May God be pleased to bless his
word to the prophet of our souls this morning as we consider it
together. Let us turn to the epistle of Paul to the Philippians
chapter 4 and we'll read verse 19. The fourth chapter in Paul's
epistle to the Philippians and verse 19. But my God shall supply
all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. The Apostle wrote this letter
to the Philippians when he was in Rome either in house arrest
or in prison and he was coming down towards the end of his life
and he was looking back really and remembering the blessings
which he had been favoured with and had enjoyed. And he had a
wonderful testimony to be able to declare and he was able from
his own personal experience to know that the Lord God had supplied
all his need. When we think of the letter here
to the Philippian church, perhaps it's a very special one because
of the time that he faced when the angel of the Lord told him
to go into Macedonia and into Philippi. And it was there The
Lord blessed him, but it was there also that he was imprisoned
and had much affliction as he was beaten and his wounds on
his back, the lashes he endured and put in prison and chained
down. But you see, the Lord was with
him and he tells us through such a testimony that the Lord has
supplied his need And he had confidence therefore to be able
to say that his God would supply all our need. The Lord had never
left the Apostle. The Lord had never forsaken him. Although he has so many difficult
times in his life. But he never complains really
about it. You see how the apostle wrote
to the church of Corinth and he enumerated some of the things
which he had to endure and he didn't list it to boast about
it, he listed to show the glory of God, the favour of God towards
him, the help of God which he had received and he tells us,
he says of the Jews, five times received I 40 stripes save one. And I have told you young people
before why they received 39 stripes instead of 40, because in the
Jewish law they must never exceed the punishment that was given
out. Therefore 40 stripes were the
punishment, then to ensure they hadn't miscounted, they gave
one less. Hence it was 39. Thrice was I
beaten with rods. That's five times with stripes
and three times with rods. Once he was stoned. He suffered
shipwreck. He'd been a night and a day in
the deep. And he journeys often in perils of waters, in perils
of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils by the
heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness.
You know, we may think today the world is a difficult world
to live in. And perhaps we might be afraid sometimes to move around. But here we see the apostle,
all his life really, in these perils. Perils among false brethren,
in weariness and painfulness. We might sometimes be weary.
We might sometimes have to endure pain. Don't forget, the testimony
of the Apostle. In watchings often, in hunger
and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. What a
list, isn't it? We think of ourselves, don't
we? Warm homes, plenty of clothes to wear, a wardrobe often full
of clothes. Here's a testimony of God's servant
Paul. We need sometimes to remember
the conditions that these saints of God lived in. And to be so
very, very thankful for the many things that we have today. And
then he tells us, beside those things which are without, that
which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the church. What
a burden that was for him. The care of the church. the care
of the souls of the people, the concern that he was faithful
in the things that he was able to do and to testify. Who is
weak and I am not weak. Who is offended and I bear not. You see he endured the afflictions
with those people that were afflicted. If I must needs glory, I will
glory the things which concern my infirmities. God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forever, knoweth that
I lie not." It was a true testimony that the Apostle was able to
give to the Corinthian Church, and a true testimony that we
are able to reach today. And as we sometimes ponder perhaps
on our life today, And we may think, well, I wish I didn't
have to endure this. I wish I could get out of this
situation and that situation. Well, just remember the life
of the Apostle Paul. But we know that in the Apostle's
life, he was able to declare those glorious words. And we
know that all things work together for good to those who love God. and those who are called according
to his purpose. So let us ponder such truths
as that, and to think in our own lives the truth of them,
although we may not always be able to understand the things
which occur at the time, yet to believe that it is so, that
all things are working together for our eternal spiritual good. And I believe For the Church
of God is to direct us away from the things of this world. You
won't find true happiness in the things of time. You won't
find true peace in the things of time. My friends, in the things
of time, these blessings are totally elusive. But they are
to be found spiritually in the things of God. Well, we have
then the testimony of the Apostle, and he comes down towards the
end of this epistle, and he makes this great statement. But, my
God, he had a personal relationship with his God. He knew who his
God was. He was able to say, I know whom
I have believed. And that's why the Apostle was
able to make a statement like this. He proved the Lord was
with him. He proved the blessing of the
Lord with him day by day. He proved how the Lord had called
him by his grace and set him on the right way. He proved the
greatness of his God. And so he is able to say, again
with humble confidence, but, my God, He was able to give this
authority because of his testimony, because of his personal experience.
