Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. Now today I'll be bringing the
message from the book of Philippians chapter two. If you'd like to
follow along in your Bibles, in the New Testament, the book
of Philippians chapter two. And I'm going to begin with verse
12, but my text is mainly verse 16. The title of the message
is The Word of Life. the word of life. Now the Apostle
Paul had just been encouraging the members of the church at
Philippi to get along, be humble, to work with each other in a
humility that is exemplified in the Lord Jesus Christ What
Christ accomplished in himself and in his work on the cross,
which forms the basis of Christian humility. Not only that, but
the basis of the whole Christian religion. When he talked about
Christ condescending, humbling himself to become obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Here is Jesus Christ,
God, who is the second person of the Trinity. Very God of very
God, as they say. The Son of God. The Word before
the foundation of the world. That He humbled Himself to inhabit
human flesh without sin. He had a human body. He is God
with us. And He did that for the salvation
of His people. He did that to die. He became
obedient. A servant. Think about that. What an awesome thought. Jesus
Christ, who is God, who made the world. Colossians chapter
1 tells us that nothing was created without Him. It was created by
Him and for Him. And it consists, it holds together
by Him. That's an amazing thing, isn't
it? He humbled Himself to become a man, God-man, without sin. And he became obedient. We read
last week in Galatians 4 that God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, that means all of the responsibility
of the salvation of God's elect was conditioned, placed upon
Jesus Christ as God-man, And He was made under the law to
redeem them that were under the law. And His work on the cross,
His obedience unto death was an actual redemption. He bought
His people and He will have them. And that's what grace is all
about. Grace is not God making us savable
if we'll cooperate. Because the Bible says that if
left to ourselves we won't cooperate, we won't believe, we won't come
to Christ. But it says here that on this
basis of the certain assurance of salvation for the people of
God based upon the merits of Christ's obedience unto death,
that's His blood, that's His righteousness, the righteousness
of God. He says in verse 12 of Philippians
2, now listen to this. He says, 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. Verse 13, for it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now
think about that. You know people take verses out
of context all the time. And I promise you, I don't do
that. I try not to do that. And if
you think I do, then you challenge me on it. I don't mind that.
Sometimes I don't have time to read all the verses that surround
one particular passage, but I'm not going to consciously or purposely
take it out of its context. But think about this statement.
Paul says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Now what do a lot of people do with that? I said we'll see there
he's saying that you gotta work your way into salvation and I've
even heard people say this I've heard people say well salvation
is not by works but once you get saved you have to work to
stay saved or to to be rewarded that is not what this is saying
listen to what it says listen to the context now he's already
shown that all of the conditions and qualifications and stipulations
of salvation were placed upon Christ who alone fulfilled those
conditions and those requirements and those stipulations. Who Christ is and what Christ
accomplished is the only ground of a sinner's salvation. What I do or try not to do as
a sinner saved by grace forms no part of the ground of my salvation. Now are there things that I do
and should do and not do and should not do? Yes. But that's
not the ground or the cause of my salvation. Salvation is by
grace And grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. So when he says, work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling, what's he talking about? Well,
he's talking about continuing, persevering in the faith on the
basis of what Christ did. He's not talking about trying
to work your way into God's favor, trying to work your way into
heaven. That's an impossibility. Work
out your own salvation. You can't work out or out of
your own salvation until you're saved. And you're saved by grace,
for by grace are you saved. Through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
That's Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. Verse 10 of Ephesians 2 goes
on to say, for we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. So, the salvation comes not by my works. It comes by
Christ's work, but I work out of that. In other words, I persevere. I seek to be conformed to the
image of Christ. And I do it with fear and trembling.
Now fear and trembling, what is that? Fear is not legal fear
of punishment. and it's not promise of mercenary
rewards earned by my works. Fear is reverence and respect. Sometimes fear is consistent
with faith. It's the same kind of respect
and regard that a child should have for his or her parents.
In other words, you obey your parents, not because you're afraid
they'll kick you out of the family or you'll stop being their child,
but you obey them because you know they love you and you love
them. It's a respect for that position. So those who work out
their own salvation with fear are those who regard and respect
the God of all grace. It's like saying this, I know
that God is my savior through Christ. I know I didn't earn
it. I know I didn't deserve it. I
am totally at His mercy. And so what I do for Him, I know
that I'm not earning my salvation. He's too big for that and I'm
too sinful. I know that it's because He has
given me freely all things in Christ. And then this trembling. What is the trembling? Well,
think about it this way. The greatest trembling that a
true believer can do is to think about this. I don't want to stand
before God at judgment outside of Christ. I want to know Christ. I want to know Him. I want to
believe in Him. I want to follow Him. Outside
of Christ, I have nothing but wrath from God. There's no love
from God outside of Christ. I'm telling you now, there's
no grace and mercy and compassion of God outside of Christ. Even
the good things that God gives unto the heathen, if they don't
ever come to Christ, if these people don't, if they don't ever
see the glory of God in Christ, what will it be? It'll be a curse.
