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Blessings According to Obedience
Philippians 4:17-19
2Corinthians 9:8-11

Satan hates the saved.  He can not cause them to lose their salvation so he causes them to lose their eternal reward and to even suffer 1,000 years of tears after they get to Heaven.  He doe4s this be getting Godly preachers to teach and preach doctrinal errors which he convinced people to make our religious traditional doctrines.  Satan gets God's people to pass on the doctrinal errors by convincing them that they do not need to check their traditional doctrines against what the Bible actually says.  What follows goes against Baptist traditional doctrine but is true Biblical doctrine based upon using God's way to interpret God's word.

  1. Philippians 4:17-19 tells us several important things about supporting missionaries who are doing the work of God.
    1. We have an account  in Heaven if we are saved.
    2. We need to add fruit  to our account  in Heaven.  Fruit  is new life that comes from something that is living.  We need God to credit our Heavenly account  due to our causing new spiritual life to occur by someone getting saved or by causing existing spiritual life to grow by getting the saved to mature spiritually.
    3. Since we need to add fruit to our account,  it can not have all that we will need or want.
    4. They added fruit  to their Heavenly account  by supporting missions.
    5. Philippians 4:18 tells us that their support was an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God,  he is saying that this is part of our living sacrifice  (Romans 12:1) which is your reasonable service.  If we are not financially supporting missions then we are not doing what God says is our reasonable service.
    6. Philippians 4:19 tells us But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  Anything that the Bible says is by Christ Jesus  is available to all saved people, because it uses the title of Christ  and of Christ.  However, since Christ  is used first, we must mature spiritually before receiving the blessing.  In this case, we must mature spiritually enough to support missions on a regular basis before we can expect God to keep this promise that my God shall supply all your need.  The word according  means 'in direct relationship'.  The more that you mature spiritually and support missions, as a result, the more that you can expect God to supply all your need.
  2. 2Corinthians 9:8-11:
    1. starts with the word and,  which means that it is added to what came before it.
    2. Before this sentence we are told the 'law of sowing and reaping' and that God loveth a cheerful giver.  This is the understanding that we are to have when we consider what is said in this sentence.
    3. In addition, this chapter, the prior chapter and the next chapter all tell us about supporting missions.  Anyone in your church who does not support missions is disobeying the Bible.  God will judge any pastor who does not teach his people to support missions.
    4. Further, the prior chapter tells about a non-preacher who was going on a mission trip to do the job of a missionary.  God wants all of His people involved in missions, not just preachers and their families.
    5. Finally, a major message of the next chapter, which most people miss, is that after a mission work forms as a church, they are to support themselves and are responsible to send missionaries to the region beyond.  The Filipino belief that they need Americans to financially send missionaries and to pay for ministries in the Philippines is a denial of the faith in God that comes from Philippians 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.).
    6. Next, 2Corinthians 9:9-10 have been inserted into the sentence as shown by being in parenthesis.  They give us a critical part of the message and tell us what saved people must do in order to receive the promise of the outer sentence.  That promise is in 2Corinthians 8, 11.  In the outer sentence we see: And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.
    7. The colon in this sentence makes 9:8 and 9:11 tell us the same message two different ways.
    8. In the second half (9:11), the word enriched  means 'made rich'.  Yes, this speaks about spiritual riches but it also speaks about physical riches.  Matthew 6:33 says: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  The word first  means that receiving physical riches comes second.  If we seek worldly riches so that we can use them to promote the Gospel and to financially support preachers and churches which preach the Gospel, then God will let us have worldly riches afterwards and for as long as we put the support of God's work first.
    9. Next, look at the word being.  This is an ongoing verb of existence.  God does not let His people win the Lotto and get sudden riches.  God makes His people rich over time using an ongoing consistent method such as giving them a job with a steady and good income.  The mistake that many of God's people make is to increase their lifestyle to absorb this increased income in satisfying the lusts of the flesh.  1Timothy 6:17-21 warns God's people about this danger and tells them to use the extra income to help others do the work of God.
    10. We also see this truth in our current sentence which says: to all bountifulness.  The word to  'moving towards this goal'.  The goal is all bountifulness  which means 'liberality in the bestowment of gifts and favors'.  God will make His people to move them from being selfish to being very 'liberal' in giving help to people preaching the Gospel.
