You should be resting in the grace of the Lord. At the same time, you should be moving in the “much more” while you rest.

The 'Much More' of Working Out My Salvation with Fear and Trembling because God is at Work in Me

Philippians 2:12-13

Please turn to Philippians 2:12. Our passage this morning is Philippians 2:12-13. As you are turning there, I'm going to remind us of Paul's encouragement coming into this passage. Paul has just urged the Philippians to be humble like Christ was in His earthly pre-cross ministry. Christ emptied Himself. He took the form of a bondservant. We should think and act this way too. Jesus is our example. As a willing servant, Jesus did not hold a tight grip upon His equality with God, even though He was always 100% God. This is profoundly demonstrated in the fact that in being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross. Because of this self-sacrificial attitude of obedience, (which is the attitude of a slave) God highly exalted Christ. This is the pattern: First comes the abasement, and then comes the glory. It is like Paul says; the seed must first dry up, then fall. It dies, and then afterward, the seed raises up in into glorious, honorable, fullness of life. When Christ rose up, He ascended to the great throne. He has the name which is above every name. Once He was servant Jesus, meek and mild. Now He is majestic Master Who rules and reigns--King of kings and Lord of lords. Once the Lamb led to the slaughter. Now, the great Lion, Lord, and Leader. This is what Paul lays out for us because we need to be thinking of ourselves as smaller than we do. All the other members in the body are better than we are, but we must admit it as the positive mental attitude which is the mental attitude of "I am a nobody" (2 Corinthians 12:11), and all the other members of the body around me are the somebodies. The big point is that we must be humble and obedient slaves of our great Lord. These are Paul's immediate marching orders for us. Keeping this in mind, we read our text under study,

"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; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Philippians 2:12-13

Please prepare your heart for the preaching of God's word in this sermon titled,

"The 'Much More' of Working Out My Salvation with Fear and Trembling because God is at Work in Me"
[prayer]

As God speaks to us through His word, we notice that Paul says,

"So then, ..."

What this means is that Paul is pointing back to what he just said for Christians to do. Then he takes that, and he connects it to what he says right here. I just covered the essence of what Paul said in those earlier verses when I made the introduction this morning. We need to keep those things in mind. God wants us to have that humble loving bond servant attitude of Christ. This is so important. And then there is that exaltation of Christ. Now He reigns at the Father's right hand. He reigns as our mentor, and Master. The way He loves should be our way of loving. You can never love enough, and you can not possibly love too much. And we know that, because that is the way of our Master. The humbleness of Christ is to be our model. The obedience of Christ is to be our mindset. We must look to Him to live out our Christianity. So, keeping these things of Christ in mind, let's look at what Paul says to do with it,

"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;"

This statement seems to have a pressing sense of urgency behind it.

This is so straightforward that it almost seems like a warning, doesn't it?

Because of the way this sounds, a lot of people think this really is some kind of an alert. They think that Paul is trying to keep Christians from making a huge mistake. But this is not what God is doing here. Paul's teaching here is something way more spectacular for us to partake in than that. Notice the details. Notice that Paul is talking to people, and he wants them to know that God loves them by calling them his own beloved. They are Paul's brothers and sisters in the Lord. You and I, and all saved people, are supposed to love one another because you and I, and all saved people are God's beloved ones. The reason why you have this special privilege, in salvation, is because God loves Christ. God loves Himself. God loves you and me because Christ is in us. God loves, you, the body of Christ in all of your mistakes, and all of your fears, and all of your trespasses, sin, and uncertainties, even in all of your doubts, because you are the righteousness of God in Him, and He is your very righteousness in you for you. We are his little children, and in His love, He will not turn His back on us. You need to know this, because it is from this real security in Christ that we really obey. We do not obey Christ because we are afraid, and so we try to win security in Him. You are saved to obey. Paul goes on and he says that the Philippians have already been doing something. Keep in mind that Paul is separated from them. He is in prison. So, Paul reminds them (from a distance) of what he knows that they have been doing so that he can urge them on to more.

