In Jason Dohm's sermon 'Working Out Your Own Salvation,' he explores Philippians 2:12-13, emphasizing the importance of understanding the context of these verses. He explains that Christians must live in a manner worthy of the Gospel, following Jesus Christ's example of humble obedience. The sermon highlights the necessity of working out one's salvation with fear and trembling, clarifying that this does not mean earning salvation through works but demonstrating the reality of one's faith. Dohm underscores the importance of examining oneself to ensure genuine faith and the role of God's work in both willing and doing for His pleasure. The fear of God is presented as a vital ally in progressing in faith, and assurance of salvation is found not in our abilities but in God's promises and faithfulness.

Our sermon text today is Philippians 2 verses 12 and 13, but I'll begin reading in chapter 1 verse 27 to go back and get some of the context that Paul references here. So beginning in Philippians 1 verse 27. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, If any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest but also for the interest of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore, 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 who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure." Let's pray. God we acknowledge that it's not a trivial thing that scripture would call us to something in fear and trembling. So, Holy Spirit, we ask for your help this morning as Jason comes and unpacks these verses by your power that you would use him in a mighty way to speak truth to us Lord that we would see these verses with the seriousness which they are intended to be seen and Lord that by your Spirit you would change us to be more like your Son. It's in His powerful name that we pray.

Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is, Working Out Your Own Salvation. Comes right out of the text. Took no imagination whatsoever. But it really is what these two verses are about.

Commentators often say this one phrase, on text is ing. And what they mean by that is that we have to be very careful when we're handling scripture, not to pluck out a verse out of its surroundings and to look at it in isolation. Because verses are always part of a bigger picture. They're part of a context. They're part of a larger point that is being driven, a larger purpose that is being driven by the author.

So it's dangerous to take it out and look at it in isolation and not consider the things that come before it and after. Context is king. If you don't understand a verse in its context, then you probably don't understand it at all. And this is especially true when you have a verse that begins with the word, therefore. Therefore is a connecting word that forces you, is intended to force you to go back and set the stage for the verse because the author is very intentionally connected, what he's getting ready to say, with what he just said.

And we are in actually a chain of therefor's. Chapter 2 started with a therefor, beginning of verse 1. Chapter 2 verse 9 begins with therefor. And now chapter 2 verse 12 begins with Therefore. So, Paul is trying to keep us married to the larger point of what he's driving at here.

The whole section begins in chapter 1 verse 27 where Paul begins to speak of conduct that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. In other words, Christians are supposed to behave in a certain way because this Gospel is worthy of a good, godly, righteous conduct. And so it's only fitting that Christians would behave in a good, godly, righteous way. Because the Gospel is so glorious that it's worthy of that. The more immediate context would be chapter two, verses five through eight, where Jesus Christ is set forth as an example and the text says that he humbled himself and became obedient.

And so Jesus Christ is set before us as an example of humble obedience. Paul now begins to build on that for us. We are to follow Christ in His humble obedience. Finally, the most immediate context are the two verses that we've just come out of, verses 10 and 11, where Paul says that Jesus holds the most exalted position and that every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So now verse 12, now back to us.

It's been Christ set before us, both in his humiliation and then in his exaltation. But now it comes back to us and Paul is saying, Therefore, because the Christian's conduct must be worthy of the Gospel, and because Jesus Christ has been set forth as an example of humble obedience and because Jesus is Lord and every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess, therefore obey the Lord and work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That is the flow of thought. That is to set these two verses in their context. As we come to the text, let's go to the text in prayer.

Our God, I thank you for your work in our lives. Oh Lord, if You left us to ourselves, we would be on a broad road that leads to destruction. We would just be left to destroy ourselves, and would we ever. But I thank you that you have made your people objects of your grace, trophies of your grace, and you are pleased to work in us and pleased to work through us. I pray now that you would make your people more than ever a fragrant offering, that our lives would rise up to you as incense, pleasing you.

And be to your honor, you would be glorified at how your people walk in this life. Because of your work in us. With a glorious vision, I pray that you would press it on us. I would like to begin by looking just here at this first verse. I'm going to read verse 12.

