All right, if you would open
your Bibles now again to Philippians chapter one, passage Brother
Dan just read forth. I've titled the message this
morning, Confidence Without Presumption. In verse six, Paul uses the word
confident, being confident of this very thing. Now you know
it's wrong for a believer to go through life without some
assurance, without some confidence of faith. Paul said he was confident.
If we're trusting in Christ, we'd be confident, can't we?
Confident in Him. Now we can't feel very confident
if we think we have to know everything there is to know about God. God's
infinite. Our finite mind can't begin to
comprehend God. We can't know why the Lord is
doing what He's doing. Now, I know that so, but every
time it seems like I see something happen, I wonder, what is the
Lord doing here? How is this gonna work out for good? We can't
know what the Lord's doing. We don't know what the Lord's
will is and so many things that he does. We might know some of
it eventually. The Lord may be pleased to reveal
some of it to us eventually, but we can't know God's will,
the far-reaching effects of his will and what it is that God's
doing. I'm confident of that. You wanna
talk about something I'm confident of? We can't know all that. That's God's business, not ours.
I'm confident of this. I'm confident that we can have
no confidence in the flesh because that's something else I'm confident
of. We're nothing but sin. Since we're nothing but sin,
you can't have any confidence in this flesh and what it does.
All the things that we're confident of come from the word of God. Can't be confident about anything
else. We can only have this confidence without presumption by believing
the word of God. It's what God's word says. You
know, we can't have confidence in what we think God might do
or what God could do. You know, that's presumption. I know that God has the power
to keep me from getting sick. I know if I'm sick and on my
deathbed, God has the power to raise me from that. I know that.
I know he has the power to do it, but it's presumption to say
he will. And you know why it's presumption
to say that he will? Because he hasn't made that promise
in his word. Here's what God's promised to
do in his word. Save his people from their sin.
He's promised that. He's promised to give his people
grace, sufficient for every trial that he sends them. He's promised
to bring them through this life and bring them, present them
faultless before the Father's throne in glory. We're confident
of that. That's not presumption to think
that's going to happen. It's confidence. because the word
of God promises it. See, it's not presumption is
thinking, I know what God's going to do. God's going to do this.
Confidence is believing God's promise because he will do whatever
it is he's promised to do is regarding our salvation. We can
only have confidence without presumption by trusting in Christ
alone alone. If we're trusting in our good
works, we're trusting in our morality is a, as evidence of
our salvation or something that adds to our salvation. If we're
trusting in our right doctrine of knowledge, we're going to
perish in our presumption because we presume something that's not
true. We can only have confidence and assurance of salvation by
trusting Christ alone without one thing we've done added to
him. That's the only thing you can
be confident in is regarding your salvation. And I'm going
to give you four things from our text this morning, the believer
is confident about. You can have confidence. You
can take this to your, I was going to say, you can take it
to the bank. You can take it to your deathbed. These are four things.
Every believer should have complete and utter confidence here. Number
one is this. I'm confident that salvation
is by grace, not worse. In verse six, Paul says, being
confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good
work in you. Now this good work is the work
of grace. Salvation is by grace. And we say saved by grace. This
is what we mean by it. God does all the saving even
though we don't deserve any of it. That's grace. Salvation is
not a cooperative effort where God does his part and then I
do my part and then I'm saved. No, salvation is the work of
God alone. Brother Don Fortner, his commentary
on this passage, said in the Whale Belly Seminary, this is
what we learn, salvation is of the Lord. And we say salvation
of the Lord simply means this, the Lord does all the saving
and we don't deserve any of it. Salvation is of the Lord. God's
gonna teach his people that. Now salvation does not come from
having parents who are believers. It's a mighty good blessing to
you children if your parents are believers, that they point
you to Christ, that they bring you to the service, that they
talk about the Lord. But salvation does not come from having parents
who are believers. It gives you a great advantage
if they bring you to hear the gospel, but salvation doesn't
come to us that way. Our hair color or our eye color
or our height comes to us from our parents' genes. But salvation
is by grace. Salvation doesn't come from our
morality. You ought to be good moral people,
but salvation doesn't come that way. Salvation doesn't come from
our knowledge. If you've been here very long,
you ought to have some knowledge. You ought to have been taught
some scripture if you're paying attention, but salvation doesn't come from
our knowledge, not knowledge of facts. Salvation doesn't come
from our service to the Lord. If you're a believer, you ought
to serve the Lord, but salvation doesn't come serving the Lord.
