The Gospel: How We Live Part 1

[0:00] All right, good morning again. We're going to be in Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. To begin with, we're going to be going a little bit here, a little bit there throughout the New Testament, but that's where we are beginning.

[0:14] And we've been talking about the gospel the last few weeks, and the gospel is something that we all need to understand. The gospel is something that the Bible clearly tells us how to be right with God.

[0:31] And we've looked at John chapter 3, verse 16, that you have to be born again. There is a point in time where we need to come to grips with the fact that we are lost in sin.

[0:44] We are dead without Christ. And we have to come to the point where we realize that Jesus is God. Jesus died on the cross in our place, and he rose again, proving that God was satisfied with the penalty that he paid on our behalf.

[1:01] And that point in time when we come to Jesus, we realize that, understand that, and by faith trust that for our salvation, a number of things takes place.

[1:14] We are born again, born from above, as Jesus talked about. And we need to understand the gospel is more than just that one-time event.

[1:28] There is a process. And one day we are going to be completely delivered when we are glorified and we stand before our Heavenly Father. That is going to be the culmination of what began in our life, the moment we trusted Christ as our Savior.

[1:44] Now, where we are going to be looking this morning, Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13, is a passage some may find difficult. There has been a number of things that people have said, well, what does this mean?

[1:58] What does that mean? But we are going to, this morning, look at three foundational components of salvation that I believe will help us understand this text in Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13, and also this series.

[2:14] So let's go ahead and jump right in to our text this morning, Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13. Verse 12 begins with, Therefore, my beloved, this is the Apostle Paul writing to the church at Philippi.

[2:31] He says, Let's pray.

[2:56] Lord, this morning, I pray that you would help us to understand more fully, more completely what is involved in salvation, what you do in our lives and how you work in our lives.

[3:11] After that moment, we trust Christ as our Savior and ultimately how you will receive us into glory. And Lord, we thank you. We pray that you would teach us this morning.

[3:22] And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So let's go ahead and jump right in and see, first of all, the first component is salvation involves a change.

[3:35] And all we see that Scripture teaches about salvation is, prior to coming to Christ, we are wicked, we are the enemies of God, we are depraved, we are dead in sin, we are utterly incapable of pleasing God before we come to Christ.

[3:56] And so we have a nature that is to sin. As a matter of fact, a person apart from Christ cannot help but sin, disobey God.

[4:07] That's what the Bible teaches us. It's like the nature, like an animal's nature, the nature of a pig is to get dirty and roll around in the mud. That's how they were created.

[4:18] That's how they cool off. It's within their nature. There are certain other animals. It's within, if they're a wild creature, a wild animal, it's within their nature to hunt. It's within their nature to kill.

[4:29] But if somehow that nature were able to be replaced, then they would act differently. They would think differently. Innately, there would be a difference. So for us, salvation involves an internal change.

[4:44] It involves an inner change. It involves a change from above, but salvation involves a change. And this is fundamentally what happens at the core of who we are when salvation begins.

[4:58] It's what we talked about when we looked at John 3, verses 16 and following. We're born again, born from above. An internal change takes place.

[5:10] And this takes place in a point in time. There is a point in time that most of us can look back and say, it was at this date, it was at this time that I was born again.

[5:23] I came to realize that I was a sinner. I came to realize that I was headed to hell, headed to the lake of fire without Christ. And I trusted Jesus as my Savior.

[5:35] Scripture talks about that as a past event. If you're taking notes, it is salvation involves a change. Scripture talks about it as a past event.

[5:48] This is something that happened to you at a specific time, at a specific place. Scripture doesn't give any evidence of anybody just oozing into heaven.

[6:00] Anybody just kind of, well, you know, I wasn't saved yesterday, but okay. And I just kind of squeaked my way into heaven. At a particular place and point in time, we have to come to the point where we repent, where we come to know Jesus as our Savior and accept that free gift of salvation.

[6:19] There's a specific point in time where we make the decision to trust Christ and God declares us righteous before Him. He gives us a new heart. He enables our faith to turn from sin.

[6:31] all things we talked about so far in this series. And the question we asked a few weeks ago is, have you been born again? The ultimate question, the most important question in life, have you been born again?

[6:47] Have you trusted Christ as your Savior? So without that, pretty much everything else we're talking about is meaningless until you begin.

