The rarest of all jewels must
be the jewel of contentment. Everyone wants it, but few, very,
very few people possess it. What would you give to have real,
lasting contentment and satisfaction in your soul? What would you
give if you could honestly say, I have enough? I can tell you
this, there is no satisfaction for our immortal souls in this
world. All who drink from the wells
of this world will thirst again. All who eat the bread of this
earth will hunger for more bread. But there is a well with water
which will quench the thirst of your soul. There is a bread
which if you eat it, will satisfy the craving hungers of your heart. I pray that God will this day
cause you to drink from that well and eat of that bread. My subject this morning is the
secret to satisfaction. You'll find my text in John chapter
4 verse 31. The Lord Jesus had just concluded
his ministry to the Samaritan woman, and it was concluded by
her leaving her water pots and confessing Christ. He had come
to save a sinner, and now she was saved. And in the meanwhile
his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto
them, I have meat to eat you know not of. Therefore said the
disciples one to another, Has any man brought him something
to eat? Jesus saith to them, My meat
is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish the work."
The disciples had been away buying groceries while the Lord Jesus
was ministering to this Samaritan woman, and when they returned
and tried to get the Master to eat, he said to them, I have
meat to eat ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of
him that sent me, and to finish his work. But what does that
mean? What is our Lord telling us? He's telling us that satisfaction,
satisfaction is found in the will of God. Satisfaction is found in the
will of God. Now, when we talk about the will
of God this morning, I'm not talking about God's eternal purpose
and decree. I'm not talking about his secret
will, which no man can know except it be fulfilled day by day with
the unfolding leaves of divine providence. I'm rather talking
about his revealed will, that which is clearly and unmistakably
his will. Satisfaction is found in the
will of God. If you're yet without Christ,
if you're yet living in rebellion to God, in rebellion to your
own conscience, in defiance of the Almighty, you will never
find peace. You will never find satisfaction
in your soul. You will never find that water
which is satisfying, that bread which is satisfying, until you
bow to Jesus Christ the Lord. Until you cease from your rebellion
and are reconciled to God. Until you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you're a believer, a child
of God, and you still struggle with this matter of peace, contentment,
satisfaction in your soul, the problem, I assure you, is rebellion
to the will of God. I want you to see these things
clearly this morning. I don't mean to suggest that
knowing and doing the will of God will give you perfect peace,
complete contentment, and total satisfaction in this world. It
won't. because we simply cannot perfectly, completely obey God's
will while we live in this body of flesh. But I do say this,
if you and I are children of God, there is a reason for us
being here. God has a purpose for us to serve. He has a job for you to do and
for me to do. And the only way you will ever
find contentment, peace, and satisfaction in this world is
to find out what God's will is and do it. The only way on this
earth you'll ever find it. Find out what God's will is and
do it. Doing what God put you here to
do will give you satisfaction. It will give peace. It will give
contentment in the tenor of your life. Now if you'll give me your
attention, I want to show you what God's will is, both for
believers and for unbelievers. First, our text gives a great
encouragement for sinners. The Lord Jesus declares, I have
meat to eat, you know not of. My meat is to do the will of
him that sent me and to finish his work. Now understanding these
words in the context, I cannot imagine a more comforting word
for you who are yet without Christ and anxious for your souls. I
cannot imagine a more encouraging word for those who long for God's
saving mercy and grace in Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus had been
seeking the salvation of one lost sinner. Once he had obtained
that thing for which he was laboring, He stands before his disciples,
and in the words that we've read, this is what he seems to say.
Do you see this woman? Do you see this sinner here,
saved by God's almighty grace? That's my meat and my drink. That's my Father's will. This is that with which I am
satisfied. Now let me show you several things
here. Oh, I want you to get this. Our Lord Jesus here declares
that the salvation of sinners is the will of God. Now I want that to sink in real
good. Sometimes people get the notion that God the Father is
some kind of an austere judge, a tyrant who is bent upon the
destruction of men's souls who delights in wrath. Nothing could
be further from the truth. It is true judgment is his work,
but he declares that it's his strange work. It is true God
must and will punish sin, but the scriptures declare that he
who must and will punish sin because he is just is God who
delighteth in mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
come here to get God in the notion of being merciful. He came because
God is merciful. He did not come here to get God
to be gracious to men. He came because God is gracious. He did not come in order to get
God to love sinners. He came because God is love. Do you understand that? Herein
is love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us. God commended his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us. He sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Now this is what I'm saying.
If you get into the kingdom of God's dear Son, you will not
come in as an intruder, but as a welcome guest. The gates of
heaven are wide open. God himself threw the gates open
when he established his son as a coveted surety to save his
people from their sins. If you get to God's salvation
and get into God's kingdom, it's because God gives it to you.
