Good evening. So in the young adult study we've been going through the book of Philippians. We finished chapters one and two so far and when Andy asked me if I could preach this evening I wanted to look at something from that study that we've been doing. So with the Philippian church we have Paul looking for somewhere to go. They wanted to go down to Asia and essentially God through a number of various means prevented them from going where they were trying to go and directed them instead to the area of Philippi, to the city of Philippi. We can gather that there was not even a synagogue there of Jewish men, which was fairly rare. That means there was basically less than five God-fearing families in that city. And we see that even in spite of that situation that God led them to, he worked in various mighty ways to bring about a church forming there through the jailer and through the women down by the river. And we see God working in a mighty way there to bring this church together. So now at this point, Paul is writing to them from prison to encourage them and to instruct them and rebuke them in a number of things. And chapter 2, I would say primarily is about humility through unity, is the best way I can summarize that. And in verses 1 through 4, he kind of gives commands about humility. In 5 through 11, he talks about Christ's humility and his exaltation. And then from 19 to 30, he gives a few different examples of men who we can also look at to get an example of humility from. And tonight I want to look specifically at verses 5 through 8 about Christ and his humility as our example, especially in light of the gospel and on the cross. So let's go ahead and read verses 1 through 11 in Philippians 2, if you'll turn there with me. Philippians 2. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Let's go to a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this day that you've given us. We thank you so much for this opportunity that we can look at your word and look at your glory and your humility in Christ, Lord. And we ask that you would help me and assist me as I seek to deliver your word, that you would help me to speak truth, and that you would work in all of our hearts to apply this truth. And we'll give you thanks and praise. In Christ's name we pray, amen. So we're gonna start with verse five. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. So we need to understand the mind of Christ in this context. And so there are two main ways I wanna look at that tonight. The first is looking at his divinity and God's glory in general. And we're going to look at that so that we can understand just what it means when Christ humbles himself as a man and to the point of death. So, to start off, there's a couple things we need to see here. So, looking at verse 6, we see Christ was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, and being found in appearance or in the form of a man. So, that language can be a little bit tricky if we don't understand it right. So, it's very important, this isn't the main point of this sermon, but I want to emphasize at this point, that Christ is both fully God and fully man. And we can't lose either of those or get those confused. And it's not like Christ is fully God, then he comes to earth and is fully man, then he goes back to heaven and is fully God. But he is fully God and fully man, and we have to understand that doctrine. If we don't understand that, then Christ is either not an appropriate sacrifice as a man, or he cannot pay for our sins as God. He has to be fully both for us to be worshiping the God of the Bible. So I want us to understand that before we get into this. And there's a couple different passages I want to look at. You don't have to turn with me to the first couple as we examine this idea. So Colossians 2 verse 9 says, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily in him. And so we see this idea that in Christ, the fullness of deity dwells bodily. And for the record, we can't fully comprehend this idea. We are mere men, we are mere mortals, and so we're never going to fully understand that until perhaps he reveals it all to us in heaven, but at this point we just need to understand it and give the amen to this doctrine. But if you will turn with me to John chapter 1, and I want to look at a couple verses here. So we'll read John chapter one, verses one through five. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the light was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. And if you will, just jump down with me to verse 14 and see here. And so we see there, there's no room for Christ to be someone who ascended to deity or somehow became God through his life on earth, or any of these various heresies, but rather we see that the word, we can substitute there Jesus, as we see in verse 14, in the beginning was Jesus, Jesus is with God, Jesus is God, he was in the beginning with God, all things were made through him, and et cetera, and on we go. But that's imperative to understand those two things. And there's one more place I want to take us on this topic and then we'll move forward, but I think this is absolutely imperative to everything else we talk about tonight. So, I'm going to read real quick, you don't have to turn with me, but in Exodus chapter 3, verses 13 and 14. So, we have this situation here where essentially God is saying that he's going to deliver Israel out of Egypt, and he's using his servant Moses to that end to go tell that to the Israelites. And in verse 13, Moses said to God, indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. So we see there God reveals his name as I am who I am to Moses to tell to the Israelites. And then if you will turn with me to John chapter eight, keeping what we just read in mind in Exodus. And if you'll look down with me at verse 52 in John chapter eight. So at this point Jesus is conversing with a group of Pharisees and he says, excuse me, they say to him in verse 52, then the Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon. Abraham is dead and the prophets and you say, if anyone keeps my word he shall never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then the Jew said to him, you are not yet 