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I greet all of you in the blessed name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we continue focusing on the theme "The Joy of a Spirit-Filled Life," we have come to the second part, which is found in Philippians 1:6: Being confident of this one thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. In our previous message, we had learned about the joy of remembrance, the joy of intercession, and the joy of fellowship. Today, we will consider the joy of confidence.

This verse is perhaps one of the greatest verses in the Bible that teaches the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which is also one of the distinctives of our Bible Presbyterian belief. It is the doctrine that no one whom God has saved will be lost. If you are a true believer, you will never be lost. As John Calvin puts it: "Once saved, always saved."

Let us take a moment and consider this. If a believer can lose his salvation, then there are many verses in the Bible that would not make any sense. For example, our Lord Jesus said: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life. Eternal life means everlasting life, and they shall never perish. Never perish means never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand (John 10:27-28). Or in Romans 8:38, where Paul said: For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Or Jeremiah 31:1, where God said: I have loved thee with an everlasting love. How can God love us with an everlasting love, or how can God love us, save us, and then now we are lost? It is impossible.

Here in Philippians 1:6, the Apostle Paul began by saying, Being confident of this very thing. The word "confident" simply means to be persuaded of. What was this very thing that Paul was referring to? It was salvation. This confidence was much more than human hope. It is the absolute confidence that comes from knowing and believing that our salvation is entirely God's work, because the following phrase says, “He”, referring to God. God is the one who has begun this good work.

Whenever we think of the word "salvation," we must remember that there are three aspects in regards to our salvation: our justification, our sanctification, and our glorification. This is what we want to learn from today's message.

Firstly, our justification. Paul says that He which hath begun a good work in you. Some people think that their salvation began the day when they chose to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But according to Ephesians 1:4, our salvation began long before that, and it was not we who chose God, but rather, God has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. Even before the foundation of the world, before God created this world, He had already chosen you and me. God is all-knowing; He is omniscient. God chose all believers before they could possibly choose Him, and apart from Him choosing us, we could never choose Him.

That is an undeniable truth. That is why our Lord Jesus said very emphatically in John 6:44 that No one can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Remember when the Apostle Paul and his missionary team first arrived at the city of Philippi? On the Sabbath day, they went outside the city and they ministered to a group of women praying by the riverside. One of the women was Lydia, a very wealthy businesswoman selling purple garments in the city of Thyatira. Although Lydia was the first convert to believe in the gospel of Christ in that city, which eventually led to the establishment of the Philippian Church, Acts 16:14 tells us very clearly that it was the Lord who opened her heart so that she would respond to the gospel preached by Paul. God was the one who opened Lydia's heart to believe.

There are many people who do not like this teaching because they like to think that human beings are responsible for their own salvation. They prefer to believe that they were accepted by God on the basis of their good works, or because they had participated in the sacraments, or because they were always seeking after God.

My friend, did you really seek after God? No, you didn’t. You resisted Him. You rejected Him, and God had to pursue after you. When you really sought after God, it was because of this good work He had begun in your heart, until you finally surrendered.

C.S. Lewis, the brilliant British scholar who was an agnostic, wrote in his autobiography that in 1929: I finally gave in and admitted that God was God, and I knelt down and prayed. Perhaps that night I was the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England. He acknowledged that he was like a prodigal who was brought into the Kingdom of God. And as he was brought into the Kingdom of God, he was still kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction, looking for a chance of escape. Lewis was shocked that God would accept such a convert under these circumstances.

Salvation is always of God. We love Him because He first loved us. God knows everything about us. Even before you and I were born, He had chosen us. If we are true believers, at His appointed time—whether it be through the preaching from the pulpit of the church, or through attending a gospel rally, or through a friend who shared the gospel with you, or through reading a gospel tract—He opened our hearts, like the way He did to Lydia, and He saved us. God saved us by His grace. Even this faith that we have to believe in Him is a gift from Him. As Ephesians 2:8 says: For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

Have you ever wondered why God saves us in this way? Well, God saves us in this way so that no one would boast. Not of works, lest any man should boast. That is what God said. God will not have anyone in heaven boasting about how he or she got there. God will not allow anyone to say: "Well, I must admit that God had done most of the work, but on several occasions, it was I who experienced certain trials and tribulations that caused me to turn to Him. It was I who really hung on tightly. I’m here in heaven because of my faith." That is human thinking. God will have none of it.

If there was ever a crisis or a struggle that caused us to turn to God, it was because God was using the circumstances and situations of life to move our hearts. Salvation was totally, completely, and absolutely the work of God. He was the one who had begun a good work in you and me.

The question we need to ask ourselves is: Are we truly justified? Are we truly saved? Salvation is not about coming to church. It is not about baptism. It is not about worship. It is not about our services or our giving. All these are things we would do after we are saved. Salvation is about believing that we are sinners, totally depraved. We cannot save ourselves, and no one can save us but only the One who died on the cross and shed His precious blood, that is able to wash away all our sins. Salvation is about trusting in the finished work of Christ on the cross of Calvary. Dear friends, have you truly believed in the only Savior who can save you?

