Well let us turn to God's Word
again in Philippians chapter 4 as we continue in this final
chapter the practical part of the Apostles letter to the church
at Philippi and considering tonight the passage from verse 11 through
13 Paul writes in here at Philippians
4 verse 11, Not that I speak in respect of one, for I have
learned in whatever state I am therewith to be content. I know
both how to be abased, and I know how to abound everywhere, and
in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me. having gone through the first
part the first nine verses where we have these various exhortations
we've come now to that part of verse 10 following where we see
the Apostle expressing his thankfulness to the Philippians for their
care of him And so last Thursday we were considering the 10th
verse where he speaks of them being once more in a flourishing
state. He says, I rejoiced in the Lord
greatly, then at the last your care of me has flourished again,
wherein you were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. The Lord had opened up the way,
and again they had shown their great love towards the apostle
by ministering to his needs, as we see in the following verses. Whilst he is acknowledging them
and all their goodness to him, in the verses that I've read,
11, 12 and 13, he speaks of his contentment. Not that I speak
in respect of want, for I have learned in whatever state I am
therewith to be content, he says. And so tonight I want to speak
of that contentment which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. His
contentment in Christ. As he says in verse 13, I can
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. It is the Lord Jesus Christ,
then, who is very much the source of this contentment of which
he speaks. Think of the gracious words of
the Lord in the Gospel, take my yoke upon you and learn of
me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest
unto your souls. All that rest that is found when
one is looking to Christ and trusting in the Lord Jesus and
so to consider for a while now we've looked at contentment on
previous occasions but to look at what we have here in these
three verses concerning that contentment that is in the Lord
Jesus and two things I want to speak of say something really
first of all with regards to the nature of the contentment
and then secondly the great necessity of it not just for the Apostle
but for us. And remember he says to Timothy
how he is a pattern. A pattern to them which would
hereafter believe there are lessons to learn from his experience
and those things that in the epistles he's moved to write
concerning himself. Moved of course by the Spirit
of God, one of those holy men who spoke as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost. First of all then, to look at
the nature of this contentment. I have learned, he says, in whatsoever
state I am, therewith to be content. In the passage that we read in
the final chapter of 1st Timothy, we began with those words there
in the sixth verse of chapter six. Godliness with contentment
is great gain. And I suppose in many ways it's
a truism that there can be no contentment without godliness. But there can be no godliness
without the Lord Jesus Christ. Godliness with contentment, these
two go together. no contentment without godliness,
no godliness without the Lord Jesus Christ. That great mystery
of godliness is God's manifest in the flesh. And so we see quite
clearly that Christian contentment is really something that is Christocentric. The Christian's contentment very
much centers there in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus. It is learned only from the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is spiritual in its very nature. And what is Paul saying here
in these verses? Well, see, the emphasis that
he makes, the verbs that he is using. He says, I have learned. He says, I know. And again he
says, I know, and then he says, I am instructed. The verbs very much emphasize
then that this is something that Paul has had to learn, it's something
that he has been taught. And who is the one who has taught
him this lesson in true Christian contentment? Well, it must be
the Lord God. It is written in the prophets,
they shall be all taught of God. the language of Isaiah 54 verse
13 and taken up there in John chapter 6 by the Lord Jesus he
says there in verse 45 it is written in the prophets they
shall be all taught of God every man therefore that have heard
and have learned of the Father cometh unto me it is God who
teaches us where our contentment is to be found and it is to be
found only in the Lord Jesus Christ And as I said, it's spiritual
in its very nature. Again, we have those verses in
the second chapter of John's first epistle. You have an unction
from the Holy One and you know all things, he says in chapter
2 verse 20 and then later in the 27th verse of that same chapter
he speaks of the anointing. which teacheth you of all things.