You see, this trembling here is not a quaking with legal fear,
thinking, oh, if I don't do enough, if I don't have enough, or if
I don't live like all that. Listen to me. The trembling here
is understanding that there's no hope for me, a sinner outside
of Christ. It's understanding that if God
were to judge me right now, based upon my best efforts to obey
Him, I would not stand. I'd be doomed forever. I must
have Christ." And then he explains it in verse 13. For it is God
which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. You see, what he's saying there
is this. If I am a Christian, truly saved,
What I do that's pleasing to God, number one, I'm not the
source of it. Number two, I'm not the power
of it. And number three, I'm not the
acceptance of it. God is the source of it. God
is the power of it. And it's accepted in the beloved
Jesus Christ, washed in His blood. That's what it is. Cleansed by
the blood of Christ. I stand before God whole and
complete and certain for heaven's glory based on the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ imputed, accounted to me. Now, he says
on that basis, look at verse 14. He says in Philippians 2
verse 14, do all things without murmurings and disputings that
you may be blameless and harmless. That word harmless means sincere.
In other words, sincerely seek to do well, to do good. Not to
be saved, but because you already are by the grace of God. The
sons of God, you're the children, you see, a saved sinner is a
child of God. And he says, without rebuke,
that's correction, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
that nation here is Philippi, but the whole world is crooked
and perverse by nature. And then he says, among whom
you shine as lights in the world. You wanna shine as a light in
the world. Now, how do you shine forth as a light in the world?
Verse 16, here's what I'm saying. Holding forth the word of life. The word of life. Then I may
rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain,
neither labored in vain. Now here's what he's saying.
He's talking about evangelism. And he says, the mission of the
people of God in this world, in this crooked and perverse
generation. And understand now, when he says
a crooked and perverse generation, he's not just talking about the
immoral, perverted world. Now there is that segment of
society that we relegate to judge as immoral and perversion That's
true. But he's talking about the religious
immoral and perverted world. And here's what I'm saying. You
need to understand this. And if you don't get this, there's
no way you can understand the Bible. There's no way that you
can understand the reality of what salvation is and what Christianity
is and what the gospel is. And that's this. Now, this is
part of holding forth the Word of Life. Morality, human morality, human
sincerity, human religion, human charity, and human reformation
do not equal righteousness before God. Now, there are times in
our lives when we look out in this horizontal plane, we see
men and women, boys and girls, and we see one who is just an
out-and-out rebel, lawless, somebody who deserves to be in prison. And we'll say, well, that's a
wicked person. And then we'll look at another person who is,
as far as we can see, moral, sincere, dedicated, hardworking,
charitable, compassionate, and we'll say, well, now that's a
good person. We need to understand that when we make those judgments,
that we're talking about how we see people on this horizontal
plane. But when it comes to a right
relationship with God, how do we stand? The Bible says in Romans
chapter 3 and verse 10, there is none righteous, no not one. It goes on to say there's none
that doeth good, no not one. The Bible says there's not a
good person on earth who sinneth not. We have all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We don't have righteousness.
We can't be good enough to equal righteousness. And I'm talking
about in God's sight. And we don't want it God's way.
So we need to make that distinction. What am I doing right now? I'm
holding forth the word of life. I'm telling you this. Pick the
best person on earth that you can find. And I'm telling you that the
best thing that can be said of that person as far as a right
relationship with God is this, all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. Now here's what I'm saying, and
this is what people by nature don't like to hear. You pick
that best person on earth that you can think of, If God were
to judge that person based on their best efforts, their most
sincere efforts, their most charitable efforts, they would still fall
short and deserve nothing but condemnation and death. That's
all of us. You say, well, I don't believe
that. Well, okay. That means you don't believe
salvation. is by grace through the righteousness of another,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Now that's the light. When it comes to a right relationship
with God, the best efforts of the best persons on earth aimed
at establishing their own righteousness are wicked and evil in the sight
of God. holding forth the word of life. Think about it, John
chapter three and verse 19. Christ told Nicodemus, a sincerely
religious moral man, he says, this is the condemnation, that
light is coming to the world and men love darkness because
their deeds were evil. What deeds is he talking about?
He's talking about Nicodemus' deeds. His works. The Apostle Paul, before he was
converted, his name was Saul of Tarsus. And what kind of person
was he? Well, he was a sincere religious
Pharisee. He said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews,
circumcised the eighth day. That's touching the law of Pharisee. But he said, when I saw what
it takes to have a right relationship with God, and that is absolute
perfection, And I saw that in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished
on Calvary in His obedience unto death. He said, I count all that
but done that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of
God by faith. You see, here's what I'm saying.