What were the Philippians doing that is the basic foundation of what they must do next?

The answer is that they,

"... have always obeyed ..."

Paul is not talking about those Philippians obeying Paul. He is talking about the Philippians obeying the previously humbled Christ, Who through his grueling work of self sacrifice, is now resurrected, and reigning as their Lord. But here is the important detail that comes out in Paul's request. Paul knows that when he is present, he is the Bible answer man kind of guy. He is the apostle man. Think about Paul's fame. He is a guy who can be looked at as being passionately ambitious for Christ. Paul is a man who can be looked at as being the one who was probably more passionate for the body than anyone else. He is the one who evangelized these people, and so he is someone that the Christians would definitely want to make sure they were acting spiritual around if he was in their midst. I think we can all relate to this to some extent, can't we? There is a certain kind of self conscious awareness when we are in the presence of spiritually minded people. We should all be spiritually minded; but there are people that sometimes seem like spiritual giants, don't they? When we get around these kinds of people, sometimes we look up to them. Sometimes, their presence makes us feel convicted, and we feel a sense of our own worldliness. So, what happens is that there is this sense that they are somehow anointed giants in our midst. So, what do we do? When we are around such people, we tend to watch ourselves very closely. Our attitude of obedience is supposed to be to the Lord, and focused upon the Lord; but there are these other servants of the Lord around us (and we might not even think of them as spiritual giants. They may simply be spiritually minded like they should be, but the point is that we are still looking at them)--we especially want to see if they are looking at us. So what happens is that when these brothers and sisters are around us, we express pronounced obedience and passion for the Lord in a unmistakable, self conscious, and seemingly consistent manner. Think about this:

Whenever you are around someone who really seems mature in Christ, isn't it easy to act mature in Christ also?

Godliness begets godliness. Carnally sinful minded Christians, by the same token, can drag you down to their level. Carnality begets carnality and watered down Christianity;

"Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.'" 1 Corinthians 15:33

But when we are around good company, we don't want to be the bad company, right? So, what we do is we tend to check every word twice to make sure we are speaking properly. We don't want to make a mistake and come across as a spiritual toddler, or carnal, or hypocritical. We are Christians, and so we want to look like we are victorious and stable. We want to look like Christians! Paul knows this, but Paul also knows that the Philippians had already been doing spiritual, loving, and godly things in obedience to the Lord. You and I should already be doing those things too. But, here is what is important about this--

Paul is not making a warning. This is quite the opposite.

Paul is encouraging us onward to higher heights. What Paul is doing is preaching. A lot of times, I will preach to us, and I am encouraging us to obey just as we have always obeyed. I am encouraging you to obey the Lord in my presence, and in my absence. I do this because I know that we are not going to hang around here all week keeping an eye on each other. We fellowship with the body. We experience the sacred preaching of God's word together. We worship the Lord in togetherness. But then we leave this place and walk out into the mission field where we are alone at our jobs, or we are in a place where we are unaccountable, like at school and so forth. Oftentimes, in everyday life, we find ourselves floating in in the vast sea of our world culture, and we rarely see another Christian. So, the question is,

What happens to you, and your obedience level at those times?

The same kind of concern is going on with Paul. Paul is hundreds of miles away from Philippi. Paul has a strong word here. It is an immense principle for us to live by, and God has empowered us to do it. The Philippians need to take it in. You and I need to take this in, and keep it. This truth is what we must look to, and draw power from. This is so strong that Paul is going to preach basically this same thing again in the next chapter, in 3:12-16. In chapter 3 Paul uses himself as an example. In chapter 3 he says that he wants to press on in his obedience and spiritual growth. The big need that we all have is to press on to the much more. And Paul explains what pressing on means, by explaining his own ambition. Paul wants to reach forward to the higher standard of Christian living. So, in chapter 3, Paul goes on and says that he presses on toward a great prize. The great prize is the higher standard of God in Christ Jesus. This was Paul's hunger. God wants this to be our hunger. The way Paul explains it, is that he wants to live like a resurrected man, but he wants to live that way right now while in his short stay on earth. Turn to 3:15-16, and let's see what Paul means. Paul preaches, and he is urging Christians toward the much more. I'm starting in 3:15. He say,

