Good morning and welcome to the
Sovereign Grace Broadcast. Today I would like you to turn
in your Bible to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter
1. And please, I would encourage
you to follow along in the scripture. Now let's read. I'll be speaking
from Philippians chapter 1, verse 1, down through verse 6. Let's
read these verses together. Paul and Timothy, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at
Philippi with the bishops, that's the pastors, 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. Now verse 6 is a verse I want
to camp on this morning. Philippians chapter 1 verse 6.
Now listen carefully to this verse. Being confident of this
very thing, that He, that is God, God who hath begun this
work of grace, this work of salvation, God who hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now let's back up just a few
minutes and I want to consider verses 1 down through verse 6,
and then we'll camp on verse 6. This church at Philippi had
a very meager and small beginning. Paul was called there to preach
the gospel. And when he came there, when
he arrived there that first Sabbath day, he went down to the riverside
where some women were gathered together, and he preached the
gospel to a group of women. Lydia, you remember in Acts chapter
16? Lydia. God opened her heart and revealed
the gospel unto her. This church at Philippi had a
very small beginning. Later in that same city, Paul
was put in prison for preaching the gospel. And you remember
he preached to a jailer, and God saved that jailer. God revealed
that gospel, the gospel, to the jailer and to his house. This
church had a very small beginning with a woman named Lydia and
a jailer. a prisoner, one who kept the
prison house. Paul, a prisoner, preached to
this man. The Scriptures teach us, despise not the day of small
things. When God undertakes to begin
a work of grace in the heart or in a community, none can stay
His hand because God is absolutely sovereign. He doeth according
to His will in the army of heaven. among the inhabitants of this
earth, and none can stay his hand, or none can say unto him,
Lord God Almighty, what are you doing?" Now we see the Apostle
Paul is in prison in Rome, again for preaching the gospel. And
he sends this very precious letter from this Roman prison back to
these dear people that he preached to, to encourage them in the
gospel. And he writes to them, my friend,
he writes to all who believe the gospel, he writes to us.
Let's look at verse 1. He says, Paul and Timothy, the
servants of Jesus Christ. Paul and Timothy were servants,
and that means they were willing, loving, bond slaves of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Not the servants of men, but
notice, the servants of Jesus Christ. The servants of God. These were God's servants. God
called preachers. God's servants and God's preachers
don't preach the gospel to please and to honor men. They preach
the gospel that glorifies God. Paul said to the Galatians, if
we preach to please men, we should not be the servant of Christ.
God's servants don't preach to honor men, they preach to please
God and to glorify God. God's servants don't preach the
words of men either, they preach the Word of God. We don't preach
ourselves, we preach Christ. We don't preach tradition, we
preach Him. You see what he's saying there? Here's Paul's humility.
Servants of God, bound to declare God's Word, God's truth. And
then he writes to all the saints, all the saints. Believers in
themselves are the first to confess that they're sinners. We've all
sinned and come short of the glory of God. But in Christ,
we're just as quick to confess in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are sanctified. We are made righteous in Him. He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Oh yes, I'm sinful in myself,
but in Christ He has made me holy, unblameable before Him. And then in verse 2 he says,
Grace unto you and peace that comes from God and from our Lord
Jesus Christ. What two words, what two more
glorious words, and God speak to His people, but grace and
peace. God elected to salvation a people
by His sovereign grace. There is a remnant according
to the election of grace. God justified a people by His
redeeming grace, justified freely by His grace. God called out
a people by His effectual grace. God saved us and called us with
a holy calling. We're saved by His powerful grace.
By grace are you saved. See what a glorious truth that
is? By grace. are you saved?" And then he said,
grace and peace. Now notice which comes first.
There's always grace before there's peace. As a result of grace,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Being
justified by faith, we have peace with God. We have peace with
God through the blood of His cross, through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace in our hearts and
we have peace with one another. And most importantly, my friend,
and most certainly, we have peace with God. reconciled unto God
to the death of His Son. Grace unto you. Where does that
come from? From God. And peace. You'll never
find peace in this world. Peace is found in Christ, in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse 3 he says,
I thank God upon every remembrance of you. I thank God for you all.
These believers were a monument to the grace of God, and Paul
gives all the glory to God for their faithfulness. Notice he
says, I don't thank you, I thank God for you. Not unto us, O Lord, David said,
but unto thy name do we give glory and honor. Now look at
verse four. Praying, he said, I'm always praying for you, making
requests with joy. Praying for God's people is not
a grievous, burdensome task. It's a delight and a privilege
we have to call upon God and to make our request unto God.
Samuel said this in the book of Samuel, it's recorded, God
forbid I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.
What a delight it is and what a joy we have to call upon God
and ask God to bless His people. Now, in verse 5, he says, "...for
your fellowship in the gospel from the first day unto now."
Paul prays for these people, and then he says, I thank God
for your fellowship. Believers have a special relationship
with other believers. They are fellows, friends, in
the same ship, or in the same conditions, sinners saved by
Almighty grace. This fellowship is something
that has a beginning, but it is something that will never,
never end. The blood of Jesus Christ, we
have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses us from all sin. Now here's my text in verse 6.
