Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. How grateful I am to Kerwin Baptist Church. to the pastor, his family, the staff, and everyone, all of you that make this meeting possible.
For those that are working with the children, those in the nursery, the sound. the musicians, the vocalists, those on the video cameras, those men that are watching the parking lot and working on the security, people that are cleaning up after we're here. We ought to truly be grateful. Gratitude is the vaccine for entitlement. Gratitude is the vaccine for indi entitlement and if you're gonna get vaccinated against all these other deadly diseases you better take a vaccine about the entitlement.
Because we Christians are some of the most entitled people. And it's only when we intentionally say thank you that we remind ourselves that nobody owes us anything. And I certainly appreciate what has been done this week. Thank you for your kindness to my wife. uh this morning and I drove up a little ways and my son come down from home and he drove further than I did.
I drove up a little bit less and she headed back home and in her vehicle, he brought mine, but she had just a wonderful time and it is a blessing to go places where my wife feels right at home and I really do appreciate that. That doesn't happen every place. And I think I can tolerate sometimes a little bit more than she does. And sometimes the people of God have a way of being ignorant like they know what they're doing. And so I appreciate the kindness of God's people and your hospitality and your love.
And it truly is a blessing. We need revival. Amen. I said we need revival, and I pray that God gives it to us tonight. Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Philippians chapter 2.
Would you go there with me in the Word of God? How many of you are thankful that you know that you hold in your hands the Word of God? I said to know it. Amen. We better know it.
If we're in here just spewing opinions and spitting out our pet peeves and telling you what I think about this and how I feel about that, we're in trouble. Thank God that the authority for the preacher is not in his title or his training. Amen. It is in his text. Thank God for the truth of the Word of God.
and I'm thankful for it. Philippians chapter 2, would you go there with me and let's take a little time? to dissect this passage of scripture standing together, please. Philippians chapter number two. Verse 12 reads, 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, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless, harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. That I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Yea. And if I be offered upon the sacrifice in service of your faith, I joy.
and rejoice with you all for the same cause also. Do ye joy and Rejoice with me. Let the church say amen. Father, in the name of Jesus, would you bind the forces of Satan? Put a hedge of protection about this place.
That the devil would not hinder the work of the Holy Ghost of God. Cleanse me now of sin, empty me yourself, and fill me with your spirit. Help me to preach with thus, saith the Lord. and do a work with your word that nothing else could do. Watch over my precious wife tonight.
And watch over my family. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you for standing.
It's been the habit. at Crossroads Baptist Church. to preach through books of the Bible. I'm I'm I'm I am so thankful for the Bible. I'm thankful for a dad and a mom.
that put a premium on the word of God. I watched my dad live. the Christian life. I heard him preach. the word of God.
I watched my mom. battle cancer. Twice as I was a kid, I was older, she got it again just a couple years ago. She just beat cancer for the fourth time. Can I get an amen there?
Really, God did it and gave her that experience. And we give, amen, we give God the glory for that. What a blessing. But nothing that they gave me could be more important than. The priority of the Word of God.
To teach me to love this book, to read it, to memorize it, to meditate on it, to. To study it, to apply its words to my life. I'm thankful for the Bible.
So as a pastor these 15 years, I've endeavored to preach through books of the Bible, verse by verse, as God has given them. Because it's important, I tell the people of God at Crossroads Baptist Church: you can't live the Bible if you haven't learned it. You can't obey something that you don't understand. And far too often the Bible is taught and preached. but not in a way where people can understand it.
It is possible to know material and not be a good teacher. I had two teachers particularly that are coming to my mind in high school. One was a science teacher, one was a math teacher. The math teacher is in heaven now, science teacher is still alive. There was never a question in my mind whether or not she knew science.
Or whether or not she knew math. The problem was, after several years in their class, I still didn't know science or math. They would stand up each day. They would write things on the board. They would turn around and explain them.
And I had no clue what they were saying. They knew their material, but taking the material and delivering it to me where I could understand it was something they struggled with doing. I have sat in services where I was fully convinced that the man preaching knew the Bible. I knew he was trained. He seemed like he made good grades in school.
He sounded smart. He convinced me he was intelligent. I figured he understood what he was saying. But it is ineffective for me to take the Bible and have you leave here impressed with my Bible knowledge and not knowing what I preach.
