Matthew 5, verse 6. Matthew 5, verse 6. The Lord Jesus Christ says here
in this blessing, He says, Blessed are they which do hunger and
thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Now, a
hunger and a thirst after righteousness. is found only in those who behold
by faith the Lord Jesus Christ. We hunger and we thirst to hear
the gospel for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
Now I'm gonna have you turn with me to several scriptures today.
I want you to turn to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 And I want to develop something
here, and I want you to stay with me. Romans chapter 1, you
have your outlines there. But in Romans chapter 1, Paul
says in verse 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Not just preaching, not just a vocal demonstration that it
looks like preaching, the gospel of Christ. For it is the power
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew
first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. The gospel of Christ is the power
of God unto salvation to all who believe because Christ is
the power of God unto salvation. Take Christ out of the word preached
and it is not the gospel. It is not the power of God unto
salvation because Christ is the power of God unto salvation.
And the gospel we preach has to be totally concerning Christ
Jesus the Lord. Because Paul said in 1 Corinthians
1.23, we preach Christ crucified, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God. Now, because Christ Jesus, the
Son of God, the person, is the Lord our righteousness. He is the Son of God. He is Jehovah. He is the Lord our righteousness. It's a person. In His days, Judah
shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is His
name whereby He shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Now, it pleased God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And when the
gospel of Christ is preached, when Christ the power of God
is preached, the righteousness of God is revealed therein because
the righteousness of God is the person, Christ Jesus. And as
that gospel is preached, Paul told the Corinthians, he said,
Of God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. As it is written,
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. So, Christ Jesus
the Lord, the Son of God, He is the Word. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. He is the righteousness of God. Christ Jesus the Lord, the Son
of God, is the gospel we preach. Only when Christ Jesus is revealed
in a sinner, does that sinner begin to understand something
of what the righteousness of God is. That word righteousness
is so foreign to me and you because we're so far from being righteous
in ourselves. The only way we really perceive
what righteousness is, is in direct relation to the revelation
of Christ Jesus. There's where we see righteousness.
And those that have been justified by Christ live by faith in Christ,
by the faithfulness of Christ toward God on our behalf, and
by the gift of God, which is faith that He's given us to believe
on Christ. That's how we live. Christ is
righteousness to us. Now, look over with me at Romans
chapter 3 and verse 21. Because Christ is righteousness,
because this Gospel declares the righteousness of God, Here's
where the righteousness of God is revealed. Now, I'm going to
get to this thing of hungering and thirsting after righteousness,
but I'm trying to develop here for you how it is that we know
anything at all about righteousness and what true righteousness is
that the believer is blessed to hunger and thirst after. Okay? Look here at Romans 3.21. It
says, the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested. That means without the believer's
obedience to the law, without you doing anything in the law,
the righteousness of God is manifested. It is witnessed by the law and
the prophets. You know what a witness is. A
witness gets on the stand in a courtroom and testifies and
says, I saw Robert Keller. And I can testify to you that
Robert Keller did this, this, and this, and this. Well, the
law says of Christ Jesus the Lord, He is holy in His person. We have no fault with Him whatsoever,
the law says. And the law says, He perfectly
became sin and paid the wages of sin which the law demands
being death. He paid it fully and the law
bears witness and says he's holy and he is justified. He has justified his people and
everybody that he represents. The law says, it testifies, it
says we have no charge against him whatsoever. It's also witnessed
by the prophets. This is what the prophets of
God, all of God's preachers, all of His messengers, every
believer throughout the Old Testament, everybody came and heard God's
preachers preach this message. The prophets were given prophecy
by God to declare this is Christ who's coming and this is the
righteousness of God. I just quoted to you, He's the
Lord our righteousness. That was Jeremiah. And Jeremiah
was given that prophecy that in his days, this is the name
wherewith he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. So,
it says here now in Romans 3, Verse 21, witnessed by the Law
and the Prophets. Verse 22, even the righteousness
of God. Now this is the very righteousness
of God by faith of Jesus Christ, by the fidelity of Jesus Christ,
by His faithfulness. That's how it's witnessed. That's
where it's witnessed. That's the one the law and the
prophets bear witness of, is Christ and His faithfulness.
That's who they bear witness of. Not me, not you, not anybody
else. By the obedience of one. Grace
shall reign through righteousness. He's the One. And that's what
the Law and the Prophets bear witness of. And this righteousness
is unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no
difference. Everybody that's going to be
saved has got to be saved through the righteousness of Christ.
