GOD'S WORK IN US, AND HIS WAY WITH US

GOD’S WORK IN US, AND HIS WAY WITH US

Philippians 1:6; Philippians 1:19-21; Philippians 1:27-30; Philippians 2:12-16; Philippians 3:20,21

I suppose every reader of this epistle must have noticed that there is very little of what we should call doctrine in it. It is an epistle of experience. The apostle addresses the Philippians, not on the ground of the general facts and truths of christianity, but on the ground of God’s work in them, and I think it was a great comfort to him to be able to write to them on that ground.

In writing his first epistle to the Corinthians he could not address them on the ground of the work of God in them. He had to address them on the ground of the facts and testimony of christianity as it had been developed among them by himself. But when they had repented and judged themselves as the effect of that epistle, he took a different line in the second epistle, and addressed them on the ground of the work of God in them.

So in this epistle to the Philippians. The apostle’s confidence as to them was that God had begun a work in them. “Having confidence of this very thing, that he who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day” (chapter 1: 6). The work of God in souls may be hindered, and a great deal of rubbish may accumulate over it, but it can never be undone or set aside; and God will complete His work unto Jesus Christ’s day.

The nature of God’s work in us comes out in chapter 2: 13, “For it is God who works in you both the willing and the working according to his good pleasure”. I am sure it is of the greatest importance to see what is involved in this. There could be neither the willing nor the doing of God’s pleasure apart from Christ, for it is in Him that God finds “good pleasure”. It is by God’s work in us that we desire that Christ should be magnified in our bodies. Man in the ^[p. 404] flesh is a total failure, but there is another Man in whom God finds “good pleasure”. God gives us the consciousness that there is a Man in whom He finds His good pleasure, and He puts our desires and our activities on the line of that Man, and thus works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. God’s good pleasure finds its eternal rest and satisfaction in Christ. It is not only that there is a Saviour for man at his worst, but man at his best has been displaced and thrown into the shade by Christ.

Saul of Tarsus was an expression of man at his best. Perhaps we can hardly understand such a man, one who never consciously violated a command of God, one who lived in good conscience before God, and was invested with every distinction and privilege that God could give to a man according to the flesh, so that he could say, “If any other think to trust in flesh, I rather” (chapter 3: 4). He excelled every other man, and yet what does he say? “But what things were gain to me these I counted, on account of Christ, loss. But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ” (verses 7, 8). There you see man at his very best, with every advantage and distinction God could give him; yet Paul says, ‘I throw all that aside as worthless because another Man has displaced and thrown into the shade everything that was my boast and glory as in the flesh’.

Beloved friends, it is by the work of God in us that we come into the apprehension of Christ as the Object of His good pleasure. It is an immense thing to see the greatness of Christianity, and to discern that everything centres in Christ! In the very opening of the New Testament, what a variety of divine testimony finds its blessed centre in Him. An angel appears to Joseph to speak of Him; there is also the testimony of the Scriptures to Him; then there was the star — light from heaven: every kind of divine testimony to that ^[p. 405] blessed One. The action of the Spirit, the ministry of angels, the witness of Scripture and light from heaven were all in harmony, and all centred in the virgin’s Son, Immanuel, the Christ of God. If you are interested to think of the pleasure of God, it is an immense thing to find that God has secured good pleasure for Himself in a Man; that is, in Christ.

In the beginning of Matthew, Herod is a type of the man in possession of the earth. He had the throne, though he was only the puppet of a power greater than himself. Man is apparently in possession of the earth, but he is only the puppet of a power greater than himself — the power of Satan.

A fine building in England carries the inscription carved in stone, ‘There is nothing great on earth but man’. Man after the flesh is in possession of the earth, and he hates Christ. As soon as God’s Man came in, the man of the earth, represented by Herod, would have shut the door in His face if possible. Man in the flesh does not want another Man — he does not want a Man of a divine order and of divine character; he would rather be left alone to indulge his lusts. But, on the other hand, we see God’s work in Joseph and in the wise men who came from the east. Joseph — type of the Jewish remnant — received the infant Jesus, and was content to suffer with Him. He went away into banishment on account of Christ being rejected. Then in the wise men coming up from the east we see a figure of the Gentiles coming up to worship the One who was of no account at all in this world. I allude to this as an illustration of how God works in the hearts of men so that they may appreciate what is according to His good pleasure. When the Christ of God came into this world there were those who could appreciate Him, who received Him and worshipped Him and suffered with Him; and that is Christianity in picture.

