Alright, brother, now let's turn
to Philippians 1. Philippians chapter 1. I wanted to read Acts 16 because
that's when the Lord founded this church in Philippi. Paul writes to them now, beginning
in verse 3. He says, I thank my God upon
every remembrance of you Always in every prayer of mine for you
all, making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now. Being confident of this very
thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is meet for me to
thank this of you all, because I have you in my heart, Inasmuch
as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the
gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. Subject tonight
is our confidence. Our confidence. Paul said in
verse 6, being confident of this very thing, that he which has
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. A sinner who has spiritual life,
a sinner that's been given faith by the Lord to trust Christ and
have all his confidence in Christ only, he's a miracle of God's
grace. That is a miracle of God's grace. Salvation, beginning to end,
is of God alone. A sinner has no room to glory. We didn't want God to save us. We didn't want to know God. And we certainly didn't want
to be saved by free grace, sovereign grace, by that gospel that declares
that the glory goes all to God and none to us. So a sinner made
to trust Christ and have all his confidence in Christ alone,
that's a miracle of God's grace. And equally true for the child
of God to continue having all his confidence in Christ alone
until the day our Lord Jesus returns. That too is a miracle
of God's grace. That is a miracle of God's grace.
I'll paraphrase A.W. Pink. He said, for God to keep
a believer persevering in faith amidst all the unseen enemies,
amidst all the trials and the troubles, it's infinitely more
a miracle of God's grace than if a man should keep a candle
lit as he goes across a raging sea in the midst of a hurricane.
That's a good analogy, isn't it? You picture a man trying
to go across a raging sea with a candle, with a little flame
flickering, and keep that candle blowing while the hurricane is
blowing. Keep that candle lit. It's infinitely
more a miracle of God's grace that he keeps his children trusting,
having only confidence in Christ from beginning to end. But Paul's confidence that his
brethren would be kept in the faith until the day of Jesus
Christ was God who began the work in them. His confidence
was in God who began the work in them. He said, being confident
of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you
will perform it. He will finish it until the day
of Jesus Christ. The good work of salvation is
begun by God and his people. This good work of salvation is
continued by God in His people, and this good work of grace is
finished by God in His people. Salvation is of the Lord. Paul
says, being confident of this very thing. Paul's confidence
was not in himself. His confidence was not in any
other man. Paul's confidence was, He which
hath begun a good work in you will finish it until the day
of Jesus Christ. He will. The confidence of every
sinner that's been circumcised in the heart is God our Savior. Our confidence is God our Savior. We have no confidence in our
flesh nor in any other man, only in God. Paul said there in Philippians
3.3, we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
The psalmist said in Psalm 118, it's better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in man. It's better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in princes. Now why did Paul have this confidence
in God? Why was his confidence entirely
in God? How did he have this? Well, Paul
had confidence in the Lord because he himself had experienced God's
power and grace. He had experienced it. He experienced
God's power. He experienced his grace. That's
why his confidence was in God only. Paul had experienced this
work begun in him by God. While he was dead in his sins,
Paul couldn't make himself believe the Lord. Neither could I, neither
could you, neither can any sinner. Paul was religious. Paul was
trusting and had confidence in many things, but he could not
let all of that go and have confidence only in God. He couldn't do it. We couldn't do it either. While
he was Saul of Tarsus, he had confidence in himself. Look back
over there at Philippians 3 and look at verse 4. He said, After
saying we have no confidence in the flesh, he said, though
I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more. Here's what he trusted in. Circumcised
the eighth day. of the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the
law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching
the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. And then
Paul is on his way on that Damascus road to persecute God's people,
and our Lord Jesus Christ spoke. Our Lord Jesus Christ shined
the light and he spoke. And this is how Paul put it in
Galatians 1.15, but when it pleased God, when it pleased God who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among the
heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. That's
when he stopped having confidence in flesh and blood. That's when
he started listening to God and having all his confidence in
God alone. When Christ, in His Word, He
commands we repent and believe on the Lord. But when Christ
speaks that command, to repent and believe on Christ, thus speaking,
He grants repentance and faith. That's how repentance and faith
come, when He speaks. He's the power. That's how Paul
had confidence in God. That's how his confidence was
turned from being in himself and in his heritage and his works
and turned to be in Christ only. And then Paul had confidence
in God because he'd experienced the power and grace of God keeping
him through many hard trials. He'd experienced God's power
and His grace keeping him up from that day to the end. The Lord showed Paul by these
trials that he brought him through. Our Lord's ruling them all. He's
ruling them all. And by those trials, Paul was
made to see he had no sufficiency in himself. He had no strength
in himself. Absolutely none. The Lord permitted him to be
rejected. He was beaten. One time he was
thrown to the lions. beaten and thrown in prison.