So we've endeavored to preach through books of the Bible. I used to hear my dad say Philippians is my favorite book of the Bible. I didn't quite understand it until I preached through it verse by verse several years ago at our church. I don't know if it's my favorite book, but it's up there. I love this book in the Bible.
Perhaps I love it because it is centered on the subject of joy. On the count of three, let's all say joy together. One, two, three, a little bit more. One, two, three. Take it up on the last time.
One, two, three, joy. It's important to understand there's a difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is based on happiness. And if your happenings are not in your favor, your happiness is gone. If you like it happy, you ain't happy in the wintertime.
You like it happy when it's warm. If you're happy when it's warm, you're not happy in the wintertime. If you're happy when the sun is shining, you're unhappy when the rain comes. If you're happy when you got money, you're unhappy when you're broke. If you're happy when you feel well, you're unhappy when you got sick.
If you're happy when you got friends, you're unhappy when you're lonely. If you're happy when your candidate wins, you're unhappy when your candidate loses. Happiness comes and goes, and it is contingent upon your circumstances. But joy is not like happiness. Happiness is based on happenings.
Joy is based on Jesus.
Somebody say amen. And I'm glad I can lose my job and still have Jesus. I can lose my money and still have Jesus. Friends can walk away and I still have Jesus. It can rain outside.
I can still have Jesus. I can go through health difficulties and I still have Jesus. There's an old gospel song we sing in the black church. It goes like this. I've been lied on, cheated, talked about, mistreated.
I've been buked at scorn, run down, sure as you're born. I've been up, down, and almost to the ground. But as long as I got King Jesus, I don't need nobody else. Listen to me. That's where joy comes from.
It comes from Jesus and your relationship with him. No wonder Paul. Paul could write about joy from jail and still have it. It's got to be in Jesus.
So, in chapter number one, from a prison cell, he's writing about the subject of joy, emphasizing that joy comes from a single mind. Christian, you can't be all over the place hung up on this, that, and the other. You've got to be single-minded in your focus. And that single-mindedness comes from a focus on the gospel. Aren't you glad there'll never be a day when the gospel doesn't work?
Listen to me, you'll never give the gospel to the wrong person.
So Paul says, I have joy because of a single mind. He gets to chapter number two: I have joy because of a selfless mind. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also in the things of others. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem other better than himself.
You want to lose your joy? Be selfish. You want to keep your joy, be selfless. Don't we live in a selfish world, hung up on ourselves, thinking about us? Do you sell you focus on you?
You only live once. Paul said, No, no, no, no. The joy comes to the person who's not focused on himself. He's focused on other people. Joy comes from a single mind.
Joy comes from a selfless mind. He moves on in chapter number two to tell us that joy comes from a submissive mind, submissive mind. You know, we like to be in charge, don't we? We don't like to be told what to do. We don't like to be bossed around.
And yet, Paul says the submissive mind who willingly places himself under the right authority will experience joy. And then he goes on to highlight the greatest example of submission that resulted in joy, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. In other words, he wasn't less than the Father, He wasn't less than the Spirit. He wasn't somewhat God, almost God, halfway God, not God when He came to earth. Earth.
He was God in the beginning.
Somebody help me preach. He was God when he came to earth. He is God right now. He will forever be God. Yes, he was the Son of God, but he was also God the Son.
Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, immutable, eternal, righteous, just, holy, altogether lovely. He is, he was, he always will be God. But God the Son submitted to God the Father. He didn't have to, he chose to. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death.
What was the result? Listen to me. The joy that was set before him. God have highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus demonstrated submission is the pathway, the joy.
The way up is always down. You don't get joy by putting yourself on the top. You get joy. By lowering yourself under authority, and God puts you on the top. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you in due time.
And it's as if Paul is saying: if God could say yes to God, if the Son could say yes to the Father, if God, who was co-equal with God the Father, could humble Himself under the authority of God the Father, if Jesus could leave heaven and come to earth and become like the rest of us so that He could save all of us, if God could submit to God, then what in the world is wrong with us? And is the submission of God that brought about the work of Calvary on the cross. When the son said yes to the father, That yes meant coming to earth and hanging and bleeding and suffer for the sins of mankind. Oh, if you're glad he died on the cross, would you say, Amen? He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.
Scarcely for a righteous man, some would die, yet peradventure for a good man.
Some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. He, speaking of the Father, made him speaking of the Son to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the world. Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound.
