I invite you to turn with me in the Word of God to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, and we'll pick up with verse 12. And I'm going to read through verse 18. Philippians 2, verses 12-18. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work, for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoiced with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me." Let's pray. Father, once again, we come to your Word together. We know the privilege that it is to not only have your Word, but to be able to read your Word, to study your Word. We thank you that you have given us a shining Word in the midst of darkness, that You have given us hope among the hopeless. We thank You that You have given us Your Son. You so love the world, You gave Him that all who believe would not perish but have everlasting life. And so we pray as we go into this passage together this morning, that Your Spirit would show us new and wonderful things in Your Word, conform us more into the image of Christ, that we may look more like our Savior. All this we ask in His precious name. Amen. So I read verses 12 to 8. If you look on your bulletin, you'll know we will not get all the way through that. We'll get verses 12 and 13 this morning, but I wanted to introduce this entire passage together as a unit so that you can kind of see where we're going to be going over the next few weeks. Holiness is a word that's used a lot in scripture. Sanctified, sanctification, holiness, holy. It's a word that's used a lot in scripture and it can mean different things depending on the context in which the word is used. One way that we talk about holiness or that Scripture talks about holiness is to denote that by grace through faith, believers are made holy in Christ. Not because of our own holiness or our own righteousness, but because of Christ's holiness and Christ's righteousness. We are set apart unto God on the basis of what Christ has done for us in His holiness and His righteousness, and not our own. So for example, we read in Ephesians 1, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. On the basis of what Christ has done, He has chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy, set apart, and blameless, righteous, perfect. In that wonderful passage later in Ephesians when Paul is talking to husbands and wives, he says, "'Husbands, love your wives,' this is chapter 5, "'as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word.'" It's the same thing. Cleanse, sanctify, made them holy, made the church holy. Jesus Himself prayed in John 17, 17, "'Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. Father, You do this for them. Set them apart. Make them holy. Sanctify them.'" Hebrews 13, 12. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. That's one way that holiness is talked about. It is talking about our eternal position before God as having been declared to be holy. Having been declared to be righteous. That's what it means to be justified. It doesn't mean that we are holy. It doesn't mean that we are righteous. It means that He has declared us to be this on the basis of what Christ has done for us. And it works out through faith. But there's another dimension of holiness, another way that it's spoken of in the New Testament. And it has to do with our practical holiness. Theologians call it, you know, positional and practical. Our practical holiness. It has to do with the holiness that we do live out in this life, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The holiness that we live out as we mortify our flesh, as we mortify our sin, and as we pursue good works and God-glorifying works. This is also holiness. And so Romans 12.1 says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Or Peter says in 1 Peter, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And then in 2 Peter, he's talking about the day of the Lord will come. So, be holy as you wait for it, he says in chapter 3, verse 11. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, talking about the day of the Lord coming and everything dissolving, what sort of people ought you to be in lies of holiness and godliness? In 1 Thessalonians, Paul mentions it as well. Finally then, brothers, we urge and ask you in the Lord Jesus, that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more, for you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus Christ, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who don't know God. that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things. And as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you, for God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you. We are called to holiness. So there's two sides to holiness, and it depends on where you're at in Scripture, on what it's talking about. Our secure, eternal, perfect holiness on the basis of Christ's holiness, or our practical, daily, lived-out holiness. It is the practical holiness that Paul has in view here in his letter to the Philippians. The people of God are to be a people who pursue holiness, who pursue righteousness in our daily living, who pursue what would please God and not what would displease Him. That is what the people of God are to do. And that's exactly what Paul talks about in this passage. This section concerning holiness runs from verse 12 all the way through what I read, verse 18. And as I said, there are some tremendous truths here, and I don't want to miss any of it. And so we're going to take a few weeks to get through these verses together. So the entire section, the way I sort of outlined it in my own mind, this is the entire section. You know, we've had a series at the beginning of Philippians on reasons for joy, and then we had a series on detriments to joy. Now we're talking about a life worthy of the Gospel, and within that is the pursuit of holiness by the believer. So here's how I... Outline verses 12 and 18. Verse 12 and 13 give us the fuel of holiness. 