It is clear that in the first place new birth is essential for this. There is no disposition in man to receive Christ apart ^[p. 406] from being born anew; the natural man does not like Christ; he would, like Herod, kill Him. People think that christian England is very different from Judaea; but man is unchanged — there is not a bit of difference really between the first century and the nineteenth; there is no place for God’s Man in this world, and His rejection and death have proved it. God has to work in man to produce appreciation of Christ. Hence, “It is needful that ye should be born anew” (John 3: 7). There must be a divine work in man, and a work that sets aside everything of man. A man may have been an important man in this world — a prime minister, or king — but when he is born anew, what is the effect? Sooner or later he is compelled to take his place before God as nothing but a lost sinner. All his greatness, his human glory, his fancied moral excellence, come to nothing; he is just a lost sinner under death and judgment. However good he may have been, however religious, however competent, when God touches him he finds that all that he was as in the flesh is worthless; whether moral, religious, philosophic, or whatever it may have been, all is worthless, and does not yield a bit of good pleasure to God.

It is not Christ! If I as a man in this world had the most beautiful moral character it would not be Christ; it would only be the character of a fallen creature — of a sinner. It might be gilded and decorated, but, after all, it would be the character of a sinner; it would give God no pleasure.

God’s pleasure centres in Christ. And in connection with the grace of God we may note two things: a divine work in man which brings to nothing all the pretensions of man, and, on the other hand, the preaching of Christ. These two things are clearly seen in this epistle. When Paul refers to the gospel he speaks of it as the preaching of Christ, “Christ is announced and in this I rejoice, yea, also I will rejoice”

(chapter 1: 18); and again in verse 27, “Only conduct yourselves worthily of the glad tidings of the Christ”. The great thing in connection with the gospel is that it is the ^[p. 407] presentation of Christ; God is pleased to set forth to man by the gospel the One who is according to His good pleasure, and I am quite sure Satan has done and will do his best to obscure that gospel. There are but very few in christendom who have really apprehended the thought that there is an anointed Man in whom God’s good pleasure is found eternally, and in whom every blessing is established for men. But those in whom God has worked the willing and the doing of His good pleasure receive Christ, and rejoice in Him. In the case of Joseph and the wise men from the east, God worked in them the willing and the doing of His good pleasure. His good pleasure was in that blessed One who had come into the world, and these men’s desires and actions all found their centre in Him. In proportion as God has wrought in souls they find their object and pleasure in Christ, because He is the One who ministers good pleasure to the heart of God.

And, beloved friends, it is an immense thing to view the Lord Jesus Christ in this way, for in this way God brings us into the presence of perfection. We are brought from our own imperfection to all the blessed perfection that is found in Christ. We are brought to perfection by being brought into the presence of Him in whom perfection is, and that is Christ. Christians as such are brought to perfection; that is, they are brought to Christ. I am not speaking now of how far this may be true of individual souls, or of the mass of professors, but of what christianity is in its own proper fulness and blessing; it is to be brought to Christ. What is the meaning of the name Christian if it does not mean one brought to Christ? And if we are brought to Christ, and appreciate Christ, and our desires are centred in Christ, have we not come to perfection? Have we not found every moral excellence and beauty in Christ? God feeds His work in our souls by the perfection of Christ; God sets Him before us, and feeds our souls upon perfection: “He also who eats me shall live also on account of me” (John 6: 57).

^[p. 408] God would feed our souls and nourish us on the perfections of Christ. Do you not think that if our souls fed upon the perfections of Christ, and if we knew how to digest and assimilate those perfections into our moral being, we should become a little more like Him? That is how it works. If I am down in my soul, if I am not displaying the grace of Christ, you may depend upon it there is no way of getting me into the right current except by increasing my appetite for Christ. There is no other way, and the work of God in us must be on that line. God works in us to give an appetite for, and appreciation of Christ; He works in us to enable us to feed upon the blessed perfections of the One who is the Object of His good pleasure.

In Philippians 2 He is presented as having come down here, bringing all the grace of heaven and all the perfection of His own Person into this world. And how does He behave Himself? What characterises Him in that place of humiliation? Lowliness of mind, subjection, and obedience. I often think of those words, “They are not of the world, as I am not of the world” (John 17: 6). Beloved brethren, do we ever consider in what way He was not of the world?

Scripture tells us that all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of ^[p. 409] the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2: 16). That is what we are naturally; we are made up of these three defiling things, none of which is of the Father, but of the world. But look at Him, and what do we see? Divine love instead of the lust of the flesh, divine light instead of the lust of the eyes, and divine lowliness instead of the pride of life. He was not of the world. There was not a single feature in common between Christ and the world. People think Christ has come here to elevate man — to add lustre and perfection to man as in the flesh. But how could God bring the character of the heavenly One into association with the character of the earthly one — man in the flesh? They could not be made to touch at any point.

