Christ, Our Pattern and Example

Introduction to Philippians 2:5-11: Christ as the Perfect Pattern

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, April 12, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Mottville, New Jersey. Will you turn with me, please, to Paul's letter to the Philippians, the book of Philippians, and chapter 2. For those who may be visiting with us for a number of months now in the Lord's Day morning services, we have been working through, verse by verse, this very rich and warm and intimate epistle of the Apostle to the Church at Philippi that we commonly call the book of Philippians. We come this morning to concentrate our attention particularly upon verse 5,

0:47 but in order to see it in its general setting, I would ask you to follow as I read verses 1 through 11 of chapter 2 in Philippians. If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, make full my joy that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, or literally, one soul, of one mind, doing nothing through faction or vain glory,

1:28 but in lowliness of mind, each counting other better than himself, not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a serpent, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man,

2:07 he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

2:44 Here in these opening words of Philippians chapter 2, we find the apostles' fervent call to Christian or congregational unity in the church at Philippi. And in our previous studies, we've examined the framework of this call to unity, as it is given to us in verse 1 and the first phrase of verse 2. It is a framework in which Paul's call to unity involves the assumed reality of these spiritual experiences, exhortation in Christ, compassion of the consolation of love, fellowship of the Spirit,

3:29 tender mercies and compassions, and a framework in which he assumes there will be this powerful pressure upon their hearts, growing out of their intimate relationship. And so he appeals to them on the basis of his desire that his own joy be made full. And then we examine the substance of the call to unity. It is a call to real unity, according to verse 2.

3:58 It is a unity that involves oneness of mind, oneness of love, oneness of soul, oneness of perspective. And if that unity is to be realized, then the roots of it must flourish in the hearts of these Christians. And those roots, according to verses 3 and 4, are the twin graces of humility and self-forgetfulness. And without these graces, of humility and self-forgetfulness, Christian unity cannot be experienced in the manner in which it is described in verse 2.

4:40 So we've examined then the framework of the call to unity, verse 1 and 2a, the substance of the call to unity, 2b through verse 4, and now we begin this morning to consider verses 5 through 11, in which we have the perfect pattern and example of these root graces essential to unity. Verses 5 through 11 constitute the Apostle's description of a perfect pattern of the graces of humility and self-forgetfulness.

The Call to Imitate Christ's Mind: A Concrete Example

5:21 It is as though Paul read the thoughts of some who may have responded to verses 1 through 4, in the following manner. Paul, we hear you well. We do experience the spiritual realities you've described in verse 1. We do know that there is exhortation growing out of our union with Christ.

5:45 We do know that there is consolation growing out of love. We do know something of the reality of the fellowship of the Spirit and the tender mercies and compassions that are given by the Spirit, and Paul, with all our hearts, we want to fill the cup of your joy to the brim. And with everything within us, we do want the graces of humility and self-forgetfulness without which this kind of unity cannot be realized. But Paul, can you put these graces into some kind of concrete expression and example?

6:24 Can you give us that picture which is worth more than, say, a thousand words? Paul, if we would cut the cloth of our lives in such a manner as to fit the description you have given of humility and self-forgetfulness, can you give us a pattern to lay on top of that cloth so we'll know precisely where to cut? And it's as though Paul responds by saying, yes, my fellow believers, I can give you such a pattern. I will give you.

6:59 I will give you such a pattern. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And then there follows this description of the mind of Christ as it functioned in His humiliation and exaltation, and the entire purpose of that description is to give us a living example of what it is, that Paul is calling us to when he says, we must know the graces of humility and self-forgetfulness if we are to grow in true Christian unity.

Christ Jesus: Our Example and Pattern

7:44 And that's the great purpose, then, of the call of verse 5. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And as we stand this morning on the throne, on the threshold of a study of this passage that staggers the mind, which in reality is one of the most profound portions in all of the Word of God, the first thing I wish to direct your attention to is this. The fact that Christ Jesus is set before the people of God as their example and pattern.

8:23 That's the first thing I want you to see, and it stands on the very face of the text. The fact that Christ Jesus is set before the ordinary people of God as their example and their pattern. Notice the parallel that is drawn in verse 5 between Christ and His people. Have this mind in you, or among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus.

