“Masterwork”
Question: What is God’s Greatest Work?
Philippians 1:6
By: Rev. Stephen J. Fuller
Introduction:
There is a lovely, chorus that we like to sing to the Lord in church every once in a while called “He who began a good work in you” by Steve Green:
He who began a good work in you
Will be faithful to complete it
He'll be faithful to complete it
He who started the work
Will be faithful to complete it in you
If the struggle you're facing
Is slowly replacing
Your hope with despair
Or the process is long
And you're losing your song
In the night you can be sure
That the Lord has His hand on you
Safe and secure
He will never abandon you
You are His treasure
And He finds His pleasure in you
He who began a good work in you
He who began a good work in you
Will be faithful to complete it
He'll be faithful to complete it
He who started the work
Will be faithful to complete it in you
If the struggle you're facing
Is slowly replacing
Your hope with despair
Or the process is long
And you're losing your song
In the night you can be sure
That the Lord has His hand on you
Safe and secure
He will never abandon you
You are His treasure
And He finds His pleasure in you
God is at Work in Nature
When we look out upon creation, and take time to observe not only the world we live in, but the vastness of the universe as well, we come away with an incredible sense on “awe” about how much planning and building it has taken over time. No matter what theory of creation you follow, eventually you always end up with God. It is impossible to conclude any other notion than this, God is at work in Nature! But as great a work as nature is, whether it is summer, winter, springtime, or harvest as the old hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” says, God is at work. Yet, even though God is working in this world, it is not His only work, and it is not His “Greatest” work.
God is at Work in Nations
When we look over all of the things that have occurred in our nation and around the world over the last 30 to 40 years, it is not difficult to believe that God is at work among the nations of the world. David said in Psalm 75:7, “But God is the judge: He putteth down one and setteth up another”. That’s exactly what’s been happening isn’t it? In His sovereignty, God has given us Presidents, Kings, Queens, Prime-Ministers, and Governors. They have come, and they have gone, but one thing has remained constant, the Lord God Almighty. But as great a work as God has done with the nations of the world, it is impossible to conclude any other notion than this, God is at work within this world. Yet, even though God is working in this world, it is not His only work, and is it is not His “Greatest “ work.
God is at Work in His Church
When we look over His church, there has never been a day when the Church has been more under attack by it’s “friends” as well as it’s “enemies” than today. Volumes, and I mean “Nasty” volumes have been and are continuously being written about the church and in particular about it’s “Social Consciousness”. Yet when it is all said and done, and you line up all these people from head to toe, Jesus Christ’s Church will go on - for the gates of Hell will NOT prevail against it! But as great a work as God has done with the church, it is impossible to conclude any other notion than this, God is at work within His church. Yet, even though God is working in His church, it is not His only work, and the church not His “Greatest “ work.
…so if God’s Greatest Work is not Creation, and it is not Nations, and it is not His Church…then what is God’s Greatest Work?
God’s Greatest Work
The Greatest Work that God is doing today is not the work he is doing Nature - great as it is; not is God’s Greatest Work what he is doing in Nation today - great as it is; nor is God’s Greatest Work what he is doing in His Church today - great as it is. For you and me personally, the Greatest Work that God is doing today, is the work that he is doing in your life and in mine, and that is what God’s Greatest Work is and that is very personal!
Now when the Lord Jesus prayed His great prayer in John 17:4, he said, “I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do.” That work was the work of making possible your redemption and my redemption.
When Peter met with the early church council in Acts, 15, he said, “God is taking out of the world a people. He is not repairing the world, He is not “fixing it up.” God is taking out of the world, a people for His name.
Paul says in Philippians 1, that God, who has begun this work of redemption in our lives, will continue it until the day of Jesus Christ. And I believe that! That’s the only hope I have - that God doesn’t start us and then drop us. God doesn’t start us and say, “You didn’t last through the day! You’re all done!” I don’t believe that! God begins a work in us and then He continues it until the day of Jesus Christ.
