Christ's humiliation and exaltation #2
Philippians 2:8-11 · Roger Henderson · Apr 22, 2012
Philippians (2012), No. 16
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926311214958

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, well today we're going to do Philippians 2, 8-11. We're going to kind of do the last half of that. This is entitled Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ. So these are the verses we're going to cover. And actually I'd like to have someone to read, let's read starting in verse 5. Could someone volunteer to read 5-11?

Let this mine be a knee which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore 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. of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth.

Through 11? Yeah, through 11. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Great. So this section, if you kind of think of the title, the first part of the verse 5 through 8 is basically talking about Christ becoming a man and people have labeled that as his humiliation. And then the last part is his exaltation. So we're going to focus mostly on the exaltation, even though I want to go back and just review briefly Christ becoming a man. So what I did here, like last week, we looked at five through eight. And what's in red is, this is basically one sentence. And in the sentence there's a subject, which is Christ Jesus, which is in the red.

And then there's three main verbs, did not regard, emptied himself, and humbled himself. And so what I did is, I didn't do a how and give you a sentence diagram, which I'm getting rusty on anyway. I kind of did it this way. I kind of did it in outline form. So we'll just go through that. So the first phrase here, or actually the clause, it has a subject and a verb.

Christ did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. And actually, existing in the form of God modifies that. So Christ existed in the form of God. When he came as a man, his deity was intact. It was veiled. People couldn't see his glory except for the Mount of Transfiguration. His glory was veiled. But he remained God. The next one is Christ Jesus emptied himself. Do you guys remember what we talked about in terms of emptying himself? Anything come to mind from last week?

And if it doesn't, that's okay too. After a while, I can't remember. A short time later, I forgot. Hal used to say, I refer to Hal a lot. He used to say, that's one of the blessings of getting old. If you have things that you're worried about, Five minutes now, you might not be working on it because you're proud about it. So I can be a good thing. So the idea of emptying oneself is basically to setting aside his deity.

That's what we kind of talked about a little bit. And actually Jim covered part of this. I kind of overlapped Jim in part of this. Taking the form of a bond servant. And this is the idea that he, actually what I kind of found is, you know, it has this word form, which is morphao, a term for the, basically it's the, his outward expression doesn't match his inward nature, basically. His inward nature is God, but his outward nature is out of a bond circle.

So, yes. Just something that comes to my mind, this verse, where he emptied, the meaning of that to me is so deep because out of his deity he poured himself out for our redemption. It isn't that he became less God. No, absolutely. Out of his deity, all of his deity, he poured that out. I know, I know. He reveals God as a man. It is something, isn't it? It is pretty amazing.

And something that kind of struck me in terms of bondservant, I kind of looked at, you know, Paul is, you know, many believers in scripture are talked of as bondservants, and we are to be bondservants. So in a sense, if you think about it, God became a man, and I kind of picture him as Paul, just because it's convenient, because there's a lot of scripture on Paul. He became a bondservant like Paul, And he interacted with his father, in a sense, as a bond-servant. And that's just amazing. It's just amazing that, you know, the God-man interacted. Some people think that he became less than God here. No. There's a whole school of thought about that. No, I know, I know.

This is territory. You guys covered that, right? Well, actually, this is the third time we've kind of talked about this verse right here. Jim covered it, and I covered it last week. So we can go back and listen. And that's one of the challenges. You look at this, and you say, well, OK, he emptied himself. Well, what does that mean? You can go off. I can take all these detours and go off the chart here.

OK, so taking the form of a bondservant, Then having been born in the likeness of men, and this is this cool thing, this is one of my favorite verbs here. Having been born is this verb called kenomai, to come into a new state of being. something that he never was before. He was a man. He never was a man in the past. He was God.

Now he becomes the God-man and what's even more amazing is he will always be the God-man. We see him in eternity as the Lamb slain with the marks of the crucifixion. So this change in the likeness of man was a a single act that will never be repeated again. And the effects of that will carry on. So it's just astounding. God becomes a man. And that's just incredible. You should say likeness because he was a man but he didn't have the sin nature. Right. The likeness of man. And that's very... Distinguish that a little bit. Right.

And actually we cover parts of this in different places. I didn't really want to cover all this. I wanted to get on to the new part. he humbled himself. This is another aspect. So actually what I tried to do is you have the subject and the verb and then you have the modifiers on each of the subject and the verb.

