with me here to Philippians chapter
2 and I want you to look with me
in verses 12 and 13 Philippians 2 12 and 13 the Apostle says here in verse
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. I want that phrase out there,
work out your own salvation. That's what I want to talk about
today, work out your own salvation. When he was exhorting the saints
to work out their own salvation, it's not to anyone but believers,
to Christians. And how do we know that? Look
in verse 1 of chapter 1. He's talking to saints, he's
talking to believers, he's talking to Christians. Paul and Timotheus,
the service of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus,
which are at Philippi with the bishops and the deacons. He's
writing to believers, to saints that are already in Christ, to
saints in Christ Jesus, separated ones in Christ. And he calls
them back over here in verse 12, he says, calls them my beloved. He had great affection for them,
great, great affection for them. And his exhortation is out of
love for them, out of love for their welfare, for their well-being,
for their hearts, for their souls. And he said, as you have always
obeyed, obeyed. You've obeyed. Obeyed what? You
obeyed the gospel. Believed the gospel. You believed
what he said there in verse Sixth through God, who Christ
being in the form of God. He said Christ being in the form
of God. He said, and he came down here
and took upon himself the form of a servant, found in fashion
as made in the likeness of men, being found in fashion as a man,
humbled himself and become obedient unto death. Not only death, but
the death of the cross. And I'll tell you what, he says,
you've obeyed the gospel. You believe the gospel. You've
obeyed it. You believed it. Unbelievers
don't obey. Unbelievers don't know the gospel.
Unbelievers don't obey the gospel. Only Christ's people obey the
gospel. Only saved people obey the gospel. And that's why he's talking to
believers only. And he says, as you have obeyed,
not as in my presence only. Oh, you obeyed when I was here.
I've seen you obey, I've seen your faith, I saw what you did,
I saw what you was as believers in this world. Not only in my
presence, but now look how, and this is one of the things that
he uses often, but much more, but now much more in my absence. In my absence, work out your
own salvation. They obeyed carefully, cheerfully,
not only when the apostle was present, but when he was absent. What does that mean? That doesn't,
that means that just, they weren't our servants. Well, when Paul's
here, we better act like, we better act really good. We better
act really saved. We better really honor the Lord.
We better be very careful when the apostle's here. But oh, when
he is absent, they weren't our servants. They weren't men pleasers
waiting for him to show up so they could start acting just
a little better, a little more spiritual, you know, and act
a little bit more, ready to go to be with the Lord. No, no,
they obeyed the gospel. Not as our service, not as men's
pleasures. Paul, they believed the gospel
as much when Paul was there as much as when he wasn't there.
And that's what we believe the gospel at home as well as we
do here. We believe the gospel when we
get out of bed, when we go to bed, as the day when we're right
here right now. And that's why he's telling them
that. They obeyed the gospel. They loved the gospel. And their
faith, their faith worked by love. Nothing compelled them
to believe. They didn't believe the gospel
out of fear. No, no, just because the apostles
there. They loved the gospel and believed
the gospel. And their faith worked by love.
And always, faith always works by love. It does not work for
any other reason than that right there. And then he says, work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now, when it says
here, work out your own salvation, it doesn't mean a man can merit
salvation or earn his salvation. It doesn't what it means at all.
It's not like preachers preach today. God does his part. And
he's done his part, now it's up to you to do your part. God's
done all he can do now, and it's left up to you. Well, I do know
this, that if salvation were by works, and men earned salvation,
and merited salvation, then Christ's death would be in vain. If you
had to work for it, then what would Christ Jesus go to the
death of the cross for? And the scriptures tells us so
plainly, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of your sins. We're talking about that faith
that works by, faith is not of yourselves. It's the gift of
God. It's not of works. Cause if it
was works, he said man should boast. But he says it's of grace
that men, not of works, that men should not boast. Cause if
a man says he has his part in it, he's gonna glory in what
he did. And God said, I will not give my glory to anybody
else. I'm not gonna do it. Not gonna
do it. And I tell you, I believe with
all my heart and soul that if I have faith, Christ gave it
to me. If I have faith, Christ's gotta
keep me believing. If I have faith, if I have faith,
my faith works by love. Nothing makes me believe but
Christ in me. Huh? Ain't that right? All right,
now let's deal with this just a little bit. He says, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling. Well, how in the
world can you do that? Well, the next verse tells us.
