If you would, please turn to
Paul's epistle to the Philippians, chapter one. Philippians chapter one. I'm
just beginning in 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. 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 hath
begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. Even as it is meet for me to
think this of you all, because I have you in my heart in as
much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation
of the gospels, ye are all partakers of my grace. For God is my record,
how greatly I long after you in all the bowels of Jesus Christ. I'm gonna stop right there. This letter is addressed from
Paul and Timothy to the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi. Now let's just make this clear
from the beginning. If you're not in Christ Jesus, you're not
a saint. And if you are a saint, it's
because you are in Christ Jesus. It's not because you're that
good. I mean, Catholics, bless their hearts, they have ruined
the word saint for the world. They think of Saint Christopher,
who didn't exist, you think of the others that they name, and
they're trying to make Mother Teresa a saint, if they haven't
already. I don't know, I don't pay attention to such things
anymore. But Paul and Timothy were writing,
and the first person addressed to is the saints. in Christ Jesus
with the bishops and the deacons who are also saints. But this
letter was written to the people who believe in Christ in Philippi. And as such, I will say this,
not for their sake only was this written. It was written to us. Because what's true of one saint
is true of all saints. In Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, saints in Christ
Jesus are the same. You understand? How did he address it? Paul and
Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ. Now you know Paul was
an apostle and Timothy wasn't. But Paul, if you read his letters,
He never gloried in his apostleship. He never really promoted it unless
somebody backed him in a corner, unless somebody was attacking
him, or actually attacking his Lord and his ministry. Paul didn't
push his apostleship on anyone. But if you were a saint in Christ
Jesus, you wanted to hear what this man said. And you wanted
to read what he wrote, This was a letter from two servants
of Christ to the saints in Christ Jesus. Because this is where
Paul lived. He lived as a bond slave, a bound
slave to Jesus Christ. He was a disciple, he was an
apostle, he was a teacher. But this is where he lived, a
servant of Jesus Christ. And what do you say, grace and
peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ
to all those saints and to all these saints today. I thank my
God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of
mine for you, all making requests with joy. Four. Here's a good thing, four. There's
a reason why he was writing to these saints at Philippi. There's
a reason why he was thanking God for them for your fellowship
in the gospel. From the first day until now. Now there's a record in Acts,
I'm not gonna go into it, of how this church at Philippi started. Paul had a dream. A man of Macedonia
appeared to him and said, come help us. So Paul went. And he went down to the river
where prayer was wont to be made and he met somebody. And the
first person he met in Philippi, don't take this the wrong way,
was a woman. Who attended unto the things that Paul spoke. See the, people think, Fundamentalists,
weird believers, such as ourselves, denigrate the work and the worth
of women. Paul the Apostle never did. You'll
hear more about Lydia later on. You'll hear more about others
later on. And Paul calls them a great help. And trust me, I know enough about
men, being one myself, we need help all the time. and I thank God for you. And so did Paul. Then he met
the Philippian jailer. So here's where it started, with
a woman and a guy who worked in a prison. Hey, Walter, where
you work? Oh, never mind. Hey, it's not unheard of for
a fellow who works in a prison to believe Christ. I give thanks to God for you.
but it's for your fellowship in the gospel. Guess what? That is what saints
in Christ Jesus do. They fellowship in the gospel. You can't fellowship alone. That's not the definition of
the word. You fellowship together. It's not a fellowship if you're
by yourself. I was listening to Henry coming
up the road, he was talking about being without Christ. You're without
hope, you're in the world. You're without God. What's that
mean? You're alone. You're alone. But in Christ, we are never alone. He's with us, but he has given
us the fellowship of the saints in Christ Jesus. And Paul thanks
God for that fellowship. In the gospel. Because it's not
just any fellowship, it's a very specific fellowship. It's in
the gospel of Jesus Christ. The true gospel. This fellowship,
and the word means partnership with participation. I like that. That's what a fellowship
is. The fellowship isn't sitting
back. You're gonna participate. What's that mean? It means you
come when the assembly gathers together. It means you come and
you worship the Lord Jesus Christ to the best that you can. You
come to hear his word preached. You rejoice when you hear his
word preached. The gospel that you fellowship
in. Because the gospel of Christ
Jesus is the one thing where all the saints of God have their
participation. Because if you don't believe
the gospel, you got no reason to call yourself a saint. And
that's just the long and the short of it. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they gonna call on
him in whom they've not believed? How are they gonna believe unless
they've heard? Heard what? Heard the gospel. That's what it's talking about. And the gospel of Jesus Christ
is the one thing that every saint of God, from the Old Testament
to now, to all the rest that are coming, have in common. Not that it's a common thing,
but we share it alike. We know we all have different
backgrounds. We all have different upbringings.
