Working Out What's Worked Within

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. It's a privilege to share the message today with you all.

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As Pastor Jeff said, we're going to be continuing on in Philippians chapter 2.

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We're going to be in chapter 2, verses 12 and 13.

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So please turn to that now, if you will. I'm going to be preaching out of the

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New American Standard Bible. Unfortunately, it's not the 1977 version, but that's all right.

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We'll stick with the 95. So, all right.

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Philippians 2 verses 12 and 13.

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Hear now the words of the living and true God. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.

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Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

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Let's go before the Lord and ask him to bless it. Heavenly Father, we worship you.

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We praise you now. We thank you above all, Lord, for Christ and for Christ's finished work on the cross and what that means for us,

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Lord, and how that's changed everything in our lives. Lord, we thank you for Christ.

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Lord, we pray now that this service would be a fragrant aroma in your nostrils,

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O Lord. God, that everything from the fellowship to the singing of hymns to the delivery of the message today,

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Lord, preaching your word, the communion, the doxology, Lord, we pray that every aspect of today's worship service,

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Lord, would be an acceptable offering before your throne. Lord, please,

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Lord, use me today. Teach through me,

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God, what your people need to know, Lord, and please let us not leave this place unchanged.

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In the mighty name of Christ, amen. So many of you know that one of my favorite hobbies is gardening.

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I especially love to grow various types of fruit trees. In what you would consider not even a large backyard at all,

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I have at least 15 or more fruit trees growing. It's citrus, figs, pomegranates, peaches, plums, tons of different stuff.

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And one aspect of growing fruit trees that I'm very interested in is grafting.

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With grafting, you take a cutting like a branch piece of your desired cultivar, whatever you want to grow, and you attach it to the rootstock tree of your choosing as well.

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And the benefits can be obtaining a variety of fruit on one single tree that would otherwise only produce one type of fruit.

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Or you have a tree that has experienced trauma to where the root system may be very healthy, but much of the top growth and the branches are done for.

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And so by grafting onto that existing root system, you kind of have a brand new tree.

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And when you take this desired cultivar, this branch cutting, you have to cut the existing tree, exposing the cambium layers on both pieces.

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And this is where the healing and the melding of two into one occurs. The branch cutting is now a part of the tree after a period of time and pressure.

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If not grafted right, the cambium layers don't line up. No new growth occurs.

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And if no new growth, that cutting on that tree, that branch now dies.

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If it doesn't heal together, the sapwood underneath doesn't connect and it doesn't adhere together.

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And the sapwood carries the nutrients, the minerals, and the water up from the main root system and feeds those branches.

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And because of that feeding into the branch, the branch can grow leaves, develop photosynthesis, and eventually bud out new fruit.

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So in some ways, it appears that the branch is producing its own leaves, its own growth, and its own maturity, buds and fruit on its own.

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But without the main vine uptaking from the root system and flowing nutrients into the branches, they would dry up, darken, become hard, and die.

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And this is really the same for us. We were grafted onto the true vine,

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Jesus Christ. In one sense, it may seem as if good works and holiness that we live out are manifest because of our active participation in that growth.

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But when you look at the graft point in our lives, when you go underneath the layers, apart from the true vine,

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Jesus Christ, we would be fruitless. We would dry up. We would wither and die.

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Thankfully, Jesus, the Creator of the universe, does not make mistakes in His grafting.

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He does it with precision. And undoubtedly, when we as branches are attached to the true vine,

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Christ, we will absolutely produce fruit. He guarantees it. We will produce fruit.

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In John 15 .5, Jesus says, I am the vine. You are the branches.

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He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. But apart from me, you can do nothing.

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And this is at the heart of sanctification. Christ sustains us.

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God empowers us through the Holy Spirit to walk in the good works that God has prepared beforehand.

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Right? Ephesians 2 .10. But even then, in Ephesians 2 .10, it says to walk, to walk in.

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And walking seems to have some energetic, some active function to it.

