Salvation Worked Out, Not Worked For

As you're able, please stand.

Turn with me to Philippians 2, 1 through 13.

So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any infliction and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others.

Have this in mind among yourself, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trebling.

For if for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

But the word of our God will stand for it.

The word of our God, the word of our God will stink for it.

But you know, when it's cold, penguins all gather together.

You all are all spread out.

So I blame you all if you were cold for not getting closer together.

But um, you know, one of the last times I preached in sanctuary is kind of this empty was for COVID.

Uh, and that was a whole other dynamic of speaking into an empty space, uh, but acting like people were here.

So I do appreciate all you that are here this morning, and this is something I think you'll realize or remember uh for the rest of your life.

Speaking of animals, you know, penguins, um, have a little trivia.

Kids or adults, what does you know, a scarlet king snake, a hoverfly, and a papillo butterfly have in common?

Seeing a lot of blank stares.

They all exhibit what is called Batesyan mimicry.

Batesan mimicry means they look dangerous or they look like a poisonous animal.

So the scarlet kingsnake resembles a coral snake.

Coral snake, it's red and yellow touches.

It's got a red, yellow, black pattern, but when red and yellow touches, that means it's really dangerous.

The scarlet kingsnakes, it's red and black, right?

So it looks similar, but it's not, it's it's harmless.

Uh the hover fly has yellow and black bands, so it looks like a bee.

All right, so predators don't want to eat it because they think it's they're gonna get stung because it's a bee, but it's not, it's just a little fly.

And the papilla butterfly looks like an Indian crow butterfly, um, which is an India, Dennis.

I'm sure you knew that.

Um, and the Indian crow butterfly is poisonous to eat, so you know, predators know birds know not to eat it.

So the papilla butterfly looks very similar.

Uh, why do I bring up Batesian mimicry?

Because today we're going to be in verses 12 and 13.

And when you read verse 12, especially just by itself, it kind of looks like this.

It looks dangerous.

It looks like Paul's telling us we need to earn our salvation.

And, you know, as good reformed uh Presbyterians, that should really send up kind of some signal flares or warning signs of, hey, that that can't be right.

So today that's what we're going to kind of talk about is what's he talking about here in verses 12 and 13.

And the reason we read 1 through 13 is to kind of give you a context because uh you remember we've kind of been going through the last few weeks in Philippians talking about Christ's humility.

Well, back in verse 27 of chapter 1, Paul tells us what to live out a manner of life worthy of the gospel.

And for the Philippians, who were very proud Roman citizens, thinking about what it means to live out a life of a manner worthy of kind of their Roman citizenship and our kind of gospel calling as believers was very important to them.

So Paul begins to build on, hey, I want y'all to remember who you are, and this is why.

So what we read uh or what Kim read earlier was, hey, so how does living a life of a manner worthy of gospel look like?

Well, it looks like, right, we count others more significant than ourselves.

We look to their interests.

And then uh two weeks ago we built on that and we said, well, why would we want to do that?

Well, because Paul brings out what Christ did for us, right?

He emptied himself.

He became the form of a man in the form of a servant, right?

And so he himself was that great example of looking to our interests, counting us more significant, which in this context means to serve, to serve others, to count them as worthy of serving.

And so Paul's been building on this.

And so this morning, that's what we're gonna look at is the context of verse 12 and 13 and how he's been building this argument.

So we'll look at what is the object of obedience, what does working out salvation mean?

And how does verse 13 hold it all together?

So verse 12.

Well, I'm on the yep, sorry, I was about to read the wrong chapter.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my present, but much much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

There can kind of be two objects to obedience.

I don't necessarily mean they're it's wrong to have one or the other.

We can look at it in two sense.

One is the legal sense, the object is kind of the law, and the other is the relational sense, right?

Obedience being in Christ.

Now, understandably, we can think of it in the legal sense because all it was Romans say, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that the wages of sin are death.

So there is a legal aspect to obedience.

