Matthew 5:6
~17 min read
💭 Consider this: What is the greatest desire of your heart right now? What competes most strongly with your desire for righteousness?
TRANSCRIPT
Just to recap what we have learned so far about the Beatitudes. The word Beatitude is a name derived from the Latin which means blessedness. The word blessed is to be happy, fortunate or blissful. It is a state of happiness. To be blessed is not a superficial feeling of well-being based on the circumstances; ‘When the situation is good, I am blessed’, ‘When the situation is not good, I'm not blessed’—It is not like that. It is a deep supernatural experience of happiness based on the fact that one's life is right with God. It is a biblical blessedness that can only come to us through a right relationship with Jesus Christ.322
Today we have come to the fourth Beatitude. Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." The words hunger and thirst speak of a great desire, a strong pursuit, a passionate ambition in our hearts, seeking after something that will honour and glorify God.
In life, people pursue after different things, and most of the time they seek after the wrong things. Allow me to give you several examples.
The first example is Lucifer. He was actually a beautiful angel known as the shining one. But he was not satisfied with living in God's glory. He wanted his own glory. And so he said in his heart, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." Notice five times he said, "I will," which tells us of his self-righteousness, self-confidence and self-glorification. Because of that pride and rebellion, he was cast out of heaven. Because God said, "Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." (Isaiah 14:13–15).
The second example is Nebuchadnezzar, who was king of Babylon, one of the greatest empires in ancient times. One day, as he walked on the roof of his royal palace, most likely overlooking the endless stretch of lands and buildings which he had conquered. And he said to himself, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my majesty?" While the word was still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, "O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." Daniel 4:29–32. Nebuchadnezzar became insane, a madman.
The third example is the parable of the rich fool, whose crops were so abundant that he did not have enough space to store them. After he planned to tear down his old barns and to build newer barns, he said, "And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." But God said to him, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. Gospel of Luke 12:19–21.
So you know this: Lucifer hungered and thirsted after power. Nebuchadnezzar for praise. The rich fool went after pleasure. These were just some examples of the millions of people in this world who hunger and thirst for the wrong things.
Whether it be wealth, prosperity, glamour, fame, status, and so forth. And because they hunger and thirst for the wrong things, they have forfeited the good things that God could have blessed them.
Dear friend, what are the things you hunger and thirst for? Let us ask ourselves this question. What is the greatest desire of our hearts? What is the one thing that we are so eager to have, so passionate about, that we are willing to sacrifice everything, to do everything we can to obtain it?
Whatever you have in your mind may be different from others, but think about this. Once you have obtained this thing, is it all there is to life? Is it really a blessing? Is this really the very thing God wants us to hunger and thirst after?
I. Why Is It Necessary?
Jesus said that the only way to have this blessedness is to have this spiritual hunger and thirst for righteousness. But why is it necessary to hunger and thirst after righteousness?
Remember we have learned that there is a logical progression in the Beatitudes. Being poor in spirit will cause us to understand how wretched our sins are, which will then cause us to mourn for our sins. That will humble us, and that meekness will cause us to turn to God to seek for his righteousness. In other words, only the one who believes will hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Here Jesus used an analogy that everyone is familiar with: to hunger and thirst. They are the basic necessities of life. Just as food and water are necessary for physical life, likewise righteousness is necessary for spiritual life. Just as you and I cannot live physically without food and water, likewise we cannot live spiritually without righteousness.
Today we are fortunate to live in Australia, whereby very seldom we experience hunger and thirst, unlike countries like Africa which have been devastated with some of the worst famines. But we all know what it means to be hungry and thirsty, right? A starving person has only one overwhelming desire, one all-consuming passion for food and water. Nothing is more important to him or her than food and water.
The saddest part is that a person can be hungry and thirsty and yet he does not know it. What do we mean by that? Those unbelievers who are without God's righteousness, they are supposed to be starving for salvation, for spiritual life, and yet they do not know it.
