This morning's message comes to us this morning from Paul's epistle to the Philippians, and so I'd ask if you would please turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2, and we'll be reading verses 1 through 18, which is this morning's sermon text. So Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 1. Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 1. Let's hear now the reading of God's Word. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 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. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you may shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you should be glad and rejoice with me. May God add his blessing to this reading from his holy and inspired word. When I was in graduate school, I was living in Aberdeen, Scotland, and I can remember sitting in my office, which was in the basement of this old house on campus, And I can remember sitting there one Saturday morning as what I could only describe was it sounded like thunder was off in the distance. And so out of curiosity, I poked my head out the window, and I didn't see any clouds. It seemed like it was one of the few days, at least at my time there, that it was actually sunny. And as I thought, well, what is making that noise? I can hear it rumbling off in the distance. It's really loud. I want to find out what it is. So I put on my jacket and I went for a walk and I thought I'm going to get as close as I can to the loud noise because it continued and it was thunderous. And as after I walked about a mile or so, I finally figured out what it was as I approached the local soccer stadium. It was the soccer stadium where the local team, the Aberdeen Dons, where they played and they were playing a game. And all I can say is it was the loudest, thunderous singing I have ever heard in my entire life. It wasn't cheering. I mean, they were certainly doing that. But they were singing. They were singing, and it was some sort of team song. And I was amazed that I could hear it more than a mile away. And what amazed me about it is that you could take people from every type of walk of life, whether they were of well means or low means, whether they were plumbers, electricians, or engineers, or whatever the case may be, and that you could put them into a stadium and that you could unite them around the idea of singing for their team. Now, at that particular time, the Aberdeen Dons were not a very good team. I have no idea how they are doing these days. Nevertheless, song has the power to unite. For those of you who have been in military training, you know the power of cadence. When you go and you take perhaps a ragtag group of men, you start calling out a cadence, which in many respects is a song of a certain type, and all of a sudden you can take these group of men from all sorts of different walks of life, and they will start marching in unison, the same footstep, and not only in the same footstep, but once they start running, they are all pumping their arms in the same direction. They are all stepping in unison. They are all singing in unison. Even they are breathing in unison as they respond to the cadence. Song has the power to unite. Well, I think that this is something as to what lies at the heart here in Philippians chapter 2. Because the Apostle Paul was writing here to the Philippian congregation and he knew that there was division in the church. At least two of the women, Euodea and Syntyche, were fighting and were creating dissension. And I suspect that it wasn't just these two women. They were probably people associated with Team Uodea and Team Syntyche. People were gathered about their respective representatives, and the church was divided. And so Paul breaks forth in a song. We may not realize it at first, but Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 11 has historically been called the Carmen Christi or the Song of Christ. Because New Testament scholars believe that what the Apostle Paul did is he took an ancient hymn or a portion of a hymn that the ancient church sang and he incorporated it into his letter to the Philippians. And so the question is, is why did Paul incorporate this particular song? Why does he appeal to this song about the Lord Jesus Christ in verses 5 through 11? And what was his desired goal? What was the desire to see it? How would it influence the Philippian congregation? And so what I'd like us to do is consider this in two points. Now, don't get too excited. The sermon will be just as long. You know, just rest easy. Two points. First, we want to consider the Carmen Christi or the Song of Christ and its significance. What does it mean and why does Paul sing this song? But then secondly, we want to consider the Song of Christ or the Carmen Christi and how it was to bring about church unity. How it was to unify the Philippian congregation. And by way of application, how the song of Christ should unify this church and indeed the church of Christ. So let's consider this, the song of Christ and then the song and church unity. Now in the face of disunity, the factions perhaps behind Euodia and Syntyche, the two women who were creating division, Paul wanted to bring unity. And so you see this in verse 2. He says, being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. He says, I want you to be united. He says, there should be no selfish ambition or vain conceit. This gives us an idea, perhaps, of some of the problems in the church. He didn't want them where each person would think of himself as more important than the other. Such is the nature of pride. You walk into a room and you think, well, I'm the most important person. I'm dressed the best. I have the best ideas. All of the other people in the room are not as important as I am for whatever reason. And in fact, Paul says, he says, look to your own interests. So notice, he doesn't advocate ignoring your needs or concerns. He says, look to your own interests. But he especially exhorts them. He says, look to the interests of others. Consider the needs of others more important than your own. How often is that the case when we walk into a room and we first think, what are the needs in the room? What are the needs of those around me? I'm hungry, but let me set aside my hunger and ask who else is hungry and how might I care for their needs before I satisfy my own. And so to bring about this unity, how is it that Paul can create this type of character, if you will, this