The Work of Sanctification

We are again in the midst of
that greater context. We saw that there is indeed a
break here, but it is a soft break. There is definitely a
tie in with that. So then at the beginning of verse
12, or therefore, depending on your translation, And so the
context, again, having begun in 127 with the whole concept
of unity developed in chapter two, verses one through four,
illustrated in chapter two, verses five through 11. And here, in
a very real sense, a very practical application to that whole exhortation
and instruction towards unity. What Paul does here is call us,
as we saw last week, to live an aggressive Christian life. To live an aggressive Christian
life when he says, work out your salvation. And we know that just
from history, even perhaps even from our own consideration of
this passage, maybe Bible study discussions, we know that we
tend to get nervous whenever we are exhorted in Scripture
to work. I think we found the same thing
when we saw in the book of Titus, when we studied it years ago
and studied it in a lesser degree in Sunday school, when we hear
about good deeds and that we are exhorted to good deeds. Christians
tend to get nervous about that. Because the whole fear of drifting
and beginning to dwell in some kind of a self-righteous, works-based
mentality. Well, that’s not Paul’s mentality
here at all. And we began to clarify that
last week. Go, if you would, back to the
passage itself. Chapter 2, verse 12 and 13, where
Paul said, 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. That simple sentence we saw as
we began to look at it last week is literally work out your salvation. That is the simple exhortation.
So we’re told to do here. What we discovered, though, is
that it doesn’t mean that we work for our salvation. There
is in no sense a call to works righteousness or self-seeking
or works related salvation. What Paul was doing here was
essentially writing to those, as he’s already indicated in
a number of different ways, he was writing to those who were
already saved and not trying to engage those who weren’t saved
to work for their salvation. The word, as we began to look
at it last week, literally means to accomplish. And it’s one of
Paul’s favorite words. He uses it 20 times, as we saw,
very often in the context of accomplishing or doing some great
thing. Paul, as I said, uses it 20 times. It’s only used three times in
all the rest of the New Testament. And so that’s why we say this
is a favorite word of Paul, an intense compound word. And it expresses that idea of
perseverance to the end of completion. Pressing on, not letting go. We began to consider this passage
with regards to Paul’s intent last week that the salvation
that he is pressing them to lay hold on is the very salvation,
the same word, the same concept, that Paul speaks of in every
other place. But it isn’t just justification
that he’s pressing them to here, but sanctification, an equal
element of salvation, that victory over sin, living a life that
is pleasing to God. That’s what Paul is pressing
them to. to fill out their salvation,
to work out in their lives what God has already worked in with
the righteousness of Christ. So, Paul exhorts the Philippians
to carry their salvation to its ultimate conclusion. And we began
to look at this aggressive Christian life last week. We saw that there
were three features, I suggested, three features of the Christian’s
effort, and there must be effort, towards godliness. I guess the
observation that I presented before you last week is this
common approach to Christianity, this casual approach, almost
an indifferent approach to growth and godliness, as if it’s just
going to come to us by some kind of osmosis. We are exhorted,
as we’ve already seen, to live an aggressive Christian life.
We saw that there were a number of features to that Christian
life. First of all, an aggressive Christian
life, Paul says, is built on a history of faithfulness. Paul
wasn’t doubting the faith or the salvation of the Philippian
believers. I don’t doubt your own. your
profession of faith. But what he does call them to
is to look back on the history of faithfulness that they have
already exhibited and to press on to even greater growth in
godliness. We observed also, again, just
by way of review, That when Paul says, just as you have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, he highlights that which every discipler knows that. knowledge of the tendency that
people have to cling on to their disciples, and in essence, to
kind of try to ride their coattails. What Paul basically says, and
not as in my presence, but now much more in my absence, is you
need to stand on your own two feet. You need to begin to stand,
Philippian believers, and you need to live an aggressive Christian
life, whether I come or whether I remain absent. Their history
was one of faithfulness, as we’ve seen. We saw Paul deal with Lydia
and essentially establish the church with her very testimony.
