Trinity Baptist Church

 

Let's open our Bibles now to Philippians chapter 2. We're looking for the last time at verses 12 and 13.,

 

One of the things that makes God unique from any other deity that man worships is that our God is personal and He desires a relationship with us. IN fact, as born-again children of God, we have the opportunity and privilege of experiencing the fullness of that relationship every day of our lives. 

 

God’s desire, as we have already discovered, is to reproduce in us the character, image and nature of Jesus Christ. God is accomplishing that through a process known in Scripture as sanctification. 

 

And as we have seen, it takes maximum effort on our part. As we saw in verse 12, we must make a concerted effort to follow our leader, Jesus Christ. And in the security of a love relationship with Him, we become obedient, understanding that we are responsible for ourselves and there are consequences for disobedience. 

 

However, that’s not all there is to it. In fact, all of the effort of verse 12 would be useless if it were not for verse 13. 

 

Remember what verse 12 says, "So then, my brethren, or 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." 

That working out would be impossible if it were not for the fact that verse 13 says, "For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure." 

 

And the wondrous balance of spiritual life and spiritual growth and sanctification is that the Christian is working out while God is working in. It takes all of me, as we have seen, but it demands all of Him. And all of us alone would accomplish absolutely nothing.

 

But how wonderful that our God works in us to accomplish His own good pleasure, to effect that which He demands. That's the glory of Christian living, that God calls us to obey and then God effects that obedience in us. God calls us to holiness and then effects that holiness in us. God calls us to serve and then mobilizes that service in us by His own power and presence. 

 

Therefore, your spiritual growth and your progress toward maturity and your sanctification and your moving toward Christ's likeness demands all that you are but it also demands all that God is in you. 

 

And that is the uniqueness of Christianity, Christ in you, the hope of glory. God taking up residence in the believer. And that is how we live our Christian life. 

 

Now, as I said, in verse 13, we're going to talk about God working in. And as we look at verse 13, it seems like a simple statement, but it is loaded with profound truth. All it says is, "For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." 

I looked at that over and over again and it begin to dawn on me that there are at least five key truths about God there that we must understand, that will make this statement really come alive. 

 

God works in you...what a statement, what an incredible reality. 

 

God says, "Without Me you can do nothing‑‑ absolutely nothing." It is God who has to do it all. 

 

In John 15:4 Jesus said, "If you try to produce something, you must be connected to the vine because if you don't abide in the vine you have no life source to produce fruit, without Me you can do nothing." 

 

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12 as the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit outlines the matters of spiritual gifts and ministries, in verse 6 he says, "There are varieties of effects but the same God who works all things in all persons." 

 

Whatever is being produced in your life to His glory, He is producing. He is at work in you...in me, in all His children. That's why 2 Corinthians 3:5 says, "We are not adequate in ourselves but our adequacy is from God. He is at work in us." What a thought.

 

Now, I want to concentrate on five elements of that thought. Very simple, and they all focus on the one who works in us. 

 

First of all, let's note

 

 

 

It says in verse 13 it is God who is at work. It is God. Literally the Greek says, "God is the one at work." No one else but God. The emphasis is on God. The absolutely unbelievable truth that the one who is at work in us is God, the very God who created the universe. He is that personal, that intimate, that concerned that He literally works in us. 

 

We are not dependent on our human resources, although God has given us much in terms of creation and much in terms of redemption to work with. We are still not dependent on our human resources. 

 

We are not even dependent on our brothers and sisters in Christ, though the body of Christ has a marvelous ministry to itself and we are in great debt to those who serve us in the body by the use of their gifts and through the fellowship and ministry which stimulates us to love and good works. 

 

Nor are we dependent upon the holy angels who are sent forth as ministering spirits with the very purpose of ministering to the children of God, Hebrews 1:14. 

 

As wonderful as it is to have talents humanly, as great as it is to be a part of the body of Christ and to have angelic assistance, that's not going to do it. 

