You have probably heard it many times: Bible Christianity is unique among world religions. I’m not saying that this CHURCH is unique. Some people might say that our church is “weird,” and by some standards that is probably true. They said a lot more terrible things about the Lord Jesus, but He was the best of the best. At this point, what I am saying is that Bible Christianity – the Christianity we find in the Bible – is special. And one of its unique characteristics is seen here in verse 6. Paul had a confidence which the world and many professing Christians don’t have. He was sure that what God had begun in the hearts of the Christians in Philippi, He would take into eternity. It is this confidence that I’d like you to consider this morning.
Christianity is unique among world religions, even among those which come under the umbrella of “Christianity.” I’ll explain what Paul means in a moment. But very few professing Christians are really confident about what will happen to them when they die. Billions of people hope that they will go to heaven, or to some equivalent, some day, but they aren’t certain.
For example: There are about 2 billion Greek, Roman and Orthodox Catholics in the world – almost 20% of humanity. It is the doctrinal position of Catholicism that no one can be absolutely certain of eternal peace with God. It is the position of their church that people can have “HOPEFUL confidence” rooted in God’s mercy, BUT that mercy is linked to a lifelong development of faith and good works. To them there is a “state of grace” where one has assurance of salvation through faith, but it requires a lifelong commitment to living out that faith through good deeds and obedience to God’s commandments. Catholics are told they can have a confident expectation of salvation, so long as they maintain humility and a fear of offending God. In the past they have not been encouraged to read the Bible, because dozens of scriptures like Philippians 1:6 gash a hole into their kind of salvation with its demands of superior human effort. I’m not trying to be mean, and this is not a caricature. This is Catholic church doctrine. This is easy to verify.
There also more than 2 billion Muslims in the world – almost 25% of the population of the globe. Muslim confidence in deliverance from eternal punishment generally relies on a hope for God’s mercy, plus sorrow for sin and a balance of good deeds versus bad deeds. As a result, even their Prophet Muhammad expressed uncertainty about his soul. Both Catholicism and Islam teach that many sins will have to be purged from their people after death. But their various doctrines of “purgatory” stab at the heart of confidence in God’s salvation.
The Hindus’ confidence is based on their belief that they can be liberated from the cycle of death and rebirth. This liberation is achieved through the four varieties of yoga – karma yoga, devotional yoga, spiritual knowledge, and self-control. Modern yoga is not a harmless, or beneficial, meditation practice; it is a part of a false system of salvation. The question for the Hindu is the quality and consistency of their yoga practices. Many, if not most Hindus, never expect anything more than eternal reincarnations. That is nothing close to Biblical salvation from sin.
Thursday, I googled this question: “Do Mormons have confidence in their salvation?” This came up. Mormon confidence in salvation is based on a belief in salvation by grace – AFTER all that one can do. It is a combination of God’s grace through Christ’s atonement and an individual’s obedience to gospel duties including faith, repentance, baptism, and living a righteous life. But for the Mormon confidence is not guaranteed and depends on a person’s faithful endurance to the end. Simply put, God’s grace FOLLOWS the sinner’s obedience.
I’ll share one more before I move on. The vast majority of Protestantism, and I’ll include many varieties of Baptists, are Arminian in theology. Most of those people don’t know what that word means, but it is a statement of fact. And Arminian confidence in salvation is not a certainty. Salvation from sin is not guaranteed. Rather, it is a goal that can be reached through continuing in faith and obedience. Believers can have assurance as long as they remain true to God, but this requires active perseverance. For them, it is possible to fall away from salvation through sin and rebellion against the Lord.
All of these things contradict Paul’s statement about his Christian friends in Philippi: He says I am “confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” This morning I’d like you to see that the Apostle Paul was sure of what he was absolutely sure. With the Old Testament in front him, he could say with Job: “I KNOW that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” Paul wrote to Timothy, “I KNOW whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” What day is that Paul? We’ll come back to that. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may KNOW that ye have Eternal Life.” And, “I am confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you WILL perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
This morning I’d like to share with you several related things about which Paul had the utmost confidence. I wish that everyone here was as confident of these as God’s apostle was.
First of all, Paul had full confidence in his LORD.
In this verse, Paul speaks about his confidence in a certain THING. “I am confident of this very thing…” We’ll get to this thing in just a moment. But the reason he was confident in that thing, was because it was being upheld by the all powerful God.