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And my prayer today is that through Philippians 2 .12 and 13, we can in some way determine what is our role in sanctification and what is

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God's role in sanctification. Is it all of Him and none of us?

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Is it some of us and some of Him? None of Him and all of us?

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I think I just heard someone say heresy. No, I'm just kidding. Before we really take off with this though,

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I need to make something clear. And it's probably something I'll restate throughout the sermon. When we talk about good works, producing fruit, seeking holiness, et cetera,

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I'm not talking about earning or meriting your salvation. Galatians 2 .16,

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let's be reminded, by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. And then, of course, we all know

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Ephesians 2 .8 -9, for by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves.

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It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

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Salvation is monergistic, meaning God initiates, He regenerates by His Spirit, His grace becomes irresistible by His quickening,

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Christ is the atoning sacrifice, and He chooses us by His sovereign will and good pleasure.

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That is regeneration and justification. We'll be mostly looking at sanctification today.

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J. C. Ryle, and I put the definition in the bulletin, J. C. Ryle defines sanctification as follows, sanctification is an inward spiritual work which the

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Lord Jesus Christ works in a man by the Holy Ghost. When He calls him to be a true believer,

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He not only washes him from his sins in His own blood, but He also separates him from His natural love of sin in the world, puts a new principle in his heart, and makes him practically godly for life.

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Gives him practical application in the real life for godliness. But what does

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Philippians 2 .12 and 13 reveal about sanctification? Once again, trying to figure out the answer to our question of what role does each party play in it?

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So let's read that again. So then, my beloved, Philippians 2 .12,

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so then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

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For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. And so at first, the verses almost seem paradoxical, like they are seemingly antithetical to one another.

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Verse 12 says, to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Again, I'm in the

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NASB, but I do know the New King James Version and the English Standard Version show, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

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You work out your own salvation. That sounds like we're actively doing something here.

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But just so we don't fully think it's us, Paul says in verse 13, for it is

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God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

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What is going on with these two verses? Well, there are many other truths in Scripture that relate to each other in a similar fashion.

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I'd like to show you that. For example, I already made a disclaimer about God and salvation, how we believe in monergism.

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It's Christ's work that saves us. He elects us. He justifies us. We were dead and needed the

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Holy Spirit to make us alive. We all agree to that. We say yes and amen. There's probably some guys here with tattoos about that.

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But all throughout the New Testament, we also have commands to repent and believe the

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Gospel. Turn from your sin and trust in Christ alone for salvation. So there's a turning and a repenting and a trusting in Christ alone for salvation.

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We know repentance, having faith, and believing are gifts from God, and yet there is this active and energetic participation on our part that is shown to us all throughout

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Scripture. Repentance is equally a gift and a command all at the same time.

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Consider what Pastor James preached last Sunday, the Carmen Christi, and how the hymn mentions

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Christ's eternality and divinity, as well as His emptying of Himself, taking the form of a slave, the likeness of men.

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Jesus is, again, all at the same time, 100 % God and 100 % man.

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This is the hypostatic union, of course. What can seem to us almost as contradictory is established as truth in the

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Bible. And by the way, I have to say that truth doesn't become untruth just because we can't understand it.

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If we knew all the truths, biblical mysteries, and the secret things that the

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Lord has established in His own Person, then we'd be trying to be equals with God.

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And we never will be equals with God. People say, oh, when are we in glory?

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We'll see the Lord and He will reveal all these hidden truths. Will He though? All of them?

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Will He reveal all these hidden truths? So, a little side thing there, but we must be content with the truths that God has revealed to us in Scripture.

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Misunderstanding doesn't change truth. But again, the hypostatic union is something our finite minds can't really fully comprehend.

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Another example to illustrate what we're talking about could even be Scripture. Who wrote the

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Bible? Was it men or was it God? Consider Paul and his epistles.

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Detailing his heart for the church. Mentioning specific people. Expressing his love for the saints.

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Paul is having real emotion over these people in his churches that he's planted. These human writers actually put pen to paper.

