We read in Acts 16 the beginning
of the work at Philippi, the work of God's grace through the
Apostle Paul. And looking at it then, especially
by men and women who don't have eyes to see, it seems like a
very small beginning, doesn't it? the conversion of Lydia at
the riverside. The world would look and say,
well, let me correct myself. The world wouldn't take notice
of it at all, would they? And then afterwards, one jailer
and his family afterwards are also saved by that same grace. And again, it seems like a small
thing to most people. Not much to take notice of. There
wasn't much there to attract the world. Because the world
then, as now, has far bigger attractions. Things that attract
them so much more than the conversion of a woman or a jailor. Especially
in the realm of religion. My, my, doesn't religion put
on a really big show? A big show. So much pomp and
glitter. So much appealing to the flesh. Even John, in Revelation 17,
when he saw that woman dressed so radiantly, representing the
world's false religion, we read there that John marveled. Even John the Apostle, for a
moment, momentarily, is captivated by the attraction before him,
until he's corrected by the elder with the question, John, why
do you marvel? Why do you marvel? But to the child of God, to those
who can identify with what happened to Lydia and the Jailer, to them,
nothing is a greater attraction than that. That is God's grace
in Jesus Christ. What happened at Philippi? is still being celebrated today. Not in the world, no, no. But
in heaven itself. In glory, those two redeemed
sinners are still a wonder of God's grace. They're still trophies
of God's grace. They're still singing the triumph
of their God and King. And that's not a small thing,
is it? That's not a small thing. One
day, one day, soon, soon, when the last chosen sinner, the last
redeemed sinner is called by God to grace, then time shall
be no more. then men will have a perspective
that they don't have now. They'll see clearly what they
don't see now. And men in that day, unbelievers
I'm speaking of, were cursed today. They'll curse the day
they were born. They'll curse the day that they
chose this world over the Lord Jesus Christ. And they will learn
too late. They will realize too late only one thing was needful, brother-in-law. I'm thinking about my children, my brothers, my
sisters. God, don't leave them to themselves.
Don't let them be among the multitudes that will learn too late that
only one thing was needful. Only one thing was needful. Only one thing was essential.
One thing that we cannot be without. And that is, as Paul says in
chapter 3 of this epistle, in Philippians 3, That one thing
is to know Christ. It's to know Christ. I don't
mean like you know who the President of the United States is. No,
but to know him because he's came to you. He's opened your
eyes to see who he is. He's revealed himself to you.
That takes a miracle. That takes a miracle. It doesn't
require a miracle simply to have knowledge of him. Who doesn't?
Who hasn't heard of him in this country? Oh, but Paul is speaking
of much more than that when he said, oh, that I might know Him. That I might know Him. That I
might win Him. Paul says there's not a greater
prize in this life. And he said also that I might
be found in Him. Everything's about Him. Salvation
is Him. He's the one thing needful. The one thing needful. Oh, but
if I have Him, if I have Him, I have everything. I have everything
that God Almighty requires. Everything that God Almighty
is pleased with. I'm complete in Him. Oh, that's the one thing needful.
In order to be saved, in order to enter heaven. So, so sad. So sad that today people are
given all kinds of silly things to do and told by doing so that
prepares you for heaven. I was having my cornflakes this
morning. and flipped on the TV and there
was some local, maybe out of Birmingham, broadcast of a service
at a Presbyterian church. And the man dressed up in his
clergy clothes asked a young couple to bring their baby to
the front. He sprinkled some water that
he said was out of the River Jordan on the baby's brow and
told those two young parents that that child is now baptized
into the covenant of God's grace. I thought, oh my soul. What nonsense. What nonsense. No, in order to
be saved, in order to enter heaven, in order to be accepted by God
Almighty, in order to hear this, in order to hear this, to hear
God himself say, enter into the joy prepared for you, the everlasting
joy, unmixed joy, no mixture of sorrow, no taint of sin, No
weeping to mar this joy. No, this is the joy of being
with Jesus Christ forever. This is the indescribable joy,
the joy unspeakable of seeing Him, of seeing Jesus Christ,
as Job said, with my own eyes. Oh, what joy! Enter into it,
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. and not hearing,
not hearing, as many will, these words, not enter in, not welcome
home, my children, but depart from me. Depart from me. Why? Were we not moral? Oh, yes. Were we not religious? Oh, yes. Did we not have some
hope? Oh, yes. But here's the problem. Depart from me because I never
knew you. I never knew you. Oh, yes. These are not small
things. Eternity and heaven and hell.