He's writing right now this letter to the Philippians, and he's
in prison writing this letter to them. And through those trials,
God had taught Paul and was showing Paul why he had no sufficiency,
that he had no sufficiency in himself. He had no strength in
himself. Paul got to see that firsthand.
He got to experience that, but what he went through in those
afflictions. But the Lord also showed him
Christ's power. He showed him Christ's strength.
He showed him God's power. This is what the Lord said in
2 Corinthians 12. Paul said, the Lord said to me,
my grace is sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient for thee.
For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore,
will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. The power of Christ. Paul's confidence
for his own perseverance in faith was not Paul. It wasn't him. His confidence that he himself
would continue to the end trusting Christ was not himself. His confidence
was the Lord having begun the work in him and having carried
it on unto that very day. And that was his confidence because
he had experienced that power in his own heart. And because
he had been kept through all those troubles and trials he
went through, that was his confidence for his brethren. Secondly, Paul had confidence
in God to finish the work because he knew it was God who began
this good work in his brethren. His confidence was that God would
finish it because he knew God was the one that began the work.
Paul knew it was the Lord who sent him to preach the gospel
at Philippi. We saw there in Acts 16, Paul
didn't know where to go. He was wanting to go to Asia
to preach. And the Holy Spirit forbid him
to go preach the gospel in Asia. And the Lord made him behold
a vision, and there was a man saying, come to us in Macedonia. Philippi was the chief city of
Macedonia. And this man saying, come to
us in Macedonia. And Paul said, when they went,
when they went there, he said, we went assuredly gathering that
the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. The Lord
called us. God makes his servant know the
Lord sent him. God makes his servant know he's
the ambassador of Christ. He makes his servant know he's
speaking for the king of glory, and he gives him the strength
to speak boldly as he ought to speak, come what may, preaching
Christ to him crucified. Paul knew it was God who gave
him the boldness to preach the gospel of Christ. He didn't have
it of himself. It was Christ and him crucified
that he was sent to preach. He was sent to preach the glory
of God and choosing his people in Christ Jesus before the world
was made. By free grace, blessing us in
Christ with all spiritual blessings. He was sent to declare to sinners
that God finished the work from the foundation of the world in
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And this man who
before was a blasphemer, who was injured to the church of
God, is he going to have the strength to stand up and preach
this message to men that are going to be violently, violently
opposed to it? Of course he does not. Christ
gave him the boldness. He said in 2 Corinthians 3, 5,
not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as
of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. And Philippi, he gets
there, and there's a place out by the river where prayer was
wont to be made, and he went out there on that Saturday, and
there was these ladies gathered there. And Paul went out there
and preached Christ to them, crucified to them. He went out
there and declared the Lord Jesus Christ to them. He didn't use
any other means, he didn't try to to alter the message and craft
the message, he just went out there and preached the total,
complete ruin of sinners and that Christ Jesus is the only
righteousness, the only holiness, the only wisdom, the only redemption
of his people that he saved. He declared Christ, he glorified
Christ to them. It was the same as he said there
at Corinth. He said, my speech, my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. It was in demonstration
of the spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. He didn't want
them standing in the wisdom of men. He wanted them standing
in the power of God. Scripture says of Lydia, we read
it there in Acts 16, it said the Lord opened her heart. The Lord opened her heart. She
heard that gospel preached and the Lord opened her heart. And
so she received the things that she heard spoken, and she believed
the Lord Jesus Christ. And many in her house, they were
God's elect. Christ was their redeemer. He
had perfected them by his one offering, and by the gospel,
through that incorruptible seed, the Lord gave them a new heart,
and they believed on Christ, and they all confessed to the
Lord in believers' baptism. And then Paul casts that spirit
of divination out of that woman, And they beat him and threw him
in prison, and he preached the same message to the jailer. And
the Lord gave him faith. And he gave many in his house
faith. So Paul's confidence was knowing God began this good work
in them. He didn't do it. Paul didn't
do it. God did it. God sent him, God gave him the
boldness to preach Christ and Him crucified, use no other means. Preach Christ, pray the Lord
bless the Word, use no other means, no other method, but Christ
and Him crucified, and wait on the Lord. And God gave him life
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he had confidence,
because he had confidence God began that work in him. And when
a sinner experiences God's power that has begun the work, when
you experience that power that's begun this work, and then we
continue to be preserved by His strength and we see it's not
our own, that's when God makes us be confident of this very
thing, that He which has begun a good work in you shall perform
it, He'll finish it until the day of Jesus Christ. That's what
He makes you know. We continue the same way we began.
