I want you to take your Bibles
this morning and turn to my text. You'll find it in Philippians
chapter 2. I just have five verses of Scripture
I want to read to you, beginning in verse 12. Philippians chapter 2 and beginning
in verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you
have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but how 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. Do all things without
murmurings and disputings, that you may be blameless and harmless,
the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and
perverse nation, among whom you 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."
I think of many things as I read this passage here in the Scripture.
I think of how Paul first got acquainted with these people.
You remember that he saw a vision, a man of Macedonia, crying to him, come over and
help us, help us. We don't know who that man was.
Paul saw him in a vision. And he went there to preach to
them, him and Luke and his company went there to preach to these
in Philippi. And when he got there, there
was no Jewish synagogue there. They tell us the Romans probably
wouldn't let the Jews build a synagogue. And Paul and his company were
there many days. And we don't know what they did.
They hung around, probably prayed. And Paul said he was fully assured
that it was God's will for him to go there. But when he got
there, they spent many days not knowing why they were sent there. I tell you, sometimes, brothers
and sisters, knowing the will of the Lord and believing the
will of the Lord and waiting to do it, I tell you, it's a
trial, isn't it? I know it's God's will for me
to do that or this, but sometimes waiting, He tries us. But turn
this down just a little bit, Shannon, if you will, dear brother.
I'm getting a feedback on this and it bothers me and it may
bother you. But he waited there until he heard from somebody
that a few ladies were meeting out on the riverbank. And he
went out there. And he began to teach to these
few ladies gathered there on the riverbank. And a marvelous
thing happened. The Bible says there was a woman
there and her family by the name of Lydia, and the Lord opened
her heart. And she attained to the words
that Paul was teaching. I imagine he's teaching just
like he was this morning. He doesn't get up here like I
do sometimes and sling my hands and raise my voice and walk around.
He was probably sitting there just teaching. And the Lord opened
Lydia's heart and she attained to the words. And then some of
them got mad at him. They put him in prison, threw
him in prison. There was a jailer there. that
threw him in prison, into the back prison, him and Silas. Stripes
were on their backs, bleeding, but he didn't care. He put him
in there and went to sleep. And about midnight, God not only
awoken that man out of a physical sleep, but He woke him up out
of his spiritual sleep. And that man cried out, What
must I do to be saved? And Paul said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved in your house. That
was this church. That was the beginning of this
church. Those two households. The Lord saved Lydia and her
household. And the Lord saved this jailer
and his household. And that's the beginning of this
church. Amazing to think about it is.
I don't know how big it was now. I imagine it was big and maybe
had more than one church in this neighborhood. He writes to the
pastors and to the deacons. So he may have had more than
one church, but I'm sure he was thrilled to write back to these
people and to tell them their beginnings. This is a famous
city. If you'd like to study on those
things, I have no use for it or any interest in it, but this
place got its name from Alexander the Great's father. The world
still clamors over Alexander the Great. what he was able to
conquer the world. His dad was the one that settled
this city and remodeled it and called it after his name, Philippi.
And if you know anything about Shakespearean history, he wrote
a poems about the works of a couple of famous men that fought here.
