If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Psalm 36. Psalm chapter 36. We'll be looking
at verses 8 through 12 this morning. Psalm chapter 36, verse 8 through
12. The title of the message today
is The Believer's Contentment. The Believer's Contentment. Now, this last Wednesday, we
did look at verses 1 through 7 at the believer's identity. Verses 1 through 7, the psalmist
proclaims the identity of every believer in Christ, that we have
both a nature of sin and a nature of grace. We have a dual nature
inside of every believer in Christ. And this is not true of you.
If there is no dual nature, if there is no holy nature, and
if there is no sin nature, then you're not a believer in Christ,
because these two things always accompany every believer in Christ. We have a nature we're born with.
And David here says the transgression of the wicked saith within my
heart. In other words, when I see an
evil man, I don't see somebody beneath me, I see somebody like
me. We all are born with an evil
nature, a sin nature. And in the flesh, no man can
please God. No man. But if he does not have a nature
of grace, He's not a believer either. This is the aspect of
the nature that is given to us by the grace of God. And I'll
tell you, unless the Spirit of God comes in almighty power to
the resurrection of the soul of man, He is none of Christ's. Scripture says, if a man hath
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. There is no such
thing as a second anointing. There is no such thing as someone
believing in Christ and later receiving the Spirit. No. Life
and faith come together by the Spirit of God. And He creates
in us a new nature, a nature that is holy, a nature that is
righteous and without sin. So we have a nature that is only
sin and a nature that has no sin. And these two natures, the
Scripture says, are at war with each other. They are constantly
afflicting us, constantly battling against one another, opposing
one another. You see, the Spirit of God in
us produces fruit unto God. It produces righteousness. But the nature of man can only
produce sin. It can do nothing else. Therefore,
sin is mixed with all I do, Paul said. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ my Lord. It is through Christ that we
will be resurrected. It is through Christ that this
old man will be one day put in the grave and one day God will
resurrect that old body and He will make it a new body like
unto His. And we will be a complete man
then, a whole man. God saved us body, soul, and
spirit. The whole man God saved. But
as of right now, this whole nature still resides with us. But praise
God we've been given grace to see and to believe on Christ,
to see the mercy of God. He says in verse 5, Thy mercy,
O Lord. We see that mercy is from the
Lord. We see that God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. His mercy is sovereign and praise
God, he had mercy. On us, we see his faithfulness
in Christ. That Christ was faithful. And
because Christ was faithful, God accounts us as faithful,
faithful in him. God's righteousness is found
in Christ. His judgment or His providences
are moved by Christ. The excellency of His love towards
us is in Christ. Everything is in Christ. And
a believer knows this, that he can say he cannot save himself.
All his salvation rests in Christ alone. In Christ alone. And therefore, he says, The children
of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings, verse
7. Therefore, we have fled to the
wings of Christ. We have repented from our thoughts
and our ways as to how it is God has satisfied. I once thought
that I could satisfy God by my doing. I once thought that I
could satisfy God by my religion. But now I've repented of that.
That's a hopeless case. I don't have any hope in my religion. I don't have any hope in my own
righteousness. I have hope only in Christ and
His righteousness and His atonement alone for my salvation. That's it. I have no other hope
but Him. He is all my hope. I've repented
of those other ways. And now we rest under the shadow
of his salvation. Let me ask you this. Have you
fled to Christ? Have you forsaken all and come
to Christ? Have you seen that you by your
nature cannot please God? If you have, flee to Christ!