God is Working through His Word
Now the Work that God is doing in relation to man today, He is doing through His Word. And that is what make this day, the hour, this second of tremendous significance. The work that God is doing He is not doing through imaginary visions or writings in the sky. God is doing His work through His Word. That is the only way that God has of doing it. He could do it through angels. He could do it through Microsoft, but He doesn’t. He is doing it through His Word. I stand in awe at times when I read in God’s Word what He says about Himself and about His greatest witness, His Word. In Psalm 12:6 He says “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” We read in Psalm 19:7, “The law of the Lord is perfect…” Who would dare to day that today? The Word of the Lord is a pure Word, the Word of the Lord is a perfect Word. Psalm 119 declares, “Thy Word is very pure: therefore they servant loveth it.” And moving ahead to Proverbs 30:5, “Every word of God is pure…” So here is a Word that declares of itself that it is pure and perfect.
As we read further we note that added to the purity and the perfection of God’s Word is another great quality: Stability. Ages change, men change, governments change, churches change, times changes, things change. Is God caught up in this? Do we need a new Bible in the middle of the twenty-first century? The Psalmist didn’t think so. Looking again at Psalm 119:89, “Forever O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven.” And in the same Psalm 119:144, “The righteousness of Thy testimonies is everlasting…” And in verse 152, “Concerning Thy testimonies, I have known of old that Thou hast founded them forever.” As we head toward the New Testament, we stop at Isaiah 40:8, where we read, “The grass withered, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand forever.” Arriving in Matthew’s gospel, we hear the words of the Lord Jesus, who stepped out of heaven and came to earth and knew all about God because He is God, knew about the Word of God, and knew about you and me. We hear our Lord declare in Matthew 24:25, “Heaven and earth shall pass away but My words shall not pass away.” So here is the Word of God affirming of itself that it is a pure Word and a stable Word, a Word that knows no change. If time goes on for 100 years or 200 years or 300 years or 400 years, the unchanging God has given to us an unchanging Word; and it will always be up to date and ahead of us. ALWAYS!
The Word is God - Breathed
Now immediately someone asks, “Well how did we get this Word?” What process did God pass through to get the Word to us?” Let me explain so that you will not misunderstand? We believe that first of all, as we read in 2 Peter 1, God chose “holy men.” When He had chosen these holy men, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Dr. Luke, Peter, and all the others, what did God do? Peter said that when theysat down to write, “they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21) so that they did not write from themselves but from God.
When some body comes along to you and says, “Oh yes, I know you think that God dropped the Bible on a golden cord.” You say that you never heard that in you life! It was never taught in our house of God. We teach that the Word God was given to us first of all by holy men as God “breathed upon them.” Let us see what God said to young Timothy. This is important to understand. What you know and remember about the Word of God will determine the way you treat the Word of God and the way you use the Word of God. In 2 Timothy 3:16 we read, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…” New the root word “inspire” that is used here is an intriguing word. It means to “breathe into,” or to :breathe upon.” Imagine, God, by the moving of the Holy Spirit, breathed out His Word and breathed it into these men. So the Word of God that I hold in my hand is a “breathed-out” Word - breathed out by God Himself. Believer, you are going to be teaching people and speaking to people, helping them along the road of life in every area. You will have to have an authoritative Word. God has given you an authoritative Word, His own breathe-out Word.
My friends, on His Word I stand. And this is not a popular stance today because this is a day when all authority is being questioned. We look at the president and immediately start searching to see if he fouled out in the fourth quarter of a high school basketball game. A doctor has to go and protect himself against the men whom he saved, but would no destroy him. Everybody is under fire today, and I remind you that the Word of God has been and is under fire, and when the fires have cleared away and all the smoke is gone, the Word of our God has stood the tests of time, and will stand forever. How thrilling it is to think of the Word of God, how it came to us, a God-breathed book, God’s Holy Bible, light divine, its pages gilded by a glory majestic as the sun.