So under humbled himself we have having been found in the appearance of a man. So it seems at first glance it's very similar to the likeness of man but in this case, in this case this is the outward, his outward persona and it's this word schema He had the schema of a man. He looked like a man. He talked like a man. He was a man. So that's kind of cool. And then last, having become again, it's that same verb as back up in the having been born, to come into a new state of being. And this blows my mind, because I thought it was a little bit more.

As the bondservant, he became obedient to death. And he was in total control. He was obedient to death. God of the universe died. and was resurrected, but it says he was obedient to death, death on the cross. What kind of obedience do you attach to that, Roger?

Well, that's a good question. I think of it as the obedience of faith in the Father. Exactly, yeah. I think it's that kind of... I was just trying to think what we said last week about that. Let me just see if I have anything real quickly here. Well, and one of the things that is kind of challenging there is the verse in Hebrews 5 that he learned obedience by the things that he suffered.

So, and I don't think I really actually came to him, you know, but it's very, very, you know, God becomes obedient. And you think, God, does he need to become obedient? I mean, it makes, to a human, it makes no sense, you think. But he says that in his humbling himself, that was part of the process. But he did that without still being deity. I guess there would be a contrast between Adam, who did not obey God, did not believe God, and Christ did believe God.

How about all the cases where he says, I only do what I see my Father doing. He said that over and over again. He put himself in the place of a man. He said, I do what my Father does. I do what he says. I don't contradict what he does. That's good. Keep those roles in mind and obedience makes sense in the relationship of the guy.

Well, there was a covenant between the two, so... Yeah, the Eternity Pass. Yeah, he was obedient to that covenant that was made in the Eternity Pass. What covenant are you talking about? The Eternal Covenant. It's in Hebrews 13 where the Lord Jesus says he'll lay down his life Let's see, Hebrews... 1320. Thank you. Is that called a covenant? Yeah, that's called the Eternal Covenant. Now, the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the Eternal Covenant, and that's where it gets its name, even Jesus Christ our Lord.

Actually, Hal did a great... I have some notes on that if you're interested. I can pass them along. It's really pretty neat stuff. All right, so let's go on for today. So for today, we covered this a little bit last week. It says, based upon what's happened, for this reason also, it's looking, or therefore, for which cause... For this cause, God the Father highly exalted him. And we looked a little bit at that last week.

This is this word. It's over plus to exalt, or it's super exalted, if you will. He super exalted the Lord Jesus Christ. And he did, by doing that, he bestowed on him the name. And we talked a little bit about the fact that there's, believe it or not, and this is a little bit tough. I read it again and thought about it a little bit. Last time I asked, well, what's the name?

When you read in the context, it talks about Jesus being the name that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. And some have argued that they say, well, Jesus was his name given at his birth. But Jesus as Lord is what we're going to see. That's what is talked about at the very end of it. Jesus Christ is Lord. So some have argued that his name is Jesus as Lord, or Jesus is Lord.

So I don't know. I'm not sure it's real critical, but it's interesting. This name kind of tracks through here. So let's go through and see what you think at the end about this, which is above every name. A couple of things. I think it was Elaine last week. Did Elaine come today? We talked about the above, that's a preposition there. And anyway, after looking at it a little bit, she had some comments and that could be translated which is beyond, above, over.

So it's His name is over and above every name. And every is this word past, P-A-S in the Greek, which means every, none excluded. So the Lord Jesus' name is above, beyond every name out there. So it's basically, as I had it, it's the name versus every name. His name superabounds, or is beyond every name. So, and we're going to kind of track through that in the next chart here. So, any thoughts on this verse? Yeah, Roger. Sure, go ahead.

It kind of seems to me to make sense that it would be Jesus, would be the name, because the name Jesus is the one that causes contention in the earth. And that's what my experience has been. When you mention Jesus, the whole equation changes. I mean, everything changes. That he's the only one by whom we must be saved. Right. And that God has designated him so. This one person. Okay, that's good.

Other thoughts? I'm just along with Gail. It's the same thing around God is great, We believe in God. People say all the time, they have no problem with that, you can say God, you can say Lord even, because Lord is sort of, it's used, it's interesting, we watch Me TV, you guys know what Me TV is? Memorable TV? Memorable entertainment. Thank you, thank you Bonnie. It shows our viewing habits. So it's all the old sitcoms, not sitcoms, yeah I guess it's sitcoms. 70s. It's in the 70s. And they actually all are pretty good.