The righteousness of God manifests in Christ. Verse 23 says, For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's why
the righteousness of God couldn't be It couldn't be manifest in
me or you. The law could never look at me
and you and say, there's the righteousness of God. The prophets
were never given any witness to bear of you or me or of any
other man because we've all fallen and come short of the glory of
God. But this is the righteousness of God. Being justified freely
by His grace. Freely by His grace. Justified
means to be cleared of all charges. justified, freely. You don't have to do anything
to it. He does it. He pays the wages of sin by His
grace. It's given to whomsoever He'll
give it to through the redemption, the purchase that Christ Jesus
purchased, whom God set forth a propitiation through faith
in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remissions of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness. That He, Jehovah, the Lord our
Righteousness, the Son of God, in Christ Jesus the Lord, because
He's God and Man, because He's the God-Man, because it's absolutely,
completely out of our hands, He is just and He is the Justifier. Okay? This is how it happened. He hath made Him sin for us who
knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Christ Jesus the Lord knew no
sin. He had to be righteous through
and through. He's righteous. No sin in Him. No guile in Him.
No deceit in Him. You're sitting here right now,
some of you are thinking about things. You're looking at me
and you're putting on a good show like you're listening to me.
But you're thinking about something else. None of that was in Christ.
He was true through and through. He was righteous through and
through. Completely. And He went to the cross and
He took the sin of the people that God gave Him and He was
made sin. God the Father, it pleased Him. It pleased Him to lay the sin
of His people upon His Son, and His Son to bear the wrath of
God on their behalf, and to put that sin away. That's how righteous
God is. He will not spare the guilty. When His sin was found on His
Son as the substitute of His people, God would not spare His
only begotten Son, but poured out justice upon Him. That's
the righteousness of God. And God did that because He was
merciful and He would justify a people. That's the righteousness
of God. To choose whom He will, to justify
whom He will, to be merciful to whom He will, to be gracious
to whom He will, that's the righteousness of God. And to do it in perfect
love, spotless, perfect, pristine love which He has of Himself,
which He is. God is love. And this is His
love. It's in Christ. And He sent forth His Son. And
in perfect love. Not a sentimental love that just
looked over the sin of His people, but a love who took the sin of
His people and put it away completely in perfect holiness, in perfect
justice. And then He takes the righteousness
of His Son and imputes it to His people. and He makes them
the righteousness of God in His Son. That's the righteousness
of God. That's how God saves sinners.
God does it. We don't do it. God does it.
That's how God saves sinners. And then this hungering and this
thirsting is created the more we see Christ. We don't know
anything about this until this, what I'm telling you right here,
when it's made real in your heart, when it is revealed by the divine
Spirit of God entering in and by the divine revelation, by
Him creating life anew in you and causing Christ to be formed
in you, then this will become life and death to you. You'll
understand then that this truly is righteousness. And not until
then. Until then, You might hunger
and thirst after a biscuit and a drink of water, but you won't
hunger and thirst after the bread from heaven and the water of
life. But when you behold the righteousness of Christ, the
righteousness of God manifest in Christ, then you'll hunger
and thirst after Christ. And only then. And the more you
hear of Him, the more you long after Him. Now, there's the first
thing. This hungering and thirsting
after righteousness is going to be manifest in that a person
is going to truly hunger and thirst to hear the Gospel because
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. It's like coming to the dinner
table. And a person that is hungry and thirsty keeps coming and
keeps coming and keeps coming and keeps coming to Christ because
he wants to eat and eat and eat and drink and drink and drink
because he's hungry and he's thirsty after God's righteousness.
