Return for our scripture reading to John chapter 15. We're going to continue in our sermon through the book of Philippians tonight. So the text comes out of Philippians 2. And since we've read that first part of Philippians 2 several times already, we're going to take our scripture reading from John chapter 15, and we'll read the first 17 verses of this chapter. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you that ye love one another. We read the word of God that far and then let's turn to Philippians chapter 2 and our text is found there in verses 12 and 13. Philippians 2 verses 12 and 13, 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. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, it ought to be obvious to us that this passage is of great doctrinal significance. Reformed believers throughout history have acknowledged the doctrinal importance of this Word of God. And that's conveyed even in our Reformed confessions where at least four times these verses are quoted to set forth the truth and to expose and to reject the lie. This Word of God is significant because it guards us against the great threat of legalism. The thinking that our good works are something that we can boast of in ourselves. And that by our living a life of good works, we can merit something with God or do something to get some blessing of salvation. If that was our thinking, we would approach this word of God by perhaps only emphasizing verse 12 and the calling to work out our own salvation while totally ignoring or denying the connection to verse 13 that it's God who works in us to will and to do. The Word of God guards us against that great threat to the truth of the Gospel. At the same time, this Word of God is significant because it guards against another great threat to the truth of the Gospel, which is the great error of antinomianism. That's the thinking that Because we're saved by grace, there's no place at all to talk about commands in the life of the child of God and to issue commands to the child of God as to how he is to live. The implication of that thinking is that we may only speak of the child of God as if he's dormant, inactive, and passive. If that is our thinking then we would approach this word of God perhaps by only emphasizing verse 13 what it says about God working in us to will and to do while totally ignoring or denying the connection to verse 12 where the calling is issued to us, work out your own salvation. And the Word of God guards against that error as well, against these two perennial threats to the truth of the Gospel. So that this Word of God sets forth in close connection with each other the full truth of our salvation. It sets before us what is the calling of the Christian life. Work out your own salvation and guards that against any misunderstanding or denial of salvation by grace alone by quickly adding, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do. The doctrinal significance of this word of God ought to be plain. But what ought not be lost to us is the practical significance of this Word of God as well. Certainly the case that we have to understand the doctrine because one's walk of life flows out of what one believes. But there is a danger that we approach a passage like this and we seek to understand it doctrinally and understand the truth of God's word as that's set forth and expose and reject any lies. Then we never actually get around to doing what the Word of God calls us to do here. We never actually get around in our own life to working out our own salvation with fear and trembling and considering in what areas of our life that's necessary. This is a Word of God that's important to understand doctrinally. It is a Word of God for our minds. But it's also a word of God for our hearts and for our lives. And the fruit of the preaching of this word of God to us ought to be that we're zealous to be busy in the working out of our own salvation with fear and trembling. Let's consider this word of God tonight taking as our theme, work out your own salvation. First of all, let's consider that calling. Secondly, the power. And then thirdly, the motivation. What the Word of God is teaching here is the calling of the Christian life to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Before we explain what it means to work that out, we have to understand the reference to our own salvation. It's understood in this Word of God is that this is the calling being addressed to a redeemed, saved child of God. We cannot work out our salvation if salvation has not already first been worked in us by God. When we talk about the truth of salvation, There is the eternal source of that salvation in God's sovereign, unconditional decree of election. All of salvation has its eternal source in God's eternal decree. When we talk about salvation, there is its only ground or basis, which is the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ in His life of suffering and His atoning death at the cross. When we speak of salvation, we also speak of salvation in terms of the Spirit's work within us. And that's the focus of this text. The text is emphasizing the work of the Holy Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit is the one who applies to us. The blessings of salvation which God eternally decreed and which Christ merited for us at the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ sends his Holy Spirit to dwell within us and apply to us those blessings of salvation. which begins with our regeneration and our being efficaciously called out of the darkness and into the light and