Good morning. I've been asked to give an update on a couple folks. Miss Shirley says Preacher is doing much better, but he's still a little bit weak. So we'll hope to see him again Wednesday evening. Good morning, preacher. Hope you get to feeling better. I know you're watching and listening. We love you and wish you were here with us. Our dear brother Joe McSherry is, I would say, fading. He has some days better than others. Friday and Saturday he did pretty well, having a little bit of a rough morning this morning. But if you would, continue to keep him in your prayers. And my mamaw, dear Eleanor, Pray the Lord would keep them and be their strength. We're glad to have Brother James back with us this morning. But there are many weak among us and the Lord be our strength and stay. Let's stand together and sing hymn number 15 together. Hymn number 15. Brethren, we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power while we try to preach the word? All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray, and holy manna will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round you Slumbering on the brink of woe Death is coming, hell is moving Can you bear to Let them go. See our fathers and our mothers. and our children sinking down. Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered all around. Sisters, will you join and help us? Moses' sister hated him. Will you help the trembling mourners who are struggling? heart with sin. Tell them all about the Savior. Tell them that He will be found. Sisters, pray and holy manna will be showered. all around. Let us love our God supremely. Let us love each other too. Let us love and pray for sinners still. Our God makes all things new. ♪ Then he'll call us home to heaven ♪ ♪ At his table we'll sit down ♪ ♪ Christ will gird himself and serve us ♪ ♪ With sweet manna all around ♪ Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 354. 354. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer Oh, what peace we often forfeit Oh, what needless pain we bear All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Trials and temptations Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a Prince so faithful? ♪ Will all our sorrows share ♪ Jesus knows our every weakness ♪ Take it to the Lord Are we wicked, heavy laden? Gumbered with the hoard of cares? Take it to the Lord in prayer. Thy friends despise, forsake thee. Take it to the Lord in prayer. In his arms he'll take and shield thee. Thou wilt find a solace there. If you have your Bibles with you this morning, if you would open with me to the book of Psalms. I'd like to read Psalm 67. Psalm 67. Seven verses. Psalm 67. God be merciful unto us and bless us cause his face to shine upon us, that thy way may be known upon earth by saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge the people righteously and govern the nations upon earth. Let the people praise thee, O God, let all the people praise thee. Shall the earth yield or increase? God, our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord God Almighty, our high and heavenly Father, most holy and righteous one, we come to you once more through your blessed Son, Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for being our intercessor, Lord, for taking our feeble words and presenting them to the Father. Lord, we thank you for prayer. What a privilege it is to carry everything to you. And we truly do, Lord, bring everything to you. So thankful that you control all things, that you hold this world in the palm of your hand. Lord, we thank you for your mercy. We thank you for your grace. Thank you for your perfect will. Lord, we pray that you would meet with us today, send your spirit among us, cause us to worship you, Lord, cause us to worship you in spirit and in truth, and pray for those who are unable to attend this morning, that you would lift them up and give them clarity and cause them to worship with us, Lord, be with them. There are many weak and weary and sick, Lord, and this flesh fails us. so weak and imperfect, but we know that all things are according to thy will. But we ask that it would please you, Lord, to lift them up and be merciful and gracious as you have been. Pray for Brother Cody as he stands this day, Lord, that you would cause him to Proclaim the gospel message. Tell us about our Lord Jesus Christ. Cause your word to go forth. Lord, we pray that your word would go forth into all this nation, all this world. That you would send it to your people wherever they may be. Lord, please be with us. Let us not meet in vain. Keep us and guide us. Teach us thy way, Lord. We pray that that will be done for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's all stand together as we sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Christ bears the name of all his saints, deep on his heart engraved, attentive to the state and wants of all His love has saved. In Him, a holiness complete, light and Perfection shine In wisdom, grace, and glory be A Savior all divine which as a priest he bears for sinners is his own. incense of his prayers and tears perfumes the holy throne. In him I will Though I am weak and vile, I read my name upon His breast, And sing the Father's praise. Be seated. We have Brother Cody Henson with us today. He's gonna, Lord willing, come and preach the gospel to us again. There'll be no evening service