"15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect,

[Why does Paul say that? Because the Philippian Christians are already perfect in Christ. You are perfect in Christ. You are saved by grace, and are perfect to God. So Paul addresses Christians as perfect, and then urges,]

... have this attitude;

[What attitude? The attitude of pressing on, of reaching forward to a high standard of godliness. Then he says,]

... and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; 16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained." Philippians 3:15-16

Now think about this, and let's go back to our passage. Paul puts the same upward call of the worthy walk this way; Paul's urging is to obey

"... just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence" Philippians 2:12

Do you see where Paul, by the Spirit, is pushing us? Paul recognizes that we can always be about the "much more" kind of obedience. The much more obedience is the upward call. It is the higher call of both intense hunger (where we should be craving the things of God), and intense satisfaction where we get filled with Him, and His ways, based upon His word. This is is the higher call of God for all of us. It is both intense running, (where the worthy walk is a race against the deceived culture that we live in), and it also intense rest in the Lord, where He is our all in all in our safe secure salvation. So, what our goal should be in our Christian walk is the much more. The much more is intense focused godliness, where the world looks at us and thinks we are weirdoes because we are so much like Christ that we look like foreigners (aliens from heaven); or they are drawn to Christ because God is using our Christlike lives to draw such people to Himself in His effectual call. And we must never think we have arrived to the upward call. Of course we have arrived positionally in Christ and are perfect in that respect as saved people. But the godly walk is a walk, and the walk becomes a race we run in the much more, and it is a long one. It keeps on going until we are resurrected in glory. In glorification is where you and I will finally arrive. In the meantime, there is much much more in our Christian walk for you and me to work out. But in all of this, (and here is the big immediate thing we really need to grasp),

God wants you to serve Christ wholeheartedly, and in intense passion and ambition whether others are around to approve of you, or to be impressed with you, or see you, or not.

This is the big point, because the Lord is the One we serve. But there is more to this, because God wants you and me to recognize that it is the power of Christ in us that enables us to serve Him wherever we are. This is not something you are going to do in the power of the flesh. We are not merely following a list of rules to attain some kind of righteousness derived from the Law. We are supernomians, which means we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to follow a higher, more demanding law, which is the Law of Christ. God wants us to pursue and practice the law of love in His upward call. But we don't go down a list each day, checking off the boxes, and because all the checks are perfect, then we can be satisfied with our works. Our relationship is that we are living temples of the Holy Spirit as the body of Christ, and so the attributes of our Father should be coming out of us. And it is not some kind of feeling either. We should love the other members of the body. Not because it is a feeling. But because God is love, and God loves the other members of the body. We should be humble because Christ was humble. We should submit because Christ submitted. We should be holy because Christ is holy, and His Holy Spirit empowers you, in the miracle of salvation, to follow Him. So, the pinnacle reason in Paul's point that he gives for why God wants you and me to be about the much more in serving Him, has to do with His inner work in us, but in a hugely providential way, where God is the great orchestrator of all He is doing in Creation. It is an amazing teaching from Paul. It has to do with a miracle relationship. It is real. It is deep. It is experiential, but God has to enlighten us, and then remind us of what it is. Paul says,

"So then, ... just as you have always obeyed, ... now much more ... work out [cultivate] your salvation with fear and trembling [awe and reverence]; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Philippians 2:12-13