Please follow along with me and I'll talk just about verse 12. Therefore, 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. Here in this verse we have set before us our work. If you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's work. Our work.

The Bible teaches from cover to cover that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone. But then God gives us work to do. It's a comma. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, comma, not period. Meaning, there is something that comes after being saved and justified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Then God wants to work in us and through us to change us in how we live our patterns of life. And we have work to do. We're to make progress. Heaven forbid that God would save us and then We would be like we were on the day after we were saved. And we would never make any progress.

God forbid that should happen. We are saved for progress. Paul begins this verse with a very affectionate address. He says, my beloved, what do we get from that affectionate address? Well we get that this is not a finger-wagging rebuke.

Not in any way. This is an affectionate appeal to obey the Lord Jesus. So it's not a finger-wagging, you obey me. It's coming out of Jesus Christ is Lord. All of our knees are going to bow, all of our tongues are going to confess, therefore let's obey the King.

That's what this is. Not, you obey me, you spiritual children. It is. Jesus says, Lord, let's obey the King. My beloved, let's obey the King.

In this verse we have two things. We have a commendation and an exhortation. We have a commendation. He commends them. He speaks well of them.

This is so far from being a finger-wagging review. It's actually, he's speaking well of them, and then he exhorts them to excel still more. Here's the commendation. They have cultivated obedience. Don't you wish what Paul says about the Philippians could be said by your spiritual father of you?

That's what's happening here. The Philippians' spiritual father, The Gospel came to Philippi through the ministry and through the Gospel preaching of Paul. And now he's saying this of his spiritual children, As you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. I've longed to have that said of me by my few spiritual fathers. He is commending them.

He's speaking well of them. Paul brought the Gospel to them maybe a decade or so before. That's probably the timeline. Acts 17, the events of Acts 17, and Paul coming to Philippi and Lydia and her household receiving the Gospel and the Philithian jailer and his household Receiving the Gospel probably happened more than a decade earlier. And since that time, Paul has been more absent than present.

When you read the account of Acts, it's clear that he keeps going back through Macedonia and strengthening the brethren repeatedly, he keeps in multiple times going back through Macedonia. It's unthinkable that he would go through Macedonia without going to Philippi, the first church that he planted there. So probably he's been there repeatedly in the intervening ten years, but he's been more absent than he's been present. We know that from the Acts account too. He's been a lot of places.

Some of those were multiple years. And so he's kept a level of engagement with this church. So he knows what's going on. And as we're going to find out in chapter 3, Epaphroditus has been sent by the Philippians to encourage him and to supply his needs. And so he has the latest on what's been going on in the church.

So he can say, you've been obeying, not just when I'm present with you, but even more so you've obeyed in my absence. Listen to what the Expositors Bible Commentary says, Their continued obedience is not dependent on the presence of a taskmaster whip in hand, but on internal motivation and divine power. I'll say that again. The continued obedience of the Philippians in the Philippian Church is not dependent on the presence of a taskmaster whip in hand. So the point is, Paul doesn't have to be there for them to obey.

He witnessed their obedience when he was there, but his dealings with them since then and the report that he has gotten from Epaphroditus tells them that their obedience has only grown in his absence. How glorious. How wonderful. Taskmaster doesn't have to stand there over them with an hand for them to obey. There's something inside them, the presence of the Holy Spirit, that is leading to a growth in their obedience.

This reminds me of Paul in Ephesians chapter 6 where he is speaking to bond servants about eye service. Eye service is, I work when the boss is watching. I service. I serve when I'm under the eye. When I'm under the whip of the taskmaster, then I'll do something.

As soon as the boss leaves the room, I leave off working. And so what Paul is saying in Ephesians 6 is, no, no, you are bond servants not of that man, but you're bond servants of Christ. It's Christ that you're serving and He never leaves the room. So if you're going to offer eye service, offer eye service to Christ because His eye is always upon you. And so we work not unto this man who is our master according to the flesh, but we work as unto the Lord.

