Together tonight, Philippians chapter 4. The text for the sermon is the 19th verse of this chapter. I'd like to read the chapter again tonight, even though we've been in this chapter a few times. We read it the first time, we had a sermon on it, and now as we bring this little series to a close, let's read the chapter one more time. Philippians 4, Therefore, my dear brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord. My dearly beloved, I beseech Jodius and beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel. with Clement also and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the Book of Life. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen and made do. and the God of peace shall be with you. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again, wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. 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 obesed 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. Notwithstanding, ye have well done that ye 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 ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account." But I have all and abound. I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you in 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. Now unto God and our Father, be glory forever and ever. Amen. Salute every saint in Christ Jesus, the brethren which are with me greet you. All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. So far we read the holy and inspired Word of God. Text is verse 19. But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, tonight's sermon is not only a confession of faith sermon in light of Brock and Mason's confession of faith, but it's also for our congregation an applicatory sermon. We partook of the Lord's Supper this morning as a congregation, and now we hear this Word of God in particular as a response to partaking of communion together as a congregation. One of the ways in which we must go forth as a congregation from the Lord's Supper is trusting in God. That, beloved, is one of the great benefits of the Christian faith. That's one of the great fruits of belonging by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. When we go forward in our lives, we can have an absolute trust in our God, and trust specifically That because God loves us in the Lord Jesus Christ, because He sent His Son to deliver us from all of our sins, we can be confident going forward in our lives that this is true. The truth of this text. applies to us as those who are loved by God in Jesus Christ. As we face the many needs that we have in our lives, we can go forward from the Lord's table this morning, and we can be confident that the God who loves us is the God who will continue to care for us. The God who will, as the text says, supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. So, out of thanks, out of obedience, out of love for God, As a congregation, we go forward from the Lord's Supper trusting in this God to supply our need. It's also an appropriate word for confession of faith. This is your God in whom you confessed your faith tonight, Brock and Mason. And this is your confidence going forward in all of your life. He will, as Paul says, supply your need. Let's look at this beautiful truth using as our theme tonight God's supply of all your need. Let's notice in the first place, our need. In the second place, God's supply. And then in the third place, let's conclude by seeing the confidence that the Apostle Paul expresses in this passage that this certainly will take place. God's supply of all your need. Your need, God's supply, and then Paul's confidence. In the immediately preceding context to our verse, the Apostle Paul commends the church in Philippi for their care of his physical needs. In fact, that's one of the commendable characteristics of the saints in Philippi. They from the very beginning were very conscious of the physical need that the Apostle Paul had. And he had them. It was not easy being a traveling missionary at that time in history and in that part of the world. But those saints in Philippi, more so than any other church, was concerned about making sure that Paul's needs were met. And in fact, that's what allowed Paul to write this epistle to the church in Philippi. He was in Rome under house arrest, and Epaphroditus, on behalf of the saints in Philippi, went to Rome and with him was a particular gift from this church. And then he was able, as a response, to send this letter back again. And so he has, in the immediately preceding context, that main theme set forth. And now right before the conclusion to the entire epistle, right before he appropriately concludes with a doxology of praise to God, he says one parting word to this church. And it's not so much even a word about the people. That's not what this text is. The text we have before us tonight is a word about God. Paul says in this epistle, this is the last thing that you need to know. You supplied my physical need. And I commend you for doing that. That was the evidence of the love of God in their care for Paul. But now you need to know this. And for this reason, among so many others, he can say the next verse, Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever. I can say that. Among so many other reasons, because this is our God. He is the God, as the text says, who shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Saints in Philippi needed to hear that truth about who God was. We as a congregation need to hear that. And these two young men need to hear that. Because this is the God in whom we confess our faith. We begin tonight then by understanding the need that Paul speaks of in the passage. Before we can look at God's supply of it, we need to know what it is. And the text itself and the surrounding context teaches us what the need that the Apostle speaks of is. I said a moment ago that the immediately preceding context largely is speaking about the physical need of the apostle that was cared for by the saints in Philippi. The fact is, however, that when the text says, need, it's referring to that which is broader than just physical needs. And that's evident from a couple of