I'd like for you to turn with
me this morning to the epistle of the Philippians chapter 4. This past Tuesday I took my wife
over to LSU Medical Center and they gave her what they call
an MRI. And it's a procedure which takes
very detailed pictures inside the body, and in her case, inside
the brain. And then we went from there and
had some blood tests done. And then we went up to the oncologist
or cancer doctor's office and were ushered into a room and
there we sat. And after a good while, the doctor
came in and he was smiling. And he said, I've got good news. I've got good news. He said, there's no sign yet
of any cancer. Now, this is about her fifth
MRI since her surgery. And I think I can speak for the
both of us. Every time I see his face and
he said, I've got good news, it's still sunshine in my soul. My message this morning to you
is good news. Good news for needy sinners. I don't suppose most of the people
who were in that hospital ever even take a thought for what
goes through the mind of a patient when they're waiting to see that
doctor. And I wonder, as I preached to you, I'm going to make it
personal. I know these messages go up on the internet, and I
don't know who hears them. I don't know where they go. That's
in the Lord's hand. But I'm going to speak to you.
And I know that some of you here this morning, when I've finished,
will go home and have no idea about what I just said and what
that means to a sinner when God gives him good news. Good news. Philippians chapter
4, verse 19. Paul said, but my God shall supply
all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. What a statement. My text this
morning supplies its own outline. I don't have to have an outline. It has its own. And there's five
things which seem to sum up everything that Paul preached to men. Wherever
he went, he preached the same thing. And everything about which he
had just written to this beloved church. So let's begin at the
beginning. Let's begin at the very beginning
of this verse with these words, my God. I want you to think about that
for a minute. I know God is God. I know God
is from everlasting to everlasting. I know that He's omnipresent.
I know that He's totally sovereign. I know that He is the God of
the universe. He is God. But is He your God? Huh? There's a difference. There is
a difference. The prophet of God, old Zechariah,
he used these words back in Zechariah 14 as he penned by inspiration
one of the names of God our Savior, and he called Him Jehovah-Elijah,
the Lord my God. Now brethren, there is no understanding
of God apart from God our Savior. You don't come to an understanding
of God and then come to an understanding of the Savior. You come to an
understanding of God through the Savior. No man, he said,
knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal
him. How do I know God will have mercy
on sinners? Because His Son came into this
world and exhibited, manifested that mercy to sinners. How do
I know He'll cleanse men? Because I saw Him cleanse men
in the testimony of God. How do I know He'll heal our
diseases? Because He healed our diseases.
This was God come into the flesh. God come into the flesh. Everything
I need to know about how God will treat sinners, what God
will do for needy sinners, I learned in Christ Jesus, my Lord. All
I need to do is read about Him, read the Gospels, read what He
did, see what He did, see where He went, see why He came, see
what He accomplished, see where He is now. He is Jehovah-Elijah, the Lord
my God. In John 14, verse 8, Philip said
to the Lord. There was a long discussion that
preceded this. And the Lord told him that he
was going to go away. He said, don't let your heart
be troubled. He said, I'm going to go away. But if I go away,
he said, I'll return again. And he said, I'm going to prepare
a place for you. And he talked about these things.
And he said, now don't get upset. Don't get anxious about this.
He said, because you know where I'm going. And they said, no,
wait a minute. We don't know. We don't know
the Father, and we don't know the way. We don't know the way. Listen to what he said. Jesus
saith unto him, have I been so long time with you? And yet hast
thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me has seen
the Father. And how sayest thou then, show
us the Father?" Now, he's not talking here about looking on
his person with their natural eyes, seeing his physical person.
Lots of people back in that day saw his physical person who never
saw the spiritual person. Those Jews who came to Him, He
said, you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. And they are they that testify
of Me. But you won't come to Me that you might have life.
They never were able to come, ever learning, never able to
come to the knowledge of the truth. Never able to see Him
for who He was. Never able to see His character
and His power and His ways and His beauty and His glory. What
a blessed privilege it is for any man to be able to say in
his heart and mind, my God. Huh? My Father. Think about it. What a privilege. To be my God, he must be in sovereign
wisdom and revelation. He must come and destroy the
gods of this world and the gods of my mind and the gods of my
heart. the gods of my imagination. Paul
said when he preached, he said the weapons of our warfare, they're
not carnal. We don't get poster boards and
march up and down the road and do all of this. We don't go through
that. That's not our weapons. But our weapons are spiritual.
We preach a spiritual message. We preach the gospel. This is
the power of God unto salvation. It's the only way you can be
saved. The gospel must come in power.
