All right, if you'd open your
Bibles to Philippians chapter 2. Our Heavenly Father, bless this
gathering of people this morning, and may our hearts and minds
be attentive to your book and to the preaching of it. And may
our minds be renewed by the things that we read in it. In Christ's
name we pray, amen. Now beginning in verse 12, We read, therefore, my dear friends,
as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now
much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with
fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will
and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without
complaining or arguing. so that you may become blameless
and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved
generation in which you shine like stars in the universe as
you hold out the word of life in order that I may boast on
the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. Now, this passage begins with
the word, therefore. And that tells us that what he's
teaching now refers back to what has just been said. And we spent
three weeks going over the first part of this chapter. in which
we are taught that as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, we
are to live in unity of mind and spirit. We are to be humble
with one another. We are to be willing to take
the lower place, willing to act subservient to one another in
order to maintain the bonds of peace within the church. And
the example of this that was given to us was the way the Lord
Jesus acted towards His Father. Now, the Lord Jesus was and is
in very nature God, and so He's equal to the Father. And yet
He willingly took a lower position. In fact, he took the lowest position
possible. He did not consider that the
rights and privileges of being God were something to cling to,
but rather was willing to give that up, or as the scriptures
say, to empty himself of these things. in order that he might
perform the work that his father had given him to do. And how
far did he condescend? Well, it was enough that he took
on the form of a man. He became a man. But he also
took the form of essentially a nobody. born in what would
have been considered a backwater town in Galilee. He wasn't, well, he was actually
born in Bethlehem, but he grew up in Galilee. He wasn't near
Jerusalem. He did not live his life where,
you know, things were going on and a person had a chance to
become important, but he grew up in obscurity. But he went farther than that.
in being willing to make himself low, he became obedient to death,
even the death of a cross, which meant he went from being God
himself to being a man cursed by God. Now, none of us can ever
condescend on that level because none of us are ever so high as
to be in very nature God, And because of his grace, if we are
believers because of his grace, we will never be cursed by God. But this example is shown to
us, and if our Lord could, who is equal with God, could take
on such a lowly form as a man cursed by God, certainly among
one another, we can be willing, though we're equals, all God's
people are the same in his sight, Even though we're equals, we
take this lower position. So Paul says, as you have always obeyed, not
only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue
to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Now, this passage is not about
doing something new. The Philippians had already been
doing it. He was urging them to continue
doing it and to do it more perfectly. There were some divisions. There was some who were involved
in grumbling, mumbling, murmuring, arguing. Nothing that we are
told to do in the scriptures, we're never going to do it perfectly
here. But we aim for it. And in aiming
for it, we make progress in it. And in making progress in it,
we are acting in a way that Paul in other places would call pleasing
to the Lord. And we are acting in a way that
makes us to shine like stars at night in this world. Now, Paul says, you did this
when I was present among you. When he first came there and
then Paul established this church. You read about it in Acts chapter
16. He was the one that he went there
and he found Lydia. Several women were meeting at
a certain spot for prayer and he found them and he spoke to
them the word of the gospel and Lydia believed it and she was
baptized and she told the rest of her household and they believed
it too and they were baptized. And a church was raised up and
later Paul was put in jail. And then the Lord miraculously
opened up all the jail cells. And when the Roman guard saw
that all the jail cells were open, he thought for sure that
everybody had escaped. And you know, back then, if you
were a Roman guard and anybody got away from you, they would
put you to death. That's how serious it was. And
so when he saw all those jail cells open, this jailer took
out a sword and was going to kill himself because he thought,
better I should kill myself than just wait until they come and
kill me. But Paul said, don't do yourself any harm. We are
all here. Now there's two great miracles
that happened that night. First miracle is this, God caused
the jail cells, all of them, to open up. And secondly, he
made sure no one left. Now, we know why Paul didn't
leave. Paul wasn't a criminal, and he didn't want to cause any
trouble to that Philippian jailer. But there were real criminals
in there. Why didn't they leave? They didn't leave because if
they left, it would have meant death to this jailer. Now they weren't thinking this.
This is why God made it happen. It would have meant death to
that jailer, and that jailer was one of God's elect, and he
could not die until he'd heard the gospel and believed it. And
so when the jailer found out that nobody had left, He said,
what must I do to be saved? Evidently, when he had been guarding
the Apostle Paul, he'd heard Paul preaching the gospel. Because
wherever Paul was, he preached the gospel. And churches have
prison ministries, so did Paul. Of course, the difference was
he was in prison when he had his prison ministries. And he'd
been preaching the gospel. I can't recall whether he was
in there with any of the other brethren, but I'm sure if they
were, they talked about it among themselves. And he would talk
about it to the other men who had been locked up because they
were criminals. And this jailer had heard about
it. And so seeing this miraculous
thing happen, all the doors are open and nobody left, when he
says, what must I do to be saved? He wasn't talking about being
saved from death, because he already saw that he wasn't in
danger of death anymore. He was saying, what must I do
to be saved the way you've been talking about salvation? And
Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be
saved. And the same is true for your household. And so the jailer
trusted Christ and they went to his household and the message
was told to them and they believed it and they were baptized and
they were added to that church. And of course, Paul continued
to preach and more people believed and there was a church there
in Philippi. And I don't know how long he
stayed with them, but the whole time he was with them, they did
everything he said. But now he's in jail somewhere
else. He's in chains and he's not with
them. And so he says, as you have always
obeyed, not only my presence, but now much more in my absence,
continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Now
he says that they always obeyed, This teaches us a couple of things.