Remember Brutus and Mark Anthony? They had battles they fought
here. Brutus had slain Julius Caesar. And he came here and
Mark Anthony came against him. They had a battle. And he defeated
Brutus. And one of the reasons because
Brutus killed Julius Caesar. Remember Shakespeare, you too
Brute? And this is where Brutus killed
himself. A lot of history. You don't find
that in this epistle, do you? You know why? Paul was about
as much interested in that as you and I are. It comes and it
goes, doesn't it? These political figures. Our
main interest this morning is there was a church here. God
begin a church of work, of sovereign grace in this community. And
that's who Paul is writing to. And my how I loved them, he says
here in my text, wherefore my beloved, my beloved. That's the way he addresses these
people. My beloved. My dear beloved. My dear that I love dearly. You
know, that's the way the church speaks of her Beloved. Speaks
of Jesus Christ. I am my Beloved and my Beloved
is mine. That's the way the Father speaks
of His. That's what He calls His Son,
isn't it? This is my Beloved Son. This is my Darling. This
is my Dear. I love Him. Hear ye Him. And
that's the way the Christ speaks of the church. I will call her
my Beloved, which was not Beloved. That's her beloved. How Paul
loved this church. Look here in chapter 4 in verse
1. He makes this amazing statement
regarding her and I don't even know hardly how to comment on
it except to read it. Look here at what he says in
chapter 4 verse 1. Therefore, my brethren, dearly
beloved and longed for, my joy and my crown So stand fast in
the Lord, my dearly beloved. Oh, for God to give us grace
to love one another as the Apostle loved these people. And even to address one another
that way and have the affections one for another that he had for
them. And I tell you, it wasn't only
that he loved them, they loved him. Look what he says over in
the fourth chapter. Look in verse 14, notwithstanding you have done
well that you did communicate with my afflictions, you shared
with me my afflictions. Now you Philippians know also
that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from
Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving
and receiving, but you only. For even in Thessalonica you
sent once and again unto my necessity. They loved him. They were always
sending him money and sending him help. And he says, it's like
a sacrifice. When I get the gift from you,
it's like a sacrifice, well-pleasing unto the Lord. Beloved. Beloved. And then he goes back
over here in our text and he says this about him. As you have
always obeyed. Boy, not just Paul. They obeyed him. But you know
why they obeyed him? Because he was Christ's apostle.
He preached on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he wrote
on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and he says, you have
always obeyed, but look at this, not in my presence only, but
how much more in my absence. That shows us that their aim
was not just to obey the Apostle Paul, but it was to obey Christ
Himself. When the Apostle Paul left, who
was still there? Christ the Lord, wasn't it? They
didn't always have Paul's presence. But you know something? Christ
was always with them. He was in their heart and in
the midst. And when Paul left, they said,
we've got one higher than Paul. We've got our Lord, the Head.
And they obeyed Christ. They obeyed Christ. Always obeying
Him. And then He comes to this amazing
statement. I want to look at it just for
a minute. He makes this amazing statement. Work out your own
salvation. with fear and trembling. Now let's look at this just for
a second. What in the world could this
mean? There's so many opinions as to what this means and I'm
not at all concerned about men's opinions. I want to know myself
what this means when He says, work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. Well, I think before we look
at what it means, we have to look at what it cannot mean.
It cannot mean this. It cannot mean give yourself
life. It cannot mean regenerate yourself
because life cannot be worked for. It cannot be merited by
works. Life is a gift of God, isn't
it? I have given to them eternal
life and they shall never perish. You have to quicken. who were
dead in trespasses and sins. So he cannot be saying work for
life because life is a gift of God. He cannot be saying work
to justify yourself before God. Paul had already tried that,
hadn't he? He knew that didn't work. He
wasn't saying work to justify yourself before God. We conclude
that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. It can't mean work out your righteousness
that you can stand before God in. If Abraham were justified
by works, he hath for of the glory, but not before God, what
saith the Scriptures? Abraham believed God, and it
was accounted to him for righteousness. Wayne just dealt with it two
or three Sundays ago. With a heart, man believeth unto
righteousness. You can't work to get that, can
you? You believe for that. Righteousness is a gift. You can't work to make an atonement
for your sins. Atonement has already been made.
By one sacrifice, Christ put away sin forever. You can't work
for forgiveness. Paul would have never made such
a statement. You know forgiveness is a free,
sovereign, gracious, an immediate gift for those who believe in
the Son of God. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. And whosoever believeth upon
him, there's that whosoever believeth, shall receive remission of their
sins. I don't care who a man is. I
don't care what he is. I don't care how he's lived,
what he's done. He may be the sorriest scoundrel in this world,
but I'm telling you the moment He believes in Jesus Christ,
all His sins are forgiven. Everlasting. You know, there's
people who work all their life to obtain something which cannot
be obtained any other way, but immediately and graciously through
the grace of God and Jesus Christ. And that is forgiveness. When
He saw they had nothing to pay, He freely forgave them all. I tell you, I think sometimes,
brothers and sisters, that's the sweetest word in any language. I don't know but one language
and I pretty much butchered it. But I tell you what, if you go
to every language in the world and somebody says, this is forgiveness. Oh, it would have to sound beautiful,
wouldn't it? Forgiveness of all my sins. And you can't work for
that. So when He's saying, work out
your own salvation, He can't be talking about any of these
things that you and I just said. That wasn't Paul's doctrine. This word, work, then, must mean
that they were working from a principle of life that was already there
and not working for life. They were working from the principle
of grace and not for grace. What aspect of salvation were
they working out? It's obvious that He told them
to work. We can get up here and deny this
and twist it and say it don't even mean that. But it's obvious
that He was telling them to work out their own salvation. What
aspect of salvation were they to work out? Work out your own
salvation. Well, let me say it like this.
