Contentment is an elusive thing in this society because this society wants to make you a victim. This society wants to emphasize and glorify your personal rights. This society wants to turn Jesus into the genie who rub the bottle, he jumps out, and gives you what you want. The society through advertising wants to dissatisfy you with absolutely everything. Welcome to Grace to You, featuring the Bible teaching of John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It's been said, if you haven't faced trials, you just haven't lived long enough.
Okay, so you know hard times are coming. The question is, how do you prepare for them? Where can you go for strength when you face a family tragedy or a medical emergency or a financial crisis? Find out on today's grace to you as John MacArthur continues his study, The Pillars of Christian Character. with a look at how you can be content in good times and hard times.
As you'll see, that sort of attitude is not something you're born with. It has to be cultivated.
So follow along now with John for a practical look at this thing called contentment. Here's John MacArthur. We have talked about The spiritual attitudes, faith, love, humility, unity. Compassion, forgiveness, joy, thanks. We've talked about how essential to the life of the church those spiritual attitudes are because they carry the church's life.
They're the internal organs in the body of Christ through which the life flows and generates. Ministry. And one of those essential attitudes is the attitude of contentment. contentment. Philippians chapter 4.
Turn to it with me. Philippians chapter 4. Now as the Apostle Paul writes this epistle to the Philippians, You need to know a little about his circumstances. At the time he is writing, he is a prisoner. He is a lonely man, as it were, humanly speaking.
Every movement of his hand as he writes causes the clanking of the chain to which he is linked. to the soldier. It is in that environment that we read Philippians 4. Eleven. Not that I speak from want.
For I have learned to be content. In whatever circumstances I am. He has nothing. But I don't need anything.
Now that's contentment. That is absolute contentment. To have nothing. and need nothing. I've learned, he said.
I have learned to be Content. Down in verse twelve, he says it again. toward the end of the verse, I have learned the secret.
Okay. Paul says, I've learned the secret. I've been initiated. I have Learned how to be content. That is a secret that eludes most people.
Now the question that comes to my mind is, how do you learn this? How can you be so content? How can you get to the place in your life where you can say, I have nothing and I need nothing? How can you get there? How can I learn that lesson?
How can I get initiated into contentment? How can I stop riding that mood roller coaster up and down dependent upon how things go? How can I get over the hump of having been mistreated by my spouse or my family or my parents or my friends or my boss or my teacher or my professor who gave me a low grade? Or how can I get above feeling like a victim? Like, I'm not getting what's fair and what's right, and I'm being this.
How can I rise above that and say, hey, I have nothing and I don't need anything? I am Sufficient, content. I don't have any needs. How can I get on that? that kind of plane and just stay there.
And not rise up and down dependent upon how things are going in my world.
Well, we're going to find out in this passage. There are five Five Principles. That you must learn. If you would be content. Five principles.
They are the secrets of contentment. And when you learn them, you will move to contentment. Number one. Trust in God's providence. Trust in God's providence.
Now this is only alluded to here, but I think in a wonderful way. Trust in God's providence. Have confidence in God's providence. Let me just say a word about Providence. Providence is a term that has been used by theologians for years to describe the fact.
That God works everything. to his own will. That's what it means. It means that God takes the millions of contingencies. that occur in the universe.
And out of them all, he orchestrates his own will perfectly. And as I've told you in the past in talking about Providence, Providence to me is a greater miracle than a miracle. If God just stopped the normal process of things and injected a miracle, he could do anything he wanted. And you could understand that. He has great power.
He created things so he can stop the normal processes of the natural operation of the way the world goes and just inject a miracle. But what he does in Providence is let all those contingencies take place. Millions of people making millions of choices, doing millions of things, and demons and all of the hosts of Satan working their whole system. And then you've got all of the physical factors in a physical universe, all of the complexity of those millions upon millions of contingencies, and God, with them all perfectly blended together, creates his own purposes and brings them all to pass. That is.
beyond imagination to me. There was a little circumstance God fit into the whole program in Paul's life. Look at verse 10. He says, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly. Mm-hmm.