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Then they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them and so passed by." And so what we see there unequivocally is Jesus claiming that he is I am who I am, that he is the very God who spoke to Moses in Egypt and who has been God since the beginning. And there are various cults out there, and I can talk about wrong views on this all day, but suffice to say, the Jews here did not mistake what Jesus was saying when he said, I am, because they took up stones to kill him. So they weren't confused about what he was saying. Let that be very clear that there was no misunderstanding what Christ said when he made that statement, because they were well-versed in the Old Testament and what the revelation had been to them. So we've seen that Christ is God and some ways to stay out of trouble surrounding that topic and how we can best understand it. Now again I want to talk about God's holiness and greatness at this point so that we can really understand Christ's humility and humiliation and appreciate it for what it really is back in Philippians. So if you will go ahead and turn with me to Isaiah chapter 6. And we'll get a good workout tonight flipping back and forth between the Old Testament and the New Testament. So, starting in chapter, starting in verse one in Isaiah chapter six. In the year that King Uzziah died, this is the prophet Isaiah speaking in a vision, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. So this is one of the best passages I can think of when it comes to God's holiness, and especially when I'm out doing evangelism or sharing with people about God's holiness. I will refer specifically to verse two here about the seraphim. Some commentators think that there was one or two or a few seraphim. I think it's probably a countless host of them. But we see that these seraphim have six wings and it's very important to understand what these six wings represent for us. We see with two, he flew at the end there. That's probably the easiest to understand. One commentator said that they had wings to fly so that they could be as quick as possible getting to the business God had commanded them to do. And I think it would be well for us that even though we don't have wings, we adopt a similar disposition that when we feel conviction or when we see a need in the body of Christ that we would be quick to fly to it and to take care of that need and to obey our conscience in that regard. We have two other sets of wings. With two, he covered his face. So we see there that, keep in mind what these seraphim are. These are angels who are blameless, is the best word I can use. They are not fallen sinners like we humans who inherit the sin of our father, Adam, and have sinned daily in our lives. These are creatures that God has created that stay in his presence and worship him, and they are blameless. They have not sinned. And yet, we see them covering their face, they're covering their eyes to not look upon God because of how glorious and majestic He really is. And we see that they have two that cover their feet. Now, the topic of feet, we'll come back to it later, but essentially, especially in the Old Testament, when people went somewhere, they walked. And so their feet got a lot of dust and dirt on them. And again, we'll come back to that in the New Testament. But suffice to say, these seraphim are flying, but even they are covering their feet because the ground around them is absolutely holy because of the God whose presence they're in. And I want to drive home this point that God is, this is what it means for God to be holy. He is so holy that even blameless angels cannot look upon him or stand in his presence because he is utterly other and set apart from them. And so we see this image and then take it a step further and think of us. Think of fallen sinners like us who would dare to have any pride at all in anything that we can conjure up before God. And we see it's foolishness. There's no room for it whatsoever. And I'm not pointing at you in saying that, I'm pointing at me in saying that as well. That we are full of pride and pride is the root of so many sins, but there's no room for it in a Christian. We must understand who God is and how holy he is. And I think this is a great passage to meditate on for that point. I also can't help myself, it's an election year, and I saw a commentator talk about, in verse one, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up. And suffice to say, this throne is not just greater than other thrones, it is higher than other thrones. This throne is above all other thrones. All authority on this earth is derived from God. What is so important about that is that No help is going to come to us from Republicans, or Democrats, or Libertarians, or Green Party members, obviously. None of these people are going to help us out of our situation, because our situation, fundamentally, is that our country and our culture have rejected God, and they have chosen to worship their own gods, worship themselves. And we see that this is not going to last. God is the head of all authority, all authority is derived from Him. It's obvious to see that with kings because there's a direct line from the king to God, right? But even in this country where we have so many delegates and representatives, everyone is going to bend the knee to God as we saw in Philippians 2, that at the name of Christ every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord. Whether that's when he breaks their back with the rod of iron or whether they submit now on this side of heaven, we must remember that no help is going to come to us from earth and that we must not place our faith in anyone on earth to deliver us. So I had to mention that, I couldn't read this passage without mentioning that. Now, if you will, turn with me back to Colossians. We're gonna move on to another passage here. Colossians 1 verse 15. And I'll give you a moment to turn there. So we're generally talking about the preeminence of Christ, and so he here is Christ. So he, Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. So, reading this passage and thinking about God's preeminence and God's glory, that he created all things in