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And yet every single word of it is from God. God Almighty. Exactly what

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God wanted recorded. Everything. Not one thing was missed. As 2

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Timothy 3 says, Scripture is God breathed. So we have that balance.

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We come back to the question in regards to sanctification and spiritual growth. Is it me or is it

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God? When I was studying for this sermon, commentators as well as other pastors that I listened to like MacArthur, they mentioned two philosophical ideas that in history have been unbalanced and in some cases, heretical.

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Emphasis on some truths over others can misrepresent what Scripture is actually trying to say.

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These two philosophical ideas are quietism and pietism.

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Quietism and pietism. We yield ourselves over.

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We yield ourselves over. You just surrender to God. And that's all there is to it.

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We just enter into this sort of passivity. You're just like floating there.

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And God is working out your salvation and there's no active participation on your part.

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And here's where it really goes wrong with quietism. It teaches that spiritual peace and even perfection can be achieved through the contemplation of God and things divine.

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The practitioner of quietism seeks to subdue the will and become totally passive spiritually.

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The believer becomes quiet, so to speak, and God acts for you.

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You've maybe even heard people say something like, you've just got to let go and let

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God. Man, that sounds awesome. You just got to let go and let God.

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But you know what? We don't see this type of doctrine in sanctification.

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Just simply letting go and seeing where it all takes you. Now, I could understand this type of encouragement of letting go when you're trying to control what has already been sovereignly ordained.

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Right? But no striving for godliness, no mortifying that sin.

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Just let go and let God. Don't kill that sin. Let go and let

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God. You're trying to work it out on your own. In fact, quietists say striving for spiritual growth or holiness can actually be a hindrance.

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For spiritual victory, you do nothing. You do nothing. And what this could lead to is that a

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Christian just choose a life of trusting passivity and says no to a life of obedience.

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Often used to support this view is Galatians 2 .20. I have been crucified with Christ.

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It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So is it just Christ who lives?

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But if we finish the verse, it says, and the life which I now live in the flesh,

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I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Wait.

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Paul says he doesn't live. Christ lives in him. And yet then he says the life which

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I now live. So he doesn't live and then he lives. The quietist tries to eliminate that balance.

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One of the biggest issues with quietism is that if it's all God and not you in sanctification, then who is responsible when we inevitably sin, right?

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We will fail in our sanctification. The Bible shows plainly that God is not the author of sin, nor is

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He able by His very nature to sin. So you can see this slippery slope here.

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And then there's pietism. Pietism. Pietism is striving meticulously with profound effort toward personal piety.

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One is working to live out their Christian faith with all that is in them, but it can quickly get out of balance.

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Consider the Pharisees Jesus interacted with in the Gospels, right? They worked hard to live holy lives, to strive for perfection, to work out the law blamelessly, and yet what was done externally was not a reality of what was taking place internally.

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They negated the law by maintaining the commandments of men. The Pharisees, Jesus said, were whitewashed tombs.

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Beautiful on the outside, but inside they were full of dead men's bones. So there can be an overemphasis on self -effort.

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Well, what's the harm in putting prominence into self -effort, you might ask? If we believe that all of our sanctification and spiritual progress is based on our own dedication and self -discipline and the ability to persevere, then we can experience two things, brethren.

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One, when you are successful in the growth, you will believe that it was you.

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You will believe that it was you and you will have pride. You will think that you now have room to boast, but you don't.

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And two, again, when you inevitably fail, you will have self -despair, pride for congratulating yourself on your effort, or disappointment because you believe you're the only one who can help your current state of sanctification.

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How does one handle these things? We need balance. And that balance is found in the

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Scriptures. It's illustrated here in Philippians 2, 12, and 13. And we can see it all throughout

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Scripture again. Turn to 1 Kings 8. 1

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Kings is before 2 Kings. It's before Chronicles.

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Who is this guy? 1

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Kings 8, verse 58. And so what's happening here is

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Solomon's dedicatory prayer for the temple after the Ark of the Covenant was brought in.

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Verse 57 and 58. May the Lord our

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God be with us as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us or forsake us that He may incline our hearts to Himself.