We all have different jobs, different lives, different interests, different
personalities, and different temperaments. But we have one
Lord. We have one faith. We have one
baptism. And we have, by his grace, one
gospel. And he is our gospel. And our fellowship is in him
and in his word. And Paul thanked God for this.
Because their unity, their fellowship, their partnership with participation
is the work of Jesus Christ. It's in Christ and it's his work. Because if there's no fellowship
in the gospel, something's wrong with you. With me. And maybe in me. You understand,
you can't blame your lack of fellowship on somebody else.
Because the fellowship's in the gospel. Maybe you can't get along with
me, I understand that. I do. I can be annoying at times. I will freely admit to that.
And some days I try to change it, other days not so much. Well
it's God's honest truth, I mean it's just the way it is, the
way I am. But you understand, your fellowship's not with me.
Your fellowship's with Christ. Your fellowship's in the gospel.
If I'm speaking the truth of God, rejoice in that. You don't
have to rejoice in me. Matter of fact, I'd probably
prefer you didn't rejoice in me. But rejoice in his word,
rejoice in his gospel. And we can come together in Christ
where we may not be able to come together where somebody's a Republican
and somebody's a Democrat. You understand? You can be a Republican and be
a child of God, you can be a Democrat and a child of God. I don't know
about Unitarian. I'm being facetious and half
serious. Our differences aren't the point.
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is the point. And our fellowship is
in him and it's in his gospel and it better be from the first
day until now. Because you understand, the next verse is where I wanted
to get. being confident of this very
thing. That he which has begun a good work in you, in you, will
perform it until the day of Christ. Now Paul says this directly after
he says, for your fellowship in the gospel from this first
day until now. Guess what, I think they're related.
It's just me. Because let me be clear. Our
fellowship in the gospel is because of his work. And believing him
and fellowship in his gospel is his work. It's not a natural act, even
for believers. It's not natural. But first, being confident. Now
this is not a general confidence. This is a specific confidence. I wrote this down because I heard
this, and I'm sorry. I get amused by weird things.
When I was in the Army, we used to all get amused by the term
military intelligence. Because it really wasn't all
that intelligent, okay? But what I want to say here,
what Paul's saying, is not what they call today intentional positivity. You like that? Intentional positivity. You know what that is? That's
the power of positive thinking. Okay? It's what Norman Vincent
Peale preached for years. It's who he is, what that is.
That's not what Paul's doing here. Paul is very specifically
confident what he, E, he, turn over just a second to Philippians
chapter three. Finally my brethren rejoice in
the Lord, verse one, to write the same things to you, to me
indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs,
beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. Those are ones
that want you to be circumcised in order to remain. For we are
the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice
in Christ Jesus and this goes right along with worshiping Christ
Jesus. You understand? You can't separate
this from the worship of Christ Jesus. You can't separate this
from worshiping God in the spirit and have no confidence in the
flesh. Paul's confident, but he's not
having intentional positivity. No, he's confident in Jesus Christ. That's the antecedent of this
word he. The last time you see it, it's God. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you, being confident in this very thing that he, which has
begun a good work in you. That's who the he is. The he
is God. that he is not you, that he is
not a Philippian. We have no confidence in the
flesh. Absolutely none. What does it say? What did Paul
say? In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. And what did he mean by that?
