If you'll turn back with me to
Philippians chapter 2, I want to look primarily at verse
13. Philippians chapter 2. And I want to talk to you a little
while this morning on a subject that I think folks find very
confusing and frustrating. And it's a subject that every
believer wrestles with when it comes to Christ. And with most
of us, we have trouble with it throughout our walk of faith.
And my subject is this, God working in us. Sometimes it's hard to tell who's
working. Is it me that's doing the working? Or is this God working in me? It's easiest to lose sight of
that, isn't it? It's very confusing. Very confusing. Now, I want to say this to you
because this is emphasized in chapter 1 and chapter 2. that salvation is altogether
a work of God's free and sovereign grace. There is no part of the
salvation of a sinner that's not completely owing to the free
and sovereign grace of God. It is the gift of God. I don't care what part of it
you're talking about. If you're talking about justification,
if you're talking about election, whatever it is you're talking
about, talking about the believer's walk, Talking about the believer's
perseverance? Whatever it is you're talking
about, it's owing 100% to the free and sovereign grace of God. It was God's eternal purpose
of grace that appropriated for us the Savior of men and set
in place all the means of our salvation. Listen to this scripture,
2 Timothy. Chapter 1, verse 9. If you want
to turn over there and look at it with me. 2 Timothy, chapter
1, verse 9. It says, He hath saved us. Hath, already past tense. He
hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works. but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior
Jesus Christ who has abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel." That is, He brought to light
that eternal purpose of the Father in His appearing. and in His
work in this world. Somehow in our generation, the
Gospel has been promoted and preached as kind of a last and
desperate attempt of God to keep His purpose from being overthrown
or to keep the work of His Son from being of none effect. Listen
to them preach. Listen. God's done all He can
do. Now it's all up to you. You mean
everything God purposed from eternity, He's rested in the
hands of sinners? Is that what you're saying? Well,
that's what Paul said is just not true. These things were given
us in Christ before the world began, and God's not going to
trust them. Job said he put his no trust
in his saints. Think about that. None at all. None at all. The Gospel is preached to bring
to light the victory, the success of God's everlasting purpose
of grace. And then secondly, grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ. Men's believing or not believing
has nothing to do with the reconciliation of God. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it
says this, it says God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. God was
in Christ. He did that when Christ appeared
in this world over 2,000 years ago, long before we were born. The free and sovereign grace
of God appeared or was manifest in this world in a representative
man, a substitute, or what some call a federal head, like Adam. God didn't just abstractly choose
some people. He just didn't roll the dice
or pick straws or whatever men do when they do things like that.
It wasn't just an abstract choosing of men and making distinctions
based on their personal qualities or decisions that they'd make
in time. But He chose us in Christ. That's
what it says in Ephesians chapter 1. He chose us in Christ that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. And God brings life and immortality
to light through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. It says this in Ephesians chapter
2, it said, even when we were dead in sins, and I've so often
read those verses to you earlier there in Ephesians 2 and showed
you that they walked according to the course of this world,
they walked according to the God of this world, the Prince
of the Power of the Air, the Spirit that even now worketh
in the children of disobedience. And even when we were dead in
sins, He quickened us together with Christ, that is, as our
substitute, as our representative, quickened us with Him, chose
us in Him, put us in Him, considered us in Him, And we were in Him
when God judged Him, and we were in Him when God raised Him, and
we're in Him, it says in Ephesians 2, read it. He raised us up together
with Him, and seated us in the heavenlies with Him. And He did
that, that in the ages to come, that He might show the riches
of His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. seated with Him in full favor. Salvation is altogether the work
of God's free and sovereign grace. But this work is not altogether
a work done for us. And here's where the confusion
comes in. It's not altogether a work done for us. It's also
inclusive of a work done in us. There's a work done for you and
a work done in you. Concerning the work done for
you, you are completely passive. You have nothing to do with it.
I didn't have anything in this world to do with Christ becoming
a man. Of His coming down, what a condescension! His coming down to take upon
Himself flesh and blood of sinners, of men. He didn't come as a representative
of angels, but he came by the seed of Abraham. He took upon
himself the form of a man and become a servant under the law.
What a condescension. He who gave the law become obedient
to the law. He who made woman was made of
a woman. And he did these things as our
representative. And we were totally passive in
it. I didn't have anything to do with it. He cried in intercession for
me before the Father until His sweat become as great drops of
blood. And all of these things. And
I was totally passive in it, John. I wasn't even born yet.