He said I I rejoice for this reason, now at last you have revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned. Before But you lacked opportunity. And why is Paul rejoicing in the Lord? Why isn't he not thanking the Philippians?
Why is he not saying, I want to thank you guys for what you did? He's rejoicing in the Lord because he knows who brought it all to pass. Here's the situation. If I can just kind of paint the picture for you a little bit. For 10 years, The Philippian church had never sent Paul any support.
And he was basically an itinerant preacher who worked and owned his own living the best he could. But once you get into prison or once you're incarcerated, it's a little tough. For ten years, the Philippian church had been unable to send him support. When you get into the story a little bit of those 10 years. And you ask the question why, there's two answers that come up.
One, because they were poor. And they barely had enough for themselves.
Now remember, it was 10 years earlier from the writing of Philippians that Paul had gone into the city of Philippi and he first went to that synagogue. It really wasn't a synagogue. It was a group of Jews down by the river. There weren't enough to start a synagogue. And he went down there, and there were some men and women by the river, and they were Jews, and they were worshiping Jehovah.
And he went and met with them. And you remember how the story goes? And he preached the gospel, and then some demon-possessed girl came along, and Satan tried to cooperate with God to gain a little ground. And Paul cast the demon out of the girl, doesn't want publicity from Satan. And then you remember what happened.
Paul eventually preached the gospel in the city of Philippi, was put in jail. While he was in stocks, he and his friend Silas were singing praise to God in the middle of the night. An earthquake came, broke the walls of the jail, kicked all the stocks open. You remember the jailer was converted and a church was planted in Philippi. Ten years have passed since that time.
Ten years since Acts 16 records that incredible story. And Paul says in verse 10, I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. During those 10 years, they never had the kairos. That's the word opportunity, the season.
We don't know the specifics why, but it was certainly partly because of their poverty. There was persecution of Paul in that town, and surely there was some difficulty for that young church in that town. But even beyond that, there was Paul's. Paul's inaccessibility, for one thing, he was always on the move and may have been a little hard to track down. And secondly, he was busy earning his own way as he worked with his leather work and his tent making.
But recently, He got himself, of course, in a situation where he had no way to earn his own living anymore. And his needs were great. And it was at that very appropriate time, ten years after he had started that church, that they revived their concern for him. And what he's referring to here is that they sent him a gift. They sent him a gift.
They sent him something to care for him. It may have been clothing, food. We're not sure what it was specifically, but he was sent a gift. You'll notice down in verse 16: even in Thessalonica, you sent a gift more than once. Not that I seek the gift.
So, here recently, they've started to meet his needs. They sent him some gifts in Thessalonica, and now, in the situation that he's in in the prison in Rome, they have sent him gifts again. They're starting to be able to do that. And the Lord is making it happen at the time of Paul's. great need.
By the way, the term revived there is a horticultural word, just so you understand it. And it has to do with something that blooms or flourishes, comes to bloom. And he is saying, your concern has blossomed, your concern has bloomed, and you've been concerned before, but you didn't have the opportunity or the capability. And now you have. And that's why I rejoice in the Lord greatly.
You see, he knew what the writer of Hebrews said was true, that you don't ever need to be anything other than content, for I will never leave you or forsake you. I mean, he knew that God was there. He knew what Proverbs 16, 9 says, that the mind of a man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps. He knew what Proverbs 19, 21 says, many are the plans of a man's heart. But the Lord's counsel stands.
Paul knew that he didn't have to sort out all the issues because as he said in Philippians 2.13, it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. He knew that his life was in God's hands. He knew the Old Testament. He knew the providence of God in the life of Joseph. His brother sold him into slavery.
And the fact that Joseph ended up in Egypt, became prime minister was what preserved Israel. He knew the story of Esther, how Now Esther was planted. in a pagan king's palace. To stop a conspiracy that would have been genocide and wiped out the Jewish people, the providence of God. You don't even read the name of God or the word God or any reference to God in the whole book of Esther, and he is unseen doing his will providentially.