 

It isn't that we are dependent on human pastors and teachers who have taught us the Word of God and fed us like sheep and led us as shepherds. 

 

 

As wonderful as that is, as blessed as it is to have those kinds of people ministering to us, the key to our spiritual progress is that God is the one at work in us. I'm grateful that there are other believers working on us. I'm grateful that there are angels working for us. I am grateful for pastors and teachers who are working, as it were, to shape us. But the thrill of all thrills is that it is God who is the one at work in us...God Himself is working out our sanctification.

 

That's why I can say to you that ultimately you will be like Christ. Sanctification can't be deterred. The same God who justifies will bring about sanctification.   He who began a good work, will complete it.

 

There is an undeniable inevitability there. It is God who is the one at work. The immutable, unchanging glorious sovereign majestic righteous holy gracious merciful God, the God who rules all things and always accomplishes His will is never frustrated, always does what He desires. The God who is never thwarted, He is at work in us.

 

His person...that's where Paul starts. It is God. That ought to be in bold type, underlined with three exclamation points. 

 

God works in you...God who loves us with an everlasting love, God who holds toward us an eternal kindness, God who keeps us with an everlasting covenant based on everlasting promises, God whose gifts and callings are without repentance, God who says that whom He justifies He glorifies, God who sees us through to the end,

God who unendingly, unswervingly commits Himself to us to supply all our needs in Christ Jesus, that God is the one in us. He is the strength of our life...the God who made the world, the God who upholds the world by the word of His power, the God who is sovereign over everything for all eternity, He lives in us. That's really an astounding realization.

 

I love a little paragraph by D.H. Griffith Thomas. He says this, "God is the answer to every question of the mind, to every trembling fear of the heart, to every weakness of appetite and to every strong hurricane of temptation. The soul, the lonely individual soul not knowing whence it has come, knowing almost as little where it's going, confronting the question of weakness and sin and death and eternity and the deep, deep problems of moral evil can only answer every complaint by the one all sufficient, all comprehending mono syllable God. This is our anchor. God made us. God knew our constitution. God knew our environment. God knew our temptation, the temptations that would assail us and yet God redeemed us to Himself and made us His own by the blood of Christ. Now, if God be a being of perfect benevolence, He can not have done so much without assuming to Himself the responsibility of realizing the object of the tears, longings and prayers which He has put by His own hand within our nature. And therefore, we must throw back on Him the responsibility of making us blameless, harmless and unrebukable before Him,"

 

 What a Person, this God who is at work in us! 

 

 

 

 

Secondly, Paul reflects on

 

 

He says it is God who is at work. We get the word energy from it in the Greek. It means to put out power or to work effectively. To put it simply, it's the word "the energizer." God is the energizer. For it is God who is the energizer. He is the one whose power drives our sanctification. 

 

You see, in the flesh we can do absolutely nothing but His power drives us toward Christ's likeness. His power compels righteousness. That's why we are sustained. That's why we can say we are eternally secure in Christ. 

 

Why? Because His power continues to drive us to glorification. His power expels sin and invites holiness. We persevere because we are energized by Him. 

 

And how much power does He have? He has all power. He is the omnipotent God. Is there anything too hard for Him to do? He has all power. He committed that power to Christ and Christ said, "I have all power in heaven and in earth." And so we have the tremendous realization that we are energized by God and that there's no limit to His energy. And that if He saved us in order to sanctify us, then that will take place. He will move us along toward Christ's likeness. His energy will accomplish that. That's His promise. 

 

 

 

 

There is so much power available that Paul can say in Ephesians 3:20, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that works in...what?...us." 

 

Maybe it would have been more understandable if it had said, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think according to the power that works in heaven...or the power that works in Christ, or the power that works in the Holy Spirit, but the power that works in us?" 

 

God can accomplish and does accomplish through you that which is unimaginable, unthinkable, beyond your ability to plan or reason or dream. He is effecting the sanctification process.

