God at Work in You, Part 3 (Philippians 2:13) John MacArthur

Let’s open our Bibles now to Philippians chapter  2. We’re looking for the last time at verses 12   and 13, Philippians chapter 2 verses 12 and 13.  It’s part of our continuing study of this great   epistle. As we approach the text, let me see if  I can’t give you some context in which to contain   your thoughts this morning. Through the years, I  have always been fascinated by the religions of   the world. I can remember way back as a junior  high student wanting to write a paper on the   Buddhist world because I was so curious about  false religion. Through the days of my college   and seminary and ever since then, I’ve always  had a fascination for false systems of religion. One of the things that has become apparent to  me over the years is that it is characteristic   of the false gods of this world to be remote,  transcendent, distant and impersonal. Most of   those deities, frankly, are fabricated out of  fear, since they are not true gods and since   they do not truly exist. They are the invention  of men. And since men live all their life long   in bondage to the fear of death, they tend to be  deities that are designed by men in fear. The Old  

Testament tells us that when men then design their  deities, demons impersonate the deities that men   have designed and do enough supernatural activity  to keep men captive to the deities of their own   design. But it is across the board common to  the deities that men have invented in the great   religions of the world that their deities are  impersonal. And because their very invention is   founded upon a fear factor, there is a no sense  of longing on the part of the worshiper to have   any kind of association with the deity. There  is no cry in the heart to have fellowship with   the deity. The deity is not portrayed as one who  seeks any relationship with the creature. And so,   gods are invented who for the most part  are only appealed to on the basis of   appeasement so that someone could avoid the  inevitable death which they so greatly fear. Perhaps this is nowhere more clearly revealed  than in the religion of Hinduism which has   locked up probably a billion people  around the world. And in the teaching   of Hinduism recorded in the Vedas which is  the earliest of all the Hindu scriptures,   the absolute creator God is given the name  Brahman. That is the god that is the supreme   deity, the deity from which everything  flows in Hinduism. And maybe you’d like   to know just a little bit about Brahman,  or Brahma, whichever you would choose.

First of all, Brahman is not a person. Brahman is  not a personal spirit but an abstract unknowable   reality. Brahman is everywhere at all times  but no one can see, touch, hear, taste,   smell or experience the presence of Brahman.  The Hindu scriptures tell us also that Brahman   is unknowable and thus is unknown, and therefore  all paths to the deity are imperfect paths, and   all attempts to describe the deity are useless and  vain. He is neither describable or it is neither   describable or knowable. Brahman has no moral  qualities. As best I can tell, Brahman has no   qualities at all and how anything can exist that  has no qualities is hard for me to understand. I   will never forget as long as I live the sign I saw  in the Hindu temple in Delhi which said, “God is   attributeless.” Brahman is nothing. There are no  characteristics, no qualities and no attributes.

The Hindu scripture also teaches that Brahman  is neither holy or unholy, loving or unloving,   fair or unfair. And connected to that ephemeral  and amoral entity called Brahman are two other   sort of deities that are really the Hindu trinity.  There is also Vishnu, called the preserver;   and Shiva, called the destroyer. And out  of those deities flow approximately 330   million other deities. The creator, Brahman,  who is really the source of all of this, is   utterly impersonal, utterly non-personal and  flowing from him or it all the rest of the   deities are likewise impersonal, non-personal,  indifferent, set apart from the created world.

Now, what that means to a Hindu is that these  deities, which supposedly have some will,   which supposedly have some control and some  preferences for the behavior of human kind, in   no way are involved in assisting man to work out  whatever it is that they’re supposed to be doing.   So, the bottom line is that Hindus, like all the  other people in the false religions of the world,   are left to sort out and work out their own lives  without any help from any deity. The best you can   do is appease the deity with the hope that the  deity would not debilitate you or kill you,   but certainly you don’t cultivate  a relationship with the deity in   which you expect that he would assist you in  working out the difficulties of your life. Now, that is quite the opposite of the God of  the Bible. The God of the Bible is a person.   The God of the Bible is a personal spirit. The  God of the Bible is personally involved with His   creatures. The God of the Bible seeks a personal  relationship with men and women. The God of the   Bible comes to live inside Christians where He  takes up residence and abides. The God of the   Bible finds deep satisfaction and joy in assisting  the believer to do that which is His own will. So,   Christianity really is separated from all of  those other kinds of religions where the deities  

are utterly impersonal, detached, and where their  assistance is neither required nor sought after. The God of the Bible is just the opposite.  He loves. He cares. He takes up residence   in the life of the believer to effect  in that believer’s life that which is   the very expression of His will. The God  of the Bible is not an overbearing force,   not a God of pagan making, not a God who makes  demands on impotent people who are unable to   comply and then crushing them because of their  non-compliance. The God of the Bible is a loving,   caring, personal God who makes demands on  men that they can’t fulfill, and thus comes   to live in them to fulfill His own demands  in the very men He demanded to fulfill them. We as Christians then, distinct from the  rest of the world, the religious world,   have the amazing privilege of not only serving  our God, but of having our God dwelling within us,   of having an intimate relationship with the true  God of the universe. He takes up residence with us   and in us. We talk with Him. We hear Him speak. We  experience the comforts and the encouragement and   the guidance and the direction of His presence.  The Old Testament declares that such a God is  

