Philippians 1:6

Introduction: The Need for Balance and Deepened Confidence

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, October 9th, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now will you turn in your own Bibles with me, please, to Paul's letter to the church at Philippi, the book that we commonly identify in the New Testament as the book of Philippians, and follow as I read from chapter 1, the 1st through the 7th verses. Philippians chapter 1, verses 1 through 7.

0:47 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace. From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all, making my supplication with joy for your fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now,

1:31 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ, even as it is right for me to be thus minded on behalf 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 partakers with me, of grace.

2:09 Under the blessing of the Holy Spirit, a balanced ministry of the word of God will produce a company of saints marked by balance, symmetry, and stability in their Christian experience. And it is this balance that we have sought to maintain in the ministry of the word in this assembly over four, thirty-two years. And while I have no doubt that perfect balance has eluded us,

2:47 I am reasonably certain that a reasonable measure of biblically defined balance has indeed marked the ministry of this place. Now it is just this concern which has determined my decision to bring several messages from, from selected text of scripture before launching into our verse-by-verse expositions of 1 Peter. For those of you who have not been with us,

3:23 we have just completed several months of an intense and concentrated season of self-examination, while I have preached a series of sermons entitled, Are You For Real? I have solid reasons to believe that many of you have honestly and prayerfully brought your profession of union with Christ, your professed possession of grace and salvation in Christ. You have brought these things to the searchlight of the word of God

4:04 with judgment day honesty prepared to accept the judgment of scripture, in answer to the question, Are You For Real? And as a result, many of you have spoken to me personally, others have written to me, others have left messages on my answering machine indicating that over these several months, you have had fresh, deep and honest dealings with God, that there's been a renewal of repentance and, and faith, and with that renewal of repentance and faith,

4:47 you have come to a more solid conviction than ever that indeed, by the grace of God, you are for real. Now it is for the sake of such tried, tested and approved saints, that I now desire to preach just several messages focusing on texts, texts of scripture which are calculated to do two things. To deepen your confidence in the God of grace, and of your true participation in the grace of that God,

5:30 and secondly, to give you further ballast in the hull of your soul, as you face the further turbulent seas, that will yet await you in your journey to a better place. And if someone were to ask, well, why is this necessary? Well, the answer to me is quite simple. For all of us, including this preacher, who have sought with judgment day honesty, to bring our professed hope in Christ, to the touchstone of the many passages,

6:12 that we studied over the last three months, we have become aware as never before, that if we do indeed have the marks of a true sheep, that the maintenance of those marks will become increasingly difficult as we go on in our Christian experience. That if we do indeed possess the marks of the true circumcision, the Philippians 3, that we studied, that the maintenance of those marks will not come automatically. If we are indeed those who no longer are living in the flesh, but in the spirit,

6:57 the Romans 8 passage, that that will not automatically continue without conscious and deliberate effort. And if we have indeed passed through the narrow gate, and are walking upon the commandment, and have been pressed or the restricted way which leads to life, we have come to a new awareness that in that way we are standing not only against the whole drift of the world without us, and the pressure of a wise and experienced devil, but we are standing against horrible tendencies that yet lurk in the dark corners

7:42 of our own breast. And that if we are indeed by the grace of God to persevere in that restricted narrow way which leads unto life, the words of the Apostle recorded in Acts 14.22 will be true of us that it will be through many tribulations that we shall enter the kingdom of God. Therefore, as those who are tried, tested, and approved saints, we need to understand and lay to heart and guard as precious

8:26 those statements in the word of God calculated to encourage us that our labor will not be lost, that our efforts will not be in vain, that, having come through the narrow gate and being found for some time upon the restricted way, that we shall indeed continue in that way even to the end and enter into the consummate blessings of life in the age to come. And so for at least two or three Lord's Days I want you to consider with me several tests

Philippians 1:6 as a Precious Jewel of Perseverance

9:10 that are like precious jewels that should be stored in the heart's affection and in the mind's grasp throughout the entirety of our earthly pilgrimage. And the first of these texts is the one found in the paragraph read in your hearing, Philippians 1 and verse 6. Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now before we consider the text

9:55 with its three simple basic affirmations, let me say just a word about its setting. After the apostle gives his general words of greeting in verses 1 and 2, he begins in verse 3 a record that we might call a summary of his prayers for the Philippian saints. I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you. So he's giving a distillation of what it is that forms the substance of his prayers for the Philippians.

