Our Bibles begin today to Philippians
chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4 and beginning
in verse 10 reading through verse 19. But I've rejoiced in the Lord
greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished
again. wherein you were also careful,
but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of
wont, 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 strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding, you have well
done that you did communicate with my affliction. Now, ye Philippians
know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed
from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving
and receiving, but you only. For even at Thessalonica you
sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desire a gift,
but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all
and abound. I am full, having received of
Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of
a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. But my
God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. It seems to me that the Apostle
Paul desired to accomplish three things in these verses that we
are looking at today. He desired to accomplish three
things in these verses where he speaks of Christian giving. of Christian giving as a spiritual
sacrifice. And I want to point these three
things out to us first, and then second, I want us to look at
Christian giving as a sacrifice. First, three things Paul desired
to accomplish in these verses. Now remember, he's writing to
a local church. It would be just like he was
writing to the church here. and he has three desires. First
of all, he wished to show his gratitude and thankfulness to
this church for their gifts to him. Now we know from Acts chapter
16, when Paul preached the gospel in Philippi, when the gospel
was first carried there into Philippi, city of Macedonia,
that the first converts immediately Immediately they showed their
gratitude to him and those who were with him for bringing the
gospel to them. The first convert that we know
of was named Lydia. And you remember the scripture
says, the Lord opened her heart that she attended unto the things
spoken by Paul. God opened her heart and she
attended to the gospel. The Lord God is the only one
who is able to open the heart of a dead, lost, depraved sinner
and give that sinner a desire and ability to attend unto the
gospel. But then we read that as soon
as she was baptized and Luke, he wrote the book of Acts of
course, he used the word constrained. She constrained us to abide in
her house. She took them to her house. She
showed thanks and hospitality. She showed thanks and her hospitality
to those who had brought the gospel to her and her family,
her household. And then the next man that we
know who was saved there, the next convert, was that jailer.
And most of the time, and all the writers will tell you this,
a man who would have that job, that position, usually was a
retired Roman soldier. And they would be some of the
hardest, some of the roughest people on the face of God's earth. But just as soon as this man
was saved, and was baptized, the scripture tells us this,
that he brought them, that is Paul and Silas and maybe Timothy,
he brought them into his house and set meat before them. He had a meal fixed for them. Just as soon as he was converted,
what was he doing? He was showing his thanksgiving,
his gratitude for those who brought the gospel to him. Now this begs the question, because
you notice in verse 16 of our text that the church at Philippi,
for even in Thessalonica, you sent once and again unto my necessity. When he left Philippi, remember
the civil authorities, they came and they said, at first they
told him, leave. And Paul said, wait a minute.
We're Romans, though. We're Roman citizens. And you've
beaten us uncondemned, and now you're just going to kind of
move us out of the city? No. Let them come and request
that we leave the city." And he left when he got ready. But
when he left, the first place we read that he went to to preach
the gospel was Thessalonica. Now he writes back to this church
and tells them that they had sent twice to him when he was
at Thessalonica to meet his necessities. And that's interesting, isn't
it? His necessities. Not his luxury, not to live a
life of ease, but to maintain him there were certain necessities
that he had as all men had. But this begs the question, why
after we see the gratitude and the thanksgiving that the church,
the members of the church at Philippi showed to Paul, why
is it that the believers in the church at Thessalonica did not
do likewise? Why was it necessary that his
necessities be met by the church at Philippi? Well, it appears to me from Paul's
two letters to the church at Thessalonica that at least this
may be a possibility. Paul saw something in the believers
in the church at Thessalonica that caused him to refuse to
receive their help. Now what was it that maybe he
saw? in them that would cause him
to refuse to receive help from them. And I ask this question,
did the Thessalonians, a pagan society, did the Thessalonians
as a whole generally look down on work? And I say that for these two
verses of Scripture, two passages of Scripture, if you look over
in 1 Thessalonians. And do you know that there are
certain societies that actually look down on work? Now that's
not a Christian society. Let me be honest to say that.
Remember that Adam, holy Adam, when he was placed in the garden,
he was placed there and he was given work to do before he ever
sinned. And there are certain societies
and certain countries in the world today where people just
look down on work, on having to work and earn a living by
the sweat of their brow. Could it be that Paul saw that
those Thessalonians were that way? I don't know, but I'm just
suggesting that. And I want you to look first
in 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 11. He writes back to them, and that
you study to be quiet. Oh, that's a study, isn't it? That's a study. Study to be quiet. In other words, don't be busybodies. Don't be minding other people's
business. Be quiet. And to do your own
business, Now notice, "...and to work with your own hands as
we commanded you, that you may walk honestly toward them that
are without, and that you may have lack of nothing." You work
with your own hands, and you earn a living. Nothing dishonorable
about that. In fact, just the opposite. And
then look in II Thessalonians. The second letter he wrote to
them, this to me is even more revealing, beginning in verse
7 of chapter 3. For yourselves know how you ought
to follow us. For we behave not ourselves disorderly
among you, neither did we eat any man's bread for naught. Now
to behave disorderly, part of that would have been to eat the
bread of other men. not to work and to earn their
own bread, but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that
we might not be chargeable to any of you, not because we have
not power." In other words, as an apostle, they had the right
to expect to be supported by those to whom they preached the
gospel. The scripture is very clear.
