Okay. Open your Bibles, if you
would, to Philippians chapter 2. Now, you ever hear people
say about practical Christianity or daily Christian living? You
ever hear stuff like that? We are going to see an exhortation
today, and in the next few weeks, of practical Christianity, what
we would call practical Christianity, which we would call living out,
fleshing out what we believe. We're also going to see the human
responsibility side of our God is sovereign, right? And then
we as humans are fully responsible as well. So we're going to see
how the Lord by the Holy Spirit gives us an exhortation, how
we are to live in this world, how we're to live in this world.
And you know, it's just resting in Christ. It's just trusting
in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Ordinary
Christian life is resting in Christ, trusting in Christ. Look at this in Philippians chapter
2. We'll read verses 12 to 18 to
see the context. Now he's told us about Christ
and having the mind of Christ in the preceding verses and told
us about Christ's humiliation and his condescension and his
death and his resurrection and his exaltation. Now look at this. Look at this. Starting in verse
12. Wherefore my beloved, I love
that, he calls him the beloved. As ye have always obeyed, not
only, or not as in my presence only, but Now much more in my
absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. We're
gonna find out what that work out your salvation means. Because
it can't mean our salvation through Christ, because we have nothing
to do with that. We're just receivers of the mercy
and grace of God. For it is, look at this, for
it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. Do all things without murmuring and disputations,
that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without
rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom
ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life,
that I may rejoice in the day of Christ. And I have not run
in vain, neither labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon
the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice
with you all. For the same cause also do you
joy and rejoice with me. Now, look at verse 12 here. This
will be our text. I was going to do verses 12 and
13, I thought I was, and then the more I put this message together,
the more these verses need to be separated. Verse 12, it says,
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, 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. We see the word
here Wherefore, right at the very beginning of this verse,
and what that's doing is it's keeping us on the subject that
Paul's been driving home, actually the Holy Spirit through the pen
of Paul has been driving home, which is humility. If we have
humility, there'd be unity, right? What's the opposite of humility?
Pride. pride. And this also is an exhortation
for us to not be high-minded. Right? Not to be self-seeking. But as we see this vein of humility,
we see an example in our Savior. He's God. And He became a man
and humbled Himself. And was totally obedient to the
Father's will. To save us. From our sins. By the shedding of His blood.
And He accomplished that, didn't He? He completed that task. Right? Perfectly. Weaving a coat
of righteousness for us. And then redeeming our eternal
souls with the shedding of His blood. And now He's being exalted.
And has a name above all names. So Paul is continuing this subject
of humility. And again, the forefront has
to be the humility of Christ. Of Christ. Which again, the Holy
Spirit through the pen of Paul is set forth as an example. And
Paul brings forth, bringing forth saying, since
you've heard my teachings, and obeyed the exhortations of God,
whether he preached to them in person or whether he preached
to them by letter, they've obeyed those exhortations. And he's saying we need to work
out these Christian attitudes and principles, which are called
your salvation here. Not of our souls, because we
have nothing to do with that, do we? But we need to be saved from
temptations, don't we, in trials and also even sometimes disunity
within the body. What's the one way we can have
unity? Humility. I've told you all that I'm a
servant of the church. So are the deacons. We're here
to serve you. We're here to serve the body.
Not be vaulted over, but to serve. Oh my. And in doing that we serve
Christ, don't we? We serve Christ. So this, your salvation, again
is not the salvation of our souls, but the deliverance of the church
from strife and division. Remember false teachers are attacking
them. These churches coming in saying, Paul doesn't know what
he's talking about. And Paul's just preaching Christ, isn't
he? He's not getting carried away with anything else. He preaches
Christ and him alone, that salvation's only in Christ. And if we have
the mind of Christ and live and walk in humility with our brethren
and those around us, you know what that'll do? That'll avoid
strife and division. What causes us to not get angry
at the situations going on in the world and in our lives? God. God. Do you know that left in my natural state
and this happened before I was saved, I would get angry with
God about things. And It was because of my own sinfulness. But when you're born again, and
you realize that God's in control, you realize that all things happen
according to His will and purpose. Now, we don't always understand
that, do we? And sometimes we're very perplexed with the situations
we go through, very perplexed. But ultimately, we bend our knee,
don't we? And say, okay, Lord, This is all happening because
of your will and purpose. I don't understand it, but I'm
going to bow to it. And we will have less strife
and our division in our lives if we approach things humbly and bowing in submission to the
Lord's will. And we walk in humility. When
we walk in humility and live in humility, in fear
and trembling, now this fear and trembling here, This isn't
a slavish fear. What you said earlier about Travis,
he didn't want to say anything wrong. And even you told me,
I don't want to say anything wrong, Wayne. That's the fear and trembling
that the scripture is talking about here. Like Travis, when
we get up and teach and preach, the fear that we're going to
say something wrong. Oh Lord, please don't let me say something
wrong. Don't go anywhere where you don't go before me. Give me the words to speak, which
he does. Oh my. So it's a reverent fear,
beloved. And this is how we live our lives
now, in humility, not seeking ourselves, things of ourselves.
