AGAIN I SAY REJOICE
LIVING FOR THE PLEASURE OF GOD
PHILIPPIANS 2:12-16
INTRODUCTION
- I mentioned during one of our looks at Philippians Chapter 1 that I have a general dislike of clichés. But I’m going to begin our look at Scripture this morning with a question that has been elevated, in my mind at least, to cliché status because of how much it’s been used in various forms. The question is: What is your purpose for living? Or we could say: What are you living for?
- Over the past decade and a half or so, there has been a barrage of purpose driven this or that. So much so, that some of this purpose driven material, largely produced by one church, has made it into mainstream popularity. So it has been commonplace amongst all political, religious, and socio- economic demographics to ask the question “What on Earth am I here for?”.
- Now, I do not want to speak to the benefits or detriments of these materials. I’m simply stating that the question these materials raise has been asked a lot lately; and with good reason. Because it gets to the very core of our existence. And people have been asking this question for a long time.
- In fact back in the 1600’s a group of English and Scottish theologians penned the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The Shorter Catechism is a list of questions used to teach people the fundamentals of biblical Christianity. And the first question in the catechism is this: What is the chief end of man? Or what ought to be man’s greatest aim? What is it that men and women should be driven by? Does this question sound familiar? What is your purpose for living?
- I think the answer the catechism gives is correct: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. The purpose of humanity is the pleasure of God. That is largely what I want to extrapolate from our text this morning. Let’s look at what the word of God has to say to us.
[READ PHILIPPIANS 2:12-16]
- Once again Paul uses the word “therefore”, your Bible might say “so then” or “because of this” or something similar to that. So once again the meaning of the content here is tied to what he just wrote. What Paul just wrote, of course, is that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
- You will remember that we stated that Jesus Christ will receive his rightful recognition one way or the other. Either you will bow down in repentance and faith now and be lifted up to eternal life with God, or you will reject Jesus now, and bow down in acknowledgment of God’s justice when you are sentenced to an eternity without him.
- Because then, this is literally a matter of life and death, the Apostle exhorts his readers to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. What he is telling them to do, is not work for their salvation, but to work it out. It is assumed that most of the readers are genuine believers. So they are already saved. What is being pinpointed here is what goes on after that initial moment of salvation. So we are looking at that part of the salvation process called sanctification: being made more like Jesus.
- Now what does Paul write about working out our salvation? Or we could say: In light of the supreme and absolute lordship of Jesus Christ, how is a saved person supposed to live? That is one of the issues we will be looking at. But before we do, let’s address a preliminary topic that is found in our passage. It has to do with the reason for working out our salvation.
- Once we are saved by trusting in Jesus Christ as our Savior, why are we to live that salvation out? The best answer to that question is that it pleases God:
WORK OUT YOUR SALVTION BECAUSE IT BRINGS PLEASURE TO GOD
- The latter part of v.12 into v.13 says this: work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
- Remember again, that we are not talking about doing good works in order to earn salvation and therefore please God. We are talking about living a lifestyle that reveals our salvation in order to please God. And to make this very clear I want to look at the last phrase of v.13 in some detail for a moment.
- The Apostle says that it is God who works in us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. There are two thing said there that make it really obvious that what we are dealing with here is not working for salvation but working because of salvation; or living a certain way because we are saved. The first thing is that it is God who works in us.
- So whatever this working out of our salvation is, it is at the primary level, a work of God. So we could put it this way: work out your salvation because God is at work in you – live like a genuine believer and do so knowing that God is working in your life.
- It would be one thing for Paul to command a holy and godly lifestyle and then leave us to our own devices. But there is both a command and a comfort here. We are expected to live like people who have been saved from the wrath of God and eternal punishment in Hell, but we are expected to do so by remembering that it is God who is at work in us. It is his power that enables the Christian life. It is his Spirit that produces godliness in us. Left to our own strength we would continually fail, but in the strength and power of God we can live as he has called us to live.
- So we know we are looking at God at work in us, and not our efforts apart from him. But that doesn’t mean we are not talking about good works. Because there are two things Paul says that God is doing in us: he is working in us so that we will and work for his good pleasure.