One man is characterised by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; and the other by divine love, and divine light, and divine lowliness. How could these two things be mingled together? Impossible! As a natural man I am a creature of self-will and lust. Could God ever have any pleasure in me? Not a bit. And there was a necessity that Christ should make an end of my history in the sight of God, for if my history had not been closed up at the cross, God could never have blessed me; I must have sunk under the weight of my own damnation into the lake of fire.

Thank God for the cross! The Man of God’s good pleasure took a place on the cross, where He was made sacrificially what we are personally. He was made sin, and bore the judgment of sin, and went into death, so that the whole history of the man of lust and self-will was brought to its end under the eye of God upon the cross. We were under death, and that peerless, perfect One came in love to where sin had brought us, so that our history as in the flesh might be ended in His death. But this was all in view of our being linked up with His perfection, and invested with His beauty before the eye of God for ever, and that we might be set free to feed upon all that moral beauty which has shone out so perfectly in Him.

Young believers are often greatly deceived by things in this world. We read books that deceive and hinder us. The world has its heroes and its great men — men of wonderful abilities and genius — and we may read books that speak of them, and get to admire them, and think highly of them, without pausing to ask ourselves whether God has any pleasure in them. In this way we come to admire moral qualities which are exactly opposite to the character of the lowly and holy qualities of Christ. We need a more distinct breach between our hearts and the world, and men of the world. Think of the gracious and holy character of Christ. He “emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even ^[p. 410] unto death, and that the death of the cross” (chapter 2: 7, 8). That is the pathway of One who yielded nothing but good pleasure to the heart of God. And God causes it to pass before our hearts that we may feed upon it, and thus He works in us the willing and the doing of His good pleasure.

Having spoken thus about God’s work in us, I want now to say a few words about God’s way with us. God not only does a work in us, but He has a way with us. We get a reference to this in chapter l: 19, “For I know that this shall turn out for me to salvation, through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”. God’s way with Paul might well have seemed strange to flesh and blood. He was a special vessel of God’s testimony, the great evangelist, the great teacher and apostle; but instead of being free for his work, he was at this time shut up in prison. Had anything gone wrong? Was Paul discouraged?

In no wise, for he says, “I know that this shall turn out for me to salvation”. He was put in prison, and his career of service in a public way was brought to a close; but he was not a bit discouraged. “This”, he says, “shall turn out for me to salvation”. It was God’s way with him.

I think that we all get some kind of prison. God works in us first, and then His way with us comes in to help. Nothing goes wrong; you may depend upon that. God always makes His way with us contribute to His work in us; and if God’s way with us brings us into straits, it only brings us into a position where our wills are restrained from working, and this is salvation.

In reference to Paul it is with bated breath one would speak of such a distinguished servant of God; but it was the action of his will that landed him in prison; but when God allowed him to be fastened up in a place where his will and activity were checked, he says, ‘It is all right; this shall turn to my salvation’. God’s way with him was preserving him from the action of his own will; and, beloved friends, we shall find that it is so in our experience. A beloved servant ^[p. 411] of the Lord, now with Him, used often to say that if Christians were wise they might discover where their wills had a tendency to work, for it was exactly at that point God would continually check and hinder them. If you find you are always checked and hindered at a certain point, you may depend upon it that it is a point where your will has a tendency to work. You would like to go in that direction, but God says, No! And why? Because He wants you to be saved. What does salvation mean? It means deliverance from all the power of evil; and I do not know anything more evil, or that I dread more, than my own will. Salvation in a practical and experimental sense is found in being set free from our own will, so that we do the will of God. A saved man is one who finds pleasure in the will of God, and does His will. If there was a man in this world who always kept the sentence of death upon his own will, and always did the will of God, God could point to that man and say, ‘That is a saved man’. All checks and discipline of the pathway turn to our salvation in this way. We need not be frightened at God’s ways with us; we need not be discouraged at all. It may be we are in prison. Perhaps you do not know what my prison is, nor I yours; but in the course of God’s ways with us we have to pass through circumstances which check the action of our wills, and we cannot escape their effect. God brings these things in to check our wills, and thus to bring to pass our salvation. He thus delivers us practically from the action of that which really belongs to a lost creature.

Another thing comes in in connection with this, and that is prayer. Prayer means that there is a want in the soul, a demand for something from God, and it is consistent with God’s way with us that He allows the demand to arise before He gives the supply. The supply is there before the demand arises, but God does not vouchsafe the supply until the demand arises. I suppose every Christian has known what it was to be in circumstances where there was a real ^[p. 412] demand in his soul for succour from God. It is at such a moment that we realise the true meaning and value of prayer. It is all very well to talk of God’s grace being sufficient for everything, but it is another thing to realise that we cannot get on without Him. It is then that we understand what prayer is. How beautiful is the apostle’s language here! “Through your supplication”. Not ‘through my supplication’, but “through your supplication”. I think it is beautiful how he regards these Philippians as being in partnership with himself. In the early part of the chapter he thanks God for their “fellowship with the gospel, from the first day until now”; and when he says, “Through your supplication”, it is as much as to say, ‘I know you will pray for me, that Christ may be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death, and this is what I desire’. They were partakers of the same grace that was in Paul. He was at the front, the special target for the enemy’s power, but the reserves at Philippi were supporting him with their prayers. Both he and they felt the need; there was the demand and the supply — the “supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”.