You see, the heart of every person in this world is created with a sense of inner emptiness and need. They need God. They need his righteousness to cover them. But apart from God's grace and revelation, no one will be able to understand what that need is or how to satisfy the need.
That is why the people will always try to satisfy this inner emptiness with the things of this world. Whether it be material things, people, relationships, jobs, and so forth.
But God has opened the eyes of the believers, and they have experienced what it means to be poor in spirit, to mourn for their sins, to be meek, and subsequently they will hunger and thirst after righteousness. They want disobedience to be replaced by obedience. They want evil to be replaced with holiness. They want sin to be replaced with righteousness. That is what it means.
By way of illustration, most of you know that I previously worked in the prison ministry before I came to Melbourne. So I always like to use my past experiences as examples.
When you meet a drug addict or a former prisoner who come and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the first obvious observation is that he will stop taking drugs. He will stop smoking and drinking. Why? Because that is sinful, not righteous.
The second obvious observation is that he will not be speaking vulgarities or be engaged in sinful conversation. Why? Because that is also sinful, not righteous.
The third obvious observation is that he will be reading the Bible. He will be praying. He will be attending church services. He will be participating in fellowship meetings. Why? Because those things are righteous.
Can you see how a person who is a believer, whose life has been transformed by the Spirit of God, will turn away from sin and onto righteousness?
Dear friend, do you see yourself doing that? Do you see yourself hating the things that are sinful and loving the things that are righteous? Or do you still see yourself loving the things that are sinful?
How do we know if we are truly born again? Ask ourselves this question. Do I hunger and thirst after righteousness? Because the person who does not hunger and thirst after righteousness does not belong to the kingdom of God.
When you have the Holy Spirit indwelling in you, when you have God's life within you through the new life or new birth in Jesus Christ, your desire is to be more and more like the image of Christ, to grow in righteousness. Therefore, you will hunger and thirst after righteousness.
The psalmist David said, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" In other words, how can a young man live a pure and righteous life which is expected of him? "By taking heed thereto according to thy word." And if that is what the psalmist must do, then he is going to do everything he can to keep that. That is why David said, "With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Psalm 119:9–11.
II. What Is The Meaning?
Our second point is what is the meaning to hunger and thirst after righteousness?
Most of us have never faced life-threatening situations in which we will die.
If we are not given water or food, we think of hunger as missing a meal or two or going on a diet or waiting for our parents to come home and cook dinner for us. We think of thirst as having to run around the school over on a hot summer day and the need for a cold drink. But the hunger and thirst that Jesus speaks of here is much more intense than that.
One theologian gave this picture of its intensity. During World War I in the Palestinian region, the combined forces of the British, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers were pursuing the Turks as they retreated from the desert. As the troops move northward past Beersheba, their water ran out, their mouths got cold, got dry, their heads ache, and they became dizzy and fainted.
Eyes became bloodshot, lips swelled and turned purple. And they started to hallucinate. They knew that if they did not make it to the wells by nightfall, thousands of them would die as hundreds already had died. In a literal sense, they were fighting for their lives.
Finally they reached the wells, and as the water was being distributed, the more able-bodied ones were required to stand at attention and wait for the wounded and those who were sick to drink first. It was 4 hours before the last man had his drink.
During that time, the man stood no more than 20 feet away from thousands of gallons of water that they could drink of, which had been their overwhelming desire, consuming passion for many agonising days.
One of the officers who was present reported, "We all learned our first real Bible lesson, if such were our thirst for God, for righteousness, and for his will in our lives, a consuming, all-embracing, preoccupying desire, how rich in the fruit of the Spirit would we be if only we could have that kind of desire in our hearts like the way we have the desire to quench our thirst." How spiritually rich our lives would be. How true. That is the kind of hunger and thirst our Lord Jesus was speaking about in this Beatitude. The strongest and deepest desire in our hearts.
