God at Work

Today’s Reading from God’s Word

Philippians 1:1–6 CSB

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus: To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons. 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, 4 always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Introduction

Today we will focus Philippians 1.6.

Philippians 1:6 CSB

6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

This is just an amazing passage.

And for us, it explains Paul’s eager joy of anticipation. It explains God’s work from start to finish.

For him, at that moment, things going on around him definitely weren’t perfect, but He had such a trust in God that he chose to look ahead and know God was going to work it out in the end.

He decided to operate from the perspective and obtain joy from what the church in Philippi would ultimately be vs. concentrating only from the perspective of how things currently were.

Today as we focus on this verse we will:

Talk about Paul’s Confidence in What God Started

Learn about Paul’s Confidence in What God will Finish

Come to Understand Why God Has Given Us the Spirit

Paul’s Confidence in What God Started

Philippians 1.6:

Philippians 1:6 (CSB)

6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Paul is:

“convinced,” “confident, persuaded, and assured.”

There was no doubt. No doubt in what, Paul?

Sure of What?

Something that started

Philippians 1.6:

Philippians 1:6 (CSB)

6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you…

“Start,” points to our salvation.

Word is used found only here & in Galatians 3.3 where Paul says we had our beginning “by the Spirit.”

It means “to inaugurate” or “to begin.”

It describes a decisive, deliberate act; something planned beforehand and executed in perfection.

Who started?

Who started it?

God. Look at v. 3 - God is the subject of Paul’s prayer.

Philippians 1:3 (CSB)

3 I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you,

Now back to v. 6:

What was started?

Philippians 1:6 (CSB)

6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you

It is His work. It is the action of God. It is a good work.

Look at what Paul says in Titus 3.4-5a:

Titus 3:4–5 (CSB)

4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared,

5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—…

Salvation is by God’s will. He wants it. And He does that through the redemption made possible at the cross.

Salvation / regeneration … is done to us.

We simply submit ourselves … we yield … so that the Spirit can do His work.

Look at the last part of v. 5:

Titus 3:5 (CSB)

5 … through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Upon your baptism, you the Spirit comes into your soul.

He is the one who breathes life into it.

This all corresponds to the foreshadowing of Ezekiel 36.25-27:

Ezekiel 36:25–27 CSB

25 I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.

It is the Spirit who gives life, John 6.63, because He is the Spirit of life, Romans 8.2.

He is the one who directly implants life into your soul.

You do not give yourself life. You had no life. You were spiritually dead.

You, through your freewill response to the conditions of salvation, are the passive recipient of something being done to you.

Let’s look at 2 Thessalonians:

2 Thessalonians 2:13 (CSB)

13 God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

Who sanctifies or “sets you apart?”

Who transfers you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Christ?

It is the Spirit.

How do you enable that?

By your dependence upon or trust in the work of God as expressed in the truth.

And when we yield to the conditions:

James 1:18 CSB

18 By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

He gives us birth

When we respond to the conditions of salvation as illuminated in the word of truth.

Everything about Your Salvation is Submission

How

We yield to Christ by relating to Him as our Savior and respond in faith in His blood, i.e., by depending on His work on the cross, Romans 3.24-26.

We yield to Christ by relating to Him as Lord when we repent and turn away from sin, Acts 3.19.

We yield to Christ through our confession of His Lordship, Romans 10.9-10.

When

We yield to His saving work, on the occasion of our baptism, Titus 3.5.

This is when God applies the saving benefits to our account.

You put off the body of flesh, Colossians 2.11-12:

Colossians 2:11–12 (CSB)

11 You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,

12 when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

The Result

Colossians 2:13 CSB

13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses.

God made you alive.

He forgave you of all your trespasses.

This is your start.

It is all by grace. Your salvation has nothing to do with you… boasting is excluded Paul says in Romans 3.27.

Paul’s Confidence in What God Will Complete

And now this is basically what we’ll be talking about the rest of February.

Remember, in Ephesians 1.18 Paul prays that we come to a greater understanding, that our eyes of our heart be enlightened, to know what is the hope of His calling.

God has not only secured your hope … he is securing your hope…

This is why the Spirit lives within you.

God’s work in you was not completed at your baptism.

He didn’t just start things off & leave it all up to you.

Paul says:

Philippians 1:6 (CSB)

6 …he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

The wording here is written in an intensified form … “to fully complete.”