10:40 And that summary divides itself into two major elements. He follows the prescription that he gives in chapter 4. For he says in chapter 4 in verse 6, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God. Well here the apostle sets a model.

11:07 For this summary of his prayers for the Philippians breaks down into the two categories of thanksgiving and petition. Verses 3 to 8 could be called thanksgiving and its causes. Verses 9 through 11, petitions and their concerns. So you have thanksgiving and its causes and petition and its concerns.

11:38 Now in the matters of his thanksgiving we see the immediate cause of his thanksgiving in verse 5. He says in every supplication he found himself giving thanks to God upon remembrance of the Philippians. And the immediate cause of that thanksgiving is given to us in verse 5. He thanks God for their fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now.

12:14 Then he gives what we might call the ultimate or the more remote cause of his thanksgiving in verse 6. While he gives thanks for the fellowship that he has enjoyed with these Philippians in the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until the very hour that he wrote the letter, he did so with this substructure of a settled confidence of this very thing that the God who had begun a good work in them would perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.

12:58 Now it is that ultimate cause of Paul's thanksgiving, that becomes one of the most precious, one of the most comprehensive, one of the most unashamedly dogmatic statements of confidence of the ultimate perseverance of all of God's people to be found anywhere in all of Holy Scripture. And in that text, which will be the focus now of our exposition, I want you to note with me the three basic affirmations made by the apostle.

Affirmation 1: God Always Begins the Good Work of Grace

13:41 The first is this, that it is God himself who always begins the good work of grace in all of his true saints. It is God himself who always begins the good work of grace in all of his true saints. Paul addresses the people of God at Philippi in verse 1 as the saints who are in union with Christ Jesus. And with respect to all of the saints,

14:23 those who are the true people of God in vital union with Christ, Paul gives thanks in a context of this unshakable confidence that it is God himself who has begun the good work of grace in all of his true saints. Now remember, it was Paul who had gone to Philippi and brought the gospel to that city that in a very real sense was a Roman colony. And in Acts chapter 16

15:06 we have the record of the conversion of at least, well, three different conversion accounts. The final one involved the conversion of a whole household. We don't know how many were in that household. But those of you familiar with that chapter will remember that Paul comes to the city and he finds a prayer meeting by a riverside and there as he speaks, we read in verse 14 of Acts 16 that a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, one that worshiped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened

15:49 to give heed to the things that were spoken by Paul. And when she was baptized and her household. Here's the account of the conversion of Lydia and her household. The next paragraph gives us the account of what we can reasonably assume was not merely the exorcism of this demon from this woman, this young woman who had this spirit of dead divination, but most likely resulted in her thorough conversion to Christ.

16:25 Being delivered from the power of Satan, she came into the orbit of the power of God's grace. And then beginning with verse 19 we have the account of the conversion of the Philippian jailer and sometime in the wee hours of the morning of other members of his household. Now as we look at those accounts of how God began His good work of grace in constituting the initial saints in union with Christ who would complete the church at Philippi, we see that in many ways these conversions are tremendously diverse

17:10 as to their circumstances. It's as though the Lord works in the heart of Lydia as a thief stealing through the back door in the dead of the night. And we hardly know the thief has come. Her heart is apparently gently opened and like a flower turning its face to the sun, it opens up without any great trauma, without any great unusual circumstantial phenomena surrounding it.

