Philippians 2:12-18 (Audio only)

The following sermon is by Jeremiah Nortier, one of the teachers here at 12 .5 Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas. We wanna welcome you and thank you for tuning in. Our prayer is that this message will help you grow in your knowledge of God so that you might be equipped for every good work.

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And now seeking to equip believers for every good work, here's Jeremiah Nortier.

True Religion and False Religion

There are two types of religion in this world. You have true religion and you have false religion. And there's something that all false religion have in common together and it's that you must, by your human achievement, you must work your way to God.

You must earn favor with him. All false religions have this in common. True religion, Christianity is salvation by something so much different. It's by God's divine accomplishment. It's by God's grace.

God the Son took on flesh and truly dwelt among us and he was perfectly sinless to the law and he suffered and died on the cross, the death that we all deserve. And so we do not add our good works to the works of Jesus Christ.

We simply open up our heart to him and we receive his finished work by inward faith. And so I want us to think about the contrast between true religion and false religion this morning. If you can simply think you've got works over here and you have grace over here with Christianity.

So with that being said, please open your Bibles to Philippians chapter two. We're going to be looking at verses 12 through 18. Now I want us to be thinking about the different types. You got true religion and false religion and how salvation is so radically different between the two.

In Christianity, we're going to see that salvation is a process. Salvation is a process of God working in us and through us as his children. Earlier, a few months ago, Nathan spent an entire sermon on Philippians one verse six.

Such a wonderful verse, especially for Christians. Where the apostle Paul said that he is so confident of the work that God began in you and he's going to bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

So we have to understand salvation is a process. There's a sense in which past tense, we were saved. There's a sense in which we are being saved and then there's this future tense and we will ultimately be saved and delivered.

That moment, if you're a child of God and you are a Christian, then you can think back in time past where you were so convicted over your sin and you received Jesus as Lord. That was your justification.

This was the moment where you were declared righteous and no longer guilty of your sin before God. And so after that moment, you now began this life, this trajectory of living out your sanctification.

This is a key word.

This means that we are being set apart from this world. We are being set apart and being made more and more like Jesus Christ. And then there's those beautiful passages in scripture that tell us that we will receive a resurrected body one day.

We will step into eternal glory with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is our glorification. So salvation is a process that God is working out in us. And so I want us to keep this in mind when we go into our passage this morning because the Apostle Paul is talking about believers' sanctification.

He's gonna be talking about how we are set apart as lights in this world and we are called never to complain about our circumstances because God has appointed every moment of our life exactly fashioned for us.

It's sanctifying for us. Everything that we go to is to make us more and more like Christ. So that being said, let's read our passage this morning. We read, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only 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. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless, innocent children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain, even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Let's pray.

Holy Father, thank you so much for your word of life, your life-giving word that sanctifies your children each and every moment of our day. What I pray this morning, God, that you would remove me and any temptation for the focus to be on me.

God, I am simply a messenger. Lord, I pray that you would guard my speech from error, God, and that your truth would edify your people. Jesus, I pray this in your name, amen. So let me draw your attention back to verse 12, where the whole heart of this verse is Paul talking about believers are to work out their own salvation.

Let me read verse 12 again. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. So we talked about the two types of religions earlier.

In false religion, you work your way to God. You're keeping this list of do's and don'ts, and you're carrying this burden on your shoulders. Now, under this umbrella of false religion, you have professing Christians.

They slap the label of Jesus of what they're doing, and they will go to verse 12 and say, see, you gotta work your way to heaven. That's not what this verse is saying. It does not say earn your salvation by working it out.

In fact, scripture is very clear on this matter. The apostle Paul in Ephesians 2 tells us, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God. And listen to this, not a result of works, so no one may boast.

So why is Paul saying this to the Philippian believers? To work out their salvation. This is sanctification. This is the process of our salvation that God is continually to mold us. And so since he's talking to Philippian believers, by implication, he's talking about all believers everywhere.

Paul is calling us to strive to live for Christ and to live a life that's pleasing, holy, and fruitful to him. So in this verse, I believe the apostle Paul is giving us five truths that believers must understand in order to work out our sanctification.

Christ's Example in Sanctification

Number one, believers work out their sanctification by understanding Christ's example. If you notice, the verse begins with the word therefore. So Paul is building a conclusion based on the previous passage.

Christ is our perfect example of what it means to love, to show humility, and to submit to the Father's will. This is God the Son. He took on human flesh and was a humble servant. He was laying his life down out of love.