God will evermore put his finishing touches on it.

God who began this good work will certainly now allow it to end in nothing … but He will bring it to its full completion…

Notice, its not an “I hope so,” … He is convinced. He is certain. He has full assurance that what God begins God will complete.

This is why God Gives you the Spirit

Upon your baptism you were set apart. Your status changed. Your position changed. Your identity changed.

But that was only the beginning.

Now the real work lies ahead.

This is the task of becoming more and more like God in righteousness and holiness.

God has laid this responsibility upon us.

We have been commanded to imitate the perfect moral character of God:

1 Peter 1.15-16.

1 Peter 1:15–16 CSB

15 But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.

2 Corinthians 7.1.

2 Corinthians 7:1 CSB

1 So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

We share His holiness, Hebrews 12.10.

We share in the divine nature, 2 Peter 1.4.

We purify ourselves, just as He is pure, 1 John 3.3.

We are called to live in holiness, not impurity, 1 Thessalonians 4.7.

But we need to understand:

This is a process

There is a progressiveness to our sanctification.

It will last until the completion of this life … or until the Lord returns…

Note again our text in Philippians 1.6:

Philippians 1:6 (CSB)

6 he …will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

And so, while you are called to be holy, be pure, be righteous, etc. that work in you is not yet complete.

You are a work in progress.

You are not perfect. And you will not be perfect in this life.

There is always an area where you are falling short.

This is why it is fruitless to measure yourself by the things you no longer do.

This is why it is fruitless to measure yourself by the external things you perform.

This does not mean we should ever be satisfied with anything short of it.

But the reality that it will in reality happen before we die is very doubtful.

The call to live in holiness does not automatically imply that we will always live in holiness.

The fact remains that you currently exist in, as Jack Cottrell has said, “an awkward combination of redeemed soul and sin-infested, as yet unredeemed body.”

There are many days we face this struggle head on … as Paul did… and cry out about the wretchedness we feel and pray for deliverance from this body of death, Romans 7.24.

Your standing during the process

Look with me at 1 Corinthians 1.4-9.

If there were ever a group of Christians in a process … it was the Corinthians…

And while they’re in that process what is Jesus doing for them?

1.4: they were given grace by Christ. We stand in grace, Romans 5.2.

1.5-7: they were enriched in every way for the purpose of bringing them glory.

1.7: they were equipped by Christ.

1.8: they were provided with strength so they would be blameless on the day of Christ.

1.9: they were in fellowship with Christ by the faithfulness of God’s promise.

Think about this … this is the status of the Christians at Corinth who were…

bound up in division and fault finding.

Suing one another.

Fighting with each other over spiritual gifts.

Struggling with sexual sin.

Paul was very confident of God holding up His promise … the strong warning they receive in the book was for them to modify their ways…to repent of sin…and embrace holiness.

As they cooperated with these apostolic instructions, they could rest on the promises of God...

You can rest on his promises

Romans 5:10 CSB

10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

If when you were an enemy you could be saved by Christ’s death … how much more once you are a son can you be kept by his life?

If His death can save you — then His living can keep you.

Look at Hebrews 7.25:

Hebrews 7:25 CSB

25 Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.

Here is what your joyful expectation and confident anticipation is bound up in!

So, use the strength Jesus provides to fight sin with all you have … sanctification is our responsibility and it will only occur as we make the decision to…

…embrace the holy living the gospel calls for…

While remembering…

Who is performing the transformation during the process?

The Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18 CSB

18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Notice 1 Thessalonians 5.23:

1 Thessalonians 5:23 CSB

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice Hebrews 10.14:

Hebrews 10:14 CSB

14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified.

You have not been left to accomplish it all on your own

You can’t. You live in a flesh-weakened state.

You need power from an outside source to conquer your sin and be holy as God calls you to be.

This power is given to you by the Spirit.

This is the main reason why God has placed Him in us.

It is not to give us additional knowledge apart from the Word

It is to give us power and strength to do what we already know is right based on what the Bible says.

How the Spirit Accomplishes Your Sanctification

Let’s go back to Ezekiel 36.26:

Ezekiel 36:26 CSB

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

When you were saved, the Spirit gave you a new heart. In other words, the nature of your inner spirit changed.

Before your conversion, he indirectly, through the word, plowed the soil of your heart, preparing it for a crop that would yield spiritual fruit.

You responded to the gospel can & he acted.

