Sermons by Ken Trivette from The Living Word

The Book of Philippians (Study 10)
THE IN'S AND OUT'S OF SALVATION
Philippians 2:12-13

1. Many a Christian life could be described as "up and down" and "on and off." Paul tells us that the Christian life is a process of "in's and out's."

2. Salvation consists of a work that is outward and inward. There is something to be worked out and there is Someone that is working in us. Our salvation consists of something to realize and something to actualize.

3. To many, salvation is no more than the promise of going to heaven. Salvation does mean that one day those that are saved will go to heaven. But salvation also means that today heaven can come to us. This aspect of salvation has never been actualized in many a life.

4. To many, salvation is knowing that God saved them. That is a glorious truth that should thrill us. But salvation also means that the same God that saved is also the God that sanctifies us. This aspect of salvation has never been realized in many a life.

5. Paul describes the "in's" and "out's" of our salvation in verses 12-13. Let's notice the text.

1. THE GIFT OF SALVATION!

1. In verse 12, Paul said, "work out your own salvation." To understand what he was saying, let me begin by first considering what he was not saying.

A. He Speaks Of A Salvation That Is Provided.

1. Paul was by no means suggesting that one must work for salvation. Ten thousand times no! He had just stated in the previous verses that salvation had been provided by the Lord Jesus: "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (2:6-8).

2. Jesus had taken upon Himself the form of man that He might die for man. Jesus had gone to the cross and purchased salvation for all men that He might provide salvation for all men. Paul had made it very clear that salvation was not what man may do but what Jesus has done. As the songwriter so wonderfully expressed it:

Not the labors of my hands
Can fulfill Thy laws demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my years forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me Saviour, or I die!

3. Salvation is not something to achieve, but something to receive. It is not gotten, it is given. Paul made this clear when he said, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph.2:8-9).

5. A lifetime of good works cannot and will not save anyone. It doesn't matter how good a person has been or how bad they have been. Salvation is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, plus nothing, minus nothing. Salvation is God's provision. It is an effect, not an effort.

6. You may remember when Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, spoke at Baylor School here in Chattanooga. The next day the headlines in the Chattanooga Times read: "Evangelist Went Too Far Students Say. Franklin Graham's fire and brimstone chapel talk this week has some Baylor students pretty fired up." The article told of how 250 Baylor students signed a petition protesting the 20 minute message by Graham. One student said that he thought Graham went too far when he told students that anyone who did not accept Christ as his personal Saviour was condemned to hell.

7. Let me say that I would have disappointed and angered if he has said anything else. There can be and will be no salvation apart from the Lord Jesus. A person is condemned to hell if Christ is not their Saviour. Salvation cannot be achieved by anything we do. It must be received from the Lord Jesus that has done all that is needed to be saved. Salvation is provided for it is the gift of God.

B. He Speaks Of A Salvation That Is Personal.

1. Notice that Paul spoke of "your own salvation." He was speaking of a salvation not only provided but a salvation that is personal. It is to be "your" salvation. It can be "your" salvation.

2. David said in Psalm 23:1, "The Lord is my Shepherd." David was declaring that the Lord was a Shepherd. But he was also declaring that He was his Shepherd. Salvation was a personal matter to David.

3. I read about a mother that was always reading to her little girl. She read to her all the traditional fairy tales like Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Three Little Pigs. She also read to her all the Bible stories. The little girl's mind was like a sponge and took in all the stories her mother read to her. One day he mother read to her Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." The mother looked at her little girl and said, "If Jesus is knocking at your heart's door, will you open the door and let Him in?" Without a moments hesitation, the little girl said, "Not by the hair of my chinny-chin chin."

4. Salvation may be provided, but it will not be personal until one accepts it. I rejoice that is provided and I rejoice that it is personal.

1. The Gift of Salvation!

2. THE GOAL OF SALVATION!

1. When Paul said, "work out your own salvation" he was speaking of a goal of salvation. He was describing something that we who are saved should strive for and obtain.

2. The verb "work out" means to, "thoroughly develop, to work to full completion." It is not a matter of working for something, but a working out of what one already has. The word was used in a couple of ways that is suggestive of what Paul was saying.