godliness in the Philippian church? Well, he points them to the song of Christ. And he points them to the ineffable condescension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice in verses 6 and 7, he says, Christ, who though he was in the form of God, which is another way of saying he is the image of God, The exact representation, as the book of Hebrews says, the exact representation of God, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. I think it's perhaps difficult for us to capture and to grasp the nature of Christ's condescension. Perhaps it's because we're very familiar with the crucified Messiah from the pages of scripture. We understand that depth to which he condescended. Sometimes it can be difficult for us, I think, to conceive of the heights of glory from which he condescended. Well, the scriptures do give us an insight. They give us a glimpse, if you will, of Christ's pre-incarnate glory. In the Gospel of John, in the 12th chapter, verse 41, John says that when Isaiah saw him, and the context clearly has Christ as the subject, so that when Isaiah saw Christ, he spoke of these things, are the words of John 12, 41. And what that means is that we have to ask the question, is when did the prophet Isaiah see Christ? Well, we have to draw our attention to Isaiah chapter 6. We see and hear those words, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, and the earth is full of his glory. And we have to realize that Isaiah that day did not see a theophany, a manifestation of God, but rather he saw a Christophany, a manifestation of the pre-incarnate Christ. And when you begin to think of Isaiah's reaction to the unfurling of the glory of the pre-incarnate Christ, then it is there that we begin to understand the heights from which Christ condescended. Here is the pre-incarnate glory of Christ where Isaiah merely sees the train of his road. Just really, in a sense, the hem of his garment. And its glory was such that it drove Isaiah to call curses upon his head. Woe is me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. Now, beloved in Christ, if there was ever a man who was of holy character, it was Isaiah the prophet, and yet he immediately was overcome with a sense of his own guilt and shame as he stood in the presence of the pre-incarnate Christ. And so when you compare those heights, the zenith of Christ's pre-incarnate glory with the nadir of his condescension, his shame and his suffering on the cross, as he hung, stripped, ridiculed, Beaten, suffering, and ultimately forsaken by God so much so that he would cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's then when we begin to understand what it means when Paul says that though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Do you notice that Christ embodies the very things to which Paul calls the Philippian church? There was no selfish ambition or vain conceit in Christ. And through his condescension and crucifixion, he undoubtedly thought of the needs of others as more important than his own. And being found in human form, verse 8, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. It was his love, the love for his father that motivated his willingness to take on the form of a servant. But beloved in Christ, you are the recipients of his love as well. It was Christ's love for you that motivated him to set down and set aside his glory and to condescend, to come into the human existence and the human condition and go and walk that path that led not around the cross but through the cross of suffering and shame. He considered your need for redemption greater than his own need for his glory. and this is why paul points to christ says this is to what you've been called this is who you are in christ there is no place for selfish ambition or vain conceit or thinking that your needs are more important than your than than than those around you and we may not realize it but buried in this song there is a very subtle comparison so often it's the case that pop stars will write songs and then you hear about rumors on social media as to is one star being critical of another because the person is not named that's been done throughout history uh the history of music well buried in this song the song of christ there is a veiled comparison think for example in verse six christ though he is in the very image of god he did not count equality with god a thing to be grasped who in the scriptures tried to grasp equality with God. Who bore the very image of God and nevertheless sought to grasp equality with God but Adam. It was Adam who grasped the fruit and he took it because he wanted equality with God. The serpent told Eve and Eve told Adam if you take of the fruit you shall be like God and so here Paul drives this comparison home but he does so subtly because he never invokes the specific name of Adam but Adam nevertheless I think stands in the background as the one who sought to grasp equality with God and he says Christ did no such thing think of the world of contrast between adam's failing his sin his rebellion where he sought to grasp equality with god and christ whom paul calls the last adam his faithfulness to his father's will adam was in the garden in the world unsullied by sin had every single need met was completely satiated was in the confines of the beautiful garden of eden and yet christ for example was in the wilderness he fasted and he had no water for 40 days he could have had the power and he could have used the power that is to turn stones into bread he could have resolved his hunger in a moment's notice but yet because his father said no he ultimately said not my will but thine be done such as the nature of christ's sacrifice such as the nature of his servant service to you where he considered your needs more important than his own and so because of his obedience His obedience unto death, Paul tells us in verses 9 and following, 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. In terms reserved in the Old Testament exclusively for God, Paul applies these to Christ. And it's as if he says, first service, first humility, first submission to the will of God, then glory, then praise, then worship, then exaltation. So often we want it the other way around. First praise, first exalt me, and then maybe I'll think about submission. And so this is Paul's powerful song. This is the song, if you will, that he broke into as he sang it to the Philippian church to rally them, to bring about unity. So