He made your spirit alive and immediately went to work planting seeds that will bring forth fruit.

These are the inward changes he has/is empowering you with;

He gives you the desire to be holy.

We need to be praying that God strengthen our will so that we will come to hate sin and want to be rid of it.

God wants to do this for you.

Turn to Philippians 2.12:

Philippians 2:12 CSB

12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

The legalist leaves out the next verse and turns this passage into a daunting task.

So, let’s include v. 13:

Philippians 2:13 (CSB)

13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.

Philippians 2.12-13 is not about justification it is about sanctification.

Paul is not telling Christians how to be saved. You do not work yourself to salvation. They’re already saved by the blood of Christ. Their status is secure.

He is telling them about the power they possess in the process of their sanctification.

Who is in them?

God, by His Spirit.

The fear and trembling of v. 12 is not the fear / terror of failure … it is the fear of awe and reverence that the Spirit of God is working within…

And what is God doing within us? He is helping us

“to work” or do the things that please him. AND also

“to will” or to help us want to do them. He gives us an attitude that wants to obey.

The desire mentioned here serves as the foundation for true personal holiness.

He helps you change your motives for doing good works.

as we said last week, salvation by grace does not deemphasize obedience … it magnifies it…

You have been saved … not to be free from God’s moral law and righteous requirements…

You have been saved… to display the power of His work of transformation going on inside…you do that through good works, Ephesians 2.10.

Your works are a reflection of the status you already enjoy as a free gift.

And so the Spirit helps transform our perspective from law keeping for satisfying our egos, so we can escape hell… to responding to God’s love with our own love and devotion for what He has done on our behalf…

Grace changes our motives for obedience if we will allow it.

We have to.

How can we obey out of fear of punishment in hell, when there is no punishment for those in Christ, Romans 8.1?

How can we obey in order to gain entrance into heaven, when eternal life is a gift, Romans 6.23?

Grace doesn’t change our obligation to obey … but it does change our motivation to do so…

Why do you obey? The only proper motivation is love.

John 14:15 CSB

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.

Galatians 5:6 CSB

6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

1 Thessalonians 1:3 (CSB)

3 We recall, in the presence of our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 John 4:18–19 CSB

18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.

We should never approach our spiritual responsibilities through:

Asking: “What do I have to do?”

Rather, we should be asking: “What do I get to do?”

What can I do today to show God how much I love Him?

We can relate to this in a very simple way:

The more you love your spouse

The more you want to do for them, no matter what the personal cost may be.

Listen… if you hear someone out there complaining that Cornerstone is weak because of its emphasis on love, I want you to remember this…

There is no stronger motive than love.

Love bears the heaviest of burdens.

When you love someone, you can’t do enough for them. That is the very essence of agape love.

If you love someone, you would never do anything to hurt them.

If you love God, you will not sin.

We are so committed to God here in this place … we love Him…we love His word… and we are fully committed to magnifying Jesus…

Nothing makes God happier when we obey His will.

We, the family at Cornerstone are committed to that no matter what.

As We Close...

God will carry you all the way through until you meet Christ

From Start to Finish

Philippians 1:6 (CSB)

6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

What is the day of Christ Jesus?

How many of you have heard of the day of the Lord?

It is a day of divine judgment.

An outpouring of wrath; the ultimate expression of this will take place the day Christ returns.

In 1 Thessalonians 5.4 it is called the day.

Paul calls it, in 2 Thessalonians 1.10, that day.

It is a day of wrath, vengeance, and punishment of sinners.

In contrast, the day of Christ Jesus is the day believers will be glorified. The day believers become perfect. The day when salvation becomes complete. The day justification/sanctification become glorification.

Philippians 1.10 - the day of Christ is when we will be pure/blameless in every way & be presented to God.

Philippians 2.16 - it will be a day of rejoicing.

1 Corinthians 1.7 calls it the day of the Lord Jesus Christ … a time of glory, reward, and blessing.

God’s people will be spared all the horror and destruction of the day of the Lord, and instead this term used by Paul celebrates the intimacy and unique relationship we have with Christ.

God will finish his work of grace.

Your Salvation is not Tenuous

This should be a cause of great joy in our life. We’ve been healed & the cure will be sustained! God is fighting for us!

You have been called to:

1 Peter 1:4–5 CSB

4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Jude said it this way:

Jude 24 CSB

24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy,

Will you Believe?