If you obtain God's treasures in heaven, it's because God himself
has made you an heir to his treasures. This is what I'm saying. If you
come to Christ, If you trust the Son of God, if ever you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you do not need to concern yourself
about the possibility of having violated God's decrees, or having
overthrown God's purpose in predestination, or having somehow defied God's
election. If you trust Christ, if you believe
on the Son of God, it is God's will that you trust Him. It is
God's will that you believe Him. It is God's purpose from eternity
that you be saved by His grace. You were purchased by His Son's
blood at Calvary and redeemed by His grace when He died as
your substitute, and you've been called by His Spirit. Of all
the absurd things in the world, I can think of no fear that is
more absurd than a sinner entertaining the fear that he might believe
on the Son of God and not be numbered among the elect. That's
just the most absurd thing in the world. It comes from men
lying about God's truth. It comes from men abusing and
perverting God's truth. We rejoice in, and I delight
to preach, the glorious gospel doctrines of divine sovereignty,
electing love, absolute predestination, limited atonement, irresistible
effectual grace, and the absolute perseverance of all God's elect.
These are great, God-honoring, soul-comforting gospel doctrines. But they are misunderstood and
abused by many. They're misrepresented by folks
who despise them, and they're misunderstood and misrepresented
by many who claim to believe them. If these great truths appear
to contradict in any way the fact that God Almighty delights
in mercy, you don't understand these great truths. God delights
in mercy. God delights in mercy. God delights
in mercy. Because He delights in mercy,
He chose to save sinners. Because he delights in mercy,
he gave his son to redeem. Because he delights in mercy,
he's saved by free grace. Because he delights in mercy,
he makes salvation altogether his work. If you desire Christ, I do. Do you? If you desire him, Lindsay, he
desired you from eternity. If you want him, he's wanted
you forever. If you are hungry for him, he
is to your soul the bread of life. If you thirst for him,
he is to you a well of living water, springing up into everlasting
life. There are no secret decrees by
which God somehow forbids sinners to believe on his dear son. He
has not said in some secret hidden place, seek ye me in vain, but
rather His word is clear. His word is absolutely clear. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Could anything be plainer than
that? Could anything be plainer than that? You say, well, Preacher,
but believe on the Son of God and you have everlasting life.
But believe on Christ and salvation is yours. That's as plain as
it can be. Our Lord God Almighty not only
wills the salvation of sinners, but the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, came into this world specifically on purpose to save
sinners. Three times in the Gospels it
is recorded that our Master said, I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all
three of them tell us that. The scripture tells us that his
name is called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their
sins. The Apostle Paul said this is
a faithful saying. This is something you can take
to the bank. This is something you can count on. This is a faithful
saying. It's worthy of all acceptation. I don't know whether you'll ever
accept it or not, but it's worthy of acceptation. Christ Jesus
came into the world. to save sinners. Oh, glorious
good news. If Christ came to save sinners,
if Christ came to save sinners, there's absolutely no question
about it, He came to save me. That's one thing for which I
qualify. He came to save me. Somebody wrote to me yesterday
evening and said, are we still sinners? Oh, don't take that
away from me. Don't take that away from me.
Oh my soul, this is the one thing that gives me hope before God.
I'm a sinner. I take the ground he gives me.
I'm a sinner. He came to save sinners. He didn't
come to save anybody righteous. He came to save sinners. He didn't
come to call anybody righteous. He came to call sinners. He didn't
come to bring any righteous folks up to glory. He came to bring
sinners from the pit of corruption and hell up to heaven and eternal
life. I qualify. He came to save sinners. And I'm telling you, if you ever
find yourself a sinner in need of mercy, I promise you, I promise
you, you ever find yourself a sinner in need of mercy, He came to
save you. So preacher, everybody, sinners,
go ask them. I'll tell you what, go to the
shopping center tomorrow, stand on the corner all day long and
try to find me a sinner. Try to find one. Just ask them. You're a sinner, well, you know.
Find one. I promise you, every sinner you
find is a chosen object of God's grace. And if you find yourself
a sinner in need of mercy, Christ came to save you. Why should I stand around and
debate in my own mind or with others whether or not Christ
came to save me, if he came to save sinners? I don't care where
I am. If I get sick enough, if I get
in bad stress, and I'm kind of stubborn like most folks are,
and I don't like to go to the doctor, and I just so not go,
I don't like to part with the money if it just costs five dollars,
I don't like to part with it to go to the doctor, I don't
like to go and be told to do something I don't want to do.
But if I need him, if I need him, I don't care if I'm in Mexico
or Moscow, it doesn't matter. Wherever I am, if I need a physician,
you find me somebody with a shingle on his door that says doctor,
and you'll find me in his office. Well, but he's not your doctor.
