Let me begin reading in verse
1 and read down through verse 8. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at
Philippi with the bishops, the pastors, the overseers, 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 fit, it's right,
it's meet, for me to thank this of you, because I have you in
my heart. For as much as both in my bonds,
in my imprisonments, and in the defense and confirmation of the
gospel, you are all partakers with me of grace. For God is
my record, how greatly I longed after you all in the bowels,
in the affections, the heart of Jesus Christ." You can find
the history of this Philippian church in Acts chapter 16. The
Apostle Paul had saw this vision. This man had appeared to him
from Macedonia. and said, Come over and help
us. Come and preach the gospel to us. And Paul and Silas headed
towards Philippi, being fully persuaded that God had sent them
there to preach the gospel of Christ. And when they got there,
they found this group of women that was gathered down on the
river bank to worship. And Paul preached the gospel
to those women. And we don't know how many of
those women the Lord saved. But the scripture says, as Paul
was preaching Christ, the Lord opened Lydia's heart, and she
attained to the things spoken by Paul. The Lord saved her. The Lord saved her house. He
preached the gospel to her house. If her husband was there, the
Lord saved him. If she had children or grandchildren,
the Lord saved them. Her household was baptized. And
they put Paul and Silas in jail and beat them. And at midnight,
God sent an earthquake and opened the doors of the prison. The
jailer was ready to commit suicide, and Paul stopped him and said,
We're not running. Don't hurt yourself. We're not
escaping. And that man was not only awakened
physically, but he was awakened spiritually. And he said, Men
and brethren, I'm lost. I'm lost. Oh, what a good position
to come to. I'm lost. Never been lost before
in my life. But oh, God knows I'm lost now. And I've got to be saved worse
than anything in this world. And I don't even know how to
be saved. How can I be saved? Can you fellas tell me what must
I do to be saved? And they said, you believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. And they took him in
his house, and they preached the gospel to him. They opened
the scriptures to him. And the Lord saved that man.
He did indeed believe in Jesus Christ. And his family was converted. His children and his wife and
whoever was in his house. And they were baptized. And I
would imagine that this church began to grow. Don't know who
their pastor was. But Paul kept in contact with
this congregation. And he loved them dearly. I tell
you, they were in his prayers. He was thankful for them, that
God had saved so many of them. And he said, I tell you this, I have known you from the first
day you believed the gospel. And you've had fellowship one
with another. And you've had fellowship with
God and with His Son. And you supported the gospel.
You shared in the expense of the gospel. You send it to me
once and again." And said, Paul, we know you're out there preaching
the gospel, and here's an offering for you to help you spread the
gospel of Jesus Christ. And Paul said, when I had to
stand to defend the gospel, I look around and there are you fellows
standing right with me. And when I got up to proclaim
the gospel to people, there you fellows were saying, Amen, Paul.
And he said, I'm convinced of this. God's begun to work a grace
in your heart. He's done it. He's done it. And
that brings me here to my text this morning. Here in verse 6. 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. I want to see three things in
this text this morning. First of all, I want to look
at this word confident. I want us to see what it means,
because it has a great deal to do with the second point. Paul
said, being confident in this very thing. And what was that? The perseverance of the saints.
God, who has begun a good work in you, will never stop working
until Christ comes and takes you home. And then thirdly, just
for a minute, I want to deal with this. What effect should
this doctrine have upon us? It should have great comfort
for us, poor saints that we are. And then, in a way, a self-examination. Now, first, let's begin with
looking at this word, being confident of this very thing. This word
in the scripture has three meanings. They're all one, but you can
split it into three different meanings. It means, first of
all, to persuade. To persuade. Paul uses this word
often. I am persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. That's
the same word that's used here in confidence. If you're wrong
about something, And somebody comes and they want to help you
see the truth. They want to bring you from the
position where you're at and let you see the light. What do
they do? They sit down with you and they
persuade you. They show you evidence and they
reason with you. And when you get up, you say,
Brother, you persuaded me. You persuaded me. I was wrong.
I was holding the wrong position. But you persuaded me. You've offered me evidence and
proof that I was wrong. You persuaded me. Persuade means
we're brought from one position or a neutral position over here
to another position. We're persuaded. I am persuaded. This word is used in Acts chapter
19, and let me tell you how it's used. when Paul was going throughout
Asia preaching the gospel. And he caused such an uproar.