This passage is all about how the mighty God of the universe, (Yahweh) actually works in you and me, and all Christians, to accomplish his will on earth through the body of Christ. As you sit here, God is working in you. When you leave here, God is still working in you. He started working in you by saving you, and He never stops. Each of us is a member of the body with this special privilege, and this passage showcases how beautiful this relationship is. But unfortunately this passage is sometimes wrongly used to suggest that you must work for your salvation. How many of you have heard this passage used this way? It is also wrongly used by people to claim that you can never really know for sure whether your salvation is secure. How many of you have encountered that one? These misinterpretations are unfortunate, because, in misreading, and misapplying what Paul is saying, some people miss the deep riches that Paul wants us to get to truly build us up in the faith. As we explore what Paul is really wanting you and me to recognize, I think that one of the first things we should notice is what Paul does not say. Paul does not mention any wording that resembles a reference to supposedly losing salvation. Loss is not mentioned. Damnation is not mentioned. Also, notice that Paul does not say for the Philippian Christians to work for anything. Paul says to "work out your salvation." The salvation that Paul is talking about is

"your salvation."

Paul is using intentional language. What this means, (your salvation) is that it is the salvation that saved people in Philippi already have. They are Paul's beloved; they are saints, 1:1, they are saved (already) by grace, through faith in the finished work of Christ in the cross and resurrection of the previous verses. So, keeping this in mind, we know that there is a big difference between working for something, (where you are trying to get it, or keep it) on one hand, and working out the something that is already yours, on the other hand. There is a big difference between working for God's salvation, and working out your salvation that you already are, which is what Paul is talking about. The Greek word Paul uses here that is typically translated as "work out" (katerthazesthe) is literally translated in its particular parts as "to work down." The same Greek word is also found in the New Testament as being translated as:

Katerthazesthe: Practice, perform, and cultivate.

The Literal Translation Bible, and the Amplified Bible, both render it as "cultivate."

Why does this matter to you?

Because Paul's big point has nothing to do with you working to maintain keeping your salvation secure. Paul is telling the Philippians to work out; to put into practice; to perform; to cultivate, in their daily lives, what God has already worked in them by His Holy Spirit.

Do you see how beautiful your relationship is to God?

This is not a directive to saved people to work for salvation that they do not really have. It is an urging to the much more, from the salvation that we already have in Christ.

Something that adds to the wrong interpretation is the translation of doing this cultivating with fear and trembling. There is a cultural meaning of the idiom. But fear and trembling is escalated language to our English speaking ears in our culture. This is what makes this look like some kind of severe, terrifying warning. But Paul is not saying that the Philippian Christians need to live in fright. God is not telling us to be shaking like a leaf. To do so, is not the peace that passes understanding that Paul tells these very same Philippians will exist when they pray while cultivating their salvation. Paul says two chapters later,

"6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

God tells us over and over again to enter His grace, love, peace, and rest. I ask you,

How can you have the peace of God, while at the same time, you are supposed to have fear and trembling in respect to your salvation?

The answer is that Paul is using a common cultural idiom of his day to urge the Philippians to serve in high respect and reverence for the Lord. It is an expression. It is a figure of speech. We find it all through the Bible, and in ancient Greek literature. We find Paul using this expression when he tells Christian slaves to obey their masters. He says,

"Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling [awe and reverence], in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ;" Ephesians 6:5

Paul is talking about high respect from a sincere heart, like you would do in serving Christ Himself. Paul is not telling slaves to live in horror and fright. Paul also uses the expression to describe how the Corinthians received Titus,

"15 His [Titus's] affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling [awe and reverence]." 2 Corinthians 7:15

They had high respect and reverence for Titus, and because of this honor, Titus was impressed with them in an affectionate way. The New English Translation helps us out here. It puts the Greek like this,

"... just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence," Philippians 2:12 NET

Reverential respect and awe for God is Paul's point. We have awe and reverence for certain government leaders. We have awe and reverence for certain famous people. You and I need to have a greater awe and reverence for God. But, with this in mind, there's another question:

Why should the Philippians work out the salvation that they already have with awe and reverence?

Why should you and I do that?

The answer has to do with the "much more" in serving Him. It has to do with God's inner work in you, where God is the great orchestrator of all He is doing in Creation. Paul plainly says,

"13 For ..."

[which is the Greek word gar that is translated as "because."]

