Alright, let's turn to Philippians
chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4. Why don't we just read one verse.
Philippians 4.19. My God shall supply all your need according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. I was, by the way, we, almost everybody
knows this, but I've been announcing it to everybody I talk to, but
Javi and Sharon are grandparents. And Uncle David is sitting back
there. And I was talking with Sharon earlier, Nathan and Brooke,
and Nathan's their son, and Brooke, their daughter-in-law, they had
their first child, Anna Perina, last Friday morning, was it?
Last Friday morning. And I was thinking about, after
our conversation, Sharon, I was thinking about our needs. And I was thinking about the
needs of a newborn baby. It needs to be cleaned. It needs
to be clothed. It needs to be fed. And it needs
to be sheltered. It needs to be cleaned. It needs
to be clothed. It needs to be fed. And it needs
to be sheltered. Now, our needs may take on a
little more complexity from that as we get older. But those are
our needs. That's our essential need. We
need to be clean, clothed, fed, and sheltered. And here's the
proposal. Here's the point I want you to
get today. Every child of God, every child
born of his spirit, Verse 19 tells us, My God shall supply
all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Let's look at this first thing
that we need. We need to be cleaned. We need
to be cleansed. That's what a newborn infant
needs. All of God's children, all those
that got saved by His grace, are born into this world filthy
in sin. That's how we come forth into
this world. Ezekiel 16, 4. I want to read
this to you. You're familiar with this. Ezekiel 16, 4. As for thy nativity,
how you were born, In the day thou was born, thy navel was
not cut, neither was thou washed in water to supple thee. Thou
was not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitted thee
to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee.
But thou was cast out into the open field to the loathing of
thy person in the day that thou was born. Look down at verse
9. The Lord says, when I passed
by, It was a time of love. And he said in verse 9, then
washed I thee with water. Yea, I thoroughly washed away
thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. Spiritual life
begins whenever we're washed in regeneration. The scripture
says in Titus 3, 5, not by works of righteousness, which we've
done, It's not of our will. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth. It's of God that shows mercy.
We're washed by regeneration, by the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
God purges the conscience. The conscience defiled. We're
defiled inwardly and the conscience is defiled. And we're defiled. We don't know God. We don't know
who God is. We don't know how God saved. And we don't believe
Him. When we do find out we don't
believe Him, till he purchased the conscience from dead works.
And when he does that, every child of God beholds, we're cleansed
by the blood of Christ. It's his blood. It's what Christ
has done that's cleansed his people. Hebrews 9.26 says, in
the end of the world, he hath appeared to put away sin. To put away sin. And the Spirit
of God bears witness in our conscience that where remission of our sins
is, there's no more offering for sin. They're put away. They're
completely put away. The Lord said, when the Lord
shall have washed the filth of the daughters of Zion. He said
in Zechariah 13, and that day there should be a fountain opened
in the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
for sin and for uncleanness. And the Spirit of God cleanses
us. He cleanses His children. He rebirths His children. He
makes us to behold. We've been washed in the blood
of Christ. Peter, that night he was sitting there and the
Lord was going to wash his feet. And Peter said, wash me. Don't
just wash my feet. Wash me all over. And the Lord
said, if I wash you, you're washed everywhere. You're washed completely. You're washed thoroughly. If
I wash you. That's what he told Peter. Christ
put away all the sins of everybody for whom he died. He put them
all away. And the Spirit of God reveals
that And he makes us to see as foul and as undone and as wretched
as we are in our sin. It's what Paul told the Corinthians.
He said, and such were some of you. Foul, wretched in your sin. outwardly, just morally bankrupt
before God. And he said, but you're washed,
you're sanctified by the, and justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. And you know, we're
going through this world and the believer, it doesn't, it
doesn't, he purges our conscience, but then some kind of trial will
come. Some kind of raging against us
will come. We do something that brings us
into trouble and we're constantly finding our conscience defiled. We're constantly finding ourselves
in need of cleansing. Sometimes, you know, we can't
even call on God. We can't even lift up our eyes
to God. We can't find it in our hearts
sometimes to open His Word. We can't find it in our hearts
to approach unto God. But thanks be to God, He won't
allow His child to look to any other fountain of cleansing.
He won't let us turn from Him. But He brings us to cry out with
David and He brings us to say, Lord, purge me. Wash me. Wash me throughly and I'll be
cleansed. And He's already cleansing us
when He brings us to cry that out. Just like He did in the
first hour when He brings His child to call that call out.
Just like a baby has to be cleansed and has to be constantly cleaned.