17:48 The Scripture simply says whose heart the Lord opened. With regard to that poor demon-possessed girl, it's as though the Lord Jesus had to come riding upon His war horse, upon His war horse, and storm the very bastions of the strong man, break down the city gate and rescue that one who had been held captive and wrap His arm around her and ride out with that young woman as His conquest of grace. And then with the jailer, it's as though God had to ride upon the wings of the storm and shake the very foundations

18:31 of that jail and let this man see both the physical and the moral miraculous power of God shaking that jailhouse and then restraining prisoners whose bonds were all loose so that they didn't all split and run but remained in that very prison. Well, you see, regardless of what I would call the cosmetic differences in the precise details of their conversion and all that those things do say to us, yet every single saint at Philippi could be described as one

19:16 in whom God Himself had begun the good work of grace. And as we were privileged yesterday as elders to listen to the testimony of five people who have applied for membership, how vividly this principle was set before our minds and hearts again. The ways of God in bringing His own to Himself are so diverse. If I were to tell you some of the things we heard yesterday, it's only our earned credibility over many years that would enable you even to believe us.

19:56 Some of the unusual instruments God uses today to get His own. But you see, the principle is right here in our text. Paul says that when he prays for the Philippians, he does so with a thanksgiving that is rooted in this confidence that it is God Himself who always begins the good work of grace in all of His true saints, being confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in you. And he views the assembly of the saints

20:41 with all of the diversity of their personalities and all of the diversities of their station in life, all of the differences in the ways that God dealt with them to bring them to repentance and faith. And he says, here's the common denominator. You are what you are as a company of saints at Philippi because God initiated that good work of grace in every one of your hearts. And by way of application, let me say to you, God's people in this place, especially for you who have been able to sit through

21:24 the majority of these sermons under the subject of are you for real? And you have sought to bring your professed experience to the touchstone of the Word of God. And you have been able to say, yes, by the grace of God, God has brought me to that narrow gate. I've seen the utter impoverishment of my own so-called righteousness.

21:54 I've seen the wickedness of living for myself. I have seen the abominable nature of sin and the wretched, horrible complexion of this world system. Yes, I have repudiated self-righteousness, self-will, sin and the world. And I am upon that restricted way that leads unto life.

22:24 For each one, you and I must joyfully and intelligently acknowledge that it is God Himself and God alone who has begun in us this good work. As Paul prays for the Thessalonians, for the Philippians, he prays with this confidence that it is God, God Himself, God alone who began the good work of grace in them. And why is it crucial that we never forget

23:08 that simple fundamental principle? Well, for the simple reason that the moment we cease to be amazed and stand in wonderment at ourselves in terms of what we once were until God took us in hand, we're in big trouble as Christians. We can no longer sing with an inward sense of thrill and wonder, amazing grace, sweet the sound that saved a wretch. I once was lost,

23:51 but now am I saved. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. I was one of those who had no fear of God before my eyes. God was no factor in my life, except when my back was against the wall.

24:13 But in terms of regulating my standards and goals and use of time and energy, God was no factor. But it was grace that taught my heart to fear my godless, wretched, self-centered, sinning lifestyle. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace, my fears, belief, painted me

24:43 to a savior on the cross, a savior on the cross. A savior on the throne by way of an empty tomb. A savior ready to forgive and to receive me just as I was. It was grace my fears relieved.

25:03 How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed. Dear people of God who can say by the grace of God in the full light of the word of God, I am for real, never forget the fundamental lesson of this text. It is God himself who began the good work of grace in your heart and in your life. God in the all mightiness of his power.

25:38 God in the all embracing wonder of his grace. God in the all sufficient work of his son. God in the mysterious but efficacious work of his spirit. As our beloved friend Pastor Ashiel Blais has said on more than one occasion, it takes the whole Trinity to save one sinner.

Affirmation 2: God Always Continues the Good Work of Grace

26:06 But thank God the whole triune God is committed to the saving of his people. And it is he who initiates the work of grace in all of his true saints. But then secondly, look at our text. Being confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.

26:39 Paul is confident. He is strongly assured and persuaded that the God who began the good work in the Philippians will go on working in them. With respect to the word that is here used and the form in which it is found, Hendrickson suggests that a good rendering would be this. Confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect.

27:18 He will carry on towards completion. That is the sense of it. He will carry it on towards completion. Reinecker and Rogers suggest that the word carries with it the concept of not only carrying it on towards completion, but actually finally completing it.

