[0:00] I'd like us to think this morning for a little while of this 19th verse that we read in Philippians chapter 4. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
[0:17] But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now the context, the original context of this particular verse is that the Philippian church has sent help, sent material support, whether money or other goods, by means of Epaphroditus, as mentioned in the previous verse.
[0:41] They've sent it from Philippi in eastern and northeastern Greece to Rome where Paul is a prisoner. And like all prisoners there at that time, he would be dependent upon people supplying his needs.
[0:56] Those who imprisoned him didn't feel any responsibility to look after him or feed him or clothe him or whatever, other than the bare minimum to keep him alive. So anything else that he needed, other people had to meet.
[1:08] Other people had to supply. And some know that we're good at it and others weren't. But the Philippians are showing their love again and again to Paul in how much they support and how much they love him, how much they pray for him.
[1:23] And Paul is saying to them, basically in verse 19 in the original context, he'd be saying, look, don't worry, you won't be made the poorer. I realize this gift will have cost you.
[1:34] Maybe he knows that the Philippian church in its first generation may have been made up for the most part of slaves or of the very poorest in society. It is usually to the poor that the gospel has the greatest appeal.
[1:48] That is the case even today around the world. It is usually those who are in the lowest strata of society in Asia and Africa and other places and so on, who are drawn to Christ.
[2:00] They see one who cares for the poor, one who has an answer to their needs, one who takes notice of them and treats them and their life and their soul as worth just as much as the rich and the powerful and the bosses.
[2:14] So it is a faith that is always, a relationship that has always had an appeal to the poor. We don't know the composition of the Philippian church.
[2:24] We know the likes of Lydia, who was one of the founder members of it, and she was a wealthy woman, but it doesn't follow that everybody else was. So the likelihood is that if this was a particularly generous gift from Philippi, then it would have cost, it would have cost everyone who contributed to it.
[2:47] Those perhaps with more gave more, those with less gave less, but perhaps everybody would have contributed to this and it would have cost them. In material terms, it would have left them poorer.
[2:57] Remember, it's not for nothing that when in the Old Testament people were taught to bring their oxen and their sheep and so on, remember that this was the best of their herds that they were to bring.
[3:08] It was the first fruits of their flocks and herds. It was the best that they had. It wasn't to have any blemishes on it or anything. It was literally a sacrifice. If you sacrifice an oxen at the temple or the tabernacle, then that is one less in your herd.
[3:24] Even if you just sacrifice a sheep or a lamb, then that lamb now has lost its breeding potential. That sheep has lost its producing potential. Whatever you offer, it is costing you.
[3:36] It is a sacrifice. And the implication is that this has been sacrificial giving by the Philippian church to Paul. And so he is almost, as it were, seeking to reassure them and say, whatever you have given me, and it is so truly appreciated, you won't be the poorer for it, because the Lord will supply and make up all your need.
[4:02] God will make it up to you well and truly. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
[4:14] What they had given was a sweet smell, an order of a sweet smell, a sacrifice, a costly thing. Well-pleasing to God. Well-pleasing to God because it was costly and it was given for his cause to his servant to further the gospel.
[4:30] But that's the original context. And that's 2,000 years ago. What can that possibly say to us now? Well, because the truth of what is declared here is every bit as true for us now.
[4:42] God's word is not just dry, dusty, dead old words from long ago. It is a living God. We may not be located in Philippi, but we are still part of the comparatively weak and struggling church of Jesus Christ.
[4:58] We are not wealthy people. We are not millionaires. We are comparatively poor. We are not the poorest of the poor in society. But we are none of us particularly well-to-do.
[5:08] We struggle, all of us, in our daily lives. But whatever we seek to devote to the Lord, God is saying to us here, through these verses and through other parts of his word, you will never be the poorer for what you invest in the cause of Christ.
[5:26] And he's not just thinking in money three times. He's not just thinking in terms of, well, put so much in the collection. Give so much to this good cause or that good cause. You can't buy your way to heaven.
[5:36] What he is concerned with, though, is a heart which is prepared to empty itself, not only of material things, but also maybe of things that it may have held dear.
[5:50] Hopes or fears or anxieties or things that we may claim we are prepared to let go if need be. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
[6:08] As we come to the end of one year and as we look forwards and hope to another, this is sometimes one of the things that people do perhaps have anxieties or trepidation about.
[6:21] What is going to happen in this year? What is going to happen to me? What's going to happen to my loved ones, to my family? What's going to happen about my health situation or my financial situation or my job or whatever it might be?