In the beginning, it was the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul
said this in 2 Corinthians 3. He was talking about how the
veils on the heart, men can't, they hear the law, but they can't
hear the law. The veil's on the heart, just
like that veil was on Moses' face. But the Spirit of the Lord
is who turns the heart to behold the Lord Jesus Christ with open
face. He takes the veil off and you
behold Him with open face. And when you behold the Lord
Jesus Christ, you behold in his glory, you behold in how he came
and took human flesh, how he came and he poured out his blood
and he fulfilled the law in perfect righteousness, how he redeemed
his people from the curse of the law. You see, he's the one
that was pictured in every word in that old covenant law. And
you hear the Lord declare you ruined. You hear the Lord declare
you're the sinner. You hear the Lord declare there's
none righteous, no not one. And you behold Christ is the
righteousness of His people. And when He makes you see Christ
by faith, He said we're changed into Christ's image. A new man
is created in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ in His holiness. by Him, by the Spirit of the
Lord. And He turns us from the glory
of that old covenant. That's what He's talking about
when He says from glory to glory. He turns you from the glory of
that old covenant. He had just said in 2 Corinthians
3, that old covenant law had its own glory. But it pales in
comparison to the glory of the everlasting covenant of grace.
And He turns you from that letter that killeth, from that ministration
of death, from only being able to read and see and hear the
word in the letter. And He turns you from that to
the everlasting covenant of grace so that you know, I'm saved by
grace and I'm made righteous in Christ. And you rest in Christ. Now you
see it's all by mercy, it's all by grace. God came, the God we
offended, and he satisfied his own justice first. He's the only
one who can make mercy and truth meet together in harmony. The
only one. And he came and did it in the
person of his dear son. Therefore, Paul said, as we've
received mercy, we faint not. This very same way that we began
by God turning us from ourselves and turning us from the letter
of the law and all our works to Christ alone. He keeps on
turning you from you and from everything below and he keeps
turning us to Christ only. And that's how we faint not. The same way we received mercy
in the beginning, that's how we faint not. He said in 2 Corinthians
4.16, for which cause we faint not, but though our outward man
perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. God's in control of
these afflictions. And God brings us into these
afflictions, and they don't seem anything, they don't seem light
at all to us. And He brings you into these,
but He's increasing your confidence in God alone. You know why? Because He's making you behold
unseen things that only faith beholds. One, by these light
afflictions, He keeps showing us our sin, our own sin, and
our own total inability. That's what He keeps showing
you through these afflictions, so that we cease looking to ourselves. And through these light afflictions,
He makes us know, He makes us know that our chief enemies,
brethren, they're unseen. Paul said we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. We don't even see our chief enemy.
The devil wants us to think that we're enemies to one another.
And we're not. He wants you to think that. The
only way to resist him, and God keeps showing this over and over,
the only way to resist him is what Peter learned. Peter said,
steadfast in the faith, trusting Christ, having all your confidence
in Christ alone, and knowing that the same affliction is accomplished
in your brethren. The Lord is accomplishing the
same thing in your brethren that He's accomplishing in you. But the God of all grace, who
called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you've
suffered a while, make you perfect. He'll establish you, he'll strengthen
you, he'll settle you, and it'll be to him will be the glory and
the dominion forever and ever. He's the one who did it. And
that's what we'll be brought to say, glory to God, he did
this. That's how it keeps our confidence
from being in ourselves and keeps our confidence being in God. God keeps commanding the light
to shine into our hearts. He keeps giving the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.
That's how he keeps us knowing that we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the power, excellency of the power may be
of God and not of us. Brethren, that doesn't just apply
to the preacher and the preaching. That applies to all God's people.
