Bill Link - Class 5: The Mind of Our Master

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is day five of the 2017 Idyll Bible School. Our third period teacher is brother Bill Link. His general topic is portraits of the master. Today's topic is the mind of our master. Before starting class, we are going to read Philippians 2 verses 1 to 16. And our brother Ryan Beeson is going to read that for us.

2. 0:22

   Philippians 2 starting at verse 1. But with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not merely look after your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men.

3. 1:25

   Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

4. 1:58

   So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling and disputing, so that you'll prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.

5. 2:31

   Holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ, I will have reason to glory, because I did not run in vain, nor toil in vain. Good morning once again, brothers and sisters. Good morning. Good morning, Bill. Unfortunately, this week is beginning to draw towards an end, and it's kind of sad.

6. 2:57

   But it's been a really good week. Let's make the most of these last hours we have together. We've been considering portraits of the Master, our goal being to know him, to know him as a real person, one that maybe we would easily recognize him if he were to walk into the room.

7. 3:22

   We've considered his hands, their gentle touch. Healing a horribly unclean leper, blessing little children. We've thought about his voice, the voice of a teacher, the voice of power and authority. Whom seek ye and they fall back? Never man spoke like this. We've considered his voice. We've considered his voice, his wry humor, capable of poking holes in pretentious, pompous self-righteousness.

8. 4:01

   We've considered his wry humor with the camels. And camels are a funny critter, aren't they? And at least twice Jesus used camels to make a point. Think of Solomon, you know. It says he spoke, what was it, 4,000, 3,000, 4,000 parables, proverbs, which is far more than we could possibly have in the book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes combined.

9. 4:27

   And it says the little things he saw out there, the birds and the wildlife, that he was able to take lessons. Go to the ant, thou sluggard. And Jesus could see a camel, that big silly critter, and make lessons out of it for us. He was a great teacher. We thought of his eyes lifted in prayer.

10. 4:51

    Thought of his loving gaze on that rich young man. He went away sorrowful because he just couldn't give up. He was a great teacher. He was a great teacher. Considered his loving glance at Peter, not a glance, a gaze.

11. 5:12

    And we've considered his compassion on the multitudes and on individuals. And we've seen his compassion as being something that is required of us. And so today we turn to the mind of the Lord. And the point of it is that having the mind of the Lord is also something that is required of us.

12. 5:35

    When we think about the things that Jesus thought about, what was specifically on his mind at a particular moment, we don't have a whole lot of examples where it's clearly laid out for us. We had the one we saw when they brought the little children to him and the disciples said, go away, we don't need that right now, that he was much displeased.

13. 5:56

    That it bothered him because there was such a contrast between these little children and the Pharisees he was dealing with. We've seen an angry look. The only time Jesus is described as angry, when he looked around at them for the hardness of their heart, when they brought him the man with the withered hand and said, let's see if he's healing him on the Sabbath.

14. 6:25

    There are indications that Jesus was deeply perceptive of those around him. One brother said to me, you know, you ought to do a class on the quick-wittedness of the Lord. Master, we know you're true. They butter him up and he perceives their wickedness. Show me a coin. Marvelous. Marvelous. It wasn't just, by the way, you know what's on a coin?

15. 6:50

    He said, show me a coin. And they went and they get the coin, right? Whose image in superscription? Marvelous answer. And whose image are you in was the implicit question. Give to Caesar what's Caesar's and to God what's God's. Oh, the baptism of John. Was that from heaven or from earth? He asked him.

16. 7:08

    And they said, oh, if we say of men, we fear the people. We can't answer. And Jesus says, neither can I answer you. Amazing, penetrating mind of our Lord. But as to the specific things he thought, for instance, in those long nights of prayer, what was specifically the words going through his mind?

17. 7:41

    The Gospels don't give us that. It's possible that we might find some of that in the fifth gospel, the book of Psalms. And I just want to show you a couple to sort of illustrate the point. Brother Phil mentioned Psalm 69.