This is where the faith of multitudes begins to go astray. It is not necessarily a doubt about God’s power, but rather it is about whether God is really involved. Sir, why do think that when you die, you should go to heaven? He answers, “Well, it is because I have done this or that, and I have earned the right to live in Paradise. Years ago, I gave up smoking, booze and living like a feral tom cat. I married a good woman and I have settled down to a life of morality and general goodness.” He might say, “My church, and my pastor, tell me that I’ve got a certificate of title to a Heavenly mansion.” My friend, even the opinion of pastors and churches are nothing more than opinions. I may think that you’re the finest Christian since John the Baptist, but it is only my opinion. And you may say the same thing, but again, that is only opinion. No sir, only what the Lord may think about any subject is absolutely sure. It about what He does.
On what did Paul’s confidence rest? It was the Lord who was guaranteeing the thing in which he was confident. Paul’s confidence was based on the character and resources of the Mighty Contractor, the Workman “who hath begun a good work in you.” It was built upon GOD’S eternal LOVE which prompted His deliverance and salvation. That confidence was strengthened by the great lengths to which Lord went to provide redemption. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” During the civil wars in England, King James II captured and ordered the torture of a certain Christian man. Visiting his prisoner, the King asked, “Do you know that it is in my power to pardon you?” The Christian replied, “Yes, your Highness, I know that it is in your power, but it is not in your nature.” With the God of all grace the equation changes. Sinners are under condemnation which He ordered. But pardon for sin IS within the character and the nature of our God. He is by nature a God – THE God – of love.
Paul’s confidence was also reinforced by the ETERNALITY and OMNIPOTENCE of the Lord. Men come and go, but the Eternal God is the Christian’s “refuge,” and “underneath are His everlasting wings.” Paul said, God has “power to STABLISH you according to my gospel and by the preaching of Jesus Christ.”
Paul’s confidence rested in the Lord, whose PROMISES never fail. He was “in hope of eternal life, which God had cannot lie promised before the world began.” And there was the subtle promise which came through the Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead. The Lord Jesus died to deliver those Philippians – and me – from our sin. He died to pay the price which God the Father demanded against us. When Jesus arose from the grave, it was a declaration that He had successfully completed His work. He can – and will – perform His good work in us. There is no opportunity for confidence in the religions of Islam, Buddhism or Confucius, when the founder of those religions have all rotted away in their graves centuries ago. But Jesus Christ lives today and has His calendar marked for a return to earth when He will complete the work that he has begun.
Paul had a justified confidence in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So did his friends in Philippi. And so may you.
And because of Paul’s confidence in the Lord, he had confidence in the Lord’s WORK of SALVATION.
Salvation from sin is the “THING” of which he was speaking in this verse: He was thinking of his friends’ ultimate glorification, by the power of Christ and the promise of the Father. There was no area of salvation that was in doubt in the heart of that former murderer and blasphemer. And I put it that way, because Paul was redeemed out of those sins and many more. He wasn’t born and raised a prophet God, like Samuel who lived in the temple from time he was weaned. He wasn’t prophesied by Gabriel and filled with the Holy Spirit from his mothers womb, like John Baptist. He wasn’t conceived of the Holy Spirit within the body purest woman in Israel. Paul was a sinner – probably a sinner worse than anyone in this room. Yet he was confident of the forgiveness and salvation given to him through Jesus Christ the Lord.
He was confident of every aspect and nuance of that salvation. He was confident of the REDEMPTION provided through the extremely high price that was paid. Jesus Christ has been made of God – our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. “He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” It was not with gold and silver that we have been redeemed, but with the precious blood of Christ. And Paul was confident of complete FORGIVENESS of every sin through Jesus. “In Christ we have redemption through his blood; the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of his grace.”
In Christ, Paul was sure of JUSTIFICATION – the applying of the Savior’s righteousness to the sinner. Because of Christ, he knew that he had been BORN into God’s family and even adopted as a child of God. “For as many as receive Christ to them gives He power to become the children of God.” “And the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” “And if a son, then are we heirs of God through Christ.” Paul was confident of the COMPLETION of the Lord’s salvation. He was confident that the God who had “begun that good work would perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” He was confident that he was “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last day.” He was confident that the Lord is “able to keep any of us from falling and to present us all faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
We have a spiritual enemy in this world. Satan is a real, malevolent being. We know this to be true because we’ve experienced his wrath, but more importantly because the Bible tells us. He is not hiding under every rock and behind every bush. But he has millions of associates and accomplices. And they are very, very busy in this world. One of Satan’s favorite tools, is to make the child of God question his or her salvation. Don’t be shocked if the question arises in your own soul. Especially, after you have slipped and sinned again. But when that question arises, turn to Christ. Don’t look inside yourself for an answer; you won’t find it there. Don’t look to your own strength or purity. The truth is: there is no way Satan can touch your eternal salvation, or steal it from true saint of God. But O, what damage he can inflict upon the individual if he can make someone loose confidence in Christ. If our faith is not firm in the Lord, then we might as well be servants of Satan himself. O, Christian have confidence in the Lord.