[7:00] And at that point in time in your life, you trust Christ as your Savior. Let's look at Ephesians 2, verses 5 and verse number 8 as we look at that point in time.

[7:15] Paul says to the Ephesian believers, even when you were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. And what do we see here? By grace, you're saved.

[7:27] By grace, you have been saved. For by grace, you, there it is again, have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.

[7:41] Something that takes place in a point in time. Something happened to you. So we could say that we have been saved. If you trusted Christ as your Savior, you can say, I have been saved.

[7:55] Another word, the Bible, another word that saved means, the Bible uses the word delivered. And so we could actually interchange the word saved for delivered or deliverance for salvation.

[8:09] It means we've been delivered from the penalty of sin. We've been saved from the penalty of sin. And so we have been saved. The Bible often refers to this as justification.

[8:21] Justification. Justification. And in your notes, you notice that I put the scriptures there. So when you have time during this week, if you would like to go back and go over what we've talked about, open your Bible, turn to those scriptures, and you can look more fully into what we're talking about this morning.

[8:43] The Bible refers to it as justification. In Romans chapter 3 and verse number 24, there we have that word. There we have that doctrine.

[8:55] Being justified freely. How? Or by what agent? The grace of God. We're justified. And it means we are made righteous, declared righteous.

[9:07] Positionally, we are declared by God that once we were sinners, once we were evil, wicked, enemy of God, now after Jesus Christ's righteousness is applied to our account, God says, you're righteous.

[9:21] Jesus died in your place. You are now declared righteous. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

[9:36] Romans 5.1. Therefore, having been, there's that word again, justified by, it's by grace through what? Through faith.

[9:47] Through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's something that has happened to us that affects us now. The moment we trusted Christ as our Savior, the righteousness of Christ was applied to our account.

[10:02] God says, you are righteous before my eyes, and we are still righteous before God because that is something that took place at a point in time, God declared us righteous, and it still is affecting us now.

[10:16] We're justified before God. And the language that the Scripture uses is at that point we're born again, God declares us righteous before Him.

[10:28] Now this justification, this occurs at a point in time. It's the same for everyone. Whether you are a 10-year-old raised in a Christian home, or whether you're a 40-year-old who had absolutely no knowledge of the Gospel prior to learning about it, what takes place is the same.

[10:52] It may be, one may be a bit more dramatic than the other, and there is more of a dramatic change that takes place, but the same thing takes place.

[11:04] that 10-year-old, that 5-year-old, that 6-year-old raised in a Christian home, raised in a godly home, when they trust Christ as their Savior, the same things take place as a 50-year-old who lived an extremely wicked life.

[11:20] God declares righteous. Righteousness of God is applied to their account. They're baptized into the body of Christ. We are adopted as children.

[11:31] All of these things take place. Scripture refers to that as justification. So salvation, first of all, the first component is salvation involves a change.

[11:42] Salvation requires a change. We need an inner change, and that takes place when God declares us righteous after, or when we trust Christ as our Savior.

[11:52] The first component of salvation. The second thing that we see is salvation involves a journey. salvation involves a journey.

[12:06] If we stop at justification, then I believe we will miss biblical salvation. We will understand it incompletely. We won't understand the gospel as the Bible teaches it, because salvation involves an internal and a positional change, and then that leads to a journey.

[12:29] for the rest of our time here on planet Earth, we are on that journey by which we are made righteous in the eyes of God, but then daily, God is conforming us to His image.

[12:45] He is transforming us day by day. That is that journey part of the process, and this is where, for many, it gets kind of blurred. We are declared righteous immediately, but then for many, that is kind of where they stop.

[13:00] They say, well, I am a Christian now, and there is very little time spent with God, learning about Him, spending time with Him, enjoying His presence, and there is very little growth that takes place.

[13:15] And so, many people simply stop at the point of salvation and never grow beyond that point for whatever reason. Maybe someone does not take the time to disciple them, or maybe they were looking at salvation as maybe fire insurance.

[13:32] I am going to pray to Jesus to trust Him because I don't want to go to hell, but I don't want my life to change all that much. And so, there are many who don't understand this.

[13:43] But, at the same time, transformation, when the Holy Spirit comes within the believer at the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit's job is then to begin transforming that believer.

[13:56] We're declared righteously, or excuse me, we're declared righteous positionally at salvation, but salvation is also a present process. Not only was salvation a past event, but salvation is also a present process.