First of all, it teaches us that the believer's conduct is viewed
in Christ. Did they always actually obey? Did they always, in every circumstance,
do what they had been told to do by Paul? That'd be highly
unlikely. I doubt even Paul did that. Everything that we have been
told to do in the scriptures, it is an ideal and we aim for
it, but in this life we will never reach it. Now we don't
excuse ourselves on that account, but nonetheless we strive with
whatever grace we have to be perfectly what we are told to
be and to act perfectly as we are told to act. We should always
do that. But in as much as Paul said,
you've always obeyed, what's that mean? He's describing them
as they are in Christ. And so here he's brought up this
in Christ business again. You see how important this idea
that all of God's people are in Christ? See how important
it is? It's how they're viewed by God, and it is how we are
supposed to view them. We view them as in Christ. And
in Christ, we have perfectly done everything we're supposed
to do. There is no other way that we
could be described as having always obeyed Other than this,
we are being described as we are in Christ. Secondly, this
assures us that this refers to everyday life, our everyday life as children
of God, whether we're waking, sleeping, working, taking care
of our family, work even relaxing. Why? Because he's talking about
something that's happening all the time. This is not a matter
of when we come to church we put on this attitude and then
when we leave church we take it off. We put on this attitude
and it's to stay on. We are to clothe ourselves with
this attitude and never change clothes. The believer lives a
life of ordained, predestined obedience. Look back at Ephesians
chapter 2. Now this is a very familiar portion
of scripture. But I believe that many miss much
of the meaning of the last verse. In verse 10 of Ephesians 2. Well, let's start at verse eight,
and then you'll recognize the passage. For it is by grace you
have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared
in advance for us to do. Or more strictly in the Greek,
it says, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. So what is he saying? He's saying
these things that we are instructed to do, God has ordained that
we will do them. And these works are done by us
without us necessarily thinking about it. or even being aware
of it. Because the grace of God that
brings salvation also brings these principles within our minds. It is simply an outworking of
the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, kindness, et cetera. These are things that God ordained
for us And he didn't simply ordain them in the sense of saying they
should do this, he ordained it in the sense that they will do
this. We are his workmanship and God
doesn't do any bad work. Now, what he's talking about is simply
living life. He doesn't mean that we're to
do these things and keep a record of them, as though we're tallying
up how many times we obeyed and fulfilled the exhortation. The believer is simply living
life, and in the sight of God, he is always obedient. Moreover,
since this is his state of being, he's exhorted to obey. So what does that mean? Well,
he does what he does, not in order to be obedient, but rather
he does what he does because in Christ he is always obedient. Now it says here, work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling. This is not the salvation of
our souls that he's talking about. as though by doing this we bring
to perfection the work that God began in us. Now, He began a
good work in us and it says He will perfect it. What's it talking
about here? Well, you know, in salvation,
that is in the whole scheme of salvation, part of it is this,
that God not only delivers us from the punishment of sin, He
puts within us a desire for righteousness. He puts within us a desire to
please Him. And so He says, work out your
salvation. He's saying, this aspect of your
salvation, bring it to the outside. It's already on the inside. Bring
it to the outside. Work it out. And when he says,
do so with fear and trembling, he doesn't mean that we are to
do that because, boy, if we don't, we might lose our salvation or
God might, you know, beat us about the head and shoulders
or anything like that. It speaks of reverence and it
speaks of understanding the great blessing and privilege that's
been given to us to be counted among the people of God. And
having been granted so much, does it not then make us sober-minded
in the way we approach our lives? Do we say, God has saved me from
sin, so it doesn't really matter what I do, I can just go out
here and I can live to my flesh, I'll still go to heaven. No,
the grace of God never produces that attitude. The grace of God
rather produces within us an attitude of awe-inspired submission
to God. He has forgiven me all my transgressions. Why would I think it to be of
no great matter if I add to my transgressions? When someone treats you good,
and I mean he does so in the face of horrible things that
you've done, would your response be to do more horrible things
to him? Or would it be, that's amazing,
I just don't understand that. The story is told of a man who
fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. And
he was captured, and because of things he had done, he was
sentenced to death. This man was an outspoken critic
of Abraham Lincoln, absolutely hated him. And there he is, captured
with a death sentence on him. And Abraham Lincoln pardoned
him. And it is written when he found
out about Lincoln's pardon, it melted his heart towards Lincoln.
