I'd like for you to turn back
if you would this morning to the book of Jeremiah chapter
31. Jeremiah chapter 31, I'd like
to begin our reading with the 10th verse and read down through
verse 14 and then skip to verse 25 and read that verse for our
text this morning. Beginning with verse 10 of Jeremiah
chapter 31, Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare
it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattereth Israel
will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob,
and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he. Therefore, they shall come and
sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness
of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the
young of the flock, and of the herd. And their souls shall be
as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at
all. Then shall the virgin rejoice
in the dance, both young men and old together, for I will
turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them and make
them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will situate the soul of
the priest with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied
with my goodness, saith the Lord. then skip over to verse 25, for
I have situated the weary soul and I have replenished every
sorrowful soul. I want this morning primarily
to use verse 14 and verse 25 for our text. These verses have been a tremendous
challenge and blessing to my heart. We believe according to
the text and the context that the Lord has delivered his ancient
people Israel out of great bondage and he has gathered them and
the word is to go out from the Lord declared in the Isles of
Foroth and say he that scattered Israel will gather him and keep
him as a shepherd doth his flock. Now beloved it's evident that
he that scattered Israel knows where they are and he will gather
them as a shepherd would his flock and he will keep them and
protect them. For the Lord in verse 11 hath
redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand that was stronger
than he. We have here a picture of God
redeeming his ancient people from the hand of that enemy that
was stronger than they. And this, of course, in a spiritual
sense, has reference to the Lord redeeming his people, his chosen
people, those that were given to him in the covenant of grace
before the foundation of the world. And then, of course, the
reference here to him that was stronger than he is certainly,
it has reference in a spiritual sense, to Satan and to the fact
that we were delivered out of his hand. We've been taken captive
by Him and we were delivered by the redeeming work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore in verse 12, they
shall come and sing in the height of Zion. They'll have a song
to sing because they've been redeemed from the hand of the
enemy. They'll have a word to say in
praise to the Lord and then the blessings of God will be upon
them greatly. because it speaks here of the
wheat and the wine, the goodness of the Lord, and the oil, and
the young of the flock, and the herd, and how their souls shall
be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at
all. For I will turn their mourning
into joy, saith the Lord, and will comfort them, and will make
them rejoice from their sorrow. Now the Lord is going to do all
of this for His people. It's the purpose of God to return
His people from their bondage and to bring them out into glorious
liberty and freedom and into plenty and to bless them as they
worship Him. And then in verse 14, He says,
And I will satisfy the soul of the priest with fatness, And
my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. Now then, there are four sentences
that I wish to speak on this morning, two of them to be found
in verse 14 and the other two in verse 25. And the subject
is, this morning, the subject is satisfaction. And we have
in these verses set out, we want to get away, not and not necessarily
very far away, but we want to get away from the historical
setting and the first application of our text and get to the spiritual
application and get to what I believe is a New Testament message and
where we find the fulfillment of these verses in a spiritual
sense. Now, the book of Proverbs chapter
27 and verse 20 says that hell and destruction are never full
and the eyes of man are never satisfied. Are we to believe,
if we're to speak on the subject of satisfaction, Are we to believe
that there is such a thing as satisfaction for the people of
God in this world? Well, I want to speak to those
who know and trust the Lord Jesus Christ this morning in the earnest
hope that all of you may come to enjoy this perfect satisfaction
that is suggested this morning by these four sentences in these
two verses that I've read to you this morning, and I hope
that you can enter into this satisfaction even this morning
at this very hour. Now, I want to, if I can, to
help you. My desire is to feed the family
of God and to be a source of encouragement and a source of
blessing unto those that know the Lord. I recognize this morning
that, and we're certainly not implying, that all of the satisfaction
that God will ever give unto His people, that they're going
to have it in this life. Because I'm certain that that's
not the case, because David said in Psalm 17 and verse 15, he
said, as for me, he said, I will behold thy face in righteousness,
and he said, I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness. And so, beloved, I believe that
