[0:00] Let us consider briefly words you will find in the chapter we read in the epistle of Paul to the Philippians, chapter 4, verse 19.
[0:16] Philippians chapter 4, verse 19. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
[0:33] In this chapter, Paul is noting the occasions in which this church in Philippi had remembered him often in his need.
[1:08] They were probably the most liberal of all the churches founded by Paul and certainly they were the one church above all the others which was the church which was characterized by the gift or the grace of Christian liberality.
[1:33] And as Paul writes this letter to them from imprisonment in Rome, he thanks them profusely for their great kindnesses to him.
[1:47] There were occasions, as we know from Paul's writings, when he refused gifts from churches on the basis that he didn't need them.
[1:59] There were other times, as he says here, when his needs were made by these churches, particularly by the church in Philippi. Philippi.
[2:11] And he also refers to the experiences through which he had passed as he suffered in the name of Christ and for the sake of the gospel of Christ, how each experience varied though it was and reached his own life.
[2:33] He had learned what it was to be in need. He had also experienced times when he was, as he puts it here, when he abounded personally with the evidences of the kindness of other people.
[2:59] And the end product was that, as he puts it himself, whether in need or whether abounding, I have learned of whatever state I am in, therewith to be content.
[3:13] And there Paul is telling us that in the circumstances through which he was made to pass in the providence of God, he recognized the great principle in all that he was passing through, the principle that he was learning, always learning, always having need to learn something from God, whatever the situation may have been.
[3:49] And to that extent, Paul was always a student. And like his master before him, he was learning obedience through the things that he had to suffer and that he had to endure.
[4:07] Of course, as we all know, with a great difference, that there was never any spirit of disobedience in the Lord's heart. That isn't to say that there wasn't a spirit of disobedience in Paul's heart, because he was but a sinner saved by the grace of God.
[4:28] In any case, he assures the Philippian church to whom he writes, he assures them of his own indebtedness to them and his own remembrance of them.
[4:43] Not a day past, he says, but I remember you in my prayer. And so his thanks to them overflows. But there's another line, there's another line along which is thoughts go.
[5:00] And it's a line which is very much a part of the New Testament teaching. And it's this, that not only will he remember them, or to put it negatively, not only will he not forget them for their kindness to him, but the Lord will not forget them either.
[5:21] And as you know, this is one of the great teachings of the New Testament, that our Lord himself unfolded during his earthly ministry, that the Lord takes note of all that is done in his name for those who belong to him.
[5:42] You have helped me, you have met my needs, but my God will supply your needs. You have remembered me, my God will remember you.
[5:58] You have enriched me out of your generosity, my God will enrich you out of the riches of his glory.
[6:09] You have sent to me through Epaphroditus, the Lord was sent to you through his son Jesus Christ. In short, what he's saying is this, God will not fail to meet your needs as you have not failed to meet my needs.
[6:29] and this is one of the great New Testament principles, one of the great New Testament lessons and teachings, one which is embedded in the word of our God, in the word of our Lord.
[6:42] The Lord is not unmindful of the generosity of people towards his own cause.
[6:53] and I think that we ought to remind ourselves of this, not, by the way, not that the New Testament at any time suggests that people meet the needs of others in the name of Christ to obtain the reward.
[7:11] The giving is not based upon the reward that is going to be received. That's not Paul's teaching here. People give out of the goodness and the generosity out of the greatness, the bigness of their own hearts.
[7:27] They give simply and solely because they want to give, not because they want to receive as a result of giving. But the other side of the page is this, that God gives in accordance with what a person himself gives, what a man shows, that shall he also reap.
[7:50] And indeed the New Testament goes further and tells us, this passage goes further and tells us this, that we receive from the Lord's hand in his goodness, far, far beyond what we have been enabled by the Lord to give ourselves.
[8:09] Because he gives our sin according to the riches of his glory. And for a little tonight, today, I would like to look with you at one or two things in connection with this verse and look at it very briefly.
[8:23] First of all, the needs that God meets. My God shall supply all your needs. And secondly, this God who meets them, my God, he says, shall supply all your needs.
