IT'S NOT "WORK FOR YOUR SALVATION", BUT "WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION"


August 4, 2002 am


Wherefore, my beloved, as ye 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.
(Phi 2:12)

Many, many people, including Christians, think in a very distorted manner that Christians are people who begin a long and arduous race, in which they must work extremely hard in order to be saved one day and go to Heaven.

Working it out means that it is inside you.


We start out with this:

 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
(Act 2:37-39)

CALLED.

And that calling is to be saints.

 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(Rom 1:7)

 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
(1Co 1:2)

The Bible made statements showing us that working for salvation simply is not possible.

 That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
(Eph 2:7-10)

Notice it says its not of works of our own, but we are his workmanship.

But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
(Tit 3:4-7)

Ephesians and now Titus says the same thing.

So salvation is our?s.

  • We have eternal life if we have Jesus.

If we are going to be victorious and strong Christians, we have to believe what the Bible says is already true about us.

  • In fact we have to remind ourselves who we are over and over again.
  • We will never grow spiritually until we understand what God made us the very moment He saved us.

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
(1Jo 5:11-13)

John wrote to make sure that we know we have eternal life if we have Jesus.

We need to know who God is.

  • And the second greatest knowledge you will ever learn is who you are after God saves you.

Satan is a liar and wants you to live a life as though your identity is not true.

You have got to learn these truths.

Salvation makes you a child of God.

  • You are not supposed to obey the plan of salvation so you can try to become a child of God.
  • You are a child of God who is becoming like Christ.
  • You are a saint of God who sins, who is trying to become more like Jesus.

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
(1Jo 3:1-3)

This is again like Ephesians and Titus.

  • God is so kind that He did a work in making us justified.
  • Here we read that God is so loving that he called us His sons.
  • He did this the moment he saved us!

As soon as you are connected to Jesus, you have eternal life.

So working out your salvation is seeing who you are become productive.

  • You cannot make yourself more of a child of God than what you are once you are saved.
  • You simply become more productive.
  • You become more like Jesus.

How can we be called God's sons as soon as we are saved?

  • The fact is that before you do one good deed, when you are saved you are ready for heaven.
  • How?
  • What did He do?
  • The only way this could be possible is that HE GAVE US RIGHTEOUSNESS AS A GIFT.
  • And this is what the Bible teaches.

For if by one man's offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
(Rom 5:17)



The Bible compares our lives when we start living for God as children, not orphans trying to fit into the family so that we can later be called His children.

  • We are BORN AGAIN.
  • As infants in the family.
  • And the more productive we become as Christians, in seeing our lives become more like Jesus, the more mature we become.

People think God does not love them when they make a mistake.

  • That is ridiculous.
  • God so loves us that He calls us His children as soon as we're saved, with a whole lot of mistakes He knows we are going to make.

We have eternal life as soon as we're connected to Jesus.

You do not serve God to gain His acceptance.

  • You are already accepted by God, so you start serving Him.

You do not work for God to be loved by Him.

  • You already are loved by Him, so you work for Him.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
(Eph 1:3)

He blessed us all with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
(Eph 1:7)

All of us have redemption.

  • We have forgiveness of sins.

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by (grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
(Eph 2:5-6)

He raised us up to sit with Christ in heavenly places in power.

 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
(Eph 2:10)

We are his workmanship created for good works.

  • Just like a clock is created to tell time.

For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
(Eph 2:18)

We have access to God by His Spirit.

  • People outside of Christ do not have that.
  • Just by virtue of being born again, we have all of this.

In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
(Eph 3:12)

We already have access to God, so can go in with boldness.

 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
(Col 1:13)

We?re delivered out of Satan's kingdom.

  • We're translated into the Kingdom of God.

See how this needs to be worked out?

  • It's already in us!
  • It's already true of us.
  • It just needs to be worked out now.

The work is not in becoming a child of God.

  • The work is getting this through our thick skulls and living like it is true.

An eagle's egg has everything inside the shell for an eagle to come forth and grow.

  • But the yolk and the fluid sure does not look like an eagle inside the shell.
  • But it's all there.

Similarly we look at our lives and say we sure don't look like strong Christians.

  • But we're in a shell of ignorance and lack of understanding that we all must break through.
  • We must develop!
  • Come out of our shells.
  • Learn who we are!
  • Learn what God did for us the moment He saved us.
  • Work out our salvation!
  • It's all in there.
  • It just needs to be made known to us.
  • And we need to understand how to become aware of it all.
  • READ THE BIBLE.
  • LISTEN TO THE PASTOR TEACH YOU ABOUT WHAT THE WORD SAYS YOU ARE ONCE YOU ARE IN CHRIST.

The eaglet must come out of the shell and develop.

Our problem is that we feel God does not love us, and that we do not have what it takes to live a victorious life.

  • But He loves us simply because we?re his children.
  • Now, we are His children!
  • And the reality is that we simply start infantile and are in need of growing and maturing.
  • The growth and maturity is the salvation within us working it's way out.
  • It's being productive.
  • Becoming more like Jesus.

We start out just like Jesus did.

  • Even if we're adults when we get saved, we are spiritual infants.
  • And Jesus was born as an infant in the manger.
  • And He grew and matured.

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
(Luk 2:40)

Jesus became strong in spirit.
We may be strong men and women when we are saved.

  • But we need to grow strong in spirit.

