Well, we've finished for now
the series that was on the minor prophets, and I want now to start
to look at the epistle to the Philippians. Philippians chapter
1 and verse 6 is our text this morning, and I've entitled it,
The Good Work of God. The Good Work of God. When it
comes to projects, I did a lot of time as a project manager
in my working life, and we all occasionally have domestic projects,
and I think it could be said of me that I am a good starter,
very good at starting things, not very good at finishing things.
In fact, absolutely atrocious at finishing things. I nearly
always need to get somebody to finish it off for me. My wife
will testify to that fact. God's Word reveals His great
project, God's great project. God's great project is saving
a multitude of sinners from the condemnation that they deserve
because of their sin and because of the justice and character
of God, and qualifying them, qualifying those who are fundamentally
by nature disqualified, qualifying them for eternal glory. God does this while strictly
sticking to his own nature. He's an infinitely holy God. He is the definition of holiness. And strictly sticking to his
absolute unbending justice. which must be fully satisfied. Every sin must pay its price
in the justice of God. And yet, God's great project
is to save a multitude of sinners from the condemnation that they
deserve. He started the project, He performs
its every detail, and he perfectly finishes it. That's why we read
those verses from Zechariah chapter 4, about Zerubbabel, who is a
picture of Christ, the plan of salvation. He started it, he
laid the foundation, and he will put on the topstone. Glory, glory. Grace, grace to it. If you are
one of the multitude that God in Christ has saved from their
sins, and how do you know it's evidenced by your belief? Sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth is the evidence you believe
the Gospel. You don't believe any old Gospel,
any Gospel of man, any Gospel that uses Christian terminology.
You believe what this book says about God, about Christ, about
His sovereign grace, His nature, and the salvation He has accomplished. If you're one of the multitude
that He saved, evidenced by the fact that you believe it, this
knowledge is the foundation of your faith. This knowledge is
the foundation of your hope, your certainty of eternal life. This knowledge is the foundation
of your comfort in this veil of tears, in this life, in this
turmoil of this world. You are comforted by the truth
of God. This is the foundation of your
assurance. You will have the full assurance
of faith, as Hebrews says. This is the basis of your confidence. that whatever happens in the
hap of life, the things that happen, the events that come
along, you will arrive safe in eternity. This is the basis of
eternal salvation, the project of God, the great work of God
that He has done. And Paul's epistles make this
explicitly clear. It's clear in every page of Scripture,
but the epistles of Paul especially make this explicitly clear, and
none more so than the epistle he wrote to the Philippians.
He wrote this epistle, we think in about AD 59 or 60, so some
25, 30 years after Christ had descended back to glory. And
he wrote it from house arrest in Rome. You have to read the
last couple of chapters of the Acts of the Apostles to see the
situation. He had appealed to Caesar and
was taken to Rome and he was placed under house arrest. But
under that house arrest, he was allowed to have visitors, he
was ministered to, he was kept alive, he was kept in moderate
comfort, and he had the facilities to write several of these epistles.
Much of the New Testament Word of God that we have is because
in the providence of God The Apostle Paul was put under house
arrest in Rome for the last two years of his life. He met a violent
death at the hands of the Roman Emperor, but he had accomplished
his purposes, he had run the race that was set before him.
So he gives the usual greetings, if you just look at verse 1 of
chapter 1, Paul and Timotheus, what a gracious man, you know,
he's quite prepared to share with Timothy, who was his child
in the faith as it were, he preached the gospel and Timothy had believed,
and now Timothy was one of his most useful helpers. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, That's what they are, 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. The usual greetings, but what
I want to do is I want to focus on verses 3 to 6 this morning. Paul had preached the gospel
at Philippi, you can read that in Acts chapter 16. You know
he tried to go on in what is now Turkey and continue in Asia,
but in a vision there was a man from Macedonia bidding him, come
over to us, come over to us. So he went over into Greece and
to Philippi, and in Acts chapter 16 there he is, in Philippi. And if you remember the account,
he goes down to the riverside on a Sabbath day, and there were
people who were seeking God. And one of them was the seller
of purple, whose name was Lydia. And he preached the gospel, and
a small church began to be formed in her house. She was a woman
of means, no doubt, from her business, and she had the facilities,
and so a church began in her house. But the populace rose
up against Paul. Those that were making money
out of their trade found that what Paul and Timothy were preaching
was contrary to their trade and so they had them put in prison
and they were in the stocks and they'd been beaten and they'd
been treated badly and in the stocks in the middle of the night
as they were singing hymns there was an earthquake and the jailer
who was a rough hard man was terrified And somehow I think
he had his eternal state revealed to him and he cried out, what
must I do to be saved? To which Paul and Silas responded,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved and anyone
else in your household who believes shall be saved. And as a result
of it, a substantial church had assembled and built up and was
living and thriving together in this Gentile community in
Greece no previous knowledge of the Jewish religion. But this
substantial church had built up, and it was comprised of what
are called saints, the saints. Well, of course, that's just
the set-apart ones, the ones that God has set apart by his
Spirit for belief of the truth, to believe the gospel of his
grace. And so that there be order, there were bishops and there
were deacons. Don't think of Anglican bishops, or Roman Catholic,
but think of elders. There were those in the church
who were raised up and given the gifts to lead and make sure
that things were done in order, and the deacons to serve. So
he's writing to the church. It seems like it was quite a
thriving church, quite a community. And they held very precious memories
for him. Look in verse 3. I thank my God
upon every remembrance of you. He remembered them. Here he is.