The anointing is the same word really of course and it is referring
to the ministry of the Holy Spirit and this contentment of which
the Apostle is speaking then is that that comes from the Lord
Jesus Christ and comes by the teaching of the Father and is
that that is communicated by the ministry of God the Holy
Spirit himself or the wonder of it. Paul says then I am instructed
and the particular word, the verb that he is using here literally
means to initiate into mysteries. There's an initiation, there's
a bringing into certain mysteries. without controversy, great is
the mystery, the mystery of godliness is what he is being instructed
in. And that mystery, as I said, centers in Christ, the incarnation,
God's manifest in the flesh. It has been said that to see
the glory of Christ is the sum of true Christian religion. we behold the glory of God in
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and contentment then a mystery
in itself unknown in this fallen world through contentment it
is that that only God can teach I can do all things through Christ, he says, which
strengtheneth me. That hymn that we just sang,
our opening praise, 1128, it says prayer and really it is
a prayer that particular hymn. It's a prayer to the three persons
in the Godhead. And of course at the end of the
hymn, verses 4 and 5, the prayer is being addressed to the Holy
Ghost. Thou Holy Ghost who dost reveal
the secret things of grace, and knowest well the Father's will
and His deep mind can trace, disclose the heavenly mysteries,
and bring the Gospel feast, give gracious heart and open eyes
that we may see and taste. It is the Spirit who brings us
then into this great spiritual mystery of true contentment,
and it's found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. And how is it that
the Spirit teaches us these things? Well, it's not just a matter
of enlightening the mind. He teaches us in our experiences
of life. He teaches us in our experiences
of the grace of God. He teaches us the mystery of
the whole life of faith. Remember what Paul has already
said previously, in verse 9, those things which he had both
learned, he says, and received and heard and seen in me do. It's not just a matter of the
instruction that he has given them when he's been there at
Philippi. He was there, of course, first preaching the gospel together
with Silas, as we're told in Acts 16. and here he is instructing
them in his epistle but he doesn't just appeal to those things that
they've learned and received and heard from him but the things
that they have seen in him and again we see that in what he
says right at the beginning remember the closing verses of that first
chapter he tells them unto you it is given in the behalf of
Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his
sake." Having the same conflict which he saw in me and now here
to be in me. It's in these experiences, the
conflicts of life, that the apostle was able to learn what true contentment
is. And it, as I say, it centers
in Christ and it's learned by him being brought to that place
of prayer. to recognize his complete and
utter dependence upon the Lord God, how he has to pray to Him.
And again in the exhortations, we have that wonderful 6th verse
in the exhortation there, to pray, be careful for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgivings,
let your requests be made known unto God. It's not just a matter
of forms of prayer. How the Lord brings His people
into circumstances where they have to cry to Him, out of the
very depths of their souls when we come to God in true prayer
we don't approach as those who would presumptuously imagine
we can dictate to God and tell him what to do no, when we come
to God in true prayer we're waiting upon him we wait in that spirit of submission
The Lord himself teaches us in the modern prayer hour to pray
thy kingdom come. All we want to see is reign of
grace being established. We want to know that grace established
in our own souls. We pray thy will be done in earth
as it is in heaven. And there is of course a mystery,
a deep mystery with regards to the will of God for each of us
individually. Though we see it time and again
in the language of the Psalmist. Why are these Psalms left on
record in Holy Scripture? Because they teach us something
of the life of faith. How those saints of old had to
wrestle with God in their prayers. The Psalms are not simply a book
of praises, they are prayers. And there we see, time and again,
the psalmist acknowledging the mystery of the will of God, how
God's way is in the sea, His paths are in the deep waters,
His footsteps are not known. We can't trace out God and the
ways of God. But where do we find true contentment? When we wait upon Him in prayer,
when we come before Him with that spirit of true submission. And isn't it something that we
have to learn from the Lord Jesus Christ? I said that Paul is the
pattern, the pattern believer in a sense there in 1 Timothy
1.16. But he says, doesn't he, to the
Corinthians that they are to only follow him as he follows
Christ. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who