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

This is an amazing proclamation of what is going on in each of us in the body of Christ right now. This fact, that Paul points out, should bring awe and reverence to you. Paul has been saying that the Christians, (which is you, and me), are to obey the Lord in the doctrines and precepts of the faith as we always have obeyed the Lord in the doctrines and precepts of the faith that we have learned, and in so doing, we are to cultivate our salvation (which is salvation that we already have), and we are to be doing it with awe, respect, and reverence because of the absolutely mind blowing fact that it is Yahweh Himself Who is really working in us saved people, both to will and to work whatever He wants to will and work by using us; and further, it is all for His own perfect, right, wise, and good pleasure. This is such an amazing fact that it should bring worshipful awe, and God glorifying reverence, to all of us. We are not loners, generating our Christianity. It is not you alone who accomplishes God's will. God accomplishes His will with you through His Holy Spirit at work in you, (while at the same time), you are responsible to do the cultivating in concurrence. Paul just finished giving God all the glory for this in chapter 1. He says,

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now." Philippians 1:3-5

Paul is giving thanks, but he is not thanking the Philippians for their participation in the gospel from the first day until now. Paul is joyfully thanking God, in awe and reverence of Him, and His work. Do you see? The reason is because God is the author and finisher of our faith. God is working in the Philippians. This is the same thing He is doing in you too, if you are saved. There is no other reason to thank God for people if God is not the one responsible for what you are thanking God for--right? I thank God for my salvation--I don't thank me. Look at what Paul says in the next sentence in Philippians 1:6, because this connects to it,

"6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

Philippians 1:3-6 is Paul's same point as here in our Philippians 2:12-13 passage. God begins the good work in you, and He will perfect it. God is the one Who, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, is working in all of us who are saved, to will and work for His own good pleasure. When God saved you in the past, He did it. Now you live in salvation since the first day God rescued you spiritually. It is your position in Christ. Then you walk your daily walk. Every day, and every moment, you learn, you grow, you minister, you sanctify yourself, and much more. It is your daily walk in salvation, and God is at work in you to enable you to accomplish the walk. He works in you, but it is your responsibility to obey. He works in you to do the much more. Finally, there is going to be your future resurrection to glory. That is the time where we will be perfected in super spiritual bodies forever, and God works that in us also. Here's how you can remember this: Your salvation is;

1) permanent in your past tense, yet continual position.

2) you practice it in your present actions each day in your condition.

3) you will be heavenly promoted in perfection later on.

In each one, God is working in you. The first one is the initial day of your salvation. It is when God effectually called you, and you believed the gospel through faith;

"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; ..." Ephesians 2:8.

It happened already when it happened, and now it goes on forever. You are safe. You were saved. It happens at a certain point, John 3:16,

"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that those believing in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

"... 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; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." Romans 10:9-10

If you are mute and unable to speak with your mouth, then you obviously affirm the gospel in some other way. The main point is that salvation happens at a point by grace through faith, which is belief. It is when God puts Christ in us, and us in Christ spiritually where His life is our life, and His righteousness is our righteousness.

"16 ... if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." 2 Corinthians 5:17

That is you. We are new because we were made new spiritually. We are saved;

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God ..." Galatians 2:20

This is your salvation. It started one day when God called you, and it continues. You were declared righteous before God based on His work on the cross, and your faith in Christ. Rest in it by resting in grace.

When you and I got saved, we had great awe and reverence for God's work, and we should still have awe and reverence for it. Since we have been saved, our responsibility is to not be complacent. Don't lose the awe and reverence for God's work in you each day. When we stop living our Christian life in awe and reverence for God's election, calling, and miracle work in us, we stop caring about the "much more" that God urges us to. What happens is that we become comfortable with the much less. We know we are in mediocre Christianity when we ignore the awe and reverence for God that we should have, and further, we know that mediocrity has arrived when we are content with a Christianity that is much less than the upward call of the high standard. Cultivating, is where we bear fruit in our salvation and from our salvation, yet not being satisfied with bland, bruised, inferior fruit. To do this, you must quit putting other things higher than the Lord. You must be reverently mindful that God is working in you to do His will and work for His good pleasure during your whole existence in your short days on this planet. What God's good pleasure is, is what our good pleasure should also be. If I put sports in a place that is higher than the Lord, and my good pleasure is wrapped up in sports, then my fruit will be inferior. If I do the same thing with movies and entertainment, or even with my job and family, then I begin to start having awe and reverence for my activities. My desires for other things become my consuming passion. God's desire should be my desire, but I quit seeking it because I get consumed in my own selfish goals and actions. So, God wants you and me to have His goal in mind.

