All right, if you would open
your Bibles again to the book of Philippians chapter two. Passage
Brother Jonathan just read for us. Titled The Message this morning,
Work Out Your Own Salvation. Our text begins in Philippians
two, verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you've
always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now
let me remind you that we always have to be very careful when
we're reading scripture that we don't take a verse out by
itself and look at it by itself and say, this is what this means. You can't know the meaning of
any verse of scripture until you've done at least three things,
maybe more, but I know these three things. Number one, we
have to look first at every verse of scripture in light of the
rest of the scripture. You know, no one verse of scripture
contradicts any other verse of scripture. It all has the same
message. No scripture, no passage, no verse is of any private interpretation. So the meaning of the verse we're
looking at has to match the meaning of the rest of scripture or we've
got the wrong meaning. Number two, we've got to look
at the verse in context of the passage that's around it. What's
the subject? of this passage. And third, we
have to look at to whom the passage is written. And even then, after
you've done those three things, even then we're dependent on
the Lord to show us the meaning, to reveal Christ to us in it.
But you got to do those three things or you won't have the
correct meaning of the verse. And here's why this is a very
good example of what I'm saying. If we're not careful, we'll lift
this verse 12 out of scripture and look at it by itself, we'll
say, well, salvation is by works. I got to work out my own salvation. At the very least we'll think,
well, I got to keep my salvation by my works. God saves me, but
I got to work out my own salvation. We'll think it's by works. If
this is the only verse we look at it, well, you know, that's
not so. Every person in this room knows
that's not so. Well, let's see if we can find that out with
our threefold test. Look first at Romans chapter
three. First, remember the first thing we gotta look at is what
does the rest of scripture say? Let's look at just two verses
here, Romans chapter three. Romans three beginning in verse
19. Now we know that whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, by us working this
out, working the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be
justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. The only thing the works of the
law can show us is how sinful we are. So salvation can't be
by works of the law, can it? One more scripture, Ephesians
chapter two. Ephesians two verse eight. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works. Lest any man should boast. Well,
the message of scripture is salvation is not by works. No son of Adam
can produce the perfection that God almighty requires. Salvation
is by grace. That's the only way a guilty
sinner can possibly be saved, isn't it? Is by God's grace in
Christ Jesus. That's the message of all of
scripture. So verse 12 in our text, when
it says work out your own salvation, cannot be saying salvation is
by works, can it? That contradicts the rest of
scripture. All right, second, what's the subject of the passage?
Well, the subject of this passage, Philippians chapter two, is the
believer's attitude. What's our attitude toward each
other? How is it we're supposed to treat
each other? What motivates us to treat each
other by grace and be kindly and in love? Well, the believer
is motivated by grace. We're motivated by the gracious,
loving example that our Savior set in his sacrifice for the
sin of his people. See that in verse 12, Philippians,
or verse five, Philippians chapter two? Let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus. That's the subject of this passage.
Let this mind be in you. All right, third, to whom is
this passage written? Well, it's written to believers. Look, the
whole letter's written to believers. Look back at chapter one, verse
one. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints, the believers, those who are
made holy, those who are saved, those who are saints in Christ
Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops and the deacons.
And in verse 12, he says, wherefore my beloved, my beloved brethren
in Christ, those who I love in Christ, this passage is written
to believers. It's not written to unbelievers
telling them how to, how to be saved. This passage is written
to believers who have already been saved by God's grace without
their works. So we know verse 12 is not, when
it says work out your own salvation, it is not telling us salvation
is by our works. Well, what does it mean? Well,
the only way we can understand what verse 12 is saying is by
reading it with verse 13. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. If you've
got any will and any ability to do God's good pleasure, it's
because God's working in you. It's not you, it's God working
in you. Salvation is the work of God
alone. It's all of God. God began the
work of salvation in election when he chose a people to be
saved. He chose those people to be saved by the merits of
his son. Then God performed the work of salvation. God the son
came in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he obeyed God's law
perfectly. He established righteousness.