And they had a bar mitzvah. They showed a Jewish bar mitzvah on, it was Nick Van Dyke. And his, one of his writers, one of the comedy writers there, which is, I forgot his name. Anyway, he never was bar mitzvahed as a child. And so on the show, they show a bar mitzvah.

And they have a cantor who sang. I mean, I was just amazed. And not making fun of it. Not making fun of it. And at the end, he gets up and he says, I want to thank the Lord. And I was thinking, so I've been studying this. I'm thinking, so to the Jewish person, the Lord, they have no problem with the Lord. Now they don't see Jesus there, but they say, Lord's okay. So it kind of goes back to, Jesus seemed to be the dividing line between men. I mean, that's what really... Anyway, a little bit of a detour there. Okay, so let's go on here.

Okay, so as a result of the sovat, or with a purpose at, it's this hinah, with a purpose at, And what I did here is, once again, looking for trying to track subject and verb here. Every knee, knee is a subject. And basically, the verb is bow, and it has some modifier, will bow or should bow. And the reason I have it up there, the will and the should, I think the King James uses should, if you have a King James. And New American Standard uses will. So actually I spent a little time looking at this, and hopefully this isn't too much of a nit here, but basically the verb is in the subjunctive mood, and subjunctive mood means probability. So you think, is there, read that verse and you say, I'll read the whole thing, so at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. Is that a probability? Or is that a statement of that's absolutely going to happen? And I believe it is.

So it looks like, and I read a little bit farther. So when you have hinah plus a subjunctive, this is a little bit geeky here, but that really kind of takes precedence. And so it looked like to me the King James translated it should, but in the context will is a better translation. I want to look at some verses here that go along with that.

So actually, I put down knee. There's not a whole lot to learn from these guys here. Knee came from a word for fall on the knee. Bow is basically the bow. We have a couple of verses here that occur a very similar statement. So let's look. I get someone to read Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45 and 22-24.

Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked. Before me every knee will bow, by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, in the Lord alone are righteousness and strength. All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. And then if you go on actually it talks about, he's talking to Israel here obviously, but this statement in verse 23, that to me every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance. And so it's interesting here, in this one here, that will there is actually in the future, it's looking to the future. And then we're going to see another one that looks to the future.

But when we come to this one, it's not in the future tense, which is, I don't know, there's a little bit. I'm not sure I'm capable of tracking all through all this. But it's just interesting. I read some things about that. So it's actually in the future tense here in that one. So let's look at the other occurrence of this passage, which is in Romans 14. Romans 14 and 10 and 11.

And could someone read that? But why dost thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Right. Now in this case, this is also future, looking future as well. Roger. Yes.

In Philippians, I think he's looking at raising his name, exalting his name more than the actual act of bowing. And because he has raised his name, every name is obligated to do this. It is an obligation because he has raised his name. It's more of an emphasis on his name. looking for that event, and I agree with you on that. But if he hadn't raised his name, then there wouldn't have been that.

Right, exactly. Actually, what I wanted to do here was, there's another case, and just kind of back to this thing about the will and the should. Here's another case that, let's look at John 3.16. Actually, you can do it without even turning to it, right? But let's turn to it. Because it has a should in there. And it was used, when I was studying this, it was used as a, to kind of support the fact that this should be a will. And no, it's not a should.

Okay, John 3.16. So I'm going to read that, read it from whatever translation you have. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

So basically in kind of studying this, that is like in our case, this is so that, but it's that, and it's the same kind of situation where you have the subjunctive, and so it's a form in the Greek that makes a statement of, actually they even gave it a term, it's purpose result. Purpose result, and maybe if you study, It's a purpose result combination there. So we've spent a lot of time on that, hopefully. But actually, it's kind of good to be able to be able to say, well, that's a shell. Is that kind of wishy-washy? No, it's absolute. As in 316, there's no doubt about that. And there's no doubt about it in this verse either. So hopefully that was helpful with the will and the should. Didn't get too off the track there.

I don't know where, but when the Lord comes back, the Jewish nation is going to recognize him as their Mashiach, the promised one. And they will worship him who was slain. Right now they don't, but they will. Yeah, we're going to see more about when we get to this group of folks here. In fact, we're going to come back to it right now. So let's just move on here. I'll show you about the...

