My God shall supply all your needs (Quality: Good)

[0:00] dependent upon the Lord for his help, I would direct your attention to the chapter we read, the epistle of Paul to the Philippians, chapter 4 and verse 19.

[0:14] The 19th verse of the fourth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Philippians. But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

[0:33] But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

[0:45] It would be, my friends, a mercy if we were each needy sinners.

[0:58] Because otherwise the words of our text do not apply. One of the mercies which the people and children of God, those who are quickened by divine grace, find in their pathway that the Holy Spirit will bring them into need.

[1:26] There is in this word two ways in which it is expressed. My God shall supply all your need. But first and foremost he will supply this, my friends.

[1:41] He will make his people needy. That need which is here, I believe, written by the Holy Spirit, spoken by the Apostle Paul, is not just providential needs, but the needs spiritual as well.

[1:59] But first and foremost we want to look at the beginning of the verse. My God. My God.

[2:12] And there again the words themselves teach us one certain thing. That God, the God of all grace and the Father of all mercies, was the Apostle's God by covenant engagement.

[2:34] There is many people that would lay claim that God is their God. They stand today in places of worship and they say, Our Father.

[2:46] And repeat it like children learn their tasks. But the Apostle's God. But the Apostle here and the people of God generally are taught of the Holy Spirit this truth.

[3:03] They are brought to see that God who is holy, just and righteous, can in no wise look upon sin in any degree of allowance.

[3:13] But they are also brought to see, as the Holy Spirit continually teaches, that they are, by covenant engagement, they are brought to be in possession of this most vital truth, that God is their God.

[3:34] I thought of that hymn, I suppose we all know fairly well, that was written by Anne Steele. And that hymn commences with those words, that desire.

[3:49] My God, my Father, blissful name, O may I call thee mine. May I with sweet assurance claim a portion so divine.

[4:02] Now I would not doubt that there's many here that have walked that experience, that they desire the Lord to confirm that He is their God and will be their God even down to the end of time.

[4:19] But the mercy, my friend, is that God is our God by covenant engagement and by love. That engagement which took in such characters as Saul of Tarsus was made in eternity past in the Trinity and God chose a people out of lost mankind and became their God.

[4:44] His love was eternally placed on them. That love was demonstrated on their behalf in that covenant of Christ, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the salvation of that people.

[4:59] My God, my God. And in the working out of that covenant engagement, these that are His, by love, by mercy and by choice and by separation, were given unto Jesus Christ for whom He came into this world on their behalf and lived and died, suffered here below and shed His precious blood and rose again for.

[5:30] Establish this truth, my friends. Seek to know it in your own heart that this God is our God and shall be our guide even unto death.

[5:42] how easily it is to fall into the ways of a professor of religion and assume these truths.

[5:56] But the Apostle knew that this God was His God by engagement, by covenant engagement. There was a day and that was a most auspicious day in the life of the Apostle when He was called by grace.

[6:13] When that almighty power stopped Him in His wild career. When He was brought to a halt on that Damascus road. I sometimes have thought of the Apostle or Saul of Tarsus, which we must call him there, how He sets off from Jerusalem with hatred and vileness of spirit to the people of God.

[6:36] But the appointed time rolls on apace, not to propose, but call by grace. To change the heart, renew the will and turn the feet to Zion's heel.

[6:50] The God that Saul of Tarsus knew, or shall I say he thought he served, was a God who was just and a God who was holy. A God that was to visit the iniquity of the sins of Saul of Tarsus upon his conscience.

[7:07] and that God, great and holy as He was, yet stopped Him, brought Him to a halt, changed His heart, gave Him new desires, blessed Him with grace, turned Him from a professor and a false one at that to a possessor, brought Him to minister in holy things, to preach the gospel that He once hated.

[7:32] my God. Can you see? You know, we're all in religion in this house of prayer. We've all got something to do with religion. We're under the sound of the truth today.

[7:44] We are found in God's house. We're amongst the people of God. We take the name of God upon our lips. But the purpose of this word is that it might teach us this truth, that by the Holy Spirit we can claim this truth, my God, my God, the provision He has made for a people.

[8:08] I said that this word speaks of a covenant engagement. I was, I read yesterday afternoon at the services, this word.

[8:19] We were reading the account of Jehoshaphat in the 20th chapter of the 2nd of Chronicles. And you know the trouble and the trial that Judah and Jerusalem were about to come in because of its enemies.

