By His Strength

When have you needed someone else’s strength to continue on?

1992, Derek Redmon, Barcelona olympics, tears hamstring 150 meters into race, his father breaks through security and they finish the race together amid thunderous applause. Derek didn’t win a medal but through perseverance—and his fathers strength—he finished the race.

Continuing in our sermon series through Philippians—-passage today is Philippians 2:12-18.

Recap: Paul has been encouraging the Philippians to press into the Christian life—showing us a model in his walk—and the ultimate model of a god-honoring, humble, others focused person in Jesus.

And we are continuing to be exhorted to press in…

In our text today God’s Word calls us to obedience—that’s how Paul starts in verse 12, “You have always obeyed, in my presence, so please keep obeying in my absence.” He calls us to obey Christ by:

I. Working Out Our Salvation (12-13)

II. Shining in a dark World (14-16)

III. Rejoicing in all circumstances (17-18)

Philippians 2:12–18 ESV

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, 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. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 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. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

There is great comfort in our passage this morning.

Key verse: Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” HIs work in us is that when we will and work, it is to His good pleasure.

If we come to this text and see that in our own strength we must do these things we’ll walk away discouraged—because we are weak and we often fail in these things.

Here’s the great news of our passage today, We can be confident in our weakness because God is our strength.

Pray

Let’s dive in and first see…

God calls us to work out our salvation. (12-13)

Philippians 2:12 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,”

Work out NOT work for—our flesh is tempted to hear, “Work for”. Case in point the Pharisees.

We can never work for our salvation—an un-payable debt, like trying to wipe a dry erase board while holding a marker in your hand—constantly adding to the problem.

But the problem is that you can’t erase any—our sin is against an eternal God—the offense of sin has no expiration date before God.

“Work for” turns us into legalists and focuses us on our own righteousness. (Focused inward, not outward) (Legalists make bad ambassadors for Christ)

“Work for” eventually becomes an unbearable weight—Martin Luther crushed by holiness of God and the requirements of the law

Working out our salvation, which is the call to you and I this morning, rests on the fact that Christ has already worked for our salvation.

Christ’s perfect work has already secured salvation for all those who come to Him in faith…And it is from that secure place that we can work out our salvation.

This is what our standards say in WCF 13.1 (Go to a Presbyterian church, read the confession, systematic theology of Scripture)

“They, who are once effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by His Word and Spirit dwelling in them:”

The call to work out our salvation is to lean into our sanctification.

Chapter 13 of the confession continues and says, “This sanctification is throughout, in the whole man; yet imperfect in this life: there abideth still some remnants of corruption in every part, whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.”

How true does that feel in the life of a believer? “a continual and irreconcilable war”

And so because Christ has worked for and won our salvation we work out our salvation in all areas of our lives. What does this look like?

John 14:15 ““If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

It means we look for the commands of Christ and seek to obey them—no matter how inconvenient—or hard—or dangerous—we press into our sanctification and wage war against our flesh.

That’s what Paul means when he says in “fear and trembling”.

It doesn’t mean, being afraid of God—what do the children of God have to fear—Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

It means in reverence for God, trembling at the truth of your calling in Jesus, of the blessedness of his majesty—work out your salvation, apply your salvation to your life seeking to be like your God.

Not all fear and trembling is bad…when I stood at the altar and waited for my bride there was fear and trembling, she wants to marry me?! I’m going to be a husband—what a responsibility, what a calling? When I held my newly born children there was fear and trembling—I’m a Father, God has given me this life to mold and lead towards Him.

And just like how we come to marriage and parenthood in weakness so we come to our obedience in weakness. I’m not a perfect husband, father, or follower of Christ.

My obedience is full of weakness. (I know I’m not the only one.) (When I fail in, my flesh warring against my spirit wants to become discouraged and think God is angry with me.) Let me read it again.

Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Here’s the good news of the gospel in our passage this morning.

Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

We can be confident in our weakness because God is our strength.

In all your obedience, as you pursue sanctification, applying your salvation God doesn’t say pick yourself up, you do it, He says, “Come and rest in MY strength, I am working in you, in your will and in your work, that you would bring me pleasure.

Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

When we apply the gospel to our obedience it’s not a crushing weight but a pathway to freedom.

“Obedience is the pathway to blessing, its the means of protection, its the means of joy, it’s the means to find God’s best in our lives.” Nancy Lee DeMoss.

So friends, if you are trying to earn your own salvation after Christ has already earned it—stop and rest in Christ. Pursuing Christ by our strength makes us weary—come and rest in Christ.

Come to God and plead the blood of Christ—Help me Lord be obedient—Help me, love my wife…be gentle with my kids…read my Bible…Help me to rest in your strength God I am weak but you are strong—and you are working in me. You say so and I believe it and trust it.