27:48 So as Paul prays, you see, he doesn't throw himself into some mindless emotional tizzy and then just mumble whatever comes out of his mouth. He's intelligently, theologically framing his prayer. He says, I thank God upon all my remembrance of you because I am utterly confident of this very thing that the very God who began a good work in you will carry on towards completion and actually complete the work that he began. As Paul gives thanks

28:33 to God for the Philippians, he does so with the confidence that the God who brought them through the narrow gate and put them on the restricted way will continue to work in each and every one of them until that work is complete. Now notice he does not say, I give thanks being confident that because God began a good work in you, it will be completed at the day of Jesus Christ. Now that's the way this verse is often read and alas, often preached.

29:16 That is not what it says. Look at the text. It does not say, being confident of this very thing that God who began a good work in you will complete it at the day of Jesus Christ. No.

29:35 What he said was this, being confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it, will continue to carry it on towards its completion which will reach its culmination at the day of Jesus Christ.

30:01 And there is all the difference in the world between those two renderings. One views the work of God as getting a man through the gate and there he may slump for fit. No evidence that he is walking the restricted and narrow way. No evidence of hunger for God and hunger for holiness and desire to see the kingdom of God advance.

30:29 No living for the age to come. But if he made his almighty decision, had a nice little complex of feelings and somehow Jesus and the cross are all brought up in that, there he may sit for fifty years and when Jesus comes, he'll be glorified with all the other saints. My friend, believe that doctrine and apply it to your life and you'll end up in hell. As many are already there who have believed it.

30:57 That's not what our text says. Our text, it clearly teaches it is God himself. Who begins the good work of grace in all of his saints. Teaches with equal clarity it is God himself who always continues the good work of grace in his true saints.

31:24 As surely as his work in the beginning was a good work. It was not the mere impartation of somebody of his own emotions. It was God who began a good work. It was God's mighty power that opened the heart of Lydia so that she attended to the word, embraced its indictments about what she was as a sinner, embraced its offers of mercy as they focused upon the Lord Jesus, embraced its demands to repent and turn from all that was displeasing to God.

32:08 It was the mighty power of God that effected the good work in the Philippian jailer that changed him from a man hardened and indifferent to the suffering of Paul and Silas into one who stoops to wash their wounds and to gather his family in the wee hours of the morning to hear the preaching of the word of God and desires to be baptized and openly identified with Christ in the ordinance of his own instituting. Yes, a good work was begun and it is that good work that is carried on through completion. Now why is it so crucial

32:52 to grasp this truth and to keep it constantly before us? For the fundamental reason that it is the certainty of God's ongoing work in us that is to form the basis and motivation for all of our vigorous activity in living the Christian life. It is to be the certainty of God's ongoing work in us that forms the basis and motivation of all our vigorous activity in the Christian life.

33:36 Turn over to chapter 2 and you will see that God's guidance is not only a clear statement of this principle but a clear statement of the whole of the New Testament. Then my beloved brethren even as you have always obeyed He is talking about what they do not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling He is exhorting them to the full engagement of all of their faculties and powers in the outworking of the salvation that God

34:19 has graciously begun in them God has begun a good work in them now He says work out that salvation with fear and trembling live a life of careful diligent obedience but now notice verse 13 begins with the word for for, for you are to do this in the light of this reality for it is God who is continually working in you both and to work for His good pleasure you see Paul understands that if the Christian

35:04 thinks that yes it's grace that got me through the gate left to myself I would never have said goodbye to my own rags of righteousness I cherish them as something precious I never would have regarded them in the language of Paul as refuse or dung I never would have said no to self-will and self-serving cannot deny self unless upon the human heart we would never have said no to our sins we loved our sins and would have gone in the embrace of death with our sins

35:48 sinking into hell and the same is true with our relationship with the world and we say surely if God did not begin the work it never would have been done but child of God we need to see that is surely as it is God who began the good work in us it is He who is carrying it on to perfection or to completion as surely as He began it He carries it on now when He began it yes at the point of taking out the heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh at the point of what the theologians call His regenerating work we were totally passive