our God. When the Old Testament describes God, it  describes Him in general as a person. And the best   way that man knows as to understand a person is to  give to that person human-like qualities. And we   say that’s anthropomorphic; that is, to speak of  God in human terms. As one writer said, if you   read the Old Testament you might conclude that God  is come kind of a quote-unquote “magnificent human   being,” because the celebration of His personhood  is put into terms which relate Him to man because   He is so much of a relating God. For example, the  Old Testament writers speak of God as talking,   God as hearing, God as seeing, God as smelling,  God as breathing. Even Isaiah 5 verse 26 speaks   of God as whistling. They speak of God as  having a heart. They speak of the face of God,   the eyes of God, the ears of God, the nostrils  of God, the hands of God, the legs of God,   the feet of God, the arms of God. They say He  walks. He goes to war. They speak of His loving,   and hating, and pleading, and condemning,  and weeping, and laughing, and comforting,   and caring. And all of that is to wrap up God in  a package that is identified as personhood. God is   a person. And so, He is described almost as if He  were some magnificent human being. It is said that  

Moses spoke to God face to face. That Moses spoke  to God mouth to mouth. In Exodus 33:11 it says,   “Moses spoke to God as a man talks to his  friend.” Very personal, very intimate. In Psalm 18 I think we find one of the most  magnificent, majestic, and thrilling indications   of God’s personal involvement in the life of one  of His own. Look with me to Psalm 18 because I   believe this is a rich truth that ought to be  captured in your heart and mind. In Psalm 18,   picking up the text in verse 6, we find the  psalmist in great distress. And in his distress   he says, “I called upon the Lord.” This is not  a relationship of fear. This is a relationship   of love and assistance. So, “He called upon  the Lord and he cried to my God for help,   he says. He heard my voice out of His temple and  my cry for Him before Him came into His ears, my   cry for help before Him came into His ears.” Now,  here is the psalmist in the midst of difficulty,   trying to sort out and work out the vicissitudes  of his own life. And he cries to God for help.   And would you please notice the response: “Then,  the earth shook and quaked. And the foundations   of the mountains were trembling and were shaken  because He was angry. Smoke went up out of His  

nostrils and fire from His mouth devoured, coals  were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and   came down with thick darkness under His feet. And  He rode upon a cherub and flew. And He sped upon   the wings of the wind. He made darkness His hiding  place, His canopy around Him, darkness of waters,   thick clouds of the skies. From the brightness  before Him passed His thick clouds, hailstones   and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in  the heavens and the Most High uttered His voice,   hailstones and coals of fire. And He sent out  His arrows and scattered them and lightning   flashes in abundance and routed them. Then, the  channels of water appeared and the foundations of   the world were lay bare. At Thy rebuke, O Lord,  at the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils. He   sent from on high, He took me, He drew me out of  many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy,   and from those who hated me for they were  too mighty for me. They confronted me in the   day of my calamity but the Lord was my stay.  He brought me forth also into a broad place,   He rescued me.” And here is the main  thought, “Because He delighted in me.” That’s relationship. And here is a  man who was related to God. And when   that man cries out to God, the whole  universe is in trauma as God acts in  

behalf of His one beloved child. That’s the  kind of God we have. Not an attributeless,   indifferent non-entity, but a God who  loves and cares to the point where   He moves heaven and earth if need be to  lift up one of His own beloved children. In Psalm 56 and verse 8 it says the psalmist said  that God put His tears in a bottle. The word for   bottle there is the word for wineskin. A wineskin  is a large container and the psalmist was saying   God is so compassionate that He collects all my  tears and keeps them in a wineskin. And it must   have been a large one because the psalmist shed a  lot of tears. What kind of God is it who collects   the tears of His beloved children and keeps them  as a memorial to their pain, and their sadness,   and their sorrow? It is a compassionate God. It  is a caring God, a loving God, a personal God,   who though not simply a magnificent human being,   can be spoken of in terms that  convey His personal touch.

God is personal, and He has an abiding  relationship with us, and we experience   the fullness of it every day of our lives and  good that we do. For if He was not working in us,   we would be unable to work at all to  His glory and His praise. In fact,   all of the effort of verse 12, if you’re  looking at Philippians 2, all of the effort   of verse 12 would be useless if it were not  for verse 13. Remember what verse 12 says,   “So then, my brethren, or my beloved, just as  you have always obeyed not as in my presence   only but now much more in my absence, work  out your salvation with fear and trembling.”   That working out would be impossible if it were  not for the fact that verse 13 says, “For it is   God who is at work in you both to will and to  work for His good pleasure.” And the wondrous   balance of spiritual life and spiritual growth and  sanctification is that is the Christian working   out while God is working in. That is the perfect  balance. It takes all of me, as we have seen,   but it demands all of Him. And all of us  alone would accomplish absolutely nothing.

