Philippians (Lesson 24)

And thank you so very much for that kind word of introduction.

Thanks to each and every one of you for tuning in today.

I'm Brother James, and I greet you one more time in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

We are in the middle of a study of the book of Philippians.

In the middle of that study, we are in the middle of a study of Philippians chapter number two, and then if you want to really get down to it, we are in the middle of a study of Philippians chapter two verses ten and eleven, wherein the Bible says that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And what we began to do on the last program was to consider the reaction of men when they found themselves in the presence of a holy God.

We saw from the Bible that Job had much to say about God, had many demands to make of God, had many questions to ask of God until the Lord showed up, and then Job covered his mouth and recognized and realized that he was vile.

We saw from the book of Isaiah how that prophet, having beheld the sin and iniquity of the people round about him, having rebuked his land for their corruption, suddenly found himself viewing the Lord upon his throne, and suddenly Isaiah realized that he himself was undone and was a man of unclean lips.

Now our purpose in this study is to try and help you to understand that standing before God is no joke, and that not only will each and every one who is ever drawn a breath stand before him, but they will not stand for long, for they will soon fall to their knees and own him as Lord of all.

It is very important that we understand in this day and age of self love, of self exaltation, in this day and age of dragging God down to the level of a fairy tale character, it is very important that you understand how holy and mighty and powerful and just and right and pure and true God really is, so that you may bow your knees now while there's time for you to be saved, instead of waiting to do so just before you are cast into the lake of fire.

Now we're going to take a look at Daniel.

Daniel chapter ten, Daniel chapter ten, and let's start at verse number four.

Daniel ten, starting at verse four.

And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hedeko, then I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold amufans.

His body also was like the burrow, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

Now this the same one that John beheld in Revelation chapter one, this is the Lord Jesus, and I, Daniel alone, saw the vision.

For the men that were with me saw not the vision, but a great quaking fell upon them so that they fled and hid themselves.

Therefore, I was left alone and saw in this great vis and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.

Now wait a minute.

You may recall how that Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king and his army, went down into Judah and captured the people.

They killed the most part of them.

They left a few of them, a few nobodies behind to be slaves to till the land.

Then Nebuchadnezzar had his men go through all the young fellows, and he picked out the finest specimens of humanity and brought them back to the palace, where they were fed and fattened up so he could use them for the purposes of furthering his kingdom.

Now out of all those Israelites they said the finest of them all was Daniel.

He was number one.

They also chose Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego.

But Daniel was the top of the line.

Now let me show you something.

When you're the prime specimen of God's chosen people, you've got something going for you.

But when that Daniel ran face to face into Jesus, he said My comeliness was turned in me into corruption.

And listen, in me, his face didn't fall off, his muscles didn't settle the atrophy, he didn't melt into a blob, he still looked to you, he looked to me just like he always did.

But he didn't look that way to himself when he compared his beauty to the beauty of the Lord, he said He said, I am corrupt.

I'm corrupt.

I tell you people have no idea, do they?

The most beautiful man in town said, I look like a rotten corpse compared to Jesus.

Verse eight, I retain no strength.

Yet heard I the voice of his words, and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face and my face toward the ground.

That's where a man ends up when he finds himself in the presence of Almighty God.

It happened to Job, it happened to Isaiah, it happened to Daniel.

Those are not three low life god hating, devil worshiping, idol making sinners.

Those are three of the finest, most godly men who ever lived.

And Job and Isaiah and Daniel hit their knees and then their faces when they found themselves in the presence of God, and may I promise you, my friend, you will do the same.

Let's move down to the New Testament.

You say things are different in the New Testament.

That's the Old Testament.

That's an old God of judgment and wrath, but we got rid of him.

We don't have him around anymore.

Well, let's see.

Luke chapter five.

This is old Peter.

People tend to give Peter a hard time because he seems to be always sticking his foot in his mouth, but you say one thing about him.

He had walked away from everything he ever knew in this world to follow Jesus.

He said some things wrong from time to time.

He got out of line once in a while, but he was still in better shape than most of us.

Now the Bible says in Luke 5 1, and it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake.

But the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets, and he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship.