It wasn't second hand. He was able to speak from his
own experience and therefore say, but my God, authority, what
a blessing it is to come under the authority of the Word of
God, to come under the authority of the testimony of those who
have spoken of the Word of God, who've been able to testify of
God's mercy, and of God's favour, and of God's goodness. And so
he said previously in this chapter, He spoke to them, he said, now
you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel,
when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me.
And that was of course after the occasion he'd been imprisoned
in Philippi and he'd been set free. No church communicated
with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For
even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity,
not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound
to your account." He was thankful for the natural blessings, the
material things that they'd sent to help him, which he needed,
but his great concern was that there might be spiritual fruit. That was his real desire. And
so he says, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all, and abound, I
am full, having received of Pephrodiphus the things which were sent from
you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing
to God." And now as it were, he turns the tables and he says,
but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. Now that was true when the Apostle
wrote it and my friend says it's true today but let me say this the Apostle says his God will
supply all our need that doesn't mean to say that we are going
to be supplied with everything we think we need or the things
we want but we will be supplied with the things that we do need
And blessed be God, He knows the things that you and I need.
He knows every detail of the things that you and I need. And
that is in a providential thing, in natural things and in spiritual
things. And so we have a tremendous truth
here before us this morning. And we have the evidence and
the confidence of God's servant Paul able to declare in words
like this, but my God shall supply all your need. Yes, there is
no doubt. There is no doubt. Because we
come to a great God. We come to an almighty God. We
have a God who can do everything. We have a God who, that with
Him everything is possible. This God created all things. It's God made everything. It's
God has been with his saints right through time. And so we
can bless God this morning for a statement like this. My God
shall supply all your need. What a place of comfort, isn't
it? Comfort. If we can rest And I
hope you may be able to rest this morning in a truth like
this, to realise that this God, the true God, the God who has
done wonderful things to the Apostle, the God who the Apostle
knew, able to declare that this God shall supply all your need,
all our need, everything. And when we understand that,
how peaceful it is to be able to come, really, it's like this,
casting all our care upon the Lord, because by faith we can
believe he cares for us. He cared for the Apostle. He
cared for him. He had to face difficulties.
He had to endure much hardship. Oh yes, but that's why he was
able to write this earlier verse. He says, 13th verse, I can do
all things through Christ which strengthens me. And that's a
wonderful statement, isn't it? Just think for a moment what
the apostle was able to do and to endure. He had to endure all
those things that we read about in that chapter in Corinthians.
And we know how God was with him in his many journeys. How
many journeys he undertook. How many hardships he had. But you see, God was with him. And God had supplied his need. Just think for a moment. There
he was, he went to Athens. He preached in that great city,
that Greek city, Athens. Were the hordes of people converted?
No, there weren't. What did he do? Did he rest in
his room? Well, I think I'll have a rest.
I've been a bit busy. I'll take it easy. Oh no, not
the Apostle. He went out, didn't he? went
out into the marketplace, speaking about the things of God, declaring
about the things of God. It wasn't easy for him, was it?
But you know, he did the will of God. He was blessed with a
holy and a righteous zeal. He was concerned about the souls
of those people in that heathen place of Athens. He stood upon
Mars Hill. He preached the Gospel. Yes,
the Apostle did the will of his God. It wasn't easy. He didn't
have an easy life. But the Lord supplied his needs
in that place. Bless God, the Lord still supplies
the needs of his people today. Here he was then, going in the
strength of the Lord God. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. He never gave any indication
that he was relying on his own ability. No, he wasn't relying
upon his own strength. He wasn't relying upon his own
gifts. Indeed, he confesses that his
speech was contentable. He wasn't a great orator. He
was good at writing, but he wasn't a great orator. But nonetheless,
God blessed him and enabled him to continue and to go in the
strength of the Lord God. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. And that's an important consideration
for us in our lives. We might feel fearful, we might
feel inhibited. We may feel, well that can never
be my path, I can never do that, I'm not able to, I haven't the
ability. Well, you may not have in yourself. But remember, there is a God,
a God in heaven, who gives us the grace, who gives us the ability,
who gives us the strength. And the apostle here is very
conclusive and full when he says all things he can do all things
through Christ which strengthens me we must never therefore think
well I could never do that if you ever say that you are really
saying that the Lord God is not able to help you the apostle was able to do all
things through Christ. Don't forget what he had to face
and what he endured. It's a wonderful account. You can read off in the Acts
of what Paul was able to do and how the Lord was with him and
how the Lord stood by him. And so, I can do all things through
Christ which strengthens me is therefore an encouragement for
us today to believe that this God shall supply all our need. Now, how is this to be accomplished? Well, the Apostle knew the secret. And the secret wasn't in his
ability. Although he was an able scholar, it wasn't in his ability. Where and how was the secret?