So now we move on to the part, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on the earth and under the earth. So it's basically the preposition could be translated at or in the name of Jesus. Okay, so what else, put on your thinking caps, what else is talked about in scripture in the name of Jesus? Other things you can think about that scripture talks about is done in the name of Jesus?

You can argue everything. Healing. What's that? Okay, I have some examples. I can think of another one. Especially in Acts. Acts is, I did a search, you know, today is so wonderful, you get your computer out and you just, I want to search on the name of Jesus. So I get 11 hits on axe and I get Philippians. So I say, hmm, axes tell me a lot about. So actually, what else on axe do you think about?

Early church, what else was happening where they did it in the name of Jesus? Healing is one. What's that? Casting out demons. Yes. And then anything else? Preaching? I'm not sure. There's one biggie. There's one biggie. Baptism. So let's look at some of those. You guys do good. I'll get stars. OK, let's look at Acts 10. Acts 10, 48. Can someone read Acts? How about 47 to 48? Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit, just as we did. Can he? and he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.

So you'll see that kind of tracks through. You see a lot of ones like that. And then on healing, as was mentioned, let's look at Acts 3. And let's do verse 6. Let me see, is that all I want to do? Let's see here. You mean verse 6? Yeah, verse 6. And Peter said, silver and gold have I none that such as I have I give to thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Right, okay. I missed a little dash. I knew it was there somewhere. Dash, walk. I couldn't find it in my Bible. It went missing, as the British would say. So that's healing. And then there's a negative.

Turn over to Acts 4.18, and I'll read this one here. It says, and here they told him, don't do this. And when they had summoned them, they commanded him not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

That's kind of cool. So this is pretty significant, the fact that every knee will bow in the name of Jesus. That's really pretty cool. Would a synonym for the name be the authority of Jesus? Yeah, I think that's a good point. So now we're going to see who does this affect. of those who are in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth. First I want to look at this phrase here about who are in the heaven, on earth, and under the earth is a phrase that's used in a few places in scripture. Actually it's used in the Ten Commandments. So let's look at Exodus 20. Exodus 20 in verse 4, which is the second commandment.

Can someone read that? You should not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of that which is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. We're going to look at two more. This is everyone. This is it. This is total created beings. When he makes that statement, rather than just saying all, he uses that phraseology, which I think is really neat because it helps you to think through this a little bit, the significance and the impact of this.

The next two are in Revelation 5. Revelation 5 and verse 3. How about let's read Revelation 5 1-3. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a scroll written within And no man in heaven, nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the scroll, neither to look on it. So this describes everyone. There was no one out there that could do it except the Lord. And then lastly, in Revelation, actually just the whole verse is over, in verse 13 in chapter 5, and I'll read this one.

Revelation 5.13 and every creative thing which is in heaven and on the earth and on the sea and all things in them okay that's it yeah every creative thing which is in the heaven on the earth and under the earth and actually on the sea and all things in them I heard them saying to him who sits on the throne to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever. So I think those are the occurrences of that phraseology. So now the question comes up here, possibly.

Can we identify who's in the group that's in heaven, who's in the group on the earth, and who's under the earth? So who do you think, let's do the easy one. How about the one on the earth? We'll take the one on the earth first. Who's on the earth? Men. Men, right, and women, and mankind.

And some have argued that this is not necessarily, for example, believers. Have believers done this? Have they done what it says here? Have they bowed the knee? Yes. Right. I think we have. I mean, they have bowed the knee. Unbelievers haven't. Okay? So, on the earth... Now, it doesn't really talk about timing here. It just says that's going to happen. It's going to happen.

So, those who are in heaven, who's in heaven? Just as a question there, on the earth, Does that also encompass, you know, they talk about the rocks crying out, is there an acknowledgment by nature and principalities? Yeah, you know, actually I thought that a little bit, and I think this case, this seems to be referring to the men, or mankind, but there are certainly plenty of verses that you can find that will talk about the creation, creation groans and creation cries out, and I took this to be, this is, First of all, rocks don't bow necessarily, and they don't confess, which you're going to see shortly here. So this seems like this is pointing to mankind, and maybe actually even more... I think it possibly goes outside of mankind conceivably.

So we'll get to the heaven one. So in heaven, I'm kind of telling you what I'm thinking here. Who's in heaven? So you're saying angels are in heaven? Do I have a verse for that? Okay. The heavens declare the glory of God. Yeah, that's true. Okay, that's good.