 

Let me give you an illustration of this. Go back to 2 Chronicles chapter 29 and I want to show you an interesting moment in the history of God's people, Judah, and just give you a very good analogy to help you see this picture of how God works. 

 

Hezekiah became king, verse 1 says of 2 Chronicles 29, he was king of Judah. He was only 25 years old when he became king. And he reigned for 29 years in Jerusalem. 

 

Verse 2 characterizes his life and it is a wonderful characterization. "He did right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done." He was a good king. He was a noble king. He was a godly man. 

 

Now when he ascended to rule among the people of God, he deemed it essential that they get their spiritual lives together. 

And so he started at the top and in the first year of his reign, verse 3, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. There had been a real ignoring of the things of God and the whole of the people of God had fallen into sin and idolatry, a tragic history. 

 

Here comes Hezekiah, a godly man, he opens the doors of the house of the Lord, he repairs them, he is reinstituting worship and then he does this, he brought in the priests and the Levites, all of those who were responsible for the religious leadership of the nation he brought together. 

 

Verses 4 - 11

 

So all the priests and all the Levites are gathered and told it's time for spiritual consecration. And they did it. They began it, verse 17 says, on the first day of the first month. 

 

And if you'll flow down to verse 20, after the consecration of the priests and the Levites, King Hezekiah rose early and assembled the princes of the city and went up to the house of the Lord. Now he moves away from the religious leaders to the nationally recognized leaders, to the rest of the leaders. And he says it's time for you to get spiritually in tune with God. And it's time for you to make sacrifices and sin offerings. And there was a tremendous slaughter. 

 

And if you want to know the extent of this consecration, you need only go to verse 32 -36

 

 

 

I mean, it was an instant revival.

 

Now we've got the leadership taken care of, you come to 2 Chronicles 30

 

Verse 1

 

Now he is really calling for the Passover to be reinstated in its fullness. It had been only minimally attended to in past years and he wants the whole nation there as God has prescribed. And this is really the work of God. God through Hezekiah is calling all the people. 

 

Verse 6

 

This is calling for a spiritual revival. 

 

Verse 8-9

 

So He's calling for revival.

 

Now notice, here's the key, the couriers go out, verse 10, everywhere and then you come down to

 

verse 12

 

Isn't that interesting? Isn't that a fascinating statement? The king and the princes were commanding the people to return to God because it was the word of the Lord to them. God says command the people to return to Me, and then verse 12 says then God gave them a heart to do it. 

 

What is the point? God energizes the fulfillment of His own command. What a perfect model of Philippians 2:13. 

God moves powerfully to produce what He demands. That is the incredible mystery of Christian living, that God is effecting in the believer what He is commanding to the believer.

 

You say, "How do you understand that?" I don't understand it except that it's simply stated. I cannot understand it. I cannot make a dividing line between what is God and what is me and how much God can do if I cooperate and how much He can't do if I don't. It is mystery. But it is clear in Scripture that whatever is to be done in my life in response to God's command, He must energize. He is strong. He is powerful. And His power works to effect what He commands.

 

Go back then to Philippians chapter 2 and let's look at a third very very essential factor in understanding the one working in us. 

 

We saw, first of all, His person as God,

His power, He is energizing all of our spiritual development. 

 

We go from His power to, thirdly,

 

 

Verse 13, "For it is God who is at work in you." 

 

Oh, what a great statement. God in you, He's not working on you, He's not working for you, He is working in you. What a profound reality.

 

You remember in Acts 1:8 where Jesus said to the Apostles, "You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you." 

When the Spirit of God took up residence, there was power. God lives in us in His Spirit. That great truth, I think, was particularly important for some reason to the Corinthian church because Paul said it to them at least three times. 

 

In 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16 he says, "If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are." You're the temple of God, you're where God lives. What a thought. 

