I greet you in the blessed name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning's message is taken from Philippians 2:12-13. Allow me to read for you Philippians 2:12-13: "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." The Lord bless the reading of His holy and sacred Word.
Throughout the history of the Church, people have always been arguing between the power of God and the responsibility of the believer in living the Christian life. Is it all the believer's effort, or is it all God's doing, or is it a combination of both? This has to do with God's sovereignty and human responsibility. In trying to understand God's sovereignty and human responsibility, people have fallen into two extremes.
On one extreme, there are people who believe that the Christian has little or no effort at all in sanctification. In other words, it is all God's doing. Perhaps you have heard this common saying: "Just let go and let God," or "I cannot, but God can." There is nothing inherently wrong with these sayings, but the problem is that they believe that God will protect the Christian from sin and he will automatically live a sanctified life. So, it is useless and unscriptural to try to strive against sin and even to discipline oneself to produce good works because it is all God's doing—just let go and let God.
The other extreme is that there are people who are aggressively pursuing the correct doctrine and moral purity. They will place strong emphasis on Bible study, holy living, self-discipline, practical Christianity—which is a good thing—but the problem is that they stress self-effort to the exclusion of dependence on divine power. As a result, it often leads to legalism, self-righteousness, a judgmental spirit, pride, and hypocrisy. Those people who trust in their own efforts tend to be very self-righteous. They are proud of what they are able to achieve because they feel that this is through their own doing.
So, what is the correct view? God's sovereignty and human responsibility must be balanced in our lives. God is 100% sovereign, and we are 100% responsible. One classic example is found in Exodus 14:13-15 when Pharaoh's army threatened the people of Israel. Moses was so confident in the Lord that he cried out to the Israelites, and he said: "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today. For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." Indeed, it was God's power that delivered the Israelites, but the Israelites also had a part to play. That was the reason why the Lord said unto Moses: "Why are you crying out to me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward. They must go forward, but lift thou up thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the sea and divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea."
It was not God's will that the Israelites simply be silent and be passive and just let go and let God. They must participate actively in accomplishing God's purpose. In other words, God's purpose for them was to be accomplished through them. God is 100% sovereign; they are 100% responsible.
Our text for this morning's message will give us the answer regarding God's sovereignty and human responsibility in our sanctification—in the way we live our Christian lives. Verse 12 talks about the human responsibility in sanctification; verse 13 talks about God's sovereignty in sanctification. The title of our message is "Living a Sanctified Life."
Our first point is human responsibility in sanctification. Let us begin with verse 12: "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." The word "wherefore" was a reference to the preceding verses, which talk about Christ's example of humility and love. When He came into this world as a man, He served as a servant. Ultimately, He went the way of the cross to save His people from their sins.
And the Philippians had believed in Jesus Christ as Lord, which was the greatest name because every knee should bow, every tongue should confess of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. We have learned that in our previous message. A person is saved when he has turned from his sins and placed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But salvation does not stop there. He will continue to obey the Lord, so the believer must continue to study and obey the Word of the Lord—that is, the Bible.
The Philippians had always been doing that, as Paul said: "Ye have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but also in my absence," which means their spiritual responsibility was not to him, but to the Lord. They were to obey the Lord in spite of Paul's absence. Dear friends, will you still come to church if your parents are no longer around? Will you still attend the fellowship meetings, or join the DHW classes, or serve in the ministries when certain people are no longer around? Believers must never be dependent on the pastors, elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers, parents, or anyone else for their spiritual strength, services, and growth. Even if no one is around to see what you are doing, you will still be doing what you are doing because you are always in the presence of God. You are ultimately accountable to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Philippians knew that; that was the reason why they obeyed the Word of the Lord not only in Paul's presence, because at this moment Paul was imprisoned, so even in his absence they were still obedient. Then Paul went on to say: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." This phrase has caused much controversy. Some people have misinterpreted this phrase as referring to salvation by works. Notice, the Bible did not say "work for your own salvation," or "work towards your own salvation," or "work at your own salvation." The Bible says "work out your own salvation." Paul was not speaking about attaining salvation by human efforts or human works, but rather about living out the inner transformation that God has graciously provided.