There in Asia, there in Ephesus where they had the great temple,
Diana. And they had these silversmiths,
and I imagine other people too, that carved out little idols
of Diana. And that's the way these men
made their living. And Demetrius, one of the chief silversmiths,
got them all together one day, and he said, Brother, listen,
we're in trouble. They said, what's wrong? They said, haven't
you noticed your business is dropping off? We're not selling
as many items. They said, I've noticed that.
What in the world's going on? Why, he said, this Paul has come
here in Asia, and he is persuading people There's that word. He is persuading people that
there be no gods that are made with hands. And they said people
are believing him. And here's the way he did it.
He would go where these people were worshiping those little
gods. Or he met in the market where those people had their
little gods. And they had all kinds of gods. If you was poor
and couldn't afford a real expensive god, they had a fellow that would
carve you a little wooden god to die. But if you was real rich,
these silversmiths, boy, they'd make you an expensive little
god out of silver or even gold. And Paul went there and he noticed
these fellas carrying these little gods around. They'd set them
down and bow down before them and do all their little gidgets,
you know, before. And Paul said, how did that little
thing get here? Well, I carried it here. I carried
it. You carried it here. It didn't
carry you. You're packing it around. Yes,
I pack it around. Where did you get it? I had it
made. Did you see them make it? Yes. I'm a poor man, you know,
and I can't afford the expensive one, but I had this beautiful
one carved out of wood, and you was there when they made it.
I was there. What did they do with the rest of the wood they
carved it out of? Well, the wife was cooking, and
I noticed she cut some of it and built a fire and cooked with
it. Some of it we put in the fireplace
and warmed by it. And the rest of it you made that
little God. Do you see anything wrong with that? No, Paul said. If somebody comes to you and
accidentally hit that little fella and knock him over and
break his head off, did he create the earth? Did he hang the moon? Does he give you breath? Can
he save you? He don't even have a mind. He
don't have lungs. He can't speak. He don't have
ears. He's not God. Let me tell you about God who
created the worlds. And there's where he began. And
when he's finished, they'd grab that little God and look at him
with contempt and sling him in the fire where he belonged. Or
they'd take him and melt him down and then sell him to thy
food or give to the poor neighbors. And Demetrius said, Paul is persuading
these fellows. That's what this word means.
It means to be persuaded from a bad position and roll over
to the right position. Persuaded. It means something
else. It means to be convinced. I have a strong conviction. That's what it is. Convinced.
Conviction. If you have a conviction about
something, a strong conviction, boy, it means something, doesn't
it? It means something. I have a strong conviction that
what you told me is true." This word is also used in Acts chapter
18 where Apollos came preaching, and the Scripture says he mightily
convinced the Jews, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is
the Christ. He convinced them. He would get
a chance to preach to them, and boy, Apollos was mighty in the
Scripture. He memorized Scripture. He knew
something of the sense of them. And he'd go back there in the
Old Testament Scriptures, and he'd look at those types, and
he'd say, there's Christ. He'd go over there, and he would
say, a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they'll
call his name Immanuel. And he said, that's Christ. And boy, he got out the promises.
And he'd preach them and he'd say, there's Christ. And the
Scripture says when those Jews left, they were convinced. And
they never read the Scriptures the same. I'm telling you, they
started reading them then and they'd say, well, there's Christ!
There's Christ! What happened? Being confident. They were convinced. And then
thirdly, this word means to be assured of. To be content with. To have an inward certainty and
trust. Confident. I am persuaded. I am convinced. I am fully assured. That's what the Apostle Paul
is saying here in this word. Being confident of this very
thing. That word means something, doesn't
it? I'm persuaded. I am convinced, I live in the
full assurance of what I'm about to tell you is the truth. You know what really upsets me
sometimes? I hate it when I see it in myself.
