Salvation and Works (Philippians 2:12-13)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here we are continuing to walk through the book of Philippians we're in Chapter 2 and we're the next two verses verses 12 and 13 the text will be on the screen you can also follow along on that blue Bible which is on page 570 if you don't have a blue b if you don't have a Bible at all please take that want you have a Bible that you can read at home uh I told this story years ago.
But we've grown as a Church so many of you have not heard it when I was 10 years old I got my first pair of contacts now at 10 years old you get contacts you don't know what you're doing you trust the optometrist is going to teach you how to wear contacts now I got a pair of focus night and dailies okay this is the brand I've worn pretty much M uh ever since I was 10 years old and those allow you to continuously wear them I mean I they say up to 30 days.
Now optometrists are like please don't do that um that's bad for your eyes but you know at 10 years old I'm like I I can do it and you know some of you who have contacts you wear them and you wake up in the morning and you've slept in them your eyes are like dead they're bloodshot and you're in pain I that's not me I can wear contacts y'all when I was uh young I could wear contacts three months in a row not take them out once which is dangerous you should not do that.
But I did and when you try to pull that off your uh eye it feels like you're pulling off your cornea I mean it is it is brutal but you know just didn't learn out the gate really well some things about wearing contacts and then years later uh you know I was talking to a friend of mine I just said man I just I don't know like for the last few days this contact is just not it's not fitting right and he said.
Well it's possible that you put it in backwards and I said no contacts are reversible he was like they're they're they're not I said no they they are he said they're really not and he went online and he pulled it up and he showed me that cont only fit one way they are not reversible now here's the kicker that was 5 years ago I was 30 years old when I found out that contacts are not reversible Chad Phillips was like hey man you need to understand this.
Finally someone corrected me in this which means that there would be weeks that went by where a contact was in backwards and I just like you know I'm powering through it this is fine I'll be I'll be good and I know what you're thinking how strong is are his eyes I mean just what he's he's got a really good pair of eyes that could take that kind of pain that's what I thought too did not at all think that that was foolish and that someone should have uh corrected me at a young age.
But ideally somebody would have ideally like the the optometrist at 10 years old would have sat down this is probably why you don't give context to 10-year-olds but would have sat down and just said this is how you do it no no no listen this is how you do it or afterwards someone would have corrected me so I didn't go through years of suffering in pain certainly would have made my life better now the passage we are in today helps explain really the relationship the relationship between faith and works and we need to understand this correctly we need to understand how we put on how we apply faith and how we put on how we.
Apply works correctly because if we don't if we hear the the Central Command of this passage today passage today is work out your uh Salvation with fear and trembling if we misunderstand that and we put that on incorrectly it results in pain but if we actually understand how this is supposed to be put on how we're supposed to apply this to our lives if we understand the relationship between faith and works correctly not only do we avoid pain we actually enter into joy and life ultimately is better.
So I'm going to pray and then we're going to walk through this passage together heavenly father I pray that that you might help us see what it means to walk in faith that produces Works may we understand that correctly and may that result ultimately in our joy being found in you in Jesus name amen all right so two verses 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.
For it is God who works in you both to Will and to work for his good pleasure now in verse 12 that Central Command right there work out your own salvation with fear and trembling is a loaded phrase that's a loaded phrase now some have stripped that from its context and have said aha works you need them to be saved or you need them to continue your salvation it's on us ultimately to get it done but that's taking it out of his context we seek to be a people who understand the Bible in its context that's why we study the Bible verse by verse that we go through different books of the Bible.
So we can understand what's happening here because context matters immensely like if I'm watching the TV in one room and my wife is in another room and I say oh man she is looking good my wife has two choices she can run into the room guns blazing ready to throw down not not physically just just who's looking good or she can come and get the context realize I'm watching the lady Gamecocks play and they are looking good because they're playing great comea Cordes hit a three-pointer last it was fantastic yesterday context matters all right.
Well you study the Scriptures you need to understand the context of what is being said and when you get to the front end of this verse you need to see right at the beginning where it says the word therefore when you see the word therefore and on adage in in Bible hermeneutics which is just a fancy way of saying how we study the Bible is uh when you see a there the word therefore you need to ask the question what is the word.
Therefore there for see in Bible nerd circles we have all types of really fun phrases like that but that that Clues you in to say okay if the word therefore pops up I need to understand what's happening here because typically what is happening is that what's about to be said next is being linked to by the word therefore to things that were said previously and the truth of what was said previously is being pulled into what's about to be said and that's what's happening here.