It's some time since he's seen them. It must be several years
since he's seen them. But he prays for them. I thank my God on every remembrance
of you, always, in every prayer of mine, for you all making requests. He prays for them. He prays for
them. He thanks God for their fellowship,
verse 5, in the Gospel. From the very first time, that
time with Lydia by the bank of the river, right the way through
until now, he thanks God for his fellowship with them. How
was the fellowship continued on before the days of mass communications
and easy messaging? No doubt by letters between them.
had fellowship with them, and he rejoiced in that fellowship,
and he thanked God for that fellowship, and he asked God for their eternal
good, because that fellowship, that sharing in the truth of
Christ, in mind, in heart, in experience, in its outworking
in everyday life, that fellowship with them, how they communicated
this truth, how he sensed what they felt about it, and they
what he did, it gave confidence that they were the objects of
God's great salvation project. You know, being confident of
this very thing being confident, it gave him confidence that they
were the objects of God's great salvation project. And so he
says in verse 6, being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you, that's God, he which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it, will finish it, is the margin. If you look in the marginal reference
for verse 6, perform is finish. that he will finish it until
the day of Jesus Christ. So, what I want to look at is,
what is God's good work? He that begun a good work in
you, what is God's good work? Secondly, what are the effects
of that good work? Thirdly, what is the life cycle
of that good work, of that project, this project of God, which is
his great project of saving a multitude from their sins? And then finally,
the certainty of the work's success. So what is God's good work? Being confident of this very
thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you, He which
hath begun a good work in you, it's the work of salvation from
the curse of sin. Why do I mean that? The curse
of sin is that sin is an offence to the being and nature and law
and justice of God. and it must bring about punishment,
there must be a penalty. But salvation is salvation from
that curse, from that condemnation that comes from sin. You see,
the fall in the Garden of Eden, when Adam fell into sin, as in
Adam all die. All of the offspring, all of
those descended from Adam from that moment were sinners. We
are sinners. You and I are sinners. Read the
bulletin. Read the couple of articles in
there on sin. Very pertinent articles, I believe. The fall brought sin, and we
are all sinners, and all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God. And sin brings consequences in
the justice of God, the God who made us, the God who upholds
all things, the God to whom we must give account. That God is
holy. and perfectly pure. He cannot
tolerate sin. He is of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. His nature, his very nature,
demands payment. All of this is what the Word
of God speaks. His very nature demands that
sin be separated from him. Your sins have separated between
thee and me. That's what God says. Your sins. He cannot look upon sin. And
tolerate it, be... be calm about it, he must punish
it. How can God's natural enemies
be reconciled to him? You and me by nature are the
natural enemies of God because we are sinners and he is supremely
holy. How can we be reconciled to him? How can we be saved from the
condemnation that would separate us from him? How can we be saved
from the just punishment that our sins deserve under the justice
and nature of God. How can His justice be satisfied? For His justice demands the soul
that sins, it shall die. How can this be done? How can
sinners who deserve only hell, be qualified with God's righteousness? How can we be made the righteousness
of God in Him, in Christ? How can this be happened? How
can this happen? How can we be delivered from
the pit of condemnation? Because our sins would deliver
us to a pit of condemnation, to the pit of hell. Job chapter
33 and verse 24 says this, then he is gracious unto him, God
is gracious unto the sinner, and says, deliver him, the sinner,
from going down to the pit. Why? How can God say deliver
him? God cannot just say deliver him
from going down to the pit, because that would unbalance his justice,
which must be perfectly balanced. Here's the reason, the very next
words, I have found a ransom. It is the payment of the ransom
for sin, which allows God to deliver the sinner from going
down to the pit. How can sinners be restored to
the sinless, holy image of the Creator, and thereby fitted for
eternal communion with God? It's a very tall order. How can
sinners, you know, how holy must we be to be in the presence of
God? In heaven, in eternity, answer,