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God, we need You to incline our hearts to You so that we would obey You. And now go down, verse 61.

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Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord our God to walk in His statutes and to keep

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His commandments as at this day. Now they are exhorted to be wholly devoted to walk in His statutes.

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So we're saying, God, make our hearts ones that obey You. Then God says, obey

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Me and walk now. God, make my heart inclined to You, to Your will.

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Okay, I will. Now obey Me. Go walk. Go move. Obedience is the result of both things here.

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So that if we consider how to grow spiritually, we come to the conclusion that when we ask, is this something that God does or something that we do, the answer would be yes and yes.

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It would be both. Turn to 2 Peter 1 .3.

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That's after 1 Peter. He did it again. 2

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Peter 1 .3.

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Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

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So we see here that it's His divine power that has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness.

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It's His divine power. It's Him. It's God. But then, go down.

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Look to verses 5 -7. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence.

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And in your moral excellence, knowledge. And in your knowledge, self -control. And in your self -control, perseverance.

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And in your perseverance, excuse me, godliness. And in your godliness, brotherly kindness.

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And in your brotherly kindness, love. Now it's us. Now it's us.

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Do something. Right? Supply moral excellence. Applying all diligence. We know the source of these things, but we actually do them.

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Do. You do them. Sanctification will take all of God on one hand and everything you've got on the other.

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And once more, we're not talking about salvation by works. In Philippians 2 .12,

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Paul says to work out. Not to work at or work for salvation.

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Work out. Work out in the Greek is katergasomai.

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And it can mean to bring fulfillment or completion in this context and in other contexts producing and things of that nature.

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And this is a command for continual effort and diligence in working out what has already been planted within.

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And remember the grafting that I spoke about at the beginning? The fruit on the tree does its function of budding, blooming, and maturing, but those operations couldn't be done without the tree and the roots sustaining it.

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The same is for us, my friends. Think of the P in tulip.

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Perseverance of the saints, right? We love tulip here. Some guys have tattoos with that too.

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Some men say it's better understood when we call it the preservation of the saints.

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God preserves us in salvation. We are eternally secure and nothing will take us out of the good shepherd's hands.

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Christ loses none that the Father has given Him. He preserves us while we persevere, you could say.

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Those who endure to the end will be saved, Christ says. And the balance comes in.

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I remember Pastor James said once on the dividing line, it's not the enduring to the end that saves you, but the one that causes you to endure saves you.

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Consider Acts 13 .43. I just love this one.

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Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the

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Jews and of the God -fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.

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Urging them to continue, to initiate a response, to keep walking in the grace of God.

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In the grace. In something you can't initiate. In something you can't walk to earn or to receive on your own.

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It's glorious. Continue in the grace of God. And you'll see this type of theme all throughout

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Scripture. And it truly is a mystery, my brothers and sisters. Philippians 2 .12.

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Work out your own salvation. Work out is in the present imperative.

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It's a continued command. Continually be working out your own salvation.

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What God has worked in by way of salvation, you are to work out by way of sanctification.

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There are some things I want to point out in verse 12. First thing is, so then, so then.

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It is often translated therefore in other Bible versions. Hoste in the

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Greek. We have to look prior to these verses to see why they are important.

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Verses 5 through 11, the hymn of Christ. And it really is the Gospel. Because Christ didn't have an attitude like we have in our fallen nature.

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Because His attitude was one of humble obedience. Although He has always eternally existed with the glory that the

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Father has always possessed within the Trinity, He emptied Himself, taking on the likeness of man, of us.

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We always say this when we're street preaching. He lived a life we couldn't live and He died the death that we deserve.

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The holy wrath of the Father was poured out on His Son on the cross for us. And because of this,

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He is highly exalted and given a name above every name. And a little side note here.

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I think Pastor James said it last week. Every single person that ever existed will know

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His name and will call Him Lord. That is for certain. They will bow. Those whose names are not written in the

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Lamb's Book of Life will call Him Lord just how the demon legion recognized His divinity and submitted to Jesus' will.

