"Dealing
with the Unbelieving Heart"
Philippians 1:6 - "It is a work"
The Lord's Day, November 24, 2002
If you would open your Bibles to Deuteronomy, chapter 17, picking up in the 14th verse.
"When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you shall say, I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me, you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses. One from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.' He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself. " Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. "It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel."
It's kind of an obscure passage but a fascinating concept. That the king, when he took office, was to sit down and was to write out a copy of the Law in his own handwriting. That way, when he sinned against it, and he went back and was confronted with it he couldn't say 'Oh, I didn't know that!'. Not only couldn't he say that but he had it in his own handwriting. "Not only do I know it, I copied it down!" Well, that's a kind of a negative example. I have a more positive example for you out of Philippians 1, and it's why I want you to write some things down this morning. And, this serves as a kind of precursor, if you will. I am going to refer to this as an apostolic anesthetic for next week.
As you know we are working through this last portion of John 6, where Jesus is addressing four different groups. We've titled this 'Dealing with the Unbelieving Heart'. In the first section we saw Him dealing with the unbelieving heart of the crowd. And what it was they objected to in the preaching and teaching of Christ. In the second part, we looked at the unbelieving heart of the religionist and how those who at least profess some form of spirituality or religion, too, can be unbelieving people. This is exposed, especially in the two things that were brought out in the passage where Jesus says "I'm the one who came down out of Heaven" - which they didn't want to have to deal with. And secondly, He was the Bread of Life - and how can He possibly give us His body and blood to eat and drink?
Next week, God willing, if we continue in the passage, as it ought to be, we will deal with the unbelieving heart of the disciple. And that is a wearisome place. Because there, we talk about those who profess saving faith in Christ; those who call themselves Christians; those who were His followers. We'll find out in that passage that after the dialogue that He has with them there, the Scripture says very clearly - that from that point on - many of His disciples no longer walked with Him. So it is that there are many who will come in and out of our churches who will profess something of the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, who, none the less, when the sayings of Christ get hard, will leave.
We're going to spend a lot of time there next week and it's a searching passage. I don't want to treat it lightly, nor do I want to treat it morbidly. I want to treat it accurately. But in order to do that I want to take a little time this morning to step back and remind us of this passage in Philippians, Chapter 1.
A number of years ago I traveled down to Ithaca NY, and stayed in a hotel which was near the experimental bug station for Cornell College. Apparently, some time in the middle of the night, I was bitten by some sort of a spider. I don't know what kind of spider it was. I just know that I rolled over on it and saw it's dead little carcass in the bed when I got up in the morning. Not too many things will survive that kind of load. Well, I didn't think that much of it but it got ugly. It was on my leg. And it started to swell up and it started to look funny and it got very painful, so I went to the medical center because it was getting to where I couldn't walk - because this thing was on my leg and it really hurt me. I don't know if it was a radioactive spider. I never did get the web thing. But, it was some kind of a spider and it had some sort of poison and this thing had swollen up on my leg and was very large and I got in to the medical center emergency room and I said "I need this taken care of." They assigned me to an intern who had no idea what was going on. He thought it was a boil that needed to be lanced. With that, he just turns around with a blade and just lunges at me. He didn't cut it open but just stabbed at it and pressed it enough to make me scream. Very loudly. I got up off the table and said I could hurt myself by myself! I didn't need him to injure me this badly! Finally, when he realized he wasn't going to be able to cut through it because there was something else going on, he put a bandage on it and I went back home. That ended up developing into necrosis and eating a little funny hole in my leg (where I can still hide nickels! So everything's useful!) But what I really would have appreciated at that moment was - if before He had lunged at me with this dull scalpel - that he had put some kind of anesthetic in there.
Now, we all need an "operation" from time to time. We need somebody to open us up and start poking around and digging at the stuff that's in there because there is stuff that needs to be dealt with. But at the same time, I think God provides us a right anesthetic with His Truth. So, that, while He does what He needs to do, it isn't wrongfully painful, but He is able to accomplish the work that needs to be done. That's exactly where I want to take us this morning.
Philippians, Chapter 1. This is a familiar verse. It is such a sweet verse. Such a simple verse. And so full of Gospel truth! I really only want to look at the last 17 words of the verse. But there are nine things I want you to note out of it and there is no way that I can do that except to walk through them. But, they all emerge just from the language of the verse itself. And I want to bring this forward as a reminder to you, because as we get into next week we are going to talk a bit about the fact that God deliberately sends shaking to the Church for the purpose of finding out what will fall off. What will be swept away. But in those hours of shaking there comes to us, in the hardness and the difficulty of trials and tribulations, some very simple and helpful things.
