Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness, Part 2

Review of the Beatitudes and the Nature of Christian Character

0:02 It's certainly a bit difficult to know just how to break in to a series of messages when you're preaching through a particular portion, such as we're doing here.

0:14 We have visitors with us each Lord's Day, and we don't like to leave them out in the dark. So it seems almost necessary to give a few words of review so that their thinking is in line with what we're considering. At the same time, the majority of you who are here week by week, I don't want to bore you to death with long reviews, and you're torn at times to know just where to draw the line between necessary concession and help to those who are new among us and steering away from boredom to those who aren't. Now perhaps just these few words will be helpful to us as we turn again to Matthew chapter 5 and verse 6.

0:55 We are considering these Beatitudes, these eight blessings uttered by our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are looking at them primarily as a God-inspired description of the character of a true Christian.

1:11 The Beatitudes are not a map showing us the way to be saved. They are a mirror reflecting to us the character of one who is saved. Now you don't use your mirror when you've got to go to strange country and want to know how to get there to use a map.

1:32 But when you finally find out what you look like, if you're foolish enough to want to do that too often, why then you use a mirror? Now this is true of the Beatitudes. They are not a map. That's the fault of people who say, well, the Sermon on the Mount is my religion.

1:50 Well, if they ever took it seriously, they'd find out they just don't live the Sermon on the Mount, for no man lives it, apart from the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.

2:00 But the Sermon on the Mount is, in many sense, a mirror, reflecting to us not only the standard of God, but as depicted by the Lord Jesus. Considering last week,

2:18 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. This Beatitude, for the first time, we confront the Christian in relationship to his basic hunger, his basic longing, his basic pursuit. You long for what you pursue. Religion is a great revelation of what you really are.

2:45 Through Christians, he is a man, woman who pursues the people who will be.

3:22 In respect of the verse, the object for which we hunger and thirst, ready to the will of God, standing with God,

3:35 living before God. If you look a bit at the act, the true child of God pursues this object. It's called hunger and thirst. They're conscious appetites.

3:47 They are uncomfortable appetites, but they are very useful appetites. And then we considered, in closing, the wonderful promise of fulfillment. If a person truly hungers and thirsts, we have the unqualified promise of our Lord, that that person shall be filled. Now we're going to consider this verse again today in a more, perhaps, practical way than last week.

God's Principle: Appetite Precedes Blessing

4:12 And as we do, I've been struck again and want to share this with you with the fact that perhaps more than any other text that I know of in the Scripture, there are others, but this, perhaps, is more clear than any others, that the Scripture sets before us the entire, that whenever God is to give a certain blessing to one of his people, to one of his creatures, he always gives them a deep appetite for the very blessing that he's going to give to them in his grace. God never gives to anyone. Now, his blessings are all of grace. The text says you shall be filled. It doesn't say you fill yourself.

5:07 But it says that the only ones that God fills are those that hunger and thirst. God, as he would give us. Now, this is a principle that follows throughout the entire breath. Anyone here who is not clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you've never come to him out of a sense of your utter bankruptcy spiritually, and you've never come and said, Oh God, nothing in my hands I bring.

5:41 Simply to thy cross I cling. You've never been clothed in the righteousness of Christ. You may be clothed in the tattered rags of your own righteousness today, or in the polluted rags of your own sin. You're not going to go to bed tonight in that condition, with no concern, no disturbance, and suddenly wake up tomorrow, and find that during your sleep, God performed a marvelous change, and you wake with the sense that your sins have been forgiven, and that you are now clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

6:11 If you're ever to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, it'll begin with the desire to be rid of your own rags. You've come in repentance and faith, and fled for refuge to the Lamb of God. You've known what it is to pant in hunger after God. But you've grown cold and indifferent.

6:42 You no longer have to worry about the sin that you see on every hand. You no longer have to yearn over souls. You've lost your relish for the Word of God. Now, you're not going to go to bed in that condition, and suddenly wake up tomorrow morning and find an insatiable thirst for the Word of God, a great liberty in prayer.

7:07 You won't go out into the day finding your heart stirred with compassion for sinners. No, no. You know where that'll begin? It'll begin by you, perhaps even here this morning, beginning to get blessedly disturbed and sick to death.