Under the shadow of His wings is protection, shelter, love,
mercy, grace, faithfulness, hope, all under Christ. There is no other hope. Have
you seen that your nature is depraved, hopeless, helpless? One thing about the old nature
is he's pretty much self-reliant, isn't he? Well, I can do that. Man, surely, surely I'm good
enough to have some part in this. Surely, I shouldn't rely totally
on Christ for this. I should do something. No, you
can't. Well, that's offensive. I can't
help that. That's just so. God says there
is none that doeth good. No, not one. Now, God said that
deal with him. Deal with him. But if you know that you have
no hope in yourself, there is hope in Christ, there is assurance
in Christ, there is salvation of the soul in Christ and Christ
alone. Behold, the only Savior of sinners,
Jesus Christ, and Him crucified is the only hope. His person,
He is the God-man mediator. His work, He came to provide
righteousness by His obedience, and atonement by His death, and
He has accomplished it, and God hath raised Him from the dead,
and He sits on the right hand of God doing whatsoever He pleases. That's Christ. Run to Him. Sinners run to Christ. There's hope, there's salvation,
there's comfort. My plea this morning is that
every sinner in this building would run to Christ. Would cease
from their own religion and works, cease from their own self-righteousness
and flee to Christ. Do you know it pleased God to
provide salvation for sinners? Do you know that? It pleased God. The only one
it doesn't please is man. The only one that is unsatisfied
is man. God is absolutely, completely
satisfied within Himself and He is satisfied with the work
of salvation. The only one that isn't is the
natural man. He's not satisfied with it unless
he has something to do with it. Friends, God has accomplished
salvation for His people and they put their trust in Him.
Therefore, the psalmist gives us assurance. All who have come
to Christ, all who have trusted in Christ, they shall find in
Him all that they could ever want or desire. We who have trusted
in Christ, we have come to Christ and we have found the only thing
that satisfies, the only thing that can fulfill all our wants
and desires, Christ. In Christ alone, the believer,
the disciple of Christ, shall be content. Look at this in our
text in verse 8. Those who have fled under the
shadow of His wings, notice this, they shall be abundantly, what? Satisfied. Satisfied. I read that that word could be
translated inebriated. We are abundantly inebriated
in Christ. Full, complete joy and peace
is to be found only in the fatness of Christ. They shall be abundantly,
completely, and fully satisfied. One thing I know that you know,
and I don't care who you are, sin never satisfies. Never. It promises to satisfy. Sin always promises to satisfy. If I could just, then I would
be satisfied. Fill in the blank. I could just
have what? What would satisfy you? What
is it? Money? Family? Friends? Annie, we're so thankful that
God has blessed you. But I'll tell you what, that
child will never satisfy you. He'll be the love of your life.
He'll be joy to you. But he also be your worst hurt.
You'll feel the most pain. From your children. They never
satisfy. The things of this life never
satisfy. Man, if I could just get to retirement.
What did we say before that? If I could just find a job. What
did we say before that? If I could just get done with
college. What did we say before that? If I could just get to
college. What did we say before that? If I could just have a
boyfriend or girlfriend, didn't we? That's all we said. We didn't
care about anything else. And when we got those things,
what happened? We wanted something more. The flesh is never satisfied
with sin. It will never please you. You'll
never find peace in it. You'll only find death and discomfort
and pain and misery and sorrow in sin. That's all there is in
there. There's no end to it. There's
no end to it. It never satisfies. The same
is true of religion. Religion never satisfies. A man in false, free will, worked
religion is never satisfied. Why? He always has to do more. to please God. He's always got
to find that extra thing that sets Him above everyone else.
Whether it's their singing or their music, and they say, Oh,
listen to my voice. It's beautiful. I'm singing better
than you. Or it's their works. I went door
knocking today, and I had 20 million souls saved today. They're
never satisfied. Never satisfied. Why? When is enough enough? When will
you ever finish trying to please God? Never. Never. False religion never satisfies. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 10 says,
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver. Nor
he that loveth abundance be satisfied with increase. It doesn't matter.