Sister, what you said earlier, I'm not going to say about the
house, right? You're content. And we become content with what
we have. We become content in the situation,
in the station that God has us in. And if He moves us from one
position to another position, we're content with that. Because
it's His will being worked out in our lives, right? But that has to come from the
Lord, doesn't it? And that comes from us walking in humility and
living in humility before the Lord. Surrendering self to the
Lord's will. Isn't that amazing? And we do
it willingly. Like you said, I want to be,
or I heard, I heard Sister Carolyn say, I want to be here. I want
to hear the gospel this morning. That's wonderful. You've been
here for years, Sister. But you still, you still have
that. You want to come. You want to hear it. You want
to hear the gospel. That's the Lord working that in you, Sister.
It's amazing. Giving you that desire to hear
the gospel. To hear, hear about salvation
in Christ alone. And the last thing we want to
do is disturb the harmony and the unity of the church body.
The last thing we want to do as God's people is to cause strife
and division. We want to live in harmony, don't
we? We desire that. We desire that the prime thing
would be the furtherance of the gospel from this place. whether
it be us just sitting here or whether it be the gospel going
out on the internet. We desire that. Oh my. And we also walk with
serious caution and humility before, not only before our great
God, but before men, don't we? You ever been sitting there,
I'm gonna be candid here, you ever been sitting there, just
sitting somewhere doing something, and a thought will come in your
head, and you're like, oh my gosh, where did that come from? Or a sin will come in your mind,
and you're like, Lord, I need you to help me. I need you to
help me, Lord. And he does, doesn't he? He does. He helps us. He gives us grace
to help in time of need. Now, before we were saved, that
wouldn't even bother us. Do you know that? Those thoughts wouldn't have
even bothered us. But now, we're born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. Now we have faith in Christ. Right? Now, the flesh is worn against
the spirit. Oh my. So we desire to walk humbly
before our God and before our fellow man. And again we don't,
we desire not to, not to harm the unity within the body. Let us remember our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ and how he was among men. Scripture says
he went about doing good. He didn't seek an audience, did
he? He didn't seek fame. He didn't come into this world,
even though he's king of kings and lord of lords, like a prince
being born into this world. He was born in a lowly manger. My oh my. And think of how he
lived his life, perfect before God, with humility. He was humble,
meek. Meek doesn't mean weakness, it's
quiet strength. He was meek and humble before
man, and he's God overall, blessed forever. He made himself so low in human
nature. And now he is so highly exalted,
beloved. Isn't that amazing? Having done
the work and completed our salvation, how? By the shedding of his precious,
precious blood. Redeeming our souls. He who was made low is now exalted. Has a name above all names. Jesus
Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords. So we're to humble
ourselves under the Lord's hand. Let us lay aside all self-seeking
and be gentle and kind to each other. Now, it is natural for
us to be self-seeking. Do you know that? I'm selfish. Are you? I'm selfish. I'm a selfish
man. I admit it. I hate it. But I am. But God is working on me. Like he's working on you. And
we're being conformed to the image of Christ. We're being conformed, beloved.
We don't see it, but God does. I heard something, yesterday
I read something that was so beautiful. It said, I think I
even put it in a bulletin today, about the Holy Spirit. It said,
He's the Sculptor. He's just chipping away because
He's conforming us to the image of the Son. He's just working away on us.
We're just, we're clay. And He's molding us, making us
into that which we should be, conformed
to the image of the Son. Isn't it beautiful? It's wonderful. So, we're to lay aside all self-seeking
and be gentle and kind to one another. And when we think upon
the great mercy, this is how it's easy for us. I know. It
was so funny. I can't remember. I was in the
kitchen. I was in the kitchen making a tea. Making a tea yesterday. OK? I love my iced tea, right?