18. 8:02

    And the 69th Psalm is one that's quoted numerous times in the New Testament. So we know it's a Messianic Psalm. Verse 4 of Psalm 69 that says, they hated me without a cause. Well, that's quoted in John's Gospel. Verse 9. The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. That's quoted in John chapter 2, the cleansing of the temple.

19. 8:38

    And it's quoted again, very interestingly, Romans 15.3. That's a context that is worth some extra study. Verse 21 is quoted, when he was on the cross, they gave me also a gall from a meat. So my point is that, okay, we can read Psalm 69 with confidence that it is a Messianic Psalm, an expressive of things Jesus thought.

20. 9:03

    And so then read the first four verses. Save me, O God, for the waters are coming unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat is dried. Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

21. 9:37

    They that hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head. They that would destroy me being mine enemies wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that which I took not away.

22. 9:50

    We almost might feel a little bit embarrassed by these words because they express weakness and even almost doubt. Calling on God for help. It's amazing to think of our Lord thinking these things. Psalm 16 is another psalm that is familiar to us as quoted in the New Testament. Quoted marvelously by Peter in Acts chapter 2.

23. 10:23

    Quoted at length too. Verses 9 to 11 are all quoted in Acts chapter 2. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. You will not suffer your Holy One to see corruption. Peter can say, you know, David's not talking about himself. Because he's dead and buried and his sepulchre is with us today.

24. 10:45

    You can go visit it. He did see corruption. But he was a prophet. And he was speaking of the Christ. So we know this Psalm 16 is messianic. So then read with me the first few verses. And imagine our Lord thinking these things. Preserve me, O God. For in thee do I put my trust.

25. 11:15

    O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord. I have no good beyond thee. But to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God. Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer.

26. 11:36

    Nor take up their names into my lips. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night season.

27. 12:02

    Isn't that a privilege to read those things and to think of our Lord taking them on as his own thoughts? He was the word made flesh. Surely helped by his fellowship with God in the ministration of angels. But also by many hours, many days of meditation on God's word. Brother Whitaker in his studies in the gospels writes this.

28. 12:33

    It's no wild speculation to envisage that one of the uses to which Joseph and Mary put the gold brought by the wise men was to equip the boy Jesus with his own set of scrolls of law and prophets and the writings. In later years before his public ministry began, he would thoughtfully, carefully write out his own copy of the law.

29. 12:54

    For had not Moses laid this duty on every king of the Jews? What must have gone through Jesus' mind? Reading Isaiah 53. Years ago, I was helping out with teaching the young people, little kids. And it's marvelous. I'm so glad to see that being done.

30. 13:22

    And I decided with the... I think it was like six to eight-year-olds or something. I decided I'd read Isaiah 53 to them. And I read it to them and I said, Now you tell me who this is talking about. And they were little kids. And as I was reading through it, all of a sudden this little girl, her face lights up.

31. 13:41

    And she says, It's talking about Jesus. It was so moving. I'll never forget it. It's such a powerful statement of what Jesus' life would be like, what his purpose was. And Jesus must have read it over and over. What about Psalm 22? I'd like to spend a few minutes with Psalm 22. Psalm 22 actually came up a bit in our reading the other day with that somewhat troubling statement.

32. 14:17

    My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? There are three parts to the psalm. The first 18 verses are the words of a person in desperate straits who's despairing. The next few verses are prayer. And the conclusion of the psalm is triumphant. Verse 1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

33. 14:58

    Why art thou so far from helping me? From the words of my roaring. Verse 4. Our fathers trusted in thee. They trusted in thee. And thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee. And we're not confounded. But I am a worm. And no man. A reproach of men.

34. 15:27

    And despised of the people. Verse 14. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd. And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. And thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

35. 15:49

    Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet.

36. 16:05

    Verse 6. I would like to talk about it in a minute. I think out of a sense of reverence. And trying to deal with how could Jesus say these things. Is not even feeling forsaken. Isn't that somehow faithless? It's the same thing that sometimes I think folks figure that Jesus couldn't really be tempted.

