The Work of Sanctification - Our Role

Alright, let's take our Bibles. Let's turn to Philippians chapter 2. I think most of you know where we are in our study in Philippians. We're going to be in verses 12 to 13. When I say 12 to 13, that's not a big portion of scripture by no means. But let's go ahead and let's read our verses and then we will get started in the introduction of the message. We know these verses. Let's read them together.

Paul says, "Therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only is in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Verse 13, "For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Now tonight we're going to be in these verses. We're only going to divide verse 12. And we're going to be dealing with the very important subject of sanctification or the sanctification of the believer. And I think we know what sanctification is. It is the process by which the born-again Christian grows in their Christian life. Another way we can say it is this.

It's the process where the believer grows to be more of what God wants them to be. You can say it like this. This is the Christian growing to be more like Christ. In my study time I pulled out some of my resources. I looked at Wayne Grudem's definition. Real simple but good. I like something he points out. He says, and I'm quoting, "Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man." Notice he says God and man. "That makes us more and more free from sin." I like that. "And like Christ in our actual lives." That would mean in our everyday practical lives and living. Now actually we have already dealt with sanctification.

I think you know that. If you remember what we've been studying on Sunday morning. In our study in Ephesians 6 verses 10 to 13. And I thought about it like this. Isn't it amazing how when we study God's Word verse by verse that things just kind of come together naturally? It's like God planned it that way. It's like God planned it that way. And He did. And we looked at the command in verse 10 to be strong in the Lord. And we saw that this can be a passive command and an active command. In one sense we are responsible to be strong in the Lord.

We are responsible to submit to our Lord in prayer, Bible study, to seek after His strength in our own Christian life. We are responsible to walk with our Lord and to do our part to draw near to God. So there is a sense in which we seek after the strength of the Lord and we can attain that. But in another sense we cannot be strengthened in the Lord unless God works in us. We are dependent on our Lord to strengthen us by work of the Spirit in our lives. Actually without a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives we are really helpless to gain any strength in the Lord.

So there is a sense in which we can never have strength in the Lord unless the Holy Spirit gives us that strength. Now you might say, "Pastor, why are you going back to Ephesians?" Well that's dealing with sanctification which is what we're dealing with tonight. But I want you to see something this important. There is a great mystery attached to sanctification and there is a great paradox here. Now understanding what a paradox is and how it applies to Scripture is very important. Now you might be saying, "Pastor, what's a paradox? What does that mean?" A paradox is a seeming contradiction. A paradox is a seeming contradiction.

A paradox is a situation that seems like a contradiction and within paradoxical situations there can be quite a lot of mystery. And here is the paradox that we have in verse 12 and 13. The fact that our sanctification is dependent on us and our sanctification is dependent on God all at the same time. See the contradiction? See the mystery? Some of you see it right away. But remember this fact. Please remember this fact. Yes our sanctification is dependent on what we do. We can never deny that. But unless God works in us we will never progress in our sanctification even if we fulfill our roles and responsibilities flawlessly.

And it is very much the same thing with our salvation. I have taught you this thoroughly throughout the years so you have a healthy balance here. We are responsible to repent and believe the gospel. Men and women and young people are responsible to trust in Christ for their salvation. We know that. But unless God works to bring them to faith in Christ, men and men can never repent and believe. We understand that regeneration, the new birth, comes first. We see this paradox in man's salvation when we get into some scripture. I'm going to reference Ephesians 1 verses 11 to 13 because we've been in Ephesians.

And I'm going to read these verses and you see if you can identify God's work in our salvation and then our work in our salvation. Look for God's sovereign work and then man's responsibility. Paul says, "In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will." Let me pause there.

"Having obtained that hence too, some human responsibility, and then having been predestined we know that's all about God's sovereign choice, will, purpose." Verse 12, "So that we who were the first to hope," there's man's responsibility, "and Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him," there's human responsibility. You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. So when someone asks you this question, "Are we saved because God saves us or because we trust and believe?" The answer is always yes. Leave it paradoxical. Don't try to fix it.