Romans 7, Paul talks about in 7-11, he says, Hey, sin seized an opportunity through the law to deceive me and kill me.

And if you're someone, and I'm I'm this person, I think at different maybe walks of our life we all struggle with this, if you struggle with your assurance in Christ, then you oftentimes might look at when someone says to work out your salvation or just to pursue Christ, you might see that in this kind of legalistic sense.

And I don't know if you ever felt like that, of like, that just kind of feels legalistic.

But I feel like, depending on where we are kind of in our walk, if you struggle with knowing that Christ has secured your righteousness, then when you hear about things of kind of striving for Christ or living for Christ, and you don't have that fullness and assurance, you're gonna think you need to earn it.

You're going to think, well, hold on, he's asking me to work out my salvation because I'm not doing enough for him to approve or love me.

So therefore, if I'm better, then he will indeed accept me.

But that's not what he's saying.

And I think we can all agree if you're in any relationship, right, where there's kids, kids, you might sometimes be like, man, mom and dad are always getting on to me.

They're always telling me not to do this, they're always telling me to do this.

And if I don't do those things, they're not gonna love me, right?

You might have had those thoughts before, right?

That's not a healthy relationship.

And I'll just speak for your parents.

The reason they're telling you things to do or not to do is not because they want you to earn their love, it's because they do love you.

Right?

Or if you're in a marriage, if you're in a marriage and you always feel like you have to obey a certain way and a certain standard for your spouse to continue to love you or to accept you, I think we could all agree that's not a healthy marriage.

Right?

Those don't last.

And so if if we only operate as thinking about obedience in that legal sense, is the law being the object, those relationships break down.

But what's Paul saying here?

He starts off with my beloved, it's relational.

He's motivated by the relationship that he has with Christ.

And he's been speaking about it in the last previous verses.

Because he's like, I have my righteousness secured in Christ, and so because of that, we've died to the law.

So Romans 7:4 says, we've died to the law through Christ so that we might belong to Christ.

Romans 7:4

So now, as a child of God, much like you view uh children, your parents are your parents, and you're their child, and you love you because of the relationship that they have with you, we have that as children of God with God the Father.

Say, it's no longer about the law, but my desire for obedience is about my relationship and love that I have for you because of the love that you have shown to me.

And that's kind of a natural reaction, isn't it?

Once you're in a loving relationship, obedience is kind of just the natural response.

So if you're dating, right, when you're dating and you're gonna first step, you're you're sometimes you're doing things for the person you're dating, you're interested in their interest.

You if they ask you to do something, you're happy to do it.

We don't really call that legalism, we call that love.

Or if you're in a marriage, and as your marriage has strengthened and grown deeper, and you have said, Man, I I love my spouse more and more, and so when they ask me to do something, or if they ask I can help, I I jump to it.

And we don't say, like, man, you're just being really legalistic in your marriage that you're so willing to help and serve your spouse.

We call it love.

It's a privilege to be able to read verse 12 and think that it's talking to us.

Because what's one of the rules of scripture?

God does not ask anything of us that he does not provide.

So you know that you have a privilege and have been set apart, that he's asking you something like working out your salvation because he knows that you're one of his children and that you possess the blessing of having a new heart and a new mind that can pursue the Lord.

And so it's assuring actually for us to be talking about and encouraging each other to walk in obedience because it's an acknowledgement of our adoption into God's family.

And you must believe that.

Because without believing that future assurance that you have, the relationship you already have, it's really hard for you to kind of, I guess, in a sense, respond appropriately.

And this is what I mean by that.

We're always responding to the future.

Uh, I'll give an example.

This probably isn't a great example, it might indict me, but I was at a blackjack table years ago.

And it was a single deck blackjack table.

And I sat down and I was like, how do y'all prevent people from counting cards?

Because it's just one deck.

Now I can't count cards, I'm not really that smart, but I could at least kind of figure out with only one deck, hey, a lot of face cards are gone.

So but he said basically, if you start betting abnormally, we just make you leave.