[8:38] And then third, the manner in which he meets their needs. My God shall supply all your needs. And the source of this supply according to the riches of his glory.
[8:52] The sphere within which God acts in Christ Jesus and the doxology to which this gives rise. And I want to God and our Father be glory forever and ever.
[9:05] Amen. First of all, then, and very briefly, the needs that God meets. My God shall supply all your needs. Now, he doesn't in any way suggest to us that God is going to supply or God is going to meet your every wish or your every desire but your every need.
[9:23] Unfortunately, we and especially we in Western society, Western civilization, have tended to equate luxury with need.
[9:35] Desire and want with need. Now, Paul doesn't say, and the Bible doesn't say, that God is going to give you everything that you want. There are situations, unfortunately, there are circumstances, and Old Testament Israel learned this to their cost.
[9:51] There are circumstances when God in judgment will give people what they want and as result will bring leanness upon their soul. But Paul here isn't speaking about God meeting the wants of his people.
[10:07] What he's speaking about is God meeting the needs of his people. There's a great difference between what you and I need and what you and I want or desire.
[10:20] And the other thing to note about this word is this, that it embraces the whole of the church's life, the whole of the Christian's existence. Needs are here understood in its two-fold way, material need and spiritual need.
[10:39] Because we are dependent upon the Lord for both. As you know, this is one of Jesus' emphasis in his Sermon on the Mount. He reminded those who are listening to him that the whole of their life was under the government of God.
[10:57] And he drew us, you know, illustrations from nature. He drew the attention of his listeners to the natural surroundings in which they were set. Look at the birds, he says, who meets their need?
[11:08] God does. Look at these flowers. Who clothes them? Who beautifies them the way you see them? God does.
[11:19] Look at the grass. Who brings that grass on? Who brings it to fruition? God does. You remember the application. If God therefore, looks after these things, how much more will he look after your needs?
[11:41] And he directs their attention therefore to this great fact that we are to trust in God for all that we have.
[11:56] He feeds the rovers. He clothes the lilies. And therefore, says Jesus, he will meet your needs. And this one reads why you and I are here today.
[12:09] To thank God for meeting our needs. To thank God for providing for us day by day. For ourselves personally. For our families, our homes, our communities.
[12:23] To thank God for his goodness to others. In a year when many people are complaining because things haven't gone so well with them materially as they had hoped.
[12:41] I know there are times, no doubt, when that complaint may in certain situations be justified. One wonders at the same time how much of it is the product of man's avarice, man's greed, and man's desire, not to have his needs met, but man's desire to have his life abounding with luxuries.
[13:10] So therefore, we meet here to thank God for his goodness to us in providence, and to ascribe glory to one who has met all our needs, who has given us our necessary food and clothing, who has protected us, not because we deserved it more than others, but because he is rich toward us in his mission.
[13:36] my God shall supply all your needs, he has supplied yours materially. There's another side to the word need as well, and it's spiritual aspect.
[13:47] God meets all our spiritual needs. This is borne out, I think, by the words that Paul goes on to use according to his riches in glory.
[13:58] As someone put it, that language is too noble to be dwarfed into a description of the source of mere pecuniary compensation.
[14:09] It impresses far more than the material aspect of our life here. God is rich, and has met our needs, along life's way, and in past days.
[14:25] We needed forgiveness. Who is rich in forgiveness, rich in mercy to all that call upon him? God is. We need spiritual strength, spiritual vigor.
[14:41] Who gives it? God gives it, as the author of all our spiritual blessings. And I'm sure that it is true to say that the older a person gets, the more he and she recognizes their need of these things to enrich their lives.
[15:02] Need more forgiveness, more patience, more strength, more courage, more resolve, more faith, more love, more joy in the heart.
[15:15] And we look today to the only one who can give it to us. My God shall supply all your needs. And then Paul directs our attention to the one who can supply them.
[15:31] And he uses two very interesting words, one very interesting word, this possessive pronoun, my God shall supply all your needs. It's not just God. Paul is far more closely related to them than that.
[15:45] Finds himself far more closely identified to the source of all these gifts, of all these blessings and just to speak to them merely as God or even as Father God.
[15:59] He says he is my God. The God who is going to reward you for your kindness to me says is my God.