8:59 And the Apostle draws into the closest relationship the mind or the disposition of Christ as it operated in His own experience as the Redeemer and the experience of the Philippians. Have this mind in you, the very mind which was in Christ Jesus. And in this way He is setting before us as clearly as can be done the great principle that Jesus Christ is indeed the pattern and example of His people, particularly in this context

9:43 of the graces of humility and of self-forgetfulness. Now, where did the Apostle Paul get the notion that it would ever be proper to take the sinless, exalted God-man Christ Jesus and make Him an example and pattern for poor, helpless, sinful mortals?

Scriptural Precedent for Christ as Example

10:08 Well, he didn't pull that idea out of the sky. He derived it not only by the inspiration of the Spirit which moved him to pen these words, but from the very words of Christ Himself. You'll remember, perhaps, some of you, the words in John 13, where our Lord establishes this precedent, in His own interaction with the disciples. In the 13th chapter of John, our Lord is recorded as taking the place of a common house slave.

10:42 He girds Himself with a towel, stoops before each of the disciples and washes their feet, even the feet of Judas, who had not yet left. And then we read in the passage, John 13, verse 13, You call me teacher, and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the teacher, have washed your feet, if I have stooped to perform upon you the tasks of a common house slave, then you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example

11:26 that ye also should do as I have done unto you.

11:36 A servant is not greater than his Lord, neither one that is sent greater than he that sent them. If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them. And the rule for their doing in this context is the pattern of Christ's example. You see the connection?

11:59 If you know, blessed are you if you do. What are they to do? They are to do as Christ has done. They are to follow His example.

12:09 Not in a wooden, artificial foot-washing service, such as some churches have set forth as a third ordinance, but in the many ways in which we can take the place of servitude to our brethren. Here is humility and self-forgetfulness at work. Not in abstract, abstract concepts or precepts, but in the concrete reality of a towel around the loins of God incarnate. Concrete in a basin of water that He holds as He stoops and washes the dusty feet of His disciples.

12:50 And He says He did this with a calculated view of setting an example, an example which becomes law and duty for the world. The people of God. And we find the same thought expressed in 1 John chapter 2. I'm simply seeking to establish that when Paul says Christ is our great pattern and example, he is merely echoing the uniform teaching of the word of God.

13:20 1 John chapter 2.

13:24 We are called to a life of obedience as the people of God. And this obedience is the evidence of grace working in us. And where there is no obedience, there is no grace. And then the apostle says in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 5, But whoso keeps his word, in him truly has the love of God been perfected.

13:49 Hereby we know that we are in him. He that says he abides in him, that is abides in Christ, ought, and the word ought means obligation. Duty. Law.

14:07 You can't get away from that being bound up in the word ought. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself to walk even as he walked. Not merely to walk as he taught we should walk, but to walk as he walked. His pattern and example become the rule of our life.

14:34 Our obedience. And then you find the same emphasis in Peter's letter, 1 Peter chapter 2, writing to slaves who are being abused by unjust masters. He tells them what their response is to be to that kind of treatment. And he says in verse 20 of 1 Peter 2, What glory is it if when you sin and are buffeted for it, you take it patiently.

15:03 But if when you sin, you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God for hereunto were you called. Now what called them to this kind of activity in which they would patiently bear with unjust treatment. They are being buffeted not for the ill that they had done, but for the good they had done. He says you are called to a life of patient endurance of wrong.

15:36 Now where did that call come from? From a precept? Not in the context. It came from the example of Christ.

15:42 Look at the text. For hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled, reviled not again.

16:05 When he suffered, threatened not, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we having died to sins might live unto righteousness. So you see the testimony from the lips of our Lord, the testimony from the pen of John and the pen of Peter, that this whole concept of Christ being the example of his presence, people, is not a unique thing to the apostle in Philippians chapter 2. Now I'm sure you will have noted if you were listening and following as I read these passages,

Christ as Example in Unique and Shared Experiences

16:47 that Christ is the example of his people both in those things wherein we share similar experiences and in those things in which Christ experiences things unique to himself. You see how Peter goes right on from the words of his being buffeted to his bearing our sins. Now the servants were being buffeted and mistreated for their doing well. But in no sense could they be said to bear the sins of others or even to be bearing their own sins in a way of the righteous judgment of God.