I don't care, he's a doctor. But he didn't come here to practice
medicine for you. I don't care. He came for sick
folks. And I'm in desperate need. And
I'm going to go to him. I'm going to go to him. If he
turns me away, that's his business. But he came to help sick folks,
and I'm sick. I've got to have some help. If
I were hungry, I mean poor and hungry, I'm, like most folks,
I'm proud. Horrible facts, but I'm proud.
And I would hate to live on welfare. I'd hate to. But if it was the
only way I'd live, I would. I'd hate to go to a soup kitchen.
But if I was hungry, I'd go to one. And I wouldn't hesitate
to go because, well, I don't know where the soup's there for
me. The kitchen's on the street. It's there for folks who are
hungry. I'm hungry. If I walked in this building
just thirsty, I may just, my tongue swollen to the roof of
my mouth and stuck because I'm thirsty. And I saw this glass
of water sitting here. Do you think for a minute that
I'd stop at the door and say, uh, sir, was this water poured
for me? Well, I just... Yeah, it was for me. It was for
me. And I'm telling you, when men
sit around and debate and want to discuss and fuss and argue
about whether or not I will be accepted if I come to Christ,
you haven't yet met your need of Him. The reason you don't
come is because you don't want it. I'm telling you, if you need
Him, if you're thirsty, if you're hungry, if you're weary, if you
need Him, you'll come to Him and you'll come in a hurry. The
Lord Jesus Christ here declares to us plainly that the great
work of saving sinners is that in which he himself delights
and finds satisfaction. He says this is by meat and drink
from old eternity. He looked forward to the day
when a body would be prepared for him. in which he could establish
righteousness and suffer the wrath of God as our substitute
at Calvary. When the fullness of time was
fully come, he ran to the work as an eager volunteer and said,
Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. And while he walked in this
world, our Lord Jesus was always busy doing his Father's business. seeking to do his father's will,
finishing the work his father had given him. It was alleged
of him, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. And blessed
be his name, it's true. He receives sinners and eats
with them. He always did. He does now and
he will forever. Our Lord Jesus, we will see tonight,
had a leper who came to him. Now the master on one occasion
was the centurion servant came and asked the Lord Jesus to heal
his sick child and the Lord Jesus with just his word said it's
taken care of. The child's healed. With just
his word. He didn't have to go do anything. With just his will
he could accomplish it. But here comes a leper. Unclean. To touch him buddy is to make
yourself unclean, what the law said. And the master could have
stood back as the leper came and said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me whole. He said, oh, I will. You're clean. He goes to the back and never
touched him. Instead, he said, I will be thou clean. And thus he identified himself
with the unclean and made himself before the law to be unclean.
For the Son of God hereby shows us he came into the world and
identifies himself with sinners and made himself to be sin, that
he might make us the righteousness of God in him. He assumed our
death to give us his life forever. Jesus Christ made it his delight
to seek and to save lost sinners. Oh, I would to God you could
grasp what I'm saying. Christ is a willing Savior. the willing savior of helpless,
ruined, lost, doomed, damned, vile sinners. It's his soul's
delight to save sinners. The crowning work, the work for
which all things were made, his work of suffering death as the
sinner's substitute, that work by which our souls were effectually
redeemed, was at the same time his greatest agony and his greatest
delight and satisfaction." Now try to grasp this. It's amazing. He said, I have a baptism to
be baptized with, and I'm straightened until I'm immersed in it. He
spoke of the bitter cup of God's wrath that he must drink, and
he said concerning this to his disciples, with desire have I
desired to eat this Passover with you before I supper. Even
in his deepest agony, when he was made to be sin for us, and
the heavens poured out all the blackness and horror of God's
terrible wrath upon his holy soul, when he cried, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? There was a strange joy by
which his soul was satisfied, for the joy set before him He
endured the cross despising the shame. Let me see if I can illustrate
it for you. There is a great satisfaction
that comes from voluntarily suffering for another whom you dearly love,
if by your suffering the other one's preserved. We just had
our degrace for a week, and I couldn't help but to think maybe this
is the best illustration I can give. should that child suddenly
be stricken with horrible disease, with cancer, eating away at her life, eating
away at the features of her face and body, just eating away at
her inside and out. And I could knowingly, I could
knowingly just take the disease and all the
suffering, and all the pain, and all the death involved with
it, and take it away from her, can you imagine what delight
would be found in the soul of a suffering man who willingly
takes the agony of another? The Lord Jesus Christ says, this
is my meat, and this is my satisfaction. to do the will of my Father. And I'm telling you that peace,
joy, satisfaction will be found for your soul only when you look
away to Him whose satisfaction is the salvation of sinners. I tried everything on this earth
to find peace in my heart. I tried everything in this world
to find some satisfaction for my soul. I drank from every cistern
the world called a well, and every septic tank the world called
a spring. And I found nothing but more
thirst, more trouble, more disturbance, until one day I looked away to
the crucified Son of God, who came here according to the Father's
will, to save sinners by his death according to his own will,
who sits upon the throne of glory to save sinners by the power
of his blood. And I want to tell you something. I've never been thirsty since. Never been hungry since. I've
never thirsted or hungered for anything since but him." Just him. Just him. All right, secondly, we have
an example here for saints. When the Master said, I have
meat to eat you know not of, my meat is to do the will of
him that sent me and to finish his work. He set before us an
example to be followed. That which gave him contentment
and satisfaction on earth, as a man, is the very same thing
that will give us contentment and satisfaction in this world.
