Well, I invite you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of Philippians, Philippians
chapter 1. And today's message is entitled,
God Finishes What He Starts. And I want to begin by reading
the first six verses of the book of Philippians, Philippians 1,
1 through 6. But my eye is on verse 6. We're
going to camp out at verse 6. We're going to drill down at
verse 6. But I want to read this entire
section that leads up to this so that you can get a feel for
the context. As you know, as Paul writes this,
he is in prison. He is in chains. He will spend
two years there in Rome. He is separated from the Philippians. He is the founding pastor of
this church. They have loved him dearly. They
have sent a financial gift to him to help him as he has to
pay his own rent for his house arrest. The book of Philippians
is in reality a thank you letter that he sends back to the church
at Philippi expressing his thanks and gratitude for their financial
support of him in this very difficult time in his life. And so this
letter begins, chapter one, verse one, Paul and Timothy, bondservants
of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are in Philippi,
including the overseers and deacons, grace to you, and peace from
God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God
in all my remembrance of you. always offering prayer with joy
in my every prayer for you all in view of your participation
in the gospel from the first day until now. And now here's
our focus. Here is where we will spend our
time today. Verse six, for I am confident
of this very thing. that he who began a good work
in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. I fly to Orlando, Florida somewhat
regularly where I work with the ministry Ligonier Ministries
and R.C. Sproul. When I get off the plane
in Orlando, I go to the rental car, secure that, and begin to
drive up Interstate 4. And as I go north on I-4 towards
Lake Mary, on the right, I always pass what is famously known as
the I-4 eyesore. And it is an eyesore. In one
sense, it's a beautiful, tall building. It's about 15 to 18
stories tall. It's modern, but what makes it
an eyesore is that it has been there for 16 years, and it has
never been finished. It is an empty shell of a building,
and over $30 million has been poured into this eyesore. It is empty. It is unoccupied. It is unfinished and it is known
to everyone in Orlando as the eye for eyesore. And it is a
monument to this fact that so many times what man begins, he
never finishes. He intends well, he starts well,
but somewhere along the way, he never finishes what he starts. It happens in business, it happens
in marriage, it happens in politics. But by stark contrast, as it
relates to salvation, whatever God starts, He always finishes. And the God who has begun a good
work in us, He will complete it all the way to the end. And
there will be no dropouts along the way. There will be no one
left behind along the way. Everyone in whom God begins a
saving work of grace, no one will ever fail to reach the shores
of glory where the throne of God is. This is good news this
morning. You're going to make it. If God
has begun a work of saving grace in your life, you are just as
certain for heaven this very moment as though you have already
been there ten thousand years. It is signed, sealed, and delivered.
It is settled with God and it is not a matter of you holding
on to God, it is a matter of God holding on to you. Spurgeon
said that Noah fell down many times in the ark, he never once
fell out of the ark. And you and I may falter and
fail in our Christian life at times. There may be stumbling
blocks in front of us. We may slide, we may backslide,
but I want you to know this, that it's not a matter of you
holding on to God, it's a matter of God holding on to you. And
He will never let go of you. And the work that God has begun,
God is going to see it through all the way until the end. So
this text is one of the greatest texts in all of the Bible that
teaches what theologians call the perseverance of the saints. In reality, it is the perseverance
of the sovereign in the saints. We persevere because God perseveres
in us and He will never, never leave us nor forsake us. It's
also referred to by others as the eternal security of the believer. And that is our focus here today. And as we look at this text,
I'm reminded of what Sinclair Ferguson once told me. He said
Alexander McLaren, great Scottish Baptist preacher of the 19th
century, he said he had a golden hammer. And McLaren could come
to any passage of Scripture and just tap it with his golden hammer
and it would break out perfectly into three sections. I don't have a golden hammer,
but I'm going to give you the three sections right here. And
this verse lays out so wonderfully. Here are the three things that
I want you to see about the preserving work, the persevering work of
God. The first third of verse 6 is
the certainty, the certainty of this persevering work. Paul
says, for I am confident of this very thing. That's certainty,
my friend. And then second, I want you to
note the commencement of this preserving work. Notice, Paul
goes on to say, for he who began a good work in you. That's the
commencement. And then finally, the conclusion,
the consummation of this preserving work, He will perfect it until
the day of Christ Jesus. So, this is a feast for us to
dive into, to be able to look at a verse like this and to enjoy
the beauty of what God says to us. So, I want to begin first
with the certainty of the preserving work. Notice how Paul begins. He begins with a strong note
of absolute unshakable certainty concerning God's work of salvation. Notice how he begins, for I am
confident. of this very thing. Paul is emboldened
with deep convictions in the truth. He doesn't say, I am wishing
for this very thing, I am hoping for this very thing, I am thinking
about this very thing. No, Paul is rock-solid certain. He is unequivocal about this.
