Tonight we're turning in our
Bibles to the book of Philippians, which I mentioned to you this
morning. I'll be preaching from Philippians
chapter one. Paul had come down to the city of Philippi. This is Philippians,
Philippi. Paul had come down to the city
of Philippi. and there were no believers there,
there was no synagogue there. According to the information
that I have, they had to have so many Jews in a city to merit
a synagogue. They wouldn't build a synagogue
unless there were a certain number of Jews in that city, and there
evidently was not that many in this city of Philippi, a military
city, the chief city of Macedonia. And God sent Paul down there
to preach. You remember the man who appeared
to Paul and said, come over to Macedonia and help us? He came
to Philippi. That's the chief city in Macedonia.
And one of the first people who heard him was a woman named Lydia. He went down by the river where
these women had met to worship God and pray. And Lydia, God
opened her heart. She opened her home. to the apostles
and his companions. That was the first, I believe,
first person converted in this city of Philippi that made up
this church of the Philippians. And then, you remember, Paul
and Silas were going to prayer, and this girl kept following
them, kept following them. You remember Acts 16, she kept
saying, These are the servants of the Most High God that show
us the way of salvation." She did that for many days, just
possessed of demons and carrying on something awful and calling
attention to Paul and Silas. And Paul, wearied of it, he turned
and cast the demons out of her. And there were some men who were
using her. to make money in some way, and
it angered them, and they brought Paul before the officials. You
remember, they had taken away their livelihood. They were using
this girl for some strange purpose, a spirit of diminution or something
like that. Anyway, stirred up the people,
the magistrates and the leaders against Paul in Philippi, and
they put him in jail, beat him and put him in jail. and put
his feet and arms in stocks. And that's when he and Silas,
you remember, were singing and praising God. And the Philippian
jailer was outside the cell door, asleep. He'd been given charge
to watch him. And they were singing at midnight,
and God sent an earthquake and shook the doors off the prison
and the shackles off the prisoners. And, uh, earthquake. And the
Philippian jailer came and evidently looked in, and he didn't see
anybody, and he drew his sword and was going to kill himself.
Because if the prisoners had escaped, they'd put him to death. He was responsible to keep them.
And now he thought they were gone, and Paul saw him draw that
sword to kill himself, and he said, Do thyself no harm. We're
all here. And he called for light. It was
night. And he called for light and sprang in, it says, and there
was Paul and Silas and the other prisoners, and he fell on his
knees and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And God saved
him. Paul went to his house. He—and
they washed his stripes, you remember? And ministered to him,
gave him food, and then Paul taught him and his house the
Word of God, and they were baptized. That's the starting of this church
here. And Paul loved these people.
Ah, he loved these people, this church. And here he's in prison
now, and he's writing an epistle to this church at Philippi. And
here in verse 1, he says, Paul and Timothy. Timothy was with
him down there in prison. Paul and Timothy. I want you
to notice, and I emphasize this, tried to this morning in the
Sunday school class, the humility of God's true people. In the
family of God, there's no Mr. Big and Mr. Little and Mr. Important
and Mr. Not-So-Important. We're brothers.
And here the apostle Paul, when he's writing to this church,
he's writing Scripture. The Holy Spirit is inspiring
him to write the Word of God, but he includes young Timothy
with him in this epistle. He's the writer. Paul wrote this
epistle. But he's saying, Paul and Timothy.
Timothy's with me. Timothy's my brother. Timothy's
my comrade in the gospel. We're together in this thing.
And he says, we're the servants of Jesus Christ. I'm not the
boss and he's the servant. We're both servants. We're both
servants of Christ. Both servants. And that word
servants there, It's the same word Paul uses in Romans 1. Paul called to be an apostle,
a servant of Jesus Christ. It's a bond-servant. You say,
what's the difference in a bond-servant, a bond-slave, and a slave? What's
the difference in a bond-slave and a slave? There's a lot of
difference. A slave is unwilling. A bond-slave
is willing. And this is where that word bond-slave
comes from. It's over in Exodus, I believe,
and think 21. But anyway, When a Hebrew or an Israelite
couldn't pay his bills and couldn't satisfy his creditors, he became
a slave for that person. But when he has served seven
years, for whatever purpose, he becomes a slave. When he has
been a slave and a servant for seven years, his master has to
let him go free. at the end of seven years. All
servants, all slaves were set free at the end of seven years.