37. 16:34

    Because to be tempted is itself a sin. But it's not. It's giving in to temptations that's a sin. Jesus was tempted. It was real. And don't need to get into who, what, how the temptation happened in the wilderness. But I've almost heard it suggested that, well, it couldn't have come from within. Because that would indicate something wrong with Jesus.

38. 16:59

    There was. He was just like us. He was tempted in all points. And let's not deny the humanity of our Lord. So that in the garden, on the cross, to think that he could feel less than despair. So maybe one of these misguided attempts. I don't know if you've ever heard this exposition.

39. 17:29

    The Baptist preacher, 19th century guy, Charles Spurgeon. He's pretty well known. He made a metaphor out of verse 6. I'm a worm and no man. He suggested it was an allusion to a Middle Eastern scarlet worm. Which dies on a tree and leaves a red stain like blood. Nourishing its young with its dying body.

40. 17:53

    Well, let's look at biblical usage. Job chapter 25. This is Bildad. Speaking about man's insignificance. His puny insignificance. And how can man, Bildad is saying, claim to be just before God? How can he be clean that is born of a woman? Verse 4. Verse 5. Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not.

41. 18:37

    Yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. As far as God's concerned, the sun and the moon and the stars, they're all a drop in the bucket. Verse 6. How much less man that is a worm, and the son of man which is a worm. Jesus had all of his dignity, all of his strength stripped away.

42. 19:07

    I'm a worm and no man. In Isaiah, God says, fear not thou worm, Jacob. You're insignificant, but don't be afraid. So I guess what I'm saying is we read this first section of Psalm 22. That we do not diminish the honor which we give to the Lord in hearing these thoughts. We honor him all the more for his endurance and the genuineness of his experience submitted to voluntarily and with foreknowledge.

43. 19:51

    And as we come down to verse 19, the tone of the psalm changes as he prays. Verse 19. But be not thou far from me, O Lord. O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

44. 20:20

    I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him, all ye the seed of Jacob. Glorify him and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither hath he hid his face from him.

45. 20:42

    But when he cried unto him, he heard. Marvelous words. When Judas went out and it was night. The next verse in John says, Therefore, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the hour come. Now is the Son. Now is the Father glorified. It was as though with Judas going out that the die was cast.

46. 21:18

    And you might think, and as you read the next few chapters, you might think that Jesus is, now he's steeled and he's ready. And yet, when he gets to the Garden of Gethsemane, there he says, Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. We are blessed with our understanding of the Lord Jesus.

47. 21:48

    That we know he was just like us. And so, what would we think? If there's any other way, can we do it that way? And so, it seems to me that even on the cross, when we, you know, there's such an economy of words in the scripture, and so, such delicacy, that there's not the lurid descriptions, which surely could be made of that most dreadful of torture and killing.

48. 22:27

    There's none of that. But it was very, very bad. So, we can understand him saying, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I've heard people say, well, maybe that was because he needed to have the Holy Spirit removed, because if he didn't, if he had the Holy Spirit without measure, he couldn't die.

49. 22:48

    Well, maybe it was that he really felt forsaken, but that he prayed, and that he came out the other side successful. And he says, so the answer to, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's just down here in verse 24 of Psalm 22. God had not despised him, and he recognized him.

50. 23:09

    And he said, I'm going to go through all of this, and I'm going to declare your name to my brethren. Wow. It's powerful stuff.

51. 23:21

    In being crucified, ultimately death occurred because of asphyxiation. That's why they broke the legs, was so that the poor sufferer couldn't heave himself up to catch a breath.

52. 23:44

    Every word was an agony, an effort. And Jesus speaks these few words and brings our mind to this psalm. And I can imagine that there on the cross, he recited the whole rest of it. In fact, it's pretty remarkable that if you come over to Psalm 31, that Jesus' dying words make up the first half of verse 5.

