The Already but Not Yet Salvation

Philippians 2:12

GBCCR 5/18/24

Introduction

Comments-

We had a great time at the Walk for both of them fundraiser yesterday, remembering to help

Prayers

Pray for Done and Cheri Stowe as they care for Laurie

We pray for the Living Well medical clinic to be able to care for unborn babies and Their families… may more people choose to protect their babies because of this

Catch- There is something about already being part of a family, but not yet quite fitting in

Joining Liz’s family gatherings was really fun and kinda interesting

Partly because I’m a whole lot younger than everyone else

They have kids getting married, and our oldest is 10

They had lives and practices together for a long time before I arrived

And while they rejoiced at having me marry their baby sister and welcomed me, there were lots of things I had to learn

Like when someone is going out, they announce it and if you want to join, you just go, no one gives invitations

In a new family there is a just a unneeded discomfort as you try not to offend others

I was already part of the family, but not yet fully getting it

It is similar when you become a Christian, you are part of the family, but there a lot of things you just do not even know yet

Like you’re supposed to read your bible and how to pray God centered prayers

We don’t know how to ask forgiveness and grant it, reconciling conflict like we should

We are already part of the family, but we will not yet be fully home until heaven

Review

“so then” connects with everything that has just come before.

Obedience connects with their partnership in 1:5 Christ’s obedience example in 2:8

Paul’s absence here reflects his seeing them or being absent in 1:27

God’s good pleasure links with the glory of God in v 11

Illus- like a tower where the 10th floor has to be set on 1-9Paul is building upon what he said before throughout the whole book.

Paul is building upon what he said before throughout the whole book.

App: Read context when you read your bible

In 1:27 he calls them to live worthy of the good news of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension… to respond to the fact that Jesus died for us

In chapter 2 we learned about the call for humility/considering others

Comes from being changed by the gospel

Calls us to open our eyes and see others’ needs

Comes from looking at the example of Christ

Just like Jesus was humble in his life, relying upon the father and that future day of every knee bowing is in the future so our future day of perfection is in the eschatology

Now we live with an already, but not yet calling to follow this humble savior

We are to live worthy of the gospel in how to change

So let’s see

The 5 W’s (& 1 H) you need to grow as a Christian

Who Needs Salvation?

Explanation

If you are a Christian you have bowed that knee in obedience

You have always obeyed

Obey= to listen, hear with your eyes. Not go in one ear and out the other as they say.

note that he doesn’t say obedience to who/what

But these are faithful group of believers

they were discipled and trained by Paul“

“IN his presence”

When Paul taught them God’s commands, they listened

Thus reminds us that consistently the bible teaches one who believes and is justified is obedient to God

Romans 10:9- …. if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

Scripture is constantly saying that we are saved by faith alone, but faith does not remain alone

Ephesians 2:8–9- For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

James 2:17- So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

To any unbeliever here

this is obedience to the gospel message of God’s just requirements and your failure to achieve it,

Romans 2:4–5- Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

Christ met that expectation and paid you penalty on the cross. And if you by faith trust in his righteousness, not your own work, he will be your Lord and savior.

Romans 4:23–25- Now not for [abraham’s] sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.

So, call out to Him to forgive you… he was delivered in your place, but you must first admit that you need it!

They’re Christians, but they still need to turn from old paths as is always the case, no matter how mature a Christian is:

Turn to Colossians 3

3:1 clearly states these are believers who have bene raised up with Christ, but

Colossians 3:5- ESV Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

The word consider in the NASB is nekrosate, like necromancer, or death.

The image of putting to death indicates that conquering evil desires is painful, requiring intensity and forcefulness

Verse 9 said do not lie to each other because you have laid aside the old self and put on the new self

Then v12 says put on

I hope you see a consistent message that Christians have already been changed, but yet we are not yet fully changed

The first step to this change is to see Christ, and so we admit to him how far away we are.

But seeing Christ also brings hope

Believers are to remove evil from their lives precisely because they have already shed themselves of the old Adam and have clothed themselves Jesus

Illus- All people need some type of salvation effect to be worked in their life

This can be hard, but we see it all the time:

I’ve moved from one state to another a couple times

-New home, new paperwork, new driver’s license

I registered to vote in Nevada County now, so I’m a citizen of Nevada county with all it’s rights and privlege

But then you have to learn how to drive around here… you learn the street names, the sun comes up earlier

You learn the way of life.. like snow plans

Be patient with new Christians… they have a lot to learn

And be patient with one another our whole christian lives

Because everyone needs to keep being saved from the effects of sin

Application

You must believe that you are called to obey God,

to not believe the lie of Satan which says, “I know this is wrong, but God will just forgive me.”

This is not legalism that says God loves me if I obey

But God loves me, so I get to obey

Might I suggest that past obedience is not sufficient for you Christian

1 Thessalonians 4:9–10- Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,

Paul does really define what love means here because they’ve got this, sot he point we should take away is not being angered when someone says I need to grow

We might think we’ve got our bible down… we’re a well taught church…

and maybe so, but never neglect a teachable moment when someone offers a way you could do better

Trans: We’ve talked aout the who, now when does this happen

When is someone saved?

We need to talk about the biblical doctrine of sanctification

Past, present, and future aspect

Past-

“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11)

You cannot continue in sin like you once did.