 

And then he says in verse 17, "The temple of God is holy and that's what you are." Verse 16, "You're the temple of God." That's what you are, God lives in you. Verse 17 repeats the same thought.

 

Over in chapter 6 and verse 19 he says, "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God." 

 

Now in 1 Corinthians 3 he's speaking collectively, the church as a whole is the temple of God. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 he's speaking individually, every Christian as an individual believer is the temple of God. He lives in us as individuals so he lives in us collectively. 

 

And then in his second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 6 and verse 16, Paul says this, "For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God." 

 

What a thought. God says I will never leave you or forsake you. God says, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." 

Paul says, "Be anxious for nothing," why? "The Lord is at hand." He's present, imminence. 

 

It's God in the form of His Spirit dwelling in you. And always present, always supporting, always sustaining, always upholding, always supplying, always strengthening, always shielding, never out of His care, always producing sanctifying effects in your life. That's why He gets all the credit because He's doing all the work.

 

God is working independently. God is working in ways beyond our ability to understand...ever and always consistently in us, caring for every need. His presence is infinite. His understanding is infinite. His wisdom is infinite. And He lives in us. He is holy so He always does what's right. He is loving, so He's always concerned with our best. He is gracious, so He always forgives. He is merciful, so He always holds back the fullness of judgment. He is just, so He's always fair. He's generous, so He always gives more than enough. He's there. 

 

God is not afar off. God is not a long distance away, like the gods of the pagans. God is here, living in us. And I'll tell you something, beloved, God would not go to the great extent to justify us to then leave us alone. 

 

Having begun with the power of God, we are sustained with the power of God. Having been justified by the power of God, we are sanctified by the power of God. And He lives in us. And that is why I believe that the process cannot be halted. Sin in our lives somehow some way slows it down but God effects the progressive work through blessing or through chastening. 

Hebrews 12 says sometimes He has to discipline us but that is for us to partake of His holiness, to produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness. So whether it's through blessing or chastening, He sustains His sanctifying work by His presence, moving us toward greater spiritual maturity. So His person, His power, His presence.

 

Fourthly, Paul speaks of

 

4. His purpose

 

This is the heart of what I want you to grasp from the practical standpoint this morning. 

 

What is His purpose? Well, He's trying to produce something very specific in us. He is working in us both to will and to work, or to will and to do. 

 

Now what does this mean? Well, that phrase "both to will and to work" is best noted as a reference to us, rather than to God. He is working in you to cause you to will and to work for His good pleasure. In other words, there are two things God wants to energize in us: our will and our work. Desire and deed, those are very vital, very basic. 

 

First of all, let's talk about that idea of working in us to will. He wants us to will what is right, to want what is right, to desire what is right so He works on our want, on our will, on our desires. 

 

What is the significance? All behavior rises out of your will, it all rises out of your desire, your longing, your wants, your intent. In fact, that verb "to will" is the verb that means intent or inclination. 

 

One lexicon says it is a will that is an unimpassioned operation, I think that's the way he phrased it. In other words, it's not the desire of passion. It's not the desire of lust. It's not the desire or the whimsical desire of emotion. It is the unimpassioned will, that is the studied designed planned intent. God wants to produce in us the proper intention, the proper inclination, the proper desire for what is right.

 

God works in you on your will, to produce the intent, the inclination, the will to do what He desires. That's where He begins His internal work, working on your desires. Because, what you do and what I do is a product of what we desire.

 

But how does He do it? Let me give you two factors:

 

I believe that there are two things God produces in you to move your will. 

 

One is Holy Discontent, h‑o‑l‑y, holy discontent. 

 

What does that mean? It simply means you're discontent with your holiness.   There is a righteous discontent, not an unholy discontent, that's sin, but a holy discontent with the present spiritual state. 

 

In other words, God makes you dislike your present spiritual weakness. Have you ever experienced that? 