He's not just dogmatic about this, he's bulldogmatic about
this. He cannot be moved away from
this conviction and this certainty, this verb, I am confident. Do
you see this word confident? This word means to be strongly
persuaded. It means to be deeply convinced. It means to be absolutely sure. Now, Christians can differ on
certain second-level issues and interpretation. This is not one
of those. This is a front-line doctrine,
a front-line truth in the Christian faith that God who begins a saving
work, He will carry it through all the way to the end. Now,
where does such confidence come from? There is an external witness
and an internal witness so that you and I can have this very
same confidence and certainty as well. The external witness
is the clear teaching of the Word of God. The Bible from cover
to cover teaches without any doubt whatsoever the truth of
the eternal security of the believer in Jesus Christ, the very moment
that God begins this saving work within us, He gives to us eternal
life. It's not that He gives us eternal
life one day once we get to heaven, and if we can just hold out here
until the end, once we get to heaven, then He'll give us eternal
life. That's not the way it works. According to John 5 verse 24,
the giving of eternal life is in the present tense. It's at
the very moment we believe upon Jesus Christ, we are given eternal
life. It's the clear teaching of Scripture.
And if you could receive eternal life and then lose it after five
years, you didn't have eternal life. You had five-year life. If you could be a Christian for
10 years and then lose your salvation, you didn't have eternal life.
You had 10-year life because eternal life lasts throughout
all eternity. And what is settled for eternity
can never be undone within time. We have the external witness
of the Word of God. The grass withers, the flower
fades away, the Word of our God abides forever. All of the promises
of God are yea and amen. We have the external witness
of the Word of God, that He will never, never leave us nor forsake
us. There is also the internal witness
of the Holy Spirit of God who is the author of the written
Word of God. And when we believe upon Jesus
Christ, our bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit of
God and we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And it is the Holy
Spirit of God who testifies and bears witness to our heart of
the veracity and the truthfulness of the Word of God. It is the
Holy Spirit who convicted us, the Holy Spirit who called us,
the Holy Spirit who converted us is the Holy Spirit who confirms
within us the assurance of our salvation. And assurance of salvation
does not come from a pastor, it doesn't come from a parent,
it doesn't come from an evangelist, it comes from God Himself. Only
God can give this testimony and witness on the inside that we
belong to God, but also of the genuineness of the promises of
God in His Word. And so Paul begins here in verse
6. With this clear statement of
certainty, every one of us as believers must have this certainty
that the God who has begun a saving work in us is the God who will
carry this work all the way through to the end. And how sad it is
that some Christians walk around bent over, discouraged. They look like a question mark
walking around because they do not have this certainty. When
instead we need to be standing erect, our head looking up into
the heavens, we need to be like an exclamation point and have
this certainty that God who began a work in me is the God who will
carry it through until the last day. That's the certainty. I want to ask you this morning,
do you have this certainty? because the Holy Spirit gives
this certainty to His children. And if you do not have this certainty,
I wonder why you do not have this certainty, because He gives
it to all in whom He indwells their life. So that's the certainty. Second, I want you to note the
commencement of this preserving work. Continue to work your way
with me now into verse 6, for I am confident of this very thing,
and this very thing refers to what he is about to now say,
that he who began a good work in you. He who began a good work
in you. This points back to the time
when God began this work in the Philippians. It points back to
Acts chapter 16 in Paul's second missionary journey. When Paul
first came to Philippi, he went to the riverside. There were
some women there who were gathered together, and Paul preached the
gospel to them, and God opened the heart of Lydia, and God opened
the hearts of some other women there, and they were converted
to Christ. Paul was thrown into prison because
of his gospel preaching. And he preached the gospel in
prison, and the Philippian jailer was converted. And that very
night, his entire household was converted. And spontaneously,
sovereignly, supernaturally, God birthed the church at Philippi. And God began this work within
them. Now, I want us to look at each
of these words here very carefully, that He who began a good work