things. Number one, he uses the word all. And clearly by that, he is expanding the more narrow need that was referred to in the previous context. But the other indication that this is true is evident from the fact that he says after the need that this is supplied according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. And because he uses those words to modify the supply of the need, what that indicates is that the need is broader, and that the need is essentially the spiritual needs that the saints in Philippi had. But what is this need? of which the text speaks. Well, it certainly is on the one hand, in the first place, a physical need. Just because it's more than that does not mean that that is not included. It is. It certainly is. Because that is the immediately preceding context. And that is a great need of ours, is it not? People of God, we understand that. It takes work to understand that because the society in which we live is very affluent and we lose sight very easily of the fact that we have physical needs. That if they were not met, our existence on this earth would come to an end. That's real for us. And like I said, it takes work for us to understand this. That this truly is a need that we have as a church and as a people. This past week I had the opportunity for a few minutes to sit down with Rev. Haack, who was just in India on behalf of Georgetown's church. They've had a work in India for many years, and he visited the church in southern India. And as I was writing this sermon, I couldn't help but reflect on that a little bit. And reflect on it from this point of view that they understand, if you're a saint in that church in southern India, the need from this perspective. Literally living hand to mouth, work for a day, feeds you for the next day. They understand that when they read this passage, but my God shall supply all your need, that it truly is the work of God. to supply them with that need day by day. But that's true for us as well. And you guys understand that and will understand that as time goes on, as well as the other young people here. You get to that point in your life when you realize only in a couple of years I may be outside of the authority of my parents. Not the authority, but outside of the home that I lived in for many years underneath my parents. that they supplied my need for many, many years. And all of a sudden, you're at that point in your life when you need to think into the future, possibly a wife, possibly children. And you realize, what am I going to do? How is that need going to be met as I go forward in my life? Certainly, that is part of the need that we have as Christians. In the second place, The need that we have, people of God, is exactly the same for every single one of us. And that is the forgiveness of our sin and guilt. And not one of us sitting here this evening is immune to that. And not one of us is immune to that every single day of our lives. That at the end of the day, More important than the food that we put in our mouths, we have this need to know that as I look back on this day, that that sin and that guilt that clings to me is forgiven. Every day, beloved, we face the dark reality of sin. Every day, at the end of that day, we can look back and we say, I know the Word of God to me. I know the command, love me with all of your being. And when I reflect upon my work, I realize instead of working for the glory of God's name, I was motivated by wealth and riches today. And when I reflect upon being a mother, I realize how many times was I not patient and loving towards my children. And as I reflect upon my life and my marriage, I realize that I didn't give very well today to my spouse. And I did a whole lot of receiving in a selfish way. And when we reflect upon this day, this Lord's Day, at the end of the day tonight, we can say, I know I did not keep this day holy. like I should have. I was caught up on the internet in the afternoon looking at some of the sports scores and doing some stuff on the internet. We do that every day. When we're sensitive to our spiritual lives and when we're sensitive to the command of God to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, we realize the sinful nature that clings to us. And every day we have that need. Make it known in the depth of my soul that I am forgiven and that I am righteous in Jesus Christ. And then on top of that, and this is the broader context of Philippians 4, we have the need of strength and grace and contentment in the face of all of the struggles and suffering that we endure in our lives. We all live together in this valley of tears. And that's exactly what it is. It's a valley of tears, filled with suffering. It comes and goes. At certain times, it's very intense. At other times, our lives are characterized by mostly that which is positive and joyful, but we all experience it. Just like a moment ago when I was reflecting on our days in certain areas of our lives, I could have went on and on and on and on about all the ways in which we fall short. Same thing here. I could go on and on and on and on and on with the suffering that we endure as the people of God. struggling with the pain day after day, wondering, are the doctors going to be able to figure it out? And is there going to be a solution for what I am experiencing daily? Realizing that we live in a valley of the shadow of death, so that all of us experience the reality of death, the death of our loved ones, And not just in the moment, but we know that there are the constant reminders, day after day, or month after month, or year after year after year. We suffer. Some of it is known to God. Some of it is known to others. Some of it is simply private, known only to ourselves. It's all of those things that at the beginning of Philippians 4 we talked about, With respect to his confession, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We went into depth with some of these things, but it's all of those things that require for us strength and grace and contentment. We have those needs throughout our lives. And with respect to these needs that the Apostle speaks of in the passage, Two important points we need to always remember. We