Alright, brethren, Philippians
2. The apostle Paul here is writing to believers. This is written
to believers. He began the letter here and
he says this is to all the saints in Christ Jesus. Paul is writing
from prison. He cannot be present and he is
writing to the saints. It's a word to sinners that's
been born again of God, sanctified by the Spirit of God to faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is what he says in verse
12, Philippians 2, 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you
have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Usually, when
you hear sermons preached on these verses by the majority
in the world's religion, you hear the verses or you hear the
focus to be on verse 12, work out your own salvation. But the
focus of these verses, the focus that Paul is, and what he's making,
the point he's making here is, the reason God's saints are exhorted
to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, with
fear and trembling, is because it's God which worketh in you,
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. The Lord Jesus
Christ is present. Wherever he has assembled his
saints together in his local church, our Lord Jesus is there. He's walking in the midst of
the candlesticks. And our Lord Jesus Christ dwells
in spirit in each of his saints. He dwells in his saints. He's
working in each of his saints. both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. He's doing that, and the glory
belongs to him to do that. And that's why he says to us,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now, what
does he mean by work out your own salvation? Well, this is
a favorite verse of will worshipers because of that word salvation,
work out your own salvation. J.C. Philpott said this, and
I've heard other faithful pastors in our day say this as well.
There are scriptures in the Bible, and we'll worshipers will see
those scriptures, and they'll be a snare and a trap and a stumbling
block. And they'll fall and be snared
and be taken. And this is one of those verses
because of that word salvation. This is not speaking of our eternal
salvation. It is not speaking of our eternal
salvation. God declares in his word what
he taught Jonah. Jonah, Jonah tried to run from
God. Jonah tried to go and do, he
tried to run and not go to Nineveh as God had sent him to Nineveh.
Was God able to work his will in Jonah? Yes, he was. And what did Jonah learn by that?
He said, salvation is of the Lord. That's what he learned.
God the Father chose who he would choose freely by his grace in
our Lord Jesus Christ and blessed his people with all spiritual
blessings in Christ Jesus. Paul told Timothy, God has saved
us and called us with a holy calling not according to our
works but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He saved us and
called us in Christ before the world began according to His
purpose. The Son of God came, the Lord
Jesus came in time and He accomplished the redemption that the Father
sent Him to accomplish. Everything the father sent him
to do he came and accomplished he manifests the righteousness
of God how God can be just and the justifier of those that he
brings to believe on Christ and Our Lord Jesus Christ did it
by honoring the law and making it honorable by his obedience
in the place of his people The Lord is well pleased for his
righteousness sake for Christ's righteousness sake He will magnify
the law and make it honorable, and that's what Christ accomplished.
Christ redeemed every one of his elect from the curse of the
law. And our Lord Jesus Christ made
us the righteousness of God in him by his obedience. He reconciled
us to God. That's what he accomplished.
The Son of God gave Daniel the good news of what Christ would
accomplish. This is what he did. Verse 24
says, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to
make reconciliation for the iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most
holy. That's what Christ accomplished.
That's what he was declaring when he said, It is finished. And then in the new birth, the
Spirit of God. We worship one God in three persons. And in the new birth, the Spirit
of God created a new man within his people in the image of our
Lord Jesus Christ. In his holiness, Christ was formed
in his people. And He gave us the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ and He gave us faith to believe on
Christ and trust Him as being all our salvation. The Spirit
keeps us sanctified in Christ. He keeps us separated unto Christ
by continually renewing our new man in the knowledge of Christ
and teaching us our need of Him. And He keeps us trusting Him. This, when he says here, work
out your own salvation, he's not talking about our eternal
salvation. Salvation's of the Lord. So what
does it mean? Well, if we stick to the context,
and this is so of any time we're in the scripture, if you just
stick to the context, we'll see what he means. We'll see exactly
what he means. It'll be clear to us. He's speaking
here of our daily affairs with one another. in his church and
in this world. As the church of God with one
another and in this world. He's concluding right here. When
he comes to this point, he's concluding what he's been saying.
Now let's go back and see what he's been saying. Look back here
at Philippians 1. Look at verse 27. He says, Only
let your conversation, your conduct, be as it becometh the gospel
of Christ. that whether I come and see you
or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs. That's what
he means by work out your own salvation, that I may hear of
your affairs, you working things out with each other in the daily
goings on of the church with one another. And here's what
he prayed that he would hear, that you stand fast in one spirit
with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. And in concerning adversaries,
he said in verse 28, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries,
which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation,
and that of God. And then concerning suffering,
He says, front to you it's given in the behalf of Christ not only
to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake. Having the
same conflict which you saw in me and now here to be in me.