But how wonderful that our God works in  us to accomplish His own good pleasure,   to effect that which He demands. That’s the glory  of Christian living, that God calls us to obey and   then God effects that obedience in us. God  calls us to holiness and then effects that   holiness in us. God calls us to serve and then  mobilizes that service in us by His own power   and presence. Your spiritual growth, and your  progress toward maturity, and your sanctification,   and your moving toward Christ’s likeness demands  all that you are, but it also demands all that   God is in you. And that is the uniqueness  of Christianity, Christ in you: the hope of   glory. God taking up residence in the believer.  And that is how we live our Christian life. Now, remember verse 12 talked about the Christian  working out. And now, verse 13, we’re going to   talk about God working in. And as we look at verse  13, it seems like a simple statement, but it is   loaded with profound truth. All it says is, “For  it is God who is at work in you, both to will and   to work for His good pleasure.” I looked at that  over and over again and it begin to dawn on me   that there are at least five key truths about God  there that we must understand, that will make this  

statement really come alive. God works in you,  what a statement, what an incredible reality.   God says, “Without Me you can do nothing,  absolutely nothing.” It is God who has to do   it all. In John 15:4 Jesus said, “If you try  to produce something, you must be connected   to the vine, because if you don’t abide in the  vine, you have no life source to produce fruit,   without Me you can do nothing.” In 1 Corinthians  chapter 12 as the apostle Paul under the   inspiration of the Holy Spirit outlines the  matters of spiritual gifts and ministries,   in verse 6 he says, “There are varieties  of effects but the same God who works all   things in all persons.” Whatever is being  produced in your life to His glory, He is   producing. He is at work in you, in me, in all  His children. That’s why 2 Corinthians 3:5 says,   “We are not adequate in ourselves but our adequacy  is from God. He is at work in us.” What a thought.

Now, I want you to concentrate on five  elements of that thought. Very simple,   and they all focus on the one who works in  us. First of all, let’s note His person,   His person. It says in verse 13 it is God who is  at work. It is God. Literally, the Greek says,   “God is the one at work.” No one else but  God. The emphasis is on God. The absolutely   unbelievable truth that the one who is at work in  us is God, the very God who created the universe.   He is that personal, that intimate, that  concerned that He literally works in us. We are   not dependent on our human resources, although  God has given us much in terms of creation,   and much in terms of redeemed creation to work  with. We are still not dependent on our human   resources. We are not even dependent  on our brothers and sisters in Christ,   though the body of Christ has a marvelous ministry  to itself and we are in great debt to those who   serve us in the body by the use of their gifts  and through the fellowship and ministry which   stimulates us to love and good works. Nor are we  dependent upon the holy angels who are sent forth   as ministering spirits with the very purpose of  ministering to the children of God, Hebrews 1:14.

As wonderful as it is to have talents humanly,  as great as it is to be a part of the body of   Christ and to have angelic assistance, that’s not  going to do it. It isn’t that we are dependent on   human pastors and teachers who have taught  us the Word of God, and fed us like sheep,   and led us as shepherds. As wonderful as  that is, as blessed as it is to have those   kinds of people ministering to us, the key to  our spiritual progress is that God is the one   at work in us. I’m grateful that there are other  believers working on us. I’m grateful that there   are angels working for us. I am grateful  for pastors and teachers who are working,   as it were, to shape us. But the thrill  of all thrills is that it is God who is   the one at work in us. God Himself  is working out our sanctification.

That’s why sanctification can’t be deterred. The  same God who justifies, who wrought justification,   will bring about sanctification. There is an  undeniable inevitability there. It is God who   is the one at work. The immutable, unchanging  glorious, sovereign, majestic, righteous, holy,   gracious, merciful God; the God who rules all  things and always accomplishes His will is never   frustrated, always does what He desires. The  God who is never thwarted, He is at work in us. You see, that is what made the psalmist say  in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd.” That’s   where the emphasis ought to be. Not the Lord  is my shepherd, but the LORD is my shepherd.   There are a lot of shepherds in this world; the  psalmist says the Lord is mine. God works in me,   and that’s why I shall not want, because  He makes me lie down in green pastures,   He leads me beside still waters, He  restores my soul. Every need is met   because the Lord is my shepherd. That’s the  great truth of Christianity. In Psalm 27,  

the psalmist says, “The Lord is my light  and my salvation,” then I love this,   “the Lord is the strength of my life.” The Lord is  the strength of my life. His person, that’s where   Paul starts. It is God. That ought to be in bold  type, underlined, with three exclamation points. Unimaginable truth to a pagan world, unimaginable  to say God works in you, God who loves us with   an everlasting love, God who holds toward  us an eternal kindness, God who keeps us   with an everlasting covenant based on everlasting  promises, God whose gifts and callings are without   repentance, God who says that whom He justifies  He glorifies, God who sees us through to the end,   God who unendingly, unswervingly commits Himself  to us to supply all our needs in Christ Jesus,   that God is the one in us. He is the strength  of our life, the God who made the world,   the God who upholds the world by the word  of His power, the God who is sovereign   over everything for all eternity, He lives in  us. That’s really an astounding realization.

