Sermon Central
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He Who Began A Good Work In You.
Contributed by Edward Hardee on Feb 16, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: Reminding that He which began a good work in us will finish it.
Jeremiah 18:1-6 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: (2) "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My words." (3) Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. (4) And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. (5) Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: (6) "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?" says the LORD. "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!
Philippian 1:6 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;
Introduction
In Jeremiah 18 the Lord tells Jeremiah to go down to the potters house. Here he observes the work of the potter. The man at his craft. He observes the potter in the middle of a project. The potter notices that the project is marred so he “starts over again”. After this the Lord declares to Israel “as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!”
I believe this how we are in the hands of the Lord. He is the master potter and we are the clay working and perfecting us.
It is interesting we use to believe that as little children.
Song: He’s still working on Me
He's still working on me
To make me what I need to be
It took him just a week to make the moon and stars
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars
How loving and patient He must be
'Cause He's still workin' on me
There really ought to be a sign upon my heart
Don't judge him yet, there's an unfinished part
But I'll be better just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands
He's still working on me
To make me what I need to be
It took him just a week to make the moon and stars
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars
How loving and patient He must be
'Cause He's still workin' on me
In the mirror of His word
Reflections that I see
Makes me wonder why He never gave up on me
But He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the potter, I'm the clay
I believe that this is what Paul is saying in Philippians 1:6
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;
being confident of this very thing. The apostle speaks from the depths of his spiritual experience. The good work had been begun in himself, and carried on by the grace of God, so that he confesses (1Co_15:10), ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’ It is the sense of this which makes him confident for the Philippians.
1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
that he which began. – It is God who began this, it is God who set this forth. What God has done no one can stop. No one can separate.
Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, (39) nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God will open doors that need to be opened and close those that we don’t need to walk through.
a good work in you. The work of bringing you to salvation through the Gospel of Christ. The work within you is a true comment on the narrative of the Acts, where we read ‘the Lord opened the heart of Lydia that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul.’
All good gifts come from the father above.
will perfect it (perform, fulfill, complete) (He will do what he says He will do), bring it to a thorough completion.
until the day of Jesus Christ. ‘The day of the Lord,’ or ‘the day of Christ,’ is used by the New Testament writers for the time when Christ shall come to judgment, and the expression is so used on the warrant of Christ’s language (Luk_17:24), ‘So shall the Son of man be in His day.’ There is no doubt that among the early Christians there was an expectation that the day of judgment was very near.
