Storms Creek Church 10-08-2023

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Episode Transcript

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Good morning, and welcome to StormStreet Missionary Baptist Church this Sunday morning radio
program. This morning, we'll bejoining Pastor Kenny Hurts because we once again
open the scriptures and study God's work. Okay, today we're going to be
in the Book of Philippians. Veryimportant two verses we're going to be looking

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at this morning. That's in chaptertwo, verses twelve and thirteen. Philippians,
Chapter two, beginning with verse twelve, Wherefore, my beloved, as
you have always obeyed, not asin my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work outyour own salvation with fear and trembling.

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For it is God which worketh inyou, both to will and to do
of His good pleasure. I've titledthe message for this morning working in and
working out. My dad was askilled carpenter. He was what you call

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a craftsman. He took great pridein the work that he did. I
was able to work with him fromtime to time, especially in the summers
when we were school was out andjust to make a little extra money.
I would work some with my dad, and I would watch him as he
would measure and cut and fit thingsperfectly. Together. I was in all

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of what he was able to do. I had a good example of what
a woodworker is, but I couldn'tdo what he did. You see,
being a skilled carpenter or a woodworker, a craftsman takes more than just a
good example. It takes skill,skill that I do not possess. Now

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you'll notice that verse twelve begins withthe word Wherefore you could say, because
of what the apostle Paul was doing, is he's going back to the previous
verses, and what he's about tosay ties in with those verses. In
fact, I think you can goall the way back to chapter one and

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verse twenty seven, where he says, only let your conversation be as becometh
the Gospel of Christ, that whetherI come and see you or else be
absent, I may hear of youraffairs, that you stand fast in one
spirit, with one mind, strivingtogether for the faith of the Gospel.

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And so what Paul is talking abouthere in verse twenty seven of the first
chapter is really the importance of unity, being unified, dwelling together in harmony
with other believers. And see,the only way that you can have this

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is by humility, by humbling ourselvesby thinking of others before we think of
ourselves, putting others in their needsbefore our own. So the secret is
as we must be willing to humbleourselves. Well, when you get into
chapter two he continues that thought.And when you look at verses five through

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eleven, you'll see that here wehave well, we have a good example.
In fact, we have the bestexample. We have the example of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Never didanyone ever humble themselves like the Son of
God did. Zee humbled himself bythe fact that he left a glory had

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in heaven. He left his placein heaven, came down to this earth,
and took upon himself human flesh.He became a man. He was
fully man, and he was alsoalways full of God. But that was
a great act of humility for himto do that. Well, his whole
life was a life of humility,because he didn't live in a palace.

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He wasn't waited on, waited onby other people. No, he lived
basically a life of poverty. Weknow that he lived in perfect obedience to
God's law, a law that hehimself had given that he always did his
father's will. In fact, hesaid, he came not to do his

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own will, but the will ofhis father's. Soho, we can see
that his entire time here in thisworld was an example of humility, and
so he did the father's will well, because it's God's will for his people
to dwell together in unity, towork together. That's why Paul then begins

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this passage that we're looking at thismorning, in verse twelve, with the
word wherefore, wherefore because of thisexample that you have before you, this
example of humility, the example fromthe son of God. What we're told
here is we can be like him. We are to be like him.

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We are to follow his example.But you say, oh, that's all
there is. All we have todo is just follow Jesus example. We
see. The problem is, howcan we do that. Jesus isn't just
like us. No, he isGod and man. He's the son of

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God. He's part of the blessedTrinity. He's eternal, he's all powerful,
he's the one who created all things. And you're telling us, Paul,
that all we have to do isthis, follow the example of Christ.
Just be like Christ. It's impossiblefor us to do, and it
is true. But see what Paulis teaching here, what he's telling us

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in these verses is that we canbe like Jesus when we are well,
when we are empowered by the HolySpirit, when God is at work in
us. And that's what he talksabout in verse thirteen, that God's the
one who works in us both thewilling to do of his good pleasure.