Now see how this works out. The Man of God’s good pleasure has been rejected from the earth and set in glory at God’s right hand, and God works in His saints in this world, and by His gracious way with them He brings them to feel the absolute need of divine support, so that God’s good pleasure may be worked out in them. They are in the line of God’s good pleasure, and they feel the need of the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in order to work it out. They pray, and then the supply comes. If we are to be here for God’s good pleasure, it is not by making efforts and stirring ourselves up that it will come to pass. Confessing failure and resolving to do better for the future is not sufficient. Nothing will put us in the line of God’s good pleasure but “the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”. We must have a fresh supply for the necessity of the day, or the hour, or the minute; and how infinite is the supply available ^[p. 413] for us. Through that supply we get inward support. That is the first effect, as it was with the apostle in 2 Corinthians 12. He prayed three times that the Lord would take away the thorn. But the Lord said, “My grace suffices thee; for my power is perfected in weakness”. He says first, “My grace suffices thee”. By this I understand that the Lord would give Paul such a supply of His grace that Paul would be content to be reduced to nothing by the thorn; and then when Paul was so inwardly supported that he was content to be reduced to nothing, Christ’s power would tabernacle over him, and accomplish infinite results through his weakness. Having this wonderful supply the apostle could say, I “will ... boast in my weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me”.

Then there is support outwardly, as we get in the end of the chapter in Philippians. “And not frightened in anything by the opposers, which is to them a demonstration of destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God” (chapter 1: 28). The thought of salvation here, and in fact all through the epistle, is that we are for the good pleasure of God. Delivered from the working of our own will and from all that is evil in the world, we are for the good pleasure of God, and the power of God’s salvation keeps us in the presence of our adversaries, We thus have the power of God, not only for inward support in our own spirits, but also for outward support, so that the adversaries around are not able to crush or dismay us, or turn us aside. The salvation of God is with us, and that is a very great thing.

God works in us so that we may appreciate what is according to His good pleasure; that is, that we may appreciate Christ; and then by His way with us He practically sets aside the activity of our own wills, so that through prayer we may receive the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and in the power and grace of this be here for His good pleasure. Then there is response to God according to chapter 2: 12, 13, “So that, my beloved, even as ye have ^[p. 414] always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both the willing and the working according to his good pleasure”. It is by God’s work in us that we are found in harmony with His way with us, and the result is that we come out in the blessed character of Christ, and respond to God in love and lowliness and subjection and obedience. We are set in our mind and affections for the will of God. We work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We refuse to be diverted from that which is pleasing to God. Nothing could divert Christ. Nothing could induce Him to take a single step for Himself; He was always controlled by the Father’s will. We can only enter upon such a path in the spirit of fear and trembling, because we are conscious how liable we are to be diverted from it. We do not need to fear and tremble because of the difficulties and opposition around us, but because we are sensible of our own weakness. We fear and tremble because of what we are, and so long as we do so the mighty power of God’s salvation will be with us.

In the path of God’s will we realise that all that is of ourselves is a snare and a hindrance, and that obliges us to go on in fear and trembling and in constant dependence upon God. Because if we get out of the place of dependence we lose the secret of power, and fail to work out our own salvation.

Salvation will not be complete until we get our glorified bodies, and so we read that “our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens, from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory, according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself” (chapter 3: 20, 21). That is the triumphant finish of the work of God in us; He will give us glorious bodies like the body of Christ. It is a great principle with God never to set up again a thing that sin has ^[p. 415] touched. That which sin has touched is defiled for God and it must go. Sin has touched our bodies and made them a “body of humiliation”, but when the Lord comes these bodies of humiliation will be changed in a moment, and we shall have instead a house out of heaven, a spiritual body, a body that never has been and never can be touched by sin, a body like unto the glorious body of the One who is at God’s right hand. The power by which Christ will subdue all things unto Himself will bring it about. Christians have already come under that subduing power morally as to their minds and spirits, and when Christ comes, the body of humiliation, the body that has been touched and dominated by sin, will be replaced by a body of glory — a body suited to new-creation scenes and heavenly associations and relationships.

May God enable us to see more clearly the nature of His work in us, and of His way with us, so that we may be more spiritually diligent in working out our own salvation, while we wait for complete salvation out of the scenes and circumstances and condition where sin has been!