Shine like lights, Phil. 2:14-16

Phil. 2:14  “Do all things without grumbling or disputing;  15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,   16  holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.”

As we consider today’s passage in our ongoing study of Philippians, it is a good idea to review the previous doctrine that Paul has presented thus far, in order to understand correctly what we are looking at today and be sure to keep it in the proper context. 

This section of scripture really begins when Paul tells us that Christ’s example of a servant’s attitude is to be our attitude as well.   He said in vs. 5, have this same mind,  have this same attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.  So as Jesus humbled himself to be our servant and serve God’s purposes, not seeking his own glory, so our attitude should be one of humility and service, as we present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, which Romans 12 tells us is our reasonable service of worship.

And furthermore, Paul says, not only did Christ have this attitude of humility and servitude, he says Christ was obedient to the will of God.  Again, Christ is our example.  We need to be obedient to the things God shows us in His Word.  That should indicate the necessity of knowing God’s Word.  How can we know the true God and know what He requires of us if we don’t know His Word?  Without that absolute truth, we end up fashioning a god in our own image, making an idol of our own creation, as we determine what we think God should be like, rather than learning what God actually is like.  The Word is the only authority for absolute truth.

In regards to this obedience, Paul reminds us in vs.10 that one day every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  And we discussed in great detail last time what the word Lord signified, not only to the Gentile, but also to the Jew.  In both cases, it meant that to confess Jesus as Lord meant being exiled in most cases from either the Jewish or Gentile communities.  It quite possibly meant the loss of one’s property, the loss of one’s job, the loss of one’s family, and even at times the loss of one’s life.  That’s why Paul makes the correlation in vs. 8  that Jesus was obedient  unto death, even the shame of a cross.  And again, Jesus is our example for us that would claim to be His disciples.  We go where He goes.  We pattern our lives after His life.  And as we confess Him as Lord, we bow our knees to His will and His purpose, not just in lip service, but in life service.

This life service is what vs. 12 is talking about, to work out, or live out our salvation, to live out the righteousness that God has put in us, and he adds the phrase, with fear and trembling.  This idea of fearing God is a foreign concept to the modern day Christian.  After all, no one fears Santa Claus. No one fears a slavishly over indulgent loving grandfather, which is how most Christians portray God. You may remember that during the Iraq War they had a phrase we heard on the news every night which was “shock and awe.”  And in some ways, this phrase fear and trembling makes me think of shock and awe.   During the Iraq War it meant that the army of Iraq trembled in fear of the overwhelming power and might of the United States military.  And I think to some degree that is what Paul is getting at here.  As we consider the holiness of God, as we consider the wrath of God,  as we consider the magnificent gift of our salvation, as we consider the extent of Christ’s suffering and shame, as we consider the wrath of God which Christ took upon Himself in order to serve as our substitute and sacrifice, then we should live out our salvation with an awe and reverence for the grace and mercy that has been bestowed on us.  We should consider our responsibility and stewardship that God has entrusted us with, with a healthy measure of fear and trembling. 

Anyone who has studied theology cannot hear the phrase “fear and trembling” without thinking of the famous book with that very title  by a 19th century well known philosopher named Soren Kierkegaard.  The subject of his book was Abraham and his journey of faith when he went to Mount Moriah to sacrifice his son Isaac.  The scripture says, Abraham believed God and He counted it to him as righteousness.  Abraham’s salvation was by faith in what God promised.  But the test of Abraham’s faith was in being obedient to what God asked him to do, to sacrifice his only son, the son of promise.  And with fear and trembling, Abraham was obedient to God’s command, taking his son and tying him to an altar, and even raising his knife to kill his son, because he believed that God must raise him from the dead in order to keep His word.  

Perhaps that kind of obedient faith is what Paul means when he tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, trusting in the promises of God, being obedient to offer our lives as a living sacrifice to God, even though it may cost us all that we hold dear in this world, because we believe that God will raise us up to live a new life with Him.