Now I promise you, I promise you, and I've thought about this
a lot. This is not just some off-the-cuff
statement. If you and I are struggling with
frustration, failure, doubts, fears, inadequacies, a general
sense of uselessness, it's because we're having a problem
with one of these five areas exemplified by our Lord. Number
one, the Lord Jesus always made his will subservient to his father's
will. He didn't say, I can't do my
will. He didn't say, I can't do my
will. He said, I can't do his will. His will. His constant, lifelong prayer
and desire was, not my will, thy will be done. The fact is, all of our sorrows,
every one of spring from the root of self-will. It's a tough pill to swallow,
but it's just fine. If my will was totally subservient
to my Father's will, my Father's will would always please me.
Pain would bring me a wonderful sense of pleasure if I didn't
kick against the Father's will. Bitterness would have a mysterious
sweetness if I didn't kick against my Father's will. Losses would
enrich my soul if I didn't kick against my Father's will. Secondly,
the Lord Jesus always knew why he was here. He always kept it
in mind. He lived with a sense of urgency,
pressed down with a great responsibility, because he knew why God his Father
sent him into this world. He came with a mission. He came
as the servant of God with a commission from God. He came to save his
people, to build his kingdom, for the glory of God. Now this
may come as a shock to some, but Gary Baker, we're here for
the same reason. Turn to John chapter 21, or chapter
20 rather, in verse 21. Our Master's mission is our mission. His commission is our commission.
As he is the servant of God, we are the servants of God. Look
at verse 21. Then said Jesus to them again,
Peace be to you. As my Father hath sent me, even
so send I you. And when he had said this, he
breathed on them. and saith to them, Receive ye
the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins you remit, they
are remitted unto them. And whosoever sins you retain,
they are retained." Now the words must be understood in their connection
together. The Lord Jesus poured out his
spirit with which he was anointed above measure upon us, his disciples. And he says, as the Father sent
me, so send I you. And then he says, whoever sins
you remit are remitted, whoever sins you retain, they are retained.
Now there's only one way that can be understood, only one possible
way, and that is as by the preaching of the gospel. Many women are
made to experience the blessed forgiveness of sins, they are
forgiven. And they refuse to believe and
refuse to submit to Christ, their sins are admitted. For by the
gospel we preach, God will judge this world. The Apostle Paul
said he was a pattern to all believers. And as a pattern,
he tells us that God saved him to make him a minister, to open
the eyes of the blind, to turn them from darkness to light,
from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive the forgiveness
of sins. And so, too, the Lord God has
sent us. Number three, our Savior found
contentment and satisfaction in this world by doing his Father's
will. He didn't say my meat is to talk
about God's will. I know lots of folks who talk
about it. Oh, they talk a good talk. They talk about what I
used to do. They talk about what we ought
to do. Oh, man, they can write books about what we ought to
do. They talk about what we're going to do. Our Master said,
I do my Father's will. You'll never obtain peace by
debating God's will. Never obtain peace by arguing
about God's will. I'm getting so sick of men and
women debating about things they don't have any understanding
of, fussing and arguing about things they don't know anything
at all about. If I were on board a ship, And the ship had run
into an iceberg, and it was breaking to pieces, and the ship was falling
off into the depths of the sea. I wouldn't give you everything
I own in the world for all the blueprints about the ship you
could find. Just give me a lifeboat. Just give me a lifeboat. If I
were in a burning house, I'm not interested in folks standing
around cruelly debating about how the fire got started. Break
out the window and get me out! And I'm telling you, our business
is not to stand around and debate and fuss and argue with folks
about points of theology nobody understands, but rather to declare
the truth of God, of Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the saving
of men's souls. Our Lord Jesus said, is to finish the work. He stayed with it until it was
done. And that's exactly what sustained
the Apostle Paul in the same conference. He said, I've fought
a good fight. I've finished my course. I've
kept the faith. I'm ready to leave here. Oh may
God make us to know and do his will for the glory of his name. Amen. I've asked Lindsay to lead
us in number 446. Lindsay? Satisfied.