He brought in everlasting righteousness, and then he was made sin for
his people. He took the sin of his people away from them, and
he put it away by the blood of his sacrifice. God performed
the salvation that he promised. And then God applies that salvation. God, the Holy Spirit, applies
that salvation by work of grace in the hearts of his people,
by the new birth, when he causes a new man, a new nature to be
born in them. Here they sit, some of them maybe
years and years, hearing the gospel preached, One day they
hear it. One day they believe it. One
day they love it. One day it's not just doctrine
anymore. Now they're in love with Christ. They need Him. They
come to Him. Well, what happened? The Holy
Spirit applied that work. They applied the blood to the
heart and gave the life and faith in Christ. God's the one who
applies that work in the hearts of His people, but He doesn't
end there. He doesn't apply it to their heart and then leave
you up to work it out your own self. No. God's going to finish
the work. Whatever he started, he's gonna
finish it. He'll finish the work. He's gonna perfect all of his
people. He's gonna bring them to glory
where every last one of them are made just like Christ. That is too glorious for this
human mind to ever comprehend. To be born in the flesh in the
son of Adam and end up in glory being made just like Christ.
Oh my. Hasten, Lord, today. Don't you
look forward to that. But it's not time for that yet.
If it was, we'd be there, not here. So until then, the Lord's
given us a work to do. He's given us something to do
in our generation. Paul's going to talk about it
later on here about shining his lights in this dark world. God's
given us something to do for his glory in our generation,
in our time. And the only way we can do it,
It's by God working in us. God's got to give us the will
and the ability to do it. Now, three points that I believe
will be helpful in this matter. Work out your own salvation.
And I'm going to combine the first two points into one. I
don't think that's going to be too confusing because my first
two points are questions. What are we supposed to do? And
how are we supposed to do it? I want to deal with those two
things together. Well, what are we supposed to
do? Well, Paul says, work out your own salvation. Now, what in this world does
that mean? Work out your own salvation.
Well, here's what it means. Remember, if you got to look
at it in light of verse 13, it's God that worketh in you both
the will to do of his good pleasure. It means if God saved you, God's
done a work of grace in your heart. He's given you a new heart.
He's given you a new nature, a nature that believes Christ,
that loves Christ, that loves salvation by grace, that wouldn't
have it any other way, even if you could change it. You only
want the righteousness of Christ. You only want the holiness of
Christ. You want him to be your all. You want him to be your
prophet, your priest and your king, your wisdom, your righteousness,
your sanctification, your redemption. Oh, you love him and you trust
him. You believe him and you love his people. God's put that
nature in you. Now work it out. It might be
in there kind of deep. Work it out till it comes out
to the outside. Let what God's put in your heart
be seen on the outside. I'll tell you what working out
your own salvation means. It means live like a child of
God ought to live. Janet tells me and her children
all the time, please show the world I've taught you something.
God's done a work of grace and He's made you a child of God.
Now act like it. Act like God's taught you something.
Conduct yourself like somebody's been born again. Every believer
here claims, I've been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit.
You claim it. Now do it. Do it. Work it out. Well, preacher,
how am I supposed to do it? Can you give me some specifics?
How am I supposed to do that? Well, I can tell you. It's by
looking to Christ. It's by relying on God to work
in you. It's not trying to do its own
self. It's by relying on God to work in you. Working out your
salvation means to live a life of faith. Everybody here has
got a life to live. You've got families to raise,
you've got jobs, you've got things you're supposed to do. Do those
things depending on the Lord. Whatever it is that God's put
to your hand to do today, Do it with all your might. God's given you something to
do today. Give it everything you got and do it like the success
of it depends upon your effort. While you know, I mean, you know
it's not, but do it like the success of it depends upon your
effort, trusting the Lord to make it effectual. Here we preach. We plant, we water, There's some effort that goes
into this thing. There's some effort, some prayers, some sweats,
some tears. There's some seeking God's will,
seeking His Word. Or show me what this means. Give
me the message for your people in this hour. I've been preaching
from this before. But Lord, what's your message
for this hour for your people at this place? I mean, there's
some effort that goes into this thing. And I don't shy away from
it. But I'm telling you, we depend
on God to give the increase, don't we? See, do with everything
you got, but depend on God to give the increase. Give everything
you got, but just, we're depending on God to accomplish His purpose.
I know I can't, but He can. Working out your own salvation
is just, it's live. Live your life trusting God.