The interesting thing about this hunger and thirst is that it will continue to grow in our lives. Allow me to use the glory of God to illustrate this point.
When Moses was in the wilderness, God appeared to him in a burning bush. Right? When he went back to Egypt to deliver his people, he saw God's power in the miracles and the 10 plagues. He saw God divided the Red Sea and swallowed up the Egyptians. He saw God's glory in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, which led the children of Israel in the wilderness. He built a tabernacle for God and saw the Lord's glory shining above the Holy of Holies. Again and again, he saw the glory of God.
Yet Moses wanted to see more. He was never satisfied. So much so that he pleaded with God, "I pray thee, show me thy glory." God knew this strong desire in his heart. But no man could see God and live. Therefore, God said, "Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen." But my face shall never be seen. You can read about that in Exodus chapter 33.
In a sense, we will never be satisfied. We will never have enough of God and his righteousness. Have you ever heard a sermon that truly touched and encouraged your heart to live a righteous life? Most certainly you have. But does it mean after listening to that message it is enough? I am satisfied.
Now I can go on without listening to any messages for another 30 days. No, you want to listen to more. You just want more and more. In the same way, this righteousness will continue to grow in our lives.
III. What Is The Goal?
Our third point is what is the goal of hungering and thirsting after righteousness? The goal of hungering and thirsting after righteousness is twofold. For the unbelievers, the goal to hunger and thirst is for salvation. For the believers, the goal to hunger and thirst is for sanctification.
Remember in the Beatitudes Jesus was speaking about the believer. When a person initially hungers and thirsts after righteousness, he seeking for salvation. The righteousness that comes when he turns to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour.
In many Old Testament passages, the word righteousness is used interchangeably for salvation. Just as the word righteous is often used to describe the believer, the one who has been saved.
When a person gives up all hopes of saving himself based on his own merits or credits, all his self-righteousness, all his self-confidence, and begins to hunger and thirst for the salvation that brings God's righteousness, he will be blessed, because God will clothe him with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
That was the problem with the Jews. Their greatest obstacle to receive the Gospel was their own self-righteousness. They were so proud of themselves. They thought they were pure and holy. They were confident of their good works. They were God's chosen people. And they were the recipients of God's laws. And because of that, they were filled with this self-righteousness.
But Jesus told them that the only way to salvation was to hunger and thirst for God's righteousness to replace their own self-righteousness, which essentially was unrighteousness.
For the believers, the goal of hungering and thirsting is to grow in the righteousness we have received from trusting in Christ. That growth is sanctification.
No believer should ever think that he has arrived in his spiritual life until he reaches heaven. Believers must never stop hungering and thirsting for more of God's righteousness and holiness to be manifested in their lives through obedience.
That is the reason why the Apostle Paul prayed for the Philippians, that their love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offence to the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9–11.
Dear friend, that is why the church wants the believers, the members to grow. Parents want their children to grow. We want all of you to grow in your knowledge and application of the word that you may be more and more righteous.
There will never come a time in our lives that we do not need Bible studies. We do not need to listen to messages. We do not need to read the Bible. We do not need Christian fellowship. Such a time will never come as long as we live on this earth because we need to grow, and there will always be rooms for us to grow.
Notice Jesus did not say hunger and thirst after some righteousness or a little righteousness, but he simply said hunger and thirst after righteousness, which tells us it is unlimited. It is impossible for us to have our longings for righteousness satisfied in this life. We will continually hunger and thirst until the day we see Jesus face to face and we see the reality of being clothed entirely in his righteousness.
IV. What Is The Result?
Our fourth point is what is the result of hungering and thirsting after righteousness? The result is they shall be filled. That is a blessed promise.
The original word fulfilled is a term used for feeding of animals until they would want no more or they are satisfied completely, filled and satisfied. And it is in the future tense. They shall be filled. Which means as we live our lives and we seek after righteousness, God promised to fill us to satisfy us.
