In that passage that Brother
Randy just read, Philippians chapter 1, I'm going to focus
on verse 6. Being confident, Paul writes,
writing to the believers in the city of Philippi, being confident,
being assured of this very thing that he which hath begun a good
work in you We'll perform it, as Brother Randy said, we'll
finish it. Or it can even be said we'll perfect it, we'll
complete it. He said, he which hath begun
a good work in you will complete it, perform it, until the day
of Jesus Christ, until our Lord and our Savior comes again. Title of the message is, A Good
Work Completed. A Good Work Completed. I've been
thinking about this quite a bit, and that's why I mentioned in
the hymn that we sang, There Is a Fountain, about William
Cowper. And I thought about this. You
know, Job said this. He said, Man is a few days and
full of trouble. And in thinking about things
like that, I mean, I don't want to stand here and be a downer
to you and get you depressed. Of course, the whole point of
this message is to see the glory and the assurance of salvation
that we have by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. But I was
thinking about the Apostle Paul here. You know where he was when
he wrote this letter. He was in bondage. He was in prison. This man, Paul, he was an amazing
man, wasn't he? We know he was a man of zeal
and sincerity. Even in his false religion he
was that, wasn't he? You read about the Apostle Paul
when he was known as Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee, in the
book of Acts. You see a man who was so zealous
for his beliefs, his religion, his faith, that whenever anything
challenged him and his faith, he saw it as something that he
had to personally lead and stamp in and out. The Bible says that
when Stephen the evangelist stood up in Jerusalem and recounted
the whole history of Israel under the Old Covenant, and Stephen's
point was this, that your whole history was to bring you to this
place where the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was Jesus
of Nazareth, would come and do the great work that God sent
him to do for the salvation of his people all over this world,
Jew and Gentile, God's elect, and you've rejected him. And
they got so angry that they picked up stones and killed Stephen,
and Saul was consenting to his death. He was a cheerleader,
you might say. He held their coats, he said,
the ones who actually picked up the rocks and killed that
evangelist Stephen. And he was consenting to his
death. It says that Saul made havoc of the church. Saul, you know where he was when
the Lord brought him to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. He
was on the Damascus road on his way to Damascus to have Christians
arrested and brought back to trial and to be sentenced to
death. But God stopped him and brought
him to a saving knowledge of Christ. Don't ever tell me that Salvation is by the sinner's
free will. You're no better than Saul, and
I'm no better than Saul. God makes us willing in the day
of his power, and that was the day of his power for Saul of
Tarsus. And then he became Paul, and he became an apostle, appointed
an apostle, he said, of Jesus Christ, and used of God as one
of the greatest pioneer missionaries that ever set foot on earth.
Preaching to the Gentiles. God used this man as an instrument
to go into areas of Corinth and Galatia and Ephesus to preach
the gospel where it had never been preached before. And you
know that's kind of a scary thought. If I were asked to go preach
where nobody had ever heard the gospel, I believe I would do
it. Because that's what I'm commissioned
to do. But I'll tell you what, it would be a tough thing to
do. But Paul did it. And we know what of his power,
he said that. He said, look, he said, I am
what I am by the grace of God. And then God used him to write
over half the New Testament. Paul was the human instrument.
Now we know this is God written, this is God breathed, but Paul
was the human instrument. And now after having gone through
all that, he was beaten, he was run out of town, he was threatened.
Persecuted, and now, now where is he? He's in prison. And you know how we can get discouraged
at the least little thing, don't you? I know it. I think about
men like Paul, and I think sometimes when I get discouraged and down,
I ought to be ashamed of myself in light of what they went through. But yet here is his hope in trouble. Here is his assurance and his
confidence in trouble. And knowing the trouble that
all the people of God have to go through, writing to the church
at Ephesus, he says, being confident of this very thing. That he, he there is God. God, which hath begun a good
work in you. What is that good work in them?
That's their salvation. There's a sense in which you
could say that a sinner saved by grace, him or herself, is
the work. And I can back that up with Ephesians
chapter two, verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in. And here's what he's saying.
He that hath begun this good work in you will perfect it,
perform it, complete it. until the day of Jesus Christ. Point number one, if God has
begun the good work, God will complete it. He'll finish what
he started. He never starts something that
he doesn't finish. He will perfect it. Do you know
that's true in so many areas? Turn to Isaiah 46. It's true
in God's providence. God never starts a thing and
depends upon you or me or any other sinful human being to complete
it. You won't find that in the Scripture. That's why people
who say, well, Christ tried to do this, He made you savable,
He made salvation a possibility, He made you redeemable. No. That's not what He said. We'll
see that in just a moment. But look at verse 9 of Isaiah
46. The Lord says, remember the former
things of old. That's history. For I'm God,
there's none else. I'm God, there's none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning. Now, you know what declaring
the end from the beginning is? That's predestination. That's
what it is. I mean, you and I can declare the, we can declare the
beginning from the end. We know how today started, but
we don't know how it's going to end up, do we? We think we
know. We have an idea because you think,
well, this is going to be a day just like any other. May not
be. Things may change. And you know what? I don't have
any control over it and you don't either. Oh, God's given us a
brain and we do what we know to do. We act out of our responsibility,
the revealed things belong to us, the secret things belong
to him, but only God declares the end from the beginning because
it's all according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. And here's what he says. Declaring the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand. and I will do all my pleasure.