14 and 15 give us the fruit of holiness. And 16 through 18, the foundation of holiness. The fuel, the fruit, and the foundation of holiness. This morning we will tackle the fuel of holiness in verses 12 and 13. So verse 12 starts with that therefore. Therefore, my beloved, So what did we speak of last week? We spoke of the glories of Christ. The glory of Christ and His condescension into the created realm that He might be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We spoke of His eternal deity, His eternal divinity. He was God. although He did not consider it a thing to be grasped, but made Himself of no reputation. But even as He walked in the flesh, He is God now in His resurrected flesh, and He always will be God. For Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the point of all of that last week is that Paul is giving them an example to imitate. Imitate the humble attitude of Christ. Imitate the mind of Christ. The lowly mind of Christ. The humble mind of Christ. The servanthood mind of Christ. That was the point that he draws out in giving them all of these wonderful glories about the mind of Christ. And he concluded that great section by discussing the ultimate and final exaltation of Christ. He has been highly exalted and been given a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that He is Lord. That's His final exaltation. The complete and total surrender of everything and everyone under the feet of Christ, and under the headship of Christ, and under the Lordship of Christ, the complete and total subjection of all things and all of creation under His Lordship, His reign, His throne, and His Kingdom. His enemies will be His footstool, and His people shall reign with Him. And so on the basis of all of that about Christ, because He is Lord and will always be Lord of all, therefore, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That's the command that He gives, work out your own salvation. The idea of the tense of the verb to work out means to continue working out your salvation to completion. To make it complete, to make it full, to make it right. Now of course we understand that Paul does not mean here that they can do good works and through those good works be justified before God. This turn of phrase does not mean he is saying you work your own salvation in order to have a right standing before God. Likewise, we know that He is not calling them to pursue holiness in order to keep themselves saved in the flesh. That was the Galatian heresy. You who began by the Spirit, now being perfected in the flesh. So we know it's neither one of those. Instead, what He's doing is calling them to pursue holiness, not in order to be saved, but because they are saved. And He's calling them not to pursue holiness, not to remain saved, but because God the Father will keep them with Him as they pursue holiness. God has already saved them. He's already ripped out the heart of stone according to the New Covenant promise, and given them a heart of flesh. And with it has come new desires, new yearnings, new longings, new wants, new desires of the heart. then God will keep them for no one will snatch them out of His hands. And so, on the basis of that great reality of our salvation, on the basis of their already obtained salvation, we'll work out that salvation. Meaning, the salvation that you have, bear fruit in it. The salvation that you possess, bear fruit in it. Good works and good fruit, are in whatever measure they may be found in the life of a believer, they are the necessary consequence of true salvation. Good works, good fruit, bearing forth good fruit. When a tree, just to go to John 15 right, we are connected to the true vine as branches. When a tree is connected to good root and good soil, with good water and good fuel, it bears fruit naturally as a consequence of that connection. Good works and good fruit are the necessary consequence of salvation. That's the point of the Christian walk that we are all in now. There are three dimensions or three aspects of the Christian life. They have to do with the past, the present, and the future. The past and the Christian life is our justification. It is a one-time event that happens in the past. It happens at the point of conversion. You don't have to be justified every day. We are justified once, through faith, solely on the basis of what Christ has done for us. We are justified. The future is our glorification that we wait for, which will happen either when we die, or Christ returns, and we will be glorified. When we see Him, we will be like Him, for we will see Him like He is. This perishable body will put on imperishable. our glorification. And between those two time frames is the time of our sanctification, our continued growth in godliness, our continued growth in Christ-likeness. That's why I say that good fruit is, in whatever measure, the necessary consequence of salvation. I think we can all agree that someone who has been a Christian for a day, at least for many external appearances, will bear different looking Maybe even not as much fruit as someone who has been a Christian for 30 years. Because we constantly grow in Christ-likeness. We constantly bear new fruit and good fruit. That's what Jesus says in John 15. The fruit-bearing branches, the Father does what? Prunes. That they may bear more fruit. The implication is, we aren't bearing as much fruit today as we are capable of. But He will prune us. He will trim us in whatever way He deems necessary, under His discipline, in order that we would bear more fruit tomorrow, and the next day, and the next year. So baby Christians might, from all outward appearances, not look very much like Christians in a lot of ways. And that's what the church is for too, what we are for for each other, to help each other grow into Christ's likeness. we are in sanctification. And that is what Paul has in view here, that point of time between justification at conversion and glorification at the final consummation. John the Baptist saw this. when He met the Pharisees and the Sadducees when they came to His baptism. Remember what He said to them in Matthew 3? You brood of vipers, who warns you to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. John the Baptist saw it. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Jesus talked about it. No tree bears bad fruit. Luke 6. Nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, and grapes are not picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil. Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." That's the point. You've got a new heart, you will produce good fruit. We're all familiar with The words of James in chapter 2 verse 17, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Faith without works is dead. That's the same thing that Paul is bringing to mind here. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. To the Colossians he said, put to death all that is earthly in you. To the Romans in chapter 8 he said, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Sanctification. So we have these four fuels that I see in verses 12 and 13. Four fuels for holiness. Three of them have to do with the human side of our pursuit of holiness, and one has to do with the divine side of our pursuit of holiness. So four of them total. The first one is where He calls them, My beloved, therefore My Beloved. It's a term of endearment that Paul uses for the people of the churches under his care. They are so beloved by him, and they are special, and they are near, and they are dear to his heart. He calls the Corinthians in chapter 4, verse 14, the first Corinthians, and then later in chapter 7, verse 1, the second Corinthians, and over and over in some other places in his letters to them, he calls them his beloved. Even the Philippians, as you go back to the beginning, you can tell His love for the Philippians. I thank my God, verse 3, in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel for the first day until now. Over and over again in these letters, you could tell his concern for the churches and his love for the churches. Even the Galatians, to whom he has many harsh words to say, because they have allowed the Galatian heresy to come, what we would call the Galatian heresy, into their church, this heresy of works righteousness. Judaism is infecting the church. He writes out of concern and love, even as He speaks harshly to them. 1 Thessalonians 2a, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you, not only the Gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. That's the same word, very dear, beloved. You had become loved, beloved to us. We are beloved. Not only by Paul, but we are loved by God Himself through Christ and in Christ. Paul reminds the Romans that God showed His love for us. How? And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. John talks about the love of God. And this is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave Himself up for us. In this, the love of God was made manifest. That God's sin is only sent into the world to be the propitiation for sins, also in 1 John. So love becomes the first fuel on the human side for our working out of our own salvation. The fuel for our pursuit of holiness. The love of God. thinking on, meditating on, realizing the depth of His love for us, fuels us as we pursue what would make this Father who loves us, pleased with us. Just to use an earthly illustration, you know, when I was a kid, there was... Look, there's more than love, the love of God that fuels our holiness. But in this passage, He's using love. There's also the knowledge of consequences, the fear of consequences, the knowledge of what sin can do in our lives, all of those things fuel our holiness. But here he's talking about love, and in much the same way, just to use an earthly example, you know, when I was a kid, one of the ways that you're motivated to obey is by your parents' love, more so than their anger, many times. Many times when I was growing up, did I think about doing this or doing that, and instead I didn't because I knew that it would displease my parents. Simply because I knew it would displease them. Not because I thought they would find out and give me a whooping, but because I knew that it would displease them. Because they loved me and I loved them, and I wanted to do what would please them in their sight. It's much the same way as we think about the love of God for us. What would please God? Live your life worthy of the Gospel, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, like He says to the Colossians. What pleases Him? So the first fuel that Paul draws out for us is love. His love for them and God's love for them as well. Secondly, He recalls their past. Their past becomes a fuel for obedience. Their past obedience becomes fuel for present obedience. As you have always obeyed, so now, not only is in my presence, but much more in my absence. He's reminding them that they have pursued holiness before. They have up until this day, back when He had founded the church, you remember in Acts that we looked at when we first began walking through this letter together. He had founded the church, and He had seen the church grow in holiness and grow in godliness as He ministered to them before He moved on. And he's heard reports about this church. And he knows about this church. We know, for example, in the verses ahead, that Epaphroditus was sent to him with a message and with a gift from the Philippian church that he could have in his imprisonment that would help him and minister to him. So he knows about this church. He knows about their pursuit of holiness. And he recalls that. He's seen it himself. He's heard about their pursuit. And he knows that they've made progress. And how helpful is it? It's helpful, isn't it, sometimes to gaze at the evidence, to look upon the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in our own life, and rest in the knowledge that God is working in us. How many times do we get down and discouraged? downtrodden over our own sin. We see something new, we maybe do something that we continue to struggle with and just can't quite get rid of. And how helpful is it to remember that God is working in us. As imperfect as we are, God is still working in us. And it motivates us to continue on. If all we ever had to dwell on was our sin, we would all lose heart very quickly. I just read 1 Thessalonians 4.1, you remember what it said? Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. You are doing it! And now we're urging you to do it more and more. Continue to grow, continue to work, continue to bear fruit. Later on in verse 9, 1 Thessalonians 4, he says, concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you. For you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia, but we urge you, brothers, Do this more and more. You are doing it. You have been doing it to the point that everyone in Macedonia knows about your love for each other and your love for the churches. But, we urge you to do it more and more. Don't stop. Don't rest on your laurels. Don't get content and complacent. Don't simply look at God's work in your life and say, well, it's there, so I'm good, and I can just kind of sit back and coast through the rest of life. No. Continue to do it more and more. You remember in Hebrews 10, recall the former days. And after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering. Over and over we're told to recall, to remember who we are in Christ. and part of remembering and seeing who we are in Christ is to simply look and see what He's done for us in our lives. Answers to prayers that we have prayed. Count your blessings, right? We sing that song. Name them and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. So He recalls their past obedience as present motivation for continued obedience. Their past obedience becomes fuel for present and future obedience. Thirdly, He draws out the solemnity of the pursuit of holiness. The solemnity. It's a solemn pursuit. Work out your salvation how? With fear and trembling. It's a solemn thing to pursue holiness. It is a weighty thing to pursue our holiness with fear, fright, terror. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it is a ghost. And they cried out in fear. Same word. Awe came upon every soul in Acts chapter 2 verse 43. Many signs and wonders were being done through the disciples. Awe, fear, reverence. when Ananias and Sapphira lied about the amount of money that they had gained from the land that they sold. And it tells us there in Acts chapter 5 that after they dropped in the middle of church and were killed by the Spirit, that great fear came upon all who heard. Fear, terror, fright. And speaking of the unrighteous, Paul says in Romans 3.18, there is no fear of God before their eyes, and quoting the Psalms. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Trembling there comes from a Greek word from which we get tremor. It means to shake, to quake. It is a body's reaction to true fear. It is the body's reaction to true fear, to true awe, to true wonder, to tremble and to shake. It's used four times together with fear. Mark 16, verse 8, They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. 1 Corinthians 2.3, "...and as I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling." 2 Corinthians 7.15, "...his affection for you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you all. Have you received him with fear and trembling?" Ephesians 6.5, "...bond servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would Christ." Why does Paul bring such solemnity to bear upon this call to work? without our own salvation. And the reason why is because of the seriousness of sin. Sin is no trifling matter. Sin is of no small consequence in the life of a believer. Sin is not to be toyed with. It's not to be meddled with. It's not to be coddled. It's not to be patted on the back. Sin is a serious issue, and the believer must hate, with everything that is in him, his own sin. That's why Paul uses such militant language all throughout his letters to describe our fight against sin. Put it to death, he says to the Colossians. Mortify it. Put to death what is earthly in you. If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, Romans 8. Over and over again, the concept and the word picture that Paul draws is that we are not simply shadowboxing with our sin. We are waging war against our sin. We are fighting tooth and nail with every weapon at our disposal against our own sinfulness. And this is a solemn war because sin is a serious thing and it comes with serious consequences, both earthly and eternal. For we know that the wages of sin is death. And for all who are outside of Christ, eternal death and separation from the love of God forever in the lake of fire. This is a solemn thing. It is no trifling matter. And we as believers who have been given a new heart should despise and hate every ounce of sin that we see in ourselves and seek to mortify it. So He's fueling them with the love of God. He's fueling them with a reminder of their past obedience in order to become the fuel for present obedience. And He's fueling them with the solemnity of the pursuit itself because of the seriousness of sin. These motivate us in our bodies, in our flesh to pursue holiness. You know, the pursuit of holiness is not a passive thing. for us. We are the ones raging war. One popular slogan in Christian circles, you see it on coffee mugs and on church signs, is let go and let God. This is not a biblical viewpoint of the Christian life. I've seen some people who and read some people who take that so to heart and they're so concerned with doing something in the flesh rather than in the spirit that they'd rather just not do anything. Just let go and let God. We work. We strive. We fight. We pursue. We mortify. We put to death. We do this. our own strength, with a caveat we're going to get to in a moment. But we do this in our own bodies, in our own minds, in our own flesh. We are the ones who work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. But, there's one other fuel. That's all the human side. There's one other fuel and it's the divine side of our sanctification. It's found in verse 13. For, it is God who works in you, both to will and to work. for His good pleasure." That's the divine side. You have the human side in verse 12, and you have the God side in verse 13. 4 tells us that whatever He's about to say is a grounding for the working out that He just commanded in verse 12. It's God who works in you. The let go and let God mentality so emphasizes God's work that it removes any stress or any emphasis on our own part, in our own effort in sanctification. But likewise, the pious, self-righteous religious person will so focus on his own effort, or so focus on his own strength, that he completely neglects the role of God in our sanctification. Both are imbalances on opposite ends of the spectrum. Paul makes it clear, you work out your own salvation, for God works in you. Work is inner ghetto. You get the word energy from it. Literally, it's energized. God is the One who energizes you as you work. He is energizing you in your spirit and in your body and in your soul for the pursuit of good works. And this presence and power of the Spirit of God is absolutely essential for true godliness and true holiness in the Christian life. So the source of our working is God Himself, as He works in us through the power of the Spirit. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 10, By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the Spirit of God, or the grace of God that is with me. Ephesians 3, 7 of this Gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which is given to me by the working of His power. I'm a minister, Paul says, and I'm preaching, and I'm the one working, and I'm the one traveling, and I'm the one evangelizing, and I'm the one planning. But this is the gift of God given to me by the working of His Spirit. Remember Acts 1.8, the great promise, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the world. For this I totally told the Colossians, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works in me. Paul didn't get it. And when Paul writes and when God inspires Paul to write through the power of the Spirit, it doesn't really bother Paul that it seems to be this paradox of the Christian life. It's me working, but it's not me working. And he's fine with that. I worked harder than any of them, but it wasn't me, it was God. Whatever. He just leaves it. That's the kind of ways you know that the Scriptures are inspired by God. Because that's the kind of stuff that editors would fix. when it goes to the cutting room floor. You can't have this kind of stuff in here, it doesn't make any sense. But somehow it all works together, the Spirit of God working in the hearts of people, that as you work, you don't get credit. I heard it said that way one time. When you do something good and pleasing to God, you don't get the credit, He does. You don't get the glory, He does. And when you do something wrong that displeases Him, you get all the blame. You do something right, it's all God, and when you do something wrong, it's all Scott. It's just the way the Christian life is. What does God do in us as He works? He works in us that we would will and work for His good pleasure. Both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Will, to will something is to decide, to intend, to make an informed decision. So first He works that our will would be changed and conformed into desiring what His will is for us. He conforms our will first so that we hate unholiness and unrighteousness. That's one side. He conforms our will so that in our minds, in our hearts, with what we know, with what we think, with what we feel, we hate unrighteousness and unholiness and ungodliness. That's the, for lack of a better term, the negative side of our conformity into Christ. We hate all that is not like Christ. The positive side, He conforms our will that we love, desire, yearn for, and pursue holiness and righteousness, uprightness. We hate what would displease our Father and we love what would please Him. Our will is so conformed that with our minds and with our wills, we flee the fruits of unrighteousness and we pursue the fruits of righteousness. He motivates our will. This is why He connects it to work. He motivates our will so that we would work. When you want to do something, you do it, right? Last night I wanted to watch a movie on Netflix. So I sat down and I watched a movie on Netflix. It changes your want-tos. so that you will pursue righteousness. Holy wills produce holy works. Here's a quote from a MacArthur commentary. Just as believers are not saved by good works, but holy by God's grace working through their faith, so also are they sanctified by His grace working through their obedience. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. Those whom He predestined, He called. Those whom He called, He justified. Those whom He justified, He glorified. We've been predestined to be conformed into the image of His Son, and He will, Philippians 1-6, bring that good work to completion. So I'd ask you, does the love of God motivate you to love and good works? Does the love of God motivate you to love and to good works? Do you see His current work in you? And does that motivate you to continue to grow and strive for holiness? For God works in you, and you can see it. You are being conformed into the image of His Son. So don't lose heart. Repent when you see sin. Don't lose heart. when you see your sin, repent of it, and strive for holiness. Do you understand the depth of the solemnity of sin in your own life? Is it a big deal to you? Because it is to your heavenly Father, such a big deal is it that the very blood of the divine Son of God had to be spilled that you would be covered. Remember just how solemn the charges are in Scripture to put to death the sin that is within you. Do you understand that any of the above that you see and that you pursue, you do that only because of the power of God working within you. Don't become hard-hearted, and don't become self-righteous in your walk. Don't be like the Pharisee who forgot that God alone saves us, and God alone is saving us, and God alone will save us. Don't become like the Galatians who forgot that God alone sanctifies us through the Spirit. Depend on Him with childlike faith. And work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Let's pray. So Father, as we've seen here, we've seen over and over again in Your Word, we pray for the presence of Your Spirit in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives. We pray that Your Spirit would reveal sin to us, that we might know where we fall short and fail, that we might know where we need to mortify parts of our flesh, parts of our lives. As painful as this may be, we ask that you would continue to prune the branches that we might be healthier and bear more fruit. Father, we pray that You would show us righteousness, show us holiness. Help us to go to Your Word, to know what it is to be righteous and holy, that we may pursue it in the power of the Spirit. In all this we ask, in the name of Christ, Amen.