[8:35] And Jehoshaphat goes to prayer. And first of all, he says, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven and rulest not over all the kingdoms of the heathen.

[8:49] But then he comes down to the covenant engagement that God made with Israel. And he says this vital truth, art thou not our God? And he wanted to demonstrate, the Lord to demonstrate that he was his God.

[9:06] It's one thing, my friend, to pray, but it's another mercy to go to God on grounds of the covenant and to be able to say, as the Holy Spirit guides and directs us in prayer and supplication, that vital truth, art thou not our God?

[9:25] God. Now, what a difference it makes to the tried family of God. The trials and the troubles of the pathway will increase, will continue.

[9:41] But the people and children of God indeed have a throne of grace to go to. And it is there and there alone and in those times that they shall prove that God is their God.

[9:58] My thoughts went to the Lord's servant Daniel in those days of captivity. Now, Daniel was a gracious man as was his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

[10:17] But they also had adversaries and those adversaries which were raised to try and trouble them brought them into some very sad places.

[10:36] And now, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego proved who their God was in the fire. And so were the children of God. The faith of God's elect will be put into the fire.

[10:49] That which the Lord has done for your soul in the salvation of it, in the comfort assurance that you are his and he is yours, will often be tried and tried by fire.

[11:04] But it was in that trial of faith that these three compatriots of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego proved who their God was.

[11:19] Proved who their God was. They were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. And that wicked king, Nebuchadnezzar, we read, was astonished. And he said, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?

[11:34] And they answered and said, True, O king. Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.

[11:49] Now you look, my friends, into the trials that you come into, the afflictions that the Lord sees fit to lay upon you. And there you look at those things, the experience of them.

[12:04] Have they not proved this to you? Above everything else that God is your God? Have they not proved above everything else? Not only that, of course, he indeed is a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God.

[12:18] But he's your God. Now that makes the difference. That sweetens the trial. That comforts the hope. The Lord in his mercy, of course, uses afflictions.

[12:31] You remember Job's condition by permissive will. Job was allowed to be troubled and tried deeply, solemnly by Satan.

[12:44] He lost all his children in one day. Ten children. They all went in one day. And all his property that made him the richest man of the East was removed.

[12:56] And then Satan was allowed to touch his body with deep affliction. He had boils from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet. But in the midst of all this affliction and all the midst of this sorrow and in all the midst of all these great trials, Job could say, He knoweth the way that I take.

[13:16] And when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Now, a word about Daniel. Daniel was a faithful believer believer and a fearless believer.

[13:32] He never changed his ways nor his pathway for those who hated him or his God. And he was brought to be thrown into the den of lions.

[13:45] Now, I said a moment ago, the world will see the difference between a professor and a possessor. those, that king, which, King Darius, which agreed to this way, was brought to say to Daniel, Thy God, whom thou service continually, he will deliver thee.

[14:10] Thy God. Now, what would Darius know of thy God? He was an idolatrous king. He lived in an idolatrous nation. But he would know because of what was told him and by what he viewed of Daniel, that Daniel had his God to be his strength and stay.

[14:31] But you see how it came to pass that after a sleepless night that he went to that den of lions early in the morning and he said, Is thy God?

[14:44] Now, come, my friends. You look into your pathway. The trials that have brought you low, the days of darkness which are many and the whispers of Satan that says, Is thy God?

[14:56] Is thy God? Calls to question the ability and the mercy and the love of your God. Now, what impossible situation was Daniel in?

[15:07] A den of lions. And Daniel said, My God. My God. has sent his angel and has shut the lion's mouth.

[15:21] There is something, my friends, in real religion. There is something in real experience. There is something in the God of all grace and the Father of all mercies.

[15:32] That this God, my God, shall never fail his people. There will be a day, my friends, when there will be a tremendous separation. There is much false religion today, I suppose, there always has been.

[15:48] But the religion that shall stand the day of our death and the judgment day is this religion. The religion of grace and mercy that a sinner can say in time, my God.

[16:05] And that knows by sweet experience and by grace and faith that they are there, that they are gods by covenant engagement.

[16:16] The covenant made between Father, Son and Holy Spirit on behalf of this people, not with this people, on behalf of this people.