Live your life, center it around the worship of God. Seek ye first
the Kingdom of God, His righteousness. These other things be added to
you. I'm not saying these other things aren't important. I mean,
buddy, you've got to go to work. You need to eat. You need to
sleep. You need to play. You need to
enjoy time with your family. Do all those things. I mean,
do them. Do them trusting the Lord, relying on Him to use you
in His service. You just go to work tomorrow.
I mean, you just don't know what door the Lord may suddenly open
up. for you to talk to somebody. Just live your life. Do what
you got to do. Do what God gives you to do.
Trust in Him. And I tell you what, work it
out by prayer. We know it's God that worketh
in us, both the will to do His good pleasure. Well, Lord, give
me the will. Give me the will to do what you
give me. Give me the desire. Give me the
ability to do it. Lord, I believe you. I want to
live a life of faith. I believe you. Lord, increase
my faith. It creates our faith. Oh, enable
me to do it. Now Paul says work this out.
Now when I think of working out, I think of physical exercise.
If you want stronger muscles, tell you what, work out by lifting
weights. If you want a stronger heart,
do some aerobic workouts, you know. You got to work this thing
out. If you want to hit that softball
doing 200 miles an hour, moving up like you got to work it out.
Don't you got to practice? Work it out. That's what he's saying
here. If God has saved you, he's put a new nature in you. Now,
work it out. Exercise it. Exercise it. Now,
let's look at this. Work out your own salvation in
light of the rest of this chapter. Look back at verse one. If there be therefore any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
spirit, if any bowels of mercy. Now if God saved you, he's put
love. He's put compassion in your bowels,
in your innermost being. That nature born of God the Holy
Spirit is a loving nature. Now take it out and exercise
it. Show your love for each other. Show your love for Christ by
Worshipping him and following him and being with his people
Take out don't just say oh, well, you know, I feel love for something
take it out and exercise it Show it Love always acts it has to
act And I tell you what a motive it that's what I'm supposed to
do. I'm supposed to exercise my love for you Well, how am
I supposed to do that? What motivates me to do that? All by looking at Christ love
for me Gary, it's so undeserved. It doesn't have an end. The depths
of it can't be told. It's undeserved. Oh, God loves
me. I just can't get over that. That's
what I'm supposed to do. Exercise my love for you. How
I do it is by looking to Christ. Work this thing out by prayer.
Give me the opportunity to show my love for each, help one another
out, put it into action. All right, verse two, Paul says,
fulfill ye my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same
love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let
each esteem other better than themselves. Now, if God has saved
you, he's given you the mind of Christ. It's the same mind
he's given every believer, the mind of Christ. And you do, you
really do care about the gospel of Christ being preached. You
do. You care about it being preached to our generation, to our town,
to our little ones, to our friends. You care about it. You think
on Christ. God's given you a mind that knows
him and trusts him. Now take that mind out and exercise
it. exercise it. And one of the best
ways that we can take that mind out and exercise it is by doing
whatever it is we can do to help the gospel be preached in our
town, in our congregation. And you might think, well, there's
not one thing I can do to help that. Oh, yes, there is. Oh,
yes, there is. Tell you how you can help the
gospel be preached in power. It's by having one mind, one
goal, and one purpose. You help the gospel be preached
in power by eliminating any arguments, any fussing, any fighting, any
divisions over anything that's not Christ. You just eliminate
it. Because I'm telling you the truth.
God cannot be worshipped in that attitude. where we've got, you
know, five or six divisions and people are fighting. And, you
know, one of the worst ways to hear the gospel is hear somebody
preaching. Boy, I think a whole bowl of
so-and-so over here is hearing that because, you know, we've
got this thing between us and I hope he's hearing this. That
preacher's saying how wrong he is. God can't be worshipped in
that atmosphere. Now eliminate those distractions
by exercising the mind, the attitude that God has given you, and work
it to the outside, you just make sure we're all one accord. And
if in some way we're not, there's another way to work it out. If
you ever told your kids they're fussing, you guys work it out.
If there's some, work it out. Just work it out and get rid
of it. Because this is our mind. I want
to worship Christ. I want to worship God. I want
his gospel to be preached. but we're gonna do it when we're
of one accord and one mind and one spirit. That's so. The way
we do this, by help the gospel be preached, is seek, this is
so simple, seek the glory of Christ, not your own glory. I mean, that's so simple. Just,
I know we've all got that desire for self-glory and to be seen
and things, but push that desire for self-glory down. And exercise
your new mind by seeking the glory of Christ. And again, work
it out by prayer. Boy, this is a constant battle.
