Bible Commentaries
Philippians 2

Verses 1-5

Good-day, friends. We come to you again with our studies in the book of Philippians, the book of Christian experience. In the first chapter, to live Christ is a Christian experience. To die and be with Christ, this is the Christian’s hope. In chapter one the great key is in verses 20 and 21, that Christ be magnified in my body. Here is Paul, a man with a passion for Christ, who didn’t mind whether he lived or died as long as Christ was magnified in his body, in his life.

The key of chapter 2 is verse 5, Php 2:5 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” When the mind of Christ is operating in a believer’s life, he will experience real Christian life. So that whatever the circumstances may be, whether they’re rough or smooth or whether they’re difficult and hard, whatever it is, Christian experience is the life, the mind of Christ operating in us.

You know it says in the Scriptures, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). We find this in chapter 2. Notice how Paul starts this chapter:

Philippians 2:1. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellow­ship of the Spirit, if any bowels (compassions) and mercies,

Philippians 2:2. Fulfill ye my joy, (fill up my joy) that ye be like-minded, having the same love, be­ing of one accord, of one mind.

Philippians 2:3. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

Philippians 2:4. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. 2:5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

The first two verses tell us of things we should have: “consolation in Christ, comfort of love, compassions and mercies.” Paul is telling these Philippians, “You fill up my joy. See that my joy is filled full because of your relationship to Christ and your relationship to me. And if there is any com­fort of love, and fellowship in the Spirit, any compassion and mercies, then you fill up my joy. I want my joy to be filled full.” And he goes on to say,

Philippians 2:2 b. Having the same love, being of one accord, and of one mind.

He wants to have the same love, the same mind, the same accord. The Psalmist says, “It is a wonderful thing for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Psalms 133:1).

You know, if ever we needed this passage, we need it today. We see so much division and confusion and lack of joy in the presence of Christians, one wonders how the Word of God is ever go­ing to get out. The man of the world, the unsaved man looks at Christians and he sees confusion. He sees fightings and bickerings and what have you. There’s not that unanimity of Spirit and purpose that ought to be there in individual Christian assemblies. Even among evangelicals and our local churches, there’s often not that oneness of Spirit, that oneness of love, that oneness of heart, the same great pur­pose in life.

I do not know of anything that grieves the Spirit of God more than this. I do not know of any­thing that would rob God’s people more than this. Divisions, separations—we have a chip on our shoulder. We carry a plank instead of a chip, and we’re so sensitive, so touchy that it’s a rare thing to ind a group of men and women who love the Saviour with one mind, one heart, the same kind of a love one for the other. This is what we should have.

It’s a wonderful thing when God’s people get together. It’s a wonderful thing when the lead­ers of a church get together having the same purpose. And then in verses three and four, we find things we are to avoid. What shall I avoid? Well, let’s look at it.

Philippians 2:3. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

Philippians 2:4. Look not every man on his own things.

What does he mean by that? Well, don’t look after yourself. Look out for the other man. Don’t be selfish in the things you do. Do things to help the other fellow. Look at it—strife, vain glory which is self esteem, self seeking. Don’t seek the pre-eminence. These are the things we are to avoid.

“Do you mean to tell me, Mr. Mitchell, that you see strife and vain glory and selfishness and self-esteem and self-seeking among God’s people?”

Yes, I’m afraid that’s so. One doesn’t have to go very far to see it. This is the tragedy. This is what hinders the moving of the Spirit of God in our midst.

You remember in the early church they were all with one accord in one place (Acts 2:1). Their hearts were occupied with Christ. You see, in the first chapter of Philippians Paul is telling his own experience, his own yearning, his own passion for the Saviour. And he’s speaking about his own prospects and the prospects of every believer of seeing the Saviour face to face and being like Him. And because of the fact that we’re one in Christ and because we’re going to live together for eternity and because we’re all going to be transformed by the Spirit of God to be like Christ Jesus, how should we live down here? How should we live down here?

Do you think that God is going to divide heaven into different sections for different kinds of people? Oh no, by no means.

You say, “Mr. Mitchell, I know when we get to heaven we’re all going to be changed.”

Yes, you’re going to be changed and I’m going to be changed. But, my friends, why not enjoy some of that down here? Why wait till we get to heaven? In fact, I’ve been with people where they kind of resented this idea.

I remember one time, being in a Bible conference. I was preaching on the coming of the Lord. And after the meeting was over, a lady came to me and she said, “You know, Dr. Mitchell, is­n’t it wonderful when the Lord comes, Mrs. So and So is going to be changed.”

And I said, “Yes, that’s a wonderful thing. But I can tell you something even more wonderful than that.”

And she said, “What’s that?”

I said, “Why, you’re going to be changed!”

And you know, when I saw her face, I hurried up and said, “And I can tell you something bet­ter than that.”

She said, “What’s that?”

“Well,” I said, “I’m going to be changed.” I said that in self-protection. You see, we always acknowledge that the other fellow should be changed.

My friend, we’re all going to be changed, everyone of us, even the Apostle Paul. Only Jesus Christ, our precious Saviour, is the One who’s altogether lovely. He’s the only One who is perfect. He’s the only One. The very energy of His heart is love for men and women.

And the closer that you and I walk with the Saviour, the more we realize our need of being of the same mind and having the same love, the same purpose. We’re to avoid as far as possible all strife, all self-esteem. That’s pretty hard, isn’t it? And yet, we’re told to esteem each other “in lowliness of mind” better than ourselves. Apparently, there were those in the church at Philippi who were not of the same mind. They were full of self-esteem, self-seeking and seeking the pre-eminence.

Oh, the divisions among God’s people. And as 1Co 3:3 says, it’s a sign of carnality (verse 3). Now, I believe in divisions if we’re divided on the question of truth. I think we ought to stand for the truth of God. We can’t have any fellowship with a man who denies the deity of Christ. But the sad thing is oftentimes that churches are divided on personalities. I don’t like this fel­low, and I don’t like the other fellow.

So, we have our likes and dislikes even among God’s people. Shame on us! Let nothing be done in strife or vain glory. Let us manifest the spirit of humility, not of self-esteem, not self seeking but that for the good of others. This is a good exhortation.

And I want to say that the Gospel of Christ and the Word of God would go forth far more to our present generation if we Christians lived this way. Instead of saying, “See how they love each oth­er,” sometimes the world says, “See how they fight each other.”

And often, when I’m dealing with unsaved men, they will bring up some Christian, some person who claims to be Christian, who possibly is, but whose life is not paralleling what he believes. And he has become a stumbling block, a stumbling stone in the presence of those who may want to be saved.

God give us to be men and women of God, walking in humility of mind, looking out for the other fellow’s joy and blessing, not to be an egotist or full of self-esteem and self-assertion and self-seeking. We are to avoid this.

How can I do it? Verse 5 is the answer,

Philippians 2:5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

The example of Christ is given to us with respect to how we should live. When the mind of Christ is operating in us, it produces that supernatural walk that will glorify God and bring praise to man. When one is humble in mind, he is humble in life. The mind of Christ is the mind of meekness and humility.

This makes a fellow want to get down in the dust before God and ask that the Spirit of God will so take over that our lives will be a benediction to others and a praise and a worship to God.

May God grant to you and to me today to live in fellowship and in the blessing of our Saviour, not self-seeking, but seeking the glory of God and the good of others.

Verses 5-8

Good-day, friends. We come to you again with our Bible studies in the book of Philippians, chapter 2. And you’ll forgive me, I trust, if I refresh your heart with a little of what we studied in our last lesson.

In the first two verses of chapter two, we find things we should have—the same mind and the same love and the same accord. And then in verses 3 and 4, we were taking up the things we should avoid as Christians—strifes, self-esteem, self-seeking. We are not to seek the pre-eminence but are to push up the other man. Above all, we’re to be humble in our mind, in our relationship the one to the other. And when one is humble in mind, then he or she is humble in life.

And then we have verse 5 which is the key of the passage:

Philippians 2:5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

In other words, when the mind of Christ is operating in us, in our life, this is Christian experi­ence. That is, when the mind of Christ takes over in chapter one, Christian experience is to live Christ. To die is to be with Christ. That is our prospect, our hope. Now I’m in chapter two. The example of Christ is given to us with respect to how we should live.

What is Christian experience now? To have the mind of Christ operating in us.

You remember in 1 Peter 2:21-23, our Lord left us an example that we should follow in His steps. “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, but left all things to him who judges righ­teously” (my version). In other words the mind of Christ primarily is the mind of meekness and hu­mility. In Matthew 11:28-29 Jesus says, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.

He left us an example of “Who when he was reviled, reviled not again” (1 Peter 2:23). Meek­ness. This is the life of Christ. Now, every Christian has the mind of Christ. Paul could say that in 1 Corinthians 2:16. But every believer does not permit the mind of Christ to control him. When the mind of Christ is operative in your life and my life, this is a really genuine Christian experi­ence.

A lot of people have religious experiences and emotional experiences. I’m not talking about that. Neither is Paul. Paul’s talking about the life of Christ being revealed through His people. And the mind of Christ is one of humility and meekness.

I’ve met Christians who boast about their Christian experiences. This is not the mind of Christ. Some men boast about the gifts that they have. This is not the mind of Christ. That’s egotism. That’s pride. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.

You see, it’s not the following of a set of rules. Christian experience is Christ controlling the believer. Just like Jesus could say in John 8:29, “For I do always those things that please Him” (the Father). In John 6:38, “I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” In Matthew 26:39, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” This is Christian experience.

It produces humility in life. And when our Saviour was reviled, He reviled not again. When He was threatened, He didn’t threaten back. His was not an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth prac­tice. He left everything in the hands of His Father.

If you confess to me that everything that God does is right and that He never leaves me nor forsakes me (Hebrews 13:5) and that I am the object of His love and care, this is true. Then anything and everything that comes into our life is for a purpose. Jesus knew this and hence He reviled not again. When they threatened Him, He didn’t threaten back. He left everything to His Father, to the One who judges righteously.

