Alright Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter five in your
sermon on her study of the sermon on the map. And we pick up with verse six
the. fourth beatitude or blessing that our Lord pronounced. Let's go ahead and read the first
six verses of it. And seeing the multitudes, he
went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples
came unto him, and he opened his mouth, and he talked to him,
saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit. for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. There's something here in this
sixth verse, this fourth beatitude, that is an undeniable indication
of true spiritual life, health, growth, and maturity. Or the beginnings of these things,
anyway. You know what that is? Something
here that is clear? Undeniable evidence or indication of true
spiritual life and health and growth and maturity, do you know
what that is? Hunger and thirst. Now physically, it's true physically,
that which indicates that we have life is hunger and thirst. The dead don't desire food for
their sustenance. And that which indicates true
health is a good bodily appetite. When the appetite begins to wane,
so does the health. And that which indicates growth,
or that which causes us to grow, the greater the appetite, the
more we'll grow. I don't mean to keep looking
at you, Henry. I don't. You're just there, buddy.
But the greater the appetite, we're all growing. The greater
the appetite, the more growth and maturity. Adults, it's just
a fact that adults eat more wisely and eat more heartily and readily
than do children, adults. And it's the same with spiritual
health and the spiritual life and growth and maturity. The
way the Lord correlates these things is amazing, the Lord's
wisdom in the natural birth and the spiritual birth and the natural
life and the spiritual life. It's amazing, the Lord's wisdom.
You see His divine, all of His wisdom in these things. But it's
the same with spiritual life. One of the first evidences of
true spiritual life is this hungering and this thirsting. Those that
are made alive unto God begin to thirst and hunger after God. As David said in the psalm, my
heart panteth for thee, I'm thirsty for thee. They begin the hunger
and thirst for God and for God likeness, godliness. Those that
are dead in trespasses and sins have no desire for God or anything
concerning God, do they? But only for this world. The
scripture says their God is their belly. But it's the first indication
of the new birth. I get so excited and delighted
when I see somebody have a newfound interest and enthusiasm about
the things of God, and I think to myself, this may be God working
here. You know, a baby, when a baby
comes out of the womb, it's amazing that when a baby comes out of
the womb, now it's been feeding off of its mother for those nine
months, but the first thing that child wants to do is nurse at
its mother's breast. They come out hungry. And they
never quit. They stay hungry as long as they're
healthy. As long as there's life, the
baby comes out and begins to hunger and to thirst. And that
child's hunger and thirst is met at the same place, the mother's
breast. There's a verse in Isaiah that
says that God's people, God's people will be satisfied with
the breast of his consolation. We nurse from him even. And in their spiritual health,
life is indicated by hunger and thirst. And in their spiritual
health, it's according to our appetites is how we eat. Right? According to our appetites. If
we are taken up with other pursuits, other things, we eat, we spiritually
partake very sporadically and very poorly. And sometimes it's
junk food. We live in a fast food world
and sad to say that's our religion too, isn't it? Fast food religion.
One at all now and one in a hurry. And it's the same thing with
believers, even, who try to cram a meal in on Sunday and eat very
little during the six days of the week. Same thing. That's
very poor fare, indeed. And you'll fare poorly, indeed. Fare very poorly. And it's undeniable
proof. I've said this so many times.
It's undeniable proof of spiritual sickness. You can trace a poor
appetite to spiritual things. You can trace spiritual sickness,
that is, to a poor appetite and stay away from the table. If
you stay away from the table, you'll become sick and weakly
and sickly. The third thing, growth. Not
only is life indicated by hunger and thirst, not only is health,
hunger and thirst, indicative of good health, but growth. All growth is dependent upon
the appetite, hunger and thirst. The scripture says that strong
believers will feast on fat things, feast on fat things full of marrow
and wine on the leaves. Do you wonder how someone derives
the things they derive out of the scriptures while you can't
see them? They haven't got a special line
with God. That man or that woman or whoever it may be, he's no,
he's no different than you are. He's got the same source you've
got, right? Elijah, you know how Elijah was
such a, such on close terms with God, he could ask him what he
will. Didn't Christ say that to all his disciples? He said
Elijah was a man of like passions. He prayed for it to quit raining
and it quit. And Christ himself said to all of his disciples,
you ask me what you will in my name, and I'll do it. We have
not because we ask not, and the repercussions go on and on. Peter said this in 2 Peter chapter
1. Listen to this. You don't have
to turn. He said, God's divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life, eternal life, and godliness,
godlikeness. through the knowledge of him
that hath called us to, or by, glory and virtue, by his glory,
by Christ's virtue, and to this, whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, or that is, exceedingly many
and great, high, wonderful, precious promises, that by these you might
be partakers of the divine nature. Having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust, And beside this, giving
all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience godliness,
to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness charity.