He meant in my flesh dwells, right now, as a believer, as
an apostle, as an elder, as a bond slave of Jesus Christ, in my
flesh dwells no good thing. And you gotta realize that or
you're not worshiping God. You're not having fellowship
in Jesus Christ. That's hard stuff, no. It's easy if you know
who you are. You may forget sometimes, I'm
not gonna say that you won't. But you understand, whenever
you think about yourself, don't get too puffed up. We have no
confidence in the flesh. Read Romans seven if you wanna
hear the rest of it. Because Paul explains it very
clearly there. Believers, saints, servants of
Christ Jesus have absolute confidence in his work. and no confidence in themselves. He is our salvation, or we have
no salvation. And that's the long and short
of it, right there. But here's what I wanted to get
to. Took a while to get here, but it's okay. That he which
has begun A good work in you, in you, in you, shall perform
it until the day of Christ. Now, just to be clear, this is
not Paul talking about a good work being performed for you. Although I know he preached that
to these Philippians. Because he said he preached the
gospel to them, and they had a fellowship in the gospel. Because
there are certainly, there's certainly been a good work done
for you. And I'm gonna tell you where it was done. It was done
on a tree in a place called Calvary. A hill called what, Golgotha.
That was a good work for you. That was a good work for you.
Paul's not writing. of redemption, he's not writing
of reconciliation, he's not writing of justification or imputed righteousness
by the shed blood of Christ. Although all that must be happening,
must have happened for this to happen. He's talking about what
happens in you by the work of Jesus Christ because of his shed
blood. because Jesus Christ has redeemed
you and reconciled you to God if you are a saint in Jesus Christ. You can claim that. You can claim
that with full assurance. And let's be clear, the good
work in you, eh, was begun by Christ, and B, is gonna continue
by Christ. Now where do you fit in there?
You're the ones done to. Paul's not writing anything about
what we do until the day of Christ. Although,
we are going to do some things until the day of Christ. He's
talking about the one he, that's gonna perform, that have begun
this good work in you, he's gonna perform it. And guess what? That means it's gonna be performed
in you until the day of Christ. So where do you start with this
good work in you? Well, for me, now, there's only
one place to start. And we use the word regeneration. You can call it life from Christ. Life in Christ Jesus. Because
here's the point. John wrote, the words of our
Lord Jesus Christ himself, in order to see the kingdom of God,
you must be born from above. In order to enter the kingdom
of God, you must be born of the water and of the spirit. That's what it says, because
that's what he said. That's when the good work has
begun in you. If you are a saint in Christ
Jesus, you have to be born from above,
you must be born of God. And Paul calls these Philippians
saints in Christ Jesus. What's that mean? They're born
from above and they believe Jesus Christ. If you believe not that I am
he, you're gonna die in your sins. The good work in you was to become
a believer. To be a saint in Christ Jesus,
it took the good work in you, what, begun by him. It begins with the dead sinner
hearing the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. Shall live. The first good work
in you, the primary good work in you is life, where there was
nothing but death before. Life from God, where we were
dead alien sinners. And I'll tell you this, that's
a good work. That's a good work, and that's
a good work in you, in you, in you. Because I call this, now I did
say this was, I say this is the primary, if you wanna say it
that way, because Paul calls this a good work, it's singular.
It's just one, you understand? But there's many aspects, whatever
you want to call it. I don't know exactly what the
best word would be. There are many results of this
one good work. And there's no separating a good
work. I'll point it out here in a little
bit. But I call it the primary because it is. Because all the
rest of the things I'm going to speak about, I got four more
that I want to tell you about, are dependent upon this one right
here. Because if you have not been
born from above, if you have not been born of God, there is
no good work in you. Not one. Not one. We're back
to all of our righteousnesses are filthy rags in God's sight.
