Working Out Your Salvation
Philippians 2:12-16

It’s Your choice to rejoice! Do you know how to be really happy? Be like Jesus! God’s number one goal in our life is not for us to have FUN but for us to be like JESUS, not to be COMFORTABLE, but to be CHRISTLIKE; not to be merely HAPPY, but to be HOLY; because to be like Jesus is real JOY.
Have you ever heard anyone tell you, Jesus changed me! How does Jesus change us? How does God change us? Do we LET GO and LET GOD? Or do we JUST HANG ON? Or, do we PRAY IT THROUGH?
Let me share with you my heart concern for you as a church family: I am concerned that we get stuck in a rut or habit, and then we don’t think we can change. I am concerned that the “I Can’t” attitude rules our thinking. The habit could be bitterness, or anger or jealousy or a rebellious spirit or depression or pride or strife. The habit could be cigarettes, or drugs, or alcohol or pornography. This whole passage tells us that we can change. I am concerned some of us think, “I am stuck and I cannot change.” Some of you keep falling into some sin that easily besets you and you are on the verge of giving up. This concerns me deeply! These are strongholds that can be overcome and conquered!
The three “action attitudes” necessary for change are: Humility, Obedience, and patience. These are the characteristics of Christ-likeness. Jesus is our example in all three. He humbled himself through self-emptying; he obeyed to the point of death, and he patiently waited for exaltation. If Jesus is in you and you are saved, He will work out practical changes in your life. There are implications to our salvation.
We see that Paul right after the some very profound theology gets right back to where the rubber meets the road. Paul’s profundity is not in the clouds; he gets down to where we live as he talks about how we can live out the practical blessings of our salvation!
We are to work out our salvation. What do you do when you do a physical workout? Some of you have absolutely no idea! Anyway, we do not work out to get a body but to develop the body we already have. A work out changes for the better the body we already have. Working out our salvation does not mean we work for our salvation. You cannot work out something that you do not have. The PRESENT, IMPERATIVE is a COMMAND we are to CONTINUALLY PRACTICE: Work out your salvation into your daily life. Put your salvation into practice, in your relationships, in your home, at your job. You see, if nothing is COMING OUT, it may be there is NOTHING INSIDE! If Christ is IN YOU, let him SHOW His strength, love, and grace through you. The idea here is, what are the implications of my salvation? How does my salvation relate to my daily life? What are the implications of my relationship with God through the rest of my week? What does my salvation mean to the daily decisions I have to make? What does my salvation mean to me on Monday morning when I wake up for work? What does my salvation mean to me when my office mates go out to a bar after work? What does my salvation mean to me when others on the job are standing around and loafing just because the boss is not watching? What does my salvation mean to me when I can cheat a customer and get some extra vacation money? Salvation is by grace through faith. To work out carries the meaning of working to full completion, such as working out a problem in mathematics. A farmer works a field to get the best possible harvest. Some of you may like jig saw puzzles. You have to work them out. You have all the pieces you just have to figure out where they go. We have everything we need to live godly in Christ Jesus, we just have to work it out with fear and trembling. We are to work out the implications of our salvation. Our relationship with God is to be practiced daily in our lives, affecting our decisions, and building Christ-like character into our lives.
Here are three necessary ACTION ATTITUDES for us to work out our salvation in our daily life:
1. Decide to Obey, v.12
Do you know what obedience is? It is hearing God’s knock and answering and then doing what He says. Obedience is to answer the door when the doorbell rings. God is ringing your doorbell and to tell us what to do. (Hupakouo) To obey is to listen and submit.
Paul encourages them and gives them a great compliment by saying that they have obeyed while he was there. He just wrote about Jesus’ obedience, and now he says, obey even more in my absence. That means we do not obey the Lord just when others are watching us, but we obey the Lord when no one else is around.
Our obedience is not an “eyeservice obedience.” “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” In other words, do you work when no one is watching? Do you clean that floor that no one will notice? Do you paint the ceiling that no one ever sees?
Do you need a spiritual policeman to be watching you to keep you in the path of righteousness? When no one is looking, what do you look at? What do you watch on TV or in videos? What do you look at on the internet? There are many dangers to our eyegate, so we must be willing to obey with fear and trembling.
Obedience is a decision. Your decisions will either build or tear away at your character. Warren Wiersbe says in his excellent book, “On Being A Servant of God,” says, “The decisions you make, small and great do to your life what the sculptor’s chisel does to the block of marble. You are shaping your life by your thoughts, attitudes, and actions and becoming either MORE like Jesus Christ or less like Jesus Christ” (p.41). Did you get that? Which way are you heading?
If you want to become more like Jesus Christ, you must decide to obey God every day. Whether anyone is watching or not. Whether you feel like it or not. That means, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus Christ. Decide to voluntarily empty yourself, decide to bravely endure cross bearing, decide to wait for exaltation, and roll up your sleeves and obey!
He says work out your salvation with fear and trembling. We do not fear that God does not love us, or that He will not save us, but we fear displeasing Him. We know that God is not One to be trivled with. We have a deep reverence for our God. We greatly respect Him and His Word. Read Isaiah 66:2. Take your salvation seriously. Do you know what our problem is? We take ourselves too seriously and God not seriously enough! Nothing you have is more important than your spiritual life. Fear and trembling, that is not with apathy but with a solemn sense of responsibility. Not with complacency, with a smug attitude, but with a great sense of eagerness and gusto!
We obey God by reading the Bible, by walking in the Spirit, by prayer, by witnessing, by responding well to circumstances. The more you read, memorize, study, and live the Word of God, the more you will have the desire and the power to do God’s will.
Has the Bible helped you change?
2. Depend on God’s Grace
Here is that mysterious balance of human responsibility: you work out your own salvation! You be humble for Jesus is humble; you obey, for Jesus obeyed!