Now, here's the second thing. We hunger and thirst to be turned
from our unrighteousness to rest in the righteousness of Christ
Jesus alone. When we first began, I was telling
Melinda the other day, when I first began in the faith, I think that
then my sin was less and less self-righteousness
and more just sin of ungodliness. And the older I've gotten, I
think my sin has become less and less of ungodliness and more
and more self-righteousness. But this is the thing, when we
see Him, we delight, we desire, we hunger and thirst from the
time we first see Christ for Him to cause us to cease looking
to any righteousness in us, and to turn from all ungodliness
and to totally trust Christ our righteousness. Let me give you
two Scriptures. Romans 10. Romans 10, verse 4. Romans 10, verse 4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Let me tell you something about
this righteousness. The obedience of Christ, the
faithfulness of Christ, the fidelity of Christ is the fidelity and
the faithfulness and the obedience of the one who believes on Christ. And therefore, he's not striving,
he's not striving to earn a righteousness,
a holiness, anything to do with righteousness by his obedience
to the law. Now read this with me. Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses describeth
the righteousness which is of the law. Now here it is. That
the man which doeth those things shall live by them. Believers
don't live by the law. Doesn't mean we're without law
at all. I'm going to show you that in a moment. But we don't
live by the law. The man that strives to live
by the law has got to obey that law fully. If you're under one
obligation to one law, you're under obligation to the whole
law. All of it. The believer just hungers and
thirsts to be turned from that thought, from that idea, from
that very, just the inkling of the thought that he can somehow
come to God and some obedience he's done. Brethren, the first
sin that was committed was trespass and transgression against God.
The second one that was committed was self-righteousness, trying
to come to God in something we had done. And that's been the
case ever since we sinned in Adam. We have a problem with
self-righteousness, with legalism, with trying to come to God in
something we've done. And men have that same problem
even after they profess Christ. More so after they profess Christ.
Now listen. that the man which doeth those
things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise." Look down to verse 8, and this
is going to help you get this. I'm going to cut out some things
here. The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this
wise. Here's what the righteousness of faith says. The Word is nigh
thee, in thy mouth, in thy heart. that is, the word of faith which
we preach. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, And with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture
saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." They
won't be brought before the law. They won't be accused and harassed
before the law. They won't be ashamed. Trust
Him. This is the righteousness of faith. I believe Christ. And
therefore, He's the end of the law for righteousness to me.
I'm trusting Him. His obedience is my obedience.
Here's the second thing under this heading that we desire to
be turned from. Look at 1 Timothy 2.11. 1 Timothy
2.11. The grace of God. This grace
of God that brings salvation. Christ our righteousness. This
grace that brings Christ teaches us. Look here in 1 Timothy 2
and verse 11. I'm sorry, it must be 2 Timothy
2, verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, Now, the grace of God hasn't
appeared to all men. This is speaking to believers. That's who grace has appeared
to. The salvation of Christ has appeared. We see Christ. We behold
Christ. That's what I was laying down
for you in the beginning. In this Gospel is the righteousness
of God revealed. And when the righteousness of
God is revealed, we want to turn from our obedience to trust Christ
as the end of the law for righteousness. And this is the second thing.
This grace of God brings salvation and teaches us. It creates in
us this hunger and this thirsting after righteousness. It teaches
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, godly in this present world, looking for
that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and
our Savior Jesus Christ. who gave himself for us that
he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people zealous of good works. We hunger and thirst after this
gospel because the righteousness of God is revealed in it. We
behold Christ, the power and wisdom of God, our righteousness.
The second thing is we hunger and thirst for the righteousness
of Christ, which means we don't look to the law for any kind
of righteousness and we don't want to walk in ungodliness. anymore. We want to walk in the
righteousness of Christ. That's our desire. That's our
hunger and our thirst. And then this hungering and thirsting
is a desire to be free from this body of death and to be perfectly
conformed to the image of Christ. Look with me at Romans 8 verse
23. Romans 8 verse 23. Verse 22 says, The whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Verse 23
says, And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Because we long and we hunger and thirst after Christ our righteousness,
because we hunger and thirst to be free from self-righteousness
and ungodliness, and because that's all we are in our flesh
and we see it continually in ourselves, we've grown desiring
to be with Christ our righteousness and to be perfectly conformed
to Christ our righteousness. Corinthians says, in this we
groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house
which is from heaven. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened, not for that we will be unclothed,
but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
The psalmist said, I'll be satisfied when I awaken thy likeness. That's
the yearning of the believer. That's the hungering and thirsting
of the believer. Now, back to Matthew 5. Matthew 5. This is
the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who has been
blessed by God, by the Spirit of God, to have this inward hungering
and thirsting after righteousness. The Lord says, they shall be
filled. They shall be filled. Do you
hunger and thirst after the righteousness of this Gospel? This is what
the psalmist said. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he may dwell in
thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. I'll tell you
what. A person who hungers and thirsts
after righteousness is going to be where the food is. Isn't
that the case? If you're hungry and thirsty,
aren't you going to be where the food is? If you're hungering
and you're thirsty, aren't you going to be where the food is?