For it's God which worketh in you. It's God that worketh in you. And I'll tell you something about
when the Lord doesn't work. He doesn't do a work in you and
then walks off and leave you to make it about the best way
you can. He don't save you by his grace and then leaves you
to run a foot race with the devil and hope you beat him before
you get to the pearly gates. That's not what this is about.
No, no, no. He doesn't walk off and leave
us alone. Look what it says over here in
Philippians 1.6. Oh my. Being confident of this very
thing. I've got every, I'm confident
about it. of this very thing, that He which
hath begun a good work in you, and it's God that works in you,
He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it, oh my, will perform it unto the
day of Jesus Christ. So if God started a work in you,
it's a good work. God don't do nothing but good.
And I tell you for His people. And so God, if He starts this
work, He's gonna finish it. And how do we know that God's
working in us? How do we know that? Well, first
of all, you bring the gospel. Do you believe the gospel? And
believe it wholeheartedly. And when we talk about the gospel,
what are we talking about? We're talking about the gospel
of substitution. The gospel of satisfaction. The
gospel, you can use three words to preach the gospel. First of
all, you gotta deal with man as he is. Not as you think he
is, not as he hopes he is, not as he believes he himself is.
You gotta preach in man as he is. He's a sinner. born in sin,
shapen in iniquity, and he'll be a sinner to the day he dies,
and unless God, and he's born in sin, and listen, you gotta
deal with man's sin, gotta deal with his rebellion, gotta deal
with his hatred for God. You gotta deal with how he became
a sinner. You got to mention that man is
a sinner from the top of his head to the sole of his foot,
from his heart to the outside of his body. He is nothing but
sin. That's his nature. And then you
turn around and then you preach, well how in the world can we
deal with this thing called sin? We can't get rid of it. We can't
get shed of it. We can't change our own nature.
We can't stop sinning. We can't change our nature. We
can't change our heart. Well then how in the world is
our sin gonna be dealt with? God made a way for our sin to
be dealt with. And right there in verse six,
let's start reading right there. who be in the form of God. What
does that mean? That means that Christ was eternal
and he came down here and born in the womb of a virgin, an incarnation,
and was formed in the womb of that virgin, virgin's womb, and
he took upon him the form of God. He was God in this world. He was a man, but he was God
in this world. And I tell you what, he was why
our Lord says, you know, Father, glorify me with the glory that
I had with you before the world was. And I tell you what, and
he didn't think it robbed me to be equal with God. Now, if
I brag or boast about something I've done, I'm robbing God. A
freewheeler robs God. Antichrist robs God. But Christ
never robbed God. Christ was equal with God. When
He became a man, He claimed that Him and His Father were one,
that you can't come unto the Father but by Me. You don't know
God unless I make you know God. And our Lord Jesus said He was
the Word manifested in the flesh. So He never robbed God, He was
equal with God. And God Himself said, My Son
does always please Me. And that's why we believe that
Christ was incarnate. Then look what else. Oh my. Then man made himself a new reputation. He didn't put up a big sign out
and said, listen, I'm coming to town. I'm coming to town and
everybody wants something from me, better line up. He said, He came down from heaven
not to seek His own glory, but the glory of Him that sent me.
He said, a man that seeks his own glory, He said, he's not
of God. He's not of God. And I tell you, it took upon
Him the form of a servant. He said, listen, I come down
here to give my life a ransom. I come down here to serve God. I come down here to be a servant. I'm a slave of God Almighty.
And look what he said. And was made in the likeness
of men. When you looked at him, he was
looking at God and also at the same time he was looking at a
man. And being found in fashion as a man. Took upon himself that
form of a man. He looked like a man. He was
a man. He bled like a man. He hungered like a man. He slept
like a man. And oh, as a man, look what he
did, he humbled himself. Who did he humble himself to?
To man and God. What did he humble himself to?
