As the Lord may graciously help
me, I would turn your prayerful attention to Philippians chapter
4 and verse 19. Philippians chapter 4 and verse
19. But my God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. This precious verse in the epistle
of Paul to the Philippians is a well-known verse, but it is
a very precious verse. to the Lord's people. I do not want to divorce the
verse though from its surroundings. The verse itself is very well
known, probably the surroundings it sits in is probably less well
known. Paul is writing to the Philippians
and commending them for their great generosity. They have been very generous
at supplying his needs. If we look at verse 15 in Philippians
chapter 4, he says, now you Philippians know also that in the beginning
of the gospel When I departed from Macedonia, beginning of
the Gospel, that was when he first came and preached to those
in Macedonia, and we read about that when he, when there was
the Lydia was converted, if you remember, and the Philippian
jailer. So from that time, in the beginning of the Gospel,
when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me
as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only." So the church at
Philippi were a great blessing to Paul and they were a church
that had supplied Paul at least twice and now the third time
when he writes this epistle to them. For even in Thessalonica ye sent
once and again unto my necessity." So they were supplying Paul and
helping the ministry that Paul was involved with when Paul had
already gone on. If you like, he was a missionary.
They were supporting Paul as a missionary from the church
at Philippi. And Paul is so thankful to God
and he's showing his appreciation to them in this epistle to the
Philippians. But he makes it clear that his
greatest joy is not that he's received a load of goods and
a load of money from the church at Philippi. It is not That is
not his greatest joy. His joy is that it is an evidence
of their spiritual state. This is what Paul is so pleased
about, is that not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that
may abound to your account. Paul had a care, we read, he
says, of all the churches. And if you care for your family,
don't you want to see them flourish? If you are feeding your family
at the table, and one clearly has lost all appetite, and getting
thinner and thinner, and not prospering, this is a concern,
isn't it? You know it's not well. You know
this, if it carries on, will become more and more serious.
Paul wanted to see the churches edified and flourishing. and therefore he wanted them
to be fruit-bearing. And this was one of the ways
that Philippi was showing its fruit-bearing in providing for
Paul when Paul was on his missionary journeys and away from them. Paul says, but I have all and
abound. Paul was not speaking as one
who as it were, was in need of their gifts in one sense, because
he had a God that would supply his needs, and yet he delighted
that God used the church at Philippi to supply those needs. And this
is a great encouragement for us each to be involved in providing
for the work of God, not only in our own church, but in others. As we have had announced this
evening, that collection for the distribution fund Surely
that is something similar to what was going on here. A desire
to further the work and to be a distribution to the saints
and for the furtherance of the Gospel. But I have all and abound, I
am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from
you, an odour of a sweet smell. a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing
to God. When Paul received these blessings,
it was that sacrifice which was well-pleasing, he says, to God.
Not to Paul, just to Paul, but to God. God was well-pleased
with this liberality that the Philippians had. But you see
the carnal mind says yes, it's all very well giving to all these
causes, giving to the work of God in Ghana and elsewhere and
different places, perhaps in Zambia and all around the world
where there's needs to give to the Lord's people and do good
to all men, especially unto those that are of the household of
faith. But the carnal mind says it's all very well giving but
the more you give the less you will have yourself that's what
the natural man says that's what we look if we look at a bank
account and if you give a hundred pound out you've got a hundred
pound less in the bank you would say but Paul then says this to these
liberal liberal in the sense of generous liberal christians
those that were generous at giving to the cause of god no doubt
sacrificially giving as it says here a sacrifice it was it was
a sacrifice it that they felt it as it were that they weren't
they weren't giving out of a great abundance perhaps themselves
they had to um feel that giving, it cost them something, it was
difficult for them to give. But we have then, in this setting,
this is the setting to this beautiful verse. But my God shall supply
all your need. It is an encouragement to us
to give ourselves to the work of God, to be involved in supplying
the needs of God's people, to see the work of God furthered
in whatever aspect we have come into our ability to do good to. But my God shall supply all your
need. according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. So God is able, you see, to supply
the needs of his people. But, you see, if you took this
verse completely in isolation, You could come to the conclusion
that this verse is just a verse to be used by Christians to sit
back and to enjoy themselves, enjoy themselves having this
thought that God would supply all their needs and they could
just live it up in this world, living unto themselves, living
for their own ends. No, that is not the setting of
this verse. You see, in James, we read this
verse. Ye ask and receive not, because
ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. This abundant supply that the
Lord promises to his people is not to be squandered, It's not
so that they can live as lords over God's heritage,
but it is so that they can be, continue to be supplied out of
God's fullness. There's an encouragement here
then that we be busy in the work of God, but my God, shall supply
all your need according to his riches in glory. God can supply the needs of his
people. So if we link this in with Malachi,
There was things going on in the book of Malachi, in his time,
that he so much was concerned for, and so much was exercised
about, that that which is right would be done. If we look at
Malachi chapter 3 and commence in to read at verse 8, we have
this, Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye
say wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Now understand this, tithes can
be taken as the 10% and the offerings are on that which comes above
the 10% of our livelihood, our income. In tithes and offerings. And because they had withheld,
you see, giving what they should have been given to the church
of God and to the work of God in its various aspects, we read
this solemn word, ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed
me, even this whole nation. And then there's this wonderful
verse, verse 10 of chapter 3 of Malachi, bring ye all the tithes
into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house. So
there was to be a right giving of the firstfruits, giving of
their best to the Lord, bringing all the tithes into the storehouse,
that there may be meat in mine house. And then there's a promise,
and then there's a challenge really in a sense. Prove me now
herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, If I will not open you the windows
of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room
enough to receive it. You see, we are to first give
to the Lord and not say, well, let the Lord fill my barns with
plenty and then I'll give something back to Him. No, that's not the
order. The order is, bring ye all the
tithes into the storehouse. Now this is not just obviously
in money terms, it's also in our profession. We are to honour
God in our lives. We are to put Him first. We are
to give unto Him the glory, give unto His name. We are to show
forth His praise in our lives. We are not to rob God of His
honour and His glory. We are to show forth His praise,
as the Lord has graciously blessed us in our souls. And there is
a promise here then, that the Lord is able to open the windows
of heaven, that there may not be root and pour out a blessing. We read also that He opened the
windows of heaven. You remember when the flood came.
He opened the windows of heaven, we read, and the flood descended
for those 40 days. But here we have the opening
again of the windows of heaven, a blessing being poured out on
the Church of God. Are you concerned about the blessing
of the Church of God? Is that your concern? Or are
you indifferent? Are you saying, If I give this
and give that to the Lord, if I put him first before this and
before that, if I put him as top of the priority list, taking
the best of my time, oh, I'll lose this, I won't get that promotion
at work, this will go wrong against me. Prove me now herewith, says
God. If I will not open you the windows
of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there may not be room enough
to receive it. But you say, if I'm losing all
this money, if it's costing me all this, I'm going to not have
enough money. I can't live. How can this be? We read on in verse 11, it says,
and I will rebuke the devourer. for your sakes. God is in control
of all the things that come against us as well as the things that
go for us. And God is able to rebuke the
devourer for your sakes. in farming terms, is able to
make a very prosperous crop, able to make that crop flourish
and sell for a good price. As you know, it's true in many
businesses, but farming particularly, that as many changes goes on
in the price of the market, sometimes things sell for a lot more than
other things, and prices of potatoes and so forth goes up and down
significantly, and wheat, And God can rebuke or devour for
your sakes. He can make your business prosper. He can bless your labours. He
can bless your studies. Bless those hours that you have
in study so that in one hour you can learn more than you could
have learnt in five hours without the Lord's blessing upon it.
Put me first, prove me now herewith. But don't be, if we are going
to treat God and only give Him as little as possible, don't
expect a blessing. That's not what God has promised. But I will rebuke the devourer
for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your
ground, neither shall your vine cast a fruit, before the time
in the fields, saith the Lord of hosts. He is in control of
everything. He is in control of your life and mine. He's in
control of the house prices. He's in control of inflation. He's in control of the interest
rates. He's in control of the job market. He's in control of everything.
And he says, prove me now herewith. Put me first. Don't think, well
if I'm a skillful weaver I can dive in and out and manage to
get somewhere by deceiving God. No, will a man rob God? Well,
coming back then to our text, but my God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. God is able to supply the needs
of his people. The cross-reference for the verse
that we have before us as a text is in the second epistle of Paul
to the Corinthians, chapter 9 and verse 8. and that reads and God is able
to make all grace abound toward you that ye always having all
sufficiency in all good all things may abound to every good Do you
see here again, it's the same thing. There's a purpose in the
blessing of God. It's not so that we become living to ourselves. He's not
going to bless us so that we can then live to ourselves and
live to our own ends. No, God has created us. for his
glory. He's created us to do his work. We are ambassadors for Christ.
We're here not for ourselves. We're not living to maximise
our bank accounts. We're not living for the pleasures
of this life. We're not living lives which
are just for seeking the pleasures of
earthly things. But we are. to be seeking the
glory of God. And that's why it says that ye
may abound to every good work. Well, these Philippians were
involved in this good work, this great work of being a support
and a blessing and a help to Paul in his ministerial duties. They were a blessing But what
Paul found all the more precious was not the fact that he received
these funds. What he desired was the fruit
that would be given to their account. He desired that they
would be fruitful. So here we have then, but my
God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory. by Christ Jesus. We each need our needs to be
supplied. If we're involved in the work
of the Lord in whatever aspect it is, if we know something of
ourselves, we realize that we're weak, that we're ready to fall,
that we're easily overcome, that we're easily discouraged. Well,
God can supply our needs when we look at perhaps our program
ahead of all that stands before us and all the demands that are
being made on us and all the things that we've honorably got
to try and get through in the year ahead perhaps. It's a beautiful
verse but my God shall supply all your need, everything that
we stand in need of. Not with not with an undue bounty. You
see, God can bountifully bring us into his banqueting house.
