Our text tonight is found in
Matthew chapter 5 one of the Beatitudes Matthew chapter 5
and verse 6 Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled The
Beatitudes of course the opening part of this familiar passage
that we know as the Sermon on the Mount. Without further ado,
I want us simply to consider the content of this particular
statement that fell from the lips of Him who is the Prince
of all preachers. The words of the Lord Jesus,
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness
for they shall be filled." First of all, to consider what we are
to understand by this righteousness. What is it that such are hungering
and thirsting after? The righteousness is identified
in Scripture with salvation. back in the book of the prophet
Isaiah chapter 56 And the opening verse we read, my salvation is
near to come and my righteousness to be revealed. These are one
and the same thing. These are parallel statements
that fall from the lips of the prophets as the mouthpiece of
God. My salvation is near to come
and my righteousness to be revealed. And then again in Isaiah chapter
51 and verse 5, my righteousness is near, my salvation is gone
forth. You see again that righteousness
and salvation are one and the same thing. And who is the one
in whom that salvation and that righteousness senses? Well again,
in the words of that most evangelical of all the prophets in Isaiah
chapter 45 and verse 8, we have these words, drop down ye heavens
from above and let the skies pour down righteousness, let
the earth open and let them bring forth salvation. and let righteousness
spring up together, I the Lord have created it." Here is that
that he's spoken of then as the great work of God, the creation
of God, and we have the heavens pouring down righteousness, the
earth opening and the bringing forth of righteousness and salvation. It is a prophecy of the Lord
Jesus Christ who came down from heaven Doesn't the Lord Himself
declare that? I came down from heaven, He says,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And how He has done that will
of the Father. How He has lived a life of complete
submission to that will of the Father. How He has been obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. He has wrought righteousness
by the obedience of that sinless life. He has accomplished salvation
by that death that he died when in his own person he endured
all the wrath of God. When he bore that dreadful punishment
that was due to those who were the transgressors. When he died
the just for the unjust to bring sinners to God. This righteousness
is to be identified then with the salvation that is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And again, turning to another
of those Old Testament prophets, the familiar words of the Prophet
Jeremiah in chapter 23 he writes 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. The Lord our righteousness. It is one of those names that
is given to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He has many names And
this is the nine whereby he shall be called. What a nine! He is
the Lord, our righteousness. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. How we must be
those then who are looking to the Lord Jesus that we might
be clothed in those robes of righteousness and have about
us that glorious garment of salvation. Man is justified, says Paul,
by faith, without the deeds of the law. Justification by faith. What is justification? It is
God accounting the sinner to be a righteous person, because
that righteousness of Christ is imputed to him. And it is
by faith, it says, a man is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law. No deeds of the law, no works
of righteousness that the man himself has done. It's all together
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as it is by
faith, So we see in the scriptures that various figures are used
to represent to us what faith is. What is it to have faith? What is it to be those who are
looking to Christ and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as the
Lord, our righteousness, while feeding on Christ? Feeding on
Christ is one of those figures that is employed by the Holy
Spirit here on the page of Holy Scripture. Now we see it, do
we not, in the portion that we read there in the 6th chapter
of John, verse 5, 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. Believing is equivalent to coming. And those who come to him come
that they might partake, that they might eat and drink, that
they might feed upon him. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. And then again how the Lord develops
it. In verse 53, 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. Whosoever 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." All friends, are we
those who are truly partakers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
know what it is in that spiritual sense to enjoy such a union with
Him that we feed upon Him, we feed upon the precious doctrines
that are contained here in the Holy Scriptures. And all this
book, does it not testify to him who is the words made flesh,
who is God incarnate? What is this righteousness? It
is salvation. And it is that salvation that
centers in the person and the work of the one who is speaking
these words. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." The
righteousness, I say, is salvation. The righteousness is the Savior
Himself. Even Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. But then, In order to be those
who are the partakers of this righteousness and this salvation,
let us in the second place say something with regards to the
necessity of hunger. The necessity of hunger. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst, it says, after righteousness. for they shall be filled." It
is the hungry and the thirsty ones who are filled. And where there is nothing of
the former, where there is nothing of that hungering and thirsting,
there can be nothing of that being filled. If we're going to be those who
would partake of these things, there must be that appetite.
