Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Paul's epistle to the Philippians, chapter 2, and reading for our text, verse 13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians chapter 2 verse 13 and with it is joined verse 12. We'll read verse 12.

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. And I want this morning the word to be an encouragement to obedience and we can tell that this passage it is pointing in that way we have first the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ that is set before us and then in verse 12 we have the Apostle saying, as ye have always obeyed, so he's speaking about obedience, and now when he's absent from them, he's pointing them still to the way of obedience.

But also with this great incentive, a great encouragement, that it is God that is working in them. Of course, we know that there are many other passages that are used to encourage obedience. We think of our Lord Jesus Christ, if ye love me, keep my commandments. We think of James in his epistles, be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.

It is to obey and our Lord spoke several parables to that end as well. We think of the solemn word that was spoken to King Saul to obey is better than sacrifice. That was when he brought the goats and the sheep from the Amalekites so that he could worship the Lord. But the Lord had told him to destroy all of those, the Amalekites and all their goods. But he thought, well, he would know better, and so he kept some alive. And he said that it was for, to sacrifice to the Lord. Samuel told him it was better to obey than sacrifice.

So we could go to many parts of the Word of God and use them as an encouragement to us to obedience and to obey. But I want to look at this one this morning and especially thinking of those of us that We feel the fail many times in our obedience. We do not do what we ourselves allow should be done, and we feel to come so far short. We feel we have such an evil heart, we have Satan tempting us, and our resistance is very weak, and many times we feel discouraged because of our disobedience.

And this word then is to be an encouragement to us to obedience and for that promised help of the Lord in so doing. Now, of course, our text is not speaking or that which is gone before about working out your own salvation. It's not that we are earning our salvation by our works. We are not doing things under the covenant of works so that it is our righteousness or our obedience that gains us heaven. It is as we sung in Christ's obedient clothe and wash me in his blood. That is the context here too, Christ's obedience. But the people of God themselves are to be obedient and in that way, They're shown to be the people of God and it is a way of assurance for them as they bear fruit to the Lord's honour and glory.

So, especially thinking of verse 12 is pointing to that which is to be obeyed. And what is to be obeyed here is to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. The reason why I've just given out verse 13 as our text is because this is the verse that is really so encouraging and is so strengthening for the people of God. But the encouragement, of course, the direction to obedience is in verse 12. I want to look firstly at an example of obedience, and that is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that's given just prior to our text. And then secondly, a word to obey.

The word here is work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, but really to put it in this way, employ yourselves in things which accompany salvation. This is one reason why we read together Hebrews 6, speaking of those things that accompany salvation. And then lastly, an encouraging truth, which is the word of our text, that it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. This is a word that is not pointing to a fatalistic spirit, but pointing to clear directions in the word, how we are to walk and how we are to obey, but with the real assurance that it is God that is giving the power and giving the blessing.

But firstly, we have an example of obedience in the life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And we have from verse 5, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. So right at the beginning of this portion, these verses, the Apostle is saying what I am going to set before you, I am going to set before you the mind that was in Christ, how he walked, how he obeyed, and I want this mind to be in you. Let this mind be in you.

Don't resist it. Don't go in a contrary way. Let it be so. You know, it's a great blessing. One of the blessings for the people of God is that they are willing for the Lord to work in them. They don't resist it. They don't push it away. They are teachable. They are willing for the Lord to do. And, you know, those that are still dead in trespasses and sins, you might put truth before them, give them directions, but they resist it. They're not willing to listen. They're not willing to walk in those ways.

And so as if the apostle would say, here, I'm going to set before you the mind that is in Christ. And don't resist it, but let it, let it be in you. Let this be an example. We know, of course, and I just want to mention this because sometimes it's so emphasized in churches today, as if the life of our Lord was only a life of example. as if he did not come to put away sin, to endure the wrath of God in the place of his people, as if all he did was to give us a good example of charitable living and of loving neighbors or loving enemies. No. Our Lord's mission was far above that. And of course, this is referred to here. But when the apostle is saying Here is the mind of Christ, here is his life, this is example. That is not the only, though it is one important aspect of Christ's coming. Remember, the Apostle Paul himself said, be ye followers of me as I also am of Christ. So he as well was following the Lord, following his example. Well, the apostle then sets before us the mind of Christ.

Verse six, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. The second person in the Trinity, equal with God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, not robbery that he should be so. And yet he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant.