[16:28] You know, some people make engagements with people. But God made an engagement, a covenant engagement for this people and he became their God.

[16:41] Now, there are other illustrations, of course, in the word of God which testifies and reveals and confirms the God of all grace is Israel's God.

[16:57] My God, what a mercy then as we have found in the house of prayer this day that we can humbly say because this, my friends, is so essential.

[17:12] It is the essential mercy that the people of God possess and interest in this truth, my God. The apostle could say, my God, because his God had brought him to know this truth in and of himself.

[17:30] but then this truth, my friends, my God will be with his people down to the end. There is no change in our God.

[17:43] We change all how sometimes we are hot and sometimes cold but Jesus is the same. Once in him the hymn writer speaks, once in him in him forever.

[17:58] But, my friends, this is the mercy. If you have an interest in this truth, if you can look into your pathway and testify before God in secret that indeed he has proved to be your God, he'll be with you through thick and thin, he'll be with you in all the trials and troubles of the way.

[18:20] He's a God that never leaves nor forsakes. Jesus said ere he went to glory on that ascension day, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

[18:37] And so he will prove, my God, my God shall not indeed take away his presence from you. You say to me, well now, is that right?

[18:49] Oh, I mourn the hidings of his face. That's one thing, my friend, when God hides his face from his people, but he never takes his presence away.

[19:00] There are times and seasons of experience when he indeed hides his face. He hides the purpose of his grace to make it better known, but he never takes away his presence from his people.

[19:15] He never takes his presence away whatever the circumstance or situation is. He'll chastise his people if it's necessary, but he doesn't take his presence away.

[19:28] My God, Jacob was a man, you know, who is known as a supplanter. He not only lied before his old father Isaac, but he also stole.

[19:44] He hadn't got a character that you and I would indeed agree with. But Jacob was amongst the chosen of God and Jacob was blessed with a very great and precious promise.

[20:02] When Jacob left his father's house and went to reside in when he went to those where he found his wife eventually, Rachel and Leah.

[20:23] But on the way he stopped at a place called Luz. And he was blessed at Luz with a visitation, a revelation of God.

[20:35] There was a ladder set up upon the earth which reached to heaven. The angels of God ascended and descended on it. And the Lord spoke to him. And the Lord gave him a great and precious promise.

[20:49] And he said, Behold, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest. Well now, what was the effect of that?

[21:01] Jacob vowed a vow and said, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God.

[21:17] Oh, there's a blessing, my friends, to seek for. My God. The Lord promised Jacob that he will be with him and that he will keep him and that he will bring him back to his father's house.

[21:33] It was a proof because he's a promised performing God that it is that Jacob knew this truth, that God was his God. But my God, my God, what a mercy, by grace and by engagement, this God, this triune Jehovah, this blessed trinity of persons, co-equal and co-eternal, self-existent God, becomes by covenant engagement and by grace, your God.

[22:12] The apostle writing to the Roman church says this, if God before us, who can be against us? Who can be against us?

[22:22] My God. No wonder he speaks then to the Philippian church in this way. the apostle of course was very much a blessing to the Philippian church.

[22:38] You may remember that in the Acts of the Apostles you'll find that Paul was directed by a vision to go to Macedonia and he was useful to the church or to the people of Macedonia.

[22:57] You remember that occasion when he was found where prayer was wont to be made, the city of Philippi. And that developed to be a prosperous occasion.

[23:11] Lydia was one that was called by grace, the jailer was another, the word of God's grace through the apostle was blessed and that deepened and that brought about a gracious love one to another.

[23:27] The beginning of this epistle tells us that for God is my record how greatly I longed after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ and this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.

[23:43] And he felt that gracious concern for them and that gracious confidence in them being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

[24:01] But at the end as he parts company with them in this epistle he commends this truth to them. My God shall supply all your need.

[24:13] according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Child of God as you walk your pathway here as God has proved to be your God in the seasons that are past the times when you can lay claim to the truth of being in Christ by grace and by covenant engagement you will find in life's journey that there will be seasons of darkness and declension.

[24:55] There will be times when there will be a need of renewing of this truth that the Lord has taught you. is thy God able is a very solemn temptation that God's people know something about.

[25:13] My God shall supply all your need. David writing in one of his psalms sought out a token. Why did he want a token?