He was even willing to die, even the death, on a cross. And this is the essence of the Christian life, is to pursue Christ's likeness. Like Pastor Nathan said last week, Christianity is not a religion that says pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

We don't try to do better and just try to be more moral. We fix our gaze on the Savior. We look to him in this loving relationship and that will transform us from the inside out. That will cause us to be Christ-like.

That will cause us to be humble. And this will give us the strength, this will give us the mindset to count others as more significant than ourself. So believers, we must understand, we must work out our sanctification by looking to Christ's example.

Love as the Driving Force of Sanctification

Number two, believers must understand that the driving force in our sanctification is love. Paul says, therefore, my beloved. Why is Paul so concerned with the believers at Philippi?

Because he loves them.

Why should we count others as more significant than ourselves?

Because we love them.

Why should we receive Jesus and follow after him? Because he lovingly laid down his life for us. This is another key distinction between false religion and true religion. Christianity is rooted in love.

You got false religion, works. It is cold, it is impersonal, and we can try to fake it. But on the inside, we understand we cannot be holy as God is holy. It is devoid of any meaningful, loving relationship.

But Christianity is grounded in loving our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, all of who we are. And when we're being filled up with this loving relationship with our Savior, that's going to overflow into the lives of others, other relationships that we have.

We can love our neighbor as ourself. So I just really wanna emphasize the driving force in our sanctification truly is love. Number three, we must understand the importance of obedience. Now this is where it can get tricky because false religion says, oh yeah, you gotta be obedient in order to stay saved, in order to earn God's favor.

Christianity says, no, no, no, we love Christ. He accomplished salvation at the cross and I've received that by faith, loving Him far greater than everything else in this world. So in our sanctification, we look back to what God has done in our life and we desire obedience because of that.

Obedience flows out of that heart of love. Now I would say obedience is the single word to what it means to worship God. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 12 that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

This is your spiritual worship. So our sanctification for the Christian, we meditate in God's word. This is what we desire to do. This is spending time with God. He speaks to us through His living and breathing word and we meditate on that and we desire to be obedient to what God has revealed to us.

Sanctification in God's Power and Providence

Number four, this next one I found really interesting in my study, I had to think on it for a second. But believers work out their sanctification by understanding their personal responsibilities and resources.

Let me say it again. Believers work out their sanctification by understanding their personal responsibilities and resources. Paul was calling the Philippian believers to work out their salvation. Notice what he says.

So now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence. Think about the Philippian believers. It would have been so tempting for them to lean on the Apostle Paul for their spiritual growth, for their spiritual contentment.

When he's around, it's all good. He can tell us about God's will. So imagine he's imprisoned. He's absent in their life. They're going to be tempted to grumble and complain about their circumstances. They're not able to have spiritual contentment.

So we learn a principle for us today. It is wonderful that God has given us the means of grace to have pastors, teachers, books, commentaries, and sweet Christian fellowship. But this must never be our primary source of contentment or spiritual growth.

As believers, we have a responsibility to always follow Christ's example. And we have the resource of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have God's life-giving word in our hearts. That is our primary resource.

We have a responsibility to always look to Christ's example. So lastly, in this short list, number five. Believers work out their salvation because of the consequences of sin. Paul says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

And although God is loving, merciful, forgiving, he nevertheless holds believers accountable for their actions. The fear that's being referred to here for believers is probably best understood as a reverence and an awe because God is holy.

We tremble in our spirit because we are sinners. And we look and behold our God and we realize the God that we worship. This fear and trembling will cause believers to pray earnestly for God's help in avoiding sin.

And praise God when we do sin, that he loves us as his children and he will discipline us. And we have the advocate, Jesus, who is there to pick us up and always intercede on our behalf. And so we desire obedience.

We desire to pursue holiness and to give God glory in all that we do. Therefore, since we understand the consequences of sin, we pursue the path of obedience and blessing, and we do not pursue the path of discipline.

Now, when we think about these five truths, you may think, Jeremiah, these things sound impossible for me to do. That sounds like a heavy list. And you'd be right. These things are impossible to do on your own.

But praise God for verse 13, because we're gonna see that the source of our sanctification is not in ourselves, but it is in God. So as we look at verse 13, we're gonna see how we are working out what God is working in.

He works in the faith and we work our faith out. Verse 13 says, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So how are we to work out our sanctification? The apostle Paul is saying, God is going to be the one working it out.