being given the gift of faith. What's understood and implied in this calling to work out our salvation is that we are saved. This is not a calling that comes to anyone. It's not a calling that comes to an unbeliever who does not know salvation. This is the calling of the redeemed child of God. God has worked salvation in us. By the working of the Holy Spirit, we've been born again, regenerated, we've been savingly called out of the darkness and into the light. We've been given the gift of faith. We're justified. Now to us as redeemed, regenerated, justified children of God, the calling comes, work out your own salvation. It's important to know as well, before we explain exactly what that working out of our salvation is, is the text's reference to our own salvation. The Word of God is not teaching there that there are different salvations for God's people. One salvation for this child of God and a different salvation for that child of God. We share in the one common salvation in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That salvation for all of God's elect people is that we are delivered out of the greatest misery. Delivered out of the misery of sin and death and judgment. And it means we've been delivered unto the greatest good, which is life with God both now and forever. This deliverance out of sin and death and deliverance unto life with God now and forever is the common salvation of all of God's people. When the text calls us to work out our own salvation, It's indicating that God has ordained differing circumstances of life for his redeemed, saved people. God has ordained that we would have different backgrounds. We'd come from different families. He'd gather his people from different nationalities. God has ordained that His people have different gifts, different sets of abilities and different measure, different strengths, different weaknesses. And God has ordained differing circumstances of life. Some wealthy, others poor. Male or female. Married or not married, having children or not having children, different seasons of life in childhood and youth and middle age and in old age. All these differing circumstances of life that God has ordained, though we share commonly as God's people in salvation in Christ. And this word of God is guarding against. A sinful preoccupation with the life of other Christians. The sinful preoccupation whereby I am more concerned about the working out of your salvation in your life than I am about the working out of my own salvation in my life. Is that true of us? We are more concerned about what is going on in the life of someone else in the church of Jesus Christ. We see all of their weaknesses and all of their sins and we have all kinds of criticisms of them, perhaps just. Our concern is with the life of another without a consideration of the working out of our own salvation. Word of God is warning against that here. It's a warning similar to that of Jesus in the Beatitudes. Before you take the tiny little speck out of the eye of your neighbor, make sure that the large log that's in your own eye is removed. Work out your own salvation. What then does that mean? Word of God does not mean, of course, work for your salvation. That would mean, then, that we live a certain way, we obey the Word of God, we strive to live a life of good works in order to be saved. So that we're born again or we do all these things so that we are justified. Or we do all of these things with the thought that sanctification is our work. Those things are contrary to the teaching of the plain word of God here. We're not to work for our salvation. As we already said, salvation has been worked in us by God. We are saved. We are redeemed. To work out our salvation carries the idea of putting it into practice and applying it. We are saved. We have salvation. Put that into practice in every area of your life. Make application of the truth of that salvation into the different spheres of life and callings that God has given to you. The influence and the implications of our being saved are to be worked out into every aspect of our life so that every aspect of our life gives evidence of the fact that I am living as a redeemed, saved child of God. Being one who is saved in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is how I live in this area of life and that is what it means to be a Christian. That aspect of life and these different spheres and callings The truth of our salvation, its influence and its implications are to be pressed forward and worked out into all the aspects of the Christian life. The sum of that is a life of Christian obedience. And that's the connection that's made in the text. In the first part of verse 12, which talks about ye have always obeyed, stands in connection with the second part of the text where the calling is issued, now work out your own salvation. That's what that is. It's the call to a life of Christian obedience to the word of God. What does that mean practically for us? In all of the differing circumstances of life, with the different gifts God has given to us, with different callings in His kingdom, serve God in harmony with His word. Working out my own salvation. Means that God having called me to be a husband and a father and a pastor. Means that in all those different spheres of life, the truth of my salvation governs how I live. So that I work out my own salvation as a husband in relation to my wife and I work out my own salvation in all of its implications as a father to my children and a pastor in the calling in the church. For one who's a wife, a mother, a