THE prodigal is made satisfied and happy. This he could not be, if he was not made it. To be satisfied and happy are results; there must be something before to cause them. This, I think, is an important thing to see, as so many souls expect to have happy feelings of satisfaction come over them in some mysterious way, with really nothing to cause them. I am quite sure a very great number of people who attend these and other gospel meetings think this; and it leads them to say, “I’m waiting for feelings.”
Are there any here tonight who are waiting for feelings of satisfaction and happiness? If so, I impress on you the fact that you must have something to cause them. May the Lord help us now to see—
First—WHEN was the prodigal satisfied and happy?
Secondly, WHAT CAUSED his satisfaction?
Thirdly, WHAT CAUSED his happiness?
Perhaps it will help you to see how you can also be satisfied and happy.
1. When was the Prodigal Satisfied and Happy?
Go back with me, and have a look at our friend the prodigal, first, Spending all; secondly, In the mighty famine; thirdly, In want; fourthly, In the fields feeding swine and not even able to eat their food. And now ask yourself the question, “Was he satisfied and happy?” You must answer, “No, he was not.” Why? Because his circumstances, occupation, and condition caused him to be unsatisfied and unhappy. I quite think he was trying to be satisfied and happy; but trying to be will not make anyone so.
Dear friends, if you are away from God you are not satisfied and happy, and it is quite impossible for you to be so where you are, for you know as well as I do that when you think you are quite satisfied and happy it all vanishes away. Real, lasting satisfaction is a thing unknown in the “far country”; so also is true happiness.
Perhaps the feelings you have got are feelings of misery, an empty void, and no joy, but a terror at having to meet God; and, with your sins unforgiven, you tremble. These are the feelings of some of those who are in the “far country.” What has caused these feelings? Good has been showing you what a sinner you are. His Word says that every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. (Rom. 3:1919Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Romans 3:19).) Every soul must come to this at some time; but every soul who finds it out in this world can be forgiven; but should you close your eyes to the fact now, and then have to stand before God in your sins in eternity, there will be no forgiveness, but an awful existence through the eternal ages in misery, away from God, where no happiness ever comes. Why not let God make you satisfied and happy now?
Do you say, I would like to be, I am really in earnest; I’ve been miserable for many weary days and weeks, and I would do anything to be different? It maybe you are like a man I have read about, who was talking one evening to a Christian, and in the course of conversation he told this Christian how miserable he was; yes, he was in deep distress about his soul. This Christian introduced him to a doctor, also a Christian, who asked him to call round to his house that evening, and have a chat on the subject of being saved.
This he agreed to do, but it was after eleven when he knocked at the doctor’s door; for being a cab-driver he could not get away before. He was asked into the dining-room, and at once a good hot supper was placed before him. He began to eat, then pushing the plate from him, said, “Beg pardon, sir, but I’m that wretched I cannot eat any more. Oh, what must I do to be saved?”
Oh! that every unsaved soul here to-night were wretched, too wretched to eat or to sleep.
You ought to be, for your danger is real. If you are, I have good news for you. You can be made satisfied and happy. Do you ask, When?
Let us look and see when the prodigal was satisfied and happy. Let us follow him a little. He is in the field, the swine are eating ravenously; he starves; he is thinking, making plans; we see him get up, and start walking. Where is he going to? Listen! Can we not hear him say, “I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned”? Yes, that is what he says; and he means it, too, for he is making for the road that leads to his father’s house. “When he is yet a great way off” he is seen by his father, who runs towards him, and, falling on his neck, he covers him with kisses. We know the story, the kisses, the robe, the ring, the shoes; all for that naughty prodigal son. Then the door thrown open, and he finds himself inside the house.
What then? Why, the feast is ready, and at his father’s table he can eat of the fatted calf, satisfied and happy. When? When sitting at the table, forgiven, clothed, and provided for; but not till then. The result followed the cause.
Fellow-believer, can you see your history here? Happy Christian, can you see yourself at the Father’s table? Yes, I know you can. I ask you, What makes you so satisfied and so happy?
You tell me, “What the Father has done for me.”
My dear unsaved, miserable friend, God can make you happy; he can satisfy you with Christ as the One, and only One, who can make you satisfied and happy, and you will never be that until you know that you have access by faith into the favor of God, till you are forgiven, clothed, and eternally provided for with the richest of heaven’s blessings.
2. What Caused His Satisfaction?
In Psa. 36:8,8They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. (Psalm 36:8) we are told of some who will be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God’s house, and who will be made to drink of the river of God’s pleasures. Does not this help us with the answer to our question? To eat of the fatness of God’s house, to drink of the river of God’s pleasures, will abundantly satisfy.
Look at verse 5 in the same Psalm. “Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.” We have God’s mercy and God’s faithfulness in that verse.
Now verse 6 “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast” We have God’s righteousness and God’s judgments in that verse; and verse 7 says, “How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.”
If the ground of God’s mercy to poor sinners, faithfulness to the dying Saviour’s prayer for their forgiveness, righteousness that cannot pass the sinner by, and judgments that were poured out and exhausted when the Saviour died the awful death under the sword of justice which smote the Shepherd, His loving-kindness has reached you, a sinner, so that you put your trust under the shadow of His wings, you can surely speak of being satisfied, yea, abundantly satisfied with the blessed Saviour who endured so much on your account. The fatness of God’s house is Christ; the river of God’s pleasures is that stream of blessings which we have in Christ.
“Sweetest rest and peace have filled me,
Sweeter praise than tongue can tell;
God is satisfied with Jesus;
I am satisfied as well.”
