Well, as I said, I want to begin
a series looking at the epistle to the Philippians over the coming
weeks. This letter to the Philippians
was written in about 59 or 60 AD, so 25 to 30 years after the
Lord Jesus Christ had been crucified and raised and ascended to heaven. It was written by Paul, from
Rome when he was a prisoner. For two years he was a prisoner
under house arrest effectively before finally he was put to
death there by Caesar. But Paul was there in Rome and
if you read the final few verses of the Acts of the Apostles it
says that in the grace of God he was able to have all sorts
of people come and visit him and minister to them and write
these letters and you'll see at the end of the epistle it
says it was written to the Philippians from Rome by Paphroditus who
actually scribed it that Paul dictated. So this is the letter
and we saw how the church was initiated in Acts chapter 16. Remember how it was initiated?
God opened a door. A great door is opened. God opened
a door. If God opens a door, No man can
shut it. If God shuts a door, no man can
open it. He opened a door and called to
Paul, the man in the vision, the man of Macedonia, come over
and help us. And he came to the chief city
of the area, which was Philippi. And we read in Acts chapter 16,
how Lydia and her household heard the gospel that Paul preached.
There's no such thing as one being baptized for all. It was
the household who heard and the household who believed. And then
they got into trouble because They were preaching, and there
was some witchcraft and sorcery going on, and Paul and Silas
basically, by the words they spoke, put a stop to it. And
the people that owned the girl that was into sorcery, they had
them bound. They had them taken prisoner.
And Paul and Silas were beaten with stripes. They lashed them
on their bare backs, and they put them into prison for causing
sedition in the city. The first of many, John Bunyan,
others, even in this day in other parts of the world, people are
suffering for their faith. I don't know how genuine the
people are in those countries with Sharia Islamic law. I don't
know how genuine is their Christian faith, but honestly, doesn't
each one of us, our hearts goes out to those situations. when
we see the utter evil of being under a sentence of death, under
a sentence of a hundred lashes. Why? For renouncing Islam and
saying you're a Christian. What a terrible, terrible situation
to be in. Well, here, Paul and Silas had
been beaten for what the rulers of that place, Philippi, said
was bringing sedition, bringing unrest into the town. And they put them in prison.
And in the night, of course, God worked. and an earthquake
came and they'd heard Paul and Silas singing hymns and they'd
be psalms and hymns and spiritual songs they were singing they
were singing rejoicing despite bleeding sore backs despite being
shackled in prison. They were singing. Why were they
singing? Because God had opened a door, an effectual door, powerfully
opened it. The gospel that he'd committed
to Paul, there it was, you know, how could he as a human being
ever organize such a thing? He didn't have to, God was doing
it. God had opened the door. God had made the way. God had
put those people in front of him. God had opened Lydia's heart
and her household. And here he was in prison with
this rough we call him a civil servant, I guess, this rough
Philippian jailer who'd been told you better keep him safe,
so he put him in the securest cell in the prison, right in
the middle of the prison. Paul and Silas were there and
the earthquake came and burst everything open, burst the doors.
There are earthquakes of that strength there. They happen even
in my lifetime. There have been serious earthquakes
in Greece that have caused dramatic damage. And this is what happened. And the prison doors were opened.
And the jailer thought, well, I better kill myself. And the
jailer saw something more than just fear for his own safety
in the face of what his employers would say to him, but We don't
know how, but he saw something of eternity. And he saw something
of the judgment of God. And he comes in and cries to
Paul, says, don't worry, we're all still here, all the prisoners
are still here, there's no reason to kill yourself. And he sees
the hand of God. And having seen the hand of God,
he knows it's a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the
living God. Fearful thing. Our God is a consuming fire,
and he falls down before Paul and Silas, these men who he knew
were God's servants, doing God's will, preaching God's gospel.
