Let us turn again in our Bibles
to Philippians chapter 2. I've entitled the message today,
Timely Exhortations. Philippians chapter 2, beginning
with verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved, As you
have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. 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. Yea, and if I be offered upon
the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice
with you all. For the same cause also do you
joy and rejoice with me. This passage of scripture, of
course, is directed to those who have received God's salvation. And it is to the believers in
this church at Philippi that the apostle writes, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now the scriptures
are clear and all believers are in agreement that salvation is
a gift. Salvation is a gift. The scripture
says, for the wages of sin is death. If we receive what we
deserve, if we get what we have earned, we will receive eternal
death. That's what we merit. That's
what we deserve. But the gift of God, the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Apostle John wrote in the
first chapter of his gospel, as many as received him. Salvation is a gift. It is a
gift that is received by faith. As many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name, that believe in Christ. That's what it means
to believe on His name is to believe on Christ, to trust Him
as our Lord and Savior. As Paul told the Philippian jailer
when he asked that question, what must I do? What must I do
to be saved? You may be here this morning.
I hope if you are and you have never called upon the Lord that
even now that question might My sound in your heart and your
ears today, what must I do? What must I do to be saved? I'd
like to be saved. I'd like to be saved. I'd like
to know God. I'd like to know that my sins
are forgiven. I'd like to know that I have
a home in heaven. What must I do to be saved? Believe. believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Received as a gift,
not as something we deserve, not as something we earn. To
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. As this verse we're looking at
this morning tells us, it is God that worketh in you, both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. Salvation is of the
Lord. But I was reading this morning
in Luke's Gospel, several chapters there, where Men and women called
upon the Lord, and the Lord said, your faith hath saved thee. Now, in fact, no one is saved
apart from faith. We know that faith is not the
Savior. Christ is the Savior. Christ
is the one who shed his blood. Christ is the one who worked
out that perfect righteousness so that God might be just and
justifier of them that believe in him. We, those who are saved,
we are in Christ by faith, He is in us by His Spirit. Christ
in you, the hope of glory. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, the Bible says, he's none of His. There's a union, right? A union
between the believer and Christ. We're in Him by faith, He's in
us by His Spirit. Now some people, you know, When
they see these words in the same verse, salvation, works, fear,
and trembling, some people, when they read those words in the
same verse, that just gives them a springboard to declare that
salvation isn't all of grace. That salvation has to do with
our works, and not only that, but some even go so far as to
say that a man might be saved and then lose his salvation. That you might be a child of
God today and a child of the devil tomorrow. What foolishness. This one preacher, very famous
preacher, Charles Spurgeon, one time said, he said, I wouldn't
walk across the street to hear that message. I wouldn't either,
would you? I wouldn't walk across the street
to hear the message that God's salvation is such that I might
be saved today and lost tomorrow. Well, that surely would mean
that salvation is not of God. And the Bible very clearly declares
that it is. Think about this. If your salvation depended in
any degree upon your works, then think about this. The death of
Christ would be in vain. The death of Christ would be
in vain. He said from the cross, it is
finished. And that would not be true if
there is some work left undone that you must perform in order
to be saved. There is no work that he must
do, that is, that Christ must do. He's already finished the
work which the Father gave him to do. And there is no work that
we can do that will possibly merit salvation. Keep your place
here, but look back just a few pages into the letter of Galatians
chapter 2 and verse 21. And this pretty well just gives a
conclusion of this whole thing. Galatians 2 and verse 21, Paul
said, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law." Now listen, when he speaks about the law,
he's talking about the law of God, isn't he? that natural law
that is written on the heart of every man when he comes into
this world, and also that law that God gave from Mount Sinai,
men call the Ten Commandments, the moral law of God. Paul says,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, by my obedience to the law, by my keeping the
law, then Christ died in vain. If you could be saved by your
obedience to the law. Now think about this. If your
obedience to God's law cannot save you, how much less your
obedience to the laws that men have made. You know, the religious
laws that man have come up with. That you must be baptized, that
you must be sprinkled, that you must know this, that, and the
other. the laws of man. Righteousness,
if righteousness come by the law, then Christ has died in
vain. That's just not so. I do not
frustrate the grace of God. Number two, if salvation depended
upon our works in any degree, it would give men grounds for
boasting in themselves rather than in God. That word boast
is glory. Whosoever glorieth, whosoever
boasteth, let him glory in the Lord. Boast in the Lord. Yes, boast all you want to in
Christ. Brag on Him. Glory in Him. But don't boast in yourself,
in your works, or anything that you might do. I like what the psalmist said.
He said, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall
continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. Not in my decision. Not in my
anything. My soul shall boast in the Lord. And third, The motive for a child
of God's obedience because of love and grace and gratitude
to Christ would be weakened if salvation depended upon our works. That's the reason the text here
begins with the word wherefore. Wherefore. And you read before
this, we read about Christ, the eternal Son of God coming into
this world. Let not every man on his own
things, verse 4, also on the things of others, lest this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. The eternal
Son of God, He is God, and He is one with the Father in every
way, one with the Holy Spirit. The Father is not older than
the Son. He is eternal. He is the eternal
God. The Father is not more powerful,
more wise, more anything. The eternal, this is God Paul
is speaking about, the Son of God that came into this world,
who being in the form of God, Thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but notice he made himself of no reputation. Who did he do that for? He did
that for you. He did that for me. He did that
for all of his children. He made himself of no reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of man. And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, seeing that
Christ did this for us, wherefore, 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. I have four points
this morning. That's my first point. 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. Someone said that these words
could be translated, work about your salvation. God's given you
salvation. God's given you eternal life.
