Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness, Part 1

The Beatitudes: Evidences of Salvation, Not the Way of Salvation

0:02 We resume our studies again this morning in the portion of Scripture that we generally call the Beatitudes, a section of that Sermon of Sermons by our Lord Jesus that we have commonly called the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5. I will remind you as we resume our studies after laying this theme aside for the Christmas message last week, that in these Beatitudes we are not considering or we are not being confronted with the way of salvation.

0:46 We are being confronted with the evidences of salvation. We are not being told primarily how to enter the kingdom of God. We are being told what will be true of us if we have entered the kingdom of God.

1:04 And these Beatitudes are a description of the kingdom. They are a description of the character of a true Christian. Now notice I did not say, and I don't believe you'll ever hear me say it from this pulpit, these are a description of the character of a consecrated Christian. There's no such thing as a Christian and a consecrated Christian.

1:23 The word consecrate means to set apart for the service of God. And if you're not set apart for the service of God, you're not a Christian. You're still set apart for the service of the devil and of yourself. But the Scripture says, It is thanks be good to God that ye who were the servants of sin have obeyed from the heart that form of teaching which was delivered unto you and being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.

1:56 Romans 6 verses 20 through 22. And so in the Sermon on the Mount, in this initiatory part of the Beatitudes, we are confronting a description. A description of every true Christian. Not a description of every professing Christian by far.

2:17 Not a description of everyone who thinks he is a Christian. But a description of everyone who is indeed a child of God and a member of the kingdom of God. Who have considered the first three Beatitudes, blessed are those that are poor in spirit. A Christian is one who is, who has come to a discovery of himself and sees himself in the light of God as a person who is nothing, who has nothing and can do nothing apart from the grace of God.

2:52 Seeing this, he's known what it is to mourn his sinfulness. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And then we saw him as the meek man. Not a weak man, but a meek man.

3:08 Meekness being the absence of self. Will to God and ill will to our fellow man. Now we come this morning to Matthew chapter 5 and verse 6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be feared.

The Active Pursuit of Righteousness: A Revelation of Character

3:30 Now I want you to notice at the very outset of our study of this Beatitude, that for the first time in our study of the Beatitudes, we are confronting the Christian now, in relationship to this matter of what he pursues or what he desires. The first three Beatitudes are more or less descriptions of something that is a passive condition. A man poor in spirit, that's not talking about anything he desires, it's talking about a condition of his heart and of his mind in the presence of God. He realizes he's nothing.

4:11 To mourn is the common, the unconsciousness of that nothingness gripping me and taking hold of my entire being. To be meek is the absence of retaliation and self-assertion. And we're dealing more with the passive characteristics of the Christian in the first three Beatitudes. But when we come to this fourth Beatitude, immediately we're struck with the fact that here's a description of the Christian in his active sense.

4:43 We're going to find, what does a Christian seek above all else? What does a Christian consider worthy of his pursuits and his energies? Now what you desire and what you earnestly seek is probably one, if not the greatest revelation of your real character. And one time when Joseph went out to seek his brethren, just before they took hold of him and threw him in the pit, you remember, and he was sold and went down into Egypt, they asked him this question in Genesis, I believe, 37 and verse 15, What seekest thou?

5:25 Now that question can be a tremendous revelation of our basic character. What seekest thou? What do you consider worthy of your pursuits as a creature of God? What do you consider worthy as being an object toward which you press with desire and with energy?

5:51 And with intent of heart? The Christian is described in this verse as the man or woman who, above all else, pursues with earnest desire something that the Bible calls righteousness. Blaster they which do hunger and thirst, or pursue righteousness, for they shall be filled. As you sit here this morning, all things being equal, you're nothing but a product of yourself.

6:24 You are what your desires have been leading you to become.

6:33 Ephesians 2 says, speaking of the man in his natural state, of all of us by nature, it says, wherein we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. In this verse, it says, describing unregenerate man, Paul says, this is his characteristic, he's pursuing the natural appetites of his mind and of his flesh, and as such he's a child of wrath.

7:13 John gives us similar words in 1 John chapter 2. All that is in the world, after telling the children of God to love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, he describes what is the world comprised of. What? He dictates the world, the world, he tells us.

7:32 All that is in the world, what is it? The desires, that's the word lust there means, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the mind, and the pride of life, is of the world. When John goes to describe the world, that system, apart from God, he said it's made up of merely gratifying natural appetite and natural desire. And so I submit to you that a careful analysis, in the light of the world, in the light of the word of God, of what my heart really pursues, is perhaps the greatest revelation of my character.