In every verse. You remember the story of Ruth and how. God providentially worked through that incredible story to bring about the line of David and ultimately the Messiah. God working with all those millions of contingencies. And Paul knew all about that.
He knew it from his understanding of Scripture. He knew it from his experience. He had learned that God. was in control of everything.
Now there's a second. principle that you must learn. Not only the providence of God, that at the time and the place when it is needed, God will act. But secondly, you need not only to trust in God's providence, but to be satisfied with little. To be satisfied with little.
Now, this is not easy. I was reading a letter from a missionary who had just arrived in a very primitive area of Africa, having left the United States and now embarking in the first few weeks upon. Life in Africa, and the letter was saying, I suppose you're wondering how we have found Africa. And it went on for about two pages to say, Here is what we have found to be difficult. And it lists bumpy roads, mud, and just on and on about all this.
The place needs painting, there's only cold water, and it goes on and on. Pray for us, pray for us. And I can understand that. Here are people who are not used to little. It's a very big transition.
Trying to sort out just how they're going to live with that, let alone how they're going to reach. The country That the message of Jesus Christ It's hard for us in this society. This is one of the plagues of prosperity. Verse 11 is where we get to this principle. Not that I speak from want.
Paul wants to put a little caveat in here. He's rejoicing in the Lord. Because the Philippians, just at the appropriate time, have met his needs, but not because of his own personal wants. Because he says, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. It's not that I'm rejoicing because of my wants.
Look, I'm content anyway. I don't have any needs. I mean, I'm rejoicing in what little you gave me, but that's plenty for me. I don't need any more. It's not because all of a sudden my longings are being met.
I just need the basics, and through you, the Lord provided them. I trust He'll always do that providentially. But it's not because I need more. Can you imagine somebody saying this today? I have no needs.
There's nothing I need. And we have so much more than the Apostle Paul who said, there's nothing I need. I mean we We had a few years ago, you know, the booming of the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel didn't last long because the poor got poorer giving their money to the prosperity preachers.
So the prosperity gospel had a short life. People didn't get rich. It didn't kind of pan out that way. Just, it's like a pyramid scheme, you know, just the ones at the top got rich. And the prosperity gospel kind of went away.
It's kind of fading. And in its place has come the needs theology. That we've got a lot of needs, and we're all victims, and we've all been kicked around, and beat up, and hammered, and nobody understands us, and life isn't fair, but we've got a new theology that's built on need. And the idea is, I got all these needs, and God better meet my needs, and Jesus better meet my needs. And boy, I got to be satisfied, and I need to be fulfilled, and I need to be successful, and I need to flourish in my business, and I need my marriage to be what it ought to be.
Boy, when you start down that track, that is a track to disaster. And in reading about this church, this Seeker-friendly thing, all Predicated on the foundation of fulfillment and personal satisfaction, what has happened is they've got thousands of people in their congregation every year going for psychotherapy. Why are they going for psychotherapy? Because they've been told that when you get into this Christian deal, you're going to get satisfied and you're going to have your needs met, and they're living in a culture which tells them there's no end to those. And so they got to run off and get fixed.
Somebody's got to be There to tell them you're just a poor victim, poor you. That kind of thing is a tragic, tragic thing. The compelling need that you and I have is we need to escape hell. And we need to worship the true and living God. Doesn't really matter whether we have anything in this life or don't.
You know, sometimes, you know, and we have so much. I mean, we're so rich, and that's fine. God has blessed us, and that's okay. You can take it, you just have to keep realizing you don't need it. In fact, the more of it you get, The more you know you don't need it and pretty soon you don't even want it.
When people say I want to give you a gift, they tell me sometimes I say, Look, if it isn't combustible or consumable, don't give it to me. If I can't Burn it or eat it. I don't want to stick it someplace.
Well, it was one other thing. If I can read it, give it to me. Paul says, I have learned. to be content. I've learned to be satisfied.
in whatever circumstances I am. He's not denying that life has difficult circumstances. That's life. He's not denying that he's mistreated, but he is no victim. He has no victim's mentality.