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And at the day of judgment, the unbelieving will wish that they could also enter into the swine to escape the holy justice of the

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Almighty. And of course, it's our prayer that this doesn't happen to the lost.

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It's our prayer that they would be saved, right? But that's the reality nonetheless. Nevertheless, because of this, because of this gospel, we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

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Another point in verse 12 is to consider is Paul calls them His beloved.

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He calls them His beloved. Despite His admonishments and exhortations,

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He loves them. In fact, that's why He gives them. Because He loves them. Verse 8 of chapter 1 of Philippians says,

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For God is my witness how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

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He longs for them with great affection. And much of the letters in the

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Pauline Corpus are the Apostle addressing some sort of issue in the church, right?

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False teaching, false brethren, division, gossip, sexual immorality, and so on.

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But He always affirms His great love for them. I believe these reminders are a great indicator of God's mercy,

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His long -suffering, and His love toward us. The fact is, every single one of us here could probably have

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Paul write a letter to us if you catch my drift. You're just like, oh man, it's

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Paul. Shoot. You know? No one wants to receive a Paul letter in that way, right?

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It's Paul again. We will mess up. We will. We will mess up, but there's room for that.

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That's why sanctification is a process. Although God grants immediate repentance and regeneration, that repentance is still a daily dying to ourselves and mortifying our sin, killing our sin.

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I remember my New Testament professor in seminary always said, if God revealed to you all the sin that you commit on a daily basis, even after becoming a believer, you'd be undone.

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I mean, just between all your thought life, the jealousy, the envy, the division, the pride, the self -exaltation of yourself above God, the unbelief, the faithlessness, the lusting, the committing adultery in your heart, the hatred and murder in your heart.

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Of all the things you do all day long, if God revealed all that to you at once, we'd probably die.

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It'd be too much. So God is gracious. God is extremely gracious, working on us gradually.

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Just as the illustration last week, when the gold is heated up and the impurities are skimmed off, that takes time.

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That takes time. This is by no means an allowance for sin.

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It simply means it's a process. And His love is much stronger for His children than our sin is to revoke that love.

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Amen. Just as you have always obeyed. That's what he says.

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Verse 12. Just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.

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Obedience is one of, if not, one of the essential aspects of sanctification.

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Christ says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Obey even more now in my absence, because the teacher has taught all that he can do his pupil.

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The apprentice is now graduated to master. You are no longer on milk, but you're on solid foods.

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Essentially, Christ has given us everything we need to grow spiritually and to seek holiness in our lives.

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So obey Him even more so now. Obey Christ even more now.

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Don't make even your church your crutch or a prop. What do

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I mean? At Apology at Church, there's always the possibility some of us may use the sound theology, the biblical elders, and dedicated brethren as a sort of illusion in our lives that we are practicing real

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Christian devotion toward godliness. If this was all removed right here, if this was all gone, what would your spiritual life look like?

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What would it look like today? Do you read God's Word? Do you pray? Do you just about die when you might miss the

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Lord's Day worship service? And you can't borrow faith. You can't borrow faith.

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I'm not saying that we can't lean on each other and minister to each other in different capacities.

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I'm saying one day, one day, you will face the Lord Jesus Christ. And my husband was a believer.

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My wife was a mighty Christian. Or our church did a lot for the kingdom will not be acceptable if you do not have a saving faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Again, you've been given all that you need to grow in your

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Christian walk. So obey now. Obey. He says work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

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Fear in Greek is phobos and trembling is traumas. So he's kind of saying we're to work out our salvation with phobias and traumas.

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Whoa, that sounds pleasant, huh? In John Calvin's commentary on this passage, he states, in this way he would have the

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Philippians testify and approve their obedience by being submissive and humble. Now the source of humility is this, acknowledging how miserable we are and devoid of all good.

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And so what Paul and Calvin are essentially saying here is to have a healthy fear of sin.

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Have a healthy fear of sin and a healthy fear of your propensity to sin.

