I'd like to read in Philippians
chapter 1 beginning with verse 1 and read down through verse
7. Paul and Timotheus, Timothy,
the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus
which are at Philippi with the bishops and the 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 requests
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
thank this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch
as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the
gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace." My heart was drawn
to this particular chapter into these verses, thinking about
the love and the tenderness that the Apostle Paul had in his heart
toward the church at Philippi. He says in verse 3, he says,
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Isn't it a wonderful
thing? And this epistle, somebody said,
is the epistle of joy. And isn't it wonderful that the
Apostle Paul, thinking about the people of God at Philippi,
says that, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Paul
recognized that these were God's people. He could see the hand
of God as it had worked in the lives of these people. He knew
that God had drawn them out of the world. He knew that God had
affected them with His salvation, that the Lord had touched them,
that their lives had been changed, and he was very thankful for
them before God. Now, he could not say the same
thing about the church at Galatia. He could not say that about these
individuals because they had been moved away from the gospel
that Paul had preached to them. But these people were steadfast
in the gospel. They believed the gospel and
they endured. And Paul says, I just thank my
God upon every remembrance of you. Now Paul knew that their
faithfulness was dependent upon God, that it was God that enabled
them to be faithful. And when we look out this morning,
we're thankful for you, and we know it's touching the Lord that
you're faithful unto God. We believe that you are, for
the most part. that you're faithful unto God,
and we can give thanks as we remember you. And it's good,
you know, as we go along and travel about day by day in life's
journey, to think about certain individuals, certain believers,
certain people that our paths have crossed. And isn't it wonderful
whenever we remember them that we can give thanks to God for
them. We can praise the Lord. They're not back biters. They're
not those who are out slandering the Lord's people. They're not
those who are out trying to drive away... Always, he says in verse 4, in
every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy. Paul says, when I go to prayer,
when I'm in my closet, when I'm seeking the face of God, when
I'm crying out to God, he says, I make requests and it's with
joy that I pray for you. Now that's wonderful. It was
not with sorrow of heart that Paul came to God in prayer for
these people. It was not that he was sad and
discouraged because of the way that they were living and conducting
themselves. No, he says, I make requests
with joy unto God for you." So Paul was in love with this church,
and he was in fellowship with this church, and this church
was in fellowship with him and the gospel that he preached.
Look at verse 5. He says, "...for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now." Now this fellowship
that he mentions here is a fellowship in their giving unto the Apostle
Paul, their supporting of his ministry, because he said that
from the first day until now, you're the only people that really
buckled down and stood with me and supplied my needs. You're
the only people that really faithfully gave that in order that I might
remain in the ministry and be able to continue to preach the
gospel over the Gentile world. Now this fellowship in the gospel,
it has reference to the enduring of the hardships and enduring
the sacrifices that was necessary for the gospel to go forth. Now
beloved, you cannot serve God without sacrifice. And it hurts
to be a sacrifice, does it not? And these people were a sacrifice
in that that they gave not sparingly, but they gave liberally in order
that Paul might be able to continue on in the preaching of the gospel. And so they were with him, they
were as a team, they were fellow laborers in the gospel, and they
stood with the Apostle Paul. They didn't turn their back and
leave him as others did in other places, but they stood with him,
and they were faithful to him, and faithful in their prayers,
and faithful in their support. And then Paul comes to this great
statement. says being confident of this
very thing. Now the Apostle Paul lets us
in here on one of his convictions, his private convictions if you
please. Now Paul would not have had to
have said being confident of this very thing. He could have
just began that he which hath begun a good work in you will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He could have just made
that statement, and it would have been a true statement. It
was a statement that revealed, as Paul said, being confident
in this very thing, I've got a conviction, Paul says. And
that conviction is, and I'm confident, I'm persuaded, that he which
begins a good work in a man that he will perform that work until
the day of Jesus Christ. Now there's a great deal of truth
to be found in this verse. Many nuggets that need to be
dug out. But the first thing we want to
point out is Paul's confidence and his confidence was based
upon what was evident in the lives of these people. In verse
7 he says, Even as it is meet for me to thank this of you all,
because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds
and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers
of my grace." Paul could see in them that God had been at
work, that God had done something in their lives. Now, beloved,
when we preach on the doctrine of eternal security, when we
talk about the preservation and the perseverance of God's saints,
We're not saying that people can make a profession, walk an
aisle, and make a profession of faith, shake the preacher's
hand, and go on and live their life just as they please, live
like hell the rest of their life, and then at last they're going
to be saved in heaven. We don't mean that. That's not
what the doctrine of eternal security means. That's not it. We believe that when God begins
a work in a man, that it's a work that begets holiness of life,
that it's a work that moves upon that individual, that God plants
in him his divine nature, a nature which is contrary to sin, contrary
to the flesh, contrary... become new in that life. And
so we believe there's a change in the lives of those in whom
God begins his work. But Paul says, I'm confident
that when God begins a work that you can be sure that he's going
to perform that work until the day of Jesus Christ. Now notice
here that it says that he which hath begun a good work. Now beloved,
it is very necessary, this is a vital point, and that is that
we must be sure that it's God that has begun the work. Now,
we're not interested in anybody that has turned over a new leaf.