in you. Let's walk through this. I want
to drill down with you just a little bit. First of all, the word He. Who is the He? He refers to God
the Father. That's very clear from the context,
the antecedent you'll find in verse 3 and in verse 2. It is
God our Father. It is God the Father who began
this work. And here we are reminded that
the entire Godhead is a Savior. We know Jesus is our Savior. John 4 verse 42, He's the Savior
of the world. But so also is God the Father
a Savior. And so also is God the Holy Spirit
a Savior. That is why when we baptize someone,
we baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Because the entire Trinity is
a Savior, Father, Son, and Spirit together. It is the Father who
has chosen His elect. It is the Father who has sent
the Son and the Spirit into this world. It is the Son who has
lived a sinless life and died a substitutionary death to secure
the salvation of those whom the Father sent Him to save. And it is the Holy Spirit who
has come into this world to convict and to convert and to regenerate
those who are lost. This passage gives glory to God
the Father. as the initiator who has inaugurated
this work of salvation. So the he refers to God the Father. It's also in verse 8, God is
my witness, how I long for you with the affection of Christ
Jesus. God is distinguished from, separate from Christ Jesus. In
this very text, God refers to God the Father. Now, note the
word began, he who began a good work in you. This clearly states
that there was a moment, there was a time, a defining time when
God began a work in you. And previous to that, God was
not at work in your life. God was not in your life. God
was outside of your life. You were separated from God.
You were without God in this world. You were without hope
in this world. And then there was a point when
God began a work in you. Now, some of us here today may
not be able to isolate and point to that time when God began a
work, but there was a time when God began that work. Whether
you can identify that moment, or not. And so Paul looks back
to that time when God first began a work within the Philippians. And there was a time when God
began to work in your life as well. And I wonder if this morning,
if you can look back and be reminded of when God began that work in
your life. But also please note, He began
a good work in you. This word for good means excellent,
beautiful. It's not just a good work. It's
the very best work that God ever does is what He does inside of
a believer. I want to put it to you this
way, the greatest work that God is doing in the universe is what
God is doing inside of His people. Greater than when God said, let
there be light, is when God caused gospel light to shine into your
sin-darkened heart. Greater than when God created
everything out of nothing is when God made you to be a new
creation in Christ. And greater than when God created
all of nature is when God created a new nature inside of you. This is the greatest work that
God does in the entire universe and God is doing this work inside
of you this morning if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. And please note the word work.
God who began a good work inside of you, I want you to know you
really are saved by works. I knew you would get it. Every
one of us is saved by works. It's just not your works. It's
God's works. It is the work of God. And this
work, the word for work here is the word that we derive the
English word energy from. It is a powerful work that God
does inside of us to take just raw, corrupted, defiled sinners
like you and me and transform us into the very image of His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God is at work in us and it is
His greatest work. It is a spiritual work. It is
a saving work. It is a sanctifying work. It
is a securing work. It is a sovereign work. And please
note where He does this, He who began a good work in you. Please note, this is not a superficial
work that lays on the outside of your life. It's not something
that's on the facade of your life. God is not just dressing
you up externally to look more like Jesus Christ. It is the
work that God does in you. It refers to the very depth of
your being, in your innermost person, at the epicenter of your
life. It is a work of God in you that
is working its way out to the very circumference of your life. Now, you may be asking, well,
more specifically, what is this work? And within the book of
Philippians, I want to show you four aspects of this work. And
I'm going to lay it out in the order in which it takes place.
I want you to come to Philippians 3 and verse 3 and I want you
to see the first work that God began in you. It is the first
work that God began in the Philippians. This is where it all begins.
This is where it starts. This is the inauguration of a
saving work of God in you. So in Philippians 3 and verse
3. We read, for we, stop right there,
the we refers to all believers there at the church at Philippi
and all believers around the world wherever they would gather.