[6:34] All our anxieties can sometimes come crowding in upon us. And part of what the Lord desires us to do in the gospel, and Jesus teaches this in the Sermon on the Mount as well, is it's not we're just there, sit back in our hands and dangle our feet in the water and let God take up the slack, but rather as we seek to serve and as we seek to give ourselves in his cause and for the furtherance of his kingdom, we should not worry that he is going to leave us.
[7:06] We should not worry that we are going to be left impoverished and helpless. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
[7:20] God is not going to leave you comfortless, as Jesus said to his disciples. And in the original context, that may not leave you as orphans, is the proper translation of that, or more accurate translation of it we might say.
[7:35] Orphans are traditionally amongst the poorest and most disadvantaged people in society. If they don't have mothers and fathers, they've got nobody to look after them. Nobody takes them into an orphanage or takes them under their wing or looks after them.
[7:49] They would be what nowadays we call street children, urchins on the street. They would be driven to crime or scavenging or whatever. They would be attacked if they were caught stealing.
[8:00] They would be the poorest of the poor, nobody to care for. And they would be those who are the most vulnerable to abuse and oppression. Jesus says, I will not leave you orphans.
[8:11] I will not leave you comfortless. I will not leave you without the supply of your need, especially if you are expending it in the furtherance of Christ's kingdom.
[8:21] You can afford to spend yourself for the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he will always supply your need.
[8:33] He will always not only make good your losses, but make worthwhile your investment. One thing we should notice here in this verse 19 is the way that Paul describes the Lord.
[8:49] It is a phrase that he uses also at the beginning of the legend of the Philippians. Chapter 1, verse 3. When after saying grace unto your peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And it has been our Father and so on that he has used before.
[9:02] He says, I thank my God. Why does he say our God? Why does he say your God or the great God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Well he says that elsewhere. But he says, I thank my God.
[9:14] Chapter 1, verse 3. Upon every remembrance of you. And again there in verse 19 in chapter 4 he's saying, But my God shall supply all your need. Why does he say this, my God?
[9:27] I would suggest to you because he is, I'm going to say taking ownership of this relationship. That's the wrong thing because that implies that Paul owns God.
[9:37] That's not what it's saying here. But rather he is acknowledging the reality and the personal nature of this relationship.
[9:49] It's not that he owns the relationship to God. But rather he is owning in the sense of acknowledging it to be his. He is acknowledging this is my God.
[10:00] This is the one in whom I personally have trusted. He is not saying to the Philippines, well you know, I've heard about this other God. And people say that if you trust in him, then you know, he won't supply your need.
[10:12] You know, I don't know myself. But you know, that's what I've heard. And that's what some people would say. Well you know, people do say if you believe that you might get what you need. Or you might have answers to prayer.
[10:22] That's what they say. But you know, I couldn't say that myself. Well, that's not much of a recommendation. A maybe if could be possible. You know, that's not ownership of this relationship.
[10:34] That's not taking it and owning it. The reality of the personal nature of this relationship. Paul would say, this is my God. As though somebody were to say, this is my wife or my husband or my child or my mother or father.
[10:49] This is my home. They would say, this is where I belong. This is the person I belong with. I acknowledge it. Whoever else may or may not believe in them.
[11:00] I do. They are my God to the exclusion of all else. And I have found him to be faithful. I know this because I have found it so.
[11:14] My God shall supply all your need. He is not ashamed to call him his God. Because God is not ashamed to call Paul his child. He is not ashamed to redeem him from his sins.
[11:27] He is not ashamed to acknowledge this is his personal beloved Savior. My God. That's the first thing we need to recognize. Paul is acknowledging the reality.
[11:40] The deep personal nature of this relationship with the Lord. It's not at the distance. It's not indifference. And it's not just maybe it could be.
[11:51] But rather I know it will happen. Because I have always found it to be so. It's my God in whom I am completely invested. If he were to be found a liar, I would be lost.
[12:05] If his word isn't true, I am in a lost eternity. My whole soul and life and body and future and eternity. I am trusting to.
[12:17] I am not going to say gambling. That's the wrong term again. I am rather placing on the strength and the truthfulness of this God. I am, you could say risking, but it's not a risk.
[12:29] It is a certainty. My God shall supply all your need. Now, when it is supplying all your need, another thing we should notice, of course. It's not, we'll grant all your wishes.