So when you read therefore you need to back up and see what have we been studying the last few weeks so you go back to a few weeks ago we read in chapter 2: 3 through 4 it said do nothing from selfish and ition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves Let each of you look not only to his own interest but also the interest of others and we saw this this radical call to humility that counts others interests more important than ourselves we looked at that and how that's supposed to shape us as a people that are outwardly focused looking at the needs of others.
And then we saw last week that that uh display of humility is linked to what Christ did for us which is in verses 5- 11 have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God 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 for form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross this picture of.
Jesus who was eternally God who took on flesh to dwell among us to go to the Cross to die for our sins that unbelievably humbling ACT results in the Redemption of his people that is the work that saves Sinners therefore verse 9 God has highly exalted him and bestowed him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven on Earth and under the Earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is.
Lord to the glory of God the Father father the humility of Christ to go to the cross for us to save Sinners so that we might confess that Jesus is Lord joyfully on the day of judgment that's the truth that precedes the word therefore so we pull all of that into the word therefore and what follows in verse 12 therefore my beloved as you've always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence so before we get to this big Central Command that anchors this passage he has a little bit of an aside a pause that he's just going to be uh addressing this Philippian Church that he loves.
That he has a good relationship with and he's just encouraging them saying hey you you've been doing this you you you you've obeyed you've been doing this and you need to continue to do this which is what I do with my own children like my own kids the language of our household for our children is we need to listen and obey need you to listen and obey that's what you do with us and if we have a babysitter that comes that they're not familiar with it's watching.
For the first time we say we trust this human being okay you're going to do the same thing in my absence Listen and Obey he's encouraging him this what you've always done and you're going to keep it going now Central Command work out your own salvation with fear and trembling so again so some folks jump into that that statement right there and they bypass the word therefore and they jump into aha we you got to live a good life here that's what this is about it said work out your salvation.
So you got to you got to live a good life which in some people's mind their their idea of how you are saved is some type of balance of a scale where you've got good works over here and bad works over here and you got to limit the bad and you got to do the good and if it balances out somewhere like like this and we get a little more good than bad then you'll be okay and you'll get into heaven and it's like no you've completely missed the point.
First off the good things that that you're doing are not as good as you think they are because if we're honest many of our good things are staying with selfish motives the bad were way under selling we don't understand how much we've sended against a holy and perfect God how much we've rebelled against the God of the universe and what kind of cost is involved in that we've misunderstood this completely and some folks have that mindset of just it's got to be a good person.
So I can get in to heaven or I can or I got to be a good person so that I can I can hold on to my salvation that that's what ultimately is what's going to keep me saved and that is ripping this passage out of its context not only by disregarding the word therefore but by completely disregarding the praise that follows after it work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you it is.
God who works in you God is the one who's at work in us God is the one who Begins the work of Salvation and he's the one that continues the work of redemption in our lives that's how this letter started when we were in Philippians 1:6 a couple of months ago we saw verse 6 it said I am sure of this that he God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ that.
God is the one that begins the good work in us and he continues it and he carries his home all the way to completion Those whom God claims he carries into eternity is the reason why we we believe so wonderfully that we're saved by grace alone through faith alone and Christ Alone to the glory of God alone that's why Ephesians 28:9 says for by Grace you've been saved through faith this is not of your own doing it is the gift of.
God not a result of works so that no one may boast Redemption is a gift it is a gift that we could not repay is a gift that he gives to his people it is the not is not a result of works there is no balance here that no it's completely looking at Christ and what he did for us on the cross and in the empty tomb that is our only hope is trusting what Christ has done for us it's understanding that.
Jesus is by his act and his works alone that we are saved so that's true then what does he mean by work it out what does he mean by work out your own salvation with fear and trembling he's talking about obedience he's talking about a worshipful reverent fear of the Lord awe of his power obedience that Jesus begins that good work in us he he gives us the Holy Spirit who seals us Ephesians 1:13 and then he continues that work of this reverent worship and obedience that's what Galatians 2 is capturing in Galatians 2:20 says I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live it's not I who live.
But Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me that the Christian Life is recognizing that Jesus the crucified savior it is him who comes to live inside of us and the life we live in the flesh now is by faith in what Christ has done and his work flowing through us we need to understand that we need to believe that.
Because if we don't we get it completely twisted like I about a few weeks ago I saw the announcement that uh that we're GNA that Columbia is hosting a Premier League soccer match at Williams Bry stadium and uh yeah man you in Liverpool I mean who to th they came to Columbia South Carolina out of all the East Coast they chose one of this city out of just a few and my uh my daughter loves soccer she plays soccer she's getting good at it she really loves it and I thought man it' be really good to take Ellie to this Premier League match I said.