17:30 And yet Christ is set forth as an example not only in his own life, but also in his own life. Not only in his own life, but also in his own life. Not only in his own life, but also in the experiences wherein we pass through parallel and similar experiences, but in those things which are unique to him, he is still our example in our pattern. And that's exactly what we have in Philippians 2.

17:51 You're never going to be in the form of God. You're never going to have the choice of whether or not you will retain all of that which one is called the insignia of royalty. You're never going to be in the form of God. You will never have the choice of whether or not you will continue to receive the unabated praise and worship and adoration of all the heavenly hosts and whether or not you will choose voluntarily to relinquish them to take the form of a servant.

18:23 And yet that's precisely what is set forth as the mind of Christ in operation which you are to imitate and to emulate.

18:35 Now in what sense is that? In what sense can that be true? You say, I can understand it when it says I'm to take the place of a servant to my brethren as Christ stooped and washed their feet. That I can grasp.

18:47 I can grasp how Christ is my example in the sense that he was innocent and when being innocent he bore patiently the rebukes and the rejection of men. I can understand that. But in what sense can he be my example in the language of Philippians 2? Being in the form of God thought it not a thing to be grasped to remain equal with God but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a servant and being found as fashion as a man humbled himself became obedient unto death.

19:23 I'm never going to be called upon to do that to be the substitute of sinners. In what sense can all of that be exemplary for me? How can that be a legitimate pattern to lay over the cloth of my life and by which to be called upon? To cut the shape of my life?

Christ's Obedience: The Embodiment of God's Law

19:39 It's a good question and it demands an answer. And the answer is this. Follow closely. In every facet of his life both in those things wherein we have similar experiences with him and in those things that are completely unique to him the whole fabric of our Lord's life is a life of perfect obedience to the will and law of God.

20:13 And it is as that obedience comes to concrete expression that the mind of Christ is being unfolded before us and he is our great pattern of unquestioned submission to the will of God. What does it mean to love God with all the heart, mind, soul and strength? What does it mean? What does it mean?

20:39 What does it mean? What does it mean? What does it mean to love one's neighbor as himself? Well, we see the answer when we look at our Lord Jesus Christ.

20:48 He is the law embodied in human flesh. He is the law worked out in the concreteness of all the relationships that exist among men. He is the embodiment of perfect obedience to God. Even an obedience that carries him into the abode of God.

21:09 Even an obedience that carries him into the abode of God. Even an obedience that carries him into the abode of God. Even an obedience that carries him of Gethsemane and into the forsakenness and the darkness and the abandonment of Golgotha. And it is in that obedience as the servant of Jehovah that he is our pattern in those things wherein we share similar experiences and in those things in which he treads the winepress alone.

Rejecting Christ as 'Merely an Example'

21:34 Now it must be stated in the clearest terms possible that we utterly reject the fact that we are not we reject with holy abhorrence that theology which says Jesus Christ is nothing more than a good example for men to follow. The best of all examples but merely an example. You see that's sheer rubbish because you don't set up as an example a man who's a cheat, a deceiver, a liar and a blasphemer. And if Jesus Christ is not God, and the only Savior of sinners, He's a cheat, He's a liar and a blasphemer because He said He was God.

22:18 I and my Father are one. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Furthermore, He went on to say no man comes to the Father but by me. He went on to say I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of Him that sent me.

22:36 He went on to say this is the will of Him that sent me that of all that He hath given me I should lose nothing but raise them up at the last day. I did not come to be ministered unto but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many. I came to seek and to save that which is lost. To say that Christ is only an example albeit the best of examples while rejecting the Bible's teaching about the uniqueness of His person and the uniqueness of His work is something that we abominate with every fiber of our being.

23:14 But grounded in that great teaching of the Word of God concerning the uniqueness of His person believing with every fiber of our being that He is truly God as much God as though He were never man truly man as much man as though He were never God and that in that unique person there exist these two distinct natures in the one person join forever in Him who is our Lord and Savior. We lay hold of that. I trust we are established and grounded in it. And furthermore I trust we confess without any equivocation whatsoever

23:56 our confidence in the uniqueness of His work that Christ died the just for the unjust that He bore the curse of God for us but now grounded in those great realities we must not be afraid. We must not be afraid. We must not be afraid. We must not be afraid.