Not long ago,  I was talking to my wife and somehow we got on the topic of people who once were a part of our fellowship and now have fallen away.  They once were faithful.  They once were eager to hear the Word.  They once were learning and growing in their faith.  And yet today they are no longer with us.  Many of them no longer have anything to do with the Lord.  They became distracted by the enticements of the world.  They became distracted perhaps by a girlfriend or a boyfriend.  They became enticed by the desire for a career.  They were lured away by drugs or alcohol.  And they strayed away from the fellowship, strayed from God’s word, and eventually rejected the preaching of the truth and turned to the amusements of this world.  They turned away from the priceless treasure of salvation for a cheap imitation of life offered by the the snake oil salesmen of the world.  Jesus said in Mark 8:36  "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” 

This great stewardship of salvation should fill us with fear and trembling as we recognize that God has chosen us to be the vessels of His mercy, that He has entrusted us with the message of the gospel, that He has filled these jars of clay with nothing less than the treasure of the Spirit of God Himself, who now lives in us, working in us, conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ, as it says in vs. 13, His Spirit is now working in us to do HIS will, and to perform what pleases HIM.  That God would choose to do this in us is an amazing thing, and it should be a humbling thing, and it should fill us with fear and trembling at the awesome responsibility that we have been given to live out this great salvation.

Now having that understanding of the preceding verses, we now come to our text which follows logically upon the prior verses.  Having then this great responsibility, this awesome stewardship, having been entrusted with such a great salvation, Paul says in verse 14, “do all things without grumbling or disputing...”  Which begs the question, do what things?  And it simply refers back to those righteous responsibilities that are part of living out your salvation, of working your salvation out to the world.  It says, in all the things that God has entrusted you with, in all the things God has told you to do, as you work them out, do them without grumbling or disputing. 

And those are a couple of interesting words.   Grumbling can also be interpreted as murmuring.  Whispering.  Muttering under your breath.  It was a word that was often used in reference to the tribe of Israel when Moses brought them out of the land of Egypt.  They hadn’t  even crossed the Red Sea when they started complaining sarcastically to Moses that maybe there hadn’t been any graves in Egypt, so he had taken them into the wilderness to die.  Then once God had opened up the Red Sea for them and destroyed the following Egyptian army, they quickly forgot that and started complaining and murmuring and grumbling again against God and Moses.  It was the pattern of their life.  They grumbled about the food God provided, they murmured they were thirsty, they complained about Moses’ leadership, and even whined to Aaron that Moses was spending too much time on the mountain with God.  And Numbers 21:5 tells us that God called this grumbling sin and eventually punished them for it by sending fiery serpents among them. So then grumbling is a sinful, emotional, gut level complaint about the circumstances God has chosen for your life and the requirements He has for your conduct.

We need to remember that sometimes God allows difficulties to come into our lives for His purposes.  Verse 13 just finished telling us that God is working in you for His will and His purposes, and now when He does so, who are we to complain that everything is not working out like we would like? 1Peter 4:12 tells us;  “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.”

 We need to remember that Romans 8:28 tells us that God uses all things, good and bad, for His purposes, and ultimately for for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  It may not always be fun or enjoyable at the moment, but we need to remember that God is working  out His will in our life.  He is in control and we shouldn’t grumble against that.

And the second word is disputing which comes from the Greek word dialogismos.  It is the root of our word dialogue.  It means to argue, debate, discuss with God the reasoning behind His will.  Arguing with God over what He has given us to do.  Trying to debate with Him to get Him to change His mind or His will.  It means questioning of God’s will and purposes in your life.  Why do I have to be single?  Why do I have to endure this hardship?  Why have you allowed me to go through this difficulty?  It’s an attitude of discontentment.  Hardly the attitude that Christ had as He considered the cross, is it?  Jesus prayed, “not my will, but your will be done.”