However, we would emphasize the fact, of course, that the salvation
that is being spoken of in the text is a free salvation. It comes without condition. It is that that is absolutely
free. What is the language of the Gospel
invitation? We can go back, for example,
to those great words again, We have them from the lips of the
Prophet Isaiah in chapter 55. He says, Oh everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye buy and eat. They come by wine and milk without
money and without price. 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. Incline your ear, and come unto
me here, and your soul shall live. Now we see here quite clearly
that what is spoken of in this gracious invitation is to be
had free of any charge. It is without money, it is without
price. It is that that God has provided
in his free grace for sinners. Again, when we come to the very
last chapter of Holy Scripture, there in Revelation 22, we have
those words, take the water of life freely. Oh, what a word,
freely. Freely. And you see, those who
are spoken of here in our text, hungering and thirsting after
righteousness there are such characters who are very conscious
that they themselves have nothing they have nothing with which
they can buy this righteousness nothing of themselves that they
can come and trade with or barter with it is that that is free to sinners
And these sinners recognize the necessity of that freeness, because
they feel their own utter and complete poverty. They are sinners. And all they deserve is the wrath
of God. The words of the Apostle there
in Romans chapter 3, as it is written, there is none righteous,
he says. No, not one. And in Romans 3,
of course, he is actually quoting from the book of Psalms. He's
quoting from two Psalms, Psalms 14 and 53, which are very similar
in their contents. And he says, as it is written.
It's written twice in the Old Testament. It's written there
in Romans chapter 3, verse 10, following in the New Testament.
As it is written. There is none righteous. No, not one. We're all as an
unclean thing. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. We do all faith as a leaf and
our iniquities like the wind. They carry us away. This is the
language. This is the language of the Word
of God concerning these characters. They have nothing. They have
nothing at all that they can bring. that they might trade
with. They need a salvation that is
free. But mark this, friends, that
whilst a salvation is free, and it is absolutely free, yet we
see here in the text that the promise is clearly to character. It's to character, is it not?
Let him that is a thirst come. It's the thirsty one who is to
come. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, he that hath no money, come ye, buy,
buy wine and milk without money and without price. It is to those
particular characters, you see. And we see it in the text, who
are the blessed ones They which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. When we invite our friends to
visit us and we want to entertain them and we lay a meal on for
them, we don't expect them to come and pay us. We'd be offended
if they did that. but we desire that they should
come with an appetite and we want them to enjoy the meal that's
been prepared and laid before them. And this is how we are
to come to this righteousness, is it not? we are to be those
who would come that we might receive these things freely but
all to know what it is to have an appetite to be those who are
really hungering and thirsting for these things and so we have
to look to ourselves and examine ourselves are we such characters
as this particular text is speaking of, are with these that the Lord
is describing in this particular verse of Holy Scripture. And
so having said something with regards to the necessity of being
those who are hungry and thirsty, I want, in the third place, for
us to examine something of the nature of this hunger that is
being spoken of. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. And it is God, and it is only
God who can impart such a spiritual hunger to us. And if you have the hunger tonight
as you sit there under the word of God it is a sign of spiritual
life it is indicative you see that there has been a blessed
awakening in your soul you're not just coming to sit in a seat
and to hear a sermon but you're there desiring that you might
find some nourishment something that will bring good into your
soul, you want to feed on the word of God and it is only God,
I say, who can create that because in our natural state we are spiritually
dead that's how we're described, we're dead in trespasses and
in sins we're without God, without Christ, without hope or if there
is anything of spiritual desire It must come from God. A man
can receive nothing, says John the Baptist, except it be given
him from heaven. And what is the promise of God?