We're not interested in anybody who got caught doing something
and said, I'll swear off of it. I won't do it anymore. We're
not interested in anybody who has just said, well, OK, I know
that I shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't be doing that. And
I ought to be doing something else. And therefore, I'll change.
I'll turn over a new leaf. We're not interested in that.
That's not what Paul's talking about. He's talking about that
God himself begins a work, that it's of the Lord. Now, beloved,
we know that he is the Alpha and the Omega, that he's the
beginning, he's the end. In the book of Hebrews, We're
told that he is the author and he's the finisher of the faith. That he's the author of our faith
and he's the finisher of our faith. But he it is that must
do the work. And here's the question, the
vital question. Has God begun a work in your
soul? You say, Preacher, I believe
he has. I believe the Lord has been pleased to begin a work
in me. I believe that God has been pleased
to bring me out of darkness into light in a measure and that I
have within me a principle of righteousness and holiness. I
believe that God has given me some faith that I can lay hold
of Him and believe Him and trust Him and trust His Word. I believe
that God has begun a good work in me. Now notice he said this
is a good work. It is a good work. Salvation
is a good work. It's because God is the author
of it. And because of the good it brings into the lives of men
and women. Oh, it changes men and women.
It gives them victory. It gives them hope. It gives
them a hope for eternity. It gives them help in this life.
And you know, there are many, many things that may be considered
good by individuals. But beloved, somebody says, well,
education is good. It is. Somebody says, when a
man has a good job and he's And he has, he's well cared for,
for his finances, that's good. Well those things may be good,
but they don't match with what Paul's talking about here. Paul's
talking about a good work, a work of God which brings a man salvation, which makes him acceptable
in the sight of God, which gives him an interest in eternal life,
which fixes him up for all eternity, and he's saved forever and ever.
This is a good work indeed. Now notice it is a work. It is
a work, but it's not your work. It's God's work. It's God's work
from the beginning. It is of the Lord from the beginning. Oh, what a work it is. Beloved,
we're not able to save ourselves. There's none here that are able
even to make a contribution to your salvation. You're not in
any way able to deliver yourself out of your sins and your habits.
You're not able to in any way fix yourself up to where that
you can be accepted of a holy God. You cannot do that. You
don't have the ability. But this is a work. But it's
God that must do the work. And praise His dear name. The
Lord Jesus Christ has done all of the work. He's done it all.
The Lord Jesus came into this world and he came down here and
he lived a life. And that life was a perfect life. Oh, what a spotless life the
Lord Jesus Christ lived. It was such a life. Can you imagine? You've tried to live right, haven't
you? Some of you. Have you ever tried to really
do right? Have you tried to live right? Have you tried to think
right? Have you tried to be what you ought to be? Have you ever
tried to measure up? to the holy law of God. Have you ever tried to do that?
Well, my friend, if you've ever tried to do that, you know what
a work it was. The Lord Jesus came into the
world and he lived this perfect life. He satisfied God. You've never satisfied God, not
five minutes out of your life, but Jesus satisfied him from
the very hour he came into this world until the hour he left
this world. He satisfied a holy God. And then the Lord Jesus came
in, and He came in and He lived that life. He lived it for me.
That was the work He did on my... He said, I finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. It was a work indeed. And the
Lord Jesus, after He had lived the perfect life, that would
be imputed to the account of His people. He then bore their
sin as it was charged to Him, as it was laid upon Him. He bore
their sin in His own body on the tree, and He suffered their
death. Now, beloved, we know that death
is a very somber thing. make no difference how old you
are. It's going to be a serious thing when it comes to the time
when you must give up your life and leave this world. It'll be
a very sobering thing. And our Lord Jesus died under
the curse and wrath of God. He sweat great drops of blood.