Now, we see the work of divine sovereignty, it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
“Worketh in you” is the word, “energeo.” We get our word energy from this word. There is divine energy at work in the heart and soul of every Christian. Realize God is working in you. What does God work in us? A will to will and a power to do His good pleasure! This verse is amazing! God is energizing your life so that you will have the WILL and then the ENERGY to do His will. The word, “to do” is the same word as energize. God does not merely give us the desire, He also gives us the DO-power! You see, we would not have a will to do His will unless He was working in us to will, that is to give us the DESIRE and to do, that is, give us the POWER to do right.
How does God work in us? He gives us the DESIRE and the DO-POWER to do right. This is GRACE! We better realize that no matter how much talent we have, no matter how much people love us, nothing will happen without God working in us. Our labor will be fruitful as we depend on His grace.
Divine sovereignty, beloved, is the FUNDAMENTAL fact; and human responsibility (or free will) is the inevitable friend! God’s sovereign grace in the whole work of salvation is the ULTIMATE FOUNDATION; human responsibility is the visible structure. You see, if you see a Sunday School teacher, you can say, OH, that person decided to be a Christian, decided to come to this church, to become a member, and then they chose to teach a Sunday School class. That is the visible thing you see; but there is SOMEONE behind all of these visual decisions you see: the divine sovereign grace of God who was working in you and giving you the desire and the power to do any of it! You see, we would not have any desire for any kind of spiritual activity if God was not working in us.
What is God working in us to do? He gives us the desire and the power to do right. When the Lord saved me, He gave me the desire and power to read the Bible, go to church, get baptized, and pray. He gave me the desire and power to repent of specific sins, from drugs to cigarettes to rock music, and then He gave me the desire and power to preach. I would not be standing here if not for the grace of God!
1 Cor. 15:10, But by the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain: but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
How does God work in us? Through the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and Circumstances.
3. Determine to Shine for Christ, v.14-16
Do you want to be a STAR? What if I asked you, DO YOU WANT TO BE A STAR IN THE NFL? A STAR in HOLLYWOOD? Or a Baseball star, etc? How about a star for God? Do you want to be daringly and decidedly and definitely DIFFERENT from this world? Then do these two things:
How do we shine as light in the world? How can we shine as stars for God? How can we decidedly and daringly different? Two things:
We refuse to complain and we hold forth the Word of God.
A. Negatively, We refuse to complain and argue, v.14,
We must refuse the temptation to complain and argue. Paul is tenderly dealing with an issue that was threatening the joy and unity of the Philippian church. He has not mentioned any names, but he is laying a strong foundation so that when he gets to Phil. 4:2 they will be able to handle it. There was bickering going on!
Do you know that complaining and whining is a vicious habit? It’s not fair! No on appreciates me! Is that the best you can do? I hate my life! I’m bored! Get over the martyr complex or the cynic trap.
Do you know that complaining is a very big sin? It was this sin by Israel that led many of the people to die. A complaining spirit will keep you from change.
It is easy to do because our culture is so negative!
It is easy because look at what we are in the middle of! We are right in the middle of a crooked, distorted, and perverted generation!
Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 1 Cor. 1:10.
Wives, refuse to complain about your husbands. You are to be submissive to them! The Bible says that a continual dropping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike (Prov.27:15). It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman (Prov.21:19).
Husbands, refuse to complain about your wives! “Be not bitter against them!”
Parents, refuse to complain about your children! Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Young people, refuse to complain about your parents! Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your mother and father that your days may be long upon the earth!
Do all things without murmuring and disputing. Can you imagine being a Private in the Army and you receive an order from a Four Star General and you say, WHY, SIR? You better say one thing, YES, SIR. Or, could you imagine saying, “I CAN’T, SIR.” He would not command you to do anything that he would not give you the power to do. He would provide you the resources to fulfill the command, and so has our Master and King given us all the resources we need to do His will. We do not have to question our call or question our ability. We just report for duty and do it!
You say, I CAN’T. That is not the truth, for that is not what the Bible teaches, and the Bible is the truth! YOU CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHICH STRENGTHENETH YOU! You see, if you want to be miserable, just say, I CAN’T. That is a sure way to be a miserable failure!
Do you know what will happen to you when you refuse to complain? You will be one who is blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, you will be a star in the world! What a description! You see, we cannot say, but my circumstances are so bad, I just have to complain! Some Psychology is based on the premise that people behave badly because their environment is bad. There is a good hebrew word for my reply: BALONY! All of us live in a bad environment! It is called this world that is full of lust, and sin. Paul describes it as, “a crooked and perverse nation.” Why, if I just lived in a different time, it is TOO HARD TO LIVE for God in this day and age. No, my friends, the world has always been a hard place to live for God. Or you say, if I just lived in a different city, or lived in a different community, or if this was different, or if that was different… No, while we are in the midst of a crooked, curved, and perverse nation, or corrupt, twisted, distorted, and even PERVERTED nation, we shine! Let me tell you: our environment is bad! Our environment will not make it EASY for anyone to live for God. The Lord has told us that we are in a world that will hate us persecute us as we live for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you know how to stop complaining? You replace your complaining with thanking. Phil.4:6. Admit you have a problem complaining. Take on an attitude of gratitude.
B. Positively, We resolve to hold forth God’s Word, v.16 Holding forth the Word of life will give you joy when you stand before God, and your sacrifice that you are making will give you joy NOW.
My burden is that we, our church, can make a difference in this great city? How can one grain of salt make a difference in an dark world?
1. Decide to Obey, v.12
2. Depend on God’s Grace
3. Determine to Shine for Christ, v.14-16
Refuse to complain and argue. Resolve to hold forth God’s Word