Men, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul comes back
immediately, you know. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. Why? It's by faith. Not the work
that you do. It's the faith of Jesus Christ
that saves. As I've said over and over again,
it's not Abraham's believing that saved him, it's what Abraham
believed in. that saved him. It was the faith
of Jesus Christ that saved him, that justified him, that secured
his righteousness before a holy God. Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved, and all your household. Not you
for them, but all of them individually responsibly as well. And they
all believed, and they were all baptized. And this is the starting
of the church, of the true church in Philippi. This place in Greece. Although Rome was in the ascendancy,
it was a Roman colony, yet it had been a great place, had this. God, you know it says in Galatians
4, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his
son. Yeah? When did God send forth
his son? Oh, should we go now? Might as well. Yeah, I can't
think of it. No. when the fullness of the time was come, when the
time was right, when in the purposes of God, the Roman Empire was
at its ascendancy, was in its height. Why? Was it because the
Roman Empire was good and kind? No, not at all, but there were
good communications. You could travel safely. There
was the rule of law throughout the civilized world. All of these
things got at the fullness of the time. God ordered all of
these things. All for his purposes. It had
followed on from the reign of Alexander, in, you know, Alexander
the Great, in a few hundred years before Christ came. That was
the Greek Empire. And this place, Philippi, was
named after Philip, who was the father of Alexander the Great.
This is how, sort of, potted the history of the world is.
It's all in the hands of God. So this is a letter, look at
it, look at the first few verses. Let's just read now the first
eleven verses, because this is the subject of our meditation
this morning. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at
Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, grace be unto you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I
thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer
of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. even as it is
meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in
my heart, in as much as both in my bonds and in the defense
and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly
I long after you in all the bowels of Jesus Christ. and this I pray,
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent,
and that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day
of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness,
which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. So it's a letter to the saints
and the bishops and the deacons at Philippi. church members,
church structure. This is a letter to this church,
to this gathering, this ordered gathering of believers that is
composed of saints. Does it not show you, you know
that which calls itself the church, the media thinks the Christian
church is the Catholic church, and at best in this country it
thinks that the Anglican church is a poor substitute for the
catholic church he thinks that that is christianity and they
have their conclaves where they make saints and they just they
just elevated it you know but they they work it on the basis
that uh... jesus said to peter whatever you bind on earth will
be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed
in heaven and so they say peter was the first pope and therefore
what the pope says gets done in heaven as if he has with the
power over god's will to say things and get things done in
heaven and so they've said on earth A couple of previous popes
are now to be called saints, different from others who were
believers. You know, they're elevated, they're
on a high, high plane. What does the scripture say?
Well, doesn't the scripture guide what we think about these things?
Ordinary church members, believers, are saints. You know, we've absolutely
no need to be in any way moved by this ludicrous falsehood that
they peddle, and that billions around the world actually submit
to. No, saints are ordinary believers,
and Paul is writing Paul is writing to saints, those that are set
apart by God in Christ, which are at Philippi. Saints in Jesus
Christ. They're set apart in Him. They're
united with Him. All believers are united with
Him. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of His. They're all united with Him.
They all have His Spirit. but the church has some structure,
it has bishops, elders, pastors, and deacons, those who are servants.
Remember how deacons came about to help the apostles in the early
church to devote themselves to the ministry of the word. The
practical affairs of giving practical financial and material relief
to those that needed it was taken out of the hands of the apostles
and given to the deacons that they set apart. So then he does
his usual greeting. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace. As I was saying before in the
study, is this not what we need more than anything else? Grace.
The grace of God. If you have the grace of God,
then you have peace with God. Is that not such a great comfort
to know that you have peace with God? that you can, as the Psalmist
says, I will both lay me down and sleep in peace, for thou,
Lord, only, makest me to dwell in safety. Grace and peace. Grace be unto you, and peace
from God. Don't misread this. He's not
talking about two separate beings. He's talking about God who is
our Father, to whom we cry Abba Father, and God who is our Lord
Jesus Christ. God who is our Lord Jesus Christ,
whom having seen, you've seen the Father, he that has seen
me, said Jesus, has seen the Father. Grace and peace from
God. What a blessed state that is
to be in. I thank my God, then, he goes
on, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. I thank my
God. The saint's God, whether he's
a bishop, an elder, or a deacon, and bishops, don't think of Church
of England bishops, just elders, just elders, pastors in the church.