If these things be in you and abound, they make you that you
shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And strong believers who feast on fat things and wine
on the leaves, fat things full of marrow, they do this. They
go on from glory to glory, the scripture says, from grace to
grace. They become stronger, more fruitful, more faithful,
virtuous, knowledgeable, temperate, patient, godly, kind, loving,
bearing fruits. That's exactly what Peter was
saying there. I just read it to you, 2 Peter 1. It's like
fertilizer. Fertilizer. Miracle grow, if
you will. It is a miracle of God, if any
of his people grow. But where does the miracle come?
It's no great mystery, really. Desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may what? Grow thereby. So if anybody makes
great strides, it's by the grace of God, but he's given his name.
It's like fertilizer. The plant that has more fertilizer
and more watering will be larger and bear more fruit. That's very
simple, isn't it? And let me say this, and it doesn't
necessarily apply to you folks because you're here, but it's
a sad fact that those who are seldom at the table, they don't
grow. And if they do, they generally reach a certain level and then
stop. They're stunted. It's so. I've known people who've been
under the gospel for 30 and 40 years, and it seems like they
just stopped. Well, you know, those people, too,
who do not feed upon God's Word and their own hearts and lives
and so forth, are usually weaker. are usually more unbelieving
are usually more easily upset are usually more irritable are
usually more unlovely are usually more ignorant concerning the
scriptures definitely are usually more in temperance of these things
the opposite of what I just read to you because he said he did
lack of these things he's barren. And they're usually ungodly or
less godly anyway they usually more susceptible to temptation. You know that. You know that
a person who does not have the word hid up in their in their
heart is more susceptible to temptation and sin. Doesn't the
Psalm say, didn't we read in Psalm 119, hide your word in
my heart that I might not sin against you. Well, you know,
we go, naturally speaking, physically speaking, we go throughout the
day, we go on the food and the drink that we ingest in the morning.
And I, Barbara Ross is constantly getting after me because I live
on caffeine. And about one or two o'clock, I'm a mess. And one of these days is going
to catch up with me and somebody, everybody get on to me. I need
to eat something. I remember one morning going
down to Barbara's house, just breaking in, and saying, I've
invited myself to breakfast. And she and Charles, they eat
well. They eat good. Fruits and grains
and so forth. And she fixed me a bowl of fruit
and grains and eat full things. And I ate that. And I felt like
just jumping a fence that morning. I came over here and got getting
off my subject. But it's so, nonetheless. You've
got to have that fuel to go on. Your bodies need it. We go on
the food and the drink that we ingest in the morning. We draw
strength from it. We draw according to what we
ingest, according to the ability we have later on. But the ability
is according to what we have in our bodies, right? Christ
said, Out of your bellies shall flow. Don't you want the Word
of God to just flow to your mind, to your heart, out of your mouth?
If it's not in there, there's nothing to flow, is it? Out of
your belly shall flow rivers of living water when needed.
When do you need it? You thirsty, get thirsty during
the day? Lord, bring up something. Like cud, like chewing the cud. That's what Matthew Henry said,
Ed, about the clean animals over in Genesis. He said clean animals
are those that part the hoof and chew on the cud. They said
they part with their sins and chew on the gospel. That's a
good illustration. But when needed, these things
are recalled. You chew on it. What do you chew
on if you haven't eaten anything, right? There's nothing to chew
on. Nothing to spit back up. Is that too gross for our refined
tastes? It's true. Like I said, thy word,
like he said, thy word have I hid in my heart. that I might not
sin against thee." If there's nothing there, there's no strength.