8:09 Now see, if I were to ask you this morning, what ought you to pursue? Most of us would have sense enough to say, well a man ought to pursue God and heaven and righteousness and holiness, but the Bible doesn't say, blessed are they who say you ought to pursue righteousness, but blessed are they who actually pursue righteousness, for they. And they only shall be filled. And so our Lord pronounces as the blessed man, the happy man, the enviable man, the one who pursues righteousness.

The World's Misguided Pursuit of Happiness vs. Righteousness

8:44 Now immediately we're struck with the fact that the world's got it all backwards. What does the world do? The world seeks blessedness. The world seeks happiness.

8:53 I'm talking to people here this morning who are pursuing this bubble, this bubble of fantasy. This thing that you feel is going to bring you blessedness and happiness, and you're pursuing that. But the Lord Jesus never said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after blessedness. No, no.

9:14 Any man or woman who seeks happiness and blessedness never finds it. The Lord Jesus said, happiness and blessedness are the byproducts of seeking righteousness. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Now as we go to think our way through the actual text this morning, three simple things.

The Object Stated: Righteousness in its Broadest Sense

9:37 And again, I tell you, not three because preachers are supposed to have three, but because they're right here. Very simple. Here they are. First of all, there's the object stated.

9:48 What is this thing that the true Christian pursues? The object stated. Then we have the desire or the pursuit described.

9:58 And then we have the satisfaction promised. First of all, the object stated. What is the thing that the true member of the kingdom of heaven pursues above all else? Our Lord Jesus calls it righteousness.

10:16 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Now when you come to a term like righteousness in the Bible that's used in many different ways, there's only one way to determine what it means in a specific place. And that is to read the verses preceding and following. This is what we call referring to the context.

10:43 Now if you want to know what I mean when I say that I love something, you've got to know the setting in which I mentioned it. If that something happened to be my wife, or that someone, then you'd understand by the word love I'm talking about that deepest of human affections that time has given me. And that's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about.

11:05 That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about.

11:05 To raise a man and woman together that for one another they'd be willing to die. Now if I was talking about I love the pancakes, well you'd have to put a different meaning on the word love. I'm not going to die for pancakes. There's some little pancakes in the frying pan and it's either his life or mine.

11:23 Well I'm, no choice involved here. So if you want to know what I mean by the word love, you check the setting in which I used it. Now what did the Lord Jesus mean when he said, Blessed are they which do hunger, and thirst after righteousness. The object that the true child of God pursues is righteousness.

11:43 Now what does he mean? Well in its broadest sense, and our Lord was talking to people who had a Jewish, were Jewish and primarily, and had Jewish thinking and Jewish background. And in the Old Testament scriptures, the word righteousness is many times, or a good number of times, used interchangeably with the word salvation. Let's look at several instances of this in the book of Isaiah.

12:10 In Isaiah chapter 46, verses 12 and 13. Isaiah 46, verses 12 and 13.

12:20 Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness. Now God says, this is what I'm going to do. I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation, shall not tarry, and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. Here God, through the prophet, seems to use the term righteousness interchangeably with the word salvation.

12:55 God's deliverance, his salvation. Chapter 51, verse 5, we find a similar connection. My righteousness is near, Isaiah 51, verse 5. My salvation is gone forth.

13:10 Mine arms shall judge the people. Now notice again. My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth. And then one other verse in Isaiah, we'll keep them all in this area.

13:23 Chapter 61, and verse 10. Chapter 61, verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of, of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.

13:42 Now notice, he says a garment of salvation, a robe of righteousness, one and the same thing. So in its broadest sense, when our Lord said, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, he was referring to everything that touches his gracious salvation. And every aspect of that salvation, from the forgiveness of our sins, our justification to the breaking of the power of sin in the light to the process of sanctification by which we are made more like him and delivered from our corruption to that marvelous consummation of glorification

14:26 and we shall be like him, seeing him as he is. I'm sure that pregnant in this word, when our Lord Jesus said, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, I'm confident in my own spirit that part of that is a reference to his whole salvation. Now, of course, there are times when the word righteousness simply means practical godliness. Having a life that's conformed to the holy will of God.