grandmother. Work out your own salvation with all that that means as a wife in relation to your husband, and as a mother in relationship to your children, and grandmother in relation to grandchildren. To some of God's people, He's given wealth. In circumstances of wealth, work out your own salvation. Let the truth of your salvation govern and guide how you live in circumstances of having much for others of God's people. They have little poverty. Work out your own salvation in that circumstance of poverty so that the truth of your salvation governs how you live in that circumstance. God has made some male some female. In that station, and as God has made you, work out your own salvation. To some, God has given a life of relative ease. Work out your own salvation in those circumstances where everything seems to be going well. To others, God has given trials and hardships, and in the midst of those trials and hardships, work out your own salvation. Let the truth and the influence of your being a redeemed child of God govern how you live and how you respond to the heavy hand of God upon you. Some of God's people, he's made to be office bearers in his church. Work out your own salvation as you carry out that office in the church. For all of us God has given us the office of believer and our calling to serve with our gifts the other numbers of the church of Jesus Christ. Do that with Humility and not pride or vainglory as we've seen from the first part of Philippians chapter 2 and it's that especially that the word of God is pressing home to the church. You have different gifts, different abilities, but you're all essential parts of the church of Jesus Christ and in your own unique station and calling work out your own salvation. That's work. It's hard, difficult, taxing work. God calls us to as Christians in our relationships, in our different spheres of life, in different seasons of life. As one who's in the strength of youth. Work out your own salvation for one coming to the end of life. Work out your own salvation in old age. That's the command of the Word of God to us. Reformed faith. Not afraid of concepts of work. Striving and endeavoring. The Reformed faith does not have an issue and a hesitation to proclaim the commands of the Word of God. The command of God to us tonight is this. Work out your own salvation. Every one of us is redeemed, saved children of God in your own unique circumstances of life, whether old or young, married or not, having children or not, wealth or poverty, a life of ease or trouble, whatever it is, work out your own salvation. That's the calling of the Christian all his life long. The command of the text is in the present tense indicating this is something ongoing. This is life long. There is no retirement from this. There is no vacation or sabbatical. All of our life long from our youth until our last dying breath. We are all to be busy working out our own salvation. The seriousness of that calling is indicated in the text. When the text speaks of the manner in which we're to do so. Verse 12 says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. There's a fear that makes the child of God tremble. In fact, that's emphasized in the text because literally the word order has that first with fear and trembling, work out your own salvation. That fear is not a dread terror of God. That fear is not the fear that if I don't work out my own salvation sufficiently enough or faithfully enough, well then I'm going to lose that salvation and I'm going to be damned forever. Comfort of the child of God is in knowing the Preserving work of God, confessed in Philippians 1 verse 6, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. That's not the fear of the child of God. This fear is the holy awe and reverence with which we stand before the face of God. It's the holy fear whereby the child of God knows I stand every moment before the all-seeing eye of the holy God. It's the reverence of the child of God before His Father who loves us. And that holy awe and reverence does make us tremble Not in terror, but there is a fear that makes us tremble to do anything that's contrary to the will of our God and Father. This holy awe and reverence with which we stand before God's face makes the thought of doing anything contrary to His will, sinning against Him who so loved us, the thought of that makes us tremble. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. With a holy awe and reverence as you stand before the face of God that makes you tremble at the thought. Doing anything contrary to the will of your Father. That's related. to the first part of verse 12 where it says wherefore my beloved as ye have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence. Take a note of this before in the book of Philippians but the apostle is addressing a concern that the Philippians were perhaps living one way when Paul was present with them But then when the apostles were gone, they were tempted to live differently. They were living out of a fear, not of God, but a fear of Paul. And Paul says, don't live just because I'm present with you a certain way, working out your own salvation and obedience to God. And then when I'm gone, living a different way, whether I'm present with you or I'm absent from you, work out your own salvation. And that because we are not to live in the fear of men. What motivates and drives the child of God to live a certain way is not that, oh the pastor is here. The pastor is here, so we better not say that or we better not do that or we better not act that way. But if he's gone, well, then