So this is true of believers only. For we are the true circumcision. who worship in the Spirit of
God and glory in Christ Jesus. And this is in contradistinction
to what's at the end of verse 2, the false teachers are the
false circumcision. The first work that God does
in you is spiritual circumcision. Now, that's not how we normally
express what God has done in us. This is a metaphor for the
new birth. This is a metaphor for the doctrine
of regeneration. And what a spiritual circumcision
is, is a true circumcision as opposed to a mere physical circumcision
in which God circumcises the heart. If you are in Christ,
your heart has been circumcised. Now in the Old Testament, circumcision,
as you well know, was the cutting of the foreskin of a baby boy
in the nation Israel on the eighth day. And it symbolized two things
predominantly. One was national, the other was
individual. Nationally, when a Jewish boy
was circumcised on the eighth day, it was, if you will, a dress
rehearsal, a symbolizing of the fact that the nation of Israel
had been set apart from among all of the nations to be God's
own possession. And that God would carry out
His enterprise through this set apart people. That's national. but it had a greater realization
in the personal. And what it was a picture of,
if you will, is that the heart must be circumcised. On the eighth
day, the little baby boy would be circumcised physically, and
it was a look ahead in his life of what must yet happen spiritually. His heart must be pierced. His
heart must be cut. There must be open-heart surgery
that God would perform where God would take out His heart
of stone and God would put in a heart of flesh. I want to give
you some cross-references just to tie this down. Deuteronomy
30 verse 6. The Lord your God will circumcise
your heart. To love the Lord your God with
all of your heart and all of your soul so that you may live."
Moses understood, it was God speaking through Moses, that
a physical circumcision is not enough. You must have a circumcision
of your heart if you are to live unto God. In Acts 7 and verse
51, when Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin, Stephen said,
you men are stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart. That meant they were unconverted.
They were unregenerate. In Romans 2 verse 29, Paul writes,
circumcision is that which is of the heart by the Spirit, close
quote. Did you hear that? Paul is saying
that true conversion, true regeneration is a circumcision of the heart. And in Colossians 2 verse 11,
Paul writes, in Christ, you were also circumcised with a circumcision,
listen to this, made without hands. There was a circumcision
made with hands, and there was a circumcision made without hands,
and the true circumcision is the circumcision made without
human hands. It is made by the Spirit of God,
who is the agent of circumcision, who works by the instrumentality
of the written Word of God, which is living and active and sharper
than any two-edged sword and able to pierce as far as the
division of soul and spirit. That is what Paul is saying here
in Philippians 3 verse 3, that we, and I can say here today
for those of us who are genuine believers in Jesus Christ, for
we are the true circumcision. Our hearts have been circumcised
and have been set apart unto God, and we have in fact received
a new heart. That is where the work began.
It was open-heart surgery. In fact, it was more than that.
It was a heart transplant. And God took out that old, rotten,
stinking heart with which you were born, and God tossed it
aside, and He put within you a new heart for Him. That's number one. Now, number
two, come to chapter 1, verse 29. Philippians 1, verse 29,
and the order here is very important. The second work that God began
in you after spiritual circumcision, and I say after, it happened
immediately at the same moment. Yet there is a cause and effect
within that moment. And in verse 29, we see that
God grants saving faith. That's the second work that He
began in you. So notice in verse 29 of chapter
1, for to you, stop right there, the you refers to all the true
believers in the church at Philippi and all true believers around
the world wherever they meet in whatever generation. It has
been granted. If something is granted, it is
given as a gift. It is something that you did
not previously possess and now must be given to you. So the
Philippians at one point in their life were without something and
God did a work in them to give them something and He will go
on to define what that is. First, the motive, the aim, the
goal, for Christ's sake. And whenever God gives by His
Spirit the gift of saving faith, it is for Christ's sake that
there would be the fullness of the bride of Christ, that there
would be more gathered around the throne in heaven to sing
the praises of the Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be one
more voice added to the hallelujah chorus. So, verse 29, for to
you it has been granted for Christ's sake. not only to believe in
Him. You see, it has been granted
to you, given to you as a gift to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Before we were converted, there
was the bondage of the will. Before we were converted, we
were spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. A dead man cannot believe
upon Jesus Christ. That is why first there must
be a spiritual circumcision. First there must be the heart
set apart to God, a new heart implanted, and then immediately
God gives the gift of saving faith which enables you to call
upon the name of the Lord. And please note the order here.