14:59 A life that is just and upright. A life that is pure and clean. I believe. This is the sense in which he uses it later on when he says in verse 10, Blessed are they which, when men shall revile you and persecute you, blessed are they which do suffer and are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

15:20 When are men and women persecuted for righteousness' sake? In that sense, righteousness is the godly life. The practical demonstration of Christian morality and Christian ethics and Christian truth and equity and honesty and Jesus said, don't be surprised if you live that kind of life that men will react violently and you'll be persecuted. So righteousness can mean and does mean in some places a life conformed to the will of God and then I'm sure most of you are aware that in the sense that Paul uses it most of the time, Paul is speaking in the other New Testament writers

16:00 of righteousness in the sense of that perfect acceptance with God with God. That we have in Jesus Christ if we are joined to Him. That's the righteousness of God by faith. Now our Lord Jesus was not primarily referring to that though that's included in His blessing.

16:20 So what is He saying? What is the object that we are to pursue? What object will we pursue if we're true children of God? The object of pursuit will be all the salvation that God has given us.

16:39 God has provided in Christ from its very beginning of the consciousness of sins forgiven down to the place of practical godliness in every detail of life to the place where we long to be free from every form of uncleanness and sin in our lives. And this is the object, this righteousness which the true child of God pursues. Above all else in life this is the thing toward which His desires and His interests and His heart gravitate.

Why Righteousness is the Only Path to Blessedness

17:23 And Jesus said this is the blessed man. Now why?

17:31 Why is it that the only truly blessed man or woman happy man or woman is the one who is hungering and thirsting after righteousness?

17:44 Well the answer is simple. Not unless you get holy. There's only one thing that ever took away man's blessedness. And you know what that thing was?

17:57 Sin. Man was perfectly blessed in the Garden of Eden. Perfectly happy. Perfectly content.

18:06 There's only one unfulfilled desire that Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden. You know what that desire was? The unfulfilled desire of wanting to know God better. They were perfectly blessed.

18:23 A man is blessed. When he has only one unfulfilled desire. More of God. But sin entered.

18:33 A man was no longer a blessed creature. A happy, contented creature. He became a creature now just a bundle full of desires having cast off God as the satisfaction of his heart and life. Man's desires did not die.

18:51 Instead of those desires finding their expression toward righteousness and God now man sets those desires on some of the things he lost through sin. Peace. He lost his peace. No peace to the wicked, the Scripture says.

19:09 He lost real joy. For true joy is now nothing but the fruit of the Spirit. The Kingdom of God is righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost. He's lost peace.

19:20 He's lost joy. He's lost rest. He's lost contentment. Why?

19:25 Because of sin. Now Jesus said, Blessed is the man who pursues righteousness. The only blessed man is the man who pursues righteousness. What is righteousness?

19:38 It's the opposite of sin. If sin robbed us of our blessedness, the only way back to blessedness is to face the sin question. Not to deal with the fruits. Man's sin took away his peace.

19:56 And man and his folly is seeking peace. And he never finds it. Man's sin took away true joy. And then joy is gone.

20:07 You're not a blessed person. You're a miserable person. Peace and joy and rest are gone. Rest of soul.

20:13 There's no blessedness. Man's lost these things because of sin. But now he seeks the peace. He seeks the joy.

20:20 He seeks the rest. He seeks all of these things. And he never finds true blessedness. Because he's not dealing with the root of his problem.

The Tumor Analogy: Addressing the Root Problem of Sin

20:31 He's seeking deliverance from the sin that has robbed him of blessedness. Let me try to illustrate. Some of you fellows, especially you, perk your ears up at this. Suppose there was a young man at one of the local high schools.

20:48 All of you who followed the local sports at all knew him because he was the outstanding football player. Well coordinated, quick reflexes, strong, all kinds of vigor, all kinds of stamina. And suddenly he begins to lose some of his stamina. He finds himself beginning to get worn out halfway through practice.

21:09 Then he finds himself beginning to lose some of his coordination. Instead of being able to evade a would-be tackle, he finds himself stumbling over his own feet and running into them. Then he finds himself losing some of his strength. Where he used to be able to run over certain fellows, now he finds he's got no strength.

21:25 Losing all his coordination, his stamina, all of the things that made him an effective football player, he begins to lose them. So what does he do? He says, well, boy, I don't know what's going on here, but I've got to correct this. And so he starts doing special exercises at home to help his reflexes, see?

21:42 And he gets some kind of an electrical punching bag that'll come at him this way and this way, see? And he says, well, I'm going to try to get back my reflexes. He starts working hard to get back his reflexes. And he says, I've got to do something about my strength.

21:54 So he starts lifting barbells. He says, I've got to build up my strength again. I've got to get back my strength. I can't play football unless I have my strength.