Aren't there many aspects of salvation? The ladies just sung
about His amazing grace that chose us to salvation before
the world began. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. Brother Wayne said this morning,
election is not essential to hear and believe, to be saved. But I tell you this, it's essential
to take place, isn't it? It's essential to take place,
and it's an essential aspect of our salvation. Redemption,
it's already been accomplished at the cross. Christ obtained
eternal redemption for you 2,000 years ago. Our calling, is that
not an aspect of salvation? He calls you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's two more critical
aspects and stages to our salvation. When Peter said this, we shall
be saved by grace. He was saying we are being saved
by grace. And we shall be saved by grace. I'll tell you another aspect
of salvation. when we leave this world when
we breathe our last breath. That's one aspect of our salvation,
isn't it? When we lay this body of death
aside, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I tell you,
if that's not one aspect of salvation, I've missed the mark. That's
an aspect that I'm looking for. When poor old Lazarus descended
up to heaven, wrapped in those angels' arms, he was saved, wasn't
he? Don't you imagine he sung as
he went up through the air? Saved! Praise God, saved at last. Saved from a wretched world.
Saved from my hunger. Saved from my begging. Saved
from my body of sores. And now comforted. Oh, I'm comforted. in Abraham's bosom. I tell you,
that's an aspect of salvation way we all ought to be looking
forward to. When we breathe our last breath,
to go be with the Lord Jesus Christ. Saved. Saved. And there's another aspect still
after that, and that's the redemption of this purchased possession.
Redemption of this body. I want you to look. He talked
about this in chapter 3. Look here. I love how the Apostle
Paul says it here. In verse 20. Look at this. Chapter
3 and verse 20. For our conversation, our citizenship
is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's not come yet. We're looking
for it. We're hoping in Him. We're waiting.
What's He going to do when He comes? He shall change our vile
body. Now that hasn't happened yet,
has it? He's going to, and He's going to make it, fashion it,
likened to His glorious body according to the working whereby
He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself. This is the final aspect of salvation. We're waiting for that honor.
We're looking for that. We're hoping for that. And I'm
telling you what, brothers and sisters, that'll be the finality
of it then. Then we'll enter into eternity.
When these bodies are changed, we'll be delivered from sin and
all that sin exposed us to and all that sin has ever brought
up on us. That's desirable in itself, isn't
it? But it's even more than that.
We'll be delivered unto all that's good and desirable and holy for
all eternity. And who could ask for more than
that? To be delivered from everything that's bad and brought into everything
that's good and wholesome. And then we'll say, I made it.
Oh, Scott Richard, you say. I made it. What's it like to
see His face? I made it. I made it. But you know something? From
the time our Lord regenerates us and gives us life to the time
we breathe our last breath, we're working out our salvation. There is that aspect of salvation
that's to be worked out now in every child of God's life. And I like the way the Apostle
Paul says it here. He shows how important it is. Look at this. Work out your own
salvation. Salvation! What a word! What
a concept! What a reality! Your salvation! Salvation of what? Your precious
souls receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of
your souls. My goodness, how important is
it that your soul be saved? Shannon, if you gained the whole
world, you got that in your shop, didn't I? Don't you got that
in your shop, something like that? What would it profit a man if
he gained the whole world? Man, what would you give for
the whole world? What a possession that would be! And yet, what
if a man gained the world and in the process lost his soul? You'd lose yourself. You'd lose
everything. You wouldn't gain anything, but
you'd lose all. The salvation of your soul. Work
out your own salvation. It's the salvation of your soul.