Paul had confidence in the Philippian’s ETERNAL DESTINY.
“Being confident of this very thing, what he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” What is that “Day of Christ?” It is the day in which Christ Jesus will be given all the glory and praise He deserves as the Creator, the King of Universe and as the Saviour of a few sinners. We can see that day coming just as we can see the hint of the rising of the sun at 6:00 in the morning. I think that the scripture we read during our song service is a part of that dawn. “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” The next few verses in I Thessalonians 5 continue with that same day of Christ.
The day of Jesus Christ is coming, when the Lord will make all things right. It will begin a day of judgment and reckoning for the wicked. And it will be a day of deliverance for God’s people.
Satan hates the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ, because it puts a passion in Christian hearts. And it helps to create confidence. Satan wants us to focus our attention on our day-to-day problems; our health, our wants, our failures. He wants us to focus on what it takes for us to deliver ourselves. He wants us to forget that the Lord Jesus is coming back to claim His human treasures. But don’t let him do it. Paul wouldn’t let that doctrine fall to the dust, despite the slander that it was receiving in his day I Thessalonians 4 is filled with words of confidence.
Do you lack confidence and do you have doubts about God’s ability, or willingness to save your soul? Ask yourself why that is so? There could be a number of reasons. The most common is our native, human self-centeredness; I only have eyes for me. Get away from that broken mirror and look into the mirror of the Word. Read God’s Book; read the book, again and again, and again. See the declarations and read the promises of God; the God who cannot lie. Why are there doubts? Because Satan has his ambassadors dumping them on us as quickly as we can throw them off. Perhaps the brethren in Philippi had some of these doubts. Perhaps that is one reason he gave us verse 6.
One more area of Paul’s confidence can be seen in his MESSAGE.
I hope that you are following me so far: From confidence in God, we can have confidence in God’s salvation. And if we have confidence in salvation, we ought have confidence in the proclamation of salvation. Paul certainly did, and so do I.
I don’t care who you are, I proclaim before you, that the gospel of Christ is the power God unto your salvation. Are you like an educated Greek, with culture, class, refinement, philosophy and pride? Look to “the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of world.” Are you like a blood-thirsty barbarian with the manners of starving canine? “Be it known unto you unto through this man, Jesus Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin.” Paul himself had been a blasphemer and murderer, yet the Lord saved and forgave him. He called himself the chiefest of sinners, but he was confident that Christ came into the world to save such sinners.
Paul also had confidence that he was commissioned to preach that blessed gospel. He was confident that his gospel should be preached before every soul and tribe on earth. He was confident that Holy Spirit would empower that message and open men’s hearts to receive the message.
When I was a child one of magazines that came into our home was called “Life.” Some of you might remember it. Years ago “Life” had a picture of three teenagers jumping from a 30 foot cypress branch into a creek. The tall kid on the right showed the least confidence, jumping feet first, arms flapping, knees bent. The middle boy dove head first, but he looked like a wounded duck with broken wings flapping all over. The third also dove head first, but with the grace and confidence of an Olympic champion. No matter what their style looked liked, all three did a challenging and somewhat scary thing.
Like these three boys, committing to Christ Jesus can be a scary thing. We are leaving a world culture that we know to enter a life that only we have heard about. But let me assure you the life of the Christian is the greatest there can possibly be in this world.
Would you like the kind of confidence that Paul speaks about in these scriptures? I invite you to meet the Saviour this morning. Yes, it takes a committal – a surrender. But if the Lord isn’t in the soul-redeeming business, then what business do we have to preach Christ at all? Is Ezekiel lying when he says God has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth? And what about Isaiah when he recorded, “Come now and let us reason together saith Lord, though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white and snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Was the Savior teasing when said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest?”
Just as when Paul first visited Philippi, down there by the river side, talking to Lydia and her friends… And just as he must have done with the man who locked Paul’s feet in the prison stalks… I point you to Calvary where Jesus died on the cross, and where any soul can be redeemed from sin. It is there at the cross where any of us can find confidence that God will complete the salvation which He started in us.