This humble, this word humble means humiliation. He was so
humiliated. I think, and I've told you this
before, the cross was a humiliation. For they hanged the Creator of
heaven and earth naked on a cross. He was naked! He who created
the world was naked hanging on a cross. Hanging there, nailed hand and
foot. Blood was coming out of his face.
Blood was coming out of every pore of his body. But he became, he humbled himself,
humiliated himself, but the greatest humiliation I think that he had
was coming down here and identifying with worms of the earth like
us. To come down here and become
a man just so he could save us. As a man he could die, as God
he could satisfy God, and listen to this, he became obedient unto
death. Oh, it's one thing to die, but
our Lord died the death of the cross, the death of a criminal,
and oh my, well listen, that's not all, that's how our sins
was taken care of. Hebro came obedient, humiliated
himself, and came obedient to the cross. That, that is how
our sins are gone. Now substitution, Christ in our
place. And then look at this. And then not only that, he satisfied
God. And listen to this now. Oh, this
is why we believe the gospel wholeheartedly and love it. Wherefore
God hath also highly exalted him and gave him a name. Gave
him a name. Well, how big is his name? How
glorious is his name? Well, I'll tell you one thing,
it's above every name that's ever been named on this earth.
But he never gave nobody a name like him. And then look what
he says next. He says, now I tell you what,
one of these days, at the name of Jesus, every knee is going
to bow, every toe is going to confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. And this is exactly what
we do. After we've seen Him on that
cross, after we've seen Him exalted by God and set at His right hand,
now every single believer that loves the gospel wholeheartedly
and believes what I just said, they all already bow the knee
and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He's not trying to be
Lord. He don't want to be Lord. He's
my Lord and my God. And we bow the knee to him and
confess that. Oh, that's our confession. We
confess him. And then look what else he shows
us. Not only does he work in us to believe the gospel and
believe it wholeheartedly of substitution and satisfaction,
but he works in us to show us our total helplessness in ourselves. I mean, he works in us to show
us our, you know, We just read, there hangs my helpless soul
on thee. He works in us to show us our
absolute, utter helplessness in ourselves. Where are we gonna
get any help at? From Him, only from Him. He brought and made us understand
and worked in us to see the complete Sufficiency in our salvation
in Christ and Christ alone. And He's the one that works in
us repentance. He's the one that works in us
faith. And once you start repenting, you're always repenting. And
once you start believing, you're always believing. And He works
in us to make us feel the utter and absolute necessity of salvation
completely outside ourselves. Our salvation has to be outside
us. It has to be outside us. Our salvation had to be accomplished
outside us. I'll tell you something else
He works in us to do. He works in us to hunger and thirst after
righteousness. I mean, He works in us to do
that. Oh, we're talking about working out your own salvation?
Well, God's got to work in you first. He works in us to hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are they who hunger and
thirst after righteousness. Most are hungering after the
world. Do you know that? They're hungering after the world.
They got a great hunger for the world. They love the world. They love the things of the world.
They love the bibles of the world. They love the wealth of the world,
then they're hungering after happiness. Hungering, thirsting
after happiness. I think that's one of the...
Everybody wants to know, are you happy? Are you happy? Are
you happy? Henry asked Walter Gruber one
time down in Mexico. He said, Walter, are you happy?
Walter said, Henry, happiness has nothing to do with me being
here. Being here because I'm here because God sent me here.
And there's many and many a day that I'm not happy. You know,
say, be happy, be happy. But listen, there's a lot of
days I'm not, there's never a day that I don't have joy. Never
a day that I don't have peace. Never a day that I don't have
faith. But there's lots of times I'm not happy. What's happiness
got to do, if you was happy all the time, you know what you'd
be? You'd be an idiot. But everybody's after happiness.
