Trinity Baptist Church

 

Will you open your Bible now with me to Philippians chapter 2:12-13 please. We began a look at these two verses last week. We will continue it this week and we will complete it in two weeks (Bro. Booker in between).

 

Everything in life demands energy. It took energy for you to get out of bed this morning. It took energy for you to produce whatever you ate for breakfast. It took energy for you to get here by whatever means of transportation you took. Everything moves by virtue of energy.

 

That is basically the question behind our study of these verses: God has determined we will be like Jesus through a process known as sanctification. But how will that happen? By what force or by whose energy will we be sanctified? 

 

You'll remember last week I suggested to you that there have been two answers advanced to the question. Some say that the energy for spiritual progress is all God's. Historically those people are called quietists. They believe that in effect the Christian is quiet in the process of spiritual growth, and the key is surrender, yield, die to self, mortify oneself, put your life on the altar. That we basically do absolutely nothing, it's all of God.

 

There is also a group of people who came to be known as the Pietists who took the opposite view and said, "Spiritual progress is energized by the believer.

We must be devout, we must be committed, we must be diligent, we must be self- disciplined. It takes all of our effort to accomplish sanctification."

 

We noted last week that if we read only verse 12 we might come to that conclusion. We might determine that Paul was a Pietist.

 

If we read only verse 13 we might think he was a Quietist.

 

So we're studying both verses together. 

 

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Now having read those two verses and considered the two opposite views, we might conclude that this is a rather complex issue to resolve. And that is not the case. Paul resolves it very simply. He says in verse 12 it's all you and in verse 13 it's all God.

 

It offers no attempt to harmonize the two. Very simply, it takes all that we are and all that God is.

Simply put, if you desire to be like Christ, it demands that you make a commitment of your life daily to the service of Jesus Christ with every faculty that you possess and at the same time all that is accomplished within you that has any spiritual value is the work of God. The answer is, it's all of us and it's all of God.

 

So, there are just two main points in these verses. Point number one, verse 12, the Christian working out. Point number two, verse 13, God working in.

 

Let's go back to the first point and look with a little more depth at us “working out”.

I only got to scratch the surface and introduce it last time, and I want to hang some meat on the skeleton today. 

 

Then in a couple of weeks we’ll get into the meat of verse 13 which deals with God working in.  

 

In verse 12, Paul says basically that the Christian is to work out. In fact, the major statement of verse 12, the main verb and the main idea, is found at the end of verse 12, "Work out your own salvation."

 

We need to know also that the thrust of the statement implies a continuing force command, continually be working out your salvation. That is a mandate.

 

Please notice, he is not saying work at your salvation. He is not saying work up your salvation. He is not saying work for your salvation. Salvation is a gift of grace not of works. You're not working for it, you're not working at it to improve it, you're not working it up, you are simply working it out.

 

And, just as a refresher from what we covered last week, that what he means is to produce on the outside of your life that which has been planted on the inside, to make visible in your conduct that which is true of your redeemed nature. What God has worked in by way of salvation, you are to keep working out by way of sanctification, and you are to continue that process all your days, until you see Jesus, and are changed to be like Him.

 

Work out continually until you reach the full final expression of your salvation.

So he is here calling for maximum effort. The concept of “work out” means to give intense commitment to. He is calling for great effort.

 

One such man who lived that out was C.T. Studd. He was a very gifted and unusual man who made great sacrifices in going to the mission field in a very primitive time. One night he and a colleague were staying in a very dilapidated facility. It was very cold and hard to sleep. This colleague awoke in the middle of the night to find C.T. Studd sitting up, shivering in a blanket that he had wrapped around himself, propped against two walls in the corner of this little room. And by candlelight he was reading his Bible.

 

His colleague asked him why he was so strangely occupied in the midst of a cold night to which Studd replied with these words, "I felt something was wrong in my relation to the Lord and so I am reading through the entire New Testament to check all the commands to me in case I have unwittingly violated any of them."

 

Now I would submit to you that is a very serious approach to the spiritual life. That is not exactly "let go and let God" theology. 

 

Here was a man so concerned about his spiritual life that he is propped up in a corner with a candle on a dark cold night on a primitive mission field, wrapped in a blanket reading the entire New Testament, if per chance he might come across some command that he has perhaps violated because he feels there is somewhere a glitch in his relationship to the living Christ. That's the kind of devotion it takes to make a difference.

And that's the intensity Paul had in mind when he said, "work out your own salvation”. 

 

Yes salvation is all of grace, but if yo’re going to do anything with what God has done in you, it will take all you’ve got. 

 

And what set C.T. Studd head and shoulders above other men of his age who name the name of Christ was not simply and only and isolated the grace of God, but it was the grace of God and the kind of devotion that keeps a man up all night reading the whole New Testament if he can find one thing that he may have violated that can enhance the fullness of his relationship with God. And so God is calling on all of us to work out that which is in us with the greatest amount of diligence.