Whoever he is, whoever he is, saints, or leaders in the church,
God is personal. I thank my God. For everyone
that can call themselves a saint, you can say, my God. He is my
God. This God is my God. The God of
the universe is my God. I know I am his and he is mine.
I will be their God and they shall be my people. This is the
relationship that God himself gives us in his word, of his
relationship with his people. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you. He thinks of these people. He
doesn't see them with his physical eyes on a regular basis. He's
in prison now in Rome, but he thinks of them and he remembers
them before the throne of grace. Verse four, always in prayer,
always in prayer of mind for you all making requests with
joy. He prays for them. Remembering
them, he prays for them. This is what the people of God
do. For God puts it in the hearts of his people to pray for one
another. Pray for one another. Pray for
those who preach the gospel. Pray that God will do his work.
Pray, I will be inquired of, of the house of Israel, says
God, to do it for them. He intends, fully intends, to
do it for them. But, he says, I will be inquired
of, of the house of Israel, to do it for them. And he's thankful. And he's confident. in their
mutual fellowship, verse five, for your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now. He has fellowship in the gospel.
That's the title of the message, fellowship in the gospel. I want
us to think about what it is to have fellowship in the gospel. Because this is such a precious
thing. Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. He's thankful for this fellowship
in the gospel. Think about it. Think about the
difference between them. Think about who we have fellowship
with in the world. other saints that we come across,
other believers, from completely different backgrounds. Here was
Paul, a Hebrew. He says, a Hebrew of the Hebrews.
He was raised in the Jewish tradition. He was a Pharisee. He was, regarding
the law, he says, blameless. None of the other Pharisees could
bring any accusation against him. And yet, by his parentage,
he was a Roman citizen. He was an educated Pharisee.
Who was he having fellowship with? Philippians, Greeks, Gentiles,
those that as a Pharisee he would have despised as dogs. The dogs,
you know, when the Syrophoenician woman comes to Jesus and says,
help me, he says, it's not, Jesus says to her, sounding very harsh,
he said, it's not right to give the children's food to the dogs,
you Gentile dogs. And she says, ah, but Lord, even
the little dogs can lick the crumbs up off the floor. Ah,
he says, I've not seen such faith. Not seen such faith. Paul, as
a Pharisee, would have regarded these Philippians as dogs. Dogs. Traders. In this area, in this
prosperous empire, this Roman colony. Traders. Lydia was a
trader of materials. The jailer, I guess we would
call him a civil servant, but I imagine he was a pretty rough
chap. He wouldn't be the sort of guy that you want to get the
wrong side of. I imagine he was a strong, tough chap that had
that job because the authorities trusted him to keep the worst
of criminals safely locked away. And yet, look at verse 7 and
verse 8. This is fellowship in the gospel. This is what Paul says to these
Gentile dogs. to these Greeks, to these common
traders and civil servants, he says, even as it is meat, it's
fitting for me to think this of you all, listen, because I
have you in my heart. Do you know, do you know what,
have you in my heart? In as much as both In my bonds,
I'm in prison. And in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel, you're with me. You're all partakers of my grace.
In these things that I'm doing, in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel, you're with me. You're all partakers of my grace. For God is my record. God knows
my heart. God will confirm this. How greatly
I long after you in all the bowels of Jesus Christ. This is people
who have their hearts knit together. They have their hearts knit together
in a common cause. They have deep affection for
one another for the sake of a common cause, the confirmation and defense
of the gospel. And whether they're physically
together or separated by distance, they have unity of mind and of
purpose. This is the basis of their fellowship.