[12:44] It's not waving a magic wand and sprinkling fairy dust. And look, everything you want is all yours now. All you have to do is say to God, I want, I want, I want. No, it's not like that.
[12:55] My God shall supply all your need. It's not the same as grant all your wishes. All of us, I imagine, will have had occasions when we have prayed for things.
[13:10] And we have prayed with all the sincerity we could muster. And we have tried to be reverent. And we've tried to be unselfish. And we've tried to think, surely this is a good thing that's honoring to God.
[13:23] And as far as I know, I'm not simply being selfish about it. But Lord, I really, really am praying for this. I'm praying like man and trusting it and asking it in the name of Jesus.
[13:34] And we're trying to do everything right. And trying to exclude all the selfishness and the worthiness from it. And still it doesn't happen. And the reason it doesn't happen is not because God doesn't hear.
[13:47] Or because God doesn't care. Or because God doesn't exist. It's because God on this occasion says no. It's because God says no. I've got other plans.
[13:57] I know exactly what I'm doing. You may not understand why I'm doing this or going this way. It's like if, for example, you were on a journey. And you were short of time.
[14:08] And you jump in a tach. And you say, I need to get to such and such a place by this side. And he takes you a route you don't know. And you think, why is he going this way? And you think, I've been taking for a ride here.
[14:19] I am being completely fleeced here. He's going to take me around and about. And then suddenly before you know what the idea is. He knew the shortcut. He knew the best way to go. He didn't take you the way you wanted. He didn't take you the way you thought.
[14:30] But he knew what he was doing. He brought you there. And the Lord sometimes says no to the things for which we ask. Sometimes the answer to prayer is no.
[14:44] Sometimes it is not yet. Sometimes it is, well, I'm not going to give you this. But I'm going to give you something better. And it always ends up being something better.
[14:57] And I can tell you from personal experience, it may take years. And it may take decades before we're in a position finally to say, actually, Lord, you were right all along.
[15:10] That thing for which I prayed. That thing I thought I wanted. That thing I pled with. And I resented all those years. Why you always said no. Why you didn't allow me.
[15:21] I could never understand it. Because I prayed about it. I wanted to, as far as possible, give glory to you and sell you it. You said no. I don't know why you said no. And then, finally, maybe it becomes clear that actually God knew best.
[15:35] Actually, God was right. It is not, I will grant you all your wishes. God delights to bless his children with the answers to prayer.
[15:46] If it is at all possible or good for them. If it is in line with his will and in line with his intention to bless. But some things will not bless.
[15:57] And some things may prove to be more of a danger, a disaster, or a heartbreak than we can ever foresee. And God may be sparing us from things which he provides us from getting.
[16:12] But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now again, there's another way that could be this.
[16:24] Could have been good. He will supply all your from out of his riches in glory. He could, you know, like the rich men that Jesus saw going into the temple of their abominements.
[16:34] They put something in the temple treasury. And maybe it was a big bag of money. But they had loads. It wasn't exactly leaving them. Eddie the Pura. All their bodies.
[16:44] They put in a little bag. They put in an offering. And maybe it looked rich. And maybe it looked good. But they had loads. So they were not really the Pura. They weren't left with anything significantly reduced in wealth or power or income.
[16:58] But it's not from out of his bountiful store he'll give you a little pittance to get you going. But rather he will supply all your need according to his riches.
[17:10] Commensurate with his riches. When God blesses, oh boy, he really blesses. Out of all proportion. If you think, for example, you know, the parable of the servants.
[17:22] The servants. When the master goes away and he says, well, I'm going to give you so many pounds or talents or whatever. And you look after them. And one that, you know, he makes five talents out of one.
[17:36] And what does he do? He gets five cities to rule. Now, he only had like five pounds or five talents. I don't remember exactly which example it was. But he ends up with five cities.
[17:47] Now, you think of any five cities of your choice. Anywhere in this country abroad. Five cities to rule over, to govern, to administer. It's a big job.
[17:58] It's a huge responsibility. The number of people you must have under you must be huge. The amount of financial budget you must control. The amount of power you must wield must be enormous.
[18:11] Five cities. Another one was made two and he's given two cities. He made two cities. That's a lot to have to rule over and be responsible for. The reward is out of all proportion to the faithfulness.
[18:26] When God blesses, he blesses with such abundance as to blow your mind. We simply cannot conceive. You know, like it says elsewhere in the scripture.
[18:37] I have not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man the things which God has laid up. But I will love him. He shall supply all you need according to his riches.