I hate it when I see it in other people. Not being plain on what we believe. Not being clear. Being too timid. Being bashful and shy about what
we believe. And you know what makes us that
way? Sometimes we're just not assured of something as we ought
to be. We need to be more persuaded
of the truth of the Word of God. And I'll tell you something else
I can't stand, and all of us are afflicted with it. And I
hate it. I hate it. I was talking to a lady one
time, asked her if the pastor preached a lecture. And she went
to him and asked him. He said, no, I'm afraid to preach
that. I'm afraid to preach that. Have
you ever seen people that they had such a conviction, they were
afraid not to preach something, but when they preached it, they
hoped nobody understood what they were saying. Because they're
afraid they'll get mad at them. I know preachers like that. I
used to know a preacher, poor man that he was, wretched man
that he was. He'd get up and preach, and if
the church was full of Nazarenes, he could preach to suit them.
If the church was full of Baptists, full of Church of God, whatever
they're full of, boy, he knew how to preach to them. One on this side would be believing,
hearing and preaching one thing. Another on this side would be
hearing and preaching something else. All together. I knew a
guy that sat under his ministry for years. And I was talking
to the man one time, and he said, boy, I tell you what, I wouldn't
want to ever believe. He said, I believe like this
old fellow. He said, I wouldn't want to ever believe that God
wouldn't let you fall away. That man that he'd been sitting
under for years believed no such thing. It's strange, brothers
and sisters, when we can sit under somebody's ministry for
years and not know what they believe about essential, precious
truths. Ain't that amazing? You think
that would happen with this apostle? No, it wouldn't happen. And you
know why? When he believed something, he
was persuaded of it. He was convinced of it. He lived
in the full assurance of it. Then, Bud, when you sat under
his ministry, he told you. He took his time and set it forth
in such plain language there was no mistake in it. I am persuaded. And now he
comes here in my second point to this wonderful doctrine. And
he says, I want you to know this. I'm ready to tell you a precious
truth. I'm ready to show you a doctrine,
but I want you to know before I do that I'm not telling you
something that I don't believe myself. I'm not about to show
you something I'm not convinced of myself. I believe this. I'm fully assured of this. And
now I'm telling it to you. I think, brothers and sisters,
we need to go to the Apostle Paul, and we need his attitude
about things. We need to be persuaded as He
is. And we'd come out of some of
this shyness. We'd come out of some of this backwardness if
we were more convinced and had the conviction that this is the
truth. This is the truth. And that brings
us to the doctrine. I am convinced. I am persuaded. Being confident of this very
thing, and here it is. Here's the doctrine. that he
which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ." You know something? Salvation
is of God. It's of God. It's of God outside
of us. In its beginning, it is of God. God has already purposed who
He's going to save. I keep saying that, but I want
you to understand that. That God knows who He's going
to save before that person ever had a being. And He knows them
because He chose them. And He put their names down in
the Lamb Book of Life. That's something that happened
outside of you. Nobody was here when God purposed
to save them. That's called His elect in love.
That's a work outside of you. That's a work God did. And if
you're not one of the elect, you won't be saved. You won't
be saved. But oh, if you are, you will
be. Somebody said, what if I'm not
one of them? What if you are, though? What if you are? And there's another work done
outside of us that you and I have nothing to do with. And Brother
Glenn talked about it this morning, didn't he? That was the Son of
God upon the cross of Calvary, bearing our sins to that tree. You and I weren't around then,
was we? That was a work done outside of us. It wasn't an essential
work, but it had nothing to do with us inwardly. That was done
outside of us. Paul here is talking now about
another work that's essential. And if you and I are ever going
to be happy and holy in eternity, there's a work that must take
place inside of us. And that's the work that Paul
is talking about this morning. Being confident of this, that
He which hath begun a good work in you. God must do a work in
us. And what is it? What must take
place? Think of two or three things
with me here quickly this morning. What must take place within a
man as he's being saved? If God's going to save a man,
what is it that he must do within him to save him? Isn't this one
of the first things? He must share. He must share. He must share
the Lord's voice. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. We'll never follow until we hear
His voice. We'll never do anything until
we hear the voice of Christ speaking to us in this gospel. The scripture
says we must come to Christ, but I tell you this, we won't
come to Him until we hear of Him. And the Scripture says we
must call upon Him, but we'll never call on Him until we hear
Him. And the Scripture says we must
believe on Him, but the Scripture says how shall we believe in
Him of whom we have not heard? You can't do it, can you? And your men and women are going
through this world and they don't have ears to hear. That's just
a fact, ain't it? That's just a fact. We're dealt
by nature. We don't have ears to hear the
voice of Christ speaking in his gospel. So what does the Lord
say? The first thing he says to us
is this, Incline your ear and hear. Come unto me and your soul
shall live. Hear! Hear! And your soul shall live. What must take place before man
can live? He must hear. He must hear. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. That must take place. Secondly,
there is something else that must take place. A man must be
enabled to see. He must see. The Bible talks
a lot about the eyes of the mind. The eyes of the understanding. Paul said, I prayed that God
would open the eyes of your understanding. That's the eyes of the heart,
the mind. That's what Luke was writing
to us about when Paul was preaching to Lydia. The Lord opened her
heart. The Lord opened her eyes that
she saw. That is what must take place.