22:01 And he says, there's something wrong with my stamina. I've got to have more weight. So after he goes home from practice at night, after he gets his strength, after he goes out and starts taking long walks and running up steep hills, he says, I've got to get back my stamina now. It doesn't work.

22:14 He's seeking stamina. He's seeking strength. He's seeking coordination. He can't seem to find it.

22:20 So one day in desperation, he tells the coaches, Coach, something's wrong. He says, I've got to see a doctor. So he goes to the doctor. And the doctor runs a battery of tests.

22:29 And he has a suspicion. He thinks he may have localized the problem. Then he runs another series of tests. And everything's pointing toward one thing.

22:37 And finally, they take the last series of tests. And it's absolutely certain, as certain as medical science can be, he's got some kind of a little tumor that's begun to form on the part of the brain that affects his motor coordination. This has been the root cause of his loss of coordination, his loss of reflex action. It's been the thing that's been sapping away his strength.

23:05 Now what's he need to do? He needs to have that thing that's been causing all of these problems dealt with. See? If he's ever going to get back his stamina, his coordination, his reflex action, his strength, what's he got to do?

23:21 He's got to have that tumor dealt with. See? He doesn't go out here and seek stamina and seek strength and seek reflex action. It'll never come because there's a basic problem he's got to seek deliverance from first.

23:33 That's his tumor. Now what about the doctor? What's his job? It's his job to try to work with the fellow and chuck him under the chin and say, Well, look, I'll help you, Knights, and we'll try to work back your stamina.

23:45 We'll try to build up your coordination. Build up your strength. No, no. That doctor has one responsibility is to sit down and tell that boy the gruesome story.

23:53 Look, son, you're in bad shape, but we may be able to do something. Then he tells him what he's going to have to do as a doctor, what might look brutal if you and I were looking at him. We saw him there on the operating table. We saw him open up the skull.

24:10 But that doctor has one responsibility, one moral ethical responsibility. That's to deal with the root of the problem that's causing all the trouble. That's causing all the trouble out here. Now do you see the application of my illustration?

24:23 Here we are as preachers and we've lost blessedness. And what are the manifestations? No peace, no full rest, no real contentment, no real joy. And what do we do?

24:36 We're out here trying to get a little joy. That's what the world was doing over the holidays. They tried to find it in Calvert or in Four Roses. And some of you didn't try to find it in Calvert or in Four Roses, but you tried to find it in Four Roses.

24:51 You tried to find it in Christmas trees and Santa Claus and presents. Now it's all over with. The joy that you thought you just about had your fingers on is gone. You see, the problem is sin.

25:10 It's causing the lack of blessedness. That's got to be dealt with. And you'll never find blessedness seeking it. You'll never find peace seeking it, happiness seeking that.

25:19 It's not to be found there. That's why Jesus said, Blessed are those that hunger in thirst after righteousness, because your problem is that you're a sinner. And that's my problem. And until that sin question is met and faced and dealt with, there'll never be the blessedness.

25:37 Now let me move on and apply the last part of my illustration. That's the responsibility of the doctor. Not to try to make that young boy happy again. Not to try to make him well coordinated.

25:48 Not to try to build up his stamina. Not to try to give him back his strength. He has one responsibility. To deal with his tumor.

25:57 You see, lots of people expect a servant of God to do something they'd never expect a doctor to do. If that doctor knew that the boy's problem was a tumor, and all he did was give him a little set of exercises that would temporarily help his coordination, only to leave him to die of his tumor, that doctor would have his license revoked and be thrown into jail. And dear ones, Almighty God will deal harshly with any preacher who merely tells people, well, you just need a little chuck under the chin. And try to make them happy.

26:38 Give them a little peace. Give them a little joy. Give them a little religious sigh. No, no.

26:43 I have one responsibility as a servant of God. And that is by the word of God and under the direction of the Spirit of God to help you to see that your problem is the tumor of sin. Until you allow the divine surgeon to come and to deal with that. That's my responsibility as a servant of God.

27:06 That's my responsibility. And that's why the Lord Jesus said, Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness, conformity to the will of God. Because only as we know righteousness will we know blessings. Now let's look for a few moments at the desire described.

The Desire Described: Sensible, Uncomfortable, and Useful Hunger and Thirst

27:30 We've looked at the object now. The object that the true Christian pursues is righteousness. God's salvation from beginning to end. Conformity to the will of God.