Now, when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught.

And Simon, answering, said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.

Now, now look, Simon Peter is a commercial fisherman.

He's made his living pulling fish out of that water all his life.

He has with him in the boat a carpenter's son, who's made his living as a carpenter, who has now become a preacher.

And Peter just wants Jesus to know that he, Peter, knows a lot more than Jesus about pulling fish out of that lake.

Peter's going to straighten out the Lord.

I've explored this lake thoroughly, and there's nothing out there right now, he tells him, but nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.

And when they have this done, they enclosed the great multitude of fishes and their net break.

Must be the one who created the fish and the water and the lake knows more about it than Peter does.

Verse 7.

And they beckoned them to their partners which were in the other ship that they should come and help them, and they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw it he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

Now do you know what made the difference?

In verse five, in verse five, there is a teacher in the boat, and Peter says he's the master, but then he gets in a little face-to-face discussion and debate with the master.

But by the time you get to verse number eight, he is now the Lord.

And Peter is on his knees, afraid to look up.

There's a difference.

That's why the Bible doesn't say, believe on the master Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

That's why the Bible doesn't say for whosoever shall call upon the master shall be saved.

It says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

The Bible says if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, not the master, but the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the requirement.

Oh, we get a lot of people saying prayers today, but they don't know who they're talking to.

We get a lot of people repeating words from the Bible and using them like some sort of an incantation or magic voodoo chant.

They don't have a clue who it was that died on that cross and rose from the dead.

You know, Peter Peter's doing pretty good until he realized it was Jesus in whose presence he found himself.

And then suddenly, then suddenly things really took a turn, didn't they?

Let me tell you about some other men.

Some other men who found themselves in the presence of God and were amazed at what they saw.

Moses.

Moses.

Back in Exodus chapter number 33.

Moses in Exodus 33.

Let's go back there and read that passage.

Moses in Exodus 33, and I think we'll start reading probably along about verse 18.

Exodus 33.

Let me find it here.

And verse number 18, and then we're going to go all the way down to 34 9.

Okay?

This is Moses.

He says, I beseech thee, show me thy glory.

And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, the name of the Lord.

There it is.

And will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

And he said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live.

And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by.

Now what do you say he would show him?

The name of the Lord.

And what's going to pass by?

God's glory.

And he put him in a cleft of the rock, I'll cover thee with my hand while I pass by, and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen.

And so Moses hews out the tables of stone, stands there upon the mountain, verse number five, and the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, the merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and in truth, keeping mercy for thousands and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin that will be no means clear of the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children unto the third and of the fourth generation.

And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

This is Moses the mighty law giver.

But when the glory of the Lord passes by, the declaration of the name of the Lord, Moses could not so much as lift up his head, but bowed in humble adoration before Almighty God.

You remember Saul of Tarsus trembling with astonishment when he found himself in the presence of Jesus on that Damascus road in Acts chapter number nine.

In Judges, the thirteenth chapter, Judges chapter thirteen.

We have a man here by the name of Manoah.

And Manoah, the father of Samson.

And the Bible says here that verse 21, the angel of the Lord didn't uh no more appear to Manoah and his wife.

Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord.

At a visit, a visit from the angel of the Lord.

And the Bible says in verse number twenty came to pass when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended the flame of the altar, and Manoah and his wife looked on it and fell on their faces to the ground.

That's what people do when they are suddenly confronted with the overwhelming majesty of God.

One day, my friend, in this life, you will be overwhelmed by the reality that Jesus Christ is God almighty, and you will fall before Him and trust Him as your Savior and receive the forgiveness of your sins in everlasting life, or you may refuse Him, redefine Him, reject Him, pretend He doesn't exist, but one day in the life to come, you will find yourself before Almighty God upon a great white throne, and as you look upon the one on that throne, you will be driven to your knees, you will bow before him and confess that he is Lord just before your soul is cast into a lake of fire.

You better do it now, you better do it now.

It's a fearful thing to stand before God.

When the Lord spoke from the Mount of Sinai in Exodus twenty, at the first giving of the law, the Bible says of the Israelite people, Exodus twenty, verse eighteen, and all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking.

