Tonight we're gonna be in Proverbs
chapter five, Proverbs chapter five. As I've already mentioned in
the call to worship, we're gonna be looking at what satisfies
God, what satisfies God. But I'm gonna be asking, are
you satisfied with what God is satisfied with? Are you satisfied
with what God is satisfied with? I've titled the message Satisfied.
Let's read this, Proverbs chapter five, verses 18 through 20. Let
thy fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy
youth. Let her be as the loving hind
in the pleasant row. Let her breast satisfy thee at
all times, and be thou ravished always with her love. And why
wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace
the bosom of a stranger? The first thing I'll say about
this is that's talking about Christ and his church and those
that are part of the body of the church. We have the bosom
that the Lord talks about John, said he leaned upon his breast,
leaned upon his breast. John, they were having, a misunderstanding
going on. They didn't know who the one
that was going to betray the Lord was. And everybody, he said,
one of you is going to betray me. And they all said, well,
is it I? Is it I? And John leaned upon
his breast and said, Lord, who is it? Lord, who is it? This
is a picture of us coming to get the sincere milk of the word. Where does the milk come from?
It's the Lord that gives it. It's the Lord that provides it. This is the picture. It's the
Lord's church and what he gives unto his people. Men foolishly seek satisfaction
with what they do in thinking that they're going to satisfy
God. They think they can satisfy God and we can't satisfy God. Only one satisfied God and that
was the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever been, ask yourself
this honestly, have you ever been satisfied with one thing
that you've ever done? Answer that question. Have you
really ever been truly satisfied with something you have done?
I've never preached a message, not one time, that I was 100%
satisfied with. I've never prayed a prayer. that
whenever I got finished with it, boy, I prayed that prayer
perfectly. Not one time. Wasn't satisfied
with it. Why? Because we're in the flesh. We're in the flesh. Now the writer
here is talking about allow the wife to satisfy, keep her in
your view. That's the church. What does
the church give? Well, it gives the gospel. Let the gospel be
your focus, your aim, your desire. Don't walk away from it. And
we're still dealing with the strange woman here, the false gospel.
We're still dealing with that in the midst of all this. But
if the Lord doesn't satisfy us, what we will end up doing is
we'll try to do something to satisfy Him. Now what do I mean
by that? If the Lord Jesus Christ has
made into you all your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, you're gonna be satisfied with Him. But if
not, then you're going to go about trying to establish your
own righteousness, trying to satisfy God on your own. So the
question is, what satisfies God? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he's the only one. And do you, does what satisfies
God satisfy you? That's the question. Does the
Lord Jesus Christ satisfy you? See, every time God's people
look at themselves, not only are we not satisfied with ourself,
Not only are we not satisfied with ourself, we're disgusted
with ourself. We appall ourself, we loathe ourself, we don't love
ourself. And only the Lord's people have
that, because they see the sin that they are, the sin that they
do. Paul said it this way, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from this body of death? He didn't say, O wretched man
that I was. O wretched man that I am, right now, right now in
the flesh. Ecclesiastes 1.8, for men who
are trying to be satisfied with this in their flesh, it says,
all things are full of labor. Man cannot utter it. The eye
is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. There is nothing about this flesh
that we see or do, hear, you can use the word hear and see,
nothing that we do that satisfies. But there is something that satisfies,
and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the milk that satisfies. It satisfies. You remember where the children
of Israel, they were going to the promised land. What did the
Lord promise them in the, what was it called? A land flowing
with milk and honey. Why is that? Well, the scripture
says, you being bathed, desire the sincere milk of the word
that you may grow thereby. Somebody told me that we preach
the meat, and I said, we preach the milk, the simplicity of Christ,
that you are saved by grace alone. That's the milk, that we must,
that's the foundation. If we don't have that as our
foundation, that God elected a people and sent his son to
redeem those people, and they have been redeemed by him alone.
That's not meat. Well, it's strong enough, if
you wanna put it that way. It's the milk, isn't it? It's
the milk. That's what he's speaking of
here in verse 19. It's the church that does the
preaching, the Lord's church. They preach the sincere milk
of the word. They preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We minister one to another. Our desire is unto the Lord and
because he is the head of the body. Think about this. Well, turn with me to Colossians
one. We preach how He saved His people
from their sin. And what does the Scripture say
about Christ and His church? Well, it's here in Colossians
1, look at 18 through 20. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the father that in him should all the fullness dwell. And having
made peace to the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all
things into himself by him, I say whether they be things in earth
or things in heaven, he is the head of the body, of the church. So if we are indeed the bride,
he's the head, he's the top. This is all a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ giving the life needing nutrients to those
whom he died for. This is him speaking life and
he's saying live. Well, a baby can't live very
long without being nourished, can it? And that's what the Lord
does for his people. You know, a lot of people talk
about growing in grace and And we should strive to ever look
to Christ more and more and more. The way up is down, it's not
up. What do I mean by that? Well,
the less we think of ourself, the more we will see of Him.