That's what they want. That's all that Bible says. I
want you to be happy. Tell your children, I want you
to be happy. No, I want you to be a believer. I want you to
know Christ. I want you to know joy. I want
you to know peace. I want you to know the love of
God in your heart. I want you to know the love of
Christ in your heart. I want you to have faith. I want
you to be brought to repentance. Whether you're ever happy your
whole life, that don't make no difference. The thing is, do
you know Christ? There's lots of days I'm not
happy. If you're looking after happiness,
you'll be the most miserable person on the planet. Ain't that
right? If that's all you make is you're
going to be happy, you're going to never be happy. You make Christ
your goal, you make Christ to be what you're after, you make
Christ to be who you desire, and then, then you may have a
little happiness every once in a while. This flesh won't, listen,
oh my, my, my. And I tell you, people after
things of time, they're after things of time and sense. If
I can touch it, if I can taste it, if I can handle it, If I
can enjoy it, if it'll help my flesh, if it'll make me feel
good about what I'm doing. Oh, they're after things of time
and sense. Oh my, but you know what the
scripture says? We don't look at the things of
time. We don't look at the things of
sense. But I tell you, we're looking at the eternal things. Oh, the eternal things. We're
looking for that house whose builder and maker is God. And
this old earthly house be dissolved. Oh my. Only those who have been
made righteous, they're the only people that hunger after. You
know, why are you here this morning? Are you hungry and thirsting
after Christ? You should come here to hear about Christ. You
come here hungry? And we do, we come here hungry.
Hungry for the gospel, hungry for Christ. than only those who've
been made righteous hungry for it. And I tell you something
else, that person that's been made righteous, he's concerned
about being righteous before God Almighty. That's where he
wants to be righteous at. And then God, listen to this
now, God works in us a righteous nature, a righteous nature. Now what am I talking about?
We have a fallen nature, but God also gave us a new nature.
He gave us a nature that said, Christ in you. The scriptures
tells us that we cannot sin because of the seed of Christ in us.
Now we got a nature that can't do nothing but sin, but we also
got a nature that cannot sin. And that's that new nature that
Christ give us. You think I, I believe I can
prove that. I believe I can prove that. Want
me to prove it to you? You know, He made us a new creature
in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. But look over here in 2 Peter. Look at 2 Peter. I want you to
see this. You know, everybody talks about
imputation, but I tell you, God gives us a righteous nature.
And that's why Scott would often say, God would often say, I don't
have on a pasted on righteousness. And that's what a lot of people
think they've got. You know, if God gives, what
makes, what nature is it, now listen to me. What nature is
it that we call on God with? What nature is it that we believe
with? What nature is it that makes us desire God, makes us
desire Christ? What nature is it that causes
us to be believers and trust the Lord Jesus Christ and know
Christ? It's not with this old nature, that's for sure. Right? It's not like taking a stamp
and sticking it on an envelope. That's not what kind of righteousness
we got. God gives us, He gave us a new heart for one thing,
gave us a new spirit for another thing, He cleansed us. But look
what He said here in 2 Peter, and down here in verse 3. According as His divine power,
power from on high, hath given unto us all things, everything
that pertains, listen to this, unto life and godliness. How did he do it? Through the
knowledge of him, Christ, through the knowledge of God, through
the knowledge of Christ, that hath called us to glory and virtue. Whereby, by this power, by this
working in us, are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises. Now listen to this, that by these
you might be partakers of the divine nature. Oh, if it's the
same power that made partakers of the divine nature, made the
partakers of the nature of God. Being born again out of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible. You know, people, I've had some real deep
discussions with some men about this. God desires truth in the
inward parts. I tell you, people said, I ain't
got but one nature. If you ain't got but one nature,
then you got the nature of Adam. But God gives us a new nature.
He makes us new creatures. And I tell you, that new nature
loves righteousness. That new nature loves holiness. That new nature loves to know
God and to fellowship with God. It's the only way in the world
we can understand the Bible. It's the only way in the world
we can commune with God. And I tell you then, not only
that, but he works in us as desire after the Lord himself, as the
Lord for himself, for who he really is. And oh my, he works
in us a desire to be free from self. Oh, would you love to be
free from self? Huh? Paul said, oh, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? You
know, what he's saying is, is that I've got a dead body on
my back. Carry it with me everywhere I
go. An old dead body. And he said, that dead body,
he said, it's so corrupt, it stinks, it's rotten. And this
old dead body, oh, so, oh, wretched man I am. Who shall deliver me
from this body of death? This old dead body, this old
rotten nature that I carry on my back. Who's gonna save me
from it? Who's gonna deliver me from it?