Don't try to correct the paradox and don't try to solve everything about the mystery. And when someone asks you, "Do we grow in our walk with God because we pray and study the word and walk in obedience with God or because God works in us?" Well the answer is yes, there too. And don't try to fix the seeming contradiction. Don't try to explain all of the mystery away. Now why do I point out the paradox here in our sanctification and our salvation? Because for some, there is always the temptation to fix the seeming contradiction. And if we try to fix the seeming contradiction, it is unavoidable that we will get out of balance.

If we try to fix the seeming contradiction, we will certainly get out of balance theologically and we can even get into some extreme, even false doctrine. This is what happens. In an effort to fix certain truths of God's Word, well what happens is we do that at the expense of other truths. And with sanctification, if we emphasize God's role in our sanctification at the expense of our role, we eliminate man's responsibility. What does that look like? Well if we do that, then the Christian's net urged in their responsibility. They sit back and they're like, "Well God's going to sanctify me.

I don't have to do anything." They become the lazy Christian and the opposite. If we emphasize man's role in our sanctification at the expense of God's role, we eliminate God. Well what does that look like? Then man thinks that all of his sanctification is up to him and he'll work his fingers to the bone to the point where he's just going crazy. And he will think that there are things that he can accomplish, but yet he can because it takes God. So tonight we're going to be looking at our role in the work of sanctification. Then next week with verse 13, we're going to look at God's role in the work of sanctification.

And I'm taking my time here because I want us to get everything out of verse 12 and everything out of verse 13. So the title of the message is this, the work of sanctification, our role. Next week will be God's role. Now just out of this verse, I'm going to make three observations that will really contribute to our sanctification. I'm going to call these three musts and some of these things will surprise you. And I think some of you are going to look up and say, "I needed the pastor to be slow here in this verse." So we must, number one, remember our examples. Number one, we must remember our examples.

Now here in verse 12, Paul is transitioning to a new subject, but he is not leaving behind all that he had taught them. The English Standard uses the word therefore the beginning of the verse. The new American says, "So then," and this tells us that Paul was connecting what he has just taught them with what he was about to teach them. Well, what had he been teaching? In verses 5 to 8, he was giving them the greatest example for Christian unity, right? And he was giving them the greatest example for Christian service. Christ left the glories of heaven to become a slave.

So the greatest example for Christian unity and Christian service is Christ. In the incarnation, Jesus emptied himself and he truly became a slave to the will of his father. And God's will took him to death, even death on a cross, to provide redemption for men and men. So Christ was their greatest example. He emptied himself and he became a slave to do the will of his father. So their first example wasn't his Christ. But there's a second example and that was Paul. Notice that Paul says, "Therefore, my beloved." Now we don't use that word beloved much. It's just kind of an old word, maybe a church word.

The amplified might make a little more sense to us. It says, "So then, my dear ones." There's a lot of ways we could express love like that, but I think you see what Paul was saying. This was simply Paul's way of reminding them of his great love for them. This was Paul's way of reminding them of his love for them, and he was giving them these words of encouragement and love and assurance. But there's something else. Notice that Paul also reminding them of their obedience when he was with them. Look at verse 12.

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence." So not only was Paul reminding them of his love for them, but he was reminding them of how he had been with them and how they had obeyed when he was with them. So their second example was Paul. It is obvious they saw Paul as a great mentor and a great example. So look at what we have here. Paul was about to instruct them concerning their sanctification, but he reminds them of the greatest example they could ever look to. That's Christ Jesus, and he reminds them of the second greatest example that they could ever look to, and that was himself.