[14:14] 2 Corinthians 3.18 talks about how we are being transformed with ever-increasing glory into the image of Christ.

[14:24] Let's look at that. 2 Corinthians 3.18. I told you we were going to be looking around the New Testament this morning. But in 2 Corinthians 3.18, again, the Apostle Paul, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are what?

[14:47] What does Paul say? We are being transformed. Not only are we declared righteous in a point in time when we trust Christ as our Savior, but with the Holy Spirit's involvement, Paul says, we are being transformed.

[15:00] We are growing in Christ. God is transforming us more and more and more to live like Christ, to look like Christ when we serve others. We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by, here's the agent, as by the Spirit of the Lord.

[15:18] Salvation involves a change. Salvation is a past event, but salvation is also a present process. We are to be growing. Yesterday, maybe we had a problem with pride, and today, the Holy Spirit is working on us, and saying, you know what?

[15:34] Pride is wrong. Humble yourself, or otherwise, I might humble you. See, that's that transformation process. That is that process whereby we are made more and more and more and more like Jesus Christ.

[15:49] So, in a sense, we could say that we are being saved. It's a past event, but we are being saved. Saved from what?

[16:00] Let's look at 1 Corinthians 1.18. 1 Corinthians 1.18. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

[16:15] Now, understand this. Salvation is a one-time event. Salvation is not static, though. At the moment of salvation, a number of things take place.

[16:26] We talked about a number of those in our past few times together, but God doesn't expect us to remain the same. God doesn't expect us to remain in our sin.

[16:38] God wants us to repent. God wants us to be growing, to be looking more and more like Jesus Christ. Now, you may have a translation that reads, which are saved, but that translation is a bit misleading because if we go and look at the Greek textus receptus, that is the Greek manuscript from which the King James is translated, it carries the idea of what the Apostle Paul actually wrote, and it describes Paul's thought a little bit more descriptively.

[17:12] It's actually one word in the Greek. It is sozomenois and sozos, salvation, and as we look at this particular word that the textus receptus that Paul wrote is, and I'll tell you what it is, it is a verb in the present tense, passive voice, participle, plural, dative, masculine.

[17:36] Now you may be looking at me like, who cares? Well, it's important because language is important, and when Paul wrote this, when Paul wrote this to the Corinthians, he is telling them that salvation is something that is part of a process in how they are being transformed.

[18:01] Remember, the church at Corinth was a church that was involved in a lot of wickedness, and so they needed to grow in Christ. So they needed to allow the Holy Spirit to be transforming them as they go.

[18:12] So what I'll do, first of all, is read you a very extremely literal translation of the Greek text, and it is this. Now remember, the Greek text, just like many languages, doesn't have the same syntax as English.

[18:26] So here it is. For the word of the cross to those perishing, foolishness is, but who are being saved, to us, the power of God, it is. Now, I'm going to take that and put it, and kind of put the words in order in English syntax.

[18:41] So this is what the Greek reads. For the word of the cross to those perishing is foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

[18:53] Now, before we get caught up or hung up on the distinction, we need to understand or just know that this, the way Paul wrote this in the Greek is in perfect keeping with the biblical doctrine of salvation.

[19:08] It is a past event. It happened when we trusted Christ as our Savior. But it is also a present process of God taking that salvation and transforming us day by day into being more and more like Jesus Christ.

[19:24] It's often referred to, the Bible refers to this process as sanctification. Sanctification. Sanctification. Justification is that one-time event. Justification happens when God says, Jesus Christ's righteousness is applied to your account.

[19:40] I declare you righteous. But, the other portion of salvation the Bible refers to as sanctification, that is that ongoing process our entire Christian life here on planet Earth.

[19:56] We are being sanctified. sanctified. We are being set apart. We are setting ourselves apart for God's use. Let's take a look at 1 Thessalonians 4.3.

[20:08] 1 Thessalonians 4.3. For this is the will of God. What does God want in our life? Sanctification. Us being more pure. Us being more dedicated.

[20:20] Us being more set apart for the Master's use. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality. Now this passage goes on to list a number of sins, to list a number of things from which we should abstain.

[20:37] At the moment of salvation, we're declared righteous before God. But daily, God wants us to be growing in grace. God wants us to be growing in sanctification.

[20:50] He wants us to be more like Jesus today than we were yesterday. more like Jesus in our life, in our lifestyle, in our choices, tomorrow than we were today.