7:22 Your present state and lack of reality. You know what it is to have the Word of God, a precious book again, to find your heart stirred with compassion for sinners. Dear ones, it's the principle of God's truth that before God bestows His blessing and grace, He always makes the heart desperate for that miracle. That's why Jesus said, Blessed are they which hunger in thirst, they will be fulfilled once and only day.

The Paradox of Blessed Hunger and Thirst

8:00 And then this text also sets out a marvelous principle of God's truth that's found throughout the breadth of the Scriptures, that the true Christian is a mystery to himself and to others. How can there be any blessedness in being hungry and thirsty? I thought blessedness was in being full. Yes, it is.

8:20 And yet it's blessed to be hungry and thirsty. What is this text setting before us? It's setting before us the paradox, the marvelous mystery that the true Christian, the hymn writer captured when he said, insatiable or unsatisfied, to this spring I fly, I drink, and yet I never dry. It's the old, thou living bread, and more yeast upon me still.

9:03 Drink of thee, the fountain egg, and thirst our souls from thee. There's the paradox. And every true child of God knows this glorious paradox in all its truth. Many profess to know it, who know absolutely nothing of this, and by it they betray the truth.

How to Know if You Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

9:30 They've never come into saving acquaintance with Jesus Christ the Lord. Now, having stated that by way of introduction, how can I know? This is the practical aspect, and as I bring it to you, I'm greatly indebted to Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones' book, and the Sermon on the Mount, for some of the thoughts I'll share with you this morning.

9:49 How can I really know if I am hungry and thirsty after righteousness? If I believe the Bible at all, I must acknowledge, as our Lord Jesus stated, that the only blessed people are those who do hunger and thirst, the only ones who have any hope that they'll be filled with righteousness and all the gifts of God are those that hunger and thirst. Being convinced of this, thy question, you are, the question of utmost importance to me as an individual is simply this. Am I after righteousness?

10:24 How can I know after righteousness? If I'm not, I'm not blessed. What will be the manifestations of this spiritual hunger and this spiritual thirst? Well, the answer to this question, as far as getting the specific indications, evidences, we go to the Word of God, and we try to find in the Bible men and women who hunger and thirst.

10:56 And as we find them, and wherever they open up their hearts and they pen the inner strivings of their souls and spirits, then we hold that up as a standard and we say, this is what it means to hunger and thirst after God. Is the language of their hearts the language of my heart? When I read of David saying, as the young deer panteth after the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. O God, thou art my God.

11:24 Earth, I seek thee, my heart and my flesh cry out for thee. My soul fainteth, yea, longeth for the courts of my God. I read language like that, I ask myself, is that the language of my heart when I'm alone listening to prayer? Not my language when I'm here with God speaking.

11:43 Not my language when I sing Bernard's We taste thee, O thou living bread, and long the feast upon me still. But is this the language of my heart when I'm alone with God? It was the language of David's heart. Hungered and thirsted, and so I can tell if I'm hungry and thirsting, the language of my heart will be the language of the hearts of those who panted after God.

12:08 Not only do I compare the language of the heart as recorded in the Scripture, but I compare the activity of the life. I read of a Jacob who gets alone with God on the port of the brook Jabbok. He wrestles with this heavenly messenger and says, I'll not let thee go unless thou bless me. And we find his whole physical frame is engaged in myself when I pray, when I seek God.

12:38 Is there any of that intensity that actually breaks out into my very physical activity, or do I sit there or kneel there half asleep with my head upon the pillow and mutter some sanctified Hail Mary? Or our Father? Is there a real which my whole being I can tell by comparing the language of the heart, the activities of the life of men in the Scripture, that I can do it by comparing with the men and women whose lives grace the pages of Christian biography, and as I see what they thought and what they said and how they acted as they hungered and thirsted after righteousness, then I can compare myself and know whether or not I hungered. So that's basically what they want to do this morning, to cull some of the basic language of the heart and the activities of the life and the principles of operation found in the lives of men and women in the Scripture and in the history of the Church who hungered and thirsted and have been the God-blessed, God-filled men and women. Now right at the top of the list of the evidences of those that hunger and thirst after righteousness is this simple principle. Whoever hungers and thirsts after righteousness sees through his own.

Evidence 1: Seeing Through Your Own Righteousness

14:02 Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. First of all, admit failure and that they haven't done all they should. One of our ladies was witnessing to someone on the bus the other day, and by the way, that's a very good practice. You get on the bus and you're seated next to someone.