the ultimate satisfaction for the people of God will take place
in that heavenly Zion when we enter into eternal glory and
eternal bliss. So when the people of God are
like Him and see Him as He is in eternal glory, I think then
that they will be fully and completely satisfied. They will truly be
filled to the full with satisfaction. Now, in thy presence, David said
in Psalm 16 and 11, he said, in thy presence is fullness of
joy, and that at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Now that describes, I believe,
in the presence of God, that's describing heaven, and it's describing
that place where there are pleasures forevermore for the people of
God. And so I believe that the ultimate
and complete fulfillment of our text this morning will take place
in the heavenly city when we're there by the will and decree
of our sovereign God. Well here in this text today
we have described the satisfaction for the Lord's people for this
life. We have here a satisfaction that
we are to enjoy in this pilgrimage of ours here in this world. In this land of sorrow, even
if you please, in this veil of tears, there's much to hope that
we could be satisfied inwardly, beings that the Word of God has
made such plain and clear statements as we read this morning. Is it
too much to hope that you could be satisfied here inwardly? That you could be filled here
with the fatness of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ? That
you could be satisfied with the goodness of God? That your weary
soul could somehow or other become satisfied and that you could
come to the place where you'd be replenished even though you'd
lost many things and been bereaved maybe many times in your lifetime
and you'd suffered great sorrow? But is it too much to hope that
you could finally be replenished and that you could have a joyous
life in this world? Well, beloved, I do not believe
that it is. because of the blessing of God and because of the application
of the Lord, of His truth and power to our lives, I believe
that we could have some inward spiritual satisfaction here in
this world. Now beloved, listen, thirst and
hunger for the fulfilling of these texts to your heart. thirst
for this, hunger for this, and pray that God will be pleased
to bless you, His spiritual Israel, with these blessings in gospel
days and in gospel times. Well, the first of these four
forms of satisfaction is, and I just want to spend our time
going through these four sentences, and if we can to receive the
satisfaction this morning that comes from these verses. Well, the first of them is this,
that God's servants are satisfied with the, it says, and I will
satiate the soul of the priest with fatness. And what that means
is that God's servants are satisfied with the appointed sacrifice.
Now, as we think on this, this word satiate means to satisfy
or to become satisfied to the full. And it speaks here of God's
priest. And let me say a word about that.
God's people are his children, but they're also his servants. from one special point of view
is that we are also the priests of God. All believers are the
priests of God. Now listen, Christ has made all
of us who believe in Him to be kings and priests unto God. It is the business of every Christian
to be a priest. There is, beloved, in this day
no special order of priests now. That was for the Old Testament
economy, that was in the days of the Old Covenant, and there
are no special order of priests now that are sanctioned by the
teaching of the Word of God, apart from the general body of
believers in Christ. The priesthood of the believers,
this is taught in the Word of God. I suggest that you turn
with me to the book of 1 Peter. The book of 1 Peter, and let's
look here in chapter 2 at verse 5. And look and see what this
verse tells us. Peter says, ye also, as lively
stones, this word lively here means living, as living stones
are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Now if you would, turn over to
Revelation chapter 1 and listen to the reading here of verse
6. and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Now, beloved, what we are
taught here in these two passages of Scripture is the doctrine
of the priesthood of the believer. meaning that all those who are
saved, that they can come directly unto God through Jesus Christ
and they can offer up sacrifices unto God. Now we are to regard
the use of the term priest as relating to any other persons
other than believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as to be utterly
misleading and untrue. Beloved, there is one mediator
between God and man, and that is the man, Christ Jesus. Every man who is a Christian
is a priest, and he daily offers unto God the acceptable sacrifices
of the Scriptures, the sacrifice of joy and thanksgiving unto
God. Now the whole life of the believer
is to be a sacrifice wholly and acceptable unto God. Wherever the believer finds himself,
that place should be a temple for God's worship. His own house,
every room, in his house should be consecrated to the Lord's
service because the believer is a priest unto God and he can
offer sacrifice wherever he finds himself. Every garment that he
has in his closet His closet is a priestly vestment, if you
please. It's a priestly garment. Because
any place He finds Himself, and anything He wears at any time,
day or night, wherever He finds Himself, He can offer up sacrifices
unto God through Jesus Christ. Now, beloved, every action of