1 John 3:9- No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

This is because Romans 6:6- The old self was crucified with him, so we are no longer slaves of sin.

a Christian should never say (for example), “This sin has defeated me. I give up. I have had a bad temper for thirty-seven years, and I will have one until the day I die, and people are just going to have to put up with me the way I am!”

Present

Sanctification is often used as a present verb.

Verses:

1 Corinthians 1:18 (“to us who are being saved”) and 1 Corinthians 15:1–2 (“the gospel which I preached to you … by which also you are saved”) suggests the continuation of the salvation experience in progressive sanctification.

Illus- Like sanctifying your nice family dishes. You set them apart for a special time to be used at a special time of the year, but when you pull them out, you might have to do a special cleaning because they have gotten dirty from sitting, or sometimes from use

Future glorification

Paul has already stated this in Philippians 1:6- he will not fail to complete this

1 Thessalonians 5:23- Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

One day you will be sanctified completely,

but just like Jesus being bowed before by all people, that is not yet today

But the already means something is happening now

Illustration point- The when of sanctification is past, present, and future

Godly old dead guys have seen this repeatedly in their lives

Two or three years before John Newton’s death his sight had become so dim that he was no longer able to read.

At breakfast, the portion of Scripture for the day was read to him. It was 1 Corinthians 15:10: “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

After the reading of this text, he paused for some moments, and then exclaimed, “I am not what I ought to be. Ah! how imperfect and deficient.

I am not what I wish to be. I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good. I am not what I hope to be; soon, soon, I shall put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection.

Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was—a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, “By the grace of God, I am what I am.”

Are you not rejoicing that you are not who you once were and that your continued change is promised?

Application

We’re going to get there, but the simple application is to believe the truth that the scriptures never want you to stop growing and changing

Philippians 3:12–16- Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

You need to never give up, no matter how far you have come or how far it seems you will go

You are not who you were, and remember, you will be one day the perfect person

And remember the context… this called to press on is between the command to be humble like Jesus sand to do everything without grumbling

So may I suggest we are to be humble patient with one another

Be careful to assume you’ve arrived and that you’re sure when you’ve changed already so much

Instead, always let others direct you back towards God’s word

Past obedience doesn’t mean more instruction and even reminders are not needed

Parents, your kids do not just learn something and then always do it, then need to be reminded

Trans: The who is everyone, the when is ongoing, how about the where

Where in the community does obedience happen?

Explanation

Paul says in his presence and not, they are to work out their salvation

They learned from the church, but now they need to apply this themselves

These are plural commands, in the context of commands to look out for one anotherto be of the same mind

to be of the same mindto be united in spirit

to be united in spirit

This contending together for the Gospel would also be a sign of their opponents' ultimate "destruction,"(Phil 1:28;

Unlike the Israelite community in the wilderness wanderings, the Philippians were not to murmur and dispute among themselves (cf. Exod 15–17;

It is interesting that in both Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5 ,

where being filled with the Spirit and being filled with the Word are discussed ,

we have the exhortation to keep on encouraging and keep on admonishing ( in love ) one another with the Word.

Isn’t in amazing that rather than assuming christians who have the spirit need nothing else, the writer of Hebrews actually says the way we keep each other from being deceived by sin is to speak to oen another!

Hebrews 3:12–13- Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Christians can can be deceived, so we need others

If we just focus on ourselves, wisdom says we bring destruction

Proverbs 18:1- He who separates himself seeks his own desire, He quarrels against all sound wisdom.

Instead, rely upon one another

Illustration point- The where is among godly people helping each other grow

Being around and willing to talk about sin, a lack of obedience is important

Because we all know the story of the emperor who wore no clothes because he was tricked into thinking that only the wises could see his clothes

Everyone else was too embarrassed or unsure to say anything as he went in a parade down the street naked

But who pointed it out? A child!

We need people around us to point out our need to obey

Application

Good old Don Jones was saying this week that one of the biggest ways he grows in his faith is through the honesty of the brothers in this church, especially give a plug for the Tuesday morning study

There is something so powerful about honesty that exists from others who are fellow pilgrims on this journey

When we talk about our struggles, we do not feel like we have to pretend, like no one will show us mercy if we admit it but wisdom states

Proverbs 28:13- He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

Might I suggest that we should obey James 5 command to confess our sins to one another

And if you think you’re doing great, consider a really bold move… ask those around you how you need to do better, ask how you’ve offended them, and do not give up until they tell you

I say there is a direct correlation between how close I am to someone and how often I need to forgive them

With all that set, we’ve seen the who, all people, the when, continually, the where, among God’s people, now finally

We know we must (Resolution)- Work the miracle God has made

Imagine the scene in John 11

Jesus is moved at his Friend’s death, after praying to his father he cries out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The Holy Spirit gives life to the dead body, he awakes

And then says…. Wait Jesus, my hands and feet are bound with linen…

Wait Jesus, my hands and feet are bound with linen… I’m just

I’m just gonna let go and let God handle this one.

NO way, he joyfully obeyed Jesus command, walked out of that tomb, and joyfully threw off his death clothes, ready to put on something new

And who got the glory for his walking out and putting off? Not Him, Jesus.

Not Him, Jesus.

So Christian, Jesus speaks to you with the same powerful voice from this bible

Listen to it and work hard to obey what He commands

Knowing that Holy Spirit is the one making it possible.

So, pick something, even starting this new year to focus for your growth

Closing prayer