In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of truly internalizing and applying God's word in our lives. He highlights the contrast between those who hear the message but remain unchanged, like a duck letting water roll off its back, and those who allow God's word to penetrate their hearts. The preacher then shifts to discussing the significance of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. He emphasizes that Jesus willingly took on the form of a servant and suffered for humanity's sins, offering redemption and freedom. The sermon concludes with a call to kneel at the cross and express gratitude for Jesus' sacrifice, warning that those who disregard it will face eternal consequences.

This morning we spoke about that word, your word, I've written it, I've hidden it in my heart, but where it in Afrikaans actually says hidden it and it's in my intestines, also in connection with this, I eat it, swallow it, it's in me. And his blood flows when we acknowledge our sin and then regret and have remorse, godly sorrow, and we confess it, then his blood flows and cleanses us from that sin. And you can partake of the Lord's Supper and you say, well, now I am partaking of that bread and of that blood. That's not going to help you. No, this is just a reminder of the fact that he died for us and that he... So we will have the message first and thereafter we'll go on to the second part of the Lord's Supper. Let's read from Philippians chapter two from verse five. Well, let's start from verse six. Who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name of which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth. And that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Let's pray. Lord, as we hear your word, which comes to us as men from heaven, we don't want to brush it aside, but we want to partake of it and hear what you say to us. Take hold of our minds and of old and young. Amen. These words contain so much. And I'll just touch on a few points here and there. A God who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. We'll start by speaking about the point having the form of God. And the form is that which we see. And the outer form shows us what is inside. Like if an animal comes, you'll recognize that it has a form of an animal and you'll know, well, that is an animal. So it also displays what's within. And so Jesus had the form of God. And he is God himself. So he came in the flesh, but to display the form of God. And he did not regard it as something to be held on to. He did not consider it robbery. If you rob someone, you take something which belongs to him and you take it without having a right to it. So Jesus didn't rob the God of his form and just take it when it didn't belong to him. Because he, even though he came in the flesh, yet he had the form of God. So he was God himself, even though he had taken on the appearance of a man and looked like us and was like us. So while Jesus was on this earth among men and eating and being with them, yet he was God himself, the eternal God. And the Bible refers to that fact often that he had the form of God, God eternal. It says in the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. So Jesus is the word that was with God right in the beginning. And Jesus was revealed in the flesh. But while he appeared in the flesh, yet he was God, God almighty, who's above everything else. He is God himself. And so even though he appeared as a man, yet he had the form of God even within. He was God in person. And he didn't take it by a robbery, by illegal means. No, he himself was God. Even though he was lying there in the manger as a baby, yet he was God, eternal God. Now, if we speak of his form, what is his form like? And the Bible reveals, the Bible reveals to us what form God takes on, what he is like. His form is light, enveloped by light, with light. His form is that he is omnipotent. His righteousness, he wears the belt of righteousness. His eyes are like flames of fire. His feet are like bronze in a furnace. When bronze is red hot and burning, that flame, even if you put it under the ground, the flame will go through the soil and come out the top. So in Revelation, it describes God's form. But here he only appeared as a man in the flesh, being God himself. And his face shines above the brightness of the sun. His hair is snow white, whiter than wool or snow. So this is God himself, even though he appears here in the flesh. So he came, he humbled himself and became a man. But even though he appeared as a man, he was God himself. They tell a story about a famous king in Russia. He was the Russian emperor. His name was Peter. And one day he traveled to Germany and Holland and England. He took off his emperor's clothes. And off he went to those three countries. He had noticed that the people in his country and his empire were suffering. They didn't have so many things. They had nothing to eat, nothing to drink, nothing to drink. So he decided to go and visit those countries. But he decided he'd go there not dressed as the emperor. He'd leave those clothes at home and just go dressed as an ornery person. And he said he wanted to go to live among those people and just to learn from them. So he wanted to learn what he could and go back to his own people and teach them these things. So he got to Holland and started learning there. He started at the shipyards to see how they build ships. Then he went to a