this evening, and Lord willing, we'll meet again Wednesday. I'm gonna say that before I forget it. If anything changes, I guess we'll see it on Facebook and have word of mouth. Brother Cody, you can come on when you're ready. Good morning. I invite your attention to First Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Start reading in verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. Verse nine. For I am the least of the apostles, and that I'm not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. For our message today, I wanna focus on verse nine. This is a familiar account of scripture and usually when I turn here I don't harp on verse 9, but it just captivated me. How the Apostle Paul referred to himself, look at it again, verse 9, for I am the least of the apostles. You know, when I think of the apostles, I tend to think of Paul as being the greatest of the apostles. But that's not how he saw himself. And we know that it's only as verse 10 tells us, by the grace of God. It's the grace of God, one, that saved Paul and that made him an apostle. And it's the grace of God that caused Paul to know in the depths of his soul what he was the least. Now the word least here means smallest in rank and excellence. And if we know anything about Paul's background, that's amazing, isn't it? The mighty Saul of Tarsus. You know, a lot of people think that he was the rich young ruler. It seems that he fits the bill from what we know. But regardless, we are told, Paul tells us in Galatians 1 and Philippians 3, he tells us he was a mighty religious man, religious leader. He was somebody before God saved him. He was. Oh, I'm so thankful God saved him. God's free, sovereign, electing grace, saving grace, came to that man, Saul of Tarsus. We're going to do a little bit of turning today. For the first point of our message, I want to take a good look at how Paul truly saw himself, how he truly viewed himself. It wasn't good. And the point of this is I pray God would give us the same view of ourselves. All right, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3. And let me just say this, naturally we all think very highly of ourselves. When I think about the fact that we're in a church service, we're in a church, you know how many church services are going on right now? In Crossville, I view Crossville as a small little town. I'm from Danville, Kentucky, small little town. You wouldn't believe how many churches are there. Actually, you probably would, because there's probably the same number here. And yet, again, because God has taught me a little something about my wicked flesh, I know that church service is everywhere. It's just full of us sinful men and women exalting ourselves and glorying in ourselves. Listen, we know Paul is someone God saved. I pray God would truly enable us to see what Paul said about himself. knowing it was by God's grace. Look here in Ephesians 3, verse 8. Ephesians 3, 8. Paul said, unto me, he just said, I was made a minister by the grace of God. Verse 8, unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, now look at this, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. He said, I'm the least of the apostles. And then he said, I'm less than the least, not just of the apostles, of all saints, less than the least, less than the least. That's a man whom God saved. That's true God-given humility. That's the gift of God that's gonna cause us to say that about ourselves and truly mean it. Turn with me to another familiar text, 1 Timothy chapter one. First Timothy 1. First Timothy 1, verse 15. 1 Timothy 1.15, again Paul writing says, This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Now this right here, this is our hope. This is our glorious hope that Christ Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty came into this world that he created. for this reason, to save sinners." Christ came to save sinners. Does that not bless your soul every time you read that, every time you hear it and think about it? Now that's a faithful saying, but the end of the verse is a faithful saying too. Paul said, of whom I am chief. Of whom? Sinners. I'm the chief sinner. Again, we view him as Paul, chief apostle, don't we? He viewed himself as Paul. Now he would say an apostle of Jesus Christ, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, servant of Jesus Christ. But here's what he was, chief sinner. Paul, chief sinner. Of all sinners, I'm the worst. That's what he's saying. on the absolute worst. I couldn't help but think of that song we sang. I love this song so much. Boasting excluded. Pride I base. I'm only a sinner. That's all I am. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Where is boast? It's excluded. If God ever causes us to know that's me. You know we say this all the time, don't we? Move over Paul. Let me take my place. That's, listen, that, the chief sinner, the seat for the chief sinner, that's the place for every child of God. That's the place we all claim and say, that's mine. That's me. Chief sinner. Salvations for sinners. We know this. Christ came to save sinners. God saves sinners. I love the, I think it's a song, but I view it as a quote. Joseph Hart said, a sinner is a sacred thing. That sounds backwards, don't it? Sinner's a vile thing. By God's grace, someone whom God causes to know I am a sinner, that's a sacred thing. Here's why. It's because the Holy Ghost hath made him so. Again, we all prance around in this life thinking we're somebody, we get a big job, think we're a big shot, and stand up here, start glorying in self. Oh, God forbid. You know, Paul said, God forbid that I should glory. Saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, he gets all the glory. Has God shown us what we are? Has God caused us to acknowledge I'm the least? No, I'm less than the least. I'm the chief sinner. How about this one? Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians 12. 2 Corinthians 12, look with me at verse 11. This is right after Paul was caught up into the third heaven. This was right after the Lord had given Paul a thorn in his flesh. Verse 11, 2 Corinthians 12, 11. He said, I am become a fool in glorying, ye have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended of you, for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing." Now Paul, just like you and me, was prone to glorying in his flesh. Now he certainly did before God saved him, but he couldn't help glorying in his flesh after God saved him. We read again in Philippians 3, if any man hath whereof to glory in the flesh, boast in the flesh, I more. And right here in this text, the Lord had given Paul unspeakable revelations and he gave him that thorn in the flesh to humble him, to keep him laid low, to keep him as the least, to remind him. He said, my grace is sufficient for thee. And it is, isn't it? Our brother just told us about some great sorrow and sadness amongst those we love and are close to. God's grace is sufficient for us, let's never forget it. We need God's grace every day. We need God's grace not only to comfort us, keep us encouraged, we need God's grace to humble us because we will get lifted up in pride, all of us. I do all the time. I need to hear about God's grace and how I desperately need him and his grace daily. I do. And so did Paul. Now Paul tells us something here in verse 11. He said, In nothing am I behind the chiefest of the apostles. He said, By God's grace, I'm right up there with them. And he was. Do you remember what Artex said? He said, I labored more abundantly than they all. Speaking of the apostles. And he said, Yet not I. It's not for my glory, it's not me boasting. He said, it's the grace of God that's with me. Do you have a problem giving God the credit for everything? Really? If this message is a blessing to anybody, and I pray it might be, don't even give me a thought. God forbid I give myself a thought. Oh, give him all the praise. If we're blessed, it's not because we heard a sinful man saved by God's grace speak, it's because we heard God speak. Through a sinful man whom he saved, through his word which he gave. Now the reason I want to turn to this verse is the last few words. He said, I'm not behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. Now, we talk about the warfare within us. Do you not see it right here? I'm right up there with the chiefest of God's apostles, and yet I, in and of myself, am nothing. We see what God's done for us, and we see what we've done to ourselves, don't we? We see what we are in this flesh. Now, the meaning here where it says, though I be nothing, it means I am nothing, I am of no account, nothing whatsoever, no one at all. That's what Paul confessed himself to be. Nothing. I feel like I mention country songs all the time when I'm here, but I love country music. But I thought of a Travis Tritt song that says, I'm gonna be somebody someday. One of these days, I'm gonna break these chains. I'm gonna be somebody someday. You can bet your hard-earned dollar, I will. And I like the song. But how silly is that? I mean, honestly. I'm gonna be, isn't that what, isn't that? We get out and start going about our life. We're just trying to be somebody and want people to know my name. Want people to know my credentials. By God's grace, according to God's word, I want to be like the Apostle Paul. I want to be nothing. I want Christ to be everything. I don't need to be somebody. I mean, I hope nobody here has achieved that. Really, I hope we never do. I hope God will show us what we really are. Psalm 138 verse 6 says, Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect. And here's what that means. Look at with favor. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. He looks at the lowly, the meek and lowly with favor. That's what Christ is. He's meek and lowly. But the proud he knoweth afar off. Paul was proud. I mentioned Saul of Tarsus. Oh, you wouldn't have found a prouder man. You're not gonna find a prouder man. Ain't gonna happen. What we need is to be made lowly. Notice I didn't say to be lowly. We would be wise to be lowly, but here's a confession. I can't make myself lowly. He must increase, I must decrease. We need the Lord to decrease us. We do. We need the Lord to cut us down that He may build us up in Christ. What we need is what God did for Saul of Tarsus. We need God to come to us. You know, He was on His way to go persecute God's people. And then almighty love arrested that man. We need almighty love to arrest this man, to stop us in our tracks, to come to us, to knock us off our high horse, lay us in the dirt, speak to us, saw, saw. It's hard for you to kick against the pricks. We need God to cause, he blinded Saul. We need God to cause us to know we're blind. I