MATTHEW 5.6

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

As we continue to work our way through the Beatitudes, keep in mind that these are descriptions of God developed character and values that are the secret of having a blessed or happy life. Every single person is looking for happiness, and Jesus Christ describes for us the source or true happiness.

We have already seen that the poor in spirit are happy, and the reason for that is because they realize that they are spiritually bankrupt and they are totally dependent upon the mercy and grace of God for salvation.

Those who mourn are happy, and the reason for that is because they realize how their sin has grieved God and hurt others, and as a result, God comforts them and removes the feelings of condemnation and guilt.

The meek have a special happiness because they are free of pride and selfish ambition. They have nothing to prove and nothing to lose, thus they inherit the earth. .

And this morning we move on to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They will be happy, because God himself will satisfy their longings.

In one sense, we are an appetite driven society, aren’t we?  If one has an appetite for a particular food, he shuns other things until he is satisfied. Meat won't satisfy the craving for chocolate!  But when we speak of appetites, we also use it to describe things other than food. We might say a person has an appetite for fiction or for a sport or for gardening or any number of things. Appetite describes one's desire or longing for something so that it stays on the mind, and consumes the thoughts until satisfied. These can be healthy appetites that enhance our lives, or they can be destructive appetites that drive us away from God, and frankly, that can destroy every relationship. DR Phillip Newton

Mans greatest need beloved is to have a hunger for God Himself, because only God Himself can satisfy what has been called, “the hole or emptiness” in our souls as a result of the fall.

But that hunger for God includes a hunger for the very things that God provides as a means of satisfying the hunger within our souls.  The kingdom of God is not meat, nor drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in The Holy Ghost (Rom 14.17).

You can be sure of this: only those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are Christians; and those who do not, are not Christians. A person reveals the kingdom they belong to by the things that they crave and feed on. Our appetites are driven by the desires of our hearts. Before we were born again, Paul writes that we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others (Eph 2.3).

After our new birth, we still retain our sinful flesh, but as we will see, our desires change. We now crave intimacy with Jesus and the things that will build us up in our relationship with Him.

I know of nothing that will more affect your total worldview and behavior than the unflagging desire to be holy like Jesus Christ. Do you desire to be like Christ? Does this burn in your heart? Does it affect the decisions you make, the relationships you enter, the way you use your resources, the way you use your time, the things you do for recreation, the way you approach your education and vocation? Anonymous

 The first three Beatitudes were the emptying process.

• In poverty of spirit we turn away from self-seeking; in mourning we turn away from self-satisfaction; and in meekness we turn away from self-serving.
• Becoming poor in spirit involves death to self. Mourning over sin involves facing up to our sinfulness. Becoming meek involves surrendering our power to God's control.
• The fourth beatitude is born out of the first 3 beatitudes. When we put aside self, sin, and power and turn to the Lord, we are given a great desire for intimacy with Him and living after righteousness.

As the physical body has its natural appetites of hunger and thirst for the food and drink suited to its nourishment, so has the soul. 

• The next step in the progression of kingdom character is that we begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness or holiness. IAs I said a moment ago, after our conversion, our diets change.
• This new hunger and thirst for righteousness describes appetites that return frequently, and call for fresh satisfactions. The quickened soul calls for constant meals of righteousness, grace to do the work of every day in its day, as duly as the living body calls for food. Matthew Henry
• When a man is hungry the only thing that will satisfy him is food. When a person is hungry, he or she has little or no interest in other things. You can show him diamonds and jewels, new cars, houses and land, but if he is truly starving, his only desire is for food. A person who is hungry realizes that all those other things that people value are of no value to the satisfying of his hunger and thirst for God.
• If anything, the world system and the things of the world are like chemotherapy to a cancer patient…chemo is a poison that actually takes away the taste and desire for food that we need for growth and health. Jesus taught us this in the parable of the sower:
• Mark 4:18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, 19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
• The ungodly and unholy things of the world are like poison to the soul. Like chemotherapy, they kill the desire for the things of God.