You know, we get ourselves into trouble because we sit in judgment of others. We’re afraid to manifest humility of heart and mind.

As one fellow would say, “Well, if I do what you say, they’ll wipe their feet on me. I’m not going to be a door-mat to anybody.”

I know that doesn’t sound very nice, does it. But it wouldn’t hurt you to be a door-mat for the glory of God. It wouldn’t hurt you to have somebody wipe his feet all over you if it’s for the glory of God. The trouble is you’re too eager to stand in so-called righteous indignation and crack at the fellow who needs love and grace and compassion and tenderness and insight. And hence, instead of attract­ing people to Christ, we drive them away from Christ. This does not honor God. This is not the mind of Christ.

I want to tell you, my Christian friends, today we’re far removed from New Testament Chris­tianity in our lives. Oh, how I long to meet people who are absolutely, really genuinely in love with Christ. They’re willing if necessary to be a door-mat, if by so doing Christ be magnified. And I’m not talking about the world; I’m talking about God’s people. It’s so easy for us to stand upon our so-called rights. My Christian friend, when you and I accepted the Saviour, we waived all our rights.

We said, “Lord, You just come in and run our lives.” And sometimes we don’t like the way He wants to run our lives, so we rebel. And then our fellowship with God is broken and our usefulness is limited. Instead of making ourselves available to God for the manifestation of Christ in our lives, we hinder God’s purpose in us. These things ought not to be. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

And starting in verse 6 through 11 Php 2:6-11 you have where Christ is given as our pattern. Let’s look at the first thing. In this passage we have from what He was to what He became. And you’ll notice the steps down in His humiliation. Allow me to read the passage in Philippians 2:1-30.

Philippians 2:5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus

Philippians 2:6. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: (Or as one version says, He did not think it a thing to be grasped after)

Philippians 2:7. But made himself of no reputation (he emptied himself), and took upon him the form of a servant (bond slave), and was made in the likeness of men:

Philippians 2:8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Here are steps in our Saviour’s humiliation. And remember, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” If you take these verses, from verse 6 down through verse 8, you see three great things. You see the nature of His humiliation, and then you will see the manner of His humilia­tion, and then you will see the extent of His humiliation.

You know, when I think of this passage, I think also of Isaiah 14:1-32 and Isaiah 28:1-29 and Ezekiel 28:1-26 where Satan desired to be like God, was ambitious to be like God, in his pride he wanted to be like God and be worshiped as God. This has always been Satan’s desire. In fact, when you come to Reve­lation 13, God grants him that desire when the whole world wanders after the beast.

And if you read that Ezekiel passage through, you’ll find that there are five steps in Satan’s downfall. He aspired to be like God. He wanted to exalt his throne above the stars of God. He wanted to be like the Most High and so on. This is self-occupation, self-exaltation—self was the very heart of it—self, pride of self, egotism. And men have followed his path ever since.

Our Saviour was just the opposite. He was in the form of God. And here you have in these verses the nature of His humiliation. He gave up His position in glory. And then you’ve got the man­ner of His humiliation. We have what He became. And then we have the extent of His humiliation, how far He went in that humiliation. “And let this mind be in you.”

I want you to mark this. This is the evidence of our Saviour in His meekness and His humility. He was one in mind and one in love with His Father. His whole life was dominated by a great desire, primarily, to please His Father. And because He fulfilled the task, He opened the door for men and women like you and me to become Christians, to become the children of one who is God.

Now, I’m going to take up these three things. May I repeat them? Will you read your Bibles again and notice them? The nature of His humiliation, that’s what He gave up. And then the manner of His humiliation what He became. And then the extent of His humiliation, how far he went down in obedience to His Father’s will for the purpose of the redemption of men and women. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

I wish that you might read this second chapter often because not only do we see the mind of Christ in His humiliation but we see Him in exaltation.

And we see the same mind of Christ operating in Paul, in Timothy, and Epaphroditus in the chapter.

So read it through over and over again.

And the Lord bless you today for His name’s sake.

Part 2

Good-day, friends. We again come to you with studies in the book of Philippians. I sincerely hope that those of you who are following along in this study are reading your Bibles and especially the book of Philippians. In fact, I would suggest that you read the four chapters through at one sitting. Just sit down and read it. And then read it every day. And the more you read it, the more you get out of it. I find this, that the more I read a book, the more marvelous the book becomes to my own heart and mind.

And then read this second chapter of Philippians that we’re taking up now, regarding the mind of Christ. And to me, it’s an astounding thing in this revelation concerning our Saviour that He left the glory and took His place in humanity. Allow me again to read from verse 5 down through verse 8. Just those few verses.

Philippians 2:5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

You remember in a few verses beforehand, apparently, there were those in the church at Philippi who were not of the same mind. They were full of self-esteem, self-seeking, and seeking the pre-eminence. Now, Paul says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Philippians 2:6. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

Philippians 2:7. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

Philippians 2:8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

You’ll notice here we have our Saviour in humiliation. He is the pattern for us. We go from what He was to what He became. And first of all, we have the nature of that humiliation. He gave up His position in glory. “He who was in the form of God did not think it a thing to be held onto” (if I may use that term).

You remember in Hebrews 1:2-3, God is speaking to us through His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world, who is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and so on. Here you have Jesus, the Son of God, in deity.

In Colossians, 1:19, Colossians 1:19 “It was pleasing to the Godhead that in Jesus Christ all fullness should dwell.” In 2 Corinthians 4:4 we read that the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who be­lieve not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine upon them.

In 1 John chapter 1 in the first two or three verses, we have –“That which was from the begin­ning, which we had heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.” Here you have Jesus Christ who was God.

Remember in John 1:18: “No man hath seen God at any time: The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

I’ve oftentimes said, and I repeat it, just what I know of Jesus is what I know of God. Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. In Isaiah 40:9, the prophet said, “Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” In Matthew 1:23, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (verse 23). That’s what it means. The Lord of Glory took His place in humanity. To do this He had to empty Himself or He took upon Himself no reputation. This One, who resigned His Father’s will, vol­untarily submitted Himself to that will—so much so that He could say in John 5:1-47, “The words that I speak are not mine, they are My Father’s. What I see the Father do, that’s what I do” (verse 19).

What a different thing it is with Satan. In Isaiah 14:1-32 and Ezekiel 28:1-26, Satan desired to be like God. He aspired to be worshiped like God.

In Genesis chapter 3, what was the subtlety of the temptation to Adam and Eve? To Eve, Satan said, “God knows in the day you eat thereof, you shall be like God.”

Even man today wants to be worshiped as God. Over in China this man Mao wanted to be worshiped as God. In Germany, in the Nazi program with Hitler, he was worshiped as God. People were buried in the name of Adolph Hitler. Down through the centuries men have wanted to be wor­shiped as God. You take in the book of Acts 12:21-23, where Herod was smitten by God because he accepted the worship of people when they said, “It’s the face of a god” (verse 21- 23). Men have al­ways aspired to be God.

Even in our present generation, we may not bow down before idols of wood and stone but we worship men. And men love to be worshiped. My, what a difference with our Saviour. Our Lord was God. Do you remember in John 17:5 He could say, “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (verse 5).

When Jesus left the glory and took His place in humanity, what did He have to leave to one side to take his place in humanity? I’m of the persuasion He had to lay to one side, His glory. You re­member when Job saw the Lord in Job the last chapter, he could say Job 42:5-6, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself” (verses 5 and 6).

When Moses said to God in Exodus 33:18, “Show me thy glory,” God said to Moses, “No man can see me (that is, in my glory) and live” (verse 20).

When Isaiah saw the Lord in Isaiah chapter 6, “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple and the seraphim cried out, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory’” (verses 1-3). And when Isaiah saw it, he fell at His feet and cried out, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of un­clean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King”(verse 5).

And in John chapter 12 I read, “Isaiah spake of Jesus when he saw Him in His glory” (verse 41).

For the Holy Son of God to take His place in humanity, He could not come in His glory. Men could not stand the glory of God. In John chapter 8, man could not even stand the presence of Jesus in veiled glory. How much then can man stand in the presence of God in His unveiled glory?

You know, I’ve had people tell me, “Sir, I’ll take a chance on this question of salvation. God is love and He would never cut anybody away from His presence.”

That’s true. God doesn’t need to cast anyone out from His presence. The unsaved man will not be able to stand in the presence of God and will be glad to get out of His presence. How can one whose heart is darkened because of sin stand in the presence of One Who is absolutely light, where there are no shadows, no darkness? As the light shines upon that darkened heart and its sin, that per­son will be glad to leave the presence of God.

And I say this reverently. It’s a terrible thing. As the book of Hebrews says, “It’s a terrible thing to stand in the presence of God.” It’s a fearful thing to come into the presence of God.

And today I find men repudiating Christ, repudiating the Word of God, repudiating the per­son of God even to go so far as to say that God is dead and that God has no interest in the human race. And so they have exalted themselves and taken the place of God. And here and there, right along through history, men have demanded worship and have come under the judgment of God. It will be so today. I say this very, very kindly, yet I must say it.

Friend, you and I are living in a generation when men and women have spurned the living God. They’ve taken on themselves the spirit of Satan. They’re proud. They defy God. They ridicule the Saviour of sinners. And I want to say very, very kindly that the cup of iniquity is filling to the brim. And when the cup is full, the sentence of God will fall upon them.

And if you read the book of Genesis, chapter 15, the reason why the wrath of God came upon the Amorites is because their cup was filled full. Why did God send the flood? Because the thoughts and the imaginations of the heart of man were evil continually (Genesis 6:5).

And now, we’re coming to the end of this generation, this age. And I find that this age is ending with the worship of man and the repudiation of the Gospel, the ridiculing of the Saviour, the spurning of the Word of God. The cup is filling full very, very fast. And my friend, let me say very honestly that as I see the cup of iniquity filling full, there’s nothing left but the wrath and judgment of God.