No strength. That's just good sound advice
right there, isn't it? Believers with hearty appetites
always grow in grace and knowledge. They just continually grow. And
I know people that I greatly admire. People strong in faith
and growing, it seems like they're all the time growing in grace
and the knowledge of the Scriptures and recalls and so forth. And
I admire them so much. How? How did they? Where do they
get this growth? Faith cometh by hearing—hearing
by the Word of God. Growing grace in the knowledge
of Christ, growing faith in the knowledge of Christ, grow gracious
and knowledgeable of handling life's problems. I need a lot
of work in that area. Fourthly, maturity. Like I said,
Life is indicated by this spiritual appetite. Health, good health,
is indicated by it. Growth, growth will come about
from it. And maturity. I need this, don't
you? Maturity. Babies come forth hungry
and they begin to make rapid growth. Why? Why do babies grow
so fast? They're all the time eating.
It's all they do, you know, eat and sleep, eat and sleep. Especially
breast-fed babies. They grow rapidly. And then there's
adolescence. You know, babies come along and
they eat a lot and they start growing. They grow an inch a
day. It seems like a pound a day. Then you come to reach adolescence.
And sometimes that brings a waning appetite or the appetite begins
to decrease. You mothers have had problems
in the past with your children's appetite at certain points in
their lives and. And. Sometimes you have to force
feed these kids don't you have to force them to eat or they
won't eat anything right we go through the same thing here. Same thing and it's the same
with some people. If God did not force feed us
we would need anything at all. In their right to say it is true.
If there were no pastor to prepare a meal, we might not eat anything.
That's sad, isn't it? It's desperately sad. And we
might die of starvation. Thank God for faithful pastors
who feed the flock. Now, I don't say that in reference
to myself. I thank God for the pastor we have, all those years,
who was faithful to feed us. The old saying is, you can lead
a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Right? You all heard that saying. You
know the same thing applies spiritually. It sure does. Now listen to this. Sovereignty and responsibility.
Sovereignty of God in salvation is God Almighty making somebody
hungry and thirsty. They're dead anyway. He has to
create life. Right, John? He has to quicken
them. And in that quickening process,
he makes them hunger and thirst after righteousness, which you'll
go into in a minute. He leads them to Christ, who
is this bread and water, who fills them, satisfies them, and
he makes them willing to drink. Now, responsibility. God spreads the table. God provides the water, right?
And we're told to come and eat and drink. coming down all things
are right. We cannot blame God if we go
away hungry. Can we? Well, John, now we're
talking about this. This is like starving to death
when there's a five course meal laid on your coffee table. Isn't
it? Dare with Dare we charge God
Almighty with our own sin and folly and lack of diligence? Dare we? Oh, no. Oh, no. Dare we blame God for our own
lack of responsibility? Dare we excuse ourselves by saying,
God hadn't made me hungry? That's blasphemy. That's akin to blasphemy. There's
bread and water aplenty. It's as far as the its arms reach
right. Blessings in new. We only need to sit at the table.
Literally. Take fork in hand. But. You know I said this to
you before too. The scriptures, do you remember
back in the Old Testament when God gave the manna from heaven? Christ said, that's me. But when
God gave the manna, Henry, the commandment of God was to go
out and gather six days a week. On the sixth day, get a double
portion. Because on Sabbath, you weren't supposed to gather
it. You were supposed to rest. You were supposed to have it
left over from the seventh. Well, two days a week, this manna
is gathered for you. And we better at least avail
ourselves of two days. Two days. Because somebody's
already gathered it for you. Made it real easy for you. But the
other days of the week, we've got to gather it ourselves. Right?
There's nobody. Mom and Daddy's not there to
force you. God won't force feed us like that during the week.
That's just the way it is. God's sovereign. We're responsible.
Now let's look at the object of our desire here in our text
again. The object of our desire. He says, Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after righteousness. Righteousness. Now, once again,
I read several writers on this, and much to my dismay, there
were occasional passing references to Christ, but that wasn't the
thrust of their message. This is undoubtedly, beyond a
shadow of a doubt, speaking of a desire for Christ and his work. Undoubtedly. I would challenge
Matthew Henry at this point. I would. He's just a man like
I am, Rick. He's nobody special. The Lord
blessed him casually, but if he didn't see Christ in this,
he missed it. I don't care how imminent he may be. This is another
step in this progressive work of grace that we saw, we've been
seeing. He said, blessed are the poor,
that is, those that lack the things they need to get to God,
poor, and they realize it. Blessed are they that mourn their
sin and their poverty of spirit. And he says, blessed are the
meek, the meek, for they shall inherit, be joint heirs. They'll
be inheritors of something. Those that humble themselves
before God and become beggars before the king, Then that naturally
brings, or spiritually brings about this hunger and thirst.