Is this what we enjoy? Is it? We know those with whom
we have true fellowship. There are those out there who
claim to be the true believers of Christ, but we don't have
fellowship with them. Why not? Because in these things,
we're not on the same page. We're not reading the same account
of the gospel, the confirmation and defense of the gospel. We're
not on the same page. That's why you can be friendly,
but there is no fundamental fellowship. And yet, you go thousands of
miles. And you find a group of people
that you've never seen before, and this was our experience last
year going down to Florida. We come across a man and his
wife and his church, and we've never come across them before,
and within hours, within less than that, within hours, we're
completely Hearts knit together in the confirmation and defense
of the gospel. Hearts knit. That's what true
fellowship is. And that's why we don't have
it with others, whatever they might say on the surface. I know
it's very sad that apparently There are some artificial barriers
that seem to stop us having fellowship with others with whom we should
be able to because we believe the same things fundamentally.
But that's another issue. The basis for fellowship is the
gospel. It's fellowship in the gospel.
And it's distinguished from all others. The world has fellowship.
The world has fellowship. You can go and join a club where
you play snooker or badminton or something like that. You'll
have fellowship. And there's nothing wrong with that fellowship.
It's fine if it's just a pastime that you want to do. I guess
those of us that sing in the Nebwith Community Choir, we have
fellowship around the things that we sing and the experience
and the joy of singing together. Fine, but it's not fellowship
in the gospel. It's a social fellowship. It's
fine, but it's not fellowship in the Gospel. And this is the
true Gospel that we're talking about. This is the Gospel of
Scripture. Paul says there are many Gospels,
but there's only one that is true. The other Gospels are not
Gospels at all, because they bring no good news. They just
give false news that sounds good. No, this isn't a man-made Gospel. This isn't one where we fit what
we're going to say so that we don't put people off, so that
they won't come and join us, because if they don't come and
join us we won't have enough money to pay a pastor and therefore
we won't be a viable unit. So therefore we better be careful
what we say so we don't put people off. No, we're talking about
fellowship in the gospel, the true gospel, the true gospel. the true gospel, that's it. The
preciousness of true fellowship in the gospel, if it's something
you know something of, it's valuable, it's precious. And how much of
it? Well, is it not a matter of quality
rather than the quantity of it? It's not a question of how many
people. It's not a question of how often
you see one another face-to-face. It's the quality of that fellowship
when you're in touch. We have means to be in touch.
It's the quality of that fellowship. It's the basis of that fellowship.
Now, what is the basis of Paul's confidence Paul is confident
about these people. Says it, verse 6, being confident
of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. What's Paul's
confidence? There's a hallmark on them, that
these are true believers with whom he can have fellowship.
You know when you get a piece of jewelry and it's stamped with
a hallmark? Do you believe that hallmark?
Beware. You know, you need the expert
to look and he'll say, ah, it looks very good, but that's false,
it's not quite right, that isn't the genuine article. Beware of
it. What's the confidence that Paul
has in the hallmark of their fellowship? He's confident of
this very thing. There's a thing which is a good
work which is in them. The good work. Then there is
its life cycle, because it's one that begins, and it goes
on to the end. It has a life cycle. And then
it has a practical outworking, in verses 9 to 11. So let's have
a look at the good work that is in you. good work that is
in Paul is confident that he has fellowship true fellowship
in the true gospel with real believers because of this good
work that is in you he's confident of this very thing he which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ it's in you is it hidden in you Is it hidden and therefore
unseeable in you? No, it is tangible. It is tangible,
it has characteristics that you can see. An artist might do some
artwork, and you might not know what goes into that artwork,
but you know this, you can stand back and look at it, you can
go to the art gallery and you can see it. You can look at a piece
of engineering, and you might not know what calculations and
designs went into it, but you can stand back and admire the
fact that this structure that might now be 150 years old still
carries trains across a huge great river estuary. You can
look at these things. But what is it to be a good work?
A good work needs good material and it needs a good workman.