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So for us to live in humility, to live as the Lord would have
us, to live, to belike Jesus. Well, we can do
that because He's given us that skill. He's given us the power to do
that. Just like with my dad. You know, if there was some
way that you could put his skillin to my body, then I could

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do what he did. Well,God has really, in a sense done
that because He's given us the HolySpirit, the one who lives in us,
so that we can live the kindof lives that honor the Lord.
When writer puts it this way,he says, the Christian life is not
a series of ups and downs,but the process of ends and ouns.

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That's where I really got the ideafor the title for the message this morning,
working in and working out, whichis really, I think a description
of what we see in verses twelveand thirteen, there is a working in
by the spirit of God, sothat then we can work out we can
be like Jesus, we can beobedient. See what he's really doing here

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in this passage is he's telling usthat doctrine always precedes practice. What we
believe will determine how we live.So as we look at these verses this
morning, what you really have inverse twelve and thirteen is really nothing more

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than the doctrine of sanctification. Sanctificationis where we are being shaped into the
image of Christ. And in thisprocess, what we see here is both
men and God have a part.Well, what I want to do this
morning is I want to look atman's part, So we'll just title it.

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We have a exhortation to be obedientto the Lord. So that's really
the first of two points, andthat's what we will look at this morning.
We have an exportation to be obedientto the Lord. Another way of
saying that again is the believer hasa responsibility. He has a role in
his sanctification. Now again let's lookat verse twelve where we're going to be

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focusing on today. So he says, where for my beloved, as you
have always obeyed. So what he'ssaying is, is the saints here at
Philippi at a reputation, a goodreputation, a reputation of obeying the Lord,
obeying the word of the Lord.So Paul says, as you've always

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obeyed it. This is your pastpractice. He says, keep it up,
continue to do what you have beendoing. When you think about this,
you think about the church at Philippi. We can go back to Acts
chapter sixteen, and when Paul cameto Philippi, Remember he was told in

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a vision that he was needed inMacedonia to come over to Macedonia and help
us. Well, he goes,and the first place that he visits in
Macedonia is the city of Philippi.And so what he does is he and
Silas arrive. They go out tothe riverside, and we're told he chapter
sixteen and verse fourteen, and acertain woman named Lydia, a seller of

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purple, of the city of thighAttara, which worshiped God, heard us,
whose heart the Lord opened, thatshe attended into the things which were
spoken of of Paul. That's whathe's saying, is is that Lydia heard
Paul preach. The Lord had openedher heart to be receptive to the message,

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and then she received the message.And it says that she attended the
things that Paul spoke. In otherwords, is she obeyed the word of
God. So she's an example there. She's one of those at Philippi that
Paul is certainly writing about. Ifyou look gone down to in the same
chapter, down the verse thirty,where we have the account of the Philippian

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Jailer. We don't know his name, we always referred to him as the
Philippian jailer says, and brought themout and said, sirs, thou shalt
be saved in thy house? Whatdo I need to do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.Put your faith in trust in Christ,

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says. Then they spaken to them, and spaken to him the word
of the Lord, and to allthat were in his house. And he
took them the same hour of thenight, washed their stripes, and he
was baptized here in all he hadstraightway. When he had brought them into
the house, he set meat beforethem and rejoiced, believing in God with
all of his house. See thePhilippi and Jaylor was saved. And what

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did he do? He obeyed theword of the Lord. So we see
here the church at Philipipe had areputation for obedience to God's word and had
done that in the past. Butwhat we need to also see and the
need to point out, is thatit wasn't obedience to Paul that he's really
referring to, although it seems tobe that way, because he goes on

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he says, You've always obeyed,not as in my presence only, but
now much more in my absence.But see, their obedience wasn't really to
Paul. Although we do know thatPaul is the one who brought the gospel
to them, He's the one whoplanted a church there. He's the one
who faithfully taught them the word ofGod. But their allegiance, their allegiance