The less we rely on our strength, the more we will see His strength
is made perfect in our weakness. The more that we falter and fail,
the more we realize how frail we are as sinners, the more we
need our Savior, the substitute. The way up is down, it's humbling. But he is the head of the body
of the church. He's the one that calls us out
of darkness into light. He's the one that saved us by
his grace and then called us. He's the one that does all the
nurturing, does all the caring, does all the, he satisfies his
people. He satisfies his people. Make no mistake about it, the
milk is the same as the fountain of living water. It's the honey
of the word. The honey of the word. It's the
body of the bread of life. It's the precious cleansing blood.
It's all the same thing. It's all the same thing. It's
all in the Lord's gospel. All in his gospel, whereby his
sheep are saved. Now, brethren, I can't be satisfied
with me. Not anymore. False religion,
I was pretty satisfied with myself. But I was dead. I didn't know
the truth. Once the truth came, I wasn't satisfied with me anymore.
I was lied. I hated myself for what it was.
Paul said it, that which I would do, I do not, but that which
I would not, that I do, O wretched man that I am. That's that verse.
And that is so true to every believer. You never feel like
you're doing good. Good enough, I guess you should,
and you never will be, why? You're not supposed to feel satisfied
with yourself. You're supposed to need the substitute,
the savior, and be satisfied with him because that's who God
is satisfied with. God's not satisfied with man.
He's not satisfied with me or you or any man or woman. He's
satisfied with his son. He said, this is my beloved son
whom I'm well pleased. Did you know the other word for
satisfied is well pleased? He's satisfied with him. He said
whenever he's seen his soul, when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall be what? Satisfied. And he made his soul an offering
for sin for his people. And he said, I'm satisfied with
that sacrifice. It's not our sacrifices that
the Lord's satisfied with. It's not our effort that the
Lord is taking notice of and making notes of and writing.
And I remember in religion, they said there were seven crowns
you could win. So I don't even understand all that, but the
crown of righteousness is the Lord himself. We already have
him. You understand what I'm saying?
Paul said, henceforth, a crown of righteousness is laid up for
me. That's Christ. That's what that is. Old men
want to get recognition for what they do. They think that they're
satisfying God by their actions. And it's not true. God is satisfied
with his son, his son only. As long as I have sin and this
sinful nature, I will never be fully satisfied and you won't
either. If we're his, we won't be fully satisfied until we awake
in his likeness. That's when we'll be satisfied.
When this corruptible puts on incorruption, this mortal immortality,
whenever we awaken his likeness, when we become, when we see him
like he is and be made just like him, that's when we'll be satisfied.
That's when we'll be satisfied. David said in Psalm, as for me,
I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. I'll be satisfied then. This
is why now. A believer's life is a very interesting
life because we're full of our Savior. We're full of love for
our Savior because he put it there. We're full of life from
our Savior. And yet we hunger after him also. So we're full
of him, but yet we hunger after him. At the same time, we're
full and hungry. Why is that? Well, he's precious
to us, isn't he? He's precious. David said again
in Psalm 63, my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow. And
fatness, we read that in the call to worship. The marrow and
fatness, that's the rich part, isn't it? It is not our savior.
I'm not talking about money, I'm talking about the savor.
He's rich beyond measure. His taste is sweet. You ever
tasted the Lord? Scripture says, oh, taste and
see that the Lord is good. What is that talking about? Well,
we can go back to the milk on that, couldn't we? It's the life-giving
substance that we have to have. We have to have it. Ask yourself, am I satisfied
with what God is satisfied with? The Lord's elect are made to
be satisfied with what God is satisfied with. He makes us be
satisfied with his son. He causes us to have a need that
only he can feel and he fills that need with his darling son. You already told us, but I got
ahead of myself a little bit. That word satisfied is well-pleased,
but it's also content. Content, that's the other word
for it. Are you content with Christ? Are you content with
Christ? What was it a couple weeks ago
we looked at? Is Christ enough for you? That's the same thing,
isn't it? It's the same thing. Isaiah 53 11 says, he shall see
the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. See, the Lord saw the suffering
agony of his darling son on the cross of Calvary. In our room
instead, every elect child of God that was there in the Lord
that he had agreed to redeem, he was bearing their sin upon
that tree. And when the Lord saw the agony
of his soul, the suffering of his soul, he was satisfied to
redeem us back to God. The Lord is not looking to me
to satisfy Him in any way, shape, or form. He's not looking to
me to do something other than what's already been accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything required, the Lord
Jesus Christ accomplished it completely. He's not relying
on you and I. He's not waiting on you and I
to do something. He's not expecting us to satisfy Him. Christ satisfied
Him. And you know what else? Christ
is satisfied with the work that He did on the cross. Christ is
satisfied. There's nothing left to be done.