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Does the thought of you sinning against the Lord cause you to shake? Does it cause you to tremble?

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Does your reverence for the Almighty produce a righteous fear that restrains the fleshly capacity inside of you?

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Well, it should. It should for all of us. Fear and trembling are appropriate actions.

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It is often my prayer that God would make me more sensitive to my sin, to hate it more, to fear disobedience to Him all the more.

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Lord, please let me be more sensitive to my sin. Let it come to my mind that I may cease it, that I may stop it, that I might kill it in its tracks.

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Kill it where it started. Rip it out from the root. I hope that's your prayer too.

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Even then, it's very difficult, isn't it? Fear and trembling.

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Consider Daniel 6 .26. After the

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Lord had saved Daniel from the lions and from his enemies, King Darius says this,

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I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom, men are to fear and tremble before the

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God of Daniel. Why? Why? For He is the living

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God and enduring forever, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, and His dominion will be forever.

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Fear and tremble before God. Why? Because He is God. He is the one true and living

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God, and His dominion is forever. He's no idol made by the hands of mere men.

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He is the God of the fear and tremble. What kind of attitude does

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God want us to have? Isaiah 66 .2 says, this is the

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Lord, for my hand made all these things. Thus, all these things came into being, declares the

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Lord. Listen, but to this one I will look. I will look on this one.

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To Him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word.

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I will look to this one, the one who trembles at my word, at my command.

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Brothers and sisters, when we work out what God has worked in us, let's do it with fear and trembling.

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Now on to verse 13. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

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Can we even grasp that? The God of the universe is at work in you.

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Again, not a false deity, not an idol made with the hands of men, but the

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Almighty, the only God. No one is like the

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Lord our God. No one. Listen to this. You can turn there if you'd like.

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Isaiah 40. We're going to read almost all of it. But this is the Lord God at work in you.

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Hear this. Starting in verse 12, Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, starting in verse 12.

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Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and marked off the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales?

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Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? Or as His counselor has informed

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Him, with whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding and who taught

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Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and informed Him of the way of understanding?

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Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales.

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They're small. They're nothing compared to God. Even Lebanon is not enough to burn.

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Even all of Lebanon is not enough to burn. Nor it's beasts enough for a burnt offering.

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All of the beasts in Lebanon are not even enough for our huge God.

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They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.

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To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare Him with? Now as for the idol, a craftsman casts it.

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A goldsmith plates it with gold and a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

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He who is too impoverished for such an offering, they select a tree. A tree that does not rot.

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He seeks out for Him a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter. Do you not know?

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Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

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It is He who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.

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Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He, it is who reduces rulers to nothing.

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Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. This big and awesome

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God that we can't calculate or quantify is at work in you.

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What great love and mercy that He would adopt us as His own.

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The God of the universe would adopt you as His own son or daughter. The God of the universe adopted you.

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The God of the universe adopted you and you'll be with the

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Lord forevermore and you will never cease to sing

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His praises and you will never fully wrap your mind around God. You will always be amazed and in one million years you'll never fully even know.

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Every day you will be in wonder and amazement and marvel at the Lord God Almighty and it's

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Him who's at work in you. It's Him who's adopted you. Praise God.

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I'm sure you would agree with me when I say that I would serve King Jesus in the lowest courts as a peasant if I could just dwell with Him forever.

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I would dwell with Him forever even as a peasant in His lowest courts, but He offers more than that, right?

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It's amazing. He offers more than that. As Ephesians 1 says, He blesses us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

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He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters. He lavishes on us riches of His grace.

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He has seated us with Him in the heavenly places. It's unfathomable. This is the

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God at work in you and lest we find any room for boasting, lest we think too highly of our own pursuit in holiness, lest we give in to a false pietism,

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God is the one at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. 2

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Corinthians 3, verses 4 and 5 say, such confidence we have through Christ toward God, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.

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Our adequacy is from God. God uncompromisingly, unfailingly, rigorously sees us through to the end supplying all our needs in Christ Jesus.