[25:24] David was sent of God to be Israel's king. David was under divine teaching of the Holy Spirit as he pens those sacred psalms but he comes into places where he asks again for a token.

[25:41] Why was it? That those that hate me may be ashamed. Oh my friends the people of God have a trinity of evil opposing the work of grace but my God shall supply all your needs.

[25:57] all your needs both providentially and spiritually. Some of you I'm sure you'll excuse me saying this indeed have travelled long in this world of sin and woe and can go back in time in your own pathway of experience and in need both providentially and spiritually you've proved by the answers of prayer that he's your God.

[26:27] One said be still my heart these anxious cares to thee a burden thorns and snares they cast dishonor on thy Lord and contradict his gracious word.

[26:42] Has ever trouble yet befall and he refused to hear thy call and has he not his promise passed that thou shalt overcome at last.

[26:55] You consider your pathway then you consider what may be before you it may fill you with fear it may fill you with dread as to the future footsteps that you've got to take.

[27:07] It may be that we've got someone here that the Lord has laid before them a pathway to walk and they fear and tremble as to what it shall produce and whether they shall be able to stand the trying day.

[27:22] There's a word in the book of Joshua which come to my mind yesterday in trying to preach Joshua was one provided for Israel by God to bring them into the promised land.

[27:43] Joshua was a man of like passions as we each. The Lord said to Joshua as I was with Moses so shall I be with thee.

[27:57] But he went on to say this be strong and of a good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee.

[28:08] Not the Lord their God the Lord thy God is with thee witherso ever thou goest. So there isn't a pathway there isn't a trial there's not an affliction that this promise does not apply my God to supply all your need.

[28:31] Then again in the prophecy of Isaiah the Lord has left a very gracious promise to his spiritual Israel he blesses them with the knowledge that they are his.

[28:53] In that 43rd of Isaiah the Lord says this but now thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and he that formed thee O Israel fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name thou art mine all that's a blessing my friends if you can go back and some of you can I believe to the day when he confirmed your standing in this blessed covenant he may have said it when you was in the midst of affliction or trial he may have said it when you was in the dark and wondered where the scene would end but he blessed you and brought you to know this truth I have called thee by thy name thou art mine you're under redemption you're in the gospel of his grace you shall know and will know many seasons of darkness but this truth stands supreme that

[30:01] I have called thee by thy name thou art mine what does the apostle say there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus thou his given to him by God purchased by the offering of his sacrifice for sin upon calvary washed in the precious blood redeemed by Jesus blood redeemed does that make the way easy does that make the pathway easy when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee this is this God you may find that he's the only one that will be with thee when the Lord Jesus Christ went to Calvary they all in their way and manner said though all men should forsake thee yet will not I and they all agreed to that and Jesus

[31:01] Christ was crucified and they all forsook him and fled the people of God might know this when such that are called friends desert you at the time when you need them most but when most you need this helping hand this friend is always near when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee my God what does that hymn in our book say for the encouragement of God's people fear not I am with thee be not dismayed I am thy God and will still give thee aid I strengthen thee help thee and calls thee to stand upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand that's despite being a sinner that's a mercy isn't it the

[32:10] Lord in his mercy blesses his people with this grace that they have this God to go to they can claim this truth because he was because he separated them because his love was placed upon them he became their God if you read in the book of Deuteronomy a chapter which perhaps we don't often read it speaks much of the seventh chapter we all know the eighth chapter because it speaks of remembering the way which the Lord has led his people but in the seventh there's a word there which of course speaks first and foremost of Israel of old but the Lord makes it plain through Moses how he became their God and that teaching applies just as much to the spiritual family of God as to the nation of Israel more so because

[33:12] God says there but thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people for ye were the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved you and because he would keep his oath which he hath sworn unto your fathers hath the Lord brought you redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt that's how you became his people that's how he became your God because he loved you and loved you with an eternal love there were not many in Israel that were spiritual according to the word of God there were many that rebelled and opposed God's will and purposes for them and they suffered they fell in the wilderness and so on but the spiritual family of

[34:20] God are united to God by love he loved them and gave himself for them the apostle said but my God what a mercy then in the trials of the way in the darkness of the pathway at times you have one refuge one place to go to my God ever seek oh and I would ask and I would indeed exult those of you particularly the young and rising race seek and interest in this God my God seek by prayer as the Holy Spirit enables to cast all your burden upon this God the Lord bless you as you come to his house and testify to you that he is your God he did in Asaph's day Asaph fell most dreadfully in unbelief he looked at the world and he saw their prosperity he looked at their end and they didn't have trouble like other men have and so on and so forth but he said until