And see, that's a natural tendency.

If you know the future, right, it kind of dictates your behavior, changes your behavior.

Um Brad Bohannan was the coach of Alabama's baseball team, and he got caught up in a gambling scandal because he told his friend that the Alabama starting pitcher was out.

He was hurt.

And that that information wasn't public.

So his friend up in Ohio went and made a place, tried to place a$100,000 bet that LSU would beat Alabama.

Now, a hundred thousand dollar bet might not be big if you're talking the Super Bowl, but for college baseball, that sent off all sorts of warnings system in the you know, the systems of gambling.

And they were like, that's that's odd.

But why did he do that?

Because he had an understanding of the future, the outcomes of that future, and it dictated and it kind of determined his behavior.

And so for us as believers, right, it is human nature for the future to influence that.

And we do this kind of all the time, and things you might buy, right?

The clothes you buy or the trips you go on, in essence, you're thinking those things are going to provide for you an expectation of a future of joy.

Right?

For some of you, uh, you might have had uh the storm last week when we canceled school and you knew for that weekend it might be a chance to know.

You probably went to the store and you got food.

Right?

Because you're thinking in essence of what is the future.

And if if life in general is about discerning the future and responding appropriately, how much more then, as believers, should we knowing that one day the Lord's returning?

Right, and in the earth and all those things are how much more then should we be preparing, working out our salvation, preparing to meet the Lord and starting really the first day of our eternal life?

And so as we package all that, I wanted, I just wanted to kind of create that foundation as we actually look at the working out part.

Because you might be saying, you know, John, I like to read my New Testament in the original Greek language, and I realize that that workout word, Katagarthe, means to produce, to bring about, or create.

And Paul uses it frequently.

So he uses this Greek word probably over 20 times.

So in Romans 5, 3, it says, We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces, that's that word, endurance.

Or in James, he uh says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

So if we wanted to translate this, you could say, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, produce your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Now, how does that not sound like we have to work for this salvation?

Again, because you have to look at what he's talking about in salvation.

He's not talking about justification.

Justification is that one-time decorative legal act where God confers on you innocence.

You are innocent.

And oftentimes, when you hear Paul talking about righteousness or justification, he's usually speaking about it in the past tense because it's something that's already happened, right?

Romans 5, 1.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And I think we all agree, we know that deep down that even though he's talking about producing and bringing about, he can't be meaning that because it'd just be a total contradiction to what we believe in Scripture.

And he even goes into Philippians 3:9, right?

Philippians 3:9

So the next chapter, he's gonna say, being found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Okay, so what is he talking about here?

He can't be contradicting himself.

What he's talking about, salvation, is the Lord's return, the day the Lord returns.

And we can kind of look at that in two ways.

You look at the wrath that's coming on the judgment that he's gonna bring for non-believers, and then you can look at it as the glory for those who believe.

So in Romans 5, 9, he kind of balances this, right?

He balances the already, not yet.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, right?

So now that is the past tense, you have been justified.

Much more, now he's looking to the future.

Shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God?

Here's maybe an example.

You were dead on the ocean floor, right?

You're dead.

There's no life in you.

Jesus swims out, pulls you from the bottom of the ocean, and he breathes life into you on the surface of the water.

And now you're alive.

You have life, but you're still in the water.

Okay?

The water is kind of like earth now, living in this fallen world.

Shore is the new heaven and the new earth.

And we're in that Christ has us and we're alive, and he is swimming us back to shore.

But we're not standing on dry ground yet.

We're still feeling the impacts of the water and the waves.

And so that's kind of what he's trying to balance here, and for the glory aspect of it.

Philippians 3, 12, and 14.

Not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Jesus Christ has made me his own.

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

What is he straining forward towards?

Glory.

Finally seeing Christ return.

And we see that right in 1 John 33.

When he returns, you're going to see him as he is and be like him.