But, the Word of God says, if this slave, this servant, says,
I love my master, my master's good to me, I don't want to go
free. The only freedom I want is to
serve my master and serve his household and be his servant. Then they'll take that man down
to the house, and to the door, and whether this is the door
of the temple, or the door of the tabernacle, or the door of
the master's house, I don't know. But he said, to the door, and
bore his ear. And he'll have that place in
his ear, and from then on, he's a serpent, but he's a bond serpent. And he's there because he wants
to be there. He's there because He loves to
be there. He's there because His delight is to serve His Master. He's a bondservant from then
on. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when
He spoke about serving His Father, He said, My ear hast thou did. You remember reading that? My
ear hath you bored. I'm a bondservant. Our Master
said that about His Father's will. I want to do His will. I want to be His servant. And
that's true of every believer. And this is what Paul is saying.
Paul and Timothy, brothers together, the bondservants of Jesus Christ. Our Lord has no unwilling servants. He has no unwilling servants.
He makes his people willing in the day of his power. Listen,
let's read on. To all the saints in Christ Jesus,
and that's what all believers, saints, I know that the Catholic
Church canonizes people, and after you see certain miracles
performed, they make them saints long after they're dead, all
this foolishness. The word saints comes from sanctified,
and every person is sanctified in Christ Jesus. He justifies
us by His blood and sanctifies us by His righteousness. Everybody
who's justified is sanctified. And everybody who's sanctified
is justified. By one offering, he has sanctified
us forever. In other words, it says in Hebrew,
we're sanctified. We're holy and pure and perfect
before God, saints in Christ Jesus, and Paul's writing to
all the saints. You know, when Tocqueville wrote
the song Rock of Ages, Rock of Ages cleft for me. Let me hide
myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flubbles be of sin, the what? Double cure. Double cure. What's the double cure? Make me pure and make me whole. Be of sin the double cure, save
from wrath and make me pure." See? So Christ saves us from
wrath by His blood and makes us pure, sanctified by the cleansing
of the Word. That's right, by the water of
the Word. We're purified. So we're all saints to the saints
in Christ Jesus, all right, which are in Philippi with the bishops.
What are the bishops? Pastors. You can write that out
there if you want to. They're the pastors. That's what
they are, with the pastors and deacons. Pastors and deacons,
those who wait on the tables and those who are servants of
the people. Pastors and deacons. All right.
Verse 2, grace be unto you. Talked about that this morning
in the message. Grace be unto you and peace.
I'll tell you this, grace always comes first. Man can't have peace
without grace. When you learn grace, you have
peace. When God's grace—when he does
the work of grace in the heart, it gives a man peace. Peace with
God, peace in his heart, conscience, and peace with his neighbor.
That's a threefold peace that grace brings. It brings peace
with God. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And it gives us peace in here,
and it gives us peace with others. Grace be unto you, and peace
from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." And Paul
says, I thank my God, I thank my God for every remembrance
of you, for every memory. I tell you, we have some blessed
memories, don't we? I can identify with him here.
Paul had some memories of this church at Philippi, the people
there, the fellowship with them. Many happy memories. And we have
many memories, don't we? I thank God for every memory
of you. Every memory. And then he says
in verse four, when I pray for you, always in every prayer,
when I pray for you, in every prayer of mine for you all, making
requests with joy. When I pray for you, it's always
with joy. Always. I make my request to
God, Lord be pleased to bless those faithful believers, and
I do it with joy. With joy. Why? Verse five, for
your fellowship, your fellowship in the gospel, your fellowship
in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ from the first day until
now. I'll tell you It doesn't matter
where they're from. Age is no barrier. Age is no
barrier. And status is no barrier. And male or female. And educated or uneducated. When
God's people meet, when they love Christ, their hearts are
united as if they had known each other all their lives. You know
that. From the first day to the first day, when the Lord saved
Lydia, Lydia was a seller of purple. She was evidently a wealthy
widow. Doesn't say anything about her
husband. She took them to her house. But she was from Pallatera,
and she was down there on business in Philippi, and she had a house
there. She was evidently a wealthy businesswoman,
a seller of purple, and the Lord saved her. And here was Paul,
a Roman missionary preacher, And here was the woman possessed
of devils that Paul had cast out of her, and here was a jailer,
and they were all brothers and sisters in Christ in Philippi. Oh, and who knows where the others
came from? So, in Christ, there's neither
male nor female, rich nor poor, old or young, learned or ignorant,
whatever. They're brothers, and they love
each other. And in the household of faith,
There are no divisions. I know men and people, they're
determined to make a difference between people, classes and status
and all these things. But in the house of God, the
family of God, it is not so. And Paul says this, when I make
verse five-four, he says, In every prayer of mine for you
all, all of you, making requests with joy for your fellowship.