The Philippian jailer, all of whom built a history of faithfulness,
as we saw as we reviewed 2 Corinthians and Paul’s testimony about the
Macedonian church. He even quotes again at the end
of Philippians that great faithfulness that the Philippian church had
manifested. All Paul does is say, look back
over your shoulder. For you, Christian, look back
over your shoulder. Look at those gross sins that
by God’s grace you’ve conquered. Look at those dreadful habits
that you’ve conquered by God’s grace. Look at the great faithfulness
of implementing God’s saving grace. Look at the great history
that you have, Christian, and press on still further. An aggressive
Christian life is built on a history of faithfulness. Secondly, it
is prompted by a solemn warning. Look again at the text. 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. A very common phrase, even for
Paul, common in the Scriptures, the fear of God, not that trembling
fear, the cowardice that shrinks from God as if he’s less than
good and loving and kind. But it’s a godly fear. It’s a
fear that recognizes our weaknesses and knows full well, as one Puritan
called it, a holy self-suspicion. We don’t put ourselves in situations
that we know are tempting and may very well be too tempting
for us. We know our limits. We know our
weaknesses. We know our sinful tendencies. And we are fearful of offending
the God that we love. We try to see not how close we
can get to sin without getting burned, but how far away we can
stay from it. As Puritan Ralph Wardlaw said,
this fear is self distrust. It is a tenderness of conscience.
It is vigilance against temptation. It is the reverence which Scripture
opposes. Be not high minded, but fear.
It is the taking heed lest we fall. It is a constant apprehension
of the deceitfulness of the heart and the insidious power of inward
corruption. It is the caution and circumspection
which timidly shrinks from whatever would offend and dishonor God
the Savior.” Beautiful quote. But there is another feature
of an aggressive Christian life and our study would be incomplete
if we didn’t go back and study in full this third feature. We are looking at the work of
salvation, the work of sanctification. And it is effort and it requires
effort. Paul has already made that clear
to us when he says that we are to work out our salvation But
he comes to this third feature of an aggressive Christian life
in verse 13. Consider it again. When Paul
says, 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. An aggressive Christian life,
thirdly, is empowered by divine grace. It’s empowered by divine
grace. That for, standing at the head
of verse 13, explains not the reason for the fear and trembling.
That’s a common misinterpretation of that passage. Or misdiagnosis,
if you will. It doesn’t explain the reason
for the fear and trembling. Work out your salvation with
fear and trembling, for it is God. That explanation, that explanation
which encompasses the entire verse 13, is defining or explaining
the working out of the salvation. That’s why this is a major point
in this text. And note this. We are told to
work out our salvation because it is God Himself that is working
in us. An astounding and overwhelming
concept. In other words, the same God
that planned the work of redemption and salvation, that initiated
in every believer the work of salvation, will complete that
work of sanctification in every believer. God is at work. And when God goes to work, God
doesn’t stop until he’s finished. It isn’t just sanctification,
but it’s the whole of the Christian life that is lived for God’s
glory. Whatever we do in service, whether
worship or service in some ministry capacity. Yes, even the most
mundane task done for God’s glory is actuated. It is energized
by God himself. So that in the final analysis,
that good deed done, that good service rendered is God’s enabling
grace that has done it. God doesn’t look to take that
away from us, not completely. He tells us in the most dignifying
manner. I mean, you talk about not deserving
this kind of grace. God says, I’m going to put you
on my team. I’m going to use you and I’m
going to course through you to accomplish great things through
you. It’s an absolutely astounding
point. God wants to use us. God could have done this whole
thing himself. He could have blinked his eye
or snapped a finger or whatever means or method he wanted to
use and converted as many as he chose in an instant. God didn’t need us to do all
of that, but he has chosen to use the agency of his saints
for the accomplishing of the work that he’s called them to
do. A lot of times we have this. We’ve been looking at the grace
of God and in Sunday school, and there are a variety of illustrations
in Scripture. But what more plain than the
grace of God at work in the believer to describe that very thing? In looking at that word, and
I may even quote this again later today, But the word grace, if
you stand back and look at it in Scripture, as Birkhoff said,
isn’t always even used in the same sense in Scripture. It’s
got a variety of meanings. In the Old Testament, it has
almost this, it’s not so much an abstract quality, but rather
an active working principle that is manifested itself by God in
beneficent acts. It’s God showing his grace to
mankind. We’ll talk about what that specifically
looks like later. In the New Testament, Birkhoff
goes on to say that it denotes a pleasant external appearance.