Beggars, what is a characteristic of a beggar? A man who's homeless
and out there on the street. What is his everyday common feelings
within him? He's hungry. Every day. Walter tells us that every day
down in Mexico is this pursuit after another meal. That's what those people wake
up. Roberta, they wake up in the morning thinking about where
I'm going to get my next meal. Beggar and a spiritual beggar. That is a spiritually bankrupt
man, mourning over sin, broken before God. This is the place
he comes to. Hungry and thirsty. A beggar before the king. Beggars
need a handout, don't they? Beggars depend upon handouts.
Of what? The one thing they need. Spiritual
beggar. Turn over with me to Psalm 17.
Psalm 17. Now this is, I quote this quite
often. I quote this as much, and Roberta,
once again, this is one of those verses that I quote quite a bit,
but don't quote all of it. Like, what was that verse, 1
Corinthians 15, 10? Quite often I quote this verse,
but I don't fully quote it. But this verse comprehends everything
that I want to say to you tonight, that Christ is saved in Matthew
5 here. This comprehends both the person
and the work of Christ. It comprehends the triune God
in salvation. Let's read it here. Psalm 17,
verse 15. Let's read the first part of it. As for me, I will
behold thy face in Righteousness. Righteousness. Terry, the only
way we're going to behold this holy God is in righteousness. Does that remind you of Psalm
143-1 we studied last week? In thy faithfulness and thy righteousness. Hear me, O Lord, in thy faithfulness
and thy righteousness. The only way a sinner like me
is going to behold God or see God or come to God Stand before
God is through this righteousness. I've got to be righteous. It
shall be perfect to be accepted. You must be holy because God
said, I'm holy. All right, now what is this righteousness? Here we go. Here's this broken
record. This is the record that God has given unto us life. This life is in His Son. This
is the record. What is this righteousness? imputed
righteousness. Right? It's not mine. It's not mine. I not get mine.
Isaiah 64, 6 says, mine's what? Filthy rags. All of them. Best
thing I've ever done. Filthy. Did you read that article
by Spurgeon in last week's bulletin? He said, if I looked down through
the years and tried to come up with one thing, he said, it'd
be hopeless. One thing. with a pure motive
and a pure heart, purely righteous, holy to God, with nothing. There's
nothing there. Guilty. What's with everything
the laws say? They say to them that under the
law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty.
Well, every real, really poor, mourning, broken sinner realizes
this. He realizes his lack of this
righteousness, and he appeals to God for it. He desires it,
this righteousness. And he'll say with David over
and over again, if he finds this righteousness, Psalm 71, another
one of my favorite psalms, he'll go on and on about this righteousness,
won't he? Only Henry. We've seen this so
much together in the study back there. He said, in thy righteousness."
David said, deliver me in thy righteousness. He said in another
place, and my mouth will show forth, I'll be talking about,
the only one I want to be talking about is thy righteousness, because
I don't have any, and thy salvation. That's how you can, do you want
to know how you can tell a true believer from a false one? Or
at least pretty much? infallible. But here's one evidence
anyway. He won't dare talk about his
own righteousness. He doesn't have any. He won't dare talk
about his own works. He doesn't think he has any.
He'll talk all about Christ's righteousness, all about Christ's
work, won't he? He won't be saying, I, I, I,
I, I, I, anything. If he says, I, all he'll say
is like, Paul, I am the chief of sinners. That's what I am. And let me tell you about what
he did. There's the difference, right? His righteousness. He'll
go on. He'll say, I'll make mention
of thy righteousness and thine only. I'm just not going to even
hear about it. A man preached from Psalm 18 doesn't preach
of Christ's righteousness. He missed it, hasn't he? I'll
make mention of... Is David contradicting himself
there? Is David saying here in Psalm 71, I'll make mention of
thy righteousness and thine only, and in Psalm 18 he says, I've
got one, and the Lord's rewarded me according to the cleanness
of my hand, according to my righteousness. David, boy, speaking out of both
sides of his mouth, isn't he? No, he's not. He's speaking about
the same one. Thy righteousness, he goes on.