And he has told us about this profound mystery going back to verse six and chapter one, where it is God who begins that good work in you, and he is the one to bring it to completion. And I gotta be honest about something.

This is a wonderful mystery. We are the ones making 100 of the decisions. We wake up in the morning, we decide whether we're gonna be obedient, we're gonna be the ones to decide if we're gonna spend time reading God's word, but it is also 100 God working in us.

This is a profound mystery. So when Paul begins by saying, for it is God, we have to stop and wait a second and think, this is the triune God who is holy. And this is something that I really wanna drive home this morning, is that God is personally at work in our lives through this loving relationship.

And as I was looking through a list of false religion, something that I noticed is most false religion is devoid of a personal God. I looked at Hinduism. Hinduism scriptures teach that the absolute creator God is not a person.

He is an abstract unknowable reality. Hinduism teaches that God is neither holy or unholy, not loving or unloving or fair or unfair. And it confuses me a little bit how they're able to tell us so much about this God that is unknowable.

But the key is there is no relationship. It is impersonal. It will leave you cold. But God is personally at work in our lives. When he began that good work in us, this is the Holy Spirit changing our heart, changing our will, changing our desires to follow after Christ.

So God is with us. And he interacts with us through his living and breathing word. And he also interacts with us through the gathering of the saints who also possess the Holy Spirit. God calls us to be holy as he is holy.

And then he empowers us to pursue holiness. So all of verse 13 says, "'For it is God who works in you "'both to will and to work for his good pleasure.'". So in that second phrase, you see to will and to work.

That's referring to the believer's perspective. So what Paul is telling us is even our decisions, our will, the things that we think about is fueled by God. He is placing that in us so that will compel us to act.

And I'm reminded of Proverbs 21, verse one. Love this verse. "'The king's heart is a stream of water "'in the hand of the Lord. "'He turns it wherever he will.'". God is working in us both to will and to work.

Why?

For his pleasure.

This is wonderful because this means that God's sanctifying work in believers has a divine purpose. God is conforming our will and our desires to be more and more like Christ. Think about it this way.

It brought the sovereign God, joy, who is working all things after the counsel of his will to lavish his grace and his mercy on me, a sinner. Not only did he begin this good work of salvation by changing my will to believe in Christ, but he continues to move me, to convict me of my sin, and to make my heart long to be with Jesus.

And I know that is what you experienced too when you were in Christ. God does all this according to the purpose of his will and to the praise of his glorious grace. Now this is the deep well that the apostle Paul, if I can get my words right, this is the deep well that the apostle Paul would draw from in his life.

Think about this. He was imprisoned, and yet he could count it as joy because he knew that God was working in and through his life to advance the gospel in ways that none of us could have imagined. So we must renew our minds with God sovereignly working out his plan of redemption.

This will give us strength to be content in all circumstances because we understand that everything happening in our life has a divine purpose. Whatever you're going through, you can know that this is what's going on.

This is being worked out for your sanctification and ultimately for God's glory. One of the most comforting passages of scripture comes from Romans 8 .28 that tells us this truth. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

Did you catch that?

According to his purpose. And a lot of times people ask, what's the good? Well, Paul goes on to say in verse 29, to be conformed to the image of his son. So I want you to hold on tight because verses 12 and 13 gave us these theological truths to really be able to help us in our application of how we are to live our lives in this next passage.

This gives us clear application. Look with me at verse 14. Paul says, do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless, innocent children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.

So he begins by saying, do all things. This is going back to the previous two verses where he's telling us to work out our salvation. He's saying that we are to work out our salvation in all circumstances of our life.

And then Paul gives us a negative command. Do all things without grumbling or complaining. I gotta be honest. This was very convicting for me because I thought of myself as a genuinely happy person, pretty positive.

And then when I was hit with this passage, I thought I was so self-aware of how I continually grumble and complain in my spirit. Paul says, do all things without grumbling or disputing. So these are two key words here I want us to unpack a little bit.

The Greek word for grumbling is very interesting and it's kind of funny at first. The Greek word is gungusmos. And it's supposed to be said like this, gungusmos.

Rah, rah, rah, right?

You kind of hear it's an automotopoeic word, right? It means what it sounds like. And so it's grouchy, it's grumbly, and it's used to express discontentment. It's used to express a dissatisfaction.

Y 'all like that? Gungusmos.