 

Now this morning I want to be very practical because I think what Paul is giving us here is very practical. 

 

In verse 12, he gives us five handles to grab on to in working our our salvation. Five things you need to understand that will assist you in working out your salvation with real diligence and faithfulness.

 

 

Notice that verse 12 begins with the little phrase “so then." It's the little tool used to draw a conclusion from a preceding section. And so he is really pulling into those two little words, "so then," everything that has been said from verse 5 through 11.

 

So then. It is a connector. What, then, do we find before this?

We find Jesus Christ back in verse 5. He is introduced there as the model of humility, as the model of obedience, as the model of submission. For it was Christ Jesus who didn't hold on to being equal with God. It was Christ Jesus in verse 7 who emptied Himself, who became a bond servant. It is Christ Jesus in verse 8 who humbled Himself, even to the point of dying on a cross. It was Christ Jesus who was thereby exalted by God, who was given a name which is above every name, which we saw is the name Lord, the sovereign name.

 

You see, it is Christ Jesus who is the model. And he says, "So then, work out your own salvation." What do you mean "so then?"

 

Just as you have seen the example of what a saved person is to be like, then follow the leader.

 

In the light of the fact that He was obedient, be like Him. In light of the fact that He was humbled, be like Him. In light of the fact that being humbled He was then exalted, count that promise yours. So Paul is saying since Jesus Christ gave you the example of humble obedience to God, since Jesus Christ showed you what submission is, since Christ showed you the path of exaltation, then you are to follow His pattern. Be like Him.

 

And I don't need to tell you that, do I? Most of us realize that the substance of our spiritual dedication is really clearly defined in being like Jesus Christ.

 

That's why Paul said to the Galatians that he was in travail, or pain until Christ was fully formed in them.

 

That's why John says if you say you abide in Christ, you ought to walk the way He walks. He's your example. So then...work out your own salvation so that in the process you desire and long and pursue Christ's likeness.

 

There's a second thing you need to understand here.

 

 

You need to understand you're loved. Do you know why? Because in the process of endeavoring to work out your salvation and be all that you can be you're going to fail.

 

And I don't think it's accidental that the Apostle Paul happens to say in verse 12, "So then, my beloved." There was a patience in his heart that reflected the patience of God. There was a mercy and a grace in his heart toward the people he loved and served and called his children in the faith, a patience that was representative of the patience in the heart of God. There was a mercy in Paul that was the mercy of Christ. There was a grace in Paul that was the grace of Christ. And when he says to them, "my beloved," he was saying there's some space in my relationship with you, some space for your failure.

 

Right there in the church at Phillip there was Euodia and Syntyche and they were fighting one another. There was obviously some pride in the Philippian church, else he would not have spoken of humility so strongly.

 

There was some discord there and disunity. But in all of it, they were still his beloved.

Not just once but back in chapter 1 verse 8 he said, "I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus." This love that he had for them was a deep-felt love. 

 

He affirms that they are his beloved again in chapter 4 verse 1, even as he speaks a corrective to them, particularly two women who were out of harmony, "Therefore my beloved brethren, whom I long for..." There was deep affection. And in that love and in that affection was space for failure. And this reflects the heart of God.

 

Aren't you happy as a Christian that as you work out your own salvation there's some space? Aren't you happy that you are loved by God? And that within the framework of that love there is forgiveness and there is mercy and there is grace and there is restoration?

 

Aren't you glad that you don't live under the bondage of fear to a god who cannot be properly appeased because there is no grace?

 

Understand you're loved, and accept that love. Our God is not abusive or mean. He’s not giving some military directive. This is the loving passionate heart of a pastor saying to his people, "I care about you, I understand, there's some room for failure," and thus does he reflect the heart of Christ. So in working out your salvation, follow the leader, accept His love.

 

 

He says in verse 12, "So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed...just as you have always obeyed."

 

And therefore he identifies a pattern of conduct in spiritual life, very much like Ephesians 2:10 where he says that God has ordained us to walk in good works.

 

See, the Christian life is basically a pattern of obedience. By the way, the word "obey" here a word from which our word for acoustics comes. 

 

It means to obey what you've heard. In fact, it is stronger than that in that it literally translates, “having heard, put yourself under”. It speaks of submitting to something you've heard. And he is saying basically, you have always had that attitude.

 

You can go back to the sixteenth chapter of the book of Acts and you will find there that it says when Paul came to the region of Philippi, he preached the gospel and Lydia listened. She not only listened, but she believed and it says the Lord opened her heart.

 

Later on he preached, you'll remember, verses 32 and 33, the gospel to the Philippian jailer and his entire household and they too listened and they too believed. In both cases, as that church of Philippi was being born, there was obedience.