The great promises of the New Covenant concerning the heart. In Jeremiah 24, verse 7, I will
give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord. Oh, do we
have such a heart as that? that we want to know God. A new
heart also I will give you, he says through Ezekiel. 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. And it is God's,
He's pleased to grant such a heart as that, that there will be this
spiritual appetite. this desire to receive some good
to be fed under his words. I want to mention some five marks
of the spiritual hunger. Five indications of this hunger
that is being spoken of. First of all, these characters
who have this hunger, they know what it is to be poor. They know something of poverty. They are hungry because in a
sense they are poor. Their stomachs are empty. They cannot feed themselves. They are unable to satisfy that
spiritual hunger that they are feeling now in the very depths
of their being. And yet we have to remember what he said concerning
such characters, these poor characters. They are also spoken of, are
they not, here in the Beatitudes? In verse 3 Christ says, blessed
are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. All
the spiritual hungry, are the same as those who are spoken
of as the poor in spirit." And then again what does the Lord
Jesus Christ say to these people? He says, "...the poor have the
gospel preached unto them." This gospel is for such poor
people, you see. It's for those who have nothing
And these they have no righteousness of their own. And so what do
they want? Why they love to hear of the
righteousness of another, they love to hear of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the blessed man you see.
What does he want? He wants that righteousness of
Christ. And we find the same character,
do we not, in the Old Testament? We see him there in the 32nd
Psalm. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. The blessed man. The blessed
man. His transgression is forgiven,
His sin is covered. He is that man who knows what
it is to desire more and more that righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Only that is able to satisfy
Him. And we see it, we see it so clearly
in a character like Paul. when he writes to the Philippians
there in the third chapter, always one desire to be found in him,
to be found in Christ, he says, not having his own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Here is the mark of the man then.
He is a poor man. He knows that he has no righteousness
of his own. He is so very conscious that
all his own righteousness is but filthy rags. He is in great
need of the righteousness of another and that righteousness
is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. These people then, they
know what it is to be poor. But also these people, they are
the people who know what it is to feel pain. They feel pain. We often hear our children come
in and they say, oh I'm starving. We've been there ourselves, we
come in, we're hungry, oh I'm starving. And really we know
nothing of what it is to be starving. In that sense, we know nothing
of real physical hunger, do we? But sometimes we've witnessed
this in others. Those little children in lands
where there is great famine, and we see it, the awful malnutrition. Oh, we hear their pitiful sighs,
and their cries, and their moaning, their potbellies. How they're
really hungry, how they really are starving is painful. It's a painful experience. And
where there is real spiritual hunger, we must know something
of pain. In the 107th Psalm, we read of
those who are hungry and thirsty, and it says, their soul fainted
in them. Their soul fainted in them. Oh,
they had such anguish such pain as a desire to find some spiritual
satisfaction there is pain, you see where there is a real spiritual
appetite and also we know this that when God comes and begins
to deal with an individual and to create this spiritual appetite
there is an offense There is an offense in the gospel, the
offense of the gospel is painful. When we think of what we are
in our fallen nature, our old nature, does it not react to
the gospel? Do we not find the gospel an offensive thing? Remember
the word spoken to a church, the church of the Laodiceans,
there in The third chapter of the book of the Revelation. So, the Lord speaks to this church,
these professed Christians. He says, verse 17, Because 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, 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 the night-point thine eyes with eye-cell, that
thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. 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 into him and will suffer with him
and he with me." Or that much abused 20th verse. Now men have
taken it in their foolishness and made of it a gospel invitation. It's not addressed to any but
to the church. It's the church of the Laodicean.
These foolish professed Christians. And the Lord speaks such gracious
words to them, though they've been offended. Behold, I stand
at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, he
says, and open the door, I will come into him and will suck with
him and he with me. Oh, there is pain, you see. There's
an offense. And yet, the Lord speaks such gracious words, inviting
those to come and to feast with Him. But then, another mark with
regards to the characters being spoken of in our text tonight,
that of people, are they not with a passion? They have a passion. Though they are sinners, or they
have such a desire Such an earnest desire, they are hungering after
something. What is it that they desire?
