Work Out Your Own Salvation?

00:00 - Speaker 1 Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture.  00:09 - Speaker 2 Hey everybody, we're going to respond to somebody's question. It's a good one and it's a rarity, we don't have to do it, but this one demands a response. Here we go.  00:21 - Speaker 1 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com Today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us that's like saying Amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's Word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.  00:49 - Speaker 2 Hey everybody, welcome back to the Jack Hibbs podcast and listen. You can always encourage us and help us out by leaving us a review. It really matters. It encourages the entire team. Talking about the entire team, I have to tell you straight up that I do not read comments made by people.  01:06 I don't have the time. I just don't have the time, and I'm not joking. I had a 21 hour day yesterday for real and I'm trying to recover from that. I don't have the time to peruse social media. But you might say well, my gosh, you're posting all the time. I am posting all the time on the various platforms, but I walk away from those posts. I post it and then I walk away.  01:30 But number one that's one of the ways how I keep so happy and lighthearted is because I don't get bogged down in what people are saying about whatever. But we have a team that reads the responses from people. So one of the things is I don't think we've ever done this before, but this is really good. So, colleen, I'm going to say if you're Colleen who left us a message, colleen, I'm going to say Colleen C, I'm not going to give you your whole handle because that's probably not fair to you. But, colleen C, you know who I'm talking about. You asked a question and it's awesome and it goes something like this that you were listening to a message recently that I was giving and that I had made the comment which was actually a statement quote from the Bible that I said that you need to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And your great question was is I thought our salvation was purchased in Jesus and we had it, and that it's not by works but it's just by faith in Him alone. So can I address that? First of all, you are absolutely correct. You are 100% correct, colleen.  02:52 Number one is that our salvation is solely fixed upon the absolute and the exhaustive, to the point of sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ at the cross. In other words, what Jesus did for us at the cross satisfied the righteousness of God which has been revealed to us in the law. Christ came and met all the demands of the law. Thereby think of it this way thereby, when the law examined Jesus Christ in Passion Week, think about that the Old Testament law examined the life in the ministry of Jesus Christ and could not bring anything against Him. When the law was satisfied, the next part of His redemptive act for us is that he then, having been perfected before the law of course he's God, he was always perfect, but he lived out that perfection in human flesh, which is amazing, because was Jesus really tempted? Not only was he really tempted, he was tempted far beyond what you and I can be tempted because he's pure like you and I would have never known we will know in the future will be as pure as Jesus in eternity in heaven. Imagine that. Read 1 John, it'll blow your mind. But having said that, colleen, yep, it's all by Jesus.  04:24 And so your next comeback is well then, what about working out your own salvation with fear and trembling? What do I do? And doesn't sound very thrilling? Philippians, chapter 2, always friends, always. Never build a theology off of a verse, ever. That's what cults do, by the way. You want to be a cult, build your theology off of a verse. And if you want to be, you know, like a, like a global cult, then build your theology off of random verses from old and New Testament that have no correlation whatsoever together and are, more importantly, read out of context.  05:08 Context is everything and it shouldn't surprise you, okay? So here in Southern California, context is everything. If I'm hungry, right, and I want a hamburger, right In California, and if you know this or not, but this is where hamburgers are born. All the big ones in America are born here. Don't tell me about five guys, it's not even funny. I'm talking about real hamburgers that come from California. So if I want a hamburger, I'm gonna go. Listen the context I'm gonna go to In-N-Out Burger. That's where. That's where God would eat. First of all, everything has got verses on it. It's a Christian company and I'm and I've got a burger, but in the context, I have to have the fries and the milkshake together. The context of this together gives you a well-rounded experience of how great an In-N-Out Burger can be. An In-N-Out, double-double Animal Style is what you want, and that context then affords you freedom, like to dip your fries in your milkshake before you eat it, okay, so I digress. Kind of Context dictates everything. So listen to this.  06:28 Philippians, paul is writing to the believers in Philippi. These are Roman believers, they are Europeans, they're not Jews. They are in the region of what would probably be those that are closer to Macedonians, but be that as it may, they are residing in Philippi. And he writes to the church of Philippi and the people who live there are called Philippians. Okay, and in chapter 2, you quoted it, colleen.  07:00 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 Verse 13,. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now, that's just a hint of the context. You see, all of a sudden oh wait, a minute. Verse 13 says it's God who's working it out in me. Yes, so what does it mean? Let's go back to verse 12.  07:36 What does it mean for us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling? You ready, here it is. To work out our own salvation simply means this Because we're saved. We work out our own salvation from the fact that we are saved, not that we get saved by working for our salvation. That's not how it works. Our salvation is a gift that's given. Now that you're saved, what does it mean? It means watch, discipline your life in such a way that will advance the entire process of your relationship with Jesus Christ, now In salvation, in sanctification and being called, and your ultimate glorification in Christ Jesus.  