[18:50] Commensurate with his riches. And not just his riches here, but riches in glory. Now, that doesn't mean we've got to avoid thinking. It's just, yeah, you'll supply according to your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
[19:06] In other words, pie in the sky when you die. But James, you just have to grit your teeth and get on with it here. It's not a case of, oh, it's all going to be hard so long here. But eventually, when you get to heaven, it will all be made right then.
[19:17] It will be abundantly brilliant in heaven. It will be better than anything you could ever ask or think in heaven. But for here and now, God will supply abundantly over and above more than you could ever ask or think.
[19:37] Maybe not in the way you thought. Maybe not even in the way that you asked for. Maybe not in the way that you imagined. But you will have cause if you were honest. And humble enough and truthful enough to recognize, well, actually, yes, look at what the Lord has done for me.
[19:53] What hath God wrought? He has done so much more than I ever dared to ask. My God shall supply all your needs.
[20:04] Just the fact that it's not going to be a wish list doesn't mean he's just going to ration out, eat out the bare survival rations. God delights in blessing. He delights in giving.
[20:16] He delights in giving his children the riches of his grace. It is according to his riches in glory. His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
[20:28] And by means of Christ Jesus. God doesn't tend to pour out his blessings that are directly from him through anyone else other than Christ Jesus.
[20:41] If a man is obsessed with building up his own fortune or his work or his achievements or his career and he's enabled to do that in this world, well, yeah, you can say, I did it all by myself.
[20:53] And he'll have nobody to look to but himself. And as these things gradually slip away again through his fingers, as the next generation of businessmen or sportsmen or celebrities or whatever rise up, you have nobody to put time to, nobody to reinforce his fragile ego, nobody to bless him because he's built his castle on the sand of his own ego.
[21:17] Not on the rock of his salvation. And it will all pass away in dust. God will not pour out his blessings by means of false gods or false prophets or other religions.
[21:28] He will do it by Christ Jesus. Because only in Christ Jesus is there access to the Father. But his desire is to bless with these things.
[21:40] Romans chapter 8, which is the verse 32. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
[21:54] In other words, you know, whatever price God is being costed, whatever price he pays in order to bless us, whatever he costs God to give us the things that we need and the blessings he desires to bestow in this world, it cannot be more expensive or more costly to him than the gift of his only son, Jesus Christ.
[22:15] He's already given that.
[22:45] Supply all your need. But my God, this personal relationship God whom Paul, whom every born again believer down all the millennia since Paul has found to be true.
[23:00] Found to be faithful to his word. He shall supply all your need. And the Christian man or woman can say that without fear of contradiction. He can say he will supply all your need.
[23:12] He may not give you everything you desire. But he will supply all your need. And he desires to give you so much more. And the world then will say, oh, that's not working, is it? He hasn't done this for me.
[23:23] He hasn't done that for me. Look at how this bit of my life turned out. Look at how that bit of my life turned out. So much for your God. Well, what you have to say is, well, did you ask him? Did you go to him and pray for his help with this situation or that situation?
[23:37] Did you ask that he might open up this opportunity? Open this person's heart or change this person's mind? Did you ask? Did you bring God into your decision making at all?
[23:48] They say, well, no. Of course not. Don't believe in him. Why would I believe in him? Well, he's such a bad God. Well, if you don't ask, you're not going to get. If you're not going to involve God in your life and your decision making process, how can you blame him afterwards?
[24:02] If he doesn't do the things that you want, that you didn't ask him. He didn't believe. He didn't help him. It is according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. So many are going to be hurtling towards a lost eternity, defiant to the last, that God has wronged them.
[24:23] The God in whom they say they don't believe. The God in whom they say they're not going to trust. They're not going to do anything for anyone. What's he ever done for me? What he has done for them is everything that they have.
[24:36] Everything that is theirs or that they call theirs in this world. Everything that has ever been good, God has done it for them. Without being asked. Without them specially great.
[24:47] Just because he is a good God. Yes, there will have been bad things in their lives too. There will have been unhappy things. There will have been hurtful things. That isn't God's fault. This world is a fallen world.
[25:01] It is because man made it so. It is because man sinned at the first. Man let the devil lay. Man could not resist. And that's really what sin is about, isn't it?
[25:15] It's not because we needed that fruit that was forbidden on the tree there in Eden. It's just we were told not to. But it was there. How many Christians fall into sin?
[25:28] Not because something is really bad or really good. It's just that it's there. It's there and there is the opportunity. Opportunity. And if the opportunity hadn't been there, they would never have fallen into that sin.
