Let us turn again to God's Word
as we continue to consider these opening verses in Matthew chapter
5, the beginning of course of the Sermon on the Mount. Now
the Lord opens his preaching by declaring these blessings,
the Beatitudes, and we turn now to that blessing that's spoken
of in verse 6 Matthew 5 and verse 6 Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Matthew
5 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness
for they shall be filled First of all, to establish the
fact, the truth, that what we read of here as righteousness,
of course, is that that includes all the blessings of salvation
which is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. In prophecy, what the
Lord is ministering here in the Gospel so clearly spoken of there
in the Old Testament prophets particularly when we think of
the words of the prophet Isaiah so many times Isaiah 56 and verse
16 my salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed
says the prophet as the mouthpiece of God my salvation is near to
come my righteousness to be revealed." Righteousness and salvation stand
there side by side. Again, the Prophet says, my righteousness
is near, my salvation is gone forth. These two then, righteousness,
salvation, come together. Again, we have those remarkable
words of the Prophet in Chapter 45. And there, at verse 8, how
the Lord God will pour forth His righteousness into a world
that is sunk in sin and in iniquity. Drop down ye heavens from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, let them
bring forth salvation. And let righteousness bring up
together, I the Lord have created it. And it all centers, of course,
in the fullness of the time when the Lord God is pleased to send
His only begotten Son, when the Messiah Himself appears, God's
manifest in the flesh. All that salvation that is in
the Lord Jesus is altogether bound up with the righteousness
which He demonstrates in the life of submission and obedience
to all the holy will of God. He says I came down from heaven
not to do my own will but the will of Him that sent me and
to finish His work. And when we come to the end of
the ministry of the Lord Jesus and that great prayer, that high
priestly prayer recorded in the 17th of John What does He say
to the Father? I have glorified You. On the earth I have finished
the work which Thou gavest Me to do. The Lord Jesus is that One who has
come and wrought such a righteousness that is necessary to the salvation
of the sinner. Again, not just Isaiah, but also
Jeremiah. All the prophets really speak
of Christ. Jeremiah 23.6, 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. Jehovah Sidkenia is one of the
names given then to the Lord Jesus Christ and as it is the
name that is given to Christ so the prophet there in chapter
33 and verse 16 of Jeremiah reminds us it's the name that also belongs
to the Bride of Christ this is the name wherewith she shall
be called the Lord our righteousness No, He is made of a woman, He
is made under the law. He is subject to the Lord of
God. He honors, magnifies it by obedience in His life. But
not only the righteousness of a sinless life, but also His
obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, and that
great sin-atoning sacrifice, that great oblation. when he
satisfies all the demands of God's law in terms of its dreadful
penalties, when he dies, the just for the unjust. There can
be no remission of sins without the shedding of blood, and so
his blood is shed. All the Lord Jesus, the end of
the law we're told, for righteousness to everyone that believe it. It is here that the sinner then
is justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they
shall be filled says the Lord. A man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. No Work of his own contributes
anything to his salvation, to his righteousness. It is all
found in the person, the work of the Lord Jesus. And of course,
we know that this feeding upon the Lord Jesus Christ is very
much a figure of faith. We read that remarkable sixth
chapter in the Gospel according to St. John, where the Lord declares
himself to be the bread of life. I am the bread of life, you see.