Now work about your salvation. Employ yourself in the things
that have to do with salvation. Someone at one time asked me
this question. They said, you preach and you
teach that we are saved by grace through faith. Absolutely. That's what the Word of God says.
Well then, if that's so, someone asked me this question. If that's
so, why then should we study the Word of God? Why should we
study God's Word? Well, that would be a complete
message in itself. But think about this. We should
study the Word of God to learn more about God. He's our Father. He's our God. I want to know more about Him,
don't you? I want to know more about Him.
Where am I going to learn that? Yes, I can look in creation and
I can see the handiwork of God, and it's beautiful, and it tells
me about His wisdom and about His power, but I want to know
Him. Now, where am I going to learn
about God other than from His Word? Let's look at a few verses
of Scripture. If you don't want to turn, that's
okay, but let's look over here in Acts chapter 20 and verse
32. Paul is speaking to the believers
from the church at Ephesus, the elders of that church, and he
said, Acts chapter 20 and verse 32. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the word of His grace, now notice, which
is able. What is able to build us up? That's what he says, isn't it?
Which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance
among all them that are set apart or sanctified. Now what is it?
It's the Word of His Grace, the Word of God. Remember the Apostle
Peter writes to believers and he tells them as newborn babes
desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. It's God's Word. And it is the
Word of His grace. Now you can listen to these men
who call themselves preachers and they've got all kinds of
how-to and they'll teach you how to do this, how to be prosperous
in this world, and how to never be sick. They've got all kinds
of how-to books, you know. That will not build you up. It won't. It just can't. It can't
because it puts all upon you. No, that which builds up God's
children is the Word of His grace. That Word that speaks to us of
the sovereignty of God. Our God is sovereign. Our God is in control. Our God
is not in the heavens wondering how all of this is going to turn
out. No, no. Our God is the one who
knows the end from the beginning. And known unto him, the scripture
says, are all his works from the beginning of the world, the
beginning of creation. The word of His grace speaks
to us of God's sovereignty, and it speaks to us of God's election. God chose a people before the
foundation of the world. And I know that modern day religion
hates this truth. It just hates this truth. Man
would rather God be anywhere than upon the throne of His sovereignty,
where He declares, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion. The word of His grace, it speaks
to us of election. People say, well, you make God
a respecter of persons. Oh, no. Oh, no. Listen to me
now. Those who deny God's sovereign
election make God a respecter of persons. Because they say
God's election was based upon something in man. Something that
God foresaw in man. Oh, no. God's election is free. It's sovereign. according to
His will, not based on anything good that He saw in those He
chose. God's sovereign election. God's
irresistible grace. The word of His grace. This will
build you up. Yes, God has chosen a people. Yes, Christ came into this world
and He has redeemed those people. And yes, He is calling out His
people. I don't know if you noticed that
in that passage we read in Isaiah 43, just a few minutes ago. But
do you see what I see there? The only way that you may know
that God is speaking to you when He says that He will be our God,
that He will be with you when you go through the waters, when
you pass through the flames, that He will go with you. The
only way is, I have called you. I have called you. God calls
men and women through the preaching of the gospel. And His call is
irresistible. The perseverance and the preservation
of the saints, yes, we must persevere. But at the same time, we know
that He preserves us, that we are kept in His hand. Look at
1st Timothy 4, just a moment. This scripture also comes to
mind as to why we should study the
Word of God. In 1st Timothy chapter 4 and
verse 6, Paul says, If thou, Timothy, Timothy was a preacher,
if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be
a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of
faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained good doctrine. This is what nourishes God's
people up, the preacher as well as those to whom he preaches. I want to know more of God. Where am I going to learn more
about God? In His Word. In His Word. And I tell you what I find in
God's Word about God. He's a merciful God. He's a gracious God. Yes, He
will by no means clear the guilty. That's true. But He's made a
way whereby the guilty might become not guilty in His Son,
Jesus Christ. I read about blind Bartimaeus
this morning, sitting by the highway side begging. Someone
said, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he began to cry out,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy upon me. And people said, be quiet, be
quiet. And he cried the louder. And no one ever cried to Christ
for mercy who did not receive mercy. No, you come to him crying
for mercy. Now don't come, don't try to
come to him. with your good works and how
God's going to be better off if you let Him save you. Away with that foolishness. You
look to Christ and Christ alone. Trust Him for mercy and grace. He's full of grace and truth.
We should study the Word of God not only that we might know more
of Him, but that we might learn His will for our life. How should
we act? People are always saying, well,
what are we to do? Well, read the Word of God, study
the Word of God, and this is where we find out how we are
to live. A child of God desires to serve
the Lord, to serve our generation. I read writers that have lived
in days gone by, many of them. But I didn't live in those days.