carpenter to see how they work with wood. And he got dressed as a Dutch carpenter would. He put on that overall. In the morning he'd get up and take his axe and all the other tools that he needed and off he went to work. So there he was working together with all the other labourers. And no one recognized that this was actually the Russian emperor. And so he learned. He worked alongside all the other people and they didn't have any idea that this was the emperor. And even at lunchtime he'd go to his hut where he had his lunch break to have a nap. And at night he was busy sending instructions back to Russia as to what should be done there to run the country. So even while he was there with among the other labourers dressed like them, working like them, but he knew very well all the time that he had a job to do. He was the emperor of Russia. So even while he was there dressed as a labourer working among them, yet his aim was to help his own people back in his homeland to get them to progress. He wanted to, when he went home, be able to help the people, uplift them. And he could then go back and teach his people how to build ships because the Dutch were masters at shipbuilding. Yet all this time the people in Germany and England and in Holland didn't have an idea that this was the Russian emperor. So he left his empire, he lay down his crown, his emperor's robes, and off he went and put on a worker's overall and worked among the workers, the labourers there, and no one realised who he actually was. So the Lord Jesus also left heaven, his throne, and he came here to live among the people here on earth. He experienced hunger like we do and he suffered like we suffer. He didn't even have a place to lay down his head. He said the birds of the air have their nests, the foxes have their holes, but the son of man has no place to rest his head. And he came here to this earth and he put on the clothing of people that suffered. And he was among the lowly people, the poor, the people who suffered. And he saw what they went through and all the temptations the devil put them through. But even though he wasn't sitting on his throne at that time, he was down here as a baby and whatever else he went through, but all the time he was God himself, the King. And he was like that person he spoke about, that Samaritan who was on his way, and he found that person by the roadside having been beaten and robbed of everything. And the Levite and the priest, they just passed on the other side, but he was like the good Samaritan who had pity on this man. He went and he treated his wounds and he put him on his donkey, took him to an inn and told them to care for him and said that he would pay for the full bill, that he would carry all the costs. And he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross because he came to help you and to help me. He had pity on you. He saw people bound by sin, enslaved to sin, and he came and took on that form and became as a bond servant. And when God said, what shall we do? And then he said, I will go. I'll go and help mankind. And he was obedient to all that had been written about him and he was obedient to the point of the death on the cross. He identified himself with us. And it was unbelievable that he was prepared to identify himself with us in such a way. And he saw that we were lost and just to be condemned. There was no hope. So he left his throne and he came and he took on the appearance of a man to be like us, even though all this time he never forgot that he is and was God himself. He saw how lost and troubled you were. And he carried that. He had observed our people entered the temple. They went there, they did everything that had to be done in the temple. They worshipped there, they sang there. But then they went out there and they lived their old lives, the life of the world. In the beginning, God had told Adam, the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will surely die. And when his wife tempted him with it, he fell. The woman plays a very important role. If you consider that the first sin came into this world through a woman and the man fell because of what the woman did. However, I don't excuse the man. Adam should never have fallen for it and accepted it. But the fact is that it came through Eve. So you women can help a person, but you can also destroy a person. A woman has a lot of courage. If you think of a woman who will kill the baby that's so close to her heart and tear it apart, kill it, not even a sorcerer doing it. She herself does it to that child. It's a dangerous person who does that. I thought of it these days because it's now 10 years since my wife passed away. And I said, well, Lord, I thank you that I didn't get married again, because very often that second wife can turn things upside down in a home. But I don't want to be a second wife. It's a dangerous person who does that. You don't know when the quartermaster's going to go. You don't know when it's going to be. Lord I'm thankful because I don't know who I could have and would have gotten married to maybe she would have just caused things caused a lot more trouble and I say Lord I'm thankful that I didn't If a woman is truly saved and sanctified she can be a great blessing but if it's not then she can destroy a family and her husband and you mothers just think of it you nursed your children you brought them up but where are they today so Jesus forsook heaven his throne