I'll do everything I wanna do. Can I? I can't say that. I'm
gonna do everything I wanna do. That would be a heck of a boast,
wouldn't it, for a human being. But God can say that. He says,
calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executed
my counsel from a far country. Now he's talking about a specific
prophecy there that I'm not gonna go into today, because I don't
have time. But he's talking about delivering Israel. Later on. But listen to what he says at
the end of verse 11. Yea, I have spoken it. I will bring it to
pass. I have purposed it. I will do
it. I will also do it. God never
starts anything he doesn't finish. And then, now listen to this,
then he applies it to salvation. Look at verse 12. Hearken unto
me, hear me. You stout-hearted that are far
from righteousness. Now what is that? That's a sinner
in his natural condition. That's not just talking about
somebody else here now. That's us by nature. Stout-hearted,
that's proud, far from righteousness. Remember Romans 3.10, there's
none righteous, no not one. That's what we are by nature.
We are far from righteousness. We're so far from righteousness,
we can't even describe it by nature now. So here's what God
says. I bring near my righteousness.
Now what's that? That's Christ. He's talking about
the redemptive work of Jesus Christ here. Because Christ is
the righteousness of God. That's the entire merit of his
whole work of redemption on the cross. It shall not be far off. It's coming soon. I believe there's
two applications to that statement. It's coming soon. He's coming
soon. And I believe it's not far off
in the sense, you know, man's religion, in man's natural religion,
righteousness is something that's far off. In other words, it's
something he has to work to achieve. But not here. Not salvation by
God's grace. It's not something that's far
off from us that we have to work toward, work to achieve. God
sends it in his son. It's his obedience unto death
as the substitute and surety of his people. Christ is the
Lord my righteousness and through Christ, righteousness is not
far off. I have it right now. If I'm in
Christ, I'm righteous. Completely righteous. And he
says, my salvation shall not tarry. In man's religion, salvation
is really something you gotta wait for. You gotta work for
it. You gotta, you know, well, you know, you think you're ready
for hell? Well, I'm getting there. No,
in Christ, I'm ready right now. In Christ, my sins are washed
away completely. In Christ, I'm justified right
now, completely. I'm not guilty. God cannot charge
me with my sin. He charged him to Christ. He
charges me with righteousness. And he said, I will place salvation
in Zion for Israel, Michael. God's going to do it. See, it's
true in God's providence. It's true in God's provision
of righteousness, His redemptive work. Christ came and did the work. of redeeming us from our sins,
of producing the righteousness that God requires and we must
have, and He did it perfectly. He did it completely. He finished
it. You remember in John 19.30, He's
hanging on that cross, He said, It is finished. In John 13, it said, He loved
His own unto the end. Same word as in John 19.30, finished.
He loved his own so much that he completed the work. He finished
the work. In John 17, in his high priestly
prayer, what did he say? He said, I have done the work
which you gave me to do. I have finished the work. In
Romans 10 and verse 4, Christ is the end, the perfection, the
completion, the finishing, the fullness of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. He's finished. You don't have
to achieve salvation. You believe on the One who has
achieved salvation. In Hebrews chapter 10. It says, by one offering, he
hath perfected, completed, finished them that are sanctified forever.
And here in Philippians 1.6, he says, God who begun the good
work in you will perform it. He's talking about our new birth,
our regeneration and conversion. That's a work of God. That's
not a work of man, is it? John chapter one. When He talks
about to them that receive Him, He gave the right to become the
sons of God which were born, not of blood, nor the will of
the flesh, the works of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
Paul knew that God would complete fully His work of salvation in
these people. He's saying there's no possibility
of failure. When you look at me, Paul's saying,
I'm in prison here. Don't get discouraged. Don't
give up. Here's the greatest missionary.
