Let us turn once more to God's
Word and turn to the chapter from whence we read in Philippians
chapter 4 and drawing your attention to words I'm sure that are very
familiar here in verse 19. Philippians chapter 4 and verse
19. But my God shall supply all your
needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. My God shall supply all your
needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. The Philippians had certainly
ministered to the Apostle as we see from what he says previously
at verse 15. Now you Philippians know also
that in the beginning of the Gospel when I departed from Macedonia
no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving
but ye own for even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again to my
necessity they desired to minister to Paul in this fashion they
sought the opportunity as he says there at verse 10 I rejoiced
in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me has
flourished again wherein He were also careful, but he lacked opportunity. They had, of course, a great
love towards the Apostle. He had been God's instrument
in bringing the Gospel to them. We have the records of that ministry
that he exercised at Philippi in Acts chapter 16, and it was evidence of the fact that they
had received that ministry, believed that gospel, the evidence was
seen in the way in which they conducted themselves towards
Paul and the great love and care that they had for him. But in
so ministering to the Apostle, they were really also ministering
to God himself, as he says here in verse 18, he says, But I have
all and abound, I am full, having received of Apathroditus, who
was their messenger, the things which were sent from you, an
odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable while pleasing to
God." Now this was part of their service to God. their ministry
to the Lord Himself in caring for the well-being of the Apostle. This spiritual sacrifice, of
course, is what God desires of His children. Hebrews 13, verse
15, The Apostle says concerning Christ
by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to
his name but to do goods. and to communicate for get not,
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Isn't that
the thing that these Philippians had done? They had done good,
they had communicated of their substance to Paul, it was a sacrifice
that was well pleasing then in the sight of God. But, we know
that the Lord God himself is debtor to no man. And so, with regards to these
Philippians, we read here in verse 19, that, My God shall
supply all your need. They will not be the losers by
that ministry that they have exercised. My God shall supply
all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now, observe here, it's not the
simple future. He doesn't say, My God will supply. No, it's the word shall. There's
determination here. There's certainty here. My God
shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ
Jesus. And it was the end of this particular
verse that came to me with some force only a few days ago one
morning in the early hours as I woke early and lay there and
was trying to think upon scriptures. It was these words that we have
at the end of this text that really came into my mind. His riches in glory by Christ
Jesus. His riches in glory by Christ
Jesus. And so this morning I want us
to consider the latter part of the verse, the glory of God's
riches. And then if the Lord will, we'll
consider the former part of the verse this evening. But this
morning, as you were looking at the verse in the reverse order. And how significant are these
words? Here we have the basis of that
supply that God makes for His children. It flows out of those
riches. It's according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. First of all then, to say something
with regards to the riches in glory. What is the glory that
is being spoken of here? Is it not the glory of that place
where God is? It's the glory of heaven itself. But what is the heaven that is
being spoken of? Why, it is the third heaven. We know that there are really
three heavens. There's the atmosphere around
this planet Earth. When we see the sky, when we
look up on a night, a lovely clear summer's day and see the
azure blue and we see sometimes the clouds drifting in the sky,
there is the first heaven. But then when we look on a clear
night out into the vastness of space and we see the stars there,
we have stellar space there, we see something of that second
heaven. But there is also, of course,
the third heaven that the Apostle speaks of when he writes in 2
Corinthians 12, that he was favored to be caught up into that third
heaven. which is outside of time and
outside of space. It is the presence of God himself. It is the paradise where God
is. And it is God's very presence
there that makes it such a glorious place. The Lamb is all the glory
in Emmanuel's land, says Samuel Rutherford. How true it is. the
heaven of heavens, that place where God dwells outside of time,
in eternity. And what makes it such a rich
and glorious abode is, as I have intimated, the presence of God
himself. The glory, then, is the mystery
of that being of God. Now, we were considering something
of that only last Lord's Day, those words there in Colossians,
the end of the second verse in chapter 2, where he The Apostle
speaks of the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to
the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father and
of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All the truth concerning God
Himself, the glory that belongs unto Him, that great mystery
of the Eternal God, the Infinite God. the mystery of his being. God is one and yet God is three,
the doctrine of the trinity. And we cannot begin to understand
or to fathom the glories that belong unto God. Canst thou by
searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It is high as heaven. What canst
thou do deeper than hell? What canst thou know the measure
thereof? is longer than the earth and broader than the seas, we
read in the 11th chapter of the book of Job. Our God is one. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord. And yet there are three distinct
persons in that great mystery who is God himself. There are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And now, in the course of