27:42 Lightness to the character of God. Now let's look for a few minutes at this desire. How does the Lord describe this desire? I'm so glad here He didn't say, Blessed are those that seek righteousness.

27:56 That would be a strong word. But it would kind of leave us up in the air. But He used two words with which all of us are familiar. Thank God and in His mercy we aren't too familiar with them.

28:07 Living in the land of plenty that we do. But at least we know a little bit about them. The two words hunger and thirst. This desire present in the heart of a true Christian.

28:20 Going out in the direction of righteousness. God's salvation. God's deliverance from the love and practice and defilement of sin. This desire, Jesus said, is likened to two physical appetites.

28:37 Hunger and thirst. Now these are the appetites inherent in our physical bodies. And when I'm hungry, I'm crying out that this appetite for food be satisfied. When I'm thirsty, I'm crying out that this appetite for water or some kind of refreshing liquid be satisfied.

29:00 Now hunger and thirst are first of all sensible appetites or desires. And when I say sensible, I don't mean reasonable. We say, oh that's a sensible idea. But I mean they're appetites of which we are conscious in our senses.

29:17 Do you know that every moment you've been sitting here this morning your lungs have been having an insatiable appetite for air? But you don't have air pains. You see, the appetite of the body for air is not a conscious appetite until someone either holds your nose or shuts your mouth and then you'll be conscious of it. But the appetite that causes us to breathe in and out, that's an unconscious appetite.

29:44 A very real one. But it's unconscious. It's not a sensible appetite. Every cell in your body, all these living cells, they have a constant appetite for the nourishment brought to them by the blood.

30:00 Your cells don't ever cry out and say, give me more blood. They're not conscious of that appetite. You see? But now hunger is different.

30:08 Hunger is not an unconscious appetite. It is a conscious, sensible appetite of the body. You follow me? The second thing about hunger and thirst, they are not only sensible appetites, they are very uncomfortable appetites.

30:23 I never heard anyone say, oh, it's just so wonderful to be hungry. Never heard anyone say that. Unless there's a person who perhaps didn't have a normal appetite for months and then due to some illness and then they got their appetite back. That'd be the only sense in which they might say that.

30:42 It's so good to be hungry. Ever hear anyone say, oh, I just love to be thirsty. It's one of the most uncomfortable things. But the only thing I don't enjoy about preaching in the wintertime.

30:54 It's a dry heat. My mouth gets dry. I don't enjoy that sensation of thirst. Hunger and thirst can be very uncomfortable appetites.

31:02 The third thing about hunger and thirst is that they're very useful appetites. If you do what comes naturally with your hunger and thirst, they can be very useful appetites because they'll lead you to the table or to the faucet or to the refrigerator for their gratification. Now let's apply those three aspects of hunger and thirst. What is true physically is true spiritually.

31:27 When Jesus said, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, he was saying that the God-blessed man or woman, the true Christian, is the one who has a sensible, conscious appetite and thirst for God and for his truth and for his word and for his salvation and for his will. I ask you as you sit here this morning, do you have a conscious appetite for righteousness? Say what? I don't know. Do I?

32:06 Look back over the past week. Amidst all the celebration, amidst all the trimmings and all the fine eating and all the rest, just ask yourself. Just sit there for a minute. I'd like to say go home and do this, but I know most of us won't, so I'm going to ask you to do it right here this morning.

32:27 During all of this, can you look back to any time when you were consciously yearning, to be alone with God? When you were consciously yearning in the midst of all the gaiety with relatives to somehow demonstrate the likeness to Jesus Christ before them? Were you conscious of a greater longing than ever before to be released from the temporary bubbles of all the shallowness of this season and come into heart acquaintance with Jesus Christ in a new way?

33:08 Did you have any conscious appetite for righteousness over the past week? An appetite that led you to the word of God to know what was the will of God for your life? An appetite that led you to prayer that you might receive grace to be a holy man or holy woman that day? Do you know anything about what I'm talking about this morning?

33:34 Jesus said the best man is the man or woman who has a conscious appetite for righteousness. And I submit without any fear of faith, I submit without any fear of contradiction, if you're a stranger to this, you're a stranger to grace and you've never been born of the Spirit of God. I don't care how many verses you can quote. I don't care how kind and gentle your life is.

34:00 I care not what influences have made you the person you are. If there is not in your heart an instinctive desire to be more like Christ, to be a holier man, a holier woman, this desire is not a conscious pain at times. And I submit to you that you're not a God-blessed man or woman. Remember what Jesus said?