we must be as holy as God is. Be ye holy, for I am holy, says
the Lord. There it is. But what a tall
order, a very tall order. Is it not an impossible order? It's impossible with men. You
know, Jesus said to the disciples about the rich young ruler, and
he went away sorrowful, for Jesus put his finger right on the sore
point. Go and sell all that you have
and give to the poor. And that man went away sorrowful,
and he said, how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of heaven, meaning one who is rich in his own righteousness,
his own worth, how hard it is for him to enter the kingdom
of heaven. He said, it is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man trusting
in his own worth to enter the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples
said, well, who then can be saved? Surely it is impossible. Yes,
said Jesus. It is impossible with men, but
not with God. with God, it is possible, because
he performs his marvellous work. In Psalm 118 and verse 23, he
talks about the stone which the builders rejected being made
the head of the corner, meaning him as the foundation of his
church. And it says, this is the Lord's
doing. Salvation is the Lord's doing. It is marvellous in our eyes. This is God's marvellous work.
The marvellous work of salvation. This is the great project of
God. This is His marvellous work. This is the good work. He who
has begun a good work in you. He who has laid the foundations
for the temple in you, who are the temple of the living God.
It is marvellous in our eyes. You see, a good work needs two
things. A good work needs a good worker,
a skilled craftsman, and it needs good material to work on. You
could give the best of material to somebody who's incompetent
and you won't get a good work as a result of it. You can give
very poor materials to the very best of craftsmen and they'll
make a reasonable shot at it but it won't be any good because
fundamentally the material's no good. Well, God is that good
worker. God is the good worker. He who
begun a good work in you, He is that good worker. We know
this because of creation. When He created things, let there
be light, and there was light, and God saw the light, that it
was good. And all the other things, He said, it was good. It was
very good. It was very good. But what can
He make of sinners? What can he make of those who
by nature are a very offense to him? who are objectionable
to his sinless holy nature. Can he improve them into God's
righteousness? Can he take sinful flesh and
improve it into the righteousness of God? Can the fallen Adam nature
be sufficiently improved and revived and renewed that it's
made the righteousness of God so that it's fitted for heaven?
Flesh will always be flesh. It won't improve. Flesh will
always be flesh. You can turn over a new leaf.
You can resolve not to sin. You can try again on a new tack.
You can subdue sin to a certain extent, but sin will always be
sin, and it will always be there, because it's in the very nature
of flesh. The works of the flesh. Read
about them in Galatians chapter 5. The works of the flesh. It's
what it does. by its very sinful nature. Having
walked out on the law and justice and righteousness of God, this
is what flesh does. In John 3 and verse 6, speaking
to Nicodemus, the Lord Jesus Christ said, that which is born
of flesh is flesh. Don't expect anything more than
fleshly response from that which is flesh. But that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. That which is born of the Spirit
You must be born again, said Jesus to Nicodemus. You must
be born again. To know eternal life and to know
the truth of God in eternal glory, you must be born again. There must be a new man, born
of the Spirit of God. How can I be born again, says
Nicodemus? Can I enter again into my mother's
womb and be born? No, no, no. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. The works of the flesh might
be subdued, but the works of the flesh are never eradicated. People with a lot of so-called
Christian religion, a legalistic religion, are constantly coming
up with formulae, ways of subduing the works of the flesh, their
church discipline, their rules and their regulations, but you
know, sin is never eradicated. It's never eradicated, it's always
there. It needs a new man, with a new
nature from God, one that is born of God's Spirit. It's a
new man, as Colossians 3 verse 10 says, put on the new man,
which is after the image of God. It's a new man which is the creation
of the Holy Spirit of God. Religion strives in vain to improve,
but God creates anew. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we
read it here quite plainly, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17, Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. You see, it's a new man. It's
a man, as John says, 1 John chapter 3 and verse 9, whosoever is born
of God does not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him.
