Four Pictures of Christian Obedience

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I’ve noticed something as I drive into town each morning to come to the office or come here for church, that most days people will pass me on I-44 like I’m backing up. And part of that is because I have been told I drive like an old person. I’ve been told that by old people, so I’m not really sure how to take that.

But even when I’m driving close to the speed limit, people still just like they’re in a hurry to get to the Texas Motor Speedway or something, and they’re practicing even now. But I can always tell when there’s an officer working traffic enforcement because everybody hands at 10 and 2, they’re driving the same speed I am, they’re acting like they’re taking the state driver’s exam. And usually it’s because there’s somebody set up right there where the exit is for Cash Road, right there in that wide spot.

They like to sit there a lot in the mornings. I can usually start telling as far back as Keygate, wait, the traffic isn’t moving quite as fast as usual today. And it’s because when they know, and maybe some of you are saying, yeah, that’s me.

It’s because when people know that the authorities are watching, suddenly they want to behave, usually. And part of that is human nature. We’ve never had to teach a child to do that.

but it happens in school we’re just finishing up a the longest year of homeschooling ever and um I’m not naming names but kids have a habit of pretending to be working when you’re there and then throwing off all pretense when you walk out of the room I experienced this when I was it when I was a teacher at a school as well I I would have kids that I would you know I would step out of the room and I could hear them not working. They were not even trying to. .

. I could be in the next classroom and hear them not working. And then I come around the corner, suddenly everybody’s been working all along.

Now, I had previously taught at a school where they didn’t even pretend to work when I was in the room, so I thought this is a step in the right direction. But it just doesn’t mean that much when you’re saying, okay, I’m going to be obedient and do what I’m supposed to when you’re watching. Now, the real test of obedience is when there’s nobody right there in person looking over our shoulder and we’re still doing what we’re supposed to do.

And Paul talked about this when he talked to the church at Philippi. We’re going through, if you’ve not been with us in previous Sunday mornings, we’re going through the book of Philippians. And we come to a point in chapter 2 where Paul talks about obedience.

And that’s what we’re going to look at this morning. And specifically this idea of being, he starts out with the idea of being obedient even in his absence. If you would turn with me to Philippians chapter 2.

Excuse me, I’m a little tongue-tied this morning. It’ll be on your screen if you don’t have your Bible with you. But once you find it, if you would stand with me as we read together from God’s Word, he talks here about the importance of obedience, and in particular the importance of being obedient whether he’s present or not, because their obedience is not really to Paul, but to Christ. And so we’re going to be in Philippians 2, starting in verse 12, and we’re going to read through verse 18 this morning.

It says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. See what he says? You’ve done the right thing while I was there, and it’s even more important that you do it while I’m absent.

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. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.

Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice, and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason, you also be glad and rejoice with me. And you may be seated.

So those of you who were here last week, if you recall what I shared with you last week about Jesus and His example of humility. His willingness to settle for less than what He deserved in order for us to have more than we deserved. For Him to endure the cross, for Him to endure the shame, for Him to endure, First of all, even before the cross, just coming here and having to deal with us.

He went through all of that so that we could be forgiven, so that our sins could be atoned for before a holy God. He went through all of that, and Paul talks about his obedience to the plans of the Father. Now that doesn’t mean that Jesus is less than the Father, but it means Jesus took on this obedient role.

What he’s talking to us about, to them, and it applies to us, about this obedience, it comes right on the heels of that discussion of Jesus and His humble obedience. And then in this passage, Paul gives us some more examples of what it means for us to do the same kind of thing. And so we see in this, I’ve called this message four pictures of Christian obedience, because there are four pictures, for lack of a better word, that Paul uses to help the Philippians and by extension us understand what it means to be obedient and the importance of it.

You know, sometimes we will do this. We will put things in pictures. We will give analogies of things for us to learn, even as children.

I’m struggling to think of an example off the top of my head, but I do this all the time with the kids. They will ask me, I’ll tell you what, here’s the example that comes to mind. One day, one of the kids was asking me about taxes.

And I’ve seen this on TV, but I actually did it in real life. I took Madeline’s sandwich and ate 40% of it and handed it back to her. That is a picture of how taxes work.

She was very upset. I had to go make her a whole other sandwich. That was several years ago.

But you know what? They got the idea. They got the idea.

So we do this all the time. We use pictures to teach. And this is what Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, does for us.

Gives us some pictures of what it looks like to obey Christ and why it’s important. And so we see starting out that obeying Jesus is like completing a job. And by the way, as I talk about obedience this morning, I want to be very clear from the beginning.