So whatever circumstances I find myself in, as a Christian I need to recognize that God has in His sovereign will put me in this place of duty, in this position of service and I must bear up under the burden of hardship or difficulty or trial and trust God to work it out and work in me that which is pleasing to Him.  For instance, perhaps God has chosen you to be single.  It’s not something that is easy, especially in this modern culture.  It is a difficult place where God has put you.  It’s lonely, it’s painful.  And yet God has placed you there for His purposes.  And as a consequence you are perhaps more devoted to Him than you would be if you were married.  You provide a special service to Him that others cannot provide.  So what a shame to spend your life murmuring or complaining against God’s will for you to be single.  What a shame to waste your life in disputing God’s will and try to get Him to change His mind.  And you can substitute any number of other circumstances in place of the word single.  Like sickness, like cancer, like being poor, like jobless, or wherever God has placed you, don’t complain.  God has His purpose, and thank God that He has considered you worthy to suffer if necessary for His name sake.

I am ashamed to confess that I am often guilty of the sin of grumbling and disputing with God about the place that He has put me in to serve.  I complain about everything, from the snail’s pace traffic on 26, to the climate, to the way the wind changes on a whim, to the lack of consistent surf, to the lack of commitment to the fellowship, to the lack of appreciation for the preaching of the  Word of God.  I grumble and complain all the time.  And lately I have found that it has affected my attitude, and I get disgruntled.  I realize that I should be grateful that God has even chosen me for service in any measure.  I don’t deserve to be chosen for service for God.  But He has given me a very great honor in giving me the opportunity to serve him, no matter what size the church, no matter what the cost of service.  I should be honored to serve Him.  God has convicted me to stop complaining and start conforming to the attitude of Jesus Christ and follow the pattern of His service.

As hard as it might be for us to see at the moment, many times God allows us to suffer so that we might be a greater testimony for Christ.  Vs. 15 tells us that this is “so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”  Even though our circumstances may be difficult, we endure them without sinning in murmuring or disputing God, but submitting to His will, so that we might be a testimony to the world. You know, as Christians we are either being an example or an excuse.  An example of Christ that others can follow or  an excuse, an excuse not to take Christianity so seriously.  An excuse that we’re all just a bunch of hypocrites.  You’re either an example or excuse.

And just look quickly at how Paul uses three different words to describe basically the same thing.  He says in our example we are to be “blameless, innocent, and above reproach.”  I think the idea is that of the sacrificial lamb in the OT.  It was to be spotless, without blemish.  Now the lamb was a picture of Jesus Christ; the sinless, blameless, above reproach, sacrificial lamb that takes away the sins of the world.  But as Christ was, so are we to be.  “Have the same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus.”  He is our example and we are to follow his pattern. Our lives should be lived in such a way that criticism doesn’t stick.  We are to be above reproach in our conduct and even our motivation.

Now concerning this testimony to the world.  Paul describes the world as “a crooked and perverse generation.”  And I don’t think that there was ever a time when this statement was more true than it is today.  Even an unbeliever must see that the world is a perverse place, a place where right is called wrong, and light is called darkness.  It seems the world is completely upside down lately.  I can’t help but believe that Christ is coming back soon. Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

And that is the state of the world.  The world is in darkness.  2 Tim.2:26  says the world is in the snare of the devil, and they are enslaved by him to do his will.   But for those that are Christians, Paul says we are to shine like lights in the darkness.  This is our testimony to the lost world.  As Christ was the light of the world, so we are to reflect that light to the world as well.  You know, the most effective witness to the world is our changed lives.  Our testimony, how we live and how we act, speaks much more loudly than our words do. 

Jesus said in Mat 5:14  "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;  nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”  You know what, it’s a whole lot easier to make converts than it is to make disciples.  Making disciples means that someone has to follow you around at work, or follow you around on the weekend, or whatever.  A disciple watches you, and sees what you’re doing and how you do it.  And folks, that is what we are commissioned to do.  Not just have great big altar calls and see a bunch of people come forward swept along on an emotional tide, but to individually disciple people to become followers of us, and in the process become followers of Christ.  Now that’s a tall order, but that’s our orders.