So Paul, in that desire to finally be like Christ, is straining forward, is continuing to push forward in a way of obedience that mimics who he already is in Christ.

And of light of that, right?

And just the sheer weight of the wrath that you have been saved from and the glory you're going to receive.

It asks us to live in a manner which Paul talked about in verse 27 of a life worthy of the gospel.

And so he describes that now as fear and trembling.

But it's not a fear that pushes away.

What happened in Genesis 3?

Right?

They sin.

And then God shows up.

And he's like, Where are you, Adam?

And Adam's like, well, I heard you coming and I was afraid, so I hid.

That is a fear that is no longer based on a relationship.

He's like, I broke a law and now I'm ashamed.

He's like, I knew I was naked.

I knew who I was and that you wouldn't love me, and I hid.

That's fear.

But that's not the fear he's talking about, right?

Because this whole context is about beloved.

It's about believers, it's about children in Christ.

That awe is being like awesome, right?

You're drawing, it's a drawing you in.

So You know, going old school, we saw the old footage of the Beatles or Elvis, and people are just flooding if they found where they were in that car, and they're just wanting to touch the car and see him.

There's an awe about them that drew people in, right?

In the sense of the awe that we should have in the person of Christ and knowing who he was, right?

That he emptied himself to be a form of a servant to die for us.

The awe of that should draw us to him.

The trembling is this at like kind of this humility, right?

This submission.

Maybe the best example is a hurricane.

If we know, if you're living on the coast and you know a hurricane is coming, you don't ignore it.

People don't ignore category five hurricanes because you realize the sheer force and power of it.

And you submit yourself to it.

We've got to go.

I've got to listen to this.

It's coming.

Right?

It's the same way, if a hurricane that God created, how much more is there trembling in the sense of this respect for the return of the Lord and the judgment that he's going to justly bring on the unrighteous, and the glory he's going to restore to this fallen world?

How much more than we as believers should submit to that and be humbled by that and to listen to that?

If we do it, if we have all for people and hurricanes, how much more should we have for the God of the universe?

I'll summarize verse 12 like this, and then I'll connect to the 13.

And I heard this kind of example from John Piper.

Imagine verse 12 that working out your salvation with fear and trembling is a tabletop.

And that table's got to be supported by two legs.

The first leg is future promises.

So all the future promises that scripture says that you're that you've been justified, that you're going to be glorified, that he's going to restore all things.

Okay, that's the future promises.

All right, and the other leg is the present enabling.

So this is what this would look like in a real life example.

Taylor Swift has a concert.

And you're told if you wear your Taylor Swift shirt, that you will get to hang out with Taylor and have dinner with her after the concert.

Okay?

Or shouldn't have as many girls in here for the guys.

Maybe it's you know LeBron James.

You go to a LeBron James game, you put on the jersey, you will indeed, after the game, spend time with him, have dinner with him.

What would your response be to that future promise?

You would get dressed.

You would go put on that shirt.

Okay.

Now you might say, your next question is, well, hold on, I didn't know I was going.

I don't have a ticket, and I can't get there, I don't know how to get there.

That's where the present enabling comes in.

That we'll get in verse 13.

Because your dad would say, Well, I already have your ticket, and I'm going to take you there.

Verse 12 is your response to the future promises of the gospel with the present enabling of God doing it for you.

So that's where Paul connects this.

That's why verse 13 exists after the work out, your salvation, fear, and trembling.

Verse 13.

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

This verse is not saying you go as far as you can go, and then God will do the rest.

It isn't saying that.

What's remarkable here is he uses the same verb that we get the word energy from for your work and the work God's doing.

So let that thing sink in for a second.

What Paul is saying in verse 13 is the work you do, the obedience that you exhibit towards Christ is indeed the exact energy of God's work working through you.

It's Him doing it.

He's the one presently enabling you to do it.

One of the commentaries I was reading had this great sentence and said, When our finite work is empowered by God's work, then our work is an expression of God's work.

How often do you give credit for your obedience, for your longing for the Lord, for your loving other people?