But it's going to be really pricey for got the budget right now and then I like dragged my feet and then all of a sudden the tickets went on sale and they sold 880,000 tickets like that I mean just gone and I was like man but if I was really committed and I said no I'm going to make this happen I will go on the secondary Market I will buy those very expensive tickets that is not in our budget all right I'm GNA do it like.
If this is me dreaming you guys so I'm like all right I'm going to buy the tickets and then we're going to go to the game since I'm dreaming we're going to go and we're going to get we're going to get the concessions y'all because the car family is like we got to eat before we go cuz you a little pricey and then we're we're get in a jersey we're getting two jerseys we're getting a scarf we're going to sit lower deck no nose bleeds.
For us we're doing a big you guys lower deck and I take her to the game and we and we sing Olay oay Olay and we watch some of the best soccer players in the world just absolutely kill it and then I go home and I'm like babe how great was that and she goes yeah Dad aren't you glad that I took you to the game word you no that's that's not how this works at all I took you to the game I'm the one that bought the tickets I'm the one that got the concessions I'm the one that that that got you the scarf from the Jersey child.
If you didn't want to go you were going anyways cuz I paid for that I was breaking through your Will child we were absolutely going to this game I decided it and we are absolutely going the work is on me and the reality is that God the Father bought the tickets God took us to the game God brought you home and our actions sometimes say look who I did I took us to the game God the Father purchased us for the blood of his son.
Jesus God's grace breaks through our hardened Hearts the spirit comes alive at work within us God is the the one who redeems us and our actions sometimes say the opposite because some of y'all when you mess up and you sin you think oh I've done done it now I don't know if God can continue to love me I don't know if he's still gonna I don't know if I don't know if I can still I don't know if I'm still a Christian.
Because I've I've I've messed up too many times and I've done too many things how could how could God possibly not want to abandon me and your actions and your heart posture reveals that you believe it was on you in the first place some of you beat yourself up because you you didn't stick to a Bible reading plan or you don't pray enough you're like I just if I I just I got to read my Bible I got to pray which we absolutely yes and amen.
Because it is good for your soul and you should do that every day but some of you are thinking if I don't do this I'm like I don't know it's just God God's not going to be he won't accept my worship it's not I don't know if I can come to Sundays and I don't know if I and your actions and your heart posture reveals that you believe this is on you some of you maybe have been out the Church for a bit and you're just jumping back in and you're like man I just I don't know like I I'm here with a bunch of Church folk and I just don't know.
If like I I got if I'm Really Gonna if I'm really going to commit to doing this I gotta I gotta I gotta get my life cleaned up I got to straighten some things out because if I get around these these these churchy people like I don't I don't know if I'm going to fit in I don't know if I'm I got to clean my life up before I can come to the Lord some of you might have the posture that is one that is just that that thinks that you're a good person maybe you've got a posture that just says I'm I'm a pretty good person like I I do a lot of good.
Like I'm not maybe you're even comparative a comparative about it you're like I'm a pretty good person I'm not a murderer I'm I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm a thief I'm not sleeping around I'm I'm living a pretty good life like I God should accept me is the posture of your actions there's a lot of different way ways that we by our actions and by our heart posture reveal that we believe that the work of redemption is ultimately on us.
And if that's where we land then where you put your hope in is in your works and not the work of Jesus and if it's if if your hope is in your works then you have no hope if your hope is in your works then the path from your works the path that goes from your works to hell because you can't get to heaven on your own and you have to understand this from this passage so I think some people misinterpret this passage remove it from its context and leave with a bad theological understanding of how we are saved I think there are other Christians that.
Look at this passage and understand it's by grace through faith preach it yes amen I absolutely believe that wholeheartedly and yet will completely ignore the force of this command altogether we'll completely jump past to the greater theological understanding that yes we're saved by grace alone through faith alone and Christ Alone the glory of God alone like I with that's but then completely ignore that it says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling you know what work means in the Greek work it's production that's what is happening here it is absolutely clear that you are saved by grace.
But this is obedience this is obedience this is Faith producing obedience and we're called to this aggressively that's why Ephesians 28-9 which yes and amen for it's by Grace you've been saved through faith and it's this is not of your own doing it's the gift of God not a result of works that no one may boast did you know that verse 10 exists for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforeand that we should walk in them that yes you're saved by the grace of Christ and his work alone.
And when he redeems you you're saved for good works Spurgeon once said your good works is not for the lord it's not to be saved it's for your neighbor you are saved for good works to walk in them which God has prepared for us this is why Galatians 68 says for the one who SWS to his own flesh Will from The Flesh reap corruption but the one who SWS to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life the work is sowing it is working it is striving Luke 13:24.