And he became one of Lincoln's greatest proponents, supporters,
and highly esteemed him. And brethren, if in our minds
we capture what God has done for us, We go from hating him
or thinking that it's of no account whether we obey or not to where
we think, with such a gracious God as this, how can I do any
less than give all my heart and strength to obeying him and expressing
that fruit that he has created in me. We are to obey like this because
it is simply an occasion of God working in us to will and do
of his good pleasure. Shall I say God is working in
me to will and do of his good pleasure? So I'm not going to
try to do that? Of course not. I've, you know, I've said, and
I've heard other people say, oh, I wish just God would do
a work in me. He is. It may not be the work you're
looking for. People are looking for these fantastic displays
of divine power, you know, done through them. And really, they're
looking for one of two things, I believe. Normally, they're
looking for God to take away their tendency to sin so that
it's easy for them. Or secondly, they're looking
for God to do some kind of work in them that distinguishes them
from everyone else and gives them a right to some self-glory. God's not going to do either
one. You see, we glorify God in the
struggle. It's hard to make yourself subservient
to others. And we might say, Lord, make
that easy for me to do. But we glorify him. We show our
love for him as we struggle in the process. And we count this to be God working
in us. And we should not really expect
for him to do other work in us if we're unwilling to follow
him in the work he's already doing. Now in verses 14 and 15,
We find out how we're to do this. How are we to submit to one another?
And how are we to look on the things of others and not only
on the things of ourselves? Well, he says, do it without
complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and
pure, children of God, without fault and so forth. Without murmuring,
without complaining, without arguing. You know, the devil is always
at hand, or maybe it's just our old flesh. We really don't need
the devil in order to sin. But it's always there, and he
is able to take what is good and twist it into evil. Maybe,
for a moment, you truly do submit to your brothers and sisters,
and you act as you ought. Well, along comes the devil or
your own flesh and pats you on the back for it. What a good
boy am I. And when that happens, and then
we see others don't act that way towards us, I'm acting better
than that guy is. In fact, he's acting so bad I'm
kind of mad. He shouldn't do that to me after
I've been so nice to him. Maybe I won't do that anymore.
Or they dispute. Well, I don't have to submit
that much. How much did Christ submit to
his Father? When we've gone that far, then
we can say, okay, I've reached the limit. And then it says,
so you may become blameless and pure. Now this does not mean
blameless and pure in the sight of God because of the works we
do. That has all been accomplished
by Christ. This means in a crooked and depraved generation, that
crooked and depraved generation cannot bring any legitimate accusation
against us. You know, you might think and
we might think that, you know, because our sins have been washed
away by Christ and we're continually forgiven of all our sins, it
is irrelevant how we live. It doesn't make any difference.
Yes, it does. Our lives as well as our words
are testimonials to the world of what we believe. And so we live blameless and
pure before others. This means not only will we do
right by everyone, But when we are in public, we may avoid doing
those things that we know it's okay, but we know that the world
is looking. And they're looking for a reason
to find fault with us and therefore be able to dismiss us out of
hand. And so we don't do that for their
sake. And when we act that way, now
that doesn't mean they won't lay accusations against us. The
world has slandered believers since there was believers and
non-believers. But one reason they do it is
this, that when believers walk according to the principles of
grace, especially in their relationships with other people, they do stand
out. And their kindness and their
love and their generosity and all these things condemns the
selfishness of the world. Do you know why
the Pharisees didn't like Christ? Oh, they may have come up with
some theological things they didn't like about Him, but what
really bothered them? was that they professed themselves
to be righteous, and yet there he stood, and he really was.
And his righteousness condemned theirs, and he didn't even have
to say that. They could just tell. And it says here, we shine like
stars in the universe, or in the sky. You look up there at
the night sky. Well, the darkness, that's the
world. Believers, there are those little points of light up there.
And in this world, believers, Our light, says the scriptures.
We may not be a very bright light. You know, a star at night isn't
very bright. You can't read by starlight,
but you know what you can do? You can find your way. You can guide your ship across
uncharted waters because of those little lights in a dark sky. And if we shine forth the light
of Christ, and our lives are consistent with that in the presence
of the world, we become, as it were, directions to Christ. God will use us not only to prove
to the world that they're going the wrong direction, but to show
to his lost sheep what the right direction is. So he says, we shine like stars
in the universe as we hold out the word of life. I was raised in a church that
was very big on personal evangelism, and oh, there was tracts available,
you know, and their idea of personal evangelism was, actually, a lot
of them just pestered other people. Now, I realize the world's going
to get upset if you try to tell them the truth, but you know,
always sticking a tract in their face, always putting them on
the spot. That's not what we're doing. We're holding forth the
word of life. We're telling people what the
truth is. Now, if they don't want to hear it, we leave them. Okay.
You know, Paul preached in one place and they said they wanted
nothing to do with it. And he said, okay, you don't
count yourself worthy of eternal life. I'll go to the Gentiles.
And that's what we do. We preach. If they don't want
it, we move on. But we're holding forth the word of life, the gospel,
and in so doing, holding forth that word of life in word and
deed, we are lights in this world. And God uses that to direct His
people toward Himself. All right, you are dismissed
until the regular message.