34:27 Blessed are they that hunger and that thirst. Sensible appetite. And then I've hinted at the second part. At times it's a painful appetite.

34:37 Do you experience any inner pain in your desire after righteousness? Paul did. Listen to the pain in his heart. When he cries out, The good that I would, I do not.

34:52 The evil that I would not, I find myself doing. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? He says in another place, We that are in this tabernacle, this body, do groan, being burdened.

35:11 Do you know anything about groaning in your spirit, being burdened down with the sense of faith, of failure and sin and uncleanness? Do you? Paul said, The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these two are contrary one to the other.

35:39 Are you ever conscious of the inner pain of pursuing righteousness? Again I am saying if you're not, you have no grounds to claim you're a Christian. If you can live with a sinful disposition and every child of God still has the remains of the flesh with him. If you can live embodied in sinful flesh in the midst of a sinful world with a wicked devil and a host of foul demons and not be conscious of the painful desire to be righteous in the midst of all of this, dear one, you've never been born of the Holy Ghost.

36:19 If you can be at home with sinful flesh, your own flesh, in the midst of a sinful world with a wicked devil, because you're a part of that system. That's why Jesus said, The only blessed man or woman is the one whose desire after holiness and conformity to the will of God in the midst of the wicked world will be so intense at times it'll be a pain, it'll be hunger, it'll be thirst. May God help us to take this to heart. Dear ones, this is the description of a true Christian.

36:54 This is the description of a true child of God. Now thank God it's not that we must attain to the heights of panting that a 30 person has been in Christ 30 years, but the first evidence of the life of God in the soul is that desire to be like Jesus, to be righteous, to be holy. And may I say the true Christian never feels he's gotten enough. Frankly, I'm disturbed with people who when they get rid of their smoking or drinking or cursing, whatever plagues them, they feel they're in now and there's nothing more to seek.

37:36 Dear one, if you're content with merely having a few external sins drop off your life and you don't know what it is to wrestle with the inbred corruption of pride and quickness of temper and nastiness and retaliation and touchiness, if these things never grew in you, it's either because you've attained a degree of sanctification that I've never yet met or you're just not aware of your tremendous need to be released from these things.

38:08 That's why the Lord pronounced blessedness upon those who hunger and thirst. A painful appetite, but thank God it's a useful appetite because that appetite for righteousness leads us to the only one from whom righteousness comes. Just as the appetite for food leads us not to the woodpile to chew on bark, but it leads us to the dinner table to chew on food. Just as thirst leads us not out to some polluted stream to drink mud, but to some place where we can get clear water.

38:47 So the conscious hunger in the heart of the child of God for righteousness is a useful appetite for it leads him where? It leads him to the Lord, our righteousness. It leads him to the God who alone can impart that righteousness. It leads him to the Spirit who alone can enable him to live a righteous life.

The Painful Appetite for Righteousness: A Mark of True Conversion

39:13 And then the third thought in this verse is the satisfaction promised. Notice the words of our Lord Jesus. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Now get his encouraging word.

39:29 For they shall be fit. Not they may be. They perhaps might be. But he says flat absolute promise they shall be fit.

39:50 Now notice it doesn't say they shall fill themselves. They'll be filled. Immediately telling us that all the righteousness that ever comes to sinners is by the grace of God. They shall be filled.

40:05 If my glass is being filled, it's not filling itself. It's being filled from the source outside of it. To fill itself I have to create its own water here and come up from the bottom up that way. No, but it doesn't do that.

40:21 Someone pours it in from the top. That's the way it's filled. It's passive. It's being acted upon.

40:27 Jesus said those that hunger and thirst. They're the God-blessed men and women. They shall be filled. The grace of God will come and meet their need for righteousness.

40:39 And the word filled here is the word used in a special way throughout the New Testament. To describe that sensation that comes when our bodily need, our physical need for food has been abundantly satisfied. It's the word Paul used where he said, I have learned how to be filled and how to be in want. It's the word used that after Jesus fed the multitudes it says, and they were all filled.

41:08 Now you're going to experience this when you go home today. Some of you may have a conscious hunger pain. Don't think about it now. It'll distract your mind.

41:15 But you may a little bit later when you get home. And you're going to sit down at the table. Now mark me, isn't this true? After the first few miles full, miles full, that's right.

41:26 My life? Miles full. I try to remember that ninth grade English class. I remember a teacher who taught us the difference between cupfuls and cups full.

41:34 It's miles full. After you've had several miles full, what's going to happen? Or mouthfuls? Mouthfuls.