And know that your God is not disappointed in you because you need Him—he delights to come along side you and help you along.

As we continue in our text, obedience also calls us to…

Shine in a dark world. (14-16)

Philippians 2:14–16 “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 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.”

The exhortation as we continue in the text is that you and I would “shine as lights in the world among a crooked and twisted generation” . In other words we are to shine into the darkness of this world.

Our lives are to be beacons of light that illuminate the darkness.

And one of the ways that Paul tells us we can do that is by being a people who don’t grumble and argue. Paul has in mind the witness of our words and the attitudes behind them. And going further he says this applies to all the areas of our lives— “Do all things without grumbling or disputing”

Why does God’s word give us this exhortation? Because we are all tempted to grumble and complain and argue. It’s a real temptation for us.

I know it is for me—sometimes it can be so easy to complain and focus on what I think is going wrong instead of letting my speech be seasoned by all the grace of God in my life. And there is abundant grace: God provides all that we need and saves us. Grace upon grace.

Imagine that you were driving to pick up a huge inheritance check worth millions of dollars and a mile from the lawyers office your car broke down and you had to walk the last mile. How short-sighted and out of sorts would it be to complain the whole way there about your great misfortune of your car breaking down and having to walk?

You could buy a car immediately—you’re about to be rich—it would be so out of place and ungrateful. But we do that in our Christian lives. WE have an inheritance in Christ that has immeasurable value, we have been forgiven of our sins, adopted as children, we are favored people of God who have inherited eternal life—all comfort, and blessing, and honor is ours in Christ and yet we complain often about the troubles of this world.

And the greek for the word grumble in the passage—points to an internal dissatisfaction, a secret displeasure that leads to murmuring. So what is immediately in view by the text is not to put on a brave face but inwardly have a complaining heart—but the application our lives often require goes beyond that—our discontented hearts move past murmuring into full on complaining.

And God’s word says, if you want to shine for Christ in this dark world—don’t do that.

I’m not saying we have to walk around all the time and never talk about our troubles—but talking about our troubles, confiding in one another, praying about one another’s hardships is different than complaining. God’s word tells us to bear one another’s burdens. Doing so, may help you not grumble and argue. The fellowship of the church is a gift for your walk with Christ.

When we are a people who always complain and grumble we are a people who speak the language of the world. We show them that Christ, our salvation in him, and our glorious future with Him have no bearing on our current circumstances.

The opposite of complaining is gratitude— being grateful.

Gratefulness in our circumstances makes us shine brightly in a dark world. Paul says to the Philippians, “Be a people full of gratitude who don’t complain and argue and prove that my labor over you was not in vain.

Paul says holding fast to the word of life, will help us to be a people who are grateful in all things.

You and I prone to complain—and a mere positive attitude will only last so long—and eventually fail us and return us again to a heart full of complaining.

But if we abandon obedience by our own strength and look to God instead—if we hold fast to the word of life— there is great hope.

We can be confident in our weakness because God is our strength.

The key to shining brightly in this dark world is not by strenuous effort—where we buckle down and really try very hard to not be negative. The key to shining brightly in this world like stars in the sky is to drink deeply of Christ.

Matthew 12:34 “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Do you want to fight grumbling in your heart, and dissatisfaction, and discontentment? Then drink deeply of Christ.

How do we do that? We fill our hearts with the Word of God. We lay prayer and praise on our lips. We come and fellowship with the people of God. We come to the preaching, and the sacraments and receive grace from God. We think often on our salvation and the goodness of it—we rejoice and revel in the promises that are ours in Christ. We hold fast to the word of life who is Christ. And grumbling and arguing will be less frequent because your heart will be focused on all the goodness of God toward you.

Christ says to the samaritan woman at the well, “I am the living water come and drink of me and never thirst again.”

Brothers and sisters, our hearts are mirrors—mirrors can only reflect what they are pointed at—if the mirror of your heart is pointed at the things of the world then what you reflect to the world is their own image—and there is no hope there for them there—and out of an abundance of the world in your heart, grumbling and disputing will never be far from you.

But if the mirror of your heart is pointed at Christ and your heart is filled with Christ then when the world looks at you and comes in contact with you they will see Christ as he pours out of you.

Shining in this dark world will come to you as easily as shining comes to a mirror pointed at the sun, when you point your heart toward Christ. Do that and you can’t help but shine because God is working in you by His strength.

Finally in our passage this morning obedience calls us to…

Rejoice in all circumstances (17-18)

Philippians 2:17–18 “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”

This is the third time and not the last time that we’ll talk about joy in Philippians. Philippians is often called the epistle of joy because it is such a dominant theme in the letter. So I’m repeating myself here and will again.