Jesus says strive to enter through the narrow door for many I tell you will seek to enter and will not be able the Christian Life is one that strives in the power of the Holy Spirit to do the good things that God has set out for us to do it is not a passive life where you just sit back and let go and let God which historically is a problem in the South because there's so many people in the South who had a religious experience at some point who prayed the prayer who walked down the aisle they raised the hand and they have this experience.
And then the rest of their life that there there's they're not walking in faith at all their their life isn't one of repentance their life isn't one of of this fearful trembling all worship before the Lord and doing the good works he's designed for us to do and it completely ignores the work out your own salvation with fear and trembling which means that if you call yourself a Christian and your life is not marked by one of repentance we're all Sinners we're all jacked up.
But if your life isn't marked by repentance and it especially if you have the mindset that just says I mean but God's gracious isn't he he's good all the time and it's just I you know I'm better than I deserve but there's no actual it's just seeing Grace is just this cheap offering cheap Grace that I can just do whatever I want Paul addresses that in Romans 6 he says what shall we say then are we to continue in sin that Grace May abound by no means how can we who died to sin still live in it he's just flabbergast he's like that doesn't compute.
For him he's like do do you realize what your sin cost it cost the blood of God and to think that we can see Graces this cheap offering that we can sin all the more by no means absolutely not and if that's your reality then it's possible you might not not be a Christian in the first place if you call yourself a Christian but you never want to read his word you never want to grow in the discipline of word and prayer and you might be the kind of person that says.
But you know I just don't I don't like reading I'm not a great reader I I honestly guys the majority of the early Church wasn't either you know why because they were illiterate and there are Christians all across the world that cannot read but boy oh boy when someone reads the word of God their ears are ready and that's how they used to learn it they used to listen to the word of God and they'd hide that word in their heart and they'd meditated and they' repeat it over and over again to hide the word of.
God deep in their heart and we have phones where you can download a Bible appp and listen to the word of God on demand 24/7 we are without excuse and if your life is marked by one that does not love to read the word that does not want to grow in prayer that's a problem it doesn't he need the command here to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling if you call yourself a Christian but you've never actually shared the Gospel with an unbeliever you've never actually articulated the Gospel to someone who doesn't know Christ knowing what we know that without Christ is hell you say I'm not I'm not gifted at that.
I'm not either I've stumbled through so many Gospel presentations so many but it's more than just I mean it's it's not sharing the Gospel is not a lifestyle that's salt and light stuff and it's good and makes the Gospel look good but if you don't articulate the word of God if you don't share the message and you haven't shared the Gospel at all and that's a that that's a problem when it comes to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
If you call yourself a Christian but you have no desire to be committed to a local Church I mean I've I mean I've heard the argument for years like I I got Jesus I don't need the Church and it's like I I don't think you've I don't think you know Jesus because if you read his word he loves the Church so deeply yes the Church has got some jacked up people in it like like look in the mirror just I mean we're we're yeah and people have done some terrible things in the Church.
But find me a passage that sees God spitting upon the Church and you you're not g to find it God loves the Church he loves his bride that's why he gave up his blood forth the Church I've heard so many Christians make that argument is you don't understand this and you're not living out what it means to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling if you call yourself a Christian but you cling to your finances and you don't submit them to Christ which I know some people yeah the Church is all up.
For your money it's like I no but Jesus is because it reveals what's happening in our hearts and what we love and what we ultimately worship could go on and on and on with this to reveal what's happening in our hearts is there is there this this fear and trembling consideration of Eternal things which I'm listen I don't I don't this passage is meant to be a comfort it's meant to be a comfort okay it's it's actually not meant to stress you out.
But here's the thing I Chad and I were talking about this I don't think I've ever met someone who's a Christian who at some point wasn't at times considering these Eternal things with fear and trembling just I do I really believe this do I really love God do I am I really am I really living what it means to be a Christian I don't think you should stay there I think you look to and you say wait a second no it yeah we're Sinners and we trust in the work of.
Jesus and he's good but I I don't know I don't know Christians that haven't wrestled with this in a real way that just says do I actually believe this and if you've never actually wrestled with this like do I actually believe this then you might might not be a Christian when you understand this command as a Christian that it's by faith alone that we're saved and there's a call to obedience that flows out of this faith when you understand that you can begin to change you can begin to change from the infection of self-righteousness and and works-based salvation or the infection of cheap Grace that just says I can be be a Christian and not.