Do you give credit for God working in your life?

Or you just dismiss it?

You know, in the insurance world, they have a clause called the act of God.

And that act of God usually means, you know, hurricanes, tornadoes.

Uh, in a sense, it's they're natural, they're unavoidable, and they're massive.

Well, those three adjectives apply to us, don't they?

As a believer, a child of God, it is absolutely natural for God to work through you.

That is natural.

It is absolutely unavoidable because he said he's gonna do it.

He doesn't just show up sometimes, he's not there and gone in the next moment.

He's always with you.

It is unavoidable that God's love and commitment for you, he is not always working for you and through you.

And that's massive.

It's massive that you, a finite person with all your limitations, is being driven by an infinite God with unlimited capabilities.

And here's where I feel like this kind of gets hard.

I bring this up, I feel like, you know, every three months.

A lot of times we don't know what our spiritual gifts are, we don't know what our calling is, we don't know what our purpose is.

And you can see how when you struggle, and it's uh it's okay to struggle with that, but you can see the danger when you do struggle with that.

Because if you don't acknowledge spiritual gifts, if you don't acknowledge your calling and purpose in life, then you're not able to acknowledge God's work in your life.

You just feel like you're kind of drifting.

When you feel, man, I know what I'm called to do.

I know that I'm called to enjoy God forever, right?

I'm called to love my neighbors.

I'm called to think of others more significantly.

When you understand that, the absolute confidence that you have in how God sustains you to do those things goes through the roof.

It is remarkable.

And I think all of you could probably share ways in which you're like, man, I didn't know how that was gonna work out or how I got through it, but the Lord showed up.

Why?

Because in those moments you're dependent on him.

And that's what he's always wanting to do.

I'm telling you to work out your salvation with fear and trembling because I want you to constantly be dependent on me.

Because if you lack confidence in your purpose, if you lack confidence in what God's called you to do, then you're gonna stop praising him for initiating, for sustaining, and completing your obedience.

And he takes great joy in doing that.

That's why he closes this verse with the for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

He does it for his pleasure.

What did we read about when we were going through Philippians 1 6?

I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because it says he does it for his good pleasure.

If you're a parent, it's like watching your children, right?

And when they excel and they succeed, you kind of get this pride, right?

You get this excitement, you get this joy to seeing them succeed.

Why?

Because in essence, you feel like, man, I've been a part of this journey.

I've tried to help in this journey.

And I love seeing the fruition of my work.

How much more do you think God, the Father, gets pleasure in watching his work work through sinful people to become more like him, to excel, to succeed in obedience, absolute, just overwhelming joy.

It's not being legalistic when we talk about working out our salvation.

It's acknowledging the reality of who we are.

And in essence, right, we should be working as hard as Paul at his calling and humbly acknowledge that all the success, all the ways in which you love the Lord, all the ways in which you love people, that success is not you in and of itself, but it is the Lord's working in you.

Right?

We know Christ is going to return.

We know we are righteous.

We know that he works in us, we know that he provides all things he requires.

So we need to let those truths influence and determine our heart, soul, and mind.

Right?

If life is about discerning and preparing for the future, then we need to be a witness and set example for others in our thoughts, words, and actions for the love and excitement we have for Christ's return.

Let's pray.

Father, I I confess I will get very, I guess, short-sighted.

Worry about me, worry about my moment, and forgetting that you, Father, reign and rule over all things.

That kind of like Olin spoke about last week, your providence always prevails over our plans.

We know the ending to this story.

It is a huge benefit and blessing in our life to be able to live out our life in a way that reflects the confidence we have in that ending, that you are going to return, that you are going to glorify us, that you are going to restore all things.

It is humbling to think that whatever the lifespan of the sun is, that it will burn out long before we ever stop existing.

So, Father, with that just massive weight of eternity coming, help us work out our salvation in a way where we are striving for obedience and a love for you and a love for others as a reflection of our future home and our future inheritance.

And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.