we will. Or there's elders here, so we better not say that or we better not do that. And when they're gone, then we're okay living this way. The attitude of the Christian is not, well, others are around, it doesn't matter who it is, so I'll live this way to please others. And then in private, I live a very different way. We do not work out our own salvation out of a fear of men to please men. We live in the fear of God knowing that we stand always before His face. So whether I'm in public, pastor, or the elders around, or any other Christian, or I'm in the privacy of my own home, or my own bedroom, or my own car, I know I stand before the face of God. And I live the way I do, not for others ultimately. But I live for God. your own salvation with fear and trembling. Whether in the presence of pastor and elders or other Christians or in their absence. Work out your own salvation in the fear of God. Now lest there be Many thought that this word of God flies contrary to the gospel of grace. Verse 12 is followed by verse 13. Verse 12 does not stand on its own, but is followed hard by verse 13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do. Verse 13 explains the power by which we are able to work out our own salvation. It gives the explanation, the basis, the reason for this reality in the life of a child of God that we're busy working out our own salvation. That's because God is the one who's working in us both to will and to do. That verse explains two key aspects of a good work and the child of God's working out his own salvation. Mentions first of all our willing. The will refers to that aspect of our soul that has. Desires and likes and loves. For the unbeliever who is in the bondage of sin, his will is in bondage. The bondage of the will for the unbeliever means that he can only will and want and desire and long after that which is sin. But for the child of God. We've been redeemed and in redeeming us, the Holy Spirit has redeemed our will so that there is in the child of God now new holy wants, desires, loves, affections. With that. There's reference also to the doing. There's first the willing. Good works of the child of God flow out of this redeemed heart and will of the child of God. And that comes to expression then in the doing. These new holy delights and loves and affections in our heart for God and the way of God come to expression in the actual doing. The carrying out, the work, the action. God is the one who works in us both. Both the willing and the doing. The text is explaining God's sovereign, gracious work of sanctification. Our salvation includes the work of God outside of us we might say. As we mentioned before, it has its eternal source in God's sovereign decree of election. It has its only basis in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ at the cross. And flowing out of that eternal source and grounded in the work of Jesus Christ, there is also the work of God in us. That work of God in us begins in his regenerating us, giving us a new heart. And that continues in his renewal and his sanctifying us, his making us holy as he is holy in this lifelong process. And that work of sanctification is God's work. It's not a cooperative work between God and us. It's not God doing His part and we're doing our part. Sanctification is the sovereign, gracious work of God from beginning to end. In His sanctifying and renewing of us, God is the one who works in us the willing. These new delights and desires and loves and affections that fill our soul are worked in us by God in His grace. And are actually doing those things that are pleasing in the sight of God. Our life of good works are carrying out of what God calls us to do. Are working out of our own salvation in our daily walk of life. is the work of God in us. Both aspects are due to God's work in us. It's not that God having redeemed us and regenerated us now leaves it to us in our own power and in our own strength To do the willing and the doing. Neither is it the case that we can say, well God works in me the willing of these things, but then it's up to me to accomplish the doing in my own power and strength. God works both, having redeemed us and regenerated us by the working of the Holy Spirit. God continues by His Spirit to work in us all of our life long. God is the one who works in us at all times, the willing, so that all of those holy desires and loves are due to God's work in us. And God is the one who works in us the actual carrying out and the doing. So that the conclusion, of course, is that salvation is all of God from beginning to end from its eternal source and election to the cross to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives from beginning to end till. We finally are brought to glory. Salvation is the gracious work of God. Understand clearly then the connection between verse 13 and verse 12 between what we've just said about God working the willing and the doing and our working out of our own salvation. The text is not connected. With the words in order to. Work out your own salvation in order that. God may work in you the willing and the doing. That would mean that we first have to work out our own salvation so that God then can work the willing and the doing. And that's not the connection. Neither is the connecting word there in and. Work out your own salvation and God will work in you the willing and the doing. That presents the matter as if it's a combined work of God and us. We're doing our part. God's doing his part. Connection between the two verses is not but. Work out your own salvation but God works in you the willing and the doing. That would set up some kind of contrast between the life of the child of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in us. What connects those two verses is that little word for. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both the willing and the doing. And that word for indicates that what's found in verse 13 is the reason or the basis or the explanation for what we read of back in verse 12. We have the calling, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. What explains that in the life of the child of God? What's the basis for that when that's present in our life? What's the reason why the child of God does this and lives this way? It's the fact that God is the one powerfully working in us by his grace, the willing and the doing. That truth is so important because it gives to us a right, proper understanding of our salvation. On the one hand, this Word of God guards us against any thought of pride. Any thought that my own good works, my own willing and doing are something that I can boast of before the face of God. Guards us against any thought that if I live this way and I do these good works and I work out my own salvation, well then I can expect some blessing of salvation. The Word of God here totally opposes that thinking. We have nothing in ourselves of which we can boast. The good works that we perform are those which God from eternity has foreordained for us to walk in. They are blessings of salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ gave His life for at the cross. They are the working of the Holy Spirit within us. So that never is it the case that God is beholden to us. We are beholden to Him for all of our salvation, including our sanctification and the life of good works that we're called to live. We're beholden to God for that. It's certainly true that working out our own salvation and living a Christian life is our calling. But we may not lose sight of the fact that this is a privilege. These good works that God has called me to live and that He works in and through me are a gift of His grace to me. The truth of the word of God ought to humble us. As we confess with what the Lord Jesus Christ said in John 15 which we read and was the reason for reading that in verse 5. For without me ye can do nothing. At the same time. This Word of God warns and it guards against a wrong understanding of the work of God in us. That wrong understanding of the work of God in us is that one says because salvation is all of grace, That means then that there's no place to talk about callings in the life of the Christian. And don't ever issue any callings to me as to how I'm to live. Don't ever tell me to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. That wrong understanding of the work of God in us presents the child of God as if he's totally dormant and inactive, unconscious, passive. The Word of God guards against that error as well. Salvation is all of grace. It's God who works in us to will and to do. And God is pleased to carry out that work in such a way that we are made alive and active and conscious. God does not work in such a way that he opposes his work of us as rational moral creatures but he deals with us as those who are redeemed rational moral creatures by the working of his Holy Spirit. He does not work contrary to our redeemed will but he works in such a way that he by the power of his grace sweetly Bends our will. So that the must. Of the Christian life by the working of God in us becomes the can and the will. We hear the commands of the Word of God and God is the one who works in us to do what he commands. He works in us these new delights desires so that we want to serve God. Always, of course, because he's the one working in us. But in such a way that we're alive, we're active, we're conscious in our serving of him and working out of our own salvation. Grace does not negate and destroy the responsibility of the child of God. Grace makes that possible. Grace makes that a reality. That's encouraging for the child of God. It ought to be. We said before, the working out of our own salvation is work. It's hard. It's taxing. It requires of us self-denial. And there are times in the Christian life where we face certain circumstances that God has ordained And we're tempted to respond by saying that's too much. I cannot work out my own salvation in that particular circumstance of life. I cannot work out my own salvation in the midst of that hard trial that God has been pleased to send upon me. The Word of God then serves as an encouragement to us. Apart from Jesus Christ and her own strength, certainly we cannot. That leaves us then to flee in faith to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and to cast ourselves upon our Heavenly Father in dependence upon Him. Heavenly Father, I cannot in my own strength work out my own salvation in this hard circumstance. It is so hard and it requires such a denial of self. Work in me by the power of thy grace, the willing and the doing so that I am strengthened to work out my own salvation in this particular circumstance. The truth of the Gospel is that God does work in us. The willing and the doing. God by the power of His grace works in us the willing and the doing. Even in the midst of hard, painful, difficult circumstances and callings. So that our confession is the beautiful confession of the Apostle Paul Philippians 4 verse 13, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. What is it that motivates the child of God to be busy. The working out of his own salvation with fear