What kind of salvation is it? It's an eternal salvation. Listen
to this. And Christ being made perfect,
became the author of eternal salvation to all that obey Him. Eternal salvation of the most
precious thing you possess, your soul. And he says here, look how personal
he is. Work out your own salvation.
Your own salvation. Brothers and sisters, if a person
is more concerned about somebody else's salvation more than their
own, I think that person's got problems. Your soul is more precious
to you than anybody else's is. That may sound selfish, but it's
not. It's a reality. It's a reality. It's your own
soul. I don't know what's going to
happen to the world. I don't know what's going to happen to
members of my family. I don't know in the end what's
going to become of me. But in the scheme of things,
there's something more important than that. And that's the salvation
of my soul. If they don't seek the Lord and
don't call upon the Lord, they're responsible for that. But my
soul is going to be saved. That's mine. My salvation. And I tell you, there's nothing
to be inquired of more than this. And to be sought after more than
this. The salvation. Your salvation. of your blessed
and eternal soul. And no wonder, he says, you work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Awe, with awe. That shows that he's taken this
seriously, doesn't it? Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. That's a holy awe of reverence. It was said of those ladies when
they saw the empty tomb that they departed from the sepulcher
with fear and great joy. And that's the attitude we're
to have as we work out this salvation. The subject demands fear and
trembling, doesn't it? The reality demands it. The certainty
of it demands that we work it out with fear and trembling. Whatever this work entails, before
we get to it, whatever it entails, here in verse 13, it's essentially
God's work. Did you notice that? Whatever
this work entails, God is the essential and only author of
it. For it's said here, for it's
God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of our good
pleasure. Whatever we're to do in working
out our own salvation, God is the author of it. We can't do
anything that we're commanded to do except God first work in
us to do it. There's a little poem that I
quote sometimes. Every virtue we possess and every
victory won and every thought of holiness is His and His alone. The Bible says that God has wrought
all our works in us and that our fruit is from Him. Isn't
that amazing? Free will is often talking about
whosoever will, let him come. Bless God, we believe that more
than anybody. If a man will, let him come.
You ain't going to come if you don't will. But where's the origin
of that will? Why does a man who before would
not come and had no will to come, why does he come now? I tell
you, God's doing a work there, isn't He? Making Him willing
in the day of His power. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace. The fruit of the Spirit. Being
filled with the fruits of righteousness which is by Jesus Christ. And
the Lord Jesus said, Abide in Me, And I in you as the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more
can you except you abide in Me. We can't do anything, brothers
and sisters, without Him abiding in us and us abiding in Him. Without Him beginning the work
and carrying on the work, we can do nothing. That's what the
Bible says here. It's God who worketh in you.
Look at this. Both to will as well as to do. You know, before you do anything
that's accepted of God, you have to have a will to do it. He don't
accept unwilling service. He doesn't force us, does He?
And we can't force ourselves to do things. If there first
is a willing mind, it is accepted. You know, we see all kinds of
things sometimes. I see things, Bruce, you need
to do. You need to be doing this. You need to be doing that. There's
people you need to witness to. There's tracts you need to hand
out. There's sins that need to be laid aside. There's weights.
There's so many things. But you know something? Many
times they don't get done. And you know why? I don't have
a will to do it. I just don't have a will to do
it. Until there's a will, the doing will not be done. And if
it is, it won't be accepted. How important is the will then? I tell you, it's everything.
It's the beginning of whatever we do. And who's the author of
the will? Who's the author of us being
willing? It's God that worketh in you to will, to will and to
do of His good pleasure. Boy, I need to read more, and
I bet you say the same thing. I need to meditate more. I need
to witness more. I need to pray more. But to carry
that out, I'm going to have to have a will. Boy, if I've got
a will, if I've just got a will, it'll be done. if God's willing. This world is full of sin and
you and I must overcome it. There's a body of death that
we must subdue. There's gates of hell that we
must attack. Weights and sins to be laid aside.
Now listen, this is getting down now to the work that we're to
do. Work out your own salvation.
A Savior to be looking to. A Savior to be coming to. A Savior
to be walking with and cleaving to and abiding in. Abide in Me
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself. The Bible tells us
this way that we go is a way of walking. It's a way of running.
