all the temptations, he departed from him for a season. For a season.
[19:05] Jesus was tempted throughout his life, just as we are. He was dependent upon prayer.
[19:17] He was a praying man. And this is what Hugh Martin says about prayer. He says, prayer is a confession of weakness and of insufficiency, which illustrates the true nature of his humiliation.
[19:35] His prayer life was part of his humiliation, wherein he confessed his weakness. His dependence upon his Father and the Holy Spirit.
[19:54] He attended public worship. His practice was always to go to the synagogue on the Lord's day and to worship in the synagogue. He studied the Bible.
[20:08] He also had all the sinless limitations that belong to us. There were things he did not know. For instance, he did not know about his second coming.
[20:23] Matt records those words of Jesus. He says, but of that day and that thou knoweth no man. No, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
[20:39] That was a limitation to his knowledge. It wasn't sinful. It was a sinless limitation. And the same that we have, we do not know either the day of his second coming.
[20:53] Only God the Father knows. remember how he asked the father of a demon-possessed boy, how long has he been like this? He didn't know.
[21:05] He had to be told how long this boy was demon-possessed. And what this brings before us is the marvel of his condescension.
[21:18] The marvel of his condescension. God is everywhere. There is no space, there is no place where God isn't.
[21:31] He's omnipresent. Sometimes people say that he left heaven. Well, we have to be, I think, very careful with that phrase.
[21:42] He is God, and God is omnipresent. God is everywhere. I always prefer to say that the Son condescended to take upon himself human nature.
[22:00] He who was truly God became truly man, and remained truly God. His human nature, it could only be in one place at a time.
[22:14] It could only be in one place at one time. In the person of Jesus Christ, we have the God man.
[22:26] One person with two distinct natures, so that the one person can be infinite and yet finite. The one person can be omniscient, knowing all, and yet ignorant.
[22:43] The one person can be omnipotent, and yet powerless. Now, that's a mystery. It's a mystery to me, and it's a mystery to you, and yet it is a fact that is brought before us regarding the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[23:05] The one who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, or emptied himself, or made himself of no reputation by taking the form of a servant, or the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men.
[23:26] All I want to say before we move on is that although Christ took unto him human nature, it was a nature that was sinless.
[23:38] David says in Psalm 51, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
[23:49] That was never true of Christ. I can sing these words, and you can sing these words, and they are true of me and you. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
[24:05] But Jesus could never utter such words. Paul wrote to the Romans and he says, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
[24:20] He was like our sinful nature, but his nature was not sinful. He was like us, but he was sinless.
[24:36] He was like our sinful nature in the points that we have already noted this evening. Although he could not utter those words of David, he could say, thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts, as he was being fed by his mother like any other baby.
[24:59] He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, but without sin. he took upon him the form of a slave, and was made in the likeness of men, and been found in fashion as a man, or been found in human form.
[25:19] He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death on a cross. to those who looked at him as he walked the streets of Galilee and the shores of Galilee, he was in fashion as a man.
[25:40] All they saw was the appearance of a man, and that was all, an ordinary man. They saw nothing to distinguish him physically. There was no sign of his unique divine status.
[25:55] All they saw was that which was ordinary. he was a man in poverty. He was homeless. He was frail, not exceedingly popular, and rejected by the religious elite of those days.
[26:11] No one was able to see the deity that was sitting beneath the veil of his humanity, because it required faith to see beyond the veil and the appearance of humanity.
[26:27] And the gospel gives us testimony that there were some who by faith saw beyond the veil and appearance of his humanity and saw him truly as the son of God.
[26:44] Bringing us to the cross, remember the centurion. Truly, this was no other than the son of God.
[26:55] Which leads us to believe that he said these words by faith. By faith. Now, previously, we saw the decision of the pre-incarnate Christ.
[27:11] Now, Paul brings before us the decision of the incarnate Christ. We have here, have this mind among yourselves which is used in Christ. And then he gives us the decision of the pre-incarnate Christ.
[27:29] And he says, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.