[21:00] That's the part of growing. It's like a child. There are things that a child does today that they weren't able to do yesterday. There are things in school that they're able to do today that they weren't able to do last week because it's that growing process.

[21:18] It's that, and part of it is due to the learning process, but part of it is due to the wiring of the brain. As they grow in maturity, there are things that they're able to comprehend, and it takes time for that to take place.

[21:33] Same with the Christian life. That's the process. We're growing in Christ. We don't expect someone to be a fully grown, matured, functioning follower of Jesus Christ the first week after they trust Christ.

[21:47] It's that process, and it's the discipling process. To understand salvation, it's a past event. It happens in a place in time. There's some who think, well, you know what?

[21:58] I got saved again. No, that doesn't happen. Or when they say, I'm getting saved, what they really are talking about is they're cleaning up their life, and they're trying to work their way to God.

[22:13] The Bible does not teach that. The Bible teaches that salvation is a past event, and the process involved in salvation is our sanctification, our growing more like Jesus Christ.

[22:24] Then, thirdly, we talked about salvation involves an internal change. Then salvation involves a journey, our sanctification. Then salvation involves a destination.

[22:38] Because why are we saved? Why did Jesus Christ come to the cross and die in our place? Because God wants to spend eternity with us. Because He wants us to spend an eternity with Him.

[22:51] So salvation involves a destination. It's also referred to as a future prize. A future prize.

[23:02] Let's take a look at 1 Corinthians 9, 24 through 27, where Paul uses the analogy of a sporting event.

[23:15] He says, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? And he says, Run in such a way.

[23:25] He's speaking to believers. He says, Live your life in such a way that you might obtain the prize. Obtain that for which you are running. Verse 25, And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate, is moderate.

[23:39] There are things that we stay away from because we know that it won't help us to win the prize. It's temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown. He's going back to that analogy of a real race.

[23:55] But, he says, We who are believers, we who are followers of Christ, we're doing it to obtain an imperishable crown. He's talking about that future glorification.

[24:09] Verse 26, Therefore, this is the way I run. I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus, I fight not as one who beats the air or shadow boxing.

[24:20] He says, I'm running with a goal in mind. He says, I have a plan. And then he says, But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

[24:36] So what's Paul saying? He says, I discipline myself. There are things that I could be doing that might fall within the scope of our Christian liberty. But you know what Paul says?

[24:48] I discipline myself because I don't want there to come a point in time where I'm disqualified or someone finds a picture of me on the internet that I'm ashamed of.

[25:01] Or I run in such a way that no one can come back ten years later, twenty years later like's happening today in the media where we're hearing about and someone says, they did this to me.

[25:16] Paul says, I don't want to run like that. I don't want to live my Christian life like that. I want to live my Christian life above reproach because I want to live in such a way, I want to discipline myself so that nothing could ever come up that would derail or that would disqualify me from the race.

[25:31] We see that in sports all the time. It could be doping, it could be any type of, it could be cheating, it could be whatever, bending the rules a little bit, deflating a football a little bit.

[25:43] I mean, it could be anything that would disqualify you from the prize for which you are striving. So Paul says, I discipline my body, bring it into subjection, lest I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

[25:58] So Paul's talking about that future prize. We go on. You see, Paul, well, there should be something up on the screen I don't see.

[26:11] See, Paul's talking about the goal of his salvation. In verse 14, he says, Philippians 3, 14, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call.

[26:22] See, what did Paul call it? A prize. So, this destination that we're talking about, Paul calls a future prize.

[26:34] I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You see, Paul's talking about the goal of his salvation. He trusted Christ as his Savior at a point in time.

[26:46] He began that process of sanctification, becoming more and more like Christ every day. And toward the end of his Christian life, he says, I'm pressing forward for the prize that will come one day.

[26:59] What's the prize? Is the prize the crown? Is the prize the... What's the prize? Jesus Christ is being with God. The prize is that present, being in the presence of God.

[27:14] It's not a tangible thing that we can put our finger on and say like it's a crown or it's a wreath. No, it's God. It's that relationship. It culminates our salvation when we are finally in the presence of God.

[27:28] That's when our salvation will be complete, as the Bible calls it. See, we're saved. We are working out our salvation by being more and more like Christ every day.

[27:39] Not to earn it, but to be more and more sanctified, more and more like Christ. And ultimately, it will culminate in our glorification. We can say that we're saved.