To "work out" is a command that has a continuing emphasis. The idea is to keep on working out to completion, which means the believer must continue to work out until the final completion of his salvation. What do we mean by that? You see, salvation has three aspects, three dimensions: past, present, and future. The past dimension is that of justification, when the believer placed his faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and personal Savior and he was redeemed. The present dimension is sanctification, whereby the believer lives a sanctified life from the moment he was saved—he was justified—until the day he dies or the rapture occurs, if the Lord returns before his death. The future aspect of salvation is glorification, when the believer's salvation is completed and he receives the glorified body.
So, there are these three aspects, these three dimensions in our salvation: past, present, and future—our justification, our sanctification at this moment, and our future glorification. Therefore, we can say the believer is saved, he is being saved, and he will ultimately be saved. That is why the believer must continuously pursue after sanctification in this life as long as we have breath in our lungs—fight the good fight of faith and finish the course until the time of our glorification, that glorious moment that believers will look forward to. As 1 John 3:2 says: "Beloved, now are we sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear—when Jesus comes in the clouds—we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
Maybe you can turn with me to Romans 13:11. Romans 13:11. Let me read for you: "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep"—which means do not go on sleeping spiritually; wake up!—"for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." "Now is our salvation nearer" refers to the completion of our salvation, our glorification. "Than when we believed" refers to our conversion, our justification.
By way of illustration, if you became a believer in the year 1990, let's say Jesus comes in the clouds in the year 2030—obviously, no one knows, but let's say—then today, 2023, is nearer to your glorification than the day you had believed—that is, 1990, right? Every day of our lives, we are getting closer and closer to the final completion of our salvation. So, it does not mean that once you are saved, you are justified—that's it, you can live any way you want. If you are truly saved, you will continue to work out your sanctification.
This is in line with the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. We are all very happy with this doctrine—once saved, always saved. We will never lose our salvation. That is true, but that also tells us that we will continue in our sanctification. We will persevere and continue to live a sanctified life until the day of our glorification. Do you see that happening in your life? From the moment you are saved, you see this radical change, you see this
transformation, and then you continue to work out your salvation, as in you endeavor to live a sanctified life, a cleansed life, a life that is holy and acceptable unto God. Do you see that happening? That should be a picture of the true believer.
Although God is loving, merciful, forgiving, that does not mean He will not hold the believer accountable for disobedience. He will. If we know that we are serving a holy and just God, who will not compromise our sins, our disobedience, who expects us to live a holy and godly life, then most certainly we will work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Here, fear does not mean fright or terror; it means a reverential fear. Proverbs 1:7 says: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." It is not the fear of being condemned to eternal damnation or the hopeless fear of judgment that leads to despair. It is rather a reverential fear, a holy concern that, "My God, He must receive the love, glory, and honor that He deserves."
Trembling refers to shaking; it is from where we get the English word "tremor." Both words speak of our reactions when we realize our spiritual weaknesses and the power of temptation. The Lord desires to see this attitude in His children. You know, God loves to see His beloved children coming to Him, crying out to Him in fear and trembling. Isaiah 66:2, the Lord said: "But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." Why does the believer tremble at the Word? Because it is God's Word, because it is God's inspired and preserved Word, and because he has this reverential fear for God. So each time God speaks, his heart trembles, and he fears the Lord—as we said, not out of fright or terror, but a reverential fear.
Dear friends, do you realize that this fear and trembling is good for us? Godly fear and trembling protects us against temptation and sins. It gives us the motivation to live an obedient and righteous life. It protects us from being a bad influence to the other believers. It stops us from compromising our testimonies and faith to the unbelieving world. Take a moment and consider this: What will happen when we do not have this fear and trembling in the church? That is when people will engage in gossips, slanders, they'll be prideful, they'll be jealous of one another, envious of one another. They will fight and quarrel, they will make false accusations, they will cause divisions, they will murmur and complain, and the list goes on and on. And we often say this: Why don't they have this fear for God?