God has left you and me, Christian friend, to bring to them the good news concerning His Son, that Jesus Christ did leave heaven, laid aside His glory to take His place in humanity for the purpose of redemption. This is the manner, the nature of his humiliation. He emptied Himself of His glory for the purpose of reaching you and me, for the purpose of revealing to you and me the wonderful God whom we have.

Again let me quote that verse from John 1:18, “No man hath seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed Him.”

Do I want to know God? I must look at Jesus. “Say unto the cities of America, Behold your God!” I’m quoting Isaiah 40:9 and putting the word “America” in there. You can put the name of your country there if you are reading this in another land. God has revealed Himself to our generation through His Son. What are we going to do then with God’s Son whom He sent to be a redeemer?

Shall we accept Him as our Saviour?

Or shall we reject Him? And thus He becomes our judge.

Oh, I would plead with you Christians today to so walk before God that men and women of our generation and our precious young people will be brought to the saving knowledge of Christ.

Why did He come?

Because He loved men.

Why did He lay aside His glory?

Because He loved men and women.

He came to put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself as we shall see more in our next les­son when we take up the manner of His humiliation. He came for the purpose of redeeming you and

me.

Will you please read this chapter through over and over and over again, and think about the Lord Jesus, leaving His place in glory just because He loved you and because He loved me.

Part 3

Good-day, friends. We again come to you with daily studies in the Word of God. Our great purpose is that the people of God may be established and edified and built up in their faith. We also desire that the Word of God may become more and more precious to you, and we trust too that those who are not saved might hear the Word of Life and come to know the Saviour.

You remember that the psalmist says in the 119^th Psalm, “The entrance of Thy Word giveth light.” And to those who are in darkness the Spirit of God has come to open their eyes to the glories of Christ. He does this so that they might enter into the kingdom of life, “He hath translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Colossians 1:13).

And we come now to this wonderful passage again in the book of Philippians, chapter 2. I’ve been reading concerning our Saviour in His humiliation. You’ll remember that the key of chapter 2 is in verse 5:

Philippians 2:5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,

Philippians 2:6. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

Philippians 2:7. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a (bond) ser­vant, and was made in the likeness of men:

Philippians 2:8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Now in our last lesson we were dealing with the fact of the nature of His humiliation, for in these verses 6-8, we have not only what our Saviour was and what He became but also the nature of that humiliation. He gave up His position in glory and came down and took His place in humanity. It was the voluntary submission of our Saviour to the will of His Father; for you remember the great Word concerning Him was, “I delight to do Thy will, oh, My God, for Thy Word is in My heart.” And He did this for the purpose of redemption.

Now the second thing spoken of here in His humiliation is the manner of His humiliation; that is, what He became. He became a real man; He became a bond-slave. Mark those verses, will you, please. In verse 7,

Philippians 2:7. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

Philippians 2:8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled Himself.

Here is what He became—He became a real man.

You remember in Romans 8:3 ^rd verse, we read, “What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God in sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not af­ter the flesh but after the Spirit.” And you remember in Hebrews 10:5-10, “In the vol­ume of the book, it is written of Me, ‘I delight to do Thy Will.’” Or the preceding verse, which speaks of the fact, “Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me.”

Or let me go back to John 1:1. You remember how it starts: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with

God.” In John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth.” In the John 1:18 th verse, “No man has seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, (He hath shown Him forth;) He hath declared (revealed) Him.”

In other words, when Jesus Christ came, it was God coming into the human family for the pur­pose of revealing Himself as a real man in the midst of men. You know it’s a wonderful thing to know this—that Jesus Christ was not just a man; He was God manifest in the flesh.

I remember the story of a Brahmin in India. This man had gone to the University of Calcutta to learn English. He had been taught to read the English New Testament; and it was so wonderful that he thought this was beyond all human comprehension. But he could not accept the Saviour because of the question of incarnation.

You see, being a Hindu, a Brahmin, he believed that everything that had life had come from some preceding generation or from some preceding life. That’s why they won’t kill their cows over there; they won’t kill snakes; they won’t touch anything in case they might be touching some of their forebears. And so he couldn’t accept this question of incarnation.

But, one day he was walking over the fields of India, and he came to an ant hill. He noticed that when his shadow crossed the ant hill, all the ants scurried down the hole. And then, when he moved his shadow away from the ant hill, all the ants came out again. He stood there meditating,

“How in the world can I let these ants know that I wouldn’t hurt them, that I wouldn’t harm them. I wouldn’t for anything touch them.” Then he realized the only way he could do that was for him to become an ant, retaining his personality. He would then be able to come into the presence of these ants and inform them that he wouldn’t hurt them.

And then it suddenly dawned upon him—that’s what the incarnation is. God could not come into the human family in all His glory. Men couldn’t stand His glory!

As God said to Moses when he asked to see His glory, “No man can see me and live.” Man cannot stand in the presence of God in His blazing glory!

I’ve said this once or twice already, but I cannot get over the fact that He became veiled in flesh; He became a man in the midst of men. When our Saviour came here, He laid aside His glory, for you remember again that verse in John 16:1-33 when He said, “Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” He became a man in the midst of men.

And you notice something else—He not only became a man in the midst of men for the pur­pose of redemption, but He became a bondslave.

You know, I’ve oftentimes wondered about that. Here is the eternal Son of God, Who framed the ages and yet took the place of the poor when He went into the fields to eat corn on the Sabbath day.

And this One Who made all things and stilled the storms could say to a poor Samaritan woman, “Give me a drink.” It’s beyond all comprehension. Then when I come to John, chapter 13, our Lord laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. He took a basin of water and be­gan to wash the disciples’ feet. What was He doing? He—was taking the place of a slave. He was tak­ing the place of a slave. This is what Philippians 2:1-30 says, “He took upon Him the form of a servant.” And that word servant there, doulos, means a slave, a bondservant.

Do you ever stop to think how far Jesus went just to redeem you? Why did God come into the human race? For the purpose of redeeming the human race. And if one had time to go into the book of Ruth, the fourth chapter—the last chapter of the book of Ruth in the Old Testament—where only one who belongs to the family can redeem a member of the family. And there you see the picture of Him as our kinsman-redeemer.

He became a member of the human family for the purpose of redeeming those in the human family. And, my friends, this is why He came—not that you love God. Oh, no; but He loved you and sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we might live. And the next verse says He sent His Son into the world to be the redeeming sacrifice for our sins, the propitiation for our sins—satisfying God and satisfying those who put their trust in Him.

I would plead with your heart to think of this: How much the Lord Jesus must have loved you and me to leave His place in glory, worshiped by angelic beings. He came into this scene and became a slave, became a man, and went to the cross and died to redeem you and me. My, how we who trust Him, we who claim to love Him, should indeed manifest our love for Him by a life of continual obe­dience to His Word.

I say it’s a wonderful thing to have such a Saviour Who loved us so much that He took His place in the human family. This was the manner of His humiliation.

And now in the next lesson we take up the extent of that humiliation.

And may the Lord bless you for His Name’s sake.

Verses 6-11

Good-day, friends. I hope that you get as much joy out of these studies as I have in giving them to you. I confess that it is very difficult for me to just go by some of these verses—they’re so pregnant with truth, so wonderful, especially these verses that we have been studying the last two or three sessions in the book of Philippians, chapter 2—the marvel of our Saviour!

I can’t in my own mind and heart begin to express the marvel of this thing that eternal God, the Son of God, should leave the glory and come down here, take His place in humanity, become a bond-slave, and then, become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

And we were discussing in our last lesson this amazing fact that He went to the extreme for you and me—cast out by society, crucified and then abandoned by our holy God who cannot even look upon sin. He was accursed of God! Cursed by man, forsaken by our holy God just because He loved you and me.

Now if that were the end of the picture, it would be a tragedy. I repeat that. If this were all there is to the Gospel, then it would be a tragedy. If when Christ died and was buried, that’s the end of the picture, it’s the greatest tragedy in the history of man—that the One Who was sinless, the one Who was righteous, the One Who always did the will of God, the One Who healed the sick and cleansed the lepers and cast out demons and stilled the storm and raised the dead and fed the hungry would end up on a cross of shame, dying as a slave, dying as a criminal—if that were the end of the story, my friend, there would be no Christianity. There would be no salvation. It would be a great tragedy—the greatest tragedy in human history.

But that’s not the end of the story, thank God. Have you got your Bibles? We’re reading in Philippians, chapter 2. And I’m going to reread again from verse 6, speaking of our Saviour,

Philippians 2:6. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery (thought it not a thing to be held unto) to be equal with God:

Philippians 2:7. But made himself of no reputation (or as some versions say, He emptied Himself), and took upon him the form of a servant (bond-slave), and was made in the like­ness of men:

Philippians 2:8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Philippians 2:9. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given Him a name which is above every name:

Philippians 2:10. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

Philippians 2:11. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Now, as I have read these verses, I couldn’t help but think of the fact that He goes right from the cross to glory, from being cast out by men to being accepted in heaven, from a cross to a throne, from humiliation to exaltation—and that exaltation is far beyond all principalities and powers, every­thing and every name that is named. And every knee is going to bow—in heaven and earth and in hell

—every created intelligence in God’s vast universe is going to bow the knee and proclaim Jesus—no­tice the title used—Jesus, to be “Lord” to the glory of God the Father.

Now my friend, this is not universal reconciliation. This is universal recognition. You see, this One Who died and was made an accursed thing was raised from the dead. Of course, this is the great theme of the Book of Acts. This is the great theme of the New Testament. The foundational structure of the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If Christ be not raised from the dead, we haven’t anything, as 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 says. But God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. Remem­ber where Peter says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

Every created intelligence in God’s universe is going to bow the knee—every one of them—the ones who even hate the Saviour are going to be forced to bow the knee and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

My friend, it’s a wonderful thing that we can bow the knee today and acknowledge Him as Saviour and as Lord. And if you want to talk about universal reconciliation, my friend, you don’t find it in the Bible. Now it’s true, in Col 1:21-22 on through, Paul talks about reconciliation of the heavens and the earth; and “you, who were sometimes afar off hath He rec­onciled through the body of His death.” Reconciliation does not reach down to the devil, the fallen an­gels, and to lost men and women. I speak of the future, the eternal future. But there will be universal recognition that this Jesus, whom they spurned, is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

You know it’s a wonderful thing today that, though He manifested His great love and became a Man in the midst of men and was crucified and was cast out by men and forsaken by God, He com­pleted the task of redemption.