And there are two questions we need to ask right here. Was the example of Christ good for their sanctification? Yes. Anytime a believer looks to Christ and mimics what Christ said and did, that is a great example in sanctification. But the second question, was the example of Paul good for their sanctification? Yes. Yes. And I thought about it today. Thought about all the time that he was with them and their great connection that he had to them and how they loved him and how much he meant to them. So this example of Christ and Paul was great. Now what should this mean to us and how should this apply to us?

We should look to Christ as our example. We are to have the mind of Christ. Is it that what we learned earlier in Philippians? And if we have the attitude of Christ, the thinking of Christ, and the mind of Christ, if he is our example set before us that we follow after, well we are on the right track in our sanctification. Think back. Christ became a slave to the will of the Father. So if he is our example and we become a servant to all and a slave to all, we're on track in our sanctification. But also we need Paul's in our lives just like they needed Paul. We need mentors and models in our lives.

And the best place to find spiritual mentors and models is in the local church. In Luke Church, do not fall into the trap of having a mentor and a model that you cannot connect to and speak to and that they cannot connect to your personal life. Now can we have a mentor and a model that is a distance away? Yes. A conference speaker cannot be the kind of mentor you need like we see here. An author of a book cannot be this kind of a mentor like we see here. A believer some distance away cannot be some kind of a mentor like we see here. We need to look into our small groups. We need to look into people in the life of our church.

We need an older man in our life or an older woman in our life to be a mentor for us. Paul was definitely speaking into the lives of these Philippians. So we need someone who can do the same for us. And notice something folks, mentoring relationships should grow out of our small groups and out of a healthy church. And also accountability relationships should grow out of our small groups and out of our church. I think that is a sign of health. And this is a challenge from me to you. You'd be looking for someone who can be that mentor. They need to be someone who's walked with the Lord for quite a long time. Look I hate to hurt your feelings.

If you've only been a Christian for four or five years, even eight years, ten years, you might not be mentor material quite yet. It takes a while to become a mature Christian. If you've been a mature Christian for a while you realize, "Oh wow, I was not a mature Christian five years after I came to Christ." It takes a while. So what I'm showing you is this. Look for these kind of relationships. Think back to the Philippians. Christ was their example. Paul was their example. They yearned for Christ. They yearned for Paul. They needed Paul and Paul wanted to mentor them. So remember our examples. Christ is our ultimate example.

Mentors and models should be our examples. And we certainly need those in our lives for our sanctification. And then we must, number two, remember our obedience. Number two, we must remember our obedience. Now notice that at the center of the verse we see obedience. Look at the verse again. "Therefore my beloved," here's the obedience, "as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence but much more in my absence." Here Paul was paying the Philippian believers a big compliment. But he was also giving them a big warning or a big caution. He compliments them by reminding them that they had the good habit of obedience. You see that?

This obedience and what Paul is saying here, it's a lot. In the original this word was a compound word which has the meaning of placing oneself under what has been heard and the result of that was submission and obedience. So Paul was saying that they had always obeyed. They had the good habit of hearing the word and placing themselves under that word and then submitting themselves to that word all the way through to obedience. We can say it like this, they had the habit of walking truly in obedience. So Paul was complimenting them in their obedience. But he was also warning them. He was cautioning them.

Paul was cautioning them not to relax in their obedience when he was not with them. Look back at the verse, "Therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only is it my presence but much more in my absence." I think the Bible scholar William Hendrickson has some insight here. I'm going to borrow it. It helped me. He says that I'm quoting, "There was a tendency to lean too heavily on Paul that is, on his physical presence with the church at Philippi." I think he is on to something.

He goes on to say, and I'm quoting, "The Philippians must learn to lean completely on God, not just mostly on God and partly on Paul's physical presence with him." Oh, I think he really is on to something. And I think Hendrickson is really right. I think that is what Paul was cautioning them about. They were leaning too heavily on Paul all while being obedient to God and his Word. So Paul was warning them. He was cautioning them not to lean too heavily on him. But notice something here. What could have been seen as a weakness needed to be seen as an opportunity and a strength. Let me repeat that.