I don't want you to get the wrong idea, but there is also, you
see, included in the life of faith of the Lord's people, there
is the trial of our faith. The trial of your faith which
is much more precious than gold that perishes. You think of the
woman at Zarephath, that Elijah went to stay with when there
was that famine in the land. He found that lady gathering
two sticks that she may make a fire and bake her last meal
that she and her son could have and then die. Well you say that's
pretty poor. That really is poor. So what
does Elijah say? Elijah says, make me a cake first. You see, she was to put God first. Yes, she was poor, but she was
going to put God first. And she did, amazingly. She did
do just what Elijah said. And Elijah gave this promise
from God, that the bowel of meal shall not fail, waste nor the
crews of oil fail. till the Lord send rain upon
the earth. But we don't read that the cruise
of oil was full and the barrel of meal was full. But we read
that it didn't empty, it didn't become completely empty each
day as they took their more meal and more oil out of those provisions. You know, unbelief would say,
well I don't think there's hardly a handful left there now. But
again in the morning there would be fresh supply. You see that
was that with the manor, wasn't it? They weren't given a deluge
which would last them a year to put in their tents. They were
given daily bread. Give us this day a daily bread. We're to be dependent upon our
God. He's not going to make us, as
it were, have that storehouses here below. Why? Because our
treasure is in heaven. That's why our treasures in heaven,
not on this earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves
break through and steal, our treasures in heaven, that he
will give us this day our daily bread. And what does that make
his people? It makes his people walk by faith.
They don't look at some great storehouse in and of themselves
for grace, to do what God asks them to do. but they have to go day by day
trusting that the Lord would put in, give them the strength
for that day, give them the help to get through that next day
of honouring God in their lives. The next day of perhaps, in my
case, preaching the gospel to another church or another sermon
needs to be preached, or another duty needs to be performed, or
another position that needs to be fulfilled. Well, you see,
daily we need to have that grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
he may supply our needs. But you see, the fact that the
barrel of meal was never full. You see, I suspect, I don't know
how much one of these barrels of meal would take, but just
supposing God filled that completely full up, I think I understand
the reading of it is that it lasted a year that barrel of
meal. Well I'm not sure a full barrel of meal would last a year. But it did last a year because
it was supplied miraculously again and again. Of course Elijah
had been fed by ravens before that. The ravens were the ones
that provided him food. And you think, well, when he
was eating of that food, the supernatural thing was the ravens
feeding him. The ravens, which were scavengers,
which would normally steal food. No doubt they probably had stolen
the food for Elijah's benefit. But you see, the natural provision
was the river. The river, there's nothing really
that supernatural about drinking from a river, but it was the
river that dried up, not the ravens that stopped bringing
the food. You see, God is able to make
all these things be providing for our needs. Why? Because it
shows something of his bounty that he has towards his people.
that he has that storehouse of grace, and though perhaps we
get a day at a time, our strength and our wisdom and our help,
there's no lack in the storehouse of his grace. It's not because
he is running dry. He has a fullness to supply for
all of our needs. But we're to use those needs
and we're to use those supplies for His glory. Otherwise, we
will not receive them. We are, you see, we become barren
and unfruitful. If we look more at 2 Corinthians
9, if we look at verse 6, which
is the cross-reference. But this I say, he which soweth
sparingly will reap also sparingly. And he that soweth bountifully
will reap also bountifully. I ask you tonight, which do you
want to be? Do you want to be somebody who
reaps bountifully? That means a plentifully, a great
abundance. Or do you want to be one that
reaps just a meagre amount? Surely, is there not a desire
that you may reap abundantly? when we think of it spiritually,
that we may be filled with the fullness of God, that we may
know the peace of God which passeth all understanding, that we may
have that forgiveness of our sins, that we may have the love
of Christ shed abroad in our hearts, that we may have that
assurance that we are his children, that we are his heritage. These
are the blessings that God is able to give. He is able to abundantly
bless us with these things. But we are therefore to sow plentifully
and bountifully as it says in 2 Corinthians 9 verse 6. Every man according as he purposeth
in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity. For God loveth a cheerful giver,
and God is able to make all grace abound toward you. that ye, always
having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good
work. As it is written, he hath dispersed
abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth
forever. Godliness is intensely practical
as well as spiritual. and it is to have practical outworkings
in our lives. And Paul knew that, and that
is why Paul desired that there may be that fruit that abound
to the account of the Lord's people, because he wanted the
church to flourish. We read in John 15 when the Lord
Jesus said, Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much
fruit. But the generosity that God's
people are commanded to have, why should that be? Well, they
are commanded to be like our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We are to reflect God. We have