Listen to Hebrews 11 verse 27. Hebrews 11 of course is the great faith chapter where heroes of the faith are set before us so we can aspire to the confidence that they had in God. In Hebrews 11, 27, the author is speaking of Moses. Here is what is said by Moses. By faith he, Moses, forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible." Who is him who is invisible?

Children, are you paying attention? Who is him who is invisible? It is God. Hebrews 11 says that by faith Moses could see he who was invisible. He might as well have been visible to Moses.

So, and it made Moses unafraid of the king. Okay, so he endured even though you had an angry king of an empire, Moses didn't care because he could see God by faith. So Moses didn't need God to be visibly present in order to obey. This is exactly what Paul is speaking of. Philippians, you are always obeying, not just when I am there, but even more when I am absent.

This is wonderful. This is something we should be aspiring to. So that is the commendation. That is Paul speaking well of them. They have cultivated obedience.

Over this decade, they've been growing, Obeying more and more. May it be said of us that over a decade we've grown a lot in obeying the Lord more and more. Now the exhortation. Work out your own salvation. Work it out.

Paul does not say, work for your own salvation. He says, work out your own salvation. So this is a million miles away from work's righteousness, working in order to be saved. He's not saying work for your own righteousness. He's saying work out your own salvation.

In the Christian life, there must be ongoing, continuing, working out of the reality of your salvation. In other words, if there is real salvation in there, you've got to keep pressing forward. You do keep pressing forward if there is real salvation there. If you have been born again, you are new, the old is passed away, the new has come, and you are pushing forward. This text, if it tells us anything, it tells us if you are not pushing forward, if there is a long period of time in your life where you don't see forward progress, you should tremble.

You should tremble. If there is a reality in there, it is working its way out. You are working out your salvation. I forget which commentator said this. He said, what God has worked in, work out.

In other words, if God has really produced a reality in your life, it works its way out. If you are a Christian, you have been saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved. Did you get that? We have to believe this and keep thinking this. If you are a Christian, you have been saved.

Past tense. You've been justified. You'll never be one drop more justified than you were the day you were justified. You are justified. It is in the past.

Period. Amen. Nothing can change it because of the faithfulness of God. You have been saved in the past. That's not it.

That's not the end of the story. You are being saved in the present. The power of sin is being progressively broken and diminished in your life. In the present. And you will be saved, future tense.

Meaning, The day is going to come when your corrupt body is done away with, and you get a redeemed body that's not pulling opposite righteousness. You don't deal with those corruptions anymore. You're not having to fight against sin every minute of every day, but you are free to serve God wholeheartedly every second of every minute of every hour of every day. If you can hear that, and that doesn't make your heart leap a little bit, heaven help you. Come quickly Lord Jesus, I think is what we say when we hear that.

And we are going to have an experience of salvation that we never had, not on the day when we were saved, not in the present, as the dominion of sin is being progressively broken in our life and diminished in our life. But on that day, that's going to be a point in time, and we'll be perfected. We will be saved in a way that we've never experienced before. I want to try to unpack what it means to work out your own salvation with three texts. So the first would just stay right here in Philippians and turn one page maybe depending on how your Bible is structured, to chapter 3.

Philippians chapter 3. I believe this helps us. Philippians chapter 3 and what Paul is going to say in the next chapter helps us understand what it means to work out your salvation. Look at verses 12-14. Follow along as I read.

Philippians chapter 3, 12-14. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." I think this goes a long way towards helping us understand what it means to work out your salvation. It means to throw off an already attained mentality. This is what Paul says of himself.

I throw off the already attained mentality. I do not consider myself to have already attained. As if I am already perfected. But I forget the past and I press forward. This is what it means to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Paul says, I get it. This is not the destination. I am on the way. This is what it means to work out your salvation. You don't consider that you have arrived at the destination.

You see yourself just at a checkpoint on the way to the destination and that it requires the pressing forward to reach forward as Paul says. The second text is in 2 Corinthians 13, so please Turn there. 2 Corinthians 13. It's just a single verse, but I think it's very helpful. And I think it's worth turning to even though it's just one verse.