is our ultimate pattern. And how the Lord would wait upon
God in prayers, spending whole nights in prayers to His Father
in heaven. We read of Him who in the days
of His flesh when He had offered up prayer and supplication with
strong crying and tears, all strong crying and tears unto
Him that was able to save Him from death and was heard. in that he feared. Oh, he has
that true reverential fear in his heart as he comes before
God. Though he were a son, the eternal son of God, yet learned
the obedience by the things that he suffered here in the state
of his humiliation. Oh, he had taken to himself,
to his own blessed person as God the Son, that real human
nature and living the life of faith. And he says, I came down
from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him who
sent me, and to finish His work." And how His human will is submissive. There in the garden of Gethsemane,
He's in an agony, and His sweat is like drops of blood falling
to the ground, agonizing in prayers to God. Oh, my Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me, He says. Nevertheless,
not my will but Thine be done. This contentment then, it is
a spiritual contentment that the Apostle Paul himself had
learned in the school of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have these verbs repeated
throughout the verses. I have learned in whatsoever
state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased,
I know how to abound, everywhere and in all things I am instructed
both to be full, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. And so turning secondly to say
something there with regards to the real necessity of all
of those experiences that he makes mention of here The end of that 11th verse, I
have learned, he says, in whatsoever state. It's whatsoever state,
condition, whatever the circumstances of his life, whatever God in
his sovereignty has appointed for him, he says he is there
in content. It's the life of faith, and the
life of faith is a life that is is full of changes. There are abasements and there
are aboundings. There's that sense in which the
believer is full and yet the believer is hungry. The believer
has plenty and yet can suffer great needs. And isn't this what
he is saying in verse 12? I know both how to be abased
and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things
I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound
and to suffer need. And remember how Bunyan of course
in Pilgrim's Progress draws it out as we see Christian making
that journey from the city of destruction to the celestial
city entering in there at the straight gate to walk in that
in that narrow way and there are those little rhymes that
we have in pilgrim progress think of those words a christian man
is never long at ease when one trial is gone another doth him
seize says dear John Bunyan Many changes, many changes in the
life of faith. Not always on the hilltop, not
always in those high places, but there are the valleys as
well, even the valley of the shadow of death that the Christians
sometimes must pass through. And in Psalm 55, doesn't the
Psalmist say of the ungodly man, the faithless
man, because they have no changes, they have no changes, therefore
they fear not God. All that paradox of the life
of faith, the believer's way, strange and so mysterious. and Paul speaks of it, he speaks
of it certainly writing in 2nd Corinthians 6 verse 9 he says
of himself he is unknown and yet well known as dying and behold
we live as chastened and not killed he's describing something
of his life and yet a contentment amidst all the vicissitudes of
life, all the changing scenes. Not that I speak in respect of
one, for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Contentment in the changes, contentment
in that walk of faith. We walk by faith, says Paul to
the Corinthians, and not by sight. well two things in particular
surely we see here there is abasement and there is abounding there's
the lows of the life of faith and there are the heights of
the faith or the life of faith first of all he says I know how
to be abased and Paul was treated really with indignity and utter
contempt. That was certainly the case with
regards to the situation that he had to address in the church
at Corinth. He sends two letters of course
to the Corinthians and look at the language that he uses there
in the second letter in 2 Corinthians 4 At verse 8 he says, We are troubled
on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not
destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. What remarkable
experiences this man can speak of. And of course, we know that
there were those false teachers who had come into the church
at Corinth, and with their heretical doctrines, they turned the hearts
of so many against Paul. He has to defend himself, and
we see that at the end of that second epistle. in chapter 11, verse 22 he says
of these false teachers, are they Hebrews? For they thought
they were such experts in the law of God. Are they Hebrews?
So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I.
Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of
Christ? That's what they call themselves.