We don’t typically tend to use the word that way, but scripture
does use it. A more prominent meaning of the
word, however, is favor or goodwill. If you were to ask 100 Christians,
99 of them are going to say God’s unmerited favor or something
to that effect. That’s how we basically understand
it. But that’s not the exclusive meaning of the word. It refers
in that context to the kindness of the Lord. But there are other
considerations as well. The favor manifested or bestowed
by God. But in most passages, it signifies
that unmerited operation of God in the heart of man. It’s talking
about the work of salvation that we didn’t earn it or deserve
it. And yet God’s grace came coursing through this channel
of the human heart. It’s the unmerited work of God
in the heart. It’s affected by the agency of
the Holy Spirit. But the word also goes on to
to be used in designating the favor of God is manifested in
the application of the work of redemption by the Holy Spirit.
And so that salvation element as well. But there’s still another element
of grace, and Paul used it In this sense, in 1 Corinthians
15 10, look over there, if you would just keep your finger in
Philippians and turn to 1 Corinthians 15 10. In 1 Corinthians 15 10, where,
you know, Paul is extolling the great doctrine of the resurrection,
Paul turns just briefly to his own, in a sense, his testimony. And I’m just going to focus on
verse 10, just for the sake of time, where he begins to sew
up this argument. And he says, I can’t do it. I’ve got to go back to at least
verse 9. Look at verse 9. For I am the least of the apostles.
I’m not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church
of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace
toward me did not prove vain. But I labored more than all of
them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then
it was I or they, so we preached and so you believed. And so you
have this concept of grace that is wholly different from anything
that we considered in Berkhoff’s definition or really any others.
It is almost like a power, if you will, that is coursing through
Paul that can either be squandered, he says, used in vain or vainly
used. or can be applied and mightily
and abundantly used to the glory of God. And that’s what Paul
says happened. Puritan or rather theologians,
one particular, have identified this in many different terms. One called it cooperating grace.
Now, we get all nervous when we talk about cooperating with
God, but this is a good thing. Charles Hodge used that term
as well to define the influence of the Spirit, which aids the
people of God in all the exercises of divine life. No wonder Paul
says, work out what God is working in, put it to use. It is that
influence which aids the people of God in all the exercises of
the divine life. By habitual grace is meant the
Holy Spirit as dwelling in believers or that permanent, imminent state
of mind due to His abiding presence and power. By grace, therefore,
in this connection is meant the influence of the Spirit of God
on the minds of men.” God is at work in you. What an amazing
thing. Regarding Paul, When Paul says,
by the grace of God, I am what I am, doesn’t he echo the same? That’s our testimony, isn’t it?
That’s my testimony. That’s your testimony. That’s
every Christian’s testimony that by the grace of God, I am what
I am. And by the grace of God, I do what I do. By the grace
of God, I accomplish whatever God has laid out for me to accomplish. It’s all because of the grace
of God. Everything that Paul was. was by the grace of God. And that doesn’t stop at just
His conversion. And it doesn’t stop at our conversion. God’s grace continues. That mighty
and abundant divine power continues to course through you to accomplish
anything good for His glory. God’s grace towards Paul, as
I said, wasn’t discovered to be in vain. That is empty or
void without content. Rather, Paul goes on to say that
he labored more abundantly than all the rest of the apostles.
You know what he does here? He, in one sense or the other,
he echoes what he’s already said here, that we are to do the same
thing. We are to labor more than anyone
else because it’s God and it’s God’s grace and it’s God’s power
that’s there for us and in us and through us. If we at once
got a glimpse of what God would want to accomplish through us
and that we had divine resources coursing through us, how diligent
would we be? How laborious would we take up
the effort that God has put before us? How diligent? Paul, in many other cases, if
you know him, He was often very willing to admit his inferiority
to the other apostles. He calls himself the least of
the apostles in this context. When it came to any consideration
that perhaps he had shirked any duty, he had missed any opportunity
that somehow he didn’t stack up with regards to the other
apostles. There’s no way that he was going to do that. Because
it was God’s doing. It was God at work in him. It
was God’s grace that he was appropriating. He’s not trying to take anything
away from the other apostles. And he’s not boasting. He’s saying
this was expected to whom much was given, much is required.
And Paul says, I had a bunch of God’s grace to appropriate
that principle. Whether you call it the power
of God or you call it the work of God or you call it the grace
of God, it’s abundantly and amply illustrated in Scripture. Listen
to just a few. Where did I leave you parked?