- That’s a bit of an odd phrase there, but here is what it’s saying: God is changing our desires and by changing our desires he is changing our actions. In order to live a life that pleases God, our wills have to desire that lifestyle. Faking the Christian life only lasts so long. We have to truly desire to please God. And there’s a problem there isn’t there? Because our sinful natures do not desire to please God. On our own we seek to gratify ourselves only.
- But God is at work in our wills. Of course, the big change occurred when the Holy Spirit worked in our hearts and gave us the desire to repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Now that we are saved, the Spirit continues to tweak and change the desires of our hearts, so that little by little our wills seek to please God and our sinfulness is left behind. And I might stress there “little by little”, sometimes the process is slow; but God is at work.
- Then what happens when our desires change? Our actions follow suit. God is at work in us to will and to work. Changed lives come after changed wills. The order is so important. Doing good works is futile if God has not changed your heart and brought you to faith in Jesus Christ. But once he has changed your heart, good works should flow naturally as you will, as you desire to please God.
- Now we can draw out of this passage some specific ways to work out our salvation. So let’s review where we’ve come so far and then we’ll get into the rest of the text. Our key idea here is Paul’s command to us to work out our salvation. That means to live in a manner that reflects genuine faith. We are to do this because it brings pleasure to God. And God is the one working on our desires and deeds.
- So what does this look like? How does a person who is working out his or her salvation live? Let’s give a few examples from the passage. Notice first of all that you:
WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION BY CULTIVATING OBEDIENCE
- In v.12 it says: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence...and then he goes on to give the command to work out our salvation. What is he saying here? He is saying that he expects the Philippians to obey what he is commanding them. And even obeying the command to live out your salvation is a mark of living out your salvation. Does that make sense? The very fact that you are seeking to obey God’s word to you and live like a real Christian is a sign that you are a real Christian.
- And we can carry that principle into all aspects of life as well. You know that you are working out your salvation when you are seeking to obey the word of God and live according to its instruction in all areas that it addresses. This them occurs many times in Scripture, and we hit it a lot in our study of the book of James, so we don’t need to reiterate this too much. But let’s look at a few passages together.
- James is a good place to start. In 1:22-25 James writes: But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. He goes on, of course, to write that faith without works is dead. Real faith produces obedience.
- Then in Hebrews 5:8-9 the writer of Hebrews is talking about Jesus and says: Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Eternal life is received by the obedient. Again, not that obedience brings eternal life, but that the saved who truly have faith are inevitably obedient.
- Now the words of Jesus in one of the most sobering passages of Scripture, Matthew 7:21-23: Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
- We live out our salvation by being obedient to the Lord’s will revealed to us in his word. Secondly:
WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION BY RELYING ON GOD NOT MEN
- There is a very interesting line in the middle of v.12: not only as in my presence but much more in my absence.
- Here the saints are encouraged to obey what Paul says whether he was there with them or not. There would have been a huge temptation to let their faith rely on Paul’s presence. After all, this man had seen Jesus personally. He was the greatest missionary in the world. So Paul wanted to make sure that their Christian lives were not dependent upon him, but solely on Jesus Christ.
- There is a great temptation, even for us, to cling to people that we see as giants in the faith. There is a temptation for every member of every congregation to rely too heavily on their pastor for their own spiritual growth. Now just a few weeks ago I talked about the importance of preaching and how the role of a pastor is vital in a local church. But it is possible to get carried away with that.
- In fact, not long ago John Piper, the pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in MN was preparing to take a sabbatical. And he commented that he was very interested to see how the ministry at the church would function in his absence. He wanted to see whether or not Bethlehem Baptist Church was all about Jesus Christ or all about John Piper.
- Even as great men and women of God can encourage and instruct us in the faith in great ways, we must remind ourselves that our ultimate allegiance is to Jesus Christ. Our relationship with Jesus must be what keeps us going. If it is anything else besides that we are giving too much devotion to the wrong place.
