A Good Work In You

Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 10th May service and hymns are below.

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Our principal verses are:

Php 1:3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,

Php 1:4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,

Php 1:5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;

Php 1:6 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:

A Good Work In You

The opening words of our Bible passage today are noteworthy for the apostle’s description of the Lord as ‘my God’. This simple phrase is important because it draws our attention to the covenant relationship that exists between the Lord and His people. God had told the prophets, ‘And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God’. The Lord further explained the new birth and conversion to Jeremiah in 31:33, saying, ‘I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people’. Paul knew this promise and knew it was what he had experienced.

Our personal God

‘My God’ is a title the Apostle often uses in his epistles. It distinguished between the Lord God and the many gods of the Greeks and Romans. Later he will tell the Philippians in 4:19, ‘But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus’. Paul is teaching the church that the Lord God is the personal God of every soul redeemed by Christ Jesus. All who have received God’s grace and peace through the shed blood of the Lamb of God, can, with Paul, call God ‘my God’. He is our God in Jesus Christ.

Remembering God’s goodness

Solomon tells us in Proverbs 10:7, ‘The memory of the just is blessed’ and every remembrance Paul had of the justifying righteousness given by God to the elect saints at Philippi was blessed to the Apostle’s soul. The Apostle thanked God for their salvation, knowing it to be a sovereign gift from above. We do not thank believers for trusting Christ. We thank God for giving grace and converting sinners. All who have personally tasted that the Lord is good rejoice thereafter to see saving faith bestowed on others.

Paul’s prayer

The intimate union Paul had with the Lord Jesus was always characterised by prayer. Paul had begun his Christian life praying (Acts 9:11). He continued to pray continually throughout his days (1 Thessalonians 5:17). He prayed by name for the churches he had established and visited, he prayed for the saints and their needs. Paul often informs the churches that he is praying for them and links his prayer requests with thanksgiving to God. Prayers for future help ought to include thanks for past help. Requests are to be submitted to the throne of God’s grace under cover of gratitude and joy.

Fellowship in the gospel

Paul rejoiced over the fellowship he shared in the gospel with the church at Philippi. The gospel is the true measure of Christian fellowship. True believers readily fellowship in the gospel even in spite of denominational distinctions and differences. It is Jesus Christ in the gospel of sovereign grace that unites believers and binds them together. Religion without grace has no attraction for a child of God and can afford no real fellowship. Gospel fellowship is first spiritual and then practical. It is founded in a common love for the Lord Jesus and what He has done for us. It issues in what we can do for Him and for one another.

God’s work

Paul thanked and blessed the Lord that He had shown mercy to his friends in Philippi, working effectually in them to call them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Paul knew salvation was God’s work. Elsewhere he calls believers God’s workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). Believers are chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son and called by the Holy Spirit. Paul knew it was God who had begun the good work of grace in the lives of his brethren and he wrote of his confidence that God would continue that work until the day, or coming, of the Lord Jesus Christ.

An assured outcome

Our Lord God, the Master-builder, has never begun a work that He cannot finish. The work of building His church began in eternal election and is the great project in which the Godhead is fully engaged. Regeneration may be called the beginning of that divine work insofar as our personal awareness is concerned but God chose in eternity all who are regenerated in time to be conformed to the image of His Son. The Lord Jesus has redeemed by His shed blood on the cross all who are called by effectual grace to newness of life.

God’s building

Our experience of new life in regeneration is a divine downpayment of eternal glory to come. Conversion and new life in Jesus Christ is a pledge and promise from God of a believer’s interest in Christ to all eternity. Eternal life does not turn upon man’s works but hinges on God’s work of sovereign grace. The indwelling Holy Spirit is the present earnest or pledge of God’s saving grace in us and His promise of everlasting glory to come.

Preserving grace

This is the good work Paul is speaking of; the good work God has begun. Our covenant union with the Lord Jesus Christ ensures it will never falter or fail. It is not possible that the all-wise, all-powerful God will lose one of His children. The church’s eternal salvation is as secure as God is unchangeable. His promises to us are not conditional on human works or worth but upon divine grace and mercy. ‘Because I live’, (says Jesus) ‘ye shall live also’. We shall persevere in time because we are preserved for eternity.

Amen

Hymn 339

Immutability of God’s Will. Phil. 1. 6; Heb. 10. 35

W. Hammond               148th

1
O my distrustful heart,
How small thy faith appears!
But greater, Lord, thou art,
Than all my doubts and fears.
Did Jesus once upon me shine?
Then Jesus is for ever mine.

2
Unchangeable his will;
Whatever be my frame,
His loving heart is still
Eternally the same.
My soul through many changes goes;
His love no variation knows.

3
Thou, Lord, wilt carry on,
And perfectly perform,
The work thou hast begun
In me, a sinful worm;
’Midst all my fear, and sin, and woe,
Thy Spirit will not let me go.

Hymn 224

Perseverance the Effect of Grace.  Rom. 4. 16; Phil. 1. 6

J. Stevens                                L.M.

1
Grace is Jehovah’s sovereign will,
In an eternal covenant sure;
Which for his seed he will fulfil,
Longer than sun and moon endure.

2
Grace is a firm but friendly hand,
Put forth by God to save his own;
And by that grace, through faith, we stand,
Adoring at our Father’s throne.

3
There grace its peaceful sceptre wields,
Inviting souls to venture near;
There Christ his saving Spirit yields
To those whose sins he deigned to bear.

4
Lord, help us on thy grace to stand,
And every trial firm endure;
Preservèd by thy sovereign hand,
And by thy oath and covenant sure.

5
Thy willingness to save thy seed,
Is as they stand in Christ their Head;
No act thy grace can supersede,
For thine must live, though they were dead.

6
Thanks, everlasting thanks be given
To God, to Christ, to matchless grace;
And to that Dove who seals for heaven
All who shall sing Jehovah’s praise!

The work of grace in the life of a believer is a work of God. It is Our Triune God who has begun the work of grace and it is He who will complete it until the end of our lives.