Sermon Tone Analysis

*Philippians 7**.*

Let us turn to Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi (Phil 2:12) *[P]*.

“/Therefore, my beloved, ….”/

One of Derek Prince’s catchy sayings was: “If there is a “therefore” find out what it is there for!”

And we begin with a “therefore”!

There is a connection with what he has said before – we can’t just launch into this.

Paul is following a logical inference from what he has just said.

What has he just been talking about?

*[P]* Being like minded, having the mind of Christ, following His pattern of meekness, humility, obedience, which resulted in His exaltation – back in [*Philippians 1:27*/ Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel;/] he wrote about expecting them to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel.

As Christ was perfectly obedient, therefore they should be subject just as He was, and carry out their own salvation.

Paul lets the Philippians know that he expects them to obey what he has commanded and expounds the kind of activity that he has described as like-mindedness and walking in a worthy manner: the way Jesus did: who emptied Himself, humbled Himself; because He is now exalted supreme over all: [*Philippians 2:12-18*/ Therefore, 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; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.

But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me./]

Paul sets up what he is about to say by placing it in a specific context: that of their track record of obedience.

They are already doing well.

He encourages them, they are already obeying, now keep on doing so.

In fact their obedience was of best kind.

You can obey because you have to, reluctantly; and you can obey because someone is keeping an eye on you – we have a dose of this at work, people trawl the internet, or sit and chat – but when the ones from upstairs come into the lab, ….. suddenly they are all busy!

Alternatively, you can obey from the heart – then there will be no difference in your work whether your boss is there or not, your speed will be no different if a cop is there or not.

Obeying while Paul was present might be expected *[P]*, but the Philippians have gone above and beyond this.

Paul was in prison but even in his /absence/ they obey!

Paul had received reports about how the Philippians, so he knew how they were behaving and is affirming their consistent obedience as the setting for his next big idea.

They were saved through the Gospel, the Good News of the gift of righteousness and life through Jesus’ sacrifice.

Now this salvation is real – it is not just theory.

If it is real, it must have an effect, there must be a difference in the way we live: “in a manner worthy of the Gospel”.

Here is Paul’s first big idea: this working out of their salvation was to be: with fear and trembling.

It is not talking about matters of eternal security which is by faith alone; but instead, the focus is on the practical matters of how we ought to live out the Gospel in our daily lives, following the Lord and allowing Him to work through us.

This is stressed in the very next verse, which answers why we should do this with fear and trembling: because /God/ is the one working in us, not we ourselves [*Ephesians 2:10*/ For we are His workmanship,(/what did He make us for?)/ created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them/.]

Paul tells us to work out our salvation – but who does the work?

*[P]* My sister has recently been very taken with some teaching on grace, of all that God freely gives and does.

But she has met some believers in her fellowship who she regards as legalistic, telling her all these things that she should be doing.

Well does God do it all?

Or do we do it?

Who is right?

Neither, because both are right!

Paul says work out your salvation, a command for us – but goes on to say God is at work in us! *[P]* Hallelujah!

We work out what God works within.

Isn’t that an amazing and truly awesome thing?!

That God Himself, the Creator of the universe, who spoke it all into being, is at work in me?!

That is why we are to work out with fear and trembling – because it is an awesome and Divine work.

God at work! *[P]* Working energetically, effectually and productively, in Divine power!

So do we sit back and just let God do the work?

I have recently been reading in my quiet times the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two fish.*

*The disciples told Jesus to send the crowd of people away because it was getting late.*

*[*Mark 6:37-38*/ But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” /(Have you ever considered what a startling command that is?! How ridiculous?! How impossible?!

But Jesus always calls us to do the impossible!

To have the mind of Christ, to live in a manner worthy of the Gospel, to be as meek as Jesus!

Impossible!

But Jesus tells them to do it!

/And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?”/) (The disciples point out to Jesus how ridiculously impossible this is) /And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have?

Go look!” /(What does Jesus tell them to do? Look at what they do have!

We say that it is impossible, I can’t be like Jesus, I’ll wait for a thunderbolt from heaven, a Divine miracle, the one talent person did nothing with what he had been given – but Jesus says, “Go look at what you have.”)

/And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”/

(Is that enough?

It is just as impossible, it still needs a miracle – but God uses what we have, what we present to Him.

John tells us that the loaves and fish belonged to a young boy [*John 6:9*/ “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”/]

This young lad offered up what he had, gave up his own lunch, and with it God fed well in excess of 5,000 people, with heaps left over!

But what if the boy had held on to his lunch?

We look at the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 and we focus, rightly, on the wonderful miracle of God, but no lunch, no miracle.

Still, the disciples had to arrange the people on the grass into about 100 groups, each disciple was serving food out to 500-1000 people.

Then they had to pick all the pieces afterwards.

They were busy, they were involved; they had to do something.

Do we give them any credit or glory for it?

– No, the glory goes to God – He did the wondrous work!

And that is how it is with us.

We cannot do it – we need a miracle from God, it has to be a Divine act – and it is, but we must first give to Him what we have, utterly inadequate though it is.

We work, we are involved, but the real work, the miracle is of God and He alone gets the glory!

Praise His Name! Do you think the boy went home and said to his Mum what a fantastic lunch you made, it fed 5,000 people?

No, he went home and told of the great thing that Jesus did.

How can we boast of what we do?

It is the LORD who is at work!

That is why we work out with fear and trembling – it is an awesome thing to be part of a Divine work.

Imagine that you are that young lad – your lunch has fed around 10,000 people!

It is a fearful thing, an awesome thing!

On the rare occasion I have been aware of being used by God there is that same reaction.

I recall once earmarking a gift in the collection to a certain couple in the fellowship who I knew was struggling financially – they had no idea who it was from.

I later overheard them talking to the pastor – they took this as confirmation from the LORD to go into full time service.

I thought – what have I done?!

Here he was packing in his job because I put a few dollars in the offering!

It is an awesome thing to be part of a big thing that God is doing – far bigger things were afoot than my little gift!

God used it to speak to His servants.

We do the small part – the work is really done by God.

Before I came back to the LORD there were things in my life that I had battled with since childhood, but had no power to conquer, I had tried again and again and failed.

When I was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit there was an instant and miraculous change.

I could not do it!

It has to be God’s work.

We cannot do it ourselves!

[*John 15:5*/ “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing./]

Apart from God working in us, we cannot accomplish anything of lasting value.

We bear fruit, but it comes from God working within.

So what we do should not be done out of arrogant confidence in our abilities, but in reverent humility.

Humility is needed because it isn’t /we/ who are at work.

Instead, it is /God/ working through us to accomplish His purposes.

It is an awesome thing to be part of that.

The exhortation to fear and trembling is another safeguard for us, the more self-confident we are in our conduct, the less dependent we will be on God, and the less likely we are to allow Him to work through us.

Let us move on and follow Paul’s progression of thought *[P]* The command in (Phil 2:13) to work out our salvation emphasizes the manner in which it should be done: with fear and trembling.

With fear and trembling indicates a nervous and trembling anxiety to do right.

We are to work on to the finish, progress toward the goal.

The next sentence explains why we should do it in this with fear and trembling.