I invite you to turn back with
me this morning to Philippians chapter 1. I want to focus all
my attention on verse 6. And I'm more and more aware of
my responsibility to this congregation, and especially to the children
that come here, most of which were Very small, I was looking
at the pictures back in the back this morning while I was waiting
for the service to start. And I was reminded of just how
little they were when I first got them, just toddling around
and some a little older. And now they're young adults
in college, out in the workforce. And I realize that I cannot change
your nature, and that's your problem. It's a problem with
us all, everyone I speak to, including myself. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men. We are by nature, Ephesians 2,
you can read it for yourself, We are by nature children of
wrath, even as others. What has to be done is that nature
has to be overcome. There has to be a new birth.
And this work is beyond us. It's beyond me. It's beyond you. I cannot change your nature. I cannot change the judgment
of God upon mankind. I can't change it. But it might be that God will
be pleased to use me to make a difference in your lives. Might be. Salvation is the work
of God. It's not accomplished by a church,
although he may use the church. Not accomplished by a preacher,
although he may use a preacher, but salvation is the work of
God, and it's above us, it's beyond us, it's where it needs
to be. It's in the hands of a loving,
all-wise, just God. And if nothing else, I hope I've
made this clear to you over the years, it's not of him that willeth. Not of him that willeth. Nor
is it of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy. Salvations of the Lord. All of
it. All of it. From beginning to
end and everything in between. And not only is it by him, but
it's for him. He doesn't save you for your
glory. He saves you for his glory. You know, we spent, I did, as
a young man, because that's what I was hearing from the pulpit,
I spent most of my young life wondering what there was in me
that God wanted to save. What would want him to choose
me? What is it that would be in me
that he might look for, that he might approve of, Russell? Well, it ain't for that cause. It's for His glory. It's to declare
His great name, and it's brought to pass by such means as God
Himself has ordained. It's not up to us. We don't say,
well, here's the options. You want to hear options? Go
somewhere else. You're not going to hear them
here. But you can go down here to any one of these churches,
and I guarantee you, within a few weeks, you'll have a list of
options. I'm shocked at preachers in my
day who insist that God saved some people one way and others
by another means. I'm shocked by that. God the Father, it says in the
book of James in chapter one, it says every good and perfect
gift comes from above. It's not born here, it didn't
evolve here. It comes down from above. It
comes down, he said, from the Father of lights, with whom is
no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Who of his own will
begat he us with the word of truth. Does that sound like there's
some options in there somewhere? No, there's no variableness with
God. He not wish he was as we are.
He never changes. And here's what he said about
that. He said, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. I don't know. I'm shocked at
men who preach these things, but I know why they do it. They
do it to preserve some old experience or some old testimony that they
made years ago. Salvation ain't about what happened
years ago. Salvation's about what's going
on right now. Now get that in your head. You
can go back there and search from now on. It doesn't make
any difference. What's going on in your heart, in your head,
right now? Today. Today, he said, is the
day. It's not yesterday. Well, I can go back and tell
you the time and the place. Well, good. But it's not going
to do you any good. I know why they do it. They preach
all these things to preserve some old experience they had
or some old testimony that they made years ago. God saves chosen sinners through
the person and work of his son. He does it by the power of his
Holy Spirit and the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as I quoted to you a few
minutes ago out of the book of James, of his own will, whose
will? God's will. God's will. begat he us with the word of
truth. And while all these sensual and so-called spiritual experiences
sound good and they ring true with the flesh, you can't find any foundation
for them in the word of God. And the word of God is the foundation
of our faith. I've been here preaching to you
for over 15 years now. laboring to tell you something
about the sovereign Savior and the redemption that God has accomplished
by Him, and I labor every week and work to show you His sufficiency
as our Savior and Lord, to show you the will of God in all His
appointments from all eternity, and in His incarnation, that
is, the Word being made flesh and dwelling among us. and in
his sufferings and death, and in his resurrection, ascension,
and even in his present reign in glory. And if we're to have any confidence
in the salvation of God's elect, we must have it in the God who
will finish what he starts. I have three things this morning
concerning this verse that I read to you a little earlier. I want
to talk to you about the beginning. And I want to talk to you about
what lies between. And I want to talk to you about
the sure and certain end of this work that God has begun. So let's first of all consider
the beginning. To consider the beginning of
a matter, we're going to have to consider this text in two
distinct views. God's and men's. From God's perspective, that
which he first begun took place in eternity. Paul said, I'm confident that
what God has begun, he's gonna finish. Well, when did God begin
this work? Well, he began saving me before
the foundation of the world. That's what the scripture says. Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy
1-9 and he said, God hath saved us and called us with a holy
calling. That is one not contrary to the
nature of God. That's what he's talking about
here. A holy calling. Not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. That's when it started,
way back yonder in eternity. In Ephesians 1.3, Paul blesses
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessing. in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. He did that that we might be
holy and without blame before him in love, that is, being loved. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his will. So the work begun is a work undertaken
by God from the beginning, and the beginning with God is eternity. That's what the Lord said, I'm
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. God both appointed for us a priest
in the Lord Jesus Christ. When did he do that? In eternity. Did you know that? God both appointed
for us a priest and swore him in from the very beginning. Listen to this. The Lord swear
and will not repent. This is what he told to his son.
Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And
the book of Hebrews tells us who Melchizedek was. This is
a pre-appearance of Christ, if you will. He appeared to Abraham
on his way back from the battle of the kings. And Abraham offered
him tithes, this priest. And he said, this Melchizedek
didn't have any beginning, and he didn't have any end. He's
a priest forever. And that's what he said of his
son. Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. And then it says in Hebrew 724,
but this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood,
wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. He's a priest forever. And he
makes intercession, a priestly intercession for us, Winston,
and it never stops, it's continual. Oh, when's it going to end? It
ain't going to end. He's a priest forever. And then there's the Lordship
of Christ, not only his priesthood, but his Lordship. He's the image
of the invisible God. He's the firstborn of every creature.
He's the creator of all things, and all things were made by Him
and for Him. He's the head of the body of
the church. In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and it pleased God that all preeminence be in Him. He's the Lord. No man liveth to himself, no
man dieth to himself. Whether we live or die, we die
unto the Lord. He's our Lord. And He's the Word, the eternal,
divine Word. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son. You can't know God apart from
Christ. He's the only revelation there is of God. He's in Christ. And then His incarnation, He
become flesh. And the whole of the Old Testament,
if you read it correctly, it just keeps telling you somebody's
coming. Somebody's coming. He's gonna be the root of Jesse
and the offspring of David, and a virgin shall conceive and bring
forth a son. Thou shalt call his name Immanuel,
God with us. And this one given these divine
appointments and offices was given these things to save chosen
sinners. Chosen sinners. And this one
spoken of, he said, is now made manifest by the appearing of
our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel. I know you hear that word a lot
from the pulpit, gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel. We get tired
of hearing that. What's that mean? What is the
gospel? The gospel's a person. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
if you read the title before you get to the book, read the
title, The Gospel According to Matthew. What's he write about? Christ. Takes him from his birth
to his death. What's Mark write about? Christ.
From his birth to his death. Luke, that's what we're studying
now. What's he talking about? Christ. From his birth to his
death. and likewise John. The gospel is a person and this
person in the fullness of the time when it was come he was
made of a woman and made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law that we might receive our predestinated adoption. The
virgin-born Son of God, the Son of Man came into this world as
our representative And everything he did, he did as our representative,
and he did it before God. And he did for us what we could
never do. He accomplished redemption. He
brought reconciliation to pass. He established a righteousness
acceptable with God. He saved his people from their
sins, and having satisfied divine justice, and righteously reconciled
us to God. God raised him from the dead
to declare our justification. And then he stepped onto a cloud
with his angels and ascended back into glory and took his
place on the throne at the right hand of the Father. And this
is what he told his disciples before he left, all power in
heaven and earth given unto me. That's a lot of power. Power
in heaven, authority in heaven, power on earth. Now he sits up there reigning
over all things, the scripture said, expecting till his enemies
be made his foes too. Now that's the work began of
God from God's perspective. And from my perspective, this
good work begun by God is a work of faith. It's something that
happens in time. Paul calls it the gift of God
in Ephesians 2.8. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. In Colossians 2.12, he calls
it the faith of the operation of God. God working in you, the
faith of the operation of God who hath raised us from the dead. And this faith is a result of
a new birth. It is that which makes known
our election of God. It is the conduit of the very
life of God into our souls. It is absolutely necessary to
our salvation for without faith, the scripture said it's impossible
to please God. Let me tell you what God's pleased
with. His son went down and John the Baptist waded out in the
river to baptize him. And he said, Lord, I'm not worthy
to baptize you. I'm not worthy to bend over and
unloose your shoestrap. He said, you suffered to be so
for now. Because he had to fulfill all
righteousness. He had to fulfill all the demands
of God. And his baptism was included
in that. And so John baptized him. And
when he did, God said from heaven, this is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. What God pleased with? His son.