You say, you know, there's the old saying that you can't make
a silk purse out of a sow's ear, a pig's ear. You can't make a
silk purse, a fine piece of quality, luxury material. You can't make
a silk purse out of a bit of old material like a pig's ear,
a sow's ear. What's the material and who's
the workman? The material at Philippi, the material, what
was it? The jailer. The Philippian jailer. What would our society today
call the Philippian jailer? Rough and ready. Pretty coarse,
I would imagine. They'd say, oh, he's a good man.
You know, whatever his name might have been. A good man. Salt of
the earth, that sort of chap. We need a few more like him.
Speaks his mind, you know. He's a good chap. Was that the
material? that we're talking about? Is
that what God used to make a good man? Did he take that old pile
of flesh, that old pile of dust into which he breathed the breath
of life, did he take that old pile of dust and work on it and
make something that was a good work? No he didn't. No he didn't. Not the Adam nature, not the
flesh, not what we are by descent from Adam, no. It's the new creature
that he put in there. The new creature. It's the spirit
that begets this new creature. Jesus said to Nicodemus, flesh
is born of flesh. What can flesh give birth to?
Flesh. But spirit gives birth to spirit. Spirit is born. The spirit of God gives birth
to spirit in the new man. In the old flesh. He puts a new
man in there. Let me read you some scriptures. Colossians 3.10,
Paul says, put on the new man, which is, he's talking about
a new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of
him that created him. There's a new man that has the
image of God inside. Ephesians 4 24 put on the new
man which after God it says but it means after the image of God
is created in righteousness and true holiness there's a new man
in that old corrupt flesh which is created in righteousness and
true holiness it's a new man spirit is born of spirit it's
not flesh being born of flesh 1 John 3 verse 9 Whosoever is
born of God, he must be born again. Whosoever is born of God,
this new man of the Spirit of God, whosoever is born of God
doth not commit sin. That new man does not commit
sin. For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because
he is born of God. Oh, but I sin. Yes, in your flesh
you do. But if I say I have no sin, I
deceive myself, and the truth is not in me. But if we sin,
we have an advocate with the Father. No. The new man, born
of the Spirit of God, does not sin, cannot sin. 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, 17. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature, a new creation. There's a new creature created
within. That's what conversion is. That's
what true biblical conversion is. The material with which God
does a good work, is the material of the new man that the Spirit
of God puts there. Well, who then is the workman? And I've said it already, the
workman is God. He who has begun a good work,
who is it that has begun a good work? It's God. It's the Spirit
of God that has done this work. Who is He? Isaiah 45 tells us. Well, I think God's like this.
No, listen to God. Let God speak. Let God say who
he is. Isaiah 45 verses 5 and 6. 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. This is the workman who has begun
a good work. Our God, our omnipotent, our
only wise God is the one who by his spirit has begotten a
new man within each of them. Being confident of this very
thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. So Lydia and her household in
Philippi, the jailer and his family in Philippi, his household. Paul preached and God did his
good work. God the Holy Spirit came and
planted a new man. A new man was put into the heart. Their hearts were open where
the flesh will have its ears blocked to what the Word of God
says. The Spirit of God came and they couldn't but listen.
Irresistible grace. He came with irresistible grace.
Paul preached because by the foolishness of preaching, it
pleased God to save those that believe. And God worked. He opened
their hearts. It says of Lydia, her heart the
Lord opened. She didn't decide. Her heart
the Lord opened. He came and got hold of it and
opened it so that she listened like she'd never listened before.
And she saw the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ as he preached Christ. And everything
else that she, she was a good person, she tried to be a good
person. But everything else she tried to do, she saw, was but
filthy rags in the sight of God. And there, she saw what Christ
had done. As he was preached, and God opened
her heart. And God gave her a quickening
spirit to believe the things of the living God. Paul preached
and God worked. And it's a work of grace that
was performed. It's the outworking of election.
It's the outworking of predestination, and it's known by its effects.
We see the end result of a work of art or a work of engineering.