I want to be very clear at the end. I want to be very clear all the way through that Paul here is writing to people who are believers in Jesus Christ. When we are talking about obedience, this is not a recipe for salvation. If you are here today with the question in mind, how can I be saved?

How can I be forgiven? How can I have a relationship with Jesus Christ? This is not it.

We’ll talk about how that works, but obedience is a byproduct of that relationship with Jesus Christ. Obedience is a byproduct of that forgiveness. The very fact that we need forgiveness just demonstrates the fact that we can’t be perfectly obedient. So I just want to be very clear.

This was written to people who are already believers. This is talking to us as Christians and saying, now, here’s what comes next. And so we see that obeying Jesus is like completing a job.

And we see this in verses 12 and 13, where it says, Therefore, my beloved, as you’ve always obeyed in my presence, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. He says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. We need to understand, first of all, what it means to work out our salvation.

Because this is one of those passages that people will interpret a few different ways. It’s a little less clear. And one of the rules of biblical interpretation is when you’ve got a difficult passage, when you’ve got an unclear passage, you use clearer passages to interpret what it means.

If this were to mean work so that you can be saved, that is in direct contradiction with way too many clear statements in Scripture. One of the clearest is when Paul says in Ephesians 2, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. The Bible is too clear in too many places that we are not saved by works. Even in the Old Testament, Paul talks about Abraham and how he was saved through faith, not through his works.

So all along, it has really had nothing to do with works. So for here, us being told to work out our salvation, for that to mean go and work so you can be saved, it just flies in the face of too many clear passages of Scripture. It does not mean that we earn our salvation.

There’s a Greek word here, ergon, that is translated as work out. And it really describes work that produces something. And so what we’re being told here is to take our salvation, take the salvation that we already have, and go to work.

Not to earn the salvation, we already have that. But to take it and go to work. Now one of my favorite Bible commentators is a man named Warren Wiersbe.

And he wrote that the Greek word here describes mining a mine or gleaning from a field. Taking it and getting everything out of it that you can. And in this case, it’s not the salvation that we’re, if we want to use his mine analogy, it’s not salvation that we’re mining for.

It’s not like go dig up diamonds and those are your salvation. The salvation, the gift, the mine has already been given to us. And now Paul says, go and get everything out of it you can.

Go put it to the best possible use. I was talking to one of, I was talking to Charlie’s teacher Friday, and he had not finished his lunch. And I was just kind of whining about how much food we have wasted.

Not just with him, but as a household, how much food we’ve wasted. I’ll tell you what, we’ve already spent $700 on groceries this month, just since May 1st. I know a lot of y’all are feeling the pinch too, but I’m getting really cranky about the amount of food that’s wasted. So, I mean, you open a can of something, we are scraping every last drop out of it.

And by golly, you’re going to eat it, right? That’s what we’re talking about here. It’s already been given to you, now go and get every last drop out of it that you can.

That’s what he means by working out your salvation. Take the salvation you’ve been given and use it to its fullest. Experience the fullness of the relationship with God. Experience everything that He has saved you for.

Experience the sanctification. Experience the relationship. Go do something with it.

Because how many times, how many times have we been guilty of taking the gift He’s given us and just sitting there with it and doing nothing. Now, are we any less saved because we’re not out there making the most of it? No, I contend the Bible teaches that at the moment you’re saved, you’re as saved as you’re ever going to be.

Jesus has died for you as much as He’s ever going to. The atonement has been applied to you as much as it’s ever going to be applied. You have the Holy Spirit as much as you’re ever going to have it.

Or have Him. But what a waste. Because God didn’t save us just for us to go to heaven.

Now, don’t get me wrong. That’s an incredible benefit. But if we just think of salvation as being our ticket to heaven, we are missing out on what God intended it to be.

Our salvation is this forgiveness and a clean slate with God so that we can experience a relationship with Him now. So that we can have fellowship with Him now. So that we can walk with Him now.

So that we can serve Him now. So that we can fulfill what we were created for. And so Paul tells them, take that gift you’ve already been given.

When he says, work out your own salvation, he means take that gift, take that salvation you’ve been given, and go put it to use. Go serve the Lord. Go be faithful.

And he says in verse 12, we should do it with fear and trembling. Now, I do need to point out this does not mean that we’re supposed to be scared to death of God. We shouldn’t be constantly in terror that God is a monster who’s going to hurt us.

That’s not what fear and trembling means. It means respect. But you know what?

Fear is not necessarily wrong either. My kids love me. In a certain context, my kids fear me.