My immortal soul is not a small thing. Believers, My brothers
and sisters in Christ, do you ever look around? Do you ever
look around at this religious world with all of its attraction, with
all of its pomp and glamour, and see literally multiplied
thousands following that way? And then you look again and see
so very few that gathered to hear the glorious gospel of the
blessed God. And seeing that, do you sometimes
get discouraged? Or do you, at times, just get
tired of the struggle within your own heart? with this wretched man that I
still am. Do you? I do. I do. Again, old Newton wrote, Dear
Lord, if indeed I am thine, if thou art my son in my song, say,
why do I languish in pain? And why are my winters so long?
Oh, drive these dark clouds from my sky, thy soul-cheering presence
restore, and take me unto thee on high, where winter and clouds
are no more. You ever felt like that? Look at what Paul says in verse
6 here in Philippians 1. Paul writes to those believers
at Philippi, and under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, he's writing
to every child of God, to you this morning. God says this to
you, 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. Our confidence and comfort is
the title of my message and I hope that God will make it to be that
to you. Our confidence and comfort. Notice
Paul says that he which hath begun a good work in you, you. Now in thinking of Lydia, In
thinking of the jailer and his family and his servant, don't
forget yourself. You, God says. When I was studying this message,
when this text that Joe mentioned concerning that passage from
Luke 7 just seemed to jump out at him, this verse did. Thought about it all week. Wrote
a bulletin article about it. and then felt led by God to preach
from it this morning, to make it the subject of the message.
And I thought of each of you. I thought of each of you. Each
of you. And those who aren't here this
morning. Each of them. I thought of the
struggles, some of the trials, the heartache that you go through,
that you've shared with me. And I thought of those things
that we have in common as Christians that we mentioned a moment ago.
The old man and the warfare, the constant warfare within our
hearts. And I saw this bulletin, an old
bulletin with an article by Maurice Montgomery and I thought, I'll
share that with them. I'll share this with them. Hope
that it'll be helpful. Maurice wrote this years ago
and he said, lately I've noticed that my memory isn't nearly as
good as it used to be. I can identify with that. I find
it hard to recall sermons that I heard only a short while ago
and very difficult to remember people's names and this leads
me to wonder If there may come a time when, through the natural
deterioration of sin, I become irrational or mentally incompetent,
when I become incapable of loving God, worshipping God, calling
upon God, clinging to God, and confessing Him publicly, will
my hope of salvation in heaven be forfeited? No. Not at all. Because my salvation
is of the Lord. He will never forget those whom
he knows, those whom he chose, those for whom Christ died, those
whom he calls and converts to Christ by his Spirit and grace.
He will never leave me nor forsake me. Regardless, regardless of
what I feel, what I comprehend, what I understand, or cease to
understand. The work of salvation is not
my work. I didn't begin it, I cannot carry
it on, and I certainly can't complete it. This is God's work. And Paul tells us what God began,
God will carry on until absolute completion to everyone in whom
he began this good work of grace in you is brought all the way
to glory. That's the promise to every believer. This work of salvation begins
with God. It begins with God. Oh, this
is the foundation that the apostle lays for every believing sinner. This work of grace is not your
work. It's not dependent upon you.
Nothing about it depends on you. It's God's work. Look at Lydia. We read about it a moment ago.