He met all the demands of the righteous character of God and all the holy character of God, the justice of God. He has made it now possible for God to pick up men and women, just like you and me, and transform us into the children of God, to forgive every trespass, every sin, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, giving us eternal life; and He’s able to bring us into His own family and call us His children and adopt us as sons.

My, what a Saviour we have!

What a salvation this is! Guaranteed by the resurrection and the exaltation of Jesus!

Do you know this is what Paul means in Ephesians 1:19-21, when he says, “That you might know . . . what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand, far above principalities and power” and authorities, and so on.

Now you have it in this verse: “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.”

I want to emphasize one little word, first of all. Notice the word, the name used here, the name Jesus. Why didn’t He say, Christ? No. The import of the resurrection is who was raised. It was not a spirit. The Bible doesn’t teach about a spiritual resurrection. It’s physical. The man who was nailed to the cross was the one who came forth in resurrection—Jesus.

That’s why Peter in Acts, Acts 2:22,32, could say: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: . . . Whom God hath raised up” from the dead.” Who? Jesus of Nazareth. You have it here. “God has given Him a name that is above every name, that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.”

My friend, may I put it this way? Of Jesus, this One Who was born of Mary in Bethlehem, the very first promise of the New Testament was given—Matthew 1:18 “Thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins.”

Where is that Jesus today?He’s at the right hand of God having all authority. He’s glorified with the glory of the eternal God.

Jesus could say, “Glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.”

He is saying, “Father, I want something—that all who put their trust in Me shall see Me in My glory. Now is My Father glorified, and if My Father be glorified, He’ll glorify His Son.” And our Saviour could say to the Father, “Glorify Thy Son that Thy Son may also glorify Thee” (John 17:1).

Why has He saved men and women for the glory of God? The ultimate purpose of all salva­tion is for the glory of God and is guaranteed to us in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus.

If you go to the book of Hebrews 1:3, 8:1, 10:12; 12:2; four times in Hebrews I read that He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. In other words, He was given all authority. That’s why Jesus could say in Rev 1:18: “I have the keys of death and of hell,” authority over death and hell. This One Who became an accursed thing, God has exalted Him to be a Prince and a Saviour.

I tell you, it’s a wonderful thing. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to call Him “Lord” now. Is He your Lord? Have you exalted Him in your life to be Lord and Master?

Don’t you think that if God the Father gladly, joyfully, acclaims Jesus as Lord, as you have in He­brews, chapter 1, “and Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundations of the earth,” that you and I should acknowledge Jesus as Lord?

My Christian brother and sister, won’t you just today, sometime today, bow your heart and possibly your knees in the presence of Him, who is your Saviour, and acknowledge Him to be your Lord? That means One who is absolutely in control. Yield yourself to Him and let Him work out His purpose and His plan in your life. It may mean the transforming of your life. Who knows?

Do it today, and the Lord bless you.

Verses 7-8

Good-day, friends. We again have the opportunity of sitting down and talking about the won­ders of our Saviour,

And in the second chapter of Philippians, which we are studying, we’re dealing with our Saviour in His humiliation. This was the mind of Christ, a mind of meekness and humility, leaving His place in glory; and, taking His place in humanity, He became a real man. And, my friend, don’t you forget it—Jesus Christ was a real man! A real man!

If you don’t believe that, you read the Gospel through Luke and the Gospel through John. In Luke’s Gospel, He is the friend of publicans and sinners. He’s the One who loves the sinner, Who for­gives the sinner. He attracts the sinner. He justifies the sinner. He seeks the sinner. This is Luke’s Gospel. The wonder of it all—how He could take women like Mary of Magdala and cast demons out of her and make her a transformed woman! He was a real man in the midst of men. He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knew what it was to hunger; He knew what it was to be de­based; He knew what it was to be opposed. Yet He stands forth as God’s man in the midst of men without sin.

And when we come to the Gospel of John, as you well know, He manifests His deity in those seven great signs. But, my friend, He was a real man. He stood up against the Pharisees, the religion­ists of the day, and the liberals of the day in the Sadducees, and even the politicians in the Herodians! He stood and took His place with no fear. He was a real man in the midst of men, and He came into the human family for the purpose of redeeming you and me.

Now we’ve been dealing with the humiliation of our Saviour. We found the nature of that hu­miliation: He gave up His position in glory and took His place in humanity. We found the manner of His humiliation, what He became: He became a bond-slave. And now, we have the third thing in the extent of His humiliation. How far did He go in His humiliation? Let me read it again in verses 7 and 8 of chapter two of Philippians:

Philippians 2:7. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Now why did Paul put that in? I remember where the Apostle Paul could say in Galatians 6:14: “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world.” He wrote the Galatian church, “If I yet preach circumcision, then is the offence of the cross ceased.” There was no stigma if he preached the Law.

Do you and I ever realize—I’m sure we don’t, we don’t—if we had been living in the first century under the Roman government, we would have known more than we do now—to be crucified was a terrible thing! He humbled Himself to death, even the death of the cross. He died as an outcast of society. He died as one who was accursed of God, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangeth on a tree.”

Celius, the Roman historian, said, “To scourge a Roman is a heinous thing, but what shall I say of one hanging upon a cross? Let not even his name be mentioned.”

And as far as we know, we have no record of a Roman being crucified. Jesus was crucified. Tradition says that Peter was crucified. Paul, a Roman, was not crucified; he was beheaded on the Ap­pian Highway. You see, crucifixion was reserved for the vilest of the vile. It was reserved for slaves, for arch-criminals. You remember the ones who were crucified with our Saviour were criminals. Barabbas, who was set free, this one whose place Jesus took, was a murderer, was a criminal, was an outcast of society.

And when Jesus died on the middle cross between these two malefactors, these two thieves, these two criminals, He was being crucified as the leading one of the three. As the worst one of the three!

You know we Christians don’t realize this—how bad, how sinful we are when Paul says in Galatians 2:20 concerning our Saviour “who loved me” and died “and “gave Himself for me.”

Did He die for you?

You say, “Yes.”

And how bad were you?

My friend, you were so bad that Jesus had to die on the cross. He had to die as an accursed thing. He went to unlimited depths, as Hebrews, chapter 2 says, “He tasted death for everyone.” What a distance He traveled to save you and me—from the glory to the curse, from heaven to the cross!

Can you measure this?!

If you can measure the infinite love of God, then you can measure the distance that Christ came for you and for me. It is impossible for us to measure the distance from the throne of God to a cross of shame! He not only died, says the Apostle, but He died even the death of the cross. He was obedient unto death because He paid the penalty not for an elect few but for the sins of the whole world—everyone who has lived, is living and will live upon this earth (John 1:9).

That’s why I repeat that 40th Psalm 40:6-8 “Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, but a body Thou hast prepared Me.” “In the volume of the book it is written of Me, ‘I delight to do Thy will, oh, my God, for Thy Word is in my heart.’” And as the last verse of John 14:31 says, “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment; even so I do” (verse 31).

No human mind can begin to measure the distance Christ traveled to redeem you and redeem me. He not only died—He wasn’t stoned—He was crucified! “Cursed is everyone who hangeth on a tree.”

I wish in some way I could put into words how I feel about this—that Jesus Christ was cast out by men, an outcast from society. They said, “We will not have this Man to reign over us.” They spit upon Him. They reviled Him. They cursed Him. They taunted Him; and as the 69^th Psalms 69:20 says, “Reproach hath broken my heart; I am full of heaviness.” He “looked for some to have pity on Him, but there was no man, neither found He any to comfort Him.” He was absolutely an outcast and forsaken by God, for you remember in both Matthew and Mark, He cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?!”

Oh, the depth to which Jesus went just to save you and me.

My Christian friend, may I ask you very bluntly, what does Jesus Christ mean to you? Hon­estly now, what does He really mean to you? I’m not asking you if you are religious or if you go to church or if you have joined certain churches. I am not concerned about that. I am concerned about one thing:

What does Jesus Christ, God’s Son, mean to you?

You meant so much to Him that He willingly became an accursed thing. To become our sin-bearer, He died as a malefactor, as a criminal. The cross is an insult to my intelligence, to my philoso­phy, to my morality, to my religion. The cross says absolutely that you and I are so bad that it took Sovereign God Himself in the person of the sinless One to suffer the brunt of the Father’s wrath against sin. Jesus Christ went to the extreme to pay the penalty for our sin.

Oh, that our love for Him might consume us—those of us who have put our trust in Him, those of us who call ourselves Christians.

I wonder sometimes how much real love we have for the Saviour.

Is it a sacrificial love?

Is it a love that burns?

Is it a love that is always fresh and fervent?

I leave that with you just now—the manner of His humiliation and now the extent of His hu­miliation. He could go no farther. He went right down into the very bowels of death and became an accursed thing. He became sin for us—for us, for you and for me—that we might be made the righ­teousness of God in Him.

My friend, my friend, my Christian friend, why don’t you get into your Bible. Look at your Saviour. Don’t read and study your Bible to prove some doctrine. Read your Bible to see Him, to fall in love with Him, to have your life wrapped around Him.

As Isaiah 40:1-31 in the last verse says, “They that entwine their hearts about the Lord shall renew their strength”—we exchange our weakness for His strength. “We shall mount up with wings as ea­gles; we shall run and not be weary; we shall walk and not faint.” But the key of it is to entwine your heart about him.

Putting it in simple language—why don’t you fall in love with the Saviour?

How much do you love Him today?

Why don’t you tell Him that?

Why don’t you for a moment just go down and tell the Lord how much you love Him? It may be it’s a long time since you did that, but He’d love to hear you tell Him.

Why don’t you tell Him today?

Won’t you?

And the Lord bless you.