41:40 I don't know. But someone, you know. All right. That teacher would be embarrassed if she were here this morning.

41:46 Okay. That hunger pain will leave. That sensation of really wanting it, that leaves. But you don't push yourself back from the table and say, I'm full.

41:59 You could push yourself back from the table, maybe send you off to it and say, I've had enough to take the edge off my hunger. But when do you say I'm full? There comes a line where hunger pain goes and more is taken into the body until there's that consciousness, I've not only met the basic need, but I've had beyond it. I'm full.

42:22 That's all I can take. I want no more. Now that's the word Jesus uses here. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be glorified, they shall be filled to abundance.

The Satisfaction Promised: Filled to Abundance

42:37 That's His promise. How would you say, Pastor, how is it fulfilled? It's fulfilled initially when the sinner, seeing himself lost, hopeless, undone, he sees in Jesus Christ the only hope for sinners and he takes hold of the promise of God, him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. And from his broken heart there comes forth the plea of faith, Lord Jesus, thy blood and righteousness are my only plea.

43:17 And by faith he lays hold of Christ as his righteousness. What happens at that moment? He's filled. He's filled with the awareness that though my sins were as spiral, they were white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they were now as wool.

43:32 The promise of God in the New Covenant is their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. And so the sinner in whom the Spirit of God has awakened the consciousness of sin and has brought him to the place where he's willing to turn from his sin, when he comes to Jesus Christ, he's filled, filled with the blessed awareness that Jesus Christ is now made unto him righteousness. And he's a forgiven man. But then there's a second sense.

44:04 It's fulfilled not only initially when we come, but it's fulfilled continually in the child of God. For as a child of God, conscious that you've sinned, you go down before God and you say, Oh God, that hasty word to the wife and the husband that you'll lord, that was sin. I want to be like you. I want to be righteous.

44:27 Oh God, forgive me, I pray. He's filled with the blessed awareness if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When he cries out, Oh God, as I face this day, I need grace to live pleasing to Thee. I want my thoughts.

44:50 I want my words. I want my actions. I want my motives. I want my total being brought under the control of the Holy Spirit that I might please Thee today.

45:00 Jesus said, That person who hungers and thirsts to be righteous is going to be filled. And God gives him enabling grace to go through that day to please his Father in heaven. It's filled when the child of God, broken before his Lord, cries out for the enablement of God. And then it will not only be fulfilled, initially, continually, but thank God it will be filled, fulfilled ultimately.

45:29 For we read in Peter that there's going to come a day in which God will have a world wherein dwelleth righteousness. And we read in 1 John chapter 3 that though we are now the children of God, it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And all the fullness that will break in upon the hearts of the redeemed when Jesus Christ summons His bride to Himself. And I love the words of Robert Murray McShane.

46:02 When he looked forward to heaven, do you know what thought thrilled him? Not streets of gold or mansions over the hilltop in this trash. No, no. I'm not calling streets of gold trash, but I'm talking about these songs that materialize heaven as though it were some kind of a uh, utopia of physical pleasure and sensuous delight.

46:26 Robert Murray McShane said, When I see thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. As he looked forward to heaven, here was his hope. I'll love God with an unsinning heart. I'll be filled with perfect righteousness in that day, never to feel the stain of corruption and inbred sin, never to feel the defilement of foul and corrupt appetite and desire for loving with an unsinning heart.

47:06 Oh, dear child of God, in whose heart the Holy Spirit has worked so that there is this longing to be holy. And as you're here this morning, perhaps there's discouragement, there's been defeat, you've been downcast. Take courage from God's promise today. God can meet you in that present need, but look forward to that day when you shall be wholly and completely filled and you will be like Him, seeing Him as He is.

Critique of Modern Evangelism and the Danger of Seeking Experiences

47:41 As we think of this beatitude and try to draw in closing this morning one or two practical applications to our thinking, I want to say this, and I don't say it unkindly, but I do say it with a depth of conviction that it's true. In the light of this beatitude we are immediately confronted with the shallowness and the wrong emphasis of modern evangelism. What does modern evangelism do? It tells the sinner, you want happiness?

48:14 Come to Jesus. You want peace? Come to Jesus. You want rest?

48:20 Come to Jesus. No, you don't get rest seeking rest and you don't get happiness seeking happiness. The job of the evangelist and the church is to be the instrument in the hands of the Holy Ghost so that through them men and women may come to a consciousness that sees their problem. And if they're ever to know peace and joy and happiness they've got to be seekers after righteousness, not peace, not happiness.