53. 24:17

    Into thy hand I commit my spirit. And that being the case, it doesn't seem to be too much of a stretch to think that when he woke up that the rest of the verse was there in his mind. Thou hast redeemed me, O Yahweh, God of truth.

54. 24:44

    So the mind of the Lord, we find it expressed in these psalms. We see a mind that is focused on the Lord, that puts its trust in God in all adversity, that prays to him, and that has confidence in God's deliverance. Now just like we saw yesterday that the compassion of the Lord is not only something to be admired, but it's also something that we're supposed to take up and be ourselves.

55. 25:19

    I don't like the word emulate. It doesn't seem like the right word. Emulate sort of seems like it's to do even a better job possibly. And we can't possibly do a better job. But imitate, let's say. That's a good word. We're supposed to imitate his compassion. Not just admire his compassion. Imitate it as well.

56. 25:37

    And the same goes for his mind. His frame of mind. And that's the message of the second chapter of Philippians. And in fact, it's the message of the whole letter to the Philippians.

57. 25:54

    If you go through Philippians with a concordance or whatever and you count up the frequencies of all the different words and you winnow out all the unimportant ones, you'll find words like mind and joy and rejoicing and thinking. Those are the things that run right through the book. In fact, I'm convinced and I digress a tiny bit.

58. 26:20

    I'm convinced that the whole book is pointing forward to chapter 4, verse 2. Because when you get to chapter 4, Paul starts drawing together all the threads of things he's been saying. I'm sure that this wasn't, I guess that this isn't the only purpose in him writing, but I think it's on his mind throughout the writing of the letter because of the way he draws everything in at the end.

59. 26:45

    He says, I beseech you, Odea, and I beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. So it seems that there's two sisters, both of whom Paul says they've worked with me in the gospel and somehow they're not getting on together.

60. 27:13

    And Paul's encouragement is that they be of the same mind in the Lord. In fact, I'd go on to say that chapter 4 of Philippians, he's laying out the recipe for how you're going to do it. Rejoice in the Lord always. That's a reference back to chapter 3 where he also says, and don't put any confidence in the flesh.

61. 27:35

    And we know what the flesh he was talking about there was. It was all the religious credentials that he had had. He calls that the flesh. Don't have too high an attitude, a mind of your own. Rejoice in the Lord, put your confidence in Him. Verse 5, let your gentleness be known to all men.

62. 27:55

    Be famous for being gentle. The Lord is at hand. The Lord was standing right here, it would be pretty easy for us to be gentle. Right? All of a sudden, we'd get our priorities right. And the Lord is at hand in more ways than one. Don't worry about anything. Verse 6, sometimes conflict can arise between good, fine, upstanding brothers and sisters because they're worried too much about how things are going to be done.

63. 28:28

    Don't worry about it. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. By the way, this thing about don't worry about anything, doesn't mean blanket, don't worry, be happy sort of thing because just a couple chapters back, Paul praises Timothy as somebody who would worry about things just like he would.

64. 28:51

    Same word. But don't let your worrying and your concern for the things that matter make it that you think it all depends on me. But instead, make your petitions known to God. And then, verse 7, the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Then, Euodia and Syntyche, all your problems will be gone.

65. 29:22

    Finally, brethren, and we use this next verse 8 as a screen for what TV shows we watch, if we watch any, what movies we go to if we watch any. We say, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are just. But think about, and that's a good way to use it, but think about it as a way of evaluating your brother or sister.

66. 29:47

    When you look at Euodia, say, what's true about her? What's honest about her? What's just? What's purely pure? What's lovely? What's things that are of good report? If there's any virtue, any praise, think on these things. That's the solution to the problems. It all has to do with our mind.

67. 30:14

    And Jesus has, and Paul has made this same exhortation back in chapter 2 in more detail in this way. Philippians 2, starting in verse 1. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, good old King James with its fairly literal rendering, making us think of the compassion word that we had for Jesus, moved with compassion in the bowels of mercy.

