And may the message of consecration that we've sung indeed be that which characterizes our own conduct and thought. Will you turn with me to Philippians chapter two, where we have already read from the word of God, and I want to focus on two verses of this chapter as the text for this evening's consideration. Philippians chapter two, a chapter which is known for one of the greatest Christological statements in all of the New Testament, describing Christ as being in the very form of God, but not grasping that. Among men, but rather, as one commentator puts it, he emptied, stripped himself of the insignia of majesty in order that he might, without abandoning his Godhead, yet enter into human flesh. And that great statement that we find in the second chapter that gives us a picture of Christ God in his humiliation, yet we do no injustice to it when we recognize that in the process of the passage, it is but an illustration. that the Apostle Paul is using of a truth that he is stressing, a truth concerning the practical outworking of the believer's salvation, manifestation of that salvation. The outworking of that is what he is dealing with when he points to that great statement, when he gives that great statement concerning Christ. Our text is in verse number 12. where we read, wherefore, my beloved, as ye 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 which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." And so with that text, we focus upon the admonition to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And we recognize from the whole of the biblical revelation That when it says work out your own salvation, it is not speaking about a sequence of works that you do by which you are saved and your salvation guaranteed. It is speaking rather of that outworking of the salvation given to you in Christ by faith, a salvation which is already effective in saving from hell and which continues in its effectual development in saving us from the power of sin and will be completed when we are saved from the very presence of sin and glorified. But right here and now, We are dealing in a world that is filled with every negative influence that you can imagine, most of which should not be part of your imagining. And as if that is not enough, you face an even greater enemy, and that is within. the fleshly lusts which war against the soul. And in the midst of all of these things, believers are being instructed to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, the outworking of our salvation, the manifestation of that salvation. Now as the Apostle Paul makes that exhortation, we must recognize the context in which it is cradled as he writes to the beloved saints in Philippi and how he did belove the believers in Philippi. Why they had come to the faith, the church there had been established in the crucible of great affliction. You recall, as Paul and Silas, their backs no doubt bleeding, lashed from the whipping they had received, their hands and feet confined in the stocks of the inner prison in Philippi, where they had been cast for their faithfulness unto Christ. And there, in such suffering, inflicted upon them by unbelieving pagans, Paul and Silas, rather than grumbling about their circumstances and lamenting how badly they were being treated, they sang praises and prayed at midnight. The jailers heard them. I wonder what went through the minds of some of those jailers as they hear these guys singing praises to God and praying. And as they sang and praised amidst those circumstances, God himself sent an earthquake. Strange earthquake it was. It shook the jail. Whether the rest of Philippi felt it or not, I don't know. But the jailer sure did. And the amazing thing about this earthquake is that its effect was to shake loose the shackles of the prisoners and to open the prison gates. And if you think that that is a strange and miraculous occurrence, that is nothing. The biggest miracle of the night is that not one of the prisoners tried to get away. What would happen today if suddenly an earthquake struck Harford County Detention Center, and every locked door was opened, and every locked cell was open, and everybody was free to take off if they wanted to? Well, they would probably injure themselves quite severely and many of them simply in the stampede to get to the doors and escape. And this is what the jailer in Philippi had anticipated. So certain was he that the people were escaping and that he would have to pay for their escape with his own life, that he took out his sword, that he might take his life before the authorities did it shamefully for him. And the Apostle Paul, seeing this very thing coming about, cries out and says, do thyself no harm. We are all here. Clearly, there was a work of God afoot that night in the Philippian prison to open all of the doors, loosen all the prisoners, and yet keep them confined. And the power of God that was exhibited there in those events was then all the more powerfully exhibited, and graciously so, when the jailer came in, falling down before the prisoners whom he had confined, and crying to them, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And that night he heard from the apostle Paul, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. And he believed, and he was saved. and his household saved as well. And I've wondered at times what became of that jailer. He's one of the ones to whom the apostle Paul is writing when he writes this epistle to the church at Philippi. That church having come into being that night in the prison under those circumstances was one which the apostle dearly loved. and the epistle to the Philippians exhibits that great love and the oft-repeated expressions of affection that are made. But it's not that everything was peachy keen in Philippi and the church there, for if you read this epistle