But without faith, it's impossible to please God, because without
faith, you don't have his son. And then having declared to us
the gift of God's grace, the gift of faith, in Ephesians 1a,
he moves on to tell us that we're his workmanship. The verse is
down below. Where his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Good works such as faith, repentance, love, worship, prayer. You know what they said of Paul?
Behold, he prayeth. Nobody but a believer can do
that. Nobody but a man born of God can do that. Behold, he prayeth. He prayeth. Nobody but one born
of God can worship God. You can sing about him, talk
about him, read about him, but you can't worship him apart from
Christ. Can't do it. And apart from faith. And these things because of trials
and temptations and weaknesses of the flesh are sometimes lost
sight of. And they leave us in doubts and
fears, and so Paul uses Philippians 1, 6 to comfort us by telling
us that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it.
Did he give you faith? He'll maintain it. How's he gonna
do it? Is he gonna cross your will?
No, he's gonna make you willing in the day of his power. Did he begin this good work in
you? He'll finish it. If any man draw back, my soul
shall have no pleasure in him. But we're not of them that draw
back. We're of them that believe to
the saving of the soul. Why? Because he who begun the
work we'll finish it. That's why. Don't you ever, don't
you ever down the road start looking back and say, well one
thing I can say, I was faithful. We're kept, listen to what Peter
said, kept by the power of God through faith. That's what maintains
your faith, God. And that's the beginning, the
work begun by God. And then secondly, what lies
in between? Well, we've each been given an
existence in this world. No man, the Bible says, liveth
or dieth to himself. You're here for a reason. The
potter of the same lump, he makes one vessel under honor, another
under dishonor. He makes them both. They're both
here for a purpose. They're both here serving the
Lord. We each have been given an existence
in this world and no man liveth or dieth to himself. He's given
his existence in this world to glorify God. He makes one vessel unto honor,
another to dishonor. He's the potter and he has power
over the clay to do what he will. Cannot I do with my own what
I will? What's the potter do? He makes
one vessel unto honor, another to dishonor. He's the potter. And the vessels of honor, he
says in Romans 9 verse 23, are such as he will make known in
the riches of his glory, because they are vessels of mercy aforeprepared
unto glory. And those whose lives he has
intervened in, he'll prove them to be his, and he'll prove the
work that he does in them. How's he gonna do it? Through
trials. Abraham, Abraham all his life
wanted an heir. And he finally gets him out of
his own bowels and from Sarah, exactly as God promised, he has
a son. He has an heir. And this heir
gets up to about 16, 17 years old. And God comes to Abraham. He said, you take that son, and
you take him up on the mountain, and you make a sacrifice of him
to me. If you wanna read something about
the sacrifices Abraham made, you go back to the book of Genesis.
You don't just slit his throat and throw it on fire. It had
to be divided up. He said, you carve up your son
and you lay him out in order before me. Abraham did. And his son knew
what worship was. Abraham was his daddy, he knew
what worship was. And on the way up that mountain,
he said, I see the wood, and I see the fire, but where's the
lamb? You can't worship God without
a lamb. Christ is the lamb. Where's the lamb? 15-year-old
boy knew that, Russell. That's more than all the religions
in this world put together. You can't worship God without
a lamb. Where's the lamb? God will provide
himself a sacrifice. Huh? So he got up there, he laid
that boy down, drew that knife back, and God stayed his hand.