Because the only good work in you is that he begun and that
he performs. That's the only good work in
you. Because without the new birth, there is no good work
in you. at all. Now I want you to please
understand this. We can have, and do have, relationships
with, work with, and have friends with the unregenerate. Those
who do not have life. But let me be also perfectly
clear about this. There is no fellowship in the
gospel with the unregenerate. Understand? even if they turn
out to be the elect. There's no fellowship yet. I'm
not saying there's no hope, because there's always hope in Christ
Jesus. But there is no fellowship, no partnership with participation
in the gospel with the unregenerate. Two can't walk together unless
they be agreed. The fact that you are now a saint
in Christ Jesus is because of a good work in you. Now a good work in you, which
he has performed, he has begun, is faith. Because faith is the gift of
God. And Jesus Christ is the author
and the finisher of faith. We are saved by grace through
faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God. And you know
what? Your faith had better continue. And it will. Because it's his
faith. You can call it your faith. My
faith, Paul did. He called it my gospel. Know
why? Because he was a willing partner and participant of the
preaching of it and the believing of it. Peter calls it a like, precious
faith. That's what he addressed his
second letter to, to those who are of a like, precious faith. and you did not come up with
faith in your own. If he don't give it to you, you
don't have it. All men have not faith. Paul
said it plainly. That's why we're persecuted.
Why? Because all men have not faith. And what's that mean? It means that all men have not
faith because God hasn't given it to them. That's a good work
in you. Hebrews 11 says, without faith
it is impossible to please God. It's impossible, without faith. Why? He must believe. He must believe in God. And that
brings me to the next one. A good work in you which he has
performed is Believing Christ Jesus Ephesians 1 is clear We Saints
in Christ Jesus Believers We actually believe Christ According
to the working of his mighty power Now I know a lot of people,
maybe somebody on television, think, well I believe all by
myself. Well if you do, you're gonna
stay all by yourself. You understand? I'm not joking. It's funny, sometimes it is because
people are so ignorant of the scriptures and they consider
their own opinion as of the same value. Well it is, it's ignorant. You understand, thus saith the
Lord is the only thing that counts. You don't have to worry about
thus saith me. But what's the scripture say?
It says, you believe, if you believe, truly believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and you believe his gospel, it's because of the
working of his mighty power and not yourself. I can't take credit for believing. I believe, I believe, I believe. And you know what you say? You
say thank you God, thank you Christ, and thank you Holy Spirit. He give me faith and he has me
believe. The fact that you believe Jesus
Christ and his gospel is because of a good work in you. Now here's another good work in you.
Continuing. Continuing. For your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now. Until now. Continuing. Continuing what?
Belief. Fellowship. In the gospel. Loving the brethren. and following
Christ. Continuing, like I said, Paul
thanks these Philippians for their fellowship from the first
day until now. The saints in Christ Jesus who believe his gospel, who believe
him and believe his word, are not of those that draw back unto
perdition. You mean there are some that
draw back to perdition? Yeah. You mean they lose their salvation?
No. I mean they never had it. Because
if he's begun a good work in you, he's gonna perform it. That's
the point here. You understand? There are those
who draw back. John wrote about them. He says
they went out from us. Why? Why? So it would be made
manifest. So it would be made known. So
it would show it to the believers. They went out from us because
they were not of us. Believers do not draw back under
perdition. Stumble, yes. Fall, yes. Utterly cast down, no. Not gonna happen. Absolutely
not. We continue because of his life
in us. His work in us. Galatians 2 and
20 says this. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless,
wait a minute, I live, I live. Are you sure about that, Paul?
Well, yet not I. But Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. You understand? We continue because
he lives in us. The fact that you continue is
because of a good work in you. Do you know we love the brethren
because of a good work in you? First Thessalonians 4 and nine
says this, but as touching brotherly love Ye need not that I write
unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. John wrote in first John four
and seven, beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. It's not a man. Love is of God. True love, love of the brethren,
love of Christ, is not of man. It's of God. And everyone that
loveth is born of God. And knoweth God. Now you understand,
he didn't say that if you love, then you get to be born of God.