But God is wise and knows our hearts—I believe Paul’s letter to the Philippians was recorded for us because we struggle so often with joy. And God wants the joy of the gospel to be ours.

This world we live in is full of sorrows. There is real hardship. Real loss. Real grief. Real pain.

And when we come to these things in our own strength our strength pretty quickly is revealed as not enough.

How can Paul say to the Philippians, even if I am poured out as a drink offering I am glad and rejoice with you all?

A drink offering was a sacrifice. Paul is referencing again the possibility of his dying for his faith in prison. And he has joy about it. Paul’s attitude was that to die would be gain for him as he would get to go and be with Christ.

The circumstances for Paul and the circumstances for the Philippians were not great and Paul says to them, “And you likewise should also be glad and rejoice with me.”

And I think this is really helpful because our lives are also often full of hardship and unhappiness and yet we are called to rejoice—to have joy in the midst of those circumstances.

Elizabeth Elliot was asked once how she had joy after the death of her husband—and how could she have joy amid all the hardships of the missionary life— and she said, “The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.”

Joy doesn’t come to us when all the circumstances of our life are happy. One of the lies of our day is that joy and suffering are mutually exclusive—joy can’t exist in the presence of suffering. That’s a lie.

Real joy is available to us in all circumstances because real joy is found in Christ.

Friends, you can come to Christ in all your circumstances. He is not a distant God who doesn’t know your pain. He is the God-man who took on flesh. He experienced the suffering and temptations that you and I face and he sympathizes with us.

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

So when rejoicing in the middle of a storm feels hard, know that you are not alone, God is willing and working in you, to help you have joy in what is eternally true. The unshakeable truth of the gospel is our source of joy when our life is full of unhappiness.

Are you hurting? The gospel is still true? Are you grieving? The gospel is still true. Are you in need, anxious, worried —the gospel is still true, you can take joy in that even though you are unhappy with your circumstances. And what I have often found to be true is that when I am filled with joy because of the surpassing greatness of our calling in Christ my happiness actually does increase even in unhappy circumstances.

Your life doesn’t need to be free of suffering in order for you to be happy and full of joy. And maybe you’re thinking, “Well pastor you’ve got life to live yet—you’ll see. You’ll see just how unhappy life can be—if you knew, you wouldn’t tell me to have joy in my life.”

If you won’t hear it from me hear it from a woman in her 70’s who is acquainted with pain and suffering.

Joni Eareckson Tada is a woman who has endured much physical hardship. I love this quote from her book The Practice of the Presence of Jesus (pg. 195) she says this, “I cannot make my heart feel grateful but there are times when I am lying in my bed in miserable pain and I look up in near tears and I whisper, ‘God, I am so happy.’ How is that possible? I do not rejoice in my horrible pain, far from it. I rejoice in the abundant outpouring of grace that God gives in response to that pain. He hears my plea, sees my yawning need and fills it with grace that is commensurate to my pain. Actually, since he is so generous he filly my need to overflowing. The result is that I am stunned and surprised by sheer happiness.”

When our lives are full of hardship and joy seems fleeting let us come to God in our weakness and seek his strength.

How often are you silent in your pain? Not crying out to God? How often do we believe the lie whispered to us, “God doesn’t care, don’t bother crying out to Him.” The cross shouts that he cares. V. 13 shouts that he cares.

Friends, when life is a storm break the silence and cry out to the master of the storm who tenderly loves you. There is overflowing grace for you in your time of need.

We can be confident in our weakness because God is our strength.

This is who our God is.

Do you see the graciousness of God in our passage this morning?

We are truly called to obey Christ—to pursue our sanctification. We are truly called to shine with the light of Christ in a dark world. We are truly called to possess joy in all circumstances.

But we are not called to do this by our strength—instead God says to you and I this morning, in all these things take heart, I am working in you, I am working in you and because of that you will please me as my work bears fruit in your life.

Do you know this God? If you don’t—I want to invite you this morning to come and rest in the gospel. I would love to talk to you this morning about how you can come to Christ in faith.

And if you already belong to God—If Christ is your savior this morning—let our passage call you to trust the gospel ever more deeply in your life. To abandon your strength for His. To remove the weight and burden of self-righteousness and rest in the righteousness of Christ.

Like Derek Redmond, you and I are running a race with our lives that is beset with weakness—but our Father comes alongside of us, frees us in Christ, and carries sustains us with His strength as we walk in Him. And because of our Father’s strength we can truly can pursue our sanctification, we truly can shine like stars reflecting Christ, and we truly can rejoice throughout the circumstances of our lives.

Though we are weak; our God is strong and in this we take great comfort. Amen? Pray with me.