Well, pray and ask the Lord, give me the will to push my self-glory
down. And give me the ability to do
it. That might glorify Christ. You know, if God saved you, he's
given you some humility. Paul talks here about humility.
Esteem others better than yourself. Anybody here happy with your
humility? I bet not. I bet not. If we're proud of
our humility, something's wrong, isn't it? Now this just shows
you a believer. I'm a believer, born again believer,
got a new nature, who's in the flesh. We say, we say this, I
esteem others better than myself. I esteem them to have more faith
and more love and more gifts and more abilities than I do.
I esteem others better than myself. Let somebody else say I'm better
than me and I'll be mad. Isn't that the truth? Isn't that
pitiful? This is not very humble, is it?
Well, are you unhappy with your humility? Take it out and exercise it.
Work it out. Now, you know what humility is?
Humility is not just this, oh, I'm so awful. I mean, I guess
it ends up being that if you have a right view of yourself.
But humility is a just, right view of ourselves. You want a
just view of yourself? Take this book out and read it. Almost every page, maybe every
page, but it's not gonna be hard to find a passage that talks
about the nature of fallen man. You're not gonna be hard-pressed
to find a passage that talks about our weakness. Even for
believers now, you're not gonna be hard-pressed to open up this
book and find an example of our weak faith. We just looked at
it in Sunday school lesson, I mean, it's easy to find how weak we
are, how dependent we are on Christ every second of every
day. Now, if God gives me a right
view of myself, how dependent I am, how vile I am by nature,
how weak and just unstable as water I am, I'll be humbled because
I got a right view of myself. And I'll esteem you as better
than me because I'll think, there's no way. There's just no way Eric
can be worse than me. Of course I'm going to steam
him better than me. There's no way. If you want to work out
your humility, I'll tell you what to do. Look to Christ. See, where we get proud is we
start comparing ourselves with each other. One maggot comparing
himself to another maggot. You want to work out your humility?
Oh, compare yourself to the Savior. Verse 8. Now consider this, let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Verse six,
who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be
equal with God. It wasn't wrong for him to say he's equal with
God because he is, he is God. But what did he do? He made himself
of no reputation. It took upon him the form of
a servant who was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death. even the death of the cross. Oh, you consider Him. You consider
what He's done for His people. When I see myself in light of
Christ, when I see myself in light of His sacrifice, I've
been thinking about this verse coming up in our study of Matthew.
They nailed the Savior to the cross and it says, and sitting
down, they watched Him there. If you want to exercise your
humility, sit down and watch him there. What's happening on
that middle cross? What my sin deserves. This is
what I am. To cause the visage of the son
of God to be marred more than any other man. And he suffered
that way. to put my sin, I am so vile,
that's the only way my sin could be put away. Now consider yourself
in light of his sacrifice, what that must mean we are. Oh, that'll
give us the right view of ourselves. That's exercising our humility.
If God has saved you, he's given you the spirit of forgiveness.
He has, he's put in you a nature of forgiveness. Now take that
attitude out and exercise it. If one of your brethren's done
something to you, maybe they meant to. More than likely they
didn't, but whatever. Forgive them and move on. Just forgive them and move on.
Because remember, we can't have this worship with these divisions
and these strifes and, oh, they've done this to me and they've done
that to me, you know. Take that attitude of forgiveness
out and exercise it. Forgive them and move on. Just
move on. Like the policeman just there at Iraq. Move on. Nothing
to see here. Nothing to see here. Just move on. Nothing to see
here. We're of one mind. We're brethren. Now, that's what
we're supposed to do, forgive each other. How am I supposed
to do that? Well, just like our humility,
I venture to say nobody's happy with their ability to forgive
and move on. But I'll tell you, here's what
you do. Exercise our forgiveness by looking
to Christ. How did God forgive your sin? Freely. Fully. By sacrificing Himself. You think,
well, that's going to hurt me to forgive them. What did it
cost the Savior to forgive you? how God has, for Christ's sake,
forgiven you, forgiven me. That gives me pretty good motivation
for Christ's sake to forgive you, doesn't it? Take it out
and exercise it. And then Paul talks about faithfulness.
