Philippians chapter one, and
let's look at the first, read the first six verses. Philippians one and verse one, Paul and Timotheus,
the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus,
which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. Grace be
unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine, for you all making request
with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first
day until now, 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. We're going to look at verse
6, which is a most powerful text in and of itself, standalone,
and yet it's got stuff going on before it and after it. We
see as an introduction, we see Paul thanking his great God in
verse three. I thank my God specifically upon
every remembrance of you. And then he also in verse four. has extraordinary joy in these
brethren, these churches, these believers, these saints in Christ
Jesus at Philippi. Always in every prayer of mine
for you all making requests with joy. And that word request, I
looked it up as petition. So Paul is praying for the church. And it's a wonderful church in
Philippi that the Lord has blessed him the acquaintance of meeting
and they, the Lord used him to preach the gospel. And when he
came to know him in the book of Acts, you can see this. And
then in verse five, not only is Paul thankful to his God,
not only has he experienced extraordinary joy, but in verse five, he rejoices
in the saints at Philippi in their continuation in fellowship. Now, this is important. You know,
the Lord doesn't just save you and send you out. You know, he
saves you through the preaching of the gospel and you join yourself
with a group of believers. Fellowship. We're acquainted
with one another. For your fellowship, I thank
my God, I do so with full of joy in the gospel. It's not fellowship
if it's If you both have an interest in sports, that's a camaraderie
in sports. If you have an interest in cars,
that's a camaraderie in cars. And we have these things. We
have these with people outside the church. But there's something
very special, something very particular and needful that our
fellowship, rightly called, is in the gospel. It's in the gospel
from the first day until now. So there was a continuation,
like we see in the book of Acts. They all had things in common.
They continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine, breaking
bread, singing hymns. This is what a church is. It's
we gather together, if it's one day a week, if it's two days
a week, however often we gather, we gather together in the name
of Christ and we fellowship around the gospel. So why was Paul rejoicing? Why could he rejoice? Why could
he give thanks unto his God? Why did we continue? Why did
they continue in fellowship from the first time they heard it?
They were not forgetful hearers. They heard it and then they walked
away, left the door and then not to worry about it till the
next time they met. Why were these things so important
to Paul? Why did he rejoice and was glad? And why did they even stick together? Well, why? Well, the answer is
in verse 6. Being confident. That is to convince. Convinced. Paul was convinced
of himself, of his message. I know he was fully persuaded
of the message of the gospel, but those people who heard it,
how could he even know that they would continue until the day
of Christ Jesus? How could this be so? Well, his
confidence couldn't be in his oratorical skills or his knowledge. His confidence is what our confidence
needs to be in for one another and for ourselves. Being confident
of this very thing that he, he, the Holy Spirit, the grace of
God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it. until the day
of Jesus Christ. It could even be said, you know,
it could even be said a lot. A lot, you know, it's like, you
know, we don't want to live like Lot, but he was a righteous man. Whoever's looking at Abraham,
he could say the same thing. He could say the same thing.
His confidence in them was solely founded upon the master builder,
one who never leaves things by halves. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter
7, Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse 9. Deuteronomy 7 verse 9 we're speaking
of the confidence that Paul had in them because of who who was
in them, to say it bluntly. Moses says in Deuteronomy 7 verse
9, know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful
God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him
and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. And then
we also see the same thing in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 First Thessalonians chapter five
and verse 24. Faithful is he that calleth you
who will do it. He's called us. This is all on
him. Not that we don't have any responsibility,
because we do. We have a responsibility to the
things that we've heard, to not let them slip. We have a responsibility
to nurture the word, may the word of Christ dwell in us richly,
all these exhortations, but even that pales in comparison to what
his work in us. It's not our work for him, it's
his work for us. So this is where Paul's confidence,
it laid there. He who never enters such a grand
design, a moral scheme, The utter and pure salvation of sinful
men, women, boys, and girls shall not leave it unfinished. He will perform it, says our
text. Back to our text. He will perform
it. We're talking about salvation.
We're talking about keeping grace. We're talking about sanctification,
justification, righteousness, all these things which originate
in our God. Let's look at this a little.
Let's break this down a little bit more. Being confident. of this
very thing, this very thing. Because we've had discussion
back there. We get concerned about when we
see things believers are doing that doesn't honor and glorify
God. We get concerned. We can get judgmental. We can
get critical. But if they're the Lord's, and
he may use iron sharpening iron, he may use you or me to say something
that, well, OK, I see I'm wrong. The confidence that we have is
not, if I only, how many times have you thought if I'd only
said this, then that person would have heard properly? How many
times have you said, well, I missed the opportunity? Or how many
times, yes, this is, but the confidence is still in the predestinating
work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thomas wasn't there when the
Lord first appeared. He missed a blessing, and that's
what will happen. If you miss, you'll miss a blessing.
But he didn't miss Christ, because Christ made sure he was there
the second time. So that's the confidence we have,
that He's going to keep us. He's going to keep us. Confidence. This confidence is outside of
man. His confidence, being confident
in this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you."
So it all rests on the work and the shoulders of Christ, and
we're the recipients. God the Father in electing grace,
God the Son in redemptive grace, and God the Spirit in regeneration,
regenerating and preserving grace. Now, one thing I noticed in this
is He that began a good work in you is the work of the Spirit.
I want us to notice this just as a point, a side point. The
point in order that we most normally give the Holy Ghost is the last
order in the Godhead. Usually it's God the Father,
God the Son, God the Spirit. However, here He is the first
as He illuminates what Christ has done, which we saw in John.