Ever do anything good to begin with and if you start to like lean into this passage and really let the truth what's Happening Here impact our hearts you'll start to see healing this is the treatment like if you have pneumonia if you have a case of pneumonia you're going to have fever sepsis chills the works white blood cell count through the roof but if you go in and you get the antibod antibiotic antibiotics I promise I talked to a doctor before I made this illustration you you get the antibiotics you're going to actually get better you're going to have you're going be able to breathe you're going to get your white cell count's going to.
Go down the fever is going to break but you got to get the treatment the treatment is submitting to God in faith and then allowing him to shape our hearts that we walk this out in obedience and if we'll do that here's what you're going to discover if you've done the work of fear and trembling all worship before the Lord faith in him God sham my heart and let me walk in obedience if you've done this then you're going to discover this results in your good and that's how this ends work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God who works in you both to Will and to work for his good pleasure the work of Jesus in you ultimately is for his good pleasure every now and then I try to get my children to do something they don't want to do and it is difficult and this one time I had my son and we had to go up this big big walk big hill big hike we parked and we we got out we're walking listen what I've noticed with kids is is that they'll run around.
For like an hour and if they have a pedometer they've clocked like two miles but the moment you say let's walk in a straight line together up a hill it's like I can't do it they just like it's so hard it's likees you can so I'm encouraged him like come on buddy like we got this we got we got to go we got to walk and I it's like all right you can't you can I just can't the hill I'm like you can buddy I've seen you do it you can you can get up this hill I can't.
So like all right let me put you on my shoulders and I wall my shoulders for a bit and I'll carry him a little further and I'm like buddy you're you a little big now you going have to walk my back ain't that good this come on come on you can do it he's like I can't we see we had to walk across this bridge he's like I can't do it yes you can dude come on come on and then we get to the steps at Colonial Life Arena which is I have to park far away.
Because you heard about a budget earlier like it just I ain't paying for parking our family walks and we're at the steps of Colonial Life Arena we walk up and guess what buddy we're here monster trucks monster jam and he's excited because he's gonna watch Gravedigger wreck some cars and it's like we're here it's good ain't it good yeah he's smiling and I'm smiling because he's smiling and I'm overjoyed and that's our God at work in us that God the father he begins the good work in us and there are times where he's he's encouraging us you you got it just a little further and there are times in life where we are just rock.
Bottom and he puts us on his shoulders and he carries us a little further and then he puts us down and he continues he's like you got it and by the end of it we are finding the joy of Walking with God and what awaits us and our God finds joy when we find joy in him he finds pleasure when we find pleasure in him I mean think about that picture the God of the universe who's just in the heavens when you are doing the good works that he's designed.
For you to do where he's just up there and he's just like that's my boy that's my girl that's who our God is but it cannot be that if you don't submit to him in faith and if you don't seek to live a life that out of Faith seeks obedience ultimately for the good of others that results in our own good but it takes understanding this passage correctly putting it on and walking in faith and obedience as we're called to as Christians let's pray heavenly.
Father I pray that you might help us submit Our Lives to you so that we can be the kind of people that you've called us to be Heavenly Father we need you to do a good work in our hearts we need you to continue to sanctify us to make us like you so that we might be the people that you've called us to be so we might work out our salvation with fear and trembling for it is you that works in us we ask this in.
Jesus name amen we're going to take the Lord's supper the band is going to come up and as prepare to take the Lord's Supper some of you need to consider your posture and your heart before the Lord some of you love Christ and you're a follower of Jesus and maybe on one side you're just you're beating yourself up thinking that this is all on you and we come to the table as a reminder that on the night that he was betrayed he took bread he bre broken he said this is my body that was broken.
For you he took the cup of the New Covenant he said this is my blood that was shed for you that as often as you eat and drink this you Proclaim my death until he returns and we need to remember that it's on Christ and what he's done for us so yeah we're Sinners and yeah we don't perfectly obey but that's the point of Christ coming for us and you get to joyfully come to the table and remember that so prepare your hearts to do that there's gluten-free back in that corner over there prepare your hearts.
For worship but there are some of you who have never actually tasted and seen the Lord is good you have not placed your faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross or maybe you had some profession of Faith years ago but the whole life since then has been one of cheap Grace and my hope is that you wouldn't come to the table but you would come to Christ and you would submit your life to him and you'd see that he's beautiful and that he's glorious and that he's good and that he's worth worthy of your life.
Today would be the day that it begins the good work in you and then you would walk with us to see how he continues that good work and that one day you might stand in the presence of God as he's carried you through to completion worshiping him forever consider your hearts and respond.