He is triumphant. He is satisfied with little. He never forgets what he really deserves, right? He also never forgets what is coming. Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard.
nor has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him, right?
So he's trusting in God's providence to meet his needs. He knows the Lord never forsakes him. and he is content and satisfied with little, This uh This Sort of Christian humanism that says I'm the center of the universe and my needs are the driving, compelling force. It's certainly an unbiblical approach. I don't want to say when I say Paul was content.
that there aren't some um Some areas where he wasn't content. Let me suggest a couple. He refused to be content with his own spirituality. He was not content with that. He said, Oh, wretched man that I am, he was not content with his pursuit of holiness.
He was not content with his goal of becoming like Christ. He said, Not as though I have already obtained it or attained it, I press toward the mark. He was not content with the way the world was treating Jesus Christ. He was not content with the blasphemy against him. He was not content with people going to hell and rejecting the gospel.
There were a lot of things that he wasn't content with, but they had nothing to do with his physical circumstances. It was enough for him. that God had willed those circumstances. and that God was showing himself faithful and powerful in those circumstances. He could say with the psalmist, whom have I?
In heaven but thee. And there is none on earth beside thee, my Heart and my flesh fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. To have God was to have everything. And he needed nothing. He had learned that the chief end of man was to glorify God, and the chief joy of man was to love the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
And listen. The love that he had for God in the relationship. was enough. It was enough. It's like that kind of Pure Wonderful love.
that sometimes we even experience when we first fall in love with that life partner. or that love that we cherish for that little child that is so pure in itself. that it it has no regard for circumstances.
So we could say that the Christian's life must be a life liberated from need. Liberated from me, be satisfied with little. Let me take you to a third point. And this one is related to the second one. It's the third element in the fabric of contentment.
You need to be independent from circumstances. You need to be independent from circumstances. If you're going to be a person who is satisfied, You must be satisfied with little, and you must be confident that the little is really what God has providentially provided. And thirdly, you must be independent from circumstances. And you see this independence in verse 12.
It's a most interesting verse. It's a verse in which he cancels out everything. Watch how he does it. I know how to get along with humble means. I also know how to live in prosperity.
in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry. both of having abundance and suffering need. In any and every circumstance, that's the key, that little phrase right in the second line, in any and every circumstance. In other words, it doesn't matter.
Circumstances are irrelevant. You will learn to be content when you have learned to trust God providentially to care for everything. When you have learned to be satisfied with a minimum. And when you have learned to be indifferent toward your circumstances. I know how, he says.
I know how. I know how. to get along with humble means. Literally, the verb here has to do with um Just the basic bare necessities. I also know how to live in perisuo, abundance.
Overflow. in the matter of earthly goods and supplies. I know both of those. I know how to get along with the little and I know how to get along with a lot. And sometimes that's tougher, isn't it?
and keep your perspective. Because in any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret again. I've learned it. I've learned how to be filled and to go hungry, how to have abundance and how to suffer need. And what he's doing is canceling everything out.
He's just saying, I'm content. It doesn't matter what the circumstance is. That is real spiritual maturity. He found all his satisfaction in the relationship with the Lord. All his satisfaction in the hope of the future, all his satisfaction in being useful to God for kingdom purposes, all his satisfaction in ministry.
He had suffered profoundly. In fact, most of his life falls into the category of humble means Going hungry and suffering need rather than living in prosperity, being filled, and having abundance. I think that was the exception rather than the rule. But what he is saying is it really doesn't matter. It's not an issue.
If I have it, if God provides it, fine. I want to be a steward of it and thank him for it and understand it. It's usage. And if I don't have it, that's fine too.
So beloved, thank you. Contentment is an elusive thing in this society. Because this society wants to make you a victim. This society wants to emphasize and glorify your personal rights. This society wants to personalize and privatize and individualize your spirituality and your Christianity so that it's everything you think it ought to be.