He went to Calvary and said, I thirst. And he said, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He finished the work, and
the work that was necessary in order that his people be saved,
the Lord Jesus did it. He did it all. He accomplished
the work. He finished the work. Now the
next thing I want you to see is this. He says, that hath been
begun at good work, and notice where it has been begun, in you. It's in you. It's in you. And this is so important to see.
You see, beloved, it's Christ in a man that gives him hope
of eternal life. Christ must dwell in you by faith. He must dwell in your heart.
And He does come in, and He does dwell by the Holy Spirit in everyone
who believes on Him. Christ dwells in the heart. There must be a vital union between
you and Christ. Christ in you and you in Him. And our life then is hid by Christ
in God. We're in Christ. And all believers
are in Christ. And we cannot, beloved, we cannot
be saved apart from being in the Lord Jesus Christ. and you
cannot get into Christ except there's a sovereign work of God's
Spirit to unite you to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now my time is
very quickly getting away, but I want to get to this point here,
and that is that when he's begun the good work in you, then he
says, Paul says, I'm confident that he's going to perform it
until the day of Jesus Christ. I'm confident he's going to perform
it. Now then, this is a very important point, and that is
that when God begins the work of salvation, he will never give
up on it. Now if you go by somebody, say
there's an individual, he started a house. He started to build
a house. And you go by and you watch the
progress on that building. And he does quite well for a
little while and he gets it framed up and maybe he gets a roof on
it. But then it sits and it sits and it sits. And year after year
you go by that house. There was one up here on the
lower river road that was kind of like that over on this side
of the road. And just sat there, sat there
until the wood turned dark and never finished the house. And
what do you suppose, why do you suppose that was? Well, let's
think a little bit about that. Number one, maybe the individual
didn't put any forethought into it before he started it. Maybe
he didn't figure what was going to be involved in building that
house. Now, beloved, let's contrast that as we go along to our God. Our God put forethought in the
salvation of His people. I mean, the Bible says that He
knows the end from the beginning, that there isn't anything God
don't know. And He knew it all before the foundation of the
world. And God is fully aware of what is involved in saving
a poor son of Adam and fixing him up so that throughout eternity
he can live in the bliss and glory. Heaven he knows what it
would take and he put forethought in it. And so you will not see
God building his work ever sitting and just it being Just sitting
there without anything being done God's gonna perform the
work and then you look again and you see that building and
you might think well that individual didn't have the means and to
accomplish what he wanted to accomplish. He didn't have the
means. And there's a whole lot involved in building a house,
and you people that have built one, you know what I'm talking
about. A lot involved. And it takes money, it takes
means. But beloved God has all the means. There isn't anything
that God cannot do. He has the power. He has the
wisdom. He knows what's involved and
He can do whatever He must do. Wisdom dictates that God, when
He starts a work, He's going to finish it. And God's going
to do what He purposed to do. His wisdom will not allow Him
to fail. His wisdom will not allow this
work... Listen, somebody says, but sin
may be more difficult for God to deal with. in the life of
a man than what we ever imagined. Ah, listen, I'll tell you what,
sin has never put God in a bind. I'm telling you that God can
manage sin, and I'm here to tell you today that the wisdom of
God will never be thwarted, and the power of God can handle sin,
and God will save his people with an everlasting salvation,
and they'll be saved for all eternity. God will perform the
work. They'll never be lost. Now listen,
beloved, if sheep of Christ could fall away, our fickle feeble
soul, alas, would fall a thousand times a day. But God has fixed
it up where that His people will not fall away. They will not. God will keep His people. We
are kept by the power of God through faith in Christ Jesus. God's people will be preserved
and kept. How long will they be preserved
and kept? Until the day of Jesus Christ? Until the day of Jesus Christ?
Well, what is he talking about? Well, he's talking about that
day when the Lord Jesus should come. Now listen to me, beloved.
Those of you that God has done a work in, we ought to be thinking
more about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ than we do
about death. We ought to be thinking more.
Even so, as Randy read it this morning, Come, Lord Jesus. Come,
Lord Jesus. Now, there's so many verses in
the Bible that we could read. 1 Thessalonians and other places. 1 Corinthians 15. Many verses
in the Bible that deal with this subject. But I'm here to tell
you today that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back from heaven.
And I want us to quit thinking about the grief. Somebody said,
well, you said it's a sobering thing. Think about that. It is.