[27:42] And then he gives us the decisions of the incarnate Christ. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
[28:04] Our catechism, again, as I do not at all apologize for using the shorter catechism so often to day because I believe it is a body of divinity that ought to be taught to our children and that we ought to look at ourselves and refresh our own minds and understanding of the shorter catechism.
[28:28] Wherein, he says, Christ's humiliation consists. Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born and that in a low condition made under the law undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God and the cursed death of the cross and being buried and continuing under the power of death for a time.
[28:52] Now, we are not to confine his humiliation to the act, although the incarnation was an act of humiliation, but his humiliation continued in his status as man.
[29:09] So, we read that he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
[29:19] Really, his whole earthly life was a life of continuous humiliation. And his humbling was made manifest in his obedience.
[29:34] obedience. To whom was he obedient? Well, that can be answered quite broadly. He was obedient to Joseph, and he was obedient to his mother.
[29:50] But, verse 9, in this here, in this chapter, it makes it plain to us that he was obedient to the one who exalted him. Therefore, God has highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.
[30:10] Now, just in point of passing, it is interesting in the words of our text that there from verse 6 onwards, it is the decision of Christ.
[30:22] He humbled himself, but Christ did not exalt himself, because it says here, God has highly exalted him.
[30:35] And I think that is very significant, and I think there's a lot of lessons there for me and you, that the one who humbles himself, God will exalt, but the one who exalts himself, God will humble.
[30:52] But anyway, returning to the text, to whom was he obedient? Well, he was obedient to the one who exalted him, that he was obedient to God. In the gospel of John chapter 6, Jesus says, For I came down from heaven, not to do my known will, but the will of him that sent me.
[31:15] John chapter 8, The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him. And as he made his way from the upper room with his eleven disciples, he said, As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do, arise, let us go hence.
[31:34] He could honestly say, I have kept my Father's commandment. And to what point was he obedient?
[31:46] Well, it says here that he became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
[31:59] He became obedient, not simply to the point, yes, well, he became obedient to the point of death, but there's a depth in that.
[32:11] That doesn't just mean that he came to obedience just to the point of him dying. He was obedient in death itself. He was obedient in death itself.
[32:25] He became obedient to the point of the means that he was obedient in the death itself, because he gave his spirit into the hands of the Father.
[32:38] To what point was he obedient? And to death, even the death on the cross. The human nature of Christ was mortal. He was able to die. But as we have already noted, it was unfallen human nature.
[32:54] He was sinless. When we are conceived, as we have already noted in the words of David, we are conceived with a fallen nature.
[33:05] We come into this world as sinners. But that was not true of Christ. He had a true human nature, but not fallen nature.
[33:17] His human nature was weak because he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, not weak because he had a fallen nature. There is no indication that death was inevitable for Christ.
[33:35] All men die whether they want it or not because death is the wages of sin. Yet death was not inevitable for him in his humanity and that it was unfallen human nature.
[33:51] Perhaps we could say that it was like Adam before he sinned. Adam before he sinned had unfallen human nature. We read that Adam became disobedient unto death, but Christ however obeyed unto death.
[34:12] Adam became disobedient unto death, but here is one who obeyed into death.
[34:22] That was not possible for anyone else, to be obedient into death. That's why the point I was trying to stress there when I was pointing out that he became obedient to the point of death, he was obedient even in death itself, because he gave his life.
[34:49] Death could not take a hold of him until he gave permission to death to take a hold of him. To take a hold of him.
[34:59] That's just the point that I'm trying to stress, the depth of that phrase that we have, that he became obedient to the point of death.
[35:13] And that was not possible for anyone else. It was not a common death, but the death on the cross.
[35:24] For the church at Philippi, Paul's remarks would be extremely striking. Crucifixion was consisted as a barbaric form of execution of the utmost cruelty.
[35:37] It was a form of execution reserved for rebellious foreigners or violent criminals and robbers. And it was considered the typical punishment of slaves.