If God saved you, he's giving you a faithful spirit. Take that
faithfulness out and exercise it. Make it stronger. by being
faithful, by being committed to the gospel, by being committed
to be here when we meet together to worship. That's another way
you could really help the preaching of the gospel and the worship
in this place. How about being here? You know,
if I was just here by myself, there wouldn't be no worship,
would there? You've got to be here. That's what we're supposed
to do, be faithful. How can I do it? How can I exercise
it? How can I do it? It's by looking to Christ. Oh,
if we look to Christ and see how faithful He is. See, you
and I are saved by the faithfulness of Christ. Of Christ. Yes, we're saved by faith in
Christ. That's how that salvation is
received, by faith in Christ, by trusting Him and believing
Him. But that salvation is accomplished by the faithfulness of Christ.
The faithfulness of Christ to do everything it took to save
His people from their sin. Now that'll motivate you to be
faithful. He did everything for me. And you work out that faithfulness
by prayer. Lord, work in me. Give me the
will and the ability to be faithful, to be faithful to You and faithful
to Your people. It might just go on and on and
on, but you just apply the same rule to everything you do, to
all the fruit of the Spirit. You want to be more gentle with
each other? Gentleness is the fruit of the Spirit. Bear much
fruit, the Savior said. Well, how can I work that out? By considering how gentle Christ
is with me. He's forgiven me of my sin, and
he doesn't bring it up anymore. He's so gentle. I'm weak, I fall
asleep. Well, he's praying. Couldn't
you watch him pray with me an hour? But he's gentle, knowing
the weakness of the flesh. We ought to understand each other
more than anybody, because we're all just alike. How about kindness? Kindness. Oh, if God saved you,
he's put an attitude of kindness, a spirit of kindness in you.
Well, work that out by considering how kind God is to us. Oh, his
kindness to sinners. Just, if you're not happy with
any aspect of your spiritual life, tell you what to do. Work
it out. by looking to Christ. You work
it out by prayer. Ask God, put some effort in begging
for it. Ask him to give me the will and
the ability to do it. Work it out. All right, that's
what we're supposed to do, how we're to do it, by looking to
Christ. Here's the third thing. What should my attitude be in
working out my own salvation? Well, first of all, our attitude
should be that of a child of God. an obedient child, not a
religious hypocrite who's trying to impress our friends. Paul
says, work out your own salvation. Work that inward grace, work
it out. So there's some evidence of it
seen on the outside. I know it's not going to be perfect,
but now if God saved me, there ought to be some evidence of
it. There's just got to be some evidence of it. There's a new
sheriff in town. There's got to be some evidence.
See, you do this, though, because God's done a work of grace in
you. Not because you're trying to get it. Not because you're
trying to get something from God. Not because you're trying to
get God to do this work in you. We work this out because God's
already done something for us. Do this because God has done
something for you and you want to glorify him. You want to live
well-pleasing to him. You're not trying to impress
your religious friends. You're not trying to impress the preacher,
the missionary. You're doing this out of love
and obedience to God. See what Paul says in verse 12,
wherefore my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, Paul's saying don't
do this because I'm there making you do it. Don't do it because
you're trying to impress me. Even when I'm not there, you
do it. You work this out. Do it because God's put a new
nature in you. Do it because you're being obedient
to God, not because you're trying to impress me. Don't do this
because you're trying to impress the folks in the congregation
and get them to think you're such a great guy. Do it because you
love God. Do it because He's put this in
you. And work out your own salvation with an attitude of obedience
and reverence to our Heavenly Father. In verse 14, Paul says,
do all things without murmurings and disputings. I read this verse
this week. I thought about Janet's cousin.
Janet has a cousin who's, she's a great mother. I love being
around her and her husband, her children, and I guess you'd say
her kids are pretty much grown now. And this is what she would
tell her children as they're growing up, about what their
parents told them to do. She said, do it obediently, do
it immediately, and do it cheerfully. That's what Paul's saying here.
Do all things without murmurings, and disputings. Murmuring. That's grumbling under your breath.
The word means a secret argument. Argument under your breath. Holding
hard feelings about somebody, you know. And disputing is an
open argument. It's not just grumbling under
your breath. It's outright arguing. Arguing with somebody else, arguing
with God. I'm telling you what, quit arguing with God. Just quit it. Just quit it. This
is the way God saves sinners. Don't argue about it. Don't murmur
about it. Bow. Bow. He's told us bow to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Kiss the Son lest He be angry
when His anger is kindled but a little. You perish from it.