God is very high. Who has done great things, O
God, like unto thee? Last verse in Psalm 71, he says,
My tongue will talk of thy righteousness all day long, because it's my
only hope, my only plea. Now turn to Romans 10 with me.
Everybody knows, or at least Knows fairly well Romans 10.
Let's look over here. Romans 10. Poor, pitiful, ignorant sinners
today are dying for want of this righteousness. When it's there for the taking,
Terry, it's there for the having, isn't it? We don't exclude anybody
from Christ. They exclude themselves, don't
they Rick? The righteousness of Christ is there for anyone
that believes, right? That's what Romans say. But there's a world of sinners,
religious ones at that, who are dying for want of this righteousness. That old word want, old English
word want, that's what they used to say, for want of or lack of. But that has a good double meaning
now. They don't have it, and they don't want it. It has a
good, a true double meaning, doesn't it? They like it, and
they don't want it. They like it and don't like it.
That's what Paul's saying here in Romans 10. He says, Brother,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. And that's a true heartfelt or
that ought to be the true attitude of a believer. We're going to
see that when we see Christ saying, bless a peacemaker. We're going
to see that the proper way to to have compassion and deal with
people, peacemakers, not pounding people. I'm so guilty of that.
And Paul had the right attitude in this thing. He said, My heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. And I bear them record. There's
some sincere people out there. And I talk about the German Baptists
all the time, the Dunkers, and there's some sweet people. Some
of them are sweet people, aren't they, Rick? I mean, the finest
people around, good citizens. I don't want to talk about them
and, you know, ugly, but they're ignorant. I bear them record, they have
a zeal. The Scripture says they have a zeal of God, but the Scripture
says it's not according to knowledge, does it? Not according to knowledge,
because they're ignorant of God's righteousness. Now, you all know
what that means, but I'll bring it to your remembrance again.
God's righteousness is basically two-fold. He is essential holy. That's if they really knew how
holy God was, they wouldn't put any stock whatsoever in any of
this. They'd say, well, the sun and
the moon are not pure in His eyes. How much more filthy and
abominable is this man, this woman? And they're ignorant,
and they're going about to establish their own righteousness, by the
way. whatever, you know, whatever they do or say or don't do or
say or live and so establish a religiosity that God will accept.
God won't accept it, will He? God will only accept us how?
In the Beloved. Ephesians 1, 6. In the Beloved. God only looks upon a man or
a woman in favor how? In Christ. The only way. Don't you wish the world could
hear this? in Christ, in his righteousness,
because he's the only one that ever really had one as a man. Because he says in verse four,
Christ is the end of the law, the goal, the purpose of the
law, a schoolmaster, to point us to Christ for righteousness. The law says to us, Rick, you
can't come by me. Are you going to come by me,
the fiery mountain?" Paul says it over and over through Romans.
It quakes. It burns. It smokes. Don't come up here.
Don't touch this mountain. You'll die. You'll die. Don't
come up here. But men say, I'd like to try
it anyway. Don't they? God says, OK, die. But He says
in another place, why will you die? Doesn't He? Look right over
here. Look! There's salvation in a
word. Look! It's already been done. Don't do. It's done. Christ said, came down and said,
Come! You need a righteousness? I've got one. It's a good one.
It's the best one. It's the best robe. It's the
only one. It's the wedding garment. Believe
me. And you'll wear this and God
will accept you. I thought about this thing
of hunger and thirst. We're to hunger and thirst after
this righteous. Why don't men and women hunger
and thirst after the imputed righteousness of Christ? Well,
number one, we saw they don't see their need of it, right?