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wasn't to Paul or to any otherman. Their allegiance was to God and
to God's word. I think that'swhat Paul was saying. You obeyed in
my presence, in my absent,meaning you obeyed not me, You obeyed
the word of God. See,Paul was just a servant, a bond

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servant, a bond slave. Sohe says, don't obey just for my
sake if I'm here or I'm absent. No. See, the context here
is is that they were to dwellin unity, and not just for the
sake of Paul, though that wouldplease him, of course. But he

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says, you're to dwell in unity. You're to do this, You're to
humble yourself because you do it forthe Lord, and the Lord is pleased.
And friend, we do our obedience. We obey because of the Lord.
Our obedience isn't to other people.Our obedience is the Lord. Paul

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wrote this in chapter three of Colossians, and verse twenty two. He says,
service obey in all things your masters, according to the flesh, not
with eye service as men pleasers,but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
And whatsoever you do, do ithardly as to the Lord, and
not in the mend, knowing thatof the Lord you shall receive the reward

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of the inheritance, for you servethe Lord Christ. So there it's clear
that you know we are to we'reto obey the Lord, which do all
things to please him. Now todayour obedience is not to some man.
It's not to a church leader.It's not to some man made creed.

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Our obedience is to the Lord.Paul in one Grantians, chapter eleven and
verse one, he says, beyou followers of me. That sounds like
Paul saying, hey, follow me, follow me, obey me. But
he doesn't stop there because he goeson and he says, even as I
follow Christ. See Paul can saythat follow me, but only because I'm

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following Christ. I can say thesame thing. I could say to the
church that I, pastor here,follow me, but only as I follow
Christ. If I'm not following Christ, you have no obligation to follow me.
The church I belonged to before Icame here several years ago, first

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was saved and I joined that church. They had a good pastor, a
good teacher, and I needed thatbecause I wasn't brought up in a church
where the Bible was really taught andpreached, and I didn't have much knowledge
about the Word of God, andso it was important for me to find
the church with a pastor with manthat would preach and teach the Word of

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God. And this church did that. Then after just a few months,
that pastor was called to a churchanother church, well then the church had
then called pastor. After just abrief period of time, if I can
remember correctly, they called someone tobe the pastor. And the guy they
called wasn't really like the previous pastor. No, he wasn't like him at

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all, And a lot of thepeople realized that, and some began to
leave and to go to the churches. I don't think the church there really
gave this man, this new pastor, much of a chance. I think
they judged him too quickly. Infact, I think they called him too

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quickly. But looking back, Ithink the problem there with that church was
the people. A lot of thepeople's allegiance was really not to the church
as much as it was to thatpastor. And when the pastor left,
I mean of the people were readyto leave as well. And this has

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this happens all too often today.You know. I believe that when you
join a church, the Lord leadsyou to a church, not to a
pastor, not to a man,because pastors come and go. But if
that's the church the Lord had youto join, then you need to stay,
if at all possible, and bea part of that church, regardless

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of who your pastor is. Now, if the man's not preaching, and
he's not teaching the word of God, he's not being faithful there, then
yeah, you probably should find someplaceelse. But a lot of times that's
not the case. Storms greet church, your allegiance is not to your pastor,
it's not to me. It's tothe Lord Jesus Christ. When I'm

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gone and somebody else takes over,you still follow Christ. Your allegiance is
to Christ. Well, let's lookfor the rest of our time. Let's
look in to what he means whenhe says work out your own salvation,
because that's really the key to thisverse. That's the exhortation that we are
to work out our salvation. Now, this phrase has been interpreted, well,

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it's been interpreted in a variety ofways, many that are not correct.
First of all, once you noticethat Paul isn't telling them to work
in order to be saved. Thatwould contradict so much of what he teaches
in many other places. Now,he doesn't say work for your salvation.