14:35 If you're a child of God and you're in the will of God, you're not in that seat by accident. And the person who's sitting next to you is a child of God. You're not in that seat by accident. The person who sits next to you doesn't sit there by accident.

14:46 That's a divine appointment. And this particular person in our fellowship took it as a divine appointment, began to look for an opening of wisdom. Then the opening came. And in the course of the conversation this particular woman was able to give something to the plan of salvation.

14:58 And then she said this to the lady, very cultured, divine lady. She said, and of course we all are sinners, aren't we? The member of our fellowship said, well, come on now, be honest. We all are sinners.

15:18 We all are sinners. We all are sinners. Aren't we? And after some reluctance this lady acquiesced and said, well, I guess so.

15:27 Now what she was saying, she was willing to admit that perhaps she hadn't done everything she ought to have done all during her life and maybe did a few bad things. But now, suppose I were to come along and say, all right, now you've admitted you did a few bad things. How do you think your good things look before God? She'd say, oh well, they're just what you said they are.

15:50 They're good things. That they've stolen once or twice or told a lie or fought a lustful thought or trod with their husband when they shouldn't or beat their wife when they shouldn't. They'll admit this. And they'll say, I've done a few bad things over here.

16:03 What's the great residue of my life over here? That's mine. No one was ever clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ and made a child of God until they viewed the residue of what looked to be good over here and called it exactly what God wanted. You follow me?

16:27 We have a beautiful example of this or a clear example in the life of Saul of Tarsus. Saul was this man, you know, who was breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the church. There came to him in the course of this life of rebellion against God this resolute determination to destroy the church of Christ. There came to him a revelation of himself and of the risen Christ.

16:53 And he tells us that the resurrection of Jesus was a revelation of the resurrection of Christ. He says in the book of Philippians what one of the results of that revelation was. Listen. He says, if anyone should have confidence in the flesh I could have it and even more.

17:10 I'm paraphrasing now. I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee. You realize what this meant. The Pharisees fasted twice a week, gave tithes of all that they possessed.

17:28 They were looked upon in the same way that they were looked upon in our day. They were looked upon as theosophy and external righteousness. They were it. And Paul said I had all of this the righteousness which is in the law the standards.

17:49 He said I was blameless. He said nobody could come along and point a finger at me and say look you're abusing your parents. You're not honoring your father and mother. Nobody could come along and ever question my morals.

18:01 I kept the commandment thou shalt not commit adultery. He said as far as I was blameless. Now he's talking about his good things not his bad things. He's talking about his good background.

18:11 His good heritage. His good breeding. His good training. His good religious discipline.

18:15 His good religious zeal. All of this. Now notice what he said. But what things were gained to me but counted loss for Christ?

18:23 Yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency or the exceeding greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count these wonderful assets he says I count them but done decrypying as the gift of till he was willing to look upon this grave block virtuous things as the world's house virtues and save it in the eyes of almighty God these things cannot commend me to him I count them but refuse decrypying refuse after righteousness to say as the prophet Isaiah did an unclean thing and all righteousnesses are as filthy rags the prophet said he didn't say all are he said all the best

19:53 things I've done things I've done are as defiled this morning have you ever counted all done in my grim cry I asked you that this morning have you ever looked upon all the nice kind good things you did and I'm not disparaging God have you seen that they have no merit they have no virtue acceptable before a holy God until you count all the virtues and all the refuse you will never gain Christ for God never clothes with the righteousness of his son anyone who's content with the flimsy rags of his own device have you hungered and thirsted after righteousness you've never been filled with a blessed awareness that I'm naught but a sinner an object of the infinite boundless mercy of God nothing in my hands either simply

21:21 did I crawl I crawl a man or woman who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is a man or woman who sees through this curtain I seem to meet precious you feel who've ever seen through to the place where even their best things have appeared to ever seen your righteousness is like that you'll say the bible hasn't told half the story this is not only true of the sinner this is not only true of the one who comes to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ see having come and been clothed with the righteousness of Christ and experienced the joy of sins forgiven and the witness of the spirit of our sonship beginning to walk in the way of holiness and obedience knowing the joy of the breaking off of the chains of habit and external sin it's so easy to think that holiness is a matter of do's and don'ts