Go down to Plymouth and stand on the side of the Tamar estuary,
that wide river estuary, and see Brunel's bridge still carrying
trains today over that estuary. How did he work it out? Who did
he have working for him? What did he do? I haven't got
the foggiest idea, but I can look at it, and I can think,
wow, 150 years, it must be 150 years on, and it's still carrying
trains. Hundreds of tons of train, it
just carries over it every day. You can see it by its outward
effects. As God says in Ecclesiastes 11 verse 5, As thou knowest not
what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow in
the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not
the works of God who maketh all. But see the result of God's good
work. Look at it. What is it? Let me
quickly give you these things. Repentance. He gives, in doing
this good work, in beginning this good work, what's the starting
sign? He gives repentance. They said
in the Acts of the Apostles, 11 and verse 18, that God had
granted to the Gentiles repentance. You know, where men and women
just object. No, their mouths were stopped,
and they repented of their sin. They repented. It's a mark of
that good work of God. Jesus didn't come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. The work of God in putting that
new man inside, the first result, the first response is to see
what I really am and to repent, to rethink is what the word means,
to turn around, to be on a road knowing you're going this way
and you turn around, you cross the tracks, you get on the train
going the other direction. That's repentance. He gives that
repentance. Anybody who has not repented
of their sin, that good work has not begun within. And then
confession is made. That soul that has been given
the gift of repentance confesses, confesses that sin, owns up to
it, pronounces themselves guilty in the court of God. Psalm 32,
blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no guile. This was when David
had committed that dreadful sin. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed, look, when I didn't confess. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all day long. It was eating me
up inside. Why? Because there was a new
man there that knew, that repented, but confessed. For day and night,
thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. Verse five, now listen to this.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee. I confessed it. mine iniquity
I have not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." There's
confession of sin. Repentance, what goes with it? Confession of sin. If we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But
if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
us. And there's a forsaking of sin. What's the mark of this
good work? You see, somebody says, oh, God's
begun this good work in me. Well, there'll be a forsaking
of sin. There won't be perfection, but there will be a forsaking
of sin. There will not be a settled happy
continuance in sin. There will be falls and trips
and stumbles, but there will be a forsaking of sin. Proverbs
28 verse 13, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but
whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Did we
hear that? It's not good enough just to
confess, to repent, but forsakes them. He that confesses and forsakes
them shall have mercy. Fourthly, there's the fear of
God. Is that not a mark, a tangible mark of this good work of God?
There's the fear of God. Oh, I know, perfect love drives
out fear. We're not talking about the fear
of judgment, for the believer has no fear of judgment. But
we have a reverential respect for God, for who He is. That
we're not casual, that we're not flippant in the presence
of God, a fear of God. Psalm 111, verse 10, the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord.
Jeremiah 32, 40, I will put my fear in their hearts. God does
it. It's His good work. He who begun the good work in
you. He's put the fear of God in your hearts. Not a fear of
judgment, for that's taken away from us, for perfect love drives
out that kind of fear, but there's a respect and a reverence for
who God is. He puts prayer in the soul of
the believer. Acts 9 verse 11. What did God
say to Ananias about Saul of Tarsus, who he was very suspicious
of? He says, Behold, he prayeth. He's praying. There's the spirit
of grace and supplication. God who's begun a good work has
put the spirit of prayer in him. Sixthly, there's obviously faith. He who begun the good work, as
he said of the Thessalonians, that he knew that God had chosen
them to salvation by sanctification, setting apart of the spirit,
and their faith. They believed the gospel. They believed the gospel. It
wasn't their believing the gospel that justified them, but it was
that faith that God gave them to believe that it was the faith
of Jesus Christ. that was made over to them for
righteousness. That faith of Jesus Christ. Repentance to God.
And faith to Jesus Christ is at the heart of the gospel. For,
you want to please God? You know, people will say to
you, people in religion will say to you, don't you want to
please God? Of course you do, but how? Without
faith, it is impossible to please God. And where do we get it from?