I love a little paragraph by WH Griffith Thomas.  He says this, “God is the answer to every question   of the mind, to every trembling fear of the heart,  to every weakness of appetite and to every strong   hurricane of temptation. The soul, the lonely  individual soul not knowing whence it has come,   knowing almost as little where it’s going,  confronting the question of weakness and sin   and death and eternity and the deep, deep problems  of moral evil can only answer every complaint by   the one all sufficient, all comprehending  monosyllable, God. This is our anchor.   God made us. God knew our constitution. God  knew our environment. God knew our temptation,   the temptations that would assail us, and yet  God redeemed us to Himself and made us His own   by the blood of Christ. Now, if God be a being of  perfect benevolence, He cannot have done so much   without assuming to Himself the responsibility of  realizing the object of the tears, longings and   prayers which He has put by His own hand within  our nature. And therefore, we must throw back on   Him the responsibility of making us blameless,  harmless and unrebukable before Him.” End quote.

What a person living in us. And  as Griffith Thomas rightly says,   the God who made us and the God who  made us His own must have assumed the   responsibility of making us into what He  wanted us to be. Who is it? God, in us. Secondly, Paul reflects on His power, not only  His person. He says it is God who is at work,   energe, we get the word energy from it in the  Greek. It means to put out power or to work   effectively. To put it simply, it’s the word  “the energizer.” God is the energizer. For   it is God who is the energizer. He is the  one whose power drives our sanctification.   You see, in the flesh we can do absolutely  nothing, but His power drives us toward   Christlikeness. His power compels righteousness  and controverts sin. That’s why we are sustained.   That’s why we can say we are eternally secure  in Christ. Why? Because His power continues   to drive us to glorification. His power expels  sin and invites holiness. We persevere because  

we are energized by Him. And how much power  does He have? He has all power. He is the   omnipotent God. Is there anything too hard  for Him to do? He has all power. He committed   that power to Christ and Christ said, “I  have all power in heaven and in earth.”   And so, we have the tremendous realization that we  are energized by God, and that there’s no limit to   His energy, and that if He saved us in order  to sanctify us, then that will take place. He   will move us along toward Christ’s likeness. His  energy will accomplish that. That’s His promise. And there is so much power available  that Paul can say in Ephesians 3:20,   “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding  abundantly above all we ask or think according   to the power that works in,” what? “Us.” Maybe  it would have been more understandable if it   had said, “Now unto him that is able to do  exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or   think according to the power that works in  heaven, or the power that works in Christ,   or the power that works in the Holy Spirit,  but the power that works in us.” God can   accomplish and does accomplish through you  that which is unimaginable, unthinkable,   beyond your ability to plan or reason or dream.  He is effecting the sanctification process.

There is a certain sovereignty in that, in that  there are differing points along the path where   we all find ourselves. And we don’t know all  of God’s reasons for some of the apparently   convoluted trips that some are taking in  the process, but nonetheless, it is my firm   conviction that God effects sanctification in the  life, that there is a pattern of progress which   God is working to please Himself, as we shall  note, and He is the power behind it. “I can   do all things through Christ who strengthens me,”  Paul says, Philippians chapter 4. Let me give you   an illustration of this. Go back to 2 Chronicles  chapter 29, and I want to show you an interesting   moment in the history of God’s people, Judah,  and just give you a very good analogy to help   you see this picture of how God works. Hezekiah  became king; verse 1 says of 2 Chronicles 29,   he was king of Judah. He was only 25 years old  when he became king. And he reigned for 29 years   in Jerusalem. Verse 2 characterizes his life, and  it is a wonderful characterization. “He did right   in the sight of the Lord according to all that his  father David had done.” He was a good king. He was   a noble king. He was a godly man. Now, when  he ascended to rule among the people of God,  

he deemed it essential that they  get their spiritual lives together. And so, he started at the top, and in the first  year of his reign, verse 3, in the first month,   he opened the doors of the house of the Lord  and repaired them. There had been a real   ignoring of the things of God and the whole of the  people of God had fallen into sin and idolatry,   a tragic history. Here comes Hezekiah, a godly  man, he opens the doors of the house of the Lord,   he repairs them, he is reinstituting worship and  then he does this: he brought in the priests and   the Levites, gathered them into the square in the  east, all of those who were responsible for the   religious leadership of the nation, he brought  together. He said to them, “Listen to me, O   Levites, consecrate yourselves now and consecrate  the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers,   and carry the uncleanness out from the holy  place.” Clean up this place and clean up your   lives. A very direct, straight-forward approach.  And he started with a religious leadership.   He says, “Our fathers have been unfaithful and  have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God,   and have forsaken Him and turned their faces  away from the dwelling place of the Lord and   have turned their backs. They have also shut the  doors of the porch and put out the lamps and have   not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in  the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore,   the wrath of the Lord was against Judah and  Jerusalem and He’s made them an object of terror,   of horror, and of hissing as you see with your own  eyes. For behold our fathers have fallen by the  