I'm holding forth the word of life. The word of life. This is the light. Now, we are
in need of a righteousness we cannot produce or contribute
to. Is there any hope for me? Jesus
Christ, the Lord my righteousness. That's what it is to hold forth
the word of life. There's life in Christ. There's
no life in me. From me, it's in Christ. If I have life, it's in Christ.
And this is the word of life. This is the gospel, which is
the power of God and the salvation, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Yes, it's to everyone who believes,
but in order to believe, God has to give life. Christ said
you must be born again or you cannot see or enter the kingdom
of heaven. And if you think about these
things, you know, I think about the disciples over in John chapter
six, the Lord was preaching to the multitudes And many, when
they heard his message, they didn't like what they heard and
they left. They turned away from it. That's
too strong for me. That's too hard for me. And it
says in John chapter six, this is verse 66 of the book of John. It says, from that time, many
of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. These were just false professors.
They claimed to believe Christ, but they didn't. And verse 67,
it says, then said, Jesus unto the 12, will you also go away? And verse 68, then Simon Peter
answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of
eternal life. Holding forth the word of life.
Now back in Philippians 2, The Apostle Paul was encouraging
the Philippians to make certain that their attitude, their behavior,
their treatment of one another did not get in the way and hinder
their witness of this Word of Life. You see, if I preach to
you the Gospel, but my life denies the power of the grace of God
because of my bad behavior, my immoral behavior, then what good
is my witness? I'm talking about as you look
at me. The word of life stays the same. Listen to me now, and
you need to understand this. I've had people all the time
say, well, if I believe what you believe, I just go out here
and sin all I want to. My friend, you sin just about
as much as you want to anyway. You just don't admit it. And
if you don't do it in action, you do it in thought and attitude. But the gospel of God's grace,
which puts all of salvation conditioned on the obedience of Christ, His
obedience unto death, His righteousness alone, gives nobody an excuse
to live like the devil. No, sir. Now, are there people
who use it as an excuse? Yes. But that doesn't reflect
on the message The Word of Life, that reflects on their poor attitude,
their heart, their bad ways. That reflects on them. The Word
of Life is still the same. Grace is always grace, and it
doesn't change. But we who are saved, we need
to try to make our lifestyle fit with what we preach. Now,
No one is going to be saved by looking at the way I live. Let
me tell you something. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. What I preach to you is the word
of life. You can look at how I live. If
you want to put a microscope on me, I'm going to tell you
something. You're going to find a lot of fault. But I hope my lifestyle is in
line with what I preach. I'm not a perfect man. Paul said
we have a treasure, the gospel, the light of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ, but we have this treasure in
earthen vessels. That's broken pot, clay pots.
We're just weak instruments. And you say, well, I don't believe
what that guy preaches because look what he did or what he didn't
do. Let me tell you something, if that's the way you feel, then
the word of life has not been made life to you. The word of
life stays the same. The gospel is the power of God
and the salvation. But now Paul says, now be careful. Be circumspect. One place he
says, I believe over in the book of Ephesians, which means be
wise. Use wisdom. Use caution. Fight the good fight
of faith. War against the flesh. Don't
give in to the flesh. That's not going to make you
righteous, because Christ is your righteousness. But because
of love and grace and gratitude to Him, war against the flesh,
try to live a livestock. But the Word of Life, holding
forth the Word of Life, He says that I may rejoice in the day
of Christ. And I've not run in vain, neither
labored in vain. You see, it is the gospel which
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, the
Jew first and the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. The gospel, the word of life,
does not reveal to you that I personally am righteous in myself by my
deeds. In fact, just the opposite. The
word of life, the gospel tells you that it's impossible for
me to attain righteousness by my deeds. Whatever I do, the
best I do, if I give all my money to the poor and live in poverty
myself, that still won't make me righteous. I hear people talking
about individuals who have given up so much for the poor or for
the sick. And let me tell you something,
that's admirable. In human terms, on a human level, that's good.
But I'm telling you, the word of life says this, that will
not make that person righteous. Now I'm not saying that because
I'm mean or unkind or don't appreciate what they do. I'm telling you that because
this is the word of life. I want life. And life cannot
be attained except through one person and one person's righteousness. And that one person is the Lord
Jesus Christ and His righteousness alone. That's what grace is all
about. You see, the grace of God puts
everybody on the same plane. And that means this, we all need
a righteousness we cannot produce. That's the word of life that
the church is to hold forth. You see, that's why when people
hear me preach, I encourage morality, but I'm not just gonna give you
a moral pep talk. I'm gonna preach Christ to you.
And I hope that the Lord will use it to your salvation and
your edification. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
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today and may the Lord be with you.