Verses 12-16

Good-day, friends. We again have the joy of sitting down and having a little chat with you. The great desire of our hearts is that people should know the Word of God.

And today we again come to you in the book of Philippians, chapter 2. And as we again read from this second chapter, we’re dealing with the mind of Christ. We’ve just been dealing with our Lord in His humiliation and His exaltation. Now following this, there comes this question of our re­sponsibility in view of what the Lord has done for us. Now he’s talking to Christians –he’s not talking to the unsaved—in verse 12. Allow me to read verses 12 to 16:

Philippians 2:12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in My presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Philippians 2:13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. 2:14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

Philippians 2:15. That you may be blameless and harmless, the Sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world;

Philippians 2:16. Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.

We want to spend a little time on these verses. But first of all let me clear one thing up in your minds. He is not talking here to sinners. The Apostle Paul is in prison and writing to his beloved Philippian Christians. These are men and women who have accepted the Saviour in the midst of much satanic opposition as well as opposition from men. They have experienced suffering for Christ’s sake, and now he is appealing to them to do something with respect to the glorification of this One Who be­came a Man in the midst of men, who became a slave and who went to death, even the death of the cross, and who became an accursed thing that you and I might be saved.

So he writes in verse 12,

Philippians 2:12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Philippians 2:13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

Paul is calling here for the believer to cooperate with God who wants to display through you and through me, by our words, by our actions, by our very motives, that which will manifest His char­acter, His love and His grace, and that which is according to His will, as you have it in verse 13—both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

It must be God Who does the work. In fact, I’m going to say, it’s entirely of God; but it is the will of God operating in a believer’s life. The living, eternal God is working in and through His peo­ple. And that which He works in us can only be worked out through us if you and I cooperate with God. That means a yielded life. That means His will instead of my will.

Now I recognize that some people take the end of Php 2:12, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” and declare you must work out your salvation, that you’ve got to be saved by your works. But Paul is talking to Christians; he’s talking to saved people; he’s talking to believers; he’s talking to those who are his, the beloved; to those who have always obeyed. These are not the un­saved. It’s not a question of if you do your part and God does His part, then you shall be saved.

No. He’s dealing entirely with those who have come to the Saviour; he’s talking about those in whom the Lord Jesus dwells, in whom God dwells. These were people whose bodies had become the sanctuaries of God. Now he tells them to work out their own salvation.

Notice the words. He did not say, “work for your salvation” but to work it out. Now it’s not that the work of salvation is unfinished. In John 17:4, Jesus says, “I have finished the work Thou gavest Me to do.” In John 19:30, He said, “It is finished.” Forgiveness, eternal life, justification, be­coming children of God—these are all dependent upon the finished work of Christ.

But now he’s talking about something else. Remember, I am not saved by the work of Christ in me; I am saved by the work of Christ for me, at the cross. Now let’s get these prepositions correct —and I don’t mind repeating this because there are so many people who have been robbed of peace and joy and assurance because of this very verse.

We are not saved by the work of Christ in us; but we are saved by the work of Christ for us. He is one hundred percent Saviour! When He died on the cross, He did a perfect work. He fully satis­fied God. And what Paul asks sinners to do is to put their trust in Jesus Christ. When a man or woman puts his trust in the Saviour, then his body becomes the sanctuary of God. His sins are forgiven. Eter­nal life is his gift from God. He becomes a child of God. This is all on the ground of what Christ did for us.

Now, Christian experience is what Christ is doing in us and through us. It is this of which Paul is writing.

For example, take the next verse: “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” God wants to work; He’s already working in you His good pleasure. But He wants it to be worked out, and this calls for human cooperation—not to be saved, but to manifest something of the character and love and grace of the One Who has saved us. He wants your body. He wants your mind. He wants your personality to be in His hands to be used for His glory.

You see, it’s a personal salvation. Work out your salvation between God and you. This salva­tion is already mine, but it has to be worked out in our daily living. He’s talking about the second part of salvation.

If I may stop just for a moment and say this—when it comes to salvation, we have been saved, we are being saved, we are yet to be saved. You and I, if we have trusted the Saviour, have been saved from the guilt and penalty of sin. We enjoy forgiveness. We can say, as far as East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Now we are being saved day by day from the power of sin. This is taken up very fully in the book of Romans 6:1-23, in 2 Corinthians 5:1-21 and other passages. We’re being delivered from the power of sin. This depends upon a yieldedness on our part.

Paul says, “Yield yourselves as those who are alive from the dead and your members, your bodies, as instruments of righteousness unto God.” Before we were saved, we yielded our bodies to sin. Now he says, yield them unto God.

We are yet to be saved from the very presence of sin. This is when the Lord Jesus is going to come for His own and when we’re going to leave this world with all its sin and shame and rebellion. We’re going to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and to be delivered from the very presence of sin. There’ll be no more shadows, no more sorrows, no more failures then, and no more broken fel­lowship. This is yet future.

If I were to break it down into books, in Romans you have what Christ has done for me at the cross; in Hebrews, what Christ is doing for me now as my intercessor and advocate; and then in Thessalonians and Revelation, we find what He’s going to do in the future. He’s going to come and

take the church unto Himself; and then He’s going to return to the earth as King, as Judge, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. You see the three aspects of salvation.

Now Paul here in Philippians 2:1-30 is dealing with the second one. And again I’m going to repeat, because I want this to be very, very clear in your mind. Your salvation and my salvation was settled once for all at the cross when Christ died for us. He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And the very exaltation of Christ, which we have just been having in the preceding verses, His very exaltation to God’s right hand is a guarantee to you that that work on the cross was completed and finished and can’t be added to. Jesus Christ did not do 99% and leave 1% for you. He did the whole business. That’s why Paul, in Philippians 1:6 says, “He which hath begun a good work in you shall perfect it until the day of Christ.”

Or in 2 Timothy 1:12, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to guard the deposit until that day.” What I am trying to say to you, my friend, is you’ve got to have your salvation before it can be worked out. Christ has worked for your salvation. Now it is yours when you put your trust in Him. He wants you to cooperate with God so that the salvation which is already in you by God will be worked out through you in your life.

The Spirit of God indwells us for the purpose of revealing God to His people. And how can I manifest God to people? By letting Him work out His life through me. This is what Paul is talking about: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

Now let me say again, he didn’t say work for your own salvation, but “work out your own sal­vation with fear and trembling for it is God Who worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” In other words, it’s not a passive thing. It is an active thing—a life manifested by the living God through His people. Our business is to work out what is already worked in.

It’s a present salvation from the power of sin. It is to manifest our union with Christ by show­ing forth His life. It implies that His power is for us and it involves a real duty to us. It’s to be done with fear and trembling. The salvation is secured, yet we fear.

What do we mean? Well, we don’t want to displease Him. We fear, lest we displease Him, you see. We fear, lest we live a life that is not pleasing to the Lord Who redeemed us—this is what he is talking about. This is his plea, so that you and I today will live that life which will glorify the Saviour and so that, when your neighbor and your friends and your family meet you, they’ll see something of the living God working out His life in you. This is what He wants. And you look to the Lord today for that, and the Lord bless you.

Good-day, friends. We again have the joy and privilege of sitting down and discussing with you the Word of God, and, needless to say, it is my joy and delight to discuss the wonderful things of our Saviour with those who have ears to hear and whose hearts are open to the truth.

I am more and more convinced that truth is never imparted by argument. It is only as our hearts are open to what God has for us that we learn, that we experience the very life of God. And re­member that a spiritual life is the enjoyment of divine life.

When you and I accepted Jesus Christ as our own personal Saviour, God came to live in us. And Paul says to the Corinthian church, “Don’t you know that your body is the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit which you have of God, and you are not your own; you are bought with a price. Therefore glori­fy God in your bodies and in your spirits which are His.”

And with that thought in mind, I wish you might again come with me to the second chapter of the book of Philippians. We’re reading from verse 12. And you remember in verse 12 right on down through verse 16, there is given to us a responsibility.

If I may be permitted again to repeat one or two things—when I say that our Lord in humilia­tion and exaltation did a tremendous job for you and me, He completed the work of redemption. And now, because we are one with Him, because we’re saved, because we’re His beloved—as you have it in verse 12—He wants us to work out what He has already worked in.

Allow me to read the verses again.

Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence

only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Then he goes on to state two or three verses which I shall read in a few moments.

We’ve been discussing this question of a salvation which we already have, and again I want to emphasize the fact he never talks about our working out—or working for our salvation. We do have a salvation in Christ, and God wants that salvation to be manifested in our lives. And this is the privi­lege—to work out that which is already worked in.

And again I emphasize it must be in you before it can be worked out through you. It’s a per­sonal salvation. Only let it be manifested.

And then in verses 14 and 15, the outflow of that would be our walk and our conduct, as Paul could say in Ephesians 5:1-33, “We are to walk circumspectly.” So allow me to read verses 14 and 15 now.

Philippians 2:14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings.

Philippians 2:15. That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation (generation), among whom you shine as lights in the world.

This is how we are to walk, “without murmurings.” Now murmurings are always manward; disputings are manward. In other words, when you and I murmur as Christians, it’s against God.

You remember in the book of Numbers, God said to Moses that the people of Israel had mur­mured ten times. When we murmur, we’re not satisfied with what God has done for us. When we murmur, we’re not satisfied with the circumstances or we’re not satisfied with what we think should be done. Murmurings, my friend, are always against God. And the tragedy is too many of us murmur. He may take one of your loved ones. Don’t you be angry at God!

In fact, I’ve even heard Christians who blame God for all sorts of things. They sit in judgment on God. Think of it! Think of it! Think of the arrogance of the human heart that would dare to sit in judgment on God! Now they don’t mean that; I know that. But they accuse God; they blame God; and they murmur at God.

Remember that the moment you and I are saved, we become the special objects of the love and grace and mercy of God. All that God is is for you. And the thing that God really wants is your fel­lowship for the purpose of glorifying His name. When you and I walk in fellowship with God, then we don’t murmur.

And, furthermore, not only do we not murmur, but we do not dispute with others. We’re not going to cause trouble, you see.