A. The Believer Is To Experience A Full Christian Life.

1. The word was used of a miner going into a mine and working that mine to get out all the valuable ore in that mine. The miner had before him a tremendous source of wealth. He worked the mine to make what was available his.

2. Paul said in Ephesians 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."

3. The statement "all spiritual blessings" literally means "all the blessings of the Spirit." Paul is declaring that all the blessings of the Spirit have been made ours in Christ. To put it another way, we have entered into a salvation that is a mine full of gold and silver. It is ours to enjoy and experience.

4. A man was being honored as his city's leading citizen. Called on to tell the story of his life, he said, "Friends and neighbors, when I first came here 30 years ago, I walked into your town on a muddy dirt road with only the clothes on my back, the shoes on my feet, and all my earthly possessions wrapped up in a red bandanna tied to a stick which I carried over my shoulder. Today I am chairman of the board of the bank. I own hotels, apartment buildings, office buildings, three companies with branches in 49 cities, and I am on the boards of all the leading clubs. Yes, friends, your city has been good to me." After the banquet a young fellow asked the great man, "Sir, could you tell me what you had wrapped in the red bandanna when you walked into our town 30 years ago?" The man answered, "I think, son, it was about a half million dollars in cash and $900,000 in government bonds."

5. In our case, when we got in, we didn't even have a red bandanna. But Jesus gave us a spiritual mine and we as believers are spiritually wealthy. But what is so sad that that many never work out that mine and make as their own all that is been given to us.

6. On March 21, 1947, police received an anonymous phone tip that a man had died inside a boarded up house. Unable to force their way in through the front door, they entered the house through a second story window. Inside they found the corpse of Homer Collyer on a bed clutching the February 22, 1920 issue of the Jewish Morning Journal, even though he had been blind for years. Homer and Langley Collyer were sons of a respected New York doctor. Both had earned college degrees. Homer had studied at Columbia to become a lawyer. When Dr. Collyer had died in the early part of the century, his two sons inherited the family home and estate. The two sons, both bachelors, were left financially secure. Although wealthy, the two brothers lived in almost total seclusion. They boarded up the windows of their house and padlocked the doors. All their utilities, including water, were turned off. No one was ever seen coming or going from the house. From the outside, their house appeared empty.

7. When the police broke in that day, they found the house full of broken machinery, auto parts, boxes, appliances, folding chairs, musical instruments, rags, assorted odds and ends, and bundles of old newspapers. An enormous mountain of debris blocked the front door. Investigators were forced to continue to use the upstairs window for weeks while excavators worked to clear a path to the door. Nearly 3 weeks later, as workman were still hauling heaps of refuse away, someone made a grisly discovery. Langley Collyer's body was found buried beneath a pile of rubbish some 6 feet away from where Homer had died. Langley had been crushed to death in a crude booby trap he had built to keep intruders out. The garbage eventually removed from the house totaled more than 140 tons. The Collyer's had an inheritance that was more than sufficient for their needs, but they lived their lives in unnecessary, self-imposed poverty.

8. Many believers are spiritually rich but are living as spiritual paupers. They have been given a personal title deed to a heavenly mine, but they have never worked it out. They have never experienced or enjoyed all the wealth that their salvation has given them.

9. Paul wanted these Philippians believers to experience all they had in Christ. What their salvation had given them, Paul wanted them to make real in their life. He wanted them to experience a full Christian life.

B. The Believer Is To Experience A Fruitful Christian Life.

1. The word was also used of a farmer working a field. The farmer would plow the field, cultivate the field so it would produce the finest harvest possible.

2. Our life is like a field. We are to be fruitful and productive as believers. Jesus said in John 15:16, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."

3. We are chosen, commissioned, and commanded to bear fruit as believers. We are to be fields that bear a rich harvest.

4. I must confess that I am not much of a gardener. My only attempt at putting out a garden was to say the least, a miserable failure. I plowed the ground, dug the rows, and sowed the seed. But I found out that gardening takes a lot of work and time. I let the weeds get my garden. The corn, beans, potatoes, came up but didn't produce. The weeds choked them out. The only thing that seemed to be doing good was the Okra. I told my wife one day, "Nothing in the garden has done well, but God has sure blessed our Okra. We have got Okra as big as bananas (You gardeners get the point)."