Go back to Philippians and just listen briefly. First Corinthians
130. By his doing, you are in Christ
Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. It’s God’s doing. God worked
into you that grace of salvation. Paul recognized it later on in
that book. 1 Corinthians 3.6, I planted, Apollos watered, but
God was causing the growth. Later on in that same chapter,
1 Corinthians 3.9, we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s
field. What a beautiful description.
that God is cultivating you and working the soil of your heart.
And he goes on to say, you are God’s building. God is doing
it. What a fantastic observation
of Scripture. Matthew 10, 20. It is not you
who speak, but is the spirit of your father who speaks in
you. Jesus lightening the load, as
it were, on the apostles. Ephesians 3, 7, speaking of the
gospel of which I was made a minister, Paul said, according to the gift
of God’s grace, which was given to me according to the working
of his power. No wonder, Paul said, I labored
more than all of them. When I saw what God had placed
in me and given to me, what else could I do? What else could we
do? You’re familiar with perhaps
the greatest illustration in this regard, the vine and the
branches. They’re all the greatest illustrations,
the vine and the branches, John 15. And just listen to abide
in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless
it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you
abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in
him, he bears much fruit. For apart from Me, you can do
nothing.” Now, he doesn’t come right out and say it, but that
is the power of God. If you want to call it sap or
whatever is the energizing device in a plant, he says that it’s
just like cutting off the branch of a tree if you are apart from
Christ. But if you’re connected to the
vine, there is that energizing sap, that that liquid, that energy,
that power that is coursing through us. It’s God’s power. But we
are the branch and we can be fruitful for God. It’s another illustration. Colossians
1.29 says it this way, Paul speaking of his own ministry. And he said
for this, no wonder he said this. As I’ve already said, when he
saw what God had equipped him with, what he had given to him
for this purpose, for this very reason, I labor, striving. And that word there is agonizing. I worked so hard. I worked myself
to agony. For this purpose I labor, striving
according to His power, which mightily works within me.” The
question for us Christians, are we living an aggressive Christian
life? Or are we putting our feet up on the lawn chair, as it were,
and just casually going through life in our Christianity? That’s
the question. Regarding the Apostle Paul’s
ministry, one said this, John Eady, the great Scottish preacher,
said this, when we reflect upon the motive, the presentation
of perfect men to God, that’s what Paul was faced with. When
we reflect upon the motive, the presentation of perfect men to
God and upon the instrument, the preaching of the cross. We
cease to wonder at the apostles’ zeal and toils. I mean, if you
really want to stand back and think of it, we all ought to
go running out of church, right? For there is no function so momentous,
far more important than all, is the function of the Christian
ministry. But though he labored so industriously
and suffered so bravely in the aim of winning souls to Christ
in glory, still he knew that all was due to divine power which
lodged within him. He labored under the prompting
of divine energy, but he labored just so far as that imparted
energy enabled him. Whatever God called him to do,
he did it. It was not, as Edy continues,
it was not feeble manifestation of divine power that showed itself
in the great apostle. Its ample energies clothed him
with a species of moral omnipotence. I mean, wow. That’s what God
has given to us. God has poured into us divine
energy that it allows us to accomplish whatever he’s called us to do.
Not all the same. But whatever he’s called us to
do, he’s equipped us to do. No wonder Paul at the end of
his writing and ministry, nearing the end of his life, even he
wrote to the Corinthians, not that we are adequate to consider
anything is coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. The very passage that was read
this morning. Who also made us adequate as
servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.
It was God’s doing all the while. And God has built into you that
same kind of power. I told you that the examples
of Scripture were abundant. You can even find it in the Psalms.
In the Psalms 86, Psalm 86, 11. Teach me Your way, I will walk
in Your truth. Unite my heart to fear Your name,
I will give thanks to You. It’s God that has to work through
us and course through us or we are worthless. I will give thanks to You, O
Lord my God, with all my heart. I will glorify Your name forever
for Your loving kindness toward me is great. You have delivered
my soul from the depths of Sheol. The canons of Dort, that great
document that articulated the doctrines of grace. said it this
way with regards to our changed lives and the opportunity that
we have to utilize and employ the grace of God in our lives. The canons of Doris said it this
way. He infuses new qualities into the will. Which until now
was dead, he quickens it. From being evil and disobedient
and obstinate, he renders it good and obedient and pliable. He actuates good and strengthens
it that like a good tree, it may bring forth the good fruits
of good actions. Paul is talking about here when
he says, work out your salvation for it is God who is at work
within you, is the indwelling of God in us, the grace and glory
and goodness of God, the power of God given to us in our hearts
to appropriate for His glory. And how he does it is a mystery,
isn’t it? But the fact is certain. By the Holy Spirit, Christ is
said to be in the disciple. And in light of these passages
illustrating the same point, we basically come away with the
understanding of the deep truth that grace is this power that
the Christian that is in the Christian and not merely kind
of this light shining on him from above, but it’s actually
in him and emanating from him. Astounding truth. Look at the rest of the passage.