and trembling. Two things that are indicated in the text. First of all, motivates the child of God is gratitude for his salvation in Christ. That's indicated in verse 12 by that first word wherefore. The word wherefore is a word that sums up what's gone before and draws out some implication. And what's gone before? One of the most beautiful descriptions in the whole of the word of God of the saving work of Jesus Christ. Describing beautifully his humility as he lowered himself as he came into this world and took our flesh and he suffered and died and as verse 8 says, was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And then his glorious exaltation as he rules now in heaven and he blesses us with every blessing of salvation and prepares all things for the glory of his return. Because all of that is true and because we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and partake of the blessings of salvation in Him. Wherefore, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Consider all that the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you in your life. The blessed truth of your salvation in him the consideration of all that the Lord Jesus Christ endured. And in gratitude. Work out your own salvation, fear and trembling. That's further indicated. By the fact that in verse 12, the Apostle refers to the Saints as my beloved. Paul's reminding them that he loves them. As a good pastor and teacher ought to do. That love that Paul has for the saints in Philippi is a reflection of God's love for them. He loves them because they're the object of God's love. That too serves to motivate Church of Jesus Christ. We are the objects of the love, not just of a pastor. But ultimately of God himself and the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves us in the display of that love. Of course, this is giving of himself. Knowing the love of God for you. Work out your own salvation in fear, in trembling, in response to the knowledge of His love. Love Him. Love the ways of God. And in thankfulness, work out your own salvation. That first is the motivation of the child of God for this life of working out our own salvation, gratitude. Secondly, what motivates the child of God is the glory of God and a desire to see God glorified. That's indicated at the end of verse 13. Verse 13 reads, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. When we read that and perhaps have that in our minds memorized and we recite that, the way we understand that usually is God works in me to will and to do And what is he working in me to will and to do? Well, his good pleasure. We view his good pleasure to be the direct object of willing and doing. But that's not what the Word of God is saying here. God is not working in us to will and to do his good pleasure. The text literally ought to read this way. It's God which worketh in you both the willing and the doing For the sake of His good pleasure. The text is explaining what God's purpose is in working in us to will and to do. Why is it that that's the will of God for our lives? Why isn't it, we might say, enough that God would work outside of us in the election and at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why is it that the will of God for our salvation is to work in us to will and to do? And the answer to that question is, it's His good pleasure. He works in us the willing and the doing for the sake of his good pleasure and the good pleasure of God refers to his eternal decree of election. In eternity. God determined to save to himself a chosen people in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what is pleasing to him. And in eternity, he decreed that for the salvation of his people, he would give his own son to the death of the cross to pay for their sins. And in eternity, he determined that it's his good pleasure to save us in such a way that he works in us the willing and the doing so that in our life, we begin already to live for him. That it's evident in our lives that we've been redeemed by His grace. We don't live like this world. He determined eternally that it's His good pleasure to sanctify us. To renew us. A life of obedience and service to Him for the magnification of His glory and grace in salvation. So that it's obvious in our lives, we've been saved by grace. Apart from the work of God, we live this way. We run in all the pleasures of sin, following all the sinful pursuits of this world. God has taken hold of us. He's redeemed us in His grace. He set us apart to Himself. And the work of His grace is obvious in our life because we don't live in that sinful, ungodly way. We don't run with the world in all of their pursuit of sinful pleasure. We live as Christians. What pleases God. Because that reveals the power of His grace and manifests His glory in the world in our salvation. This is what motivates the child of God. We are so thankful for our salvation. Want to bring glory and honor to the name of our God. We want his praise. To be manifest to others and to give a witness to that in all of the world. With that. In heart and mind. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and thanksgiving for your salvation. Work out that salvation to the glory of our God and to the praise of His sovereign grace in saving us. Be busy working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Amen. Let us pray. We pray that you were edified by the preaching of the gospel today. Please join us for worship if you are ever in the area. For more information about our church, beliefs, or worship times, please visit our website at prccrete.org.