This is a sin when you really think about it. This is an emotional rejection of our circumstances of what God has chosen for our life. Grumbling is this attitude of complaining. It's totally focused on self.

Now you have this other word, disputing. And this carries the idea of reasoning within yourself and you start thinking, I don't deserve this experience. I don't deserve to be going through what I'm going through right now.

Grumbling is essentially emotional and disputing is essentially intellectual. And these sins are dangerous, but they are especially dangerous together. When you start having discontentment in your circumstances, this will lead you to be discontent in God's provision for your life.

And then when you begin to reason in your mind that you deserve better, you will start questioning and disputing against God's sovereign will. We often forget about who the creator of the universe is, don't we?

I know that I'm reminded of it when I go to his word. In fact, Psalm 139, beautiful Psalm that talks about how life begins at conception, how God intricately forms us in our mother's womb. But he also tells us that before we were formed in our mother's womb, all of our days were written in a book, planned before any one of them came to be.

Everything that happens in our lives, God has specifically fashioned, informed for you to experience in his timing. So this is the big point I wanna drive home here, Christians. There should never be emotional grumbling or intellectual disputing.

It is always sinful for believers to complain about anything the Lord calls us to do or about any circumstance in which he sovereignly allows. Doesn't matter if we're going through a difficult task or an easy task, whether we're going through a situation of blessing or trial, negative attitudes are forbidden.

Think about the apostle Paul, he's imprisoned. I feel like it would have been tempting for him to have a negative attitude. And yet the apostle Paul found joy in the joy giver like pastor Nathan has pointed out.

We don't need to look to the blessings that he can and does give to his children. We need to constantly look to Christ and to his example. That's why the apostle Paul is able to exhort believers later in Philippians four, verse four, where he says, rejoice always in the Lord.

Every circumstance of life is to be accepted willingly and joyfully without murmuring, without complaining or disappointment. And there's really no exception. We are called to work out our salvation with a positive attitude, to rejoice and give thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now, once again, doesn't this seem like an impossible task for us? I'm over here thinking, I will complain, I'm sure of it. But this is the difference, once again, between the two different religions, true religion and false religion.

Our heart's different. Why is it different? Because we have a new nature. Because of who we are in Christ, we are God's children. We should find encouragement in this. Look at verse 14 again. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ, Paul says, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

The key to Paul's exhortation here is for us to stop complaining is because of our new position, our new status as being children of God. Maybe you've heard of this old cliche that has crept into the church.

And I don't know where it started, but people say, aren't we just all God's children? And they will say this without qualification, without distinction, talking about all of mankind. Aren't we just all God's children?

And the Bible could not be more clear that that is not the case. In fact, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling because of our new nature as children of God. We are distinct and different from the rest of the world.

John's gospel tells us, but to all who did receive Jesus, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. It is important to understand that all of mankind, we are all made in the image of God, but it is only those who have received Jesus by faith alone, they have been given the right by adoption to be children of God.

I want you to think about when we were first born into this world, we are dead in our sins and our trespasses. In fact, the Bible tells us that we are children of the devil, but God, in a miraculous way, comes in, changes our hearts, and we are born a second time.

We are born from above. First John 3 .10 says, by this it is evident who are the children of God and are who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Sure that last part, the children of the devil, they are devoid of actually loving one another. They can fake it on the outside, but it's not deeply ingrained. That is reserved for the children of God who we have the example of Christ and we desire to follow his example.

As children of God, we have a new heart with new desires to once again look to our Savior. So if you would, if your Bibles are open, look earlier in the passage to Philippians 2, verse eight.

I love this.

And being found in human form, Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus absolutely was submitted to the Father's will. He never grumbled or complained about his circumstances.

His heart was set on obedience, righteousness, love, and humility. What you think about, there's no greater love than for a person to lay his life down for his friends. And so we see the heart of God being poured out because while we were sinners, Christ died for us.

As Christians, we need to renew our minds with this gospel message. That will fuel us to love. This will fuel us to have the mind of Christ. This will cause us to willingly lay down our lives for one another.

This will also cause us not to grumble or complain at our circumstances, but will cause us to rejoice always in the Lord. We must always keep in mind, following Christ's example, we must submit ourselves in all circumstances to the Father's sovereign will.

Reasons Believers Should Stop Complaining

So look with me at verses 15 and 16. Here, I believe Paul gives the Christians at Philippi three reasons why they should stop complaining. And I believe that these truths equally apply to us today. Number one, believers should stop complaining for our own well-being.