Then finally the last verse,  vs. 16 tells us in this process of being a shining light to the world by living out our salvation to the world, Paul says in that process to “hold fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.”  Now why does Paul throw that in there?  I believe it is because we need to keep a strong grip on the Word of God.  It is the absolute truth in a world without absolutes.  It is the key to being obedient to God’s will.  It is the power of God unto salvation for the world.  And more and more, as it has always been, it is the thing most under attack by the enemy.  

In 1 Timothy, Paul warned Timothy in chapter one of false teachers who would stray from the truth and end up suffering shipwreck in their lives.  And this is a constant concern of the Apostle Paul for the Christian.  If Satan can get you to stray away from God’s word, then he can get you to stray away from the truth, and the omission of that small, seemingly insignificant detail of our busy Christian lives has the effect of a ship’s captain that sets a course just one degree off his course.  At first, he may not see a big change of direction, but eventually it leads to destruction.  They soon find their lives on the rocks, shipwrecked in regards to their faith, and especially in regards to their testimony. 

Satan would love to see you suffer shipwreck in your faith, ladies and gentlemen. Not only to destroy you, but to destroy the faith of those who are watching you.  And his first strategy is always to get you to abandon the Word of God.  Paul says “Hold fast the Word of God.”  Hold fast is a term that means tie your ship securely, to set your anchor in a way that it will not move.  Hold fast.  Stand firm in your commitment to keep the Word of God the main thing in your Christian walk.  So that in the day that Jesus Christ returns, the day when Christ will judge the living and the dead, the righteous and the unrighteous, in that day, we will be found not to have run in vain or toiled in vain.

Yes, the place where God has placed you to serve may be tough. You may not see a lot of earthly rewards now.  But Jesus is coming back.  And one day, whether we are alive or dead, we will be raised incorruptible.  And we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.  In that day, I hope that I will find that I have not run in vain or toiled in vain.  That Jesus might say to me on that day, “'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”  I pray that you will find Him saying that to you as well.  That you were faithful to perform your service to him in a way that brought glory and honor to Jesus Christ. 

One of the things I’ve traditionally done during the Christmas season is around Christmas Eve we go for a drive in the car and look at Christmas lights.  Something about seeing the lights on a dark sky look beautiful.  And I think it’s cool how even the humblest little house or trailer can look really beautiful when they decorate it all up with lights.   This world is a dark place, but God has given us the job of being a light to the world, shining as an example of Jesus Christ.  Let your light so shine before men in such a way as to bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ.  "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;  nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”  

Salvation Workout, Phil. 2:5-13

Phil. 2:5   “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,   but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  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; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

In our culture today, we are constantly hearing about some new workout that is being touted as the latest surefire way to get in shape.  There is the Pilates workout, the Zumba workout, the Crossfit workout.  Many years ago I tried to do the Navy Seal workout.  Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out.  Rather than getting stronger I just wore myself out. Nowadays I’ve started doing the YouTube workout. It’s pretty easy.  You just watch other people work out on the videos.  But we are increasingly recognizing as a culture that while we may have been given relatively healthy bodies when we were born, if we want to stay healthy we need to exercise them.  And a similar principle is true in our Christian life as well.  We must be born again into a new life, but God’s intention is for us to grow and mature and become stronger spiritually.  So today we’re going to be looking at what I have titled the Salvation Workout.

In our ongoing study of Philippians we have been looking at this passage which contains one of the premiere portraits of Christ in the Bible.  Last week we looked specifically as Christ as our Sovereign, as the Son of God, as a Servant, and our Savior.  And today I would like to continue that series of illustrations with Christ as our Example.  Christ is presented in vs. 5 as our example for us to pattern our lives after.  Christ is not just our substitute, which indeed He was, but He also is the pattern for us to live our lives even as He lived His. 1Pet. 2:21 confirms this; “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”

And the key to how  we  accomplish that is found in vs. 8 in the word obedient.  It says that Christ humbled Himself by becoming obedient even to the point of death.  And though Christ being obedient may sound strange to us, we need to understand that Christ was obedient to the Father for our sake, for the sake of our salvation, and also for our example.  Hebrews 5:8 confirms this point.  “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”

So even though Christ was equal with God, yet while in the flesh He humbled Himself to be obedient to the predetermined will of the Father.  Hebrews 10:7 "THEN I SAID, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'"  Jesus himself said in John 12:49 "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.” 

