The Great Source and the Glorious Channel for Meeting All Your Needs

We must consider for a minute or two THE GREAT SOURCES from which this supply is to flow: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory.” The preacher may now sit down, for he cannot conceive this part of the text. God’s riches in glory are beyond all thought.

Consider God’s riches in nature; who could count His treasures? Visit the forests; travel league after league amid the trees that cast their broad shade, not for any man’s pleasure, but for God alone. Behold, on the lonely mountainside and across the wide plain, the myriads of flowers whose fragrance is for God alone. What wealth is created every spring and every summer throughout the boundless estates of the great King! Observe the vast multitude of animals and insects that crowd the earth with the riches of divine wisdom, for “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” Look toward the sea; think of those shoals of fish, so innumerable that, when our fishermen touch only their outer edge, they find sufficient food to supply a nation.

Observe, too, the sunken treasures of the ocean, which no hand gathers but that of the Eternal One. If you would see the Creator’s wealth, turn your gaze toward the stars; guess their number, if you can. Astronomy has enlarged our vision and led us to see this world as a mere speck compared with the countless other worlds God has made; and it has told us that, probably, all the myriads of worlds we can see through the telescope are but a fraction of the innumerable heavenly bodies that people infinite space. Vast are God’s riches in nature. It requires a Milton to sing, as he sang in Paradise Lost, the riches of God the Creator.

God’s riches in providence are equally unlimited. He says to one creature, “Go,” and it goes, and to another, “Do this,” and it does it, for all things fulfill His command. Think of God’s riches in grace. There nature and providence are eclipsed, for we have the fountain of eternal love, the gift of an infinite sacrifice, the shedding of the blood of His own beloved Son, and the covenant of grace in which the smallest blessing is infinite in value. The riches of His grace! “God is rich in mercy,” rich in patience, love, power, and goodness—rich beyond all conception.

Now your needs will be supplied according to the riches of nature, and the riches of providence, and the riches of grace; but this is not all; the apostle chooses a loftier style and writes, “according to his riches in glory.” Ah, we have never seen God in glory! That would be a sight our eyes could not behold at present. Christ in His glory, when He was transfigured on earth, was a sight too radiant to be beheld even by the instructed eyes of Peter, James, and John—darkness fell upon them, and they were like men asleep. Do you angels know what God is in His glory? Does He not veil His face even from you, lest even you be consumed by the exceeding brightness of His essence? Who among all His creatures can determine the riches of His glory, when even the heavens are not clean in His sight, and He charges His angels with folly?

“His riches in glory.” This means not only the riches of what He has done, but the riches of what He could do; for if He has made hosts of worlds, He could make myriads more of such worlds and would have only begun. Who could calculate the possibilities of the omnipotent God? Yet the Lord will supply all that you lack according to such glorious possibilities.

When a great king gives according to his riches, he does not stint his alms to beggars, but gives like a king, as the saying goes; and if it is a grand feast day and the king wears his royal robes, his bounty is on a noble scale. Now, when God is in His glory, think, if you can, what must be the bounty He distributes, what treasures He brings forth for His own beloved ones! Now, “according to his riches in glory,” He will supply all your needs. After that, do you dare to be downcast? O soul, what madness unbelief is! What flagrant blasphemy it is to doubt God’s love! He will bless us; and if we are blessed by Him, we shall indeed be blessed. If He supplies our needs “according to his riches in glory,” they will be supplied to the full.

Now let us conclude our meditation by considering THE GLORIOUS CHANNEL through which these needs are to be supplied: “According to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

You will see all your soul’s needs satisfied, but you must go to Christ for everything. “In Christ Jesus.” That is the spring from which the living waters flow. You are not to have your needs supplied through your own care and anxious toil. “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.” You are to be enriched “in Christ Jesus.” You are not to have your needs supplied by going to Moses and doing works and laboring hard as though you were your own savior, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Those who will not come to Christ must go without grace, for God gives nothing to men by way of grace except through His Son. Those who come most often to Jesus will taste most frequently of His abundance, for all blessings come through Him.

My counsel, both to myself and to you, is that we abide in Him; for since that is the way by which the blessing comes to us, we had better remain in it. We read of Ishmael that he was sent into the wilderness with a skin of water, but Isaac dwelt by the well of the Living One who sees me; and it is wise for us to dwell by the well of Christ Jesus and never trust in the skins of our own strength. If you turn away from Christ Jesus, brother, you separate yourself from the center of blessedness.

I pray that you may dwell by the well of this text throughout this entire year. Draw from the well. Are you very thirsty? Draw water from the well, for it overflows; and when you plead this promise, the Lord will supply all that you lack. Do not cease receiving from God for a single minute. Let not your unbelief hinder the Lord’s munificence, but rather cling to His promise: “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” I do not know how to wish you a greater blessing. If you are enabled by the Holy Spirit to do this, you will enjoy what I sincerely desire for you, namely,

A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Read the first part of this meditation: God Will Fill All Your Need to the Brim

Source: http://www.spurgeongems.org/schs3231.pdf

A New Year’s Wish (Sermon #3231, published January 5, 1911)