your fellowship in the gospel, from the first day I met you
until now, unbroken, the first day until now. You just—you love each other
and you stay together. You stay together from the first
day until now. No reason to divide, but no reason
to leave. When you've found happiness and
joy and peace and Christ, your search is over. You're happy
right here. Happy. All right, let me get
on with, in verse six, being confident. That word is certain,
sure. Being certain of this very thing. Now, that's pretty confident,
and that's pretty sure. Being sure, this confident of this
very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, he will finish it until the day
of Jesus Christ. Now, my friends, when I'm finished
with this message, I pray that all of us will have a better
understanding of this fact. that it's not our hold on Christ
that saves us, it's Christ. He that hath begun a good work
in you, he'll finish it. It's not our hold on Christ,
it's not even His hold on us, it's Him. You see what I'm saying? It's Christ. That's our salvation. It's not our prayers that saves
us, it's Christ. It's not even our faith in Christ
that saves us. It's Christ. You see what I'm
saying? It's not even our faith in Christ. It's Christ who saves us. Therefore,
we don't look to the hope. We look to Christ, who is our
hope. You don't look to the hope. You don't look to your faith.
I don't look to my faith. Well, have I got enough faith?
A man said to me the other day, Dear friend of mine, he said
he was broken up in sorrow. His wife had died. This is the
lady I told you about this morning, her husband. Dear friend, eighty-some
odd years old, he said, Preacher, I wish I had your faith. I said,
Christ, it's not my faith. It's not your faith. It's not
the size of it or the strength of it. It's Christ. You see what
I'm saying? It's Christ. It's not my—I don't
look to my hope. I look to Him who's my hope.
I don't look to my faith. I look to Him who's the author
and finisher of my faith, the object of my faith. Someone says, well, I have great
doubts. I don't feel spiritual enough.
My faith is weak. I'm so fleshly. I look within
and I see so much sin and so much darkness and so much fear.
Our business is not to look within. Never—our business is not with
self. Our business is with Christ.
He said, Look unto me and be exalted. I am the Lord. All the ends of the earth. look
unto me and be ye saved." That's—when I get through, I want—I hope
that we have a better grip on the fact that salvation is not
in deeds and doing and these things. It's in Christ, and it's
His work, not mine. It's salvation's what He does
for me, not what I do for Him. All right, let's look at this
verse here. Whose work is it? Verse 6, being confident. of this very thing, that He which
hath begun a good work in you. It's His work. It's His work. Now, I want you to listen to
some Scriptures. I'm not going to ask you to turn to all these.
I'm going to turn to them, and I want you to listen to them.
I can turn rapidly. It says over in 1 Corinthians
1.30. Listen. But of Him are you in
Christ. Who's Him? Of God are you in
Christ? It's God's work to put you in
Christ. It's God's will to put you in Christ. Of Him are you
in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. All right, listen to this verse
over in Romans, or in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He hath made Him to
be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him." Now, who are the he's and the him's and the
else's? He, God the Father, hath made him the Son, who knew no
sin, to be sin for us, the sinners, that we, the sinners, might be
made righteous in him, the Son. That's where it is, isn't it?
All right, listen to this one. I read this this morning. For
by grace are you saved through faith, and that power of yourselves,
not the faith, not even yours. That's the gift of God. It's
not of works. Lest any man should brag and
boast, for with his workmanship, create it. I can't create anything. He's the only creator. Create
it. in Christ Jesus, that we should
walk in them. Whose work is it? It's His work.
And Mr. Spurgeon said this, My, my, when
we read scriptures like these, and we can't understand that
salvation's holding completely up the Lord, It's just further
proof of our sinfulness and our ignorance that in the face of
such scriptures as these, we should still look to ourselves
or our duties to save ourselves. What does 2 Timothy 1 and 9 say?