 

It's not being discontent with your circumstances in life or the conditions in which God has called you to live, it's being discontent with your sin. And I believe that the convicting work of God in your life is to stir up a holy discontent about your sin.

 

Do you ever get exasperated about your sin? Do you ever get to the place where you find tears in your eyes because you're so sick and tired of the same sin? You're so sick and tired of fighting the battles on the same front? That's a holy discontent that God is producing as He works on your will. He wants you to hate sin. 

 

The second thing that He produces in working on your will is a Holy Desire. 

 

That's the flip side, a longing for something better, a longing for something purer, a longing for something holy, a longing for something righteous, a longing for something true, a longing to be like Christ, a longing to be godly, a longing to be virtuous, a longing to be victorious. 

 

And sometimes you're reading about a Bible character and your heart is filled with a desire to be like Paul, or be like Peter or be like John. Or sometimes you're reading a missionary biography and you feel so cheap and so shallow because the level of your dedication seems so low when compared with some of the great people God has used. And that becomes holy desire‑‑holy discontent and holy desire.

 

And that's where it all starts. And I believe that's the work of God in you producing that. To put it simply, He produces a hatred of sin and a love of righteousness. That's why if you want to get in touch with whether a person's really a Christian or not, you can look at those two things. Do they hate their sin and love righteousness? 

 

Is there a holy discontent and a longing for something far more pure than what they are experiencing? That's the work of the indwelling God, the Holy Spirit moving on your will.

 

If you want to see a perfect illustration of it, look at Philippians chapter 3. And here you're going to see holy discontent and holy desire come together. 

 

Verse 12, Paul says, "Not that I've already obtained it," that is already obtained spiritual perfection, already reached full knowledge of Christ, full expression of His power, complete fellowship in His sufferings, already conformed fully to His death, already having attained resurrection, no. Not as though I have attained or have already become perfect, no...he says...that's holy discontent, I haven't become perfect. 

 

Verse 13, "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet." I'm not there. That's holy discontent. That's why he says in verse 10, "I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death, I'm not there yet." That's holy discontent.

 

But look at holy desire in verse 12. "But I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus." Verse 13, "One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind what is a part of that holy discontent and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." 

 

Holy discontent, I'm not there, I haven't arrived. Holy desire, I press on, I press on. 

 

Now that's what God wants to work in your will so that you will that which is right by having a revulsion toward what is wrong and an aspiration to what is right. So the purpose of God is to work on your will.

 

But secondly, He works in you, energizing you both to will and then to work, or literally to do. And it's the same word translated work here. He energizes you to be energetic. He energizes you, He works in you so you will work, not just to will but to work, godly behavior. You start with a holy discontent and that leads to holy desire and that leads to holy dedication which means I will now do what is right and that leads to holy deeds. That's the process. 

 

Holy discontent, holy desire, holy dedication where the commitment is made produces holy deeds. And that's what God's doing in you. He's working on your will and He's working on your work so that you will and do what is right. 

 

What a great promise, beloved. God is at work in us. Remember that little sign that you saw a few years ago, "Please be patient, God is not finished with me yet?" Great truth in it. The underlying truth is that God is at work in us. And only God can energize spiritual ends, spiritual results. 

 

So, we see His person, His power, His presence, His purpose, lastly

 

5. His pleasure. 

 

This is overwhelming. This is just mind boggling. Why is God doing this? The end of verse 13, "For His good pleasure." Do you understand that when you will and work what is right it pleases God? 

Do you understand that there is so much of a relationship between you and God that you can, in a sense, bring Him pleasure? 

 

The word pleasure means satisfaction. God works in us to will and to work for His good pleasure. He wants to cause us to do what pleases Him. That's what it means. He wants to cause us to do what satisfies Him. The underlying thing that strikes me is that anything that I could do could satisfy Him. Isn't He ultimately and infinitely and perfectly satisfied already? There's some way in which He takes pleasure in me willing and working on His behalf.