36:32 there was no cooperation or co-action God took dead sinners and quickened them to life and in the first consciousness of that life we repented and we believed but as those quickened to life there is now cooperation and co-action we are called upon to obey to work out our salvation co-action does not mean that as God worked solely to get us through the gate what the theologians call monergism mono one monergism as opposed to synergism the sinner and God

37:16 working together to get through the gate no we say it is a monergistic salvation salvation is the Lord it is God who's taken out the heart of stone and given the heart of flesh and it's not as though having begun the good work God just chucks us under the chin taps us on the shoulder and says now I've got you through the gate do the best you can along the way no we are called upon to obey we are called upon to work out with fear and trembling later on in this very chapter we are called upon to do everything without murmuring questioning we are to seek to be blameless and harmless children of God without blemish

38:00 all kinds of injunctions are laid upon us but dear people of God remember in laying all of those injunctions upon us God does so with the understanding that he is continually at work in us carrying on his good work of grace unto is at work Paul can rejoice in his prayers being utterly unshakably confident of this thing that the God who began a good work in the Philippians

38:44 will go on with that work carrying it unto perfection or completion now let me ask you if you have come to a fresh and settled conviction child of God that you are for real and that new level of settled conviction and deepened assurance has come in a context of deep searching of heart dealing with some sins that you knew a long time ago you should have dealt with that has been the testimony of many of you that through this series God has shown you that if you are to have a heightened and strengthened

39:28 assurance it had to be in the way of fresh acting of repentance and faith let me ask you child of God knowing how prone you are to backsliding of heart how prone you are to coldness and spiritual dullness how quick you are to be seduced by the world to be tripped up by that one who has thousands of years of experience in devouring the people of God the devil himself child of God are you confident that the God who has begun the good work in you will carry it on unto the day

40:11 of the Lord Jesus Christ I am confident in this very thing that you have begun a good work in me I am not what I am by anything that I possess in and of myself oh God I know when I look myself in the mirror and face what I am with all of my sins and all of my failures and all of my shortcomings and I don't know the full measure of them one thing I know in the language of John Newton I am not what I once was I am not

40:55 what I desire to be I am not what I shall be but I am not what I once was and I know that the only power that could change me from what I once was to what I now am was the mighty arm of God's saving mercy well you see once you can say that on biblical grounds then you must learn as a man or woman of faith to say and I am confident of this very thing that he who has begun this good work of grace in me will in fact

41:36 and it is not presumptuous for us to share that well grounded biblical confidence which the apostle had for the Philippians surely this man who had great concern for another group of professing Christians who did not have the manifold positive evidences of true grace the Galatian bunch he doesn't speak with this kind of confidence for them he can speak of these Philippians because as he says at the end of verse 7 in all

42:19 of his interaction he is convinced that they are partakers with him of grace and we could go through the book of Philippians and see all of the positive indications that led the apostle to believe that a good work had indeed been begun in them by the grace of God and he is confident of this very thing that that work having been begun would continually be carried on to completion even until the day of Jesus Christ you see it is vital for a Christian to know not only what God has

43:03 done for him in Christ but what God is committed yet to do for him in Christ the scriptures is a life of faith faith in the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us if in the language of Paul we walk by faith not by sight what kind of a life of faith is it that has no confidence that dares to affirm that God who began a good work of grace in me is and shall continue to carry on that work to its

43:47 completion how can we live the life of faith against all of our formidable enemies without and within unless we can stand on this gospel ground the apostle and say being confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in me will until the day Thomas Ken I don't know who he is I don't know where he was bishop or when he was bishop and I don't know

44:28 how this form of his ever came into my hands whoever sent it to me I thank you if you are sitting here but as I was preparing for this morning's message I pulled it out I keep it sitting on my book rest where I open my Bible and other books when I'm studying and I thought how he has captured this very principle of the Christian life listen to the words of the old bishop stand but your ground your ghostly foes will fly at a heaven directed eye choose rather to defend

45:11 than to assail self confidence will in the conflict fail when you are challenged you may dangers meet is a fix not sudden heat is always humble lives in self distrust and will itself into no danger thrust devote yourself to God and you will find God fights the battles of a will resigned love Jesus love will no base fear endure love Jesus

