PHILIPPIANS | Working In, Working Out | Philippians 2:12-18

If you would turn with me and copy the scriptures to Philippians, as we are making our way through Philippians, we are in chapter 2, and we're going to be looking at verses 12 through 18. The Heidelberg Catechism that you just recited.

I think just summarizes everything you're about to hear in this text. So I might even encourage you to go back to that catechism question because it deals very well with everything that Paul is about to lay out for us. But we'll have an opportunity to work through it and walk through it ourselves to see, indeed, does God say these things, not merely man. Before we read, let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Our heavenly Father, we thank you. You are our Father, Lord.

We thank you that you love us, Lord. We thank you that you have adopted us into your family.

Lord, we thank you for the redeeming blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we can come now into your presence without a terror of judgment, but with reverence, with awe, with amazement, recognizing your majesty, but also your amazing love towards us. Father, I pray that by the power of your Spirit you would indeed continue to work out the salvation that you have started in us, and Lord, we thank you for your promise that you will complete it. Let us rest more this day upon Jesus, and it's in His name we pray.

Amen.

People of God, hear God's word for us this morning from Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 12, reading through verse 18.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

[12] Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, [13] for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

[14] Do all things without grumbling or disputing, [15] that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, [16] holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. [17] Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. [18] Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

He who has ears, let him hear the word of God. You may be seated. Have you ever thought to yourself, "I should be further along by now" I've been following Christ now for a few years, a number of years, maybe many years, why am I still so impatient? Why do I still lack self-control? Why is prayer still so difficult? Why do I grumble and complain so much still? Why am I not more like Jesus yet? And when we ask those questions, it's very easy to fall into one of two errors. One error is to think I just need to fix myself if I just have a little bit more determination, a little bit more discipline, more willpower, then I will be able to make myself more holy. But the other error goes in the opposite direction. It it says simply, God has to change me. So if God wants me to become more patient or more self-controlled, well, He's just going to have to do it, and all I can do is just wait for him to work, and that is precisely the tension I think Paul gives to us in our passage.

He says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. There it is. Paul says, "Do work, strive, fight, obey, take your holiness serious. But by we can conclude that the Christian life then ultimately rests upon ourselves and our effort, or at least partially upon ourselves, Paul then immediately says, "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Which is it, Paul? Do I work or does God work? But what's interesting is Paul is not also going to allow us to answer. Well, God does His part, but you also do your part. That is not what. Paul, as we will see, his conclusion will be what Paul will show us is that our working is a result of God working in us.

That is, our working out is the fruit of His grace working in us. And God's grace does not make passive Christians. God's grace makes us active to work out the salvation that He has given to us. And now Paul will then show us here in our text what this looks like. We're going to see three ways. We're going to see working out. We're going to be shining out, and then being poured out. So first we work out our salvation, verses 12 through 13. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence. Paul has been their pastor, teacher, their spiritual father and Paul knows something about human nature. It's much easier to be faithful when someone's watching you, children. You know this, right?

That there are things you would not do to your sibling or say to them if mom and dad are standing right next to you, right? You're not going to hit. You're not going to throw that that that anger toy at them. But it's also true for us adults, isn't it?

It's much easier to obey if the right people are in the same room as you, in earshot of you.

There are things that you would not say there are things that you would not do if there are others around, and Paul is reminding them to don't just obey when I'm around. I'm absent, but you are not ultimately living before Paul's face or one another's face. Paul is reminding us you are living before the face of God, who is always present. This is the coram Deo. God is ever with you.

He is always present. Psalm 139 reminds us, where shall I go from your spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence? It's a reminder that wherever you are, whether you think you are by yourself, you are not. God is with you; He is present. And so Paul says, "Therefore, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Let me confess too about this verse to you about maybe my misunderstanding of this verse and how I would often think about this verse. It says,"Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. I often would hear this verse and think,"God must want us to be a little bit afraid that you're not saved. God wants you to have some hesitation that you are not fully His child, and and that fear then will drive you to keep working, to keep doing stuff, to make sure you are saved. That God wants us to have a little doubt, so we'll keep doing these godly things, I think it's easy to hear this verse out of context and think God doesn't want us to have full assurance of our salvation, so we better get to work, so God will keep you. But that is not at all what Paul is saying in this verse, and I think that's why it's so important that as we work through the Bible, we consider verses in their context.