And he goes into quite some detail with regards to the significance
of that statement. The language that we have there
in verse 35 of the chapter. He says, I am that bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst." Clearly
there He is making it plain to us that to believe on Him, to
trust in Him, to look to His person is to believe and to partake
of all the blessings of that great salvation that is in Him. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth in me shall
never thirst. It's not just the matter of the
work that He has come to accomplish, the work that the Father has
given to Him in the Eternal Covenant. It's just who He is. I was struck
reading in the last week by these words that I came across. concerning the Lord Jesus and
His righteousness, His salvation. But the author says most precious
of all is the salvation, the redemption, the righteousness
in the glory of Him who by His blood purchased it. The death
of Christ, the obedience of Christ, the work of Christ are all most
precious. But Christ Himself is most precious
of all. Christ Himself. Just who He is. And isn't that what the Lord
is really saying there in that chapter that we were reading
in John chapter 6 and the words that we find at verse 53 and
the following verses. and he prefixes his teaching
with a double verily. Verse 53 he says, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man,
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. And I will
raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living
Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth
me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead, he that eateth this bread shall live forever. O blessed, blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. And
that great salvation is found in the work, but also in the
person, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and ought
to be those who have such a saving knowledge of Him. Well, as we
come to consider the words in the text this morning, I divide
what I say into two basic points really. First of all to say something
with regards to the necessity of having a hunger, and then
secondly to look at the nature of that hunger. to examine ourselves
to see if we are those who have such a hunger as is being spoken
of by the Lord Jesus. First of all then, Christ says
quite clearly, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness for they shall be filled. There is a consequence
here. where there is such hungering
and thirsting there is such a guarantee that they are going to be filled
and yet in a sense we have to recognize that without the former
we can never come to the latter in order to be filled we must
come as those who are hungry those who have a good appetite
And of course, when we think of what we are in our fallen
nature, how that appetite is so vitiated. We have no appetite,
no hunger for the things of God by nature. Now, I say then that
here we have to recognize the importance of the appetite, the
hungering and the thirsting. And yet, at the same time, I
also say that we must never lose sight of the fact that it is
nothing in us that qualifies us for the salvation that is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That salvation is always set
before us as a free salvation. Now everyone that thirsts us,
says the prophets, 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." He has no money. He has nothing
with which he can purchase a salvation. But thank God it is all together
without money, without price. It is a free salvation. And when we come to the very
end of Scripture, there in the latter verses of Revelation 22,
we're reminded, aren't we, that sinners are to take the water
of life freely. But what a word is that, freely?
We're not to look to conditions in ourselves, we're to look to
the God who in His goodness and His mercy has provided a grace
that is not only sovereign but also free with the take of that water then
so freely and here of course those of whom the Lord is speaking
they have nothing nothing of themselves
with which they can come and and by the salvation of God. They are all together unrighteous. You remember how in Romans 3
the apostle takes up the language, doesn't he, of the psalmist,
the words of both Psalm 14 and Psalm 53. He says, it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one. We can bring no merits
to qualify us for any of the blessings that God is pleased
to bestow. We are all as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we all fade
like the leaves and our iniquities like the wind, they carry us
away. What have we that we can present
unto the God of salvation that would commend us to Him? We are altogether undone. We're poor and we're needy. And
yet salvation is free. Oh, the wonder, the wonder of
the grace of God. But what we are to observe here,
surely, is the fact that when he comes to this promise, it
is very much being addressed to character, in a sense. Let
him that is a thirst come. Are we thirsty? Oh, everyone
that thirsteth, come ye, it says. And you think of when we invite
our friends to come and visit us and join us for a meal, what
do we expect? We don't expect some payment
from them. We want to entertain them freely.
What we look for is an appetite. We want them to come as those
who have an appetite. those who are hungry and thirsty,
who want to partake of that provision that we would lay before them. Well, how in the Gospel you see,
the Lord sets before us all the blessings of salvation. But do
we come as those who are hungry or the necessity to have an appetite? But what of the nature, what
of the nature of this hunger that the Lord is speaking of.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. It is God himself who must first
of all impart the hunger. As I've already intimated, because
of our natural condition, because of what we are as we come into
this world dead, in trespasses and sins where the sons and daughters
of Adam and Eve and as they transgressed there in the garden of Eden in
the day that they eat us thereof God said concerning the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil which they were not to partake
of if they disobey in the day that they eat us thereof they
shall surely die dying they shall die or they died spiritually
naturally we are their children and we are dead in trespasses
and sins but you see if we come as those who have a hunger and
a thirst isn't that indicative that there is some spiritual
awakening in our souls that the Lord has given us this appetite
we don't have it naturally And the promise, of course, that
God does give in the New Covenant is that of a new nature, a new
heart. A new heart also I will give
you, He says, a new spirit I will put within you. I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh. I will give you a heart of flesh.