Because there are consequences. I don’t think it’s entirely wrong for us to have a fear of God in that sense. What this means altogether, to do it in fear and trembling, doesn’t mean that God is an abuser and I’m up there scared to death that He’s going to crush me at any moment.

It means that we take it seriously. Last week, talking about humility, talked about the gravity of the task of being in ministry. And Rodney and I recently talked about this.

I don’t understand. I mean, I understand how pastors can get a big head, but at the same time, I don’t understand why we would get a big head because of anybody, we should recognize the gravity of what we’re called to do and how far short we fall of being able to do that on our own. Instead of strutting into the pulpit or strutting into the office, we should be limping into the pulpit and into the office, recognizing the enormous weight of what God’s called us to do.

That is true to an extent of every believer. Now, yes, there is a weight to the job and the calling and the office of pastor, but there’s also a weight to the calling and job of a Christian. We have been called and sent out to represent Jesus to the world around us.

And I think we forget sometimes what an awesome and impossible task that is to accomplish on our own. I think sometimes we have lost a sense of awe over what God has called us to do, over this job that we’ve been given. And if we are taking seriously the calling to be obedient to Jesus Christ and represent Him to the world, we ought to be a little nervous.

We ought to be a little scared. Now, ultimately, we can rest in Him. We can trust in Him that He’s going to equip us and He’s going to empower us.

and that it’s going to be okay. But have you ever been nervous about a new job or a new role at church or anything like that? It’s not that you’re scared to death, but you’re nervous because you want to do a good job.

I think that’s what we’re talking about here, taking it seriously. So we’ve been given a job to do, and obeying Jesus is like completing that job. Now it says in verse 13, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Ultimately, we have to understand that God is at work in us. God has been at work and God will remain at work in us, ultimately He’s going to bring forth the fruit in what we do, but it’s our job to be obedient. I think sometimes we can go to the other extreme and put too much pressure on ourselves that we have to perform and we have to produce.

Folks, our job is very simple. Notice I didn’t say very easy, but very simple. Our job is just to be obedient.

If we’re trying to produce the fruit and we’re trying to change people, we’re trying to change this, we’re trying to change that. We’re trying to do God’s job for Him. And not one of us in here have shoulders big enough to carry that load.

All of us together don’t have shoulders big enough to carry that load. It’s God who is at work. Our job, the job we’ve been called to complete, is just to take this salvation and run with it and be obedient.

Do what God’s called us to do. There’s another picture in here that obeying Jesus is like shining a light. He says in verses 14 and 15, do all things without complaining and disputing.

I feel like I might need this tattooed on my hand somewhere as a reminder. I’m scared of needles, so that won’t happen. But I feel like it should be there, right?

Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. Now, the image we get here is that the world is twisted. Does that sound right?

he talks about a crooked and perverse generation that means that our world is twisted our world is corrupt our world has turned its back on god and his truth and if you think that’s wrong if you think that’s incorrect I don’t know how to help you because all we have to do is turn on the television watch the local news all you have to do is watch the national news and if you’re going for a PhD in the world rejecting God, watch the entertainment news. You know, it’s just, it’s all out there. This world has, we know this is true.

The world has rejected God and His truth, just as it has from the beginning. This is nothing new. This is nothing new.

And this world is in rebellion against God. So when he says in verse 14, when he talks about complaining, and he talks about disputing, these are two different kinds of rebellion. Now, ultimately, rebellion is rebellion, but there’s the complaining.

And the idea here is the murmuring like the Israelites in the wilderness. How every time God would tell them to do something or Moses would, at God’s insistence, tell them to do something, they would murmur and complain. They would just kind of.

. . Have you ever been a teenager or had a teenager?

I don’t have a teenager yet, but I’ve been one. And there were times I was told to do something, told to go clean my room. That’s murmuring.

Do we ever do that to God? Maybe not audibly, but in our will? This is a rebellion of the will that we just don’t want to.

And then there’s this disputing, which is a doubting or a rebellion of the mind. It’s where we’re questioning God, questioning His will, questioning His plan. And there is a difference between asking God questions and questioning God.

I submit to you, I don’t see any reason why we can’t ask God questions. Now, he’s not obligated to provide explanations just because we want them, but I don’t see any harm in asking God questions. Questioning God is something different, like what Job did, because questioning God puts us in the authority over God, and asking God questions submits to God’s authority, and just is trying to grapple with our understanding of why.

But this disputing is to question God and to rebel in the mind. And all this tells us we can obey Christ outwardly, even while we’re rebelling inwardly. Because I remember being a teenager, and I remember being obedient to my parents, but on the inside not really wanting to.

