Work Out Your Salvation: Faith in Action - Phil 2:12-13

Good morning, and what a great blessing it is to be worshippers of the only

Lord and God, Jesus Christ.

It is our great joy to be given salvation in Jesus Christ, and in Christ we

have the opportunity to obey God's Word together.

My name is Pastor Simon Flynn, and here at Dillingham Moravian Church,

we delight in making disciples for Christ as we learn God's Word together with you.

This last week, we as a family have been working hard at tilling and planting our garden sites.

Last Saturday, I was working on tilling a newly made garden on the land where once there was trees.

You probably don't need me to tell you that the soil there was full of roots.

Most of them I got out last summer, but there were still some big tree roots left.

And thus I wielded a Collins axe, which is like a pickaxe and an axe put together,

like a crazy man, cutting roots, some of which were as big as small trees,

and digging up harder dirt.

I will admit that it has been almost a year since I had worked so hard.

Combined with the hot sun and the vigorous work, I had to take breaks.

To catch my breath, and for water. If I keep working like that every week,

I'll be in shape in no time.

My point is, is I was tired because I had not worked out my muscles and my physical

endurance for so long that I was winded and a lot weaker than I should have been.

Similar to this concept of physically working out our muscles,

we as Christians are called to work out our spiritual muscles and serve God

using the salvation that we have been given. Let's pray.

Oh, Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the privilege that we have to be able

to serve you, to be your children, to be your beloved in Christ.

And we have the wonderful opportunity,

to be able to obey you by your grace and by your precious love.

Today, Lord, as we hear your word speak to us, use us.

Grant us your Holy Spirit so that we may be able to understand and apply what

your Word is teaching us.

Thank you, O Lord. Use us by your precious and wondrous power.

In your wonderful Son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Here at DMC, we have been going through a preaching series in Paul's letter to the Philippians.

Last week, God communicated to us in Philippians 2, verse 9-11 that just as

Philippians 2:9–11

glory was given to our Lord Jesus Christ through his suffering and sacrificial

death, so also in Christ's kingdom,

glory is derived from our obedient and loving sacrifice as we deny ourselves for the will of God.

Secondly, that because of and through his death and resurrection,

Christ has been exalted and declared to be what he's always been,

Jesus, the Lord Yahweh, the Great I Am.

All of creation, including heaven and hell, will one day bow down and confess

with their mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord Yahweh to all the glory of God.

Because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and through his resurrection,

Jesus has been raised to a position above all others as Lord over all.

And today we're continuing in our study in Philippians 2, verse 12 through 13.

Philippians 2:12–13

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only,

but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

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

There are two main core doctrinal truths that I want to present to you today.

The first doctrinal truth that I want to show you from this passage is that

beloved Christians are to obey God by working out our salvation.

Paul wrote in Philippians 2, verse 12, So then, my beloved,

Philippians 2:12

just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, But now much more

in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Within this first core truth, I want you to see that Paul was teaching the Philippians

four essential principles.

The first principle I want you to notice is that Christians are to value other

believers as beloved in the Lord, especially in this context,

as those whom we are ministering to.

Paul explained to the Philippians that they were beloved to him.

The word that Paul used for beloved meant the one who is dearly loved,

dear, beloved, prized, valued.

This concept of being loved or be loved is like loving your spouse or children

versus loving others around you.

We are commanded to love others, and we do, but we love our spouses and our

children to a different and deeper level than we love others.

This is the way God teaches us in his word to love other Christians as beloved in Christ.

To the apostle Paul, he dearly loved the believers that he discipled in Christ.

Secondly, Christians are called to be obedient when others, especially other

Christians, are not looking.

Paul told the Philippian congregation to obey his teaching much more when Paul

was not around to watch them.

As Jesus himself taught in Matthew 6, verse 1, beware of doing your righteousness,

Matthew 6:1

before men to be noticed by them.

Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

Thirdly, we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord.

I want to point out to you that Paul did not say that believers are to work

for their salvation, meaning to earn their salvation.

Rather, Christians are to work out their salvation.

As we heard in my initial illustration, to keep our muscles strong,

we must use our muscles and exercise or work them.