He saved us. He called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his purpose in grace
given to us in Christ. before the world ever started. It's His Word. All right, notice
the next word here, being confident of this fact ain't it? He's,
He's, which hath begun a good work, which I thought was finished. Now listen, listen carefully.
Didn't Christ Jesus say on the cross it's finished? Didn't he
say, I'll finish the work you gave me to do? That he did. And some of it is finished. In
fact, as far as the law, the curse of the law is concerned,
that's finished. He hath removed the curse of
the law. Isn't that right? Scripture says, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. So
I'm no longer under the curse of the law. He hath redeemed
me." All right. As far as justice is concerned
and judgment, there's no judgment. There's no judgment. There's
no condemnation to them who are in Christ. Paul said, Who can
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who is He that condemns? Heaven
or earth or hell? Come on, tell me. Who can condemn
God's people? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
He's risen again. who is ascended to the right
hand of God, who makes intercession. Oh yeah, we're justified, we're
sanctified, we're redeemed, we're perfect, we're in heaven. That's
right, it's finished. Nothing can be added. But we're
still in this body. We're still in the flesh. I'm
not like Christ yet. That's not finished. Listen to
Paul over here in Romans chapter 7. Oh, how we can identify with
these remarks of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 7. Listen
to it in verse 18. I know, I know that in me dwelleth
no good thing. In me, that is, in this flesh
dwelleth no good thing. The will is present with me.
How to perform that which is good I find not. Verse 19, Romans
7, the good that I would, I do not, the evil that I would not
do, I do now. If I do that which I would not,
it's no more I that do it, it's sin that dwells in me. I found in a law that when I
do good, evil is present with me. I don't want to spend eternity
like this, do you? So, he has begun the work. He chose me in Christ before
the foundation of the world. He redeemed me in Christ through
His righteousness and blood. He called me by His Spirit. And
one day, He's going to take this old nature away, and He's going
to make me just like Christ. That's right. And then I can
say, it's finished. That's right. He hath begun.
And I tell you this, this is what I'm getting at. He that
hath begun the work, he's going to finish it. Whom he foreknew,
he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son. Whom
he predestinated, he called. Whom he called, he justified.
And that's why I am now. I'm justified. I'm called. I'm
foreknown. I'm predetermined to be like
Christ. But I'm not yet glorified. But I tell you this, everybody
whom he justifies, he's going to glorify. Without exception. If he begins it, and he hath
begun the work, he hath begun the work. This is what John said,
now we're sons of God. You know what he said? Right now we're sons of God.
It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know this. when he shall appear, we're going
to see him like he is, and we're going to be like him. And that's
Paul David said, I'll be satisfied when I awake with his likeness.
I had a dear friend that sat by me the other day. Amazing thing, amazing. That was three o'clock in the
afternoon. At midnight, he had a heart attack and had surgery
at 2 a.m. He's sitting by me at three in
the afternoon. Seven hours later, no, nine hours
later, he'd been operated on for clogged arteries. He sat
by me at three o'clock in the afternoon. He said, Brother Henry,
if God were to say right now, who wants to go to heaven? He
said, I'd be the first one raised by him. I said, Ron, that's Ron
Lewis. I said, I believe I would, too.
I want to, don't you? I want to be like Christ. Somebody
asked Spurgeon one time, said, if God gave you anything you
wanted, what would you ask? Anything. Just name it. If God
said to you like He did to Solomon, name it! Name it! What would
you say? Spurgeon answered, I want to
be just like the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I'd say. Make me
like Christ. right now. That's what I want
more than anything. All right. He—all right, let's
go on. Let's look at it. Being certain
that this very thing, that He, our God, who hath begun what? A good work. A good work. Everything He does
is good. He doesn't halfway justify man. He justifies in He doesn't halfway
sanctify a woman. He sanctifies them perfectly.