It's a race. It's a fight. It's a wrestling.
It's a warfare. And all of these things must
be worked out in our daily lives. It must be worked out in our
daily lives. And brothers and sisters, we
can't do any of it except God works in us to will and to do
of His good pleasure. We're utterly dependent upon
God who began the good work to continue that work in us. Doesn't
that provoke us to pray and ask Him to do it? Doesn't it provoke
us to be submissive to Him to work in us? And say to Him, You're
the potter and I'm the clay? Mold me and fashion me and work
in me? When we really see the necessity
of Him working in us, it leads us to hope and pray to that end.
And to be confident that He that's begun this work in us will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you. I've been amazed at myself. I've
been amazed sometimes how my desires have changed to do what's
good and what's right. To have a will to do what before
I had no will to do. My understanding. I'm amazed
myself sometimes. Bruce, is this you? Did you really
do this? Did you really think this? Did
you really believe this? How in the world can you make
such progress? And then it goes right back to
him. It's God that worketh in you. Aren't you amazed? Aren't
you amazed that you can live the Christian life? Aren't you
amazed that you can please God and love Him and worship Him
and be followers of God as their children? Aren't you amazed that
you can fight Satan and his fallen angels? I'm amazed. I'm absolutely amazed. I've been
on the road 43 years and I'm absolutely amazed. And it's God
working in me to will and to do of His good pleasure. And I'm telling you what, until
He first works it in, you can't work it out. How utterly dependent
we are upon Him. That's why the Lord Jesus told
His disciples, Abide in Me. Abide in Me. Just like the branch
abides in the vine. For without Me, you can't do
anything. You can't believe. You can't
repent. You can't love. You can't have any joy or peace. You have no strength for anything.
Abide in Me. One of my favorite verses in
Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 16 where Paul is praying for
those Ephesians, and this is what he prayed for, that God
would grant you according to the riches of His glory, listen
to this, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in your inner
man. There is a mighty, sovereign
Spirit abiding in the heart of every child of God. And yet He
works so secretly and so silently, you can hardly detect that He's
there. And yet He's working, and He's
working in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. And to those that make it a year
or two, a month or two, a week or two, or whatever, they give
up and go back to their sins, I just conclude, God must have
not been working. God must have not been working.
Because where God works, though He works so secretly, He works
sovereignly and effectually. It's God that worketh in you. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. We often talk about the miracles,
the wonders, creation, the cross, and all of this. I tell you,
one of the marvels of salvation is that the triune God dwells
in a man and woman and works in their hearts. That's amazing. God worketh in you. Now he goes on, and look, if
you think, well, I'm making it all right. I don't have any problems.
I don't need to grow. You know, forget this working
business, working out your own salvation business. Well, look
back at my text again and see if we can dig you out this fullness.
Look at this. See if you have any trouble here.
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. Therefore do all things, do it
without murmuring and dispute ends. Ah, that's going to take
some work, is it not? Don't murmur! Don't murmur! Somebody was talking about that
word the other day, what a, isn't that a, have you ever thought
about that word, murr, murr, murr, murr? It sounds like some
old sick cow out in the field, murr, murr, murr, don't murr,
murr. Don't murmur against God! Don't murmur against God's providence.
God works all things after the counsel of His own will. Brothers
and sisters, don't murmur against God. This wretched rain is going
to rot my potatoes. Why is it still raining? Oh,
it just kills me. Can't you wait? Rain and go away
and come again some other day. Who sends the rain? Who says
to the small drops of rain, be thou on the earth? Our God does. Don't murmur against God. He
brings the snow out of His treasure. He sends the hoarfrost. He says
to the sun, rise and warm the earth. This is God's world. This is our Father's world. Don't
murmur. Don't murmur in your heart your
thoughts. And don't do it in your mouth. Don't murmur against
God. Don't murmur against our poor
politicians. And everybody in here is guilty
of that. Me, maybe. Don't you get mad at our politicians?
Why would we murmur at the politicians? Are we doing any better? Poor
politicians. The Bible calls them base men.
That's why the Bible says pray for them. They're a bunch of
ignorant know-nothings that thinks they know everything. Pray for
them. Pray for our silly politicians.