that those who preach the gospel are to live of the gospel. But
Paul, writing to this church, said, not because we have not
power, but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow
us. For even when we were with you,
this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should
he eat. A man's able, physically able,
to work and to support himself, then he should. In the providence
of God, I just happened this morning to be reading in Leviticus
in that passage where God had a provision for the poor people.
Remember how he commanded the Israelites not to harvest in
the corners of their field, and not to go back over their grapevines
for a second gleaning. to leave that for those who were
poor so that they would have a way of earning their living. Now Paul says, for even when
we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work,
neither should he eat. For we hear, this is what we
hear, that there are some which walk among you disorderly. working
not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command
and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they
work and eat their own bread." Back to our text now. He thanked
them. This was his desire to thank
the believers in the church at Philippi. to show his gratitude
to them for the gifts which they had sent to him. Two times when
he was at Thessalonica, they had ministered unto his needs. And you notice in verse 14, back
in our text now in Philippians chapter 4, verse 14, he said,
you did well. Notice that. Notwithstanding,
you have well done. Your support of us, you've done
well. That's commendable. That's commendable
that those who preach the gospel, they live of the gospel. Now
notice their most recent gift, which they had sent to him, was
while he was a prisoner, he still was a prisoner when he was writing
this letter, but as a prisoner in Rome, they sent a gift to
him by their minister, Paphroditus. And it's interesting, to me at
least, in verse 10, when he said, but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly
that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again. They had sent to his necessities,
to help meet his necessities. We know those two times. And
now he says, your concern and your love towards me has flourished
again. Now what's interesting to me
about that is the word which is used here, it's a word that
usually speaks of springtime. When the trees, like they are
now, when they're all, they look dead. There's no leaves, there's
no blooms, there's no fruit, they just look like they're dead.
And then springtime comes and they flourish again. They just
break out. Your care of me, he says, has
flourished again. And that reminds me of a passage
of scripture, one of my favorite passages of scripture in the
Song of Solomon. Let me read it to you in the
Song of Solomon. I would call this a revival.
It's flourished again. Your love, your care, your concern
has flourished again. And all of us who are saved,
don't we experience that? At times our love grows cold,
we're not proud of it. Our hearts are not warm. How
tedious and tasteless are the hours when Jesus no longer I
see. But when he comes, even December
is like May. This wonderful passage here in
the Song of Solomon, he said, or she said rather, my beloved
spake. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
isn't it? He visits his church, his spouse. She loves him, he
loves her. He said, my beloved is mine.
Or she said, my beloved is mine and I'm his. Two times in this
book of the Song of Songs. But here, she said, my beloved
spake and said unto me, rise up, my love. Maybe it's in a
service like this. Maybe it's in your closet in
prayer. Maybe it's singing hymns. But it is as though the Lord
speaks to you. Not audibly, you know I'm not
saying that. But in your heart, rise up, my
love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter's past. The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth.
The time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the
turtle is heard in our land. The fig tree put it forth her
green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good
smell. Arise, my love. Come away, my
fair one, and come away. Your love for me, your concern
for me, Paul says, has flourished again. And then you notice it
seems that he makes an excuse for them. But I've rejoiced, here back
in Philippians 4 and verse 10, but I've rejoiced in the Lord
greatly that now at the last year care of me hath flourished
again. But notice he says wherein You
were also careful, but you lacked opportunity. As though he were
saying, I know you would have sent time and time again, but
you just didn't have the opportunity. They didn't have a Western Union.
They didn't have an ATM card or anything like that. For someone
to take a gift, to take an offering, was not an easy thing. But here's
a lesson for you and I. I said three things I believe
Paul desires to accomplish in these verses. First of all, he
wished to show his gratitude and thankfulness to this church
for their gifts to him. Now here's a lesson for you and
I from this. we should be grateful and thankful. These are Christian graces in
which all of God's children should abound. All of us here today
who know the Lord Jesus Christ, these two graces, thankfulness
and gratitude, we should abound in these graces. When people
help us, when people are a blessing to us, when people minister unto
us to show our thankfulness, to show our gratitude. Paul did. Now that's the first
thing he desired to do. Second, he wished, now listen,
he wished not to reflect on God's good providence in any way. In thanking them for their gifts,
he did not want to come across as whining, as complaining about
God's provisions. He would not have them think
that serving God is not a privilege, and that God is a hard taskmaster,
that God is not a kind master, and God sees to the needs of
His servants. He would not have them to think
that about God. I see that here myself. He wished
not to reflect on God's providence in a bad way. Yes, you've done
good. You've done good in helping us.