22:50 as far as where I go to

23:43 oh god you desire not only truth with the lips but truth with the heart you desire the inner part of me at this morning, dear child with God, if you're content with a holiness and a righteousness that merely touches your external. All right, you don't do this, you don't do that, you don't do this, you read your Bible, you pray, you come to church. Now that's fine. These you ought to have done with the Lord's grace. But do you know anything about crying out for truth in the inward parts? Do you know what it is to put down before God, conscious that though you've been in church, you're in church with a cold heart, and to thirst after righteousness that touches your motives, your attitude? Do you know anything about this? Therefore these promises, dearly beloved, 2 Corinthians 7-1, let us cleanse ourselves of all defilement

24:57 of the flesh and of the soul. There are defiled the motives, the thoughts, the intent, the long part you've been delivered from striking back when someone speaks ill of you. But have you been delivered from the clenched fist in the heart? Thank God you've been delivered from the clenched fist out here, and the nasty word here. But have you been delivered down here? That's the holiness, the sanctification, the righteousness that God purposes for us in Jesus Christ. ... from defilement only of the flesh, but of the spirit. And those who hunger and thirst

25:53 after righteousness, whether it's the sinner coming to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ or the sinner coming to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, whether it's age pursuing the path of holiness. They are people who see through their own false righteousness. As one man of God said, we are not hungering and thirsting after righteousness as long as we're holding to any sense of self-satisfaction concerning anything that's in us or concerning anything we've done. The moment I feel I can rest on my oars, I'm no longer and been clothed in His righteousness. Child of God, is your holiness gone beyond? Do you know anything about the things I've talked about this morning? If not, you're not a blessed

27:10 person because you're not hungering and thirsting. And there's no need for you to hunger and thirst. You're satisfied. See? You're satisfied with your own righteousness. No need for you to hunger and thirst. That's why you're not a God-blessed man or woman. That's why you're not a God-blessed man or woman. That's why you're not a God-blessed man or woman.

Evidence 2: Refusing Substitutes for Righteousness

27:26 That's why you're not a God-blessed man or woman. Then the second indication, found wherever there's a hungering and thirsting in the heart of a man or woman, fellow or girl, is that that person will always refuse substitutes for righteousness. Not only will he see through his own false righteousness, but he'll refuse all substitutes for the righteousness that he seeks. Let me use an illustration this morning that may help bring this into focus. Write a picture with me, a man whose face is drawn.

28:01 He's stretched all over the cheekbones, lifeless, colorless, bawdy, suffering of malnutrition, starvation. It's not a very pretty picture, but it's a picture that's true in many parts of the world. About half the world goes to bed hungry. About a fourth or a third of it probably in that condition that I've described to you. Now here he stands. No means of supply that would nourish him. No means of obtaining the food that would satisfy his hunger. Remember, he needs those two things. He needs the food that would satisfy his hunger. He needs the

28:47 food that would satisfy his hunger. He not only needs the sensation of hunger to be satisfied, he needs sure enough nourishment. He needs a good balanced diet. The nutrients that will once again make him strong and put color on his cheek and flesh upon his bones and put some life back into that lifeless frame. Now there he is, conscious of this. He'll have a gratification, but he also, that which after it enters his stomach will go out into all the parts of his body as nutrients. And as he's standing there knowing, there's been a promise that someone will serve him. He's going to serve him. He's going to serve him.

29:25 If there's anyone here who wants to serve him, he'll do it if he's willing to. It's only through someone who's willing to come in with a balanced meal, that you realize that if he's willing to help him withzäh even though he's 10, hewritten and liaisons with his own blood, maybe you're ready. Think of me as you're having a meeting with one of the scriptures and you're asking 39 of thousand believers, many more than I am. I recall hearing a woman, saying, this is my involving three four six people into a big number of families here in the state, and I have strong enough to work through that but they don't know where they're at. Huh.

29:56 Oh no. That's what I got to stop, let's act simple like an un oy get out of my head. See I want It might somehow take the edge off his hunger. It doesn't cause a violent reaction.

30:03 But the man presents it, and it looks good. It's been made to smell nice and even look like food. But he asks him and says, what is that? And he tells him, this is delicious brown coming by with the goodness of a balanced meal.

30:24 You can get rid of your... Concerned about being well?

30:32 Really concerned about having his appetite satisfied? What will he do? Sorry, take your bark somewhere else. It might temporarily take away the sense of appetite, but bark will never meet my need.

30:45 I need good, balanced food. And he refuses. A long moment later, and he has prepared dirt for it. He's got it all fixed up so it looks good to the eye.