that they would not be filled with vain ambitions or selfish conceits and that they would think of the needs of others as more important than their own. Which brings us now to the song of Christ and church unity, our second point. Now, I don't want us to read too quickly because I want us to see how Paul structures here this portion of chapter 2. Notice that he tells them at the beginning, say towards in verse 3, do nothing from selfish ambition. Notice that he says there in the second half of verse 12, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. If we were to take those out of context, we might only hear Paul saying, do this under your own steam. Do nothing from selfish ambition. Work out your salvation. But notice the context. Notice the beginning of verse 12. Therefore, which comes after everything that he said in verses 5 through 11. He hints that there is something more, that there is a source, that there is a divine fount, if you will, of living water in between these commands. He says in verse 1, if there's any encouragement in Christ, any participation in the Spirit, there he begins to tip his hat to say, here lies the source of your ability to do these things. But notice what he says in verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. He doesn't say it can be yours. He doesn't say it might be yours. He doesn't say it was yours. But he says that it is yours. In other words, I think the church in general, church at large, especially those committed to the Protestant Reformation, try to add a sixth sola to the Reformation. Sola gratia, grace alone, by faith alone, and Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. We try to add another sola, sola bootstrappa. Say, well, maybe if I just try hard enough, if I just grab my bootstraps and pull hard enough, I can will myself, I can force myself, I can try hard enough to do the things that the law requires. We'll get the church unified and we just have to try harder. Well, that's not what Paul says. Paul doesn't just say, try harder, you can do it. Notice what he says in verses 12 and 13. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. But this comes after the therefore of verse 12. In other words, because of who you are in Christ. Because of who you are in Christ. Because of God's spirit working in you. Because you possess the mind of Christ through your union with him. Again, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Your ability to manifest the life of the crucified Messiah in your daily walk comes not from yourself, but from the Spirit of God working in you. From Christ who is in you. And the only way that you can become more like Christ is by drawing near to him and feeding yourself with his appointed means, whether it is through prayer, whether it is through the reading of the word, or whether it is through the study of God's word, or even through especially the preaching of the word. One of the things that my boys and I have been doing this past week is providing for ourselves because my wife and my daughter are out of town, which means that our meal plan has suffered significantly. And I'm trying to put green things on the plate, but it's tough. And I can assure you that one of the things that I know about diet and healthy eating is that if garbage goes in, garbage comes out. If you don't eat well in terms of eating healthy food, it's not going to be beneficial to your body. You've perhaps heard the computer phrase, Geigo, garbage in, garbage out. If you don't put in good stuff up front, you're not going to get anything good at the out in its production. And so if you don't feed yourself with the manna from heaven, if you don't beseech the assistance and the mercy and grace that only comes from the gospel, you will never be able to produce that God-honoring conduct that brings about church unity. The selflessness, the sacrificial heart, the willingness to serve others before serving yourself. And in fact, I think Paul conveys this very point in verse 16. And he says they're holding fast to the word of life. That's powerful imagery, I think, when you think, holding fast. To what do we hold fast? If I was drowning, I would hold fast to the life preserver. If I was starving, I would hold fast to the food that somebody gives me. Well, in this case, he says, hold fast to the word. Because this is the means by which you spiritually nourish yourself that you can grow strong in Christ. That enables you to act selflessly, sacrificially and in a Christ-like manner. Conduct that produces the fruit of church unity because everyone is acting in the same accord. I could change the metaphor and say that in terms of John chapter 15, unless you abide in Christ, You have no ability to produce the fruit of holiness and righteousness. And this is why Christ says, Abide in me and I in you. And by abiding in Christ, you will produce the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. And Paul, I think, he knew their tendencies. He knew their hearts. He knew the challenges of pursuing the way of the cross because he encouraged them. He says, don't be grumblers. Don't be complainers as you serve God. Do all things, verse 15, without grumbling or disputing. This is the very language that the Old Testament uses to characterize the Israelites as they grumbled in the wilderness. We're hungry. We're thirsty. Where's the food? God brought us out here to kill us, to destroy us. See, one of the things that I've been doing as of late in my research is researching 16th and 17th century contract law. I know, I need help. It's bad. But there's some fascinating thrills and spills in this history because they say as it gets to the 17th century, there was a significant change in contract law, agreements. No longer did philosophers believe that a contract was ultimately a promise, but it was really something only driven by self-interest. And only if it benefited you would you enter into a contract. There was no type of promissory character, no type of, if you will, grace or gracious action in the giving of something through a contract. And that's something I think that certainly characterizes the age, which is we only do something if it benefits us. We don't want to do something sacrificially. And if it doesn't benefit us, then we complain and we grouse. Well, Paul wanted the Philippians to be the very antithesis of the Israelites. He wanted to see Christ manifest in them. No complaining, no grumbling, but a joyful, sacrificial