They're ignorant of God's righteousness. They want to establish their
own. But do you know what they do when they establish their
own righteousness? Do you know what they're saying in effect? Mine's
better. Aren't they? Mine's better. In other words,
Christ didn't, if you be circumcised. I wish people would read these
verses, don't you, in Galatians? If you be circumcised, Christ
will profit you nothing. What does that mean? It means
if you do anything. Now that's a hidden thing that
was done to a man. It wasn't shown. Nobody was going
around flaunting their circumcision. And he just took people's word
for it that you were. And so that's what he's saying. That's
such a hidden and a least of thing. The very least thing you
could do, if you do it for a righteousness, Christ prophets you nothing.
What you're saying is, He didn't need to come. He didn't need
to live like that. He didn't need to die. And I
don't need Him. I've got one. That's an insult, isn't it, to
God? This is like coming before God
with our morality or our works is like a man standing before
a beautiful feast. In other words, he comes up to
this great, big, beautiful feast. Everything's ready. Come. Look
at this table. And this is what we do every
time the gospel is preached. Look at this table. Sit down. Everybody sit down. Get your
chair and belly up. I'm going to spread the table.
This is what you do when the gospel is preached. Here it is.
Isn't it great? Oh, it's great. It's wonderful. Oh, if the Lord gives you an
appetite and you eat, you go away filled, you go away satiated. What it's like when you bring
your own righteousness, it's like coming up to that big table
and saying, well, it looks pretty good, but I brought a peanut
butter and jelly sandwich with me. That's what Hannah would
do. She'd see a steak and potatoes
and I'd rather have this PBJ. You're growing now, and it's
changing. Well, anybody who grows in grace and the knowledge of
Christ will see, hey, oh, why in the world would I want that?
Why in the world would I want to bring something I've prepared?
As a matter of fact, it's spoiled, isn't it? Like five-day-old fish. You're righteous. Get that out
of here. Now that, that gospel's a sweet
smell. And I tell you, it's an insult
to God Almighty to bring our filthy rags of righteousness
compared to His glorious garment, that wedding garment, my soul.
And Christ said it. He warned, He said, He gave that
parable of the man found at the wedding feast without a wedding
garment on. He said, How did you get in here?
Why in the world, how in the world did you think you could
possibly come into my presence without a provided wedding garment?
Don't you know that there's a dress code here? You know that's what
men are ignorant of, Terry, the dress code of heaven? And it
ain't black. Listen, show me in the Scriptures
where it says you've got to wear black. Oh, men are so ignorant. Look
at the second part of Psalm 17. Now, this is the part I always
quote. I always leave off the first part. The second part says
this. He says, I'll behold thy face
in righteousness. That's the only way you're going
to see God, is in the imputed righteousness of Christ. And
he says, and I'll be satisfied with it. I'll be satisfied when
I awake with thy likeness. Now, I want to talk to you about
imparted righteousness. Okay? I'll just talk to you about
imputed righteousness. This is something God does for
you. This is something God does totally
outside of yourself. You have nothing at all to do
with it. You were dead and trespassed
in sin, and Christ came and He established this righteousness.
He wrought out, as it were, this beautiful robe of golden needlework,
the works of His own hands, and His life wrought out this beautiful,
perfect robe, coat of many colors, this linen ephod for us to wear
perfectly. that will look good, look perfect,
holy in God's presence, and he puts us on us. That imputed righteousness. Puts us on. Puts it on us. But that's not all he does. Not
only does he impute or charge this righteousness to us, he
charges this righteousness in us. Now I'll show you that. Look
at 2 Peter chapter 1 with me. 2 Peter chapter 1. Do you remember
there now? Psalm 17 said, he said, I'll
behold your face in righteousness, and I'll be satisfied when I
awake with your likeness. Did you catch the difference
there? Huh? Did you catch it? Huh? That's the work of Christ and
the personality of Christ. Exactly. Imputed righteousness
and imparted righteousness. Imputation is justification.
That's a legal thing. All right, impartation is sanctification. It's an actual thing, an actual
change, an actual change. If any man had not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of his. If Christ doesn't make this actual
change with a man or a woman or a young person, they're none
of his. I didn't say anything about how great the degree is.
I'm just saying it's got to be there. The work's got to be there.