Remember that that meme: "I can do all things through a Bible verse taken out of context. We can make the Bible say and apply our theology to whatever we want as as we snatch things here and there, but that's why we need to look at the context of what what Paul has been telling us, and to remember the the context. The therefore connects us to everything before that Paul has just been talking about, and what has Paul just been talking about? He has lift your face to have you gaze upon your Lord Jesus Christ, God of God, Light of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made the Son of God, who then humbled Himself, who became man, who took on human nature. He became obedient to death, even death on a cursed cross. But yet God has highly exalted him, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We do not complete or add anything to the cross. The cross was not lacking in any way. Jesus saves completely, fully, graciously.

Therefore, my beloved, says Paul, verses the the verses 12 through 18, the Christ of verses five through 11 produces his life now in his people, because Christ has saved you. Work out the salvation that is already yours. This is sanctification, not justification, that Paul is talking about here in this text.

You know, sanctification, the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are more and more enabled to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. Paul says, "Work out your salvation.

That is, you are to fight your sin, you are to pursue holiness, you are to pray, you are open the the Word of God, you are to put to death your sinful deeds and desires, and lead a godly life, and do it. He says also with fear and trembling, but again, Paul isn't telling Christians to tremble because they're uncertain whether Christ will save them or not. That is not what the fear and trembling is. The fear and trembling here is a sense of reverence, a sense of awe. You know, our worship, our very worship, what we are doing now is to be characterized with fear and trembling, not because we are afraid of God, but that we come into His presence with humility and amazement for what He has done for us, and that is what Paul is communicating. We are working out our salvation with amazement that that what Christ has done for us to save us. What Paul says also next ensures that we don't walk away thinking that we work out my salvation and then hopefully God will save me as I'm doing these things. Because verse 13 reminds us, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Work out your salvation, for God is working in you. That's Paul's thought. God is at work in your working. That is, God is keeping you to be able to do keeping things working in you that you are then working out that salvation, and I think there's a tremendous amount of encouragement here for Christians who began this morning thinking I should be a lot further along than I am now, and I think maybe you should be, and I should be. Maybe we have tolerated sin, and we need to repent. Paul will not allow grace to become an excuse also for spiritual laziness. But can you think in your life? Are there things? Are there sins that you once excused that you do not any longer ever prayed?

Ever said, "Lord, change what I want to make it more what you want to love what you love to hate what you hate. Make me more like Christ, make me want Christ more than I want my sin. Those kinds of desires are evidence of God's working in you to then work out, even in in prayer and reading the Bible, and participating in the sacraments and in Christian fellowship, that is God's work in you. Your confidence is not I have to be strong enough in this life to finish it. It is my God is faithful enough to finish what He has begun. And isn't that what Paul has already told us in Philippians chapter one? And 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. Now, this doesn't mean that we just shrug off sin. We don't take it serious. If you we need to seek someone's forgiveness, we seek it. If there's sins we've been hiding, we need to bring them to light and confess them. If we've neglected prayer, we need to pray. Paul's command is addressing the real Christians, and it calls us to real obedience. But you do not have to choose between taking sin serious and trusting God's promises. In fact, because God works in you, you can face sin honestly and fight it.

Hopefully, knowing that He is at work in you, assurance of salvation does not put us to sleep, but it gets us to work.

And what does that look like?

What does it look like when God then works in His people? Well, you might think Paul would name now some great, amazing acts of courage, or extraordinary feats of service.

