[0:00] Philippians chapter 2 and these well-known words of verse 9. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
[0:26] I often wonder what's the greatest part of scripture that Paul has written, because Paul has written some quite amazing little sections.
[0:44] And like, for instance, if you went to Ephesians chapter 3, and he talks there about, say in verse 16, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
[1:22] So when you read two or three verses like that, you say, well, that cannot really be surpassed, because it takes us really to places that we say, well, that's beyond me.
[1:34] But this little section in chapter 2, really from verse 5, verse 6 through to verse 11, certainly falls into the category of absolutely amazing parts that Paul has written.
[1:52] Because in a sense, everything is there, everything and more. Because he tells us who Jesus is, who Jesus was, who Jesus is always.
[2:05] And it's essential for us to grasp that, because a lot of people fail to understand the godness of Jesus. They look at him purely as a human being.
[2:16] And yes, he was a human being, as human, as you and I, but he was also God, and he never, ever, ever ceased to be God. And so Paul tells us in verse 6, and he says, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing.
[2:40] Now, the one thing that we have here is that the Greek language is a much richer language than the English language. I'm no Greek scholar, but what I do remember, and there's a lot of things I do remember, is that there were words in Greek that had no equivalent in English.
[3:00] And that word that we have, form, there, there are two words for form. There is one, morphe, and one, schema.
[3:12] Morphe is a form that cannot change. In other words, you and I are human beings. We will never become fish or stones or anything else.
[3:26] Our humanity is always this. Our form cannot change. But the schema of the human is always changing.
[3:37] That is, that we grow up, we're born, we go from babies to children to youth to adults to middle age to elderly and so on.
[3:52] So that form is changing. But what we are doesn't change. So there are these two different words.
[4:02] And that word in verse that we have here, who though he was in the form of God, is morphe. Which means that Jesus Christ was and is God.
[4:13] Was never anything other than God. Ever, ever, ever. And that is one of the things that so many people don't grasp. And even people within, sometimes within the framework of the church, have lost sight of the absolute divinity and the Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[4:31] He is the second passion of the Godhead. And so this means that he has this unchanging being forever.
[4:42] But he also took human nature to himself. And the amazing thing is that although the human nature was such that it was subject to change in the same way as you and I, it is also a human nature that he has forevermore.
[4:57] Jesus, at his death, didn't lay down his human nature. He didn't take the human nature for 33 years. And then at his death, when his body was put into the grave, say, well, that's it.
[5:07] I've done my bit. No. Because it wasn't simply our death that he died. But it was our resurrection that he rose for.
[5:19] Every aspect of it was for us. And that's very, very important for us to lay hold upon. So the Lord Jesus Christ went all the way to the cross for us.
[5:33] And on the cross, as people looked at him, in his suffering, in his agonies, that's all they could see was a suffering Jesus. I think we mentioned that before.
[5:44] They couldn't see the hidden work that was going on, which was typified like on the great day of atonement when the high priest was presenting the blood of the sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and sprinkling that blood upon the mercy seat in the presence of God.
[6:02] And if God accepted that sacrifice, which of course he would because it was his own instruction, the high priest would come back out alive.
[6:13] If God didn't accept it, he would die in the presence of God. Nobody was ever allowed in behind that curtain, except the high priest, and only once a year. So, in a sense, there was this hidden work going on on Calvary, where God the Father was looking upon the work of God the Son as he was presenting his blood on our behalf upon the cross.
[6:40] Even the disciples couldn't see that. No human eye could see what was going on in that part. And of course, when Jesus finally gave up the ghost and his limp body was taken down from the cross and placed in the grave, everybody thought, that's the end.
[6:59] And the enemies of Christ thought, well, that's the end of him and that's the end of his cause. It's all done. It's all over. And yet there was a niggling, they had a niggling doubt because they remembered that he said.
[7:13] You know, there were some of them there who were really listening to what Jesus was saying. And some of them obviously had grasped that he had talked about dying and rising again. And so there was this, that's why they put this guard around the tomb.
[7:30] And they were also scared that maybe one of the disciples, some of his disciples, would come and steal the body away. So they were making everything absolutely secure. But of course, what we know is that although Jesus remained under the power of death, he had to.
[7:46] It was part of what he was doing for us. His body didn't see corruption. The corruption that comes in with death, although he died, didn't affect his body. And then we know that on the third day, he rose from the dead.
[8:01] It's amazing. This power, and again the scripture will tell us that the whole Godhead was involved in the resurrection, that Father, Son, and Spirit, because the different passages will tell us that he was raised by the power of the Father, that he himself raised himself, that the Spirit, that all of them were involved in the resurrection from the dead.
[8:24] But you know, at that moment, there was an earthquake, and there was the appearance of an angel. And those guards, they ran for their lives.