[16:10] I can only thank you but my God will do far more than that. And how did Paul come to know him in this way?
[16:21] Well of course we know at the very beginning of a spiritual pilgrimage the God whom he was on the way to persecute through his church. That God spoke to him in a startling way on the road of Damascus.
[16:37] That God as it were invaded his life but invaded his life for the best possible purpose. As he says to this very church, that God he says arrested me, apprehended me, laid hold of me for himself.
[16:53] And through from that day onwards Paul had come to recognize him in an increasing way as his own God. In the realm of salvation. As the one who was receiving from God all these spiritual gifts, all these blessings, this was his God.
[17:13] The God was in control of the world in which he lived. This was his God. The God was in control of his own life. And here he was languishing in prison, not knowing what the outcome was going to be, not knowing whether he was going to be acquitted or condemned to death.
[17:30] And having to say to these people, I don't know what's going to happen to me. If I'm going to continue to live, so be it, I will live for Christ. If I'm going to die, so be it, that will be to my gain.
[17:41] For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. As he speaks like that, he acknowledges that this God was his God.
[17:54] The God who was ordering his providence in this particular way. A providence that was so often perplexing, but yet a God who recognized in his providence as my God.
[18:08] The God of creation, the God of redemption, the God of providence, the God of heaven, the God whom he had come to know as his own, my God, will supply all your needs.
[18:25] I wonder how many of us can speak of God in that way today. How many of us can lay claim to him? Not just as the God who rules and the God who reigns and the God who provides and as we sang here today, the God who is good unto all men.
[18:46] What about yourself today? Can you lay hold of him and claim him as your God? Can you say of him as Paul said of him? My God.
[18:59] As the psalmist said, this God is our God or my God and he will guide me even unto death. God You know, it is one thing as we are to stand at an interested distance from the gospel and from the God of salvation.
[19:21] It is quite another to come within that sphere and by faith to know him and to have him as our own God. The third thing that Paul speaks of here is the manner in which these needs are going to be met.
[19:36] My God shall supply all your needs. Now, this isn't just a case of God meeting your needs.
[19:51] It's a case of God filling up our needs. Remember that passage in the Old Testament in the life of Elisha when that poor widow who had nothing left and was faced almost what we might call a bankruptcy order.
[20:09] Remember how Elisha directed by God met that woman's needs. Bring all the empty vests that you have that you can lay hold of. Bring them to me.
[20:20] Bring them to me. When all the empty vests were brought remember how they were all filled to and flowing out of the very small measure of oil that she had left and she was able to meet her needs had been supplied made to overflow and this is the way in which God gives to us.
[20:42] It isn't just that he meets our needs as we recognize them but as the psalmist tells us he meets our needs as he sees them not as we see them. You and I may have some idea of our need today in the press of God materially and perhaps even spiritually but we have reason to thank God that every time our need is met that is met far beyond our understanding of our need far beyond our reading of our need he supplies our needs he meets our needs to overflowing my God says Paul to them will supply your need will meet them far beyond what you thought of yourself this is what he said to the church in Ephesus that he goes beyond our asking he goes beyond our thinking he goes beyond what we could even think of asking for this is the way in which
[21:50] God does it and fourthly he puts it like this my God just apply all your needs according to his riches in glory not out of his glorious riches that isn't it at all but in proportion to his glorious riches in other words he is as rich in giving as he is in the glory that he possesses this speaks to us of the manner in which God gives together with the source from which he gives in that manner he gives as it were in a glorious way someone put it like this once one enjoys the welcome of a heart which does all that it can there are stories told and you've heard this story
[22:56] I know before often but I think it goes to illustrate the words that Paul is using here there is a story told of a woman in a certain congregation in a communion season to a congregation where hundreds used to gather for a gospel ordinances and in that area there weren't enough homes for all the visitors to go to and it said of this woman that she used to stand at the door of her home and say to the people who came who were passing come in come in I have room for ten in my house but for ten thousand of you in my heart and that illustrates in a very small way something of what Paul is speaking about here you see that woman was giving expression to what was in her heart and she was giving expression to a hospitable spirit that only she could give expression to and this is exactly