5. Many a Christian life is a field of weeds instead of an abundant harvest. We are to cultivate our lives in such a way they will be productive.

6. The ideal behind the words "your own salvation" is that God has a plan for each of our lives. We are to fulfill that plan so that our lives will bring forth fruit to the glory of God.

7. Notice that Paul said in verse 12 that we are to work out our salvation with "fear and trembling." The words do not speak of someone terrified by something or someone. The words speak of reverence and a passion to please.

8. Preston Taylor gave this definition: "Don't treat the sacred as though it were a slapstick comedy." We should not take lightly what we have in Christ and should do for Christ. It should be our passion to experience a full and fruitful Christian life.

1. The Gift of Salvation!
2. The Goal of Salvation!

3. THE GOD OF SALVATION!

1. Notice verse 13, "For it is God which worketh in you both to do and will and to do of his good pleasure."

2. We are to work out our salvation, but now Paul tells us that is God working in us. There is a human responsibility, but there is a Divine resource.

3. There is a lesson here that needs to be learned by every Christian. God wants to work through us, with us, by us, and for us. But before God can work through us, with us, by us, and for us, He must work in us.

4. Paul tells us that God is working in us to accomplish His "good pleasure." The word "pleasure" means "desire or purpose." God is working in us that His desire and purpose for our life to be fulfilled.

5. In verse 12, God tells us what He wants for our life, now in verse 13, He tells us how this is brought to pass. He mentions 2 things that are a result of God working in our life.

A. We See The Desire For His Will.

1. Paul says, "For it is God that worketh in you both to will..." The word "will" means "desire." Paul is telling us that God works in us to give us a desire to do His will.

2. The simple reason why people don't serve God and do His will is they don't desire to. The simple truth is, we do about what we want. We can come up with any excuse we want, but the reason we don't take serious the things of God is a lack of desire.

3. Why is there no desire? God has not been allowed to work in the heart and life. God, if allowed, will work in us to give us a desire to do His will. He puts in us that "want to." He is constantly working in us to bring us to the place where we want to do what He wants.

4. I think of F.B. Meyer. One night at Keswick, God spoke to his heart about some matter. Meyer confessed that he was unwilling to surrender that which God had spoke to his heart about. That night he walked to one of the surrounding hills and wrestled with God about the matter. Finally, Meyer told God that he was willing to be made willing.

5. Are you struggling over what God has asked you to do? Why not come to God and be honest and say, "Lord, I confess, I am not willing, but I am willing to be made willing."

B. We See The Doing Of His Will.

1. God is not only working in us the desire to for His will but also the ability to do His will: "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and do, of His good pleasure."

2. There are two great needs in every Christian life. First, there is the desire to do God's will and the second is the ability to do His will. Paul tells us that God not only creates the desire but provided the ability.

3. The word "worketh" is the word from which we get our word "energy." Wuest translates it, "For God is the One Who is constantly putting forth His power in you."

4. Augustine said, "We will, but God works the will in us. We work, therefore, but God works the working in us."

5. Both the passion and the power to do God's will is a result of His work in us.

6. During the construction of one of the East River Bridges in New York City, the engineers, in sinking the caissons in the river, encountered the sunken hull of an old barge which would not yield to removal. It had become so securely embedded in the river mud that engines, cables, and derricks were powerless to remove it. At this point in the fruitless operation a young man, fresh from technical school, appeared on the scene and after studying the problem asked for permission to try his hand. Upon permission he had a large barge towed to the spot at the approach of low tide and its ends were fastened by huge chains to the sunken hulk. Then when the tide came in with its irresistible power, the surface barge rose with the swelling tide, lifting it with the submerged wreck. The young engineer made use of the natural power of the ocean.

7. We need not fear the will of God or flee the will of God on the basis of feeling inadequate or insufficient. God will enable us to do anything He asks of us. Where God guides, He provide.

8. You see, the whole matter is really a matter of "in's" and "out's."

Copyright Notice: This sermon may be used or copied freely for personal use. If used in any publication or on another web page, permission must be obtained from the author at: "The Living Word, Temple Baptist Church, Chattanooga, TN. 37407."