To Will, To Work

Introduction

As each Sunday passes, I am impressed and overwhelmed even more about the significance of the things that we are doing together in this place and what it all means. And I hope it is impressive to you as well to know the extraordinary things that we are engaged in together, that we have come to know in Christ, and the powerful word of God that convicts us and guides us and leads us to a relationship that we need more than any other.

Happened while I was on the road, but I got the news quickly. And so many of our other young people.

And you know that one. It’s okay to isolate verses for certain purposes and times, particularly in the Proverbs that we are doing our daily Bible reading in, aren’t we? And would you consult wisdom Wednesday? I’d like to think that most of our church sees that since I’m doing it every week, and it’s Daniel’s great idea. So if you’re on Facebook on Wednesday, go to the Decker Prairie page and take a look at that. Hopefully you’ll do that. The Proverbs are somewhat isolated. In fact, you’ll see a proverb about something, and then the same thought is like five chapters later. And sometimes repeated. Exactly, verbatim. Apparently, it’s important that we get that particular proverb. It’s mentioned more than once. But a lot of them are standalone. But in context of epistles, they are certainly thematic.

And these six verses in particular, Leon Morris describes as the single most important paragraph ever written. In fact, it is one continuous sentence. And so you probably should keep reading if the sentence has not concluded that Jesus is both just and the justifier. Marvelous passage. I think of this problem in Romans 8, too. You know, you start in Romans chapter 8 and verse 1. It’s like you can’t stop reading. I mean, it just all keeps flowing from one great thought to the next, culminating in the end of the chapter, who shall separate us from the love of Christ. And so if I’m ever quoting Romans chapter 8, it’s really hard for me to just pick a verse or two. I really want to say let’s read the whole chapter.

Same problem in Ephesians chapter 5. In fact, I was using it, I think just last week or two weeks ago when I last time I preached here. And I didn’t know where to start and where to start. So I was where to start and when to stop. Ephesians 5 talks about redeeming the time, making the most of the time, walking in wisdom. And it’s like, really, I need to go back to being imitators of God and walking in light. The whole context, at least verses 1 through 21, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ, really gets overlooked, verse 21. And that all really goes together. And there’s one more passage that I want to share with you in this regard. That’s the one I want you to look at with me this morning.

Just keep reading. Where do you start in Philippians 2? You begin in verse 1 as he speaks of the things that are assuredly so in Christ. And then admonishes the church and Philippi to cultivate and maintain specific attitudes. And then he says, to do that in likeness of the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And I would just say about Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5 in this whole surrounding context, this is really our walking papers as believers in God. This is what we should be focused on. This should be the goal. The mind that Jesus demonstrated when he walked among us.

The way he related to people, the regard he had for people, his love for his Father’s will, as we shall see in a moment. This mind, the cultivation of it in our lives, is what Christianity is. He who humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. And he who humbled himself like no one had ever done. He who humbled himself to the uttermost was then exalted to the uttermost. And thus possesses a name that is above all names, a name to which every one shall bow, and every one will one day acknowledge the name that he possesses. But I want to talk to you about the verses that follow that. Familiar verses, Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13, that follow on the heels of the kinds of attitudes we should possess in Christ that were first demonstrated by our Lord, and his mind should be our mind, and as a result of his humbling, his exaltation, and we can know the same kind of exaltation as we humble ourselves in doing his will.

Now we have the outgrowth of all of those thoughts. In Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. And if you have not memorized these verses before, now, even without looking, you may know what Philippians 2 and verse 12 and not verse 13, you should have kept reading. Because it’s all in the same sentence. Separated by verses. Whoever did that, I don’t know, but 12 and 13. I guess if it gets really long, you ought to separate them into verses. But 12 and 13 go together. It’s like peanut butter and jelly. You know, it has eggs and bacon. I had that this morning. Boy, isn’t that a great combination? Eggs and bacon. Think of it as eggs and bacon. Philippians 2, 12 and 13. What are those verses saying?

1. Work Out Your Salvation With Fear and Trembling

This should be the focus of our lives as believers. And notice I did not put much of verse 12 on the slides. Because you probably know this one. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my answer. It’s not just when the apostle was present and you had a lot more motivation, apostle was there. But even when I’ve been gone, Paul says.

That there might actually need to be some exertion on your part. A bump on a stump or a bump on a pew. May not be sufficient. It’s important. I’m not minimizing what we’re doing here today, but we are working out our salvation with fear and trembling. And maybe that’s part of it we should be thinking about trembling. What should I be trembling about? An expectation of the wrath of God against all those who do not believe. Terrifying judgment that the Hebrew writer talks about in chapter 10 is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, those who do not live by their faith, even though they know better, is really the context. So let’s talk about the first part of that. What does it say?