What does it look like when God works in His people? But what does Paul say? What does it look like? Well, it looks like doing all things without grumbling and complaining, pretty ordinary, but grumbling and grumbling here reveals something about our hearts. And there's actually a biblical story here that Paul is connecting us to, and when he uses this word, it reminds us that God rescued Israel out of Egypt. He brought them through the Red Sea, he fed them, he led them, he dwelt with them, and yet in the wilderness, when they lacked, where they felt they lacked something to eat, some more diversity in their their food, they grew frustrated, and they grumbled, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, but Moses tells them in Exodus chapter 16, "Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord. Their complaint sounded horizontal in their eyes. We're just complaining to you, Moses.

Exodus 16 · chapter mention

But unbelief underneath was vertical. God, we do not trust you. Where you have brought us, what you've provided for us, where you're taking us, we don't trust you, God. And Paul brings that then wilderness language and applies it here to the church to remind us that we too have been delivered from slavery, not from Egypt, but from sin. Not by the blood of a lamb painted on a doorway, but by the blood of the Lamb of God.

Christ has set us free and is leading us home, and yet redeemed people still find ourselves grumbling and complaining here in the wilderness. Now, I think it's also helpful here to distinguish between what it means to grumble versus a real lament. The Psalms teach suffering people to cry out to God. Lament brings our pain to God, and it asks God for help. But grumbling accuses God of doing wrong, lament says,"Lord, this hurts, but I bring it to you. Where grumbling says,"Lord, you have not treated me as I deserve. When someone is genuinely suffering, Paul's not telling a grieving person never to speak about grief. He's not asking the church to pretend that injustice is good, we may cry out to God, we may ask for help, we may tell one another about the truth of suffering.

The question is, what we believe about God when we do these things? Do we turn towards Him in dependence, or accuse Him of withholding what we deserve, we can confess God's sovereignty, but yet still complain about His providence. We can say God is in control. I'm grateful He's in control. However, we can spend our weeks angry about God's working out His His His sovereignty in our lives and the things that happen around us in our circumstances. Paul says,"Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Paul says that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God, without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.

Again, this language recalls the Old Testament, taking us back to Deuteronomy this time, where rebellious Israel is described as being crooked and a twisted generation. Though they were God's covenant people, they behaved like the world that was around them. Paul turns the language around and says, "Do not become like the crooked generation. Live as the children of God that you have been made to be. Live who you are. You know what Paul says reminds me of a portion of the voyage of the Dawn Shredder. Do you remember Eustace and? He was a boy who was constantly grumbling and complaining, and he becomes a dragon, and he he tries to ask his dragon self to tear away at his dragon scales, and he can never get deep enough. And then Aslan comes and he takes his claws and he tears into Eustace and rips the dragon apart and reveals the boy. Now, what would Eustace? What what use would that be to Eustace if he just continued to remain and act like a dragon? Nothing, because but that's not who he is anymore, and that's what Paul is telling us. God has renewed you, adopted you, cleansed you, worked within you. No longer be like the world. Be who you are. Be who you are in Christ as sons and daughters of the living God.

Verse 15, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

Picture the church scattered through a dark world, through a crooked world, and we light up the darkness. Have you ever been to a place at night when there isn't so much light pollution like there is in Tampa, maybe you've been out on a boat somewhere or somewhere much more rural, and you you look up, but the light is lit up with stars, and it is a wonder. It is a beautiful picture, and that picture of the darkness of the sky, but lit up with the lights, is what Paul is using to picture you as the church in this world.

You are to be lights in this dark world. You are to to beautify this world with the light of Christ. And so, whenever you look at the the stars in the night sky, let that be a picture driving you to Christ's calling in your life to shine as lights in this world.

That God has placed you here in darkness to be His light. We aren't the source of light.

Jesus is. He is the very light of the world, but we shine as His life becomes more visible in what we do. Paul also says that we hold fast to the Word of Life while shining; that we cannot shine for Christ if we lose our grip of the gospel, if we lose our grip of the Word. The world needs the word that gives life.

It needs to know that Jesus died for sinners. It needs to know that He has risen. It needs to know that we can be reconciled to God through Christ. Christ must also be heard, not merely seen. So we hold fast to the word by speaking the word and asking that God makes its power visible in the way we live together. But and how does that look like? Well, last week we looked at that too. Not insisting on our own way, not tearing one another apart, not spending our life complaining, but having the mind of Christ.

