And let me make this announcement,
and I didn't realize it was this fast approaching, but we're having
a Bible conference, and that's two weeks. November was a long ways off,
but November's getting close. The 11th, 12th, and 13th. And Brother Don Fortner will
be with us. Brother Rupert Robin Barker will
be with us. Brother Carroll Poole will be
with us from Hendersonville. And I guess we'll meet at 7 o'clock. Is that what? That's what we
usually meet at 7 o'clock and have two speakers. And we'll
give you some more details next week, maybe. But we're looking
forward to that. And I just can't hardly believe
it's already that close, but it is. I'm glad you're here today
and always glad for your presence. I appreciate you and thank the
Lord for you. Turn with me in your Bibles to
the book of Philippians, chapter number one. This is Paul. A few verses here, down through
verse number six, and we'll look at verse number six this morning.
Paul and Camuchus, the service of Jesus Christ. Now, this word
is, what we have is forever, and
that's something good to be written about somebody, isn't it? their
servants of Jesus Christ. That states who they are, and
that's always going to be stated, that they're 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. peace from God our Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where peace comes from.
He is peace. Scripture says, not as the world
give us, but as he gives. Then he says, I thank my God
upon every remembrance of you. As he writes to the church at
Philippi and as he thinks about what God has done. This is one
of the things you find in Paul's writings. When he thought about
the people, he also thanked God for what was done in their lives. I thank God for saving you, for
what He does in your life. I thank God upon every redembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine for you to make a request
with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first
day unto now." Now, I like that this morning, the fellowship
of the gospel. That's what we have here, the
fellowship of the gospel. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the gospel of God's grace. Now, verse number 6, Paul has
a very positive and confident outlook here. And he says, being
confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good
work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. He that has begun a good work
in you will perform it. The life of a Christian is a series of miracles. You think about it. The new nature
is kept alive, is preserved by the power of
God and only by his power. When you are among all kinds
of enemies, dangers, evils in this world. You have an old nature of sin. But scripture says you've been
brought from darkness to light. You've been delivered from bondage
to liberty. And that's a good work. It's good for you. It's good
for the church. It's good for God. You know,
so it's good for society. Wouldn't it make a difference
if everybody was a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ in society? They throw it up on the screen
this morning. I turned to use them for just
a minute or two while I was eating my Cheerios. And it said Christian
persecution, and it showed 18 or 19 countries where the Christians
are being persecuted. It'd be good for society if there's
followers of Christ. But here's a good word. I want
you to think this morning in terms of this good work, that
it's the best thing that you can receive in life. God's good work, yes. Now, what
could you receive better than that? I don't know of any things
you could receive this morning that would be any better than
God's good work in your heart, in your life, in your soul. His
good work. We used to have a little slogan,
and I don't know, I picked it up when I was young, early to
bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. But
that's nothing compared to this, is it? All of that. Having a
good work in you. God working in you. And it's
called His work. God created this world. He spoke
it in the being. And the scripture says it's the
work of His fingers. It's His handiwork. But this
work right here is salvation. It's His work there. And when
it comes to salvation, the scripture speaks out of this, His arm. Do you know that this work is
harder than that of creation? Well, creation, he spoke it in
the beginning. And this is a new creation, but
there's a lot of resistance to it, wasn't there? Man goes the
other way, doesn't he? He wants his way. He's gone to
his own way. But it's God only that creates. A new man, a new person, a new
nature. And it's unique. It's of the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we see Paul and all of his
confidence here and how positive that he was. That not anything
should overcome God. He that beguns his good work. There's no difficulty going to
stop him. There's nothing going to stop
him. and he's not going to deserve that of his work. And Scripture
says that which he shall, he does. Now, when I read the Bible
and I see his shalls, that just brings out a lot of confidence
because he's going to do whatever he says he's going to do. And
when he purposes something, that's what he's going to do. No doubt
about it. So you can bring in this morning
and talk about this good work, the wisdom, his power, his immutability,
his faithfulness. And we could tie all of this
in also, the atonement. Christ died for that of his people.