who's gonna take this old wretched, he said, oh, the things that
I would do, I don't. Things that I love, I don't do. Things that I hate, I do. Oh,
wretched man that I am, who's gonna deliver me? Who's gonna
take this dead body off of me? Who's gonna take this weight
off of me? And it's there, and even the
next thing he says, there's therefore no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. He said, I can't do the things
that I would and the things that I hate I do. Then he turns around
and say, with this old rotten body on me, he said, I still
don't have any condemnation, no judgment in Christ. Now that,
you figure that one out. Do you feel the weight of that
dead body on you sometimes? Would you like somebody to reach
up there and get it and drag him off of you? Well, I tell
you, you know when you're going to get it off of you? When you
close your eyes. Your eyelids the last time. Sometimes
it gets so heavy that you just can't hardly stand it. And other
times you feel like he's not even there. But he's there. Oh my, who's going to save us
from this? And let me tell you this. I tell you, I'm taking
too long, I reckon. But anyway, he works in us a
desire. He works in a desire to persevere,
to keep on keeping on. We cannot go back. We cannot
go back. We can't do it. We just cannot
go back. That's what that man said. He
said, when his daughter come up there, he says, the first
person comes in here, I'm gonna sacrifice. And there come his
daughter. He said, I've lifted my hand
to God. I cannot go back. And we have, in our hearts and
in our souls, we, oh, that's why we say, Lord, keep us believing,
keep us cleaving. We cannot go back. What would
we go back to? Go back to the hog trough? Go back to a dog and his vomit? Go back to a life of rebellion
and hatred and enmity towards God? Go back? Oh, we can't go back. God won't let us go back. He
won't do it. He won't do it. Oh my, you know
when we'll be satisfied? When we'll really, really be
satisfied. when we awake in his likeness. Oh my, this hunger and this thirst
that I'm talking about, he works it in us and it is real. It is
real. It's as natural to a believer
as the new nature that he has. He hungers, he hungers for Christ. He's like the apostle Paul said,
I want to know him. I want to win him. I want to
be found in him. Did Paul not know Christ? Of
course he did. Did he not know Christ? Did he not have a knowledge of
Christ? Did he not have the righteousness? Yes he did. But he said, I want
to know him. I want to win him. And I want to be found in him.
Here's an apostle saying those things. Now ain't that what we
say? I want to know him. I want to
win Him! He's the prize! There's not a
prize in this world, there's not a trophy, there's nothing
you can have in this world compared to Christ being that winning
goal, being that goal that we're shooting for. And I want to be
found in Him, and now, and when we get to the judgment, to be
found in Christ! When God goes looking for me,
I don't want to be found in Adam. I want to be found in Christ.
Don't you? Oh, I want to be found in Christ. Now, he says, work out your own
salvation. Now, he said, we're working.
Work out your own salvation. Now, here's the difference. We're
working from life, not for life. We're working from grace, not
for grace. It does not say here, work for
your salvation. It does not say here, work towards
your salvation. It does not say here, work at
your salvation. Work at your salvation. Something
that you already possess. You can't work out something
that you don't have. Now, I was telling my sweet wife
this morning, I said, we get up in the morning, and we work
out our lives that day. What are you going to do today?