He did it perfectly. He did it perfectly. Now, me
personally, whenever I do my honey-do list at the house or
I do a job, I normally end up I get about 90% of it done most
of the time. And I don't know why I do that,
maybe 95. And it'll just, it'll linger after that. And it's like,
well, it's done enough for me. Nobody's gonna notice that. Nobody's
gonna notice this. It's fine. I'm not gonna tell her about
it. She don't notice it. But 95% done. That's not what the
Lord did. He absolutely accomplished salvation
100%. No requirement for you and I
whatsoever. No need for you and I to do anything.
Are you satisfied with that? Yes. Satisfied with a savior
that really redeems, satisfied with his blood that really put
away the sin of his people, satisfied with his life, death, burial
and resurrection. Because if I'm not satisfied
with that, I don't have a redeemer. I don't have a savior. I don't
have hope of eternal life. I've got to be satisfied with
what God is satisfied with. And he's satisfied with his son.
He's satisfied with his son. Colossians 1, 21 says, and you
that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you. Now here's what his, this is
why we, this is why we're satisfied with our savior. Verse Colossians
1, 22 says to present you holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. I love that. Holy, unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. Perfect. That's what he's saying.
Perfect. Perfect righteousness, completely
justified, holy as he is. That's what he accomplished on
the cross of Calvary. That's why the father was pleased
with his work. He satisfied God insomuch that his people are
now holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. You know, what
God sees, that's really how it is, isn't it? How God sees it's
really how it is. God pleased God and made us perfectly
righteous by putting away our sin forever. No wonder Joel said
this, Joel chapter two, and ye shall eaten plenty and be satisfied. And praise the name of the Lord
your God that hath dealt wondrously with you and my people shall
never be ashamed. That's how God's children are
able to say with whatever state I find myself in, just like Paul
said, whatever state, therewith be content. I'm content, why?
Not because of the circumstance, not because of the pain that
the circumstance is causing me, but because I have the Lord Jesus
Christ whom I'm satisfied with. I can be content in him. Every trial that we face, every
concern that we have, we can be satisfied looking to Christ. You won't be satisfied looking
at the circumstance. You won't be satisfied looking
at the whatever position you may be in, but look to the Lamb
of God and be satisfied because that's who the Father looks to
and he's satisfied. We can't be content or satisfied
with the circumstances, but we can be content with the finished
work of the giver of the circumstances, can't we? The one who gave the
circumstances, he finished the work. There's no more work to
be done. Can you imagine going through life, knowing what you
know now, but then also there really being something else needing
to be done in salvation also? Can you imagine that? It'd be
impossible, wouldn't it? We struggle with sin, struggle
with self, struggle with all kinds of things, and yet we have
this promise. The Lord hath put away your sin. You shall not die. You shall
not die. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. I quote that one pretty often.
But it's because when we were yet in our sins, yet in our trespasses,
Christ died for the ungodly. That's the best news a sinner's
ever heard. That's why we're satisfied with
him. Now, we can't be satisfied with
the pain that comes with a stormy trial, but we can be satisfied
with the God that made the storm, knowing it's for our good and
His glory. We can be satisfied with that. We can be satisfied
with His infinite wisdom, can't we? We can be satisfied with
knowing He knows it all, that He'll purpose all things, He
doesn't make mistakes, He can't lie, He can't change. I can be
satisfied with a God like that, can't you? Proverbs 19.23 says,
the fear of the Lord tendeth to life, and he that hath it
shall abide satisfied. The fear of the Lord tendeth
to life, and he that hath it shall abide satisfied. He shall
not be visited with evil. Has the Lord given you the ability
to be satisfied, satisfied with him? That's a gift of grace. You didn't earn that, I didn't
earn that. If I'm satisfied with Christ, that is the gift of grace.
in the heart. That's what that is. It's a gift
of grace. Are you satisfied with what he is satisfied with? Are
you satisfied for grace being the reason you're saved and you
had nothing to do with it? Are you satisfied with that? That you're
saved by grace alone. That means you can't mess it
up and you can't change it. Are you satisfied with God's
choice in salvation, that it's not your choice, it's his. Are
you satisfied with that? Are you satisfied with Christ
being your high priest intercessor? Are you satisfied that God is
seated on the throne as the sovereign alpha and omega? Are you satisfied
with that? Yes, sir, I am. Are you satisfied
with what God is satisfied with? Let's go back to our text in
Proverbs chapter five. Verse 18, we'll read our text
again, 18 to 20. Let thy fountain be blessed and
rejoice with the wife of thy youth. That's what we're doing
right now. We're rejoicing the Lord's people. Let her be as
a loving hind in a pleasant row. Let her breast satisfy thee at
all times. Be thou ravished always with
her love. Why wilt thou, my son, be ravished
with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger? Now,
I do understand that this could be taken physically, and the
scriptures wrote both physically and spiritually, and this is
good advice for the physical. It's good advice for the physical.