So also, we must use the salvation that Christ has given us in His death and

resurrection for the glory of God.

The word work out, our salvation meant to accomplish or put something into effect

entirely and thoroughly.

Meaning that God the Father has given us salvation in Christ through our faith in Christ.

But we need to put our salvation into effect.

Simply, we need to allow God's salvation to work in and through our lives.

Now, the ultimate fruit of salvation in Christ is that we are saved from the

wrath of God and have eternal life in Christ.

But the question is, how is our salvation displayed in our day-to-day Christian life?

First off, salvation is displayed by our obedience to God and His Word.

This is how our salvation is put to work in our lives, as we,

by faith in Christ, obey God's Word.

For example, obedience relationship to salvation reminds me of jump-starting

our vehicles when the battery gets too cold.

The energy is there in the battery, but it needs to be given power to wake up,

to charge the battery again.

But here's the thing The power will not be transferred to the battery.

Unless we go and physically retrieve the battery charger Or the jumper,

Plug it in Into either another power source or another vehicle The Holy Spirit

supplies the power we need But he will not start powering us until we start

acting Until we start obeying.

Obedience is foundational to living for Christ, and without obedience,

God's grace or salvation will not work in us.

And here's what I mean by this. Because God gave all people the ability to choose

him for themselves, God will not force us to obey him.

That is why obedience to God and his word is the evidence that someone is saved in Christ.

The Holy Spirit will not start working in us and through us to others unless we start obeying.

On the other hand, the lack of obedience is evidence that the person may not be saved at all.

As John in 1 John 2.3-6 taught, let's look at verse 3.

And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

The one who says, I've come to know him and does not keep his commandments is

a liar, and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word truly in him, the love of God has been perfected.

By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he abides in him ought

himself to walk in the same manner as he has walked.

The second way that salvation is shown in our lives is in sanctification.

Paul wrote in Romans 6, verse 22, But now having been freed from sin and a slave

Romans 6:22

to God, you have your benefit.

And here it is, leading to sanctification and the end eternal life.

This concept of sanctification is God's grace.

Or rather is simply becoming more like Christ in God's grace.

The more we obey Christ as we rely on God's grace, the more we will grow to be like Christ.

And that leads us to the next key evidence of salvation, which is as we prayerfully

obey God through his word and are becoming more like Christ,

we display the fruits of the Spirit.

Paul wrote in Galatians 5, verses 22-23, But the fruit of the Spirit is love,

Galatians 5:22–23

joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I would like also to add what I believe Paul would have called the foundational fruits of the Spirit.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, but now abide faith, hope, and love.

These three, but the greatest of these is love.

You see, the fruit of the Spirit are not just evidence of salvation,

but they are characteristics that we are to have in us or abide or stay in us as we obey God

and work at exercising these fruit characteristics so that they keep growing in us.

The last demonstration of salvation I want to point out to you,

is central as evidence of Christ's life in us because it comes out of the two

great commands of God and it is the mission that Christ has sent each Christ

believer here on earth to accomplish.

And this is the great commission being obeyed as we make disciples for Christ with Christ.

Let's look at Matthew 28, verse 18 to 20.

Matthew 28:18–20

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to

me in heaven and on earth.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name

of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.

And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Lastly, Christians are to work out their salvation in fear and trembling.

The phrase fear and trembling was not the cowering fear of an unbeliever before the Almighty God.

But referred to a sense of awe and reverence in the presence of God,

which is the appropriate response to God's mighty acts.

Paul adding with fear and trembling on the end of working out your salvation

was intended to keep Christians from believing that they could earn their own

salvation by their deeds.

Paul continually called the concept of earning one's own salvation as a false

belief, which was no gospel at all, as he taught in Galatians chapter 1.

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

Paul's focus was to remind the Philippian congregation that as they were obediently

exercising and living out God's salvation in them,

they were to always remember that Christians are to live in humility and reverence

before God, because it is He who graces,

them undeservedly with salvation.

How then can we as Christ followers today apply these truths from verse 12 in our lives?

We can apply them in three ways First off, we as Christians are to value each

other in the church of Christ as beloved in the Lord Especially those whom we

have discipled to become disciples of Christ in the Lord's grace.