68. 30:51

    Fulfill ye my joy, Paul says, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.

69. 31:23

    This would fix a lot of problems, wouldn't it, if we could do this? A lot of problems. Sometimes divisions happen within Ecclesias and at a larger scale because we're both emphasizing a different aspect of things and not respecting the principle that our brother is upholding. These are things we ought to think esteem him better than me.

70. 31:59

    And the crazy thing about it is if I start evaluating you, I'm going to say, well, I'm probably a better statistician, many of you anyway. I've done it for 30 years, I ought to be pretty good. I probably got bluer eyes than many of you and I might even be taller than most of you.

71. 32:19

    And you think about all the things where you're pretty good. You don't think about the things where you fall short. There was a brother I knew for a number of years who's now asleep in the Lord. He was a bit cantankerous and he was rough on the kids. The kids, you know, kids enthusiastic and meeting and they're running around and brutal.

72. 32:48

    And if you're focused on that kind of thing, you could just paint him as a bad guy. and yet, I was aware of this brother's incredible generosity with his finances to the point of impoverishing himself. He was generous. He cared about the underdog. So think on these things. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of the others.

73. 33:23

    Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Shame that when we read these next verses, we always come to it like, okay, here's a rested scripture to deal with. And quite frankly, a lot of the modern versions really, really show their prejudices here.

74. 33:43

    I'm not a big fan of the NIV. I have to confess. You ever teach your kids a little song in the B-I-B-L-E but not the NIV.

75. 34:01

    That was how it was done in the Link household. That's not fair. The NIV's pretty good in a lot of ways, but it really has very strong Trinitarian leanings. And frankly, if you look at many different versions, readings of this, they have strong prejudices in favor of Trinitarian views. Now, we can get into the details of how do we explain all that and everything, but the simplest thing is look at the context.

76. 34:32

    Paul's saying be humble like Jesus was. What are we being encouraged to think about? We're supposed to think about the preexistent being in heaven who's existed from all eternity and who's, as an interested friend once told me, God says to him, son, I got a job for you and he sends him down to the earth.

77. 34:55

    Is that, so that's the way, that's the example we're supposed to be looking to? It doesn't really make sense. It's interesting in looking at various translations of these verses to look at the word being in verse six. It's made in a lot of modern translations to be something about essential nature and that he forever had this nature.

78. 35:20

    But if you look at, and I don't know Greek, but I know enough to look up Strong's numbers and to look up parts of speech and it's, it's the same as things where it's absolutely not meaning essential being. Just talking about how he was. There's a tendency to prejudice the reading of these verses.

79. 35:43

    But the simple point is that the form of God in verse six is in parallel to the form of a servant in verse seven. The NIV, at least in one of its incarnations, made him in very nature God and he took the form of a servant, which is just really not fair translation.

80. 36:05

    It's uneven. He took the form of a servant. So we think of John chapter 13. To always let it come to our mind in this context. That they're once again the disciples. It's one of these things that you just sort of wondered how that could happen in those circumstances. It's the last supper and there are, there's still arguing about who's going to be greatest in the kingdom of God.

81. 36:42

    It must have just been on top of everything else that, that the Lord was working through at that point in his mind. To have that going on, it would be the kind of thing that humanly speaking you could get really annoyed by it. And so what does Jesus do? He takes the form of a servant servant.

82. 37:04

    And you can imagine as he goes first to the first that maybe the side conversations and the quibbling begin to die out. And then as he goes to the next and works his way around the room and gradually there's just this, this stunned silence.

83. 37:22

    And then he says, see, do you see what I've done? you call me Lord and Master. And you say, right, because I am. He was in the form of God.

84. 37:42

    He was the heir of all things, the promised seed. This is my beloved son, hear him. Hear him. You call me Lord and Master and you say, well, for so I am. If I've washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.