I don't even need to elaborate on it. It's very simple, isn't
it? But the Lord's given us the ability to look at these words
and see it spiritual as well and know that he's talking about
Christ and his church. It's the Lord's love letter to
his wife, to his bride. We know that to be true, don't
we? We know that to be true. God's made us satisfied with
his gospel. And I like using that term. This
is his gospel. This isn't Caleb's gospel and
isn't your gospel. It came to us. and it was given
to us, but it's God's gospel, and it goes and accomplishes
that which he purposes. That's what it says, isn't it?
His word will not return void to him. If God has done that for us,
made us satisfied with his gospel, if he's made Christ our all,
we can't be satisfied with the strange woman anymore. Can't
do it. Can't be satisfied with the lie. Can't go back to the lie. I talk
about Al sometimes. Me and him had this conversation.
He's not here tonight, so I can pick on him, I guess. He's probably
streaming. I ain't picking on him. He made
mention about hearing a false gospel. He said, you can hear
it. It's almost like there's a symphony playing, and you got
somebody that's not playing the right note at all. And it's obvious.
It sounds terrible. It sounds awful. And I said,
that's exactly right. Like nails on a chalkboard. Just,
I can't hear it. I don't wanna hear it. It doesn't
taste right anymore, does it? Can't digest that. Matter of
fact, it's poison. False gospel's poison. Don't
think of it as anything else, it's poison. The Lord's made
us satisfied with his truth. He's made us hunger and thirst
after righteousness. He's made us desire the sincere
milk of the word that we may grow in grace, may grow in him. We may grow looking to him. We desire the body and the blood
of the Savior, Savior of his chosen people. Are you satisfied
with what God's satisfied with? And I, we may be quick to say
yes, yes I am. And it's by faith, if that's
the truth, it's by faith. So many times, if we were satisfied,
then we wouldn't be so full of unbelief, would we? This new
man, this old man, it ain't satisfied with it. That's why, with this
warfare that's going on, we won't be completely satisfied till
we have a new body and awaken his likeness. There'll be no
unbelief. We'll be completely, every, I don't know how else
to say it, every fiber of our being will be satisfied with
him, be satisfied with him. We're satisfied with the life
of the Lord Jesus, his sacrifice and his offering, how he really
redeemed. No, we're not trying to live
our life to satisfy God. We're not trying to make sacrifices
to satisfy God. We're looking to the one that
satisfied God with his life and his sacrifice, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're satisfied. I'm satisfied
knowing I have no part in salvation. I had no part in it. I didn't
have anything to do for it when it happened. I couldn't constrain
God. I can't constrain or restrain
God. I'm satisfied with that. That's
good news for me. I see my sin. It's ever before
me. I would mess it up if I could. The Lord says, you can't touch
it. He wouldn't allow it. Why? It's his salvation. I'm
satisfied with that. I'm satisfied with that. I'm satisfied. We're satisfied
knowing God chose to save us. God chose. He made a choice to
save us. It wasn't our choice. He chose
to save us. God saved you and I when we otherwise
would not have been saved. We couldn't save ourself, so
we wouldn't have been saved. Couldn't be saved. God had to
do that. That's exactly what he did. I'm satisfied with that.
Are you? Aren't you? God loved us when we were yet
sinners. Christ died for us. We're satisfied. Oh, we're satisfied with the
Lord's work. We're satisfied with the wife of our youth. That'd
be the church. That's the church. We're satisfied with the church.
Not just, not just this building and not just these brethren,
the Lord's church. I said this Sunday, this is,
this is God's church. This ain't my church. It's not
your church. This is God's church. This is
the Lord's church. It's our responsibility to declare
Him every time we get together. That's what satisfies, isn't
it? To declare Him. To declare Him. Are you satisfied to look to
Christ as all your acceptance before the throne of God? Are
you satisfied to look to Christ as all your acceptance before
the throne of God? Because if I'm looking at anything
else, I have no acceptance before the throne of God. God's people
are satisfied to look to Christ as everything, all of our wisdom,
all of our righteousness, all of our sanctification, all of
our redemption, all of our justification, all of our glorification, everything.
We look to Christ. We're satisfied with him. We're satisfied with him. Are
you satisfied? with what God is satisfied with. Are you satisfied with what God
is satisfied with? Thank God he does make his people
satisfy with Christ alone. Christ alone, let's pray. Father,
we thank you that you. Satisfy your people that you
satisfied the father. You satisfied in so much that
you saved us from our sin. Bless us to our understanding
and for your glory in Christ name, Amen.