There may be one, but I don't have it available. Go ahead. Doesn't the next verse 14 include some of those who are in heaven? Okay, where are we reading now? Yeah, okay. And all fourth living creatures saying, yeah, okay, good point. As well as, I would assume, believers who are there. Right. Well, you almost think of this 13 as being almost a picture of what it just described here. 13 is almost saying what's being said here. I thought that too.

Yeah, that's a good point. and the essence of a created entity created by God in us, he has designed us to be what we're a star. If we're a rock, we're a rock. If we're a human, we're a human. And we beget what we are. In that sense, we are bowing to who we are because He is our Creator.

Rick. We have a problem here. The next part is going to say something. I don't know. I hear what you're saying. David. There's no getting around it. Every created thing, dogs, cats, whatever, they all do what God has created them to do. We speak only because he has made us able to speak. Glorify him.

Okay, alright. Just thought. How about, maybe a harder one is under the earth. It is. How about the story of, not the story, the parable? Let's see. In Luke, we have Lazarus and the rich man. Thank you. So he goes off to, he goes off to paradise. I'm getting a little confused here. They talk about Hades there, and maybe they don't. and there's a gulf between. Right, right.

So it would seem like the ones under the earth, those awaiting judgment, the great white throne possibly. So I thought it was interesting just to kind of think about who this group is, you know, and it's all-inclusive. There's a group of angels that are under chains. Fallen angels, right.

So let's go to the other half of this sentence, which is in the next verse. And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So every tongue, so I didn't put the, actually it has the same, I gotta put should in there. Every tongue will confess. And tongue here, you know, that tongue, you know, sometimes there's tongues plural for like in Acts there or in Corinthians, but this is just normal speech here.

So why isn't just bowing enough? Can't we just bow and that's good enough? In all honesty, I'm not sure I have a definite answer on this, but just something that occurred to me. Any thoughts on that? So why do you have to have bowing and confessing Well, they're not vowing just because they have to.

They really believe he is Lord. They acknowledge it with their mouths. It's what they believe. And is that whether they like it or not? Well, I think, and this is to Roy's point, this is not being forced. This is, well, okay, I see your point now. I think they're agreeing with God about who Christ is. I think that's what it is. And I think that's absolutely truthful. That everything will be revealed and people will... Yeah. I mean, like now, people say, well, I don't, you know, I have my opinions about this and that. But there, I think they'll agree.

Just like, you know, it seems like, back to the rich man Lazarus, it seems like interesting that the rich man never argued about himself being an He never argued one bit. He said, don't have people come to this awful place. But he never argued that he shouldn't be there. And I think this is, along this line here, they're not going to argue that Jesus Christ is Lord.

They're going to agree with that. All right. So here's some thoughts about, let's look at James 3. 5 through 8. Let's talk about the tongue. Could someone read James 3, 5 through 8? Even so, the tongue is a little member, and boasts its great sayings.

Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed, and has been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." Yeah. Oh! Yeah. Close our mouth.

Well, it seems like this is a... This shows the... the impact or the significance of having a name which is above every name. I mean, it affects both our bodily posture and what's inside, the tongue reflecting upon what's inside. So I just thought, this just kind of completes the picture. He will bow and his tongue will confess or will agree. And there's a bunch of other ones that are about the tongue, but that's pretty condemning on our tongue. And how God is, the tongue is going to agree with him. Yeah, so just the outside and the inside. Exactly.

You know, like the old thing is, well I'm obeying you on the outside mom, but inside I'm doing, you know, stories about that. how true they are, but they're probably true. Okay, confess is, this is kind of cool, ex amulageo. And this is, what's interesting is the ex is the idea of freely or openly. So it's to agree freely or openly. I think this is back to the point that Roy made. This is a confession that is It's praise. In fact, we're going to see the same word is translated to give praise in quite a few cases. In fact, I have some down here.

If you look in Romans 14.11, Romans 14.11, is that what I have?

Yeah, Romans 14.11.

Romans 14.11 says, For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God. And that give praise, that's a translation of that same word, give praise to God. And it carries underneath it, just like in about our sins.

Exactly, exactly. Right, the core word is to say the same thing and this is to say it freely and openly. So we're wanting to say this, we're excited about saying this, we're praising God. So this is not holding back, this is shouting it out so to speak.