He shed his blood for his people. We can talk about justification,
but I'll just throw this out and I'll go on. that we're covered
with His righteousness. We talk about His intercession.
I mean, that's part of this good work, isn't it? His intercession.
We're one with Christ and you can just put all of this together,
the union and so forth. But it talks about here a good
word. Now, that's more than just a
word or a thought. But it says good work. It means
something real, something solid, something abiding. Now to have
a good work, you need good material. You need a good workman. And
you take a good workman, if he didn't have something good to
work with, and by the way, an electrician, if he had Faulty
wire, he couldn't be a good workman, could he? He could do a good
job, he could be a good workman, but he has to have the good material
to work with. And if he had bad material, it'd defeat that of
the workman, wouldn't it? And you could take that of gold
and silver, the precious stones and all that, but if you had
a bad workman, he couldn't do anything with it. So it takes
that of both. So this morning we have the good
work, and we have the steel of a workman, who's God, and we
have good materials. So the apostle speaks of here,
of that which is done, is good work in us. It's the work of
grace. This grace work is good in its
beginnings, it's good in the end, it's good for time, and
it's good for eternity. And so it has to be something
that passes under the very judgment of God, that it's what He calls
good work. It's not something that man calls,
but what God calls. And here we see the good work
of this text is that He's the workman and not man. It's God. Now what about the material that
He works with? I said it needs to be a good
material. Now, is it the corrupt nature of man? Is that what he
works with? Is it the old man of sin? Is
that the material? Well, that's bad material this
morning. God doesn't take that of the
old Adam nature and works upon it. That's not what he does.
By his spirit, And by His grace, He creates a new heart and a
new spirit, doesn't He? A new nature. Because the Bible
says in the book of John, that which is flesh is flesh, and
it remains that. That which is spirit is spirit.
That which is born of the Spirit. So this is speaking of the new
birth, which is actually the very image of God, created in
righteousness and holiness. And where he works, there's a
new man, we call new creatures in Christ. There's a new heart
given. There's a new spirit. And so
this material is called a divine creation. The scripture speaks
of it as being born, incorruptible seed. And it goes on, the apostle says,
whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. And his seed
remains in him. So there's a new nature, a new
creation that God does. And the old nature remains the
same. Now, it's not renewed, and the
old nature's not, and it's not renovated. Now this is what you
get into with religion in our day and what people does in religion. They're trying to end up the
old. They're trying to get the old
to get better. God gives new. It's not the old. He gives you a new nature. And
they try to reform out of the old. And again, That's all that
remains. Flesh remains flesh. That's all
it's ever going to be. I don't care if you live to be
120, flesh is still flesh. And so here's a workman. It's God. And He's begun. And He said, besides me, there's
none else. It's Him. And by the power and
the skill of the workman, we have the Almighty, the All-Powerful,
the All-Wisdom One. And this morning I'm telling
you, if it's God's work, it is a good work. This new creation
that he wrought, and it comes from a holy and powerful hand. Let's look at some of the details
this morning of this good work. It's from God himself. And it's
by God's grace, his sovereign grace, and it's the fruit of
that of his children. It's a fruit of what he does
for his children. It's a fruit of eternal election
when you get down to it. Now, no one has ever begun a
good work in their own heart. That's not what we're talking
about. If you begin it, it's not good. But God begins it. It's by his grace and by his
power. Now this good work produces some
things and this is how we would look at it and determine some
things about it this morning and what this good work produces.
One is it produces repentance. Repent and believe, the scripture
says. And I'll plead a priest and talk
about repenting. And repentance is to be preached.