been made in the image of God. And although we have fallen,
that image needs to be restored as much as possible when we come
to the new birth. And as we are sanctified, as
we are made more Christ-like, what was our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ like? What was God like? for his church? Well, he gave
his only begotten son. He gave the most precious gift
he had for the church, that the church might go free. You see, this liberal spirit,
this generous spirit that we are being commended of here is
that which God has. in giving his beloved son, in
not keeping him back, in not keeping him for himself, but
giving his only begotten son. And when we think of what he
gave his son to do, it is truly amazing. You see, we as human
beings, we hear sometimes of terrible cases where children
get abducted and get abused and go through terrible things, and
it's obviously a terrible thing to take place. And yet we as
parents, and those that it has happened to, would go through
all the circumstances that led up to our child being in that
place at that time. And we would say, if only this
hadn't have happened, and if only that hadn't have happened,
this would have never happened to my son, or this would have
never happened to my daughter. But when we have our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, when He gave His Son, His Son was so
abused, was so despised, and yet it was planned from the foundation
of the world. He went to the cross, knowing
all that lay before him. He set his face toward Jerusalem. This is the love of Christ to
sinners. And it's all, as it says in our
text, according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. are receiving of all these blessings
are as we have union with Christ. He has gained the victory. He has been that one who has
conquered and therefore he has this supply, this riches of grace
to give to his church, to his people. And we read here My God
shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory. In other
words, in proportion to. God has this wonderful storehouse
of grace for his people. And as he gives to the church,
it is out of that storehouse. But for us as individual Christians,
we need to consider this. Are we using what God has given
us for the glory of God? Are we living for God's glory?
Or is it just a nominal Christianity? Is it just something that we
put on on the Lord's Day and then forget about the rest of
the week? Do we just go through the outward
motions of worship? Or do we love the Lord? Are we
living for His glory? Are we seeking His Kingdom? Are
we desiring to show forth His praise? If we are, And if we
are sacrificially, as it were, giving ourselves to the work
of God in whatever way God has enabled us to do, and that will
be different. The church militant, you think of an army, is made
up of a whole range of people. A whole range of people are in
the army to fulfil all the needs of that army. And yet each one
is to be involved in the work. Each one has a position and a
work to do. When you go into a foreign country
as an army, you don't have a load of spectators. You don't have
a coachload of people just come to observe the action. No, you
have the army. It is to be all involved. And
you see, each member of the church is to be part of the church militant,
is to be involved in the work of God. They should be sacrificially
giving in monetary terms, but also in time, in terms of their
praise, the sacrifice of praise to God. All these different aspects
they should be giving to God. And they might think, well, I'll
have nothing left. But we have then this wonderful
promise. But my God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in glory. We have this beautiful,
precious promise that God can supply all our needs and we need
to leave them with Him, confess our sins and desire that we may
live lives that glorify Him. You see, that is the intention,
that is the purpose for which we were created. The purpose
for which we were created was to glorify God. I came across
a story regarding that. There was a carpenter that had
had a young boy working for him and he showed him some nails
and a hammer and a saw and a piece of wood and he said you know
that these tools are made for a certain purpose The saw is
made for cutting the wood, and the hammer is made for banging
in the nails. Don't use the wrong tool for
the wrong job. They weren't made for that. And
this young boy thought this sounds all a bit elementary. Of course
I know that. Well, this godly carpenter was
saying, if we are living in this life not to the glory of God,
We are no different than a carpenter that goes around banging in nails
with a saw and cutting wood with a hammer. We're no different. We're using our bodies, everything
God's given us, for a purpose other than for which it was created. We were created to glorify Him. If we do not glorify Him, We're
using everything that God has given us for a purpose for which
it was not created. So we need to think that by nature
we're forever banging in nails with a saw and cutting wood with
a hammer. But if we live to God's honour
and glory, then we know what it is to know Him and to live
to His glory and to receive every supply that we stand in need
of for time and for eternity. It is truly the riches in glory. God is eternally rich. We think
of earthly people as rich, but really their riches are absolutely
nothing when we consider them to the riches in Christ Jesus. Everything He made for His glory. Everything. He owns everything.
It's all His. And He has said, He has promised,
this wonderful promise, but my God shall supply all your need
according to His riches in glory. Serve me, honour me, give me
the best of your time, of your life. I will supply every need
you have because according to the riches in glory. by Christ
Jesus. Well, may we each know what it
is to live lives to His glory, for His praise. Amen.