The man who's been blessed of God is going to be where the
food is. And then, those that hunger and thirst to be turned
from all unrighteousness to rest in Christ the righteous. The
psalmist said, He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths
of righteousness for His namesake. You know who guides the believer
into all truth? You know who leads the believer
into righteousness? To look away from the law, to
look away from the sinfulness of our flesh, and to look to
Christ alone, our righteousness? He does. He does. He leads us in the paths of righteousness. And He does it through this Gospel.
You know what the word says? The law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. If I come in here and preach
to you what I just read from you out of 1 Timothy, where I
just preached to you to deny ungodliness, to deny worldly
lusts, to live soberly, to live righteously, to live godly. If
I preach that to you this morning and didn't tell you that Christ
the Lord is the One They didn't preach to you what I'm preaching
to you. They just told you live godly. That's not what the scriptures
is talking about when it says the law of the Lord is perfect
converting the soul. The word of the Lord, the word
which declares Christ Jesus the Lord is through that gospel that
he leads his people in the paths of righteousness through the
Spirit. Because when we hear about Christ our righteousness,
it's the only thing the only gospel, the only message that
causes a sinner to look from this world of death, this valley
of death, these members of death, this body of death, and look
to Christ. And therein we mortify the deeds
of the flesh. Therein we behold righteousness
and true holiness. And therein we stop looking to
ourselves and our brethren in this world, and the trials and
troubles of this world, and we trust Christ Jesus the Lord alone.
And that's how, when it says it, please God through the foolishness
of preaching, That's the kind of preaching that pleases God.
That's the kind of preaching that's foolishness to this world.
How many times have you heard people say, well, if you preach
just Christ, and you preach to Him being free from the law,
and you preach Christ like you do, then you're going to just
have a bunch of people that's going to live licentiously, they're
going to live in sin, they're going to live in rebellion, they're
going to just go off and be lawless. No. No, they won't. It's the
only way that they won't be, though. The other message makes
them be lawless in self-righteousness and hide their ungodliness and
cover it with the covering of fig leaves and pretend it's righteousness. This is the message that God
is pleased to save them that believe. It's the power of God
of salvation because it's Christ, the power and the wisdom of God.
And through that message that exalts Him, He does the work
of grace in the heart. That's why sin won't have dominion
over His people. That's why His preachers won't
preach law and legalism and morality. They preach Christ the Lord.
And God, through that message, makes His people obedient. I've
heard people say, well, y'all don't practice discipline. Oh,
yes, we do. Yes, we do. I preach the discipline of the
Lord Jesus Christ who alone can subdue this wickedness of our
flesh and bring us into obedience to Him. That's what I preach
every time I stand here. Every time I stand here the discipline
and obedience the world preaches and exercises. No That's child
abuse is what that is I preach Christ and he works the work
of grace in the heart because he's the king. I'm not the king
He's the priest. I'm not the priest. He's the
lawgiver. I'm not the lawgiver. He's the
father. I'm not the father He's the one
that does the work. I can't do the work. I And the
reason this message is so offensive to the pride and sinful flesh
and they rebel against it is because Paul told Timothy, preach
this and rebuke with all authority. And when I preach this message,
it rebukes that man that's insisting on coming in his obedience and
his self-sanctification. And because he's not a child
of God and not been subdued by the grace of God, he will not
bow to it. And he says, no, that's not the
gospel. He's a disobedient child that will not, he's a spoiled
brat that will not bow and submit when he's rebuked of Christ in
the Gospel. And therefore, he don't want
to hear Christ in the Gospel preached. He wants to hear his
touch not, taste not, handle not. Now, this is the last thing. Do you desire to be perfectly
conformed to his image? Philippians 3.20 says this, Our
conversation is in heaven, From whence also we look for the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3 verse 20. Our conversation,
our deportment, our life, everything about us is in heaven. From whence
also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his
glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even
to subdue all things unto himself. That's what Christ said. He said,
the man that can hunger and thirst after Christ Jesus the righteous,
that man's been blessed and that man will be filled. We're tasting
it right now. We're tasting it. And we're so
sinful in this flesh right now that we just about can get full. But then, We'll really be filled. Right now we're not being filled.
We're just sinful in ourselves that we call being filled when
we just get tired. But then we won't have this sinfulness
and we'll be filled and conform to His image. Okay, that's a
blessed man.