The only one who can do that is God. And when it comes, it tears down
the idols and the groves, and it reveals to my heart the one
true and living God. He said, they're not carnal,
but they're mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. Unbelievers have strongholds.
They have things that were taught to them, or things that they
think they've been taught, and things that people have said,
and influence from churches, and all sorts of things. They're
strongholds. You don't really look at them
that way, but that's what they are. They're strongholds. They're
things we hope in. They're things that we trust
in, things that we stand on. And before you can come to know
the true and living God, He must come and tear down the strongholds. How is He going to do it? Through
the Gospel. Through the Gospel. Casting down. Listen to this.
Casting down imaginations. Images in your heart and mind. And every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God. He is going to tear it
down. And you're going to take his testimony of who he is. He's
going to tear all yours down. Old Ross said years ago, he said,
I've come here tonight to preach to you the living God. But he
said, before I can preach to you the living God, I'm going
to have to kill your God. That's what this is saying. He's
going to tear down the stronghold. He's going to cast down the imagination.
and bring every thought, listen to this, to the obedience of
Christ. My God, the revelation of the
one true and living God in my heart, in my mind. He is my God
as He becomes the God of my understanding. My God as He calls me with an
irresistible calling. He is my God as He reveals His
Son in me. He's my God as His Spirit takes
up His abode in me. Because you're sons, He has sent
the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying, Abba, Father. He's my God as He chose me, made
provision for me, loved me, preserved me, made sweet and precious promises
to me. He's my God who drew me and caused
me to seek Him. He's my God who arranged His
providence to my advantage sent me His gospel, gave me a willing
mind to hear it and a willing heart to submit to it. He is
my God who is my heavenly Father, the Father of lights, the giver
of ever good and perfect gift. He is my God, the God I worship,
the God I trust, the God I fear, and the God I love. He is my
God. He is my God. Is there a greater privilege
in all the world than to call the one true and living God my
Huh? He's my God as He dwells in me
and I in Him, inseparable. Isn't that what Christ said there
in His high priestly prayer, I in them, they're in me? I'm in the Father, we're all
one. We're inseparable. Fused together by divine union
in Christ to be one with Him and so one with the Father. Paul
didn't preach a God far off, but one who dwelt in his heart
and mind. He reminded the Ephesians, he
said at one time, you were without Christ, you were aliens from
the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise,
and you had no hope, listen, without God in the world. But he said, now in Christ Jesus,
ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. My God, not some distant, unknown,
invisible deity, but the one he knew and saw and one who dwelt
in his own heart. There's where the good news begins.
When God reveals himself in a man, then he becomes his God. He is
God. And then secondly, look at this
word, shall. I love that word. Shall. There are no ifs, ands, or buts
to the preacher who can call God his God. He knows by experience
firsthand what God can and will do. Paul said, my God is the
God of shall. That's what he said. He shall.
He shall. The Lord Himself shall give a
sign. Ain't that what Isaiah said?
He shall give a sign. A virgin shall conceive. His
name shall be called Emmanuel. His name shall be called Jesus.
He shall save His people from their sins. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You shall know the
truth, and the truth shall set you free. I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me." I love that word, shall. He's not a God of
if. There's no ifs about it. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. They're going to
come. I'm not worried about whether or not they're going to come.
I'm worried about what I say. That's what I'm worried about.
I'm not worried about the work. He'll perform the work. He performed
the work in me, and I don't despair since then. He's the God of shall. I'm just looking for his elect.
I'm not going to get him down saying, I put one foot out, and
now I put the other foot out, or come up with some clever scheme
to get you down an aisle. I'm going to wait on God. And
I tell you, when he does the work, you shall. You shall. That man in whom God
abides, who knows Him experientially, preaches a God who shall do all
His pleasure. Old David said, I've been young
and now I'm old. And I've never seen the righteous
forsaken nor his seed begging bread. He shall. My God shall, Paul said. And then watch this. supply all
your needs. Oh, my friend, is there anyone
or anything more needed than a fallen sinner? Huh? You needed to hear that doctor.