the life of the believer should be the act of one who is holy
unto the Lord and who does everything with a view to the glory of God. Now let me also remind you that
a priest, of course, must have a sacrifice, and it is the special
privilege, according to the sentence that we read out of Jeremiah
31, 14, of the priest of God that they should be satisfied
by the eating of the fat of the sacrifice, of the sacrifice which
they have to offer. Now according to the seventh
chapter of the book of Leviticus, I won't have you to turn there,
but the Aaronic priests were forbidden to eat the fat of the
sacrifice. As a matter of fact, to eat any
portion of the fat of the beast that had been sacrificed to God
was a crime that was punishable with death. Now there were certain
portions of the sacrificial animal that was allotted to the priest,
but all that was described as the fat thereof was for God and
for God alone, so that under the Jewish dispensation the priest
could never be satisfied with fatness. He could never eat of
the fat of the sacrifice, but Christ has made us priest after
another order than that of Aaron, and the richest part of the sacrifice,
the very fat of the sacrifice, is ours, beloved, to feed upon. Now when we talk about the fat
of the sacrifice, Beloved, these are gospel blessings, gospel
blessings, blessings that flow out from the sacrifice that we're
talking about. And what is the sacrifice of
which we speak today? We know of no other. atoning
sacrifice, but the blessed person and body and soul and spirit
and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, our incarnate God. We know of
no other sacrifice. And so when we're talking about
the fatness of the sacrifice that satisfies the soul of the
priest, we're talking about the blessings of the gospel that
flows out unto the souls of those who have been made priests and
kings unto God by the sovereign decree of electing grace. We're
talking about the gospel blessing coming and us enjoying it until
we're satisfied with the sacrifice that Christ has made. It is with
this sacrifice, beloved, that I say to you this morning that
believers are perfectly satisfied. First of all, we're satisfied
with Jesus Christ as our sin offering. Now I believe that
everybody would like to get rid of their sin. Nobody is in their
right mind who wants to die in their sin and go before a thrice
holy God in the judgment and face every one of their black
sins in that day. Everybody would like to get rid
of their sin. Everybody would like to escape
the penalty of sin, which is eternal death, blackness forever
and ever. Everybody would like to have
their sin cleansed and their sin taken away. Well, beloved
brethren, this morning I speak to those of you that whose sins
are under the blood, those of you that trust Christ, those
of you that believe in Him, I tell you this morning that He did
really take upon Himself our sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, the
sin bearer. He's called the sin bearer because
He took upon Himself our sin. Our sin was laid upon Him and
He didn't make any end of our sin upon the cross. Now believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have no more consciousness of
sin so far as the guilt of it is concerned. Now this is the
fatness of the sacrifice. that God has even cleansed the
conscience of these people to where they have no more consciousness
of the guilt of sin. They feel pardon. They feel that
their sin has been taken away. And how many have described the
great relief that took place when the burden and the guilt
of sin was taken off of their eternity bound soul. Many have
rejoiced in full deliverance of the consciousness of the guilt
of their sin. Now beloved, a thing cannot be
in two places at one time. I'm talking about the fatness
of the sacrifice and that the priest will be satisfied, that
the believer will be satisfied with the sacrifice. A thing cannot
be in two places at one time. We were, listen, our sins were
laid on Christ. And when Christ took our sins
and they were laid upon Him, they became His sin, not one
of them was left on us. A thing cannot be two places
at one time. If our sin was laid on Him, then,
beloved, He took our sin, every one of them, they became His
own. To the scripture says now, who?
can lay anything to the charge of God's elect, seeing that the
Lord Jesus Christ has died, seeing that God spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, then there's not one charge can
be laid to God's elect. When our sin was nailed to the
accursed tree, without the gate, He presented a sin offering for
our sake, and that one offering Beloved was effectual, for by
this one offering he has fulfilled that great prophecy concerning
the Messiah, the Prince, to finish the transgression and to make
an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in
everlasting righteousness. the book of Daniel. This is a
statement out of the book of Daniel. This is the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ to put an end to transgression, finish it,
make an end of sins, and make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting righteousness. This is the fatness of the sacrifice. And this, these truths, when
expounded and laid hold of and believed, they make the soul
of the child of God to be satisfied. They make him to just feel some
fullness in his soul and a satisfaction in his soul. Brother, sister,
you believe this great truth and you're satisfied with it.