described them a little bit. Physical sin. Strength in the suffering we experience. But now with respect to those, we need to remember a couple of things. Number one, God knows your need. And don't ever forget that. At times we reflect upon what we are going through, and we can sometimes say, nobody gets it. Nobody understands what I am going through. People of God, God does. And he says that explicitly in Matthew 6, right before the Lord's Prayer. Matthew 6, verse 8, "...Be not therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him." That word need, the same as what we have in our text. God knows them. We need to remember that. Because if He knows them, what goes right along with that is the fact that, as we'll talk about later, He supplies them. Those always have to go hand in hand. You can't supply the need unless you know what the need is. We've all experienced that if we've had young infant children. What do they want? They're crying. And we try to feed them. We try to put them to sleep. We try to hold them. And they're still crying. I don't know what the need is. And if you don't know the need, you can't supply the need. People of God, He knows it. Sometimes that can be a cliche in our prayers. A vain repetition in our prayers. Thou knowest our needs, Father, better than we know them. Supply them for us. But that's exactly right. That's a good petition to pray. And sometimes I think it can come across too easily and we don't think about it. But if we think about it properly, We need to pray that petition from the depths of our souls because it really gets to the heart of the truth of this text. If He knows it, He will supply it. And our God as an omniscient God knows exactly what every single one of your needs is. That leads me to the second point with respect to these needs. Their needs. Their necessities. One author that I read in preparation for the sermon tonight made somewhat of a witty comment when he said, not greeds, but needs. I mean the two words to make it memorable. But there's something to that. Beloved, what he supplies as it's set forth in this text is not what you want. It's what you need. And it's not what even you think you need. It's what God knows you need. And that's why this point that I'm making comes right off the heels of the previous point that God knows. Oftentimes, we think we know what we need. We think it's a need. My need is the relief of this pain. When in reality, that's your want. But the need that you have according to the will of God is very different. The need that you have is for strength and spiritual fortitude so that you can go forth faithfully in the midst of that suffering. My point with this is that we always need to be conscious of this. That we are not asking God for what we want, but we are conforming our petitions and our desires to the will of God and always remembering that God knows exactly what we need. And He will provide us with those necessities. And that's what he says in the passage. Understanding the need, what he says is, what I will do as God is supply you with all your need. The idea of that word supply is to fill up Supply is a very good translation of the word, but the literal, more graphic idea is to fill someone up. And so when you have a need, you're depleted in a certain sense. Or you can picture the need as a bucket and you're at the last drop. You don't have anything left. If you're going to keep going, you need more. And what God does is He fills that bucket up to the very brim with everything that you need to get through what you are going through. That's the idea. That when you have a need, what God will do is fill you up with exactly what is required. He supplies that need, the text says, by Christ Jesus. But my God shall supply all your need, and we'll get to the other modifiers, according to His riches, in glory, but the main one here is the fact that He supplies the need by Christ Jesus. Jesus. God in heaven, the Triune God, through Christ, to you, supplies what you need. And that's why we need to remember who Christ is, and what Christ has done. who He is as the Son of God who now sits at the right hand of God. Remember what Paul says in Philippians 2 in the middle of that chapter. He talks about the humility of Jesus. He goes from being humbled as a man with our sin to the depth of the grave, but then He is exalted to the right hand of God and He sits at God's right hand over all. And what Jesus Christ does is from God's right hand continue to work. And that point right there needs to resonate with us that Jesus Christ in heaven right now is working in your lives by His Spirit to do this very thing. From the moment He came to this earth, He came to work. And his work was chiefly the work of dying for his church. But when he went to heaven, he doesn't stop doing anything. He's continually working. And he's continually working by the Spirit that he pours out into the church and by the Spirit that is in our hearts. And what he does through that Spirit is bestow upon us everything that He earned in His cross and in His resurrection. What we need is stored up in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Everything we need is found in the storehouses of the cross and resurrection. If you think about it, beloved, as depraved, sinful men and women and young people and children, Before anything else, what we need is found in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. In the cross and in His resurrection is our righteousness, is our forgiveness of sins, is our life, is our hope, is the promise of God of life now and forever, is our victory over our enemies. And every other blessing of salvation is stored up in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. And as the exalted Lord, what Jesus does is work through His Spirit to supply us with everything we need. And now I'll go back to the examples that I used in the first point of the sermon. I said that one of the needs that we have is a physical need. And even that, people of God, is stored up in the cross and in the resurrection of Jesus. Because this is true. That our Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven and He is at work and