1933 Bible Studies - page 194

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BIBLE STUDIES.

from the Ark offered burnt offerings, and when the LORD smelled the sweet savour He said in His heart, " I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake " (Genesis 8. 21).  Men’s works prior to the Flood all came to waste ; they were ruined completely by the Flood, for God had no portion in men’s labour.  But when God smelled Noah’s offerings there was to be no repetition of such waste as had been. Even so we have God’s answer through Paul when he smelled the sweet savour of the gift of the Phillipians, " God shall fulfil every need of yours."  Here is a precious promise, a veritable assurance policy for the saint with reference to his need in this life.  Is it true ?  Will God credit His own assurance ?

Remember it is not a wish expressed by Paul that God would fill up all their need, it is an assurance that God would fulfil in every several particular all their need ; and note, too, that it is " My God," the God of the Apostle to whose need they had ministered.

Besides having the assurance that their every need will be supplied, they are assured that by the means of their giving fruit is increasing to their account.  God compels no one to give, though He exhorts to this end, but if we would have fruit in the day to come, and sufficient " spending money," as Bunyan called it, in our journey to the Celestial City, then there must be giving to the Lord of our substance.

Moreover the gift is always valued in the light of what is left.

What is the means by which our every need will be fulfilled ?

--" According to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." It is no tottering state that makes such a promise, nor is it paying promises with borrowed capital.  The words of Joseph may illustrate the point, when he spoke to his brethren : " God . . . hath made me ruler over all the land of Egypt . . . come down to me, tarry not : and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen . . . and there will I nourish thee " (Genesis 45. 8-11).

Here was the wealth of Joseph’s glory available for the relief of the distress of the brethren of Joseph.

But the riches in glory in Christ Jesus make Joseph’s fulness as nothing.  The eye could see in that day the towering storehouses with

their wealth of golden grain, but the eye of faith sees more ; it perceives in the once hungry and tempted Man the Creator, in whom, now raised from the dead, dwells such inexhaustible wealth of glory that He can, without impoverishing Himself in the slightest, fill every need of His saints and this they are assured of, if they offer to Him that which is an offering and a sacrifice in their giving to Him.