Let me turn, brethren, to Philippians
chapter 4. Let's go to the Lord before we
begin. Our God and our Father, we trust Your holiness, trust
Your wisdom, Your power, And Father, we depend entirely
upon You. Lord, we pray that You will be
merciful and be gracious to our brethren who are in great
heaviness. Lord, we know that You and judgment
afflict your people. We know that you do so according
to your faithfulness. We just ask you, Lord, to preserve
us. Make us to sometime see the good that you're working for
us. Increase our faith to rest in
Christ. Make us to see the vanity of
our flesh and everything in this world. We thank You, Lord, that You
have indeed provided full salvation in Your Son, that You've given
that to Your saints freely. Lord, make us look up. Forgive
us our sins and be with us, Lord. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Philippians chapter 4. We are
going to read just a little here before we get to the bulk of
our text. Our subject is contentment. Begin here in verse 10. Paul
says, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last
your care of me hath flourished again, wherein you were also
careful, but you lacked opportunity. Paul was in prison as he writes
this, and the church at Philippi had sent some sort of a gift
to Paul. They sent Epaphroditus, their
pastor, with a gift for him. And who did Paul give the glory
unto for this? He says, I rejoiced in the Lord
greatly. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly.
Paul knew that it's Christ alone who sustains his people and works
good works in his people, gives them a willing heart to believe
Christ and to be cheerful givers. And so he rejoiced in the Lord
greatly. Now this is important to note
because Paul here is going to speak about being content. Now
this was Paul's contentment. He knew it's Christ who works
in his people. He knew it's the Lord Jesus that
preserves His people and works in His people. It's Christ who
provides exactly what we need when we need it. He knew that. So Paul was content when his
brethren did a good work. And we're going to see here that
he trusted that Christ had worked it. That's why he was content.
That's why he rejoiced. But he was also content in the
season that they did not send him a gift. Because he trusted
Christ was preserving them. He trusted Christ had begun a
good work in them and he would finish it. Paul is doing here
what he told us to do in the passage before. He is thinking
on these things. If there be any virtue, any fellowship
of the Spirit, He had that with his brethren. He told them they
were in his heart. And he's thinking on these good
things in that season. Verse 15 shows us, they sent
Paul gifts at the beginning. They supported him in the beginning.
And they did so repeatedly. It says in 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 you only. For even in Thessalonica
you sent once and again unto my necessity." But then it seems
that for a season they didn't communicate any gifts to Paul.
But now they had done so again and they did it abundantly. And
so he said, verse 10, "...now at the last your care of me hath
flourished again." You see there, there's a season that they did
it in the beginning, then there was a season they didn't, and
then it flourished again. But Paul lets them know he understands. He said in verse 10, at the end,
he said, wherein you were all so careful, but you lacked opportunity. Paul let them know that he believed
they desired in their heart to help him. They had the same heart
of love toward him in that season when they didn't send him a gift.
That's what he believed. It was either due to the distance
he was from them or due to their lack of ability at the time. But whatever it was, he was content
that the Lord was keeping them, the Lord was providing for them.
Now he indeed, he rejoiced in the Lord when they did send him
a gift. He says down in verse 17, not because I desire a gift,
But I desire fruit that may abound to your count. I desire fruit
that proves that the Lord is really working in you, that you
face genuine faith. Paul was content though that
the Lord was keeping them. Even in that season when they
didn't send him anything, he was content. The Lord is ruling
the hearts of his people, has us hedged about. He's keeping
his people. And Paul was content with whatever
the Lord provided for him. Look here in verse 11. He said,
not that I speak in respect of want. Paul never asked for a
gift. God's faithful preachers are
not solicitors. Paul never saw himself as wanting
or lacking anything. He said, for I have learned in
whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how
to be abased And I know how to abound. Everywhere and all things,
I'm instructed both to be full when I'm empty, when I'm abased,
I'm instructed to be full in Christ. And to be hungry. When I abound, when I'm full,
I'm instructed to be hungry for Christ, even when I have plenty. Both to abound and to suffer
need. Now Paul here, he's not boasting
in his ability. Who taught Paul this? He said,
I've learned it. Where'd he learn it? How could
Paul be content and do those things? How could he be content
when he was abased or when he abounded? Whatever state he was
in. This is contentment. Here's contentment. True spiritual contentment. Verse
13, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
That's how he was content when he was abased. That's how he
was content when he was full. That's how he was hungry when
he had plenty. That's how he was full when he had little. He knew
through Christ being his strength and strengthening him, his grace
was sufficient. Contentment is knowing in spirit,
it's knowing in spirit and in heart that Christ is our strength,
providing exactly what we need at all times. That's where true
spiritual contentment is. You have Christ, you believe
Christ, you know He is in control of everything and He's providing
exactly what you need at all times, when you're abased or
when you're full. Now I want to look at this in
a couple of ways. First of all, Paul said, I've
learned. I have learned. I have learned. Our Master taught Paul this.