sword and our sons and our daughters and our wives  are in captivity for this. Now, it is in my heart   to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel  that His burning anger may turn away from us.” So, then he says, “My sons, don’t be negligent  now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before   Him, to minister to Him and to be His ministers  and burn incense.” So, all the priests and all   the Levites are gathered and told it’s time for  spiritual consecration. And they did it. They   began it, verse 17 says, on the first day of the  first month. And if you’ll flow down to verse 20,   after the consecration of the priests and  the Levites, King Hezekiah rose early and   assembled the princes of the city and  went up to the house of the Lord. Now,   he moves away from the religious leaders  to the nationally recognized leaders,   to the rest of the leaders. And he says it’s  time for you to get spiritually in tune with God,   and it’s time for you to make sacrifices and sin  offerings. And there was a tremendous slaughter.   And if you want to know the extent of this  consecration, you need only go to verse 32, “And   as the Levites and the priests had been set apart  to God, now all the rest of the leaders are, the   number of the burnt offerings which was brought  was 70 bulls, 100 rams, 200 lambs, all these for a   burnt offering and the consecrated things were 600  bulls and 3,000 sheep,” this is a real massacre  

of animals. “And the priests were too few so that  they were unable to skin all the burnt offerings,   therefore their brothers, the Levites, helped  them until the work was complete and until the   other priests had consecrated themselves,  for the Levites were more conscientious to   consecrate themselves than the priests. And there  were also many burnt offerings with the fat of the   peace offerings and with the libations for the  burnt offering, thus the service of the house of   the Lord was established again. Then, Hezekiah and  all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared   for the people because the thing came about  suddenly.” I mean, it was an instant revival. Now, we’ve got the leadership taken care of. You  come to chapter 30, follow this, “Hezekiah then   sent to all Israel and Judah,” now everybody,  “and wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh also   that they should come to the house of the Lord at  Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover to the Lord   God of Israel.” Now, he is really calling for the  Passover to be reinstated in its fullness. It had   been only minimally attended to in past years  and he wants the whole nation there as God has   prescribed. And this is really the work of God.  God through Hezekiah is calling all the people.   Verse 6, “The couriers were to say, O sons of  Israel, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac,   and Israel.” This is calling for a spiritual  revival. Verse 8, “Do not stiffen your necks.”   Verse 9, “If you return to the Lord, your brothers  and your sons will find compassion before those  

who led them captive and return to this land, for  the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate   and will not turn His face away from you if you  return to Him.” So, He’s calling for revival. Now, notice, here’s the key, the couriers go out,   verse 10, everywhere, and then you  come down to verse 12. Follow this,   “The hand of God was also on Judah to give them  one heart to do what the king and the princes   commanded by the word of the Lord.” Isn’t that  interesting? Isn’t that a fascinating statement?   The king and the princes were commanding the  people to return to God because it was the word   of the Lord to them. God says command the people  to return to Me, and then verse 12 says, then God   gave them a heart to do it. Marvelous, isn’t  it? God therefore energizes the fulfillment of   His own command, what a perfect model. God moves  powerfully to produce what He demands. That is the   incredible mystery of Christian living: that God  is effecting in the believer what He is commanding   to the believer. You say, “How do you understand  that?” I don’t understand it except that it’s  

simply stated. I cannot understand it. I cannot  make a dividing line between what is God and what   is me, and how much God can do if I cooperate, and  how much He can’t do if I don’t. It is mystery.   But it is clear in Scripture that whatever is to  be done in my life in response to God’s command,   He must energize. He is strong. He is powerful.  And His power works to effect what He commands. Go back then to Philippians chapter 2 and  let’s look at a third very, very essential   factor in understanding the one working in  us. We saw, first of all, His person as God,   His power, He is energizing all of our spiritual  development. We go from His power to, thirdly,   His presence, and this will touch on what we  already said in the introduction. Verse 13,   “For it is God who is at work in you.” Oh,  what a great statement. God in you. He’s not   working on you, He’s not working for you, He  is working in you. What a profound reality.