This society wants to turn Jesus into the genie, rub the bottle, he jumps out, and gives you what you want. This society, through advertising, wants to dissatisfy you with absolutely everything. And I admit there are troubles and issues in life, and there are struggles in life, but so many of them stem from the selfishness that this sinful approach breeds. When you bring introduce your selfishness into your marriage, it'll mess it up. You introduce it into your family, it'll mess it up, it'll mess up the church, it'll mess up any relationship.
It'll mess you up. if you're driven by self-satisfaction. That's a terrible thing. That's a tragic thing. And when you tell people that they should receive Jesus because he will produce self-fulfillment and self-satisfaction, you have put them on a road to disaster.
Some of them may actually come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and then spend most of their Christian experience wondering why it didn't work out the way you were promised it would. If you're going to be selfish, if you're going to be a victim, if you're going to take every wound personally, if every time somebody says something that offends you or something you didn't like, you're going to strike out, then you will destroy all relationships. You will destroy your own life. But if you will recognize that your circumstances are by the providence of God what He intended for you. And that you should be satisfied with little and utterly detached from your circumstances in terms of their ability to change your contentment, then you will learn to be content.
And wouldn't it be wonderful if we were all so contented? because it would turn to great praise for God. Vital Truth here on Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. The title of John's current study is The Pillars of Christian Character.
Well, today John made the biblical case that Christians should be content. We should have peace and joy in any circumstance. But aren't there some areas like the desire to grow spiritually or to evangelize more? where a measure of discontentment might be well, godly. Here's how John responded to that question.
Yeah, I think that's a good distinction to make. We are, on the one hand, content with whatever circumstances the Lord has put us in, apart from our sin. but we are at the same time discontent with our spiritual condition. I'm content to be a Christian. I'm content to know Christ.
I'm content with the gift of eternal life, but I'm not content. with the fact that my Spiritual progress is so slow and so challenging and difficult. And this is really the Apostle Paul. Romans 7, he's a believer. He's an astute believer.
He's a mature believer. He's the great Apostle Paul, and he says, I. I'm a wretched man. I don't do what I want to do. I do what I don't want to do.
I see one principle working in me that loves the law of God. And I see another principle working in me that is drawn towards sin. And I live in this conflict. Content on the one hand with the law of God and the gift of salvation, discontent on the other hand with my inability to walk in holiness according to the law of God. And to uh Grow in my Christ likeness, We all struggle.
Paul even went so far as to say, not as though I. have attained. The goal is Christ's likeness. I'm not there, Paul said, but I press toward the mark. of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Along the way, you can worry. If you don't Consider all the blessings the Lord has given you. If you're going to be discontent, and you're going to be disappointed. Be disappointed about your spiritual progress, and that'll motivate you to move more into Christlikeness. Don't be disappointed with anything that God has provided for you because you have all the things that pertain to life and godliness.
Yes, you do. And friend, all of that encouraging truth and much more is included in John's classic book called Anxious for Nothing. It shows you how to keep worry at bay and how to develop the type of Christ honoring contentment that John talked about in today's lesson. And if you've never contacted Grace to You before, we want to send you a free copy. To request the book Anxious for Nothing?
Get in touch today. You can call us at 800-55 GRACE. or go to our website, gty.org. Again, John's book Anxious for Nothing is free if you're contacting us for the first time. Request your free copy when you call 800-55GRACE.
or when you visit gty.org. If you've contacted us before, you can order the book for $10.50 and shipping is free.
So call 80055GRACE. or shop online at gty.org. The title again of this book, Anxious for Nothing. Also, be sure to visit our website, gty.org, where you can download all 10 messages from John's current study, The Pillars of Christian Character. That study is free of charge in MP3 and transcript format.
And all of that and more is free at gty.org. And to keep up to date on the resources we have available, Follow us on social media, X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for tuning in today. Join us at the same time tomorrow and discover more keys to genuine biblical contentment. as we continue John MacArthur's study, The Pillars of Christian Character. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time.
on Grace to You.