 

You say, "In what sense?" They obeyed the word which they heard. And what is the word of the gospel? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. The word of the gospel comes and says turn from your sin and turn to Christ. Stop following self and follow the Lord Jesus. That's a command. We don't think of it as such, but it is.

 

Many people never realize it, but the gospel is a command to be obeyed. 

When the Bible says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" it is an imperative. When the Father said, "This is My beloved Son, hear Him," He was serious. God commands the world to hear Christ. Christ commands the world to believe. The Apostles and the preachers command the world to believe on Christ so that any moment of salvation is a moment of obedience to a command.

 

We often talk about sharing our faith. We very seldom talk about commanding people to believe. We are doing more than sharing something. We are reiterating a command. "This is My beloved Son, hear Him." Believe, repent, follow Me.

 

Faith is an act of obeying a command to repent and believe. And it then ushers one into a life of obedience so that most characteristic of a Christian's life is obedience to God, obedience to Christ.

 

And thus Paul says, you have always obeyed. In essence He is saying, “Just as you obeyed the gospel, and just as you have continued to obey since then, keep on obeying now.” 

 

Were the Phillipians perfect? No more than you or me. If they were, Paul wouldn’t have had to encourage them to keep being obedient.  

 

Sometimes your obedience is sporadic. There are times of disobedience. That’s why it is so important to remember you are loved as I said a moment ago.  But nonetheless, our spiritual life is characterized by obedience.

 

Is that really all that significant?

 

In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1: 8, Paul is speaking about the retribution that will come against the ungodly when Jesus returns from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire. He says, "He will deal out retribution to those who do not know God...listen to this...and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."

 

Revelation 21:1

 

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

 

You see, receiving Christ is an act of obedience to a divine command. And in that sense, if there were no other sense, you always at salvation are acknowledging Jesus as Lord because you in believing are submitting to a command. And that initiates a life of obedience.

 

We are called to obedience. Think about the Great Commission. We are told to make disciples by going and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have...what?...commanded you. It's a life of obedience.

 

Salvation is a command and all of obedience is articulated in Scripture as a series of commands. The very basic definition of our spiritual life is that we are under orders to obey a commander. To fail to understand that is to fail to understand the most basic element of salvation. It is an act of obedience.

 

So, if we are to work out our salvation, it requires that we “Follow the Leader”. We Accept His Love. We are called to obedience.

 

4. We are Responsible for Ourselves.

 

We are very prone as sinners to blame other people for our problems. Is that not true? He reminds us here that we are responsible because we have the personal resources for our own spiritual well being.

 

And he addresses that in the next phrase, "So then, my beloved, just as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence, only but now much more in my absence. . . “

 

In other words, he says, "Look, I saw the pattern of obedience when I was there. I want to see much more of it now that I'm not there." The assumption here is that they need to do it on their own. That's why he’s fixing to say, "Work out your own salvation, you don't need me."

 

Now they loved Paul. We talked about his love for them, but the feeoing was mutual. Back in chapter 1 verses 7 and 8 it tells us that the bond of affection between them was very strong. They had a very unique relationship. They loved that man, and with good reason. 

 

There will perhaps never be in the history of the church, a greater man of God than Paul. Certainly never a greater teacher of the Word of God because he was inspired in much of what he said which became a great portion of the New Testament, at least 13 letters.  What a tremendous time to have lived and been in the presence of a man like Paul!

This is a unique man of God who could have, if he had so desired, built a tremendous following. In fact, it had happened without his initiation. There were some who said, as is noted of Corinth who were saying, "I am of Paul." You could become very dependent on his strength. You could almost lean on him to the point that if he moved, you fell.

 

But at the time he writes this letter he is incarcerated as a prisoner and he is saying to them, "In my presence you obeyed, much more you must now obey in my absence. You may not have me again." I saw it when I was there, but I want to see more of it now that I'm gone. In fact, you should obey even more now that I'm gone because you should have progressed to that point because of all that I taught you.”

 

Now the point that I want you to understand is that they had the duty and the responsibility because they had the resources to work out their own salvation.

 

Sometimes you'll hear someone say, "Well, So-and-so is not a very strong Christian, but after all, look at the church they're in." "So-and-so is not a very strong Christian, they don't get good teaching." "Well, you know, So-and-so has got a lot of sin in their life but they've really never been exposed to good books and have never had anybody disciple them."

 

Listen: that’s no excuse. It’s a great advantage, but it’s no excuse. 

 

 

There are people scattered all over this world in its most remote corners who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ and walk in spiritual depth and maturity and may be all but absolutely alone in a sea of paganism as missionaries.

 

But their love for Christ is deep, consistent and powerful. And their testimony is pure and clean. Why? Because they have in them the Holy Spirit of God.