You remember in Acts 1:8 where Jesus said  to the apostles, “You shall receive power   after the Holy Spirit is come upon you.”  When the Spirit of God took up residence,   there was power. God lives in us  in His Spirit. That great truth,   I think, was particularly important for  some reason to the Corinthian church,   because Paul said it to them at least three times.  In 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16 he says,   “If any man destroys the temple of God, God will  destroy him, for the temple of God is holy and   that is what you are.” You’re the temple of God,  you’re where God lives. What a thought. And then,   he says in verse 17, “The temple of God is holy  and that’s what you are.” Verse 16, “You’re the   temple of God.” That’s what you are, God lives  in you. Verse 17 repeats the same thought.

Over in chapter 6 and verse 19 he says, “Your  body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is   in you whom you have from God.” Now, in 1  Corinthians 3 he’s speaking collectively;   the church as a whole is the temple of God. In  1 Corinthians 6:19 he’s speaking individually;   every Christian as an individual believer is the  temple of God. He lives in us as individuals so he   lives in us collectively. And then, in his second  letter to the Corinthians, chapter 6 and verse 16,   Paul says this: “For we are the temple of the  living God; just as God said, I will dwell in   them and walk among them and I will be their  God.” What a thought. God says I will never   leave you or forsake you. God says, “Lo, I am  with you always, even to the end of the age.”   Paul says, “Be anxious for nothing,” why?  “The Lord is at hand.” He’s present, eminence.

Do you understand what the psalmist had in mind  then when he said of God, “You compass my path   and my lying down and are acquainted with  all my ways,” Psalm 139 verse 3? God, You’re   always there. You’re always there present in me;  there is never a moment of your existence from   the time you give your life to Christ until you  meet Him face to face that God is not with you,   that He is not there. You have His presence. That  has negative connotation in 1 Corinthians 6. Paul   says, “If you join yourself to a harlot, you join  Christ to a harlot.” You say, “Well, now is Christ   in me or is God in me?” And the answer is yes.  The Spirit of Christ is God. “Well, isn’t the Holy   Spirit in me?” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of  God. The Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit who   is the Spirit of God who is God. It’s the same.  It’s God in the form of His Spirit dwelling in   you. And always present, always supporting, always  sustaining, always upholding, always supplying,   always strengthening, always shielding, never  out of His care, always producing, sanctifying   effects in your life. That’s why He gets all  the credit, because He’s doing all the work.

Romans 11:33, “O the depth of the riches both of  the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable   are His judgments, and unfathomable His ways, for  who has known the mind of the Lord or who became   His counselor?” God is working independently.  God is working in ways beyond our ability to   understand, ever and always consistently in us,  caring for every need. His presence is infinite.   His understanding is infinite. His wisdom is  infinite. And He lives in us. He is holy, so   He always does what’s right. He is loving, so He’s  always concerned with our best. He is gracious, so   He always forgives. He is merciful, so He always  holds back the fullness of judgment. He is just,   so He’s always fair. He’s generous, so He always  gives more than enough. He’s there. God is not   afar off. God is not a long distance away, like  the gods of the pagans. God is here, living in us.

And I’ll tell you something, beloved, God  would not go to the great extent to justify   us to then leave us alone. Having begun in the  Spirit we would not be perfected in the flesh,   Galatians 3:3. So, having begun in the Spirit we  are perfected in the Spirit. Having begun with the   power of God, we are sustained with the power of  God. Having been justified by the power of God, we   are sanctified by the power of God. And He lives  in us. And that is why I believe that the process   cannot be, cannot be halted. Sin in our lives,  somehow, some way, slows it down, but God effects   the progressive work through blessing or through  chastening. Hebrews 12 says sometimes He has to   discipline us, but that is for us to partake of  His holiness, to produce the peaceable fruit of   righteousness. So, whether it’s through blessing  or chastening, He sustains His sanctifying work by   His presence, moving us toward greater spiritual  maturity. So, His person is power and presence.

Fourthly, Paul speaks of His purpose, and this  is the heart of what I want you to grasp from   the practical standpoint this morning. His  purpose, what is it? Well, He’s trying to   produce something very specific in us. What is  it? He is working in us both to will and to work,   or to will and to do. Now, what does this mean?  Well, that phrase “both to will and to work” is   best noted as a reference to us, rather than to  God. He is working in you to cause you to will   and to work for His good pleasure. In other words,  there are two things God wants to energize in us:   our will and our work. Desire and  deed; those are very vital, very basic. First of all, let’s talk about that idea  of working in us to will. He wants us to   will what is right, to want what is right, to  desire what is right. So He works on our want,   on our will, on our desires. You remember Psalm  110:3 which says we are made willing in the day   of His power. When His power moves in us it makes  us willing. He is working to cause us to will to   do what is right. See, all behavior rises out  of your will; it all rises out of your desire,   your longing, your wants, your intent.  In fact, that verb “to will” is thel,  

it is the verb that means intent or  inclination. One lexicon says it is a   will that is an unimpassioned operation. I think  that’s the way he phrased it. In other words, it’s   not the desire of passion. It’s not the desire of  lust. It’s not the desire or the whimsical desire   of emotion. It is the unimpassioned will that is  the studied designed planned intent. God wants   to produce in us the proper intention, the proper  inclination, the proper desire for what is right. This is nothing new. You again can go back  to the Old Testament. You might remember   Ezra 1 verse 5, it says, “The heads of the fathers  households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests   and the Levites arose, even everyone whose spirit  God had stirred to go up and rebuild the house of   the Lord.” God began by stirring up their will,  stirring up their desire. That is part of God’s   energizing work. Over in chapter 7, that same idea  is used in Ezra, verse 27, “Blessed be the Lord,   the God of our fathers, who has put such  a thing as this in the king’s heart.” God   works in you on your will, to produce the intent,  the inclination, the will to do what He desires.  