Paul's in prison for the preaching of the gospel. So these are some
of the daily things in the church that he's saying work out amongst
yourselves. Now, having spoken about brethren
being of one mind, he goes to speak on that, to write on that
more. Look at chapter 2 and verse 1. He says, if there be therefore
any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship
of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, if God has worked
salvation in you, then trust your brethren to the Lord." That's
what he's saying here. He's saying, fulfill you my joy
that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord,
of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem the
other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Provide
for one another, he's saying. And all of that is this right
here, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. That's the mind of Christ, everything
he just said. Now listen to what he said, who
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. If anybody had a right to make
himself a reputation, it was the son of God. He is God. But what did he do? He made himself
of no reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. And then he declares
Christ is risen, and Christ is reigning, and this leads him
to what he's going to declare to us in our text, because Christ
is living and reigning, Look at what he says. He says, verse
9, Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name, 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.
So, having given us this word, and then having declared Christ
is is risen and reigning, he says then in verse 12, wherefore,
my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not in my presence only,
but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. Here's what he means. He said,
well, let me read the next verse. For it's God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Here's what
he means. Do all things without murmurings and disputings. That's
what he means by work out your salvation. Do all things amongst
one another, without murmuring and disputing, that you may be
blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the
midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine
as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that
I may rejoice in the day of Christ and have not run in vain, neither
labored in vain. Now here's what I want us to
see in this passage. That which settles the heart,
that which settles the heart of God's child and causes us
to trust Christ our own selves and to trust one another to Christ
is Christ working in us personally in power. Experiencing his power
personally so that we know Christ is present. When you experience
His power personally, you know He is present. That He dwells in each of His
saints just like He dwells in you. It's God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. That's what
you know by Him working in you personally. That settles your
heart to know He's working in your brethren just like He's
working in you. Now let's look at this from a
few different angles here from a few different ways. First of
all, remember this, our Savior is head over all things to the
church and He fills all in all. He fills all in all His people. He's the head over all things
to the church. Christ Jesus highly exalted God
by His obedience, by taking humbling himself, making himself of no
reputation, taking the form of a servant, and serving God unto
the death of the cross in perfect obedience, saving his people.
He highly exalted God. That's what Paul's telling us
to do. Highly exalt Christ by trusting him to work in you and
in your brethren. And that's what Christ did when
he walked this earth. As the servant of God, he trusted
the Father. He looked to the Father. And
he trusted the Father perfectly. And he highly exalted God. And
so by accomplishing the salvation of his people now, God also has
highly exalted him. He didn't stay in that grave.
He came out of that grave. He said there, God also has highly
exalted him. He used the word also because
everything he said before about Christ is how Christ exalted
the Father. And he said, wherefore God also
has highly exalted him. He gave him a name which is above
every name, power above all power, a name above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee, and the word there is shall,
bow. Now the saint in whom Christ
dwells, when he takes up his residence in you, he sanctifies
you, and by him entering in, you experience the power of God.
You experience the power of God. Christ is the power of God and
you experience that power of God. You were made to behold
by faith. You're made to behold Christ
has been exalted above all. That's how you behold him in
your heart through faith. We've experienced his power in
our own hearts. In Ephesians 1, let's look over
there. Back to your left just a few
pages. In Ephesians 1, Paul declared here that the same
power that it took to raise Christ from the grave is the power it
took to regenerate you to life. It's the power it took to raise
us from our death and sin to spiritual life. The same power
that raised Christ from the grave. They believed God and Christ
had been revealed to the Ephesians, but Paul's praying that they
might be given more revelation. And he says here in verse 19,
that you might know what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to us who believe. According to the working of his
mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly
places. Now hold your place right there just a minute. He's telling
us, brethren, that same exceeding greatness of power that it took
to raise our Lord Jesus Christ from the grave is the exceeding
greatness of power He's worked toward usward who believe. That's
how we believe, is by His power alone. He gave you faith to cast
all your care on Christ. Nobody else could do that. No
man could do that. Men can persuade men to an outward
profession, but men can't do what he's talking about here.