You want more? If you get more, you'll only
want more. It's never satisfying. Yet they who believe on Christ,
who trusted in Him, shall be satisfied. When all else fails, when goods
and treasures are gone, When friends and family forsake us,
when we lose those we love, the redeemed of the Lord, the elect
of God, those who are given a new nature by Christ, find all their
contentment in Christ. When you and I lose everything,
what is that? What is that? What did Job say
when he lost everything? The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You see, those things
really didn't matter to Job. What mattered to Job was God. And what matters to the believer
is God, nothing else. Nothing else satisfies his soul. Why is that? Why is it we find
only contentment in Christ? Why is it that we find only contentment
in Christ and Him crucified? Well, one, we find contentment
in Christ, satisfaction in Christ, because God was satisfied with
Him. God was satisfied with Him. That
should be enough, shouldn't it? God was satisfied with Christ.
Jesus our Savior so much pleased God that God Himself could not
withhold His voice and said, this is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. God has never said that about
anyone else but Christ. This is my beloved Son. And He
is well pleased. He delights in His Son. Isaiah
42 verse 21 that says, The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness
sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. This is a prophecy of Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ did by His righteous obedience magnify
and honor the law of God. And God was well pleased with
all His righteousness. In every thought, in every word,
in every deed, Christ pleased God. As a man, He pleased God. And because of His righteousness,
has been imputed to us in election, because His righteousness has
been accomplished by His life and His death, because His righteousness
is given to us in the new nature, friends, God is satisfied with
us who are in Him. If we are in Christ, God is satisfied. completely satisfied with us. If we have His righteousness,
what else is there to do? What else is there to do? What
else is there to do but enjoy His righteousness? Enjoy it. Labor, the scripture says, to
enter into his rest. Cast off the old man and his
deeds. Rest in Christ. In him there's satisfaction because
he satisfied God. He provided righteousness. And
not only did he satisfy God with his life, he satisfied God by
his one offering. Go to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 and
verse 10. The Scripture says, Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed and prolong his
days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.
He shall see of the travail of his soul And shall be what? Satisfied. God imputed the sins of His people
to Christ. Christ endured them. God put Him to grief for our
sins. And when it was done, God was
satisfied. God was completely satisfied
with His offering. The Scripture says, He by His
one offering hath perfected them forever. Forever that are sanctified. not made it possible that they
be perfected. He didn't just make it possible
by His offering. He did it! He did it! He accomplished it! He finished
it! It's done! Righteousness is complete! But it's only complete in Christ.
And those who are in Christ, God is satisfied with His offering
for our sins. It was God's pleasure to put
him to grief. I tell you what, you find the
bottom of that one, let me know. God was pleased to kill his son
for sinners. And when he died, he accomplished
God's Purpose in salvation in Psalm 18, the Lord Jesus Christ
here speaking in prophecy, listen to the words, the sorrows. Of death compass me and the floods
of the ungodly man made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compass me
about and the snares of death went before me. The just God of heaven took out
all his vengeance for our sins on Christ. He has made complete and perfect
peace, therefore, by the blood of his cross. Scripture says,
by the blood of his cross, he hath made peace with God. He
made peace with God. There's no animosity toward us
if we're in Christ. There's no animosity of God towards
us. There's no vengeance of God toward
us. There's no hatred of God toward us. Why? He took it out
on Christ. He won't take it out on you. It pleased Him to do that for
you. Is that not a gracious God? please
the Lord. And he was satisfied. The justice
of God was satisfied with Christ. And God will not demand twice
payment for sins. Friends, Christ paid for all
of your sins or He paid for none of them. There is no middle ground
here. We who believe shall be satisfied
with His offering because God was. If God was satisfied, why
shouldn't I be satisfied with it? God said it was perfect. Shall I not believe God that
says it's perfect? I believe. I believe on Christ. And I'm satisfied with His offer.