48:59 The natural heart uses Jesus to get a little peace. Follow me. If I dare to peddle off Jesus as the one who'll give a little peace and happiness people will take him but it won't be the Jesus of the Bible and they won't take him on his terms. But oh, when people see my need is righteousness I'm a sinner.

49:29 I've offended a holy God and the fiery wrath of God is tingling against me. Where can I flee? I say, ah, dear sinner, do you seek righteousness? Ah, yes, I've got to have righteousness.

49:42 Righteousness is in the Lord, our righteousness. You come to Jesus, let him live. And that sinner comes to Jesus not to make Jesus his stepping-stone to get peace. He doesn't make Jesus a means to an end, but Jesus becomes the end.

50:03 Modern evangelism has already destroyed this concept in our churches. Destroy it. And I sicken in my spirit when my glorious Lord is held out as a means to the sinner's end. God has made him both Lord and Christ.

50:28 He's the glorious end. And lest are they that seek righteousness through him, they should be filled. You see, modern evangelism is old at this point. And there's one other practical conclusion I want to make.

50:45 And I trust you'll listen to me, dear child of God, hungry for oil, God has for you. Listen carefully. Beware of seeking any spiritual experience that isn't rooted in seeking righteousness. Jesus didn't say, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for power, for they should be filled.

51:10 I've seen people get hungry for spiritual power and end up being filled not with the spirit of the Lord, but with some other spirit. For again, the natural heart wants power. Sure. Even if it's power to win souls, the natural heart loves the feeling of power and authority.

51:35 But no natural heart wants to be holy. The natural heart wants peace and rest. You know, try to use God to get these things. And people try to use God to get power.

51:48 But oh, we're in the safe line. Yet as Christians we say, Oh God, I want to be righteous. I want to be holy. I want to be like Jesus.

Restoring a Lost Appetite for Righteousness

51:59 Then any experience God gives you in the way of seeking to be righteous, it'll be valid. It'll be of God. And so I feel in the light of these things, these two practical observations must be made. Do you want to be a God-blessed man or woman?

52:21 Then there must be the hungering and thirsting after righteousness. What would you mummies and daddies do if you got home in a few minutes and you had dinner all scheduled to go on the table about quarter after one? And that boy of yours with a hollow leg who usually comes down and devours it like he hasn't eaten for six weeks, or that girl, I don't want anybody to think I'm picking on them, came to the table this afternoon and you knew, you knew that they had breakfast at 7.30 and it's been a good long time since then.

52:55 And usually they just pounce on the food. And they came up to the table and you put food on the plate and they just sort of picked around and played with the fork and turned the gravy in through the potatoes and cut up the meat. And kind of just said, what's wrong? Oh, I'm just, I'm hungry.

53:11 What did you say? What have you been eating? Can I have some of your Christmas candy? Immediately you say something's wrong.

53:22 If his appetite isn't normal, something's wrong. Are you sick? Do you feel his forehead? Do you seem to have a fever?

53:29 Do you seem to be sick? And you say, well, what have you been eating? You know something was wrong. You say, Pastor, what are you driving at?

53:37 I think some of you see. Some of you once knew what it was to have a real appetite for righteousness. Oh, how you love it. Oh, how you hungered after righteousness.

53:48 How you hungered and thirsted to be holy. That hunger's not there so strong. You know why? You've been feeding on cheap candy.

53:59 The hunger for righteousness can be squelched by feeding on the cheap candy of the flesh. Spending too much time in front of your one-eyed idiot thoughts. Spending too much time on the telephone talking about other people. Spending too much time moping about your own problems.

54:32 Spending too much time feeding yourself with the flesh of cheap candy. With the cheap candy of the flesh. Let that boy just get back his appetite. You just tell him, now look, son, you don't touch anything till supper time.

54:48 Not a thing, you understand? Yes, Dad. Boy, here's the supper bell. He'll come six days at a time.

54:58 Oh, may we hear the Lord say to us, my child, don't touch that. If you want your appetite back, leave that thing alone. Leave it alone! The appetite will come back.

55:09 The word of God will be precious. And you'll find yourself panting after him. Oh, that God will give us God-blessed men and women in this place who hunger and thirst after righteousness. And dear friend here today who doesn't know any blessedness, you're not going to find happiness walking in the path you've been walking.

55:31 You'll pursue it right down to the mouth of hell. But if you begin to seek the Lord this morning and seek righteousness, then you'll find blessing. May God grant that this will be true. Shall we pray?