What is God's goal?

God's goal is His glory.

What that means for you and me, is that our goal is to glorify God in awe and reverence. Okay, think about this a second: What does it mean to say:

My goal, and my working out that goal in awe and reverence, is to glorify God?

It means to bear the sweet ripe fruit of the Spirit that is in you, out of your life. You see the goal is not merely to bear fruit. The Pharisees bore fruit. Religious but lost people bear fruit all the time. Our goal is to bear fruit, but it is bearing fruit of the Holy Spirit;

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,

Think about how this brings glory to God. When you and I apply the much more by living according to the word of God in intense ambition, and we do it in awe of God, because we recognize Him working in us, and we are in awe of Him because we love Him, and so we love what He loves, what we are doing is, we are manifesting as much of the indwelling resurrected Christ as possible while we are here on earth. Stay with me because this is so important. All of this may seem like it involves some mystical dimension, and in a particular sense, it does. But, it is not so mystical that it is fuzzy and nebulous. We are saved spiritually; we are led spiritually; and we are empowered spiritually. This is necessary. But, there is also the theological doctrinal dimension, and there is the doing dimension, and all three of them are nailed to one another in a holy kind of trinity. You can not have one without the others. Paul's point is that the spiritual dimension, plus the theological doctrinal dimension of our Christian life, is impossible for you to divorce from the doing dimension. Just like some people think of salvation in purely spiritual terms that are mystical, and so that is how they categorize it, there are some people who think of salvation as being relegated to the two other categories. They might think of it in purely theological doctrinal terms. It's knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. Or they might think of salvation in purely practical terms on the other hand--

Well, I've got to be doing something. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as I am doing it for Jesus!

It's work, work, work. But here is the fact of the matter:

Theology and doctrine must be practiced, but they are practiced by the power of the Holy Spirit who is already working in you from your salvation that you already have.

Do you see how this operates? If you are not practicing theology and doctrine, then what are you practicing? Further, How are you going to live out what you don't learn? You can claim that you will do it spontaneously in mystical Holy Spirit language, but that is the road to heresy and silly activity. People who try to live out Christianity aside from learning the truth, don't do more truth: they do less.

So what needs to be done?

We need to learn about the foundations of the much more as head knowledge, and then do it.

God does not want us to be His children who kind of know about the much more of daily obedience but don't do anything about it. What Paul is saying is that God wants you to look at the way you actually live, and then in awe and reverence of God's work in you, put into practice what you have learned to be true. People should be seeing Christ in us because they are seeing that what we know is what is motivating us. One of the things that the good news is supposed to do is change the effects of the Fall of Adam in you. We live in the midst of a wicked world that is infected by the curse of the fall. The good news is about the salvation, where we rest in knowing we are going to heaven; but, the good news is also meant to transform our lives into the image of Christ as we pass through this world on our way to heaven. Paul already told the Philippian Christians some ways of cultivating their salvation. Paul told them in chapter 1 to have love abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment--it's doctrine. You do this by renewing your mind with God's word. This is real knowledge that God uses practically by His Spirit. Paul says that we need to operate in discernment--approving the things that are excellent. The excellent things are to become our passion. Paul says to be sincere and blameless; to be conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. And then Paul touches on what 90 percent of the New Testament is all about--the body. If we fail to see how important the local body is to God, then we will not understand 90 percent of the New Testament. Paul says to be the body in your mind, 1:27. In other words, cultivate your saved life by standing firm in one spirit with those people you see around you right now, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. Paul is talking about the body of Christ being the body to itself. Then here in chapter 2, Paul says to be of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit. Do everything with humility and lowliness of mind, thinking of others as better than yourself. This is how you glorify God. It's no big mystery. You either think of others as better than yourself, or you don't. You are either in unity, or you are not. You either love the unlovely, or you don't. It's that simple. When it comes to the 'Much More' of working out my salvation with fear and trembling because God is at work in me, love for the body, in humbleness and unity as a body, is huge to God. God is working in us His theology and doctrine of the much more of diminishing personal interests--thinking of the interests of others. It this attitude, which was also in Christ Jesus. Keep on doing these things as the much more. Keep on doing these things like you are a tool in God's hands who has been designed and empowered to do these things as a representative of Christ. The body really is God's blessing-plan for eternity.