He cannot sin, because he is born of God. In the early days
of believing the gospel, I was really puzzled by that verse.
And I said to the man that was then my minister, I said, I don't
understand this, because I said, I'm supposed to be born of God,
and yet I know I sin all the time. And the answer he gave
me didn't satisfy one little bit. The truth is that this is
speaking of the new nature. In the believer are two natures,
a camp of two armies, as Song of Solomon, chapter 6, verse
13 puts it. There's the flesh and the spirit,
and the two are contrary to one another. There are two natures
in the believer. But the one that is born of God
does not commit sin. It is that one that is new from
on high. It's the old man that commits
the sin. Quickened by God's Spirit is
what we are if we're born again of the Spirit of God. You know,
you who were dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians chapter two,
he has quickened, he's made alive. He's made alive by putting that
new man of the Spirit of God inside. This is the good material
that God uses. He who has begun a good work
in you, he's begun it by causing there to be born in the believer
a new man after the Spirit of God. But He is also, God, is
also a supremely good worker. Not only does He get the right
material, a new man born of the Spirit of God, but as Isaiah
45 says, this is the description of God that He gives of Himself. Isaiah 45 and verse 5, I am the
Lord and there is none else There is no God beside me. I girded
thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know from the
rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside
me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. Here is the omnipotent, all-powerful, omniscient, knowing
all things. Nothing can be hid from this
God. He is the one who is, as Paul said to Timothy, 1 Timothy
1.17, he is the God who is the king eternal, immortal, invisible,
the only wise God. He is the good worker, and the
material he uses is the new man that he creates in the believer.
What does he make? What does he make? He makes,
as he did in the beginning, man in his own image. Adam in the
image of Christ. Adam in the image of Christ.
People in his own image. You and me, sentient beings in
the image of God. He makes them as righteous as
he is. He makes them qualified for eternity. That is his great project. So
what are the effects of God's good work? How did, you know,
I think we all know that Michelangelo was a substantial artist, sculptor,
incredible work. How did Michelangelo work? Have
we got any video recordings of him doing his trade and producing
those wonderful paintings and statues and the things that he
did? It's almost beyond belief if you're as hand-fisted as most
of us are, how somebody could produce such glorious works of
art. How did he do it? The technique, what was his technique? I don't know. I don't know. But
when I go to Florence in northern Italy, and I walk the galleries
and the streets, I can see the effects of his work everywhere. You can see the effects, numerous
statues of David, that beautiful portrayal, beautiful paintings
on the ceilings of the different galleries and buildings. A Christian
is a new creation. And the effects of God's work
can be detected. The effects can be detected.
A Christian is a new creation. He's the work of God. He who
begun a good work in you shall finish it, shall perfect it until
the day of Jesus Christ. Let's think of some of those
things that are the marks of the work of God on this one that
He has worked on in producing a new man, and who He will take
to be with him as part of His great project of the salvation
of sinners from their sins. Firstly, what must there be?
there must be marks of repentance. Repentance? What's repentance?
Think of the French word, to think, penser, repentance, thinking
again, rethinking. It's a word which speaks of the
conviction of sins versus a holy God. If you look at one of the
articles in the bulletin, there's so many people have this false
idea that sins are in the things that we do. So if you drink alcohol,
that's sinful. If you smoke tobacco, that's
sinful. If you go to this place or that place, that is sinful.
No, no, it's what we are by nature. And the outworking of it is the
outworking of what we are by nature. Repentance is this conviction
of the sin that we are by nature, the sin against a holy God, that
springs, that sense springs from a new heart. A new heart? The
new heart of the new man that God has implanted there. Repentance
brings a sense of just condemnation. You know, we quote it so often,
that line of that hymn. It's the Holy Spirit's work.
A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
It's the teaching of God's Holy Spirit that teaches a proud,
arrogant, self-righteous man of what he truly is in the estimation
of God and His holiness and His justice. It's God's gift to give
repentance. Have you experienced repentance?
Do you? It's not something you have and
then you move on. You daily experience repentance for your sinful nature
against God in the flesh. It's something that God gives.