So I was pointing to his coming to this world, coming and being made under the law and made of a woman, to be actually formed in the womb, just like we are. Body, hast thou prepared me? And we spoke some time ago, I think, Psalm 139 where the baby is spoken of as being formed in the womb and he's pointing this is Christ being formed in the womb. This was his humiliation, this was his no reputation, not born to high standing but born to a poor carpenter, born into this world as a servant and brought to being a lowly position, was made in the likeness of men.

We could look upon him, the Jews did, and saw no difference between any other man. He was in the likeness of men. But in reality, joined to that perfect, pure humanity, sinless humanity, was his divinity, his eternal Godhead, God and man in one person. Many could not see that. They did not see that. It was fulfilled what was written in Isaiah 53.

There is no form or comeliness that we should desire him. And this was the path that he walked. The beginning of the path was a path of humility and lowliness. willingly walking in this path, being found in fashion as a man. So now he is picturing not only the humility and being made as a man, but now as a man, as on earth, how he walked then was also a path of humility. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Remember our Lord always spoke of the obedience that he had to his Father. The example of our Lord's obedience, his Working out in this life a righteousness that was to be imputed or given to us to be our righteousness, his obedience through that was a perfect obedience. And the obedience in respect to his father, how that his father gave him a commandment what he should say and what he should do. When he comes to Gethsemane, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. Even before he came there, when a child, the scriptures record how that he went down with his parents and was subject unto them.

So the obedience is also unto the powers that be, those that were ordained of God, in that case, his parents. And as far as they made laws in accordance with God's laws, subject also to the laws of those of the lands, giving tithing, working a miracle even that with the fish that was taken up and the coin in the mouth. Those that required of the tribute were not offended. A willingness then to walk in a way that was a way of obedience. And Paul, he summarises this here. And he could summarise it through the scriptures. He was obedient to the scriptures, that the scripture might be fulfilled on the cross.

He said, I thirst. to the works that the father had given him to do. He said that he was fulfilling those and doing the works that his father gave him to do. All the time he had in mind that which he said when he was 12, wist ye not that I must be about my father's business. The mind in Christ right through his life, was his mission, what his father's will was, his father's business was, what his role was in the world, why he came into the world. And this was his focus, his aim.

The apostle in Hebrews, he says, let us run the races set before us, looking unto Jesus. We should also have then a mindfulness that we are a people formed for His praise, that we should show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of nature's darkness and into His marvellous light, that as our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and came into it to do a work, a work of His Father, so we have been brought into this world and born again and formed of Him that we might be to his praise, and that is only so as we are obedient unto him.

We mentioned the case of King Saul, and we can very easily think to ourselves how we should be obedient to God. King Saul said to Samuel, I have done. He had convinced himself that he had done what God had required. And so Samuel said, well, what meaneth then this sound in my ears, the bleating, the sound of the lambs? But Saul was saying, I have obeyed. And we can easily put our own construction on what we think the Lord would have us to do.

If we were to think of the case of the two ladies, Mary and Martha, both Lord's people, what would the Lord have them to do? What was the way properly to serve Him? What was it that He would command? Would it be Martha's diligence in preparing a lovely meal and getting everything ready and being so careful and troubled and diligent? Or would it be Mary that was sitting at his feet and hearing his word? Well, the Lord commended Mary that she had chosen that better part. And you might say both of them were seeking to serve the Lord or to be a help to the Lord. both no doubt felt that they were doing that which was right, but one, the Lord would say, no, that is not the better part. You're very diligent, you're very busy, but this is not what I'd have you to do.

And that applies to a lot in our lives. And we can think to ourselves what is pleasing to God separate from the word of God. not having regard to it, thinking that there's some other things that will make up for a lack of obedience to the word of God. This whole idea of obedience is not deciding what we are going to do. It is doing what someone else wants us to do, someone else has told us to do, directed us to do. And so we have to think in that way, especially concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. His focus was very, very clear.

There was one time that his face was set as it were to go unto Jerusalem. So much so that when he went through Samaria, the Samaritans would not receive him. That was when the disciples thought they'd call down fire from heaven, consume them, Our Lord reproved them. He said, the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. But our Lord had made sure that as his face was set to go to Jerusalem, he wasn't sidetracked. It was like when Elisha sent Gehazi to the Shunammite woman's son that was dead. He bid him that if any salute him by the way, don't salute them back. Don't be sidetracked. Don't be turned aside to something else.