08:22 Paul talks about that in Romans, chapter eight, verses 28 to 31. So you wanna check that out? But here's the deal. God is at work within you. God is at work, verse 13. You can even read it backwards God's at work within you. He's going to work so that you can work out your own salvation with reverence and with awe. That's what those words mean Not to be terrified and be flinching when God speaks. No, it's a joyous union and it's thrilling, because salvation is not by our sweat, it's not by our efforts, it's not by our deeds. It is truly this Because I'm saved, I'm going to make sure. I set my alarm earlier to get up with God, to spend time with him. See, I don't have to do that, but I want to grow, so I'm going to do that.  09:09 So, work out your own salvation with a reverential awe would be that I'm going to go to church and find out how I can be used. I want to put my faith into action. What does God want to do with me? Now, you can stay home and you're going to go to heaven, but it's best to invest in your relationship with God, and so when it's working out, it's just let me rephrase it Let the salvation that is yours, let it go, release it in your life and find out what God wants to do with you and as he uses you, just remember, maintain that with a reverential awe and thankfulness toward God, because he's the one doing it all, he's the one that's at work in you. So it's two verses of absolute liberty, absolute freedom, absolute joy and absolute assurance. Because why? Because I'm going to walk the straight and narrow with Jesus and the Holy Spirit's going to give me the power to do that, and the wanta, he's going to give me the wanna to do it. I'm going to want to do this, so it's not any works of righteousness on your own. To do this is to yield to the work of God and letting him do what he wants you to do. And I hope, colleen, that this liberates you and that it also brings an answer to your question.  10:38 So think of a glove. Right, you can see a glove. You can go to your local hardware store and there's a glove. You can buy gloves and they're all just gloves and they're basically meaningless until your hand slips inside the glove. And, by the way, you'll try on a few gloves until you find one that fits, or fits the application for which you need it. Okay, are you going to be handling acids? Then you need a certain kind of a rubber polypropylene type of a glove, a glove that can handle toxins and poisons and acids. You wouldn't use that glove for gardening. You would use a gardener's glove. They usually have a little bit of rubber grip and their cloth on the top. Well, maybe what if you you're going to do hard yard work, you're going to cut down some trees, you're going to use your chainsaw or you're going to dig fence posts you know you're going to deal with barbed wire and stuff like that. For your land or for your property, you'd use leather gloves. Why? Because they can take it. You use the glove in the application for which it was created for. Know this.  11:52 The Bible says, colleen, that you were created by God to live out your life and serve Him, and those things that you're to be doing are actual works that God has given you before the foundation of the world was ever laid. These are works that God has given each of us, as believers, to live out. Now listen, some of you might be saying oh, my goodness, really, I'm a Christian, pastor, jack, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do you better find out that your purpose in life. And if you listen, if you think you've been having fun so far as a Christian, you ain't seeing nothing yet. Because when you yield yourself to what God wants to do and listen, sometimes that comes by presenting yourself in lots of trial and error.  12:35 What I mean by that is I want to serve God, I want to find out what my gifting is, and you sign up for the parking lot ministry, traffic ministry, ushering ministry, children's ministry. You might go to seven different ministries until you find one that it's like oh my gosh, I love this. And the reason why you're going to love it is because God has put that love in your heart for it before the world was ever created, before you were born. You were designed for that, and guess what's going to happen? You are going to work your tail off doing it and people are going to say you need to take a break. And you go, man, I can't take a break. This is the best. Where do you get your energy from? Where do you get your motivation from? From God, why you were built to do that. That's why God called you to do that, and so, while other people who are not called to what you're doing are all pooped out and tired and thrashed. You would be just as thrashed if you're trying to do what they do. What they do is incredibly powerful to the advancement of the gospel.  13:37 Listen, the church that I pastor. I'm surrounded by people, literally, who have incredible callings and giftings in the area to advance the gospel via technologies or writing or graphics or audio or logistics. It's amazing. Just today I found out I'm sorry I didn't even know this about when people order books. How does that happen? What's the process? Where on the property does that take place? Who's doing this? How are book orders processed? I can't even wrap my brain around that. I don't have to. I'm not called to do that. I wouldn't even. I'd blow it all up, I'd mess it up.  14:21 So listen, colleen, find out what God wants you to do. Do with all of your heart and you're gonna find out that you're disciplining your life, which is a joy. To draw closer to Jesus, which is part of being a disciple. It turns out that you wind up fulfilling the full purpose as to why God gave you eternal life in the first place. He gave you life for a purpose. Don't just wait around to get to heaven? What you want to do is be busy about our Father's business and that, when it time comes to go to heaven, you are going to heaven having accomplished your race, as Paul put it. You have finished your course, you've kept the faith and you can lay your head down at night, satisfied and thankful for all that God gave you for that day. I hope that is an answer to you. I hope that brings some consolation to you. It's a great question, but remember everybody.  15:20 Read the entire context of what's before you. Don't just eat the fries. Okay, there's more to it. Don't just read that verse. Read it in the chapter, read it in its paragraph. As you read it, unpack the word meanings and you'll grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. So you guys, listen. As always, we would love to have you subscribe. That really helps us in the social media world. I don't understand it. The beautiful people behind these cameras. They understand that. But it helps us in that social world. But, as always, it's time for us to live out what we believe in. It's time for real life. So go out there and live the life that God has called you to live. God bless you. I'll see you next time.  16:04 - Speaker 1 This Jack Hibbs podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported, Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.