Our Savior, our Redeemer taught Paul this. And you know he taught
Paul this from his own experience as a man. Christ taught Paul
this having God, having come down and taken flesh and experienced
what his people experienced. He taught Paul this from experience.
You know, as head of his people, our Lord walked this earth with
perfect contentment. Perfect contentment because he
had perfect faith in the Father. None of God's saints, none of
us will ever be able to say we have perfect contentment. far too often our sin nature,
we're discontented with the weather. That's sin. That's murmuring against God.
So we can't ever say we have perfect contentment. We can't
approach God on anything we've done and stand in it and think
we're going to be accepted because of that. But our Savior walked
this earth in perfect faith, representing His people, and
because He had perfect faith in the Father and all His promises,
He walked in perfect contentment. Turn over to Psalm 16. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking in this psalm. This is the psalm where He says
to the Father, if you see there in verse 10, Psalm 16 verse 10, This is the psalm where he said,
Thou would not leave my soul in hell, neither would I suffer
Thine Holy One to seek corruption. You remember on the day of Pentecost,
Peter said, David spoke of the Lord. He spoke of Christ. That's
Christ speaking. That's Christ speaking. Peter,
I mean, our Lord, now I want you to consider this now. Our
Lord was despised and rejected of men. He was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. Real sorrow, real grief. Our Lord Jesus didn't have a
place to lay His head. He made everything. He's God
who made it all. And yet when He took the place
of His people as a man, He didn't even have a place to lay His
head. Even in the midst of suffering
rejection of men, in the midst of being despised by men, not
having a place to lay His head, even when facing the cross, our
Lord Jesus had perfect contentment. You're talking about knowing
how to be abased and how to be full, how to be... At whatever state you're in,
Christ had it in perfection. Because He had perfect faith
in God the Father, and in His promises, and in His full provision
for it. You see, Christ Jesus is the
perfect faithful one who represented His people. Now listen to this
Psalm and let's hear it. I want you to read from verse
5 down to verse 11. I want to hear our Lord's perfect
contentment and where it was, where it came from. Verse 5,
the Lord, speaking of His Father Jehovah, the Lord's the portion
of mine inheritance and of my cup. my inheritance to come,
and my cup right now, the Lord's my portion. Thou maintainest
my light as contentment. The lambs are fallen unto me
in pleasant places, whatever befalls me in this life in providence. Yea, I have a goodly heritage.
I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel. My reigns also
instruct me in the night seasons. Now here's, listen to this contentment. This is contentment through perfect
faith in the Father. Verse 8, I've set the Lord always
before me. Because He is at my right hand,
I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and
my glory rejoices. My flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, in the grave, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One
to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life in Thy presence." Our Savior knew. He said, God is with me.
I'm not alone. God's with me. In Thy presence
is fullness of joy. And He knew the Father would
raise Him at last. He said, and at Thy right hand
there are pleasures forevermore. That's contentment. That's perfect
contentment. And then He went to the cross.
And our Lord Jesus bore all the sins of His people, including
all our sins of discontent, all our murmuring that we don't
even recognize when we say, man, it's hot. That's discontent. Not to mention, you know, we
can be a lot. more discontent when something's
really painful, but even the little discontent is sin. He
bore all the sin of all His people and put it all away and made
us stand before God in Him as perfectly righteous, perfectly
faithful, perfectly content with everything God's doing, so that
God looks at His people and says, I'm well pleased with them. That's what Christ accomplished
for us by His faith and by His contentment. Brethren, none of
us will ever be able to stand before God based on our contentment
of heart, just like we can't stand based on any of our works,
period. We have the sin, our sin, we
have unbelief, we have discontentment of our flesh mixed with the contentment
we have in the inner man. But we have a Savior who had
perfect holy contentment because He had perfect holy faith in
the Father. And in Him, in Him alone, we've
been perfectly faithful, perfectly righteous, perfectly content. Now secondly, Christ knows our
need and He is our strength. Because He walked where we walked,
He's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows
the weakness of our flesh. He knows our every need, and
He's all our strength. All our strength. You know, I
wish we could get that. When Christ said, without me
you can do nothing, that leaves nothing out. He meant everything. He meant, you can't do one thing
without me. You can't bat your eye without
me. And you can't do anything spiritual
without Him. Christ learned obedience by the
things which He suffered. That's what the Scripture said.