[27:50] We can say that we're being saved. And we can say that we will be saved. We will be delivered from sin, from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin. Look at Romans 8, 17.

[28:01] We're winding down to a close now. Romans 8, 17. And if children, we are God's children. That takes place because of one of the other doctrines of salvation.

[28:12] We are taken in, baptized into the body of Christ. We are adopted as children. So he says, and if children, then we're also what?

[28:23] We're also heirs. We talked about that one Sunday in this series. We may not get much of an inheritance on planet Earth, but we have a rich inheritance for which we can look forward to in heaven.

[28:38] Heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified to gather. Romans 13, 11, 14.

[28:50] Paul says, And do this, knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now, what does he say?

[29:02] Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Remember? It's a destination. Our salvation is nearer today than when we first believed.

[29:14] If you trusted Christ yesterday, know that your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. This is a picture scripture often refers to as, let's go ahead, let's continue, let's go back and continue with where we were.

[29:28] The night is far spent, verse 12 says, The day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Verse 13, Let us walk circumspectly, properly, uprightly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust.

[29:58] Now here we have referred to as, the Bible refers to as glorification, our future destination. The Bible refers to it as one day we will be glorified with Christ.

[30:10] Look again at Romans 13, 11. And do this knowing for the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep and here it is, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

[30:24] What does that mean? It doesn't mean we're still working on our salvation. It doesn't mean we're still trying to earn it. This is what it means. Instead, it means that our future glorification, the culmination of our salvation, the completion of our salvation is still yet to come.

[30:44] And we're closer today than we were yesterday when we first believed. So, we can say we have been saved, we can say we are being saved, and we can say we will be saved.

[30:54] I've heard it put this way. We have been delivered from the penalty of sin. That happened when you trusted Christ as your Savior. We are being delivered from the power of sin. That's sanctification, and that's a daily process.

[31:08] And we will be delivered from the presence of sin. Think about that. We have been delivered from the penalty of sin. Took place at our salvation. We are being delivered from the power of sin.

[31:20] That's our daily growth in Christ. And in one day, we will be delivered from even the presence of sin. Because in God's presence, there is no sin. And I'm looking forward to that day.

[31:36] The goal of our salvation is our future reunion with Him. Philippians 2, 12, 13. Let me close with where we began.

[31:47] Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now 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 do for His good pleasure.

[32:05] And we're going to go into this more detail next Sunday. We're going to go into three more things about salvation. But suffice it to say that Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13, is not talking about the point of our salvation or the point of salvation.

[32:20] It's talking about the process. The context is the Apostle Paul is addressing some believers that are having some issues with their relationships with one another. They were, they'd become very selfish in their relationships with one another in the church.

[32:36] So what Paul is doing is helping them to understand how to live out their Christian lives. He says, you've been saved. You've trusted Christ as your Savior. Now he says, work out that salvation.

[32:48] Day by day by day by day. You're saved, so now live like it. Trust, you've trusted Christ, now grow in Christ. So that's the point of 2, 12 and 13.

[33:03] It's not about the point of our salvation or the point of salvation. It's about that growing in Christ process. Work out your salvation. Not working to earn it, but working like you got it.

[33:16] Working like, be one that, if we've trusted Christ as our Savior, live like it. If you've trusted Christ as your Savior, let the power of the Holy Spirit work its way out into your life.

[33:30] Next week, we're going to look at the three foundational truths of salvation. So, I trust that we are beginning to understand in a fuller sense the gospel so we can help others as well who may be a little bit confused about the gospel, confused about salvation.

[33:47] Maybe they think they can lose it. Maybe they think they have to work to earn it. Maybe they think that it's just that one-time event and they don't have to work on their salvation. They don't have to work on growing in sanctification.

[34:00] And maybe don't understand a lot about our future glorification when we come to be with Christ. We're saved to serve and we're saved to grow. Let's pray. Lord, thank you.

[34:11] We praise you for your goodness. We praise you for our salvation. We thank you, Lord, that we don't have to work to earn it. And we thank you, Lord God, that you've given us your Holy Spirit to help us grow in Christ day by day to be transformed more and more into the image of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

[34:33] And Father, we look forward to that one day where we'll reach the prize, the goal of our salvation, eternity with you. We thank you, Father. We pray that you would bless us this week.

[34:46] Help us to be a blessing to others. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.