This is giving you life. This is really giving you faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That takes the power of God,
the same power that raised Christ from the grave. That's when we
learn Christ is the power of God. That's when we were taught
by God that Christ really is the head of the church and really
does feel all in all his people because he did it in us and we
know he did. We experienced that power. Look
here now at verse 21. Look how highly God exalted Christ. Far above all principality and
power and might and dominion and every name that is named,
not only in this world but also in that which is to come. And
he hath put all things under his feet. Now here is the point
Paul's making in our text. When he highly exalted Christ,
he gave him to be the head over all things to the church. The
church is his body, the fullness of him. And it's Christ that
filleth all in all. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespass and sin. See that? It's Christ who filled
you. It's Christ who did it, and that's
how you experienced His power. Revelation 1.5 says this. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
faithful witness. He came and bore witness in our
hearts, didn't He? He's the faithful witness. He's
the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of
the earth. Now, Christ is the prince of
every ungodly king in this earth. He gave them their power. He
raised them up. and he's ruling them in everything
they do in this world. But Christ, he is the prince
ruling in the hearts of every child of God that he has made
a king and a priest unto God. It's not that we're just waiting
to bow. The world won't be made to bow
until that day of judgment when Christ's name is declared and
every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. But right
now, by his power in the heart, when he first came to you in
power, he made you bow. He made you trust him and commit
all your care into his hand and know our mediator is God and
it's him who's filling all in all his people. And so every
hour since then, brethren, whenever we have needed to be turned,
corrected, comforted, strengthened, whatever it is that we've needed,
it has been the Lord Jesus Christ, through his gospel, by his power,
that has worked it in our hearts. And it keeps you knowing he's
the one filling all in all his people. You know, that Ark of
the Covenant, That little box, you know, had the mercy seat
over it, had the law in it. That little box where the blood
was sprinkled by the high priest on that mercy seat, that little
box, that ark, typified our Lord Jesus Christ. And when Uzzah
reached out his hand to try to keep that ark from falling, keep
it standing, keep it from falling, that was the same as a man trying
to help Christ to stand. That's what it was. Brethren,
Christ doesn't need our help to make him stand. We need his
help to uphold us and make us stand. And that's what he teaches
you from that first hour he called you and made you experience his
power throughout the days of this life. He is more and more
showing us He is the power of God. He's God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. So He's teaching
us work out everything in the church, everything in your life,
everything in the world. Work out, but especially speaking
about between brethren. Work out your salvation, your
daily affairs as He's saving us every day through this life.
Work out everything that you're doing. with fear and trembling
because Christ is present. Christ is in you, brethren, and
Christ is working just like he's worked in you. And if you've
been mourning him, you know that. You know that. Brethren, now
the second thing I want you to think about is what a comfort
it is to know that Christ is alive. What a comfort it is to
know Christ is dwelling in his people. walking in the midst
of his churches that he's assembled, his local church, and that he's
working in each of his people. That is a great comfort. It's a tremendous comfort as
a pastor because a pastor sees real quickly he can't work a
thing in anybody. So that's a great comfort, but
it's a great comfort to all of us. Turn over to Revelation 1 and
let me show you this. Revelation chapter 1. John was made to behold the Lord
Jesus Christ walking in the midst of his churches. That's what
he saw. He saw Christ walking in the
midst of his churches. Now listen, just as real as when
Christ walked this earth. Just that real, he's walking
in the midst of his churches. That's true of our Lord Jesus,
and that's what John beheld. The churches are called the candlesticks
here. Now watch what he says, Revelation
1.13. In the midst of the seven candlesticks,
he said, I saw one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with
a garment down to the foot, gird about the paps with a golden
girdle, and his head and his hairs were white like wool, as
white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet
like an affine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his
voice as the sound of many waters." Do you see that, brethren? What
John beheld is what's taking place right now. The Lord Jesus
is walking in the midst of his churches. I'm not talking about
every so-called church. I'm talking about the local assemblies
that he's gathered. He's in those born of God, and
he's walking in the midst of his people, and he is working
in his people, in his church, both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. Look at the next thing he saw here, Revelation
116. And he had in his right hand
seven stars. There were seven churches, That's
the number of perfection just means there's a perfect number
of his churches in the world. And these seven stars represent
his pastors. That's who they represent. And
you see whose hand they're in? They're in Christ's hand. His
pastors are in Christ's hand. He holds His pastors in His hand
to keep us, and to rule us, and to correct us, and to strengthen
us, so that we preach Christ Jesus, the power and wisdom of
God, and pray to Him, and wait on Him to work in His people.