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He doesn't say work towards your salvation. He doesn't say work at your salvation.
He says work out your salvation.And you cannot work out unless God
has already worked in you. SoPaul isn't talking here about the doctrine of
justification, of being saved, ofbeing reconciled to God, to being born

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again. Now keep in mind whohe's writing to. If you go back
to chapter one, if you lookat the very first verse, Paul and
Tumultheus, the servants of Jesus Christhave noticed these words to all the saints
in Jesus, in Christ, Jesus, which are at Philippi, to all
the saints. You are the saints, those who are set apart, those

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who belong to the Lord. Sohe's writing to people who've already been justified.
You see the same thing in versefive, for your fellowship in the
Gospel from the first day until now. He's talking about the fact that this
church. The one thing that theyhad in common with each other, and
what they had in common with Paulwas the fact that they had believed the

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Gospel. It was a fellowship inthe Gospel verse six. Being confident of
this very thing, that He whichhath begun a good work in you,
will perform it until the day ofJesus Christ. See God has began that
work in them. So these peoplethese people are already justified. Though.
When he writes about working at yoursalvation, he's talking about the doctrine of

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sanctification, which means that they areto be holy, they are to be
set apart, they are consecrated toGod. See, sanctification has been defined
as a progressive work of God andman that makes the believer more and more
free from sin and more and morelike Christ. That's a very simple,

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i think, a very good definitionof sanctification. Now, don't mix up
the two because although they go together, they're not the same thing. There
is a difference. Let me giveyou a real quick example of that.
Justification is a one time act.You're only justified once, and if you're

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justified, you're justified for all eternity. It's a one time act. It
doesn't happen more. And once you'rejustified, you can ever be any more
justified than you were at the momentof your salvation. Sanctification, on the
other hand, continues throughout life.You continually are to be sanctified. Number
two, it's illegal standing. Ithas to do with legal standing. It's

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a illegal declaration. God looks atthe center and he sees that his faith
and trust is in Christ. ThatChrist has imputed his righteousness into the center.
And God says, from a legalstandpoint, Okay, you're no longer
guilty. You've been acquitted. Thelaw no longer condemns you because Christ has

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kept the law in your place.Sanctification is an internal condition. It works
from the inside and works its wayout. Number three, it's all God's
work justification. It's all of Godfrom beginning to end. Friends, if
you're justified, you didn't do onething to contribute to your justification. The

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only thing you contribute is your sinsthat need to be forgiven. So God
does all the work in our justification, our salvation. But in sanctification,
God and man both work together.And the number four, justification is the
same in all believers. I said, no one is more justified than somebody

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else. Doesn't matter if you've beensaved for fifty or sixty years, you're
no more justified than the person whojust now recently has put their faith in
trust in Christ. Where sanctification differsfrom one believer to the other, some
people are just more godly, somepeople are more holy than other people.
He says. Work out, Imean work to completion, where we get

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our word cultivate. You know,cultivate carries the idea of someone who farms
or plants a garden and they haveto work. You know, they have
to have to work the soil thatthey have to hoe, they have to
fertilize the water. They do allof this and then hopefully then they'll have
a crop, they'll have something topick one day. But it takes work.
If you want something to grow,you have to cultivate it. Well,

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in our Christian life, sanctification it'snot passive. We're not passive.
It's not the case of letting goand letting God as some used to say.
No, it's a continually it's acontinual work. We are called to
serve, to labor, to obey, to grow spiritually. We till be
ten tenths is justification. You're safefrom the penalty of sin. The present

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is sanctification. You're saved from thevery power of sin. And in the
future glorification you're saved from the verypresence of sin. Well, we're talking
about the present tense. We're talkingabout right now. Our sanctification. It
begins when we were born again,it begins when we well by God's grace,
we were able to put our faithand trust in Christ and believe him.