carefully, you will see that there are repeated admonitions, that puts it lightly, repeated rebukes that expresses it perhaps more accurately, concerning the fact that evidently they just didn't get along with one another very well. You look at chapter one, for example, in verse number nine, when he says concerning his praying for them, and this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. He's praying that their love might increase. Now, indeed, there is cause for all of us to pray for all of us that our love might increase. But other things cited in this epistle would suggest that there wasn't always the love exhibited brother to brother, sister to sister in the church at Philippi as there may have been. And so in chapter 1 and verse 27, the apostle makes this instruction, only let your conversation, that word conversation means simply your manner of life, let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or be 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. Now you see what he's saying to them. Hey, see to it that your manner of life is such that when I hear about you, I hear about a togetherness, that you are of one mind, that you stand fast in one spirit, that you strive together in the faith of the gospel. And then we've already read in chapter two, where the apostle writes, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And then he proceeds to give that great Christological statement we already referred to. In chapter four, the second verse, he's saying, beseech Iodagus and Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And evidently these two were at odds with one another at loggerheads, we might say. And Paul has heard about it from a distance. and writes from behind prison walls once again to say, tell those two to get along, to get over it, to be of the same mind. And in chapter four and verse five, he says, let your moderation be known unto all men. And that word moderation speaks of a sweet and a reasonable disposition. And if he has to exhort them to have that evidently, There were some deficiencies of it among them. And so what we see here is that the believers in Philippi, as saved as saved can be, were yet afflicted with spats and feuds and disagreements among them. Yes, some of those suffered the affliction of getting out of the wrong side of the bed in the morning, as we might say, and not getting along with one another. And so he writes about those matters and that is what is at the core of the text we look at tonight when he admonishes them, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now, lest anyone should think something amiss, let me say that I'm not preaching this because we are seeing contentions and problems within the assembly here. Thank God we are not, and how good he has been to us, that he has brought to us a spirit of unity and oneness and mutual love and desire for one another. Oh, I can remember 25 years ago when that was not the case, as this congregation passed through what, in retrospect, was a very difficult and serious transition from the founding pastor to his successor. And I can remember a gentleman in my office complaining and saying, this place is like a time bomb. And so contemplating that charge, I wanted to get more information, other opinions. And so I called our brother, Bill Edwards, who had been a part of the congregation for many decades and knew something of the temperament here and consulted with him often. And I asked him what his thoughts were upon that. And he thought for just a minute and said, well, you know, Pastor John, I think Every congregation is a time bomb. You're just waiting for the right thing to light the fuse. And how wise that counsel was and how observant I believe it was. And while God has given us a great time of grace, and may it continue as long as all of us live, and when our great-great-grandchildren are continuing on here and we're resting in our graves. Yet, there are problems believers have from time to time. They did in Philippi. And I recall the report I once heard of a retirement community that had been established for missionaries and Christian workers returning from their fields of service in retirement, and how eager some were to settle in a place where there would be the Christian spirit prevailing on every hand and a wonderful place of rest of mind and heart. And upon arrival discovered that there were more contentions and feudings and fightings and disputings and spattings than one could ever imagine. How many times that happens which brings back to memory the old adage to live above With saints and love, oh, that will be glory. To live below with saints and woe, well, that's a different story. And indeed, it can be. Well, Paul speaks to that as he addresses the Philippians and he admonishes them. Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling. And so we have four points to make here this evening. First of all, we'll consider a pattern to be followed. And then second, a persistence to be maintained. And then third, an attitude to govern our actions. And then finally, a reason for that attitude. And of course, the pattern to be followed is indicated by that first word of verse 12, wherefore, which ties what follows with that which proceeds. That's simply a connecting word. And it's saying, on the basis of this, founded upon what you have just heard, because this is so, wherefore, proceed in this direction. work out your own salvation and fear and trembling. And the thing that he has just pointed to is Christ. And he points to Christ, as we said earlier, not in order to set before us one of the greatest Christological statements of the New Testament, but in order to set before us an illustration, an example of what it is to work out your own salvation in fear and trembling. Not that Christ was working out his own salvation. But in fact, Paul has begun this chapter by saying, fulfill you my joy. that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than himself." And then he goes on to say, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God, you cannot get any higher, any better, any closer to perfection than Christ. He was and is the ever-living embodiment of unmitigated perfection. He is perfection personified in every imaginable manifestation thereof. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not grasp after that and parade that before men as a somebody among them, but rather made himself of no reputation. took upon him the form of a servant, get that if you will, the creator of the ends of the earth, who upholds all things by the word of his power, takes the form of a servant. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Tis mystery all, the immortal dies. The creator and upholder of life gives himself over unto death. There is no greater self-denial or humbling than that. which should prompt us to the prayer that we've sung together tonight when I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory, mind you, the Prince of Glory died. My richest gain I count but loss, and poor contempt on all my pride. And this is what the Apostle Paul is admonishing the Philippians to do. As they evidently have been doing some things by strife and vain glory and not in lowliness of mind and not esteeming others better than themselves. They said, look to Christ, let this mind be in you. He emptied himself of all human pride, of all self-acclaim, became obedient unto death. And what's more, to the most shameful death that a man could suffer, public execution by crucifixion. This is the example, the pattern by which God's people are to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. It is to be an outworking of the fact that our hearts have been regenerated, that is done in a manner of utter selflessness, done in a manner that reflects the very person of Christ dwelling within us. Him ruling, Him as the King of our lives, crowned. Does this sound anything like what Paul admonished the Romans with when he said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice? This is the working out our salvation with fear and trembling, not living in such a manner as I might grasp for myself whatever I can stretch and lurch to reach, but rather living in such a manner that I might yield to every circumstance with a godly desire and motive, wishing above all else that in that circumstance I manifest the marks of an ambassador for Christ, that he might be seen in me. This is the very thing Paul speaks of, I believe, in the first chapter when he says, for to me to live is Christ. And because he could say for me to live is Christ, he could then also say to die is gain. And so the pattern for working out our own salvation in fear and trembling is Christ himself. We're speaking here of an element of sanctification, by which the salvation that is wrought unto absolute completion by Christ at Calvary, of which he spoke when he said from the cross it is finished, that salvation which he finished yet being wrought in evidence increasingly in our own lives. It becoming more and more conspicuous that indeed I walk to the beat of a different drummer, if you will. I live, not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of my mind, having presented my body a living sacrifice. This is what the Apostle is speaking of with regard to working out our salvation in fear and trembling. Thus the pattern that is to be followed, it is Christ. I think it was last Sunday, perhaps the Sunday before that I mentioned. in speaking of one of the Christmas carols, the suggestion of endeavoring to follow Christ that was suggested to us several years ago by that great sales campaign, WWJD, that, how many of you know what I'm talking about there? You remember where all of these trinkets and jewelry suddenly came on the market with the letters WWJD. And some skillful marketer knew how to reach a hand deep in human pockets and pull out money in the process. And so he came up with this idea and somebody made a lot of money at it. And the suggestion of it is what would Jesus do? And if we would just ask ourselves what would Jesus do and then do it, the world would get better. I don't want to get off the subject on that matter, but the point being is this, and we will note it later in the passage, yes, we look to Christ as our pattern. And we endeavor God helping us to live as Christ lived. But there is much more necessary than that. For no one will ever get to heaven doing what Jesus did. Ye must be born again is what Jesus said. As he spoke to Nicodemus, he didn't say to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, do what Jesus does. He said, ye must be born again. There must be the new birth, the regeneration, But those who have truly been saved from sin are told to look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. They are told here by the Apostle Paul, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And describing then the humiliation and selfless sacrifice of Christ, says, wherefore you also work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Going from that pattern that is to be followed, we notice second a persistence that's to be maintained. Now you see what the Apostle says here, wherefore my beloved As ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence also, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. One of the other verses we referred to earlier, he spoke of when he's present and when he's absent. And you get the idea that when the apostle was present, the great apostle is here, the one at who's singing in prayer, the earthquake came, the one who was the founder of the church at Philippi, he's among us, let's do it right. And everybody's focus is upon the apostle and