And I’m just struck with the realization my parents may be watching, but I’m probably not saying anything they didn’t already know. I cleaned my room, and I am not happy about it. You know, that kind of thing.

We do that as adults, right? Go back to the speed limit thing I talked about earlier. How many people slam on their brakes and say, I’ll go 55 through town, but I tell you, if he wasn’t sitting there, They’re not happy about it because they’ve got places to be, right?

I’m just not in too big a hurry to get anywhere, I guess. So we can obey Christ outwardly and still be in rebellion inwardly. So the real test here is to obey Christ joyfully.

He said do these things without the disputing, without the murmuring. Because when we obey Christ joyfully, when we do what He says not out of a sense of obligation, not out of a fear that He’s going to twist our arms or stomp us into the ground if we don’t do it, but out of a sense of love and a desire to please Him, it’s going to stand out. Because it’s such a stark contrast to the way the world works.

Yesterday I put Benjamin to work helping me outside. And he used the push mower like they had to use back in Soviet Russia. I’ve got a riding mower and I don’t want to go back to the push mower.

But there are certain areas I can’t reach with that. And he went out and mowed for me. And I bought him his own weed eater.

Aren’t I nice? My gas-powered one is too heavy for him, so I bought a lightweight electric one. And he weeded it for me.

And it was hot. Like by 9 o’clock yesterday morning, we were already two miles from the sun. And I’m sure he would have rather done other things yesterday.

But not only did he outwardly do what I asked him to, but he at least seemed to be inwardly glad to do it. And I noticed it. Because it stands out from what you expect.

it stands out from how I am sometimes. When we obey Christ joyfully because maybe what He’s telling us to do is not what seems like the most fun. Maybe what He’s telling us to do is not what we want to do in the moment.

But you know what? We love Him. And so we’re going to try.

Let’s do it. And we go into it with that attitude and we decide we’re going to obey Him out of a sense of love, out of a desire to please Him. I’m sure more than anything that was Benjamin’s motivation.

I love my daddy. I don’t want to see him have to do all of this and then come back and do this part too. And I want to do the best I can to make him happy.

When we do that with our Lord, it stands in such stark contrast to the world that has utterly rejected God, that does not want to obey God, that would rather have dental surgery than obey God. It stands out. It’s like shining a light in a dark place.

And the darker the place is, the more the light stands out in contrast. And so he says it’s like we’re shining a light. When you obey Christ and when you do it joyfully, it’s like shining a light because it stands out from the rebellion in the world. And so Paul is ultimately telling us to check our hearts and make sure we’re serving Him in a way that shines a light and brings Him glory rather than just reflecting more of the world’s rebellion wrapped up in religious garments.

Because sometimes we can do that. We can be outwardly religious but inwardly rebellious. But that’s not what we’re supposed to do.

then third of all obeying Jesus is like running a race Paul says in verse 16 holding fat he wants them to be holding fast the word of life teaching the word living the word so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain now there were several places in the New Testament where Paul described the Christian life as a race and here in this passage he’s teaching that if they didn’t continue in obedience if they didn’t go on holding fast the word of life, if they didn’t continue learning and living and spreading the word, then his own work was meaningless and he said he would have run in vain. For us as believers, to just wallow in disobedience is like running a half marathon or running half a marathon and sitting down on the track. Now I’m not talking about running a half marathon.

My dad does those all the time. That’s finishes the race because it’s a half marathon. But he also runs marathons.

13. 1, 26. 2, I think is what it is.

Anyway, he runs too many miles for me, right? He runs those. But to run a marathon and sit down halfway through or sit down three quarters of the way through, who’s going to do that?

I mean, it defeats the purpose because you’re running for something. You’re running to get to the finish line. Now, sometimes they give away Chick-fil-A and donuts at the finish line.

I might run for that. My dad is running for the, what’s that? The prize.

For him, the prize is I finished. And sometimes they get a medal. Sometimes it’s just bragging rights. They finished.

Why would you come that far just to stop? Now, and the reason I say wallowing in disobedience, as believers, we all stumble. We all fall.

We all fall short. No Christian in this room or anywhere else is perfect. We know this.

But the difference is when we fall on the race course, we are supposed to get up and keep running. Not because the prize is salvation. We already have that.

We had salvation at the starting line. The prize is a closer walk with Jesus Christ. That’s what we’re pursuing. And so he says that for them to not hold fast the Word is like getting partway into this marathon and just stopping.

What was the point of the race we’ve already run? The finish line is spiritual maturity. It’s being like Christ. And that’s something we’re going to pursue for the rest of our lives.