Oh, what a blessing it is! He's spoken of not only by the
Prophet Jeremiah, but doesn't Ezekiel speak the same language
also there in Ezekiel 36? In verse 26 he says, A new heart
also I will give you, a new spirit will I put within you. I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh. I will give you
a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you.
cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments
and do them. It is indeed truly the work of
God. It's a new nature that God gives because our natural
condition is that of being dead and senseless to the things of
God. And what is it when God is pleased to do that work in
the heart of the sinner. Well, there are a number of marks
of that grace of God giving the blessed appetite. These people,
you see, they know their poverty. All their stomachs by nature
are empty with regards to spiritual things. But we've seen already
something of that poverty. the very first of the Beatitudes,
in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, says Christ, for theirs
is the kingdom of God. Are we those who come because
we cannot feed ourselves with regards to this good spiritual
meat? Are we those who come in all
our great poverty? to wait upon God that He would
grant to us that that we so stand in need of. Our stomachs are
so empty. What does the Lord say? It's
the poor who have the gospel preached to them. Remember when
John the Baptist is troubled, he's in prison and doubtless
he's somewhat confused. Is Jesus of Nazareth really that
one? whom he has come to prepare the
way for, is Jesus of Nazareth, really the Christ, and John sends
his disciples to the Lord Jesus. And the mark that Christ makes
mention of, which is the proof that he is that promised one,
he says the poor have the gospel preached to them. All this message
of salvation then, it is for those who are poor. They have no righteousness of
their own. So what do they love to hear
of? They want to hear of the righteousness of another, the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. All these are the blessed ones.
And of course it's the same characters really that are spoken of in
the 32nd Psalm. Again there we read of the blessed
man. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. whose sin is covert. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputed, not iniquity, and in
whose spirit is no guile. Or they are poor because they
have no righteousness that they can present to God, nothing of
themselves. They need so much the righteousness
of another. That righteousness that's found
only in the Lord Jesus. Blessed are they then which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. But
there's not only that mark of their poverty, but they feel
some pain, they have hunger pains, they have hunger pains. We know
where there is severe hunger, there is of course malnutrition. Those pitiful sighs and cries
and moans of little children with their pot bellies, who have
no food, they're in pain. They're in pain. And remember,
I mean, the 107th psalm, as the psalmist speaks of God's dealings
there with his people. Remarkable psalm. It's strange,
we were only reading it at home earlier today but there in verse
5 of that psalm we're told concerning the children of Israel in all
their wilderness wanderings hungry and thirsty their soul fainted
within them always that how we come under the word of God our
souls are fainting we have such an appetite such a desire to
receive at His good hand the good things of the gospel, that
salvation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Or do we know anything
of hunger, pain? We want to be fed. We want to
be fed with the words of God. We know that in many ways there
is an offense in the gospel. The gospel comes to men and offends
them because men like to think that they are something and they
have something. When the Lord Jesus addresses
himself to the seven churches there in the book of the Revelation,
remember how at the end of chapter 3 we see him addressing the church
of the Laodiceans. And what do they think of themselves? How the Lord rebukes them really.
Look at the language that we have there in that third chapter
and verse 17. Thou sayest, I am rich and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing. And knowest not that
thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Oh, it's painful, isn't it, the
Word of God? It puts us in our right place. Words addressed
to a church. He says, I counsel thee to buy
of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and
white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame
of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with thyself,
that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chase, and be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at
the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him
and he with me." That very much abused 20th verse, how people
take it and rip it out of its context and say it's an evangelistic
text and it's addressed, you see, to Warren Sundry and it's
an invitation. But in the context, it's a word
that's addressed to a church. It's the rest of the Laodiceans
who consider themselves to be rich and they have need of nothing
and know not their real condition. But what is the promise that
the Lord gives to the church? If any man hear my voice and
open the door I will come into him and will sup with him and
he with me. Is that how we come? We come
into the house of God and we feel we have real needs. and we have hunger pains. We
want to be fed with the word of God. Aren't these some of
the marks of this hungering? There are people who have nothing
of themselves. They have no righteousness. They need something from another.