He's keeping every one of his saints knowing we have this treasure
in an earthen vessel, a dirty clay pot, a broken, Clay pot,
it's going back to the dust, that the excellency of the power
from the very first hour all the way through to the end may
be of God and not of us. And that's what he's keeping
us knowing. This is why Paul was confident God would keep
his brethren at Philippi and finish the work. He had experienced
this. God had begun in them and he
knew it. This is what scripture says,
listen to this, Hebrews 3.14. We are made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. Who was the beginning? Who was
your confidence in the beginning? When the Lord came and showed
you, you are the sinner, and he showed you Christ is the righteousness
and sanctification of his people, who was your confidence in that
moment? When He gave you faith to really see Him and know that
I am the vile, wicked, base, ruined sinner and Christ is all
righteous, who was your confidence? God made Christ your only confidence
in the beginning. When sinners think they begin
by their will, by their own will, The beginning of their confidence
is self. They can't hold the beginning of their confidence
because the beginning of their confidence is self, not Christ.
When sinners think that they by their own searching discovered
who Christ is, they can't hold to the beginning of their confidence
because the beginning of their confidence is self, not Christ.
Whenever men use other means, and they constrain men, and they
talk men into a profession, or they guilt men into a profession,
or however it is they do it, using wisdom of words, then the
beginning of their confidence is not Christ, it's man. And
they can't hold the beginning of their confidence. But when
the Lord calls His child, and begins His work in His child,
He always makes the beginning of our confidence to be Christ
alone. Christ alone. And by all these
light afflictions that He continues to work in His children, and
through the preaching of the Word, He continues to teach us,
and He continues to make us see our total, complete, ruined condition
in our flesh. And He does not let us forget
that, because He will not let us put confidence in our flesh. He gives faith to behold Christ,
our salvation, in whom we're complete. And he's going to keep
his child, casting all our care on the Lord Jesus Christ, beginning
to end. Holding the beginning of your
confidence steadfast to the end. He made us know in the beginning
the power was of God and it was not of us. And he keeps us knowing
the power is of God and not of us. He keeps us knowing that. so that we hold the beginning
of our confidence steadfast unto the end, being confident of this
very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. I said to you, Paul's
in prison when he's writing this. This is what he said, what he
wrote to Timothy. He said, nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that He is
able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that
day. What is that, Paul? Everything. My entire eternal well-being
is committed to Him. The only way I'm going to be
kept until the end is by Him. I can't do it. You can't do it.
We can't do it for each other. It's by God that keeps His people. kept by the power of God unto
salvation, that salvation that's ready to be revealed. This is the good news that God
uses to keep us looking out of ourselves, away from this world,
away from everything, to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. This is the message He's going
to use to keep our confidence. Was it the message He used to
save you in the beginning? It's the only message he saves
sinners with in the beginning, and it's the gospel with which
he continues to save sinners. When it says, it pleased God
to save through the foolishness of preaching, it's not just your
conversion. It's the next conversion, and
the next conversion, and the next conversion. It's from beginning
to end. Because this is the message that
takes it all away from us and turns us away from us and turns
us away to Christ only who gets all the glory. And this is how
God makes and keeps making and keeps increasing faith in your
heart and fear in your heart and making Christ to be your
only confidence. It's the gospel that salvation
is by God alone. It's life in you. It's having
Christ in you, the hope of glory, that makes you look out of yourself
to Him only and God's right hand. Knowing He's ruling everything,
know that everything is coming to pass according to the counsel
of His own will, and that He's always going to bring you through
it and teach you More about Him, more about Jesus what I know,
and He's gonna teach you more about how He is your all, and
He's gonna teach you more about how you are the sinner, and He's
gonna keep you growing you more confident that He that began
this work is working it right now, and He'll continue working
it. Our life's like a man walking on a narrow ridge, on a high
mountain, in the dark, in the midst of a storm, and on either
side is just a giant drop off. In the dark, in a storm, you've
never been there, you don't know the next step. Proverbs 20, 24 says, God, man's
goings are of the Lord. How can a man then understand
his own way? Can you tell me what God's going
to do tomorrow? I have no idea. But I know God's going to do
it. That's all I need to know. That's all I need to know. I've
got his promise. He's going to protect his people
on all sides. Oh, Lord, I know, this is what
Jeremiah said, oh, Lord, I know that the way of man's not in
himself. It's not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. Oh, Lord, correct me, but with
judgment, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. How can I be confident God's
going to keep me? Well, you have His Word, for
one. That's enough. He gave us His
Word. He's promised it. We read it
right here in our text. Then you have the fact that God's
holy. He's holy. That's why He sent
His only begotten Son, because He's holy and He would not pour
mercy out on us until he had completely, totally fulfilled
his law and brought every one of his elect to the end of the
law by making each one the righteousness of God in Christ his son. And
that's what Christ accomplished. And because God is holy, he will
not punish one that Christ redeemed a second time. He already did
it in Christ. You have that assurance. Well,
what else? He will not lose one because
of his name. He said, the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great name's sake, because it is pleased the
Lord to make you his people. He's saving us to glorify his
name. He will not lose one for his name's sake. He's immutable. He does not change. Grace is
free. He loved us without a cause in
us. He loved us in His Son, as His Son. And the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance. He does not give you one gift
and take it back. He said, I'm God, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. You know what that verse tells
us, brethren? that if He did change, we have given Him plenty
of reason to consume us. Is that not true? That's why
He's telling us, I'm God, I change not, therefore you're not consumed. God, help us to hear that in
our heart. Help us to understand that in
our heart. That'll make our confidence be God. Christ has made us one with Him.