Our second point is our sanctification. What is this good work? This good work began when God first chose us, and then at His appointed time, He saved us. He justified us by virtue of Christ’s work on the cross. But God did not save us just to save us. What do we mean? He has a purpose in saving us.

It may not be that clear in Philippians 1:6, but it is clearly stated in Romans 8:28. Let me read for you: And we know that all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. What is His purpose? Well, Paul went on to say: 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. In other words, the purpose of God in saving us is that we are to be conformed to the image of His Son, which means we are to be more and more like Christ.

This is the process of sanctification, whereby God takes the Word of God, and through the wonder-working of the Holy Spirit, He transforms our lives. Some people think sanctification means becoming aware of how we are becoming more and more perfect, but it is exactly the opposite. Sanctification means discovering how sinful we really are, and learning to turn to Jesus constantly for forgiveness and cleansing.

Those of us who have been Christians for many years, we do not feel that we are more and more perfect, do we? In fact, the more we know of ourselves, the more we know of our sinfulness, and the more we will turn to Jesus Christ in repentance and in faith.

One theologian gave this illustration. Let me quote from him: *We are just like a student in high school who has a basic introduction to English literature. When he read "Romeo and Juliet," "Macbeth," and "Hamlet," he thought he had a pretty good understanding of English literature. After all, he has read the best of Shakespeare’s writings. He has read the best of it, and the rest is probably not worth reading at all. But then he goes to college, where he takes a more advanced course, and he learns that he did not really know Shakespeare so well after all. He begins to read into the life of Shakespeare, and he goes on to read into the history, the background, the culture, and the disciplines behind all the other literature. He begins to understand that the search for knowledge is never-ending, and he knew so little.*

That is just a glimpse of what we are in our Christian living. When we are first born again, we used to think that we were not too bad. After all, "I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, didn’t I? That should put me above those who do not believe. I should be better than the rest." But as we grow in our spiritual walk, as we learn more and more of the Scriptures, we begin to see how sinful and ignorant we really are.

Instead of saying, "Oh, I’m pretty good," we will say, "Oh, what a wretched sinner I am." Instead of saying, "Oh, I know so much about the Bible," we will say, "Oh, I know so little about God and the things of God."

Dr Donald Barnhouse used to say, there is no Christian listening to the preaching of God's word who will think of himself so well five years from now like the way he did this morning. The more we know of ourselves, the more we know of our sinfulness. The more we know of scriptures, the more we know that we need God.

Dear friend, God's purpose in saving us is that He wants us to be more and more like Christ—in the way we think, in the way we talk, in the way we live our lives. Are you growing from faith to faith? Are you becoming more and more like Christ? Are you becoming more sensitive to your sins than you did in the past?

God had begun a good work in you; He will continue to do His sanctifying work in your life. In other words, as long as you are alive, as long as you have breath in your lungs, God is not finished with you yet. Some of us are in our evening years. Maybe we may be thinking, "I’ve already one foot in the grave." Well, that may be true, but remember, as long as you are still alive, God is not finished with you yet. He’s still doing His sanctifying work in your life.

People lack perseverance, isn’t it true? People start things and then drop them. You and I are always beginning things that we would never find time to finish. In physical things, we start new hobbies, we start to exercise and go to the gym, we start a new diet, but we will not continue. Even in spiritual things, we start a new ministry, we start a new Bible reading program, we start a new prayer group, but we will not continue. But God is not like that. God does not start anything that He will not finish. He perseveres.

Has God begun something in your life? Are you married and facing difficulties, perhaps facing marital issues? If God has saved you and called you to be a husband or a wife, if God will not give up on your marriage, why should you? Are you called to be a full-time mother at home and struggling to cope with the task? If God has saved you and called you to be a mother, taking care of your children at home, if God will not give up on your motherhood, why should you?

Have you been praying earnestly for something to happen in your life—perhaps a job, a life partner, a family? You are discouraged, and you start to falter. Do not give up because there is One who will never give up on you, and that is God.

The question we need to ask ourselves is: if God has saved us, what about our sanctification? We need to examine our lives. What about our worship? What about our prayer life? What about our services? What about our giving? What about our knowledge of the Bible? Are we more prayerful, more worshipful, more zealous in our services, more generous in our giving than we were when we were first converted? If not, something is terribly wrong, because if God is doing His sanctifying work in our lives, then we must increase in all these things.

Paul says, "He which had begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." The word "perform it" means to complete it, to finish it, to bring it to an end. In other words, God who has justified you, He will sanctify you. He will continue to do His sanctifying work in your life and fully complete it. He will do that until the day of Jesus Christ—that is a promise.