And I'm not going to live in the days that are to come. My
desire, my responsibility is to serve my generation in my
day according to the will of God. That is the written word
of God. Number three, we should study
the word of God to learn how to pray. Remember he gave us that prayer.
He gave it to his disciples and thus to us, our father which
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. You know, the first thing
we say about that prayer is we worship. We don't try to run
into the presence of God and say, give me, give me, give me. We bow down and acknowledge God,
His holiness. That's what the word Hallowood
means. Sanctified be thy name. It's
set apart from every other name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done on earth even as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. For thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever and ever. Oh, what we learn from
the word of God about prayer. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah,
you remember when his Jerusalem was surrounded and they were
outnumbered, a superior force was outside and they sent word
to Jehoshaphat, surrender, surrender. And what did he do? He took that
letter in and he laid it out before the Lord. How to pray,
how to pray. Take the letter, the word of
God. and claim and beg God's promise. Lord, do as you have said you
would do. Remind, and I know God doesn't
need reminding in the way that we think of that, but yet he
told us to remind him of his promises, of his words. You know,
another thing, we should study the word of God to learn patience,
patience. Paul said, Wherefore, seeing
we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, that is, the sin of unbelief, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us. What does that word
patience mean there? It means endurance, endurance. As we go through this world,
we are strangers, we are pilgrims, and we are sure to meet with
discouragements, oppositions, afflictions. What are we to do? What are we to do? We are to
persevere. And reading God's word, we see
that men and women before us They too have gone this same
way, and they met with trials and afflictions many times much
greater than anything we ever experienced. I've been reading the life of
John Bunyan, just a short biography of John Bunyan, and I've read
his autobiography before, but Read good books. Read good books. Work out your own salvation. Read good books. Read the best
book, the Word of God, the good book. Yes, but get good books
and read. You know, John Bunyan spent years
in jail. Years. And you know why he was
in jail? For one thing. For preaching. meeting with men and women who
believed like he did and preaching the word of God. He would not
use the book of common prayer. He preached and he taught that
we should pray in the spirit. And I learned something reading
this biography this time that I didn't know, and that is, I
always, I think, assumed that his first book was Pilgrim's
Progress, but that's not so. It was in his third imprisonment,
the first night in prison, alone in that cell. Prison, the jail
built on the river and the water lapping against the pilings of
that building, that he went to sleep and he dreamed what became
Pilgrim's Progress. And some of his friends said,
don't publish that. That's trivial. Don't punish
that. He'd already had many of his
books published, good books on justification by faith and things
like that. And some said, have it published. And you know, it became second
to the Bible. I don't know if this is still
true, but the most sold and read book in all the world. In his
lifetime, it was translated into a number of different languages.
Read Pilgrim's Progress. Read it and see yourself there
on a pilgrimage. See, the city that you live in
is the city of destruction. That's where we live, Houston,
Texas, the city of destruction. And all over this world, the
world of destruction, God's going to burn this world with fire
and flee, as John Bunyan did. Flee and come to the cross. He never got rid of that burden,
did he? The burden of sin. He didn't
get rid of it when he went over there to Mount Sinai, Mr. Morality's house. The lightning
and the thunder and, do this, do this, do this. Oh, that burden
just increased. But when he came to the cross
and looked up, that's when that burden came off his back and
rolled down the hill into the tomb of Jesus Christ. Never to bear that burden again. What an allegory is that book. Read good books. God works in
His people, giving them both the will and the grace and the
strength to do His pleasure. All men have a will. You know,
people like to talk about man's free will and all of that. All
men have a will, but apart from God's grace, man's will is set
against God. Man's will will not bow to God. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, You
will not come to me that you might have life. One promise
of the new covenant is a new heart. A new heart, a will that
is willing. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Willing to renounce all our righteousnesses
as filthy rags and willing to trust in Jesus Christ and in
Him alone. He's all my salvation. He's all
my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption. He's everything. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. I'm gonna stop here, but notice
he also says, do all things without murmurings and disputings. Matthew Henry's comments on this
verse I found interesting. He said that the Greeks had a
god they named Momus, M-O-M-U-S, Momus. And he was a carping,
C-A-R-P-I-N-G, a carping god. And another word for carping
is critical, critical. The god Momus did nothing himself. but found fault with everybody
and everything. He did nothing himself, but he
found fault with everybody and everything. Thus it was common
to call people who were critical and carping, moma, moma. The sense of this verse is, his words are, don't be critical. Do all things without murmurings
and disputings. I looked up the word walk. Do
it sometime. Look up the word walk in your
concordance and see how we are exhorted to walk. And one of
those exhortations was walk circumspectly. I had a teacher in Bible college
that explained that one time like this. He said it's like
a cat walking on the top of a fence. And on one side of the fence
is a Doberman Pinscher, and on the other side of the fence is
a German Shepherd. And that cat walks circumspectly. Walk circumspectly. Do all things without murmurs
and complaints. I pray the Lord would bless His
word to all of us here today.