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See, we didn't sanctify ourselves.God does this, but it continues
through life. It's a process wherewe and the spirit of God, we
in God, work together so thatwe will become more and more like Christ.
We have to put an effort intoit. If it was just a
matter of letting go and letting God, then his exhortation here would be meaningless,

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it would be presumptuous, and thenas completed it's made perfect at death
or at the second coming of Christ. We see that our salvation, our
sanctification. It's an ongoing process.Friends. We are to be active,
we are to work, we areto keep God's commands. So what Paul

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is really talking about here is reallythe perseverance of the saints. Those who
are truly saved, those who havebeen justified, they will, they will
persevere into faith, They will obeythe Lord and do that until life.
Doesn't mean there's not gonna be upsand downs. Doesn't mean there's not gonna

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be times when they fall, whenthey get off track. We all do
that all too often. But ifwe're truly justified and we're truly in the
process of being sanctified. Friends,We're not going to stay down. We're
not going to continue to live insin. We'll repent of that sin,
We'll confess it, and then we'llget back and begin once again to obeying

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the Lord and being conformed into theimage of Christ. Well, lastly,
I want you to noticed that hesays that we are to work our salvation
out. But notice that he sayswith fear and trembling. Fear means fright
or terror, but the word alsomeans reverence or a sense of awe,
and in trembling means the shake.It's where we get our word tremor.

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I think the idea here is thatthe believer, we're not frightened. We're
not terrified at the prospect of eternaltorment, of being punished for our sins.
No, it's not a dread offuture judgment. It's not that kind
of a fear. Not for thebeliever. Now for the unbeliever. If
you're not saved, you should fear, you should tremble because of the condition

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you're in and where you're headed.No, the believer, the justified one,
the one who's being sanctified, isaware of sin, of our spiritual
weakness, the power of temptation.So we have a fear, and the
fear here is the fear of welldishonoring the Lord, liveing in a way

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that displeases him. The fear ofthe Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
It's what the Bible teaches us.So this morning, if you're a child
of God, let me ask youthis question. Do you have a desire
to please God in all things,to keep his commandments? Do you have

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a desire to dwell in unity withother believers? Do you have a desire
to be more and more like Christ? To be like Christ? I hope
you do. And if you havethat desire, you don't need to be
afraid. You don't need to fearthat you're going to lose your salvation one
day, because that won't happen.It's impossible. Not If you're truly justified,

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you will not and cannot lose yoursalvation. But you could live dishonors
the Lord. And that's what we'reafraid of. That's why we work our
salvation out with fear and trembling.Are you truly saved today? Have you
put your faith in trust in Christ, and are you desiring to live in

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obedience to Him to be in aright relationship with him? You see,
friends, that's all that really matters, is that first of all, that
we are justified that we're in aright relationship with Christ, that we have
asked Him to forgive us of oursins? Have you done that? And

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then He begins a process of sanctifyingus where we are being conformed at the
very image of His son. That'san ongoing process that we work at.
But as verse thirteen also tells us, we'll look at the next time that
God is the one who's working inus so that we can work out this
sanctification. And then one day we'regoing to be free from the very presence

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of sin as we enjoy being glorifiedand being in God's presses. And that's
the message for this morning. We'dlike to thank you for listening to our
program this morning. We pray thatGod has used this message to draw you
closer to Him. Storms Creek MissionaryBaptist Church would like to take this opportunity

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to invite you to any of itsservices. We have a Sunday school which
starts at nine thirty am. Sundaymorning worship ten fifteen and our Sunday evening
service starts at six pm. Wealso have a Wednesday Night Bible Study which
starts at seven point thirty pm.Storms Creek Missionary Baptist Church is also on

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the internet under sermonaudio dot com.You can go to WWDA you dot sermon
Audio, look for Storm Street MissionaryBaptist Church and listen to any of our
sermons in full length audio at theside. Again, we'd like to thank
you for listening this morning, andmay God bless you throughout the week.