And stop murmuring against them. Oh, I'm so guilty that my conscience
sometimes smites me. I want them to do this and I
want them to do that. And the thought often comes to
me, why don't you do better? Don't murmur against one another,
brothers and sisters. Don't murmur against one another. Love one another. Lay aside all
bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor. And be kind and tender-hearted,
loving one another. Don't murmur against one another.
I tell you, this Word alone is going to keep us busy working
out, isn't it? And as we look at just this one
Word, we begin to say, Oh God, work in me. I see a need for
you to work in me. But He doesn't stop there. All
murmurings and disputings, this disputing has to do with the
heart, the thoughts. It's thinking evil things in
your thoughts. And then once they get a hold
there and the seed is planted there, then you start disputing
outwardly. It has to do with arguing, just
wanting to argue in an evil way to prove nothing of any good.
We've got a lot of disputants today. One person saying bad
things about another person. Poor old Luther, bless his heart,
he didn't like John Calvin. And he let people know it. He
called John Calvin the devil. That old devil from Switzerland. And you know what Calvin said?
Let Luther say about me what he will. I think he's a dear
servant of my Lord. And I'll never say anything else
about him. That's what he said. Calvin would
not dispute. He would not enter into that.
He loved the Lord and his people. Look at this in verse 15. That
ye may be blameless and harmless. Blameless. I tell you, they accused
our Lord, but He was without fault, wasn't He? He was blameless. He was innocent of the charges.
Don't you want God to work in you? That when this world does
accuse you of something, you can say, Oh, God knows. God knows. I've not did bad, I've not lived
like that, that's not me, God knows. When somebody accuses
you, God knows, that's my child, and he's blameless. Wouldn't
you love to live above blame and above reproach to this world? David, remember when he fell
into sin, that awful sin, and remember what the Lord told him?
He said, David, what you've done, has given great occasion to the
enemy to reproach. Oh, if David's a believer, who'd
want to be a believer? Look what a sorry Christian he
is. He says he loves the Lord, but look what he's done. He's
to be blamed. And here the apostle says, oh,
it's necessary that God work in you to be blameless as you
live your life in this world. And notice who he's talking to
here. He said, the sons of God. You're sons of God. Why is He
even writing these instructions to us to begin with? Because
you're different. You're different from the world.
You're not dead in your sins anymore. You're a child of the
living God, and He's made you to differ, Paul said. You're
sons of God. And you're to be different. You're
to act different. You're to think different than
this world is. Who makes you to differ? You
are different, aren't you? You're not what you used to be.
You're not what you're going to be. But you're not what you
used to be. You're a child of the King. Shouldn't we live that way? That's
what He's telling us here. Oh, you sons of God. And look
where they were, right in the midst of a crooked and perverse
nation. We often hear in our day, this
is the worst day that this world has ever seen. Maybe not. Maybe not. Paul says it's crooked. It's dark. It's devil-filled,
sin-filled ever since the fall, isn't it? It's been a bad world. But you know, there's some good
way to look at that because look at this. Among whom you shine
as lights in this world. Yes, it's a dark world. But that
just gives the children of God an opportunity to shine. You
shine. I love that, don't you? Believers
don't go around and say, I'm shining. I'm shining my life
for Jesus. We don't say that. We walk humbly.
But as God works in us to will and to do, what happens? This
is God's purpose. It's God's end that you shine. That word means you're luminary. You're luminaries. You give light. I was talking with Jean-Claude
and Wendy while they were here, and they said over in France,
I don't know if it's the cost or what, but they're beginning
to turn out a lot of their lights. We're doing that here on our
streets. To save money, I guess. They
talk about some of the big box stores of the night, they're
having to turn out their lights. Now their parking lot's dark.