I read an article this week about how many people have exited the church and according to the article it isn't that they have abandoned church or abandoned their faith, they just would rather believe at home by themselves. Basically what they have said is, 'Being a Christian the way Scripture requires me to be a Christian is too hard, so I'll do it on my own terms'. But it is that very hardness that sifts. And sometimes when those things come, we ask 'will, I endure?', 'Will, I hold on?' Or will I lose my grip? And that's where I want to take you first, because Philippians 1, and verse 6, is such an incredibly sweet balm to the soul and such a great preparative to where we're going to be.
Actually what we want to consider begins in verse 3 where He says, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now." He said I pray about you guys and I rejoice in the fact that I recognize that you've been with me from the beginning, even though it has not always been easy. And, "I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." What a glorious statement is that! What a neat thing. So I want this to be, I hope, somewhat of a rest for the weary and I just want you to look at the language, how simple, how straight forward, how wonderful it is, and just mark down these things as we work through the passage. The first then is this: it is in the words 'He who'. I want you to note first of all that salvation is a personal work. 'He' who began a good work in you, will complete it.' Salvation is a personal work of God. It is not a blind process. It is not something that just happens. You didn't just wake up one day and get saved. You didn't just come by the wayside one day and decide 'Oooh, I think this is a good thing, why don't I do this!'. You didn't receive it in the mail like a flyer with Ed McMahon's face saying you too can a winner! 'He' who began the good work. It is a personal work. Salvation is God's work! Not mans. He personally does it. He doesn't leave it to anybody else. He doesn't leave it to the angels. He doesn't leave it to the church. He doesn't leave it to saints. He doesn't trust anybody else with this work! He does it Himself! That's why Christ came! He didn't send somebody. He arrived! He took on human flesh! He stepped into space and time! He endured all that we endure! He knew what it was to be betrayed! He knew what it was to suffer the hunger and all the difficulty and all the things that we go through in life, but salvation is a personal thing God does!
We reduce it to a system. We reduce it to a belief. We reduce it to a creed. We reduce it to all other things and forget that salvation is something God Himself performs. When we lose that, then we turn to just religion. Then we turn to just our system. Just to our 'clique'. Just to our friends. Just to our church. And we forget that salvation is a transaction with the Living God and lost human beings. It's a personal thing. Salvation just didn't happen. It happened because 'He' began the good work in you.
Notice secondly though, it's a divine work. It's 'He' who began the good work in you. Who's the 'He'? 'He' is the second member of the Godhead. He is the Son incarnate. He is the Word made flesh. Salvation is something that God, the One, who spoke the worlds into existence; the One whose hand waved and everything came into being because He wanted it to; the One who fashioned everything after His own mind and His own heart and said 'This is exactly what I want!' when He created the world - He's the One who has saved you. Your salvation is not a cheap thing that's invested or vested in an individual.
I've always wondered what it would be like to have come to the saving knowledge of Christ under the ministry of someone who later proved to be themselves, if not, an apostate; somebody who at least had fallen from the faith and was unable to occupy that office again. Could you imagine if you were one of those who had been around when Jesus sent out the seventy, and the one who came to your village was Judas? And you heard the Word and you believed on Christ and then a short time after, (just a very short time after), that one is the one who betrays Christ and hangs himself. How would you think about your own salvation? Beloved, the good thing is, your salvation isn't a human thing. It doesn't rest in the man who preached it to you. It is a divine thing. 'He' who began the good work is Christ Himself. If it rests in anything else, we have no hope! If it rests in any other person we may as well as pack it in now! There's no chance! Everyone would fail. Everyone would disappoint us. Everyone will lose it at some time. But, not Christ! And if He's the one who has begun this, I know this just isn't some sort of a psychological mumbo jumbo. It's a spiritual work handled by a divine Creator working inside the human.
Not only is it a personal thing it's a divine thing. It's a divine thing! How glorious! I fear that we treat our salvation so commonplace. And forget that this is something that God Himself is accomplishing in us! We forget just how wonderful it is. How marvelous it is. It is easy for those things to escape us because we get caught up in all the hubbub, in all the other "stuff". Life distracts us so much. But our salvation began with Him. And He, the personal God; He, the Divine, Living, Supreme, Sovereign God, is the one who has begun this work.
Thirdly, He began it. Firstly, we saw that it was a personal work. Secondly, it is a divine work. Third, it is a deliberate work. It is a work. He didn't just stumble along one day and stumble on us and say 'Oh! I think I'll save this one!'. But, it was a work! Salvation doesn't just happen! It's God operating! He began this deliberate action within us.