By grace are you saved. Through faith. It's the means
by which you apprehend your state before God in salvation. Faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It's the
faith of Christ is the means of your righteousness, but he
gives to his people, as part of this good work, faith to trust. There's hope based on belief
in the resurrection as we've been seeing in recent weeks in
1 Corinthians 15. There's a hope of eternity. There's
love The marks of the true child of God, faith, hope, and love,
again and again, faith, hope, and love, hope of eternity, and
love, a mark, a characteristic, a fruit of the Spirit. The fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and so on. Love is the first
one of them. He that loves God loves his brother also. And then
there's obedience. This good work. There's obedience. Obedience to what? Do you mean
to law? Are we talking about the moral law as being the believer's
rule of life? Not at all. We're talking about
gospel obedience. We're talking about obedience
to the royal law of Christ. We're talking about submission
to gospel precepts. So when the gospel comes and
tells us where we stand in Christ and how free we are and how liberated
we are and encourages us in Ephesians in chapter 5 to stand fast in
the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. He then says
put off the old man and put on and the new man that's within
says I long to put on the new man. The new man that's within
says, if I could never sin again, nothing would please me more.
I don't want to sin. I don't want to do those things.
I want to be obedient to the gospel precepts that God has
given me in the gospel of His grace. It's by faith. Do we make the law void through
faith? Says Paul in Romans 3. No, not
at all. Nay, rather we establish the
law by faith. Or are we just hypocrites? Or
are we just hypocrites? Are we just play actors? Saying
one thing and living and behaving as another thing. I must rush
on, time is just about gone. But the good works life cycle
is begun by the spirit, through the preached word. making alive
dead souls. But it's carried on. How is it
carried on? It's by the word that is preached,
mainly, that it's carried on. We are between, if you're believers
this morning, you're somewhere between that good work having
begun and the day of Jesus Christ, of it coming to an end. And what
keeps you and maintains you in between, primarily, it's the
word preached. It's the word that we feed on.
It's those gifts that God gave to his church, Ephesians 4, 11
and 12. He gave some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors,
teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying. What does that mean? Building
up the body of Christ. First Timothy, chapter 4, 13
to 15. Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
These things are important to keep us on the way. from that
good work beginning to the day of Jesus Christ. All scripture
is for that purpose. And what else does he give us
on the way? He gives us fellowship and mutual encouragement. We're
pilgrims on the journey to the same destination. He gives us
comfort and consolation of others who believe the same things.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 11, Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together, and edify one another. This is what we're told to do
as believers. Build one another up, comfort one another in the
things of the gospel. And also along the way, we've
thought of this somewhat in recent months, trials and tribulations
he gives us. John 16, 33, these things I have
spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world
you shall have tribulation, trouble, but be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world." The purpose of these trials and tribulations
is, as I've said again and again, to loosen our grip on the things
of this world as we journey from when he began the good work to
when he'll complete the good work. And he'll complete it It
says in verse 6, He that began a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. And if you look in the margin
it says finish, will finish it. He will finish it. It's coming
to an end. The good work is begun, it's
carried on, and it's finished. How is it finished? Paul writes
to the Thessalonians. First Thessalonians 2 verse 19.
For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing are not even
ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. He
finishes that work. We have fellowship. I'm going
to wind this up at this stage. I'm not going to go on to the
third point because the time has gone. But we have fellowship
in the gospel. We have fellowship is a beautiful
thing, it's a wonderful thing, it's a valuable thing. We ought
to greatly, greatly treasure it. But it's fellowship in the
gospel, in the true gospel. It's a matter of quality, not
of quantity. It's a matter of the depth of
it, being based on the same things. Why do we meet those that call
themselves Christians and we feel, we feel an icy chill in
matters to do with salvation, it's because they don't believe
the same gospel. But whenever you do meet those
that believe the same gospel, we have fellowship in that gospel.
We have hearts knit together. We have these strong bonds, how
greatly I long after you all, in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
Do we have that same fellowship in the gospel? The basis of it
is the Gospel, it's fellowship in the Gospel. If we do, shouldn't
we value it highly? Shouldn't we nurture it? Shouldn't
we centre our lives on it? Well, we'll pick it up and continue
with it next week. Amen.