But you know what they found out is happening? Crime has increased. Crime increased where there is
darkness, doesn't it? The church is in this world and
Christ said, you are the light of the world. And what happens? I tell you, you keep a lot of
meanness from going on. You shine. And the world is saying,
look at there and look over there. There is light. And it keeps
a lot of sin oppressed, doesn't it? It shows people the way. You're luminaries. You shine
as lights in this world. Somebody said you should do it
at home. Well, absolutely at home, but in this dark world. The Lord don't want any secret
believers. I heard a preacher and his wife
say one time, I don't know what ever happened to them, but they
said, they said, we want to go on vacation where nobody knows
we're Christians. For nobody knows you're Christians. If you ain't Christians outside
of your house, you're not Christians in your house. If you're not
Christians as you walk through this world openly, you're not
Christians in your heart. You shine as lights in this dark,
crooked world. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. Not that easy, is it? Not that
easy when you start applying what you profess to your life.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And he says
here in verse 16, holding forth the word of life. And you know
brothers and sisters, here's two things that must be meant
by this holding forth the word of life. If we don't hold it
forth first of all by example, By example, holding forth the
Word of Life. What's the Word of Life did in
me? What's it doing in me? It's a
lamp unto my feet. It's a light unto my path. I'm
not saying this braggingly, but look at me. Look at me. What's the Word of God doing
in your poor pastor? Is it regulating his life? Is
it subduing him? You know one reason the world
won't listen to the church today? The world sees no difference.
The world sees no difference in the way they live, how they
talk, the way they think. Oh, come to church, we're just
like you. No, we're not. We don't think
like the world. We don't live like the world.
We don't talk like the world. And the world looks upon the
church and sees no difference. And then when the church begins
to preach the truth, the world says, whatever, you don't believe
it? One man said about a preacher that was trying to preach to
him, and he said, and he told this preacher, he said, I'll
believe that word when you believe it. When you believe it. So it must be working in our
own life. It must be working in the church's
life. And then secondly, we hold forth the Word of Life by doing
just what Wayne did this morning. Explaining it. Reading it. Preaching it. Teaching it. The
Word of Life. That's one of the most astounding
statements. Did you know this Word is the Word of Life? There's all kinds of life, isn't
there? You go out in your garden and you see animal life. You
see tree life. And then you see animal life. You see your dogs
and cats and your birds. Then you see human life. I look
at you, I see life. I see celestial life, angels. But you know there's another
kind of life that's above all of that life? And that's the
Word of Life. The Word I speak unto you. They are spirit and they are
life. Wouldn't it be, what a miracle.
If you could go by somebody's deathbed and they just breathed
their last breath and you go in to see them and you could
speak to them and speak life and they would get up. That's
what Christ did. That's what Christ did. What?
Made I say unto you right. Wouldn't that be, oh my goodness,
you're talking about getting some attention now. Well this is a word. that when
it speaks to a person's heart, it brings life with it. It gives
eternal life. Peter said, Lord, where can we
go if we leave You? You have the words of eternal
life. It's amazing. That's why we should
always be preaching this Word. That's why we should always be
teaching the Word, reading the Word, because it's words of eternal And boy, you'd just be reading
it to somebody, preaching it to somebody, teaching it to somebody,
and all just like that. Life enters in and they live
here and your soul shall live. Holding forth the Word of Life. Ain't this a wonderful text?
Just a wonderful text. And we need it. We need it because
we know that we have a race to run, don't we? We have a war
that we have to finish, of course. So work out your own salvation
and always be looking to the source of that working, the origin
of that working. And ask God daily, work in me. Work in me. to will and to do. And you'll be amazed. You'll
be amazed how He works. Inflaming your will. Opening
your understanding. Increasing your affections for
Himself and His ways and His people. It's amazing how it happens. I got to the point one time in
my life, and I don't know what this was all about. My wife may
not even want me to tell this, but I just feel like I didn't
love my wife as like I should. You know, I didn't care to get
up and go to work and work a double shift. You know, I didn't care
that much about being home anyway. And that bothered me. And I went
to the Lord in prayer and I said, Lord, increase my love for my
wife. Give me grace to love my wife.
And I tell you, it wasn't no time that I couldn't even take
a lunch break at work without calling her and saying, can you
come over and eat dinner with me? Can you meet me at the gate?
Remember that? You used to break me lunch. You'll
be amazed when we pray to this end. Oh Lord, please work in
me. How sensual it is without you.
I can do nothing. And believe that He'll do it
because He's faithful. Working in us to will and to
do of His good pleasure. Let us pray.