I speak as a fool, I am more. In labors more abundant, in stripes
above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft of the
Jews. Five times received I forty stripes,
save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods,
once was I stole, thrice I suffered shipwreck. The night and the
day I have been in the deep, in journey as often, in perils
of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen,
in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils
in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false
brethren. And so he goes on, this great
catalogue. How he knew what it was to be
so very much a vice. How even those whom he had been
instrumental in taking the gospel to could turn against him. And he felt it. he had trials on every hand troubles
without, trials with innocence he had the care of all the churches
and so he speaks of being abased often times in those low places
he knew what it was to suffer needs I know how to be abased
everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full
to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need to suffer
need it's interesting the word that
he uses here because it also has that idea of coming short
suffering need in the sense of coming short coming short of
what others would consider to be so necessary and yet he was
denied these things He knew what self-denial meant, this man.
If any man will come after me, says Christ, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me. And that was the apostle. He was a beast. The word that
we have there at the beginning of that twelfth verse, abased,
it's the same exactly the same word that we find in chapter
2 at verse 8 concerning the Lord Jesus being found in fashion
as a man he humbled himself he abased himself here is something
then that Paul had learned of the Lord Jesus Christ though
he had that high calling to be Christ the Apostle and the Apostle
to the Gentiles to unfold that mystery hidden from the foundation
of the world that the Gospel has come and the ancient wall
of partition between Jew and Gentile is no more. This is the
man who is to preach that Gospel to Gentile sinners. Paul is one then who He's preaching
those things that he feels. And he feels in the very depths
of his soul. He's learned these things of
Christ. And he expresses, doesn't he,
his great desire in chapter 3, that I may know Him, the Lord
Jesus, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings,
being made conformable unto His death. He would be crucified
with Christ. he denies himself then but then
there's not just the abasements there's also the aboundings twice he uses that expression I know how to abound and then
again at the end both to abound and to suffer need he also uses
the expression to be full as well as to be hungry so He knows
both sides of the question, both sides of the life of faith. He's one who is many times favored
in his own soul with such glorious revealings of Christ. He speaks
of these things, doesn't he, at the end of 2 Corinthians. I know he speaks in the third
person. I knew a man in Christ. He doesn't
want to draw attention to himself and he was caught up to the third
heaven. He saw unutterable things. Things that he couldn't speak
of really. He was greatly favoured. The aboundings of the grace of
God towards this man. But think of the language that
we have there in Proverbs 13. I'm sure you're familiar with
the portion of verse 8. Remove far from me vanity, says
the wise man. Remove far from me vanity and
lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient
for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and still and
take the name of my God in vain. or we need to know both sides
of the question and we need to be those who would walk circumspectly
in that narrow way that is leading to life eternal. Again the passage
that we were reading there in that sixth chapter of 1st Timothy verse 7 Paul says we brought
nothing into this world it is certain we can carry nothing
out and having food and raiment let us be there with contentment all contentment to boundings fullness if we're not careful
it can lead us to that place of awful carnal security And
we don't want that. We don't want to be like that
foolish rich man of whom the Lord speaks when he addresses
his own soul. He has many goods, he says, laid
up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. Well, aboundings, you see, have
their dangers. God says to that very man, thou
fool, this night shall be required, thy soul shall be required of
them. The wisdom then of the wise man there in Proverbs 30
verses 8 and 9. We have to live the life of faith
and that's that life of complete and utter dependence upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the Puritan Jeremiah
Burroughs has a little work, doesn't he? The rare jewel of
Christian contentment. It's a rare jewel. But oh, when
God comes to make up his jewel, might we be those who know what
it is to possess something of that precious jewel? That it
might be evident in our lives as those who would be the followers
of the Lord Jesus Christ and learn, and learn ultimately from
Christ himself, but learn from those things that the Lord was
pleased to reveal to his servant, the Apostle. not that I speak
in respect of want 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 in all things I am instructed
both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer
need I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me Christ sent its contentment,
might we know that by the grace of God. We're going to sing us
our second praise, part of Psalm 73, the latter part of Psalm
73, singing from verse 24 through to the end. The tune is Southwell
239. that with thy counsel while I
live wilt me conduct and guide, and to thy glory afterward receive
me to abide. Whom have I in the heaven high,
but thee, O Lord, alone? And in the earth, whom I desire
besides thee, there is none. Psalm 73, verses 24 to 28. The
tune is 239.