24:12 We must not lose a hold upon this strand of truth that Christ is not only the object of our adoring worship and love in the uniqueness of His person as the God-man. He is not only the object of our faith in the uniqueness and sufficiency of His work as our only Savior but He is indeed to us the great pattern and example whom we are to emulate and follow in the great pattern and example in every dimension of human experience. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

The Form of Christ's Example: An Imperative

24:56 And as that mind of Christ produced a perspective and a disposition giving birth to specific actions you'll notice the verbs that follow in the passage emptied Himself taking the form of a servant humbled Himself became obedient as we behold our blessed Lord in the outworking of His own mind creating these volitional acts bringing forth a pattern of humility and self-forgetfulness. We as the people of God must feel the pressure of that example upon our spirits because the text says

25:41 let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. So as an intelligent Christian reads his Bible he not only has one eye toward every hint of the uniqueness of his Savior's person and the sufficiency of His work and every fresh glance of those realities strengthens his faith but he has another eye towards the pattern of the life of his Lord and everything he discerns in that becomes a mark upon the road telling him how he ought to walk as one who is in union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

26:26 So that's the first thing I trust you see in the text the fact that Christ Jesus is set before the people of God as their example and pattern in this context particularly the example and pattern of the graces of humility and self-forgetfulness. But now there is a second thing I want you to see this morning have only two main points to the sermon and that is not merely the fact that Christ is set forth as our example and pattern but notice secondly the form in which the pattern and example of Christ are set before us in this context. The form

27:11 in which the pattern and example of Christ are set before us in this context and I have but two things to say about that form. First of all it is set before us in the form of an imperative and secondly it is set before us in the form of an imperative which touches the deepest recesses of our being. First of all it is set before us in the form of an imperative. Now you children you know what an imperative is that is just a big word for a command.

27:46 When daddy says son don't run into the street you are hearing an imperative. Now if he says son would you like to go to the park and play soccer? That is not an imperative you see that is not a command. He is asking you whether you would like to play soccer or not.

28:02 But when daddy says don't go in the street you know that is different from would you like to go play soccer in the park. Well what is the form in which Christ comes to us or is set before us as pattern and example. We will look at the text and what may not be too clear in an English translation is abundantly clear to a first year Greek student. We have an imperative of the verb to mind to think and we are told in this form of the verb that it is our duty to have in us the very mind that was in Christ Jesus.

28:46 It is set before us in the form of an imperative and every imperative becomes part of a Christian's duty it comes within the corpus of the Christian's law. Now we don't like the words duty and law and ought but if you don't like them it shows a deflection from the mentality of the Bible. And Christ's example is not a noble ideal which deserves some occasional consideration from Christians.

29:25 His example comes with all the authority of divine law.

29:33 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus or as the 1901 more accurately renders have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus. The form of Christ as our pattern and example in this text is that of an imperative. Now that says some very important things to us and I want by way of application to draw out several lines of thought. First of all the grace of God does not cancel the necessity for divine imperatives.

Application 1: Grace Does Not Cancel Imperatives

30:18 The grace of God does not cancel the necessity for divine imperatives. Now let me explain what I mean by that. Often there is an unthinking relationship to an interpretation of a verse such as Romans 6.14 We are not under law but under grace.

30:44 And what people deduce from that statement is this. If you are under the law you are under the pressure of divine imperatives. The word of God comes with all the authority of God upon his throne saying this do or you will die.

31:04 To be under law is to be under the pressure of divine imperatives. But if we have believed on Christ unto salvation we are no longer under law or grace. That is we are now in a framework in which there are no more imperatives. There are simply lovely and noble ideals and suggestions and encouragements but no imperatives.