It's righteousness. It's righteousness. They have
a passion, they want this salvation. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness. We have to examine ourselves,
you see, whether this be true of us. Or do we have such a passion? Do we see this one thing that
is so needful? Even that salvation which is
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and only in Him. Look at the language
of the Psalmist, he says, "...as the heart panteth after the water-brooks,
so panteth my soul after the O God. My soul thirsteth for
God, for the Living God, When shall I come and appear before
him? Or what do we know of this experience,
you see? To be panting after water brooks,
just as the heart there in the chase, running for its very life,
gasping after water. Are we those who have such a
thirst? My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living God, says the Son or do we have a passion friends?
Are we those who really have an appetite, a hunger, a thirst?
Are we those who see that there is but one thing needful to know
this righteousness, this salvation which is in the Lord Jesus Christ? Now remember how in order to
obtain bread in the time of great famine we are told about Jacob
sends his sons on a long journey he sends them all the way to
Egypt we're familiar with the history there in Genesis concerning
his son Joseph who had gone before as he were to prepare the way
And in this time of great dearth there was plenty in the land
of Egypt because of Joseph. And so we read there in chapter
42 of Genesis. Now when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look
one upon another? And he said, Behold, I have heard
that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down thither and buy
for us from them that we may live and not die. Oh, he is earnest,
you see. They need corn, they need corn
to make bread, otherwise they're going to perish. Why are his
sons just looking one at another, not knowing what to do? They
must hurry away. Though it be a lengthy journey,
they must go all the way down to Egypt to obtain this corn. Ah, but mark the difference,
friends, how different it is in the Gospel. God's righteousness
is not a far off. This that the Lord Jesus is speaking
of, this salvation, is not at some great distance it is very
much near at hand that is the gospel is it not? or the nearness
of this righteousness and of this salvation and so the Apostle
reminds us there in Romans chapter 10 at verse 6 he says the righteousness which
is of faith, speaketh on this wise. 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 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. how different this is to what
we read there in Genesis 42 concerning Jacob and his sons and the necessity
of a long, arduous journey that they must make all the way to
Egypt to obtain Paul. Oh, not this righteousness! Not
this righteousness! The righteousness which is of
faith speaketh on this wise. The word is neither. or this
is the word of faith says Paul which we preach or the nearness
of this salvation, how near it comes you see how close at hand
it is when we're attending the ministry of the word of God and
hearing these things it's there you see and the sinner can take
and eat and find a blessed satisfaction can he not but what is it to
taste of these things We've spoken of various evidences of this
real spiritual hunger. Those who can enter in any measure
into the experience of the text will know what it is to feel
their poverty and their complete and utter lack of any righteousness
of their own. They will feel something of pain. as they will have a passion,
an earnest longing and a yearning and when they come to partake
they will taste the bitter as well as the sweet. They'll taste
the bitter as well as the sweet. Remember how the children of
Israel were to partake of the Paschal Lamb. Isn't Lamb a lovely sweet meat. But when they come to partake
of that lamb, they have to eat it with bitter herbs. There's not only sweetness, there's
bitterness also. In Exodus 12, 8, they shall eat
the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and on leavened bread
and with bitter herbs they shall eat it." And of course the significance
for us this evening is that presently the church will be observing
that holy ordinance of the Lord's Supper and it was at His last
Passover that Christ instituted that that we will seek in His
fear to observe. It is Christ who is our Passover.
Even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us says the Apostle to the
Corinthians. But if we are those who are truly
partakers of Christ and His salvation and His righteousness, we will
know something not only of sweetness, but something of bitterness.