I wish in some way I could put into words just the way I feel about this. Do all things without murmurings and disputings. What for? “That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” How are we to walk? Here’s our character—blameless to self, harmless to others, without rebuke before God.

Can I repeat that? That you may be blameless—this has to do with yourself. You’re to be harmless—that is concerning others. You are to be without rebuke—this is our stand before God. Why? Because of where we walk. We are in the midst of a rebellious people. We are a people separat­ed unto God; we are in a world of which we have no part.

In John, chapter 16, our Lord could say concerning His disciples: “They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.” We are in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. There’s no question that you and I are living at a period of time in the history of the world when sin, rebellion, moral corruption, defiance of God is everywhere. We find not only a defiance but a cold indifference to God.

The amazing thing is not that people are indifferent to Christ and to God, but they’re satisfied to be indifferent. We’re living in the midst of a perverse and evil generation, a crooked generation. And as the sons of God—that’s what he says—as the sons of God, how shall we conduct our life?

I am to be blameless with respect to my life and to be harmless with respect to others and to so live that I will be without rebuke before God because I’m living in the midst of a sinful generation. And when I speak of the world, let me repeat, I’m not speaking of the earth upon which we live or the globe. I’m speaking of a system that is religious, that is moral, that is philosophical, that’s diametri­cally opposed to God.

You remember Jesus said in John 15:8 and on: If the world loves you, remem­ber, it didn’t love Me; and if the world doesn’t love Me, it’s not going to love you. If the world does­n’t accept My sayings, it will not receive your sayings.

In 1Jo 2:15-17: “Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for all that is in the world—the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. Now the world passeth away and the lust thereof. He that doeth the will of God abideth forev­er.”

See, it’s the world as a system. It starts way back in the book of Genesis, chapter 4, when Cain went out and built a world without God. Here is a system; its god is Satan. You find this in 2 Corinthians 4:1-18, where we read, “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of those who believe not.”

In Eph 2:2 Before we were Christians, we were under the domination of the spirit of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, the spirit that energizes the unsaved, the world. You and I are to be blameless and harmless, without rebuke. We are the sons of God, and we’re living in a world that has no place for Jesus Christ, that has no place for His grace or for His love.

How then are we to live? We’re to shine as lights. Oh, here is a responsibility. We are to shine as lights in this world.

In other words, work out your own salvation.

How can I do it?

God works it in me. As I yield myself to God, I find that I’m not murmuring anymore. I’m not disputing anymore. I’m blameless and harmless, without rebuke. And you and I separate from the world in order to manifest something of the beauty and character and the love and grace of the Saviour for men and women. My friend, this is your responsibility and mine.

Your body and my body are the sanctuary of God, and God is pleased to take men and wom­en whom He has redeemed and use them for the display of all that He is. Will He give us power? Yes! Also grace and love and mercy, tenderness and compassion. This is what men need to see. And I’m telling you again, this world is dying for a revelation of Christ in His people.

Now work out your own salvation. It is “God who worketh in you.” And when that happens, we’ll be blameless and harmless and without rebuke.

And may the Lord wonderfully bless you today as you seek to glorify Him for His name’s sake.

Good-day, friends. We are in the book of Philippians, chapter 2, dealing with a very, very wonderful and yet amazing passage. We’ve just been dealing with the question of the humiliation and exaltation of our Saviour; and now we’re dealing with the believer’s responsibility in verses 12 to 16.

We find first of all, our privilege in verses 12 and 13 where we are to walk or work out our own salvation with fear and trembling because it is God Who worketh in us. He works in us and then, as we yield to Him, that ministry is worked out through us. In other words, it calls for personal coop­eration between God and usjust as in the early church when Peter said, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” Or in chapter 13 of Acts when the Spirit of God said to the early church, “Separate me Saul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them.” And they being sent forth by the church were also sent forth by the Holy Spirit (verses 2-4).

And so it is here with us—this divine cooperation between the believer and God. The work is entirely of God, but we become the channel through which He manifests His character, His love, His grace, His purpose, His will. As we read here in verse 13, “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Oh, that His pleasure might be worked out in us!

And then in verses 14 and 15, we have our conduct or our walk. We are to walk carefully. We are to walk without murmurings, without disputings. We are to be blameless and harmless without re­buke.

And where are we to walk? Among a rebellious people. Remember, Christian friend, we are in the world, yet not of the world. We are a separated people unto God. This is what Paul means in Philippians 3:20 when he says, “Our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour.”

Now you say, what are you doing down here if your citizenship is in heaven?

Well, I’m down here on business, aren’t you? Our lives are to show forth His praise and His glory. Our witness is to bring other men and women to Christ. And God grant that we may take our position as those who are separated unto God in this world, as Paul could say in verse 15: “That you are the sons of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights.”

So here we come now to our service in verses 15 and 16. We are to shine as lights in the world and we are to hold forth the Word of Life. Here are two things we are to do. This is our service.

We are to shine as lights.

You remember Jesus said in John, chapter 8, “He that followeth Me shall not walk in dark­ness.” He could say, “I am the light of the world.” But He went back to glory. The torch is handed to us. Paul writes in the book of Ephesians, chapter 5 that we are children of light; we are children of the day. The same thing in Thessalonians, chapter 5, we are not of the night; we belong to the day. You have the same thing in Romans, chapter 13 and the same thing in Matthew, chapter 5, where Jesus said, “So let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” In the midst of darkness, our job is to dispel that darkness. How can you do it? By shining as lights.

You remember the Apostle Paul could say in his defense before King Agrippa, in Acts 26:18, where he said that God had called him to open eyes, to turn men from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God.

In Colossians, chapter 1, we’re told that God has translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His own Son. We are to shine as lights.

You remember that when Jesus was here, He was the light of the world. In John 1:7-9, we learn that “in Him was light.” John the Baptist was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light. “That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”

In John 12:35, Jesus said, “Walk while ye have the light. The night cometh when no man can walk.” And in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world.” And one could multiply the passages.

The purpose of light is to dispel darkness. There’s no darkness in heaven. Heaven is full of His glory. There are no shadows, no darkness there. It’s down here where we are to shine.

I remember one time in a Billy Graham meeting at night, as each one came into the stadium he was given a little candle. And during the course of Billy Graham’s message, all the lights went out and everybody lit his candle. And what did the light of the candle do? It dispelled darkness.

Now you may not shine like the sun in heaven; you may not shine like the stars. But, my friend, wherever you are, you can shine. You know, you can go into a dark room and strike a match. A little wee match dispels all the darkness in the room. You may be just one in a great deal of dark­ness; but, brother, if you’re shining, you’re dispelling darkness.

You know, one time a man said to me, “Mr. Mitchell, I want you to pray for me that I might get another job.”

And I said, “What’s the matter with the job you have?”

“Well,” he said, “I’m the only Christian in the shop.”

“Well,” I said, “I’m going to pray against you. I’m just going to pray against you.” He said, “Don’t do that.”

“Well, listen. If you leave the shop, you’ll get another job. You’re satisfied with this job; you’re satisfied with your wages. You’re going to leave just because you’re the only Christian in the shop? Isn’t that why God has you there? If you leave your job, who’s going to shine? Who’s going to bear testimony by his life or by his words?”

You see, my friend, God puts you where you are.

You say to me, “Mr. Mitchell, if I were a preacher . . . ”

“Well, you’re not.”

“If I were a teacher. . .”

“Well, you’re not.”

I don’t know who you are or what you are. You say you’re the weakest child of God. All right, I’ll take your word for it, But wherever you are and whoever you are, He wants you to shine as lights. This is what He says here—as the sons of God in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. Not in the midst of heaven, not in the midst of Christians, not in the midst of the church, but in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation among whom you shine. You shine as lights.

You know, I am fully persuaded that a lot of Christians excuse themselves by saying, “Well, if I were a missionary...” or “If I were under different circumstances...” or “If I were some place else, I’d shine for Christ.”

No, you wouldn’t. God has put you right where you are; and the best place for you to shine for the Lord is right where you are in the shop, in your office, in your kitchen, in the neighborhood, wherever you are. I’m not asking you to be a preacher. I’m not even asking you to go from door to door. I’m asking you to shine your very life, your very attitude to people, the motives that govern your life, to glorify the Saviour. “Among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” Just as the moon receives its light from the sun, you and I are to shine down here. Only we are not reflectors. We’re better than that. We radiate light.

You know, when I first started preaching, way up on the prairies of Canada, oftentimes I would go to a schoolhouse and have meetings. I would always carry some newspaper with me be­cause one of the first jobs I did was to take the lamps off the side of the wall in the school house. I would clean the chimneys—they’d been smoked up. Now behind the chimney would be a reflector pushing the light into the room. We called them reflectors. And I used to think, “Well, that’s wonder­ful.”

But you know something better than that? Today you just switch the light on, and here we have electric light. We have the light coming from inside the bulb, radiating out. Ah, Christ lives in His people, and Christ lives in you, my friend. If you love the Saviour, if you have put your trust in Him, then He comes to live in you; and you’re to shine right where you are for Christ. You may be the only one in the family, the only one in the office; but, friend, wherever you are, God has put you there to shine as a light.

And then the second thing is we are to hold forth the Word of Life as a testimony to the world. Jesus Christ could say not only “I am the light of the world,” but He could also say, “I am the Bread of life.” And here Paul takes these two things, and says you and I are to do that. We’re to shine as lights—I repeat, not in heaven, but here on earth—and we’re to hold forth the Word of Life. No wonder Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:9, “We are laborers together with God.” He is the light of the world; we are to shine as lights. He is the Bread of Life; we are to hold forth the Word of Life.

My, what a responsibility!

I pray that God today may shine through you.

He’s the One to do it!

He’s the Light of the world, not you; but He wants you, my friend, to be that light—today! Right where you are.

Right in your family.

And do it for His name’s sake today.

Good-day, friends. We again take the opportunity of talking to you from the Word of God in the book of Philippians, chapter 2. We’re coming down into this amazing chapter where we’re dealing with the believer’s responsibility from verse Php 2:2-16.