the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, we see time and again
so clearly the distinction between the persons when the Lord Jesus
is speaking in those chapters in in John, of the promise of
the Holy Spirit, how that he must depart, and how he will
send the Spirit, he speaks of the Spirit, he speaks also of
the Father, and we see quite clearly in the manner of the
Lord's words, how that there is a distinction between the
persons, and yet the persons, each of them are clearly divine
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There, for example, in chapter
14 of John, and verse 15, he says, If ye love me, keep
my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will pray the Father,
he says. He shall give you another Comforter. Here are three. They are evidently
quite separate and distinct. Again, he says, at verse 26,
the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name. We have three distinct persons. There is that distinction then
between the persons in the God, in the mystery of the doctrine. of God himself, the doctrine
of the Trinity. And our God, the Son, is that
one, of course, eternally begotten of the Father. That is the relationship
between the Father and the Son. The Father begets, the Son is
begotten. When there were no depths, he
says, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled or
the hills were formed, I was brought for Oh, He is that One
who is the eternal Son of the eternal Father. Whosoever denieth
the Son, says John, the same hath not the Father, but he that
acknowledgeth the Son, he hath the Father also. It is John,
of course, who is the One who we see time and again in his
Gospel and in his Epistles contending for that great truth concerning
the eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ, even in that little
second epistle of John, how he asserts that truth again in verse
9, Whosoever transgresseth, he says, and abideth not in the
doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. The Son is that One then who
is eternally begotten. And the Holy Spirit is that one
who eternally proceeds from the Father and from the Son. That's
the relationship. That's the relationship. When
the Comforter is come, says Christ, whom I will send in my name, even the Spirit of
Truth which proceeds from the Father. The Spirit of Truth which
proceeds from the Father. And as He proceeds from the Father,
so He also proceeds from the Son. We read in John 20 and verse
22, as the Lord Jesus breathed on them and said, Receive ye
the Holy Ghost, the Spirit proceeds from Him. That's the relationship.
It is a relationship between the three persons. The Father
begetting, the Son begotten, the Holy Spirit proceeding. And
yet, as we said last time, We're not to think in terms of any
priority or inferiority, but always to think in terms of a
blessed equality. Because each of the persons is
God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There it is in glory that God
reveals himself in all the fullness of his wondrous being. Oh, this
is that glory that is being spoken of here at the end of this 19th
verse. The riches. These riches in glory. The glory that belongs to God
himself. But then when we think in terms
of that place, it's not only where God abides, It's not only
the place where God is all of the glory, it is there in heaven,
of course, that that eternal counsel of the divine persons
took place, that eternal covenant of grace, the mystery, the mystery
of that will of God. That that Paul speaks of here
in the opening chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians. He
says in verse 9, having made known unto us the mystery of
his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed
in himself. All that that God plans from eternity, even there
in heaven. All those spiritual blessings
that he speaks of previously in Ephesians 1 verse 3, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. Oh, here is that great purpose
of God. Here is that eternal covenant
of the grace of God. Now, it's unfolded, of course,
here in Holy Scripture that we see David. David, one who is
such a remarkable type of the Lord Jesus, his very name, David,
the Beloved, indicates that He sets before us something of the
truth concerning His greatest Son, the Lord Jesus. And so what
do we read? Isaiah 55 3, I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Why that eternal
covenant? That that was entered into by
Father, Son and Holy Spirit is referred to as the sure mercies
of David. All the glory of Him. And the
place where that blessed purpose was first made, even in eternity
in heaven, David says, he has made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure. But isn't that the covenant that
was really made with David's greatest son, Christ? An everlasting
covenant, it's ordered. All the detail of it is purposed
and planned. It's sure, it's certain, these
things must have their accomplishment. God will do all His goodwill
and pleasure. Here then we see where that glory
is to be found. It is in heaven, it is where
God is. It is where God purposed that
great salvation of sinners. But we have the revelation of
it, of course, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that what we're reminded
of in the text? It's according to His riches
in glory, but it is by Christ Jesus. The covenant is revealed. The covenant is brought forth
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And how is it revealed? How is
it made known? Well, it's revealed in a two-fold
sense, we might say. It is outward, in that it is
revealed to us in the Gospel, but it is also that that is inward,
in that it is revealed in the soul of the sinner. The revelation
is altogether in the Lord Jesus Christ. The significance of these
words at the end of the verse, by Christ Jesus. We've referred to the words of
Isaiah 55 concerning the everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies
of David, That's what we have there at the end of verse 3.
But how does it continue in verse 4? I will make him a witness
of the people, a leader and a commander of the people. Now, when Isaiah,
under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, is uttering those
words, it is many years since the life and death of David.
David was no more. David had gone to his eternal
rest. And yet, the prophet is speaking
of that that was yet to be. He is not speaking of David.