31:37 Now I say this passage flatly contradicts that. In a passage in which the apostle is about to open up some of the most profound mysteries of the doctrines of God's sovereign grace manifested in the self-giving of Christ he introduces the whole epic of Christ three stages with an imperative letting us know that the grace manifested in the humility and self-forgetfulness of Christ in no way brings us out from the orbit of divine imperatives. And then in case we miss the message

32:21 notice how he clinches it all in verse 12 So then my beloved as ye have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence he introduces this narrative of Christ three stages with an imperative and he clinches it with an imperative and he says in essence don't you ever think that grace releases you from divine imperatives.

Application 2: Obedience to Imperatives is Not Legalism

32:56 I marvel that people can be so woolly in their thinking as to even suggest that grace releases from divine imperatives. But then there's a second great principle that grows out of the form in which Christ's example is set before us and it's this obedience rendered as obedience to an imperative is not a negation of the constraints of grace. Now let me give you that again and then I'll explain what I mean. Obedience rendered as compliance with an imperative is not a negation of the constraints of grace.

33:43 In other words if you do something because you know it is your duty and self-consciously you perform it as an act of obedience to your known duty that does not negate your being under the constraints of grace. In the minds of many people they set up this false tension that if you do anything because it's your duty that's legalism. If you do it freely and spontaneously and just float into it that's grace.

34:18 Now I'm not setting up a caricature. A lot of people think that way. If I do anything because I know it's my duty and I do it because it is my duty I've negated the constraints of grace. I've thrown off the canopy of grace and I've come under the canopy of a burdensome legalistic spirit.

34:39 And if I'm under the canopy of free grace then I just free wheel it and I do exactly what pleases God because my free wheeling happens to line up with His roadways.

34:52 Now that notion has no basis in the Bible whatsoever. You take Adam and his innocence in the garden under the constraint of a heart suffused with love to the God in whose image he had been made. How is his life regulated? By divine precept and commandment.

35:13 Dress the garden. Keep it. Be fruitful. Be multiplied.

35:18 Do this. Don't do that. Is there any picture that Adam said oh no mercy me mercy me here goes God giving me commandments he's just going to turn Eden into hell.

35:30 No indication whatsoever. But as long as Adam maintained his integrity he found no cause for contradiction between the constraints of gratitude to God and fulfillment of the revealed will of God as an act of obedience. Well then you take our Lord the one who came from heaven and in his hour of testing did not fall as did the first Adam. Listen to the words of our Lord in John 14 and verse 31 for him the constraints of love to his father and obedience to his father as an act of obedience they were not contradictory principles

36:13 listen to his language I'm sorry John 14 31 but that the world may know that I love the father even as I have an urge to do so I now go forth to my death no no look but that the world may know that I love the father and as the father gave me commandment even so I do arise let us go hence John 15 and verse 10 if ye abide in my commandments ye shall abide in my if ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love

36:58 notice even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love Jesus says that his life was under the constraint of his love to his father but that constraint found expression not in freewheeling it not in following internal unguided unpreceptual impulses that love found expression in careful obedience to divine commandment in our holy Lord you want to call him a legalist

37:41 Lord Jesus why do you go forth to Gethsemane my father hath given me commandment Lord Jesus why do you go forth to Golgotha my father hath given me commandment wasn't that the whole issue of the wrestling in Gethsemane not my will but thine be done thy commandment is clear and with all of my being I have set myself to choose the way of your commandments though everything in my holy soul recoils against the implications of that obedience oh my father I will render

38:26 obedience as obedience that's why Paul says he became obedient not impulsive he became obedient unto death even the death of the cross obedience rendered as complete as compliance with imperatives does not negate the constraint of grace it's no contradiction to say with Paul in 2nd Corinthians 5 14 the love of Christ constrains me literally it holds me in its grip and to say with him in Romans 7 22 I delight in the law of God with my inward parts there's no contradiction

39:11 in fact John says some things that look like double talk on the surface of things 1st John chapter 5 and here if any passage forever lays to rest the notion that there is contradiction this is the passage that does it 1st John 5 2 hereby we know that we love the children of God when we love God and do his commandments for this is the love of God that we free wheel it under the impulse of that love no no this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and keep his commandments as his commandments

39:55 and his commandments are not grievous and that's the pattern of obedience to which God has called his people in every epoch of redemptive history where do you get these words showing mercy unto thousands that love me and keep my commandments from the old testament or the new as old testament language my friend the whole framework of ethical demand comes to the people of God always in that context under the constraint of grace carefully to obey the revealed will of