seeing to it that they appear proper before him. They are dotting their I's and crossing their T's. But when the apostle is gone, is there that persistence in faithfulness? And the suggestion would be that the absence of the apostle is met by some bickering, disputing, some crotchety attitudes one toward another, some vain glory. And he writes to say, not simply when I'm with you, but when I'm absent from you, may this pattern be followed. The work of God among his believers and within his believers, being manifest by those believers is to be exercised with a persistence, with a consistency, God grant to us consistency in our testimony and our obedience. Oh, I know how easy it is. in the sudden burst of emotion, sometimes wrought by a stirring message that you've heard or by a passage of scripture that has really penetrated your heart that day, in a burst of emotion to suddenly come into a great lofty plane of piousness, of godly living, so one thinks. But then it is short-lived. It kind of drifts away, which underscores, again, some of the importance of the message you heard this morning regarding daily personal worship. and us maintaining that daily communion, offering unto God a daily sacrifice of praise, bowing before him in adoration and supplication that his word might live within us. This will be the source of consistency of a persistent walk and witness that is maintained. And as the writer of Hebrews wrote to those who were discouraged and downcast, he gave that great list of faithful believers in Hebrews chapter 11 and then said, seeing we have these as a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with endurance. patience in this term in our King James Version, but it's the word that means endurance. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. There is an exhortation unto persistence and consistency in maintaining this pattern thrice to be followed. And as he said, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. What does he add to that? Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, with our eyes set upon Christ, the eyes of faith beholding the Lamb of God, not in some imagined picture on the wall, which does not portray Christ, but misportrays him, but rather seeing Christ in the one portrait that we have of him, the Word of God. Observing Christ in the scripture, beholding there the glory of the Lord, we are transformed from glory unto glory, the scripture tells us. And it is by that means, beholding Christ in the scripture consistently, persistently, that a faithful, consistent walk can be maintained. And this is vital. to working out, the outworking of our salvation with fear and trembling. Well, the third thing we notice here is the attitude that is to govern our actions. And it is this, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. The approach to the things of God, is not to be made with casual, reckless indifference. The things of the scripture are so familiar to us in this land, and I'm not complaining, I'm thanking God for it, that we risk that error, familiarity breeds contempt. And it becomes so common to us. so ordinary. It's not like the scripture that we have, we possess at the risk of our lives and therefore value it as much as we would value our lives, but it is simply that we are so familiar, we have so much that we tend away from the great sobriety which is demanded by things so profound as deity. And that fear and trembling, that sobriety of attitude is something that is included in what Paul is saying. The outworking of true salvation is not going to be in some wild, fleshly manifestation. For the whole matter of the power of the gospel is that which subdues the flesh and the wildness of human nature. There is a reverence that we've spoken of often that is vital and inseparable from that which is holy. I was reading just yesterday in the Bible reading schedule that I've followed for this year as we're coming to the end, the book of Revelation. And it described there those living beings, those seraphim that surround the throne of God. And as I read it, my mind was cast back as well to Isaiah 6 where they are described. And the seraphim surrounding the throne of God, let us never forget. Yes, the seraphim who have never sinned, who have been in the presence of God since the second of their creation, who have hovered in his presence crying, holy, holy, holy. Those seraphim cover their holy faces in his presence. And while some may put up the discussion that the seraphim, being angelic spirit beings, do not know salvation as we do, there is no forgiveness for them, There's been much more mercy and grace shown to humanity than to the angelic realms and therefore God understands if we come before him irreverently. Well, I won't go there but to say that the people of God who understand the nature of God and who are awed by God do not casually pass by the conduct or demeanor of the sinless seraphim as they with covered feet and covered faces adore God and proclaim his holiness. There is a certain dignity which is due unto deity and there is no reason at all to replace that with human commonality. We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, with a sense of reverence, and a sense of reverence that is established, our fourth point now, by the recognition of what is happening when we are truly outworking our own salvation. For the 13th verse tells us, it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. With regard to the outworking of our salvation, With regard to the outworking of the salvation of the Philippian believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ, it is God who works in us. And he works in us to will and to do his good pleasure. And this is the matter that Paul is saying should bring us unto such fear and trembling. It is not just a willy nilly whatever I want to do for