and he came down and he took on the form of you had the form of God he didn't steal it that was he was God himself and so he said I will go I will come remember how the three men appeared to Abraham and said that the noise of Sodom and Gomorrah has reached to heaven and we are now ready to inquire of ourselves whether it's really as we've heard and when they got to Sodom and Gomorrah they found it exactly as it had appeared to them in heaven and he said then I I'm prepared to go down to be nailed to the cross to take that upon myself I will die in their place if you think of man who's become a slave of sin someone was here yesterday in the service listening to that message you who are here you heard it to but today when he were packed as things to go home his bags were full of things that he had stolen in the kitchen yet he had heard the message he had heard everything that you get such people who are absolutely blunt it goes in one ear goes out the other and we whereas we should be as sharp as a razor we sit under God's Word it's poured over us so to say but we like a duck where it just runs off its back a person has a it has a and even gain by a pool back home baker no will be bar for a bar for no that the world will have got to does is carry out there are such people whose hearts are like rock and even if it were if you take a rock out of the together over it's been in there for thousand thousand years you take it you break it open you see dust coming out it's not penetrated by that water and so they are such people they listen to God's Word it doesn't penetrate they are like the brothers and sisters of Judas Iscariot Judas was with the Lord Jesus himself the greatest teacher they ever was he was God himself and yet Judas was with them heard all what he was taught that it didn't penetrate him he was a thief all the time and God said I see mankind I see how he suffers and is in bondage to sin but I will go and I'll take it all upon myself and he said I will go and I will take that sin I'll take ownership of it and I will not say they have sinned I will say I have done it I have told those lies I've lived in that immoral life the problem was that God had said the soul that sins will surely die and yet God does not want a single soul to and the Lord said that instead of him dying let me rather go and I will die in his place in his love his mercy his kindness he says I will go and I'll die for him I'll go into the grave and I'll even go to hell rather than that he goes you should have been beaten you should have been spat upon you should have had that crown of thorns put onto your head you should have been stabbed by that spear but then he said but I love these people so much I'll rather go and I'll suffer in their place and I'll die in their place he left his glory his throne his crown and he came down he appeared as many put on your clothes and he took upon himself all your filth and no one forced him to do it he did it out of love he did it willingly he died for you you were guilty you should have been condemned and he came and he paid your debt he died in your place and because he took your sins upon himself God himself the father forsook him that he cried out and he said oh my god why have you forsaken me and God said because you're carrying their sin you will die you will be punished as they should have been punished and he was slaughtered like a lamb and he did it in your place you should have died he entered into your grave into your hell and the heavenly father saw that he had paid your debt that's why he can set you free because he came God himself the form of God but coming and putting on your appearance but the amazing thing is because he humbled himself to that extent God lifted him up he gave him a name above every other name and he set him at his right hand there where he had been sitting before God Jesus did something great for you he should be most precious to you no one has died for your sin he did he was beaten for you so that you can go free great is the work he's done for us the Lord's done and we are together now to remember that what the Lord Jesus did for us on the cross and so I'd like to end this part of the service about the Jesus who being in the form of God but he didn't steal it he was God himself but he suffered for you now if God himself has died for you shouldn't you kneel at the cross and thank him for what he's done for you he today has those marks in his hand and his feet and his side because of you and that's the Bible says that they will ask him what are those wounds in your hands and in your side and he will say that's where I was wounded for my people but if that means nothing to you then you deserve to burn forever well it should drive anyone to the point where he stops with all hypocrisy and where he is honest with himself and he speaks the truth in all honesty let's pray Lord we've heard that you came to this earth there was no cure nothing could help we've heard of that conversation Lord we've heard of that conversation between God the Father and God the Son and with God the Son said I will go I will leave this glory and my heavenly robes and I will go down and become like man we thank you Lord for what you did for us on the cross and Lord and Lord we proclaim to all the world that you died for us that we can be united not just with one another but even with you our Heavenly Father that we can even be called children of God Amen