Got my ice in there. Got my tea in there. Got my water
in there. Right? It's just perfect. Put my trivia
in there. Stir it up. And I went, put my
hand up. And Vicky has this, what is it?
oregano hanging from the, dried oregano hanging from the counter,
the up top, right? And you know what happened to
that oregano? It went right in my drink. And I'm like, who put that oregano
up there? Well, I knew who put it up there.
And my bride, she's wonderful. She's like, didn't you just write
a sermon about humility and all that? Because I tell her everything
I'm studying. And I'm like, yeah, I was already
thinking that. And go dump the drink water.
Go get another tea. See? Gentle. Kindness, right? But we're all the same, aren't
we? We're all the same. Oh, man. That's what I love about grace,
folks. We're just real with each other. This is who you are. What
you see is what you get, right? But you know what can curb that
kind of thought and that kind of reactions? It's thinking about
the mercy that God has had upon us. And while I was thinking, God
don't get angry with me like that. Oh well, it's just a tea. Make another one, Wayne. Right? Right? Let's make another one. But the mercy that God's showing
us, think of that, the mercy. We're forgiven, beloved, of all
our sins that we deserve to be punished for, Charlie. And because Christ died in our
room instead and shed his blood, we will never face the punishment
that we deserve because it fell upon our King. When we start thinking like that,
it'll cause us to be more gentle with people, won't it? And I'm
preaching to myself here, guys. I'm preaching. And to have more
mercy with people. You know? And isn't it funny?
Vicki says this sometimes at night. I'm not trying to point
you out, babe. But sure say, you're so sometimes
gentle and long-suffering with other people, but sometimes with
the family, right? And it's true, because we all
are this way. We're all like this. And it's something I actually
despise, because my dad was like, he was the guy that everybody
loved him, and then at home it was hard. And I vowed to never
be like that. I don't want to be like that.
But we are harder on our family members than we are on anyone
else. Aren't we? So let us have humility in the
home too. Right? Oh my. And again, I'm preaching
to myself here. Right? See, that's why I said
to Vicki, this is a very, I put this message together, it was
so convicting. But it's good for us to hear this, isn't it?
It's good for us to hear this. And this is in the scripture
for a reason. My oh my. So think of this. We have all
our sins forgiven in Christ. We have a perfect righteousness
to stand before God. We're justified by Christ. So
much so that no charge can ever be laid against us. None. None. And that'll cause us to praise
the name of Christ, won't it? That'll cause us to praise his
mighty name. That'll cause us to be kind and
gentle with other people. Oh, it will. So let us always
remember this. We're just mercy beggars. That's
all we are. We never graduate from being
mercy beggars, beloved. We don't. We're mercy beggars
when the Lord saves us. And we're mercy beggars all the
way home. And then, while in glory, we're praising the one
who's had mercy upon us, aren't we? Oh my. And we, by the grace of God,
so many outside of these walls, so many outside in the world,
have no idea about this. We have a refuge by the grace
of God. And it's only by the grace of
God. Because there is nothing in us. God didn't look down through
time and see we would choose him. He saw we were all lost
and he had mercy on some, didn't he? And Travis, praise God, with
that number, eh? I love that song. Praise God
He included me. Cause I know I didn't seek Him. Did you? No, we didn't, did we? Let's read verse 12 again. Oh,
by the grace of God we have a refuge for our souls. In His name is
the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior of sinners. Look at this.
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always as you have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Let's go
back to Philippians chapter 1 and see the word wherefore. It takes
us back to Philippians 1.27 where Paul writes this by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God. We'll read 27 and 28. Only let
your conversation be as it come of the gospel of Christ, that
whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of
your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one
mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing
terrified by your adversaries. which is to them an evident token
of their perdition, it's an evident token of their condemnation,
but to you of salvation and that of God. See the words there,
that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together
for the faith of the gospel. We see Paul here, Paul's exhortation
to the Philippian saints to conduct themselves as citizens of heaven.
When we walk in humility, we're just conducting ourselves as
citizens of heaven. And note the emphasis there on
living in harmony and unity with the fellow saints. The peace
that we have now here comes from God the Holy Spirit. And it comes
from living in humility. No one's self-seeking. We're
a body of believers gathered together worshiping our King.
And then look at Philippians 2 chapter 1 to 4. Paul here gives
three reasons within these verses which in themselves are enablements
why believers should live in unity and together and further
develops the theme of Christian unity. Look at verses 1, verse
1 to 4. If there be therefore any consolation,
that's comfort in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship
of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies. Here's the first
reason. Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded. Look at that. Having the same love and being
of one accord and of one mind. Remember in the book of Acts,
we're seeing that they were of one accord and one mind. And
then here's the second reason. Verse three, let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory but in lowliness of mind. Let each
esteem others better than themselves. That goes against self-seeking,
doesn't it? Don't seek to vault yourself up, ourselves, over
anyone else. We're just a bunch of sinners.
And then here is the third reason in verse four. Look, not every
man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
We're not covetous of what others have. We're content. We're content with what we have.
And then, in verse 5, Paul tells the Philippian believers that
such unity is one of the essential elements in the mind of Christ.
Look at this. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus. Now we're going to see the humility aspect come through
here. And note, all this is centered around Christ. See, when religion
talks about practical Christian living, it's all about what you
have to do. We desire to live in humility. We get convicted,
don't we? I got convicted yesterday, beloved,
of how I was. And it's a constant reminder,
I'm just a sinner. Constant reminder. Oh my, look
at this. Think of this too. No Christ,
no peace. Right? No Christ, no unity. No
Christ, no Christian love. Oh my. And note here how our
Lord Jesus exhibited the basic quality of unity, humility, and
self-denial in his incarnation. Note how he did this. Because
remember, he's being fully obedient to the Father, right? To his
will. Look at this, verse six to eight. Who being in the form
of God, so he's God before he even comes, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. He's equal with God. But made
himself of no reputation, this speaks of his humanity, and took
upon him the form of a servant, who was made in the likeness
of man. In being found in the fashion
of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death.
Look at that, lived a life of humility. That's why Paul says
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, let this mind be in you, which
is the mind of Christ. It's a mind of humility. We're
not humble by nature, beloved. We ain't even humble by trying.
It's God the Holy Spirit that has to work that in us, doesn't
he? Oh my. And being found in a fascist
man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Now, let's go to Philippians
12, 13, where we were at, and we see now the Apostle Paul,
again by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, exhorts the saints in
Philippi to make the humility and self-denial exhibited by
the Lord Jesus Christ a fact in their lives, and a fact in
our lives. Look at this. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye
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. Note, and I love this, we've
mentioned this before in other epistles we've studied, note,
Paul calls the Philippian saints my beloved ones. Oh my, what
love he has for the people of God. The underlying Greek word
is plural. It's plural, my beloved ones.
Oh, it's beautiful. And the word beloved in the Greek,
you know what it means? Get this, this blew my mind away
when I found this. Do you know what the underlying
word for beloved means? Worthy of love. How are we worthy of love? Someone
tell me. We're not by nature, are we?
But in Christ we are. Oh, worthy of love in Christ, beloved. Like you said, brother, we are
not worthy in our own self, not at all. That's the last thing
we're worthy of. We're not worthy of much. We're
worthy of punishment. We're worthy of the damnation
of God. We're worthy of the wrath of God. We're not worthy of the everlasting
love of God. This is grace. This is pure,
unmerited, unearned grace. Worthy of love, which again,
can only be true of us in Christ. And this love is the love of
God spread abroad in our heart that we talked about in our Galatians
study, that's the fruit of the Spirit, remember? It's not natural
to us. It's not natural to us. We have
a love for our family that's different than our love for our
brethren, though, in Christ. This is the love of God spread
abroad in our hearts. And it's produced by the Holy
Spirit of God. We cannot produce this love. And this love makes us sacrifice self for the church. By putting esteem,
remember what we looked at earlier? Esteeming others better than
ourselves. That's selfless love. Not self-seeking
love, which we naturally have. I'm learning, are you? I'm learning.