Salvation, from its beginning to its ending, is by grace, God's
grace alone. God's people are saved by electing
grace. When God the Father chose to
save a people who would never choose Him, that's grace, isn't
it? They would never choose Him, God chose them anyway. We're
saved by redeeming grace. When God the Son came and He
died as a substitute for His people, He died the death that
they deserved to save them from their sin. And they were the
very ones shouting crucifying. He died for them anyway. He prayed,
Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. That's
grace, isn't it? We're saved by regenerating grace.
God the Holy Spirit moves in power and gives life and faith
to a dead sinner. He gives it to them as a free
gift. They don't deserve it. They've been trying to run away
from God. They've been trying not to believe God. And Holy
Spirit gives them a nature that believes God and can't quit believing
him. Gives them life, eternal life. A nature that is holy and
righteous. That's a gift, isn't it? We're
saved by calling grace. Ten thousand times you hear the
preacher say, come to Christ. Come, beg God for forgiveness.
Come to Christ and trust Him. And there you sit. And one day
the Spirit calls in your heart and you come running to Christ.
That's calling grace. We didn't deserve it. Didn't
come the first time. God called us. God sent a preacher
to us. Tell us to believe on Christ.
We refused to believe. God had been right. Send that
preacher packing and never let us hear another word from him,
wouldn't he? And he called us anyway. That's grace. There's
keeping grace. We're saved by keeping grace.
God saves His people and He keeps them in His mighty hand. Keeps
them from falling away from Him. And if He didn't, we'd jump out
in a heartbeat. Not just fall out accidentally. We'd jump out.
And He keeps us anyway. That's grace, isn't it? And we're saved. One day we'll
finally be completely saved, plumb saved, by glorifying grace. When God reaches down and takes
His child out of this world and takes them to be with Him. Oh,
glorifying grace. See, God saved the people who
would never choose Him, who would never choose to be saved on God's
terms. They'd be nothing but dead, stinking sinners, polluting
God's creation, They'd never come to him when he called. They're
going to live their lives constantly as a rebel. They fall away from
God. God didn't keep them and God
saved him anyway. I mean, salvation is all of grace
and there's several things why I love salvation by grace, why
salvation by grace has to be so. Number one, genuine centers
can only be saved by grace. They can only be saved by grace
where God does all the saving. They're dead, they can't do anything.
God has to save them. Salvation can't be by works,
can it? Can't be. Has to be by grace,
because the wages of sin. What we get as the just desserts
of our works is death. Now we can't earn salvation,
we can't earn grace, we can't make ourselves righteous, but
we sure have earned death, haven't we? then salvation has to be
by grace. Number two, salvation has to
be by grace so that the creature will never be allowed to boast
before our creator. That's not right, it can't be
that the creature boasting to the creator can't be. Look at
Ephesians chapter two. Here's why salvation must be
by grace. That the creature has no room
to boast. Not before God. Ephesians two. Verse eight, for by grace are
you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast for
his workmanship. His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them. Salvation has to be by grace,
so that all the credit and all the glory goes to God. It's only
right, isn't it? It's only right. Number three,
salvation has to be by grace because salvation by grace is
the only way a sinner will truly worship God. If salvation is
by works, I'm worshiping myself. I'm taking some credit for myself.
Yeah, I'm giving God some of it too, but I'm taking some of
it too. That's not worship. Salvation by grace is the only
message that makes a sinner truly worship God. Salvation by grace. If God ever saves you by His
grace, you will be so filled with awe. You'll be so filled
with wonder and amazement that God Almighty would do something
so wonderful for a wretch like you. You'd just be so amazed.