It’s talking about personal responsibility. And that’s a message that resonates with people. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And as much as this community is designed to help and participate and assist in your doing that, the bottom line is that the elders can’t do that for you. I wonder if Sunday mornings the elders ought to have some kind of alarm clock system that goes off in every member’s homes, whether they like it or not, and they can’t turn it off.

Well, it may get you to services, but if you didn’t want to be here, if you didn’t engage when you were here. What good is it really doing you? You see, you have to work out your salvation, and I can’t do it for you. I can’t speak eloquently enough. And you know that. I can’t say all the right words in all the right way, all the right times. It’s going to be up to you. You’re going to need to engage and listen and participate among the people of God. You’re going to have to work out your salvation. But here’s the good news. You’re not all by your lonesome. While we may be able to offer some assistance and some help, the point of Philippians 2, 12 and 13 is that you have significant assistance from heaven.

2. God at Work in You, to Will and to Work

You’re not all by your lonesome. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you. To will to work.

To will to work. Think about that. God is deciding to will and to work in your life. To will and to work. For his good pleasure. I suggest we need to focus on what God is up to in these verses. God at work in you. Yes, work out your salvation, personal responsibility, but please understand God is at work in you to will and to work for his good pleasure. Now let me share something with you. What does all that involve? I wonder if we’re falling short in accomplishing this in the lives of believers. I wonder if our focus and aim, and I’m including the work that I do. I wonder if it’s been substantial enough, sufficient enough right here. And it really goes back to the missing sermon that I preached a few weeks ago.

3. The Cart Before the Horse

Because we tend to emphasize certain things, and they’re very important. And that’s why I use the word essential. If it’s essential, it’s important. The role of baptism in God’s scheme to redeem us from our sins, to cause our sins to be washed away by the blood of Christ, to come into union with our Savior. I mean, that’s what’s happening when I immerse someone into Christ, if it has been preceded by or accompanied by a heart of faith, trust and confidence in Jesus as the Savior, as the one who is going to guide our lives, if it has been accompanied by repentance, I’m going to change from the vain ways that I’ve chosen to live and I’m going to serve him. I’m going to take my heart and take my life, and I’m going to mold it after Jesus’ will.

Okay, to will and to work. Now, if it’s accompanied with faith and repentance and a confession from my lips, and then when I’m immersed in water, when I’m buried with him in baptism, at that moment, my sins are washed away. My confidence in the word of God and what it’s instructing me to do, I know that when I’m immersed in water, that I’m being cleansed by the death of Jesus, by his blood. I’m identifying with his death, and I’m rising to walk in newness of life, and at that point there is union with Christ. There’s rejoicing in the presence of the angels of heaven. That’s what happened to Brother Logan last week. So that’s very essential. Let me emphasize that. And we talk about the church’s worship and activity.

And if we are going to submit to the king, we need to follow carefully the instructions that he’s given us. Certainly, God has prescribed in his teaching the way he wants to be worshipped. There are patterns to be followed. Obviously, so it’s it’s not a free-for-all. He’s not left it all up to us to figure out. We’ve never been very good at that, by the way. When we sort of just make it up on our own. I don’t know if you’ve read the scriptures throughout to notice how that doesn’t work. And so we talk about the kinds of things he has prescribed in worship. And the way the church is supposed to function together, and there’s a lengthy discussion about it in 1 Timothy chapter 5, even in regard to how to take care of widows.

And there’s some things we need to observe about that. It’s important. And we can talk about, and this sort of covers everything else I’m not covering in this point. Everything that is erroneous. And there, you know, how many errors, religious errors are there in the world? Well, however, many can be dreamed up by people. I mean, people just want to do things their way, and that’s why we’ve gone from 250 denominations when I was an infant to 400 when I was a teenager to now, I don’t know how many thousands. Whatever number I had, it’s probably out of date already. It’s in the 30,000s or more. Everybody’s got their own version of this. What does God think about all of it? Well, he’s going to have to decide that on the day of judgment, and he is fair and just and righteous, and I take consolation in that because I can’t, I can’t deal with all of that.