This brings us to our third and final point—our glorification. The day of Jesus Christ, sometimes known as the Day of the Lord, was used in both the Old and New Testaments to refer to the time of God’s final judgment on this sinful world. As 1 Thessalonians 5:2 says, "For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh like a thief in the night. You will come suddenly, for when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape."

Just like a woman who is going through the different stages of pregnancy, all of a sudden, death-conception pain would come. Indeed, for the unbelievers, the day of Jesus Christ is a most dreadful time. It is the time of God’s final judgment that they will not be able to escape. But what about us believers? We know Romans 8:1—in our responsive reading, we read, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." So, we will not be judged, condemned, and sent to the Lake of Fire.

So what is so significant about this day of Jesus Christ for us believers? The day of Jesus Christ is the time when we will be glorified, when our salvation will be completed, finished, and performed. It will be the time, as the Apostle John says, "Our Lord Jesus shall appear, and we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). It will be the time, as the Apostle Paul says, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52). In other words, we shall be glorified, transformed, given this glorified body. "For the corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:53).

When God saves, He saves completely and eternally, forever and ever. Those who are justified will be sanctified, and those who are sanctified, ultimately, they will be glorified. Who said so? God Himself. God will perform it, He will complete it, He will finish it. There’s no such thing as experiencing one and not the other. So the one who experienced justification must experience sanctification. The one who experienced justification and sanctification must ultimately—he will—experience glorification. For God to begin His salvific work in our lives is an irreversible guarantee that He will complete it.

William Hendricksen, the Bible commentator, said, "Men conduct experiments, but God carries out a plan—His salvation plan." And God never does anything in halves. He will complete what He sets out to do. He who has begun a good work in you will complete it. He will finish it.

Allow me to give you an illustration. It is the difference between an artist’s studio and an art gallery. When you walk into an artist’s studio, you will find unfinished paintings on large canvases which have been left behind. Maybe it was because the artist was not competent to complete the work, or he had died before he could finish the work. But when you walk into an art gallery, there will only be finished work, that bears the names or the marks of well-known artists. There is no unfinished painting in the art gallery. Likewise, God has no unfinished work. The God who saves is the God who justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies. The God who begins is the God who completes.

Dear friend, are you afraid of death? Have you ever doubted that maybe when you draw your last breath and swing into eternity, you will realize that you are lost? The reason why you are afraid, and the reason why you doubted, is because you are focusing on yourself—what you have done and what you have not done. Salvation is not about you; it is about God. It is He who has begun a good work in you. It is what He has done in and through your life. So, there’s no need for you to fear that you will be lost.

The only thing you ought to fear is whether you truly believe or not, whether you truly embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in faith or not. Your confidence should not be in yourself, neither in your faith nor in your spiritual successes in earlier times. Your confidence is in the Lord Himself, as Paul says, "Being confident of this very thing, that He which had begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

Dear friends, as you live a Spirit-filled life, it is inevitable that you will experience this sanctifying work in your life. You will become more and more like Christ. It is a supernatural work; it is God Himself working in and through you. And when you experience that, you will be filled with confidence, because this is the good work that God has begun in you. This is the joy of confidence, and I pray that all of us who are believers will have this joy of confidence. God who justifies, He sanctifies, and ultimately, He will grant to us glorification.

If you are still an unbeliever lingering outside the kingdom of God, salvation is today. Please do not say, "Well, let me consider." Tomorrow may never come. Today may be your last day. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will grant to you salvation so rich and free. There’s no one in the history of mankind who turned to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and in faith and was rejected. Jesus said, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Not even at the last moment. When our Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, there were two thieves hanging beside Him. One of them mocked Jesus and said, "If you are the Messiah, why don’t you save yourself and save us also?" The other one feared God and said, "Don’t you fear God now that you are dying?" And he turned to Jesus, probably with his last breath, and said, "Lord, remember me when Thou enterest into Thy kingdom." What did Jesus say? "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise." I pray that you will turn to Him in repentance and in faith, and our Lord Jesus will save you. And He who saves you, saves you forever.

Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for this opportunity that we can consider even this one verse, which is one of the greatest verses in the Bible that teach the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. As believers, we are able to persevere, not because of ourselves; we are weak, we are without strength. It is because of Thee. It is because of the fact that Thou hast begun a good work in us. Thou who hast saved us in our justification continues to save us in our sanctification, cleansing us from our sins and causing us to become more and more like Christ. And Thou wilt do that until the day of Jesus Christ, until the day we see Him face to face, until when our Lord Jesus appears, and we shall be like Him. O Lord, what a comforting thought!

May we, who are recipients of this grace—abounding grace of Thee—live our lives at every moment to glorify Thee. May we, who are recipients of Thy grace, live our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit, fully in the Spirit, so that we will experience this joy of confidence. Death may knock on our doors, but we are not afraid, because once we draw our last breath, we will be with Thee forever and ever. Blessed be Thy promise. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.