Oh my. Isn't God amazing? Oh, teaches
us so much. And this is the same love that
the Apostle loved the Philippians with. The same love we have for
one another, beloved. And we see in verse 12 that Paul
exhorts them to work out their own salvation. Now let me make
crystal clear first what this does not mean. First of all. Does not mean we work for one
salvation. For two reasons. Paul was writing
to those who were already saved. They're already born again. So
it can't mean salvation. And we know that man adding anything
to Christ's finished work is no longer salvation. Because
salvation is only in Christ and Him alone. He accomplished that at Calvary's
cross. by the shedding of his precious blood to redeem our
eternal souls. The words work out are the translations
of a Greek word which means to carry out to the goal, to carry
to its ultimate conclusion. The same way we would say the
student worked out a problem in arithmetic. They worked out
the problem. That is, he carried the problem
to its conclusion. That's the way it's used here.
The Philippians are exhorted to carry their salvation to its
conclusion, namely, Christlikeness. Christlikeness. The salvation
spoken of here is not justification, but victory over our sin. Victory
over our sin. In the living of a life pleasing
to our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we now desire, isn't
it? We know we fall far short, but we still desire that, don't
we? Do you sin more than you want to? Yep. Right? Oh yeah. Oh my. Now how do we do these things?
By our own strength? No. See this is the amazing thing
too. Not by our own strength. We're
the first to acknowledge that. We're going to look at next week,
without Christ we can do nothing. Because it ties into verse 13.
We can't do anything without Christ. My. How are we conformed to the
image of the Son? By something we do? No! By the
Holy Spirit of God, right? See, religion's all, you gotta
do this, you gotta do this, you gotta do this. Grace is just
trust Christ and rest in Christ. Live your life in humility before
God. He's growing us. He's conforming
us to Christ. Oh my, so we're to rest and trust
in Christ and walk humbly before our great God and our fellow
men with fear and trembling. See, again that fear there is
not a slavish fear. It's a reverent fear for the
Lord. He's God. He's God. It's a reverent fear.
Leaves us in awe. It causes believers to walk with
caution. Brother Travis, we shake when we preach the word of God.
Why do we tremble? Because we're handling the Word
of God. And we do not want to say anything wrong. I was reading a thing this week
about this preacher, and it said he was supposedly, he was a fundamental
preacher, called at 12 years old, and he said after preaching
three, four times, he wasn't nervous anymore. Huh. Never heard of that before. One
of my old mentors, Gene Harmon, used to say, if you ain't nervous,
you're dead. Because you're handling the Word
of God. Oh my. And this fear and trembling in
our text will cause us to live with a tenderness of conscience,
beloved. It'll keep us vigilant against temptation and It's the
fear that's in opposition to and opposes high-mindedness.
The last thing we want to be is high-minded. This fear and
trembling. We have no reason to be high-minded.
We're sinners saved by the grace of God and Christ. Oh my. And we're not to be high-minded
but fear. And this fear and trembling in our text will cause us to
take heed lest we fall. There's a constant awareness
with this fear of the deceitfulness of our hearts and the power it has. Oh my. And it causes us, it causes us
to live with caution and alertness and to desire not to offend and
dishonor our great God, the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we see here set forth in this
text human responsibility because we do not desire now that we're
born again to live a life for self. We desire to live a life
for Christ now. Brother Jim and I had a conversation
years ago. I think you had been talking
to your son and it was about not going out and doing whatever
we want. No, the believer won't do that
anymore. He desires to serve Christ, desires to honor God
by looking to Christ and resting in Christ daily. Micah says this,
he has showed thee, O man, what is good and what is what the
Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy and
to walk humbly before our God. That's what we desire, isn't
it? We not only desire to show mercy
to others, but we love mercy because God's had mercy upon
us. Oh my. And we worship and adore
our great God and King, the Lord Jesus Christ, and desire to walk
before Him in humility. You know why? Because we're absolutely
dependent upon Him. And next week's verse, look at
this. Look at verse 13 quickly. I'm going to close with this.
Look at this, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and
to do of his good pleasure. Where see that this is an attitude
of humility and the spirit, the spirit of love and unity, which
is not of our doing. But it's God who energizes us. Is that word worketh? I believe
it's that one that's energized. I was thinking the energizer
bunny, right? You know, they always go on about that, the
energizer battery. God energizes us by his power, beloved. Look at
this. In you, both to do, to will and
do of his good pleasure. Salvation of the Lord, praise
His mighty name, and He keeps us. Aren't you thankful? Oh, it's not of our doing. And God will work in us what
He pleases according to His will and purpose. And we say, praise
His mighty name. Praise His mighty name. My, oh
my. Brother Jim, would you close
us in prayer?