Regeneration precedes faith. Regeneration produces faith. So he says, we have been granted
to be able to believe in Christ. A couple other verses are important
to draw to your attention at this point. Hebrews 12 verse
2 says, Jesus is the author and perfecter of faith. Who authored
saving faith within you? It was God. Acts 3 verse 16 says
that all faith in Christ is a faith that has come from and through
Christ. In Ephesians 2 verse 8 and 9
it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result
of works. What is the gift of God? Well
the closest antecedent is faith. It's not just grace has been
given to you, faith has been given to you to believe in His
grace. It's all of God. That's why Romans
11, 36 says, from Him, through Him, to Him are all things. And 1 Corinthians 12 verse 3
says that no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now, someone can say the words
Jesus is Lord, but in genuine true saving faith, it is only
by the Holy Spirit. And 2 Peter 1 verse 1, it says
that we were chosen to have faith. So what is this work that God
began in you? It is the work of spiritual circumcision. It is the work of saving faith
and granting it to you. You truly did call upon the name
of the Lord, it was with a faith that God gave you. If you'll turn to chapter 1 and
verse 1, the third work that He did within us is union with
Christ. He placed us in Christ. So notice in chapter 1 verse
1, Paul writes to all the saints, note. in Christ Jesus. How did you come to be in Christ
Jesus? Because you did not start out
in Christ Jesus, you started out in the world. You started
out according to the evil world system. And now the saints are
in Christ. How did that happen? It is God
working by His Spirit that has placed us in Christ and so all
that is true of Christ now becomes true of us in this sense. When Jesus died, we were crucified
with Him. Romans 6 makes this abundantly
clear, 3, 4 and following. There was the death to our old
way of life. And Jesus was raised from the
dead, therefore we have been raised with Him to walk a new
walk. We have new life in us. In fact,
it even says we are seated with Him in the heavenly places in
Christ Jesus because we are in Christ. And that is why our life has
been changed. That is why we have been so dramatically
and radically transformed because there has been a death to our
old way of life and there has now been a resurrection unto
a new life. And this is the work that God
began in us. The very moment we were spiritually
circumcised, He gave us saving faith, He placed us in Christ,
and we died and we were raised. Now, there's a fourth work that
I want you to note. And I want you to come to chapter
2 and verse 13. And the language will be much
the same. And this began His sanctifying
work in us. The moment we are regenerated,
we are immediately set apart unto God and God begins now this
process of sanctifying us. In fact, let me begin in verse
12. So then, my beloved, just as you have...note the next two
words, always believed, that points back to when God began
this work. In the truest sense, saving faith is a step of obedience
because the gospel is more than an invitation. The gospel is
more than a free offer. It is those two things, but it's
more than that. The gospel is a command. It comes
in the imperative mood. We are commanded by God to repent
and to believe. Unbelief is disobedience. And
the Philippians always obeyed and it refers to the moment of
their...when God began this work, they then began to obey. There's no such thing as a disobedient
believer as you look at the big picture of a believer's life. So continue in verse 12. He says,
not as in my presence only, but much more in my absence. In other words, Paul didn't have
to be looking over their shoulder for them to live their Christian
life. They had a true and genuine motivation in the Lord. And so he says in verse 12 to
them, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Now,
please note what it does not say. This does not say work for
your salvation. It says, work out your salvation. That clearly implies something
has been put into you that you must work out. And what God has
put into us is the reality of a new heart and a new nature,
and we've become a new man, and we must now work it out from
the very innermost being of who we are and what we are. And he
says, with fear and trembling. I wish I had time to do word
studies on fear and trembling. These are not light words. The
word trembling means to literally do this with shaking. And the
idea is you take God very serious. And this is the book that speaks
more than any other book in the New Testament about joy. And
there is no joy without first fearing God. And as we work out
our salvation, and salvation here really is referring to sanctification,
we are to do so with fear and trembling. And verse 13 now gives
the explanation, for it is God, and God refers to God the Father. That's at the end of verse 11,
to the glory of God the Father. For it is God, God the Father,
who is at work in you. That's what Philippians 1, 6
said. both to will and to work for His good pleasure. And what
this is saying, it is God who is bringing to bear a force and
an influence upon your will so that you will work out your salvation
with fear and trembling. God remains at the very epicenter
of your sanctification. And it is God who is enabling
you to will and to work for His good pleasure. Remember Jesus
said in John 15 verse 5, apart from Me you can do what? Nothing,
that's not a whole lot. That's a zero with the edges
trimmed off, okay? So, it is God who is driving
our Christian lives and energizing our Christian lives. We are responsible,
in verse 12, to work it out, but it is God who is in us who
is enabling us to work it out. Now, I want to make a theological
distinction here, and I want you to listen to this. The first
three of these are exclusively a work of God, God and God alone. We call that monergism, monergistic
salvation. Mono meaning one, ergon meaning
work, monergism means there's only one person doing the work. Our new birth was monergistic. The granting of saving faith
was monergistic. Being placed in Christ was monergistic. You had nothing to do with it.