I didn't know anything about it. All of that was accomplished
for us, for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He, in this doing and dying,
He brought out for us a righteousness, and by His substitutionary sacrifice,
justified us before God. Justified, it says in Romans
chapter 3, justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. It's Jesus Christ Himself, as
God has set Him forth, who propitiates God. He was delivered, the Scripture
said, for our offenses and raised again for our justification. So I had nothing to do with His
honoring of the law or His satisfaction of divine justice. I had nothing
to do with His ordering of providence. There is nobody going to be saved
apart from God's providence. They have to be brought to Christ.
Nobody is going to be saved until they come to Christ. And they
are not able to come on their own. He told those Jews, He said,
don't murmur. Don't murmur. Nobody's coming
to me except to be drawn of the Father. It's the providence of
God that brought you here this morning. That's right. Nobody's going to be saved apart
from that. But I'm passive in that. I don't have anything to
do with His reign. We don't let Him reign. He reigns. He reigns if you don't ever believe.
He reigns if you go to hell. He still reigns. He reigns. He's
the King. He's the Lord of the dead and
the living. And I had nothing to do with
those things. I had nothing then or now to do with the election
of His people. He didn't look... I know Baptists
love this. They love this. I'm talking about
Arminian Baptists. They love this. They love to
talk about God looking down through the telescope of time. Brethren,
there is no time with God. God's eternal. There's no time. He didn't need to look down through
time and see what you're going to do. He ordained those things. Read about it in Romans chapter
8. There's no other way that all things can work together
for good to them that love God except that He have control over
all of those things. And we're passive in that. I
don't have anything to do with that, David. He sits on the throne
and reigns. And sometimes He lets me be aware
of it, and sometimes I'm just totally oblivious to it. But He reigns. That's God working
for us. And the remnant that remains
this day, it says in Scripture, is a remnant according to the
election of grace. And if by grace, then it's no
more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. I had nothing
to do with the incarnation of Christ or the election of His
people. And these are all things which God has done for us in
time and eternity. But there's a work, an effectual
work of grace that's accomplished in us. And that's what I want
to talk to you about this morning. And concerning this work, we're
not passive. We're not passive. It says, he
that believeth. and is baptized shall be saved.
He that believeth not shall be damned." That don't sound like
being passive to me. We're not passive in this work.
And both of these works are the free gift of God. Both of these
works are owing to the presence and power of God. And both of
these works are according to the eternal purpose of God. And
both of these works glorify God. All of it. All of it. The difference
is that one is done for us and the other is accomplished in
us. Paul writes to this church at Philippi and he tells them
that he has confidence. He's looking at this church.
Paul's now a prisoner. Just try to put yourself in his
place. He's sitting in there on a cold stone floor in the
basement of a dungeon and he's writing these words and handing
it to a friend who delivers it to this church and he's writing
to them and he's telling them things and he's got some confidence
in them as a group of believers. This little group of believers.
They're meeting here and he's assigning different ones to go
and preach to them and so on. And he writes to them and he
said, here's my confidence. I'm confident of this very thing
that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto
the day of Jesus Christ. There is not going to be any
doubt about it. If that man is one of God's elect,
who has received that effectual calling of the Spirit, who calls
him out and regenerates him and gives him the mind of Christ,
gives him ears to hear and eyes to see, removes that guilt of that old
conscience by applying spiritually that blood of Christ, calls him
out effectually. Brethren, God is going to work
in that man until he dies and he ascends to heaven. God gonna
do the work. That's what Paul said. He wasn't...
These bunch of rebels over here come to know a few things. He
wasn't... His confidence wasn't in that. If he talked them into
something, somebody else come along and talk them out of something.
That wasn't where his... His confidence was in this. God
did something in their heart. God has and does and shall yet
do a work in our hearts and minds and that in all of His elect.