All right? imputed and imparted are this
holiness that Peter that Paul talked about Hebrews twelve fourteen
without which no man will see the Lord. All right. All right now look
somebody asked me one time about the word imparted said where's
that in Scripture. Well you know the word the sovereign the word
sovereign that we we talk about God's sovereign grace is not
in Scripture. We get sovereign from Romans
5.21 that says this, As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might
grace reign. Sovereign grace. That's where
we get the term sovereign. But it's implied there, isn't
it? It's very clear. Reign. Grace reigns. Sovereign
grace. Grace reigns through righteousness. Here's the word again. Unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And this word imparted here in
2 Peter 1, verse 4, it's very clear. It comes from the word
partakers. He says that I read this while
ago. God has given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that
by these you might be partakers. Or God might impart to us. This divine nature. You see that Vicki? nature. A new nature, right? A new creature. A actually new person created
in the image of Christ unto good works, right? Terry, I might
tell, I'm quoting Scripture. Imparted of the divine nature.
You know what salvation is? Salvation is not just a legal
work now. And I've said this so many times. Salvation is not
just justification. Christ has made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Righteousness,
justification—there's got to be a sanctifying word here. There's
got to be an actual change. God doesn't save a man from the
penalty of sin and leave him in it. No way. Don't you know who you're a servant
to? That's your master? Masters change. When Christ takes
over as Lord, masters change, don't they? no longer servants
of sin. Just go on and on with the scriptures.
Sanctification is something that's actually done in a person, in
a person, an actual change. All right? Partakers, salvation
is being partaker of the imputed righteousness of Christ or having
it charged to our account. We weren't even around when that
took place. We weren't even around. And salvation is God Forming
the nature and characteristic character of Jesus Christ in you. And one day you'll awake
in heaven with a perfect likeness of him. It starts now. Nobody
said anything about, what's the term I'm looking for? Sinless
perfection. I didn't say anything about that,
did I? I'm not even implying it. I'm just saying there's a
growth. There's a growth. We take part
in this divine nature. Now, to clarify that, it's not
in the sense that we take part in it. It's something I do. It's
my part. This is what the Reformers, This
is what so many legalistic people are trying to make. They're suddenly
making this a work that we can do. It's not. It's still the work of the Holy
Spirit. He gives the means. He gives the grace. But we saw
that in 1 Corinthians 15, 10, didn't we? How are we going to
do anything? How are we anything? By what? Grace. By the grace
of God, I am what I am. And he said, it wasn't I that
did it, it was the grace of God in me. And a man ever, ever,
even suddenly hints to the effect that there's something he did,
ooh, God's angry. He won't have that, will he?
We don't begin in the Spirit and make perfect by the flesh.
We begin in the Spirit and make perfect by the Spirit through
means. So God gives us a part in Christ
is what it is, makes us a part of Christ or makes a part of
Christ. No, I said that wrong. That's
not right. All of Christ is in a like a
bottle of smoke and smoke in the bottle. All right. It's not our work, it's God's
grace, it's not our faith, it's Christ's faith. It's not our
work, but it's God's grace. Yet we do work. Faith without
works is dead, though. We do do good work. We do work.
We don't ever take any credit for. It's not our faith. It's Christ's faith, right? And
that's the gift of God. The faith that we have is a gift
of God. Yeah, I do believe that John's not going to believe for
me. The Holy Spirit's not going to believe for me. If you believe. It's not our holiness. It's Christ's
imputed holiness and his imparted holiness to us, right? Yet I'm
exhorted. We saw a few weeks ago how that
we're exhorted to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. Whatever that means, I want to
do it, don't you? It's not our strivings. Scripture says Christ
alone, Christ alone resisted unto blood, striving against
sin. Thank God he did. Because that's
what it takes, the blood of Christ, to strive to put away my sin,
right? And I didn't do it, and I never
will do it like that. Yet, He Himself tells me to strive
to enter into the straight gate, doesn't He? Isn't that what Christ
said? He tells us to desire the sincere
miracle of the Word, that we may grow thereby. And the Holy
Spirit gives growth and an increase Yet, we've got seed right here
for planting. We've got the means of prayer,
fasting, reading the scriptures, hearing, and so forth. We've
got the means right in front of us. It's right down at the hardware
store, Nancy. Want a good garden? Come and
buy it without price. It costs money down there. But
God said in Isaiah 55, come and buy it without price, without
money. Wine and milk. All right, lastly. Here's the promise, back in our
text. Look at the promise. He says, Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after righteousness. That's hungering and thirsting
after Christ. He's the bread. He's the water,
like the psalm said, whom He found us. He found us, and we
found Him, simultaneously. We hunger and thirst after Him,
see, His glorious person and His work and His righteousness.