I'll say it again.

Believers should stop complaining for their own well-being. Paul says, do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be innocent or blameless, innocent, children of God without blemish. Every Christian is in the process of becoming more and more like Christ.

And so that process includes becoming more blameless and more innocent. We must forsake grumbling and complaining. That's a huge part of this process. Now, I just wanna briefly touch on these words, but blameless means to be without defect.

It essentially carries this idea of desiring holiness. Innocent at its basic meaning means to be unmixed. So if you think about unmixed wine, it is unmixed from its impurities. And so Christians, we are called to be unmixed from evil and sin.

And also as children of God, we are called to be without blemish. This could mean to be above reproach or faultless. And I can't help but to be reminded about this seems to be impossible on my own. And it is.

But it is only by the unblemished and spotless Christ Himself, where the book of Jude tells us, He is able to keep believers from stumbling and to make them stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy.

We need to let Christ's example and His work in our lives resonate right here to fuel us every day. Since we stand blameless in Christ before the Father, we need to pursue that holy standard of practice for our own sake, for our own well-being.

Number two, believers should stop complaining for the sake of the unsaved. Believers should stop complaining for the sake of the unsaved. As children of God, we dwell in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.

So that word crooked there, thought it was real interesting in the Greek, it is skolios. And so skolios means for something to be misaligned or twisted. And there's a medical condition called skoliosis, which means the spine is bent.

It is misaligned, it has an abnormal bent. And so the whole phrase together really comes out, crooked and twisted generation. This is referring to a fallen world that is misaligned away from God's holy standard.

In fact, we understand that the world is rebellious against God. It is sinful, it desires these things. And so as Christians, we are called to shine as lights in this dark and devious world. Our character should be like the stars, the moon that light up the dark sky.

And I can't resist this, but Jesus in his most famous sermon ever preached on the Sermon on the Mount. He says, you are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. We must show this world the life-changing power of the gospel. And please don't miss this.

The only way for the children of God to be shining lights in this dark world is to hold fast to the word of life. Now, Pastor Nathan and I, we talked more about what does this mean? I think it's safe to say that this refers to all of scripture, because all scripture is God-breathed.

I think Paul is really wanting us to see that this is talking primarily about the gospel. A good place to illustrate this comes out of John 6, where Jesus says, it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing.

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. And you had a lot of professing disciples following after him, and then they left. They wanted nothing more to do with Jesus. And Jesus turns to the 12, and he says, are you also gonna leave?

And I love Peter's response. He says, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. As children of God, we desire the pure spiritual milk of the word. We understand that this is crucial to our sanctification.

Jesus prayed to the Father, Father, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. And if you have tasted that the Lord is good, nothing else will do, amen. Since Paul is talking to Christians at Philippi, and how the context is telling us that we are to be shining lights in this dark world, there's a few other translations that say, holding forth the word of life.

And I think that this is a proper understanding of what the apostle Paul is saying, because as Christians, we take in the word of God. We have the gospel light shining within us, and when that's happening, we cannot help but to be shining lights to hold forth the gospel message in this dark world.

So moving on. Number three, believers should stop complaining for the sake of their own pastors. When I was reading this, I thought, man, I can tell that the apostle Paul has such a pastoral heart for the people that has been entrusted under his care.

Listen to him say this. So that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Now you may think, what does the apostle Paul mean by not running in vain? What in the world do pastors labor so hard, working day in and day out doing?

I've heard people even say, well, don't pastors just work one day a week? And sadly, there are pastors that probably do work just one day a week, and that breaks my heart because that's not the task that God is calling pastors under shepherds to do.

Verse 17, listen to Paul's pastoral heart. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, when a man of God is truly called to be an under shepherd, a pastor for the saints, he pours out his whole life into that service.

Biblical pastors will labor in the word hours upon hours, not to just learn a lot of information, but to guard the sheep, to herald God's word, to renew the hearts of God's people, and to guard God's people from error, to guard from Satan's lies.

Watch out for men that make excuses for not laboring in the word. They don't care about you. They care about themselves. They will often talk a lot about themselves. They will often say the same things throughout their sermons.

They will use lofty phrases without any depth of meaning. Unfortunately, they have to do this because they're not pouring out their lives for the faith of God's people. They are not laboring in the word to preach and teach.

Therefore, they are not able to challenge the saints to apply these life transforming truths. But godly pastors, we are called to rightly handle the word of truth and to equip the saints to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.