And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
(Col 2:10)

Before we read that we are complete in Christ,

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
(Col 2:6-7)

Although we are complete in Christ, we must get rooted in Him and established in the faith.

  • Everything is there.
  • Just like inside an egg.
  • But you have to become established.
  • We think established means we are finally Christians.
  • No.
  • We are Christians simply because we are in Christ by baptism into Him (Ro 6:3).
  • And we get established and rooted in Him afterwards.
  • We come out of our shells.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
(2Ti 1:7)

Statements speaking to all people who obeyed the plan of salvation.

What happens if we sin?

  • Are we no longer His children?
  • Once you are physically born into a family, you have the name of the family and the family blood flowing in your veins.
  • Running away from home does not change that.
  • Your HARMONY with your Father may change, but you are still His child even when you sin.
  • And you will lose your soul if you never get the harmony as it should be back again.

Once you are a NEW CREATURE, the old creature is destroyed.

 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
(Rom 6:6)

It's destroyed so that we do not sin.

  • For that purpose.
  • But that is up to whether or not we grow and mature and learn.
  • But even if we sin and backslide and never get back, we?re still new creatures.
  • But new creatures can also be lost for hell.
  • What a shame for a new creature to be lost in hell.
  • But it's usually because the person never learned who they were, and kept looking at themselves while underdeveloped as a yolk and egg fluid, thinking that?s not a Christian.
  • They somehow were told by Satan that Christians do not do the things they did.
  • That is a MINDTRAP.

Recall the sermon I preached using the game MINDTRAP as an illustration.

  • It's a game of questions getting your mind away from obvious facts, such as asking you which side of a pitched roof will the egg of a rooster fall if the wind is so fast from such a direction.
  • ROOSTERS DO NOT LAY EGGS.
  • Well, it is a mindtrap for you to think that CHRISTIANS DO NOT SIN.
  • The truth is that all Christians have sinned.
  • And Christians must GROW SPIRITUALLY in order to learn how to resist sin.
  • The true picture is that MATURE CHRISTIANS do not sin, but have learned how to resist sin and who they are.
  • God expects Christians to sin as much as parents expect babies to fall down as they try to walk.

Learning who you are in Christ is growing.

But you must grow after time.

  • The only reason a child will never walk is either because its crippled or it never tries to understand how to walk and gives up.


 Once you are born again you are forever a new creature.
Imagine God changing you from one creature to another, and then you never realizing what He did, and going back to try to live with and like the old creature you once were.

  • You do not fit in.
  • You try to, but you do not.
  • You are actually living by the concept you lived by before you were saved.
  • But you failed to realize you no longer are the same creature you once were.
  • You learned to live without God before you were saved.
  • And too many never realize they have to learn a whole new way of life after they are saved.
  • They do not know they have to find out what their potential is now.
  • What is inside them.
  • Who they are now.
  • Because they are unaware of the HUGE DIFFERENCE, and because they do not put some effort forth to learn and believe, they easily slip back into thinking the way they learned to think for their entire lives before salvation.

Imagine having access to God that others do not have, and all spiritual blessings in heavenly places that others don't have, and never realizing it!

  • What a tragedy!
  • Being complete in Jesus, needing nothing but to realize what you have, and never even becoming aware of it.
  • Thinking you're just the same as a person who was never changed into a new creature and given so much grace to be called a son of God.

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
(2Co 5:16-17)

To think of yourself the way you always did before salvation is to look at yourself IN THE FLESH.

  • That means you're not supposed to think of yourself as the creature you were when you were in Adam.
  • You must think of yourself as a new creature with entirely different potential now since you're in Christ.
  • And think of how that must now grow and develop to act a lot like Christ.
  • At first you will simply never act like Christ perfectly.

Too many think that only their deaths will see a great change come and they will get eternal life if they love holy enough until they die.

  • But the Bible teaches that a huge change occurs when you are saved.
  • It's not a life where you never sin.
  • But it's a NEW CREATUREHOOD.
  • You've been changed into an entirely new creature.
  • And you're an infant new creature.

Something awakened in you called your human spirit.

  • And you need to learn what the Apostles taught concerning how to feed that little child and understand all your potential and how to reach that potential.
  • When God's Spirit is in you, you have what it takes to ask God to live through you, so you can live spiritually, which sinners simply cannot do.

Here is a HUGELY misunderstood scripture:

 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
(Jer 17:9)

Christians think this is still true of them.

 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
(Eze 36:26-27)

Is the new heart God gives to us desperately wicked?

NO!

We are changed!

 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
(Gal 2:20)

Paul meant that his old existence died, and a new Paul is alive.. Which is actually an existence totally dependent upon Jesus living in Him.

If you do not learn this, you cannot grow.

You may think you feel the same.

  • But that is because all your memories are still there from your old way of thinking.
  • You have to change your entire concept of yourself now.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
(Rom 12:2)

How can you change your thinking?

  • Learn about who you are from the preaching and Bible reading!
  • Otherwise you will conform to something that has nothing more to do with you.
  • Conforming to something is trying to act like it, when in reality it's not you.

Stop working FOR salvation, by trying harder and harder.

  • Work OUT your salvation that is already inside you.
  • You just need to discover what is in you.
  • And start acting upon it.
  • Living like it.

Paul speaks about who we are in Ephesians 1 and 2.
Then in 4:

 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
(Eph 4:1)

JUST LIVE LIKE IT NOW.