Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20081012.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Philippians: Living God's Great Calling Of Godly Servanthood
Part IV: Heeding God's Comprehensive Guidance To Be His Godly Servants
(Philippians 2:12-13)
  1. Introduction
    1. When we Christians understand that we are to do to God's will (cf. Romans 12:1-2), many of us view this to be a difficult exercise, one that somehow counters what we would not personally ever want to do.
    2. In reality, the degree of difficulty in doing God's will is based on the believer's own relationship to the Lord: if he is controlled by the Holy Spirit, the believer has no such struggle, but apart from the Holy Spirit's filling, he can only experience struggle as his sin nature lusts against the Holy Spirit, Gal. 5:17.
    3. Philippians 1:12-13 presents the scene of the believer Paul presumes is yielded to the Lord, and gives us encouragement to yield to God's Spirit and His equipping us to be His godly servants (as follows):
  2. Following God's Comprehensive Guidance To Be Godly Servants, Philippians 2:12-13.
    1. The believer does not always do nor want to do the will of God, for, if he is controlled by his sinful nature, a war exists within between the will of his sin nature and the will of the indwelling Holy Spirit, Gal. 5:17.
    2. However, if the believer is controlled by the Holy Spirit, God comprehensively works in his experience as Philippians 1:12-13 describes for the believer to do the will of God (as follows):
      1. Paul's call that his readers "work out" their salvation was not a call for them to work to become saved:
        1. The readers had already believed on Christ according to Philippians 1:29.
        2. Paul also noted that salvation was by such faith and not by human meritorious works, Eph. 2:8-9.
      2. Thus, the "work out" expression means "to put into practice in their daily living, what God had worked in them by His Holy Spirit," Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 655. God wanted the Philippians to work out in their experience what He had already positionally produced in them when He justified them.
      3. Now, even in experientially working in the believer to produce upright acts, God is involved at every level when the believer relies upon the Holy Spirit, a fact Paul revealed in Philippians 2:12-13:
        1. The believer is to work out in his experience the positional salvation God has wrought within him with an attitude of "fear and trembling," the attitude Paul expressed upon trembling at being confronted by the glorified Lord Jesus at his conversion in Acts 9:6, Philippians 2:12.
        2. The reason for this sense of deep reverence for the Lord is that God is at work through the Holy Spirit controlled believer to make him actually want to do, and also to be energized to do, the very activities God wants him to do, Philippians 2:13: (1) the Greek word for "will" (KJV, NIV, ESV) is thelo, meaning "wish, desire, will", U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966 ed., p. 685; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Engl. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 355; (2) the Greek word for "do" (KJV) or "act" (NIV) or "work" (ESV) is energeo, meaning "work, produce," Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T.; Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 264-265; (3) the Greek word for God's "good pleasure" (KJV, ESV) or "good purpose" (NIV) is eudokia, meaning "good pleasure, wish, desire," Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T.; Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 319-320. (4) Thus, the believer whose sin nature is effectively boycotted since he relies upon the Holy Spirit is led by God both to wish, desire and will to work or produce what the Lord Himself wishes or desires in His good pleasure that he actually perform and achieve!
        3. In summary then, the believer should realize that when he is controlled by God the Holy Spirit, all the tendencies and inclinations he has, all the force impelling him to express these tendencies and desires are actually being directed by God Himself. That so, the believer must function in a constant sense of awe at the vast involvement of his Lord in His Christian experience of service to God!
    3. Thus informed, and thus spiritually equipped, Paul urged his Philippian Christian believers to serve the needs of one another as godly servants, letting God's work in them both to want to do His will, and then to do it, make them serve each other's needs effectively, Philippians 2:12-13 with Philippians 2:1-4.
Lesson: When we believers rely on the Holy Spirit, our very wishes and motivations to stoop to serve the needs of others are so fully authored of the Lord that we are to live in awe of His involvement in it all!

Application: May we stoop to serve the needs of one another with a sense of great awe at God's work in the whole process, for every desire and act involved is deeply driven by the Lord Who lives within us!