It’s not just this static thing. It’s not just, OK, like I said
last week, there are far too many Christians that live this
kind of Christian life, this casual Christian life that just
wants to sit back. And now I’m saved. And, you know,
go ahead and just lather up on me the goodness of your blessings. And I’ll change as you change
me. That’s not how we live the Christian life. We’ve got to
be aggressive. We’ve got to go after godliness.
We’ve got to go after the service of the Lord. Can’t just let it
happen. Paul says that there are two
strains of that, two levels, if you will. It is God who is
at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. God, as we’ve always already
seen, rather, is the changer of the human heart. It’s God
who is at work in us from the very beginning. It’s God that
inspires those earliest impulses that we are sinners. It’s God
who impresses upon us the need for a Savior. It’s God that changes
our will and makes us willing. God is the one who first pursues
us. God is the one that changes our
heart and inclines it towards him. He is also the one who furthers
the work by enabling us and empowering us to do whatever work we’ve
been called to do, but to desire the work first. That’s God as
well. God changes our hearts. You know,
in your own life, as you look back, there were times that all
of us, we all have expressed it in various ways. There were
times where the furthest thing that we from our mind was the
service of God, the love of God, the love and service of God’s
people, the furthest thing from our minds. Unless you misunderstand or think
that Scripture is speaking, you know, In some kind of hyperbole
here, it is the will that is in question first. The will expresses
that determination or resolution of mind. The willing is a work that God
does. as He unfolds to us all the positive
and those determinative movements of the human will to carry out
God’s will. He aligns our will with His own. One said it this way, the word
will refers to a desire that comes from one’s emotion rather
than from one’s reason. It is the desire to do the good
pleasure of God that is produced by divine energy in the heart
of the saint as he definitely subjects himself to the Holy
Spirit’s ministry. It is God, the Holy Spirit, that
energizes the saint, making him not only willing, but actively
desirous of doing God’s sweet will. He doesn’t merely leave
the saint with some kind of longing, some kind of nebulous longing
to do the will of God. He aligns it so that we know
exactly what it is that God desires. He puts in us that longing to
be like God and do what God wants. Another said that he infuses
us with new qualities. What God does is change, first
of all, our hearts and our affections. He changes the things that we
love. He changes the things that we long for. And people say, they come away
saying, oh, well, then I’m just a robot. You don’t know Scripture
and you don’t know the grace of God. God takes an obstinate,
unwilling, unregenerate, dead sinner and He sweetly woos him
back to life. He breathes life into that soul
so that, as one said, it can in no sense be said to be forced. The freest act of the human spirit
is the surrender of itself under God’s grace to Himself. When
we were awakened, regenerated, brought back from dead to life, in spiritual sense, when we saw
God for who He was and saw Christ for who He is and saw our sin
for what it was, we could not help but embrace the Savior. The rational creature, he goes
on to say, is not violated. The mental mechanism is never
shattered or dislocated. The freedom essential to responsibility
is not for a minute disturbed or suppressed. Though God work
and work effectually in us to will, our will is not passively
bent or broken. But it wills as God wills it. And through God work and work
effectually in us to do our doing is not a course of action to
which we are helplessly driven. But we do because we have resolved
to do and because both resolve and action are prompted and shaped
by his power that works within us. It’s not against our will.
He changes our will. So that we say that which used
to be our will is worthless and dead and gone. I want what God
wants. That’s the work of God. But the work of God also has
a practical outworking. It’s not enough just to say,
I will, that I will what God wills. God wants us to stand
up and walk and work and do and accomplish. It is God who is
at work within you, both to will and to work. We are to engage in whatever
duty God has mapped out for us, whatever God prompts us to do.
You know it well that oftentimes people will come and they’ll
suggest some ministry. And I learned this from my predecessor.