45:55 and of conquest you see what he is saying the man of faith can stand his ground by a thousand say this I and I am persuaded God leaves no unfinished products on his work table because what he began in me he began in keeping with his own eternal purpose and electing love he began in me was the fruit of the blood letting of the son of God

46:39 in my effectual calling my being brought through the gate was the fruit of the sufferings of Christ but he did not suffer just to get a people through the gate but to get them at last in his presence wholly made over into his image that means they have got to make it along the restricted way for as long as God sovereignly keeps them on that way and therefore eternal electing love and foreordaining purpose and the efficacious death of the son of God and all of the graces and power and ministry of the Holy Spirit given to me on the grounds of the death of Christ these secure my being kept in that way

Affirmation 3: God Always Completes the Good Work of Grace

47:23 until the day of Christ but then there is a third very obvious truth in the text not only does it set before us the truth that it is God himself who always begins the good work of grace in all of his true saints secondly God himself who always continues the good work of grace in his true saints but thirdly it is God himself who will always complete the good work of grace in his true saints again note the language of the text being confident of this very thing

48:08 that he who began the good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus literally until the day of Christ Jesus and what is that day well chapter 2 and verse 16 gives us a very helpful suggestion Paul is speaking of what the people of God are to seek to be blameless and harmless children of God without rebuke holding forth the word of life that I

48:51 may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain now when are the servants of God going to be reckoned with with respect to the fruit of their labors the Bible is clear they are going to be reckoned with in the day of the Lord's return and about twenty times in the New Testament the second coming is designated the day of Christ the day of Christ Jesus the day of the Lord and what this passage is saying is this that God's work of grace that he alone began in all of his true saints that he is now carrying on

49:35 to the point of completion that that work will reach its completion now look at the text not at the death of each individual believer but he says being confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until not the day of each believers death but until the day of Jesus Christ it is clear from this very epistle that the work of grace in every individual saint is brought to a marvelously augmented level when he dies for the moment we die according to chapter one in

50:18 verse twenty three we are with Christ which is far better than our present state our spirits vacate the bodies and somewhere between the moment of their vacating our bodies and consciously looking upon the face of Christ they join the ranks of those described in Hebrews twelve twenty three the spirits of just men made perfect and every vestige of sin in an instant is purged from every for lack of a better term what can I say from every atom of the soul if we may think of the soul in material terms

51:03 from every atom of the soul every last vestige of sin is utterly eternally forever purged in that moment the spirit departs the believers body and looks upon the face of Christ but you see the apostle and the whole of the new testament does not put the focus of the believers hope upon the intermediate state as blessed as that is but the focal point of the hope of the believer is when the Lord Jesus returns and at his return bringing the souls of all the just men made perfect all of the spirits of the glorified

51:46 saints with him he resurrects their bodies and that body now made chapter three of this very epistle by his almighty power fashioned unto his own glorious resurrected body the perfected spirit rejoins that now glorified body and God's work has then been brought to consummation to completion in every one of his saints all at the same not one of them shall receive that glorified state in its

52:31 entirety until we all receive it together and if you bring up the question of what about Elijah and what about Enoch I don't have a full answer but all I know is that this text and dozens of other texts in the New Testament point to the reality that it is at the day of Christ that God's work in his people is completed and because there is this corporate dimension of Christ's redemptive purpose he died to purchase a bride he doesn't want a bride coming down the aisle

53:14 a finger at a time and a toe at a time and an ear at a time he wants his whole bride to embrace his whole bride and sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb and Paul says I'm confident of this very thing that there are those of you there at Philippi there in that Roman colony beginning with that little group by a riverside where God by his spirit opened the heart of this woman named Lydia and further worked to call out his own that there is a people who are part of that larger composite of his own and at the

53:58 day of the Lord Jesus Christ the work that he began when he effectually called you confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you and who has been carrying it on by degrees and stages from one stage of glory to another in the language of second Corinthians 3 and verse 18 at the day of the Lord Jesus he shall bring it to its full and glorious God does nothing by halves he has no unfinished projects lying around like the rest of us and if he has begun a good work