He doesn't halfway redeem anybody. He doesn't do a part, leave a
part for you. It's perfect. It's a good work. It's a good work. Now, I'll tell
you what that word good is. That's God good. One time a rich
young ruler came to our Lord Jesus and said, Good Master,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said, Why don't you
call me good? Only God is good. If I'm not
God, I'm not good. And I'll tell you this, that
goes for all of us. If it's not of God, it's not
good. But if it's of God, it's good. It's a perfect work. He chose us in the covenant of
grace, which is perfect. He redeemed us. I want you to
look at the Scripture in Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. You know, good is perfect. It's
perfect. And here in Hebrews 10, look
at this verse, verse 12, Hebrews 10, 12. But this man, this man, after he'd offered
one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath what? Perfected them
that are sanctified with in Christ. He hath begun a good work. All right, where is it? Now watch
my text again. Being confident of this very
thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you. My friends, I'm trying to help people all
wherever I go to preach, at home and on television and wherever
I preach. I'm trying to help people understand
that this thing of salvation, and you understand it, you understand
it, this thing of salvation, it's not a profession of religion. I was in the hospital visiting
the other day in St., in Bellefonte, Our Lady of Bellefonte Catholic
Hospital, and the man I went to see was There's some tests,
so I told Doris, I said, sit down here in the hall, honey,
and save me a seat by you. I'm going to get me a paper,
and I'll read a little while I'm waiting until he comes out
of the test. So I went down to the office
there where they sit and where they sell papers and things,
and I got me a paper, and I said to the lady, I said, I'll pay
you for this. Oh, she said, I know you. You know me." Yes, she said.
You baptized me in 1952, forty-three years ago. I hadn't seen her
since. She said, How old are you anyway?
I said, Sixty-nine. I didn't say, How old are you? But she's hanging on to that
thing right there. You baptized me. I wish that
I could convince people salvation's not a baptism, an experience,
a profession of faith, a doctrinal system. Somebody says, well,
I'm a Baptist. Well, that's fine. Or I'm a Calvinist. Well, that's fine, too. And salvation's
not living a good life. A man's faith will live a good
life, but that's not salvation. It's not. You'll enjoy this. We went—Darshan, I won't You're on television every Sunday."
I said, well, I'm glad. She said, I really enjoy your
messages. I said, thank you. I'm glad. I wish you'd stop right
there. But she didn't stop. After we walked away, I said,
don't you wish we'd have walked away? Her name was Mabel Frazier. I said, Mabel, I'm glad to meet
you, and I'm glad you watched the program. Wait just a minute,
she said, I got a question. I said, all right. That's when
I said goodbye. You know, because people hear,
but they don't hear. They hear, but they don't hear.
She watches me. Every time she hasn't heard a
word I say, you'll know when I tell you what she said. She
said, Preacher, she said, I've had a heart attack. I've had
the shingles. She said, I've had this. She
began to name all these problems she had. Now, you tell me, she
said, why does this happen to us when we're living the best
way we can and doing the best we can? She listens, baby. She don't
hear me, does she? People don't hear? Having
ears, they don't hear? Having eyes, they don't see?
You know, you've been all your life, you've been a religious
people. You know what I'm talking about. You ladies in church and
where you work, they're all religious. They all got a profession of
religion. They all do the best they can. They all work in the
way of heaven. But salvation, look, let's read
this again. being confident of this fair
thing, that he that hath begun a good work, where is it? In
you. In you. Regeneration. New heart. New nature. New love. New family. New life. New attitude. New spirit. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. God revealed His Son in me, not
just to me, in me. The love of God is shared about
in your heart by the Holy Spirit. Salvation is a fellowship with
God. It's a walking with God. Amen. You know what an Englishman
said who came over to America? He came over to America and he
went back to England. And one of the people over there
asked him, they said to him, they said, do they have pubs
in America? He said, no, they don't have
pubs. He said, in America, the answer
to the English pub is their churches. You know what a pub is? You'll
appreciate it. A pub is where men and women
get together and have fellowship and visit and throw darts and
eat and drink and just enjoy one another and talk and they
spend hours over there at night. And he said they don't have pubs,
they do that in the church. That's what the churches are
for. The churches are socializing places. That's where they get
together and socialize. And that's what he thought. And
he's not too far from the truth. That's what America, a lot of,
not this one, but a lot of churches are just that very thing. They're
for social life. And folks just don't understand,
this is a work in us. God, Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Christ, who is my life, shall
appear. Oh, salvation. I tell you, if a person If a
person, if God has revealed the Lord Jesus Christ to a person's
heart, then he understands what you're talking about. And if
he hadn't, you can tell him until you're blue in the face and he's
still not going to know what you're talking about until God
reveals it. Isn't that right? That's just
so. I'm going to keep preaching this
and pray that he'll be pleased to reveal it, that salvation's
is a work of God in us. Now, watch this. I'm going to
hurry and quit it. He's going to have to be going. He will
perform it. He'll finish it. He'll finish
that work. He'll finish it. This is saying
two things. Two things. God alone is able
to finish it. That's right. He's able to finish it. He's going to take me one day
put me in a grave, and he's the only one that can call me out.