He is speaking of David's greatest son. He is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he is that one who is a witness.
that one who is the leader and commander of the people. He is that one who is the great
mediator. Of all these things, all the
blessings of God, they come by and through the Lord Jesus Christ. There is one God, we are taught,
and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now observe the order that we
have there in 1 Timothy 2.5. It doesn't say that there is
one mediator between men and God, the man Christ Jesus. No, it says there is one mediator
between God and men. Now it's true of course that
Christ is the mediator between men and God. When we come to seek the face
of God, when we address our prayers to God, we recognize that our
only way of approach is through the mediation of the Lord Jesus.
We look to Him as that One who is the Great High Prince. And
that's how He is said before us here in Scripture. He is that
One who in the fullness of the time comes to make the great
sacrifice for sin, He comes to offer himself. He's not only
the priest, he's that Lamb of God that takes away the sin of
the world. And by his priestly work, he
comes to reconcile sinners to God. But then, having accomplished
that aspect of his priestly office, he rises from the dead, he ascends
on high, he enters into heaven, and there he ever lives to make
intercession. He is our priest, our high priest. He is that one who is our mediator. We implore the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ when we come to pray to God and if we do not
come by Christ we can really expect no entrance, no acceptance
at all. He only is the mediator. But there In 1st Timothy 2.5,
the truth is set before us not so much in terms of Christ as
the mediator between men and God, but only as that one who
mediates between God and men. One God and one mediator between
God and men. All God comes to us, and God
blesses us, in the person and the work of his only begotten
son. He is that one who is the mediator
of the New Testament. It is in the Lord Jesus Christ
that God is pleased to to reveal himself. He is the image of the
invisible God. He is that one by whom we can
know God. That is the wonder, is it not,
of the the revelation that we have when we come to the Scriptures,
when we come to consider the New Testament in particular.
This is that full and that final revelation that God has given
to man. Remember the opening words of
the epistle to the Hebrews, God who at sundry time and in diverse
manner spake in time passed unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Oh yes, God spoke. God spoke in the Old Testament. He spoke by means of visions
and dreams. He spoke by men, by those that
He raised up as seers and as prophets, those who came and
could declare, thus and thus saith the Lord. God certainly
revealed Himself throughout the Old Testament. Ah, but says Paul
there in Hebrews in these last days. In these last days He has
spoken unto us by His Son. In the New Testament we have
the fullness of the Revelation. Christ is there, certainly in
the Old Testament. He is there, is He not, in all
the figures and all the types when the Lord utters those words
to the Jews in in John chapter 5 and tells them search the scriptures
or they were those who were familiar with the word of God but they
didn't understand what that word was it was really a revelation
of God and that revelation only in and through Christ. He is
the mediator. Search the Scriptures, he says, in them you think that
you have life and these are they that testify of life. Why? The Old Testament is full of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But there, what do we have? We
have a shadow. The shadow of things to come,
says Paul in Colossians 2 and verse 17, but the body is of
Christ. We have the shadow in the Old
Testament. Oh, but we have the real substance of all these things
in the New Testament. This is where God has seen fit
to reveal himself. No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
He hath declared Him. Well, this is what Christ came
to do. He's not only that One who is
the great High Priest, but He is that One who is also the true
Prophet of God. He is the fulfillment of all
the prophetic office. Those holy men of God, yes, they
spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God, but now God has
come and spoken in the person of His only begotten Son, the
Word. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth." There is this outward
revealing when we come to consider the Lord Jesus Christ and those
things that are recorded here, particularly in the New Testament
Scriptures concerning Him. All that God does, as He reveals
Himself, is through Christ. My God shall supply all your
needs according to His riches in glory. All the glory of those
riches of God, they come to us by Christ Jesus. We know that all those things
that the Lord Jesus Christ did in the course of His earthly
ministry were ordered in that glorious eternal covenant. Everything according to what
God himself had purposed. His good pleasure. When was it
that the Lord Jesus Christ appeared? Why, it was at that time that
God himself had appointed. Paul calls it in Galatians 4,
the fullness of the time. the fullness of the time. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under
the law. And it was all ordained. It's
ordered in the Covenant. And as with regards to His birth,
so also concerning His death, that also is appointed by God. And the Lord Jesus understood
that. He certainly was aware of that
when the hour was come that he should be received up, we're
told, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. He has an awareness of the purpose
that he has come to accomplish even to make that great sacrifice
for sins. And now we see him there in the
Garden of Gethsemane as he's wrestling with God, as this cup
is put into his hand, this cup that is full of wormwood and
gore, this cup that is full of woes and bitterness, and he must
drink it. If it be possible, he says, let
this cup pass from me nevertheless. not as I will, but as thou wilt. He will do the will of him who
has sent him and finish his work." And in that, of course, we know
that God, God was there, God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto Himself. Oh, that's the great work, is
it not, that the Lord Jesus has accomplished? He has come as
that one who is the mediator and he has come to reconcile
sinners unto God. We have it here in the opening
chapter of Colossians. And there at verse 19, For it
pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, and
having made peace through the blood of his cross. by Him to
reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight."