[8:35] Guards who, we're not sure whether they were Roman guards or whether they were guards of, whether they were Jewish guards. If they were Roman guards, the penalty for running away was death.
[8:49] But in the presence of an angel from heaven, death was preferable. They didn't care. And you know, there's so many people, they mock and they scoff of God, and they don't really pay much attention or care.
[9:02] It just shows us that one moment, one little demonstration, of the power that comes from heaven, is sufficient to reduce the strongest, bravest people to quivering wrecks.
[9:16] They run like frightened rabbits. We mustn't lose sight of these things. Of course, the resurrection of Jesus, fills every believer with great joy, because we know that this is our hope.
[9:30] We're not united to our corpse. This is what makes, we say this so often, it's what differentiates the Christian faith from all the other isms and faiths in the world, is that the one we follow died and rose again.
[9:46] And we are united to our living, risen, reigning high priest, Jesus. He is our king, and he is alive forevermore.
[9:57] And that separates everything else. And so, we have this great, there's this great thrill in our heart about the empty tomb.
[10:09] And of course, although Jesus, as we know, interacted with his disciples from the moment of the resurrection, until his ascension, it would appear that he was going back and forth to heaven.
[10:22] And then he would appear, and he was teaching, instructing his disciples, who were to be the apostles, who were going to be part of the early church. But then there came his final ascension, where he ascended in public view of his disciples.
[10:40] And when Jesus ascended there, he was saying to them, this is it, this is my final visit like this. Then he went through another stage of what we would term glorification, and maybe, remember on the Mount of Transfiguration, there was a glimpse of the glory of Christ.
[11:00] Well, that was maybe a little sort of indicator to us of something of the glory that was to be his. And he entered fully into, into all the fullness of that glory.
[11:12] And that is why, again, we've mentioned that so often, the two people that Jesus revealed himself to on earth, from heaven, in his glory.
[11:23] One was Saul of Tarshish, and he just crumpled, the persecutor, the king of persecutors, he just crumpled to the ground, blind. The other was John, the apostle John in Patmos.
[11:35] Jesus again revealed himself to John, and John fell down as one dead. And Jesus had to touch him, and tell him that he was, that I am the living one, and so on.
[11:48] So, two glimpses, and created humanity, cannot bear to stand before the glory that belongs to Jesus. But the wonderful thing for us is that Jesus has gone to glory, and he is reigning there, and he is preparing a place for us.
[12:07] And one day, he is going to come back, and he is going to take us to be with himself. And we have always got to remember that, because sometimes, we lose our way, and we maybe, don't see the way we should.
[12:20] We maybe lose sight of him. He never, ever, ever loses sight of us. Even although, we might go through a day, and our thoughts are far away, and it's maybe only at night, you go to bed, and you say, you know this, I haven't really been thinking of the Lord today.
[12:36] Jesus will never say that, of us. Jesus will never say, you know, oh, I've forgotten about him, I forgot about her. Never, do you know this is a week since I thought about it?
[12:46] No. All the time, every single day, his eye is upon you, his hand is upon you, and he is working in you, and he is guiding you, and he is leading you, and one day, he's going to come and receive you to himself.
[13:04] Since we know that word, received to himself, is the same word that is used in the translation of Enoch, when Enoch was taken. One day, Enoch was here, and the next day, he was gone.
[13:16] God took him. Well, that's how, it's like that. God is going to come for us. They appoint, it's an appointed time. We are going to go. We will have no control over it.
[13:26] Nobody will have control over it. We won't go before that time. We won't go after that time. But that time will come. And so, we find here that, it says, therefore, God has highly exhorted him.
[13:42] And it says, he has bestowed on him the name that is above every name. Now, I believe that that name, very simply, is Lord. That this is a name that has been given to Jesus Christ.
[13:55] It was a name that the early church used for Jesus. We always find this reference to our Lord. When the Old Testament was being translated into Greek, this word, the word Jehovah from the Hebrew was translated as, curious, Lord.
[14:17] So that the Greek equivalent of Jehovah is Lord. A Lord is one who owns. One who is master over all. And that's who Jesus is.
[14:30] He is Lord over all. He is master over all. The question is, is he Lord and master of your life tonight? Before you go any further, ask yourself that question.
[14:42] Is the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord? Does he have ownership of your life? Is he king of your life? Are you happy with that? Or would you rather that he wasn't?
[14:55] And you say to yourself, like it was said in the Bible, we will not have this man rule over us. We might like a lot about him.
[15:07] We might agree with a lot about him. But we don't want his lordship. We don't want his ownership. We don't want his authority controlling our lives.
[15:18] And this is where a Christian, this is where it is. You either submit before the authority lordship, ownership of Jesus Christ or you don't.
