The Joy of the Lord's Return

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We're going to return to the book of Philippians, the first chapter, and we will have our second sermon in this series.
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The goal for tonight is to look at verses three through six.
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The title of tonight's message is The Joy of the Lord's Return.
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It might seem an odd title, but I think you'll see the appropriateness of it here in a few moments.
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When we started this series on Philippians, we discussed that Paul's theme in this letter is joy, and yet he wrote this letter from prison.
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We discussed that Paul wrote to all of the saints at Philippi, all of the believers.
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Notice that he lists the saints first, with the overseers and deacons second.
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He says, to all the saints, including the overseers and deacons.
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Each member of the body of Christ is, by definition, a saint.
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The overseers and deacons are no more or less saints than anyone else.
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The saints are not limited to just a special group of believers.
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No, the saints include all believers.
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The word saint means one who is set apart, and here Paul indicates how the saints are set apart.
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They are in Christ.
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They are called out of the world.
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According to John 6.44, no one can come to the Son unless he is drawn by the Father.
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If he has been drawn to the Son, then he is in the Son.
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He is in Christ.
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We looked at several references in Paul's letters where he says that believers are in Christ.
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This is the joy of the gospel.
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Believers are in Christ.
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His righteousness covers us.
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Because of him, and only him, we can stand righteous before God.
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As we will see later, though, our joy is not limited to our state now, but includes what our state will be.
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In the second verse, he wishes them two things, grace and peace.
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He wishes them grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Grace and peace are wished to all the saints from the Father who purpose and plan salvation and the Son who accomplish salvation for the people of God.
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Grace is the unmerited favor of God that he bestows on his people.
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Peace is the lack of enmity between parties.
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God has shown us tremendous grace through his work of his Son in our behalf.
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As a result of his work, there is no enmity now between God and his people.
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Romans 8.1 declares, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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Romans 5.8 says, but God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him.
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For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
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There is therefore no enmity between us and God because of the work of Christ.
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We have peace.
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We used to be enemies of God, but the work of Christ has removed the enmity between us and God and has reconciled us to him.
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God bestows his grace which has resulted in peace between God and those who are in Christ.
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These are the saints to whom Paul writes.
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It is these saints whom Paul wants to experience joy.
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In these verses we will examine this evening, we're going to see that Paul's joy is not rooted in the Philippian people themselves, but in Christ.
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For Paul not only has joy because of the work begun in the Philippian believers, but Paul also has joy because he knows that God will complete the work that he has started within each believer.
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So verse 3, Paul writes, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.
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Paul commonly says this of the believers to whom he writes.
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He remembers them in prayer.
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In Romans chapter 1 and verse 8, First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.
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First Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 4, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.
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Ephesians chapter 1 beginning in the 15th verse, For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers.
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Colossians chapter 1 verse 3, We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints.
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First Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 2, We give thanks to God always for all of you making mention of you in our prayers.
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So there are at least six different congregations if you include the church at Philippi that are mentioned in scripture as being objects of Paul's prayers to God.
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We are reminded therefore of the need to pray for one another.
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Here we have a believer in prison who is praying for those who are not in prison.
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He does not mention praying for himself.
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He mentions praying for others.
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Paul uses a possessive pronoun when he says I thank my God.
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He is not just acknowledging that God exists or that God is to be worshipped, no this is more than that.
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This God is his God.
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He is the God Paul trusts in, serves, and worships.
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He is the God that Paul petitions in behalf of other believers.
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He is the God we can call Abba, Father, the God we can call Daddy.
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In Romans chapter 8 and the 15th verse, we read for you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out Abba, Father.
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Galatians chapter 4 and verse 6, because you are sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba, Father.
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This kind of God that we can call Daddy, that we can have not only be able to stand justified before because of Christ, but we can have an emotional tie with him, we can have a relationship with him.
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He thanks God when he remembers the Philippian believers.
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He says in all my remembrance of you and he continues the thought in the fourth verse.
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He says always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all.
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He prays for them with joy, remembering them brings him joy.
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In every prayer he offers in their behalf, he experiences joy.
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Are we the kind of congregation that always brings our pastor joy when he prays for us? Paul here expresses a wonderful state of mind.
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He wants to pray.
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He has joy when he prays.
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He has joy when he prays for the Philippian believers, yet he's the one in prison.
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Notice he prays for the entire congregation.
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All believers are a part of God's kingdom, a part of God's church.
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Each believer is worthy of our prayers.
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We should have joy when we pray for one another and it should not be the pastor only who prays.
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Note the instructions given in scripture to each believer.
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Romans, again chapter 12, this time the tenth verse, Be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted prayer.
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Galatians chapter 6 and verse 2 says bear one another's burdens.
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Ephesians 6.18 says with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.
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Colossians 4 verse 2, devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.
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First Thessalonians 5.17 says pray without ceasing.
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James 5.16 says therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.
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The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
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We know that Jesus prayed.
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He gave us the model prayer that's recorded in Matthew 6 and we have recorded in scripture his high priestly prayer in John 17.
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Jesus is an example therefore to us if he prayed to the Father we ought to as well.
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We are to thank God.
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We are to offer prayers with joy just as Paul did.
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And this brings us to verse 5 where the text says in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.
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Here the word for participation is the word koinonia which means usually, usually translated fellowship.
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In fact the King James Version translates this verse as for your fellowship in the gospel.
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From the first day until now.
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The old American Standard Version says for your fellowship and furtherance of the gospel from this day until now.
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The old Geneva Bible says because of the fellowship which ye have in the gospel from the first day until now.
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In short Paul is rejoicing at the Philippians participating in the efforts to further the gospel.
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They are fellowshipping with the gospel.
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It might seem strange to actually have fellowship with the gospel but they do.