I know you are. I know you are because Listen,
as we sung this morning, what can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Well, what better way of atonement? What better way of getting rid
of our sin? What better way of us escaping
the wrath of God that is going to fall upon the ungodly sinner
but by this great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Does anyone
have any better atonement, any better atonement to bring out
and to present? Well, no one has a better way
of getting rid of their sin than God's appointed sacrifice, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I hope this morning that
we'll be satisfied with this sacrifice. Now listen to me.
Secondly, I'd like to say that we're satisfied with Christ as
our sweet smelling savor. Now this is before God. This
is so very important. Some way or another, We have
got to become beautiful before God. Somewhere or another, we're
going to have to smell good in the nostrils of a holy God before
God is going to allow us into His presence. You can't go in
with a stench of sin upon your garments. You can't go in smelling
like the world and smelling like the dungeons and the holes of
sin of this world and enter into the presence of God. There's
got to be a perfuming. There must be a sweet smelling
savor that is offered up to God and it must enter into His nostrils
in order for Him to be satisfied with me and you. Well, let me
report to you this morning that those who believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that we are perfectly satisfied that this sweet-smelling
savor has ascended yonder unto God, and that God is well-pleased. He's well-pleased with Him. This
is my beloved Son in whom I'm well-pleased. And He's well-pleased
with those who are representatively in Him. He's well pleased with
His people. Now we who by faith are wrapped
in the righteousness of Jesus Christ with His finished work
imputed to us, we are beautiful and sweet-smelling in the sight
of God because we are in the Beloved. And He, Beloved, had
no sin. He had no sin. The stench of
sin was never upon him. I mean, the smell of sin never
affected or touched our blessed substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when he died on Mount
Calvary, it is said now of the people of God, thou art all fair,
my love. That's what the Lord Jesus says.
He says, thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot. in thee. There is no spot in
thee. Now listen to me, the fatness
of that sacrifice has filled us and we're delighted with it,
that we smell good in the sight of God. Isn't that a wonderful
thing? To know and to be able to lie down and rest, brother,
sister, with the idea and the knowledge of the truth in our
hearts that we have had a sacrifice go up to God and it was a sweet-smelling
savor in his nostrils and he's satisfied with the way our substitute
smells and with the way we smell and the stench of sin is not
to be found. Thou all fair, my love, there
is no spot in thee. Now, beloved, that's the fact
of the sacrifice. How wonderful it is for a poor
sinner to be able to get a hold of that and to anchor to that,
to tie to that. That'll give you some satisfaction
this side of heaven and will prepare you to sing the glorious
anthems of redemption in eternal glory. Yes it will, beloved,
fatten us of the sacrifice. Well what more could we ever
want? What more could we hope to find with regards to a sacrifice
than the sacrifice of Christ which fills and overfills us. My cup, saith David, it runneth
over. It runneth over because my soul
is satisfied with the sacrifice, the fatness of the sacrifice. It satisfies my conscience. once
burdened, troubled, perplexed, but not anymore, because He visited
my sins upon a willing substitute. And beloved, this is the message
of the fatness of the sacrifice. And furthermore, this sacrifice,
it satisfies our affections. It satisfies our faith. You want
somebody to love? Everybody does. You cannot go
through this world just simply living inside your own ribs.
You must live in somebody's heart. You must, now listen, if you
give your heart all together, that fills your heart right up. Now here, beloved, your love
can rest. It can roost here if you please
and build its nest. in the wounds of the Lord Jesus
Christ and you will never be disappointed, you will be always
satisfied with your love for the Lord Jesus Christ because
He will not disappoint, He will not forsake, He will not abandon,
He will not in any way, shape, or form deceive the heart that
trusts in Him and that believes in Him. And so this sacrifice,
beloved, it satisfies the affection. I mean, could you want a better
lover than the Lord Jesus Christ? Could you want one better than
the Lord Jesus Christ? I tell you, this satisfies my
conscience, it satisfies my affection. This is the fatness of the sacrifice
that satiates the soul of the priest, that satisfies the soul
of the priest. Well, I must leave this and get
on because I got three other sentences, but I'll not be near
as lengthy on the other sentences. But I must hurry on. Now the
second thing is this, we find it in verse 14 of chapter 31,
and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. My people will be satisfied with
my goodness. There will be a tremendous abundance
of sacrifice and the priests will have all that they could
want and then my people shall be satisfied because there will
be great material blessings. But then I'm talking about the
spiritual blessings that flow out from the goodness of God. Getting away, as we said, a little
from the historical setting of the text. Now let me tell you
about this. The book of Nahum says, the Lord
is good, that he's a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he
knoweth them that trust. in him. I want to talk to you
about this a little bit because this kind of got a hold of me
and I want to share something with you here. I just want to
help you if I can and I just like for you to be satisfied.