He's holding His pastors. Do you believe God's sovereign?
Do you believe He's absolutely sovereign over everything? He's
absolutely sovereign over every pastor in this world, this one
included. But though that's the case, it
is Christ himself who is the Bishop of our souls. He is the
preacher of our souls. He's the pastor who is sovereign
God. Look here in verse 16 in the
last part, and out of his mouth, out of his mouth when a sharp
two-edged sword. He holds his preacher. He gives
his preacher the message to preach, but Christ is the power who's
doing the preaching. When he sends forth his word,
it's Christ out of his own mouth speaking into the hearts of his
people that the blessing comes. Remember what he said when he
walked this earth? He said the flesh profits nothing. He said
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. It is Christ speaking. When that
gospel is preached, when he blesses the heart, the reason you believe
is because Christ out of his own mouth speaks into your heart
and causes you to live, and causes you to hear, and causes you to
believe, and He works and does His good pleasure in you by the
gospel, by His word. When you've experienced that,
you know it's by this word, it's by this gospel that He does it.
So you depend on the gospel, you depend on Him to do this
by the gospel. The gospel is vital to you, and
it's vital for the salvation of all His elect, and you know
that. And the powers of God, not of us. Look at verse 16.
And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. Christ is the power of God of
the salvation. He's the light, brighter than
the sun. When Paul was arrested on the
road to Damascus, he fell in that dust and he said a light
shone round about him, brighter than the sun. Christ is countenance
shined like the sun. John saw that. And he's the strength
of his people. He's the way that we're taught
the gospel. And he always accomplishes his
purpose in his people. That's the greatest comfort to
us, brethren. That's the greatest comfort to
us. When things look like they're just a total mess, the one comfort
you have is the Lord is working his will and his good pleasure
in his people. You know that. We're saved by
our sovereign Savior, and He is sovereign in the salvation
of His people. And what does the sight of Christ
exalted do in that sinner saved by His grace? When you see Him
and you hear Him speak in your heart, what does that do in you
when He works that? Look at Revelation 117. And when
I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. What's going to subdue
our sin nature? What's going to make us humble
ourselves? What's going to bring us down to the dust to trust
Christ alone? No man can do it. He can preach
this and try to show it in the scriptures, and it will not be
worked in anybody. But when Christ, who holds the
seven stars in His hand, and that sharp two-edged sword comes
out of his mouth and he speaks in the heart of his child and
makes you behold his light, that's when you fall. Look what it says,
when I saw him, there it is, when I saw him, I fell at his
feet as dead. Moses experienced it when he
said, I exceedingly fear and quake. Peter experienced it when
he'd been fishing all night, and the Lord said, cast your
net on the other side. Here's an experienced fisherman,
fished all night. And he says, Lord, we fished
all night. He said, but that's your word.
And he cast the net on the other side, and it was so full of fish. And what did he say? He said,
depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Daniel experienced
it when he said, My comeliness is turned into corruption. That's a sight of Him who is
true holiness. That's a sight of Him who is
majestic. That's a sight of Him who is
our righteousness. Then what does Christ do? Does
He just leave you there wallowing? Like just dead at His feet? What
does he do to make you trust him? What does he make you do
to trust your brethren to him? Look at Revelation 117. And he
laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not. Fear not. I am the first and
the last. I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. Christ is the first and
the last. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
He's the author and finisher of faith. That means He is our
salvation. He is eternal God, our eternal
salvation. And right now, brethren, He died
unto sin once, but He is alive forevermore. Christ is alive
at God's right hand, and He's alive in His people, and He's
alive walking in the midst of His church. Paul wasn't being
mystical and getting into mysticism when he said, it's God that's
working in you. He's working in his people. He lays his right hand upon us
and he shows us we're saved by his free grace and his abundant
mercies. That's what he shows you. He
says, behold, I'm alive forevermore. You know what he promised us?
He said, because I live, you shall live also. Listen to what Paul said. Paul
said, if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of his son, then much more being reconciled, we shall
be saved by his life. Christ is life. He's the life
in his people. He's the life in his church.