heaven and on earth, invisible and visible, it made me think, last year, Carissa and I went to the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum in Kentucky. And if you haven't been, I recommend that you go. It's a good experience and a good time. They have a planetarium at the Creation Museum. And so you go into this room, it's all dark and a little bit foggy and kind of cold, and you sit down and they've got this huge screen above you that you're looking at, this big dome, and they're trying to convey to you the scale of the created cosmos, at least the session we were at did. And you see how tiny Earth is, you see how tiny even our solar system is, and just how wide our galaxy is even. not even to mention the universe that we can't see the ends of, that maybe, you know, we don't know. Suffice to say, today, our culture has made a god out of science, out of, science is just an end to itself, that this is the end of all things, that we would learn about everything or something. And there's nothing wrong with science, but science is, at its core a study of God and of understanding God and his creation and what he's given us. But we see there that even the best equipment, the best scientists, scientific minds are baffled by the cosmos and what God's created. And it just is amazing to think about that God created everything in six days. He spoke it into existence and we are still discovering things today in the cosmos and on earth. And it makes me think of Psalm 121 verse 4 that says, Behold, the keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. And we just have this, I just want you to understand this idea of just how sovereign and in control God is, that we can't overstate this, that God is always working, always watching, always intimately involved in the affairs of this world, and that we can trust him and rely on him in everything. We see from the scale of the grand cosmos all the way down to, in Matthew 10.30, the number of hairs on our head. God has an account of all things, and nothing slips past him, as it were. On this topic, I think of Proverbs 25.2, it's the glory of God to conceal, but the glory of kings to search it out. And it's just so amazing to consider, this is what I mean when I talk about science, that it is the glory of kings to search out the things that God has concealed. we can continue to dive into his word, into his creation, into the cosmos. And that's not a bad thing, that's a wonderful thing he's given us to do. So for the sake of time, I'm gonna vaguely pass over a few different things, but I just wanna give you some other examples. You know all these stories well, I'm not gonna go to them from the scriptures about the greatness of God. And these are in no particular order. But I think about when God rains down fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah in judgment. I think about the plagues he sent on Egypt when he was setting his people Israel free. I think about him casting Jonah into the belly of the fish for three days when he tried to run away from preaching his word. I think about imparting the sea, the Red Sea for Moses and the Israelites to escape Egypt. I think about him flooding the whole world and preserving one family because of the wickedness on the earth. I think of him dispersing the people at Babel who had tried to build a tower up to the heavens and him easily dispersing them and confusing their language and thwarting their plans. I think of him protecting the three men in the furnace when there were four men walking around in there. By the way, the fourth man is Christ, but that's another story. I think of Christ himself rebuking the winds in the sea when on the water crossing the lake. Those are just a few examples. We could sit here all evening until it's dark out and the sun comes up and talk about scriptures that display for us God's greatness and glory. Briar's been preaching through so many passages that reveal to us that God is using weak men and small people to accomplish great things because he is going to receive the glory from it. And we know that he is indeed glorious. In Romans 1 verse 20, we see God's power is revealed through creation generally. So we can look around us and just see that there is a God. We can't know anything about the gospel in particular, but just looking at the magnitude of the earth, the scale of the cosmos, we can know specifically it talks about God's power as one of the attributes revealed from that. And I wanted to give you an example of this that is a little silly, but hang with me, especially if you don't like math. The earth has, I did some research for this, the earth has 57 million square miles of just land, that's not including water. You can't even comprehend that number, that's such a big number. 57 million square miles of land, that doesn't mean anything to me. So I did the math, I've been working really hard in my front yard to make a garden, and it's not a garden yet, it's just a bunch of dirt right now, but I had to get two tree stumps out, and that was a monumental task for me, that took many hours of labor. Suffice to say, I did the math on how much of the land surface that little plot is that I spent so many hours working on, and it is 0.00000000000045% of the mass of the Earth, or the surface of the Earth. Suffice to say, I want you to get this picture, that this little plot of land I spent hours and hours and hours laboring on, and God spoke the world into existence like it was nothing. So I just want you to understand that. That's a little bit of a silly example, but I hope you'll remember that and think of Nick and his little plot of land compared to God's glory. So I think we've covered the topic of God's glory sufficient for this message, and so I want to move on to God's humility. So let's look back at Philippians 2 really quick, verses 6 through 7. So, verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. And I'll pause there. The best way to think about that, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, is that, did not consider it a thing to be grasped, or something to be held on to tightly, but that Christ was, basically that Christ was willing to give up that privilege and to come and be a man, that