Here it is. According to his riches, in glory
by Christ Jesus. Yes, it's through what the Lord
does, what the Lord enables us to do. It's His work. It's His business. It's He that
supports. Yes, what a blessing it is to
know that today we have this same God who, as the Apostle
said, is the same yesterday and today and forever. Today we come before this same
God. Oh, how wonderful it is to believe
that this same God still looks down upon you and me today, in
our time of need. God knows what your need is this
morning, what your real need is. I don't know. Perhaps you don't really know.
Perhaps you may think you know. But bless God, He knows. And
that need that you have, God will supply. It's a wonderful
blessing to be able to come to the Lord and to cast all our
care upon Him. our care upon him. The Lord Jesus
spoke those words when he was on the earth, just after he had
preached that sermon on the mount, and he tells us, he says, come
unto me, no one else, come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, And you may have been labouring. You may have
a need. And you may have been labouring
under that need and you're heavy laden because of it. And the picture we have, don't
we, of somebody being heavy laden, it means they're struggling under
a great burden. And it's very heavy. And they
don't know how they're going to manage. Well, the gracious
invitation is to come unto me. Naturally, you know, it's a very
strange thing, but naturally, we try and carry burdens ourselves.
We try and carry them. We struggle under them. Until we find we cannot go, as
it were, any further. We come to the end, as it were.
And then to hear such gracious words from the Saviour himself. Come unto me. Don't look anywhere
else. Don't go anywhere else. Come
unto me. All ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Rest from your labours. Rest
from the burdens. And what does the Lord say? Take
my yoke. Not your yoke, God's yoke. A yoke, you know what a yoke
is? It binds animals together. An oxen were ploughing in years
past, well still today, in countries in the East. An oxen, they have
a yoke across them, it's a wooden yoke, and it's rigid. And each
one is harnessed into that yoke. and one cannot move without the
other, and therefore they move together. Here we have this picture
then, take my yoke upon you to be yoked to the Lord Jesus Christ. You may be fearful of that. It's
a very blessed place, because when we yoke to Christ,
What happens? Learn of me. We learn of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're not a long way away. We're
right by the Saviour. We hear His gracious words. We
learn of Him. We have then gracious words of
encouragement. We may have been fearful. Perhaps
the day you're fearful, I've taken this yoke upon you." The Lord says, for I, the Saviour
speaking, I am meek and lowly. He knows where you are, in a
low place. He says, I am meek and lowly
in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Perhaps you've
been very restless. The devil wants you to be restless.
Yes, he wants you to give up if he can make you. And so we
have such gracious words of the Saviour. The Lord Jesus is meek
and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. And he tells us that which we
didn't anticipate He thought being yoked to Christ would be
difficult and would be very hard. He says, for my yoke is easy
and my burden is light. What an encouragement, isn't
it? To hear the words of the Lord speaking to us. Come unto
me. Nowhere else. Come unto me. And if we hear those gracious
words, then we know that God will supply all our need. when
we are yoked to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we cannot really expect,
can we, to find peace and comfort and encouragement if we're ignoring
the gracious words of the Lord. We'll struggle on by ourselves. We won't find Our needs are being
supplied because we're not looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
not dependent upon Him. We're not yokes to Him. But you
see, in Him are the riches in glory. He has everything
needful to dispense to you and to me, or everything that you
and I need. There's nothing that you and
I need. The Lord doesn't know about And the Lord doesn't understand. Sometimes we might think we have
a very unusual and a very difficult situation. Well, you may find that other
people don't understand. Don't be surprised at that. But
we have somebody who does understand. and that is the Lord Jesus Christ and the reason he understands
is this because he is producing in you that need that you have
and that need wherever it may be if it's the work of the Holy
Spirit will be to bring you to draw you, really, to the Lord
Jesus Christ. We sang about it, didn't we,
this morning, about being drawn. And it's something which is very
strange to nature. Our nature doesn't understand
being drawn to Christ. Our nature is drawn to the world
and all the things of this vain world. But the Spirit of God
draws us to the Saviour. And it's the work of the Holy
Spirit to be attracted to the things of God and to the riches
in glory. A fullness resides in Jesus our
Head. Oh my friends, and that fullness
resides to answer our need. Let's think of that. Your need,
my need, may be quite different in one sense. We all have a common
need, but on the other hand we have different needs. And let
us bless God this morning to hear a word like this. This God
shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ
Jesus. Now The need we have, of course,
is to be directed to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, we may
have been looking down. We may have been looking into
ourselves and we find we're disappointed. We find we're distressed. We
find we don't find what we want to find. What we find is really