    11. Next, our second half of the sentence says which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.  God has His people financially support preachers so that the preachers will thank God for their supporters and will pray for God to continue to enrich the supporters so that the supporters will continue to support the ministry.
    12. Next, we need to realize that acting properly, with God's grace  requires true Biblical faith.  There are times that God supplies the need before the need comes up.  We see this with Daniel saving food for seven years before the food was needed.  When God provides an abundance, God's people who truly live by faith save the abundance until God shows the need.  God's people who spend the abundance prove that they do not live by faith  and can not be trusted to handle worldly riches properly.  Pastors who fail to teach God's people Godly attitudes about handling money will find that they have a need which is not met because God provided but God's people wasted the provision through ignorance.  When preachers have a need that God does not seem to supply they need to be sure that their people understand God's commands about handling money so that the people in their ministry can be used by God to provide for the needs of the ministry.  Now, before getting upset by these statements look at our context.  Our sentence started with the word And,  which means that it is added to what came before the sentence and that the context is important.  We are talking about receiving God's grace  and our section started in Chapter 8 where we were told that the poor churches of Macedonia  received God's grace because they first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.  I doubt that there is a church which can claim to be in worse shape than those churches were.  So, the main question is why the people of the church in need are not willing to devote their life to serving God.  Why would they rather live in need? One of the main reasons is that their culture has taught them to be beggars instead of going to work for God.
    13. Now, having looked at the second half of the sentence, we need to look at the first half and see that it tells us the same thing because the two halves are separated by a colon.
    14. Our First half starts with: And God is able to make all grace abound toward you;.  We already discussed this sentence starting with the word And,  which makes the context critical to properly understanding the sentence.  Further, our first phrase ends with a semi-colon which makes this half of the sentence two steps.  The First Step tells us that God supplies and the Second Step tells us how we are supposed to handle the supply from God.
    15. Next, we need to recognize that the phrase God is able  means that if we don't receive God's grace then it is not God's fault but the lack of God's grace is a failure on our part.  In most cases, this is because people fail to realize that God gives us His grace to make Him look good.  When people use God's grace to fulfill the lusts of the flesh then that is a misuse and God will often withhold His grace before he allows a misuse of it by His people.  God allows a misuse when he wants to gather evidence to use in later judgment.  Therefore, when God gives us His grace we want to use it the right way in order to avoid later judgment.
    16. The last phrase of this half of the sentence is: that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.  The word that  tells us what God expects us to do with His grace.  In addition, the word ye  means 'each and every one of you personally'.  That means that we receive God's grace on an individual basis and have responsibility, and judgment, based upon what we each personally do with His grace.  How well people handle God's grace is one reason why some people receive more grace than others receive.
    17. The phrase may abound to every good work  tells us what God is looking for us to produce with His grace.  In the Bible, the word good  is always used for something that comes from God.  Therefore, God is looking for His people to produce Godly works with the grace that He gives them.  In addition, the word abound  means 'great quantity'.  God wants His people to produce so many Godly works that the world steps back and says 'Wow!'.
    18. That leaves us with our middle phrase of: always having all sufficiency in all things.  When God's people don't have sufficiency to do God's work then there is a problem with God's people, either:

We've looked at the details of this sentence.  Now we can put these two verses together, which are two halves of the same sentence and see that both haves tell us the same message.  God is able to supply everything needed for God's people to do God's work in abundance.  God does this so that he can justify giving eternal rewards to His people that let Him work through their life while denying those same rewards to people who refuse to let God work through their life.  In addition, God works this way so that the missionaries who receive the results of God's grace will thank God and pray for God to continue to work through the lives of His people who are supplying their need.  Missionaries who fail to thank God or fail to pray for their supporters can expect to be cut off from God's grace.