What happens when plans change and we don't get our way? How do we respond? How do we speak about our brother or our sister who frustrates us? Do we leave a conversation more eager to pray for someone or not? Our answers to those questions not only affect us and our own happiness, but it affects what our neighbors see. Our disposition in our circumstances affects those around us, our families, our church, our neighbors. We have a lot further to go in our sanctification, don't we? We none of us have arrived yet.

This is why, as the church, we we gather together. We should be repenting together. We should be forgiving one another and asking the Lord to to be more visible among us and and our thoughts and words and and speech. We keep returning to the Word of Life and our Savior, who was held out in the Word. Paul longs for the Philippians to hold fast, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. And so, in all of this too, Paul is bringing us back to where all of this is going, to the day of Christ. This wilderness is not our home. This darkness is not our home. Christ is coming, and until He does, we hold fast to the Word. We hold out the Word, and let the life of Christ shine through us. That He has worked in us. Now, Paul doesn't merely tell the Philippians to give themselves for others, but he also is a very example to them in his own

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, sometimes what would happen in the Old Testament there would be a sacrifice, but alongside of it, there would be a drink, often wine, that would be poured out as a drink offering. Paul calls the Philippians' life of faith the sacrifice, and he says, "If my life must be poured out alongside it, so be it.

Remember, Paul is in prison; he does not know whether he'll be released or put to death, but even if his service to Christ and to his church costs him his life, he does not consider that life wasted.

"I am glad and will rejoice with you all. Paul is speaking about the possibility of his death, but yet he is able to rejoice.

Why? Because he told us in chapter one to live as Christ and to die as gain. That Christ is worth his life, and that these brothers and sisters are worth loving service. So even if Paul is poured out for their good, he'll have much Joy. Paul does not pour himself out to make Christ love him. He pours himself out because Christ loved him and gave himself for him.

You know, usually being poured out maybe doesn't always look as dramatic as Paul, but when we pour ourselves out to one another, it means just maybe giving time to one another, praying for one another, serving one another when no one is looking, forgiving when we rather hold on, bearing someone's burdens when you're already very tired, taking the lower place. This is pouring ourselves out in service towards one another, and Paul does not say it miserably. He says, "I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Paul wants the church to share this joy, even if his life is poured out, because a life given to Christ is never wasted. Christ gave Himself for them, God is at work among them, and now their costly service can become an offering of praise. I'll end with this, just taking us back to how we began. That maybe you came this morning thinking I have a long way to go, or I I'm not as far as I thought I would be by By now, I have far to go, and we do. I do too. That there is certainly sin to fight in our lives, grumbling to repent of, a life to pour out better. But don't simply look about how far you have to go. Look at the one who is at work in you, and that's what Paul is ultimately calling us to-to stop so much looking at ourselves, but look to Christ who is at work. Look to His glory. The God who began the work is still working in you. The Christ who died for you is still yours. The Spirit who gave you life has not abandoned you. Remember, He will complete it. And the day of Christ is coming, and at that day, this work will be completed. We will be finished. No more sin to fight. No more grumbling. No more darkness, and we will stand before the Savior who saved us.

Finally, made more in His image, full sanctification, glorification. But until that day, we are working out what God has worked in us. We are to shine with the light of Christ.

We are to pour out our life in gratitude to Him, so we can be grateful and we can say, "Lord, we thank you for working in us.

Now help us work it out. Let us rest upon our Lord more and more this day. Let's pray, Our heavenly Father. We thank you for your work in us, Lord, we pray that you will help us to not be discouraged, but to look to Jesus, who is all powerful, who has saved us completely. But Lord, I pray that by the power of your Spirit, you will help us to work out our salvation, help us to be obedient, help us to not simply obey your commands, but also be a light shining in the darkness, and being willing to pour out our life for the sake of the gospel. Lord, I pray that you'll be merciful to your people. Lord, we thank you for working in our hearts and working through your word. And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.