 

Do you remember Luke 12:32? Jesus looked at that motley bunch of weak‑faith disciples and said, "It's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." 

 

Isn't that an astounding statement? You would have understood it if He had said, "Well, the Father has given in and decided He'll give you the kingdom anyway but He's upset about it." No. It's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He is a God of love. He is a God of compassion. He is a God of grace and mercy and you are very dear to Him. And when you will and work what He wants, He is pleased. 

 

And isn't that the essence of a relationship? To give to one another so that there is pleasure. He wants your best because your best is what pleases Him most. He takes pleasure in you. He takes pleasure in me. And what He wants to produce in us is for His own satisfaction. 

 

Isn't it a great thought to think that I can bring satisfaction to the heart of God? Think about that. Terry Tolbert can do something, could will something, could be the kind of person who could bring satisfaction to the heart of God. 

 

Listen, I couldn't do that in my flesh. But God can work in me to will and to work what will be to His pleasure. I don't know about you but I think the most wonderful thing about any relationship is that you would bring the other person pleasure, don't you? What good is a relationship if all you bring is pain? Who needs it? If all you bring is grief. But what everybody wants out of a relationship is satisfaction and pleasure. And God says you can bring Me that. 

 

Wonderful thing that Paul is saying here. The Christian is working out with maximum effort and God is working in to accomplish His pleasure. 

 

Listen, let me bring it to a conclusion. We of all the people on the face of this earth are so uniquely blessed because God works in us. What a thought. 

 

That's the distinctiveness of Christianity. And that's the balance. It takes all of us and all of Him. 

 

Wishing to encourage her young son’s progress on the piano, a mother took her boy to a Paderewski concert. After they were seated, the mother spotted a friend in the audience and went down the aisle to greet her.

 

 

 

 

Leaving his seat also, the little boy discovered the door marked “NO ADMITTANCE” and explored his way onto the concert stage. Finding a piano behind the stage curtains, he began to practice.

 

The lights dimmed and the concert was about to begin. The mother returned to her seat to find the child missing. Suddenly the stage curtains parted to display the impressive Steinway grand piano with the missing child gently picking out “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

 

Then Paderewski, the grand piano master, made his entrance on stage and quickly moved to the piano, whispering into the boy’s ear “Don’t quit, keep playing.”

 

Paderewski leaned over the boy filling in a left hand or bass part while the boy kept picking out his version of the melody. Then with his right hand, now his presence surrounding the boy, Paderewski added a running obbligato to this duet. Together the old master and the young novice transformed what could have been a frightening situation into a wonderfully creative experience.

 

I know how the devil works with those who would be like Christ. In the frustrations of your life, in the trying moments and difficult day, when you wonder if it pays to even try , his attacks will come. 

 

But I am here to say to you, that as you work out your own salvation, you are surrounded by the presence of One who is at work Himself. And if you will listen, you will hear Him say: “Don’t quit, keep playing.”

 

As we close, let me ask you a question, real personal one, only you can answer. God is at work in you right now if you're a Christian. 

 

What is He working to cause you to will and to do? Have you thought about it? What does He want you to will? What does He want you to do? What habit does He want you to change? What relationship does He want you to make right? What relationship does He want you to break? What relationship does He want you to make? 

 

What attitude does He want you to change? What desire does He want you to ignore? What desire does He want you to have? What ministry does He want you to do? What spiritual duty does He desire that you will? And what area does He want you to be faithful? What wrong does He want you to make right?

 

 He's working in you to cause you to will and to work what will please Him. Do you know what it is that He wants you to will and to work?     

 

 Let's bow in prayer and ask the Lord, "Lord, what is it that You are working in me to will and to do? What do You want me to want? What do You want me to desire? What do You want me to long for? What do You want me to do? What work do You want me to work? Show me."    

 

Father, hear the prayer of every praying heart for Jesus' sake. Amen.