And he said, there's a ram caught in the thicket. That's Christ. No way of escape. No way of escape. God's purpose has him. He's in
the thicket. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. It's
not possible. Our lives are hedged about by
a jealous God. Our lives are privileged beyond
our conception. Our lives are blessed of God
in Christ and therefore spared nothing. We are as fit for heaven as if
we were Already there. Scripture said he raised us up
together with him and seated us together with him. We are
as prepared, if we're believers, we're as prepared for heaven
through Christ as we're ever gonna be. But we're left here for another
purpose. We're left here to serve the
Lord and be fellow laborers in the kingdom of God. And in all
this, comforted by God's Holy Ghost as he continually shows
to us the things of Christ. Where would you be, even today,
where would you be if God wasn't pleased to reveal his Son to
you? To take of those precious things
of Christ and open them up to you? Huh, where would you be? You'd be right back where you
started from. Oh brethren, I would that you
and your family enjoy every moral activity in this world. You like
to dance, go dance. If you like to fish, go fish.
You like to work, go work. Gardening, whatever. But in all
these things, you remember who you are and why you are. and who he is, and why he left
you here. And you'll find out that these
things all take a back seat to this thing of redemption. Oh, don't give these things preeminence.
You give those things of Christ preeminence in your life. So
we looked at the beginning, both from God's perspective and ours,
and we've considered briefly what lies between that is between
faith, the new birth, and the grave, and what lies between
our trying times, but also incredible sights, blessings untold, and
in all the assembling of ourselves together to encourage one another,
and that we might be matured in the faith and persevere to the end. I was
just sittin' here thinkin', as I was talkin' about these things,
there was a time when the triplets had to call them down. They had
a little piece of paper back there and they playin' football.
They had to call them down. I don't have to call you down
now, do I? I call. God gave you an appetite. You're not interested in this
anymore. You're interested in this. And then last of all, Paul gives
us the believer's confidence. And our confidence is in God. It's in God. It's his work. He begun the work. He worked
in us. Bring about faith and repentance.
The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. You didn't find
repentance. Believers' confidence is in God.
In 1 Peter 1, the apostle tells us that we were redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot who barely was foreordained before the foundation
of the world but was manifested in these last times for you.
Now listen, for you who by him do believe in God that raised
him from the dead. Our confidence is in God. You say, well, my confidence
is in Christ. Same thing. Same thing. But God sent him. That's what
our Lord said. My father sent me. My father
worketh hitherto and I work. We're doing the same work. And he did this that your faith
and hope might be in God. Now Jesus Christ is the image
of the invisible God. He's the brightness of his glory,
the express image of his person. And everything our Lord and Savior
did, He did exactly as the Father would do and exactly as the Holy
Ghost would do. So much so that the Holy Ghost
is called the Spirit of Christ. His love was in common with the
Trinity. He showed no mercy or grace on
any contrary to the Godhead. And when he came into this world,
his coming declared, he said, in the volume of this book, it's
written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. In John 6, he said,
I come not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent
me. Christ is God come into the flesh,
the Word made flesh, God and man in one glorious person. Old
Philip said, Over in the book of John, he said, show us the
Father, and we'll be satisfied. You're going to reach that pinnacle
where you don't have to reach anymore. Just show us the Father,
and it's a path to serve. And Jesus said unto him, have
I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me? He that hath seen me I've seen
the Father. The believer's confidence is
in God. And Jesus Christ is God over
all, blessed forever. And he alone is God manifest
to men. You discover God in Christ, or
you don't discover God at all. He said, no man knoweth the Father
save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. And
without me, You can't come to the Father. True faith rests
in God so that in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end,
he that gloweth, let him glow in the Lord. Oh, Lord, help us to see these
glorious things and acknowledge them and worship him for them. Salvation is of the Lord. And
Paul said, here's my confidence. I'm praying for you. I've suffered
for you. You look at my life. I'm laying
down here in prison writing this letter to you right now. Do you
know the beginning of the church at Philippi? The Philippian jailer. Huh? That's right. Paul was in
prison. They was in there singing hymns.
God just busted them doors open, and everybody run out except
Paul and those with him. And he just stayed there, and
the jailer run in ready to put himself to death, because he'd
been given a charge that he'd be put to death. In other words, that same night,
he baptized the Philippian jailer and his whole house. Another
one of their members was Lydia. Lydia. Oh, my soul. What a church. Oh, may God cause
us to see these things, for Christ's sake. Thank you.