it wasn't something he was forced to do, something like that, but that he did not hold tightly to this equality with God in this regard in the heavens. But made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So I'm gonna do the same thing but in reverse as what we just did and just broadly pass over. These were all just from the book of Matthew. I'm not gonna go to all the references, but I just want you to see in broad strokes the humility of Christ even in his life before the cross. So we can talk about so many things. We can talk about God the creator choosing to be born of a woman and submitting to infancy and to childhood and to parents. Just think about this. Mary and Joseph are sinners and God created them and yet he is submitting to them as his parents and obeying them and it just, we can't even wrap our mind around this, but this is the God who we serve. This is the divine one who created all things and he is an infant. He could have come to earth in his transfigured state and stayed that way the entire time and walked around and done amazing miracles left and right and then died for our sins and that would have been that. Even in his humanity he could have appeared as a high king or something like that, but he doesn't. He's born in a stable. He lives a very lowly life. He associates with lowly people. He's not dining, you know, wining and dining with kings and living this kind of life, but he's humble. He's living a very humble life. We think about Jesus' choice of disciples. We talked a little bit about, through Briar's preaching, how we've been seeing how God is using weak men and lowly men and women. He's no different. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we see that in His disciples, He chooses fishermen and men who would not be considered important in society or incredibly smart or incredibly wealthy, but he is choosing these men to show his glory and to show that he works in mysterious ways and through the foolish and debased things of this world to accomplish his ends. We can talk about the 40 days and 40 nights of fasting that he endured. We can talk about even Satan tempting him for food and for safety and for power after those 40 days and nights. And again, just to think, God created Satan. and cast him out of heaven and is now letting Satan tempt him and try and say that he's the one who can give him these things. And God created him. It's mind boggling. We can't comprehend this. We think of just generally so many examples of Jesus healing the sick, the broken, the despised, the failures of the world. Obviously healing them spiritually but even physically and spending time with them. We see in Matthew 8.20, we see Jesus himself say that the sparrows have nests, the foxes have dens, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. And we see that just what kind of life Christ subjected himself to in his stay on earth. We could talk generally about the slander and the ridicule and the disbelief that so many people from all walks of life gave to him and spit at him. And just understand, even in the hymn we just sang before I came up and talked about Christ's life and the things he was put through by sinners. So one specific thing I want to look at now is if you will turn with me to John chapter 13. And we did a book study at my church in college about this passage, and the name's escaping me right now, but this is a passage that is absolutely worth spending a tremendous amount of time studying to see the example of Christ and humility we see here. So I'm going to read verses 3 through 17, and then we're going to come back and talk about some specific things. So this is after the Feast of the Passover, I'm sorry, before the Feast of the Passover, towards the end of his ministry, before his crucifixion and arrest. We see in verse 3, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, what I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew who would betray him. Therefore he said, you are not all clean. So when he had washed their feet, taken his garments, and sat down again, he said to them, do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. And I wanna talk, and remember earlier I said in Isaiah that we were gonna come back to this idea of feet and dirty feet. And this is where I wanted to talk about is even just in verses, verse five essentially, verse four and five, that we see it was the custom of that day that if guests come to a person's house, their feet are gonna be dirty from traveling the dusty roads and that the host of the house would have a wash basin and towels and they would wash the feet of the guests as a sign of welcome and of, yeah, welcome to them. But clearly we see here that nobody did that for Jesus or for any of the disciples. And we can assume that was because we see throughout the scriptures the disciples trying to compete for who's greater than who and who's gonna have the glory in a given situation. And so we can assume here a little bit that this was a similar situation where none of them wanted to be the one to humble themselves and wash the other's feet. But we see here Christ himself God, who is eternally existent, who has existed before all things were created, he rises from supper, lays aside his garments, gets down, and washes his disciples' feet. If that doesn't blow your mind when you consider who this is, that's why we spent so much time talking about God's glory. This God, who has always existed, is washing the feet of sinners. It's mind-blowing, it's absolutely mind-blowing. And we see it in contrast with Isaiah 6. In Isaiah 6, the ground is so holy, the area is so holy that even the seraphim can't look upon God and can't even stand in that area because it's holy ground. But here we see Christ himself getting down and washing the feet of sinners, and it's just mind-blowing to consider. So at this point, with the time we have remaining, I want to look at Luke chapter 22. So if you'll turn with me there to Luke chapter 22, we're going to look at verses 41 through 44. So at this point while you're turning there, Christ is in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night of his arrest and the night before his crucifixion. He is withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, verse 41, and he knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. Then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When he rose up from prayer and had come to his disciples, he found them sleeping from sorrow. Then he said to them, why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation. So, a couple things we need to point out here. One, and we'll come back to this later, is that we see the absolute obedience of Christ and the absolute humility in his mission at this point. Father, if it is your will, because of how great the suffering he was about to endure was, he knows it, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And he's praying that knowing there is no other way for sinners to be forgiven. This is the absolute only way. But he's in such agony and such anguish in his spirit about what he's about to endure. And we see in verse 43, an angel appeared to him from heaven strengthening him. After this he prays more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. This, read this passage anytime you're tempted to sin and you will not sin. I can almost guarantee that because you see here before the cross, before he goes to the cross, we see what great price Christ is about to pay on our behalf. So just remember that and think about that. And we see here in verse 43 that an angel appears and strengthens him. But if you'll turn with me to chapter 23 and go over to verse 32. I'm going to read just generally through here just to paint the picture of Christ at Calvary and what He endured at that moment. There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him. And the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. And they divided his garments and cast lots. And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself, if he is the Christ, the chosen one of God. The soldiers also mocked him, coming and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. And an inscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. This is the king of the Jews. Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him, saying, if you are the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, assuredly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. There's one main thing I want us to understand here, besides all the ridicule and the mocking. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Christ was praying, an angel came and strengthened him and gave him help. Here on the cross, there was no angel to come and assist the Lord. But on the cross, he was alone as he bore the full wrath of God for our sins. And I want you to remember that, that when Christ goes to the cross and suffers, He's paying for every single one of our sins, everyone who places their faith in Christ, past, present, and future. And the absolute anguish is amazing of this cup that He drank. We know the wrath of God is unbearable, it's unimaginable, and Christ drank every last drop for those who will place their faith in Him. And so I just want you to meditate on this, think about this, the humility of God the Son to come to earth, be mocked and ridiculed, and go and finish His mission with absolute oneness of mind, with absolute purpose, and die on the cross and suffer on our behalf. And so I want to invite anyone here who does not know the gospel, who does not know Christ as their Savior, to see the man on the cross, to see exactly what kind of Savior our God is, God of humility and mercy and grace, and know that if you repent of your sins and you place your faith on Him, you will be saved. Now, I want to look back up in Philippians chapter 2, if you'll turn back with me there one more time. As we come to a close here, I wanna look at verses one through four, specifically two and three. So at the beginning, I'll remind you again, Paul is writing about unity through humility, this idea of instructing us to be humble and to be unified. Now that we have seen these examples of God's greatness and God's humility in Christ, and especially at the cross, let's look at verse two. Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Are you struggling with unity? See Christ's single-mindedness in the Garden of Gethsemane as he prays, not my will but yours be done, Father. And let us absolutely cast away any pride, any desire for our own will to be done on this earth, but that we would see Christ in his glory, in his humility, and look to him and try and model that humility with the Spirit's help. to model that unity as we seek to come together for one purpose in the church. And let's read verse three. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Are you struggling with humility? Behold the man upon a cross who died for our sins. And I want to read a few verses at this point from a hymn that is especially fitting at this point. Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon his shoulders. Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished. I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom, but I will boast in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection. Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer, but this I know with all my heart, his wounds have paid my ransom. And so, in closing, I just want to draw this idea again that as we seek to be humble and as we seek to be unified in the body of Christ in our day-to-day lives, let us look to the cross and see Christ humiliated and crucified for our sins. Just pray to him and draw strength from his example. And may God be pleased to help us in that. Let's close with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this day again. We thank you so much for Christ and for his crucifixion and his resurrection on our behalf, Lord. We thank you that Christ is ruling and reigning at your right hand today. And Lord, we ask that you would use this word preached, Lord, to work in each of our hearts and lives that we would see the example of Christ, and that we would be humble, and that we would be unified in spirit, that the enemy would have no cause for accusation against us, but that we would be salt and light in this world. And we'll give you thanks and praise for how you work, and it's in Christ's name that we pray, amen.