Application 3: Obedience as Indispensable Evidence of Grace

40:40 God in his commandments and to obey them as commandments even when that commandment is the example of Jesus Christ have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus then there's a third principle that grows out of this first point that I've made and I'm just making this application obedience rendered to divine imperatives under the constraint of grace is the indispensable evidence and fruit of grace obedience rendered to divine imperatives under the constraint of grace

41:24 is the indispensable evidence and fruit of grace if you love me Jesus said what will you do about it have a hallelujah meeting no you'll keep my commandments he that hath my commandments and keep with them he it is that loveth me you're my friends if you do whatsoever I command you and so true this is that John can say if a man say I know him and keep not his commandments he's a liar and the truth is not it I don't care what you say you feel if you do not obey him under the constraint of grace and if the constraint of your professed reception of grace does not cut a channel in a

42:09 life of obedience as obedience obedience that is even costly you see this whole notion that if I'm under the constraint of grace the constraints of grace will open up the path of obedience and make it a primrose path that is simply not biblical Jesus learned obedience by the things that he suffered he saw the path of obedience cutting the swath through hell itself and he recoiled and said oh my father if the path of obedience can find any other other direction let this cup pass from me he didn't

42:54 go skip it Calvary my friend and some of you have the silly notion unless you can go skipping into every path that grace constrains to somehow there's something wrong no no the wrongness is in your silly notion you never got it out of the Bible you never got it from the example of Christ never is grace more tested than when obedience is more difficult well that's the first thing that I want you to see from the text with regard to the form in which Christ is set before us as an example he's set before us

The Imperative Touches the Deepest Recesses of Our Being

43:39 as an example in the form of an imperative and then very quickly in closing I know it's warm and sticky and muggy I'm more conscious of that than any of you up here it is set before us as an imperative which touches the deepest recesses of our being look at the language he does not say slavishly imitate the external acts of Christ but he says have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus and then we discover the mind of Christ in terms

44:23 of these specific things that he did being in the form of God thought it not made himself taking the form of a servant humbled himself became obedient in other words we are not given as it were a psychological analysis of the mind of Christ we are given a vivid portrayal of that mind in action pursuing the redemption of sinners dominated by these graces of humility and self forgetfulness and you see we are commanded to have this mind in us

45:08 this disposition this attitude this perspective in other words this call to follow Christ's example is an imperative that touches not the external deeds in isolation from that which gives birth to them but it's a call to Christ likeness in the deepest recesses of our being have this mind in you you see the real work of the Christian is always heart work Proverbs 4 23 guard your heart above all that you guard for out of it are the issues of life

45:53 and our Lord said it a little differently in Matthew chapter 12 when he said for from within out of the heart of man I'm sorry out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and then he goes on to change the figure make the tree good and the fruit good or the tree corrupt and it's fruit corrupt you see the great work of the Christian is that inward work have this mind in you that was in Christ God is not calling us to an external wooden literalistic patterning of ourselves after Christ some of you have seen the pitiful descriptions or perhaps you've seen slides

46:36 or movies of what happens in certain countries where Roman Catholicism still shows itself to be the apostate religion that it is and it does so in a bold way where you have the flagellantes who take those whips with their pieces of glass or metal and they rub them bring them back over their backs and tear open their own flesh they are seeking you see to be like Christ in his sufferings and we say poor fools they've missed it well in the same way we've missed it if we think we merely go through the gospels and say all right what did Jesus do in this situation oh that's right I'll put that in my little list of things that's what I'll do and when we get into a similar situation we do

47:21 it regardless of whether or not there has been an imbibing of the spirit and the attitude and the disposition of Christ it is have this mind in you you see the emphasis have this mind in you we are called to heart work and it is the very mind of Christ that must become our mind what is humility and self forgetfulness well whatever they are they are planted and nourished in the deepest recesses of our being you won't learn them simply by saying oh that's what humble people do I will do that that's what self forgetful people do I will do that no when