Now, we're in the process of remodeling our house. I'm convinced that the best way to remodel it is with a pack of matches. It's very simple and then you file the claim and then they build you something you really want. My wife however has persuaded me that that's probably not the best way to go. As I have watched some of the workmen come in, and do what they do, I've noticed that they plan out what they are going to do before they do it. They aren't like me. They just don't pull things apart and say 'Oh, that's how it works' and then wonder how to put it back together to make it work. But they think it out! We actually got a bid for them to put an addition in on the house and do you know what they did? They drew plans! I said 'What are those for?' They said 'So we'll know what we are going to build!' I said you just get wood and start hammering and put it together! But it doesn't work that way! That isn't the way salvation happens either. It's a deliberate work. God has a design in mind. He has an end in view. Did you know that He has a picture of what He wants you to look like when He's done? And that picture is the character of Christ Himself! He's doing that in you. It's a purposeful thing. He didn't just stand back and say 'I'm going to start tinkering around in their souls - but He has a goal in mind! "I have something I intend to finish in this person! It's a work and I'm going to be about the work of saving this person!" It doesn't matter whether you are a child or an adult, it is a work: A personal work, a divine work, a deliberate work.
The way I hear some talk, you'd almost think salvation was an accident. Oh, it's no accident. Never has it been an accident. As a matter of fact, if you think for one second about a God who administrates His own universe in sovereignty, there is no such thing as accidents. There's God working all things together for the good to those who are the called according to His purpose. A deliberate work. What a marvelous thing that is and what a comfort to the soul that is when the work doesn't seem to be going very well.
Apparently I've only done one really good thing in my entire life. It was brought to me this week. And apparently it was installing a sump pump. I'm very proud of that sump pump. A workman showed up here at the office this week to talk about other things that he needed to fix and he said 'Who installed your sump pump?' I said 'I did!'. He said 'What a masterful job that was!' He knew exactly what button to push! There are a lot of things that I started and was not able to complete. But Christ has counted the cost. He knew what it would take to make each one of us His own child and He knew precisely that it would cost Him his own life. He didn't die by accident. He laid His life down that He might purchase lost men. They didn't crucify Him on that day because it just coincided with the Passover. He came to be the Pascal Lamb. He came to be the sacrifice. He didn't rise on the 3rd day because after three days that's when you get out of the grave. But He rose that He might demonstrate that we are justified before God and that every word He spoke was true. Everything done on purpose. Everything done according to plan. A work so perfectly crafted. So perfectly planned. And, so perfectly carried out, by the Divine God, Himself, that nothing could possibly go awry. What a great salvation we have. I'm sorry it gets spoken of in such paltry terms sometimes.
Fourthly. First, it's a personal work; secondly, that it is a divine work; and third, that it is a deliberate work. He began it. But fourth, it's a good work. He who began a good work in you. It's not indifferent. God is not about the business of doing something in you that is just neutral or indifferent. He is about the process of making you into the image of His Son so that you might convey the holiness of His character to a lost world. In fact, that is exactly what Peter says when he says that we are made in Him that we might proclaim or sing forth or show forth the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous life. What a great thought. That's why He's made us! And it's not an indifferent thing. It's not neutrality that God gets displayed. It's a good work He's doing in you. He is producing in you and in me true righteousness and holiness after His own.
I know I mentioned this a little time ago. Let me go back and capture the thought again because to me it's just so profound. I can't get my brain around it all the way. But it was spurred by a statement I heard from someone else say. They were right. I wish I were the one who had said it, but let me steal it. They said 'Do you realize that Jesus, while He was on the earth, never once did anything because it was 'right''. I said 'Now, come on, He's always did what was right.' And he said 'That isn't the point! He didn't do it because it was right; that was His nature, to do what was right.' That's what He is working in you and in me. Do you see, the difference? It's what Paul says: It's the Spirit working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. To have the same desire that God, Himself, has. A desire that is so perfect and unsullied in it's holiness that we never desire anything else.
He is working in us His own likeness. It's a good work. Now I know sometimes it's painful and I know sometimes it's long. And I know, sometimes it's lonely. And I know sometimes the work involves us in things that crush us and make us fear and tremble, but it is a good work! Never lose sight of that! That it is a good work that He is doing. Sometimes we could imagine what He is doing against us is against us but is never so.