And repentance toward God. And faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ. And that of repentance. He gives a repentance. A repentance is a change of mind
toward God. Isn't that what happens in our
conversion? You go from running from God
to God, don't you? I mean, you have a change of
mind. There's a change of mind about God Himself. And toward
Him, there's a change of mind toward sin. There's a sense of
our sinful condition, that we're lost and undone. And that's the
beginning of the work of grace in our hearts. This good work
brings about repentance. We repent. We turn. We have a different mindset. Then also, it brings about a
compassion of sin. David said, against thee and
thee only have I sinned. Now, he's the one that we have
to do, isn't he? It's against him. Against him.
Against thee and thee only have I sinned. And he talks about
that as he confesses his sin, he says, Thou forgive us the
iniquity of my sin. He's the forgiver of it. We confess
it. Over in 1 John, we confess our
sins. He's faithful and just to what?
Forgive and to cleanse us, the scripture says in 1 John. We
confess our very sins. So, then that's good work. That's confession of sin. In
this good work, there's fear and reverence of God. That's
the beginning of wisdom, the scripture says. The reverence
of Him. See, every one of us is going
to have to meet Him one day. You're going to go before Him
one day. And there's to be a reverence of Him, of who He is. We talked
about this morning in the Sunday School lesson, how that He's
supreme. He's a supreme being. and we're
going to have to go before him. We'd have a godly fear of him,
a reverence. Today there's just so little
reverence of God and how he's spoken of. What would make a person, I mean,
to use his name in vain, Oh, He's to be revered because of who He is. Holy. This good work means that we pour out our hearts
to Him. We seek His face. We call upon
Him. We call upon Him for mercy. And
that's what the quickened soul does. If you've been quickened
by the Lord, you call for His mercy, don't you, upon Him? You
want His grace and His mercy. And that quickened soul, there's
life about it, and it calls upon the Lord. That's life. If one
calls upon the Lord, there's life. He groans. That's a sign of life, isn't
it? If he cries to the Lord, that's a sign of life. And so
there's the spirit of prayer. I'm satisfied of this, that prayer
is just talking to the Lord. Now, you don't have to use great
big words and all of this. Prayer is just talking to the
Lord, and that's what it is. And when there's good work, there's
this prayer. Do you call upon Him? Have you
called upon Him? This good work, there's faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that one of the features
of this good work? There's faith, believing, trusting. If you don't have faith, you
can't please God, the scripture says. but with faith. And we are children by faith,
the scripture says. We stand by faith, and we walk
by faith, and you just keep on. Faith does all this. Faith in
Christ. The faith in that of His person,
who He is. Now, faith in that of His work
upon Calvary's cross, what He done. There's faith in that of
His blood that was shed. Faith in that of His righteousness.
And without faith, there's no salvation. But God, Scripture says, is not
only given unto you to believe, but also to suffer for His sake,
and given unto you to believe. Now how many people believe that?
Let's give them to you. Oh, see him. Faith. The Bible says he's the author
and finisher of our faith. It's wrought in our hearts by
the operation of God. Faith is not something that is
natural. You realize that faith is putting
your eternity upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it's doing.
It puts everything upon Christ. That's faith. It puts it upon Him. And as we
discover who He is and look at His work and that great work
Christ has seen. Now, He's not seen in a bodily
sense. I've met a couple of people in
my life that talk about they just saw Christ in a bodily sense,
but I sort of got away from it as quick as I could. But you see him. But it's not
in a bodily sense, but you see him. Don't you? You see him the
faith. And as you see him, there's this
voice, you hear his voice. Now, is it the ear or the inside
that you hear his voice? You read the scriptures, you
hear his voice. I thought, I read the 17th chapter
of the book of John, and boy, that'd be something to be there
and hear the Lord pray that. Well, when you read it, you hear
Him pray it. Aren't you? Aren't you hearing
Him then? You say, well, that'd be something.