can't see. Lord, give me sight. He gave him sight. Saved him by his grace. That's what I need God to do for me, and that's what you need God to do for you. Otherwise, we're never gonna be lowly. We're never gonna be the least, less than the least, the chief sinner, nothing, unless God make it to be so. In Galatians 1, this is Paul's testimony, okay? But when it pleased God, he talked about how he was so lost and steeped in religion, the nonsense that that was, but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, he said, when God did that for me, he said immediately, I conferred not with flesh and blood, because God did it. The only decision Paul ever made was to persecute the Church of God. We read it in our text. And we know he stood there consented to the death of Stephen. He had papers on his way to Damascus. He had no good intent. He wasn't saved because of a decision he made. The decision he made was, the glory's mine, it ain't Christ's. And then again, in Philippians 3, we read after the fact, after God saved me, he said, oh, how foolish I was. I count all that done that I may have Christ, that I may know him, that I may win him, be found in him, having one righteousness, his and his alone. Paul, oh, God was pleased to break that man. God was pleased to reveal to Paul, you're nothing. You're nothing. It's like what Nebuchadnezzar said. He said, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. That's what we are. I look back in our text, nothing. We're nothing. First Corinthians 15.9. For I am the least of the apostles that am not meet to be called an apostle." And they're right there where it says, I am not meet to be called an apostle. Here's what that means. I am not worthy. The title of this message is unworthy. Unworthy. If there's one thing we need to know, it's this. We're unworthy. We're just flat unworthy. And I want to say this, and I pray God calls me to mean it. We can say, I'm the least. We can say, I'm less than the least. We can repeat, I'm the chief of sinners. We can utter the words, I am nothing. Anybody can say those things. That wasn't hard for me to say that. But if we say these things, if we think those things in our minds and our heart, I pray God would cause it to be true. In our heart of hearts, we do some serious soul searching. At the end of the day, when it all comes to, when push comes to shove, do I really believe myself to be unworthy before God? Or do we see something of worth? It's just, listen, all it takes is a little leaven to leaven the whole lump. Just that you throw in a little bit of works and there you go, you saved yourself, or at least you deserved it. Let's examine ourselves here for a minute, alright? Let me ask this question, what do we deserve? What do we deserve? When someone does something kind for us, do we deserve it? The kindness that God shows to his people, where do we even begin? Do we deserve that? The common belief is that man deserves God's favor. That God would not be right if he did not offer salvation to everybody. Supposing that if God did not save me, if he didn't give me a chance, is that not saying I'm worthy? Is that not saying I deserve something from him? Think about it. It's not hard. God wouldn't be right if... May God stop our mouths from even thinking such a thing or saying such a thing. What do we deserve from God? It ain't a chance. It ain't salvation. It's not His infinite goodness. We read God saved Paul, God made him a minister and caused him to know he's less than the least of all saints and He sent him to declare the unsearchable riches of Christ. Do we deserve that? Did Paul deserve that? I'll tell you what we deserve. We deserve God's wrath. God is holy. We don't know the depths of that. We don't know just what that truly means. God is holy. God is righteous. God is just. He has righteous anger. God's judgment will be a just judgment. He's going to give us what we deserve. Remind you, we're unworthy. We're unworthy. And we're going to stand before God. We deserve to be punished. We deserve to be cast out into those chains of everlasting darkness. That's what we deserve. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. There's a verse that says the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain. Anybody here taking the Lord's name in vain? You ever had a negative thought towards God? God doesn't owe us anything except to judge us. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Not going to escape it. We'll just let this one slip on through. Now what about, this is for those whom God has saved. The next couple questions are for those whom God has given faith in Christ. Have we improved? Got any better? Better than we used to be? We see something in ourselves now, looking a little better these days. Have we gotten our sin in check? Have we figured it out? Have we cleansed ourselves from unclean thoughts? Anybody? Do I finally see why God should love a soul like me. Am I now worthy of God's favor, of God's choice? You know, people will say about election, oh, well, God looked through the portal of time and he saw who would, that's nonsense, that's ridiculous. Yeah, I can see why God chose me. Is that what we think? Paul didn't. He did not. As a believer, he confessed time and time again, I'm unworthy. Romans 7, oh, wretched man that I am. The things I want to do, oh, I just can't. That which I hate, that's what I find myself doing every day. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Oh, I'm unworthy. He did not attain a state of worthiness the longer he was here. And neither are we going to. It's impossible. Salvation's of the Lord, it's not of us. Proving ourselves, well, I'm finally gonna show I was worthy. Oh, may God cause us to know better, honestly. to think that I might suppose God owes me his grace. Grace is unmerited favor. We don't deserve it, we never could. Never could. Do you know that? Do I truly believe that? I wanna look at a couple brethren real quick. Look at Genesis 32 with me. Genesis 32. Genesis 32, verse 9. If you're not there, just listen. I need to speed up. Genesis 32, 9. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said unto me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. This is Jacob's confession, verse 10. I am not worthy. My Senator Morgan says, I am less than all. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. I'm not worthy. That's someone whom God saved. That's someone who'd experienced the grace of God. No doubt about it. Turn with me to Matthew chapter eight. Matthew chapter eight. And we know Jacob was a sinful man, don't we? Conniving trickster. Evil brother. And yet he was a chief sinner whom Christ came to save. Matthew chapter 8, verse 5. Matthew 8, 5, And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I'm a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, go, and he goeth. And to another, come, and he cometh. And to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. Verse 10, when Jesus heard, he marveled and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. That's a man whom God saved. Can you see it? That's someone who'd been given great faith. You know, when the Lord would say things like, I've not seen so great faith, that thy faith hath saved thee. He gives the faith. Don't forget that. Faith's the gift of God. Faith is the work of the operation of God, something God does in a person. God saved that man. We don't come to the Lord and ever fall down at his feet or cry unto him, Lord, desperate with a need. We don't come to him and say, Lord, I'm unworthy of you. I'm unworthy of your... Attention, I'm unworthy of your healing hand. That's someone God saved. I love that. I love how he told, I love the context there, verse nine. He said, I'm a man who has authority. In my flesh, you could say I'm somebody. That man told us he was a nobody. I love that. I'm somebody, but I'm a nobody. I love that. I'm not worthy of you. You remember that prodigal son when he returned home to his father, his kind, gracious, loving father? He said, I am no more worthy to be called your son. Are we worthy to be called God's son? Well, I made my decision. Well, I love Jesus, as people say. You know what that sounds like to me? I'm worthy. That's what it sounds like to me. I'm telling you, every child of God will confess from the depths of their soul, I'm unworthy. I'm unworthy. And that's all I will ever be. What a terrible thought to think that we're worthy of God Almighty. And yet so many people do. If God hasn't quickened us, we would too. Still, we're not worthy of His love and favor. We're just not. But there's one who is. Finally, we're going to get to the good part. There's one who is worthy. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 4. If nothing's blessed your soul yet, I pray this might. Revelation 4, verse 10. Revelation 4, 10. The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord. to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. The one who is seated on his throne, the one who lives forever and ever, the one who created all things, and he did it for his pleasure, according to his good pleasure. He alone, and we're told that's the Lord, in case you didn't know. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to get to tell you that. I am unworthy. But the Lord Jesus Christ, he is worthy. Worthy of what? To receive glory and honor and power. Turn over a page to chapter five. He's worthy of us to fall down at his feet and worship him right now and forever. That's what eternity is going to be. That's what heaven is. Sitting at Christ's feet, worshiping Him. Praising Him. Giving thanks unto Him. Forever. I can't wait. Revelation 5, look at verse 11. I wanted to read the whole chapter, but there's just not time. Revelation 5, 11. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders. And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, saying everybody's gonna be saying this for all eternity. Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. What do we say to that? The four beasts said amen. And the four and twenty others fell down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever." When we hear that, what do we want to do? Do we want to say amen? Do we want to fall down at his feet and worship him forever and ever? Oh, I pray it would be so. Worthy is the Lamb. Salvations of the Lamb. All glory to the Lamb. No wonder John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb. You look to the Lamb. We sing a song, Look to the Lamb of God. Don't look anywhere else. Don't glory in anyone or anything else. Oh, look to Him. Oh, may God cause us to look to Him. Now I want to close this message with something glorious. It's a text, very familiar text for a lot of people, but perhaps someone here doesn't know it. I hope someone doesn't know it. Turn to Philippians chapter 2. This is so good. Philippians 2. What I'm about to say is the most important thing I have to say, all right? About to wrap this up. Philippians chapter 2, look at verse 5. Philippians 2, 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. 