So fear and trembling is a good thing. But this fear and trembling involves more than just acknowledging our sins and weaknesses; it comes from a heart of deep adoration for the One who died on the cross of Calvary. We know that every sin we commit—whether in our speech, in our thoughts, in our deeds—it is an offense against the One who loves us with an everlasting love, Jesus Christ. And we love Him because He first loved us. We do not want to grieve His heart; we do not want to disappoint Him. We want to live a sanctified life for Him. That is what fear and trembling can do to us.
Our second point is God's sovereignty in sanctification. Immediately after Paul exhorted the Philippians to work out your own salvation, he said in verse 13, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
If I may draw your attention to Philippians 1:6, that is the previous chapter, let me read for you chapter 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."
Again, the day of Jesus Christ speaks of the final completion of our salvation—our glorification. In other words, it is God who has started this good work in you. He has saved you; He has justified you. And then He continues to work in your life in your sanctification, and He says He will perform it, which means He will bring it to completion in your glorification.
Once again, in our justification, sanctification, and glorification, it is God who is working in us. God is the one. The words "to will" and "to do" are referring to the believer. The word "will" means to make a thoughtful and purposeful choice. God works in us first to will, which means He first moves in our thinking, in our hearts and minds, to enable us to make the choice to do the right thing. And then He moves in us to cause us to do it, to perform it. The will always comes before the doing. He works in our minds; He speaks to us, and then He empowers us to do what He has instructed us.
We will never understand the doctrine of God's sovereign working in our lives until we realize that apart from God working in our hearts through Jesus Christ, you and I do not have the power to believe in God, nor do we have the power to live a righteous life. God must work.
There are some people who say, "Well, I do have a free will; I have a choice. I can choose my own destiny regarding spiritual matters. I can choose to live an obedient life to the exclusion of God's power." One good example is the Arminian, who believes that man has a free will to choose God. As Bible Presbyterians, we are Calvinistic in our theological understanding of salvation. We believe that man is totally depraved. We choose God because He first chose us. The Bible tells us even before the foundation of the world, God has already elected us, chosen us to be in Him.
Ephesians 2:8, a verse that many of us are very familiar with, says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." It is God's gift to us. Salvation is a gift from God.
Let us pause and consider this matter of free will. You have free will to decide on certain things, but you do not have free will to decide on all things. You can decide whether you will go to work tomorrow or pretend to be sick. You have free will to decide what you want to eat for dinner tonight, but you cannot exercise your free will in anything that involves your physical and intellectual capabilities. For example, by your own free will, you cannot decide that you are going to have a 50 percent higher IQ than what you have right now. By your own free will, you cannot decide that you are going to run 100 meters in less than eight seconds. You do not have free will in all these physical and intellectual capabilities. How much less in your spiritual capabilities? You cannot choose God.
Adam had a free will, but he lost it in the Garden of Eden. Since then, all people are without this free will to choose God. They are totally depraved until the sovereignty of God comes into their lives through the wonder-working of the Holy Spirit.
James Montgomery Boice, the theologian, gave this excellent illustration. Allow me to quote him: "It is as if a man is standing on the edge of a muddy pit with slippery sides. As long as he is on the top of the pit, on the edge of the pit, he has free will. He can either stay on the edge or jump in. But the moment he decides to jump in, then his free will is lost as far as getting out of the pit is concerned. He has a free will to walk around in the bottom of the pit or to sit still. He has free will to try to scramble up the sides, which will be in vain, or to accept his plight. Tragically, he has free will to cry now for help or to be silent, to be angry or to be complacent. But he does not have free will to be once again standing on the top of the pit unless someone greater and outside of himself helps him."
This is what happened to Adam and Eve. They were created to live in the Garden of Eden, the perfect garden. God commanded them, "Of all the trees in the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:16-17). That is the Covenant of Works. Adam and Eve had this free will to obey or disobey the commandment. But when they disobeyed God, the moment they disobeyed God, they fell away. They lost the free will to choose God as far as spirituality is concerned. They lost it, and they proved it by running away from God when He came looking for them in the garden. Remember how they tried to hide themselves with fig leaves, and God came looking for them.