That’s where He begins His internal work, working  on your desires. Because, what you do and what   I do is a product of what we desire. Remember  Proverbs 21:1, the king’s heart is like channels   of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it  wherever He wishes. He takes your heart and He   turns it to cause you to will what is right, to  will what is good, to will what is His desire. But how does He do it? How does He do that? Let  me give you two factors, okay? Very important.   I believe that there are two things God produces  in you to move your will. One is holy discontent,   H-O-L-Y, holy discontent. What does that mean? It  simply means you’re discontent with your holiness.   There is a righteous discontent, not an unholy  discontent, that’s sin; but a holy discontent with   the present spiritual state. In other words, God  makes you dislike your present spiritual weakness.   Have you ever experienced that? Paul put it this  way, “O wretched man that I am,” Romans 7:24.   That’s holy discontent. It’s not being discontent  with your circumstances in life or the conditions   in which God has called you to live; it’s being  discontent with your sin. And I believe that the   convicting work of God in your life is to  stir up a holy discontent about your sin.

Do you ever get exasperated about your  sin? Do you ever get to the place where   you find tears in your eyes because you’re  so sick and tired of the same sin? You’re   so sick and tired of fighting the battles  on the same front? That’s a holy discontent   that God is producing as He works on  your will. He wants you to hate sin. The second thing that He produces in working  on your will is a holy aspiration. That’s the   flipside, a longing for something better, a  longing for something purer, a longing for   something holy, a longing for something righteous,  a longing for something true, a longing to be   like Christ, a longing to be godly, a longing  to be virtuous, a longing to be victorious.   And sometimes you’re reading about a Bible  character and your heart is filled with an   aspiration to be like Paul, or be like Peter  or be like John. Or sometimes you’re reading   a missionary biography and you feel so  cheap and so shallow because the level   of your dedication seems so low when compared  with some of the great people God has used.   And that becomes holy aspiration,  holy discontent and holy aspiration.

And that’s where it all starts. And I  believe that’s the work of God in you   producing that. To put it simply, He produces  a hatred of sin and a love of righteousness.   That’s why if you want to get in touch with  whether a person’s really a Christian or not,   you can look at those two things. Do they hate  their sin and love righteousness? Is there   a holy discontent and a longing for something  far more pure than what they are experiencing?   That’s the work of the indwelling God,  the Holy Spirit moving on your will. If you want to see a perfect illustration of  it, look at Philippians chapter 3. And here   you’re going to see holy discontent and  holy aspiration come together. Verse 12,   Paul says, “Not that I’ve already obtained it,”  that is, already obtained spiritual perfection,   already reached full knowledge of Christ, full  expression of His power, complete fellowship in   His sufferings, already conformed fully to His  death, already having attained resurrection,   no. Not as though I have attained or have  already become perfect. No, he says. That’s   holy discontent. I haven’t become perfect. Verse  13, “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having   laid hold of it yet.” I’m not there. That’s  holy discontent. That’s why he says in verse 10,  

“I want to know Him and the power of His  resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering,   being conformed to His death, I’m not  there yet.” That’s holy discontent. But look at holy aspiration in verse 12.  “But I press on in order that I may lay   hold of that for which also I was laid hold of  by Christ Jesus.” Verse 13, “One thing I do,   forgetting what lies behind what is a part of  that holy discontent and reaching forward to   what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal  for the prize of the upward call of God in   Christ Jesus.” Holy discontent, I’m not there,  I haven’t arrived. Holy aspiration, I press on,   I press on. Now, that’s what God wants to work  in your will so that you will that which is   right by having a revulsion toward what is  wrong and an aspiration to what is right. So, the purpose of God is to work on your will.  But secondly, He works in you, energizing you   both to will and then to work, or literally to  do. And it’s the word energe again, the same   word translated work here. He energizes you to  be energetic. He energizes you, He works in you,   so you will work, not just to will but to work,  godly behavior. You start with a holy discontent,  

and that leads to holy aspiration, and that leads  to holy resolve which means I will now do what is   right, and that leads to holy work. That’s the  process. That’s the process. Holy discontent,   holy aspiration, holy resolve where the  commitment is made produces holy work.   And that’s what God’s doing in  you. He’s working on your will,   and He’s working on your work so that you will  and do what is right. What a great promise,   beloved. God is at work in us. Remember that  little sign that you saw a few years ago,   “Please be patient. God is not finished with me  yet?” Great truth in it. The underlying truth is   that God is at work in us. And only God can  energize spiritual ends, spiritual results.