- On a practical level, I want you to be pleased that I am your pastor. I want you to follow me as I follow Jesus. I want you to be blessed by my preaching, and encouraged by my presence in your life. But I will constantly remind you that the true test of my impact on you will be when I’m gone or when you move on to another ministry. Because you cannot be dependent upon me. What you learn about God through me and how you grow in Christ because of me is what’s important.
- I’m sure many of you can think of examples of ministries that have fallen apart because either the pastor died, moved on to something else, or worst of all resigned in the midst of a scandal. So keep these things in mind as you seek to mature in the faith. Let great men and women of God boost your growth but don’t let your life become dependent upon their presence in it.
- Rely on God alone; not on men. The next thing we see is that you:
WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION WITH A SINCERE HEART
- These words are hated by pessimists everywhere; v.14: Do all things without grumbling or questioning (or complaining, or arguing).
- Parents for years have quoted these verses to their children when trying to get them to clean their rooms or pick up their laundry. But we are now aware of the context of this command. And parent are included! Certainly, “all things” means all things. However, there is some specificity here. This verse is smack dab in the middle of an exhortation to work out our salvation.
- So we are expected to cultivate obedience, and rely on God alone, and seek to please him in all things; AND we are expected to do so with a cheerful heart. Living the godly life should be something we do with the right attitude. No one likes a whining Christian, least of all God.
- Now why would Paul write something like this? Why would he even have to mention this? I am going to suggest one reason that may surprise you: sinful living is fun.
- Sin is pleasurable. Sin gratifies and satisfies us in many ways. If sin was not desirable, avoiding temptation to fall into it would be easy. The catch, of course, is that the satisfaction it provides is temporary and fleeting; and the hidden evil it covers up, once unmasked brings ruin to our lives.
- But it is easy to complain that we don’t get to have as much fun as everybody else. The list here is longer than any sermon has time for:
Why do I spend my Sunday mornings in church while others get to spend them in bed asleep?
Why do I have to be careful about the things I say when others can express themselves by saying whatever they want using any kind of language they want?
Why is everyone else out there having sex with multiple partners, enjoying free expression of their sexuality while I am limited to the confines of marriage?
Other people drink their worries away, while I agonize over them in prayer.
- We could go on and on from there couldn’t we? Do you see how easy it is to slip into self pity? It is so easy to forget how much better a life of godliness is than being enslaved to sin.
- I’m reminded of what David wrote in Psalm 37: Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
- He goes on to say: Turn away from evil and do good; so shall you dwell forever. For the Lord loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.
- You may think that the wicked are living it up; and they are. But very soon they will see their enjoyment vanish. Is that what we really want? No. We want to please God by living for him. Why then would we grumble and complain about the standards of holy living? We must work out our salvation with a sincere heart.
- Finally:
WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION SO THE WORLD CAN SEE JESUS IN YOU
- You are to do all these things without grumbling or complaining: that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
- Rejoice in the salvation that God has granted to you; and live it out in every way you can because the world is watching! We are to stand out. In the midst of all of the evil, crookedness, twisted behavior, perversity, and sin, we are to shine the light of Jesus Christ into that darkness.
- You remember what Jesus said: You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
- The world has made up enough reasons to reject Jesus. We do not need to add fuel to their fire.
- How many variations of this quote have you heard: “I would follow Jesus if his followers looked more like him.”? Now, in the end, we can’t be blamed for a person rejecting Christ; they will bear that responsibility themselves. But on a practical level, we should do all we can to keep them from even using that excuse.
CONCLUSION
- So we work out our salvation by cultivating obedience and relying on God alone. We do this with a sincere and joyful heart so that the world can see the authenticity of our faith in us. And the reasoning behind all of this is that it brings pleasure to God.
- I want to close with this final thought. Live for the pleasure of God because living for anything else will fail you. Find your ultimate pleasure in God and live to please him. If you find your pleasure in others they will fail you. If your ultimate goal is to seek to please others, you will fail them. Living for the pleasure of God is the only life worth living; because it is the only way of life that truly gives lasting satisfaction, peace, and joy.