2 Corinthians 13. Verse 5. 2 Corinthians 13. 5. Paul writes, Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.

Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Christ Jesus is in you? Unless, indeed, you are disqualified. I think this is a close cousin, if not identical, to working out your salvation. The thought of examining yourself to see whether you're in the faith, to put yourself to the test.

He is killing presumption here. In other words, I just presume that I'm saved, so now really nothing matters because I'm in Christ. I can never be more justified than I am. And so I can be careless. I can afford to be careless.

Paul just beats that like a rented mule. He flogs that and he puts that to death. The thought that we're just safe to presume that we're in the faith and so now we can be put loose and fancy free. There is freedom in Christ but that is not what is meant by freedom in Christ. Paul says we should put ourselves to the test.

Test yourselves, he says. And here's the question he's telling us to ask, is Christ in me? Is there evidence that there is a spiritual reality in my soul? Now why is he asking you to test yourself? Because your neighbor can't test you this way.

There's a counterfeit for everything that will pass your neighbor's test of you. You can drink them, you can fool them. You can actually fool yourself. That's why you're being told to go and examine yourself and to test yourself. Because you might have deceived yourself.

You certainly might have deceived your neighbor. So go look for spiritual reality. Are you in Christ? Is Christ in you? These are two different questions sort of coming at it.

Are you in Christ? Well, you got to find out. Is Christ in you? If Christ is in you, you're in Christ. But is there evidence of a spiritual reality when you test yourself with the test that your neighbor can't do?

When you go inside to see whether what you're doing is by faith, out of trust in God, in delighting in God, or is it just to impress people on the outside. You can do the exact same thing out of two completely different motivations. One is the counterfeit of something that's real. There's no spiritual reality. This is why we're to examine ourselves to see whether we're in the faith, and we're to put ourselves to the test to see if Christ is in us.

Is there evidence that Christ is in you? Finally, the third place, we went to Philippians 3, where Paul said he had put to death the already attained mentality. Death for that. Then we went here to 2 Corinthians 13, where Paul says examine yourself and see if you are faithful to the test. Is Christ in you?

There is evidence for that. Now finally, number three, 2 Peter. This is going to be a more extended reading. But I want to start at the punchline, because the punchline, I'm calling 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 10 the punchline. This is really, it uses language that I think is very similar to working out your salvation.

Okay. 1 Peter 1 verse 10, Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stop me. I'm saying there is a close connection between working out your salvation and being diligent to make your call and election sure. I'm saying that Paul and Peter are essentially talking about the same thing. Now I want to go back and begin in 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 2, and read all the way through 11.

I'm going to give you the structure because I want you sort of looking for the flow. In verse 2, we're going to begin with Peter piling up spectacular resources that are at the beck and call of the people of God. So he starts with saying, this is available to all who are in Christ. He starts with grace and peace, then He's going to talk about all things that pertain to life and godliness being ours. Then he's going to be talking about having escaped the corruption that is in the world.

So he's going to begin by heating up resources, a lot like Paul has done in Lithium chapter 2. And then he's going to say, out of those resources, be diligent to cultivate this list of virtues in your life. Okay, so It starts with resources that are available to us. Then he says pull from those resources to cultivate this list of virtues in your life. And then he ends by saying be even more diligent to make your call and election.

Let you read 2 Peter 1, beginning in verse 2, for that follow up? Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. There's the pile of resources to be pulled from by the people of God. Verse 5, But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue, knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love.

For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness, and has forgotten that He was cleansed from His old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things you will never stumble, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." So you can see some connections that are clear between Philippians 2 and here in 2 Peter chapter 1. In that, we're being given a heap of resources to pull from.

And then in verses five through nine, in saying cultivate this list of things, we're essentially being told, we're being called to conduct that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. These things bear out conduct which is worthy of the gospel. One equates to the other. And then we are told that diligence in this makes our call and election sure. Does that mean you make yourself elect by doing these things?