What it could have been seen as a weakness, and it was, needed to be seen as an opportunity and a strength. It appears that the Philippians may have been or could have been too dependent on Paul and his presence with him. So Paul was calling them to obey in his absence just like they had obeyed when he was there. So this weakness was an opportunity to grow. They had the opportunity to step up and to obey in Paul's absence in a fresh new way like never before. And through that obedience without Paul, without leaning too heavily on Paul, they would grow more because they were not leaning over onto Paul too much. They were working.

They would have been working in their obedience when their primary mentor was not with him. And this would have produced a new spiritual strength in them. Notice this kind of sounds a lot like sanctification in their role in sanctification. Yeah. So look at what Paul was saying here. He complimented them in their obedience. That's a great compliment. But he warned, he cautioned them to make sure they obeyed the same way as when he was there. He was calling them to a new level of obedience that would produce a new level of growth and sanctification. And look at how this applies to us.

We can have times of great obedience like when we start a new small group study or when we start a new book study. But are you just as obedient when we're halfway through the small group study? Are you just as obedient when you're halfway through our book study? I think back to our study through Ephesians. We're on like message 5051. It's been a while. We've been in Ephesians. Are you just as zealous to study the book of Ephesians now as you were before? You see? We're five, four, five, six messages in Philippians. Maybe when we started Philippians you said, "Oh, I'm going to study that." Pastor pointed out a small book. It's easy to study.

Are you just as zealous to study it and obey it now as you were before? You may be great at obedience when you are at a church around Christian friends, but what about when you're alone? You may be obedient after certain spiritual periods of time, like when we have a revival and renewal meeting. I think about when Pastor Jason Johns came. Maybe those messages ministered to you and you were really obedient at a new level for a while, but maybe you relaxed. But are you just as obedient in what Pastor Jason taught six months later, even now? And we all need spiritual mentors. You need spiritual mentors just like Paul.

You need to grow to a place where you can even mentor others. You need to be a Paul and you need Pauls in your life, but there is a warning here. We must all be just as obedient to the Word and walking with God when we are alone. Now, all alone I've been making application to individuals, but how does this apply to the church? Paul's writing to the church. As a church, we as a church have to become more obedient. We have to become more committed. We have to become more spiritually in tune all of the time in the life of our church. We can't be spiritually sharp during vacation Bible school or only when it's a small group study that we like.

Individually and collectively, we have to be obedient and walk in obedience. But then there are times we can become less obedient and less committed and we need to recognize that and address it. So remember our obedience. We must obey in the easy times. We must obey in the hard times. We must obey when we're around our mentors and Christian friends and when we're all alone. And then we must, number three, remember our responsibilities. Number three, we must remember our responsibilities. Let's read the last part of the verse. The part that really we know and we probably have wanted to get to.

Paul says, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your salvation or your own salvation with fear and trembling." Now right away we need to see that this is not some sort of a works salvation. I don't think any of you here would think that. We know that no one can do any kind of a work to earn salvation. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing. It is a free gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." And think about it.

Paul was not calling them to do some kind of a work for their salvation because earlier in the very beginning of the book, chapter 1, verse 1, he called them saints. Saints are born again Christians. So verse 12 is not teaching some kind of a work salvation, but if that is a case, then what does this mean to work out your salvation? Paul was calling them to a particular work. Without him being there with them, he was calling them to work out or to continue to work on their salvation to its conclusion.

Without his assistance, he was calling them to work, to apply, and to obey all of the things that he had been giving them all the way out to its proper conclusion. That is what this term "workout" really means. Now this may help you. In Paul's day, they used this term to speak of working in a mine. So they were getting out of the mine all that was valuable. They were also working in a field. They were to work things out to get the best harvest at the harvest time. So working out here spoke of working something out to its proper and logical conclusion to its end.