Here's the great apostle. Here's the one God used to write
over half the New Testament. You'd think they'd be giving
him the key to the city. You'd think he'd be somewhere
in a place of prominence, being honored by men, but oh no, he's
in chains. But don't get discouraged, Paul's
saying. There's no possibility of failure. He said, I haven't
failed. Later on in the book of Philippians, he says, my bonds
have worked to the furtherance of the gospel. You know, there's a man in the
New Testament named Onesimus who was a runaway servant. whom
God providentially brought to Rome while Paul was in prison. And the prison that Paul was
in, they called his own hired house. He was in like a house
prison. And by the providence of God,
they let people come and go and talk to Paul, but now he couldn't
leave, he was in bondage. Well, this Onesimus, by the providence
of God, was brought to Paul in Rome. And you know what happened?
Paul preached the gospel to him and God brought him to faith.
And out of that, we have the little book of Philemon, which
is one of the most beautiful pictures of imputed righteousness
you'll see in the whole Bible. Remember, Paul told Philemon,
Philemon, if Onesimus hath wronged thee, if he owes you anything,
put it on my account, I'll repay it. That's what Christ did for
us before the foundation of the world. He is our surety. And you know, Was there any possibility
that Christ wouldn't come and fulfill that debt? I heard a
preacher last week talking about the eternal justification issue.
And he said, well, I don't believe that because that's like saying
it was done before it was done. No, it's not. What that says is God declared
his people righteous because it was certain to be done. That's
what Christ our surety is all about. There was no possibility
of failure there. This good work. You know what
he's talking about here is the eternal security of the believer,
isn't it? Being confident of this very thing. This good work
refers to our whole salvation which was begun by God in our
initial regeneration and conversion and which will be perfected in
our glorification. It's a sure work of God through
Christ. And we know we can't lose it
because it's upon the ground of his righteousness. This work has not yet been perfected
as to our final glory, but it's a perfect work already in Christ.
We've not yet been finally glorified. We still have to put up with
all the troubles and all the problems, all the sicknesses. This body of death, Paul called
it, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God
through Jesus Christ, my Lord. He said the body is dead because
of sin. Now what body do you think he's
talking about? He's talking about this old fleshly body right up here,
the one you're sitting in right now. This body is dead because
of sin, but the spirit is life. because of righteousness. Now,
how can the spirit be life if the righteousness that we're
talking about is of man? It couldn't be. Or if it was
partial right. No, it's complete. It's Christ.
It's the merits of his obedience unto death. You see, we're complete in Christ
right now. And one day we will be perfect
in ourselves. Paul talks about that over in
Philippians 3, look over there. He speaks of his security in
Christ in Philippians 3. We have confidence in Christ.
We boast in Christ, not in the flesh. When I come before God
at judgment, I desire to be found in him. Not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. But then he says in verse 11 of Philippians 3, if it by
any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
That hasn't come about yet. That will come about when Christ
comes the second time. So he says, not as though I had
already attained, either were already perfect, that is complete
in myself as you see me walking on this earth. He says, but I
follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I'm apprehended
of Christ Jesus. In other words, I follow after. as I'm looking at myself in Christ,
complete in Him, and he says, brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, that is final glory, perfection in myself. He says, but this one thing I
do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth unto
those things which are before, pressing toward the mark of the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. But here's what he says now,
I'm confident, The Lord which began this good work, he's gonna
complete it. He's not gonna leave you hanging.
He's not gonna leave you on your own. And I'll tell you another
thing that this says. Here's the second point. The power and
assurance of this completeness and perfection is God, not man.
Salvation at no stage, at no time, at no degree is conditioned
on me or you. If it were, It could not be completed. You say, well, with me, it could.
And I say, you think too highly of yourself. You've got a high
opinion of yourself, much higher than the scripture has. And I
pray that God, the Holy Spirit, will bring you to face the issue
of the reality of sin. Salvation's conditioned on Christ. He fulfilled the conditions.
If it was conditioned on us, it would be man's work. And let
me tell you something about man's work as revealed in the Bible.
It is always, as to a relationship with God and salvation, man's
work is always incomplete. It always falls short. It never
equals righteousness. That's why it's always iniquity,
no matter how improved he gets. We're studying the book of Revelation. You're going to see the significance
of the number 6 and the number 7. The number 7 is the number
of the perfection of God's work. Work 6 days and on the 7th day
we rest. That's a picture of Christ who
did the work of redemption and we rest in Him. He's our 7. We're
a 7 in God. We're complete. We're perfect.