Now, having looked at the outer sentence we need to look at the included sentence, which is in 2Corinthians 9:9-10 (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever.  Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness).

  1. The phrase As it is written,  tells us that this is based upon scripture which is found in Psalms 112:9.  This is explained in more detail in the note for this sentence within the Book Study n 2Corinthians.  However, the main point to consider here is that his section is said twice.  That makes it a Law which will be used by God when He judges us.
  2. The phrase He hath dispersed abroad  speaks about supporting foreign missions.  God wants us to look further than our own family, church and country, especially when it comes to missions.  People who fail in this aspect limit, if not lose, their rewards.
  3. The phrase he hath given to the poor  Is clear on the surface.  What is less clear is that he particular poor,  that this sentence talks about, is the foreign missionary.  Almost all of them go out to serve God with less than they really need to support their family and ministry in a foreign country.
  4. The phrase his righteousness remaineth for ever  is very clearly telling us that the rewards are eternal.  Quite often people who truly support foreign missions don't see a reward in this life because God is putting all of their rewards into their eternal account where they will not lose them.
  5. The phrase multiply your seed sown  is probably the most important to understand.  Look up 'Multi-level Marketing' on the internet in order to understand the basic concept.  Basically, God visits the blessings and iniquities of the fathers onto the descendants to the third and fourth generation.  When we train someone to be a soul winner (sower)  we get some credit in our Heavenly account  for each soul that they lead to salvation.  When we t5rain our disciple to train the next generation of soul winners, we get some credit in our Heavenly account  for each soul that the next generation of soul winners lead to salvation.  This happens for at least four generations.  Thus, by training soul winners to train the next generation of soul winners you multiply your seed sown.
  6. One of the ways that Satan gets saved people to lose their rewards is to convince them that they can have the promised reward while refusing to meet God's requirements for that reward.  For example, many people who claim to be saved believe that they will get a mansion  simply because they show up to church some times.  We must meet the true Biblical requirements in order to be saved and get into Heaven.  However, once saved, then we have nothing for eternity unless we do what the Bible says is required to lay up treasure in Heaven  (Hebrews 12:2-LJC; Laying up Treasure in Heaven).  By doing those things we add  to our Heavenly account.  We need to train soul winners tin order to multiply your seed sown  and we get multiple generations of multiple rewards when we teach those soul winners to pass their training on by teaching their disciples to become soul winners and teachers of soul winners.
  7. The phrase he that ministereth seed to the sower  is talking about giving doctrinally true Bible lessons (seed)  to soul winners, Bible teachers and preachers.  This is literally how the Bible tells us to multiply your seed sown.  The th,  in the word ministereth,  means that this needs to be an ongoing ministering  and not just providing a one-time message.  We can do this by training people to the point that they retain the lessons.  We can also do this by providing written lessons which continue to ministereth seed to the sower.
  8. The phrase minister bread for your food  means that this is the way to provide spiritual nutrition to our disciples.  This is how we are to cause then to mature spiritually.
  9. The phrase and increase the fruits of your righteousness  is a second promise of eternal righteousness  that is in this sentence.  his makes this promise a legally binding promise from God to all who meet the

What we have seen here is the Biblical basis for claiming that the more we obey God, the more eternal rewards that we put into our personal heavenly account.  We have also seen that helping to make sure that true Biblical doctrine, attitudes and actions are passed onto the net generation, and having the next generation pass them on to the next, gets us the greatest eternal rewards. Finally, we have also seen that many saved people will have nothing in their Heavenly accounts because they believed doctrinal error which is part of religious traditions.  We each determine the amount of eternal rewards that we personally receive by how well we obey what the Bible actually commands us to do.

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