And it's a work foreign to men. It's contrary to men. It's out
of the norm. It's a surprising work, and it's
a startling work, and it's a life-altering work. I guarantee you, when God
takes up a work in you, it'll alter your life. It will alter
your life. Your life will never be what
it was. And this is foreign to me, and
it's a work that can only be explained by the presence and
power of God. You can't explain it any other
way, can you? Huh? I get so tongue-tied sometimes
trying to just tell people what the Lord has done for me. And
I get so tongue-tied, and finally I just tell them, you know, the
Lord did this. I don't know how to explain it. Paul said something similar to
the church at Thessalonica. 1 Thessalonians 1, He told them,
He said, I know your election of God. Man, oh man, I'd like to know
that. He said, I know your election of God. What a statement. How did He know that? Because
of what God was doing in them. In them. Listen to what he said. He said, first of all, because
when my gospel came, it didn't just come in word only. It wasn't
just words. It wasn't just words. That message gripped their heart.
It gripped their soul. It touched them. It convicted
them. It came in power. It convicted
them of their sin. It convinced them of the truth.
All of a sudden, this become the truth. And there were hundreds. If you read that account over
there in 1 Thessalonians 1, he said, you received this in the
midst of opposition. You believed these things when
everybody else around you was opposed to them and telling them
these things wasn't so. He said, you received. He said,
that takes the work of God. And that's how I know your election
of God. And then secondly, he said, because they become followers
of him and the Lord. They submitted. You can't make
a natural man submit to nothing. Huh? You take a little old child,
a little old baby, and just try to get him to do one of you,
take this medicine. Shut that mouth, turn that ear. Without any force, without anything
like that, when God works in you, He'll cause you to submit. And I tell you, until I see submission
into a person, I got no hope for them. That's one of the first
signs of God working in you, is to bring you down into submission. And then he said, they become
examples to all that believe. They become examples, shining
examples of the elect of God, of the salvation of God. They
paid their bills. They mowed their grass. They
wore clean clothes. I could just go on and on and
on. How they treated their neighbors. How they lived in the community.
Everything changed. And they become examples of all
who believe. And sounded out the gospel. At
home and abroad, they got involved. They got involved in this ministry
of the gospel. Why? Because the gospel is the
power of God unto salvation. And they had experienced it.
And they wanted to be a part of it. And they turned to God from their
idols. Perhaps he was talking about
some of those things carved and overlaid with gold and that type
of thing. But in our day, it's most prevalent
in these false Jesuses and false Christs that are being preached
in our time. The images of the mind, those are the idols in
our day. And these people turned to God
from those idols. And then lastly, they patiently
waited for God's Son from heaven. You know why they waited on Him?
Because you can't do nothing on your own. They waited on Him. The work done in us is ever wit
as necessary as the work done for us. And here in our text
it is called the work of salvation. Philippians chapter 2 verse 12.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is
God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good
pleasure. Now wait a minute preacher, are
you saying that salvation is by works? No, sir. But I am saying that there is
a work done in you and performed by you that God calls a work
of salvation. That's what He calls it. Let every believer work out his
own salvation. And my friend, salvation is a
personal matter. You're not going to be saved
by what somebody else believes. You're not going to be saved
by what your church believes, but by your own personal faith. It's God that worketh in you
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Now listen to
me because this is where I believe the trouble starts. To will and
to do is not talking about something that's already been willed and
done. He's not talking here about the
salvation of your soul in the sense that this is going to bring
you into favor with God or this is going to justify you before.
All of those things I've already told you, they were all accomplished
in Christ. You're totally passive to that.
This is talking about your everyday affairs. It's talking about how
you live in this world. It's talking about how we get
along with one another. It's talking about our fellowship
in this church. It's talking about how we get
along, how we ought to consider one another. It's not talking about to will
and to do something that's already been done. And the righteousness
of God's already been established. And so the atonement for sin. It's talking about the good work
of faith that finds the satisfaction of God in Christ, our Redeemer. And then it's talking about my
satisfaction in Him. I'm not seeking something else,
John. I'm seeking Christ. I'm not dissatisfied
with Christ in the respect that now I have to go learn something
else. I've got to go find something
else. I have to go seek something else. I'm satisfied with Him.
I'm satisfied. I find in Him all the motivation
I need, all the inspiration I need, all the instruction I need to
get along. It's all in Him. I don't have
to go somewhere. I don't have to, I went to the
school of salvation, now I've got to come over here and go
to the school of good works. No, it's all right here. Paul
said over in the book of Colossians, or he said this, He said, as
you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Rooted and built up in Him. That's
where you're going to find these motives and find this attitude
and find these principles of grace. You're going to find them
in Him. Those the Lord rebuked for their
ignorance and self-interest, they said to Christ, they said,
What can we do to work the works of God? Isn't that what we're
talking about this morning? God working in you? That's what
they said. What can we do to work the works
of God? And the Lord said to them, He
said, this is the work of God that you believe on Him whom
He has sent. That's the work. That's how you separate the work.