We read that whose heart the Lord opened. God opened her heart. He has the key. John, I'm he
that liveth and was dead, behold, and I'm alive forevermore. And
I have the keys of hell and of death. I open and no man can
shut, and I shut and no man can open, and are omnipotent. Don't
you like that word? Are all powerful. Almighty God. The Lord Jesus
Christ himself says, I can open. He opened Lydia's heart. He opened Lydia's heart. He dropped
his grace into her heart and enabled her to believe. And he
does the same today. Look at the great change in that
jailer. One moment, he thrust Paul and
Silas. After putting them in shackles,
he thrust them into the inner prison. And then afterwards, can this
be the same man? Is this the same man, Joe? Here
he is now wiping their box from the stripes that they received.
They're sitting in his house at his table and he's preparing
a meal for them. Is this the same man? What happened? God began a good work in him. This is the Lord's doing. And
it's marvelous, isn't it? This is the Lord's doing. Oh,
this is what we want? We want God's work, not mine,
not yours. We want the Lord's doing. It's
marvelous in our eyes. Our Lord said, I'm Alpha and
Omega. I'm the first and the last, and so is his salvation. It's all his work. The basis
of Paul's confident hope for them was not what they had done
for themselves, but what God had done. He points them and
us away from ourselves. Wouldn't that be discouraging
to you this morning? If you came in here after the
week you had, and I exhorted you to look to
yourself. I remember listening to Brother
Henry preach one time, and a lady had written him a letter who
had been listening to his television broadcast, and she said, Brother
Henry, I go to church every Sunday morning. My pastor gets up and
tells us, you need to get your act together. That's all he said. Every Sunday, you need to get
your act together. She said, Brother Henry, I don't
know what my act is. I don't know what he wants. I
don't know what he's talking about. Oh no, here's the good
news. Here's the good news, struggling pilgrim, that he who has begun
a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Paul points them away from themselves
to their God. Behold your Savior. Behold Him. Behold Him. By faith behold Him. Behold Him as He lives a life
of perfect obedience to God's law. Behold Him as He does always
those things that please His Father. Behold Him as He honors
God's law. Behold Him doing it as your substitute,
as your substitute. Behold Him as He hangs upon the
cross. We can't behold Him being made
sin. No, no. Those are the unknown
sufferings of Christ. We can't enter into that. We
can just stand back and with holy wonder perceive the darkness. And that darkness that we cannot
see rolling over his soul when God forsakes God. And hear Him usher that cry,
My God, why hast thou forsaken me, O? But behold Him, behold
Him. He doesn't stop there. Behold
Him as He left His head as the conquering Savior that He is
and said, It is finished. He that began the work will perform
it into the day of Jesus Christ. That's who Paul points them to.
Look at verse 9 here in chapter 1 of Philippians. Paul says,
and this I pray, this I pray, that your love may abound yet
more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. In all judgment. That word judgment literally,
more literally translated, means feeling or sensible perception. Feeling or sensible perception. Paul wanted them to know that
they loved God and that He loved them. And to know it feeling
that. Know it in the heart. May a sense
of God's love and mercy and grace be experienced in our hearts,
is what Paul said, more and more. It's the knowledge, the perception
of this. being perceived not by flesh
but by the Spirit of God by whom these things are revealed unto
us. It's this perception implanted
in our hearts by God's Spirit that gives us the comfort, gives
us the comfort of God's purpose to save us and Christ's finished
work. We can't know those things otherwise.
John, we can't. We can't know those things. Until
we experience God's grace in time, and this is what Paul writes
of in verse 6, we can't find any comfort in God's purpose
to save, in God's choice as to whom He shall save. We can find
no comfort or assurance in the death of Christ until we're made
to come to Him by faith and embrace Him, and then I know I must have
been chosen. God did this on purpose. My salvation was not an accident.
God chose me in Christ before the world began. And Christ came
into this world especially for me. Oh, my soul. What comfort. What confident hope and assurance. Can we be comfortable or confident
otherwise? Was Paul being presumptuous concerning
them or himself as being partakers of God's grace? Oh, no. No. Because he points this work having
its commencement, its continuation, its completion in God. He. He. Being God Almighty, God
All-Wise. That's the grounds of Paul's
confidence. And we sang it a moment ago,
how firm a foundation. How firm a foundation. It will bear the weight, all
the weight of your immortal soul. It will bear you up through every
trial. This foundation is not fazed
by the storms in your life. It doesn't touch the foundation.