And He perfected obedience by His suffering for His people. So in our new man, in the new
man where Christ abides, He's making us learn contentment by
the things we suffer. That's what He's doing. Paul said, I have learned in
whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. Christ taught
him that. Our Master is teaching us to
trust Him and be content with Him in whatsoever state we're
in, and He's doing it from His own experience, having walked
where we walk as our God-man mediator. He knows. You know, this exalts Him in
our hearts more and more as perfect wisdom. Because if you had a
perfect man, if you knew a perfect man that knew perfectly what's
best for you, wouldn't you listen to everything He said? Well,
He's that perfect man. And He's God working everything
for us. Christ is our strength. So we
can trust Him like you trusted the Father. We can say of Christ
what He said of the Father. We can say, the Lord is the portion
of my inheritance and of my cup. He's my portion. He's filling
my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. The lions are falling on me in
pleasant places. I have a goodly inheritance.
You can say that, child of God, because it's so in Christ. The
Lord spake to Aaron. He said, Thou shall have no inheritance
in their land. Neither shalt thou have any part
among them. I am thy part. I'm thy inheritance
among the children of Israel. That's what the Lord told His
priest. He's made us kings and priests by His blood. And that's what He says to us.
I'm your part. I'm maintaining your cup. Verse
7 in Psalm 16, 7, you can say this, I will bless the Lord who
has given me counsel. Paul said, the Lord taught me
this. He's given you counsel in your heart. He's taught you
this. My reigns also instruct me in the ninth season. He's
teaching you inwardly. I've set the Lord always before
me. That's what faith does. True God-given faith sees Christ,
looks up to Christ, sets you up. I look into the hills from
what's come with my help. Because He's at my right hand,
I shall not be moved. When you look up by faith, you
see Christ seated on His throne in glory. But that's not the
only place you see Him. You know He's right there at
your right hand. He's right there with you. Present. The Lord's my strength. I shall
not be moved. I can do all things by Christ's
power. The emphasis there is not that
I can do, the emphasis there is it's all by Christ's power. You can say this, Psalm 16.9,
Therefore my heart is glad And my glory rejoiceth, my flesh
also shall rest in hope." When you're abased or when you're
abound, whatever state you're in, you can say, my heart's glad.
My glory rejoiceth. Where? In Christ. Paul said,
I greatly rejoiced in the Lord. And my flesh also shall rest
in hope. This old body, I'm going to put
it off one day and it's going in the grave. But just like He's
going to preserve my soul, He's going to preserve my body. Thou
will not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine
holy one to see corruption in my flesh. He's going to raise
a brand new body, glorified, perfect, just like the inward
man will be perfect. Thou wilt show me the path of
life. In Thy presence is fullness of joy, and at Thy right hand
are pleasures forevermore. Child of God, there are some
very sweet seasons when we know that so, and we can say that,
and we have faith to believe it. And we're learning. He's teaching us more and more.
He's our portion. He's filling our cup. He's providing
everything we need. Back in Philippians 4 verse 12, it's knowing this. It's having
Christ present. It's knowing that He's keeping
us by His power. And it's knowing it in the heart.
Knowing it in truth, in spirit. It's knowing Him. is how we both
know how to be abased and we know how to abound. You know,
both of those are dangerous. In our flesh, we don't know how
to do either one. In our flesh, when we're abased, we don't want
to be brought low. And when we're abounding in our
flesh, we're so proud. And who do we boast in? Look
what I did. But in the new man, The Lord
teaches you how to be obese, trust Christ, and how to abound. Don't look at whatever He's provided,
the gifts, look at the giver. Trust the giver. Everywhere,
and in all things, I'm instructed, and this is what Christ does
for us. He makes us both to be full and to be hungry. That's
the state of a believer all the time. and we're hungry. But you know
what Christ said? I think Paul's quoting one of
the Beatitudes. Our Lord said, blessed are them that hunger
and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. And
that's the key to contentment. When we're full in all Christ's
provision and we're hungry for more of Christ. We both know
how to abound and to suffer need. Now lastly, I want to come to
this and I want you to remember these four P's. Four P's. This is contentment. These four P's. Purpose, power,
presence, and promise. Remember these four P's now.
First is the purpose of God. All things that come to pass
in this world are coming to pass, the small things and the great
things, the pleasing things and the painful things, what appears
good to us and what appears evil to us, all is worked together
by our God sovereignly according to His eternal purpose. Nothing that comes to pass is
outside of His purpose. The wrath of man shall praise
Him. It's going to fulfill His purpose,
and the remainder He shall restrain. Secondly, remember the power
of God. the power of God. Christ has
all power in heaven and in earth. That same one that men see on
the cross and see as little, as weak, and as dying, and as
just poor, they feel sorry for him. He said, don't weep for
me. Christ was on that cross accomplishing everything He purposed
from eternity. He accomplished the redemption
of His people, and He didn't stay in that grave. He came out
of that grave by the exceeding greatness of God's power, by
the exceeding greatness of His power. And He arose to the right
hand of the Father, and the Scripture tells us He's far above all principality. and all power, and all might,
and all dominion, and every name that's named, both in this world
and in the world to come, and all things are under His feet.