All you could do is fall at His feet and worship Him. Thank you,
Lord. Salvation by grace makes a people
thankful. Thankful. What's more appropriate? than creatures like you and me
thanking our God and worshiping him. That's why salvation has
to be by grace. Fourth, salvation by grace is
the only way of salvation. It's the only message of salvation
that gives an accurate description both of God and man. Salvation
by grace declares man has to be dead in sin, has to be. He's
undeserving of anything but the wrath of God. Salvation by grace
says the only thing a man can do is sin. So he can't make himself
righteous by his filthy acts. He can't make himself righteous
by what he's done. Salvation by grace declares this,
man is a natural born enemy of God. Man by nature hates God. I know man by nature loves the
God that he's made up, but man by nature hates the God of this
Bible. We hate it. The car of mine is enmity against
God. It can't be subject to the law
of God. It's not, and it can't be. It's not possible. Because
our nature is contrary to God's nature. So if a sinner is going
to be saved, it's got to be by God's free grace, doesn't it?
It's got to be. I see that that's true about
me. I read that that's true in the scripture. And God showed
me, God the Spirit showed me that's true about me in my heart.
Salvation by grace tells the truth about me. Now I know it
tells the truth about all men, but tells the truth about me.
I'm a sinner lost and undone and the only way I can be saved
is by God's grace. And salvation by grace also tells
truth about God. God is just. God's holy. He can't ignore the sin of it.
He said his love upon a people chose to save them, but now he
can't, he can't accept them in their sin. He can't accept them
as they are. God's just. And he's holy. God must be just. God must be holy in everything
that he does. But you know what? God is also
gracious. And just like God must be just,
he must be gracious. He must be. Now, can somebody
explain to me how God can be just and still be gracious? Well,
if you find the answer to that question, you find the answer
how God could save you. God shows grace to sinners in justice.
See, what the father did is he made his son sin for his people. And he gave his son everything
the sin of his people deserved. He satisfied his justice upon
his son. He tortured him. He slaughtered
him. He sacrificed him for the sin
of his people. If you want to see the effect
of sin, you want to see what sin really is, look to Calvary. Look to Calvary. That's what
the father thinks of sin. He hates it so much, he slaughtered
his own son. The father is holy. He hates
sin so much, he took the sword of justice and thrust it into
his fellow and his own darling son. Not long before that, the
father spoke from heaven and said, this is my only beloved
son, my only begotten son, my beloved son. Hear ye him. A little
while later, he's putting the sword of justice through his
heart. God's holy. His justice must be satisfied. And since His justice is satisfied
upon the death of the substitute, God's gracious to His people.
There's no more wrath left in Him for them. He poured it all
out on our substitute. And God in justice, God made
it right for Him to be gracious to sinners like you and me. He
made it right for Him to forgive our sin by sacrificing a substitute
for us. Now I ask you, what can be more
gracious than that? You parents. Is there anybody
you'd sacrifice one of your children for? Not a one, is there? Not a one. The father sacrificed
his son so that he might, in justice, show mercy and grace
to his people. Oh, that's grace. That's grace
you can count on to save you. And that brings me to the fifth
thing. Salvation by grace has to be true. Because salvation
by grace is the only message, the only message man preaches
that makes salvation sure to every sinner that trusts Christ.
Let me show you that in Romans chapter four. If salvation is
by our works, you can't be sure, can you? Because you just never
know what we'll do. I mean, you just, you never know what a sinner's
gonna do. A salvation by grace makes it
sure. Look here at Romans 4, verse 16. Therefore, it is a
faith that it might be by grace to the end that the promise might
be sure to all the seed. Not to that only which is of
the law, not just to the Jews, but to that also which is of
the faith of Abraham. Any Gentile, Jew or Gentile has
a faith of Abraham who is the father of us all. Salvation by
grace makes salvation sure. God has begun this good work,
this good work of grace for his people. And Paul says he'll perform
it. He's going to perfect it. He's
going to finish it. And that's what makes it sure.
What makes salvation sure is God does all to save it. See,
that's why it has to be by grace. It's the only way salvation could
be sure. All right, number two, I'm confident of this. I'm confident
that salvation is an inward work of grace in the new birth. Paul
says here that God has begun a good work in you. In you. Oh, this is so important,
in you. Salvation is more than a legal
transaction. Brother Walter Groover says salvation
is not diplomatic immunity, where you're guilty but we just can't
charge you. Salvation is more than a legal transaction. Now,
the legal requirements of God's law and God's justice, they do
have to be satisfied. This is a legal matter that must
be taken care of. Absolutely. But salvation is
more than that. It's not only that. There also
has to be a holy nature that God will accept. And this is
what man by nature does not understand. We only can look on the outward,
and so we think salvation is just the outward. But salvation
is not just an outward work. Salvation is a work that God
does in the heart. Salvation is not straightening
up and sinning less and being more moral. I wish I could sin
less. I wish I could straighten up.