When Scott was born he needed an operation. He was 18 months old. How do you tell an 18 month old that he will have to endure the pain of the operation? How do you communicate to them that what you are doing will fix them and will make it good but that it's going to hurt right now. And you can't reason with an 18-month-old child. They can't comprehend that. You can't sit down and say 'well, now, we are going to stick you with a needle here and that's a good thing and we are going to cut you open here; and that's a good thing. All along, I don't care how old you are, none of that is a good thing! That is so often the way it is with His work in us. And we forget in the drawn out process, in the difficulty, in the press, and the stress, and the heartache, that it's a good work. It's such a good, good, work!
Will you forgive me? A real lapse here. I read this to you a dozen times. Please listen to it again. These are those great words of Oswald Chambers:
When God wants to drill a man;
And thrill a man;
And skill a man;
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part,
When He yearns with all his heart
To create so great and bold a man,
That all the world shall be amazed
Watch His methods! Watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him
And hurts him
And with mighty blows,
Converts him into trial shapes of clay
Which only God understands!While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands
How God bends, but never breaks!
When His good He undertakes!How He uses whom He chooses
And with every purpose fuses him,
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out.God knows what He's about.
It's a good work!
Fifthly. It's a work and not just some natural process. We sometimes think that sanctification and growth and grace and mercy is all just process. It's just the natural maturation of age, but it isn't that. God is fiddling with your life. Does it feel like that sometimes? Like He has poked around where He shouldn't? That He's dismantled something? That He's moved it and rearranged it? And made it ugly? He does that at times.
I'll never forget when I was young, and the Quartet had been out singing and this truth of the nature of God's sovereignty has just been hammering itself into my head. I was proudly telling everybody how everything that I had was God's. So, I came home from work and the house had been robbed. He took all my clothes and all my rifles and I just sold my car and he took my cash. He had turned over every bed in the house and pulled out all the drawers. Our house was a mess! I sat down on the couch and I said 'You big idiot, you were just telling everybody that everything that I have is God's'. And God said (and I know that God doesn't really speak, but I swear what my heart said back to me was) 'If it's Mine, and I rearrange it, what's that to you'?
Has He been dismantling something in your life lately? That's because He is working! It's not just a process; it's a work! He doesn't just let things take their course He's fiddling around. He's messing some stuff up. He's pulling paper off the walls before He repaints. He's knocking down rotten limbs before He puts in the new one's. Sometimes that work is frightening. But it's a work. Don't let it escape you that God is working in His creature!
Sixthly. 'He' - it's a personal work. 'He' - it's a divine work. 'He who began - it is a deliberate work. It is a good work. He who began this good work in you, and it is a work - He began it IN you. (Ouch!) It's an internal work, not external. It's not about what you join. It's about being joined to Him.
Now I don't mind God so much messing around with stuff on the outside, I really mind when He starts messing around with stuff on the inside. The outside needs fixed. But He's not worried about the outside. He's worried about those who will bear His image; of those who will speak; (And, when they speak carry the words of grace.); of those who will love with Christ's love; of those who will trust with Christ's trust; of those who will live with His holiness. It's IN you. He who began a good work IN you is the One to complete it.
When I was young, I remember reading - (and we all had things in Sunday School like 'Dare to be a Daniel'!) you get a little thing &endash; do you really want to be like an 80-year-old man thrown to the lions'? Not me! 'You dare to be a Daniel'! Dare to be a Joseph. Dare to be a Moses. You know, 'Stand up; do that'. Those guys lived bad lives! 'Oh, YES, God, make me your mouth piece; make me your Moses!' 'OK. I'm about to give you three and a half million complaining people. ENJOY'! But you see, He uses all those external things to work on us internally. But never forget it's the internal that He is after. He's going to change us. He is GOING to change us. The old saying is that it took God one night to deliver Israel out of Egypt, but it took Him 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel. That is so often true.
How we find our conversion in an instant, but our sanctification takes so long. But, He's working in us. He is working continually. And those internal turmoil's that you have, that struggle, that strain, sometimes, to believe and to trust, is part of that working process. That sin that you still fight with after all this time and you've said 'But I've walked with Christ for twenty some odd years and still this thing hangs around my neck'! He is still working in you! He's working in you!
Seventh. He who began a good work in you, 'will'. It's a guaranteed work. He can't fail. Now, you and I are going to fail. We are going to mess it up. We are going to mess it up big time. We are going to do some really stupid, crazy, sinful things. But, He who began a good work in you 'will' perform it. There are times when I say 'God, stop, I don't want any more. Aren't I lovely enough already?' And he says 'Of course you're not'. He is just good enough to be relentless. Just good enough to refuse to let us go at any place and at any time. Just good enough to pursue whatever course is necessary to do what's best for us in conforming us to the image of His Son. Some of us have to be put in tougher places than others to get there. And you might sit down and say well, is the reason why I am going through the particular trial I am going through right now because I am so obstinate? Not necessarily!