And he's the only one that can give me a glorified body. And
he's the only one that can take me to glory and make me like
Christ. He's the only one who can finish it. Isn't that right?
He's the only one who can. Abraham believed God was able
to do all that he promised. Paul said he's able to save to
the uttermost them that come to God by him. Jude said He's
able to keep us from falling, and in this book of Philippians
says He's able to raise our bowed bodies and make them like His.
He's able. But not only is He able, He will. He will. And I'm going to give
you some things in closing. He will finish it. He will finish
it. Whom He foreknew, He glorified.
He will. I'm going to ask you these four
questions. in closing the message. If God does not finish the work
which he began in you and in me, what are we going to do with
the promises of the Word? What about the promises? Listen
to these promises. The Lord loveth judgment. He will not forsake
his saints. They are preserved forever. John
10. My sheep, hear my voice. and
they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall
never perish. And no man will pluck them out
of my hands. My Father gave them me, and he's greater than all,
and no man can pluck them out of my Father's hands." What are
we going to do with that if he doesn't finish the Word? What
about this promise? I will make with them an everlasting
covenant. I will never turn away from them
to do them good. I will put my fear in their heart,
and they'll never depart from me. Yeah, he'll finish it. Oh, here's the second question.
If God does not finish the work, what about his attributes? Where
is his wisdom to purpose and plan something he couldn't finish?
Where is his power? Shall the demons of hell laugh
because God started a temple he couldn't finish? Where is
his love, which is called everlasting? I've loved you with an everlasting
love. with loving kindness have I drawn you? Where is his immutability? You just read Malachi 3 a moment
ago. It says, I am the Lord, I change
not. What about that? He, Henry, he
will finish it. He must finish it. His wisdom,
his power, his love, his immutability demand that he finish it. And
where is his mercy? Where's His mercy? Where's His
grace if He doesn't finish the work? Here's the third question. If God does not finish the work,
what will He say to the Lord Jesus Christ, who purchased our
redemption on the cross of Calvary, who justified us before the law
and redeemed us from every charge? Am I to understand that all that
Christ did was in vain? Blasphemy. Blasphemy. Is there a flaw in His righteousness?
Is there something lacking in His atonement? Why wouldn't God—how
shall He not with Him freely give us all things? He who spared
not His own son. Last question. If God does not
finish the work, what do we say? of the priestly work of Christ,
our Advocate. The Scripture says, if any man
sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
Righteous. What are we going to say to his
prayers and his mediatorial work and his intercession? Ah, but
he will finish the work. One of the hymn writers said
this, My name from the palms of his hands, eternity will not
erase. Impressed on his heart, my name
remains in marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall
endure, as sure as the promise is given. Listen, more happy,
but not more secure, are the glorified saints in heaven." That lady whose funeral I preached
Friday my dear friend, and your dear friend, Birgie, who left
not long ago. She's secure, but she's no more
secure than I am. And you? She's happier than we
are, but she's no more secure. She's more beautiful than we
are right now, but she's no more secure. Because I tell you, we're
in His hands, too. We're His people. Isn't that
right? And He says, He that hath begun a good work in you, he'll
finish it until the day of Jesus Christ. That's a promise. And
it shall not fail. Isn't that comforting? That's where the rest is. And
that's where the peace is. And you mess it up, you start
looking in here now. The average person, I don't have
enough faith. You never will have. That's right. Not enough. It takes the faith
of Christ to save. But I'm not good enough, you
never will be. I haven't worked enough, you
never will. Take all of us together and whip us together and we'll
make one good one. That's right. But he's perfect. He's our representative. All right, brother. The number two fifty two. Number
two fifty two only trust me please. Sing all three verses. Only trust
me. ♪ Come every soul, my sinner, return
♪ ♪ Mercy with the Lord ♪ ♪ And He will surely give you rest
♪ ♪ I trust in His word ♪ ♪ Holy Christ, the only-begotten Son of God ♪ you. I am. Oh. Oh. Thank you.