[35:52] It was a death to which the law had added a curse. In the Old Testament we read, if a man committed a sin worthy of death and he has to be put to death and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day.
[36:13] For he that is hanged is accursed of God, that the land may not be defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee for inheritance. It was a curse under the curse of God.
[36:32] And on that cross, Jesus not only took the curse upon himself, the curse that was upon me and you, because of our sin, he not only took that curse, but he exhausted the curse.
[36:51] The justice of God was satisfied. The justice of God was satisfied. Jesus did not die a gentle death, but he died as a slave or a common criminal in torment on a cross of shame.
[37:13] His death was substitutionary. Christ's death was a substitute. It was for others, for he need not die for himself.
[37:25] And death could not take hold of him because he was sinless. He gave himself to death. He was obedient to the point of death, and I've already tried at least in some small measure to explain the depth of that phrase.
[37:45] Christ taking our place, substituting for us himself, in his death on the cross. He paid the penalty that was due to our sins by taking our sin upon himself.
[38:01] For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He took what belonged to us, and he gave us what belonged to him.
[38:20] He took the rags of our sin, and he gave us the robe of his righteousness.
[38:33] Isaiah 53 brings to us the nature of Christ's death. He says, Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did his demons, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
[38:46] But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
[38:57] All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[39:09] The cross became the place of exchange. Our sins reckoned to him, and his righteousness reckoned to all those who will believe and trust and follow Jesus.
[39:27] Christ, the eternal Son of God, the very God of very God, took to himself a true human nature, surrendering his divine rights, veiled his personal glory, and lived his life on earth as a man in total dependence on the Father and on the Holy Spirit.
[39:48] He died like a slave or a common criminal in torment on a cross. There were moments of anguish that tore his soul.
[40:00] When he was almost overwhelmed by the thought of it, in the Garden of Gethsemane, three times he prayed, O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt, surrendering himself to the will of his Father.
[40:22] His human nature trembling in the Garden of Gethsemane, and as Hugh Martin says, it was only the shadow of Calvary.
[40:34] It was only the shadow of the cross. And yet his humanity trembled at what was before him because it was true humanity.
[40:48] It was a true human nature. Oh, we remember when Philip took the Greeks to see him. Jesus said, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?
[41:01] Father, save me from this out, but for this cause came I into this hour. Oh, there was a time when his sweat drops like blood, and when there were tears in his eyes.
[41:13] As the writer to the Hebrews says, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered prayers and supplications, was thrown crying and tears into him that was able to save him from death.
[41:28] Jesus' supreme example of selflessness and obedience should lead and encourage believers to abandon all self-serving attitudes.
[41:40] And that is the point why Paul is bringing this before the church at Philippi. He says, Christ is your example.
[41:52] He is the motive to take away all that self-ambition and conceit and trying to have the preeminence. He is the one who teaches us humility, what it is to humble ourselves.
[42:07] ourselves. Paul was teaching the church at Philippi that Jesus Christ is the perfect example of humbleness and servitude.
[42:18] Never has anyone, nor will anyone again, surrender so much to become so low. Jesus took on manhood, even the form of a slave, so that he could bear our sin and receive his just punishment in his own body.
[42:40] He died the death of a criminal for the purpose of providing redemption and salvation and life to me and you if we trust in him.
[42:52] Christ is the perfect example for all believers of being a humble servant to one another. Believers should strive to develop this mindset that has been given to us here and set before us here.
[43:10] Realize that the ultimate reason that Jesus became a man was to bear our sin and die on the cross for sinners. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
[43:30] Yes, much else was done by Jesus which we read in the Gospels but that the heart of his coming and taking our human nature was this purpose to bear our sin to bear what our sins deserved to bear the death that we deserved to die our death and to be victorious to be victorious as we are reminded of every Lord's Day of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[44:07] What an amazing truth that is. The eternal Son of God condescending from the glories of heaven and took our human nature for one ultimate prevalent and central purpose to bear the sin or what our sins deserve those sins that we have committed what they deserve and to die the death that we deserve because he knew that this is the only way whereby sinners like me and you could be saved.