service to one another. And so Paul rallied them around this song, and he wanted the Philippians to join in the chorus and to sing the song of Christ, not simply with their lips, but with their very lives. I think that there's a question that lies here beneath the surface. I think perhaps secretly or not so secretly we're worried sometimes that if we pursue the path of the cross, if we seek the interests of others before we seek those of our own, that we'll end up with the short end of the stick. We're worried, well, what happens if I'm always looking out for the interests of others and nobody will look out for mine? What happens if I serve and nobody seems to care or notice? What happens then? Well, in an ideal world, if you're looking out for the interests of others and others are looking out for your interests, then everybody's needs are met. This works in the church. This should work in the family. If the wife is looking out for the needs of the husband and the husband is looking out for the needs of the wife, if the children are looking out for their parents, if the parents are looking out for the children, then everybody sees to one another's needs and the Spirit of God draws them closer together in that bond of unity. Because what happens is that as they are apart, as they get drawn closer to Christ, they're drawn naturally closer to one another. As we draw closer to Christ, we're drawn naturally closer to one another. But even then, what's going to happen? Well, this is a sin-fallen world, which means, yes, sometimes we will get the short end of the stick. You will serve and nobody will notice. You might not be treated as you should. What then? Does this mean that it's a failure? Absolutely not. In the economy of our sanctification, God and his providence uses every single moment of our lives, waking and sleeping, to conform us to the image of Christ, which means that God may indeed call us to serve and to do so without recognition. Not because he wants us to suffer to no end, but rather he wants to manifest Christ in us. And it's through those difficult times of even suffering or serving in the face sometimes of opposition or rejection or a lack of recognition that Christ further conforms us to his image. Indeed, that's what happened to Christ. Think of Christ and his suffering. And yet what happens in the midst of this is that Christ, as he conforms us to his image through the spirit and through the means of grace, he fills us with joy. Because the book of Hebrews says that for the joy that was set before him, Christ went to the cross. Which means that you won't be filled with bitterness or anger if you don't get the recognition that you deserve, but rather you will be filled with joy because you know that your Heavenly Father knows. And because you don't do it for the recognition, you don't do it because you want people to think well of you, but rather because you want to lay down your life in service of your Heavenly Father for the Lord Jesus Christ and to do so in the power of the Spirit. And the power of the Holy Spirit does not create bitterness in us, but rather he creates joy and love and a willingness, as Paul says, to pour out himself as a drink offering upon their faith. That's conformity to Christ. That's the joy that awaits us as we pursue the path of the cross. That is God's design for us, not only in our creation, but especially in our redemption. Beloved, among the literary classics of the world, I think you could certainly list Dante's Divine Comedy. And in the first book of the Inferno, he discusses the nine circles of hell. Or in the fifth circle is the circle for the greedy and the prideful. And they endlessly joust against one another. Dante describes this as if they're jousting, running at one another, trying to knock one another over. and trying to show that they themselves are more important. I'm more important. No, I am. Well, if Dante were to provide a soundtrack for this circle of hell, he might pick Frank Sinatra's I Did It My Way, the ballad of the selfish. I've lived a life that's full. I've traveled each and every highway, but more, much more than this, I did it my way. This is the song of Adam, the song that seeks to grasp equality with God. But for you, beloved in Christ, the ballad for the redeemed is the song of Christ. Christ became man and was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, so that we might have life, a life not lived for self, but ultimately lived for Christ and for one another. May God grant it that this church would be one united around Christ and that you would know not only of the love of Christ, but the love of Christ shed abroad in the midst of this church and that as you do so, Christ through his spirit would draw you ever closer together and that the unity of the spirit would mark this church to the glory of God. Let's bow together in a word of prayer. Father God, we are grateful that indeed you are merciful to us when we do not deserve it. Forgive us, Lord, for our selfish and self-centered ways. So often, Lord, we put on a good show. Others don't see the raging turmoil within our hearts where we have the storm-tossed waters of selfishness and bitterness and vain conceit. Forgive us, Lord, for these things, for they have no place in our lives because you have called us to Christ. You have called us to conformity to his image. And his image is one that has condescended to us. One that was obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. So we pray, O Lord, that indeed you would manifest the crucified Messiah in our lives. That we would willfully, joyfully, in love and in mercy, pour out ourselves as drink offerings, not only in service for you, but for Christ's church, for our brothers and sisters. We pray that you would give us an attentiveness to considering the needs of others more important than our own. That you would assuage our fears knowing that indeed you will care for us. That you will not leave us untended. But in the end we pray, O Lord, not only for our corporate sanctification, not only our individual sanctification, But that in this manner, as we seek to serve you and one another, that you would bring about a God-glorifying unity. That it would be a unity that the world does not have. Because they have not Christ and they have not your spirit. Grant this, we pray, not only for our edification, but ultimately for your glory. We pray and ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.