Well, I don't know yet. I'll have to get started. But
we work out our days from life to life. Every day, we work out
our lives. Whatever comes our way, we deal
with it. We sometimes say, well, if the Lord will, I'll be doing
some such thing, doing this and the other. Well, that's the same
way it is in salvation. Christ in us causes us to desire
Him all day. We're working out this grace
that's in us is coming out. This love of Christ for us is
working out. This grace that God gives, this
mercy that God gives, this life that God gives us, it's working
out in us every day, every day. And we're working from life,
not for life. We're working from grace in our
hearts because Not for grace, but because we got grace in our
hearts. Does that make any sense? Huh? And he says, you know, work
out your own salvation. It's given to you. Everyone,
given to you, your own. Not mine, yours. Well, let me show you. See, it's
your salvation is what it's called. Look over here in Ephesians chapter
one with me. Let me show you something. You
know it's given to you, your own salvation. I've got my salvation,
you got yours. Work out your own. Look what
it said here in verse 12. Ephesians 1, 12. That we should be to the praise
of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. Now listen to this. In whom ye also trusted, After
that you heard the word of truth now listen to this the gospel
of your salvation That gospel becomes a gospel. You know when
you when you believe the gospel That's the gospel of your salvation. That's the day you heard it have
become the gospel of your salvation That's why we're always preaching
Boy, do you believe the gospel? Somebody says, well, I do. That's
the day. The gospel became your salvation,
your salvation. And this salvation, this God
works in us, produces, and he says, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. And this salvation of fear and
trembling, holy awe and reverence. It's like this psalmist said,
be still and know that I'm God. Oh, cry unto Zion and say unto
Zion, behold your God. And we stand in awe of Him, in
reverence of Him. And we do it with fear and trembling. We know, we know that God's God. And we know who and what we are. Oh my. That's why we bow the
knee. That's why we confess with the
tongue the Lord Jesus Christ. We fear. We fear offending and
displeasing and dishonoring and bringing shame on God and on
His gospel. That's one thing I don't never
want to do. I've done that. I know I've done
it. I know I've done it. I've been Peter. I couldn't tell
you how many times I've been Simon Peter. Should have spoke up when I kept
my mouth shut. But we fear offending God. Displeasing
the Lord. And oh, I tell you what. It's
the opposite of presumption. Opposite of pride. Opposite of
vainglory. That's why he said, don't do
nothing through vainglory. You know what? Let me tell you
something. You know what vainglory is? Anything that you try to
do to glorify yourself, that's vain. You can't get no vainer than
that. You know, we see somebody in front of a mirror all the
time, you know, and talking to herself, you know, and fixing
her hair and all that, and they say, well, that's why they call these
things that women sit in front of with all them lights, that's
why they call them vanity mirrors. But now listen, I'm just playing
with you now, but listen, whenever you seek to glorify yourself
in any way, and take any glory away from Christ, it's vain,
When you try to make yourself better than somebody else, esteem
yourself better than somebody else, that's vain glory. Vain means empty, useless. Empty and useless. Oh my. We
the whole God keep me back from presumptuous sins. And he works
in us that we have no confidence, absolutely no confidence in the
flesh. Oh my, look over here in Philippians 3.3. Oh, we're
talking about, see, work out your own salvation, but I'm telling
you what God works in you. You can't work out what you don't
have, what you don't possess. If you ain't got salvation, you
don't know nothing about what I'm talking about. But if you've
got salvation, you believe the gospel, you're understanding
what I'm saying today. And He works in us, God works
in you both to will and do His pleasure. He works in us and
we have no confidence in the flesh. Look what it said in Philippians
3, 3. For we are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh. Nothing we've ever accomplished.
We have no confidence in ourselves, Before God, we have no confidence
in our good works. We have no confidence in anything
that we ever did, or anything that we ever professed. Before
the gospel, we have no confidence in anything we've ever thought,
said, or done. Our confidence is only in Christ. Huh? Oh my. And we know who it was that made
us to differ. By the grace of God, we are what
we are. I want you to see this verse in John's Gospel, chapter
3, verse 27. Shirley and I was talking about
this yesterday. John 3, 27. Look what it says here. John Asher said, a man can receive
nothing except it be given him from heaven. You can't get anything unless
God gives it to you from heaven. No man can receive anything,
nothing. Without me you can do nothing,
he says, you ain't gonna receive nothing. A man can receive nothing
except God gives it to him. And that's why we stand here
just like this. Oh my. And I'll tell you something else.
We have this treasure. God made us to differ. God made
us to differ. And we know we have a treasure.
