Philippians (Program #12) – Working Out Our Salvation

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”  This is the apostle Paul’s word to us in Philippians 2:12. It seems to be nearly a contradiction to the verses in Ephesians chapter 2 which tells us that salvation is the gift of God and not of works. Well, we will try to unravel the seeming paradox of today’s life study of the Bible. We are going to look at both aspects, both sides of God’s salvation today.

Let’s take a look back for a moment before we get into this topic specifically, yesterday we saw the verses 2:5 -11 Christ in our salvation is really our pattern and today we have the working out of this full salvation. What is the connection that we are going to see?

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1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #5) – Being Fundamental in the Full and Walking According to the All-Inclusive Spirit

The children of Israel were already in degradation when ten of the twelve tribes separated following the leadership of Jeroboam.  This act of division was further compounded when they established an alternate place of worship, far from Jerusalem in the northern region of Dan.  The result was two kingdoms under two kings, fully breaking the principle of oneness that the Lord has established for them in Deuteronomy 12 when He declared time after time that His choice was Jerusalem and all the children of Israel must come uniquely to Jerusalem to present their offerings and worship Jehovah.  But two of the tribes under the kingship of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son remained faithful to God’s command and kept Jerusalem and the temple as their center.  Thou this pleased Jehovah and preserved a measure of blessing upon them, still the Lord was strict and willing to discipline both the kings and the people whenever their hearts strayed from Him and the law of Moses that He had commanded them to keep.

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Philippians (Program #11) – The Exaltation of Christ

Philippians chapter 2 deals with the exaltation of Christ and Paul about that very topic has this to say in verses 9 through 11. “God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”  That’s the inspirational portion in the New Testament.

A striking feature of our program today that the exaltation of Christ rather than something apart from us and far away from us that took place or will take place in the heavens, not so.  Actually there is the participation in an experiential aspect of that we are very much privilege to have a portion in and that’s our treat today.

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1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #4) – Learning from the Examples of the Kings of Judah to Have a God-Man Living in Our Daily Life

Not long after the death of King Solomon, David’s son, the nation of Israel separated and became two kingdoms.  Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king in Jerusalem and ruled on the throne.  But another one Jeroboam departed from Jerusalem and led ten of the twelve tribes away establishing the northern kingdom called Israel with a different center of worship in Dan far in the north.  In the book of Deuteronomy, Jehovah made it clear that He had chosen only one place on this entire earth to be the center for His worship.  To break this God ordained principle is an abomination in the eyes of Jehovah.  Listen to His word in Deuteronomy in 12 “but you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God shall choose from all your tribes to establish His name there for His dwelling and there you shall come.  You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.  Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offering in every place you see, but in the place which the Lord chose.”

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Philippians (Program #10) – Taking Christ as Our Pattern

The apostle Paul said for us to be an imitators of Christ in Philippians 2: 5-9 gives us a pattern to imitate. But how so we, fallen human beings, imitate the pattern of such an excellent Christ?

In the matter of taking Christ as our pattern, Philippians 2:5-9 says “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God a treasure to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men, and being found in the fashion as a man, He humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.”

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1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #3) – The Highest Point of God’s Gospel

It is clear from the first two chapters of the Bible that the center and focus of God’s creative work was man.  Genesis 1:26 “and God said let us make man in our image after our likeness.”  In Zechariah God focus is even more graphic, in chapter 12 verse 1 it says “the burden of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel thus said Jehovah who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth forms the spirit of man within him.”  God’s goal was with man.  His eternal purpose was with man.  But Old Testament declaration like these refer to man’s status before he fell.  So the question for us today is “did the focus, the center and the plan of God changed with the fall of man or is the original purpose still intact?”  The New Testament answer this question with crystal clarity.  Ephesians 1:9 “making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself unto the economy of the fullness of the times to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth in Him.”

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Philippians (Program #9) – The Believers’ Support to the Apostle

The book of Philippians is concern with the experience and the enjoyment of Christ and this issue in our joy and rejoicing yet among the Philippians believers there were much dissension in their thinking.  Dissension which troubled the apostle Paul, he even asked them to think the same thing, even think the same one thing that in this way they may make his joy full.  Paul had given them such positive fellowship in the first chapter now he desires them to return this fellowship to support him in his imprisonment. This mutual fellowship in the Body of Christ is what we are looking at in today’s life study of the Bible in the book of Philippians.

The apostle is not nearly as bothered as it seems by his imprisonment in this Roman jail as it was by the fact the Philippians believers were not of the same mind, were not thinking the same thing. more…

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1 & 2 Chronicles (Program #2) – The Reproduction of God

The books of 1 & 2 Chronicles are unique among the books of history in the Old Testament in that they traced the history of God’s move in man, all the way back to Adam.  We know the story, “in the beginning God created the universe”.  But one in that universe rebelled against God, corrupting and ruining His entire creation thereby.  So God came in and restored the spoiled situation and in the process, created man in His image and with His likeness.  This makes man unique in all of God’s creation.  For man’s destiny as revealed in God’s word is that “he is of God’s kind” with the capacity to contain God’s life and nature, making him not just a good man but making him through God’s full salvation, a duplication of Christ, the first God-man.

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Philippians (Program #8) – Standing Firm in One Spirit Striving Together with One Soul

In Philippians 1:27 the apostle Paul says, “that you stand firm in one spirit with one soul striving together along with the faith of the gospel.”  We need to not only stand firm in one spirit for the experience of Christ but also to strive together with one soul in the faith of the gospel. To be with one soul for the gospel work is more difficult then to be in one spirit for the experience of Christ. This unique use of term would be our focus today on the life study of the Bible from the book of Philippians.

Concerning our standing it says we need to be firm in one spirit and then concerning our striving together we need to be with one soul. So this verse shows us an exercise of both the spirit and the soul. Many believers, many Christians may not realize or perceive the critical difference between these two portions or aspects of our being, the spirit and the soul. So, to clarify, to reveal this very basic and important understanding.

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1 & 2 Kings (Program #20) – Concluding Word of the History of the Kings among Israel

During the 400-year period when the kings rule in Israel, God witnessed the hearts of His people drifting farther and farther away.  Except for a very few exceptions this degradation was actually led by the kings themselves.  Idolatry, immorality and general hardness of their hearts were the things that characterize this dark dark period in the history of God’s people.  But actually there is much that we can learn even from the failures of those kings.  Because as we have seen so often in this life study, the Old Testament is a book of types of typology and the New Testament is the fulfillment of those types.  We will explore the New Testament fulfillment of the type shown to us by the kings in this final program in the life study of Kings

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