This is how Jesus  could say “I and the Father are One.”  Not only were they equal in position, but they were united in purpose, in word and in deed.  But lest  we think this is just some theological treatise that Paul is propounding here, we need to remember the context of the passage, and realize that Paul is using the example of Jesus’ obedience to the Father as an illustration for how we are supposed to live.  Too often in our selfish, human nature, we are more than content to let Christ be our sacrifice, to let Him be our substitute, to let Him pay the price so we can live our lives any way we want.  But what Paul is really saying here is that even as Christ humbled Himself, so we too are to humble ourselves.  Even as Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice, we too must offer our lives as a sacrifice in service to Christ.  Even as Christ was unified with the Father in purpose, word and deed, so we are to be unified to Christ in purpose, word and deed.  “Have the same attitude, the same understanding, the same mindset as Jesus Christ.”  That is what Paul is saying here. 

Now Paul goes on to show Christ’s reward for this sacrifice, for this humiliation that He suffered.  And again the same principle of Christ as our example applies to us in this passage as well.  As it was for Him, so it will be for His followers. Romans 8:17 tells us that if we are children of God, then we are “heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  But notice the order.  Sacrifice comes first, then exaltation comes afterward. 

So then in vs. 9, it says, “For this reason…”  For what reason?  The reason is because Christ humbled himself, became a servant, was obedient unto death, for this reason, “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 

Because Christ was obedient even unto death, God raised Him from the dead, He ascended into heaven, and He took His seat at the right hand of the Father above all principalities, above all rule and authority. Eph. 1:20 says God “raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,  which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

So God exalted Christ by giving Him it says, a “name that is above every name”.  And what is that name above every name?  It’s not Jesus.  Note it doesn't say that at the name Jesus. But it says that at the name OF Jesus. And what is the name of Jesus? The name of Jesus is Lord.  In Hebrew, the name of God was written as a tetragrammaton for Yahweh which spelled out L O R D. In the Greek that word Lord is kurios, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord.  

This is the confession that every creature in the universe will give one day.  And this is the confession that Romans 10:9 says is necessary for salvation today; “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Unfortunately, in our society today the word Lord has come to mean just another name for God which has little significance for us.  But when Paul wrote to the Romans, as well as to the Philippians which was also a Roman colony,  that they must confess Jesus as Lord, the full significance of these words meant a lot to those Roman citizens because Caesar had been declared to be god.  And men and women of the Roman Empire were eventually forced to swear an oath of allegiance to Caesar as Lord and Savior of the world.  The early Christians saw this as idolatry and refused to bow the knee to Caesar as Lord and consequently many of them lost their lives.  So when Paul says to the 1st century Gentiles that they must confess Jesus as Lord, they knew that this required absolute surrender and submission to Jesus Christ as Lord and King of all, and they knew that it would cost them everything to make that confession. 

And for the 1st century Jew it had a special significance as well. Because Paul is quoting  these words from Isaiah 45: 23  “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”  And for the Jew, they knew from the context of that passage that the One speaking in Isaiah was Yahweh, the most sacred name of God which they refused to even say, so instead it was translated LORD.  So Paul is making a direct quotation here from the OT saying that you must confess Jesus Christ as Yahweh, and every knee will bow to Him.    For the Jew then, to confess Jesus Christ is Lord was to recognize that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God in the flesh, the promised King of Kings from the line of David, the One in whom all their blessings resided in, and whom they had crucified. 