Just for you to feel some satisfaction in your own soul. Now listen.
First of all, we're satisfied as the people of God out of the
goodness of God. We're satisfied because out of
the goodness of God flows the eternal purposes of God. Now God's goodness manifests
itself, if you please, in His purpose, in His eternal purposes
toward us. Now we believe that the names
of all God's elect were written down in the Lamb's Book of Life
before the foundation of the world, and that from eternity
God's people were His, that they belonged to Him before the lives
ever dawned. Before the morning star ever
came out, before the stars ever happily and joyfully sang together
in God's universe, we were His and we were loved with the everlasting
love of God. Look at verse 3 in Jeremiah 31. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Now if you're
going to talk about the goodness of God, you've got to start when
God started being good to you. And the Lord started being good
to His people in old time. Now I mean back yonder before
the foundation of the world was laid. Before the angel ever broke
the solemnity of silence by His song and His first anthem. God loved His people in Jesus
Christ. Now turn it over in your mind.
Now this word satisfied. They shall be satisfied with
my goodness. It doesn't seem like enough,
does it? That word don't seem like enough. Turn it over your
mind. The eternal goodness of God's toward your wayward soul,
it started in the eternal purpose of God in old time. The poet
said, loved of my God, for Him again with love intense I burn. Chosen of the air, time began. I choose Thee in return. Those of us that have come to
the Lord Jesus Christ, we have come to Him, we chose Him because
He first chose us. And in His eternal goodness,
it was manifested to us that the Lord had set His love upon
us and that He had chose us. Now, out of the goodness, this
is the goodness which satisfies the soul. And out of this goodness
also comes the adoption into God's family. are being put into
the family of God. Now, taking us out of the family
of the Prince of Darkness, He has made us His own sons and
daughters. We are members of the many-membered
family of God. Now, there's great satisfaction
as well as honor and privilege in being a child of the King. in being a child of God. We read
in John 1 and 12, but as many as believe on Him, as come to
Him and receive Him, to them they have the power, the privilege,
the honor of being the children of God, which were born not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God. people were. And they have the
high honor and privilege of being members of God's family. For if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ. Now earthly sovereigns
were accustomed to confer titles of nobility upon certain of their
subjects. There might be something in the
honor that the world can confer upon a man, but not much. But beloved, when God makes a
man His child, when He puts him among the one divine royal family
of the universe and the nobilities of earth, Beloved, while they
enjoy some honor conferred upon them, this is nothing! The honor
of the world, the honor the world can confer is nothing like the
honor that God confers upon a poor sinner when He takes that sinner
and adopts him into His family and says, this is my son. This is my son. This is my child. This child belongs to me. This is a child of God, a child
of the King. Now he treats us as his family
and we're to understand this. This is the satisfaction that
the people of God have. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Now this ought to, in some way
or another, encourage your soul. It ought to bless your heart.