Application 1: Inquiry to Professing Christians – Evidence of God's Work

54:42 in you or in me he will carry it on to its goal and he will complete it now in conclusion what do I say by way of practical application well first of all I want to make a word of inquiry to every professing Christian in this room this morning profess to be a Christian and I want to ask you a very simple question very simple you don't need to be a theologian to answer what is there about you sitting here this morning the way you think your perspective on life truth values what is there about the way you live what you do

55:26 what you don't do where you go where you don't go what you see what you don't see on the television in the movies what is there about you and all that makes you you that defies any rational explanation but this the God who made a world by the word of his mouth has begun a good work in you simple question struggling with assurance

56:01 just ask the question what is there about you that has no explanation but that almighty God in sovereign grace has begun a good work in you what by a good upbringing by the restraint of godly parents by the influence of Christian training in your home schooling or Christian school whatever the framework has been what is there about you sitting here this morning that defies rational logical explanation but that almighty

56:45 God in grace has begun a good work in you and you start to enumerate the things that you have done in your life that you have能ed to share in your life or in your life after all what is there about you that has no explanation what is that almighty

57:30 God has begun a good work whether it's reading my Bible by my bedside, whether it's in company with others who love you, Lord Jesus, you know that though my love is a pathetic thing and I wouldn't trust the salvation of my soul for a millisecond on the measure of my love, it would sink me into hell. But Lord, as meager and weak and vacillating as it is, Lord Jesus, you know I love you. Can you say that? If any man loves Christ, there's only one reason.

58:05 God's begun a good work in him.

58:08 Lord Jesus, you know I hate sin. My heart's sins that nobody else sees. You kids, can you say you hate your sins, your little mean plans to get back at brother and sister, your clever little ways to calm mom and dad? Have you come to hate the sins of your heart, the sins that would make you say nasty words on that playground during recess time and then brag to the other kids?

58:35 About how you got someone to cry? Do you hate those sins? Do you go to Christ for forgiveness? Sins of the mind, sins of the thoughts, sins of the motives, as well as sins of the life.

58:49 Can you say, I hate the things that put the nails into my Savior. I hate the things that darkened the heavens and plunged him into hell. If you can say, I love Christ, I hate sin, it's because God's begun a good work in you. You see, what is there about you that defies all rational explanation but that God has begun a good work in you?

Application 2: Direction to the Unconverted – Cry Out to God

59:16 Well, if there's nothing, my friend, you better have dealings with God and ask if indeed the root of the matter is in you. Then I have a word of direction to the consciously unconverted. Some of you sit here today, you make no profession of being converted. What is it that you need above all else?

59:34 Well, you need nothing less. What? Nothing. Nothing.

59:38 Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

59:38 Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

59:38 Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. God can do in you in getting you united to Christ.

59:44 How did these Philippians become saints? They got united to Christ. An apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and brethren in Christ. You need to get into Christ as the branch is in the vine.

60:07 And you can't put yourself there.

60:10 You can walk an aisle, raise a hand, pray a prayer, pray a prayer, go into church, go under the water a thousand times. But you can't graft yourself into Christ.

60:20 God can. And he delights when sinners take their true posture before him as lost and helpless and hell-deserving and undone and just cry out, God, be merciful to me.

60:38 Oh, God, you do, but only you get me into Christ. For no man can come to me, Jesus said, except the Father which sent me. Let me draw him. You give that teaching some name of some man.

60:59 That's the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

Application 3: Consolation and Confirmation to True Believers – Attain Paul's Confidence

61:05 A word of consolation and confirmation to those of you who are for real. Dear people of God, begin by God's help in new ways to seek to attain to Paul's level of confidence. It is not confidence in you. It's confidence in God.

61:26 And you reason. From the greater. To the lesser.

61:32 What takes more grace and power to raise a dead man out of his grave or to keep him alive once he's been resurrected?

61:45 What takes more power to give a blind man sight or to continue to help him see once he has sight? God's done the great. You Christian.

62:01 I say it reverently. All that he goes on to do until the day of Jesus Christ in a very real sense is a lesser work. And therefore, if he's begun work in you, then in the confidence of presumption, but in confidence of faith, believe God in the language of top lady, yea, I to the end shall in as sure as the earnest is given more happy, not more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven.