The Greek words that Jesus uses to express this hunger and thirst convey the strongest desire imaginable. For example, when you are under water for a certain amount of time, eventually you will begin to hunger and thirst for air more than anything else. Nothing else is of importance or value to you. As I said a moment ago, when you arrive at this place of hunger and thirst for air, nothing else is of any interest or importance to you.  That degree of hunger and thirst is the kind of hunger and thirst that is being spoken of here beloved. We are not talking about snacking on spiritual junk food saints. We are talking about a drive, a passion, an intense desire for Jesus Christ, and the things that are pleasing to Him. Things that bless The Spirit of God instead of grieving Him. Right thinking, right speaking, right attitudes.

Beloved, to live righteously is not magic, for it requires a deliberate decision to flee unrighteous things on a moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day basis. It is an ongoing battle beloved. 

• 1Ti 6:11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
• 2Ti 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
• Ro 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. {instruments: Gr. arms, or, weapons}
• It was said of Robert Murray M'Cheyne that he would cry out, "Oh God, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be!"
• John Wesley; Upon entering his eighty-fifth year thanked God that he was still almost as vigorous as ever. He ascribed it, under God, to the fact that he had always slept soundly, had risen for sixty years at four o’clock in the morning to seek The Lord.
• The only way that we find satisfaction as Christians is when we decide to live for the will of God, and not ourselves.
• John 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
• John 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

Because of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, mankind’s spiritual hunger and thirst is corrupted and misdirected towards the things of the flesh and the influence of the fallen world system, thus in the gospel invitation, we are exhorted by The Lord to seek our fulfillment from Him, and nothing else.

• Isa 55. 1Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
• John 6.27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

This hunger and thirst for righteousness begins with an ardent desire for Jesus Himself, that will give birth to a hunger and thirst for the things that please Him and bring Him glory.

• Psalm 42.1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah.>> As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
• Psalm 63.1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; {thirsty: Heb. weary} {where...: without water} 2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

Never was there a sincere desire to be holy by a human being, which God was not willing to gratify. But that gratification comes in a Person, not a feeling or a ritual.

• John 4.14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
• John 6. 35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.
• John 7. 37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
• Psalm 107.9 For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

But Jesus tells us that only those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will find satisfaction.

For they shall be filled. This word filled is a very strong and graphic word that was originally applied to the feeding and fattening of animals in a stall.

• It was used in Rev 19:21 to describe the filling of the birds with the flesh of God's enemies. It was also used to describe how of the multitudes were fed with the loaves and fishes (Mat14:20; Mar8:8; Luk9:17).
• Satisfaction guaranteed. Remember the old Rolling Stones song, I cant get no Satisfaction….Mick Jagger got it right saints. There is no satisfaction living after the flesh or the things of the world. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they (and they alone) shall be filled. Jesus promises complete satisfaction for those who hunger and thirst for it.

The Ultimate fulfillment of this promise will be in the eternal state.

• Psalm 17.15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
• 2 Pet 3.13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

In closing, if any person expects to go to heaven, they must first be legally declared righteous before a holy God. Since God is our Creator and we are rebels against the Creator, in order for Him to forgive us and accept us, there must first be a removal of my sin debt that will satisfy the Creator and Judge. In other words,

• Beloved, what you hunger for reveals the character of your heart, for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. You can mask your outward performance with a form of godliness. You can churn out Christian lingo, and put on a happy face, but you know what you really desire. Multitudes of unconverted people flock into churches each week with "Christian masks" that hide the reality that their appetite is not for Jesus Christ but for the things of the world. They believe that as long as they “go to church” or follow religious traditions, they are right in the sight of God.
• Mt 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
• Listen to how the apostle Paul was comparing his religious experience before he was born again: Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

The righteousness that Paul is speaking about is the righteousness that is given by grace, through faith in The Lord Jesus Christ. This is the righteousness of Christ.

• Ro 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.Ro 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

• 2 Pet 1.1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
• Tit 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.

My friend, the whole subject of the gospel is that Jesus Christ has satisfied divine justice by virtue of His substitutionary death on the cross so that we, by grace, through faith in Him we might be born into a right relationship to God. If you hunger for forgiveness of sins and a right relationship to God, then your greatest need today is to receive by faith this legal righteousness provided through Jesus Christ. He that knew no sin became sin for you so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor 5:21). Have you had this kind of hunger eternally satisfied through faith in Jesus Christ?