85. 38:09

    Just stick a finger in Philippians for a second and come back over there to John 13. when he'd come to Peter. Peter says to him, verse six, Lord, does that wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, thou shalt never wash my feet.

86. 38:56

    Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And ye are clean, but not all of you.

87. 39:16

    Amen. The King James does us a little bit of a disservice in verse 10 there because it translates two different words as wash. Every other version I've consulted makes a distinction. He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. Now this occurs to me walking around here at Idyllwild with sandals.

88. 39:47

    Years ago, I used to wear my sandals with socks and it wasn't so bad, but then I got a lot of teasing about wearing sandals and socks that it wasn't cool. And now my feet definitely need to be washed even if I'm not all that dirty. Cambridge Bible commentary says this, a man who has bathed does not need to bathe again when he reaches home, but only to wash the dust off his feet.

89. 40:10

    Then he's wholly clean. So also in the spiritual life, a man whose moral nature has once been thoroughly purified need not think that this has been all undone if in the walk through life he contracts some stains. These must be washed away and then he is once more wholly clean. And so it is for us when we break bread, when we conclude our day in prayer, we've been washed by the waters of baptism, but we walk through the world and our feet might get some dust on them, just like they do here at Idyllwild.

90. 40:42

    And the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purifies our conscience from dead works. The reason I wanted to mention all of that in context of Philippians chapter 2 is that Jesus says, I've set you an example as your Lord and Master. I've washed your feet.

91. 41:11

    It's service, but maybe in particular it is also the service of washing away the effects of the world. Maybe that's something we need to make as a priority if we're going to have the mind of Christ that our service is helping out in whatever way we can, but most especially in washing away the effects of the world on us.

92. 41:39

    So back in Philippians, 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.

93. 42:18

    Revive Standard Version. See, this is what happens when I wander from my notes. Revive Standard Version, chapter 2, verse 5 says, he didn't account equality with God a thing to be grasped. I think of it then that's a rather marvelous allusion to Eve in the Garden of Eden. She had been created in the image of God but wasn't content with that.

94. 42:45

    So she grasped after something she wasn't supposed to have, seeking equality with God. And here Jesus is the Son of God in the form of God, in the role of God and he doesn't seize after equality with God. God, he empties himself. A marvelous example our Lord is and we admire his behavior and we also want to be like him.

95. 43:15

    Jesus said that if we exalt ourselves we'll be abased. That if we humble ourselves God will exalt us. And that's the language of verse 9 here except that instead of just exalting it's highly exalting, hyper exalting. God has highly exalted him, given him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth.

96. 43:44

    And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so we're exhorted to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Verse 12 very familiar words. Verse 13 maybe a little bit less so. We're to work out our salvation with fear and trembling because it's God who's working in us.

97. 44:10

    Work together with God. All so that we may be verse 15 blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom we shine as lights in the world. Our Lord Jesus shone as light in a world in the world because of his behavior because of his compassion because of his trust in God.

98. 44:43

    Let this mind be in you. I'd like us to conclude with a hymn and I asked Brother Stan I didn't ask our presiding brother presiding brother where's our presiding brother? May I have a hymn to hymn 388 we considering these portraits of the master because we want to be like him it says in 1st John chapter 3 that we are now the children of God we shall be like him when we see him face to face.

99. 45:27

    Hymn 388 he shall deny him all thou wish the promise ! he shall deny him all thou wish the promise what greater could our bodies love prepare prepare. He will be there. You are the worst and softly and softly are they spoken God who shall tell the blessings in there. We shall be like him pure and pure and heart and sinless but his redeeming mercy ends not there.

100. 46:38

     These bodies lie to his full force We shall be like him, praise the Lord of all weakness. Forever past all willingness and gain. He, death itself, shall have no power to reach us. And with our wisdom, Lord, we live and pray. So in the hope of bearing his bright image, Rejoicing in his presence, give the grace.

101. 47:48

     His love shall be, our hearts in patient waiting, Till we ignore us, here to see his face. Let's pray.