That's... We don't ever get beyond that
as a full-grown baby in Christ. We have to be cleansed of our
God. And He continually makes us to
see if we confess our sin, if we come before Him Like that publican who smote
upon his breast and said, Lord, I'm unrighteous. I'm undone. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
He's just. He's faithful to just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And he's
continually bringing us through that fountain. He's continually
showing us this fountain and calling on us and cleansing us
and causing us to call on him. Don't you find that? Here, that's
what a baby needs. We need to be cleansed. And the second thing we need
is we need to be clothed. That baby comes and he has to
be clothed. She has to be clothed. Ezekiel
16, 8 said, when I passed by you, I looked upon you. And it
was the time of love, and I spread my skirt over you, and I covered
your nakedness. And I swear unto you, and I entered
into covenant with you, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine." Somebody will say, well that verse is talking about Israel. He goes on there and he says,
and you lifted up in pride, went about trying to boast of something
in you. That covenant he made with Israel
was a conditional covenant. The covenant he makes in the
heart of his people, he makes it to say, I've done it all.
I've done it all. And he continually brings us
to see that Christ was made sin for us in our place. This one
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him, clothed in his righteousness. I've told you this before, and
I love to tell it again, but when Emma was born, she was the
first one that was born. And this was all brand new to
me. And I was in the room. And she was born, and she wasn't
clean. The doctors cleansed her. They
cleaned her. put oil all over her, rubbed
her down with lotion, and they swaddled her all in these beautiful
white linens. And they brought her to me and
presented her to me. And when I took her into my arms,
I didn't know babies smelled like that. I never smelled one
that smelled so good. That was mine. She was clothed. Listen to this, Isaiah 61 10. You remember, look there with
me, Isaiah 61 10. Do you remember in the garden,
while you're turning there, just let me remind you this. You remember
in the garden, God not only, He not only slew an animal in
the place of Adam and Eve, He clothed them with the skins. He clothed them. And God clothes
His children in His righteousness. We've got to be righteous to
come into God's presence. And He clothes us in Christ our
righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.
He is our righteousness. That's right. Look at Isaiah
61 10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be
joyful in my God for he's clothed me with the garments of salvation.
He's covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom,
decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. David said, blessed is the man.
Blessed is the man whom God imputeth righteousness without works. He won't impute sin to him. Now,
if God has provided His babes, His own Son, and He's clothed
us in His righteousness, we can be sure of this. My God shall
supply all your need according to His riches and glory by Christ
Jesus. Won't He? We need to be cleansed. We need
to be clothed. Here's the third thing. We need
to be fed. We need to be fed. Look at 1
Peter 1 verse 23. What's the first thing? The scripture tells us that we're
born. We're conceived by the Word of
God. Look at 1 Peter 1.23. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. By the Word of God. By the washing
of water by the Word. We're born of God. He says there
at the end, verse 25, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. Now the first thing that a newborn
babe needs is milk. That newborn babe needs milk.
What the mother eats, that babe eats. What the mother eats, that
babe eats. And now when I'm talking about
being fed, I'm including I'm including being nourished and
taught and grown and fed. I'm talking about everything
we need is through the word, through Christ that word, through
this gospel that is preached. And that mother, when she feeds
that baby, that baby's eating what that mother has eaten. Now I want you to think about
that. The believer, Peter says, this
is how we grow. Look at 1 Peter 2. As newborn
babes, desire the sincere milk of the word. That means the sincere,
the pure, the true milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If so, be ye tasted that the
Lord is gracious. Now I want you to consider for
a minute. I thought about this this week. Consider the picture. of Christ, the picture of Christ
Jesus, the husband of his bride, the husband of his church. Think about this picture that
God has ordained, this God, this picture. I know that sadly because
of sin, it's not this way in every household. And sadly because
of sin, there's much sorrow that comes. But listen to this, that
house that is together after the pattern of God, after the
pattern that is glorifying of God. Listen to this now. When that mother comes home, Brooke's not up running around
this week doing stuff. Her husband is, he's waiting
on her. He's feeding her. And what she's
eating, she's feeding that child. And if you and I go into that
house, walk in that house, all we're going to see is the mother
feeding that child. But the mother's getting what
she's getting from the husband. And then she's eating. And then
that child is getting its milk from the mother. Is that not
a beautiful, glorious picture of how God, our Father, by Christ
Jesus, our husband, he feeds his church, he feeds his bride,
and what his bride eats, she feeds the children. Isn't that a beautiful picture?
That's a beautiful picture. Whatever we're feeding on, whatever
we're eating, whatever we're nourished by, that's That's what
the children are getting, just like a newborn mother is. Christ
is that bread, He's that life, and He's providing that food,
and He's feeding us through the sincere milk of the Word. And
we don't ever grow past needing to be fed this way. I said to
you last week, our earthly families are different in a lot of ways.
