SAINTS WILL PERSEVERE TO THE END: Philippians 1:6
BIG IDEA
If you are in Christ, you should be confident because God has promised to glorify you.
I. If you are in Christ, you should be confident (v. 6a)
Philippians 1:6a “And I am sure of this…”
II. If you are in Christ, you should be confident because God has already justified you and is now sanctifying you (v. 6b)
Philippians 1:6b “…that he who began a good work in you…”
III. If you are in Christ, you should be confident because God has promised to glorify you (v. 6c)
Philippians 1:6c “…will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Q. WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO PROFESS FAITH IN JESUS THEN WALK AWAY FROM HIM?
1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”
I) True believers will persevere to the end because God has promised!
Hebrews 12:2 says that Christ is “The founder and perfected of our faith.”
The Finisher will finish you. The Completer will complete you. The Perfecter will perfect you.
II) True believers will persevere to the end according to God’s eternal decree!
God the Father and the Son sat down in eternity past and counted the cost, whether they were willing to complete you.
III) True believers will persevere to the end because God’s glory is at stake!
Do you think God would allow Himself to be mocked by losing one of Christ’s sheep that He bled and died to purchase? He will not.
APPLICATION
I) Do not lose heart even when you stumble in sin, men—you are not completed yet, but you will be.
II) Do not neglect the means of grace, men—this is the means by which God preserves you.
Colossians 1:22-23 “[Christ] has now reconciled [you] in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. . .”