The Word of God Saves Us
Now the question is what does the Word of God do? Why is it so important? Does God just give us book so He can say, “well I gave them the book; they’ve got a book?” Is that why God gave it to us, or does God have a purpose in the giving of His Word? Let us address this question. Go to 1 Peter 1:22 and mark what is written. “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” Peter is writing to believers and is saying “love one another:” And he says, “I’ll tell you how it happens that you can love one another: You can love one another because something happened to you.” What’s happened to believers? We’ve been born again, born again “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever;” says 1 Peter 1:23. God picture His Word in amazing ways. Jeremiah says, ?”Thy Word is like a hammer.” I have seen it hammering away at hearts. And he says, “Thy Word is like a fire.” It warms our hearts. And now Peter says the Word of God is a seed. A Seed is different. They Word of God identifies a seed as that which communicates and has life in itself. The Word of God, the Bible, is a life-communicating book. Men are born again by receiving the Word of God. You are saved because you received the Word of God. That’s how you are born again. You are not saved trough fuzzy feelings, emotional experiences. Show me where the Bible says that. Men and women are born again by receiving the Word of God. The written Word of God tells of Jesus Christ, the living Word of God. The written Word of God tells of Jesus Christ, the living Word of God. And the only way that man knows about the Lord Jesus Christ is through the written Word. You don’t find it in “Popular Mechanics,” “Cosmopolitan,” or “Better Homes and Gardens.” You find it in the Word of God. That is where the Word is found by which we are born again.
The Word of God Feeds Us
We are born again by the Word of God. But that is not all. You do not have babies and not do anything with them. I read this quote somewhere,”…it is as important to feed the babies as it is to have them.” And he’s right, you know. Now how is a spiritual baby that is born again and brought into the family of God going to be fed? The Bible tells us that the food for the spiritual man is the spiritual food of the Word of God. When a man or a woman is saved and then never hears the Word of God, his or her spiritual life becomes anemic and weak and ordinary and flat. I saw this quote on a Church marquee recently, “…how can you be ordinary when you serve an extraordinary God?” We are interested in God’s children growing, and that is why we teach the Word of God the best we can, and have our teachers teach the Word of God as best they can, because the Word of God is the food of God. Jeremiah said, “Thy words were found and I did eat them and they became as honey and meat and milk to my soul.” The Word of God divinely given to us is the Word that delivers life to us, communicates life, and having communicated life to us, it strengthens our life.
The Word of God Directs Us
Now go to Psalm 73. This is a Psalm where a man looks out upon social injustices, social inequality, and he is angry at life because of what he sees. He is a man of faith, and he just doesn’t understand what he sees. He sees the “haves” and the “have-nots” of the world. There are the people who have everything and the fold who don’t have anything. He can’t understand what is happening. And then he begins to think, and he realizes all that he has in God. In ver23 He declares, “I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel (that is, with Thy Word), and afterward receive me to glory.” So now this Word of God that gives us life and builds up our lives becomes for us a life-directing Word. I need this, I am glad that when the Lord saved me and brought me into His family and gave me His Word, He said, “I have given you my Word to direct your life.”
Did you know that in setting down life principles, the Bible doesn’t leave anything out? You cannot name an area in your life but what God in His Word has given principles relating to that area. This includes principles for our homes, for families, for husbands and wives, for children, for our jobs and businesses, principles for dealing with the pressures, disappointments and sorrows of life. The Word of God is the most important way of helping us find our way in a world that has lost it’s way. Men search the answers that will help them find their way, but they fail because they do not look to God for truth and direction, the Truth and Direction found in The Word of God. God has given you and me a Word that is Stable, a Word Inspired, a Word that is Saving, a Word that is Nourishing, a Word that is Life-Directing, a Word that is Pure, and a Word that is Perfect. No other Word has ever declared itself Perfect, and has proved it over time. What of Work if God doing in your life? Are you in need of some direction? Why not let the Word of God, do the Work of God in your life?! It is all about letting the “master…work”