62:41 I was rooting around in one of my old hymn books, trying to find hymns that expressed this. I won't read all of them, but let me read a few stanzas from two of them. The sinner that by precious faith has felt his sins forgiven is evermore released from death and sealed an air of heaven. He snares his feet and shall hold him fast.

63:13 Whatever dangers he may meet, he shall get safe at last. Not as the world the Savior gives. He is no fickle. He is not a fool.

63:23 He is a faithful friend. Whom once he loves, he never leaves, but loves them to the end. The heart that would this truth withstand would pull God's temple down, wrest Jesus' scepter from his hand, and spoil him of his crown. Satan might then full victory boast.

63:46 The church might wholly fall. Listen, if one believer may be lost, it follows so may all. Christ is Lord. Christ in every age has proved his purchase firm and true.

64:01 If this foundation be removed, what can the righteous do? By this your claim abide, this title to your bliss. Whatever loss you bear beside, oh, never give up it. He who has begun a good work in me will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Application 4: Use Certainty as the Foundation for Prayer

64:29 Amen. Jesus Christ. And then I close with this exhortation to you who are real. Use this very certainty as the foundation and framework of your prayers.

64:43 There's a beautiful example of this in Psalm 32.8, our final passage. Psalm 32.8.

64:50 It's an amazing and wonderful example of affirmation of certainty followed by earnest entreaty. 32. Now, that's not the psalm. But I know the psalm, the text is, Thou wilt perfect that which concerneth me.

65:20 And then the psalmist prays that he would do the very thing that he has confidently affirmed that God would accomplish in him. Thou wilt perfect that which concerns me. I'm sorry I have the wrong reference, but the whole sense of the psalm is, begins with affirmation. Thou wilt perfect that which concerns me.

65:44 But then the text ends with the prayer that God would perfect the work in him. So what are we to do with Philippians 1.8? Say, oh, well, that's marvelous.

65:57 God's begun the good work. I'm confident that he who has begun it will perfect it until the day of Christ. Now I sit back and do it. No, no.

66:05 We make that the very basis of our pleading with God when in that restricted way we feel as the one hymn writer said, a thousand snares in our fields. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to go and put those snares in our feet, and we say, Lord, if I go by what I see and feel, the snares are going to drag me down and away and totally out of that restricted way. But Lord, that would be to violate your own commitment.

66:31 That having begun a good work in me, you will perfect it. You will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ. Look, this is what you said. And I make the very commitments of your own heart.

66:43 I think the only place where God is being perfected is in one of these statements. own heart the basis of my prayers as you find in ezekiel 36 god says i'll do this this this and this and then he says moreover for these very things will i be inquired of to do them you who by the grace of god can say yes i am for real be confident of this very thing he who has begun work in you will carry it on to until the day of christ and then in that day when we join all of

67:24 the redeemed of all ages and are resplendent with a glory that will glorify christ for it says in that day he shall come to be admired in his saints we shall then be eternal monuments of god's faithfulness to this his own word that we we where he begins the work he carries it to completion let us pray our father we thank you

68:03 for this word tucked away in this record of the apostles prayers of thanksgiving for the philippian believers and we pray that the holy spirit would write it upon our hearts and enable us to take hold of it by faith that we may triumph not in ourselves but in the work of your hands for we know that the enemy does not like assured confident christians who having no confidence in themselves dare to boast in the lord their god

68:42 oh lord may we be able to say in you have we made our boast all the day long may we boast in the cross of christ boast in the power of your grace that having put us into the way and we pray that you will keep us and bring us home safely at last not the weakest having been lost we pray for those our father who have very little to set before their own minds when pressed with the question what is there about them that defies any answer but that you have begun a good work in them

69:24 we pray that you will have dealings with them give them no rest until they can rehearse the will of his trusty heart in your presence what you have done to unite them to your Son, and then to describe the fruit that you have brought from that blessed union. Hear our cry, seal your word to our hearts, and continue to bless us throughout this day. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.