It's enough. It's enough. Why? God said it
was enough. And to tell you the truth, God's the only one really
got to be satisfied. But He gives us this as a grace
to be satisfied in Christ. And to prove it, He raised the
Lord from the grave and set Him on the throne of God, where He
now rules over all things. Sinners, stop looking for satisfaction
in this world. You won't find it. Why? Sin does
not please God. Christ pleases God. And we're
pleased with Christ's sacrifice because God is. Number two, the
scripture in our text says they shall drink of God's pleasures. Look at this. The river of God's
pleasures. Verse 8, the second part. Thou shalt make them drink
of the river of thy pleasures. Christ, friend, is the pleasure
of God. He is the delight of God. He
has always been the delight of God. And all who trust in Him are
not just given a drop of Him. We're not just given a small
portion of Him. We're given a river of Christ. The river of God's pleasure is
Christ. And we are given the river of
His gospel to us. This speaks of abundance and
freshness. A river is not a stagnant pond,
is it? It's constantly flowing. It's big. It's wide. It's a river that flows to God's
people. Constantly satisfying them. Believer, you can drink. The abundance of Christ until
you are totally full and you've not taken one thing from Him. It's like taking a thimble of
water out of the ocean. You think it's going to miss
that? No. We can constantly come to this river, this gospel, and
constantly drink of Christ. Not to drink once and that's
it. We drink constantly from the river of the gospel. Constantly
refreshed. Constantly abundant for us. Abundant
of forgiveness. Abundance of love. Abundance
of grace. Abundance of mercy. Abundance
of divine providence is all for us. God moves this world for
his people. Not one thing happens in this
life that is not for the good of God's people. Constantly giving
us His gospel. Constantly refreshing our soul. Believer, we're to drink daily.
And this gospel is not stagnant, is it? It's not a stagnant pool. That's false religion. False
religion is a stagnant pool. It's detestable. Oh, but the
river of God, the river of the gospel of Christ. It's always
fresh, always flowing, always fresh. If we are weary of hearing the
gospel. If we're weary of hearing the
message of God's grace. It may not have to do with the
size of the message or the frequency of hearing the sermon, but rather
the smallness of our appetite. It was God's pleasure to bruise
Christ, and it's God's pleasure to give us his spirit so that
we can understand the gospel. Do you know you can't understand
the gospel unless the spirit of God teaches you? The Scripture says that God hath
made foolish the wisdom of this world. That man by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. What we do here is foolish
to people. Why do you do that? Why would
you torture yourself to come to this place? They don't understand. It's not to us a torture. To us, it is joy to hear again
of Christ. Why? Because we're not hearing
about some mythological character. We're hearing about a person
we know. We're hearing about a person that loves us and we
love him. We hear a person that satisfies
our souls. And this message never gets old.
Why? Because God has sent His Spirit
to dwell within us. God was pleased to give us His
Spirit. And it is the Spirit of God that
makes the gospel effectual to us. I was talking to someone
before this service and he said, you know, you spoke to my heart.
Well, the Spirit spoke to your heart. And the Spirit spoke to
their heart and to their heart and their heart using the same
message. The same message! How is that possible? Only by the Spirit of God can
you take anything from this message. It won't be because of me. It's
because of Him. Give Him glory and praise. God
has sent a river of His Gospel to us so that we might understand
by His Spirit. Is it not refreshing to our hearts
to hear the message of Christ? Do we not mount up with wings
as eagles? Run and not weary, and we walk
and we're not faint. Friends, God will do all His
pleasure. You can be sure of that. Scripture says, I will
do all my pleasure. Is that not what God says? Well,
guess what His pleasure is? His pleasure is to give you His
gospel and make it effectual to your heart. That's His pleasure. That's His pleasure. And believers are content by
this river. We're contented by this river
because of where it begins. It doesn't begin with us. Now,
isn't that wonderful? God didn't start this fountain
of river because of what we did. God had this fountain to begin
from all eternity. It began with Him. Look at our
text again. He says in verse 9, For with
Thee is the fountain of life. God is the fountain of all life, but especially the life of His
people. And if God is the fountain, then
shall this river of the gospel ever fail His people? No. Because it's from Him, it's
immutable, it's unchangeable. Because it's from Him, it shall
not fail. Because it's from Him, it shall
not cease. But it is eternal. You know,
we speak of eternity in past, present and future. Eternity,
there is no past, there is no present, there is no future.