But Paul was not only calling them to work out only what he had been teaching them here. This term "workout" speaks of an ongoing continual work. The idea and expectation is that they would keep on working these things out in anything and everything else associated with the Christian life in all of the days to come until their entire Christian life was complete. Think about it. They were to work out their salvation in these things that were before them to the end. And then in anything and all things that would come their way in the Christian life, they were to work out those things in their salvation in all of those things until the very end.

An understanding that this was to be an ongoing work and this work pertain to anything and everything in the Christian life shows us that Paul was calling them to a lifetime all-the-time work. Hintering really gets this well. He says, and I'm quoting, "Believers are not saved at one stroke. Their salvation is a process. It is a process in which they themselves far from remaining passive or dormant take a very active part. It is a pursuit, a following after, a pressing on, a contest, race, fight." MacArthur points out that this salvation has two aspects. One aspect is one's personal conduct in daily living.

The other aspect is that of perseverance or persevering in one's salvation to the very end. Church sounds a lot like sanctification, right? And Hintering goes on to point out that this work is done all while a battle is fought on three fronts. A battle against the world, a battle against the flesh, the sinful nature, and a battle against the devil. We're going to talk about that some Sunday morning. So look at what Paul was saying here. He was calling these Philippian believers to work out all that he had been teaching them, alone, just as they had been obedient when he was with them.

He was calling them to be obedient when he wasn't with them. He was calling them to work out these things in their Christian walk and to persevere in their faith in all of these things until the end. As a farmer would work out their crops until the harvest for the best harvest that they could have, they were to work out all of these things for the best harvest of sanctification that they could have. And look at how this applies to us today. We must be a people who take what God is giving us. We must be individual Christians in a church, and we take what God is giving us, and we must work it out according to our salvation to the end.

Think about our Ephesian study. Think about the doctrinal section, chapters one to three, and the practical section, chapters four to six. We are responsible to take all of those things and to work those things out in our salvation, in our life, to the end. Think about what we're studying here in Philippians. Think about what we've been studying about unity. We're to take all of those things and pray over those things and work those things out in our own salvation to the end. Think about what we're studying in our small groups. We're studying Christian marriage.

We're to take all of those things and we are to pray through those things and work those things out in our lives, in our salvation, to the very end. And look, church, all that God gives us, we are responsible for. We are responsible to work all of those things out in our Christian life, in our daily life, until the harvest comes, just like the farmer, all the way to the end. Two things that come to my mind here. Number one, I think most of us are more lax than we realize. And number two, we are responsible for a lot. We all are. And I'm responsible in a greater way because I'm the one teaching you. So remember our responsibilities.

We are to work out all that God gives us in our salvation, in our Christian life, all the way to the end. Now I want to close by showing you that what we have looked at is this. One side of the mysterious paradoxical work of personal sanctification. We've looked at the work of sanctification, our role. Now my question is, how are we doing? How are we doing? Are we being responsible with the two messages we were dealing with last two Sunday mornings on the battle, on the war? I had a friend gave me a call this week and lives away. He said he listened to the message I preached on slaves and masters, employees and employers.

And he said that was a good message. It ministered to him and complimented me on a couple of things that really didn't jump out for me. Are you being responsible with that teaching? As a matter of fact, I'll just go ahead and tell you what he said. He said, "Can I borrow some of your church members?" I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "That direct and bold application that you made should make them some of the best employees in your town." Are we working that out in our salvation and in our practical lives? What about our study on Christian marriage? I'm being a little redundant. What am I showing you? We have to ask how we are doing here.

We can't be the people who come and sit and listen and take our notes and then go home and just become lax. What did Paul say? "I'm not with you. You've got to work it out and you've got to obey like you do when I'm with you." So I want to close by saying this humbly. God's blessing us here in our church. God is. And what I mean by saying that is this. We are responsible for all that God's given us to work out all of these things in our salvation, in our personal practical lives, and in our church life. We are responsible. It starts with me. Let me pray. Then we'll close and we'll look at some prayer needs.