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, And right here in verse 10 and 11, this is exactly what we just read in Revelation, verse 10. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now, let me make a few comments and we'll be done. The worthy one, Christ. tells us he made himself of no reputation. Here's what that means. I never knew this. It means he made himself empty. You know, that's what we are, is empty. He made himself, he who is equal with God, he who is God, made himself empty. He came into this world, God, as a servant. You know, people wanted to make him king. He is king. He shall forever be king. They mockingly hailed him as king. But the king of heaven, the king of glory came here on purpose as the servant. Isn't that amazing? He humbled himself. He came in the likeness of men, his creatures that he created. He humbled himself. He became obedient. He was the obedient servant. Obedient unto death. He came to die a death. The death of the cross. Let's consider that for just a moment. Our Lord came to die on a cross. Life himself came and died. The only one who is worthy of God Again, he is God. He came here and traded places with unworthy sinners. I say this with the utmost fear and trembling. Our Lord made himself to be unworthy. He who alone is worthy made himself to be unworthy in order to make his chosen elect people, chosen in him, worthy to stand before God accepted. I believe that's okay to say because the scriptures say he became us. He was made sin. He was made a curse. God ever gets a hold of us with that glorious truth. Oh my soul, we're gonna say exactly what Paul said, aren't we? I'm unworthy. I'm unworthy. It's no wonder Paul preached the unworthiness of himself, the unworthiness of man, and the worthiness of Jesus Christ, our Lord. I wanna leave you with the words of a song. I've only ever heard this song sung one time. Some dear brethren from Texas came and sang this to us at our Damble conference years ago. I believe it's called Unworthy. Maybe some of you know it. I'll read you a few of the words. Unworthy am I of the grace that he gave. Unworthy to hold to his hand. Amazed that a king would reach down to a slave. This love I cannot understand. Unworthy, unworthy. a beggar, in bondage and alone. But he made me worthy, and now by his grace, his mercy has made me his own." Is that your story? Oh, may God bless his word. Let's have a word of prayer. Our gracious God, Heavenly Father, we thank you for your precious word. Oh, the word of life. Thank you for the Apostle Paul's testimony that you wrought in him and for him. I pray that you would cause every soul here and our loved ones and our Children to know that we're unworthy of you were unworthy to stand in your sight, but that Christ our Savior is worthy cause us to trust in him and bow to him. Seeing him is all our acceptance, all our hope to stand before you, all our righteousness, all our plea cause him to be all we need. Lord, I pray for the afflicted in this congregation. We we think of Brother Joe and Sister Eleanor, we pray for them, Lord, be with them in the days to come. Be with all your people who are sick. There are many more, Lord, going through great tribulation. Pray that you restore Pastor Donnie to health and bring him back here and allow these dear brethren to continue worshiping you together. Thank you for your goodness. Forgive us of our sins. I pray that this message, that your word might be a blessing to your saints, Lord. Forgive us, direct us, every step we take, may it be to your glory. Lord, never let us go. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Thank you, brother. He is the worthy one, isn't he? Our Lord Jesus Christ is certainly worthy to be worshipped. Let's stand together and sing number 29 in our course books. 29 in the course books, and we'll be dismissed. you On a hill far away died the Christ of the cross. He yielded to suffering and shame. He died in my place, the purpose of God's tearful flee. So I'll cherish the Christ of the cross And before His throne I'll bow down I will cling to the Christ of the cross For Thee is the King I must crown. O the Christ of the Cross, so despised by the world, as a wondrous attraction to me. He, the dear Lamb of God, left his glory above to bear So I'll cherish the Christ of the cross And before His throne I'll bow down I will cling to the Christ of the Cross, for He is the King I must crown. In the Christ of the cross, and His blood so divine, a marvelous beauty I see. For he opened my eyes that long had been blind to behold him now on his throne. So I'll cherish And before His throne I'll bow down I will cling to the Christ of the cross For He is the To the Christ of the cross I must ever be true His shame and reproach gladly bear For in love he constrains Till all shall be gained And his glory forever I share So I'll cherish the And before His throne I'll bow down I will cling to the Christ of the cross For He is the King You're dismissed. We'll meet again Wednesday evening. Lord willing.