It's eternal now with God. Eternal now. This river will never fail because
it's from God. Go to Ezekiel chapter 47. Ezekiel
chapter 47. This is a wonderful picture of
the river, and if you get a chance to read this chapter, it'll bless
you. If you look at it in light of
the gospel. Ezekiel chapter 47. Well, that's not going to help
me. I was in the wrong place. I looked at that and got scared.
Ezekiel chapter 37. 47, sorry, 47. Did I say 37? 47. And afterward he brought me again
to the door of the house, and behold, waters issued from under
the threshold of the house eastward. For the forefront of the house
stood toward the east, and the waters came down from the right
side of the house at the south side of the altar. Then brought
he me out by way of the gate of the northward, and led me
about the way unto the utter gate by the way that looketh
eastward. And behold, there ran out waters
on the right side. Now, it's all he's saying is
that the water went to the right out of the... You picture that
tabernacle, and he was standing at the door where the veil was. And the altar was on the other
side, God's presence. And he said, their water trickled
out and began to run out the right side. God took me out the
north gate so I could stand up and look at it. That's all he
said. He said, I'm just looking at this water coming out of the
altar, of the Holy of Holies, and it's running down. Verse
3, And when the man had a lion in his hand, went forth eastward,
he measured a thousand cubits, and brought me through the waters.
And the waters were to my ankle. He measured a thousand cubits,
and brought me to the waters, and the waters were to my knees.
Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through, and the
waters were to my loins, and afterward he measured a thousand.
And it was a river that I could not pass over, for the waters
were risen, Waters to swim in. A river that could not be passed. Can you see what's happening
here? It's the gospel. The gospel began with God, in
the presence of God from eternity. And over time, it trickled down
into the Old Testament. And a little more came. And a
little more came. And a little more came. It was
to the ankles, to the knees, to the loins. But now then, that
Christ has come, the gospel is a river. It springs forth from
Christ. And it floods the world with
His Spirit. He shall pour out His Spirit
on all flesh. Friends, Christ is that river
that flows from God. That river that flows. And if
you read on in this chapter, you'll find out wherever this
river went, there was life. Wherever this river went, there
was life given. And friends, wherever the gospel
is preached and is accompanied by the Spirit of God, when that
river flows into the heart of man, there's life. There's life. Believer, therefore, should we
not be content with the gospel of Christ? If you ever desire to hear anything
else besides the gospel of Christ, you're in the wrong place. I
have no desire to preach anything else. No desire. There is no other gospel. And there's no other gospel that
satisfies the souls of God's people but the gospel of His
sovereign grace in Christ. No other gospel. Go back to our text. He says
in the last part of the verse there, In thy light shall we
see light. The believer is content with
the light of God. Scripture says that Jesus Christ
is the light of life. Light brings illumination. Brings
understanding. And that light could never come
from any place but God. And in His light, I'm completely
satisfied. In the light of His gospel, I'm
completely satisfied for Jesus Christ is the only light of the
world. Anybody that is not walking in
Him is walking in darkness. Sin. Pride. Arrogancy. But all who walk in Christ are
given the light of the gospel. Is it not miserable to be in
darkness? I know when the lights go out, not everybody's happy.
I don't see one happy face on my street when the lights go
out. In light there's joy. Why? I can see. I don't stumble around. We who believe the gospel, why
is it that we're not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine
that comes down the pike? We're satisfied with the light
that God has given us. I'm content with Christ. Now
I'll tell you the truth, I want to know more of him. I want to
know more of him and I won't ever find the bottom of him until
I see his face. But I don't desire to know anybody
else. I want to know him more. I don't
care to know anybody else more. I only want him. And so does every believer in
Christ. And in him, we are satisfied. I pray that God bless this to
our hearts. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed
in prayer.