As He said in Acts chapter 11 verse 18, they reported that
God had also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. It's repentance unto life, the
life of God. It's not fleshly remorse and
sorrow for the things that we've screwed up on. Judas Iscariot
had great remorse after he saw what he had done. He had great
remorse. But no, it's not that. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 7, let me just read this, 2 Corinthians chapter 7. And
verse 10, Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not
to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world worketh
death. You see, the sorrow of Judas
wasn't true repentance, it was that which worked death. but
godly sorrow works repentance. Those made sinners are who Jesus
came to call, didn't he? He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He said, Those that
are well, those that think they're well, don't need a doctor, they
don't need a physician, but the sick, those who are sick. He
came to call sinners to repentance. So repentance is the first mark
that God has been working in a life. Has He done that in your
life? Is there that mark of repentance
in your life? And then secondly, there's confession
of sin. at being repenting of it, then
there's the confession of it. In Psalm 32, we read something
of what David said. Psalm 32, in verse 3, he's talking
about keeping sin under cover. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and
night thy hand was heavy upon me. The hand of God was heavy
upon me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. I'm all dried up because of this
sense of sin. The hand of God upon him. I acknowledged
my sin unto thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. confessed it. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Confession
and forgiveness. Repentance first, Confession
and forgiveness, because as John says, 1 John chapter 1 and verse
9, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins. He is faithful in that he's promised
to do it, and he's just because his justice is maintained. How
is his justice maintained? His justice is maintained because
his Son has paid the price for that sin, and therefore there
is no price outstanding. So he's just. He is a just God
and a Saviour. A just God and a Saviour. He
justifies the ungodly by that work of Christ justifying them. So repentance leads to confession
and to forgiveness. These are marks of that work
of God, that great work of God. Are they marks that are in your
life? We look to ourselves purely to
examine ourselves and avoid presumption, but we don't get comfort there.
We only get comfort looking unto Jesus. Thirdly, not only do we
repent of it and we confess it, but we forsake it. You say, well,
I carry on sinning. Yes, but there's a desire to
be done with sin. There's a desire to be in that
eternal realm where there is no more sin. As Proverbs 28 and
verse 13 says, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but
whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. We forsake
sin. meaning that we're no longer
content to live in a settled state of sin. This is the work
of God. You walk around this gallery,
which is those that are the believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, the
objects of the gospel of His grace, and you see in them that
they're no longer content to live. They sin, they sin, but
they're not content to live in a settled state of sin. You know,
sin, it says in the Bible, is a taste of sweetness in the sinner's
mouth. But Job 20 verse 12 says this,
wickedness is no longer sweet in his mouth. The one who has
confessed his sin, who has repented of it, who has sought to forsake
it, Sin, wickedness, is no longer sweet in his mouth as it is with
sinners in general. And this is the clear effect
of the work of God. Fourthly, there's an implanted
fear of God. You know, this is the beginning
of wisdom, the beginning of knowledge. Jeremiah 32 and verse 40. and I will make an everlasting
covenant with them, this is God speaking by Jeremiah, that I
will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put
my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me. How do you reckon it is that
God does good to his people by putting his fear in their hearts. Surely you would think that is
a bad thing. This modern world would think that is a bad thing.
No. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the beginning
of knowledge. This is a filial fear, the fear
of offending God, the respect of a child for a beloved father. This is the fear it's speaking
about. The fear of the Lord, says Proverbs 14 verse 27, is
the fountain of life to depart from the snares of death. I will
put my fear, my respect, my reverence in their hearts. This is the
fear of God. There's an implanted fear of
God in that which is the result of His work. God who has begun
a good work in you will perform it, will finish it till the day
of Jesus Christ. He then gives, fifthly, the spirit
of grace and supplication. In Zechariah chapter 12 and verse
10, we read that, the spirit of grace and supplication. It's
a heart of prayer to God. This is one of the things, this
is one of the marks of that work of God, that work that God has
done. There's a heart of prayer, as
He did with David. God put it in his heart to pray. Where did the prayer come from?
God put it in his heart to pray. When Ananias in Damascus was
frightened of Saul of Tarsus, and God came and revealed to
him that he ought to go and minister to Saul of Tarsus, and one of
the reasons he gave was, behold, he prayeth. He's a soul that
is praying. He's a soul that God has begun
his good work in. Therefore, go and minister to
him. He's no longer one breathing out threats and violence against
the people of God. No, he's one who is praying.