sin and evil and far-offness and we can't seem to receive
or obtain what we want to? Well, there is in Christ this
fullness and he will supply all our need according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus and without any doubt these riches
will bring us to view the Saviour and the riches to observe the
great blessing and the great value of the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The value of his death. It's when the Spirit of God works
in our hearts to show us our great need, it's then that the
same Holy Spirit chose to us something of the great value
of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, what a value it
is. Because without that death, our
need would never be met. Our need would never be met. And that's why The value of Christ's
death is so great. Now, the Lord has spoken here. He shall supply all your need
according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. It is a truth. It is a promise. It will come. The Lord will come. The Lord
will supply. The Lord will direct us. The Lord will draw us to see
the all-sufficiency that there is in the Saviour. It means this,
casting all your care, not some of it, casting all your care
upon Him, for He cares for you. Yes, that great God, that God
who was with the Apostle, that God has been with his saints
down through the ages, that great God cares in the same way for
his people today. Yes, now then, if the Lord therefore
has caused you to realise and measure your need and also your
helplessness and to know that there is this great God who has
this full and rich supply according to his riches in glory by Christ
Jesus. And that will be very humbling and very wonderful when the Lord
comes, as it were, alongside and shows you the wounds in his
side, the nail holes in his feet and in his hands. Remember the
occasion when he came to Thomas. Thomas, who previously had said
that he wouldn't believe, he wouldn't believe, unless he could
put his fingers in the nail holes and thrust his hand into the
side of the Lord. He wouldn't believe. He wasn't going to listen
to the testimony of the disciples. No, he wanted this personal ability
to do it and prove it to himself. We may be like that. We may have
set forth our conditions of believing. That was Thomas's condition of
believing. He wasn't going to believe unless he could fulfil
those two situations. But you see, the Lord appeared
again. And the Lord spoke to Thomas. He said, reach hither thy finger,
put it into the holes and thrust thy hand into my side and be
not faithless but believing." Did Thomas do it? No. What happened? He said, my Lord and my God. Faith to believe. What a blessing
if you and I this morning are blessed with faith to believe.
And the Lord therefore chose us our need and to believe that
our need will be supplied because the greatest need we have is to know my Jesus crucified
by far excels all things besides. We may think we need many things
in this life. We may need things in this life.
But my friends, there is but one thing needful. Oh, to know
Christ and Him crucified. And have therefore the Spirit
of God lead us, draw us to Calvary. Nature doesn't want to go there.
Your nature won't want to go to Calvary, where the Spirit
of God draws you to see there, at that cross at
Calvary, your only hope. Then you'll say, yes, my hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
To view the crucified Saviour suffering to deliver your soul
from the wrath to come. Oh, now you see all your need
being supplied. Now you'll see then, by faith,
the value that was needful. The value in Christ's death. But my God shall supply all your
need according to the riches in glory by Christ Jesus. And
my friends, these riches are beyond our comprehension. My friends, the riches of Christ
are great. They are past our assessment. We cannot assess how great they
are. But oh to know and to realise that through these riches our
needs, our eternal needs are met. And the eternal need is
indeed to be blessed with eternal life. You know the apostle As
we read together those last verses in the third chapter, the Apostle
tells us, for our conversation is in heaven. From whence also
we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
change our vile body. The Apostle still realised that
naturally he had a vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body. Yes, made meat for the father's
use. According to his working whereby
he is able to subdue all things unto himself. Oh, bless God today. He is able. He is willing. Doubt no more. Perhaps you've
been doubting. Thomas doubted. Thomas is referred
to, isn't he, as Doubting Thomas. The Lord came. He just bowed
down and said, My Lord and My God. I believe that the Lord
leads us by faith to view the Saviour at Calvary. It's then
that by faith we bow down and we say, My Lord and My God. And what are we proving? My God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. So may we go on our way today
strengthening courage to believe that what the Apostle wrote to
the Philippians so many years ago is true today and we bless
God for it. We bless God for the certainty
of the Word of God and we pray today that you and I may have
faith, God-given faith not our faith, God-given faith to stretch
out our hands and they hold of such a great and glorious promise
as this and to rest in it and to know the blessing then which
comes to that rest that peace which part of all understanding
because our confidence is not in ourselves it's in the finished
work the glorious finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and
therefore we can come and confirm with the Apostle, but my God
shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ
Jesus. Amen.