Aren't you glad that when there wasn't a rose red enough, there wasn't a lamb white enough, there wasn't a man good enough, that God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of some greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay. Down his life for his friend. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not appear what we shall be, but we know when we see him, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Aren't you glad that the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shan pluck them out of my hand. Not by works of righteousness we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the whole.
For by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourselves, just 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 foreordained that we should walk in them. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that God loved us.
There's one God and one BDA between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things ever written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. I'm here to tell you, God's got a way that you can't go over.
God's got a way that you can't go under. God's got a way that you can't go around. He said you must come in at the door. And I'm glad my Jesus is the doorway of deliverance, the pathway of peace, the highway of holiness, the roadway of righteousness, the gateway of glory, the master of the mighty, the head of the heroes, the leader of legislators, the overseer of overcomers, the governor of governors, the prince of princes, the king of kings, and the Lord of Lords. I wish somebody on a Friday night with bombs going off in the Middle East and chaos right here in the United States of America would park and just pause for a night to say, I'm Thanking God that Jesus came and died for my sins.
Yeah, that's not the man. What, submission?
Now pauses. It's the work of Christ that secured our salvation. You don't go to heaven because you're baptized. You don't go to heaven because you join a new church. You don't go to heaven because you turn over a new leaf.
You don't go to heaven because you're born in a Christian home. You go to heaven because somebody who could do the work did the work in your behalf and satisfied the wrath of God. Paul says it's the work of Christ that secures our salvation. He arrives at verse number 12 and makes the statement, wherefore. Anytime you see where for in the Bible, find out what it's there for.
Having said what I said before. My beloved, as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, now much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation. How many of you believe that every word in the Bible is true? Would you say amen?
How many of you, knowing that every word in the Bible is true, have read words in the Bible that you know are true that don't seem to make sense? Here's one of those phrases in scripture that kind of makes you double take that That sounds a little bit contradictory to what our Sound doctrine. describes. Work out your own Salvation, for by grace are you saved through faith in and out of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing and regeneration and renewing of the holy.
I thought you just said we are saved by the work of Christ and not by the work of our own. And yet, Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, if it made its way in the canon of scripture, it stuck for good. Amen? Work out your own salvation. Years ago I was reading I was reading after John Phillips and I enjoyed it.
And he was describing in layman's terms Work out. He took the Greek word, kater gazomai. It's a longer word than I would ever like to write or spell or talk about. But he told us, workout in the Greek is a long word, kater gazomai. And then he explained it.
He said it means to work to the fullest. It means to achieve, it means to bring about, it means to produce to the fullest effect. And then he described it in layman's terms. He said like working out a math problem. Every one of us heard our math teachers make this statement.
Just because you get the right answer doesn't mean you get credit for it if you don't show your work. In other words, I don't just know you got the right answer, I wanna know how you got it.
So you've got to carry it and show me the work and take that one and carry that one and then add it up and show me the work. And you've got to work the question out all the way to completion. Cater gazoma. Work out. John Phillips said work out a field.
I mean, maybe there are some farmers in here, and you know what it is to seed it, and you know what it is to plow it, and you know what it is to harvest, and you've got to work the field out completely. The third example I was reading, John Phillips, that he gave. was work out a mind. M-I-N-E. A gold.
Mine. The description was that Some poor guy who can't afford to buy a mine. Runs into favor because a rich guy who can't afford to buy buys the mine and deeds it to the poor guy who couldn't have afforded to buy it himself. He not only buys the mine and deeds it to the guy who couldn't buy the mine, but he buys the mine and deeds it to the guy who couldn't buy the mine, and there's gold in the mine. And once he buys that mine and deeds it to the guy who couldn't afford it and gives him the mine.
He tells them there's gold in the mine, but just because there's gold in the mine doesn't mean the man... has the gold in his possession.
So that man is going to go to the mine that's been deeded to him by a rich man because he couldn't afford to buy the mine himself. But the rich man who could bought it and gave it to him, and there's gold inside the mine. But the fellow said, It ain't just enough to have gold in my mind, I want gold in my hand.
So he's going to take a you know what this is? Yeah, yeah. Talk to me. And he's going to take a Shelf.
So he's going to go to that mine. He's going to start digging. And when he starts digging, he's going to dig up some gold and he's going to put it in the bucket. By the way, you don't want to put the dirt in the bucket. That ain't going to do you no good.