God has begun a good work in him. Sixthly, there is faith. Faith. Ephesians 2 verse 8. By
grace are you saved. Through faith. It is the gift
of God. It is that gift. to see the faith
of Jesus Christ, to see what he accomplished faithfully by
which he made his people the righteousness of God. You know,
I've said it so many times before, it wasn't Abraham's believing,
his faith which was counted to him for righteousness, it was
what Abraham believed in that was counted to him. He saw what
the Lord Jesus Christ would do. He believed it. That was counted
to him for righteousness, because without faith it is impossible
to please God, says Hebrews 11 verse 6. He makes his people,
Galatians 3 26, children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Mark 16 verse 16, he who believes,
has faith and is baptized shall be saved. Listen, we're all facing
death. One day we're all facing death.
Where will you go? Listen to this. This is the Word
of God. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. He who believes not shall be
damned. There. Any debate? None whatsoever. Open and closed case. Faith is
what God brings to the heart of his people. He brings to the
heart of his people a sense of his power, of his presence, of
his grace, of his glory, of his love, of his redeeming blood
and its saving power felt within. He brings, I'm going to have
to hurry, but he brings hope to give a reason for it. Be ready
to give a reason for the hope that is in you, because what
is the hope? A hope that This day we shall be with Him in paradise,
as He said to that dying thief on the cross. He gives love,
the same love, that agape sacrificial love that He, God, supremely
displays. Love for God and for the brethren. It's the fruit of the Spirit's
work. the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of the new man that
he bears is love, joy, peace. Love, it's the first one, love,
true love, true love, not lust, not that which he's trying to
get some self-satisfaction, love, love, self-sacrificing love,
obedience, obedience, coming out of the world, Obedience that
tells us to come out of this world. 2 Corinthians chapter
6 and verse 17. Wherefore, come out from among
them, from false religion, from the things of this world, and
be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you. Obedience. Gospel obedience. Not conformed to this world,
but transformed by the renewing of your mind. Last week's message
on the book of Malachi, I called it, They That Feared the Lord,
and one listener later contacted me and said, I should have called
it, Examine Yourselves, and I thought, yes, he's probably got a point
there, but actually then thinking about it a bit more, The ones
that truly would be examining themselves in the right way were
they in whom God had put his fear, an implanted fear of the
Lord. Look to Christ, but examine to
discern any marks of God's marvelous work in you. You should be able
to detect some of them in you and your brethren. This is what
Paul was being thankful to God for, that they had that evidence
of the work of God, and he knew it through fellowship. So what's
the life cycle of that work? Well, God began it before time
in eternity. It was given to us in Jesus Christ
before the world began. But in each individual, it's
at the right time when the preaching of the Gospel comes, for it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. And
those to whom Paul preached, there was a manner of entering
where the Spirit opened the heart. He opened the heart of Lydia
at Philippi, that she should receive the Gospel. And having
begun it, he continues to perform it until it is finished. I'm
going to end, wrap this up now very shortly. But, you know,
what is the work that he's doing? I remember an illustration from
years ago, somebody asked a sculptor, who'd made this beautiful statue
of a horse, and he asked him, how did you do that? You're so
skillful, what did you do? And the man replied, I just chipped
off everything that didn't look like a horse. I just chipped
off everything that didn't look like a horse. And this is what
God does with his people. What are the tools he uses? The
preached word. We could go into Ephesians chapter
four, but you know, it's the preaching. This is why it's so
important. to avail yourself if you're a
believer of the preached word. And it's so important to have
fellowship, the mutual encouragement of fellowship. Pilgrims heading
for eternity together. Wherefore, as Paul says to the
Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 11, wherefore, comfort
yourselves together and edify one another through trials and
tribulations until it's finished. until it's finished, you know
the margin for performance says finished, until it's finished,
God's marvellous project of salvation completed. It's certain to succeed,
I've run out of time, it's certain to succeed. God who began it
with an unchangeable plan to complete it is the guarantee
of success because he cannot fail. because He is God. You
and I might fail and be frustrated all the time, but He isn't. He
is faithful. Great is thy faithfulness. He
is the one who will complete it. He is more powerful than
all, and nothing, nobody can pluck His people out of His hands. If you're one of God's good work,
you have a solid hope, a certainty of eternal bliss, because it
is Almighty God who has decreed it, who has begun it, who has
performed it, and will certainly finish it. How different from
the possibilities of the vast majority of religion in this
world, so much dependent on fleshly resolution. No, this is dependent
on the promise and the determined plan of the living God. Amen.