Without Christ, what are we? We're a 6. We're incomplete. We're imperfect. Notice Paul's
confidence is not in the Philippians. He said being confident of this
very thing that he which begun the work will perform it. He
didn't say he will perform it if you'll let him. He didn't
say he'll perform it and complete it and perfect it if you'll cooperate. No, God who started, he's gonna
finish it. As I said, that word perform,
it means to finish, it means literally to perfect. What did
Paul write in 2 Timothy 1.12? I know whom I have believed and
am persuaded that what? He is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. What have I committed
in him? My whole salvation, my whole justification. This means
God will perfect it, bring it to its completion, all that His
grace has started. It's another testimony, as I
say, that no part of salvation or even our final glory is conditioned
on us. It's all on Christ. We run the
race of grace looking unto Jesus, the author and the what? Finisher,
completer of our faith. You know, He says until the day
of Jesus Christ here. That's the day of His second
coming and the day of judgment. Turn over to 1 John chapter 4
with me. Look at this passage. Here He's talking about love
and judgment. And listen to what He says in
1 John chapter 4 and verse 17. And he'd already settled the
issue of love. You see, love is of God, this
divine love. It's set forth in Christ, who
is our propitiation. It is never earned or deserved
from God. It's unconditional love towards
us. We don't deserve it, we don't earn it, just like his grace.
And the foundation of it is the propitiatory work, The work of
substitute and surety of Jesus Christ in redeeming us and look
at verse 17 herein is our love made perfect now that word means
complete there In other words if we if we really Love God his
love has been shed abroad in our hearts. Here's how that reaches
completeness All right heat have that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment. I You see, our love is not made
complete because at some point in our lives, if we do well enough
and we grow enough, we start loving each other perfectly because
that just doesn't happen in this earth. We do love one another,
but we don't love one another perfectly. If that's how our
love is made complete, there's no individual on earth in the
history of mankind who's ever reached this. But how's it made
complete? That we may have boldness in
the day of judgment. Well, how do we have boldness
in the day of judgment? Well, look at it. Because as
he is, as Christ is, so are we in this world. Now, how can I
look at you, and you look at me, and we say, we are as Christ
is right now, and not be embarrassed? Can I tell you, honestly, that
I love you as perfectly as Christ loves you? No. No. Or can you say you love me as
perfectly as Christ? No. We can say by the grace of
God we love one another, but not like our Lord loved us. But how can I say as Christ is,
I am right now in this world? I'm righteous in Him. I'm not guilty. I'm justified. On what basis? His obedience
unto death, his blood, his righteousness. How can I have boldness in the
day of judgment? By pleading Christ. I can't plead
anything else. You see that? In Christ, I'm
complete. That's the issue of judgment.
And here's the last point. In this matter of perfection,
we see both God's sovereignty and our responsibility as believers.
Now he said back here in Philippians 1, being confident of this very
thing, God who began the work's gonna finish it. God preserves
us. God preserves us, but God uses
means to do so. It's our perseverance in the
faith. We're commanded to look continually to Jesus Christ as
the author and finisher of our faith. Look over at Philippians
2 and verse 12. He says, wherefore my beloved,
as you 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 is he telling us to work
for our salvation? No. The context tells you that. He's not preaching salvation
by grace and then all of a sudden he changes and his theology changes
and his doctrine. Now you've got to work for it.
No. He'd already said God who began the work, God's going to
finish it. God's the one who does the work. It's all in God,
not you. It's not your power. It's not
your goodness. It's God's power and goodness
in Christ. Well, does that mean that we're like automatons or
robots and we have nothing? No, he said, now, based on that
assurance and confidence, then obey God. Pray, give thanks,
present our whole persons as living sacrifices, do good, be
rich in good works. That those who see you may by
your good works glorify your Father which is in heaven. Be
honest among men in good works which they'll behold and glorify
God in the day of visitation. Be careful to maintain good works. Be zealous of good works. Provoke
each other unto good works. Paul wrote all those things.
Feed upon the word of God. Love one another. Do good to
one another. Be kind to one another. Worship
God. All these things. Well, how am I gonna do that?
We'll look at verse 13. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will. Do you have any willingness to
do any of those things? You say yes. Well, that's God
working in you to will and to do of his good pleasure. God
is the source. God is the cause. Christ's righteousness
is the ground. Here's what we know. We know
that anything we do that is acceptable unto God, first of all, it's
the work of Christ in us. Christ said it this way, he said,
I'm the vine, you're the branches, you bear fruit. We bear fruit
from him. Secondly, it's motivated by the
Holy Spirit, energized by the Holy Spirit. Love and grace and
gratitude, that's the motive, isn't it? Of a willing, loving
bond slave. Thirdly, it's the obedience of
faith guided by the word of God. Fourthly, it's washed in the
blood of Christ. Peter spoke of that. He said,
as you are God's building, presenting yourself as sacrifices, presenting
your sacrifices to God, acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ. And then fifthly, they're aimed
toward the glory of God. In other words, they're not done
to draw attention to ourselves. They're done to glorify and honor
our Savior, aren't they? You see, God's gonna finish what
he started. There's no doubt about that. It's just the way
God is. And Christ is the ground of it
all, so there's no failure here.