We have been dealing with our privilege in Php 2:12-13, and then our walk and conduct in Php 2:14-15. We have discussed how we are to walk and where we walk. And in our last les­son we were dealing with our service in Php 2:15-16—how we are to shine as lights, holding forth the Word of Life. This is the two-fold ministry of every Christian; and, as we said in our last les­son, we are to shine as lights because we are the only ones in whom Christ dwells in the world. And it is through the believer that He must manifest Himself.

To me it is an astounding thing that God should limit Himself to men and women like you and me whom He has redeemed. Yet it’s wonderful to know that we have been saved, forgiven every trespass, given eternal life. We have become the children of God. We are a separated people, the sons of God to shine as lights, holding forth the Word of Life.

May I just stop here a moment? This deals with our testimony of the Word of God to the world. If we keep silent, concerning Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life, how is the world or how is man— the man and the woman on the street—whoever they may be—how are they going to hear about the Saviour? He’s not going to send an angel.

I’m reminded of the verse by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:20 when he said, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

Oh, think of it, my Christian friend! If we do not witness, they’ll never hear. Here we’ve had the Word of God for nearly two thousand years, and I’ve got to confess that the church of Jesus Christ has been very slow in its testimony for Him. When I think of the fact that, comparatively, very, very few men—young men and young women—are offering themselves to God, making themselves available to God to be His witnesses, to give forth the Word of Life on the various mission fields of the world.

Do you remember 1 Corinthians 15:1-58, verses 34 where Paul says, “Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God? I speak this to your shame.” I speak this to your shame. Many have not the knowledge of God. We are the sons of God in the world, holding forth the Word of Life. The entrance of the Word of God gives life. Thy Word is Spirit and it’s Life. Jesus said, “Thy Word is truth.” We’re born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. Nobody ever be­comes a child of God apart from the Word of God because James says, “Of His own will begat He us by the word of truth” (1:18).

Think of it! If you and I do not shine as lights in our character, in our living before men, and if we do not hold forth the Word of Life, they will never hear of our Saviour. I tremble. I tremble when I think of the responsibility. I just tremble when I think of it, when I think of the dearth of the ministry of the Word of God! And I declare to you, too, my Christian friend, that God will honor His Word wherever it is given.

I’m talking to you, Sunday school teacher, young people’s worker, pastor, teacher, evangelist, whoever you are, Christian worker. God will honor His Word in spite of the channel that is using it. And you and I are responsible to hold forth the Word of Life.

If our Saviour is the Bread of Life and we are related to Him and are indwelt by Him, then may we be available to God so that we shall become His channels to shine as lights and hold forth the Word of Life. He must do the shining; and, thank God, He will do the living and powering through us if we will just let Him.

The trouble is we get in the way; we want to do it, and we fizzle on the job. Oh, I wish in some way I could make it very, very clear to you, the tremendous responsibility of giving forth the Word of Life to our generation. If ever there was a time in the history of the Christian church when we needed men and women who would make themselves available to God for this, it’s now.

I appeal to you, young men, and to you, young women, to become so, so acquainted with the Word of God, to have your mind so saturated with the Word of God that you’ll become a vessel meet for the Master’s use. When I think of this last year, how few, how few there were who went to South­east Asia as missionaries; how few went to Africa; how few went to South America; how few are go­ing into the ministry at home!

I think of so many young people who in their high school days came to know the Saviour, and there was born in their hearts a great yearning to do something for God. But by the time they got through college, they were waylaid. They even went to Christian colleges, and still they were waylaid and got into the business world where their hearts are empty and fruitless and the purpose of God is thwarted because they wanted their own way. And the tragedy is sometimes older Christians encour­age them in the path in which they walk, when God is looking for men and women who will shine as lights, who will hold forth the Word of Life.

And listen, my Christian friend, it may be you are a shut-in. It may be you can’t get out very much. It may be you’re getting down to the end of your life on earth; and, as you look back, so little has been done for the Lord. May I plead with you right where you are—in a nursing home, shut-in possibly, or in the hospital—yet you can manifest something of the fragrance of Christ, the sweetness of the Saviour, and hold forth the Word of Life.

You say, “Well, Mr. Mitchell, I can’t read any more. I wish I could.”

But you can speak a word for Him. Just that sweet smile, that devotion to the Saviour. You don’t have to say very much. It’s what you do; it’s how you live that will manifest Him. I again de­clare to you these amazing things. We are to hold forth the Word of Life and testify using the Word of God. Oh, how will they hear if we keep silent?

Now there’s one more thing in this, and you have it in verse 16—that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Now our walk and conduct was in verses 14 and 15; our service was manifested in verses 15 and 16. And now, our hope comes at the end of verse 16—rejoicing “in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.”

What is the Apostle Paul saying? That he wants to be full of joy when the Lord Jesus comes. He wants to save these Philippian Christians among whom he has labored in much persecution. He wants to see them glorifying the Saviour. He wants to rejoice at the coming of the Lord that his labor has not been in vain in their midst.

I think John, the Apostle, had that in mind in 1Jo 2:28 where he says, “And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”

“And now, little children, abide in Him.” Stay in fellowship with Him. Abide in the Word that, when the Lord Jesus shall appear, we may have confidence, being bold to speak and not being ashamed before Him at His coming. Not to be ashamed! I wonder if it’s possible that some Christians will be ashamed.

Did you ever stop to think that your pastor, whoever he may be, or your teacher may be ashamed at the coming of the Lord because you have not walked with Him, because you have not received the in­struction given, because you have not obeyed the Word of God which was given unto you? John says, Oh, dear Christian friend, abide in Him so that when the Lord Jesus appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

And here Paul says, “That I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain,” that our labor among you Philippians will not be in vain. It will bear fruit. It will pro­duce that which will bring glory to God so in that day when the Lord comes, “My cup will be filled full with joy.” He could say to the Thessalonian church in chapter 2:19, “Are not even ye” my crown of joy and rejoicing at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

Or as dear Peter could say concerning the coming of the Lord, whom having not seen, we love; yet though we see Him not, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of our faith, even the salvation of souls (1 Peter 1:8). This is the great yearning of God’s servants, that the people of God who have been taught the Scriptures might so heed them and follow after Him that they will rejoice in the day of Christ.

Now this is what we have here in chapter two of Philippians—the mind of Christ in humilia­tion and exaltation, and then the fruitage of that worked out in the believer’s life.

It is our privilege to walk before God, shining as lights and holding forth the Word of Life so

that when the Lord shall appear, we shall be filled with joy and rejoicing at His coming.

And may this be a wonderful day for you, Christian friend, a day of reveling in the presence of

our Saviour and living in expectation of seeing Him Whom having not seen, you love. And may the Lord wonderfully bless you today for His name’s sake.

Verses 17-23

Good-day, friends. We rejoice in another wonderful opportunity for you and me to sit togeth­er and discuss the precious Word of God.

We’re dealing here with the mind of Christ operating in His people. We are to walk as the children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. We are to shine as lights, holding forth the Word of Life. Our hope is the coming of the Lord.

Now reading on from there, we have three illustrations given to us of the mind of Christ work­ing out in the lives of others. You remember that Christ was the pattern given to us in humiliation and exaltation. And, by the way, the only way up, someone said, the only way to be exalted is to be hum­bled; and how true it is.

Think how our Saviour humbled Himself, and God exalted Him. And when you and I take the place of humility and meekness, you can be sure of one thing: There will be exaltation in God’s own time and place.

Now the first one given to us as an example of this is the Apostle Paul in verses 17 and 18.

Philippians 2:17. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and re­joice with you all,

Philippians 2:18. For the same cause also do you joy, and rejoice with me.

The Apostle Paul was a man who was self-effaced. His life was a sacrifice for the people of God. He was so in love with the Saviour, was so given over to the Saviour, he has so put himself in the hands of the Saviour that the life of our Lord was revealed in and through him. He was a self-ef­faced man. The one great passion of his life was Christ. His was a poured-out life; if I can use these words: “his life was poured out as a drink offering to the Lord.” A living sacrifice!

Do you remember death was scorned? Do you remember in 2 Timothy 4:1-22, reading verses 5 to 8, where Paul says, “I am about to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand.” Here death is scorned. “I am about to be offered as a sacrifice. The time of my departure is at hand. My own life and my own death mean nothing as long as Christ is magnified.”

I repeat, he lived a self-effaced life! He goes on to say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all those also that love His appearing (4:7-8).” He mentioned the same thing in Philippians chapter 1, verse 20: That “Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me, to live is Christ.” To die is “to be with Christ.”

We have the same thing in Romans 12:1-21, the first two verses—and I’m sure when Paul gave that exhortation, it was already working in his life—when he said, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,” that you give your body as present to God, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable, logical service, “and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the re­newing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Here you have the mind of Christ, then operating in the Apostle Paul. This was the first illus­tration given to us in the chapter of Christ as the pattern, being worked out in his people.

Now the second one is the mind of Christ working out in Timothy. Read verses 19 to 24. This is true also of Timothy—a life where the will of God was preferred to self-will. Look at what he says.

Philippians 2:19. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state.

Philippians 2:20. For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally (genuinely) care for your state.

Philippians 2:21. For all seek their own (things), not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.

Philippians 2:22. But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel;

Philippians 2:23. Him, therefore, I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.”

Now here Paul is in prison, and he says, “I’m thinking about you folk; you’re so on my heart.” And, by the way, what a heart this man had for God’s people! What a great bond there was be­tween the Apostle Paul and these Philippian Christians. And you could expect this. They had suffered together; they were in pain together; he had led them out of darkness into light, out of paganism into Christ.

You think of that old Philippian jailer; you think of that girl out of whom those demons were cast. Then you think of that wonderful woman, Lydia, a successful business woman. These were all in the Philippian church. It’s a wonderful thing that there was a tremendous bond.

I think I would say this—there was a bond between Paul and the Philippian church that was not in any other church. My, how he loved this people! How he loved their devotion to Christ! And so he could say this, “I’m so in love with you and so concerned about you, I’m going to send Timothy to you. I want to know just how you’re getting along. I want to be of good comfort when I hear of how you’re doing.