Since Adam and Eve, all people are born with this same inability to choose God. Some are complacent; some are angry; some are silent; some are anxious; some are afraid; others are philosophical. But all are unable to come to God on their own. They can never come to God. No one can come to God until God reaches down by grace into the pit of human sin, lifts up the believer, and places him on the edge, saying to him, "This is the way, walk in it. Obey me and walk in it."
That is what God does in salvation. That is why the Bible tells us in Romans 3:10, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." No man on his own will seek after God. John 1:13 says [PROOFREADER CHECK THIS] “whoever is born of God were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." So the only way for a person to be a believer, to be born again, it must be of God. John 6:44 says it even clearer; Jesus says"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."
We must understand this important truth. Even in our generation, if there ever comes a person like John the Baptist, or John Calvin, or Martin Luther, or Jonathan Edwards, or Charles Spurgeon to preach the gospel to us, no one will turn to Jesus Christ apart from the supernatural work of God in our human heart.
Are you a believer? If you are a believer, then it means God has worked in your will. He has first moved in your thoughts, in your heart, in your mind to cause you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He does not stop there. He continues to work in your will to cause you to live a sanctified life. He calls you to obedience, then He empowers you to obey Him. He calls you to His service, and then He empowers you to serve. He calls you to holiness—"Be holy, as I am holy"—then He empowers you to live a holy life. That is what it means when it says, "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
When God sees His children living a sanctified life, it brings Him great pleasure, great joy. Our God is so happy when He sees the believers living a sanctified life.
Dear friends, every week when you come to church, when you hear the preaching of God's word, or when you read the Bible in your own quiet time, do you hear God's still small voice speaking to you? That is God working in your will, in your heart, and in your mind. When you worship God, when you sing the hymns, when you pray, when you serve, when you give of your tithes and offerings, do you feel the power of God working in you? That is God working in you to do what He has impressed upon your will.
So when God speaks to you and instructs you what to do—”You must worship. You must pray. You must read the Bible. You must give. You must serve”— and then He empowers you to do so. When you struggle with temptation, it is God working in you both to will and to do. He convicts your heart of your sins and tells you, "Don't give in to temptation; don't fall into sin." But when you fall into sin again, He works in you both to will and to do. He calls you to repent, however difficult it may be, and He enables you to give up your sins and turn to Jesus Christ in repentance and in faith.
God works in you. God works in me. If you do not hear this still small voice, if you do not feel the power of God working in you, and you continue to sin and sin, or if you just go through the motions, coming to church is just another thing for you to do, you go on and on and on, it just goes to show one thing: you may not be a believer in the first place. Because God will never allow that to happen. He will always cause His children to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. His children will fear Him—not a fear of terror, but a reverential fear, a deep concern that God must receive their love, honor, and glory. God will always cause them to become more and more like His Son, our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, until we see Him face to face. And the day will come when He will perform it; He will bring it to completion—our salvation, our glorification.
Dear friends, our human responsibility is to simply respond. When God works in our lives, He speaks to our will, our hearts, and our minds, and it empowers us to do what He has instructed us. Our human responsibility is to respond. This is God's sovereignty and human responsibility in how we should live our lives.
So we must never be proud if we ever live a sanctified life, because remember it is God working in us both to will and to do, and it is always for His good pleasure. That is why there is no reason for any believer to be proud of the way he or she serves, prays, sings, or even in the amount of money he or she gives. It is God who empowers us, so glory must go to Him. Let us pray.
Our Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for enabling us to consider these two verses. Indeed, we ought to live a sanctified life. But even as we consider how we ought to live our Christian life, it is with this fear and trembling in our hearts—this reverential fear for Thee. We love Thee and we have this deep concern of adoration for Thee. And dear Lord, we want You to receive all our love, honour, and glory. We want to praise Thee. We do not want to grieve Your heart, nor do we want to disappoint You. We want to live a sanctified life for our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who died on the cross of Calvary for us. And even as we live this life, even as we endeavour to be holy and acceptable today, we know that it is the Almighty God who is working in us both to will and to do, and it is always for His good pleasure. So we are not proud, but rather we know that it is Thy sovereignty, and our human responsibility is simply to respond in good faith and obedience. Today we give Thee thanks, and we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.