And when the people saw it, they were moved and stood afar off.

And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear.

But let not God speak with us, lest we die.

They were terrified of God.

First Samuel, chapter number six.

I don't think we ought to be afraid of God.

You'd be better off, your family would be better off, your nation would be better off, your world would be better off if men feared God.

1 Samuel 20.

And verse number 19, and he smote the men of Bethshemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord.

Even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men, and the people lamented because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.

And the men of Beth Shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?

And to whom shall he go up from us?

Now here are heathen men who don't know God, don't worship God, don't believe in they got their own gods.

But when they come face to face with the power and the majesty and the might and the dominion of the one true and living God, they are humbled before him and realize that none can stand in his presence in 2 Samuel 12.

2 Samuel chapter number 12.

An event from the life of David, a terrible fall into sin, the sin of adultery, followed by the sin of murder in an attempt to cover it up.

Very rarely does one sin not lead to another.

And here the Bible says, In 2 Samuel 12, when the prophet came in, confronted David with his great crime and transgression.

David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.

And indeed he had.

And what did he do?

He humbled himself under the mighty hand of God.

Where do we see him before the chapter is over?

Verse 16.

David therefore besought God to the child.

David fasted, went in, and lay all night upon the earth.

17 The elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth, but he would not.

Neither did he eat bread with them.

It might be broken because of the transgressions you have committed in the presence of a holy God, but when the Lord draws near, you will not stand and look him in the eye as an equal.

You will not stand and challenge him to prove or defend himself.

I'm telling you, when you find yourself in the presence of the Creator of the heavens and the earth, it will humble you to the point that you will be driven to your knees.

The Bible says, at the name of Jesus.

Now we've told you, it's a saving name.

It's a powerful name.

It's a hated name.

It's an exclusive name.

It's an exalted name.

It's a lovely name.

It's a name full of hope.

It's a name that brings dread.

It just depends on what side of the matter you are on.

But at that name of Jesus, every knee should bow.

It's fitting, it's right, it's proper.

If every knee is bowing to Jesus, then no knee is bowing to anyone else.

If every knee is bowing to Jesus, then no knee is bowing in the direction of any man, any woman, any boy, any girl, any idol, any god, any deity, any minister, any religion, any absence of religion, every knee is bowing to Jesus.

All worship, all honor, all glory is being given to the one to whom it should be given, for no one else is worthy.

At the name of Jesus every nation bow of things in heaven.

Now it's left just that way.

We've had a little glimpse in our Bible, just enough to know there are cherubim, not enough to satisfy our curiosity.

Just enough to know there are seraphim, not enough to answer all our questions.

We know there are angels, we know there are archangels, we know there are principalities, we know there are powers, we know there is spiritual wickedness, there's a lot of things above in the heavens.

Some we know a little bit about, most we know nothing about.

But the Bible says every knee in heaven will bow to Jesus Christ.

In eternity there will be no Satan worshipers.

There will be none who worships any other god, any other deity, only Jesus Christ.

Every day should bow, things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth.

Now that may be a reference to those in hell.

That may be a reference to something none of us has any idea how to how to describe.

All I know is this from the highest point where Jesus sits upon his throne to the lowest place where Satan will be bound for a thousand years, and everywhere in between, every single knee on every being will bow before the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is as it should be.

I have no problem with that.

I have no quarrel with that.

It doesn't bother me a bit.

You see you're not very tolerant, I'm just giving you the word of God.

You say you're not very broad-minded, I'm just giving you what the Holy Bible says.

There is one way to heaven, it's a narrow way.

There is one Lord of all, his name is Jesus.

There is one salvation.

It is humbly trusting Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone to save your soul from sin, death, and hell.

The Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, neither is there salvation in any other.

There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

My friend, one day you're going to bow to Jesus Christ.

Why not today?

Why not now?

So that he can save you and give you everlasting life.

That would make this the greatest day of your life, and there would never be a greater day until the day you step from this world into heaven.

Well, I'm Brother James, and this is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

This entire study of Philippians, along with several thousand hours of recorded Bible teaching materials, are available to you.

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Until then, I'm Brother James.

May the Lord richly bless you, and good day.