You see, the devil has something to do with blinding us. The Scripture
says if our gospel be hid, it is hid to the lost, in whom the
God of this world hath blinded their eyes. And what must take
place? I tell you, we have to have our
eyes opened. We have to see for ourselves. The Lord Jesus spoke
about He that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him. How do
we see the Son of God? With our eyes of the mind. The understanding. When Job said,
I've heard of you by the hearing of your ear, but now my eyes
see you, it wasn't literally. He didn't see God literally in
the sky, but he saw Him through the eyes of his understanding.
That's what we're talking about this morning. It's an awful sad thing to be
blind, isn't it? It would have to be a sad thing
to be physically blind. I don't know if that's the right
terminology to use anymore. You can't say anything about
any infirmity unless somebody gets offended. I don't know what
the terminology is, and I hope I don't offend somebody by saying
it would be a sad thing to be physically blind, but would you
want to be blind? Never to be able to see? All
that you saw is what somebody else described to you, but you
never experienced it yourself. One of my little grandbabies,
I was holding her the other night, and she looked at me, and I looked
at her little face and looked into her eyes, and oh, I was
just captivated. I looked at that child, and oh,
her beautiful countenance, and her little eyes, And I said,
child, you're beautiful. Oh, you're so beautiful. And
I just grabbed her and I said, I love you. I just love you to
death. I wouldn't have gave that view. I wouldn't have gave somebody
give me a billion dollars. I said, no, not for that view.
No, not for that view. I tell you, there's beauty in
the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, He is so full of
grace. He is full of truth. He is full of love. He is full
of kindness. He is full of willingness to
save sinners. And I can tell you about it,
but you'll have to see Him for yourself to believe it. And you'll
see it when you give an eye. Give an eye. Look unto me, and
be ye saved. Salvation is in a look, is it
not? This ear and the seeing eye,
whose work is that? Whose work is that? Here's what
he says in Proverbs 20, verse 12. Listen to this. the hearing
ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made them both." Have you
been enabled to hear Him? You hear Him in His gospel? Have
you seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Then
I tell you this, brothers and sisters, God has begun a work
in your heart. It's the earth. It's the earth. And here's another work, and
it's so essential. The will must be graciously subdued. The will must be graciously subdued. It can't be forced now. It can't
be forced. God never forced any man to come
to Christ. God never forced any man to be
saved. The will must be graciously subdued and broken. What's one
of our main problems when it comes to salvation? It's our
will. Is it not? The Lord Jesus said,
You will not come to me. You will not come to me. Look
here in Philippians chapter 2. Look here in verse 12 and verse
13. The Lord said, If you be willing
and obedient, you'll eat the fad of the lamb. But if you refuse
and rebel, you'll be destroyed. If your will will not break,
and you don't become willing to come to me and be saved by
me, then you're going to be destroyed. And look what he says about that.
Look in verse 12 of chapter 2 of Philippians. Wherefore, my beloved,
as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, how much
more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do His good pleasure." I'm telling you,
if you have an ear to your Christ this morning, if you have an
ear to hear God's Word, if you have an eye to look to Him, and
you have a will that has come to Him and gave yourself up to
be saved by Him, I tell you, God's begun a work in your heart.