I wish I could. But that's not salvation. Salvation
is not observing the right religious ceremonies, not observing the
right religious traditions. Salvation is a work of God in
the heart. It's got to be in the heart.
And when we try to make salvation an outward change, all we're
doing is putting lipstick on a pig. That's all we're doing.
And when you put lipstick on a pig, what do you got? You got
a pig that looks absurd. Isn't that right? When we try to make the outward
forms of religion, the outward ceremonies of religion, all these
religious traditions, When you try to make that salvation, you
know what you've done? You put lipstick on a pig. All
you've done is you still got a lost sinner. You just made
him look ridiculous, trying to keep the law to satisfy God,
trying to keep your traditions to satisfy God. Salvation can't
come that way. It's not an outward work. Salvation
requires a work on the outside. It requires a work for us, but
it also requires a work in us and a sinner can't be saved until
both those works are done. A work for us and a work in us. Now God does a work for us. I
mentioned it before, divine election. The father chose some sinners
out of Adam's fallen race that he would save. That's a work
for us because we never would have done that work. God did
that work for us. There's a work God does for us in making God's
elect righteous through the sacrifice of Christ. It made him sin for
us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. That's a work that God the Son
does for us. But then there's a work that
God does in us. It's a work of God the Holy Spirit in regeneration
when God the Holy Spirit gives life, new life, gives a new nature
born in the hearts of God's people. The Holy Spirit causes that sinner
to be born again with a nature that believes God, with a nature
that loves God, with a nature that God will accept, righteous
and holy nature. And I'm confident of this. I'm
utterly confident that the work of the new birth is a work that's
done in the timing, the will, and the pleasure of God. I can't
talk you into it. This work is done at the pleasure
of God Almighty. Let me show you that. James 1.
I told you the only things that we can be confident in are what
God's word says. I'm telling you that the work
of the new birth is a work that's done at the will and pleasure
of God. I'm confident of that because that's what God's word
says. James 1 verse 18. Of his own will, not the preacher's
will, not my will, not my mama's will, of his own will begat he
us with the word of truth, with the seed of the word of truth
that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. This
new birth happens by the will and pleasure of God. There can't
be any mistaking that. I'm confident of this. Now this
new birth happens by the will and purpose of God. I'm confident
that that new nature was born of God the Holy Spirit, is a
holy, righteous nature that can never sin. I'm confident of that. I'm confident of that because
of the seed that conceived it. It's holy seed. You know, our
nature is determined by the seed that gave us life. An apple seed,
what's that seed going to produce? An apple tree, because that's
the only thing it can produce. That's its nature. Well, the
seed of a sinful man, what can it produce? The only thing it
can produce is more sinful flesh. That's all it can produce because
that's its nature. Well, the seed of the Word of
God, we preach the Word of God. Holy Spirit takes that word preach
as a seed and plants it in the hearts of God's people to give
them life. The seed of the word of God can only produce a holy
righteous nature. What say at the scripture? First
Peter one verse 23. Being born again. Not of corruptible
seed. Now that's what Nicodemus didn't
understand, did he? How can I be born a second time? Can I enter
into my mother's womb and be born a second time? Well, no,
you can't do that, but if you could, what good would it do
you? You'd just be born a second time, same way you was born a
first time. You're born again not of corruptible seed, not
of that fleshly seed that produced a fleshly man, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And Peter
ends the chapter by saying, And this is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you. We preach the gospel and the
Holy Spirit takes this seed and plants it in the hearts of God's
people and produces a holy, righteous nature because that's the nature
of the seed that he used to give life. And I'm confident of this. Now, my old man, he can't change. All he'll ever do is sin because
that's what he is. He's flesh. All he is is sin. That's all
he can do is sin and he'll never change. Thankfully, one day he'll
die and we'll be done with him. But there's another nature that's
born in the hearts of God's people, and I'm confident that new nature
can never sin. And I'll tell you why that's
so important. If that new nature can never
sin, I can never perish. I can't produce more sin Christ's
got to pay for. Now, there's only one sacrifice.