It doesn't affect the foundation. That solid rock on which we stand
is solid all the time. Jesus Christ is the same all
the time. He's mighty to save all the time. He saves to the uttermost all
the time. When I feel good and when I feel
bad, when I'm on the mountaintop, when I'm in a deep dark valley,
when I perceive His grace and mercy and when I sit and wonder
about it, His foundation standeth sure. God knoweth them that are
His. This is the ground of Paul's
confidence. And could it rest on a firmer
foundation? He's confident for them. Not
because of them. He's confident for them. But
the ground of His confidence is not them, but their God. But
their God. Paul said, God's doing the work. We're His workmanship. We're
not the cause, we're the effect. We're His workmanship. Jeremiah,
God said. Go down to the potter's house.
I'm going to teach you something. Go down to the potter's house.
And Jeremiah went down to the potter's house, and we're told,
behold, the potter, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. He wrought the work. God's the
potter. And we're declared, looking out
at creation, oh, the vastness of it. The greatness of it, oh
the wonder of it. I'm sure I shared this with you
before. Hopefully it's worth repeating.
Many years ago, I sat in my backyard on a warm summer night with one
of my brothers. All the stars, so many stars. And he looked up and said, Larry,
do you realize The vastness of that. Do you see what we're looking
at is just our galaxy. And science is just, there's
no end to it. And he just went on and on. He said, isn't that something?
And I said, yeah, Ernest, that is something. Their creation
is something. But Ernest, let me tell you something
greater. I know who did it. I know the
one who did it. I know the God who in the beginning
created the heavens and the earth. Isn't that a wonder? Isn't that
a marvel? Isn't that something? Who did
this? Who's responsible for this? The
psalmist said, when I consider the heavens and the earth, the
work of thy hands, thy fingers created, what is man that thou
art mindful of him? Oh, we look out at creation.
And the lost man says, oh, how great it is. But the believer
looks out as it being simply the evidence of our God. And we don't say how great it
is. We say how great He is. How great Thou art. And as it
is in creation, so it is in salvation. In the beginning, God. Turn, if you will, to Psalm 92. Psalm 92. In the beginning, God. In creation and in salvation. Psalm 92, verse 4. For thou, Lord, hast made me
glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of
thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works,
and thy thoughts are very deep." Very deep. Thank God salvation
is thy work. The believers at Philippi, Paul
wrote this to, were just like you and me. They were just like
you and me, no different. They were subject to the same
infirmities as all God's people. They were men and women of like
passions, weaknesses, temptations, frailties. They, as long as they
were in this world, just like you and I, had the struggle of
the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. They had the same physical limitations,
the same mental, emotional struggles, and yet we're told God who had
begun the good work in them would carry it on to the day of Jesus
Christ. The work of grace experienced
in time, when God comes to the sinner, as their great God and
Savior, and then says, live, will He forsake the work of His
own hands? Has He ever? This work of salvation
in us is one only God can do. It's worthy of Him. It glorifies
Him. Only He can do it. Only He can
do it. Only the God of all grace can
raise up a sinner like me and give them life and faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Notice again in our text, in
verse 6, the work itself. We considered the one who does
the work, but briefly, notice how Paul describes the work.
It's a good work. It's a good work. A great and
gracious work. It's God's work. God's best work. Greater than when He created
the heavens and the earth. A greater miracle is when He
creates sinners in the image of His dear Son. And throughout
eternity, throughout eternity, As Paul says in Philippians 1,
or rather, Ephesians 1, we will be put on display in the trophy
case of God's grace as evidence of his grace, his
majesty, his mercy. Look what God did. Look what
God did. Look at them. They're made like. They're made like the Lord Jesus
Christ. Behold! No wonder John said,
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.