[25:40] But the opportunity is there. So they take it. And then people see them taking that. And other Christians say, well, it's okay for him. Okay, well, I'll do it too. The opportunity is there.
[25:51] That's all there had to be. The fruit hanging there in the tree. And the opportunity was there. But the thing is, we didn't need to break that commandment of God.
[26:03] We don't need to go down the way of the world of flesh and the devil. We don't need to be grubbing around in the darkness for the things that we think we need in this life.
[26:14] We only need to turn to the light and ask, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
[26:24] The Lord has never failed to supply the needs of his children. And I think, well, if that's the case, then we ought to see that being done in the Bible, shouldn't we?
[26:36] Well, do we not? Do we not see the needs of the Lord's people being met? Do we not see deliverance from Egypt? Do we not see water from the rock? Do we not see quails from the wind?
[26:47] Do we not see man from the sky? Do we not see the water that came by the way of the wilderness in 2 Kings here in chapter 3, when all the kings of Israel and Judah and Eden were perishing in the desert for lack of water?
[27:00] The Lord just makes the water come. He makes the water come there by the way of the wilderness. And nobody saw it coming. Nobody realized it was coming. But the Lord provided it.
[27:11] And likewise in 2 Chronicles 20, when Jehoshaphat is about to find the Moabites and the Edomites and all the other nations that are against him, the Lord causes them to turn against each other.
[27:22] He says, you won't need to fight in this battle. I'll fight it for you. You shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem.
[27:35] Five loaves and two fish. Five thousand men were hungry, plus the women and the children. The Lord just fed them. Seven loaves and an unnumbered number of small fish. The Lord feeds four thousand.
[27:46] When Peter needs fish and he hasn't been fishing all night, he hasn't caught a thing. The Lord is cast on the other side of the boat. I'm not looking at the next break and the ships begin to sink with the amount of fish that comes in.
[27:57] Has he not provided for his people? Miraculous catches of fish. Miraculous abundance of wine from water and wind.
[28:09] The Lord not provided. Of course he provided again and again and again and again. Not just the life or death. Oh, they're going to starve to death if I don't feed them. No, why do you care? It wasn't life or death, but it was an acute embarrassment.
[28:22] It would have been. And the Lord delivered from the blind receive their sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The dead are raised. And the poor have the gospel preached unto them.
[28:34] God keeps on supplying the needs of his people. God supplies need. Friend, your greatest need is to be saved.
[28:47] If you already have that need met and supplied, then your second greatest need is to be enabled to continue and to grow and to persevere to the end in that redeemed condition.
[29:02] There is no need in the coming year that is going to be greater than those two. You'll need to be saved. And if you are saved, you'll need to continue and to grow and to persevere with the Lord.
[29:18] Your third greatest need. That's for all your physical requirements and your needs after that. The Lord never fails to provide for those. As Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, If the Lord hadn't provided for us day by day, week by week, we would have starved to death sometime around February if he hadn't fed for us and provided for us throughout this calendar year again and again and again.
[29:46] God keeps on supplying your physical needs. Why do we find it so hard to believe that he will meet your spiritual needs, your greatest need? Why do we say that's a greater need?
[29:57] Because your spirit, your soul, will not die. No matter what happens in this coming year to your body, your soul, your spirit will not die. It is immortal.
[30:09] It will continue for all eternity, either in heaven or in hell. And if there are any other places for the soul, for departed souls, as our confession of faith tells us so succinctly, the scripture acknowledges none.
[30:25] The Bible doesn't know of any other places. It does not acknowledge any other places. That is heaven or is hell. That is what God reveals. Only these two. Your soul and mine will be in one of these two places.
[30:38] It doesn't matter whether we die in 50 years' time or whether we die in 50 minutes' time. Our soul will be in one of those two places. Your greatest need is to ensure that you're in the right place, to ensure that you are with the Lord for all eternity.
[30:55] The greatest need of your entire life is to be saved. The second greatest need, if you are saved, is to ensure that you continue in that state and that you grow and that you persevere in that redeemed condition.
[31:11] All other needs are after that. And the Lord never fails to provide them either. Focus on your greatest need as this year draws to its close.
[31:25] If you are already redeemed, focus on your next greatest need. The Lord will provide these and all the rest. You will never be the pruner for investing in Christ.
[31:41] And even if you think you are, my God, but my God, shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory above the current is Jesus.
[31:56] Amen.