And He's the head over all things to the church, and the church
is the fullness of His body. And He's filling all in all. That's the power that our great
Redeemer is. It's not just that He has power,
He is power. He is power. You know everything
that He gives us, He is it. He gives us righteousness, He
is righteousness. He gives us holiness, He is our
holiness. He gives us redemption, He is
our redemption. He's power. He is our power.
He's wisdom. He gives us wisdom. He is our
wisdom. He puts love, His love in the
heart. He is love. Everything He gives
us, He is. And He's purposed us good and
He has power to work that good. Not only just to Everything that comes to pass,
comes to pass by His power and He's working it all together
for our good. And He shall not fail. He shall
not fail. So whatever comes to pass, be
content. It's according to His purpose
and it's by His power. And then thirdly, remember the
presence of God. If you are one in whom Christ
abides, if there be any fellowship of the Spirit, if there be any
consolation, think on these things. Christ abides in you. And Christ
promised, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. The Lord
is at hand. The Lord is at hand. You look
to Him. You pour out your heart to Him,
not to others, to Him. You cast all your care on Him. He promises not one of His people
shall ever be ashamed for trusting Him. Never. Never. He's an ever-present help in
trouble. And then fourthly, remember the
promise of God. Promises. God our Father gave
Christ to be our covenant. There is another example. He
makes covenant promises to us, but He is the covenant. He is
the covenant. In Christ, all the promises of
God are yes. There is no maybe. There is no
possibility. There's no chance. In Him, every
promise of God is yes. And in Him, all the promises
of God are amen to the praise of God's glory. He took that
cup and He said, you see this wine? He said, this wine, when
you drink it, He said, you remember the covenant, the everlasting
covenant, every promise of God perfectly fulfilled in my blood. That's what makes them sure.
That's what David could say at the end of his life, although
it be not so with my house. God hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered it, all things ensure, and this is all my salvation,
though he make it not to grow. He promises to be our strength. He promises to give us grace
for today. He promises to bring us through
every fiery trial. He promises to keep us by His
power. He promises one day to present
us to the Father without fault, blameless, unapprovable in His
sight. That's His promise. And it can't
lie. It can't lie. And He's immutable, He never
goes back on anything. His gifts and His calling are
without repentance. He never takes back one gift. Verse 12, this is how Paul could
say, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere
and all things I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need. How? I can't do one thing
myself, but whatever He brings to pass
in my life, I can do all these things through Christ which strengthened
me. Paul was taken up into the third
heaven and he prayed and he saw things that weren't awful to
be uttered and given just an abundance of knowledge in the
things of God. And because of that, in order
to keep him abased, the Lord sent him trials. He sent him
trials. He sent him all kinds of serious,
hard things he had to bear. Beaten, and shipwrecked, and
forsaken of brethren, and evil spoken of, and just all kinds
of things he had to bear. Bodily injury, spiritual hurt
to his soul, all kinds of things he had to bear. Men always speculate, what was
his thorn in the flesh? I think it was his flesh. His
thorn in the flesh. And he prayed for the Lord to
take it away from him. And the Lord said, no, I'm not
taking it away from you. I'm going to do something far
better for you. I'm going to give you my grace.
And I'm going to show you my grace is sufficient for you.
I'm going to show you that in all your weakness, when you can't
do anything, not even lift your head up to me, I'm the power. I'm your strength by which you're
able. so that you don't get proud and
you don't get self-dependent and don't become self-righteous
and self-sanctifying, so that you always constantly look to
me and trust me. And that's how Paul could say,
I do all things. Everything I do, that's the only
way I do it, is by Christ. And that's what you can say,
believer. That's what we can say. Let's go to him. Our Father,
we thank You. Thank You for trusting Your Son.
Thank You for bringing us to trust Him. We're thankful we
have a faithful, holy, righteous, wise, all-powerful, ever-present
Savior. Thank You for the trials, Lord.
Thank You for the suffering. Thank You for everything that
You bring to pass. Thank You for the abounding Multiply
blessings you give us. Thank you for making us hungry
and for making us full. Thank you, Lord, that you keep
us and provide in whatever state we're in. No matter how we get
turned aside by our unbelief, you always turn us back to see
you're faithful. You know us, you keep us, you
provide for us. Lord, we thank you. Oh, how we
thank you. We can't even really thank you
like we want to thank you, but we do thank you, Lord. And we
pray you continue to work this in us here and pray you continue
to do so in our brethren everywhere. What a good God. What a merciful,
gracious, faithful God. Oh, Lord, we thank you in Christ's
name. Amen.