His sacrifice put away the sin of his people. If he's given
me a new nature, a nature that can never sin, I can never perish. I'm confident of that, because
this is what God's word says. Look at the book of 1 John 3. Verse nine. Whosoever is born
of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. See,
it all has to do with the seed. The seed remaineth in him, And
he cannot sin because he's born of God. That which is born of
God is impossible for that nature to sin because he's born of God.
God can't produce something that's going to sin. See, that's the
nature that God will accept. God looks on the heart. You mean
we just look on the outward. God looks on the heart. And what
he sees in us is corruption. It's mighty ugly, isn't it? You
know what God does for his people? He puts a new nature in them.
that loves him and that he loves, that he can accept. Oh, that's
grace. And only God can produce what
God will accept. So the Holy Spirit causes Christ
to be formed in us. In us. Christ in you. That's our hope of glory. And
since that's true, the work of the Holy Spirit is just as necessary
in salvation as the work of the Son and as the work of the Father.
There's got to be a work done for us. The Father and Son do
that. There's got to be a work done in us. The Holy Spirit does
that. And I'm confident God will perform it. I'm confident he'll
perform it for his people. Number three, I'm confident of
this. Not one of God's elect shall
ever perish. I'm confident Paul says here
that God has begun a good work in you, and He'll perform it. He's gonna perfect it. He's gonna
finish it. Almighty God purposed to save
a people. The Father chose to save those people. Then they'll
be saved. I mean, if God purposed to do
something, it's gonna happen, because God's purpose will never
be frustrated. God always does His will. in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or
ask him, what doest thou? God's will shall be done. And
God, the son, he came in the flesh and he sacrificed himself.
The son of God sacrificed himself for the sin of his people and
his blood put away the sin of his people and made them righteous. And since Christ died, God's
justice demands that they be in glory. Demands it, justice
has been satisfied. They cannot perish because the
substitute died. Then they'll never, they'll never
perish. God, the Holy Spirit gives life to those people. And
what does scripture call that life? Eternal life. You don't have to be a genius
to figure out you're not going to lose it. It's eternal life. It's a gift that God, the Holy
Spirit gives. And God's not going to take that
gift back. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He'll never take it back. The
Holy Spirit's created a holy nature in the hearts of his people.
Well, God's justice is never gonna allow that nature to perish.
It has no sin. There's no reason for it to perish.
See, none of God's elect can ever perish. Isn't there so many
reasons for that? And I'm confident of this. Christ the Savior is
gonna bring every soul But the father gave him to say, he's
going to bring every one of them to glory and present them before
the father. His father here are I and the
children, which thou hast given me. They're all here. I brought
them all to you. That's the work of the Savior.
That's his work. He has to do that. Well, he can't
fail to do it. He can't because he's God. He
can't fail to do it. So here's a question. Did Christ
do enough on the cross to save you from all of your sin? That's
the question. If he did, then all of God's
work, all of God's people are saved and they can never perish
because Christ's blood is enough. Now, is the blood of Christ alone
enough or not? Is it? The Father says enough. Is the blood of Christ enough
to blot out my sin? Is the blood of Christ enough
that God will say, I forgive your sin. Well, it is. It is. Because of whose blood it is.
My blood wouldn't do the job. As precious as my children are
to me, their blood wouldn't do the job. But this, what we're
talking about here, is the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ. Well, if it's the blood of Christ,
if it's the blood of God, I don't have to do anything to add to
His blood or add to His sacrifice to pay for my sin. How may I
see that? Because he's God. Then everyone for whom Christ
died, for whom he shed his blood can never perish. Never. Now the father elected a people.
The Bible calls that foreknowledge. Those that God foreknew, those
that he foreloved, a people that he would save. Well, can anything happen to
make those people perish? God foreloved them, God foreknew
them. Can anything happen to make those people perish? Well,
what say the scripture? Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. Verse one. I say then, hath God cast away
his people? God forbid, God forbid anybody
would say that. For I also am an Israelite of
the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast
away his people, which he foreknew. Watch ye, and know ye not what
the scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to
God against Israel? Saying, Lord, they killed thy
prophets, they dig down thine altars, and I am left alone,
and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have
not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then, at this
present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. See, God has an elect people.
