SATISFACTION
J. Renton
I have in mind to speak about satisfaction. There is a great search for satisfaction in the world today; the lives of men, women and young people consist of a search for satisfaction, which you can never find in worldly things. Dear
friend, I can tell you now, you will never arrive at satisfaction in the things of this world.
Many have proved it, especially Solomon. Read the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 2 and you will find what search he had for satisfaction. He had the wherewithal to build, to make, and to have whatever he desired, and what did he say? “All was vanity and pursuit of the wind”, Ecclesiastes 2: 11. Dear friend, take Solomon’s advice, do not look in that direction for satisfaction, for I can assure you, you will never find it.
In the glad tidings God has nothing less in mind than satisfaction, as we read here, “They shall be abundantly satisfied”. That is what the gospel has in mind, abundant satisfaction, and I can tell you now, this is not just a theory, not just in the Scriptures, this has been arrived at by many people here, who can tell you what it means to be “abundantly satisfied”, to be in the experience of satisfied desire. Before we could enjoy satisfaction God had to be satisfied.
There could be no satisfaction provided for men apart from God’s satisfaction. I want to tell you first of all about God’s satisfaction because the gospel contains the satisfaction that God has found.
I hope we all understand the fall of man, the working of lawlessness beginning with our first parents, the introduction of lawlessness into mankind, which has permeated every generation since. No man of Adam’s fallen race has been exempt from the result of the introduction of lawlessness by the serpent; the serpent’s bite has affected every human being since. Death is the result. It involves not only the ruin of man, but it involves an offence to God, an offence to His majesty, the dishonouring of His rights, and how God felt that! When Adam was lost, Adam did not say to God, Where art Thou? Adam did not feel it as God felt
it. It was God who said, “Where art thou?”, Genesis 3: 9. It was God who felt the loss.
Mankind is God’s ideal; mankind was the last creation. God formed all the right conditions for man to be in and then introduced man into the best conditions, and he failed; but I want to draw your attention to the blessed Man who has provided God with satisfaction.
I would like to give you some impression of the satisfaction God had, and has, in our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been considering in these meetings the Lord Jesus saying, “I am come down from heaven”, John 6: 38. Coming into the world He said, “Sacrifice and offering thou willedst not; but thou hast prepared me a body”, Hebrews 10: 5. Oh think of the wondrous movement from heaven! The One whom we know as the Lord Jesus, coming down from heaven, down to this earth, treading the very earth in which we are; wonderful fact! The most wonderful movement that God ever made was in the incarnation, the Lord Jesus coming into manhood, and being a blessed Man here for the pleasure of God. Every movement Jesus made, every thought He had, every motive He had—yielded infinite satisfaction to the heart of the blessed God.
He is the great subject of the glad tidings. If God had not found satisfaction, there would be no glad tidings for humanity. God has to be satisfied first; and God has found complete satisfaction in another Man; that Man was here for God’s complete satisfaction. Think of what it meant to God to look down on a blessed Man here. After, having experienced all the sorrow of lawless man, He found a Man here in perfection, in dependence. May your heart be attracted to Him, for He is the Man in whom God found satisfaction. God desires to extend that satisfaction; it certainly was upon Jesus, but what God desires in
the glad tidings is to find satisfaction in believers down here. Is that possible, that such as ourselves, born with a lawless nature, can be for God’s satisfaction? Is it possible? Dear friend, it is possible, but it needed the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. That blessed perfect Man became the Sin-bearer. The One who was so pleasing to God took the place of the one who offended, took the sinner’s place, and suffered in the sinner’s stead, suffered as if He had been the offender. Oh what a blessed work is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ!
God was satisfied in that blessed Man down here, and He has found complete satisfaction in the work that the Lord Jesus undertook and completed. He has complete satisfaction in that work. It involved the Lord Jesus being abandoned as if He had been the sinner, as if He had been the offender. Think of what it meant to the holy humanity of Jesus to be made sin; we cannot understand the fulness of what it meant to the Saviour. Is it any wonder that He recoiled at Gethsemane from what faced Him? He recoiled; His holy nature as a Man recoiled from it, yet He went forward, “not as I will, but as thou wilt”, Matthew 26: 39. He went on to the cross, taking the sinner’s place, being abandoned by God, suffering the penalty of death, pouring out His precious blood, going into the grave. Oh think of the fulness of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ!
When He was here God could express His delight twice, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight!” He said that before the Lord came into service, and at the end of His service; He expressed His delight in the manhood of Jesus. He therefore was the perfect offering, for God’s satisfaction, and God has shown His satisfaction in the work accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ in
raising Him from the dead, in raising Him from among the dead, a selective resurrection, selecting that blessed Man from the dead, and exalting Him, giving Him the highest place in the universe at His right hand. I want first of all to assure you that God has found satisfaction in another Man, and found His satisfaction in the work He has accomplished. God has absolute satisfaction in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the righteous basis which has been laid for the securing of the satisfaction of persons.
Now God offers satisfaction; God’s purpose is satisfaction for men, women and young people. How is it arrived at? It is arrived at by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Since the Lord Jesus Christ has come into manhood no other man will do for God, only attachment to that Man will deliver us from the present course of things. God would have the Man in whom He has found satisfaction to be the Man in whom we have satisfaction. The way to it is by repentance, to take one’s true place as a sinner before God, a hell-deserving sinner. We are all sinners. Paul speaks of himself as, “... sinners, of whom I am the first”, 1 Timothy 1: 15; not ‘I was first’, but ‘I am first’. There are forgiven sinners; I hope there are no unforgiven sinners here. If there is one unforgiven sinner, I can tell you forgiveness is available for you on the basis of repentance, because the righteous foundation has been laid, and that is immovable, for God’s eternal satisfaction; the basis has been laid.