Paul said we have this treasure. But this is treasure. You know
what this treasure's in? An old earthen vessel. An old
clay pot. That's all we are. But we're
God's clay pot. He's the one that made it. You
know, He took the clay. He made one pot unto honor and another
to dishonor. But every one He made unto honor,
He put this treasure in it. He put the gospel in it. He put
Christ in it. He done this wonderful work in
you. And you know why he says we have this treasure and earthen
vessel? That the excellency of the power may be of God. That we see that God did every
bit of this. Oh my, here we are, clay pots,
and he put this wonderful treasure in there. Oh, he puts that pearl
of great price. Oh, he puts all these wonderful
treasures in us, oh my, and show us that the power is of God. And then it says, you know, there
again in verse 13, it says, for as God which worketh in you,
both to will and to do, he is a good pleasure. God works in
us to do and to will, to do and to will. That's one
thing that really, really troubles me sometimes. If God's working
in somebody the will to do something, then He gives you the means to
do it. He gives you the means. If He works in you to pray, you're
gonna pray. If He works in you the will to
believe, Works in you that word, and you love that word, and you
want that word here in your heart. He works in you to love His word,
to bow to His word, desire His word. He works in you to the
worship. He works in you, you want to
worship, you need to worship, you got to worship. You got to
be with. He works in you, and this is
the things He works in you, to the night with His people. Sheep
want to be with sheep. Sheep want to be with sheep.
And I'll tell you something, one old fellow said one time,
we're in the business of dehorning goats and shearing sheep. I ain't
gonna dehorn no goats and I certainly ain't gonna shear no sheep. That's
not what God called us to do. Comfort my people, preach the
gospel to my people, love my people. Treat my people, oh,
I'd rather, God said to offend one of these little ones for
whom Christ died, put a millstone around his neck and throw him
out here in the middle of the ocean. Oh, to offend one for whom Christ
died? To mistreat one for whom Christ
died? Oh, we don't wanna do that. And I tell you, the older I get,
the older I get, the more concerned I get for people, the more concerned
I get for them. The more concerned I get for
everything. I don't know how to say this, but the older I
get, the burden gets heavier. I don't know if I can say that
right. But my burden for the people here, my burden for the
gospel, my burden for the church at Lantana Grace Church, it gets
heavier. It gets heavier. And I, you know, and I don't,
And I'm not saying that that's a bad thing. I'm not saying it
at all. I'm grateful that God worked in me to do that, to have
that. But I want to, we unite with
the Lord's people. And this is a wonderful thing.
Let me, I've got to quit. No, I can go to to any church
where they preach the gospel of the grace of God. And you
know what I do? When I go there, I feel it's home there. You know
why? Because we all believe the same
thing. And oh, I tell you, God works
in us to unite with God's people. And let me ask you this in closing.
Do you will to be righteous? Do you will to be faithful? Do
you will to be God honoring? Do you will to be a believer?
Do you will to love Christ? Do you will to love His Word? Do you will to love His people? Do you will to know more of Him? If you do, it's God that's working
in you, both to will and then to do it. God does that. God does that. Our Father, thank you for the
day. Thank you for meeting with us this morning. Give us your
presence, power. Thank you for your precious truth. Lord, I wouldn't offend no one
for anything, but not in my flesh or not in my... willingly or... Lord, I love you people. I love
you and I need you. and ask your great and precious
promises to be given to these dear saints of God that's gathered
out here this morning. And for those who've never yet
confessed their faith in Christ, and yet believed what I said
today, and understood what I said today, and believed it, felt
the experience of it in their heart, in their soul. If they've
never made their confession of faith in Christ, confess that
his name is above every name, Confess that they've bowed the
knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. If they've never done that, Lord,
give them grace to do it. Give them the grace to tell what
Christ has done for them, that Christ has already worked in
them. And Lord, we'll give you the praise and we'll give you
the glory and give you the honor, because we know it's your work.
It's your work. Keep us. Keep us today. And then when we meet this evening,
meet with us to worship again and honor you through the gospel.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's go to 327 in the
hymn book. 327. And we sing this, I think, to
the tune of Majestic Sweetness. I think that's right, but yes. 327, let's stand together. Oh, through a faith that will
not shrink, oppressed by media thought, that will not of any earthly woe, of any earthly
woe, that will not murmur nor complain beneath the chastening
rod. But in the hour of grief or pain,
we'll lean upon his God. We'll lean upon his God.