And I will say I’m glad that God has laid that on your heart.
And just the fact that He’s laid it on your heart, He has likely
given you the divine energy to accomplish that task. Be careful
what you bring to the elders. You are to take up that task
with fear and trembling. And you are to do it according
to God. You are to do it for God’s glory.
St. Augustine said it this way when
he said, we will, and I don’t call him St. Augustine like the
Catholics would. I call him that because he is
a saint, I believe, like the rest of us. We will, he said,
but God works in us the willing. We work, but God works in us
the working. It’s not salvation by works at
all. When we come to this, we come
to one of the overwhelming and deep mysteries of grace, the
deep mysteries of Scripture, don’t we? Because on the one
hand is the Christians will, this viable, real thing, this
that is often appealed to as such, even in Paul’s writings,
he’s appealing to their hearts and reasoning with them and trying
to conform their will to God’s. But beneath all that is the will
of God, where God himself has seen the secret enabler of right
thought and the correction of the will. That together with
that fear and trembling, We do couple that with human responsibility.
And in that submission, we bring it all together in action where
we actually rise and do what God has called us to do. One Puritan said it this way,
the teaching of Scripture everywhere. Is that men are by nature destitute
of spiritual energy, so this isn’t something that comes naturally
to us. It’s not like we wake up in the
morning in our natural states desiring, how can I in some way
please God by my actions? How can I serve God and humanity
this day? Scripture presents him as utterly
incapable of holy activity, but the believer in Christ Jesus
loves God. He desires to serve Him and He
does serve Him. Now, this spiritual energy possessed
by the man who has faith in the gospel is wholly of God. Not merely has he given us the
gospel, but an influence graciously exerted in the soul. He sends
home the conviction that the gospel is true and he induces
us in pardon me, and he induces men to examine and to think honestly,
to see the truth and feel its force. He gives to us knowledge
and wisdom and resolution and power to resist and resolution
and power to wage war against the wickedness of the world and
to do something for the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom. God
has given that to every believer. But why? But why? Paul tells us at the end, So
then, my beloved, just as you’ve 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 within
you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. It’s for God. It’s for the glory
of God. It’s for the enjoyment of God
to make Him happy. The echo of this you find in
the book of Ephesians, chapter 1, don’t you? You remember it.
He predestined us. You say, why did He save us?
Why did He pick me? I’ll tell you why He picked you.
Because it made Him happy. He predestined us to adoption
as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind
intention of His will. Same word. For His good pleasure. And He says it again. In verse
9 of that passage, in all wisdom and insight, He made known to
us the mystery of His will. Everything relating to the Gospel,
Christ and the cross. Why? According to the kind intention
of His will. It made Him happy. And why do
we work? And why do we will? And why do
we serve God? And why do we appropriate this
grace that God has given to us? Because it makes God happy. It is God’s own work, said one,
which we have to do. It is God’s good pleasure which
we are to fulfill, as did our great example, Jesus Christ.
And it is God to that who to that end is energizing their
will and their working. This is a serious task to be
performed in no self reliant spirit. But with reverent caution. and dependence upon God, the
good pleasure of God. It’s free and it’s sovereign.
And He gave to us varying gifts and varying tasks that He’s called
us to. But He is the one that’s equipped
us all. And yet, will we squander what
He’s given? Will we sit back and put our
feet up and neglect to appropriate the good grace of God that He’s
given to please himself as he works through us? I hope not. I hope that it would
be said of the people of Providence Bible Church. That they recognized it once
and because of it, they fell on their knees. That they had
been included in this grand task of serving God and glorifying
Him in the process and with everything in us, that we would be found
serving Him and pleasing Him as we work out our salvation.
Let’s examine our hearts before Him. O Lord God, there isn’t a one
of us who can honestly say this morning that we have fully appropriated
The grace of God in our lives that we have fully accomplished
what you set out for us to do. Lord, our efforts sometimes are
so pitiful and feeble. Sometimes we do things entirely
in our own power and sometimes we do nothing at all. Lord, how sad is that? To think
that we arrived in heaven, as it were, with a full gas tank.
It was never spent for you. Never spent for your pleasure,
never utilized to your glory. How sad would that be? May it
not be true of us, Lord. May we literally spend ourselves
in the service of Christ, our Savior. For his glory and for
his kingdom. We plead and pray in Jesus name,
amen. Thank you.