And however bad we think it is, God's keeping those people because
he foreknew them. He chose them. He'll never cast
them away. The father, gave a people to
his son. He chose those people. He gave
them to his son for his son to save. And this is the covenant
of grace. The father elected the people and gave them to his
son. The son said, I'll pay the price. I'll redeem them. I'll
take their debt and I'll pay the price and I'll bring them
to glory. Was he going to fail to save
one of them? Can any of them perish? No, no, they can't. I'm confident
of that because of the scripture. Look at John 6. John 6, verse 38. For I came
down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him
that sent me. I told you earlier, this is the
Father's will, the Savior says it. This is the Father's will
which has sent that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. See,
it's God's will that all the elect be redeemed, then they
will be. Christ came to do that will, and he accomplished it.
I know this, the Holy Spirit's gonna draw all of God's elect
to Christ. I was sitting up here in Isaac
was singing, and thought crossed my mind, Frank Tate, what are
you doing? To open the word of God and speak
to God's people for God, what are you doing? I thought about
running out that door. That would have been a sight,
wouldn't it? But you know why we keep preaching? Why we
keep preaching Christ? Why we keep preaching the gospel?
Because the Holy Spirit's going to use that message and he's
going to draw all of God's elect to Christ. I'm so confident of
that. I know not one of them will ever
stay away from Christ. I know that. The irresistible
power of God the Holy Spirit is the only thing that will bring
a sinner to Christ. And he does it through the preaching
of the gospel. They'll never come on their own. Look here
in John 6 verse 44. No man can come unto me. We don't have the ability to
come to Christ except the Father which has sent me drawing. And
I'll raise him up at the last day. And when spirit draws a
sinner to come to Christ, to cause that sinner to come to
Christ begging for mercy. Are you ever going to find a
sinner at the feet of Christ begging for mercy that Christ
is going to kick to the curb? Not one. Verse 37. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Do you want mercy from God? Do
you not have mercy and you want it? I'll tell you why you don't
have it. You've not begged for it. The moment you beg for it,
he'll give it to you. The Savior just said that. I
know he'll never kick anybody to the curb who ever comes to
him begging for mercy. The believer is absolutely confident
of those things. If you look with me at Psalm
17, I'll show you this, this is nothing new. The believer's
always been confident of this. This was David's confidence,
Psalm 17. As for me, I will, not I might,
not I could, I will behold thy face righteousness, and I shall
be, not I might, not I could be, not maybe, I shall be satisfied
when I awake with thy likeness. See, we're confident of that
because not one of God's people will ever perish. Then here's
the fourth thing. I'm confident about this. I'm
confident that it's right for me to think well of y'all. In our text, verse seven, Paul
says, even as it's me, It's right for me to think this of you all
because I have you in my heart. In so much as both in my bonds
and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you're partakers
of my grace. Now, I'm not contradicting myself.
I told you to begin the message. We have no confidence in the
flesh. I can't have confidence in my flesh or anybody else's
flesh. We just can't say, well, so-and-so, I know that they believe
Christ. I know they'll never leave Christ.
I may have good reason to think that, but you've got to remember
now, salvation's a hard work. We don't know one another's heart.
You know, I can hardly know my own heart. How can you know somebody
else's? You can't. But while we have
no confidence in the flesh, you know it's right for us to think
the best of each other. Even when a believer stumbles.
That happens from time to time, doesn't it? You know, when that
happens, don't write somebody off. Don't say, well, they don't
know the Lord. It's right for us to think the best of you.
Paul says here it's right for him to think well of these Philippian
believers. There's several reasons. Number
one, he says, because God's put you in my heart. God's given
me a love for you and a care for you. Paul went and preached
the gospel there and he left. Well, he didn't forget him. He's
thinking about him. He's in prison writing this letter to him because
he loves him. God's put them in his heart. The Savior said, by this shall
all men know that you're my disciples, if you have love one to another.