 

It is a great boon to be in an environment where your spiritual life is stimulated but sometimes it becomes an environment where your spiritual life is artificially propped up. We, of all people, with all our opportunities, are the most without excuse for not being the most like Jesus! 

 

But understand: there is never a moment in your spiritual life when you are not responsible for the progress because you have the resources. You must understand that. And while you can count yourself rich for being in a stimulating environment, you can't blame any of your shortcomings on the absence of such environment.

 

There are Christians around this world who couldn't even dream of this kind of spiritual support system, and yet who would put us all to shame in their devotion. It's a fine line between being a strength and becoming a support for your weakness.

 

I understand how it's easy to become dependent on someone else's spiritual strength. But Paul won't allow it to happen. He says, "I want to see more obedience in my absence, even then I saw in my presence." You must be independent of your teacher. You must be independent of your pastor, your Sunday-school teacher, your discipler when it comes to living your spiritual life.

 

Go back to chapter 1 verse 27 where he introduced this concept. He said, "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you're standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel."

 

Paul is saying, “Whether I'm around or not, that's what I want to hear.” Why? Because you must understand that you have the responsibility and theresources for working out your own salvation.

 

So, if we as believers are going to work on the outside what we have in the inside and do it with continuity until the fullness of salvation is revealed when we see Christ, it means we have to Follow the Leader. That is Jesus Christ. We have to understand that we are loved so we do not become despondent when we fail. We have to understand that we have been called to a life of obedience and we have to understand that we have the responsibility because we have the resources for our spiritual development.

 

There's one other thing he says, and that is : 

 

 

While there is space for you to fail and be forgiven and loved, you must also understand the consequence of your sin.

And so he closes the verse with this statement, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." The word "fear" in the Greek, is the word from which we get our word for “phobia”. The word "trembling," we get trauma from it. Literally, he says work out your salvation with phobias and traumas.

 

What is he saying here? He's saying that there should be a healthy fear in your heart of offending God. There should be a shaking when you contemplate the consequences of such an offense. This is a proper reaction. It's a proper reaction to our weakness and our inadequacy. It's a healthy anxiety to do what is right.

 

Fear means godly awe, growing out of recognition of our weakness and the power of temptation. Did you get those two things? It grows out of the fear of our weakness and the fear of the power of temptation. It's a healthy fear that puts you on guard so that you don't stumble and lose your joy, so that you don't offend the one you supremely love, so that you don't violate your testimony to an unbelieving world, so that you don't negate your usefulness in the body of Christ and ministry there. Fear and trembling is a proper reaction to our weakness and the power of temptation.

 

Listen to Psalm 111:10:

 

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.

 

Most of us know and could quote that. Repeated in Proverbs. 

 

But listen to what it says in Isaiah 66:1-2:  "Thus says the Lord," heaven is My throne, the earth is My footstool, where then is a house you could build for Me?"

 

God is saying, What are you going to do for Me? In what are you going to try to contain Me? What are you going to offer Me? What do I need that you can give Me? What do I want from you?

 

"For My hand has made all these things, thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord."

 

But here it is. Here is what we can do for Him:  What do I want from you? I'll tell you what I want:

 

“To this one I look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at My Word."

 

God says, you want to know what I'm looking for? You want to know what you can give Me? You can tremble at My Word.

 

Verse 5 says, "Hear the Word of the Lord, you who tremble at His Word."

 

That becomes then really a title for a believer, a trembler at God's Word. Do you tremble at God's Word? Do you have a healthy fear of dishonoring Him because you do not want to dishonor the one you love, because you do not want to bring upon yourself chastening, because you do not want to injure your witness to the watching world, because you do not want to negate your effective ministry to the church?

 

You see, in many ways, working out our salvation is hard. And failure is very possible. And one of the things that retards that failure is a healthy fear, an awe, a respect of God. I'm not talking about the fear of being doomed, the fear of eternal torment. I'm not talking about an unending despair or despondency. I'm talking about a reverence that motivates.

 

We who name the name of Jesus Christ, who say we belong to God need to fear God. Fearing God simply means that I don't want to offend Him. And I know He is holy and as a holy reaction against sin, I don't want to do anything to offend Him, I don't want to do anything that cause Him to chasten me, I don't want to do anything to cause me to lose my testimony to the world. I don't want to do anything to cause me to lose my effectiveness to the church.

 

And so I live in the fear of sin. Why do I fear sin? Because I am weak in my flesh. Because temptation is powerful. And because I don't want to offend God.

 

So how are we going to work out our salvation?

 

Well, follow the leader, accept His love, be obedient, remember that you're responsible because you have the resources within you and understand the consequence of your sin toward God, toward yourself, toward the church, toward the unbelieving world. With all that in mind, make a supreme effort to work out your own salvation. Now let me tell you something, folks, that's all for today, that's only one half. You've got to be here in two weeks when we talk about God working in you. Let's bow together in prayer.