Well, it's recorded for you. And love is found. Grace is found. It's glory. And the Spirit of
God, the Bible says, takes the things of Christ and shows them
to us as known by the heart that He's looked upon, He's laid hold
upon. And we see how suitable that
He is to all of our needs. I challenge you today to look
at your needs, then look at Christ, and you'll just see how suitable
that He is. He suits you. He suits us. So, there's faith, there's good
work. You trust Christ, you look to
Christ. There's good work, there's love. Love. You love Christ. Unto you that
believe he is, what? Precious, the scripture says.
Is he precious to you this morning? If he is, you're a believer.
If He's not precious, you haven't believed yet. And love to Christ. Now, the Scripture says we love
Him because He what? First loved us. You ever notice
He's always first? And He's always first. You're
not first. He's first. And also, love of
the brethren. Then John writes there, we know
we pass from death to life because we love the brethren. And that's the sisters too. When you look at the scriptures,
it says brethren, but just speaking of the sisters too, this whole
works. You love the brethren. If there's
no love, there's no grace. If there's no love, there's no
humor. If there's no love, there's no
knowledge of Christ. Because He is love. God is love. We love the head. We love the members. We love the bridegroom. We love
the bride. You love the Lord. You love all
that belongs to Him. You love Him. Out of this good
work also comes obedience. Doesn't it produce that? Now,
we don't have a perfect obedience. I wish I could stand up here
this morning and say that we have a perfect obedience, but
that's to be the tenor of the lie. We follow Christ. We follow the
Shepherd. We look to Him. And the Bible
says, come out from among them, be separated from this world. The Bible says it's an evil world.
You might think it's something else, but that's how the Bible
calls it, an evil world. It's a polluted world. And here
it is, you have a new family. with this good work in you, you
have a new family. You have the family of God. You walk with Him. You cast your
lot with Him. There's this fellowship of the
gospel that we talked about. You believe the same truths. You have the same Christ. You have the same God and Father. And the Bible says the love of
Christ constrains us. The desire to live for His honor
and His glory. He's our Savior. Now this good
work, it's began and it's carried on and it's completed. And again,
that's the power of God. What is left to you and me? Your hands and my hands. But
I'm glad the scripture says that I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. that he's carried on. He's carried on through grace. He carries on his work by the
Scriptures, reading the Scriptures, studying the Scriptures. He's
carried on his work this morning for us gathered here. Do you
see it? That's part of it, isn't it?
He's carried on his good work for us gathered to hear the preaching
of the Word. He's carried it on. the edifier
of the saints, the establishing in the truth. He's carrying on his good work.
Now, the word of God is to be brought home to us by a study,
it can be private, or a private study, or it could be the ministry,
it should be both, and it is carried on. His good work. This morning you have a kingdom.
You're the spiritual kingdom. And it's within you. And the
Bible says we enter it with much tribulation. There's trials,
there's affliction, there's temptation, there's the assaults of sin,
the assaults of Satan, and the corruption of our own nature.
But yet, there's the mercy of God. that carries on the work that
he has begun. The Lord's people, this is how the Bible describes
them, is poor, afflicted, and suffering. They're like their
head. Paul wrote, and he says, I carry
about, we talk about this body, oh wretched man that I am, this
body of sin and death. And we're dust, and we're going
to return to dust. We live in a world that hates
Christ, hates his people. There's a devil in all of his
devices, but in the midst of all of this, God carries on his
work. Like I said to start with, it's
a series of miracles. And God says, I'll work and no
man shall hinder me. Says, fear not. Don't be afraid. He helps us. He supports us.
He delivers us. There's life. There's light,
there's strength, and this verse tells us His work is to be finished
and completed. And you see how Paul wrote, I'm
confident of this. I stand here this morning and
I'm confident that He's begun a good work in you. He's going
to perform it. I have no doubt in His will about it. And if
he hadn't begun a good work, my prayer is that he will begin
a good work in you. And I know if he begins it, he's
going to finish it. You know, the architect of a
building, as much, a lot of times, is not seen. It's a lot. You look and there's a lot of
things you don't see about that building. But the end of it is
going to be beauty and glory. And that's how His people's going
to be. Going to be beauty and glory in the end. They're headed
to a perfect state. It is to be finished. And it
will be finished. And God always finishes His work. That's certain. I used to laugh
about Brother Roger Tillery and I one time was going to make
clocks. They had to take it out of the wood and put these hands
and all on it. And he got the pens and so forth. And that's the last we ever done
about it. That's been 35, 40 years ago. But we didn't finish anything. We didn't even get started hardly.