We see, we bow, we come to Christ all by His design, God the Holy
Spirit. Also, By His gracious act, we
are brought nigh to the Son for the first time and see our own
wretchedness, our own wretchedness, and we see the Great Martyr Lamb
and we give thanks unto God the Father. But it's God the Holy
Spirit, He that hath begun a good work in you. Paul could not be
confident in self. He could not be confident in
man or religious methods or any other thing, but But faithful
is he. Faithful is he hath begun a good
work in us. He, him in whom there's no variableness
or shadow of turning. Faithful is he or him who changes
not, therefore we sons of Jacob are not consumed. Faithful is
he or him who called us by his truth to the reclaiming of our
souls. All this is not, is never or
ever founded on human worth but divine grace. I'm confident of
this very thing. There's a lot of things in this
world you can be confident and then you lose your confidence.
You know, about the only thing that's sure in this world is
taxes. and oppression and hate for the gospel. There are certain
things, but as far as positively, to be confident in you and I,
if you've trusted in Christ in the flesh, it's not gonna profit.
If you're trusting in your baptism, if you're trusting in your religious
service, if you're trusting in your doctrine or your creeds,
but if you're trusting in the Son, we can have confidence. We can have confidence in one
another. Because it's by grace we're saved, through faith, not
of ourselves. Being confident of this very thing. That He,
which hath begun a good work, He hath begun this good work,
this apex work. This, as stated prior, this quickening,
this calling, this delivering, this rescuing. It's good because
He is the summation of good. It's good as no one else is so
called. Why call you me good? There's
only one good, but God. It's good, it's finished, it's
sealed, it's decreed, it's concluded, it's closed. Christ hung on the
cross, he said it's finished. The father was satisfied, the
son glorified, and the spirit justifies every last one of his
elect bride. But also notice in our text that
he which hath begun a good work in you. Now this is important.
It's just the two little words, but it's important. Why? Because
it's not external. Now it does show up, like James
says, without faith and works, they go together. But this is
important. The work of salvation, free grace
of God, is in us. It's not external. Why? Because
external can be mimicked, can be counterfeited, can be duplicated. How many people we've got here
and we're like, boy, I never thought they'd leave. They seem to understand the gospel.
External things can be duplicated. We can look good on Sunday and
dress up and appear like we know, but internal, if it's the work
of the spirit, it cannot be duplicated. It is a spiritual work. It's
called the new man, the new creature. It's called the seed in other
places. That remains in a person. It's called the root, which is
out of sight. There's no roots that you see
other than maybe a swamper. You see the cypress and the black
gums. You see some of those swamp hollies. You see some of the roots, but
the main, the roots is not seen. It's not seen. It's called the
oil of gladness in the heart. It's the laws of God, which are
written in the inner man. He has begun a good work in you. It's solid. It's rock solid. He says, nextly, thirdly, He
will perform it. That word perform is finish it
or perfect it. Perfect it. Well, it doesn't
seem like it's being perfected now. In our eyes, it doesn't
seem to be finished. This is as to the work about
us. It's kind of partial fruit. We don't have full, you know,
we long for the day when Christ comes, when everything will be
wrapped up. But Paul and all children of the grace of God
can be extremely confident that it is finished. It's being performed
in the eyes of the triune God. He looks at us as it's complete. It's finished. Now it doesn't
appear what we shall be. Right? But that's why Paul's
confidence was not in them. Paul's confidence was in God
in them. Confident in this very thing,
that he which hath begun a good work in you will, not maybe,
not partially, like he healed. He never healed partially. He
healed completely. Will perform it. Where there is grace, there will
be glory. Jonathan Edwards said it this
way, grace is the beginning of glory and glory is the perfection
of grace. I believe that's correct. It's
that incorruptible seed which can never be lost or destroyed. Incorruptible. He will finish
it because it is based or anchored in the covenant, the covenant
of God's grace, the promises of God, the Son's work, and it
is founded upon He, Him, Himself, which He, that He which hath
begun a good work will perform it, will perform it. We're fetched,
we're sealed unto the day of redemption, we're kept by love
divine, We are under the blood. We are in unbroken union with
Christ. We abide with him and he abides
with us. We are all the above and I can't say more because
it's above me. I could look at the source and
just change the words around. You just can't say enough. You
really can't say enough what he has done for his people. And
it's all very gracious, it's very redundant, but it's full
of hope and peace to usward. The fact that he which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it, will perfect it, will finish
it. Lastly, when? Until when? The day of Jesus
Christ. Now this could be two things.
It could be the day of our death. when Christ will take us up in
his everlasting arms, or as Richard Baxter said on his deathbed,
how's it going, Richard? He says, I'm almost well. I'm
almost well. It could be that day, or it could
also be the last day, when the dead shall be raised up, and
we all shall serve him with unfettered care, no more worries, and no
more sin. Oh, hasten that day, hasten that
day. Now, if you don't, if you're
not in Christ, if you haven't trusted Him, if you haven't seen
His blood and righteousness shed for you, we have no confidence
in you. We have no confidence in you.
How long have you heard and still have not come to Christ? The
only confidence we can have, the only confidence that we do
have, have a right to have, is the work of Christ for us. Because
we're up and down, forward, back. I pray that your confidence would
be resting in Him. And in our confidence in you
would be solid. Solid indeed. So let me just
re-read the text. Being confident in this very
thing, that He, God in Christ Jesus, supported by the Eternal
Spirit, He that hath begun that glorious and beautiful work of
grace in the heart, mind, and soul, shall complete it, shall
perfect it, finish it, why, being His own labor and His own act,
until that sweet and melodious day of Emmanuel. the Lord Jesus Christ. May this
give us something to go home and rejoice in, that we are not
our own, we're bought with a price. And if we're bought, there's
nothing, no one that can get to us, really. They can harm
the body, but they cannot do anything for the soul. This is
the confidence that this man, this preacher, this is the man
had May we have that with one another
based on the word of God. Brian, would you close us please?