God, good, wonderful, happy to do it. But if the work of God is truly being done by us, it is being done through us by God who wills that work and does that work. And this is why the service of God should be clothed with such seriousness, sobriety, and wonder that God, who said, let there be light, and there was light. Can you fathom what that is? That God who did that, and spoke into being all of the universe. Yet when he will build his own kingdom, chooses to work through such wretches and worms as we are. And the reality and realization that God works through us to will and to do of his good pleasure should be so overpowering to us that the outworking of our salvation is done in fear and trembling. This is not simply a religious movement unto which I have latched on and am following its rules. This is a matter of knowing God and of being in union with the Almighty and of Him working His mysterious purposes through me. And it is all inspiring to contemplate God thus working his good pleasure and his will through human beings. Now if it is the case that God is working through his people, willing and working for his good pleasure, Why then is there any need for exhortation to people about the way they are doing it? Why does Paul have to deal with the scrappy communications between various of the saints in Philippi and tell them, stop it. Work out your salvation in fear and trembling if in fact it is God who does so. And it comes down to the question, where is the line that separates the sovereignty of God and his rule from the responsibility of man? And a part of the answer to that is we don't have to worry about that. That is God's interest to consider. What we must do is recognize that as the people of Israel left Egypt under Moses' leadership, and for 40 years walked through the wilderness, that every step between Egypt and Canaan, they walked in their feet, one step at a time. Pick up one foot, put it down in front of the other and pick up the other and put it down in front of the one. And so in body they trudged for 40 years in the wilderness. But that fact in no way contradicts the fact that God brought them from Egypt to Canaan. and that he is to be credited with their being there. For while the sovereign purposes of God were being wrought in fulfilling his covenant to Abraham and bringing the people of Israel to the land that they were to occupy by that promise, yet they were not left without responsibility to work out that salvation with fear and trembling. And the pilgrimage of the people of Israel from Egypt into the Canaan, the promised land, provides for us a picture of our own pilgrimage through this wilderness that is the world and unto the completion of our salvation in glory. And so Paul exhorts, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And an example of the problems that come along when that is not consciously undertaken. When there are murmurings and disputings is an event that Pastor Eshelman alluded to this morning in the message when he mentioned the father in Mark chapter 9 who came beseeching Christ to help his poor demon-possessed son who was afflicted nigh unto death. And the disciples had not been able to help him. The disciples who knew Christ who had been empowered by Christ for the work of the kingdom, yet they could not exercise that power. Or to use the analogy of the morning, they evidently were not plugged in. And what was the case with those disciples? Well, as Christ rebukes them for their unbelief, Mark proceeds to tell us, that as they were going on their way they began disputing among themselves over which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And so here you have these disciples who have failed miserably at utilizing and manifesting the very power of God to work through them. debating among themselves over which of them is gonna be the greatest. To use a common modern figure, go figure. And then we come a few verses later and those same disciples find people that are not associated with them who yet in Christ's name are casting out demons. And John says, we forbade them because they followed not with us. Can you imagine? Those who could not cast out the demon spirits, though they had been anointed to do so, become an encumbrance to others who are succeeding in the Lord's work, but aren't necessarily identified exactly with them. And what we see there is is the difficulty that ensues when we have conditions such as Paul was rebuking in Philippi. Strife, vainglory, looking on my own things rather than the things of others, not being of the same mind, at odds with one another. And it is this that Paul addresses when he admonishes Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. May he apply his truth to our hearts this evening. Let us stand together as we pray. Grant to us, gracious God, that nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but that we in lowliness of mind each esteem others better than ourselves. That we look not every man upon his own things, but every man also upon the things of others. and that the mind of Christ who humbled himself and became obedient unto death might be the mind that we have. For only then, O Father, will we truly have an outworking of the salvation that we've been given, working with fear and trembling. And keep within our hearts that consciousness that it is God that works within his people both to will and to do of his good pleasure and therefore bickering is never a part. Disputing, irritability is never to be a part of God's people. Form in us those beauties of Christ that we might manifest the likeness of that one whose likeness we are predestined to manifest in glorification. May the work of sanctification be advanced in us to bring these things about even before that day when we are glorified in thy presence. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.