We're growing up and growing out. This is a beautiful picture
of God's house, of God's household, how He continually feeds. His
children. And even when we're weaned, there's
a picture of it, even when the child, when the babe grows and
is weaned from its mother's milk. We grow, believers grow, and
we grow in the grace of God, in the knowledge of our Jesus
Christ. We grow through this Word. We don't ever grow past
needing the sincere milk of the word. It's called stronger meat
in other places, but it's still the true word. It's the gospel. And we feed upon it. But you
think of that picture. Even when the baby is weaned
from its mother's milk and it grows up, the picture that God
set forth in the world is the husband still bringing home the
food. and the mother's preparing it
and putting it on the table and the children come to the table
and eat. See that glorious picture of God providing by Christ our
husband and drawing his children to his table through his bride
and feeding his children? We don't ever grow past anything
like this. We don't ever get too big to go out. from this and when we see this,
when we see God what he's done in his son by this and how he's
feeding us, we know this for a fact. Verse 19, my God shall
supply all your need according to his riches in glory, I Christ
Jesus. Our need don't grow past here,
we need to be cleansed. Christ is that fountain, he's
that spirit of God who washes us, washes us in his word. We
need to be clothed. He's the righteous garment. He
robes us in his righteousness in a snow white garment. I almost
bet you, I almost bet you Anna Purina came home from the hospital
in a white garment. I don't know. I'm just guessing.
I'm just guessing. Maybe pink. Maybe pink. We need to be clothed,
and we need to be fed. Christ is that bread, He's that
life, the sincere milk of the Word. And we need this always. We need to be sheltered. We need
to be sheltered. Isaiah 8, 13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself,
and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread, and He
shall be for a sanctuary. You know, the storms of this
life, they become more complex and they take on all various
forms, within and without. Look at Psalm 46. But our shelter
is always the same. The believer's shelter never
changes, never alters one iota. The believer's shelter never
changes. Psalm 46.1. God is our refuge and strength,
our very present help in trouble. Therefore we'll not fear, though
the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Isn't it so? This is what Proverbs
18 says, 10 says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The
righteous runneth into it and is safe. He's safe. Now listen to this. If you don't
get anything else I've said this morning, get this. Listen to
me. Get this. Our Father knows what
we have need of before we ever ask Him. I thought about the joy that
we see in the in the natural relationship that I've been talking
about of a father and a mother and that newborn babe, and something
else occurred to me. That same relationship can bring
about great, great sorrow. Great sorrow. Can a woman forget her sucking
child that she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb? Yes. They may forget. But God says,
I will never forget thee. I'll never forget thee. Psalm 2710, the psalmist said,
when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will
take me up. He'll take me up. And our Lord
said this, He said, I'll be inquired of by thee. He knows what we
have need of before we ask Him. He said, I'm going to be inquired
of. He's going to bring us to ask
Him. Always brings us to ask Him.
He's given us access by Christ in His presence. Oh, and this is what He's teaching
us. Come boldly unto His throne of grace. Come boldly that we
may obtain mercy and find grace in time of need. So Paul tells us now in Philippians
4-6, look there, be careful for nothing. Be careful for nothing. Don't be overly anxious. Let us not overly value anything
in this earth. Or be overly anxious about anything
in this earth. But look at this, but in everything,
oh, when that newborn babe's born, When that child is born
of the Spirit of God by grace, that's a time when it's easy.
It's easy to thank God. But our God says in everything,
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. It's hard to thank Him for the
thorns, isn't it? Oh, you know they're just as
needful as the joy. I don't, I don't, I'm a baby
talking to you. And I'm, I don't even see the
half of it. But he's teaching us this, not
to be overly carried away one way or the other. but to be settled
in Him. And in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God. And this is what he says. Look
at verse 7. And the peace of God, the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding. I can't explain this. Let me
ask you something. You mothers have travailed in
childbirth. Have you ever been able to convince
a man what it feels like? We just don't know. We have a
kidney stone, but we don't really know. We don't know. You know, it's this peace that
He gives in the heart of a believer, it passes all knowledge. We can't
really, I can't describe it. We can't even put it into words.
But it's peace that passes knowledge. And He says He'll keep your hearts
and your minds through Christ Jesus. So in the midst of good times
and in the midst of lean times. In the midst of rejoicing and
in the midst of sadness. When these relationships and
earthly ties bring us great joy and when they bring us great
sorrow. Remember this, verse 19. My God
shall supply all your needs. according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. Now, what do we say about that? Unto God and our Father be glory
forever and ever. Amen.