Can I get some witnesses in here? You probably want to dump the dirt and keep the gold. Follow me now. You want to dump the. and keep the so he's gonna dig and he's gonna keep the and dump the so it's going to do that this direction keep digging up and keeping the And dumping the, when he gets to a spot in the mine where he digs and he doesn't find any gold, he marks off that spot because clearly there's no more gold beyond there.
He turns and does the same thing this direction, keeps digging as long as he's finding gold, gets to the spot this direction where he digs and there's no gold, he marks that off. There's no gold beyond there. Does it that way, does it that way?
Now he's marked off where the radius of gold is. Can I ask you a question? Don't you think it's pretty pointless to dig somewhere where there ain't no gold? I ain't digging for cardio, I'm digging for gold.
So I need to know where the gold is so I'm not wasting my time digging where it's not.
Somebody say amen. But I've also got to dig in order to get it. Watch this now because just because I'm rich on paper doesn't mean I'm rich in practice. Because I can't spend nothing I don't have in my hand. You can go to the grocery store and fill up.
Come on now. Fill up your buggy with all the groceries in there that you want. Come up to the cash register. Let that person ring up those groceries and say they've cost us $236.53. And then you can proceed to say, on some exotic island somewhere far from here, there is an account that says that I am uber rich, millions and millions of dollars.
Would you charge it to that account? There's plenty of money there. You know what she's going to say? Maybe that's true. Why don't you get on a plane, run to that exotic island, get that money from there, fly back here, and bring it to this register?
Because until you do, you ain't getting them groceries. You can't spend what you don't have. You know what? I believe that John Phillips was trying to establish. Every single one of us was born broke.
Come on now. We were in the debt of sin and could not pay it. We couldn't afford a mine and certainly couldn't buy gold. But a rich man named Jesus purchased that mine and deeded it to our account. But here's what he said: I purchased the mine, deeded it in your name.
I've got gold in there. The mind, but just because it's in your mind doesn't mean it's in your possession, and the only way you're going to get it is you've got to dig it up.
So, here's what he's saying: every member of Kerwin Baptist Church, every saved person sitting in the building tonight, if you're saved, you're rich on paper. Could I get an amen? I said you're rich on paper. Could I get an amen? And yet, there are Christian people who can't get victory over their thought life, they can't win in their marriage, there are young people that can't stay pure.
There are men that can't break their drinking, can't break their smoking. There are people that can't quit gossiping, they can't quit cussing, they can't dress right, they can't think right, they can't act right, yet on paper, they're rich. They have the fullness of God, they have the power of God, they have the grace of God, they have the spirit of God, they have the principles out of the word of God, and yet they're losing every day. How can somebody be rich but too broke to buy anything? I'll tell you why.
All the gold's in the mind, but it's never in the bucket. Jesus did enough to buy it, and give your mind full of gold. It's up to you to grab your bucket and your shovel and work out your own salvation. Yeah. This is what Paul is teaching.
You are as rich practically, spiritually, as you choose to be. Work out your Work out your it means you gotta dig for yourself Come on now. And sometimes you got to work it out in the rain.
Now listen, listen. You know what this message does? And in just a minute, I'm going to give you an outline fast, and we'll be done. You know what this message does? It eliminates all excuses for why we're not better Christians.
Well, well, my church, my preacher, my husband, my wife, my children, my government, what that got to do with your shovel and your bucket? Work out your own salvation. Work out your own salvation. I hope that we're going to lead this revival in a few moments and say, I'm going to grab my bucket. I'm going to grab my shovel.
And if nobody else does anything, it's my responsibility. By the way, when you got saved, you got your own mind. Come on now. When you got saved, you got your own gold. Come on now.
In it about time, if God gave you the gold when you couldn't have bought it, if God gave you the mind when you couldn't have afforded it, in it about time you grab your shovel and start digging. Listen, get the most out of your salvation. How do I do that? Number one, it takes a humble approach. A humble approach.
Notice what he says: as you've done in my absence, do it also in, as you've done in my presence, do it also in my absence. In other words, working out our own salvation requires a humble approach. That requires servants' faithfulness. In other words, we got to dig even when the people that intimidate us aren't watching. Kids, you got to dig when your parents aren't looking.
Sir, you got to dig when your wife's not looking. Ma'am, you got to dig when your husband's not looking. Church member, you got to dig when your preacher's not looking. You got to dig when church isn't in session. Come on now.