They are poor. They have hunger pains. But furthermore we see
that this hungering and thirsting is a passion with the people
of God. Is that true of us? Can we say
though we feel ourselves to be seen as we desire a righteousness? We have no righteousness of our
own, we need the righteousness of another. But we come panting
and thirsting. Now the Swami speaks of the day
or the heart. As the heart panteth after the
water brooks, he says. So panteth my soul after thee,
O God. My soul thirsteth, yea, fainteth. When shall I come and appear
before God? Is that how we come? We have
a passion. We want to be fed, we look to
the Lord. We know back in the Old Testament
in the days of Jacob and the patriarchs, there they were in
that promised land and yet the Lord sends a great famine but
the Lord has prepared the way strange dealings of God with
his servant Joseph betrayed by his brethren, sold into slavery
in Egypt but now he's the great man there in Egypt And how is
it that Joseph and his father are restored one to another?
Well, it's by means of that dreadful famine. And we're told how Jacob
was aware that there was plenty there in the land of Egypt. He
thought Joseph was long since dead. But we're told aren't we? There in the 42nd chapter of
Genesis, when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, he said
to his sons, Why do ye look one another? Get ye down thither,
and buy for us that we may live and not die. And so the sons
are sent for the first time into Egypt and of course they meet
with Joseph, you're familiar with the history but Jacob you
see sends his sons on that long journey because they're desperate,
they want to obtain food. Now the wonderful thing of course
when it comes to the gospel is that this great salvation is
so close at hand how the Lord God you see has
come down how God has visited the earth
how Christ himself has accomplished all of that goodwill of the Father
and where is that salvation? it's on hand and remember how
the the Apostle makes that so clear when he writes in that
epistle to the Romans The Roman epistle is so full of blessed
gospel truths. Look at the language that Paul
uses there in Romans 10 at verse 6 following. He says, Moses,
describe of the righteousness which is of faith. Verse 6. The
righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. previous
to that he's speaking of the righteousness which is of the
law that the man which doeth those things shall live by them
but at verse 6 he says the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on
this wise so it's a contrast between law and gospel say not
in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring
Christ down from above or who shall descend into the deep that
is to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what says it? The
word is neither even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the
word of faith that 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
says, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. What is Paul saying? He's reminding
us how close at hand this great salvation is. Because the Lord
has come. And the Lord, yes, He has accomplished
the work, he's risen from the dead, he's ascended to heaven,
but he has not left the church confidants he has sent the Holy
Ghost, that best of all donations and he comes as that Spirit of
Christ and he comes in the ministry of the Word and faith cometh
by hearing we're told and hearing by the Word of God, here is a
righteousness that is near at hand, it's that that is declared
in the proclamation of the gospel of the grace of God. Oh, are
we those friends who when we come we we do hunger and our
hunger is so intense there's that blessed desire within us,
that yearning, that longing that we might be filled. Well, we
if we come in such a spirit shall not come in vain." Because God's
word is at hand, it's in our hand, it's in our mouth that
we might indeed partake of these blessings of the gospel. So what
do we see with regards to the nature of this hungering? It's
in those who feel their great need, they're so poor, their
stomachs are empty, they want a righteousness, they have no
righteousness of their own or they sigh hungry and thirst how
their soul is sighing and yearning and longing they're feeling pain,
they have such a passion and what do they do? they come to
taste they come to partake ultimately and what is it that they taste?