But you and I will still long for more righteousness. And he will continue to fill us, to satisfy us. But the day will come when we will be completely filled, completely satisfied, and it is the day when we have arrived in heaven.
Throughout the Bible, God promised that those who seek him shall be filled.
- Psalm 23:1 and 5. "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over."
- Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, "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 4:14.
- After Jesus fed the 5,000, he said to the multitude, "I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." John 6:35.
What a blessed promise. They shall be filled.
V. What Are The Marks?
Finally, what are the marks of someone who hungers and thirsts after righteousness? There are several marks of genuine hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Allow me to give you just three examples as we end. Not exhaustive.
Firstly, he will not live in habitual sins. The believer is not sinless, but he will not live in habitual sins because God's righteousness does not permit him to do so. Righteousness and sin are exact opposites. If you live in sin, you are not righteous. If you are righteous, you will not live in sin. You either have one or the other. So if the believer hungers and thirsts after righteousness, he will not live in sin.
Secondly, he will love the things that promote righteousness. A hungry man cannot be satisfied by an arrangement of beautiful flowers or listening to soothing music or having a nice conversation. Now, all these things may not be sinful in and of themselves. They may even be good, but they do not have the ability to satisfy his hunger. Neither can physical things satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst.
When you and I thirst and hunger for God's righteousness to be more and more righteous like our Lord, we will need things that are spiritual to help us, not things physical. What are the things that promote righteousness? The worship service, Bible study, Bible reading, prayers, fellowship meetings, serving God and all the other spiritual activities. So if we truly hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will love all these spiritual things.
Finally the mark will be that person will crave for the word of God because the Bible is the basic spiritual food God provides for his children. The hungry believer does not have to beg to eat. God has already made available to him the Bible. And through the wonderworking of his Spirit, the believer will be filled and satisfied.
And then he will long for more righteousness, and God will fill him and satisfied him. And he will yet long for more righteousness. And God will still fill him and satisfy him until he finally is glorified.
The more you and I seek God's righteousness, the more we will love the Scriptures. Vice versa. The more we love the Scriptures, the more we will seek God's righteousness.
Why? Because God's word contains his righteousness. So when we feed ourselves on his word, it will increase our appetite for righteousness. The more we know who we are and the more we know who God are and the more we understand his standards and his expectations of us, the more we will seek after his righteousness.
And it is a spiritual work which you and I cannot achieve on our own strength. The Holy Spirit will help us.
So Jesus said, "Blessed are they which do hunger enters after righteousness, for they shall be filled." May God help us not just to cling onto this promise but also to live out this truth that our Lord himself has taught us.
Let us pray.
Father in heaven, we give thee thanks for how thou has reminded us of the importance of thirsting and hungering after righteousness. And we have this blesser promise that we shall be filled. And we understand from the context that it is a reference to the believers.
For the unbelievers, the goal is for them to thirst and hunger for salvation. For the believers, it will be to hunger and thirst for sanctification.
There was a time when we were outside thy kingdom. But thou has enabled the word of God through the working of thy spirit to convict our hearts. Whether it be through personal evangelism of someone or through listening to a sermon or through Bible studies. We have come to be convicted and led to believe in the only saviour of the world, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
And we thirst and hunger after the salvation, the righteousness which cometh from him. And after we have trusted him, we still continue to hunger and thirst, but it is for growth, for our sanctification.
And though we will be filled, we will be satisfied, but it is not enough. For we will want more and more, we will never have enough of thee and thy righteousness. Thou would filled us and satisfied us. And then we will still long for more righteousness, more of thee and thy righteousness.
And thou will fill and satisfy this. And we will still long for more. And it goes on and on and on until finally when we see our Lord Jesus face to face and in our glorified state, then that is the time we have arrived.
But as long as we are still alive living on this earth, we will still hunger and thirst after righteousness, and we will cling onto thy promise, for we shall be filled all to the glory of thy precious name.
We give thee thanks and we pray all this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
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