I’ve got to deal with me. So all that’s important. And we could spend all of our time talking about the myriad of doctrines, the mountain full of doctrines that are not consistent with biblical teaching. Just get in the area of premillennial thought alone, and you could be there for months and years as to how scripture is abused. And I put check marks by every one of those things because they’re important. And I’m going to address those from time to time. I sort of addressed baptism this morning. But I wonder if we’re getting the proverbial cart before the horse in some of that. Because you see, I don’t think we’re going to have a significant amount of problems with any of those things. If we get this right.

If we understand that as believers, that God is at work in us to will and to work for his good pleasure. If you understand, if your focus is my purpose, the purpose of my being, the course of my life, that it’s really not about me and what I want to do. It’s more about, it’s all about his will and his work for his pleasure. You get that? I don’t think there’s going to be a big problem in the area of worship. I don’t think there’s going to be much quibbling about the role of baptism and salvation. In fact, I don’t see a lot of quibbling about that in the New Testament. People came to the message of salvation. They were broken, they realized their situation needed to be fixed, and they embraced whatever instruction was given to them by God’s representatives.

I don’t see a lot of quibbling about it. What is this baptism business? Well, there might have been some people, it’s just not addressed. I mean, apparently it wasn’t a huge issue. Because people knew who God was and who they were. What about focusing on the ingredient that will aid the successful accomplishment of all those things? Let this mind be in you. Our Savior set the Father’s will in pleasing him at the center of his life. I always do the things that are pleasing to him. John chapter 8 and verse 29. As we studied a couple weeks ago. I came to do thy will, O God. To will and to work for his good pleasure. I came to do thy will.

That’s what he modeled for us. And we need to try to reproduce that in the hearts and lives of people. That’s what evangelism. It’s not about getting them to agree with me that baptism is essential for salvation. That should flow out of this. And one of the reasons that people struggle with commitment, and I talked about the alarm clock situation, is because they never get here. They don’t get here. Or if they were, they didn’t stay here very long. The center of their life is not God at work in them to will and to work for his good pleasure. They’re still king in their lives. He who wishes to save his life shall lose it. He who loses his life for my sake, he shall find it.

Missing sermon.

And the one goes with the other. God at work in you. In all the ways that we have failed. In all the ways that we are weak, if we will come to God in trust and faith, he will be there for us. He’s the lifter of my head. You know that psalm 3, You’re a Shield about Me. Some of our songs have picked up on that little nugget in Psalm 3. He is a shield about me. He’s the lifter of my head. What does that mean? I get down, I get discouraged, I get hurt, I fail. God can lift me.

4. Which Godhead Member Is the Acting Agent?

Which Godhead member is the acting agent? For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. And the reason why I bring this up is that when you read about creation in Scripture, if you’re in the Old Testament, God said, Let us make man in our image, right? So we have God working in concert in creation. But when you get to the New Testament, who gets top billing in creation? Jesus does. Jesus does. Apart Him, nothing has come into being that has been made. John chapter 1 and verse 3. Colossians chapter 1 speaks of Jesus’ supremacy in creation. So Jesus was involved in creation and in redemption, in a very special way and unique way among the persons of the Godhead.

But in essence, God is our Savior. Period. Because though Jesus was a special agent involved in creation, and certainly special in regard to redemption as he died on the cross for us, God is working in concert or union to accomplish these things. They are perfectly one. And so some passages speak of the specific agent involved, and sometimes it simply speaks of God’s activity. Here it’s speaking generally. But isn’t it true that as far as the specific agent that’s involved in our transformation, that a lot of credit in the New Testament is given to the Holy Spirit in this regard? It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us. It is the Holy Spirit. By Him we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh. Romans chapter 8 and verse 13.

How’s he doing that exactly? Well, in a myriad of ways.

In whatever ways the Holy Spirit is working, that’s how he’s working in us. And I know at least two things he’s doing. He’s changing us by a mighty message.

And he’s changing us by a persistent providence. An arranging of circumstances and events in our lives that cause us to be further transformed into the image God desires in the likeness of Christ. Tell me specifically what that second one involves. I got the mighty message part, but because I have to read and try to emulate those characteristics. But what I have no way of knowing. All that’s involved. And what the Holy Spirit is doing in our transformation. And you know what? I think there are agents involved helping God in this matter. Because I read of angels who are ministering spirits sent out to serve the elect. And so I say all of these things to tell you God is at work. God is working in concert, perhaps specifically through the Holy Spirit and His role in the New Testament and the ministry of angels.

