Well, good morning, and it's a great privilege and joy to be back at Christ Church. I did a retreat somewhere in Limerick, I think, with some of the men at some point in my failing memory. I've been at the location that you have by the shore. the name of which I forget, but I've been there a couple of times and preached, and I think way back, maybe ten years ago, when you were at First Scots, I came and did something. And as you have just learned, when Dr. Payne texted me a couple of months ago, six weeks ago maybe, he texted me and asked, what was I doing on the last Sunday of 2023? And I said, well, nothing, because I'm retiring on Christmas Eve. And so it solved the problem as to where I was supposed to go. and worship, I was to come here and preach to you wonderful people. Now, our text this morning is Philippians chapter 2 and verses 12 and 13. My bad, I think I might have texted 12 through 14 from memory, but it's actually 12 and 13. Philippians 2 verse 12, 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. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord abides forever." Now, this is a well-known text. There are fifty to a hundred texts that are in every Christian's mind and memory, and this is probably one of them. It's a text that you probably quote on numerous occasions throughout the course of a year. And this is a text that covers the entirety of the Christian life. And since this is the end of the year and we're embarking on a new year, God willing, I thought we might have a refresher course on the nature of the Christian life. This text doesn't cover everything, but it covers something that is absolutely essential that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that works in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. This is a text about discipleship and the shape of discipleship, of what it means to be a Christian, but what it means to be a mature Christian. grow in grace and in the fear of the Lord. It's a text that could quite easily stand alone apart from any other observation of the context. But there's a word there in verse 12, therefore. And when you see the word therefore, the question that you ask is, What is the therefore there for? Why is it there? And the answer to that is that it comes after one of the most eloquent expressions of the person and work of Christ, perhaps alongside Colossians chapter 1, anywhere in the New Testament, and we'll come to it in a minute. have this mind in you, in yourselves, 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 and took the form of a servant, and so on. And in the light of the massive implication that comes from all that Christ has done, who He is and what He has done for us. 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. Philippians is often described as an epistle of joy. The word joy occurs five times in these four chapters, and the word rejoice occurs nine times. And of course, you'll remember the exhortation that Paul gives to rejoice in the Lord always and again, I say, rejoice, which is somewhat surprising given his circumstances. He alludes to it in our text when he talks about absence, in my absence. Paul, of course, had been in Philippi. He had been instrumental in the planting of the church in Philippi, the lady selling purple cloth, Lydia, had come to faith. The jailer had said, what must I do to be saved? And he and his household were baptized. Philippians or the church in Philippi was a church plant like yours. It was barely ten years old like yours. But Paul is in prison. Philippians is one of those letters that we refer to as a prison letter, like Colossians is a prison letter, and Ephesians is a prison letter. This is, Paul was imprisoned at least three times, but this is the so-called second imprisonment, the imprisonment that we read of at the end of the Acts of the Apostles in chapters 27 and 28. Paul is under house arrest, but he refers to chains. He's waiting a trial, and one imagines a metal pole, perhaps a foot or so above his head, and his arms are chained to this metal pole to allow him ability to move. But there are soldiers there guarding him, and he's awaiting a trial, a trial that comes about as a result of accusations the Jews have made against Paul. And as a Roman citizen, he had appealed to Caesar, and he finds himself in Rome. That trial never took place, and we believe that Paul would have been released from that imprisonment and made a journey at least as far as Spain, and perhaps elsewhere. And within a couple of years, he was rearrested. Somewhere around 64, 65 A.D., and in 66 A.D., you'll remember that Rome was burnt to the ground, almost burnt to the ground. Nero blamed the Christians and the Apostle Paul as their leader. And within a few months of that third imprisonment, he would have been taken out of his cell, and some of you have been in Rome and have gone to what's called the Marmarite prison, and it's just a rock, it's just a hole in the ground. And he would have been taken out, and as a Roman citizen being granted the manner of death as beheading. But this is another prison, the prison at the end of Acts 27 and 28. Let's look at our text. And there are two things that stand out, of course. You are to work out your salvation, and God is going to work in you. And I want us to look at those two aspects of this incredible text this morning. Work out your own salvation. This verb, to work out, is a verb that occurs in the New Testament some 20 times or so. And its root is the verb, the Greek verb ergon, and we have an English word ergonomics, which is the study of efficiency at work. It's an imperative. It is something that you and I have to do. God isn't saying, Paul isn't saying here something that God is going to do. He's going to say that later. But here the emphasis is entirely upon you as a believer, as a Christian. The New Testament, of course, is full of imperatives, things that we are to do and things that we are not to do. And very often you find these imperatives in Paul's epistles in the second half of the epistle. First of all, He tells us who we are. He tells us the indicative, who we are, that we are forgiven, that we are in Christ, that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But having given us those indicatives, having told us who we are, there follow responsibilities, imperatives, things that we are to do and things that we are not to do. Oh, someone will say, isn't that legalism? The gospel isn't about things that we do. The gospel is all about what God has done on our behalf. Well, yes, of course. And if we were talking this morning about justification, there is nothing that you can do. There is no imperative on your part that can fulfill the demand of righteousness that God requires. In the prayer that we've just heard, led by one of your elders, he quoted Rock of Ages, words that I've been accused of repeating far too many times. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross-cycling. But Paul isn't talking here about justification. He's not talking here about how we become believers. He is assuming that they are already believers. He's talking here not about justification. He's talking about sanctification. He's talking about holiness. You see that word, therefore, there are implications. Jesus has come into this world. He was in the form of God, but He emptied Himself and took the form of a servant. The form of God and the form of a servant. He emptied Himself, even to the point of death, wherefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that every knee should bow and tongue confess that He is Lord, the great God of heaven, the second person of the Trinity has come into this world to lay down His life on your behalf, to give Himself as a ransom for many, and you have taken Him. You've received Him. He opened His arms, and He embraced you. and your sins are forgiven, and you have peace with God, but there is a therefore. Now what? How am I to live? Having believed, having trusted, how am I to live? Our obligations arise because Christ has won for us our salvation. And now we are to live for Him. We are to live out and out for Him in every part, in every aspect of our being, in our minds and psyches and in our emotions and in our personal, physical life. We are to live out for Him. Someone has once put it like this. It can be misused. But I think the basis of it is sound enough that the entry fee is nothing at all, but the annual dues is everything that you've got. The entry fee is nothing at all, but the annual dues is everything that you've got. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, So now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence. It's one thing to live for Christ when you've got the Apostle Paul staring at you. Paul was a Type A. Paul didn't suffer fools gladly. John Mark learned that on his first missionary journey, you remember? And had it not been for Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement, we would never have had the gospel of Mark, because Paul was ready to cast him aside. He was a type A, and there are type As in this room, I'm sure. And everything has to be done in a certain way, and I wouldn't want to be… Where's our intern? I wouldn't want to be an intern with the Apostle Paul. I think I want to be an intern with Peter, with all his faults and all his warts. But Paul isn't there anymore. He's in prison. And there were some perhaps tempted to think that they needed to water down their confession and their manner of life, lest they too be persecuted. Not just in my presence, Paul says, but much more in my absence, to keep on keeping on. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones used to end all of his letters that he wrote, and he lived in an age where you wrote letters. It was before emails and text messages and so on. He wrote letters. And at the end of each letter, he would sign off saying, keep on keeping on. Keep on keeping on. The Christian life, you see, is not effortless. You believe in Jesus, and then you are taken on a chariot. all the way to glory, and you're relaxed in that chariot. That's not the image that the New Testament gives of what the Christian life is like. The Christian life is a battle. Think of Ephesians chapter 6. It's the image, it's a metaphor of a soldier armed for battle. There is Satan who prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and we are to be conscious of it. And we are to have the sword of the Spirit and the breastplate of righteousness and shoes ready for running if necessary. It's a calling for Spirit-filled, gospel-driven Christ-exalting effort on our part. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You see, the New Testament never thinks of us, not before our conversion and not after our conversion, as robots, as automatons. We have a will. We have a will, a renewed will, and that will must be engaged in what Paul calls, walking out our salvation. What does that mean exactly? Well, it means a negative and a positive. That's the rhythm of the New Testament. There is what? Theologians have called mortification, and there is what theologians have called vivification, to mortify the deeds of the flesh lest we die, Romans 8.13. A similar verse in Colossians chapter 3, to put to death the remaining sin. And the rather brutal words of the Puritan John Owen, we are to lay our hands on the neck of our sins and not to let go until it stops breathing. to kill it. Now, some sins will take a lifetime to kill, but that doesn't mean that we don't attempt to destroy it, to create a pattern of life where sin cannot grow. And then the opposite, the positive, to put on the fruit of the Spirit. to grow the fruit of the Spirit, to become more Jesus-like, Christ-like. And note, with fear and trembling, with fear and trembling, fear in the sense of awe that the Christian life is shaped by the revelation of the greatness and the majesty and the glory of God that fills us with awe. The word is related to a word, seriousness. There's a seriousness about the Christian life. But then he adds trembling, with fear and trembling. It's the word that's used in Mark chapter 16. when the two Marys and Salome come to the tomb, and they see a man, an angel presumably, dressed in white, who says to them, he is not here, but he is risen. And they fled, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, for they were afraid." That's the word. Trembling and astonishment had seized them. Well, you ask, should Christians ever be afraid? Well, the answer, I think, is that it's the height of folly not to be afraid when there's every reason to be afraid. You should be afraid of Satan and what he can do and how he can trick you. Paul uses the word in Ephesians 6, the wiles, the schemes of the devil, and you are to beware of them. The fear that if you neglect sanctification, if you neglect holiness, what are the consequences? The consequences are that there will be no glory. Hebrews 12, 14, should make you fear. It should make you tremble, I think. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. That's serious, isn't it? That should bring a little bit of fear and trembling into your soul, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. That's the seriousness of verse 12. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Well, that's a challenge for 2024, at the end of 2024. I want to be more holy than I am at the end of 2023. I want to make progress. There are people, you see, my age. I'm not going to tell you how old I am. But I was reading yesterday about a seventy-two-year-old woman who was described as old. Well, I'm just a whisker away, so I'm not quite old yet. But you reach a stage in life where you want to hit the cruise button. You know what I mean. You go through all the motions of Christianity and you go through all the motions of worship, particularly Reformed worship as we've seen it here this morning. liturgical worship, and you go through all the motions, but your heart is a million miles away. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Be serious about sanctification. Be serious about your holiness. This is a command that is given to you. that you are responsible for. But then, then gloriously there is verse 13. In addition to what you do, and without detracting one iota from what you do, there is something that runs alongside it that is compatible with what you do, and that is what God does. God is at work in you. It's not, you see, that He worked once when He brought you to Himself in justification, and then it's all up to you. No, that's not what the New Testament says, and it's not what this text says. Nor is it, you do fifty percent and God does fifty percent. No, that's not what the text is saying. You provide a hundred percent. And God also provides a hundred percent. Now, that illustration, I have a degree in mathematics, which I've now forgotten everything that I ever learned, but when I use the illustration that you provide a hundred percent and God provides a hundred percent, you realize that we're not talking about apples and apples here. What is your puny little effort in comparison to the effort of the sovereign, omnipotent God who made the heavens and the earth? These two are not comparable. What we have here, you see, and forgive me if I use theological terms here, but I'm not sure how else to do it. The Bible, when it talks about justification, uses the language of monogism. There is only one person who is acting, and that is God. We are dead in trespasses and in sins. We contribute absolutely nothing to our justification. It is entirely the work of God. But when the New Testament talks about sanctification It doesn't talk about it monogistically, it talks about it synergistically. There is God's activity and there is your activity. And because there is God's activity does not lessen your activity, it actually encourages your activity. That's the logic of the text. For God works in you. He works in you. And this word, work, is the same word. Work out your salvation. God works in you. As you wrestle against – you don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. And as you do so, God is at work in you. That's an encouragement, isn't it? When you're trying to mortify a sin that has arisen like a weed in a garden and you're trying to kill it, God is at work in you. As you try to bring forth some of the fruit of the Spirit of love and peace and patience and kindness and compassion, God is at work in you. He's at work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Now look at those words, to will and to do of His good pleasure. Those are words, if you were to turn to Ephesians chapter 1, for example, where you see the doctrine of God's sovereignty, the triune doctrine of God's sovereignty, of the doctrine of predestination, if you like, to will, God wills. And this is the will of God that is inviolable, His purpose, His plan, His good pleasure. And you say to yourself, what is the point of my action, my willing? God is working out His plan and His purpose. What is the point? Well, I have no answer for that except that this is what the Bible teaches. How is it compatible that I work out my salvation, but God wills and works in me? It is a mystery. It is a mystery. I cannot explain it to you, that alongside your action and your efforts, there is the effort of the sovereign, omnipotent God willing for His good pleasure, and you've got to hold both of them like a railway track. These lines run parallel to each other forever. You can emphasize divine sovereignty at the expense of human responsibility, and there are Calvinists in the history of the Reformed church. There have been Calvinists who have emphasized sovereignty at the expense of our responsibility. You remember the famous William Carey in the 1700s wanting to engage in mission overseas rising up before a group of Baptists, and in the 1700s Baptists were Reformed and Calvinistic, like John Bunyan in the 1600s. And do you remember what that board of Baptist deacons said to the young William Carey? Sit down, they said. If God wills to save the heathen, He will do it without your effort or mine. They thought they were extolling the sovereignty of God, you see. They were giving precedence to the sovereignty of God, but at the expense of human responsibility. You are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, and remember that at every step, God is at work in you. to strengthen you, to help you, to stand beside you, to give you courage, to give you resolve. And may that be the case in Let's pray together. Father, we thank You. Thank You for Your Word and ask now that You would apply it to our hearts and to our conscience. For Jesus' sake. Amen.