Huh? You needed it. I need to hear
him say, there's nothing there. Huh? How bad do you need to hear
the Savior say that? There's nothing there. Books
are clear. Huh? Oh, is there anything or
anyone more needy than a fallen sinner? I thought about this. It might
be that you're here this morning and the one reason you've never
come to Christ is because you've never been made aware of your
needs. God never made you aware of your needs. one of the most
terrible things about sin. Sin is a horrible thing. It's death. He calls it death. He calls it leprosy. He calls
it all of these dread names. Sin is a horrible thing, but
one of the most terrible things about sin is that it makes a
soul susceptible to all the deceit of Satan in this world, and it
blinds the hearts and minds of sinners to their need of a sovereign
Savior. It'll be good news when you get
the need. I don't have any cancer. I don't
have any cancer. So I'm not worried about what
he says. But she does, and she needs to hear him say it. And
the sinner needs to hear it. Our Lord said in Matthew chapter
6, He said, if the eye, the eye, the eye of perception, the eye
of the heart, the eye of the understanding, If thine eye be
evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore
the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness." In 1 John 5, verse 19, the beloved
John the Apostle tells us, and we know that we are of God in
the whole world, life and wickedness. Satan has not blinded a few here
and there, but he's blinded the whole world. He's blinded the
whole world. Mothers and fathers and sisters
and brothers and friends and family and people you work with
and old acquaintances and people you went to school with. And this is why it's so impossible
to reach them in word only. Word only don't grip the heart.
Word only don't touch the soul. World only. It doesn't work affectionately
in you. It takes the power of God. Convincing men of sin. If He
convinces you of sin, you'll have no problem receiving the
truth. And word only, it's one man's
opinion against a thousand, one man's declaration against a thousand. It's one little group of men
and women against a world of deception. If our gospel be hid,
Paul said, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. Oh, I tell you, if God would
be pleased to reveal in you your need of Him, how sweet these
words which now offend you would be. Huh? I was angry the first
time I heard the truth, but I wasn't sick. I wasn't lost. I wasn't dead. But I tell you,
when the Holy Spirit convinced me of sin, I didn't hate it anymore. It was good news. If you've got a whole list of
options, if you've got someplace else to stand, if there's another
foundation somewhere, election must seem horrible to you. But
wait till he takes away the foundations. Wait till there's nothing there.
Wait till you're sitting on death row. Nothing to plead. Nowhere to go. No excuse. Hang in there by all I tell you,
election will sound good to you then. Oh, you mean God's going
to save some? Maybe He'll save me. Huh? Oh,
you'll grab your straws then. I tell you, the only ones who
came to Christ and went away blessed were needy sinners. Needy
sinners. All the rest were curiosity seekers. Come out to see the miracles.
Come out for the free lunch. Come out to see the fishes and
the loaves feed 5,000. He said, I know why you are here.
You ate of the loaves and were filled. Those who came out to criticize
and condemn and trap Him, they all went away empty. Mary, the mother of Jesus, prophesied. You recall that? She prophesied. The Spirit of God came upon her
and she prophesied why she still carried this baby in her womb.
And here's what she said, He hath filled the hungry with good
things, and the rich He sent empty away. The hungry. The needy. He blessed them. He blessed them. Are we all not filthy? in nature
needing cleansing? Are we not all wearing the rags
of our self-righteousness needing to be clothed? Are we all not
ignorant of God needing to be taught? Are we not trapped in
a wilderness needing sustenance, needing shelter, needing food
and drink? Are we all not blind, needing
sight, condemned, needing justification, lost, needing to be found? Are
we all not weak needing protection, preservation, corruptible needing
the hand of God upon us, dead needing life? We're needy sinners.
Well, I tell you, if you fit anywhere in there, I've got good
news for you. My God shall supply all your
need, all of it. Do you need righteousness? He's
the end of the law for righteousness. Do you need justification? He
was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification.
Do you need cleansing? We're washed through the regeneration
of the Spirit. Washed. Washed in the blood of
Christ. My God shall supply all your
needs. Now listen to him, here's the
fourth thing. According to His riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. Here's the wellspring of all
gospel blessings. The glorified, victorious, risen
Redeemer. In Him, Paul said, or He had
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Well, I just don't
understand. Come to him. Ephesians chapter 2 paints an
ugly picture, but a true picture of man. Ephesians chapter 2 is
God's testimony of the sinner. He tells us he's dead in trespasses
and sin, spiritually dead. He's traveling down the broad
road of destruction. He's walking the course of this
world. And according to the prince of
the power of the air, he's living a life of disobedience, living
according to the lust of his own flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and is by nature a child of wrath. That's man. That's man. What
an ugly portrait of man the scripture paints. We used to have a toy
when I was a kid. I think it was called a view
finder or a view master. It was this little thing that
looked like a pair of binoculars, but then on the end of it had
this round thing about this big around. And you took this little
round card. It had all these pictures in
it. And you put it down in there, and you put it up to your eyes.