48:06 you see a good example say Lord there's humility there's self forgetfulness at work now Lord give me that grace that's that mind as I seek to pattern myself after the Savior and those who follow him so it is not the model apart from the internal disposition or the internal disposition severed from the model that would fracture our passage how do I know the mind of Christ have this mind well he gives me what the mind does in action but seeing the action I'm not to be content with wooden conformity without the internal disposition and this passage beautifully brings them

Conclusion: Meditating on Christ's Mind for Humility and Self-Forgetfulness

48:51 together and I trust as the people of God we will feel the weight of it in conclusion let me press upon you a careful and prayerful meditation in verses six through eleven over the next week as you have opportunity you see the artist who would reproduce a landscape must not only have in his hand his palette with all of the color range and his brush and have some ability to reproduce on canvas what he sees but some of you especially in the spring time you'll see this will drive by a country road and you'll see perhaps an amateur artist maybe a professional has his easel all set up

49:35 and he has his palette in his hand and what is he doing he's constantly looking from the landscape to his canvas from the one to the other seeking to reproduce here what he sees there to change the analogy my wife goes to make a dress for herself for one of the girls she first of all gets out her pattern and on the living room rug spreads out all the material and then she lays the pattern on top of that material and then she begins to cut now humility and self forgetfulness are the graces without which we cannot progress in true congregational christian unity

50:18 and how are we to know what those graces are how are we to have them painted as it were upon the canvas of our own lives we must constantly look to the reality as it is set forth in christ we must continually look to him have this mind in you which was also in christ jesus who being you know what it means it means that the most mentally limited christian amongst us must concentrate upon such a lofty mystery as the pre-incarnate christ who being in the form of god and that takes us back beyond the beginning it takes us back

51:02 into those mysterious recesses of inter-trinitarian relationship when there was nothing in existence but god nothing was in existence but god the second person of the godhead was there and we must think upon such great mysteries we'll never paint upon the canvas of our lives or have painted by the spirit upon the canvas of our lives humility and self forgetfulness if we do not look to him who is the landscape of those graces and if we only lay out the pattern to forget it and do not follow it in each cut of the scissors

51:47 we'll never come up with that beautiful creation that's on the front of the package in which you bought the pattern have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus Christ is indeed the great pattern and example of his people particularly in the context of humility and self forgetfulness and the form in which he is set before us as our pattern and example is that of an imperative that of an imperative which touches the deepest recesses of our being and if you're here this morning as an unconverted man or woman boy or girl I hope if you've learned nothing else you've learned this if I ever become a Christian

52:32 two things will have to happen to me I'll have to start taking Jesus Christ seriously and I'll have to start taking my own heart seriously and my friend if you've learned that the time has not been wasted you could go to church some places for a hundred years and never learn either of those two things if you're ever to become a Christian you've got to start taking seriously Jesus Christ who he is and what he's done for sinners and you've got to start taking seriously your own heart and it's condition in the presence of a holy God and your relationship to God in terms of his all-piercing eye and if we as the people of God are to grow up into

53:16 Christ in all things then where we began is where we continue we must continue to take him seriously as our great pattern and example as the great fountainhead of grace and we must take our hearts seriously we must be content with nothing less than having worked in us the very mind the very disposition of Christ the mind and disposition of humility and self forgetfulness so graphically described in verses 6 through 11 may God write upon our hearts this introductory command of this section and give us grace to obey it let us pray our father

54:00 we cannot contemplate your beloved son in his humiliation in his life of obedience without feeling very keenly a sense of shame a sense of remorse and grief in the face of our own pride and self centeredness our own disobedience and we pray that beholding him your Holy Spirit will work in us a like mind and disposition we pray that you will take the word preached this morning and make it effectual in every heart we pray for those who may

54:44 be strangers to your grace oh Lord in mercy deal with them and grant that they may find no rest until they have come to take seriously the state of their hearts and the revelation of your grace in Christ we pray for any who've had this false mentality that there is some kind of a great wall between duty performed as duty and duty performed as the constraint of grace Lord sweep away all of the cobwebs of unbiblical thinking make of us a people who under the constraint of grace consciously and deliberately and with

55:29 great care seek to be conformed to every normal scripture write then your word upon our hearts to the end that there may be a transcript of the very image of your beloved son we ask these mercies in his name amen