We'll have to feel first the bitterness of our sin, will we
not? Who did Christ come to call? Not the righteous. He came to
call sinners to repentance. Oh, have we ever felt the bitter
thing that sin is? have we ever really felt sin
to be that so bitter a thing and do we not find ourselves
in this strange situation sometimes as those of us who know the Lord
and are favoured with that grace of faith and sin is such a strange
thing because we find that in us that loves sin and that in
us that hates sin and so often we hate ourselves because we
love sin so much How the old nature is yet there, you see.
And the good that I would, I do not, says the apostle. The evil
that I would, not that I do. Or the awful bitter thing of
sin. And we see it several times here
in Scripture. Let's turn, if you will, to the
book of the Revelation again. And there in chapter 10, the end of that chapter Revelation
chapter 10 verses 9 and 10 John says I went unto the angel and
said unto him give me the little book and he said unto me take
it and eat it up and it shall make thy belly bitter but it
shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey and I took the little book
out of the angel's hand and ate it up and it was in my mouth
sweet as honey and as soon as I had eaten my belly was bitter
there is that that is sweet and that that is bitter now the wise
man tells us to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet every
bitter thing is sweet to those who have a real hunger They feel
the bitterness of their sin. Ah, but that introduces them
to the sweetness of that great salvation that was wrought by
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that is food. Real food for
their souls. Now we see it in the experiences
of these gracious men of old. We see John's experience. We
see also something of the experience of a man like the Prophet. He's
equal there. at the early part of his prophecy
in chapter 3 we read these words, moreover he said unto me son
of man eat that thou findest eat this roll, just as John ate
the book eat this roll 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 son of man cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels
with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it, and it was
in my mouth as honey for sweetness." All the sweetness of the Word
of God. The sweetness of that salvation
that is only in the Lord Jesus Christ. The sweetness of that
righteousness that was wrought only by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Again Jeremiah can cry out, thy words were found and I did eat
them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Have we ever known that? To come
to God's word and to find it such a joy, such a rejoicing.
It so ministers to us, it so feeds us, it so encourages us. when we hear this good news,
these glad tidings of that salvation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those who have this hunger, you see, as they come to taste they
experience both bitterness and sweetness. They feel increasingly
the bitter thing that sin is. Oh, but they discover more and
more then the sweetness of that salvation that is in Christ. And then, the final mark of the
characters who are being described here, as they taste the bitter
and the sweet, so they also find here a fullness and a satisfaction. They find that that really fills
them. They shall be filled, it says. Again, we turn to Isaiah's prophecy. So many verses that could be
quoted, are there not? And there in chapter 25 and verse
6, these words, In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make
unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the
lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the knees, well refined,
all the fatness, you see, the fullness that is there in the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And He is that man, He is that
man who receives sinners and eaters with Him. How the scribes
and the Pharisees, they come and they taunt Him with that. How thou reject Him, you see,
He's a friend of sinners, this man. Also disparaging is the
remark, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. He makes
for the sinner that feast of fat things. Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall
be filled. Now the word that we have here
rendered filled means to be satisfied. to be made fat. There is nothing to be added
to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing. If we
are hungering and thirsting after that, that is the only thing
needful. There is no need for any other
righteousness. David says in Psalm 71, I will
make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine own, sufficient. and as we've already said Paul
says much the same is one desire to be found in him to be found
in Christ not having my own righteousness which is of the law but that
which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which
is of God by faith or to have that righteousness and to have
this faith to have this faith that the Lord is Speaking of
here under the figure of hungering and thirsting, we look to ourselves,
we examine ourselves, we prove ourselves, do we know ourselves?
Are we those who truly have a hunger and a thirst, an appetite for
these things? Or is our religion nothing more
than pretense? Or God grant that we might know
something of that reality that he said before us here in this
description of the blessed man and you're probably aware that
that opening word blessed is really a plural blessednesses
or happinesses such a fullness you see this is what the Lord is describing
this character who is truly favoured of God the man, the woman who
has such an appetite, all the blessednesses of them which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Well,
the Lord grant that we might receive some good thing at His
gracious hand. Amen.