No, no, no. This has to do with your confidence in your having been called and having been elect. When these things are on the rise in our lives because we're pulling from the abundance that God has given us and giving diligence to our growth, it gives us confidence that we were called and we have been elected by God. This isn't saying that the calling and election of Christians is on shaky footing and so you better do things to shore up calling and election. This is about your confidence that you really are.

And we know that from verse 11 because Peter explicitly says, For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom. You want an abundant entrance, okay, with confidence and joy. This is how we have confidence and joy in the Lord is we pull from the resources that God has made richly available to us to grow. That gives us confidence and joy in the Lord. We're working out our salvation with fear and trembling.

Let me ask you, what is the Christian saved from? If we are to work out our salvation, we better know what we are talking about here. What is the Christian saved from? The penalty of sin? Yes, yes.

The Christian is saved from the penalty of sin. Is that all? No. This is directly relevant to our text. The Christian is saved from the penalty of sin.

Amen. Hallelujah. It does not stop there. However, the Christian is also saved from the dominion of sin. So not only is the Christian saved, held back from the penalty of their sins that they deserve, but it's diverted to Jesus and He bears the weight of your sin and He takes the penalty for your sin.

This is substitutionary atonement. The Gospel doesn't stop there. The Gospel says that the power of sin is broken in your life so you don't have to live as a slave to sin anymore. You don't have to. And you don't over time.

We should all ask ourselves, what am I a slave to? What am I a slave to? What am I offering my members to serve? If you've allowed yourself to become entangled again in sin and the weight, the sin that so easily entangled us. Then you have to ask yourself, am I a real Christian, really saved, who has become entangled again in sin.

That is possible. Hebrews 12 makes it abundantly clear that if we become re-entangled, we are to disentangle again. But if you can't get free, It means the dominion of sin has not been broken in your life. And you should fear. You should tremble.

Does sin have dominion over you? Do Christians sin? Yes, Christians sin. Do they serve sin like a slave? And they just have no ability to get free.

You find yourself in that condition. It is time to examine yourself and see if you are in faith. Test yourself. Is Christ in you? Here's a helpful question.

Am I fighting it? That tells you a lot about slavery. We're slaves when we've stopped fighting and we've just given ourselves over to it. Finally, the Philippians are told to work out their own salvation in a particular way with fear and trembling. Paul is teaching us that the Christian has a great ally in this fight to make progress.

You want to know what your ally is, your great ally. It is a fight to make progress, isn't it? Anybody been in the Lord for a while and know that progress doesn't fall from the sky. You scrap to gain ground. And Paul is teaching us to make use of a great ally.

What is that ally? The fear of God. The fear of God is an ally. Some of us have just had an entire conference to contemplate this, just soaking in a contemplation of the fear of God. I found it very helpful.

And when we did that, We were reminded or were taught that there are two elements to the fear of God. Being afraid and standing in awe. And I just want to declare that if you have a definition of the fear of God that doesn't include both of these, you have an inadequate definition of the fear of God. We're in 2016 And we're a great withstanding and awe of God, but being afraid of God is in disfavor. But it should not be in disfavor among the Lord's people.

There is an element of real fear. Don't strip fear out of the fear of God. Don't make it not fearful in any way. Christians are afraid not because God is not good, but because God is terribly good. Because God is terribly good.

He is holy. Meaning, He's nothing like us. And if you get a glimpse of Him, you get a glimpse of His otherness, I don't know of another way to say it, other than otherness, there is none like Him. This is what the Bible teaches about God. And if you get a glimpse of Him, you see instantly that it's true.

And there is a fear that accompanies that. It should. It doesn't. There's a problem. You have not really seen Him.

There's not a fear. A real being afraid that doesn't accompany that. And Christians stand in awe because if you get a glimpse of who He is, you see a little of His beauty in all of His perfections. And there's nothing to do but stand there, mouth agape. That's the beauty of God in all His almightiness and in His perfections.

So our definition of the fear of God has to wrap those things together. Being afraid and standing in awe. This is what we have in Isaiah chapter 6 where Isaiah is swept into the presence of God and when he is there in the presence of God this holy man feels totally defiled and he falls on his face and he says, Whoa unto me for I am undone. The holy man was undone before God because God is holy and he is defiled. God has to send an ember from the altar to claim it.