This confession that Jesus is Lord Romans 10:9 tells us results in being granted the  righteousness of Christ.  This is the way man becomes saved.  By faith in Christ, that is believing all that He was, all that He came to do, that He was God in the flesh, that He was our substitute, that His atonement on the cross was sufficient for our salvation, but also confessing Jesus as Lord.  Confessing Him as King of our lives, ruler of our lives, and surrendering our will, our purpose and our lives to Him, willing to be changed by Him, and willing to be used by Him.

Not just to say I’m sorry for the mess I’ve made of my life.  I’m sorry that I haven’t been all that I could be.  Or to wish that God would change the circumstances of my life.  Or to wish that God would bless my finances.  Or to say I want to go to heaven when I die, because the alternative sounds a bit dreadful.  None of those things are confessing Jesus as Lord.    But a total capitulation of all that I hold dear, surrendering everything for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ and being found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, but having His righteousness. Phil. 3:8 Paul said, “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things [all he once counted as gain], and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

This confession is more than just a mere acknowledgement that Jesus lived, or even exists, for the devils also believe and tremble. But salvation, righteousness realized, depends upon a broken and contrite heart, that is wholly dependent upon grace, and fully cognizant of my own unworthiness and inability to be righteous.  A willingness to bow my knee before Christ in repentance, a willingness to turn over all of my heart to Him.  To come to the end of yourself and a willingness to become all that God would have me to be, and follow the example of Jesus Christ.

I’m afraid that isn’t the kind of salvation that is being espoused in modern Christianity today.  I’m afraid that there is a desire to be ok with God, but keep the world and all that comes with it as well.  We want to be in the ballpark, but not in the game.  We want to be somehow on the sidelines and let others do the playing and we remain spectators.  But real Christianity isn’t like that.  IF we are willing to suffer with Him, then we get the right to reign with Him. 2Tim. 2:11 “It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him.  “And the things that you must be willing to suffer is the loss of the priorities of this world and the pleasures and lusts of this world for the sake of following Jesus Christ.  And for those who are willing to suffer the loss of those things which are dear to them here, God promises to exalt those people to rule and reign with Christ in the world to come. 

The problem for most of us  is that this world seems so appealing, so promising, that we have no appetite for heaven.  Heaven is not enough of a motivation for us to sacrifice everything that we see here for a future we can’t see there.  So Paul gives us an allusion to another motivation.  If the positive motivation of heaven is not enough, then perhaps the negative motivation of a judgment to come will help.  He says, “at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” 

Some have wrongfully concluded from this verse that somehow at the end of the ages everyone will have a second chance of being saved, of  confessing Jesus is Lord.  But that would render salvation worthless wouldn’t it?  That would discount the priceless sacrifice of Jesus to the value of a yard sale leftover, the stuff that they leave on the side of the road for free.  No, what it means is that on this side of Christ’s coming again salvation is obtained through faith, faith in what isn’t seen.  But one day, every eye will see Him come again not as a baby in Bethlehem, not as an ordinary looking man, but every eye will see Him coming in the clouds with fire and all His angels with Him, and Matthew 24 tells us then that the whole earth will mourn, because it will be too late for confession resulting in righteousness, it will be a confession that results in condemnation and a sentence of eternal damnation for rejecting the Lord of all creation when He gave His life for our reconciliation. 

Matt. 24:30 says "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory.” But on that day, it will be too late for salvation by faith.  Christ comes on that day not to save, but to judge the world.

Paul says, “those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”  Those who are in heaven refers to the angels of heaven, 10,000 times 10,000 times 10000, or untold millions of angels. Revelation 12 refers to angels as stars of heaven, and I think that the number of the angels in heaven may approximate the number of the stars.  The estimated number of the stars is between 10 sextillion and 1 septillion stars. That’s a one with 21 zeros after it.   The stars comprise and are organized into about 80 billion galaxies.  So it’s possible that God created angels of that number as well as they are often referenced in the scripture being as plentiful as the stars.  All this innumerable multitude of heavenly creatures worshipping Christ as Lord.  And one day, the Bible says, those of us who reign with Christ will judge angels. 