No, if you're born of God, you love. You love, you love. No man has seen God at any time. This is 1 John 4 and 12. If we
love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love, his love
is perfected in us, completed in us. Because the fact that
you love the brethren is because of a good work in you. We can't
take credit for that. He says he will perform it He
will perform it He will perform it if he's begun a good work
in you he will perform it Under the day of Christ Let me say
this very clearly God never stops a good work in you Now, you may not show it. You
may not feel it. You may not really grasp it some
days. Don't worry about it. God never
stops a good work in you. He will perform it. He will. It ain't up to you. Praise God,
it's not up to me. He will perform it. because Jesus
Christ has promised and has given eternal life to his saints in
Christ Jesus. That's a good work. That's a
good work. John six and verse 44 put it
this way. No man can come unto me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. Now people have a lot
of trouble with that. and too bad. I had trouble with
it, but I got over it because he showed me what he meant. He
meant, when he said this, he meant that no man can come unto
Christ except the Father which has sent him draws him. You can't
come on your own, it takes a good work in you. And, and here's
the glorious part, and I will raise him up at the last day. He will perform it. If he's begun a good work in
you, he will perform it unto the day of Christ. If the Father
draws you with loving kindness, Jesus Christ will raise you up
at the last day. You know what that is? You know
what that is? That, my friends, is the perseverance
of the saints. The people talking, oh, we gotta
persevere. Well, yeah, but he'll perform it. He'll perform it. He'll perform it until the day
of a better resurrection. In Hebrews 11, that's what they
were promised. That's what we're promised. There's
a better resurrection for the saints in Christ Jesus. The good work in you never stops
because the Christ of God, Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, has
promised that it's so. Let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things as ye have, for he
hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. If God be for you, who can be
against you? No one, nobody know how. He gave
his saints life, he gave his saints faith, his mighty power
works in you to believe him and his gospel, and the Holy Spirit
keeps us in the unity of the faith. To our complete salvation. Ready to be revealed. Now look at this in chapter two. He that's begun a good work in
you, he's gonna perform it unto the day of Christ. Verse 12,
Philippians chapter two. Wherefore, beloved, as ye have
always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now
do that in the light of he that's begun a good work in you is gonna
perform it unto the day of Christ. That came before this. And it
come before this. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now you understand
what that means? He's gonna work in you both to
will and to do his good pleasure until the day of Christ. He's
begun it, he's gonna perform it. And you're gonna do it. That's salvation. And it's not
dependent upon me, it's not dependent upon you, it's dependent upon
Christ. Which is exactly where the scripture has always put
it. Salvation is of the Lord. The question is, who began a
good work in you? God's work is good. Whatever
it is, God's work is good. Whether we understand it or not,
whether we think it's good or not, God's work is good and the
good work in you endures in you. So what are we believers and
saints, saints in Christ Jesus to do? First Peter says, wherein ye
greatly rejoice. What are we greatly rejoicing
in? Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, a living hope, by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled that fadeth not away, It's reserved in heaven
for you if you're a saint in Christ Jesus. Who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice. That's
what we're to do. Rejoice and greatly rejoice. We got something to rejoice about.
We have someone to rejoice about. He which has begun a good work
in you will perform it. Now, what about those whom God
has not performed a great work in yet, a good work in? I can
only tell you this, he might. He might. He's calling out his
people. He is bringing in many sons to
glory. There's always hope in Jesus
Christ. Call on him. Call upon his name. Go to him. Because if you call upon the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. That's just
as true as he that begun a good work in you is gonna perform
it unto that day. You know what else is true? Jesus
Christ said, repent ye, and believe the gospel. I know you can't
do it on your own, but he can do it. He can do it. Call upon
his name, and those who have had a good work begun in you,
he's gonna perform it unto the day of Christ, and wherein we
are too, greatly rejoice. Our Heavenly Father, help us, Lord, to realize, to
comprehend to some extent, not only what you've done for
us, but what you have done in us. Help us to know it every day. Help us to thank you every day.
In Christ's name we pray.