Kiss the Son. Quit arguing and believe. Quit arguing and bow. Quit finding
fault with everything that's going on around you. Just quit
it. And do what you're supposed to
do. Do what you're supposed to do. Just quit arguing, quit holding
secret grudges against each other, and work out your own salvation.
Do it obediently, do it immediately, and please do it cheerfully. Please do it cheerfully. Look
at 2 Corinthians 9. You know, in more than one scripture, we'll
just read this one, but in more than one scripture, Lord points
out to us that our attitude matters more to him than what we actually
do. Because God's looking on the heart. And this is a very
good example of that. Second Corinthians chapter nine.
Do it cheerfully. Second Corinthians nine verse
seven. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so
let him give. Not grudgingly or of necessity,
for God loveth a cheerful giver. It's not just giving, God loveth
a cheerful giver. Now back in our text, verse 15,
we're talking about here about what's our attitude in this thing
of working out our own salvation. Do it obediently, immediately,
and cheerfully. And then verse 15, that you be
blameless and harmless. The sons of God without rebuke
in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. among whom
ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life,
that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run
in vain, neither labored in vain. Now, as I said earlier, do whatever
it is that you can do to help the gospel be preached to our
generation. And that's not just here. Paul
is talking about when you're out there in the world, when
you're in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, boy,
you go to work, And you think, oh my, I'm in the midst of this
crooked and perverse generation. I'm in the midst of this dark,
dark generation, dark world. Well, you know, in that dark
world, you can help the gospel be preached. Now, if we go around
acting like a horse's hind end, you know what people are gonna
think? I don't want anything to do with his religion. Not
one blessed thing. But it could be, if we shine
as lights in the dark world, It could be if we act like God's
done something for us. If he's given us some wisdom,
some graciousness, some love, some compassion for people, that
not a self-righteous religious nut job, but a kind and gracious
person who trusts God. It could be somebody will say,
I'm willing to listen to you. I'm willing to listen to what
he's got to say. His religion has done something for him, doesn't
it? Maybe. It could be. It could be. It could be that
the Lord is pleased to bring one of his sheep out of that
crooked and perverse and dark generation that you're out there
with every day. It could be the Lord's plucking
one of them out and bringing them to hear the gospel because
they think there might be something to what you're saying. There might be something to what
you're preaching. I'm going to come check it out. I tell you, I'd love to be used
of the Lord in that way, wouldn't you? My goodness. Work out your
own salvation for the gospel's sake. For the gospel's sake. I tell you, that'll motivate
a believer every time. And do it, Paul says, with fear
and trembling. This is a good place to end.
Do it reverently. and trembling, not because I'm trying to get
people to be impressed with me, because I want people to be impressed
with my Savior. Do it reverently. Remember, attitude
is so important. An attitude of reference is the
only way God can be worshipped. If we're proud because of how
well we're working out our own salvation, I'm afraid the Lord
won't meet with us. He can only be worshipped in
an attitude of reverence and humility. So work out your own
salvation. Work out by seeking the Lord
and seeking his will because you need him. Because you need
him. Because you need him to save
you. Because you need him to be merciful to you. Because you
need him to forgive you. And because you need him to work
powerfully in you. To give you both the will and
the ability to do his will. All right. I hope God will bless
that to you. Our Father, we bow before you
humbly and reverently and thankfully with hearts full of thanksgiving.
Father, how we thank you for your mercy and your grace and
your undeserved love to your people in Christ our Savior. Father, how we thank you for
the gospel of Christ that declares how God saves sinners completely,
fully, and freely through the obedience and through the sacrifice
of Christ. Father, we're so thankful. We're
so thankful that you've given us here some knowledge, some
heart to love and believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, I pray you take this message and that you'd use it
for the glory of Christ, that you'd use it to reveal to sinners
who he is and what he's done for his people. And Father, use
this to will. Give us the will and the ability
to work out our own salvation, to serve you faithfully in our
generation, to be a help, not a stumbling block one to another.
That the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace might continue
to be preached here in the power of thy spirit. It's in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. For his sake and his glory, we
pray. Amen. All right, Sean.