How do I know if this is God working in me or me working in
me? Because when God works in you,
it's to believe on and to rest in and to find all the proper
motivations in Christ. And to be satisfied. Satisfied. To rejoice in Him. It's like you discovered the
treasure and you say, I found it. Just like the guy, he found
it and he just bought the whole field. He bought the whole field. If God indeed is working in us
both to will and to do of His good pleasure, that will to do
is to believe on Him and to love one another. He said, this is
the will of Him that sent me that everyone which seeth the
Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. That's
the will of God. And when God works in you to
will and to do, that's what it is. It's to believe on Him. And everything in Philippians
chapter 2 is based on the work of God, of which He is the author
and finisher. And He begins chapter 2 with
these words, and He uses this word four times. I read it to
you a few minutes ago. If. If. You see, if God hasn't begun
the good work, then the good work is not going to be performed.
But he said, if there be any consolation in Christ, if there
be any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if
any vows and mercies, huh? If. But oh, if there is, if there
is, then there'll be a satisfaction. There'll be a rejoicing. These
are the effects of an enlightened heart. These are the fruits of
a reconciled sinner. And this is the effect produced
when God works in us. They have and they hunger for
more of the mind of Christ. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ. I want more of Him. I want to
know more about Him. I want more of His mind. I want
more of His grace. I want more, more, more. They have all these principles
of grace established in them, and they have what it takes now
to live and walk in this world and have fellowship one with
another. Beloved, there is a doing and
a willing that is wrought in us by the presence and power
of God, and this willing and doing is accomplished by us. By us. God working in you. You can't believe apart from
God working in you. But when God works in you, who
believes? Does God believe for you? No. No, you believe. You believe. But you believe in such a way
as to give Him the glory for it. You won't lay up in glory someday
and say, well, one thing I can say, I believed. No. No, you're going to give Him
all the glory for it. And you give it to Him here.
And if you don't give it to Him here, you sure won't give it
to Him there. This willing and doing is by
us, and it affects every part of our lives. It manifests itself
in the workplace, in the home, in worship, and in the everyday
affairs of our lives. The Scripture very plainly exhorts
us to humility. He says, humble ourselves. under
the mighty hand of God. It tells us to love one another
and to look on the needs of one another, to encourage one another.
I need encouragement. I need encouragement. It says
for us to have compassion on one another. The flesh is cold
and heartless. It doesn't think about anything
except what it's going to eat or what it's going to drive or
thinks about itself. It's cold and it's heartless.
We need to forgive one another, even as God, for Christ's sake,
has forgiven us. We need to quit putting up these
ifs. You know, well, I forgive him if. Huh? You got any ifs
on how God forgave you? Huh? Then you better get them
out of your vocabulary. Just get them out. Just get them
out of there. Forgive one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us. And then look here
at Philippians 2, verse 14. God working in us. He said, do
all things without murmuring and disputing. Have to argue
over everything, don't we? What are we having for dinner
tonight? We're having rice. Well, I want spaghetti. Quit murmuring and disputing.
We don't want to dispute over everything. Boy, we're ready
to go to war, ain't we? Let somebody say something. Yeah,
but. Disputing, arguing. He said quit
doing that. Do all things without murmuring
and disputing. Quit fussing about it. Quit arguing
about it. Just do what you're told to do. Just do that. We go to work. The boss tells
us. Walter goes in. He's been over
there at that tire place a long time. Boss comes in, takes you
off your job you've been doing for 20 years, and tells you,
go do this. And you murmur all the way over.
I don't know why he want to make me. This ain't my job. I don't
do this. Huh? That's what he's saying. Quit murmuring about things.
Quit fussing about it. Quit arguing. do what we're told
to do. And I'll tell you this, I thought
about this and wrote it down. I made a note of it here in my
note. Why do you expect ungodly men to do right? Huh? Why do we expect them to do right?