So one with Him that we are inseparable with Him. One with Him. We are
Him. He regards us as Himself and
He cannot deny Himself. He's faithful and He cannot deny
Himself. Look at 1 Corinthians 1 and look
at verse 4. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 4. Paul said,
I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which
is given you by Jesus Christ. The grace of God which is given
you by Jesus Christ. That in everything you are enriched
by Him. in all utterance and in all knowledge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that
you come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful,
by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord. Paul writes that knowing full
well the sins and problems of his brethren at Corinth, and
that's what he said about them. That's how he encouraged them
to look from themselves to God and have their confidence in
God because that's how God's going to correct his people.
That's how he's going to turn his people and make us see ourselves
and our sins and see our need of Christ and turn and run to
him. That's how he's going to do it.
Confirm you to the end meant he will establish you he was
he will Keep you steadfast on the rock like we just sang about
it We've been studying first Thessalonians and first Thessalonians
523 Paul's prayer is the very God of peace sanctify you holy
We have a holy new man in us but we can't say we're perfect
because we won't be until we drop this body of death and a
new man and a new bodies given to us and And we're holy in body,
soul, and spirit. But he prayed, I pray God your
whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. He will do it. When he hems the sin on all sides
like Israel at the Red Sea. And it seemed like a heavy affliction. He shall fight for you, and you
shall hold your peace. He shall fight for you, and you
shall hold your peace. Like a lamb done before her shearers,
He'll fight for you, and you'll hold your peace, if your confidence
is Him. When God gives His child the
fear of the Lord, He gives us strong confidence in God alone. Proverbs 14, 26, in the fear
of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have a
place of refuge. God gives you strong confidence
that his all-seeing eye is upon you. and that his heart is for
us, so God will supply all our need. He's already laid, given
his only begotten son, how shall he not with him freely give us
all things? And our Lord Jesus Christ is
our refuge. He will protect and he will defend
you. He is the place of defense, the
place of refuge, and you run into him by faith. You don't
move a muscle, you don't, it's not like you're running into
a building. You just trust him. Your confidence is him. Micah said, therefore, I'll look
unto the Lord. I'll wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. When I fall,
I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord
shall be a light unto me. I'll bear the indignation of
the Lord because I've sinned against him until he plead my
cause and execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth to
the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. And His righteousness,
brethren, is your righteousness. Now trust Him. In every storm,
don't look to the storm, don't look to the waves. In every battle,
don't look to swift horses. This is what the Lord said in
Isaiah 30.15. Thus saith the Lord God, the
Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest shall you be saved,
in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Confidence
in the Lord. Trusting the Lord. Commit thy
way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it
to pass. He forsaketh not his saints,
they are preserved forever. You know, after all Abraham's
pilgrimage, and all that he went through in his life, at the end, It says, Genesis
24, 1, Abraham was old, well stricken in age, and the Lord
had blessed Abraham in all things. In all things. Everything he
went through, the Lord had blessed him in all things. Brethren, being confident of
this very thing, he which hath begun a good work in you shall
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Amen.