[35:35] I went into the sanctuary of God what did he prove then well he proved two things my friends he proved that their end was solemn and that their end was indeed as he says how are they brought into desolation as in a moment they're utterly consumed with terrors as a dream when one awaketh so oh Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image thus thus was my heart grieved and I was pricked in my reins but he proved something else that God was his God for time and for all eternity nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that

[36:41] I desire beside thee my flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever the Lord bless the young people as they come to his house and they may not be they may sometimes be troubled because of the world that seems to prosper and you're found in God's house amongst the poor and afflicted needy people but the God of Israel the God of all Israel spiritual Israel bless you with this relative appointment and union that you have an interest in this my God my God it'll see you through time and through all eternity it'll see you my friends young or old through the trials and troubles and afflictions of life it'll see you through many disappointments and many sorrows my

[37:41] God the Lord may take away the props from his people yes he will they won't lean on props but he'll never take away himself that's that's not possible my friends he's engaged to bring his people through life and unto death itself and into eternal glory and he approved to them that he is their God I don't know how often you come into these conditions when you wait for him and you wait on him and you depend on his word in that 20th chapter of the second of chronicles they was in God's house and they made prayer and supplication Jehoshaphat pleaded art thou not our God and they stood there and waited that familiar word I suppose we've all heard preached from neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee they stood there and waited I don't believe they would have gone home none of this business of its one hour prayer meetings and we go home they stood there and the

[38:48] Lord blessed them with an answer and proved to them that he was still there God and came and delivered them and he sent he didn't send assistance from here and there he did it himself he spoke and it was done he commanded and it stood fast there's no need to fear then as you know this truth my God my God but my God shall supply all your need all your need what a comforting word this is then as we continue in this wilderness journey there's a positive word here there's a strength to stand on there's a foundation to plead with my God shall supply there's no ifs and buts there's no maybes about this word there's no room here for doubts and fears the Lord sent his spirit and the grace of faith in our heart this word is an eternal shell my

[39:52] God shall supply well we've often been brought to disbelieve the word of God we have a spirit that questions God's ability we have a spirit sadly it's in our old nature of unbelief but the word of promise which is what this is speaks of all times speaks of all situations speaks of any time and all time whatever pathway you if you're in the midst of life at the end of your days my God shall supply all your need if the Lord keeps this word with us we'll look at it later on this afternoon as enabled at those blessings which are in Jesus Christ every blessing comes through Jesus Christ friends all our prayers one said and all our praises rightly offered in his he that answers is the same every blessing both providential and spiritual both temporal and eternal come to us through

[41:05] Jesus Christ he is indeed the way to God and he is the way in which God blesses his people through Jesus Christ we ask our prayers we ask our desires our supplications for Christ's sake and we ask because the way to bless his people is in and through Jesus Christ my God grace will make him your God grace made Ruth to know this I quoted in our petition and I would pray that there may be many that shall be found here like Ruth of old Ruth was separated by grace from Moab and she was brought to see that there was that in her heart which bound her eternally with the people of God it was a wonderful case really because

[42:07] God overruled Naomi's pathway she was where she shouldn't be but God overruled it and brought out of Moab one who was blessed with divine grace she was able to say she was able to testify she was able to tell two things my friends grace will unite you to the people of God and grace will unite you to the God of all grace we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren now that's grace now grace was in the heart of of Ruth and she could say entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee for where thou goest I will go where thou lodgest I will lodge thy people shall be my people and thy God my God the servant of God Elijah was it Elijah or Elisha was made a blessing to a widow woman and that widow woman said this now

[43:18] I know of a truth that thou art a servant of God and the word in thy mouth is truth you see the connection my God but we must close but my God shall supply all your need the Lord bless us with grace and faith to lay hold of this promise the Lord bless us with indeed to hear the promise and it may be applied to each of our pathways Amen Hymn number 277 the tune is St Benedict 885 Hymn number 277

[44:18] Now I see whate'er betide all is well if Christ be be mine he has promised to provide may he teach me to resign 277 E look a man two and have it have to be to so go Smooth to see