they taste the bitter and the sweet. They taste the bitter and the
sweet. And we see that so clearly, of
course, with regards to the Passover. When they come to eat that Passover
lamb, the Paschal lamb, remember, in Exodus 12, and there at the
site they shall eat the flesh, it says, in that night But how are they to eat it? What
are they to eat it with? Well, it's roast with fire and
with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they are to eat
it. It's roast with fire and they
partake of it then with unleavened bread and bitter, bitter herbs. And it's the bitter herbs that
make the Passover lamb so sweet. And so it is with regards to
partaking of that righteousness that is said before us in the
text. And we read many a time in scripture
of the way in which the prophets the Lord's servants. The apostles
also were to minister the Word of God. They tasted the bitter
and they tasted the sweet. Remember what we are told concerning
John. There in Revelation chapter 10
there is a little book that he is to receive from the angel
and he is to eat the book. it's part and parcel of the message
that he's to proclaim, he's to eat the book and he's told it
will be sweet in his mouth but bitter in his belly you always think of the language
of the wise man in Proverbs to the hungry soul every bitter
thing is sweet when we come to the word of God if we have an
appetite even the bitter things you see God's word is is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction. Reproof, correction,
those are bitter things. When God comes and shows us our
folly, makes us recognize the foolishness of our disobediences,
that's a bitter experience. But sooner that than the Lord
leave us to ourselves and our own devices. There's a partaking
of the bitter as well as the sweet. We see it again in the experience
of the Prophet. Remember the words that we find
there in Ezekiel's book, and there in the opening verses of
chapter 3. The Prophet says, Moreover he
said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest. Eat Israel,
and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth,
and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Cause
thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I
give them. Then did I eat it, and it was in my mouth as honey
for sweetness. Oh, even the bitter things, and
Ezekiel had to say many bitter things, and yet he proved the
sweetness of the word of God. Jeremiah the same, he says, thy
words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me
the joy and the rejoicing of my heart. Is that how we come,
friends, unto the word of God? We want to partake of it, we
want to feed upon it, we want to learn something of ourselves,
even to see what we are in our fallen nature, even to feel the
the bitterness of God's reprovings, the rebukes, the chastenings,
the correctings, and yet ought to prepare us to partake of the
sweetness that is in the Lord Jesus Christ, all that great
fullness of salvation. O blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. And ultimately here, what do
we see with regards to these who come in such a spirit and
have that sort of a hunger? Well, they find fullness. They
find fullness and they're satisfied. They're satisfied. They shall
be filled is the promise of God. They shall be filled. Oh, there
is a glorious fullness in the gospel of the grace of God and
you remember the sort of imagery that's used time and again in
the scriptures. How many times when we speak
of the gospel do we have to turn to the Old Testament and especially
that blessed book of the prophet Isaiah. Look at the language
that he employs there in chapter 25. Isaiah 25 and verse 6. He's speaking
of the Gospel. In this mountain. That's Mount
Zion. And he draws a contrast between
Mount Zion and Mount Sinai associated with the law. Mount Zion. Oh, that's the Gospel. In this
mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast
of fattings, a feast of wines on the lees, of fattings, full
of marrow, of wines under these well refined it's the blessed
gospel feast blessed all blessed are they which do hunger and
thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled and this
word that we have here to be filled the verb means to be to
be satisfied to be satiated to be made fat That's what it means. You see, there's nothing that
can be added to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That
righteousness that was wrought by Christ, that obedience of
his life, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,
there's all the fullness of salvation in that work of that glorious
person. There's nothing to be added to
what Christ has done. What does David say in the 71st
Psalm? I will make mention of thy righteousness
even of thine only. Thine only, it's only the righteousness
of Christ. And that doesn't mean of course
that the saved sinner doesn't desire to lead an upright life
and a holy life and a righteous life but the true child of God
stands with the Apostle Paul the pattern to all them that
believe and Paul says is one desire to be found in him to
be found in the Lord Jesus Christ 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. Oh, once he was a proud, self-righteous
Pharisee. He thought he had a righteousness,
but he understood nothing of himself, nothing of the Lord
of God. But then when the Lord deals with him, and he's born
again of the Spirit of God and he has a new nature, He has that
hungering and that thirsting. He feels he's poverty. He sees
that all his salvation is tied up in the person and work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I love those lines in the hymn
of Isaac Watts, hymn 270, in the second verse. He says, righteousness
within thee rooted may appear to take thy part, but let righteousness
imputed be the breastplate of thy heart." What is that imputed
righteousness? It's Christ's righteousness reckoned,
counted to the sinner. Oh, it's that blessed robe of
righteousness. And it's a righteousness that
the Lord is speaking of here in the text. Or do we know it? Do we have a hunger and a thirst
for it? Nothing to be added to what Christ has done. He has
done everything. And all the fullness of salvation
is there and we can satiate our souls in all that He is and all
that He has done. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled, says
the Lord. Oh, the Lord grant it might be
true for us. for his name's sake. Amen. Let us conclude our worship this morning
as we sing our last hymn 579 and the tune is Blockley 304.
Sorry, 900. My mistake. 979 and the tune is Blockley 304 Jesus those happy souls does
bless who hunger for his righteousness who seek the smilings of his
face and thirst for fresh supplies of grace 979 tune 304