It was entirely a work of God. What did you do to be born? I'm
waiting. Nothing. What did you do to be
spiritually circumcised? It was all a work of God's grace
in your life. It is this fourth one to work
out your salvation and fear and trembling that is synergistic. There are two agents at work,
one with a capital A, the other with a small a. It is God and
the saint who has been set apart, who now work together in our
Christian life. That's why we're not passive.
We are active in our Christian life. We are to buffet our body.
We are to resist temptation. We are to pursue holiness. We
are to obey the Word of God. It's not let go and let God. It is to run the race that God
has set before us. And yet it is God who is at work
within us enabling us to grow in Christlikeness. I just gave
you a lot of information. That is the commencement of this
preserving work. And I want to ask you this question.
Has God done this in your life? Has God begun this in you? Has
God circumcised your heart? I know that's language that we
don't normally use, but it's Bible language. Has God pierced
your heart? Has God cut deep into your heart?
Has God given you a new heart? And has He given you saving faith
to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ? And has He placed you in Christ? Have you died to your old way
of life? Are you alive now unto God with
a new life and you've been raised from the dead? This is the work
that God does in His people. And I want to say it again, it
is the greatest work that God is doing in the universe. Now
finally, I want you to note the completion of this preserving
work. We've seen the certainty and
we've seen the commencement. I want you to see now the completion
in Philippians 1 and verse 6. Notice how this verse concludes,
for I'm confident of this very thing that He who began a good
work in you, here it is, will perfect it until the day of Christ
Jesus. God will perfect it. This doesn't
say He may perfect it, He could perfect it, He should perfect
it, He would perfect it, He might perfect it. He says He will perfect
it. This word perfect is a verb that
means to bring to an end. It means to complete, to bring
to a close. It means to perform the last
act of a process. It means to finish, to fulfill. It is the very word that John
19 30 records that Jesus cried out upon the cross, it is finished. The work of salvation has been
consummated. The atonement, full atonement
for sin has now been made. It's the very word that Paul
uses here, he will perfect it. He will bring it to completion
all the way to the day of Christ Jesus. And the day of Christ
Jesus is the day of Christ's return. And Paul was living every
moment of every day for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ And
whether Christ comes first or whether we die first, either
way, He will perfect it all the way until the very end. Paul so lived in anticipation
for the second coming, the return of Christ, that he knows and
speaks of the end as the day of Christ Jesus. And we know
from 1 Thessalonians 4, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout, and a trumpet of God, and the voice of the archangel,
and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we who are
alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air,
and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort
one another with these words. The Lord is ready to burst upon
the scene. The judge is standing right at
the door. He is soon to return. And Paul says that God will finish
in every believer what he has begun all the way to the end. I want you to hear the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter 10, verse 27. My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them. and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
from my hand. My Father who has given them
to me is greater than all, and no man shall pluck them from
his hand. I and the Father are one." We
are held in the hand of Christ and no one can pry open the hand
of Christ and remove us, but then the hand of the Father surrounds
the hand of the Son and we are double sealed in Christ. And Ephesians 1 also says we
are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Christ. the entire Godhead
is preserving us all the way to the end. Now, I have one last
verse I want you to turn to. I see I've got five minutes,
so turn to Romans chapter 8. James Montgomery Boyce once said
that if the Bible is a ring, the book of Romans is the diamond
on that ring. And Romans chapter 8 is the apex
cut of the diamond on that ring. So this is a good chapter for
you to turn to right now. And in Romans chapter 8, I want
to begin reading in verse 29, and I want you to be especially
mindful of noticing the third person singular pronoun, he. And I want to ask you the question,
who is the he? So notice, beginning in verse
29, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son. Now the He, therefore, is
different from and distinguished from His Son. So that leaves
two other persons within the Godhead and we know in verse
26 and verse 27, He also speaks of the Holy Spirit. There is
