God Finishes What He Starts

Scripture Text 
Philippians 1:6

Intro: Have you ever started a project you didn’t finish? You may have an unfinished task hanging over your head right now. Sometimes we start a project with the best of intentions, but we don’t finish the job. This is a common problem for many, but it is not at all a problem for God. The bible tells us that God always finishes what He starts! God’s good work in us has three steps!

I. Salvation is the first step of God’s good work in us. Philippians 1:6 (NKJV)  being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. 

 a. God began His good work of grace when He saved us through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. This first step is called justification! Romans 5:1 (NKJV) Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We had to be justified because we were alienated from God because of our rebellion and sin against Him and His righteous character. Our Sin aroused God's anger and wrath against us. But in the fullness of time the bible says in Gal. 4:4-5, when the time was right God sent forth His Son to redeem us who were under the law. Jesus became the propitiation for our sin and the sins of the world.

     1 John 2:2 (NKJV) And He [Jesus] Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Propitiation means to turn away anger or to make reconciliation between God and man. Jesus turned away God’s anger toward us by becoming the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Through His perfect sacrifice, Jesus reconciled and united us to God.

II. Second step of God’s good work in us is Sanctification. Romans 6:12-13

 a. Sanctification means that we grow in holy living in our relationship with God. Romans 6:12-13 ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. ¹³ And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. The believer is to yield the parts of his body to serve righteousness, and he is to let righteousness sanctify him more and more. He is to live righteously and become more and more holy like God. Philippians 2:12-13 (NKJV) ¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. God’s Spirit is working to transform us into the likeness of Christ. Living holy lives each day for God becomes our priority.

III. Third step of God’s good work in us is Glorification. Romans 8:30 (NKJV) Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. 

 a. Glorification used in this verse is of man being made glorious in this life by means of the glorious gifts and graces of God, which are a foretaste of the glory that shall be revealed. When applied to man it always means the progressive act of being made perfect, as God is perfect as in 2 Cor. 3:18 (NKJV) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Our final Glorification will take place at the resurrection of the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 (NKJV) ⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed-- ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18 (NKJV) ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. ¹⁵ 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 by no means precede those who are asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words.

     Hallelujah, one day Jesus will transform our lowly bodies to become glorious just like His body! Philippians 3:20-21 (NKJV) ²⁰ For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.  

Conclusion: In the final glorification, resurrected saints will attain to the glory that Adam and Eve had before the time of the fall. We will be all that God created us to be when He first thought of us and planned our lives. We will be like our Savior and Lord for we shall see Him as He is. We will rule and reign with Christ forever. We have a marvelous future ahead of us and God will continue to work in our lives until He has accomplished His plan for each of us. We can be as confident as the apostle Paul was when he penned Philippians 1:6. “God always finishes what He starts!” Remember you are a continuing work of the Lord until the day of Jesus Christ.

 Invitation:  Right now is your opportunity to respond to the Spirit of God as He calls you to confess and repent of your sins and to ask His Son Jesus Christ to forgive you and save you for His Kingdom. Jesus died on the cross for you so you could be forgiven of all your sins. If there is anything the Spirit of God is pointing out in your life, now is the time to get it right with Him while He is tenderly calling you today.