Now we could look at that and say, you mean I’m never done? No, you never come to a point where you’ve accomplished all there is. But we could also look at that as a good thing, that no matter how deep we get with Jesus, there’s always deeper to go.

There’s always more to learn. There’s always more to experience. There’s always more to grow.

And so he compares this to running a race. And then fourth of all today, obeying Jesus is like offering a sacrifice. In verses 17 and 18, he says, If I’m being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

For the same reason, you also be glad and rejoice with me. Now, the faith of the Philippians here, he talks about it like it’s a sacrifice. The faith that he’s talking about, though, is not just their actual belief, like that moment I changed my mind, I believe in Jesus.

He’s talking about their perseverance in their faith, their continuance in their faith, their continuing journey of faith. Every day they get up and they continue to walk with Jesus. It’s like offering themselves up as a living sacrifice, as he said elsewhere in Romans.

Their life and the faith that drives it is like a sacrifice that they’re offering to God on the altar. And Paul presents his life of service as a drink offering, which was something different rituals. work differently, but a drink offering was something that was poured out in conjunction with the animal sacrifice, and it was all part of the offering to God to please Him.

And the picture of both of these things is that through their faithful obedience to God, through Paul’s obedience, through the Philippians’ obedience, these believers are presenting a sacrifice that is going to please and glorify God. Sometimes we as Christians, we think we’ve got to do some big thing in order to please God. How can I glorify God?

What big thing can accomplish? What can I do? I don’t have this skill or that skill.

We focus on our abilities, our talents. We focus on all these things. What is the ultimate sacrifice we can give to God?

It’s another day of faithful obedience. That’s what He’s looking for from you. You want to offer sacrifice that pleases God?

Get up today and determine to be faithful and obedient to whatever He calls you to do. There’s your sacrifice. Wait, I don’t have to start a huge ministry.

I don’t have to start a huge movement. No, you just have to get up every day and be faithful to what He asks you day. Be obedient to Him that day.

That’s your sacrifice every day. That’s what Paul said, their continued obedience, and He was being offered as a drink offering on the side. You and I are called to obey our Lord.

That’s what that word Lord means. He’s our Master. And our obedience glorifies Jesus the same way that Jesus’ obedience glorifies the Father.

We that Jesus made on the cross. Jesus was obedient to the plan of God and it brought glory to both of them. When we are obedient to His plans, we bring glory to Him as well.

Because we can’t forget what Paul said in the last section when he called the Philippians to humility and he gave Jesus to them as the example. And he said this is how Jesus was the example. He was willing to obediently carry out the Father’s plans.

The Father was glorified. Jesus was also glorified. And so you and I, The reason why he got into this whole section on humility is because you and I as believers ought to have the humility to obey Jesus willingly.

We ought to have enough humility to serve Him joyfully so that He receives the honor and the glory that He deserves. That’s our whole point of doing this. But again, this has been given by Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as a challenge to people who are already saved.

These are not instructions on how to be saved. We cannot obey Jesus in this way. We cannot serve Him in this way.

We cannot glorify Him in this way until we first have a relationship with Him. We cannot do this until we have repented and put our trust in Jesus Christ. Because as I said early on, the fact that we need salvation, the fact that we need forgiveness, the fact that we need any of this is because we can’t obey in the first place. And so trying to obey in order to be right with Him, it just doesn’t work.

Now the way we get right with God is that we recognize we’ve sinned. I’ve sinned, you’ve sinned, we’ve all sinned. We’ve all disobeyed God.

We’ve all done or thought or said or not done something in a way that displeased God. The Bible says we’re all guilty. And if we recognize that God is infinitely holy, God is at a level of perfection that we can’t even imagine, then any mark on our record makes us fall far short of His standards.

If God’s standard for having a relationship with us, for us being acceptable to Him, is absolute sinless perfection, then not one of us in this room or anywhere else can live up to that. So we have to recognize that first and then understand that nothing you or I could ever do would be enough to erase the wrong that we’ve done. Sin always has to be punished.

It always has to be paid for. It always has to be dealt with. God is like any other righteous judge.

We want God to just ignore our sin, but if there was a judge on the court here in Comanche County that was routinely just letting people go even though they were guilty, we’d scream and fuss and throw a fit until they were thrown off the bench, right? And God is infinitely more just than any of those judges. That sin always has to be paid for, and so Jesus Christ came and paid the penalty.

Jesus Christ came and took all the punishment. That’s why He died on the cross in our place, so that we could be forgiven. And all that’s left is for us to recognize