And you love Him for it, don't you? You love Him for it. And boy, here's an essential
work. Fourthly, here's an essential work. The fear of the Lord. That's a work that must begin
in a man's heart. By nature, we don't fear God. I tell you, man really, and honestly,
man don't care if God saves him or not. The fear of the Lord is so essential. When Paul was preaching there
in Antioch, he said, men and brethren, and you that fear God,
give audience. Why did he say you that fear
God? He knows nobody else cares. You see, nobody else cares. Whosoever
fears God, to you is the word of this salvation sent." Why
did he limit it to those who fear God? Nobody else cares. I'm dead in my sins. I don't care. I'm taking a chance
on losing my soul. I don't care. I'm going to die
and face God in judgment. I don't care. Why don't you care? I don't fear God. I don't fear
God. But oh, let this work begin in
the heart of fearing Him. Everything changes then. Everything
changes. For then, when you hear something
about the Lord, about salvation, what happens? Your old ear perks
up. I've got to hear this. I'm afraid
not to hear this. Are you afraid not to come to
the Lord this morning? Are you afraid to look anywhere
else for salvation but to Him? Are you afraid to leave Him? Then I tell you this much, if
that's so, He's the kind of Worker of Grace in your heart. Look
over here with me right quickly in Jeremiah chapter 32 and verse
38. I have often thought if I had
to be limited to just one grace
in my heart, I think sometimes it would be this, the fear of
the Lord. Let us have grace whereby we
may serve the Lord with fear and trembling, for our gods are
consuming fire. To fear the Lord. Look what he
says about it here in verse 38. You're my 32. And they shall
be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one
heart. Oh, there it is. That's God's
Word. I will give them one way that they may fear me forever
for the good of them and of their children after them. And I will
make an everlasting covenant with them. I will not turn away
from them to do them good. But look at this, I will put
my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them
to do them good. I will plant them in this land
assuredly with my whole heart and my soul. For thus saith the
Lord, like as I have brought upon all this great evil upon
this So will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised
them." I tell you, this is a good work, isn't it? And I tell you
why it's good, because God does it. God does it. He does it all. He begins it all. He begins it
all. And I tell you, sometimes when
the Lord first saves us, Here we thought we did it, didn't
we? Well, we did. But why were we
doing it? Because He was doing it. Why
did you believe? This is the work of God, that
you believe. He did it, didn't He? Why did
you come? Why did you come to Christ when
the multitude would not come? He was drawing you. That's His
work, isn't it? Why did you hear when others
couldn't? Why did you see when others can't?
Why do you love? Why do you hold? Why do you cling? It's the work of God. Oh, essential
work of God. God hath begun a good work in
you. And notice this back in our text.
When he begins this work and wherever he begins this work,
he'll never stop working until it's completed, until it's accomplished. He that hath begun a good work
in you will perform it, he'll finish it, he'll complete it,
he'll never quit working until the Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Now this is what we call the
perseverance of the saints. And I love that. The Bible teaches
that. The last three or four generations
before us, at least two generations, they've had what they call eternal
security. They've had what they call once
in grace, always in grace. Once saved, always saved. And
I know by watching some of those people that they were such a
shame and a mess. You'll see people out living
in open sin, and they start talking about, I believe once in grace
always. You've seen them, haven't you?
What a shame. That's not grace, is it? Here's
the grace that we like. He gives you ears to hear Him,
and you just keep hearing Him. He gives you eyes to see, and
you just keep looking. He gives your heart to believe
on Him, and you just keep leaving. He gives your heart to come to
Him, and you just keep coming. I like that, don't you? You can have your eternal security
if it's like some of our forefathers thought it to be. But boy, here,
here. Here's what Job said. The righteous
shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall grow
stronger and stronger. The righteous shall hold on his
way? You mean you're not going to see
him out of the way? Ah, you may find him off in a
ditch. He may be parked there for a
while. He got off track. But you know something? You just
give him a very short time, right back on the road he goes, Why? The righteous shall hold on his
way. The Christians aren't looking
for an excuse to see how many sins they can commit. A Christian
is not looking to see how close to the world he can live and
yet be saved. He's afraid of such things. The
righteous longs to hold on his way. And Job said he shall. He shall. Why shall He? Because
the One that put Him on that way keeps Him on the way. He
keeps Him on the way. What good work, brothers and
sisters, did God ever put His hand to and quit it? Can you
find any place where God ever begun a good work and right through
the middle of it quit it? Did He do that in creation? He
started on that evening of the first day, and I'm telling you
what, He never stopped until the mighty sun was hung in the
heavens to warm the earth, and you had to go down and get some
kind of a powerful microscope to see those little tiny creatures
creeping around in the forest, that He completed the work, even
upon them. He left nothing undone until
that sixth and final day. And he looked on his work and
he said, My soul, what a good job I've done. And then he rested. What about the work of redemption?