When we leave here this morning, let's leave in awe and reverence of God Who is working in us. It can get misplaced by so many of the trappings of the world. There is so much to distract us. Emergencies distract us. Jobs that we hate distract us. I can not begin to tell you how many people I know who loathe their jobs. They hate their work. Instead of driving them to manifest the inner life of Christ, their hatred for their job is manifested in ignoring God who is at work in them. They quit thinking about the much more. We need to regain that awe and reverence that we can so easily let go of because of distractions. But, we also must not quit thinking about how special we are to God. We must not quit thinking about how special the body of Christ is. Even in the midst of the most hated moment in our jobs, we must remember that the One and only God is at work in us. You can lose the awe and reverence while in so many areas of life--in school, in family relations where you must deal with family disagreements--when you get around foul mouthed, unsaved people. They don't have the awe and reverence. They don't care about the much more. Paul says, "much more in my absence, cultivate your salvation with awe and reverence." When you leave here this morning, I am not going to be there with you this week. The people in this room are not going to be with you every moment. Paul isn't going to be there. But God's word will be, and His Spirit will be. You are going to have to have the attitude of living according to the doctrine and theology that God has given for you to reach for the much more. But, you can do it. Life is hard but you can do it. Life hurts, but God is with you--working in you. We have all the resources we need. We have all the power we need to live the Christian life. God has enabled you to live in obedience to His word by His Spirit. Paul says,

"... Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Galatians 5:16

Our job is that we must submit to the Spirit's pleasure, which is according to the doctrine and theology of the word of God. Walking according to the word of God is to walk through life led by the Spirit,

"... we have not received the spirit of the world, but we have received the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, ...

[which is the Word of God]

... 13 which things we also speak, ...

[which is the Word of God]

... not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." 1 Corinthians 2:12-13

This is how God will work in you, today, tonight, and tomorrow. We can do it, and God wants us to. Jesus said,

"It is written, 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" Matthew 4:4

This is the only way that you and I are going to accomplish the much more. There is no other way. There is no gimmicky mystical religious method. All I have shared this morning has to do with the 'Much More' of Working Out My Salvation with Fear and Trembling because God is at Work in Me.

As I finish, I want to end by encouraging all of us here to recognize one last way that God works in us in which we need to have awe and reverence for Him. Listen to me;

I am talking about His grace when you fail.

None of us is perfect. But God is perfect in us. This is what our salvation blesses us with. It is not your own righteousness. It is the righteousness of God in Christ. God saves you by grace, and God keeps you by grace. When you fail, God covers you with grace. He is at work in you, and He loves you so much, even when you fail. This gigantic fact is worthy of our awe and reverence as we cultivate our salvation in our short stay on this planet.

Brothers and sisters, I urge you to be thinking about the much more when nobody is around but God working in you. Be practicing the discipline of taking this revelation that your God has given you, in a sense of awe of what you have been created to be. You are a vessel of the Holy Spirit, Who is God. It started with the work of regeneration. It goes on with the work of discipleship, conviction, and fruitfulness. As we leave here today, I urge you to do this regularly, and others will see Christ in you, the hope of glory, and they will also have awe and reverence for God concerning His work that He is doing in you.