Now I’m on verses 20 and 21 again.

Philippians 2:20. I have no man likeminded, who will naturally (genuinely) care for your state. (I have no man like-minded who is genuine in his care for you.)

Philippians 2:21. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.

Paul is in prison, and he’s concerned about these Christians in Philippi. Men are very, very scarce there. Those who are there are selfish; they’ve got a lot of unconcern for their brethren. And the reason for the scarcity of men is that they all seek their own things or, as one writer puts it, “For all seek their own selfish aims, reckless of the will of Christ.”

Now love never seeks her own (1 Corinthians 13:1-13). “I have no man like-minded who is genuine in his care for you.” One thinks of the Saviour the same way. Oh, how He loved His people.

I was just reading the other day of a man in Burma by the name of Sam Qualla, and this man was very brilliant. He was a fine Christian, and he refused a very lucrative position, a position that paid a lot of money, with the British government. And he refused it. What for? To go down and eat with the children of poverty. For two and a half years, he lived with the dregs of society in India, and more than 2,000 souls were saved and 30 churches were established.

Why? God found a man who didn’t seek his own things; He found a man who was in love with the Saviour and in love with people. Self-effaced! The mind of Christ operating in Sam Qualla caused him to turn down a very lucrative job to reach the poverty-stricken people of Burma.

My friends, oh, my friends, will you pray with me that the Lord may thrust forth laborers into His harvest—men and women who have a real passion for Christ and a real burden for people. This is the need today.

Oh, it is so easy to be caught in this materialistic life and miss the compassion of Christ, miss the wonderful job of being a worker together with God, and miss being a channel usable in the hands of the Lord. I plead with your heart today, if you will now make yourself available to God. Just today,

will you make yourself available to God to be a channel through whom He can display His tenderness and His love and His compassion?

My heart goes out to God’s people. So many of them are untaught. They are hungry for joy and blessing because nobody seems to care, nobody seems to want to shepherd them.

I’d like to speak to your heart.

Christian friend, surely you can touch some heart today for our Saviour. That’s why He saved you; that’s why He loves you; that’s why He indwells you—that you might be His channel to reach somebody today.

Won’t you do it?

Won’t you do it?

Just try it for today.

Say, “Lord Jesus, I’m putting myself in Your hands to be available to You, to be a channel of blessing to some heart today.”

Today.

And I’m sure the Lord will do it, for He’s the One Who will do it in you and He’s the One Who’ll do it through you.

He just wants a channel.

Why not offer yourself to Him—today.

Verses 19-30

Good-day, friends. It is my great joy and blessing again to come into your home or wherever you may be with an opportunity of studying together and meditating together on the things of Christ.

We are studying the book of Philippians, and we’re in chapter 2; and if I may be allowed to read again in chapter 2, starting in verse 19:

Philippians 2:19. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state (or your condition).

Philippians 2:20. For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. 2:21. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.

Philippians 2:22. But you know the proof of him that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.

Philippians 2:23. Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with

me.

Remember that Paul is writing from prison. In the second chapter, he has been dealing with the mind of Christ, and that when the mind of Christ operates in a believer’s life, that believer is en­joying divine life. This is the spiritual life. This is where the Lord wants you and me to live—not on a low plain, but on a high plain, a life lived to the glory of God.

And we found that the mind of Christ was one of humiliation and exaltation. When one is liv­ing in a place of humility before God, you can be assured of one thing—that He, in His own wonder­ful way and time, will exalt you. As the Scripture says, “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” And so in Php 2:17-18, we have the mind of Christ working in Paul. He wasn’t living for self; He was living for the Saviour.

And now we have the mind of Christ working in Timothy in verses 19 through 24. And again you have here a man whose heart was fixed upon the Lord. Paul is in prison, as I was saying in my last message, and he was wanting to send someone to this Philippian church. And again may I remind you how much he loved this people at Philippi. They had suffered together for the gospel’s sake, and they had a rare place in the heart of Paul. He wants to send somebody. But, you know, men are scarce. I mean, real men of God are scarce. As he said here,

Philippians 2:20 For I have no man likeminded, who will be genuine in his care for your state.

Philippians 2:21 For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.

I don’t know whom I can send but him. As I said a moment ago, good men are very scarce, men who have a real concern for the people of God. And I can send Timothy because he’s genuine in his love. And this was a real sacrifice for both Paul and Timothy.

And I would like to suggest that it would be a wonderful thing if you and I were to pray that the Lord would raise up men who are genuine in their love for the Saviour and their love for God’s people.

And I don’t mind repeating this: Our love for God is evident by obedience to His Word, and our love for God’s people is evident by sacrifice. I meet some people at times who talk a lot about

their love for the Saviour. But I see so little love for the people of God. Now this is not the mind of Christ.

With Paul, Christ was pre-eminent; with Timothy, self was effaced and Christ was the center of his love, of his affection, of his devotion; and, hence, it was evident by his love for God’s people.

So when Paul looked for someone he could send, he could say, “I have no man just like Tim­othy who is genuine in his love for you as well as his love for the Saviour. I’m going to send him to you that I may know how you are getting along.”

And then in verse 24 you have the Apostle Paul saying,

Philippians 2:24. But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly,

Philippians 2:25. Yet I suppose it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother.

You remember in the first chapter he spoke of the fact that their prayers would turn to his sal­vation. Now he was not talking about the salvation of the soul of his person. He is talking about being delivered from prison. He was encouraging these Philippians to pray because, through their prayers, he expected to be saved from the position where he was in Rome as a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

So he said here in Php 2:24, he trusted that “in the Lord I myself shall come shortly” to you. He has confidence in the Lord of being set free. I personally believe that the Apostle Paul was set free, and then later on he was again taken to Rome and eventually beheaded for the testimony for the Gospel.

Now we have had the mind of Christ operating in Paul and the mind of Christ operating in Timothy. Now from verse 25-30, we have the mind of Christ working in Epaphroditus.

Philippians 2:25. I suppose it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor, and fellow soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.

Philippians 2:26. For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.

Philippians 2:27. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

Philippians 2:28. I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see him again, ye may re­joice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.

Philippians 2:29. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation:

Philippians 2:30. Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.”

And might I say of the apostle Paul—self was effaced and Christ was pre-eminent. Likewise the same was said of Timothy. You could also say it was true of two other men, Epaphroditus and Epaphras.

In Col 4:12, Paul says, “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, laboring fervently for you in prayers” and so on. You have Epaphras in Col 4:12, and Epaphroditus in chapter 2 of Philippians.

Here you have men who are sold out to the Saviour, and I repeat it: God give us men today who have the same vision and make Christ the very center of attraction.

Look at this man in Php 2:25. He’s my brother, he’s my companion in labor, he’s my fellow soldier, he’s your messenger, and he’s ministered to my wants. Here’s a true companion—a man who was compassionate, who was humble, self-sacrificing and true. He was a brother in the Lord, a com­panion of Paul’s, and a fellow-soldier in the gospel of Christ, a messenger of the Word, and a minister to God’s people.

And I’ll tell you, it costs something. It costs something. Don’t let anyone fool you, my friend, that when you and I or any of God’s people will dedicate themselves to the Lord, it’s going to cost something. It costs us nothing to be saved. Our Lord did the whole business. But to follow Him, to have the mind of Christ operating in us, we may have to suffer. Paul did, Timothy did, and so did Epaphroditus. He was nigh unto death for the gospel’s sake.

And then Paul made a rather remarkable statement when He said in this passage, “Indeed, he was sick nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.”

1:30. Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.

Did you ever stop to think of it? Here is a man who was sick even unto death for the gospel’s sake. He suffered for the gospel’s sake. And yet, I want to mark something. He was healed on the ground of the mercy of God.

Paul said, “God had mercy on me, too.” I want you to mark this. I say this because there are those who believe—in fact, I’ve heard people demand that God heal somebody who is sick in body and I don’t see any faith there; I see arrogance —but here he is healed on the ground of the mercy of God. And the mercy of God was displayed because of God’s love for Epaphroditus and God’s love for the Apostle Paul.

Here was a man who was willing to efface all self and pour out his life for the people of God, even unto death. He didn’t regard his own life because of his great love for the people and his love for Christ and his love for Paul.

In other words, his life was his benediction. He did this because the mind of Christ was operat­ing in him. You know, somebody has said,

“You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day,
By deeds that you do, by words that you say.
Men read what you write whether faithless or true.
Say, what is the Gospel according to you.”

Here were three men, Paul, Timothy, Epaphroditus, who in the first century had the mind of Christ operating in them. These men were sold out to Christ. Self-will went out the window. They had only one great yearning—that the will of God be perfected.

And as you read these verses, you see the confidence of these men. You see the compassion of these men. Faithful, true men. And yet it cost them something.

Don’t be surprised then, Christian friend. If you turn everything over to the Lord, you may have some tests you never dreamed of having. But remember, He is always with you in the test. I may not always understand the test—I’m sure Epaphroditus didn’t understand why he should go through so much suffering, even unto death! But he rejoiced in the fact that he was counted worthy. He re­joiced in the fact that he was a fellow-worker with God and also was a companion of the Apostle Paul’s.

And I just trust that it might be said of you and it might be said of me, what Paul said concern­ing Timothy, “I have no one who is like-minded and is genuine in his care for you, for all seek their own things, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s.”

I repeat it, when Paul looked for someone to send, he found Timothy who sought the things of Christ.

I wonder, my Christian friend, would you be picked out by God as one who sought the things of Christ and not the things of self?

I repeat it, when the mind of Christ is operating in the believer, the one passion of that believer will be the will of God, whatever it may be.

It may mean suffering.

It may even mean death, but it’s in the will of God.

What a joy, what a privilege, what an honor it is that you and I can walk in the will of God whatever the cost may be.

And I would suggest that even today, you turn your whole affection, you turn your whole de­votion over to the Saviour and let Him work out His life and His plan in—your—heart and life.