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God is at work in us. The Greek word for work here is energeo.

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It's where we get the word energy. God is the energizer. Like the sun giving life and energy to His creation and yet that is a bad analogy because He is infinitely more powerful than the sun, the star that He created in the sky for this creation.

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He's infinitely more powerful than it. He thrusts our sanctification forward and we couldn't do it on our own.

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Romans 8, verse 8 says, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Those who are in the flesh cannot please

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God. We can't do it in our flesh. Absolutely nothing but His power induces righteousness and exterminates sin.

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How much power does God have? He has all power. He is omnipotent.

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It is one of His incommunicable attributes. It's an attribute that He doesn't share.

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He's the only one that's all powerful and there is nothing too hard for Him. And then to think that we have some people who think that He can't fully save people and He just makes it a possibility.

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Are you kidding me? This is the God with all power and He will save.

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Absolutely. In 2 Chronicles 29, you can turn there if you'd like.

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2 Chronicles 29 or just listen along. 2

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Chronicles 29, Hezekiah comes on the scene and he succeeds

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Ahaz as king. Listen to verse 6, for our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the

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Lord our God, excuse me, and have forsaken Him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the

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Lord and have turned their backs. And King Hezekiah tells them what they must do.

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Verse 10, now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel that His burning anger may turn away from us.

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So there's this great reform happening in Israel and they tear down the high places and remove all the unclean things from the temple.

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They offered many sacrifices to the Lord because of the nation's great sin.

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And then these couriers, these mailmen type, they go all throughout Judah from city to city announcing the nation's repentance, turning back to the

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Lord and they are warned not to stiffen their necks like their fathers did before them.

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And here's what allowed them to do all that. This is essential right here.

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Verse 12 of chapter 30 now. Verse 12 of chapter 30. It says, The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the

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Lord. How can we comprehend that? Where is the divider between what is

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God and what is us? The hand of God was on Judah. The hand of God was on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded them by the word of the

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Lord. It was God. It was God. But again, where's the roles?

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God's responsibility. Our responsibility. What's our roles in this? And that's really what much of this sermon is about.

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It's almost mystery. Yet it is clear in Scripture that whatever we do in our lives in reaction to God's command,

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He must energize. He is powerful and His power works to result what

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He commands. His power works to result what He commands. I mean, really, why would

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God save us to do something we could never do and then just leave us alone? Philippians 1 .6,

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we went over it a few weeks ago. He says, For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

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A good work in you, a work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

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There it is again, working in you. Next he says, to will in you, to will in you.

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So if God establishes His will in you to resolve or purpose for you to do something, will it not be accomplished?

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1 Thessalonians 4 .3 says, For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

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That's God's will. Your sanctification. Your sanctification, your spiritual growth, your striving for holiness is

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God's will. It's His business. Listen to some of these truths about God willing and working in you.

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I'm just going to move through these a little quickly. Psalm 138 .8, The Lord will fulfill

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His purpose for me. Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

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So did you hear that? The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.

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He will do it. Ecclesiastes 3 .14,

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I perceive that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken away from it.

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God has done it so that people fear Him. If God is the author of salvation, how can it be undone, my friends?

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I perceive that whatever God does endures forever. 1

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Thessalonians 5 .23, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Sanctify you entirely. He will not fail.

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The work that He's begun in you, He will not fail. He will complete it. He will sanctify you entirely.

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On that day, you will be exactly what God wants you to be, molding us into the image of Christ.

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Sanctify you entirely, complete, without blame at the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. That's glorious. So brothers and sisters, as we close, consider these things.

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The sanctification process cannot be halted. The sanctification process cannot be halted.

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Sure, sin slows it down, you grieve the Holy Spirit, but God progresses it forward through His blessing and chastening.

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By the way, receive His chastening. Suffer righteously. Me and my wife always talk about that.

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Lord, let us suffer righteously. When you suffer righteously, you're allowing it to let you grow closer to Christ and grow further in Him.

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When you suffer in sin, you turn inward, right?