Now since we have become the children of God, I want to talk
about this a little bit because it's practical and it's something
that flows out of the goodness of God toward our souls. Since we've become the children
of God, all God's dealings with us have been the dealings of
a father with his family. Now, I recognize that it's difficult
sometimes to persuade certain people who have had certain circumstances
and situations occur in their life to believe that God's dealings
with them that it's the dealings of a father with a child and
that all God's dealings with his people flows out of his goodness. Now this is difficult. He treats
us now as his sons. Perhaps at this very present
moment you do not feel quite satisfied with God's dealings
with you. But if we're in the right spirit
of mind, we will be. We will be satisfied with God's
dealings. If faith is active, and if it's
in exercise as it ought to be, we will say concerning the Lord's
dealings with us, if it pleases Him, it pleases me. Whatever pleases God, pleases
me. Now whether He lifts me up, or
rather he casts me down since he does it out of fatherly love
and makes all things work out for my good I'll be satisfied
with whatever he does for it's all goodness and it's written
my people shall be satisfied with my goodness that's what's
written right here in the verse my people shall be satisfied
with my goodness now this is a happy state of mind to be in
to be content with all that happens to us to be done with wishing
for any alteration of God's dealings with us. Now you see this gets
down to where you're going to find out whether you believe
the text or not and find out whether you're really satisfied
with God's goodness or not. Listen to me, the Lord withholds He can withhold to be satisfied
with whatever he gives, let me say it that way, and just as
satisfied when he withholds. Crying no more after this poor
world, but giving yourself up entirely to your loving Father's
care. Beloved, now this is to be satisfied
with the goodness of God. Our lives, brothers and sisters,
say what you will, if we're in the Lord, They reflect the goodness
of God. You say, I can't see that clearly.
I can't either. But I know it to be the truth. It's the truth. Our lives reflect
the goodness of God. God's good toward His people. The Lord is good. He's a stronghold
in the day of trouble and He knows them that trust in Him. Now you'll be a very rebellious
and naughty child of God if you're not satisfied with His goodness. Examine yourself. You will bring
a great deal of trouble upon yourself if you kick against
what God is doing and what God has done in your life. You bring
a great deal of grief and misery upon yourself. It will cost you
more pain to rebel against God than it ever will for you to
submit yourself to the hand of God and to what He's done in
your life. The Lord is good and His people
will be satisfied with His goodness. And so therefore we ought to
be. Now, the next thing I want to say is this. Let's get away
from that a little bit and talk just a little further about the
goodness of God because out of His goodness comes also His promises. His promises. Now, beloved, all
the promises that we treasure up in our hearts, we have them
hanging on our walls at home and we have them, like I say,
we have them in our hearts, the promises of God. All of these
promises come to us out of God's goodness. His promises are more
precious to the child of God, the believing Christian, than
all the wealth of the world. I'll take the promises of my
God, because God has made His... Well, the poet said, the hymn
writer said, what more can he say? than to you he hath said. You who unto Jesus for refuge
have fled." What more could he say? He's made these great promises. And next thing brethren, when
it comes down to our prospects for the future, we are satisfied. Isn't it glorious to be able
to just rest yourself and to believe and that heaven is our
home and to have that in prospect, to believe that we're going to
be with the Lord for all eternity. Could we want more than God has
prepared for those who love Him? Could we want more than that?
Well, no. Let me but have God's goodness
and all may be as God wills. Let me just have His goodness.
If the Lord's goodness is toward me, then let Him do what He will
with me. Let Him do what He wants to do.
Let Him do what would please Him. And let me be pleased with
it, O my God. Now listen, grant me thy favor,
O my God, and I'll make no choice. One writer said of continent,
I'll make no choice of climate, I'll make no choice of poverty,
I'll make no choice of wealth, I'll make no choice of sickness
or health, of time to live or time to die. Just give me thy
goodness, O Lord, and I'll leave the rest of it, all of it to
you. and whatever my prospects be
in eternity, and as well as this life, I leave it all in your
hands. Now if we have God's goodness, all else is but a trifle. Isn't that right? All else is
but a trifle. And furthermore, I'd like to
say this because we're all concerned about our children. Listen, furthermore,
we do not want anything better for our children than God's goodness. We are concerned about their
prospects, We're concerned about what will become of them, and
if they only knew, and if we only knew, that they were the
Lord's children, then, beloved, we'd be anxious no more. We would
not worry anymore. We wouldn't worry anymore about
their prospects, because, beloved, their fortune is made when once
it is manifested that God's goodness is towards them in eternal decree
and covenant. Isn't that right? Their fortune's
made. If it's ever declared, ever revealed,
I mean if God ever comes and manifests the truth that He has
put their names in His register before the foundation of the
world, if He ever owned them and said they're mine and they'll
be mine when I make up my jewels out yonder in eternity, they're
my children, if He ever manifests that, then our children's fortune
is made. It's all right, isn't it? It'll
be all right, whatever their prospect, whatever happens to
them, it'll be all right because God's goodness will be toward
them. Glorious thing. Listen, listen
to that. This cannot help but satisfy
our hearts. It must satisfy the goodness
of God. It satisfies the heart of the
Lord's people. My people shall be satisfied
with my goodness. May the Lord bless this part
of the message to your heart. Thirdly and briefly, let's turn
over to the 25th verse. I don't know how we're running
on time here, but we're going to make it here. He says, For
I have satiated the weary soul, and have replenished every sorrowful
soul. Now, I want to talk just a little
bit about this. I've satiated or satisfied the
weary soul. Now was this not so when the
Lord brought down our hearts at the time of our conversion. If you were to read, and I don't
have time to turn there, I'll just read a couple of the verses
out of Psalm 107. I like to read verses 11 through 16, but I can't
do that. Let me just give you a couple
of verses. Psalm 107, Because they rebelled
against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the
Most High, therefore He broke down their heart with labor.