They're never going to do right. They're not right with God. They
don't know right. They don't know right. They're
none righteous, no not one. Why do we even expect it? Why
don't we just walk in grace, huh? And be thankful that God
has given us what little sense we do have. I don't know why
we expect men to be righteous. There's only one way that you
can live and walk in this world and make any sense out of it,
and that is as sinners saved by grace. You can make some sense
out of that and just be thankful. God could have just left us to
ourselves. What if he did? Huh? He might just have been pleased
to give you a good little job over here somewhere and a good
wife and a good income and children that don't give you any problems
and just put you over here and boy you just become a good neighbor
and everybody brags on you and you just sit over here and you
go to hell and never know God. He could have just left you to
yourself. He could have just left you in whatever religion
he got you out of. Convinced you that that was the
right thing. Give you over to strong delusion,
like he talks about in 2 Thessalonians 2, to believe a lie and be damned. But he didn't. God didn't. He could have left us to ourselves.
He could have left us in our self-will and self-interest and
self-righteousness. He could have left us in our
religious and our religious traditions and worldliness. It could have
left us in our greed and lusts and appetites. The Scripture,
Paul reminds them, he looked at those Gentile believers, and
they came out of everything under the sun, the same way we do.
And he said, such were some of you, and I tell you, I don't
have time this morning to read that, but you need to go over
there and look at it, and read all that he talked about before
this. Horrible things. In I Corinthians chapter 6, but
he says this, he said, such were some of you, but you are washed,
you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. God didn't leave you where you
were. He came to you and He separated
you and He drawled you to Himself. And He gives you the mind of
Christ. It's God. You see what He's saying here
and you see the impact of this? This is God that worketh in you,
both to will and do of His good pleasure. Well, how does God
work in us? He works in us experientially. That is, we experience. These
things are not cold and abstract. We experience them. Listen to
a man talk about sin sometimes who don't know anything about
it. And then listen to a man that the Lord has convinced of
sin. Listen to the two of them talk
and see if you can tell the difference. There's a worldly difference
in the way they talk. It's experiential. Titus 2.11 tells us that the
grace of God that bring us salvation has appeared in such a way that
it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live
soberly and righteously and godly in this present world. The believer
is miserable. He is miserable when he follows
after those things of the flesh because they are contrary to
the working of God in him. He is miserable. How does God work in us? He works
in us experientially and the will, the will of chosen sinners, is
not won by sheer force or might, but it's won by love and truth. That's how you won. It's won by love and truth. In
John chapter 8, verse 31, Jesus said to the Jews that believed
on Him, He said, If you continue in My Word, then are you My disciples
indeed, and you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make
you free. It's the truth of God's everlasting
purpose of grace and Christ's accomplishments in this world
as a man and His reign at the right hand of God that frees
the sinner to serve the true and living God. In Romans 6, verse 17, it says,
But God be thanked that you were the servants of sin, but you
have obeyed from the heart. that form of doctrine, that truth
of God, that truth that came to you in power, that truth that
came to you in example, that showed you by illustration how
God saves sinners. You have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made
free from sin, you become the servants of righteousness. How
does God work in us? He works in us experientially. He works in us by the hearing
of the truth. And thirdly, God works in us
by love. By love. In Galatians chapter
5, Paul writes to the church at Galatia and he warns them
of the danger of legalism. Legalism. And it tells us in
verse 4 that Christ is become of no effect unto you who are
justified by the law. If we're justified by the law,
He said, you're falling from grace. Rather, He said, we through
the inward working of the Spirit of God wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Jesus Christ, being circumcised
or uncircumcised doesn't make any difference. It doesn't avail
anything. But now listen, faith that worketh
by love. How does God work in you? By
love. That's how He does it. Faith
is the gift of God and is kind of a conduit through which the
gifts of life continue to flow. And as we receive these gifts
and experience these gifts, the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost. So that faith worketh by love. The Scripture said, though I
have all faith and have not charity. Boy, that's a lot of faith, all
faith. I'm nothing. Is that what it
says? I'm nothing. God works in us
by love. And my friends, the way we act
in this world is important. But what's even more important
is how we live with, worship with, and treat one another.
And this is what this text is talking about. It is the saving
of ourselves, the saving of this congregation from strife and
division and separation. That's what he's telling these
Philippians. We are to work out these spiritual
attitudes and principles and to do so in true humility, taking
great care not to destroy the fellowship of the church which
Christ purchased with His own blood. Let every man work out
his own salvation in fear and trembling. For it is God that worketh in
you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And I tell
you this, if God ever worked for you, He will one day work
in you. The first is the guarantee of
the second. The second is the evidence of
the first. May God give you an understanding
of what I've just said.