So all you could see was what's on that card. And you push that
little lever down. And it had pictures of all over
the world. You could get all these different
things. When the Spirit of the living
God opens a man's heart, that's what He does. He brings these
pictures before his eyes. He sees them. He doesn't see
anything else. He just sees this. All of a sudden, all these other
things just fade away. All he can see is his sins. My
sins, David said, are ever before me. I'm reminded of them every
day. Sin. Sin. Sin in the world. Sin in me. Sin in my mind. Sin
in my imagination. Sin in my work. Sin in my affections. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. And David said, you require that
I pray from the heart. And my confession from the heart
is that my sins are ever before me. Ever before me. Oh, he brings these pictures
up before... That man at his best state, he's altogether vanity. On his best day, he's just vanity. Just vanity. He drinks iniquity,
Job said, like water. This was a man, there's none
righteous like him in the earth. He said he drank iniquity like
water. No fear of God, Paul said before
his eyes. Destruction and misery in his
way. Filled with darkness. His mind enmity against God. He won't be caught of God. It's
enmity. Don't want anything God has to
say. But listen. Here's the good news. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us. even when we were
dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. He did that. He did that as our
representative. He did that as our substitute.
He did that as our federal head, that in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith. Faith sits before the eyes of
chosen sinners, the reality of their condition before God. And
then it shows to them the glorious riches of God's mercy and grace
in Christ. He shows you your sins and He
leaves you alone for a minute. Just for a minute. And I'll tell
you it'll seem like eternity, but it's just for a moment. Just
for a moment. And then he opens the door and
smiles. And he says, I've got good news.
Huh? I've got good news. I tell you
this morning, there's no hope for a sinner outside of Christ.
Mary can't help you, and the church can't absolve you, and
the Pope can't justify you, and your decisions won't change your
heart. All your resolutions can't change your nature. That Ethiopian,
I don't care how much resolutions, decisions, and how many prayers
or anything else, he can't change the color of his skin, and a
leopard can't change his spots. Salvation is the gift of God's
sovereign grace. It comes through hearing. It
comes through preaching. It comes by way of the Word of
God. And it always begins by convincing
the sinner of his sin. And then it shows that needy
sinner the sufficiency of Christ. And it's by these things that
God's elect are identified in the world. My wife has stage four brain cancer. And
she knows it, and I know it. And when that doctor comes in,
it's always sunshine in my soul. And I tell you, it's that way.
When I'm made to feel my sins, and when I'm made to see what
I am, and to see my shortcomings, see my weakness, see my inability,
oh, I live for that door to open and see His smiling face. I've
got good news. How much more good news is these
heavenly riches of Christ to needy sinners. At the right hand
of God is God's treasure. And God's treasure in Christ
is as full as it can be. In Him, Paul said, is all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you're complete in Him. Complete. He's the head of all principalities. He's the foundation of all grace.
He's the light of God to the world, the bread of God come
down from heaven. He's the great shepherd of the
sheep. He's the way, the truth, the life. He is the resurrection. And He is the express image of
the Father whose image we're predestinated to bear. What is
your need that He can't fulfill? What is it? What need do you have that He
can't fulfill? You know somebody more influential
than the Son of God sitting at the right hand of the Father?
You know somebody with more glory than Him? You know somebody more loving
than Him? You know a position greater than
Him? What is your need that He can't
supply? And having sent Him to the cross, what will God then
withhold? I have only one purpose in being
here this morning, and that is to deliver God's testimony to
you and point you to Christ. Somebody said, well, I just don't
think I could listen to that every week. You could if you
were dying. You'd look forward to it if you
were dying. You might play a tape on the way home. Somebody said, what do y'all
do at these Bible conferences? And I said, well, we have a couple
of speakers in the morning, a couple in the evening. That was years
ago up at 13th Street. He said, well, how many days
does this go on? I said, three. Three days? Well, I'll tell you this, if
it's that worrisome to you here, you wouldn't want to go to glory.
Because that's their continual song. That's their continual
song. Now, in conclusion, let me say
this. If you ever come to know your need and are brought to
Christ to have it filled, this will be your testimony from that
day forward. Philippians chapter 4, verse
20. Now unto God. My God. Our Father, be glory forever. I tell you, when He fills your
needs, you'll glorify Him. And He won't have pressure out
of you. He won't have pressure out of
you. You'll be quick to tell someone. It wasn't to make you. I didn't do it. He did it. He
did it. Forever and ever. Amen. May God be pleased to make it
so in the hearts of someone here today. Wouldn't that be something? Wouldn't that be something? Somebody
here to see God smile and pay, saying, I got good news.