only one other person in the Godhead of whom this can be referring
to, and it is the one mentioned in verse 31. In verse 33, it
is God the Father. Now, please note God's involvement
in our salvation, God the Father. Notice verse 29, for those whom
He, God the Father, foreknew, He also predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son so that He, God the Son,
would be the firstborn among many brethren. Verse 30, for
these whom He predestined, God the Father, He, God the Father,
also called, and these whom He called, God the Father, He also
justified. And these whom He justified,
He also glorified. God is over this entire saving
process. God the Father is the author
and the architect of the eternal decree of God and the plan of
salvation as well. And those whom God began with
in eternity past, those whom He foreknew, which means those
whom He previously loved with a distinguishing saving love,
it is these that the Father predestined. marked out the horizon long before
they arrived at their destination. And it is these whom the Father
called by His Spirit, and it is these whom the Father justified
by imputing the perfect righteousness of His Son to their account,
and it is these whom the Father glorified, conforming them into
the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. This is a work of God the Father,
working through the Son, working by the Spirit in our lives to
bring about our eternal salvation. Here's what I want you to know.
If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're there, as if you've
already been there. Nothing can derail it. Nothing can cause it not to happen. God will finish what He has started
in your life. For the rest here today who have
not yet believed in Jesus Christ, do you see what a great thing
it is for God to do a work in you? Do you see what a great
thing it is to have a new heart and to be given faith and to
be placed in Christ and for God to be at work at the very inside
of your life every moment of every day? It's the greatest
life that anyone could ever know or could ever experience. You
need to know that this God the Father has sent His Son, Jesus
Christ, into this world. He was born of a virgin. He was
born so that He could be like us and enter the human race,
but He was born of a virgin so that He would be unlike us, He
would be without sin. He was born under the law and
perfectly obeyed and kept the law at every point. with perfect
obedience. He has fulfilled all righteousness. And it is this acquired righteousness
by Christ that is credited to your account. It is this that
clothes you in the act of justification. This same Christ the Father sent
to the cross and there He was lifted up to die and the Father
took all the sins of all the people who would ever believe
upon Christ. He took all of our sins and transferred
them to Christ and Him who knew no sin, God the Father made to
be sin for us. And in His death upon the cross,
He shed His blood. He satisfied the righteous anger
of God towards those who would believe this perfect righteousness
of Christ, this perfect salvation. The Father takes from the Son
and places it upon all those who believe in the Son. The Father
has taken the worst about us and placed it upon the Son. He
has taken the best about the Son and placed it upon us. It's the great exchange of the
cross. He was taken down from the cross. He was buried in a
borrowed tomb. And on the third day, He was
raised from the dead. He has ascended to the right
hand of God the Father. And whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Jesus said, I am the way
and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but
through me. Peter said, there's salvation
in no other name. For there's no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. If you've never
believed upon Jesus Christ, if you've never called upon the
name of the Lord, if all you've had to this point is just religion,
but you've never had your heart cut and received a new heart. If you've never believed upon
Christ, I point you to Christ. He's the savior of all who will
call upon him. And he says, him who comes unto
me, I will in no wise cast out. He says, if anyone thirsts, let
him come unto me and drink. He says, come unto me, all you
who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly of
heart, and you shall find rest for your souls, for my burden
is easy and my yoke is light. The greatest decision you will
ever make in your life is to commit your life with saving
faith and repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ. May this work begin
in you this very moment, this very second. May God begin this
work in you. Let us pray. Father in heaven, how we thank
You for the fact that You are a working God, that You're not
on sabbatical, that You're working every moment of every day. You're
causing all things to work together for good. You are working and
bringing people to your Son, and you are working within the
hearts of your people. I pray for those here today who
are without Christ, that they may run to Christ, flee to Christ,
embrace Christ, receive Christ this very day. In Jesus' name
we pray. Amen.