He is exalted over all. And He is reigning over all and controlling all. So that the fact that you have your physical needs met, Just the way God in His providence wants it, whether it is much or little, is because you have a sovereign Lord Jesus Christ in heaven who's controlling the economy. Who's controlling the presence of your job. Who is working in the church through the diaconate to care for those needs. And it's rooted in the cross. Because in the cross, Jesus said, I love you. And when I go to heaven in my exaltation, I'm going to continue to love you and I know exactly what you need physically. And because I'm controlling it all in my power, you are going to have exactly what you need. You're going to have your daily bread. Whether if it's in India, a few bowls of rice, or if it's here in America, where we enjoy much more in terms of the physical things of this earth. The second need that we talked about was the greatest need, that of the forgiveness of our sins. Stored up in the cross, of course, what God does through Christ every day is give us the assurance by that Spirit that is in our hearts when we go to Him through prayer and confession that we are forgiven. Every day He supplies that need. He supplies it in the way of our confession. in a way of our prayer, but He supplies it. And oh, how we need that every single day to know when I look back on the day that all of my shortcomings, all of my failures, that nature that still clings to me is not going to now put me on a path to hell, but God still sees me righteous in Jesus Christ. Beloved, that is the work of God through Christ every single day to give you that peace So that if it was the day that is your day of your death, you'll know that I will be in glory with my Savior on that very day. And then you think about all of the needs that we have for strength and grace and contentment through the suffering of this life. Oftentimes, what people can ask is, I don't know if He's supplying the need. It doesn't feel like it. It doesn't resonate with me. I'm not experiencing the love and the provision of Jesus Christ at this time. What's the tangible evidence that He is doing what He says in this text? Beloved, you want to see the tangible evidence that you're being supplied for? It's right here. Look at where we are tonight. We're in the church. And every single one of us at some point in our lives have suffered and gone through those times where we need grace and we need strength and we need contentment. Why is it the case that when you went through that suffering, You didn't, in bitterness and rebellion, leave the church and shake your fists at God, but you stayed here. You continued to worship God. You continue to press on in your Christian faith. Beloved, you want tangible evidence that He is supplying needs. It's the fact that we're still here, acknowledging God as God, and worshiping and serving that Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Do we do it without sin? Get through those times? Of course not. But the presence of the sin and the weakness does not mean that this is not true. That He did not supply our needs. He is supplying our need. The evidence of which is that He kept us here. He's preserving us. So that we're not in unbelief, abandoning the Christian faith and fighting against God. We're in the church. We're acknowledging our sin. We're confessing our weaknesses. Not without sin, but we are relying upon God through Christ. In all of that suffering, beloved, He does this. And there is evidence, very concrete evidence, of the work of Jesus to do exactly this. The text has two other phrases that modify and explain this work of God to supply our needs by Christ Jesus. And the two phrases are right in the middle. That He will do this, it says, according to His riches in the first place, and then in glory in the second place. Let's start with that first one. He does this according to His riches. Now, notice the language of the text. This is important to understand what he's saying here. He does not say in the text, with his riches, that he will supply our needs with his riches or of his riches. That's not what the text says. He says he will supply the need according to the riches. To understand this, let's use an illustration. If there's a significant need in our school, for example, and there is a rich, rich, rich man. And the need is outrageous. It's huge. And there is, on the other hand, a wealthy, wealthy man that is going to give for the need. He can do one of two things. He can give of his riches, or he can give according to his riches. If he gives of his riches, the idea is simple. He has the storehouse of riches and a portion of those riches, much or little, is given to the need. That's not what the text says. According to his riches is this idea, that he gives in harmony with what he has in his riches. His giving is commensurate to what he has as a wealthy, wealthy man. To put it differently, he gives abundantly. If he gives according to his need, he gives above and beyond, and he gives a tremendous amount of money because that's what he has. It wouldn't be according to his riches if he gave ten dollars and he was sitting on a billion dollars. According to his riches is commensurate with it. It's in harmony with it. And that's the idea of this text. He supplies your needs, not just in a little bit, but He supplies His needs lavishly, bountifully. God doesn't hold back in what He does in providing us with what we need in our lives here on this earth. In Him are all the riches. Of course, we know that He is God. The cattle on a thousand hills is God's. The blessings of salvation, the riches of grace and mercy and love are all in God through Jesus Christ. And He doesn't say to us tonight, I'm just going to give you a little bit. I'll get you through the month. What he says here is God gives us what we need. And it is right in line with who He is as the God of all riches. He pours out upon us, to use the language of filling up, what we need in our lives here on this earth. And we understand that because in the end, beloved, what we have is everything. 