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You look upon your circumstance, you self -despair. But when you suffer, and you suffer righteously, you turn upward, and you look at Christ, right?

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And it can grow you. In fact, suffering like our

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Lord did is one of the most profound ways that you will grow in Him. Our prayer ought to be that God supply a holy hatred for sin, and then a holy ambition for all things righteous.

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So the question has been answered, brothers and sisters. God works and wills in us that we would work.

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And all of it is for His good pleasure. It's all for His glory. Lord, cause us to do what pleases

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You, Lord. Like in the book of James, he says, but be doers of the

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Word and not hearers only, lest we delude ourselves. Don't just be hearers.

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Don't just come in here on Sunday and listen and walk out of here unchanged every day, transforming, changing, repenting, being more like Christ.

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Be a doer of the Word. Be a soldier. Fight the good fight of faith, as Paul told

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Timothy. There's a call to action there. Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

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Press on. Be a soldier. A soldier takes the offense of the defense, and that takes action.

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That takes strength. That's not passive. You ever see soldiers in battle just passive?

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They're the first ones to die. We're called to be soldiers. Fight the good fight.

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Press on to the upward call of Christ Jesus. The New Testament, just do a concordance search.

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Strive, labor, work. Look those things up. It's all God, and yet He calls us all to strive, work, and labor in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. It's you as well. But He's the source of it all.

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The source of your sanctification. Labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living

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God. Labor all the more because of what He has wrought in you. So you're thinking, what can you practically do?

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What's the application here? Just some simple things. Serve each other.

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Serve the church. Serve Christ. Go partake in evangelism and stop waiting for the right time.

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Read your Bible like it's food and water, folks. Read your Bible like it's food and water that you need it every day.

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Pray to the One who has saved you. Grow in your relationship to Him. Repent every single day.

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Confess your sins to God. Work to kill your sins. Grow in righteousness, brothers and sisters.

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He says, buy their fruits, you will know them. In any tree not producing of fruit will be cast into the fire.

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Fear and trembling. And it doesn't mean, listen, it doesn't mean that the fruit is always large and sweet.

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It's not always low hanging and abundant. Sometimes it's a weak harvest and sometimes you might have a season of little to no fruit.

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But the next season comes in and Christ affirms the graft that He made with you. The cultivar that He chose was really

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His. You are found in Him and He allows the bumper crop to come in. Harvest time.

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Sanctification is not a flat line. Sanctification looks like this. It's a gradual process, my friends.

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Ask yourself today, are you stagnant in your walk? Are you being complacent? Are you too comfortable?

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Because the moment you get comfortable is the moment you ought to start fearing and trembling once again and to turn to the

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Word of the Lord. Work, my brothers and sisters.

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Work tirelessly at your sanctification, but don't forget who wills and works in you to do so.

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Do not boast. Give the Lord all the credit. In the Gospel of John chapter 15,

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Jesus says, you did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain.

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Your fruit will remain if you're found in Christ. So work out what God has worked in.

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, You are so good,

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Lord. God, we marvel at Your grace. We marvel,

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God, that people made of the dust of the earth, Lord, that You would adopt us as sons and daughters into Your kingdom.

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God, what grace, Lord. God, that You would be the source of our sanctification, that You're the one who's willing and working in us, that we would work out what

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You have worked in, Lord. Help us to do that. Empower us by Your Holy Spirit, Lord, to walk in the works that You have prepared beforehand,

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Lord, because we know that every work that we've done outside the will of Christ will one day burn up.

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And Lord, I've begun to really think more and more that much of the work I do has been tainted by sin and will burn up.

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But Lord, I see here, God, that You will let the good fruit remain. And You are faithful with that,

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Lord. You will preserve me and all these folks who are in Christ to the end. Lord, I pray now that if anyone here is not found in You, not found in Christ, Lord, that You would open their eyes, that You would open their ears to the gospel truths and that they would turn from their sin and trust in Christ for life.

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Lord, thank You for this so wonderful salvation that we get to walk in. Sanctify us,