But we tend to do that. Either we don't know clearly what God has directed us to do, or we imagine what he would have us to do. And we go doing that, and our ears are not open to what the Lord would have us to do. Sometimes, and especially the context here, our Lord's path was a very humbling path, very low path. That path, if the Lord chooses out for us a very humble and low existence, a position in His Church, Instead of a great big flourishing church or a wonderful position in that church to be put in a small church or a humble position, if that is the Lord's will, that is the way we walk and we don't seek that we might be something different, but take real comfort in that we are in a path the Lord has appointed us to be in. Our Lord is to be a real example of obedience to us, especially in his humility, especially in his realising and knowing his Father's will, and to be so focused to fulfil and do that will.

May we be the same. Know what is our Father's will, know what is the Lord's will, know what we should be obedient to, how we should walk, how we should act, and that will be to the honour and glory of God. Time to look then secondly at a word to obey. A word to obey.

Having verse 12, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And it is in a very similar way what we had in Hebrews 6, where we read then that we are to do those things that accompany salvation, And verse 9, but beloved, we are persuaded better things of you. And the first part of Hebrews 6 is speaking of those that have fallen away, those that have walked contrary, those that have put the Lord to an open shame. And really verse 6 is a key to that, because they had made out they were Christians.

They had made out they were converted They, for a time, had been walking in the way of the Lord. Then they turned around and openly said to people, no, there's no God. It's not true. And just thrown it all away, rejected it all. And he pictures them, most solemn characters.

But then he says, we are persuaded better things of you, things that accompany salvation, things that are joined with it. They're not salvation, the salvation through faith in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, our righteousness in Christ, but the things that are inseparably joined with them. You think of the word, that by their fruit ye shall know them, and from me is thy fruit found. And it is in that obedience that whose we are, whom we serve, is very, very clearly seen.

Of course, going back to our Lord, we think of his testimony that God was his father, and the works of his father, that is what he did. But he had the Jews come to him, and they said that Abraham is our father, and God is our father. But the Lord said to them, if God was your father, then would you do the works of God, the works of your father. But the works that you do, they are the works of your father the devil. And he could tell whose God they were by their works, whose God they were serving and who they were following by their works, by their fruits, you shall know them.

Out of the abundance of the heart, man speaketh, with the heart man believeth, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So that was a very solemn word that the Lord spoke to them, but for God's people, it should be the other way around. Like our Lord, His works showed who His Father really was, by whom He was serving and obeying.

And so Paul, he says here, we are persuaded in verse 9, Hebrews 6, we are persuaded better things of you, things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. The very practical godliness, the godliness that James speaks of when you see one destitute of food and clothing, You don't just say, well, go away and be warmed. I'm going to pray for you. If you've got the things to help them, you give them a bed. You give them warmth. You give them food.

And so it is that practical ministry. We know that we pass from death unto life because we love the brethren. And it's a labor which is showed not toward men, though men are the beneficiaries of it, but toward his name. And so true religion is a practical religion. It affects how we actually live in our life, what we do, what we say. It's those things that belong to salvation. God's people are to be fruitful. their lives, show the reality of God's transforming work in their lives. They are different. Paul, when he was unregenerate, was persecuting the people of God. When he was called, then he was preaching to those same people. So how is it then, and what are we to actually walk in?

Well, going back to the example of our Lord, a lot of time it is our attitude that is so vital. And it is to be in the spirit that things are done. Looking at verse 12, it's not only just saying, work out your own salvation. It says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. A real soberness, a solemnity, one that really realizes the God before whom we stand.

You think of the example of David bringing up the ark unto Jerusalem. There had been commanded in the wilderness that the ark would only be carried on the shoulders of the Levites. But when the ark was taken into captivity by the Philistines, the Philistines sent it back in Samuel's day on a cart. And David copied that. When he first brought the ark up to Jerusalem, he put it on a new cart and pulled by oxen.

That was not what God commanded at all. He was not being obedient to the way God would have it done. And instead of the Lord just saying, well, they're all rejoicing, they're happy, they're good, they're bringing up the ark, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how it's been brought up. Remember, the ark is setting forth the Lord Jesus Christ. But when the oxen shook it, and as it put forth his hand, touched the ark to steady it, then God slew him.

And David's reaction was, who can stand before this great God? And he feared to bring up the ark. The ark was taken to the house of Obed-Edom. David had such a sense of the power, the sovereignty, the majesty of God. But that fear was balanced because then the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom. And when the Lord had blessed them and David heard of it, then he was encouraged to bring up the ark.