You cannot say that Isaiah chapter 6 is only standing in awe of God. If you don't get being afraid out of Isaiah chapter 6, you do not understand the undoing of the holy man before a truly holy God. And we have this in Revelation chapter 1 when John the apostle comes into the presence of the glorified Jesus Christ in the text says he falls down as a dead man before Him. This is more than just awe. God is fearful not because He's not good, but because He's so terribly good.

And We in our corruptions feel it when we come into his presence. Listen to what God says in Isaiah 66. Isaiah is an interesting book. It's structured very much like the Bible. Isaiah as a book sort of has an Old Testament and a New Testament and it ends in Isaiah chapter 66.

It's the final chapter and It ends with the new heavens and the new earth. Isaiah chapter 6 is sort of the revelation, the ending book of Isaiah. Isaiah 66 is a heaven and hell chapter. Here is what God says in the heaven and hell chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah 66, the second half of 2, verse 2, On this one I will look, on Him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word." In the Heaven and Hell chapter, here's who God says will be in Heaven.

If you're poor in spirit, if you have a contrite spirit, if you have a sense of your sinfulness, and you feel your spiritual poverty, and you have a contrite heart, and you tremble at His Word, That describes the people who will be in heaven. Those who tremble at His work. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. See, experience the holiness, the otherness of God in the perfections of His Word and trembling. It will help you make progress.

It will contribute to your working out your salvation. This fear and trembling is essential to pressing on and making progress. If you don't have the fear and trembling, you're not going to be making progress. You're not going to be pressing forward. Friends, do you have this?

Do you know anything of the fear and trembling that is spoken here? Or are you casual and careless about God? This is the question that Paul puts before us. Do you know anything about the fear and trembling of knowing this holy God? Or are you casual and careless about the things of God?

You should be very afraid if you are casual and careless about the things of God. God wants to use this text to pull us back from casualness and carelessness about His things. Back to Philippians. I knew we'd get back there eventually. Verse 13 now.

So verse 12 was our work. We're saved by grace alone through faith alone, and then we're to make progress. We're given work to do, progress in the faith. Verse 13. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, for His good pleasure.

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, for His good pleasure. Verse thirteen, we have God's work. Filling in blanks, it's work again. Verse 12 was our work. Verse 13 is God's work.

Lest we think we've been left on an island to work it all out. By ourselves, here is verse 13 to correct any notion we might have of that. Paul has already said this in another way to the Philippians. Just cast your eyes back on chapter 1 verse 6. Philippians chapter 1 verse 6.

Being confident of this very thing that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Paul has already said, chapter 2 verse 13, and chapter 1 verse 6. Paul expressed his confidence in chapter 1, verse 6, that when God begins a work, He carries it to completion, period, amen, no exceptions, When God begins it, God completes it. This should make the Christian so happy. If you're not discouraged about the pace of progress, about the obstacles that you face, about the fact that it seems like it's two steps forward, three steps back, some days, that you've accepted that in the faith very long.

But you're going to experience it if you're in Christ. Many discouragements. This is an encouragement. That God, when He begins to work, that He and His faithfulness stand behind the completing of you. It is God who works in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

So, who is at work in the progress that we are to make in the faith? Is it us or is it God? It is both, of course it is both, but it depends on the faithfulness of God. It does not depend on it. You are called to work.

You are called to press forward and to strive. So this is not let go and let God theology in any way, shape or form. We are called, we should Press on like Paul says he presses on. We are to throw off an already attained mentality, as Paul does. But in an ultimate sense, this depends on God and His work.

This does not relieve us of our duty. It gives us confidence in our duty. So, we don't come to this verse and say, well it's God's work, so I have no part in this. No, it gives us confidence in all of our efforts. God has said it is His intention, it is His purpose, which He will fulfill to incline us towards glorifying His name in our lives and to empower us to glorify His name in our lives.