You know why some people don't have much gold in their bucket? They only get gold when they come to church. They don't even take their buckets home. They leave their sh their shovels at their seat. And when somebody sits in their seat, their statement is, You didn't see my bucket there?
My bucket's been at this church, and my shovel's been there for 25 years. You had to bump your leg when you sat in my seat.
Well, here's the problem: if you were really digging like you should, your bucket and shovel wouldn't have been at your seat. You would have taken it home with you. There must be servants, faithfulness, and solemn fear with fear and trembling. It's the reverence of God that keeps me digging. Not my pastor watching, not my wife looking, not my parents looking, not the choir loft, not the orchestra, not the people in church that are watching me.
I ought to be digging the most and getting the most out of my salvation. Watch this now, because I fear God. Humble approach. Notice, secondly, it requires heavenly assistance. Notice the language in the Bible: for it is God, verse number 13, which worketh in you.
Now, seems like a contradiction, Paul. Work out my own.
Now, verse number 13, God worketh in me. I mean, who's doing the work? Me or God? Both. Both.
Both of us are doing the work. Work out your own salvation. Cater goes, Oh my, get the most out of it. Verse 13: God worketh in you. It's a different word.
The word in verse 12 is get the most out of you. The word in verse 13 is work f inergio. That's where we get the word energy. Here's what the Bible says. If you'll pick up your shovel and get the most out of your salvation every day, watch this now.
God will make sure you got the energy to do it.
Well, I just burned. I don't really think there's a such thing as burning out when you're plugged into the right source. Come on. God worketh in you. Yes.
Heavenly assist. By the way, sovereign energy always manifests through sure enablement.
Well, here's the question. How do I know whether or not I'm working off of God's power? How do I know it's God that worketh in me?
Well, here it is. Here's the sure enablement. To will and to do of his good pleasure. When you know God's working in you, watch this now. He doesn't just give you power to demonstrate.
He gives you power to desire. Come on now. God doesn't just work in you to come to church. He works in you to want to come to church. He doesn't just work in you to tithe.
He works in you to want to tithe. He doesn't just work in you to read your Bible to check a Bible. He works in you to want to read your Bible. He doesn't just work in you to make it to the choir loud. He works in you to actually enjoy it while you're singing up there.
He doesn't just work it so you're in the orchestra. He works it so you enjoy worshiping. Listen to me. I'm tired of Christian people who are priding themselves in checking a box and punching the clock and not desiring to be a Christian. Fooey with this Christianity that says I have to.
How about some Christianity that says I want to? Heavenly assistance, humble approach. Notice number three, harmonious attitudes. This is a verse I honestly wish wasn't in the Bible. Verse 14.
Do all things. Without murmurings and disputes. Yeah, I wish it wasn't in the Bible. You know why? Because it's in the Bible, it means I have to obey it.
Murmurings and disputed. Raise your hand if you complained today. All right, the rest of you raise your hand because you lied today, all right? Pastor, I don't know why I don't have more gold in my bucket.
Well, you can't dig when you're complaining all the time. Without murmurings and disputing, without, watch this now, without pointless complaining and without petty conflicts. I've known Christians who used to be filling up their bucket and somewhere along the way they quit filling up their bucket because they were too busy murmuring.
Somebody said to me.
Well Pastor? God is leading me to another church. Because I'm not growing. I said for real?
Well, we're preaching from a book of the Bible on Sunday morning. We're preaching from another book of the Bible on Sunday night. We're preaching from another book of the Bible on Wednesday night. And you're not growing. What do you intend to do?
I intend to go to another church. And my question to him was, do you intend to go with you? He looked confused. You look confused too. I said, when you go to that other church, do you intend to go with you to that other church?
Well, yes, I intend to go with me. I said, well, you won't go there either. Because if you ain't digging here, you ain't gonna dig there. You're gonna be just as broke there as you were here. Because God already did His job.
It's about time you grabbed your bucket and your shovel. Watch it now, Christian, when you tell people you're not growing, because it's synonymous with saying I'm a lazy Christian. The gold is in the mine. It is in the believer. to dig and you can't dig when you're complaining all the time and you certainly can't dig when you have conflicts.
I've known Christian people that drop their shovel because Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web. at Kerwin Baptist Church.com.
Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin Broadcast today. God bless you.