You go yonder to Calvary's tree. You think anything was left undone
there? I'm telling you what, there have
been mighty theologians that search the Old Testament Scriptures.
And all they're searching, they've not found one promise that went
unfulfilled. They've not found one prophecy
to fail. They've not found one picture
or time of the Lord Jesus Christ dying upon that cross that was
not accomplished. There He hanged in His suffering
and blood, and He hanged there until only one thing was left
to do. And He lifted up His voice and
He said, It's finished, and gave up the ghost. No, sir. He's never put his hand to a
thing and got halfway through it and ceased to work. And when he begins to work in
the heart, Paul said here with great confidence, he will not
cease until he has perfected the work. Here's what David said. David, trust in the Lord, shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot Be removed, but they shall abide
forever. But you say, Bruce, what if they
quit trusting in the Lord? They'll be removed then. Well, I wouldn't be surprised
if they quit trusting in the Lord, if it was left up to them. But it's not left up to them,
is it? He that hath begun will continue. He'll perform it himself. Here is what Isaiah said, "...Lord,
thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou hast wrought all our
works in us." That's wonderful. All our works,
all our works, all our works. He does it all, doesn't he? He
does it all. We just react. We just react. That's it. He begins. Spurgeon said they had a saying
in his day, preaching to sinners. If you'll take the first step,
he said, God will take the rest. Spurgeon said, that's all I'm
concerned about. I want to see a camp sinner take that first
step. If he can take the first step, he can make the rest of
them. But that first one, he says, is what I'm worried about.
You can't do anything until God begins the work. And boy, when
He begins it, He won't cease it. Why should He? Why should
He? What possible reasons could God
have for beginning the work of grace in a man's heart and then
cease from doing it? You say, well, maybe God didn't
know all the things that were going to take place. God didn't
know. God don't have forethought about
these things. Yeah, you know how we are, yeah, comparing us
to God. You better not do that. We go
to do a lot of things and get right in the middle of it and
have to quit, don't we? Run into something we didn't know was
going to happen. I used to go up 69 when I was a truck driver.
And they had a huge motel there where you get off the Marion
exit. Sat there for years and it was almost built. And I often
went by there and wondered, man, what happened? Somebody's put
a lot of time and money into that motel and then just had
to quit. Something must have happened.
The economy go down? Ran out of money? Something happened.
Somebody didn't think this through. But God's not that way. The Scripture
says, Known unto God are all his works from the beginning
of the world. He has thought this thing through,
Glenn. Nothing's going to take him by
surprise. Reckon it could be some ability
in him? The Jew said this unto him that is able to keep you
from falling. Peter said you are kept by the
power of God, unlimited sovereign power of God. Could it be a will
in him? You just don't will to do it
anymore? Well, here is what the Scripture says. This is the will
of him that sent me, that of all which he hath given me I
should lose nothing. But raise it up at the last day.
That's God's will. I found a verse last week. You've
got to read this. If you can remember this, Isaiah
chapter 27 and verse 3. I got to memorize this. I wrote
it down. Listen to it. I the Lord do keep it. Now you're
talking about His church and all the members. Isaiah 27 and
3. I the Lord do keep it. I will water it every moment. lest any hurt him. I will keep
it day and night." Isn't that wonderful? I mean, he's got his
eye over his work. I wonder at every moment, every
moment. What about resistance? Maybe
the Lord's ran into some resistance that's been too great for him. What about the flesh? Oh, my.
The flesh lusteth against the Spirit. And maybe God's reached
the point where He said, I ain't going to go through this anymore.
You've just resisted. You fought me all the way. What
about that? Well, here's what He said in
Isaiah chapter 43, verse 13. He said, Yea, before the day
was, I am He, and there's none that can deliver out of my hand.