We come into forgiveness by repentance. It is very simple; repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. God is ready; He can afford to offer forgiveness to every repentant sinner, although holy and righteous as ever He was, because of His complete satisfaction in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
‘Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich, and free?’
That is God’s present attitude to every man, woman and young person. How wonderful! and it is because of the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. I remember a preacher saying some years ago that every breath a man draws, and every bite he eats, he owes to the death of Jesus, for it is only on that basis that God goes on presently with men, securing individuals.
The world is not going to get better; the gospel is not going to improve the world. The gospel secures persons out of the world, individuals, for God’s pleasure. The first step towards satisfaction is that we know our sins forgiven, and that blessing is available to us, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful gift is the gift of the Holy Spirit! I would ask every one here. Are you a vessel of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is given to those who know their sins forgiven, and are committed to the will of God, owning Jesus as Lord. The will of God is worth committing yourself to. Persons who commit themselves receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. God does not give the Holy Spirit to persons to go their own way; He gives the gift of the Holy Spirit, One of the blessed Godhead, to be power to live here for the will of God, and to be a secret inward source of satisfaction.
The Lord Jesus said to the woman in chapter 4 of John’s gospel, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink ...”. Who it is, the One who came down from heaven, the One who laid the righteous foundation at infinite cost to Himself. May we all have appreciation of “who it is”; “If thou knewest who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him” (John 4: 10). He offers
this woman living water. He offers in the glad tidings to every one of us living water. Do you have this living water? The Lord said, “whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever” (John 4: 14). That is a very strong negative, “never thirst for ever, but the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. Is not that satisfaction? Do you have satisfaction, friend? Are you satisfied? You will never find satisfaction apart from committal to the Lord Jesus and the will of God, and being a vessel of the Holy Spirit.
Note what He says, “whosoever drinks of the water”, drinks of it. That is characteristic; it is to continue, so as to experience another source of life and power, of certain satisfaction; whosoever drinks. Keep drinking of this source, this supply of divine power, of life and satisfaction. Whosoever drinks; it is not a question of drinking once and for all, it is continually drinking from a source of satisfaction. Dear friend, there are those here who could testify to a source of never-failing satisfaction in the Holy Spirit; an inward source. “Shall become in him a fountain of water”; it is life in expression in the believer, making him independent of all that the world can offer; his desires change and his taste alters.
I would like to interest everyone here in the forgiveness of sins, but also in the gift of the Holy Spirit, and I would like to encourage everyone to drink, continually to draw from this available source. “Whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever”. If we are not satisfied, it is because we are not drawing from this inexhaustible source, always available, indwelling the believer—wonderful thing! Paul says to the Corinthians, “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”, 1 Corinthians 3: 16. He is thus available continually, day and night, no matter what the difficulty, no matter what the trouble, no matter what the sorrow. Jesus is to be our Object, and the Holy Spirit an inexhaustible source of joy and power and satisfaction. I would like to make attractive to you the satisfaction which can be found nowhere else. Dear friend, Are you satisfied?
This Psalm is interesting. “Jehovah, thy loving-kindness is in the heavens”. That is where Jesus is; “loving-kindness is in the heavens”, mercy, grace, all we need in our pathway here.
He is there in the heavens to support us, “loving-kindness is in the heavens”; a never-failing resource we have there; by faith we are linked with Him, and by the Spirit. “Jehovah, thy loving-kindness is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds”. Oh, the extent of God’s faithfulness, and of the Lord Jesus, “if we are unfaithful, he abides faithful” (2 Timothy 2: 13); “thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the high mountains”. What is presented in the glad tidings is God’s righteousness; it is like the high mountains; “thy judgments are a great deep”. Oh, Jesus proved the great deep of God’s righteous judgments and provided a righteous basis.
“How precious is thy loving-kindness, O God! So the sons of men take refuge under the shadow of thy wings”. What a fine suggestion!—“under the shadow of thy wings”. Even in difficult times, dangerous times, we can take refuge under the shadow of His wings. The outside feathers of the wings are protective, but the inside feathers are soft and warm, “under the shadow of thy wings”.
Then it says, “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou wilt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures”. This, dear friend, is no mere theory I can assure you; there are plenty here that can confirm from experience what this satisfaction is. If we are satisfied persons we have the privilege to contribute to divine pleasure, to be released in response in affection to the Lord Jesus, and to the Father, to have part in the Lord’s supper and in the service of God, and contribute to divine pleasure and satisfaction. What a privilege we have!
There are three great exercises that the believer has to face; in a sense, every day is an exercise, but there are three great exercises that the believer faces. First of all, Are my sins forgiven? Secondly, Have I received the gift of the Holy Spirit?, and thirdly, as we were having today, “Tell me, thou whom my soul loveth, Where thou feedest thy flock, Where thou makest it to rest at noon”, Song of Solomon 1: 7. Where can I find where the Lord is thus active? “Why should I be as one veiled”, or roving, not settled? “They shall be abundantly satisfied”. That is down here. What is your experience? Are you abundantly satisfied, or are you roving, unsettled, not certain? “They shall be abundantly satisfied”.
May the Lord help us to find abundant satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to find it in the company of others. The service of God takes place in the company of others. I do not remember previously having such an impression of the privilege of having part with others in the service of God, a tremendous privilege. We can remember the Lord individually, we can respond to Him individually; but how blessed to be before Him in the company of others, gathered with a purpose to serve God—“They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house”. May the Lord help us to be exercised, and help us to know what abundant satisfaction is, for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Auckland
15 October 1989