One of the great things about the Book of Job is that God is dealing with Job through that whole book - He is dealing with his three comforters as well. What Job went through, he went through so those three men could catch a glimpse of God. But see, if God is working in you, He will be working in me and He will be working in your neighbor. As He is working in all of us, that is going to throw us together and we will be going through these things but He WILL work. Beloved, hear me, He will work! And there is nothing that can stay His hand. Can you imagine how pompous and arrogant it must be for God to hear us say, 'Oh, I guess God must have to give up on me!' Well, what a prideful thing that is! Who do you think you are? That you can stop the hand of the Living God! Forget it! God won't give up on you! He will apply more pressure! It's guaranteed. Oh, He will. He who began a good work in you, 'will'! It's guaranteed. Not might; not can; but will!
Eighth. He'll perfect it. It's a planned work. It's not simply wrought upon, but finished and perfected. It is a completely planned work. He intends to perfect it. He intends to bring it to full maturation to complete what He's begun with or without our help. Most of the time without it. No, I take that back. Most of the time in spite of it! But He'll perfect it. I know, sometimes you go home and you say 'God, I'm just never going to get any of this right. I keep saying the wrong things. I keep wanting the wrong things. I keep doing the wrong things. I can't get it straight!' Beloved, listen to me, He will perfect it. The work He's doing in you, He will perfect, and God does nothing half way. God never overdoes and He never under-does. Everything He does is perfect. Absolutely perfect! And when you stand in His presence, the Book of the Revelation says that He will present to Himself a bride without spot or wrinkle. He will perfect you. Not only will you not have a spot or a stain of sin, but also you won't have a wrinkle either! NOTHING! No atom of sin left! Just the glory of Christ streaming through!
Lastly. This is such a simple but sweet and wonderful verse. "He'll perfect it UNTIL". Now here is the cut off point. 'How long will God wrestle with me'? Until the day of Christ. 'How long is He going to put up with me'? Until the day of Christ. 'How long is He going to wrestle with the things that are still so far amiss in me'? Until the day of Christ. 'When is He finally going to throw up His hands and say 'that's it, they are too tough! I can't do it anymore'? He won't, because He'll perfect it until the day of Christ. Believe me, you're going to want Him to stop long before He ever wants to! But He won't do that.
It's a personal work. It's a divine work. It's a deliberate work. It's a planned work. It's a work. It's an internal work. It's a work that will be perfected. And, it's a work that is continuous. Unfailing. It's a continuous work. He will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Now that should tell you something about you and me. It's going to take Him that long. That's what kind of shape I'm in. I don't know about you. And you thought you were going to get there over night. You're not. He's going to keep working until the day of Christ. And you're not going to be finished until then. You're not and I'm not and we're going to have to recognize that each other. But He will finish it.
And, so, Paul just leaves us with this great admonition. It's just this great, substantive truth on which to rest our souls. And the one that I want to leave with you is 'Beloved, He who began a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus'. Rest there! That's His Word.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we love to study your Word. We love to know it. We love to hear it. And sometimes we forget how plain it is in places. Here You step out and in just a few short words you make unqualified statements of sweeping eternal importance. I pray this morning that my weary brothers and sisters, who are gathered here this morning, will take great relief in the truth of your Word. There are some that came in here this morning basically saying to themselves, 'Why even bother? I am so far gone. God must have to give up on me!' and would you remind them this morning that that is a lie of the enemy and that your Word is true and that statement is not true. Would you cause them to cast themselves back on You for no other reason other than the fact that it's You that said it. And that's all we need. Father, minister to my brothers and sisters who are going through the trial and the fire. It has been so long and so hard and so dark and they've begun to wonder whether You've given up on them. Remind them that it isn't true. And, as we today, see some things in our brothers and sisters that need fixed, will you remind us that you are still working in them and that you will perfect them? That you haven't called us to do the perfecting? That You do it? Father, would you cause us to pray for one another in the midst of what is sometimes very hard to understand in this life? And to remember, by the working of your Spirit, even as each has written it down in their own handwriting today, may they be able to pull that out and look at it later and say 'I know this! And I know it because I have written it out by my own hand'. That, He who began the good work in me, He will perfect it and He will complete it, until the day He returns. And may that be the 'yea' of the 'Amen' that angers their souls. We pray these things this morning, in that lovely name of Jesus, Amen.
Transcribed by Jude Heberger
Copyright © 2002 Reid A. Ferguson. Permission granted to quote in context.