When that love's in our heart, that's not there naturally, is
it? No, if it's there, God had to put it there. And I'll tell
you what, if that love continues, there's good reason to think
well of somebody, have a hope for a minute. Number two, Paul
says, it's right for me to think well of y'all, because your conduct
matches your profession of faith. This congregation believed Christ.
They believed the gospel and they heard it preached and they
lived by faith. You know, Paul didn't come preach
to them and say, yeah, we like that. That's a new doctrine.
I've heard that before and get all excited about it and say
we believe in salvation by grace through faith. And then Paul
leaves and they start, you know, adding something to it or start
diluting the gospel. No, they didn't do that. They
didn't become self-righteous. They didn't say, oh, you know,
we're saved by grace, but we keep our salvation by our words.
You've got to have good words. You've got to be circumcised.
You've got to do all these things. They didn't do that. They kept
living by faith. Trust in Christ by faith. And
something we can't understand, really, in our day, like they
did. They put their money where their
mouth was. The Apostle Paul was put in prison, and they stood
by him. They defended him. When defending him could have
got them thrown in jail, too. They defended him anyway. They
stood by him anyway. They didn't quit preaching the
gospel, even though it could have got them thrown in prison.
They put their money where their mouth was. The truth of the gospel,
the glory of Christ meant so much to them, they're going to
defend it. Defend him and defend the gospel, even if it cost them. You see somebody doing that,
that's not natural. Could be God's done a work of
grace in them. Thirdly, Paul says, it's right for me to think
this of you all, because even when Paul wasn't there, they
kept preaching the gospel. He says, you confirmed it. You confirmed
the gospel by preaching Christ to others. See, this is how they
showed they really believed Christ. They really believed the gospel.
They preached it to others. They weren't just following me.
No. They're preaching the gospel. Even when it wasn't popular,
they kept preaching it. They confirmed it. And fourthly,
Paul says, it's right for me to think well of you all, because
you're partakers of my grace. You're partakers with me of God's
grace. See, they confessed, I'm saved
by grace. Same way Paul did. They hear
about Paul's conversion. Paul said, I'm saved by grace.
They said, oh, I recognize that. I'm a partaker of that. I was
saved by that very same grace. They were true sovereign gracers. I mean, they believed in sovereign
grace. God's sovereign, free, They're a partaker of it because
God gave it to them. God gave it to them freely. And
I'll tell you something else that they are partakers of, but
let them have fellowship with each other. They're partakers
of the same trials and afflictions of life from without and from
with even. They're partakers. They say,
I'm a brother with you in that. I'm a partaker of that sin. I
know what you mean about that sinful nature. I know what you
mean about not being able to produce a righteousness. I know
what you mean about not being able to do anything right. I
know that. I'm a partaker with you in that. I'm a partaker with
you in that new birth. I'm a partaker with you in that
civil war. You start talking about that, I know what you mean.
I can give you some comfort in this matter of fighting the civil
war, because I'm doing it too. And they're partakers of the
trials. Same kind of trials. And they're partakers of the
same grace that was sufficient. Paul found God's grace was sufficient
for the trial that he endured. These Philippians, these other
believers, found the same thing. They get together and they can
talk. And so these trials are hard. It feels like they're going
to crush you. But isn't God's grace sufficient?
God's grace is enough to bring you through. God's grace is enough
that that trial keeps you looking to Him, keeps you dependent on
Him, makes you fall at His feet instead of run away from Him.
That's God's keeping grace. We can talk about that. We can
talk about, oh, I've read that. I read what Paul said. God's
grace is sufficient. Now I know it. Because I've experienced
it too. We're partakers in the same grace.
Knits our hearts together, doesn't it? The only reason we can have
any confidence of salvation is this. We've been saved and that
will be kept by God's sovereign grace that's in Christ Jesus.
I'm confident in that, aren't you? I'm confident in that. God
make it so. Let's bow together. Our father,
we thank you for your word. Oh father, I pray you give us
faith to believe that we might find our confidence in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that we might find confidence in your electing,
redeeming, calling, saving, keeping grace. God be gracious to us,
we pray, and make us confident to go through this life looking
to and depending upon Christ our Savior. For in his precious
name, for his glory and the good of his people, we pray. Amen. All right, Isaac.