We needed the help. But I don't want you to think
that I'm speaking in respect of wont. Notice that in verse
11. Not that I speak in respect of
one. I don't want you to think that
about my God, about my Father. He's too good. He's too kind. He's too gracious. I would not
want to say anything that would cause anyone to believe that
He doesn't meet our needs, that He doesn't supply every need. Notice in verse 18, he said,
but I have all and abound. I have everything. I have all
and I abound. I'm reminded of two men in the
Old Testament. Keep your place here, but let's
look back to Genesis chapter 33. Two men in the Old Testament,
two brothers. One was named Esau and one was
named Jacob. They've been separated, this
passage of scripture that we're going to read here, they've been
separated for some time. And now both of them are wealthy
men. Both of them have herds, they
have flocks, and they're wealthy men. And Jacob, he's returning
after he'd been gone a long time. He wants to give his brother
Esau a gift. And he did. He gave him several
parcels of animals, of different kinds of animals, as a gift. But I want you to notice in verse
9 of chapter 33, and Esau said, I have enough, my brother. In other words, he was refusing
at first to take this gift from Jacob. He said, I have enough.
I have enough, my brother. Keep that that thou hast unto
thyself. And Jacob said, no, no, I pray
thee. If now I have found grace in
thy sight, then receive my present at my hand. For therefore I have
seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou
hast been pleased with me. Take, I pray thee, my blessing
that is brought to thee, because God hath dealt graciously with
me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took
him. Now, in the English translation
that we've just read, both of these men said the same thing. But they really didn't. In our
translation, Esau said, I have enough. Jacob said, I have enough. But they really did not say the
same thing. Literally, what Esau said, I
have abundance. I've got plenty. And he was wealthy. There's no doubt about that.
I have abundance. I've got plenty. Literally, that's
what he was saying when he said, I have enough. But Jacob, when
he said, I have enough, and I'm going by the meaning of the words,
the Hebrew words which are translated, literally what he said, I have
the whole. W-H-O-L-E. Esau said, I've got plenty. Jacob
said, I have everything. I have everything. I have the whole. Now Esau had
a lot of this world's goods, and so did Jacob. But Jacob had
all. He had everything. He had God
as his God. He had God's love. He had God's
covenant. He had God's grace. He had God's
Christ, the promised sea. He said, I've got everything.
And what he said is no different than what every believer in this
building this morning, we too, should be able and should say,
I have all. I have the whole. I am God. What should it profit a man if
he would gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what
should a man give in exchange for his soul? The same was true
of Paul. He had all. And he told God's
children this. He said, the world, here's this
whole world, everything in it, it's yours. It's yours. It's yours! Death? It's yours! Things to come, things
present, things to come, all are yours! It's all yours! And you are Christ, and Christ
is God. Paul would not insinuate to these
people in any way. in a bad way against the provisions
of His Heavenly Father. I have all. I am bound. Now here's a lesson for us not
to complain about God's providence. Let us know and let us be assured. Let us believe. Let us rest in
this truth. that God knows and gives each
and every one of us what is best for us. Don't be looking at someone else.
That's between that person and their father. God knows what
is best for me. And God's giving me what is best
for me. We know that in our head. Believe
it in our heart. Now the third thing He desired
that his thanks not be a subtle way of asking
for another gift. You know, there's a way you can
do that. There's a way you can thank someone,
but suddenly what you're doing, you're asking them, how about
another gift? Paul, he didn't desire to do
that. He confesses that he had learned
to be content in whatever state that God saw was best for him.
Verse number 11. Not that I speak in respect of
all, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. When it's God's will for me to
be hungry and suffer need, Christ strengthens me, and I'm content. When it's God's will For me to
be full and abound, Christ strengthens me, and I am content. Christ, when I'm poor, enables
me not to speak foolishly, charge God foolishly and His providence. And when I am full, Christ strengthens
me. He enables me not to grow rich,
not to grow proud, but to share with others. I thought about
Elijah when I was preparing this, about Elijah. When God sent him
to hide beside the brook Cherith, you know, it appeared to King
Ahab and he said, there's not going to be rain on the earth
until I speak again. And God just shut the heavens,
didn't He? And no rain fell. God sent him
to stay beside a brook, a brook by the name of Cherith. And every
day God fed him ravens. Ravens, an unclean bird under
the law, a carnivorous bird, and yet every day these birds
would fly to where Elijah was and they would bring him some
meat every day. And there was water for him to
drink. How long did he stay there? Maybe
close to a year, I'm not sure. But then God told him, you go
to Zarephath. I've commanded a woman, a widow
there, to sustain thee. And just imagine that widow woman
that day when she got up and she looked in that barrel of
of flour and just barely enough maybe to cover the bottom. And
she got that cruze or that bag of oil, however they kept it,
and she kind of felt it, and yeah, there's a little in there. I've got just enough to go out
and gather some sticks. It won't take many sticks either.