So it doesn't relieve us of our duty, it gives us confidence when we encounter our weakness for the millionth time. This verse is for the one, the believer in Christ, who has encountered his or her weakness for the millionth time. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we can press forward with confidence in God. We should, we must press forward with confidence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God.

Why do you work out your salvation with fear and trembling? Because for it is God who works in you to will and to do. We press forward in faith, not faith in ourselves, but faith in God. Look at what is said, it is God who works in you both to will and to do. Now a note on the translation here, the NASB and the ESB are better at this point Because they render it this way it is God who works in you, is the Greek word at the end, to will and to work.

It's the same Greek word at the beginning and the end. In other words, God works your works in you. It is God who works in you both to will and to work. In other words, when you find yourself working, you know that God is working in you. That's why.

By the way, I do this probably once a week. Hey, I like this translation better here. It begs the question, well why don't you like the NASB and the ESB so why don't you switch? Well I like them in these little spots. I like our translation best of all the translations.

I like the New King James. So, heaven forbid we should go and start preaching out of the NASB because then over and over again I would be saying, in the New King James I really like the way they render it. So you're stuck. Any way we go, you're stuck with me preferring another translation in a little spot for a certain reason. Be happy that there are fewer instances of that.

So we're working out of the translation. Listen to what Calvin says here. I think Calvin hits the nail on the head. There are in any action two principal departments. The inclination and the power to carry it into effect.

Are you tracking with Calvin so far? It says in any action you have two elements of it. The inclination towards it and then the power to do it. He ends by saying both of these, he, Paul, ascribes wholly to God, what more remains to us as a ground of glory. In other words, Christian, how are you going to take credit for the progress in your life?

How are you going to take credit? There are two parts to any action. The inclination, in other words, the want to. We don't do things we don't want to do. We might think, well no, I do do things I want to do.

You end up wanting to do it, and that's why you do it. There's something else that you want less that you're avoiding or something like that. We do what we want to do. So there is the inclination, there is the want to, the willingness to do it. To will, the inclination, the will The inclination, the will to do it.

And the power to do it. And Calvin is just pointing out, okay, Paul lays the credit for the inclination at God's feet and he lays the credit for the power at God's feet, so you're stripped from any grounds in glory. Just wipe the wet. God gets all the credit. This is the whole point.

God works in and through His people in order to glorify Himself as a transforming God. God is making His name great by giving you inclinations that you never had of yourself. By causing you to will things that you never would have willed except for His work in your heart. And then He gives you the power to carry it through and He is making His name great as a transforming God as a result of this. I want to make two points about this.

One, Jesus teaches it. Jesus teaches that it is God who works in us both to will and to do, and that Paul observes this in his own life. So turn to John chapter 15. John chapter 15 is Jesus teaching this very thing. John chapter 15 is I am the vine, you are the branches.

Look at John chapter 15 verses 4 and 5. John chapter 15 starting in verse 4, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. So in verse 4 he says, you cannot bear fruit unless you abide in me. Verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

The great challenge for us is not to turn the nothing of John chapter 15 into a little something or something. Jesus says in the most categorical terms, without any wiggle room, without Me you can do nothing. If you do not abide in Christ, you do not bear fruit. You can't will, you can't incline yourself, and you can't empower yourself, you cannot do it. You cannot do anything without Him.

Secondly, Paul observes this in his own life. Listen to 1 Corinthians 15 verse 10. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 10. Paul observing his own life says, but by the grace of God I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Paul looks at his abundant labor.

Just think about this in John chapter 15. If you abide in Christ, you will abundantly bear fruit. Paul is looking at his life and the abundance of fruit and labors in his own life and he says, that was the grace of God. By the grace of God I am what I am. The grace of God wasn't vain in my life.

If you think that the grace of God has been in vain in your life, then you've not received the grace of God. The grace of God is never in vain in a life. It always produces fruit. It always bears fruit. So Paul looks at the abundance in his fruit and his life and doesn't say, applause please, applaud.

He says, that was God's grace. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. It was the grace of God that was producing this abundance of fruit. Then we have this final phrase, for his good pleasure. Put it in context.