[44:49] There is no other way that we can be saved. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.
[45:01] There is no other way whereby sinners can be saved but in Jesus Christ. And what does my salvation mean to me tonight?
[45:12] What does Jesus mean for me tonight? The one who condescended, the one who was God and who condescended by taking upon himself my nature so that in my nature he could bear what my sins deserved in his own person and so that I could be saved and that I could have life.
[45:44] He came and went to the cross for others. He came and went to the cross so that sinners like me and you could be saved.
[46:02] Who, though he was in the form of God, who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, to be held on to, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, a shameful, cursed death of the cross.
[46:36] And then we have these words that we're not going to dwell on tonight, but they are connected. Therefore, God, has highly exalted him, which tells us that he satisfied the justice of God that stood between God and the sinner.
[46:59] That in Jesus we can have peace with God. That in Jesus we can be reconciled to God. That in Jesus that relationship with God that was broken by sin can be restored to us.
[47:16] And there is no other way but in Jesus. No wonder the writer to the Hebrew says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
[47:35] think of the day of judgment when we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And for those who have been under the gospel, who's heard the gospel message, who's been exhorted to believe in Jesus, who has sat where you are sitting, who has sat within this building, and yet who left this world faithless when they appear before Christ, they will be with no excuse.
[48:10] And Christ says, this is salvation. I condescended. I condescended, and I veiled the prerogatives that belonged to me, the rights that belonged to me.
[48:25] I did not grasp them, but I condescended. I was born as a babe into the world, so that I could bear what sin deserved, what sin deserved in my own body, on the cross of Golgotha.
[48:43] I made a way of life for you. And you rejected that. You rejected that, and you despised that.
[48:55] Depart from me. Depart from me. Well, may that not be your testimony when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, but may it be come and inherit the kingdom that I have prepared for you.
[49:18] Oh, what a great salvation this is. What a great salvation this is. Oh, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
[49:33] May the Lord bless our thoughts. Let us pray. Eternal and ever-blessed God, we have just touched on the preciousness of the salvation that thou has worked out for sinners like we are in and through thy son.
[49:55] And even touching the edge of that salvation in a reflection upon thy word tonight leaves us with an awe in our hearts.
[50:09] Oh, how great is our salvation. We pray, O Lord, that thou would bless thy word to us, that indeed it may be a means of encouragement to us.
[50:23] And we pray, O Lord, that thou would grant each and every one of us the grace to enable us to walk worthy of the gospel and to follow the example that Christ gave to us, that we will indeed be a servant to each other, that we will bear one another's burdens, that we will love one another, that we will build up one another, that we will forgive one another.
[50:54] We ask, O Lord, that thou would continue with us in coming days. And forgive us our sins in Jesus' name. Amen. We shall conclude by singing to the Lord's praise from Psalm 16 at verse 8 on page 216.
[51:11] Psalm 16 verse 8. Before me still the Lord I say, Sith it is so that he doth ever stand at my right hand, I shall not move it be.
[51:23] Because of this my heart is glad and joy shall be expressed. Inby my glory and my flesh and confidence shall rise. Because my soul engraved to dwell shall not be left by thee, nor willst give thine holy one corruption to see.
[51:38] Thou wilt me show the path of life, of joys that is will store before thy face at thy right hand are pleasures evermore. psalm 16 verse 8 to 11 to the Lord's praise.
[51:50] Before me still the Lord I say, Sith it is so that he doth ever stand, my said, Sith it is so that he doth ever stand, at thy right hand, I shall not prove be.
[52:31] Because of this my heart is glad and joy shall be expressed in by my glory and my flesh in confidence shall rest.
[53:06] Because my soul in grief to dwell shall not be left by thee nor wilt thou give thine holy blood corruption to sin.
[53:38] Thou wilt me show the path of life of joys there is full store before thy face of thy right hand our pleasures ever more.
[54:14] the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forever more.
[54:28] Amen. Amen.