Yea, I will work. And who shall hinder it? Who's
going to hinder my work? Some little grasshopper? No. What about wisdom? What about
knowledge? What about understanding? Peter
said this, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation. He knows. He knows. You can't
always see how he's leading you. In our utter ignorance, we may
be thinking, boy, I'm in a mess. I shouldn't be where I'm at.
How did I get where I'm at? You know something? He's bringing
you there. He's leading the blind by a way
they know not. But He knows. All my ways are
open before the Lord. He knows it. where he begins his work, he'll
never cease. What effect should this doctrine
have upon us? Am I clear? Have I been clear
in this doctrine this morning? Is anybody going to leave here
and say, well, I really don't know what Bruce believes about the
perseverance of the saints? For all I know, he may believe that
God saves a man today and he's lost tomorrow. I don't know really
what he believes. Have I made myself clear? Have
I been convincing to you this morning Do I sound like I'm as
persuaded as the Apostle Paul is? Somebody said, we're living
in a day where they talk about spirituality. There's a fellow
that writes an article in the newspaper, and they're on to
him now because he don't preach doctrine. And one of the reasons
he gives, he said, I ain't going to get off on doctrine. He said,
for one reason, if I do the paper, they'll fire me. They won't let
me ride anymore. There goes my job. So I'm like Demetrius does
it to Silver Smith. Lose my living. And he said,
I'm not a doctrinal kind of guy. He said, I'm a spiritual guy.
Ain't that amazing? Oh my goodness. I'm a doctrinal
kind of guy, aren't you? Paul was a doctrinal kind of
guy. He says, here's our doctrine, and I'm persuaded of it, and
I want you to know it. If God has begun a work of grace
in your heart, He'll never cease it. Grace begun is heaven won,
and there's no doubt about it. How should this doctrine affect
it? Oh, comfort, comfort, comfort. Comfort you, my people. Comfort
you, my people. Comfort one another with these
words. Boy, when Satan comes with his assault on your mind,
and your soul is afflicted with unbelief, and your heart feels
so cold and dead, and you're so afraid and so doubtful,
and when you can't do anything about the situation you find
yourself in, this will be a comfort to you. I can't do anything. I can't even believe. Oh, I'm
just here waiting. I'm here hoping. What are you
waiting on? Oh, I'm waiting on the Lord to
revive me. Waiting for Him to do His work.
And it scares you, don't it? You know why we get in that shape
sometimes? Well, we can't even pray. We can't believe. We can't repent. We can't walk
humbly with the Lord. Oh, we get scared about it. But
you know why He brings us there? He lets us see, after all, this
is His work. And you've got sort of proud
thinking, boy, you've got all kinds of faith. And you can just
believe, believe, believe. But you can't, can you? You can't
do anything. It's God which worketh in you. You and I take comfort in this,
since God has promised that he'll never quit his work in us, we
can pray with David, Lord, forsake not the work of your own hands. You say, Bruce, if he promised
that he wouldn't, why even ask him? I'd be afraid to ask God
something he hadn't promised, wouldn't you? The reason we go to Him and pray,
Lord, do Your work in us, is because He has promised to do
it. The reason we confess our sins is because He has promised
that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. He has promised us mercy. He
has promised us life eternal. And since He has promised, then
bless God, go ask Him. Go ask Him. And this by way also of self-examination. Has God begun a work of grace
in you? Is a work begun in you that wasn't
there before? Has the way you think about God
and about Jesus Christ, about yourself and sin and salvation,
has that radically changed? Are you just thinking the way
you've always thought? Do you have a new knowledge that
you never had before? Do you have new faith that you
never had before? New love, new desires? Or just some religion that you've
got, that you worked up yourself, and it satisfies you, and you
don't even see a need of a work to begin? by somebody outside
yourself. What is it, dear soul? What is
it? If He hasn't begun a work in
us this morning, this is my prayer. Lord, if you haven't begun in
me, begin in me today. Begin in me now. If I don't believe
you, give me faith to believe you now. If I don't love you,
give me grace to love you now. And I tell you what, if you're
here this morning and he's never begun a work in your heart, then
go ask him to. Go ask him to. And then when he begins it, you
may realize that even your asking was property of God. Lord bless this message. Let's
pray.