A couple of sticks will do it. Build a fire and make two small
cakes I'll eat one, and my son will eat one, and we'll die.
And I thought about William Cowper a while ago. We were singing
that hymn, There's a Fountain Filled with Blood. Remember,
he also wrote the hymn, Mysterious are the Ways of God's Providence. God moves in mysterious ways. And one of the stanzas to that
hymn is, you fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds
you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break and sovereign
blessings on your head. That woman, when she walked out
the door, man, there was a black cloud over her, wasn't there?
A dark cloud was over her. Just enough, just enough to eat
one more small meal and then die. And who does she meet out
there but Elijah. And Elijah told her, on your
way, fix me a cake first. And she believed that he was
a man of God, and she followed his instruction. And for over
two years, two years, God sustained that woman, her son, and Elijah. That's amazing, isn't it? It's
amazing to us, but I'll tell you. It didn't tax God any. He's got 100,000 million ways
to supply our needs. The very hairs of your head are
all numbered. Paul, he certainly did not want
to subtly, in thanking them subtly, ask them for another gift. And here's the lesson for you
and I. God knows our needs. God knows our needs, and rather
than complain and talk to others about our needs, wouldn't it
be better to speak to our best friend? Our very best friend. Our friend who loved us so much
that he died for us. Rather than complain and talk
and tell everybody else what our needs, wouldn't it be best
if we just talked to our best friend? Now here's the second part of
the message. Christian giving as a sacrifice. In verse 18, he said, But I have
all and abound, I'm full, having received of Epaphroditus the
things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice
acceptable, well-pleasing to God. Paul refers to their gift
as a sacrifice. And let me make two negative
statements. He's not speaking of them giving
a sacrificial offering. That's not what he's saying.
He's not talking about the fact that they gave him a sacrificial
offering. Now, there's no question that
this church did give sacrificially. I say that from Paul's words
in 2 Corinthians 8, verses 1 through 4, when he talks about the churches
of Macedonia. Well, surely this was one of
them. And great, he said, great poverty, great affliction, but
they gave out of their necessity. The greatest, I believe the greatest
example in the word of God of sacrificial giving, of course
the greatest example is Christ, right? Always. But other is that widow woman. Nobody knows her name. And I
don't even know if she knows to this day that her Her sacrificial
giving was noticed by Christ and is recorded in the Word of
God. But she came in the temple that
day and she had two mites to her name. That was it. And here these other guys were
coming in and some of them were wealthy and they put a lot of
money into the offering, into the cabinet there where they
took the offering and the chest and She just kind of slipped up and
took those two mites and dropped them in there. And the Lord Jesus
Christ said she gave more than everyone else. How is that? She gave everything. She of her want did
cast in all that she had, all her living. But that's not what
Paul is talking about here. He's not talking about sacrificial
giving, and he's not speaking about sacrifice for sin. We know that. There's only one
sacrifice for sin. One sacrifice that effectually
puts away sin. You have sin, I have sin. What
are we going to do with our sins? There's only one place. There's
only one way. that our sins may be put away,
and I mean put away, so much so they're as far removed from
us as the East is from the West, so much so that God will remember
them no more. There's only one sacrifice that
does that, and it does it. for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He offered himself. But this
sacrifice that Paul is speaking of here was their gift. The Apostle Peter refers to spiritual
sacrifices. There are sacrifices that God's
people offer unto the Lord. One of them is giving. as in
this case. Another is praise. I think someone
referred to that in their prayer earlier, one of the men. Our
praise as we sing, we offer spiritual sacrifices, our prayers. But all of our sacrifices, whether
it's giving, praise, prayer, and I'm sure there are many other
ways, but they're all acceptable unto God. through that one sacrifice. Even our sacrifices have to be
cleansed and washed in the blood of Christ to be accepted. May we learn to give, to give
liberally. Scripture says, God loveth a
cheerful giver. And let us learn that even our
giving must be cleansed by the blood of Christ. Anything that
I have anything to do with is going to be tainted. Same is
true of you. It's going to be tainted. Why? Because of who we are. Because of a sinful nature that
we still have. May the Lord bless His word to
each one of us here today.