[24:03] Paul's point here God gives as only God can that's the point that he's making here no one can give like God gives it is according to his own nature that he gives he gives according to his own heart according to his own mind and according to his own will he gives in the best possible way remember how how dispute in the for example in the song of Solomon the invitation that the king there gives to her bride to come to the feast come eat to his bride and to all her associates to her friends eat my friends yea come eat and drink abundantly he gives my God will supply all your needs according to his glorious riches this
[25:09] God is so gloriously rich in all his being in all that he possesses in himself he has so much resources at his disposal he is so rich that he gives in accordance with what he is himself and therefore no person can measure not only what he possesses in himself but no person can measure the manner in which he gives the extent to which he gives and the amount that he does give and that wouldn't be a bad exercise for you and for me today gathered together here in accordance with our time honoured practice to thank God for his goodness to us in harvest it wouldn't be a bad exercise for each one of us today just to have a look at the way in which your life has been enriched by
[26:18] God if you did anything else and you and I ought to do more if you are to do nothing else but to cast us over a side long glance or a side way glance at the way in which God has enriched your life far far beyond what you deserve far far beyond what you have asked for and far far beyond what you will ever be able to understand or to measure he is as rich in giving as he is in glory in the glorious possession of all his glorious riches I bow my knees to the father of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named who according to his glorious riches is able to and then he went on to petition that
[27:31] God for the things that would enrich the church's life in Ephesus. And this was his great encouragement. He asked for great things for these people, even to this extent, that ye may be filled up to all the fullness of God, that ye may know the length and the breadth and the depth and the height of the love of God which passes all understanding. I ask these things, he says, for you. But then who was he asking them of? A Father in Heaven who was gloriously rich in all the riches that is his bosom and in his giving who enriches his people without in any way impoverishing himself. In, finally, the sphere of his action, my God, you supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by or in Christ Jesus. This is the ground on which God acts. This is the one in whom we have all things. In Christ Jesus. Of course, here is a speaking of the
[28:56] Philippian church, the Philippian believers who are united to God and who are united to one another and united to Paul in Christ Jesus himself. This is where you and I will have our lives truly enriched by the riches of his favour and the riches of his grace. As we are brought into union with Christ Jesus in whom and through whom all these blessings will flow to us. And how significant then?
[29:31] And how significant then? How insignificant then is the glory of this earth compared with the glory of this God. How insignificant? All the power of this earth compared with all the power of this God. How insignificant? All the riches of this world compared with all the riches of this God. And how wonderful then the declaration.
[29:59] declaration all things are used in Christ Jesus not quite naturally opens the doors were for this doxology to him to God and our father be glory forever and ever amen the thought of this paternal care of the one who supplies all our needs leads Paul to express this doxology to this God who is our father be glory forever and ever I wonder why he links the two thoughts together the thought of the the thought of God as the supplier of all the needs and the thought of the father supplying all the needs I wonder why the two thoughts are linked together in this and another doxology is now unto God and our father well perhaps there is this to be said for it anyway this God stands in a fatherly relationship to those who are in Christ Jesus you think of a father's heart at the natural level a father's heart works towards acts towards his offspring in this way there is nothing that will be conducive to their good and to their contentment and to their blessedness that that father wouldn't give but he's limited he's limited because he doesn't have behind that fatherly disposition the power to bestow but this God isn't limited in that way this God is our father in Christ Jesus and as it were speak with all reverence backing up his fatherly disposition are the glorious riches at his disposal as God and this father will not fail therefore to bestow upon all those who are his everything that is conducive to their blessedness to their contentment and to their enrichment this God says Paul is my God and as you and I leave here today can we leave with that question as we gather to thank God for his goodness to ourselves is this God our God as well let us pray we pray for thy blessing your Lord for the knowledge that thou art ours all to thou bring us into that blessed relationship with thyself so that we too could say that thou art our God bless to us our fellowship together in the gospel today and undertake for us and part us with thy blessing continue with us today for those who will gather together in this evening give thy presence we beseech thee go before us now forgive our sins and holy things and accept our thanks for all thy goodness for Jesus sake amen