The Good Work God Started in You as a Believer
Philippians 1: 6
Many people start projects and never finish them. There are many reasons projects are not finished: poor planning, lack of money, lack of management and organization, not enough help or lack of interest. Some people may be like me. I can get too many projects going at one time. This makes it difficult to finish any project I start.
My wife finally got me to start a landscaping project this spring. She knows my habit of having too many projects going at once. She has been after me like an Egyptian taskmaster to get this project finished. She has not let up. I have built a retaining wall and laid edging. I have planted nest spruce, blue star junipers, azaleas, Japanese maples, hostas, holly, evergreens, and other plants with names I can’t even pronounce. Then I had to scatter mulch around all of these plants. Thank God I only have a few hours of work left and this project will be finished. Unfortunately, she has already mentioned at least two more projects for the outside and then she said we could start on the inside of the house.
It is easy for human beings to become discouraged and not finish a project or mission. I think of John Mark who did not finish his missionary assignment with Paul in the book of Acts. It took Paul a while before he would place his trust in John Mark again. I can remember the Phipps Bend Nuclear Plant project started in the 70’s by the T.V.A. After spending millions of dollars on this project it was decided to stop the project for various controversial reasons.
Let us be sure of this truth, God, unlike men, always finishes what He starts. He never has to give up on any project or plan of His. Paul teaches here in Philippians that what God starts He carries on to completion. Nothing can stop Him; He always finishes and He finishes right on time.
Think about the plan to send Christ into the world to save sinners. He accomplished that right on schedule. Paul writes to the Galatians and states that God sent His Son in the fullness of time, meaning Christ came at the precise time God had determined before the foundation of the world. We can be sure as believers that the good work of grace and salvation God started in us He will finish.
Notice with me first of all that:
I. God is the initiator of the good work of grace in us.
A. He (God) hath begun a good work in us (v. 6).
• Why must God initiate the work of grace in us? The answer is found in the fact that after the fall of Adam the entire human race lost spiritual life. We not only experience total depravity, but we all experience spiritual death. Paul writes to the church at Ephesus and explains that God had to quicken us in Christ because we, naturally, were dead in sin (Eph 2: 1).
• Christ teaches us that it is God who must draw us to Christ by His Spirit. The reason is that men are powerless to save themselves. By nature men are selfish and contrary to God.
• Jesus said in John 6: 44 that “No man can come to me except my Father draw him.” The root of the word “draw” means “to take for oneself”. This is related also to the term ecclesia from which we get our word church and it refers to “the called out ones”.
• I remember what Jesus taught Peter when he made his confession and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said that flesh and blood did not reveal this truth to Peter, but our father in heaven did. A part of the drawing of God is the revealing of who His Son is and what He came to do in redeeming sinners. Hen God is in the arrangements, people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and place their faith in Him.
• God is truly the initiator of salvation in the lives of all who come to faith in His Son.
II. It is God who carries on or performs the good work of grace in the hearts of believers to completion.
A. God does not save us and then leave us on our own. He is not as the Deist believes. He is involved in our lives daily. He is always there working in our lives as the master sculptor. He is continually chipping away, with His hammer and chisel of love and grace, removing the pieces of our lives that do not resemble His Son, and exposing only those parts that have been shaped to the character of His dear Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
• Paul blesses us when he states in Ephesians 2: 10, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
• Again in Philippians 2: 13, Paul writes, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
• Listen to what the scripture states in Romans 8: 28-29, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
• We should understand that it is not always pleasant being molded into the image of Christ. The scripture teaches us that God disciplines and rebukes those whom He loves. This is a part of the process of sanctification. God loves us with an everlasting, pure, divine love and will chasten us in order to conform us into the image of Christ. He will leads us places where we would not choose to go. His goal is stated in Romans 8: 29. We are going to be like Jesus and God is going to complete that good work in us. He will continue to perform this work until the day of Christ. This simply means that His work good work of grace will be finished when Christ returns. Therefore, do not give up God is big enough to finish what He started in your life as a believer. But also know this the journey to completion is a lifetime. We will not be completely conformed to the image of Christ until He comes to receive His church in the last day. In 1 John 3: 2 this truth is made clear when John writes, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
III. It is God who gives us confidence that He will bring to completion the good work He started in us.
A. We can know that in the midst of our hardships God is at work in us.
• In the midst of discouragement God is at work. In the midst of suffering God is at work. In the midst of doubts God is at work. In the midst of confusion God is at work. God is at work completing what He started in you as a believer. Enjoy the journey to its completion.
In conclusion lets us know this, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8: 18).
May God grant to us today as believers the willingness to cooperate with His good work of grace in us that we may please Him daily in our thinking, emotions, and actions.
If you do not know the Savior today, then would you pray for God to begin His work of grace in you so that you may come to know Christ by faith as you turn from your sins to Him for salvation.
