A Perfectly Planned Conclusion

Transcript

Alright thank you very much, and hello again dear radio friends. How in the world are you? Yes, this is your friend, Dr. Cook, and I’m glad to be back with you looking at the Word of God.

We’re going to take a little detour here. We’ve been studying in the book of Mark. I just feel like doing something different for a day or so, is that alright with you? I want to see some key verses, some key truths in the book of Philippians. I often gravitate to that blessed book of the New Testament to feed my own soul.

Paul said, “I thank my God on every remembrance of you”, this is chapter 1, “always, in every prayer of mine, for you all, making request with joy for your fellowship in the gospel and from the first day until now, 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”. Philippians 1:6 is a great verse and I oftentimes refer to it to encourage my own soul. I remind my blessed Lord that He started the work and that He Himself has guaranteed to keep it going. Hallelujah for that!

He said, “Being confident of this very thing”. The word confidence is great, it’s more than just wishfulness, more than just hoping that something will happen, it’s a position of assertive faith where you are basing your assertion on the authority and the Word of Almighty God. Paul stood on the deck of that ship which was soon to founder in the storm and he said, “Sirs, I believe God. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, who’s I am, whom I serve”, and so on, “and I believe God”. Nobody’s going to be lost from the ship, just the cargo. He took a position of confidence, an assertive faith is what that is.

Well, how is it with you and with me? The confidence that we have in God probably determines the extent of our spiritual awareness, blessing, and achievement. Said, “He could there do no mighty work among them because of their unbelief”. If you don’t really trust in God, if you have no real assertive and confident faith in God, then nothing much happens, because you yourself have limited what God is able to do in your life. You follow me there? And so, I ask myself and ask you, how much confidence do you have in God?

Oftentimes, during the years when I was in the pastorate, 18 years in the pastorate, I would encourage people to pray in faith, and sometimes some dear, naïve soul would say, “What if God doesn’t answer my prayer, then what”? You have the “what if“ syndrome. The idea that God might let me down, that I might risk everything on Him and then He might not come through with His end of the bargain, as one might say.

Well, there isn’t any room for that when you’re dealing with the Lord. “He hath done all things well”, they said of our Savior, that’s His track record. He never had to say, I beg your pardon, or I was mistaken, I have forgotten. No, He’s perfect. Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ never fails. He says, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee”, so that we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me”. Being confident. Have you got any confidence in God? Now, how much are you willing, how much of life’s destiny are you willing to risk on Him? I think that’s the turning point in many a life.

The three Hebrews certainly had passed that, hadn’t they? They said, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace and He will deliver us, but if not, be it known unto thee oh King, we will not bow down to gold which thou hast set up”. God is able to do it, but even if He doesn’t, we’re going to be true to Him. The passing of the point of no return is something that you and I have to do. How confident are you in God, in the matter of your family? What kind of confidence do you have in God concerning your relationship with husband or wife? Perhaps your husband or your wife is not a Christian and things are difficult, often times rocky and gravelly, they don’t go so well, and you’re wondering, well, is it worthwhile, is it worthwhile to stand up to all of this, this grief just because I’m a Christian? How much confidence do you have in God in that situation?

Or you’re the parents of a teenager and that boy or girl is just now going through the stormy years, where everything you seem to say or do as a parent is wrong. There is, it’s absolutely impossible to please that child, still a child but feeling like an adult you know, and everything you try seems just to be the wrong thing at that time, and you feel like giving up.

How much confidence do you have an God? God didn’t forget you. He didn’t go off the throne this morning, He’s still there. “Being confident”, He said, “of this very thing”. Now why? He says, “That He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”. Being confident, having been convinced in other words, of this, that the one who began in you, the work, the good work, will perform it, will perform it, and that’s a verb epitelesei which means, He’s going to bring it to a planned conclusion, He’s going to bring to a planned conclusion. Bible says, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of good not of evil, to give you a desired end”.

God knows what He’s doing, read John chapter 6 and hear them saying, “He Himself knew what He would do”. You ask a question, how are we going to feed this crowd, but He Himself knew what He would do. “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world”, said Paul in one of his sermons recorded in the book of Acts. So, what you’re dealing with is a God that knows what He’s doing and He’s going to bring His work, His work that is, to a planned conclusion. And at any given point believer, in your life you are in the stream of God’s eternal purpose, and you are part of His eternal plans. It’s great, isn’t it? When it says, “Will perform”, it means, it means bring it to a planned conclusion.

Now, the business world has had to learn this. They have the PERT system, they call it, and other systems of planning work, boiling it all down and simplifying it, it means establishing deadlines for various steps of achievement in a given job. By such and such a date, there will be consensus on what we want to do. By such and such a date following, there’ll be preliminary draft proposals. By such and such a date, there will be written specifications. By such and such a date, the contract will be let, and so on down the line with checks and balances all ways, so that business knows what it’s doing. It’s a pity government doesn’t follow that now and again and check up on things, right?

Anyhow, business has learned that if you’re going to have a conclusion that is satisfying and profitable, you have to plan every step. You executives, men and women who are in management, you know this so very well, don’t you? I’m not teaching you a thing? Well then, don’t you suppose that God is smart enough to do the same thing with you? The God who created you with a brain capable of planning, don’t think He’s intelligent enough to plan for you? Yes, He does and He is planning and you are part of His eternal plan. “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it”.

How long? It says, “Until the day of Jesus Christ”. That is the day He gets you safe home to heaven and the blessed Lord Jesus has said, “Welcome home children”. Oh, what’s involved there? What is involved is that God has started a process that He’s not going to let go of until He finishes what He wants accomplished. Now, that may mean a certain amount of disciplining in your life. It may mean certain experiences that are calculated to teach you a lesson that God feels you must learn, but His ultimate plan is to bring you safely home to glory, to stand you up at the judgment seat of Christ, where you may receive a reward rather than censure from your blessed Lord. “Until the day of Jesus Christ”.

Now, the one thing that you have to settle then is, has God really begun a work in my life? Many people are good church members, but have never been saved, and I receive letters constantly from dear friends who say, at long last I gave my life to Christ, after I’d listen to your broadcast. Well, thank God. The way to do that is to invite Him in, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name”, and He’s waiting to be invited into your life with all of His saving power, and when He comes in, as you receive Him, He forgives and He cleanses and He makes you a child of God, gives you a new nature, and begins then this wonderful work of developing you as His child and as a believer, as a member of the body of Christ. “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”. Now, before time runs out today, let me remind you that the best way to live any given day is to look for evidences of what God is saying to you, and what God is trying to teach you in the experiences that come along.

Ordinarily, we complain and we feel sorry for ourselves on things go wrong, and we oftentimes say, “Why should all this happen to me when I’m such a nice person”, all that, but if you really want to live any given day profitably, do it on the basis of Philippians 1:6, “He which hath begun a good work in me is going to keep on working”. He’s going to keep on teaching, He’s going to keep on guiding, He’s going to keep on cleansing, He’s going to keep on refining until He gets me safe home to glory and He presents me, according to what we read in the book of Jude, “Spotless, faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy”. Would you look at life today that way, beloved? Look at life today from the point of view of what God is trying to do in your life and what He’s trying to teach you as you walk along life’s road.

Well I hope this is been helpful to some who listened. Let Jesus work in your life this very day.

Dear Father today, work, continue to work in our lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!