But God, what He starts, He finishes it. That's His name. To be finished. It says here, the day of Jesus
Christ. I think that's His coming. He's going to come again. And
His Word, God's Word is going to shine forth in that day. It
says you'll be blameless in that day. And there's going to be
this completeness. This old mortality is going to
be dropped. And this covering will be removed,
but we stand in the beauty of grace. Right now, much of God's
work is hidden and invisible. But that day is going to reveal
it. That's what it's going to do. It's going to reveal it.
He's going to come with his saints. And the Bible says, their bodies
shall be raised. And they're going to be reunited
with their souls. They'll be made perfect. There'll
be no stain, no spot of sin. It'll all be that of heavenly,
spiritually, immortal. The Bible says we'll reign with
Christ forever and ever. See, this is just a little sneezing
here. That's all it is. I guess I use
the word smidgen. I guess y'all know what that
means. That's just something little. Sometimes we grow up
differently in different places, we use different terms, but this
is just a little smidgen this life is. That's all it is. But
this is eternity. The confidence. Again, let's
turn and think about the confidence in closing this morning of the
apostles. That is that God is faithful. You know, it's a wonderful study
of the attributes of God and who He is. And over and over
again, He's the faithful one. And the Bible says He's ordered
all things and sure. The Scripture says none of His
children, His sons, His daughters, His elect, ever perish. Isn't
that what God in the 10th chapter says? I give unto Him eternal
life and none shall perish. They're not going to perish.
So here's God's faithfulness. And here's his confidence in
that, that he's begun a good work, ain't he? The fellowship
of the gospel, the blessings of the gospel, the power of the
gospel. United in the gospel. What the gospel does, it brings
life and liberty and love and mercy. And it tells us here that God
that has begun a good work in you, he will complete it, this
work of grace. Because there's a goodness of
that of the worker, there's a goodness of that of the material, and
it rests upon God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. That's what
it rests upon. It rests upon the triune God.
who's faithful, who is all-wisdomed, all-skillful, and has all kind, being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in him will perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. to His praise and to His glory. And it's going to be that way
for eternity. Don't you think eternity is going
to be that? Look back and say, He begun a
good work. And He performed it. There's all kinds of dangers
and evils of sin and that old corrupt nature and all of that.
But here he's brought me to glory. He that has begun all this morning,
has he begun a good work in you? May even not now, if he's not,
he begins a good work in you. Trust Christ. Look to Him. Repent of your sins. Believe
Him. You do that, there's a good work
begun. And God's going to teach you.
Our Father, bless Your Word. Bless the Gospel. Thank You for it. Thank You for
these that's gathered here this morning. Lord, if You began a good work
in them, we thank You and we praise You. And we ask that there's
any here That's not that good word, that even if you start
it today, if you start it today, they'll look to Christ. We know
if they look to Christ, you've begun a good work. If they believe,
we know that there's a good work begun. And Lord, we stand as the apostles, He said he was confident, positive,
in taking your word. We're confident and we're positive
that when you begin a good work that you will perform it unto
the day of Christ. Scripture says you will give
grace and glory. They go together. Where you give
grace, there's glory. And where you give glory, there's
grace. Blessings today, may we ponder
upon the Word. We thank you for the Gospel.
You've sent it our way. We thank you in Thy providence
this morning that you've brought us together. We are thankful
for the fellowship of the Gospel. We have the same Lord. We have
the same Gospel. We have the same Father. Thankful
for love we have for each other. We love Thee because Thou hast
first loved us. Thank Thee. In Christ's name,
amen.