But this time, he was very careful, and he charged the Levites that they should do it properly upon their shoulders. So the fear of the Lord was a balance of, on one hand, realizing what the Lord could do, on the other hand, Realising His kindness and graciousness. Realising we need to serve the Lord in the way He has appointed, not in the way we wanted. It's a similar way in the wilderness where the two sons of Aaron, they offered strange fire before the Lord and the Lord slew them.

Because that fire had not come from heaven, it had not been taken off the altar, they had kindled it themselves. And so we have these instances where people were making out their serving. We think of the golden calf. The children of Israel didn't say, well, they said, these are thy gods that brought thee out of Egypt.

But it is said that they were worshipping the Lord, as if they wanted something tangible, a figure, something to see, to worship the Lord. And so many would say that. We are worshipping the Lord, but we want this idol, and we want something we can see, as to how they should worship the Lord.

And so what is set before us here is to obey and work out our own salvation, or what God has wrought in us, with fear and trembling, realising before whom we stand. It takes away a trifling, a light spirit. It takes away the spirit. Well, anything will do. And it makes us to really desire to do the Lord's will and Thinking of those examples, the Lord will mark it if we don't.

It's not a matter of no importance, it's very important. And we think of the Lord as, the ark as being a type of the Lord. How is the ark, how is the Lord to be portrayed? How is he to be set forth? And it is through preaching, through the word, through being lifted up by his servants. That is how he is to be worshipped.

Very little is spoken of in the New Testament of singing in worship at all. And where it is, it's always in instruction and teaching. Solemnly today, many so-called churches would have 90% of seeing and using also the not solemn words of scripture, but the ways of the world, the lyrics of the world, the music of the world, and then just a few minutes preaching of the word. The order is completely wrong. It's not obeying what is set forth in the word of God and also in our lives. How many will say that they are Christian, but their lives are very worldly lives, very carnal lives.

They walk according to the course of this world and do the things that this world does. And so what is set before us here is a real godly fear before our eyes, a reality of the eternal God who will not be mocked, who will be served in the way that he would have us to serve Him and to be mindful then of what He sets before us.

We think of again regarding the fear of the law of the New Testament Church in Acts 5, because we had Ananias and Sapphira who tried to imitate what those were doing by being moved by the Spirit out of love, selling their houses and lands, and giving the money to the apostles to distribute to the poor.

So they thought they'd like to do that, but they wanted to keep some of the money themselves. But they didn't want that to be known, so they made out that they were giving all of the money that they got from the sale of the land to the apostles. If they'd have said, look, we've sold the land for this much, we're giving you half, That would have been quite all right. But they lied about it. They made out they were giving everything, not just half.

And so they were, one after another, were struck down dead. And we read, great fear fell upon the church. Then a few verses later, we read that the church was greatly blessed and multiplied. So that fear, that reverence, It didn't have an effect with people saying, well, if this is this God, we're not having anything to do with Him. It was a reason of real blessing in the church at that time.

We need the fear of the Lord. We need that reverence of God, the filial fear, a childlike fear of God, not a terror, but a childlike filial fear to obey Him and to obey Him in the way that He will have us. to go. So we think of some of the scriptures that point to this in verse, in chapter four of Ephesians, Paul's letter to the Ephesians. We have in the first few verses, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Sounds very much like the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In all His humility, doesn't it? And so, if we are then walking in the Lord's ways, we will obey and use of the means, the word of God, the gathering together of the people of God, the hearing the preaching of the word of God, those things that the Lord has enjoined to his people, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner that some is, and we're exhorted to walk in a way that glorifies him, He says in verse 17 of Ephesians 4, This I say then, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, being blind because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.

And so he goes on that ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Again, we have the spirit coming in, the spirit of our mind, that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and through holiness.

And so then through this passage, We have these directions, verse 25, putting away lying. Then in verse 26, be angry and sin not. You think, how can we do that? Well, we can have a controlled anger over something, and it be a righteous anger, and God is angry with the wicked every day, but it's not a sinful anger. And then we have verse 27, to not give place to the devil.

The devil's all the time tempting, alluring to this or that, like he did with our first parents, to go against the word of God. If we go and do the works of the devil, we're going against the word of God. Remember the Lord in his temptations. The devil's saying, if they aren't the son of God, Command these stones that they might be made bled. If the Lord gave place to the devil, he would do what the devil wanted him to do. So three times, the devil wanting him to do different things. But the Lord rebuffing him with the word of God. And again, we are to follow the Lord in that when we are tempted, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Verse 28. Let him that stole steal no more, and let him rather labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. That ties in with James as well, being a practical godliness. Verse 29, edifying speech, that no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Verse 32, be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.

Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, he's putting very practical ways of obedience, walking in ways that God himself has set before us and would have us to walk in. And so we could apply this to all of the word of God. If there are things that we are doing We hope that we are doing them with acceptance to God. Is it that which is set before us in the Word? Or are we choosing our own way of acting, but it's not really obedience to the Word of God?

And so in every aspect and every way of our lives, it's like when Paul was first converted, his first words to the Lord was, Lord, what wilt thou? have me to do. Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. So we're not to think great things, not to think things that would puff us up with pride, but really the smallest things mean your things. Often think of the case of Joseph and of David.

Joseph, he obeyed his father, taking and going to see his brethren. And that was the beginning of his going down into Egypt and everything that happened there. If he hadn't obeyed in that simple matter, then none of the next steps would have taken place. David, when Goliath was challenging Israel, if he hadn't obeyed his father, he wouldn't have gone down. Goliath wouldn't have been slain. It began with simple obedience. and may we be as obedient children.

Well, I want to come to the last point, which is of a real encouragement, which is really the word that we've tried to focus on as our text, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. The secret power of God. an unseen power, a grace and a work in the people of God that is put forth so that they are able to do what the Lord would have them to do. You might think, oh, I haven't had that power and that help, but are we seeking to do something the Lord has not promised help in or not even bid us to do? There's a great comfort in realizing that if we are obeying something the Lord has told us to do, the Lord will give us power. When the Lord says to the man with the withered hand, stretch forth thine hand, he didn't say, Lord, my hand is withered. I can't stretch it forth. He did. And in stretching it forth, it was healed.

And it's so with us as well. It's not by fatalistic spirit, an inaction spirit, just saying, well, if God wants me to do it, he'll just move me to do it. No, he shows what we are to do, and we're to seek to do those things, but doing it in his strength.

It is God which worketh in you. What a secret power. We're told when we're brought before rulers, for his name's sake, we're not to pre-think of what we're going to answer. For the Lord will give you a mouth and a wisdom which they won't be able to resist. It's not you that speak, it is the Holy Spirit that speaks in you.

Some wrongly apply that to to the ministry is if we shouldn't prepare and shouldn't be diligent in studying the word, we should just get a text and get up and just speak whatever first comes into our mind. But that's a perversion of the scripture. That is not right. We know when we are to preach, we are to bring a text. And if we bring a text, we should study that text and know what it means. But if we are in a situation which we do not know what questions are going to be asked, We aren't able to think of what is going to be set before us.

We have that assurance that the Lord will give in the hour what to speak. And of course, we have the Lord's promise, the Lord feeding his servants to his apostles to tarry at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. We need the power of God to help us in preaching and for the word to be blessed. to those that hear, it's vital that that is so. But we as ministers, we are not inspired. We preach the word of God, which is inspired, and bring that before you. And so we have this promise here, which is a real encouraging truth to those that may feel very weak, feel to fail so often, feel very inadequate, that where we are able to lay hold upon what the Lord has actually bid us to do and to lay hold on this real encouragement that God works in us. He gives us that will. He gives us the ability to do what shall then glorify his name. And this is to be an encouragement. We are to lay hold on this. They hold on it in prayer.

Come before the Lord in prayer and say, Lord, I see what thou has had me to do in thy word. Or maybe we have to ask, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Show me how in my situation and my life and what my lot is, perhaps in affliction or in being homebound or in employment or in schooling or whatever it is, show me how I am to be to glorify your name, to obey thy word, and seeing what I am to do, to give me strength, take away the fear of man, give me that ability to do what thou hast had me to do.

And it's a great mercy when we realise the Lord is giving us that strength and giving us that help. Yet often it is unperceived. You may look back and realise that we having received help of God, the Apostle says, I continue unto this day. The Lord giving grace, the Lord giving perseverance, the Lord giving his word, giving encouragements through the preaching of the word, helping us to continue, not to go back. but to be those humble believers, consistent in the word of God, not seeking great things, not seeking them for ourselves, but to be content, to be obedient unto the Lord and unto the faith, be a humble walker after the Lord Jesus Christ. May this word then be an encouragement to us. We think of Paul's similar word in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. May we be found then walking in those ways that the Lord has ordained for us and will give us strength and will to do and perform. Amen.