He is the life, brethren, and you can hang all your eternal
soul on that word right there. We shall be saved by His life. That's how we'll be saved. It's
a comfort to God's people to hear Paul declare, it's God which
worketh in you. He's talking about Christ our
Savior. He's alive and working in His
people, in His church. That's a great comfort, a great
comfort. For it could be a mistake made,
I've made it. as a pastor, but this is my comfort. I'm in his hand, and he is the
head of his church, and he feels all in all, and he is working
in his people both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That's
my hope for myself, and that's my hope for every one of you.
Now, thirdly and lastly, what is his will and good pleasure
that he works in his people? What is it? Well, by working
that in us and making us see, just like John fell there at
his feet as dead, when you see Christ, the first thing, this
is what I was trying to say to us the other day, in the first
hour and every hour since then, when he's brought peace in your
heart and he's brought peace with your brethren, the way he
has done it has made you to see your own self as the sinner. And when you see him whose holiness,
You know, we go through life and start comparing ourselves
with others, and we might think ourselves doing a pretty good
job. But then when he shines the light and you see perfect
holiness by faith, and this is just all him speaking into your
heart and making you know him in the heart spiritually. When
he does that, that's when we see our own sinfulness. That's
when we see we have been totally ruined by the fall. And that's
when we see we are completely, totally Helpless. We sing, He's
the help of the helpless. You know, when scripture talks
about visiting the widows and the orphans, that's the most
helpless there are in the world, is an orphan and a widow. A true
widow has nobody, no sons, daughters, children, family, anybody. She's
totally alone, totally helpless. And an orphan has nobody. That's
who every one of God's people are that Christ saves. We're
that helpless. We're the orphan and the widow.
And that's what He makes you see when He makes you see Him
and see His light. But He also makes you know He's
the power by which we're saved and by which we're kept. He's
our righteousness and our holiness. He's our wisdom, He's our redemption,
He's everything to us. He makes you show this, see this,
and He keeps showing you as you see your sin, and as you see
your failures, and as you see your error, whatever it is that
He's showing you at the time, He keeps showing you tender mercies,
tender mercies, tender mercies, tender mercies, and you keep
seeing that you are saved entirely by His mercy and by His grace
alone. And that's what brings you to
cast all your care on Him. And doing that, brethren, you
believe on Him now. And you know He's working in
you to will and do of His good pleasure. The first place this
begins is, and it never stops, it never gets beyond this right
here, is He's going to keep you casting all your care on Him. And when He brings you to do
that, brethren, John also saw there that the Lord said, the
keys of hell and death are in my hand. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is the judge. All judgment has been committed
unto him by the Father. He settled the judgment of his
people on Calvary's cross entirely when he shed his blood and bore
the justice of God for us. And now that risen judge who
has all the judgment in his hand, he's also our advocate with the
Father, and he's also our righteousness with the Father. That's who he
is. And he's faithful because of
Christ. God is faithful and he's just
to forgive us all our sins and to cleanse us of unrighteousness.
And he keeps showing you that, and he keeps showing you that,
and he keeps showing you new mercies every morning. Peter
had been a long time in the faith. And those saints he wrote to
had been a long time in the faith. And he gets to the end of his
epistle, and he says, Brethren, humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God. Cast in all your care upon him,
for he careth for you. We never get beyond needing to
hear that message. Because we don't ever get beyond
our pride in this life. And we've got to have him working
in us to will and do of his good pleasure. That's the first thing
he does. And then the effect, when he
does that to you personally, and makes you see your sin and
your ruin and your helplessness and then he shows you his mercy
and shows you he's your righteousness. He makes you fear and tremble.
Not as a slave, but as a son. As a son. As one who knows by
experience his presence. I'm talking about his presence.
I'm talking about him being present with you. You know it. And you know that His will and
his good pleasure is then is that he works in us is he makes
our consolation and our comfort of love to be Christ alone Paul
started out there and back there in Philippians chapter 2 And
he said there if there's any consolation in Christ any comfort
of love any fellowship of the Spirit He makes you to know He's
your consolation and He's your comfort. By the fellowship of
the Spirit, shedding the love of God abroad in your heart,
He makes you to know that. And so you know what you do now?
You try to comfort your brethren who are in any affliction with
the comfort wherewith you've been comforted. I don't care what they do. How bad it is. You try to comfort
them by turning them to Christ and reminding them what Christ
has done for his people. Brother Adam read it. He's the
father of mercies. He's the God of all comfort.