This is the work that he has done, he has reconciled in his
body in the body of his flesh through death for he has come
to offer himself as that great sacrifice for the sins of his
people by nature sinners are in that state of alienation that's
our condition is it not as we come into this world with those
who are dead in trespasses and in sins you know the language
that Paul uses at the beginning of Ephesians chapter 2 writing
to these Christian believers in Ephesus he reminds them you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins wherein
in time past you walked according to the course of this world according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath even as others." What are we? By nature
we are children of wrath, by nature We are those who are children
of disobedience. That is man's condition, the
natural man. He receives not the things of
the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them
because they are spiritually discerned. All this is the truth
concerning what we are. What a blessing when we consider
the riches in glory by Christ Jesus. That that God has revealed
to us in the Gospel. That that God sets before us. We who were in that state of
alienation, enemies of God. Again, remember the language
of the Apostle in Romans chapter 80 speaks of the carnal mind. The carnal mind, he says, is
enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be. Or there's no possibility, we're
not just really those who are enemies of God, we're enmity
personified. If we were those whose minds were in a state
of of enmity, we're simply enemies of God, why the mind might be
made friendly, but it's not like that. It is altogether enmity. We need a new nature. We need
to be born again. We need a new heart. We need
a new will. This is why those who are in
Christ Jesus are a new creation, a new creature. This is man's
condition, is it not? There is that revelation that
God has granted of his glory, the riches of his glory is granted
us here, granted to us here in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But it's not enough that we have
the outward revelation, that we have the Word of God and we
can read it and we can hear the ministry of that Word. We need
more than that. We need that these things should
be revealed in the soul. And so there must be that that
is inward also as well as that that is outward. God must come
and God must make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory. There is the purpose
of God. He has appointed salvation for
sinners. There are those, Paul says in
Romans 9, who are vessels of mercy. But God must come and
make known to them the riches of His glory. This was Paul's
experience, was it not? He tells us when he writes in
Galatians 1 how he pleased God who had separated him from his
mother's womb to call him by his grace, he says, and to reveal
his Son in him. He pleased God to reveal his Son in me, says
Paul. All there was that inward revealing. That kingdom of God that came
and was established in his soul. And now it must come into the
soul of every sinner How the Lord himself must do
the work, must work all our works within us. Only the God who made
the world is able to make us sinner. We cannot make ourselves.
Only the God who made the world can make the Christian. We can't make ourselves Christians. We make ourselves sinners. for
those who willfully transgress God's holy laws but we cannot
make ourselves believers God himself must come and we must
have that faith that is there for by the operation of God but
here we see how it is the riches of his goodness the riches of
his glory that leads to repentance when Paul writes in the epistle
to the Romans look at what he says there in verse 4 of chapter
2 rebuking some you see he says despisest thou the riches of
his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance God's goodness
God's goodness and the riches of that goodness should lead
the sinner to repentance. That is true repentance. That is that godly sorrow that
worketh salvation not to be repented of. That is that evangelical
repentance. How it is evangelical? Well,
it's that repentance that is joined together with faith. We know that whatsoever is not
of faith is sin. In that sense, faith always has
the priority. We know that Faith and repentance
are those twin graces. We see how the gospel is the
proclamation of those things. Repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. These two go hand in hand. But in a sense we have to recognize
the priority of faith because whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. It is that fate of the operation of God that comes with that gift
of repentance, how the Lord Jesus is exalted, that Prince and Saviour,
to give repentance and the forgiveness of sins. But how God works these
things, it's by His goodness. The riches of His goodness leads
the sinner to repentance, and here we have that rich. those
riches, those riches in glory which are all by the Lord Jesus
Christ and so as God works inwardly
in the soul there's faith, there's repentance, there's the evidence
of these things in prayers to God, in calling upon God, in
crying to God it's all in the Lord Jesus Christ as we read
in Ephesians 3, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence
by the faith of Him. It's all by and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. All the riches that are there
in glory, that's glory that is in heaven itself, the place where
God is, where God unveils His blissful face, and looks, and
loves, and smiles. The glory of heaven, it's the
abode of God. It's that place where God has
purpose, that great salvation, that counsel that was entered
into by the persons in the Godhead, the eternal covenant of grace,
and all that is brought to us and revealed to us in and through
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we've
sought to say something with regards to the basis of that
supply that God will make. Well, I want us, as I said at
the outset, to come back and to consider that former part
of our text in the evening hour. My God, says the Apostle, my
God shall supply all your need. according to His riches, in glory,
by Christ Jesus. May the Lord bless to us His
Word.