And in the earth obviously refers to men and women who are living on the earth at the time of Christ’s second coming.  And under the earth refers to the dead, both those that are dead in Christ and those that are dead in their sins, that exist in the subterranean abode which the Bible calls Hades and Paradise, which Christ referred to in His story of Lazarus and the rich man who both died and the rich man was in torment, while Lazarus was being comforted in Abraham’s bosom.  

So, there is a negative motivation for surrendering to Christ now, and that is that there is coming a day of judgment, a day when Christ will judge the living and the dead, when He will separate the sheep from the goats as spoken of throughout the Bible.

And then finally, Paul gives an exhortation for us to continue in Christ’s example.  Vs. 12  “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;  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” There is that principle of obedience again, not only for Christ, but for us.

So then, Paul says, since God has shown us the example of Christ that we are to follow, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.  Now, Paul isn’t contradicting all the gospel that he has previously given regarding salvation as a work of faith.   For instance, Paul says in Gal. 2:16  “nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” 

So if Paul isn’t talking about working for your salvation, then what does he mean?  I think a good illustration of what he is talking about is when David was brought before King Saul because he had volunteered to go out and fight Goliath.  And Saul gave David his own armor to wear.  And David said, “I cannot wear this, because I have not proven it.”  And what he meant by that was he had not proven it in battle.  He had not worn it in battle.  The armor had not been tested in the trials of war.

And this is what Paul is getting at here.  He is saying your salvation which was won for you is not to put on a shelf. It’s not for sitting on the sidelines.  But exercise your faith.  Live out your faith.  Take your Christianity into the field of battle and use it and wear it and prove it to be worthy.  It’s a command to exercise your salvation.  You were saved to live out the righteousness that God granted to us by doing deeds of righteousness within the sphere of the world that we exist in.

So we could say the first aspect of it then is to work out or exercise in daily conduct what God has put in. Walking by faith.  Day-to-day holy living, that's the idea. I am to be committed to the process of my salvation coming to fruition in the sense that it's manifest in my conduct, my behavior.  We are to pattern our lives in the same pattern that Jesus laid for us, to be obedient to God’s word, to be a servant to the church, to live like a child of God, to be concerned with the salvation of men and women.  This is working out our salvation.  In Jam 2:22, speaking of Abraham it says, “You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected, completed.

And then vs. 13 gives us the other half of the equation for sanctification: “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  Just as Jesus didn’t do anything that wasn’t the Father’s will, didn’t say anything that the Father did not tell Him to say, so it is also to be with us.  Now that we’ve been made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives within us.  We become temples of God.  And God lives in this temple to do His will, to work for His purposes, His good pleasure, and not to be diverted to do our pleasure.  This is the purpose of God, to sanctify us, to use us to live for Christ, for His glory. 1Cor. 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

The purpose of the Holy Spirit is not to give us goose bumps, or to give us some ecstatic experience.  But God in the presence of the Holy Spirit lives in us so that we might live as Christ lived.  Our obedience is evidence that God lives in us, it’s the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in us so that we might do the works of righteousness, that which God has prepared us for.  So that God might use this once sinful, selfish body for His glory. 

So what is Paul’s message here for us this morning?  One is that salvation and righteousness, in other words acceptance by God, is only possible when we come to a place where we are willing to confess Jesus is Lord.  Jesus as our Savior, our Substitute and our Sovereign.  And God promises to grant us the full measure of Christ’s righteousness to those who have faith in Jesus Christ and confess Him as their Lord.  But then secondly, the next essential part of our salvation is our sanctification, wherein we follow His example and in obedience to His will, follow Christ in humility, in obedience, in servitude and sacrifice and even if necessary suffering for His sake, working out this great salvation that we have received with fear and trembling, full of reverence and awe for the great responsibility and stewardship that God has entrusted us with.   

And finally, the message is that if we suffer with Him, we will also reign with Him.  That as God exalted Jesus Christ and gave Him a name above every name, He has also reserved an inheritance for us, that one day we will be fellow heirs with Christ and sit on thrones with Him in glory and share in all that the Father has planned for those that love Him.