He comforted us in all our tribulation, in all our, that means every
trial, every shape, form, and fashion of trial you go through,
He comforts His people in it. How does He comfort us? What
He said in Isaiah 40, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
the Lord. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and tell her that her warfare is accomplished, that I have
rewarded her double for all her sin. That's how we comfort His
people. And we know you only do that
when he has made you know that in your own heart, and keeps
making you know that in your own heart, so you keep comforting
your brethren with the same consolation Christ Jesus were with your comforted. His will and his good pleasure
that he works in us are bowels of mercies. That's what Paul
said in Philippians 2, if there's any bowels of mercy, bowels is
the innermost part of the man, the innermost part. If they're
in your innermost part of your man, you need mercy yourself. As God showed you, you need mercy
yourself. Has it just been mercy upon mercy
upon mercy from God shown to you and you see how much you
need his mercies and how abundantly he shed his mercies on you? Then
from the depth of your heart, you know what you want for your
brother? You want mercies for them. Tender mercies for them. We trust one another to Christ
who alone can work in his people, who alone works through the preaching
of the word. That's why we speak the word to one another. And
we pray for one another. And we trust when Christ has
worked in his people. And you know what we do concerning
their sins? We do just what Noah's sons did
when he was laying passed out drunk and naked. We turn our
backs and we put a covering and we walk backwards and they covered
their father's nakedness. Why did they do that to Noah?
They loved him. That's their father. They loved
him. And that's what we do. from bowels of mercies, because
we've experienced that same thing from our Lord. What did the Lord
do for you? I've covered your sin. I've blotted them out. I've blotted them out. That's
how he makes us have the same love and be of this one mind,
showing us mercy in the face of our vain glory and our striving.
He humbles us, and He makes us lowly in mind so that we esteem
each other better than ourselves. This is the salvation He's working
in you. He makes you see your own vain
glory, how vain it is to try to seek glory for yourself, and
He makes you see all your striving is in vain, and then He shows
you He's merciful to you in spite of it, and by doing it, He humbles
you down so that In lowliness of mind, you esteem your brethren
better than yourself. Does that mean we always esteem
our brethren better than ourselves? I wish we did. I wish I did.
I wish you did. And over the course of our lives,
since he called us, we do. But we get puffed up, don't we?
We become puffed up, don't we? None of this is, when you read
these words to us, the reason they're given to us, brethren,
is there was strife in the church at Philippi. There was strife
in every church. There is no perfect church. Never has been,
never will be as long as it's made up of sinners saved by grace. But he keeps bringing you down
by showing you his mercy to you so undeserved in the face of
our vainglory and our own striving and our own sinfulness, and He
humbles you. And that makes you really see,
my brethren are better than I am. And you really esteem them better
than yourself. And He just, you know, you get
a little puffed up, He works it again. Works it again. That E-T-H on that word, worketh,
it's God that worketh. That means He don't ever stop
this. And He won't stop this till the end. If He did, and
you've experienced this, you'd have fallen away just as surely,
but He kept you by His power. Brethren, this is what I'm gonna
close with. Our Sovereign's God is our Savior. Jesus, our God, that's who He
is. He's our Savior. And by experiencing
His power personally, we know He alone is able to make His
servants stand. Isn't He the only one that was
able to make you stand? That's when you know He alone
is able to make you stand, when you can confess, He's the only
reason I'm standing. It's Him. And so that makes you know he's
the only one that can make your brethren stand. And that makes
you trust one another to him with fear and trembling, knowing
he's working in them just like he's worked in me. He always accomplishes his will
and his people. He always does. Now, it might
not be what we're willing to see come to pass. I would have liked to see my
father continue with us a little longer. But it wasn't God's will. And
he may work something in the midst of his church that is so
contrary to your will. But you know what he does by
this? He makes you do what Aaron did. When God killed both his
sons at one time, he made Aaron hold his peace. He made Eli say,
it's the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. Because you
know, God did it, it's his will, it's his good pleasure, it's
gonna be for his glory and for our good. Brethren, believe him,
trust him, and trust one another to him. Believe him yourself,
trust him yourself, pray for one another, and trust one another
to him. Speak this word to one another.
This is how he keeps saving us. And if he's working you, that's
what you do with fear and trembling. Whatever we do to our brethren,
we're doing it to him who abides in them. So we want to be careful. We want to look, we want him
to have the glory. We want him to have the glory. Believe him,
trust him yourself and trust your brethren to him. Amen. All right.