1 Corinthians 1 1 Corinthians 3 21-23 Therefore let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's. He gives us everything. And we understand that because we have life now, and we have life to come. He forgives our sins and gives us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Gives us strength through our struggles and suffering. Gives us our physical needs, all with the idea that we have God Himself. That we live with God right now. And we will reign over this entire world one day with Jesus Christ. He doesn't give us just a little bit, beloved. He gives us according to His riches, everything that we need. Beautiful truth expressed in those words. The second phrase in the text, that modifies this idea of God giving is in glory. According to his riches, in glory by Christ Jesus. This is the more difficult of the two. And the idea is not referring to the future, that He will supply our needs when we get to glory. It's largely understood that the idea here is in a glorious way, He supplies our needs gloriously according to His riches. Glory literally means brightness. God is the God of glory. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the glory of God. And He does this work for us in such a way that God is glorified and the One who shines brightly is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about Christ, beloved. I said at the beginning of the sermon that Paul gives a parting word to the church in Philippi that's not first and foremost about the people. They need to know who God in Christ is. And this is right here. The exaltation of Jesus Christ in all of the work of God. When He supplies your need, according to His riches, it is done in a glorious way. Because when that is done, the One who shines brightly, the One who is glorified, is Jesus Christ. When you and I go through our lives speaking to each other, speaking to those outside of the church, we acknowledge that everything I have physically, the food that I eat, the shelter that I own, ultimately is because of Christ. He shines through that. And when we say, it's not me, but it's Christ reigning in heaven out of His love for me, who knows exactly what I need and has given it to me for this day, Christ shines brightly and gloriously through that. When every single day, at the end of the day, when you reflect upon your life of sin, and you say, God, forgive me for Jesus' sake, and you experience in that time Peace with God through the righteousness of Jesus. The One that's shining brightly is not yourself. The One that's shining brightly through that is Christ. And when you're suffering, when you go through those times when you're in the pit of the valley of the tears, But when you talk to others about that, and when you say through that time, by the grace of God, I am strong right now. Because when I am weak, then I am strong. Because at this time, God is underneath me upholding me. The One who is shining is not yourself. The One who is shining is Jesus Christ. So when all of the supply of our need which is bountifully according to His riches, the One who shines brightly, and this is why it's done gloriously, is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's when we know we're on track in our lives. When we're saying, through everything and in everything, to God be the glory, and let the glory be to my Savior, Jesus Christ. If we're trying to supply our own need, And we try to do that at times when we take our eyes of faith away from God and Christ. When we're trying to do it on our own, then we're trying to make ourselves shine brightly. This is the truth of who God is. And it's the glorifying of our Lord Jesus Christ. People of God, we can be absolutely confident that everything that was just explained from this text is true. And that was the purpose of the way in which Paul says this in the text. It is sounding forth the confidence that Paul had personally for this being true for the saints in Philippi. Notice that in how he says this. But my God shall supply all your need. That's in the future tense, but the purpose of that future tense is to express a promise. And through that confidence, it's not he might do this, or I hope he does this. It's he shall do this. Paul was absolutely confident. And he was confident because the God of the Philippians was his God. Notice that. But my God shall supply your need. He's not saying there, That this is My God and now you need to worship this God as though your God is different. Of course not. He knows that His God is the same as the God of the Philippians, but why does He say, My God? He says, my God, to express the confidence of this truth. Paul could write this to the saints in Philippi because of everything that he went through in his life. Everything that he talks about in these previous verses. He could look back on every single day since his conversion and say, God gave me what I needed. And now as I look at you, he says, And I know that my God is your God. This is true for you as well. Mason and Brock, your God is my God. It's the God of the elders that heard your confession of faith. It's the God of this congregation. It's the God of your parents. And we all can say the exact same thing. I can personally. All of us together can. We know from our experiences the truth of who our God is. And by your confession tonight, you made it clear this is your God. And so with absolute confidence, we say to the two of you, and we say to all of us tonight, this is who our God is, and this is what He will do. He will most definitely supply all our need. in a bountiful way according to His riches, to the glory of His name in glory, not because of us, but because of the work of Jesus Christ. To God be the glory. Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word of truth, A Word that teaches us who Thou art as our God. We thank Thee for the love that Thou dost have for us in Jesus Christ. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that Thou would impress upon our hearts the truth of Thy Word, so that we are confident that Thou art as our God, we'll continue to supply all our needs. Dismiss us in this evening with Thy blessing. Care for us in all of our needs in the future. And give us confidence in Thy Word, for Jesus' sake. Amen.