And then in 15.9 it says, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy as it is written saying therefore I will give praise that's our word again confess to them among the Gentiles in my name and I will sing to thy name. There's actually a negative case talking about our sins, but we'll bypass that one. Scripture, a lot of the words are used both negative and positive. Okay, so let's get on to the, right here.

Okay, so this is what they're going to, and every tongue will confess, Jesus Christ is Lord. Okay, so what does it imply? Jesus Christ is Lord. What's the implication of that? If you say Jesus Christ is Lord, what does that mean? If you tell someone... It would imply that you're saved. The verses that come to mind for me is Romans 10, 9 and 10, that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. for it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

But then I think of how even the demons believe and shudder, so we know that not everybody who confesses Jesus as Lord, I think in this case, is saved. Everybody is under the earth, and I think like Donna said, everybody will kind of be forced to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord.

And I'm not sure, I don't know, and that's something, I don't know whether we can say forced. I think they're going to be like the rich man. They're going to say the facts are there, and there's no, you know, they're going to have to say it, in the sense that it's true. I mean, if it's not true, then...

Well, I was thinking of the parallel verse out of Hebrews 2, all things are put in subjection. Okay. So regardless of whether you're a believer or not, a believer, everything is in subjection to Jesus Christ because he's been exalted, right? So it's not up for debate. Right.

You know, Roger, I'm reminded of my experience when I became a Christian at the age of 12 and from reading the Word and I hid it. and didn't tell anybody because my parents weren't believers, at least I don't think they ever were, I don't know. And I didn't want them to know I was reading the Bible even though they knew I had it.

And so I don't know what I was so afraid of all the time, but I felt like I needed to tell my grandmother, my step-grandmother. And I was afraid to tell her because she was very legalistic. And I thought she was going to tell me, well, you can't go to the movies with your parents anymore, or something like that. You know how kids, they just don't know what's going on. And so I kept not telling her, not telling her. And finally, I couldn't stand it any longer.

And I told her, Grandma, I believe in Jesus. And she just gave me the biggest hug and was so loving. And she didn't say that. But I guess we need to confess. Right. especially when we believe in him. I hadn't heard Billy Graham say, you need to come up here. I just felt in my heart I had to do that.

That's good. That's really neat. Well, I also notice, as you look through here, you'll see that in the New Testament, it'll talk about that Christ is my Lord or our Lord. So it's personalized for the believer. It's personalized. This is more a statement of fact. In fact, if I remember correctly, this is one of these, let's see, what is it? It's where the direct object identifies who the subject is. Is is a verb, so it's basically Lord is identifying who Jesus Christ is. He is Lord. It's not like it's up for debate. It's an absolute fact. He is Lord, period. There's no, you know, that's it. No debate about it.

So what else here? So I had several verses here that kind of talk about that. God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom he crucified. Lord of the living and the dead. And then no one speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. That's what I think you're referring to. So for believers, that's almost a fact. As your Lord, that kind of is testimony. But like I said, this is a truth irrefutable by mankind.

Jesus Christ is Lord by definition. Okay, so let's go on the very last part to the glory of God the Father. So I just printed out, I like Vine's definition of glory, basically of the nature and acts of God in self-manifestation. Basically what I like to remember, glory is what he essentially is and does. Don't think of brightness, think of character or think of essence. To the glory of God the Father. So I have a few verses here for that.

In Romans it talks about just as Christ also accepts us to the glory of God and then I had it in 1st Corinthians 10.31 whether, and this is one that we hear a lot, whether then you eat or drink or whether you do or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. So now, so what I did, I just kind of put it again in subject-verb kind of, so for this reason, God highly exalted him, and that's based upon looking back at his humiliation, becoming a man, going to the cross, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that, or with a purpose that, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, at the name of Jesus, or in the name of Jesus. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Pretty powerful stuff. Some have said, and I'm not sure you guys were all here last week, some have said these verses are the most important verses in Philippians we just covered. Basically 5 through 11. Because they're so significant to what we know about our Savior and what He's done. So I would agree with that.

It's pretty amazing. So any last thoughts or questions? Everybody's so quiet. I don't know whether that's good. Hopefully that's good. Okay, we'll just close then. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have, Father. the marvelous truths we have about your Savior, that He is Lord by definition. And all creation will agree with that. Even the ones that rejected Him will agree that He is Lord. And we thank you for just your coming to earth as a man and how your grace is so marvelous and dying on the cross on our behalf, Father. We ask it in His name. Amen.