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And we do as believers also.
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Something we cherish, it's something that we want to hear, it's something that we want to read.
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It is also the source of the fellowship we have with one another.
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This group was also working toward the furtherance of the gospel from the first day the church was founded.
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Last time you might recall we went back to Acts 16 and we looked at the founding of the church at Philippi.
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In Acts 16 verse 15 we read that shortly after Lydia's salvation, she was the first convert, she invites Paul and his companions to come and stay with her household.
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And in this letter, in chapter 4 and the 14th verse, Paul makes mention of the monetary gift that the church at Philippi sent to him.
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So this church provided a place for him to stay when the church was founded and they provided some financial support for his mission work in other cities.
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They participated with him in the ministry of the gospel.
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We should want to participate in the ministry of the church as well.
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Ministering to one another really should seem like fellowship.
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And in verse 7 he is going to return to this idea, we won't get there tonight, it will be next time, but he is going to return to the idea of them participating because he refers to them as partakers.
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This now brings us to verse 6.
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For 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.
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The King James translates this, 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.
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See Paul had confidence, but he continued to have confidence.
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The text says being confident or I am confident, present tense, continual action.
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He continued to have confidence.
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He did not cease to have confidence that God would finish what he started.
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It is important for us to recognize that Paul here refers to the work that God is doing in each believer.
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The scripture declares God to be so sovereign over all of his creation.
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Numbers chapter 23 and verse 19, God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent.
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Has he said and he will not do it? Or has he spoken and will he not make it good? Job chapter 42 and verse 2, Job confesses after all of his experiences, he says to God I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
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Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 24, the Lord of hosts has sworn saying, surely just as I have intended it, so it has happened and just as I have planned, so it will stand.
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Just three verses later, for the Lord of hosts has planned and who can frustrate it and as for his stretched out hand, who can turn it back? Part of Isaiah 37, 26 says, have you not heard? Long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it, now I have brought it to pass.
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Isaiah chapter 46 beginning in verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done saying, my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.
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Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country, truly I have spoken, truly I will bring it to pass, I have planned it, surely I will do it.
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In Daniel chapter 4 and verse 35, the scripture records King Nebuchadnezzar saying, all the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, but he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and no one can ward off his hand or say to him, what have you done? This is the God in whom Paul is confident.
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If God begins a work, then he will complete the work.
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We read the same principles in the New Testament.
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Most beloved passage, Romans chapter 8 beginning in the 28th verse, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren.
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These whom he predestined, he also called and these whom he called, he also justified and these whom he justified, he also glorified.
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Ephesians chapter 1, beginning in the third verse, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him.
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In love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved.
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This is why Paul is confident God is sovereign over his creation and this includes salvation, because what God has purposed will come to pass.
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He will save every single one of his elect.
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Not only will he complete the work, but it will be perfect.
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As one commentator noted, the word here used for perfect means fully, complete.
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We will become fully, complete.
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We will become what God has intended us to be.
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The apostle John writes in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2, Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.
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We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.
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Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 12, For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
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Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
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Remember what Paul wrote in Romans 8, the 29th verse, that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.
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That is the specific work that God is doing and he will bring his work to completion.
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His work will be perfect.
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We struggle with sin now, but a day is coming when we will no longer struggle with sin, for we will be like Christ and we will see him as he is.
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We have to remember, and Paul understood this, in John 6, 29, the Lord himself said, This is the work of God that you believe.
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It is his work.
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God's work is only a work that he can do.
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We cannot save ourselves.
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We cannot earn our own righteousness.
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Salvation, therefore, must be his work and our joy, therefore, is rooted in him.
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But it might seem strange to consider that one day God's work is going to come to an end.
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It will end when the Lord returns.
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It will end because the work will be complete.
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There will be no more need for him to work.
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Paul uses similar language in two other places here in Philippians when he talks about in the day of the Lord, or in the day of Christ, or until the day of Christ.
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Later in the first chapter, beginning in verse 9, Paul writes in this, I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.
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And in the second chapter of Philippians, the 14th verse, he says, Do all things without grumbling or disputing so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God and above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain or toil in vain.
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So the day of Christ, here in our text, again we're in verse 6, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
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This day of Christ refers to the time following his return.
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Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, again one of the most comforting passages in all of scripture.
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Beginning in the 13th verse, Paul writes that we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
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For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
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For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not perceive those who have fallen asleep, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
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Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
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Therefore comfort one another with these words.
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See when Paul says, so we shall always be with the Lord, that's the day of Christ.
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Once we reach that point, the work that he has begun in us will be complete.
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At this time, we will be made perfect, hard to fathom, because we know the reality of our sin, we know the reality of our imperfections, but the day is coming when we will not have imperfections.
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These four verses here in Philippians chapter 1, note Paul's progression of thought.
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In verse 3, he writes that he thanks God each time he remembers the Philippians.
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In verse 4, he writes that he prays with joy in each prayer he makes on their behalf.
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In verse 5, he tells them the joy with which he prays is because of their participation in the ministry of the gospel since the beginning of that church's inception.
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And in verse 6, he tells them that their participation in the gospel will be completed by God.
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God will finish the work in each believer that he has begun.
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Therefore the source of his joy is not because of the Philippian people themselves, because they are not the source of the work.
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The source of joy is God himself, because God is the one completing the work.
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He used Paul, God used Paul to begin the work, and he was using the Philippian church to continue the work then, just as he is using his church now to continue his work.
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However, the day is coming when the work will be complete, and because it will be complete, there will be no need for any further work to be done.
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We are to have joy because we know that that day is coming.
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We don't know when, but we know it is settled, he is going to return.
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We will have joy when that day comes, for we will go to be with the Lord.
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So be confident in the Lord, and may you find joy in Christ as we look forward to his return.