It's a good work. And Paul says, It's a good work
in you. In you. Religion trims the leaves, don't
it? Religion gives people fig leaves. They heal slightly, just slightly,
saying, peace, peace, but there's really no peace. No peace with
God. Oh, the Great Physician does
so much more than that, doesn't he? He goes to the root of the
problem. My problem lies deeper than some religion can solve. I need a new heart. Where is
the soul winner that can perform that operation? Can walking up an aisle give
me a new heart? Can repeating the sinner's prayer
give me a new heart? Can making a decision for Jesus
give me a heart to love God? No, no. This work of grace is
the work that's in us. I will take out the stony heart,
God says, and give them a heart of flesh and they shall know
me. They shall know me. Religion
says touch not, taste not, go not, wear not. But Christ said,
you must be born again. The problem's within. And grace
goes to the source of the problem. It reaches deeper than the stain
has gone. And grace performs the miracle
of making everyone that experiences it this, new creatures in Christ
Jesus. No exceptions. There's no failures. Not 9 cases out of 10 or 99 out
of 100. If any man be in Christ, not
in the church, not in the water, not in blah, blah, blah, but
if any man be in Christ, bless his name, he's a new creature.
He's a new creation. Behold! Behold! Behold His grace! All things are passed away. Behold,
everything becomes new. Mr. Newton said, and you're familiar
with his words, I'm not what I should be. And I'm not what I desire to
be. And I'm not what I shall one day be. But I'm not what
I used to be. Not if I've experienced God's
grace. We've been made to differ, and
every child of God can sing. Every child of God can sing,
but by the grace of God, I am what I am, with grace. What's
grace? I like the word. I like the word. So it's grace that taught my
heart to pray and made my eyes overflow. It's grace that's kept
me to this day and will not let me go. Grace will not let me
go. God will complete it, perform
it to the day of Jesus Christ. And last of all, that brings
us to our last point. Paul says, he that had begun
the good work will perform it, carry it on, until the day of
Jesus Christ. Has God ever left anything half
done? You and I do. If you deny that, all I got to
do is ask your wife. She'll tell me a whole list of
honey-do's that you've left half done. God does. God does. I know that whatsoever
God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men should
fear before Him." Listen to what the prophet Isaiah said. Ye are my witnesses, saith the
Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and
believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was
no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I,
am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. I have declared
that I have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange
God among you, that therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the
Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am
he. There is none that can deliver
out of my hand. I will work, if folks allow me. I will work, if the devil doesn't
stop me. I will work and who shall let
it? Who shall hinder it? Who shall
stop it? He that's begun this good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. In Genesis chapter 2, we read in chapter 1, after each
creative act, God saw that it was good. He created man. And then God said, it's not good.
It's not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help
meet for him. And out of man's rib, he made
the woman and brought her to the man. He presented her to
Adam. And Adam said, oh, this is flesh
of my flesh and bone of my bones. She shall be called woman, she
man, because she was taken out of man. Paul tells us in Ephesians
chapter 5, look at it for me, with me rather for a moment and
we'll close this. He tells us this, taking the
words of Adam, he applies them to Christ and his church. In
chapter 5 verse 31, This is what Adam said. For this cause shall
a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife,
and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. Paul
says, but I speak concerning Christ and His church. That's a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God chose us in Christ. Just as He created Eve from Adam,
He chose us in Christ, gave us to Christ before the foundation
of the world. Christ's bride. And that fallen
bride, Christ in the fullness of time came and did everything
necessary for our everlasting salvation. that he might present it to himself
a glorious church, not having spot nor wrinkle or any such
thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. God willed that he should be
the firstborn among many brethren. Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, Christ
said, it bringeth forth much fruit. Oh, behold! I, John, saw
the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband." Perfect. Pure. Chaste. Without spot. Without fault. Before the throne of God. That's the completion of this
good work that God has begun in you and will carry it on until
the day that the bride is gathered with her bridegroom. Amen. Amen. God bless you.