5. How Do You See Yourself?

But here’s an even greater question. Just know that this is going on, that God is working on our behalf. We have a spirit, we have a Savior, rather, that’s interceding for us. And he is able to save forever those who draw near to him. Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 25. But again, let’s focus on the things that involve your response. Is God at work in you? The bigger question is your assurance that God is working in you. I wonder if our thoughts of God are too small and what he can accomplish through us and in us. I read a book by J.B. Phillips when I first started preaching years ago in 1983 called Your God is Too Small, a little paperback. I’ve recommended it in the past.

It’s an eye opener. I think we struggle with too small of thoughts of God. How do you see yourself? God at work in you. Could I recommend some time in Isaiah?

Those under the Messiah’s reign will be given a new name, a new status, a new identity. Married to the Lord, no longer forsaken. Jerusalem shall be a praise in all the earth. God has glorious intentions for those who would embrace it. Oaks of righteousness. They will be the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. I love Isaiah 61 and verse 3. I’ve shared it with you in the past. Is that how you see yourself? I’ve been given a mission. I’m to be a tree, I’m to be an oak of righteousness with a firm foundation. Built on the Lord and that mighty message that I talked about. Rejoicing instead of mourning. This is what’s come to my door because I am in Christ. How do you see yourself?

God at work in you. Do you see yourself as his instrument? I’m an instrument. Or as Paul would tell Timothy, a vessel for honor, useful to the master. In 2 Timothy 2 and verse 21, my vessel is not to be used in the areas of dishonor. I’m to be a vessel for honor. I’m an instrument of God. God is at work in me, too will and to work for his good pleasure. I am his confident child. I trust in him completely. That his word is true, his will is right. It’s what I need. I’m going to observe it because I am that confident. And I’m going to realize I need him at work in my life. And I am his servant of his people. And there’s a lot more that could be said here.

6. Our God Is So Deserving

Do you want that? Well, just look at this. Nah, I’ve. And the devil will say, I got I got 40,000 other things I can show you. Other than that. Boy, I got a plethora of stuff you can see. It’ll be fun. Come ride on my train. He’s telling people that all the time. He’s telling you, tune him out. He’s been going on for 28 minutes. Tune him out. He doesn’t got anything for you. Whatever the devil is offering you is an inferior ride that has a huge dead end at the end of it.

I was trying to make my way from Bowling Green to Nashville to get to the airport last Friday night. Flew back into town, then headed to Arizona the next day, and when you know it, traffic jam on I-65. And I’d been following it all afternoon. I said, boy, I’m gonna have to leave earlier to get to the Nashville Airport. Don’t want to miss my flight. I gotta get to get to Phoenix the next day. Got to get home, pack up, different set of clothes, get the suits, get the sermons, get to Phoenix. So, Google Maps. Detour, found the detour. Right by I65. You know what’s wrong with Google Maps? Everybody knows to do it. And so you start on this detour, surely you’re the only one, right?

No. No. Thousands of people. Thousands of people taking the detour. I say maybe ten minutes. But hey, it was ten minutes. Makes all the difference. Did you read about the Google Maps detour this week in Colorado? Led people to a muddy dirt road and cars got stuck and this huge traffic jam out in the middle of nowhere. The devil’s leading you to that and worse. Why? Why should you be instrument? It’s really simple. Our God is so deserving. He is awesome. He’s deserving of your submissive response. Not only is he deserving, he has made awesome provisions for his people to be enjoyed. The peace that surpasses all comprehension comes from him for his people. Not only are awesome provisions enjoyed, but awesome pleasure is promised. We just got to be wait, waiting and patient for what he has promised to do for us, which is beyond description.

So often we don’t want to wait. We want to take the detours. We want to have fun. Hey, this life’s all we’ve ever known. Let’s get the most out of it we can. But C.S. Lewis compared it to making mud pies in a slum. When a holiday at sea is offered us. Well, we could make some comparisons now. It’s like making mud pies in a slum when a three-week trip to Disney World has been offered to you.

That’s as good as it gets, I’m told. Still trying to buy in. Whatever it is that you’re going to love more than God. Whatever it is that you’re going to value more than God’s things, rest assured it’s temporary. I mention Mexican food a lot. I’m drumming up business for all the local Mexican food restaurants. Every time I mention it, they have a tick up in their business. You all go and eat Mexican food. And it’s all very temporary, you know, and you’re left with onion aftertaste. After it’s over.

Conclusion

People do not reject God because they’re wanting too much. That’s what it sort of looks like sometimes. But that’s that’s not really it. People do not reject God because they desire too much. They are really rejecting God because they are settling or too low. What I’m talking to you about this morning is as good as it gets. It’s awesome. God at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Come to him while there’s time and opportunity. Let’s stand and see.