[15:30] It's as simple as that. And that's a question you have to ask yourself tonight. Have I submitted before the ownership and the lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ?
[15:42] And so it tells us that God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
[15:58] Now again in the Bible it's something we're aware of. When a name was given it's simply not what we use to differentiate one person from another. The names meant something.
[16:10] Abraham, who we're going to start looking at, started today, was changed his name to Abraham. Jacob, his name was changed to Israel. the names had a particular significance.
[16:23] They spoke about something significant in that person's life. And so the name Jesus is highly significant because he is Lord over all.
[16:35] And we see what this lordship is going to do. It's going to cause everyone, everywhere, man, woman, boy, child, devil, demons, angels, all, are going one time, are going to bow down before the lord Jesus Christ and confess that he is lord.
[17:00] That is an amazing thought. And they're not going to bow down and confess simply because they say, oh well, that's your name, your name is Jesus Christ, that he is lord.
[17:12] it is because of the glory and the majesty and the authority and dominion and power that is in him that when they are in front of him, when we are in front of him, it is the only reaction that is possible.
[17:30] It's not something that we're going to say, well, we better, because others are doing it, we better do it. It's going to be something that we cannot help but do.
[17:40] everyone is going to bow down before him and confess that Jesus is Christ. There's a tiny, tiny glimpse of that given to us in the life of Jesus.
[17:51] Remember when the soldiers came to take Jesus in the garden and he said to them, who is it you're looking for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus said to them, I am he.
[18:04] And it's almost like a throwaway moment but they all fell to the ground. It wasn't that they tripped but it was that they were flung backward all of a sudden.
[18:14] Every one of them, they were just, they landed on the ground. And it was quite an amazing, they must have sort of good up and say, what on earth happened there?
[18:26] It was like Jesus gave that little glimpse. Just, this is who I am. And then he asked them again, who is it did you seek? He said, Jesus of Nazareth.
[18:37] And well, he said, I am he. This time, there was no glimpse. This time, he was going to hand himself over. He was ready to give himself over to them. So we see here just who this Jesus is.
[18:52] And so it tells us that everybody is going to be there in heaven. That means all the cherubims and seraphims and the angels and the archangels all will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
[19:05] they will bow down. All the redeemed in glory, every single one will be there and they will bow down and they will openly confess. That's going to be wonderful for the, for all the believers.
[19:19] Because in this world, it's one of the things that a Christian does. He or she confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. It's one of the things when you come to the Kirk session.
[19:29] you're asked about how or what what did the Lord do but particularly asked this, is Jesus Christ your Lord? Are you able to say that?
[19:41] Because it's important because remember what it says in Scripture that we believe in the heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord.
[19:53] So that's one of the things that we do and all the believers, the Christians, you've done that here. you've done that in life. People know you're a Christian. Sometimes it costs, sometimes it's difficult, sometimes that confession has been at, been at a difficult place or a difficult juncture.
[20:11] But people know that you're a Christian. Well on that day, Jesus is going to openly acknowledge every single one of his people. As you bow down before him and confess that he's Christ, it tells us that he will openly acknowledge and acquit in the day of judgment those that are his.
[20:29] and he will say to them, enter the joy of the Lord. A joy that will be unsurpassed. A joy that we can't even begin to get hold of.
[20:41] It is a joy that transcends anything that we will have ever experienced in this world. And so for those in heaven and all the believers, it will be a wonderful moment.
[20:56] but those under the earth, Satan and the demons are going to be there as well. And they're going to make that confession. You see, at the moment, although God cast Satan and all the angels that fell into hell, because we've got to remember that hell is a place that God prepared for the devil and his angels.
[21:18] That's what the Bible tells us. It's a place that was prepared for the devil and his angels. And they were cast there. But in the meantime, they have an element of freedom. Such a freedom that Satan is termed the prince of the power of the air.
[21:34] So that in all his malicious evil, he is working and he is opposing and he is fighting against everything that belongs to the kingdom of God.
[21:44] So there is this righteous war going on between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. But Satan knows, it tells us that in scripture, that his days are short. And there's going to come a time and we believe that as the time is drawing closer that he will display his venom all the more.
[22:03] But there will come a time when he and all those who fell will be brought to appear before the Lord Jesus. And you know something?
[22:16] That Satan and the demons tremble. You might not think that tonight, but the Bible tells us that. Isn't it quite extraordinary that there are so many people in this world who mock God and they say, I don't believe in God?
[22:32] There are a lot of people who say, I'm an atheist and they're proud of it and they're aggressive as atheists. Well, there's one thing that is, there's not one atheist in hell. Not one.
[22:43] And so, there will be this summons from the darkness and we'll find that Satan and all the demons will be brought and they'll have to make that confession and then they're going to be put into the bottom of the bottomless pit into everlasting chains.
[23:04] And all unbelievers will be there as well. Those who mocked, those who ridiculed, those who made fun of the gospel, those who persecuted the church, even those who rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, those who maybe were close one day but they rejected all the overtures of his love and grace.
[23:29] It's an awful thought but that's what the Bible tells us. And every single one of them will recognize Jesus and will fall down before his majesty and his glory and they will confess that he is Lord.
[23:47] I cannot even begin to imagine the remorse that will be in some hearts. You and I know that remorse can be an awful thing where we feel really, really bad about something.
[24:03] Well, I don't think we can even begin to put together the remorse that some people will feel on that day when they see the glory of the king they rejected, when they see his authority and power and they poured scorn upon his name.
[24:20] They laughed at his followers in this world. They tried to make life difficult for his followers in this world. And on that day there will be no more opportunities but they're going to have to bow down and acknowledge and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
[24:41] And so it's an extraordinary moment but you'll notice that at the end of it all that there is the end that terminates in the glory of God the Father because everything that Jesus Christ is about is ultimately to and for the Father.
[25:02] That's what he said before he died in his high priestly prayer that the Son may glorify you. Everything he did in this world he said I am doing the will of my Father.
[25:16] I am seeking to glorify my Father. And of course this moment this supreme moment where there is this universal adoration of Christ that that glory finds its end in God the Father.
[25:34] We have to ask the great question before you go where do you stand in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ? There might be many things pressing in your life just now and things you say you know I've got to sort out I have so many things that I have to deal with.
[25:52] Let me tell you there is nothing that is more pressing than that you get right with God. Of all the things that are on your agenda and all the things that are there in the back of your mind and say I've got to sort this and I've got to do that and I've got to go there and I've got maybe after that I'll sort this out.
[26:12] No. You don't know. I don't know how much longer we have to live in this world. We don't know. We're not promised.
[26:22] We're told that in the scripture. I'm not being dramatic. That's what the Bible says. We're not promised tomorrow. And there's many a person that's going to bed one night and that's it. And I don't want to hurt anybody but it's just the uncertainty of life.
[26:37] And that is why the Lord Jesus Christ as we so often said he preached more about hell than about heaven because he knew the reality of it. He knew the awfulness of it.
[26:49] And he is urging people to flee from the wrath to come. And tonight Jesus is saying look I'm here. I'm passing by. You don't need to walk away. I'm here for you.
[27:02] God's love has been demonstrated at Calvary. Jesus' love has been demonstrated by what he did. And he's holding out his arms to you. Nail-pushed hands and he's saying hey come on.
[27:14] Come in. Out of the cold into the warmth. Out of the darkness into the light. Out from death into life. Tonight it is a possibility for you.
[27:27] Please don't go out without asking the Lord to come into your heart. Let us pray. O Lord our gracious God we give thanks for your word.
[27:39] Although there are times it is so solemn so challenging this is your word. We could never ever work out any of these things were it not that scripture reveals and scripture sheds light on scripture.
[27:53] It shows us things that we would never ever ever know ourselves. But Lord we give you thanks that you have shown us. We give thanks for the upbringing that we've had.
[28:04] The opportunities that have been given to us. Lord we pray that nobody here tonight will misuse these opportunities but will grasp the opportunity that is now there and seek the Lord.
[28:18] And we're told that if we seek the Lord we will find him. O Lord bless us we pray and take us home safely and do us good we pray and guide us in everything for giving us our sin in Jesus name.
[28:30] Amen. Concluding Psalm is Psalm number 68 and I'm going to sing verses 18 to 20. Psalm 68 verses 18 to 20 and this is the Scottish Psalter the tune is Sheffield verse 18 Thou hast O Lord most glorious ascended up on high and in triumph victorious led captive captivity Thou hast received gifts for men for such as did rebel yea even for them that God the Lord in midst of them might dwell.
[29:13] Blessed be the Lord who is to us of our salvation God who daily with his benefits as plenteously doth load. He of salvation is the God who is our God most strong and unto God the Lord from death the issues do belong.
[29:28] Page 303 18 to 20 Thou hast O Lord most glorious Thou hast O Lord most glorious ascended upon high and in triumph victorious led captive captivity Thou hast O Lord receive in gifts for men for such as did rebel yea even for them that God the Lord in midst of them might dwell.
[30:34] Blessed be the Lord who is to us of our salvation grown who daily with his benefits as plenteously leadeth Lord the Lord the Lord salvation is the God who is our God most strong and unto God the Lord from death he issues to belong.
[31:31] Now may the grace and mercy and peace of God the Father Son and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon each one of you now and forevermore. Amen.