They fell down, and there was none to help. Now that describes
a condition, I believe, of a lost sinner when God brings him to
the end of himself, when God brings his soul down. And the
scripture says in Matthew 11, Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Talking about a poor
sinner who has been heavily laden and he's weary and he needs some
rest. He needs to be satisfied. Now, He gave us what our soul
needed in that time to feed upon. Like a mouse in a cheese factory,
if you please, the child of God, whenever God comes to him and
satisfies his weary soul, He lifts him up and He blesses him
and we say, wow, my, we're just so refreshed in the Lord. We're so refreshed knowing that
we know Him, knowing that we're His and that He's mine, knowing
that we're in fellowship with Him, knowing that Christ is all
in all to us. Brethren, I want to testify to
you this morning that after that time, there has been many, many
times after the Lord saved me, when He came to me and refreshed
my heart and lifted up my weary soul, and satisfied my heart. There have been many times when
I've been weary. There's times when you're weary with service.
Not of the service, but weary with it. Weary in trials, weary
in doubts and fears and assaults of Satan, weary with the unkindness
of men and the difficulties of the way. But the Lord always
comes back and satiates the weary soul. He always comes back and
He always satisfies and meets the need, whatever it is, of
the weary soul. The poet said, in darkest shades,
if He appear, my dawning is begun. He's my soul's sweet morning
star and he's my rising sun. Now perhaps, Beloved, and Mike
kind of touched a little bit on this this morning in his prayer,
perhaps our greatest weariness is weariness of ourselves. Weariness
of ourselves. The one person that troubles
me most is the one whom I cannot get away from as long as I'm
here in this world, and that's myself. Now listen to me, and
I expect there's a troublesome person who worries and bothers
you also, and this is your own self. Now you're kind of weary
maybe this morning, and I'd like to encourage you if I can, you
may be weary of yourself, because you see this flesh of ours is
an ally of the devil. and this flesh of ours would
lead us contrary to the mind and will of God. This flesh of
ours is at enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God and it cannot be because its nature is evil and corrupt. Now listen to me, when we are
weary of self, you'll find it a blessed thing to look away
from yourself unto the Lord Jesus Christ and to say, Lord, I'm
empty, but you are full. I'm weakness itself, but you
are my strength. I'm a mass of sin and misery,
but you are my righteousness and you are my salvation. I'm less than nothing, but you're
all in all to me. It's when we come to this place,
that we find some satisfaction from the weariness of our heart. Now it's when we're most sick
and when we're the most weary of self that we're most fond
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if God is pleased to ever
make you really love the Lord Jesus Christ and to make you
really fond of Him, He's probably going to make you real sick with
yourself. He's probably going to bring
you in such a way that you'll just get very, very displeased
and unhappy and very weary with yourself. And then He's going
to show you His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're going
to be very fond of Him. Now when we're most weary of
sinning Then we find the sweetest rest in our conquering Redeemer,
the Lord Jesus Christ. So you see, there's perfect satisfaction
for weary souls and there may be, for look at this, God is
your Father. and He is your faithful and loving
and dependable Father. God the Son is yours to be your
husband and your head. God the Holy Ghost is yours to
be your comforter and your perpetual indweller. All things are yours,
the world or life, death, present things, present things to come,
all are yours and you're Christ. And Christ is God's. Heaven is
yours with all its golden streets, the green and fighting fields,
its endless glories, its boundless bliss, all is yours as a child
of God. All of this is to satisfy your
weariness. here in this world. You're to
think upon it, meditate upon it, and receive it into your
bosom. All is yours. Are you satisfied,
O weary soul? For this is the rest. This is
the way that the Lord refreshes the soul, now the weary soul.