This is often very challenging, especially out here in the hubs for Bush,

Alaska, like Dillingham and Bethel.

In Dillingham, we have at least two major cultures in our town,

Yupik, Eskimo, and the lower 48 culture, with a growing group from the Philippines.

And although we make care for each other and are respectful and kind to each

other in public, most of these cultures stick to their own selves outside of church and work.

There's also the other factor of busyness from work and school and church,

where it's challenging to have people over to our houses when our houses are

a mess due to not being around enough to clean them thoroughly.

Moreover, there may be other Christians that we theologically differ from and

pertains to non-core doctrines.

In our little church alone, we have at least 11 or 12 denominational backgrounds represented.

There may also be believers, even in our churches, that we have a hard time

getting along with because of different personalities or previous history with them.

You see, I get it. There are challenges and there's barriers to overcome.

The church in Philippi would have had even more cultural and previous theological,

hurdles to overcome, being made up of both Jew and Gentile or non-Jews.

As Paul taught in Ephesians 2, verses 14-16,

Ephesians 2:14–16

For he himself is our peace, who

made both groups one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition,

by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in

ordinances, so that in himself he might create,

the two into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one

body to God through the cross, having in himself put to death the enmity.

The sacrificial death, or sorry, the sacrificial and dietary laws of the Mosaic

law have been done away with in the blood of Jesus Christ.

We as Christians are now closer than blood family.

We are now one body, one person in Christ.

Our love for each other in Christ is to go beyond social and cultural barriers.

Christ sees us as one person, as his beloved bride.

Secondly, Christians are called to be obedient when others, especially other

Christians, are not looking.

This is so important because it's so much easier to be obedient when people

are watching or keeping us accountable.

Additionally, we can do what is right when our mentors are around or other Christians

that we admire or those we know well are watching.

But we may not actually be obeying the Lord. Rather, we may be acting out of

a desire to be praised or please those around us. We need to be watchful of this.

The last application that I see for Philippians 2, verse 12,

Philippians 2:12

is that in order for God's work of salvation that He has graced us with in Christ,

to be put to work in our lives, we, you and I, need to obey God in the teachings,

principles, and commands of His Word, the Bible.

As we obey Christ by faith in Christ, the fruit of the Holy Spirit manifests

in what we think, say, or do.

And again, perhaps the greatest evidence of our salvation is us as Christ's

disciples making disciples who we then teach to make disciples of their own for Christ.

A couple of tools that will help you share the gospel are with prayer and Bible

study, writing down what you know of the gospel.

It doesn't have to be super complicated or very long, and then go and memorize it.

Then write out your testimony of how you came to know Christ.

Moreover, keep praying for the Holy Spirit to open up what I call Holy Spirit

moments, where God is orchestrating a divine encounter between you and someone else.

Using these two tools with prayer really help, because we never know when we

may meet someone that is open to the gospel.

Sometimes the window when a person is open to God's leading is only open for a short time.

Thus, we, you and I, need to always be ready to share the gospel.

We must not miss those Holy Spirit moments.

The second core truth that I want you to see in Philippians 2,

Philippians 2:13

verse 13, is that it is God who works his salvation in us for his good pleasure.

Out here in Bush, Alaska, machines are a great part of our life.

Of course, we use our cars and our trucks to get to work and bring our kids to school.

But we also use snow machines to go hunting and fishing and for traveling in the wintertime.

In the summertime, we use our skiffs to fish and bring us hunting or collect wood along the rivers.

Many here use their skiffs to ferry themselves to fish camp where their commercial

and subsistent set nets are.

Much of Bristol Bay's salmon fishing drift boat fleet is stationed here in Dillingham.

My point is that we rely on these machines to operate the way they were designed

to so that we can eat and make money and provide for our families.

In Christ, Christians have work that we've been designed to do.

And yet at the same time, we cannot accomplish our work without God working in us and through us.

Paul continued in Philippians 2, verse 13, For it is God who is at work in you,

Philippians 2:13

both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

I want you to see three words that will help us understand what Paul was teaching

the Philippian church in this verse.

The first word that I want you to see is the word that Paul used for at work,

for when God is at work within us, which meant to implement,

to cause, to function, to carry into effect.