So, we see His person, His power, His presence,  His purpose, lastly His pleasure. This is   overwhelming. This is just mind boggling.  Why is God doing this? The end of verse 13,   “For His good pleasure.” Do you understand that  when you will and work what is right it pleases   God? Do you understand that there is so much of  a relationship between you and God that you can,   in a sense, bring Him pleasure? The  word eudokia means satisfaction.   God works in us to will and to work for  His good pleasure. He wants to cause us   to do what pleases Him. That’s what it  means. He wants to cause us to do what   satisfies Him. The underlying thing that  strikes me is that anything that I could   do could satisfy Him. Isn’t He ultimately and  infinitely and perfectly satisfied already?   There’s some way in which He takes pleasure  in me willing and working on His behalf.

Do you remember Luke 12:32? Jesus looked at that  motley bunch of weak-faith disciples and said,   “It’s your Father’s good pleasure to give you the  kingdom.” Isn’t that an astounding statement? You   would have understood it if He had said, “Well,  the Father has given in and decided He’ll give   you the kingdom anyway, but He’s upset about it.”  No. It’s your Father’s good pleasure to give you   the kingdom. He is a God of love. He is a God  of compassion. He is a God of grace and mercy,   and you are very dear to Him. And when you  will and work what He wants, He is pleased.   And isn’t that the essence of a relationship? To  give to one another so that there is pleasure.   He wants your best because your best is what  pleases Him most. He takes pleasure in you. He   takes pleasure in me. And what He wants to  produce in us is for His own satisfaction.

Isn’t it a great thought to think that I can  bring satisfaction to the heart of God? Think   about that. John MacArthur, you can do something,  you could will something, you could be the kind of   person who could bring satisfaction to the heart  of God. Listen, I couldn’t do that in my flesh.   But God can work in me to will and to work what  will be to His pleasure. I don’t know about you,   but I think the most wonderful thing about  any relationship is that you would bring the   other person pleasure, don’t you? What good is a  relationship if all you bring is pain? Who needs   it? If all you bring is grief. But what everybody  wants out of a relationship is satisfaction and   pleasure. And God says you can bring Me that.  Wonderful thing that Paul is saying here.   The Christian is working out with maximum effort  and God is working in to accomplish His pleasure.

Listen, let me bring it to a conclusion. We,  of all the people on the face of this earth,   are so uniquely blessed because God works in  us. What a thought. That’s the distinctiveness   of Christianity. And that’s the balance. It takes  all of us and all of Him. A person who is being   renewed by the Spirit of God is not in a state  of passive surrender, but is actively engaged in   serving and working and putting on the new man and  killing the flesh. The Christian life is described   as a race, and as a warfare, as a fight. We are  called on to be careful to apply ourselves to   good deeds, Titus 3:8. It is said that the devil  is an enemy to be resisted, James 4:7. We are to   constantly beat our bodies into subjection, lest  we would be disqualified in spiritual service.   And we are told when it even when it  comes to rest in Hebrews 4:11 that we   are to strive or agonize to enter into rest.  It takes everything you are as a Christian,   everything you are. You’re not just  a passive piece of clay. It is not  

just “let go and let God.” It is look  carefully how you walk, Ephesians 5:15. TC Hammond could summarize it well in this brief  statement. “While the New Testament emphasizes   most emphatically that the work of grace is of  God and not of our inherent capacity, and so   far lends support to the Quietist position, it is  equally emphatic on the fact that God works in us   or with us and thus does justice to the truth  resident in Pietism. By combining both ideas,   it corrects the errors resident in both.”  You remember where we started all this? The   Quietist says “do nothing.” The Pietist says  “do everything.” God says, “You do everything,   and I’ll do everything, and  we’ll effect sanctification.” As we close, let me ask you a question, real  personal one, only you can answer. God is at   work in you right now if you’re a Christian.  What is He working to cause you to will and   to do? Have you thought about it? What does He  want you to will? What does He want you to do?   What habit does He want you to change? What  relationship does He want you to make right?   What relationship does He want you to break?  What relationship does He want you to make?  

What attitude does He want you to change? What  desire does He want you to ignore? What desire   does He want you to have? What ministry does  He want you to do? What spiritual duty does   He desire that you will? And what area does  He want you to be faithful? What wrong does   He want you to make right? He’s working  in you to cause you to will and to work   what will please Him. Do you know what it  is that He wants you to will and to work? Let’s bow in prayer and ask the Lord:  Lord, what is it that You are working   in me to will and to do? What do You want  me to want? What do You want me to desire?   What do You want me to long for? What do  You want me to do? What work do You want   me to work? Show me. Father, hear that prayer  of every praying heart for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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