Now I want to say concerning the last statement of Scripture
here. In verse 25, He said, And I have
replenished every sorrowful soul. I've replenished every sorrowful
soul. Now this is talking about satisfaction for mourners. There's
plenty of sorrowful people around. Plenty of them. And there may
be some here this morning, you all look tolerably cheerful. But you may yet, the scripture
says the heart knoweth his own bitterness. and if you wear sackcloth
you may try to hide it and you may wear it very close to your
skin and I'd recommend that because somehow or other it seems to
me that when we're sorrowful we tend to make other people
that way and I believe that it's catchy to be sorrowful but there's
there's a blessing here for those that are sorrowful. What is your
sorrow? What is your sorrow? Well the
scripture says here that the Lord replenish He replenished
every sorrowful soul. We could talk a little bit, and
I've got some things here that I could talk to you about, but
I think I'm going to skip those things. And I'm going to try
to just get right to the end here. I think that the sorrow
that the text is talking about was the sorrow that the people
of God had experienced in the loss of their children. And we
see this in verse 15 of the 31st chapter. Thus saith the Lord,
a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rapel, weeping
for her children, refused to be comforted for her children
because they were not. Now she had lost The people of
God had lost their children, they had been taken into captivity,
and some of them had been killed, and others of them, they had
no hope of ever seeing their children again. And so they were
sorrowful. And the Lord said, I'll replenish
the sorrowful soul. And there is hope in thine end,
in verse 17 saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again
to their own border. The Lord said, I'm going to.
He said, I'll replenish every sorrowful soul. Now, brethren,
listen to me. Sisters, listen to me. It's a high honor to have
a loved one in heaven. It's a high honor for a mother
to have a child in heaven. It's a high honor for a father
to have a son, a child in heaven. It's a high honor. For all who
die on the Lord, we sorrow not as others who are without hope.
There will be a blessed meeting by and by. That's what I get
out of verse 17. They'll come again to their own
border. I believe there will be a great
meeting by and by. And all of the family, the trumpet
shall sound. The dead will be raised out of
their graves. And there shall be an unbroken
family around the throne of God. God's people gathering there. And the dead, even if it was
a child who died His infants say the Lord will gather them
again and there will be a family of believers around the throne
of God in heaven. Now Christ is sufficient. He's
sufficient for all these things and we're to be replenished.
The sorrowful soul is to no longer be sorrowful. He's to hope in
the Lord. He's to trust in the Lord. He's
to believe what God has said and that there will be a restoration. and that God will replenish,
that he will fill again. What must it be to be in heaven? We may be there in ten minutes.
It may be years for some of us. Only God knows when we'll be
there. But what must it be to be there and to be with all those
who have gone before? The poet said, the road may be
rough, but it cannot be long. So smooth it with hope and cheer
it with song. We are to be joyful in our hearts
because the Lord replenishes the sorrowful soul. And so whatever
it is that makes you sad and sorrowful, take it to the Lord
and lay it down before the Lord. And the Lord has a way of replenishing. The Lord has a way of filling
you up again. where the sorrow will be diminished
and there's coming a day when God shall wipe away all tears
from our eyes and in that heavenly Zion the people of God shall
sorrow no more there shall be no more sorrow the former things
shall be passed away. Now beloved, these are the four
forms of satisfaction suggested in the four verses, or in the
two verses, the four sentences of our text today. And I hope
that God has somehow or other just given us all, that we just
got a little bit of satisfaction from listening to the Word of
God this morning, that our souls were just made to be filled and
that we were able to rejoice in our sovereign God and able
to rejoice in his great ability to meet all of our needs and
to give us some satisfaction here below in this world. May the Lord add his blessing.