Secondly, to will meant to desire, to feel or have a desire for, to want strongly.

The word work, referring to us as Christians working, meant to function,

to do what something is used for, perform as expected when operating.

I share the meanings of these words to you,

to help you and I understand that although we as Christ believers are called

to exercise our salvation by being obedient to Christ's word,

it is God who has granted us salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Moreover, it is God that gives us, as Christians, the ability to be able to

work out or exercise our salvation.

As Paul pointed out, it is God that gives us the desire or the will to want

to become like Christ and serve Him.

Due to the fall of Adam and Eve, all of humanity has inherited the spiritual

deadness and inability to even want to serve God.

Theological word for this is

human depravity, which is the inability to seek and obey God on our own.

And thus God in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit works in us to give us the

desire and will to seek God and live for Him.

For years our family had a dishwasher that would not pump water,

so we had to fill it by hand at every cycle of its washing.

We had it timed to when the dishwasher needed water. We had a timer going so

that we knew when we had to fill up the washer with water for the next cycle.

Just recently, for Mother's Day, I got Abigail a new dishwasher.

And I have to say, it is wonderful because it does exactly what it was supposed to do.

Like the machines that we use in our daily lives, we expect them to work according

to their design parameters and to do what they were made to do.

God has designed us as humans, especially as Christ believers,

to love God with all our beings and in God to love others and make disciples

for Christ for the glory of God.

The problem is that because of the fall of Adam and Eve, we could not live up

to what God destined us for.

And that is why Christ had to die, to make us new creations in Christ and give

us a new heart and a new spirit that we can love God, love others,

and make disciples for Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17,

2 Corinthians 5:17

Paul explained, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come.

God prophesied through Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36, verse 26-27.

Ezekiel 36:26–27

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.

I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my heart within you and cause, or sorry, I will put my spirit within

you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you'll be careful to do my judgments.

Back in Philippians 2, verse 13, Paul explained that even our ability to work

Philippians 2:13

for God is initiated and powered by God.

In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10, Paul also wrote about this same concept.

1 Corinthians 15:10

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me did not prove

vain, but I labored even more than all of them.

Yet not I, but the grace of God within me.

Paul taught that even in the midst of all his work and his service for the gospel

of Jesus Christ, all his long hours and putting up with suffering as a result

of his gospel proclamations.

Even though it was Paul physically ministering, he knew that in reality it was

the grace of Christ working in and through him to accomplish all that was done for Christ.

What then can we learn from Philippians 2, verse 13?

Philippians 2:13

As Christians, although we are designed to operate by loving God,

loving others, making disciples for Christ, we only can do what God has made

us to do when it is God who is working in and through us.

And this is why it's so essential that we continually, day by day,

moment by moment, live by trusting in God and His strength to power us so that

we can serve Christ faithfully here on earth.

Paul, in Galatians 2.20, stated perhaps my favorite verse in the Bible,

I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself up for me.

What have we learned today in this passage? The first truth that God has been

teaching us today is that as Christians, we are to value each other as beloved

in Christ, as we humbly and with reverence to God, obediently exercise

God's salvation in us.

Secondly, as Christ believers, we must realize that it is God that is working

in us so that we can do what we've been designed to do, which is desire and

seek God and have the ability to work for Him.

And if you are listening today and you have never put your faith and trust in

Christ, I encourage you to do so, even now as I am speaking,

to repent of your sins and to declare and confess to Him that He is,

Jesus Christ is Yahweh God. He is the great I am.

If you are listening and you are a Christian, I encourage you as well to repent

of your sins, to trust that Christ is working in you, and that he will work through you,

and to step out in faith and obey his word.

In all that it teaches us to do, to make disciples for Christ,

to love God with all our hearts and our minds and the soul and love others as he has loved us.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, for teaching us and guiding us.

Thank you for loving us so much in Christ. Lord, we pray that we may be as Christians,

that we can go out and obey your word, that we can.

Work in response to your grace, for your glory. Thank you so much, O Lord.

You are our God, and you are a mighty one.

Lord, we praise you. We bless you. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

I'll leave you with this blessing from Romans chapter 15, verse 13.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.

Amen. Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you all.