30:56 And he even has it to such that it's flavored like real food. And he asks him what it is, and he goes through the same thing, and he tells him what it is. He said, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I don't want that.

31:06 And they said, well, what are you going to do, produce your own food? He says, no, I'm a...

31:11 Man suffering the... Malnutrition.

31:13 I have no power to create my own food. He's coming by, who has...

31:21 I believe in a little picture, a little way. This is a picture of the man, a woman, who's hungry and thirsting for righteousness. When the holy samples underfoot the laws of...

31:35 And in the light of... Can't create my own...

31:42 The promise that in Christ Jesus there is righteousness, there is forgiveness. And I hear the command to seek the Lord while he may be found. It's just at that point that the destroyer of souls comes and offers...

31:57 Offers substitutes for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And he comes to the awakened convicted sinner and says...

32:14 Dressed up dirt. Here, a few vows. And determine that you're going to go to church and read your Bible and pray and be good. That'll satisfy you.

32:23 And oh, how many an awakened soul has just made a few vows and made a determination to live right or to be right.

32:32 And they fed upon this only to find to their shame an everlasting destruction. That the dressed up dirt of self-determination in vows was never intended to meet their need for righteousness. The man or woman who sees I've offended a holy God. And there's nothing short of a perfect righteousness that'll meet my need.

32:55 He refuses the substitute of mere vows or decisions or reformation and cleaning up his life. And that man is restless until he knows that he has taken up the bread of the righteousness. Of the righteousness. Of Jesus Christ.

33:10 He is restless until he knows that his sins are blotted out for Christ's sake. And that he stands accepted in the beloved one. And what is true of the sinner is also true of the saint. Once awakened to his need, the true child of God, that holiness goes deeper than the mere externals.

33:32 And he begins to long and pant for a relationship to God. And to purity. That touches his motives and the springs of his being. Immediately the enemy comes and many times through the voice of well-meaning Christians.

33:46 All you need to do is do a little bit more for the Lord. Pass out a few more tracts. Go to a few more meetings. Get a little more active in the work of the church.

33:55 The person says, oh no, I'm sorry, this won't meet the need of my heart. My need is such that it can't be touched by just being within the walls of the church a few more hours a week. Someone else will come along and say, well, you just need to read. More books, sir.

34:10 Someone else will come along and say, shed a few tears. No, no. The true child of God whose heart is set on purity and holiness will refuse all substitutes. And he'll pant and hunger and long for that operation of the Holy Ghost that purifies the deep inner recesses of his motives and his desires.

Application: Are You Refusing Substitutes?

34:34 He'll refuse all substitutes. Now I ask you today. Are you refusing? Are you refusing all substitutes for righteousness?

34:43 Am I talking to men and women who at one time became aware and began to be concerned? I'm going to stand before God someday. I'm a sinner. And God's holy days has traced out every perversion of my heart and life.

34:58 I must have a righteousness that's perfect and covers all my sins from the view of God.

35:06 The enemy came along by some means or another. He got you convinced at all. You need to. You need to join the church.

35:12 You get baptized or make a few vows. And that's what you did. And you know and God knows you're never pressed through until you were clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Oh, dear friend, I remind you of the words of Christ this morning.

35:28 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness and are satisfied with nothing less than God's righteousness. For they should be filled. Am I talking to a child of God who at one time was deeply concerned about this matter? A matter of motives, desires, the attitudes of the heart.

35:48 Not an unwholesome introspection picking over your own heart, no. But just a healthy reflection upon the state of your heart. Revealing to you that in that heart, though the outward life was relatively clean,

36:02 all forms of jealousy and uncrucified, unsanctified ambition and idolatrous affection for things. You began to earnestly seek the Lord. You heard that he would do a deeper work in you and purge and purify you in the deep recesses of the heart. But then you were offered a job in the church or a Sunday school class and you've gotten so busy now.

36:29 And that basic heart need was never met. And as you sit here this morning, it's unmet still. And upon all your service, there's not the anointing and the unction of the Holy Ghost. Because you never went clean through with God.

36:48 Oh, dear one. To hunger and thirst after righteousness. And hunger and thirst after righteousness means that I not only see through my own false righteousness, but I refuse all substitutes for his righteousness. Either given to me as the gift of grace in the righteousness of Christ, or that righteousness brought in me through the power and operation of the Holy Ghost.

37:13 And then following right along with this, the one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness.