Philippians 2:3 and lessons-reminders of the Old Testament

I'd like to read with you an epistle to the Philippians, and we'll read first of all from chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, let's read from verse 5. Let or have this mind 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, a bondservant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, or obedient unto the Father to the extent of death, even the death of the cross. Now turn please to chapter 3, verse 7. But what things were gains to me those I counted loss for Christ? Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.

Verse 10, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection, or the resurrection from among the dead. 13, says brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do for getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling, or the calling on high, of God in Christ Jesus.

Verse 18, says many walk of whom I have told you to often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, and who mind earthly things. For our conversation, our politics, is in heaven, for whence also we look for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, our body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto his body of glory. According to the working whereby, he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Now we know that God will bless the reading of his word with what we have already heard. I was thinking of this just this morning, usually when a preacher comes to a conference, if he's like me, he has a few messages that he could turn to, and like me, sometimes I'm not just sure what to preach, but what I have in mind is very, very simple, and what we have read in Philippians chapter 2 reminds me of what our brother Beatty was bringing to us this morning, just after the breaking of bread, and that is the valley, and he showed us that it's called the valley of the tree, and if we link those things together, David going into the valley, you can see that it's a little picture of Calvary. Wonderful to get our eye on the Lord, and when I read this here about the Lord and these downward steps, usually we count seven downward steps to the cross, I think of the humility of the Lord, but I think of David, and he went down into the valley of Elah, and he defeated the giant.

In Exodus 20, we have instructions to build altars, and it said that there's no steps up to the altar, but here there's downward steps to the altar, and the Lord Jesus, you can see he's being humbled, he's being brought down, so the Lord Jesus went in to the valley, just as David went into the valley, and then when we come to chapter 3, we read about Paul, he said he counted the things that were once gains to him, but loss, and when I read that, I thought of another man in the Old Testament, whose name was Jonathan, and Jonathan, after David had gone down and conquered the giant, well, David won his heart. You ever wondered why David won his heart? Well, I think it's because that Jonathan likely thought, I'm the king's son, I should have been going down to the valley, but there's one who took my place, and when we apply that to ourselves, we think of the Lord Jesus taking our place, and that should really have a tremendous effect on each one of our hearts, there's one who took our place, and the result was that Jonathan, he divested himself of those things that were most precious to him, his robe, wasn't it, and his sword, and his bow. He said, those things don't mean anything to me.

Those things that were gains to me, I counted but loss, and he puts them right down at the feet of David, and that should be the first effect of us when God saves us, and we can enter into the sufferings of the cross. We know David didn't suffer, but we know the Lord suffered, and he suffered so that he would win our hearts. I wonder, has he really won our hearts? Being saved is really a love story, isn't it? And that's why Paul could say, I, Paul, in Ephesians 3, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and when we come to Ephesians 4, he said, I, Paul, a prisoner of the Lord.

What was he talking about? Well, he was saying, of course, it was because he went to the Gentiles, but I like to look at it this way as well, that the Lord won his heart. He was captivated by the Lord. I wonder, are we really his captives in that way? With a heart that's drawn out to the Lord, in love for what he accomplished.

So, we should be like this man, Jonathan, and all the things at once were precious to us, and for Paul here, there's seven things. If there's seven downward steps in chapter 2, there's seven upward steps, but then there's seven things that Paul says they don't mean anything to me now. He had so many things to be proud of.

Even he said of him, from the tribe of Benjamin, I wonder what you could you be proud of about that? Benjamin was a ravening wolf. But I also found out, you know, when you study your Bible, you find out things that he was, Benjamin was the only son of Jacob born in the land. So, he could boast about lots of little things, but, you know, we and I have nothing to boast about.

So, we can be like Jonathan. But then when we read farther down the chapter, we read about having fellowship with his resurrection and his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. And when I read that, I thought of Mephibosheth.

You remember when David was taken captive, and Mephibosheth, because of his lameness, he couldn't go with him. He wanted to go, his servant deceived him. But he said, while David is away in exile, he said, I'm not going to trim my beard or wash my feet.

Might seem quite an extreme thing. But he said, what he was saying is, David can't do that. The Lord can't do that.

He's in exile, and our Lord has gone home to heaven. He's coming back. Thank God for that.

But Mephibosheth, he said, I want to be like him now. If he can't do that. You see, Paul, you remember 1 Corinthians 4. What did he say to the Christians in Corinth? He said, you reign as kings without us.

We've already been reminded that we're not reigning. We're training for reigning. We're associated with a rejected Christ, not a reigning Christ.

So we shouldn't be living our lives like it's all about us and all the enjoyment of the world itself, as we have heard again spoken to us. So we should be like the Lord. We're not reigning.

We're associated with a rejected Christ. Now, you wouldn't know that from some who profess to know the Lord Jesus, and I'm talking more or less about Christendom. But then we read also, brethren, verse 13, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do.

For getting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the calling on high of God and Christ Jesus. Now, when you read that, I think you could maybe get your eye on Rebecca. We can't leave the women out of this, you know, but Rebecca was a woman, and she had to go and meet Isaac.

And I've often said this, but I don't mind repeating it. I wonder what she was talking about when she was going through the wilderness to meet the man she'd never met. She might have been saying, well, I had it pretty good, you know, in Padnerim, and not sure what I'm going to now.

I don't think she was saying that. For getting those things which are behind. Sometimes people say, forget your failures.

There are all the things, times when things didn't work out, and you're a little bit of service for the Lord. But I would say remember those things. Forget what you might call triumphs, because if you're talking about triumphs, you're thinking about how great the things are.

But God wants to bring us down. So remember your failures. That will keep you humble.

So they're going through the wilderness, and there's a beautiful picture. She was a very energetic woman. She knew how to draw water for camels, and it must have been quite a job and so on.

But anyhow, I imagine—I can almost say I know, although I can't prove it—but she was saying, tell me about the man that I'm going to meet. Is that the way we're going through this wilderness world? We want to learn more about the man that we've never met, and yet for us we can look back to Calvary, the one who captivated our hearts. Is that our attitude as we go through this wilderness world? And he would tell him, he said, you know, his father's a very rich man.

God's rich have been reminded of his vastness. And you know, he's given everything into Isaac's hands, so you're going to be well off, and you won't have to worry too much about financial matters. Noah should say, that's not what I want you to tell me about.

Tell me about the day he was on the altar. Tell me about that day when they went to Mount Moriah. And there's one, of course, he would be telling her about the substitute that took Isaac's place.

But are we trying to learn more of the one that went to Calvary for us? There's something wrong, really, when we examine our lives. I'm sure we'd wonder, really, why we're not more occupied with him. And then we come right on down the chapter, and Paul says, I tell you, even weeping, is verse 18, that there are those who are the enemies of the cross of Christ.

We have that in Christendom today. They're not enemies of Christ, but you talk about the cross and try and teach them that I died with Christ. That's a different story.

And I have thought the enemies of the cross of Christ, and my mind goes to another Old Testament character, his name is Shamgar. And Shamgar had an enemy of God's people that he dealt with. They were the Philistines, those that got into the land by the easy way, and they missed all these beautiful pictures that we enjoy of Christ right from the Passover.

Now, man, you can go through. There are many beautiful pictures. But Shamgar, he was the one that would deal with these people.

We would say today, they're really their apostates, enemies of the cross of Christ. And then we read about another man, it says, whose God is their belly. The Philistines, they would bring in things that aren't according to the Word of God, because they've never experienced those things that the children of Israel experienced in the wilderness.

And there's some like that today. And yet it can be among God's people. Well, we don't want to have anything of that about us.

But we find that there's this lusty man, he reminds us of Eglin in the book of Judges, again, chapter 3. And we have Ehud that went to him, and how did he... Well, what is this man? He's called a fat man. What would that represent in our lives? Well, maybe self-gratification would be one thing. Or maybe puffed up in our own minds, inflated.

I think we're doing a great job. Well, God wants to bring us down. How does he bring us down? A little dagger.

And you know, I'm sure, that the dagger speaks of the Word of God. Old Mr. Archie Stewart used to say, it's got two sides, one for the audience and one for the preacher. Well, anyhow, it should bring us right down.

The king is absent. We're not reigning without him. And then you have those who glory in their shame.

I think that would be that man, Sisera. And he was an enemy of God's people. But he was shameless.

He went into a woman's tent. That was her property. He never should have gone in there.

He was tired, and he fell asleep. And you know what Jael did? She took a hammer. She took a tent peg.

A tent peg is a symbol of the pilgrim. We're just traveling through this world, and God's Word is like a hammer. And I tell you, it may seem very cruel, but if you study it carefully, you'll find out that the idea of the enemy there is that it's in the thoughts of the head.

And thoughts, and putting thoughts, and being aggressive with them. I don't mind if a person's legalistic, if they'd keep it to themselves, but they usually don't do that. They like to push it on others.

So it has to be dealt with. And while it may seem a cruel thing, she put the tent peg right through his temple. What God is telling us, these things have to be handled.

It's not other people's thoughts or what they think. But God wants us to finish that enemy off as well. Then, just to close up, we come to verse 20.

Our conversation is in heaven. And I've thought of Elijah and the fact that he was taken up into heaven. Now, Elisha, his servant, he said of you when you're going up, I want your mantle to fall on me.

There are quite a few men—I have been privileged to hear the minister of the Word. I'd like their mantle to fall on me, but I think it missed me. But anyhow, he said, have you seen me taken up into heaven? And he was taken up.

And know what happened? His mantle fell on Elijah. Elijah said, I want your mantle to fall on me. And it fell on him.

And he's left to represent his master. That's what we have in firstborn ones. We're all firstborn believers.

And we've been left with everything that pertains to life and godliness. We have a double portion, so we can represent our absent master in a worthy manner. I wonder how we're representing the Lord.

I know you remember the story afterward when Elisha went away. The young people came out. The young men.

And it seemed they thought maybe this was Elijah. He had his robe on, so there'd be a likeness, wouldn't there? I wonder, is that likeness seen in us? The Lord is gone. He's coming back.

He could come back at any moment. And then there's a tremendous change that's going to take place in all our lives of believers. I'm looking forward to that.

And it's nothing to do with pills I'm taking. I'm glad I won't, I'll probably not even think of them, or shots or anything like that. But I'm just thinking about the Lord coming back.

And we're going to be changed. We've already heard from 1 John. I would take it maybe a moral change.

Here's a physical change. And have a body like unto his body of glory. What a prospect we have.

God's working with us. If you read Ephesians chapter 4, you'll find that out. It's been quoted as well.

Are we making progress in the things of God? Do people see the Savior in us? We're not going to be like him completely, we know that. But surely there should be some traits that we're seeing in a master that should be seen in us. And remember this, our politics are not of this world.

That's not what we're training for. But we're training for that day when the Lord's going to change us. And we should be waiting for that at any moment.

These people that lived in Philippi were Roman citizens. They spoke as a little colony of Rome away from Rome. Spoke the Roman language as they spoke it.

And we're waiting for the representative of Rome to come at any time so that everything in order. Wonder do we have everything in order as we're expecting the near return of the Lord Jesus. So may God touch our hearts.

When we think of the one that went into the valley, and then everything else that we have, what is it worth? In the light of eternity, there's only one thing that's important. Being like him. That's what Paul was saying here that I apprehend that for which he was apprehended.

God saved him to be like a son. He saved us to be like him. And Paul I think here in this chapter is saying, I'd like to be a little more like him day by day.

There's still going to be a tremendous change, but wouldn't it be good to make a little progress in our Christian life as we're left here to represent our absent masters. So may the Lord help us to do so in a worthy manner.