For it is God who works in you both to will and to do. God gives you the inclination. God empowers you for His good pleasure. God works in his people because it pleases him. Now this is not saying he works in you to will and to do his good pleasure.

Now that's true, but that's not what Paul is saying. He says he works in you to will and to do for his good pleasure. Meaning he works in you to incline you to and to empower you to do these obedient things because it pleases him. This is for his pleasure. Listen to what Matthew Henry says, God's will to us is the cause of His good working in us.

God's good will to us is the cause of his good work in us. He is under no engagements to his creatures, but those of his gracious promise. In other words, he doesn't owe you to work in you. He doesn't owe you to incline you towards righteousness. He doesn't owe you to empower you to righteousness.

But it pleases him to do it. And he's promised to do it. And so that is why he does it. Because he's promised to do it. It's his good pleasure.

Here's what that means. It pleases God to give you progress. Does that make you happy? That makes me happy. If you are a Christian, it pleases God to give you progress in the faith.

He does it because it makes him happy. That should make you happy. Two applications. Number one, Do you obey only when no one will know? This is back to whether The taskmaster with the whip is present or absent?

Paul's testimony about the Philippians is, their answer to that question is, no, no, we don't obey, only when someone will know if we disobey. They obey because the Spirit of God dwells in them, and He's changed their heart to love Him and want to live for Him and his glory. But to whatever extent that I'm cultivating a secret life, This text has been sent as a blessing to us, to me. To whatever extent you're cultivating a secret life where your disobedience is out of sight and out of everybody else's mind, but you know This text has been sent as a blessing to you, to confront you about your secret life. What are you secretly nurturing that will kill you?

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. If when you examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith, if when you test yourself on the inside for real spiritual roots. Your counterfeits have us all fooled. Fine. But when you test yourself for real spiritual roots, do you find that the dominion of sin has been broken?

If the answer is no, you do not have saving grace. Number two, and this is very important and I don't think I've touched on it yet, not really. Let this increase your assurance of salvation. This is counterintuitive. This is completely opposite direction of what you would expect, maybe from this text.

Let this increase your assurance of salvation if you are really in Christ. You would think a workout your salvation with fear and trembling would be intended to erode your assurance of faith. No, no. Listen to what Calvin says. Calvin gets it exactly right.

Calvin says, farther we must take notice that, as believers repose with assurance upon the grace of God, In other words, they rest in the grace of God. So, when they direct their views to their own frailty, they do not by any means resign themselves carelessly to sleep, but are by fear of danger stirred up to prayer." He's saying a lot, and some of it is not in English we usually use, so let me catch you up in our language. He's saying, believers rest in the grace of God, but they also have one eye on their own frailty, which keeps them from being sleepy. The dangers of their own frailty, what they are in themselves, drives them to prayer. Their rest is in the grace of God.

They do have an eye on their corruptions and their frailty, and it drives them to pray because it scares them to death. That's where we are with Calvin right now. Here's how he finishes. Yet, so far is this fear from disturbing tranquility or conscience and shaking confidence that it rather confirms it? For distrust of ourselves leads us to lean more confidently on the mercy of God.

Amen. Meaning the rest for the Christian can never be in ourselves. If we are to hope in our ability to see this thing through, we should be scared to death. There is no rest there. There is only rest in God and what He is able to do.

And in promises that when He begins something, He finishes it. That He works in us to will and to do for His good pleasure. That is the rest of the Christian. And yet we have one eye on our frailty and it scares us to death to think what we are capable of if we begin to walk by the flesh, walk in the flesh, walk in our own strength. But Even this fear doesn't have to rob us of our assurance.

It drives us to lean more confidently on God. Like to just say, because I'm afraid of my own frailty, I throw myself even more so on the mercy of God, which results in our assurance. So this is not a text to erode your assurance of faith. It is to drive us to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith and to test ourselves. But when you have tested yourself, if you find a real spiritual root there that Christ is in you, you rest on Him.

God, I thank you for this text. How good, how sweet it is to have these great and precious promises to lean all of our hopes on. I pray that you would give us joy in these things in Jesus name, Amen.