He says, being confident of this very thing. that God, who hath
begun a good work in you, will perform it, will perfect it."
This verse plainly teaches us again that salvation is of the
Lord. Paul's confidence was not in their ability to reform, but
in God's ability to regenerate, to save, and to keep them by
His mighty grace. Now let's look at five things
in this verse 6, Philippians chapter 1, verse 6. The first
thing Paul says here, he's confident, being confident. of this very
thing. Paul was convinced. Paul was
sure. And Paul is rejoicing and thanksgiving in their salvation.
The salvation of sinners is with much confidence, knowing that
where grace is begun, a good work, there certainly will be
eternal glorification with the Lord Jesus Christ. What begins
in grace will end in glory. Our confidence of salvation springs
from God's eternal, unchanging purpose in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am the Lord. I change
not. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed." You see, Paul's
confidence is in his sovereign God, in his sovereign King. And
that's our only place where we can have confidence. And then
the second thing we see, he was confident of God's work. Whose work is it? He who hath
begun a good work. The work of salvation, my friend,
is his work. No doubt, there's no doubt in
our mind that salvation, regeneration, redemption, reconciliation are
all God's work, God's doing from first to last. The very nature
of the work, by the very nature of the work, we must conclude
that it's the Lord's doing, that salvation's of the Lord. The
Father unconditionally chose a people. It's God who begun
the work. God in eternity chose a people. Paul said, we thank God for you,
brethren, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. We give thanks unto the Father.
It's the work of the triune God. And to the Son, He redeemed us
by His blood, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but as our
great high priest, He entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us. And salvation is the
work of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the
Holy Spirit in regeneration. Whose work is it? You hath he
quickened who were dead. It's God's work. And here we
see this glorious truth again that salvation is of the Lord.
So we're confident, confident that God who has begun a work
will finish it. Whose work is it? It's God's
work. Therefore, it must be completed. Thirdly, we see what kind of
work it is. He says in that verse, it's a
good work. It's a perfect work. This work
of God works nothing but good in the heart of a sinner. It
brings a sinner from darkness to light, from death to life,
from total ruin to righteousness in Christ. It's good for the
sinner. It's good for his family. It's
good for the church. It's good for society. It's good
for the glory of God. You see, it's a good work, this
salvation. This is the Lord's doing. Salvation
is of the Lord. And then the fourth thing we
see, where this work is begun. Now notice this carefully. He
says, being confident of this very thing, that God who hath
begun a good work, where has this work begun? In you. Salvation is a work in you. God has done a mighty work for
us. That's what he did at Calvary.
He died to put away the sin of his people. But we need yet a
work within us. This work God does in the sinner
is not an outward reformation. but an inward revelation of Christ,
an inward regeneration. It's a heart work. It's Christ
in you. It's God revealing Christ to
your heart, Christ in you, the hope of glory. You see, in salvation,
the flesh is not quickened and sanctified. It's the inward man,
it's the new man that's created in Christ Jesus. This old man
is perishing daily. The inward man is renewed day
by day. Salvation is a revelation of
Christ in your heart. It's not cleaning up this old
man. It's not sanctifying the flesh.
It's making us new creatures in Christ. It's a good work in
you, my friend. You see what he's saying? In
you. Now lastly, this work that God
has begun in the hearts of His people will be performed. You see, this is a good work
that He has begun. It's a good work in you which
will be perfected, will be finished. in the day the Lord Jesus Christ
comes. This work that God has begun
in the hearts of His people will be performed, will be finished,
will be perfected and carry on until we are perfectly conformed
to the image of His Son, holy, unblameable, unreprovable in
God's sight. Now listen to me in closing carefully.
If God does not finish and complete the work He has begun, what does
this say of His promise? We read about the exceeding great
precious promises of God. If God doesn't finish the work
he's begun, what of his promises? It said, I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. If God does not finish the work
he's begun, what does this say of his attributes? If God cannot
complete His purpose, what does it say of His character? Where
is His wisdom? Where is His power? Where is
His love if God cannot complete the work He has begun? Our Lord
Jesus Christ cried out from the cross, it is finished. If God
does not finish the work, complete the work He has begun, what does
this say of His atonement? If Jesus Christ rendered to divine
justice sufficient payment for my sin, and He did, and He died
in my room and in my stead as my substitute, and then the sinner
be lost and condemned as guilty before God, what does that say
of His atonement? His substitutionary death. My
friend, we have an atonement in Christ. The atonement of the
Lord Jesus Christ, His sacrifice, demands my Salvation, my deliverance. God, yes, my friend, being confident
of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you
will perform it, will perfect it, will finish it in the day
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He ever lives to make intercession
for us as His people. He ever lives to intercede for
us as our mediator. One mediator between God and
men, that is the man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the sinner's
surety, the sinner's substitute, the sinner's advocate, the sinner's
propitiation. Yes, my friend, we are confident
that God will save His people. If you would like a copy of today's
message, you write to me and I'll send it to you free of charge. 6088 Zebulon Highway, Pikeville,
Kentucky, 41501.