It is indeed. And we're going to die if Christ
does not come back. But even if He does come back,
these old bodies have got to be changed. Because flesh and
blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. And these bodies, if
everything goes as God plans, must pass through the sieve of
the worms in the grave. But there'll come a time when
God will raise up these bodies from the dead, and that is the
day of Jesus Christ. In Philippians here, I would
like you to look in chapter 3 at verse 20 and 21. It says, For
our conversation, that word there is citizenship, is in heaven,
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is in heaven,
those in whom He has begun a good work. He performs it unto the
day of Jesus Christ. Their citizenship is in heaven.
They're citizens of another country. They belong to heaven. And God
says, that's where they're citizens of, and that's where we're looking
for the Savior to come from, even the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then in verse 21, listen to this. Who shall change our vile body? that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body, according to that working whereby he is
able even to subdue all things unto himself. So we're looking
for the Lord Jesus to come. Beloved, there's a time. You
see, I want you to look with me again. There's another verse
that I'd like you to look at, and that's in Ephesians chapter
1. And we see there that if God has put His Holy Spirit, and
He has in everyone in whom He has begun this good work, they
have been baptized by the Holy Spirit. Ephesians chapter 1 and
verse 13, it says, In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also
after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest which is the guarantee of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto
the praise of His glory. Now what that's talking about
is this, is that if God has begun the work in you, He's given you
of His Spirit, He's sealed you unto Himself, and by giving you
the Holy Spirit, you are guaranteed that there's coming a day when
He is going to raise from the dead His purchased possession. And a man is not complete before
God until his body has been raised out of the grave and it joins
his redeemed soul when the Lord Jesus comes back, when the day
of Christ comes. And that's going to happen until
the redemption of the purchased possession. God not only has
bought your soul and your spirit, He has bought your body. And
the fact that He put His Spirit in your body, which is the Temple
of the Holy Ghost, proves that God is going to preserve you
unto His Heavenly Kingdom, and that the day will come when that
old body will come out of the grave, and that body will be
made and changed into a glorious body. The Bible says this body
must put off incorruption, and take on in corruption. And this will
happen, of course, in the grave. But these are the things that
are suggested to us in this verse of scripture. And the Lord's
going to do this until the day of Jesus Christ. Now in this
seventh verse, and we close quickly here, He says, even it is meet
for me to think this of you all, I think this of you all, I believe
that God has done a work in you and that he's going to resurrect
you when Jesus comes back and you're coming out of the grave,
inasmuch, he says, as both in my bonds in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel, you all are partakers of my grace. In other words,
whatever God's going to do for me, He's going to do for you.
Whatever He has done for me, He's done for you. Whatever grace
God bestowed upon me, He's bestowed upon you. And God has been pleased,
you see. He has only one purpose. kind of grace. He has sovereign
grace. And this he bestows upon his
people, be they apostles, be they disciples, be they just
poor children of God, wondering and struggling in this world
of sin and woe. They have the same grace, the
same grace, the same God, the same Savior, the same Redeemer,
the same hope. And this is what I see this morning
in these verses. Well, I've tried to give you
what the Lord has given me as I went along and I hope that
I haven't worried anybody. I don't think I've spoke that
long. I want to read this poem and then we're finished. And
the name of this poem is Chosen, Chosen, and it's by Francis Havergaard. O chosen church of Jesus, glorious,
blessed, and secure, found on the one foundation which shall
ever endure, not by holiness nor beauty can thy strength and
safety be. but the everlasting love wherewith
Jehovah hath loved thee. Chosen by his own good pleasure,
by the counsel of his will, mystery of power and wisdom working for
his people still. Chosen in the mighty Savior,
ere one ray of quickening light beamed upon the chaos, waiting
for the word of sovereign might, chosen through the Holy Spirit,
through the sanctifying grace poured upon his precious vessels,
meted for the heavenly place, chosen to show forth his praises,
to be holy in his sight, chosen unto grace and glory, unto life
and light. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with such blessing,
all uncounted and unpriced. Let our high and holy calling
and our strong salvation be theme of never-ending praise, God of
sovereign grace to thee. May the Lord be pleased to bless
these few remarks and this poem. unto his glory and your good.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time
that we've had together. May thy spirit use the word and
may the Holy Spirit draw each one of our hearts together in
unity and fellowship for the time that we have to spend together
today. May your blessing rest upon this
congregation. And again, we thank you for those
in whom you have begun this good work. In Jesus' name, amen.