I went the other day to see a man in the hospital. He had been very anxious about his soul, and I had seen him before, and put the gospel before him, and he had received it in faith, and trusted in the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. I spoke to him about God’s holy claims having been met by the death of Christ, and that God is satisfied with the atonement made by the Lord Jesus through His death and blood-shedding, and how He has shown His satisfaction by raising Him from the dead to His own right hand.
The dear man was very happy, and spoke very simply about believing in the Lord Jesus. He also spoke of being ignorant about the Word of God, but said he had a great desire to learn more about Christ. The world and things that used to interest him had lost their charm.
I said, “Have you found satisfaction in Christ?”
He replied, “Yes, I’m satisfied; and when you are satisfied you have enough, and don’t want any more.”
None but Christ can satisfy like that. Christ is the food of the newly born soul. When God’s sovereign act of giving life to a dead sinner has taken place, we see desires created which can only be satisfied by Christ. Do you find these desires after God’s word; a desire to be where Christ is preached; a desire to talk to those who want to talk about Him; a desire to be occupied in your thoughts with the Lamb of God Who died that cruel death to redeem your soul from hell? If so, no doubt God is at work with you: We see these desires in the prodigal son when he spoke about the “bread enough and to spare.” How much more should we expect these desires in those souls who have been forgiven, clothed, and seated at the Father’s table!
My dear friends, if the fatted calf speaks about the blessed Saviour, we may be quite sure that we shall be satisfied when we feed there. Yes, abundantly satisfied, because the satisfaction is caused by the eternal Son of God, Who has died for perishing sinners, and lives to be everything to them for time and for eternity.
But there is also the drinking in that thirty-seventh Psalm, drinking at a river. That, river of God’s pleasures speaks to us, does it not? Where does God find His pleasures? Why, it was of Christ He said, “In whom I am well pleased.” If God is well pleased with Christ we ought to be. Let me test your heart and mine with a few questions.
What is it that gives you and me most pleasure from day to day? What pleasure do we find in reading the Bible? What pleasure do we find in thinking about the things of God and eternity?
Perhaps you say, Oh, I don’t find pleasure in that, I do it sometimes; but it is a duty, not a pleasure.”
God forgive you! Another says, “We cannot be always reading our Bibles, and speaking about God’s things; we must have a bit of life sometimes.”
Friend, you don’t know what life is. Jesus told us what eternal life is when He said, “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” (John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3).)
“Life is found alone in Jesus,
Only there ‘tis offered thee,
Offered without price or money,
‘Tis the gift of God sent free.
Take salvation, take salvation,
Take it now, and happy be.”
I have heard of a girl who, after she was converted, was going a trip by boat. There were a good many young people among the party, and some of them got up a concert. They put this girl’s name down for a solo. When called upon, she was rather taken aback; but looking to the Lord for guidance, she started to sing that hymn one verse of which says,
“I tried the broken cisterns, Lord,
But ah! the waters failed,
E’en as I stooped to drink they fled,
And mocked me as I wailed.
Now, none but Christ can satisfy,
None other name for me,
There’s love and life and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in Thee.”
It made a deep, solemn impression on those that heard it. The waters are sure to fail when this world’s pleasures are sought after, but the river of God’s pleasures never fails. As the old fisherman said, when talking about the Lord: “Jesus never fails, Jesus never fails.”
The question we have been considering is, What caused the prodigal satisfaction? We have seen that the fatted calf which was prepared at the father’s table tells us of the never-failing Saviour who feeds us with Himself, and satisfies us with eternal pleasures. May God make Christ precious to us all.
3. What Caused His Happiness?
Our third question is, “What caused his happiness?”
I should like to answer it by asking another: How could he help being happy? You see he was satisfied, he could see how happy his father was; and he had been dead, and was alive again; he was lost, and is found. It is not surprising that “they began to be merry.”
And so with you. How can you help being happy if you are truly satisfied. That cabman that I was just now speaking about said, “I’m that wretched I cannot eat.” You see he could not be happy. When unsaved and under conviction, happiness cannot be yours; but the cabman could be made happy; and so can you. He listened to the sweet story of Jesus and His love, told with all earnestness by the Christian doctor. He believed what he heard, and very soon could say, “Thank God, I see that He died for me, poor lost sinner; I believe Jesus; I see that He died for me. I trust in Him. I believe His blood has washed all my sins away. I see it clearly.” And tears of joy rolled down his cheeks.
The two dropped on their knees, and the young convert poured out his heart to God, thanking Him for the salvation he had received in Christ, and praying earnestly for the salvation of his wife.
Getting oft their knees he was asked to finish his supper. He started, took one mouthful, and again pushing his plate from him, said, “Beg pardon, sir, but I am that full, I could not eat another mouthful. I’ll away home, and tell the wife what God has done for my soul.”
He went off perfectly happy because perfectly satisfied.
Satisfaction first, happiness next with the prodigal, and with every poor sinner saved by grace, and the more satisfied with Christ we are the more happy we shall be.
But I also see that seeing his father’s happiness must have caused him to be the same, and when a soul really understands how much joy there is in the heart of God when He bestows the blessing on returning sinners, it will have the same effect of producing joy too. “THEY began to be merry.” The joy was mutual.
One last thought: “He was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” The new life also produces joy. Gal. 5:2222But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (Galatians 5:22) speaks of the fruit of the Spirit being “love, joy, peace, etc.” It was the word “JOY” as a fruit of the Spirit produced in us through the life we have as new-born souls which I think bears on our subject.
O Lord, produce in all Thine own here that joy which is the fruit of the Spirit; and, Lord Jesus, make Thyself the satisfying portion of all, that there may not be one soul here tonight who is not satisfied and happy. Lord, grant it for Thy Name’s sake. Amen.
C. A. S.