We hunger and thirst for that imputed righteousness of His,
that covering of His. And we hunger and thirst and
desire to be made like Him. Oh, I'll be satisfied when I
awake with His likeness. I'm not going to behold God except
in the righteousness of Christ, and then I'll never be satisfied
until I'm made like Christ. Do you see what that verse is
saying? Now here's the promise. They
that hunger and really hunger and thirst after righteousness,
they'll be filled. Filled. I want you to look at this verse
and get ready to jump a creek. Psalm 81. Or jump a pew. I'll permit it if anybody wants
to. John did in the study. And we looked at this together.
Psalm 81. Christ said, You drink this water,
and out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. That woman at the well said,
Lord, give me this water that I'll never thirst again. She said, Our father's drank
this well, and I've been drinking this well, and I'm still thirsty.
I want something to really meet my need. And when Christ will
come, he'll show us all things. He'll lead us. Perhaps he'll
lead us beside the still waters. Christ said, I have to speak
unto thee. She jumped the creek. She went,
jumped, and ran and told everybody, Come, come see a man. Is not this the Christ? Look
at Psalm 81, verses 10, beginning with verse 10. He says, I am
the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
We saw that in Psalm 107, didn't we? How the Lord brought us from
Egypt. Oh, I was living in Egypt, and
all the sin that goes with Egypt, and the Lord brought me out of
it. And some of you, east, west, north, south, brought you out
of many different walks of life, right? To the river, to the fountain. I'm the Lord thy God, which brought
thee out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I'll
kill them." Have you ever seen a bird, these little
birds when they're newborn in a nest? They're ugly, aren't
they ugly? Boy, they've got their mouths
open, and they'll not be satisfied until it's filled. He said, open your mouth wide
and I'll feel it. I'll feel it. Look on down. Keep
reading this. This is such a shame. But he
says, my people, verse 11, would not hearken to my voice. Like he said in Isaiah 55, I
halfway quoted, he said, why will you spend your money for
that which is not bread? Why do you spend your time and
your effort and your energy and your pursuits and so forth for
that which is bread? Not bread. Buy wine and milk. That's the
best of the land. Isn't that the fat of the land,
what the land has to offer? Milk. Milk's my favorite drink. Isn't that yours, Hannah? Favorite.
Milk. The milk of God's Word is my
favorite drink, my favorite book, if you will. Go on. He said, But my people will hearken
to my voice. Why? Israel would not of me. So, look at verse 12. Here's
the consequences of their actions, or inaction. I gave them up.
Their own hearts lust. They walked in their own counsels,
their own thoughts and ways. Oh, that my people... Look at
the heart of God in this sentence. Oh, that my people had hearkened
unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways. I would have soon
subdued their enemies, prying my hand against their adversary.
The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto
Him. Their time should have endured forever. He would have fed them
with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock
should I have satisfied thee. You know, like that song
I sung to you. It was taken, I believe, from
the prodigal son. It says, feeding on the husks
around me. Do you get tired of feeding on,
don't you, let me ask y'all this. Do you get tired of eating husks?
Do you get tired of feeding on spiritual leftovers from last
week? I think some of you know what
I'm saying. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst, after righteous they'll be filled. True seekers, the
promise is they'll find and they'll search for me with all their
heart. I don't have a heart. You can't love God. You can't
serve God and man. You can't search to seek God and seek the
world. True sinners are saved. Every sinner will be saved. You
know that? True disciples learn. You know what? True students,
diligent students, the Scripture says, study to show yourself
approved, a workman of God that needeth not be what? Ashamed. I'm so ashamed of my lack of
learning and understanding, my lack of faith. Everything about
me, Herbert, I'm ashamed of. Why I be ashamed? Study to show
thyself approved. Hunger and thirst. True partakers
are filled. Let me read this to you in closing.
This is taken from a book by Arthur Pink, and he said it very
well. And pay close attention to these
words. You have to listen closely to
get the gist of what he's saying here. It's taken from a book
I've been reading. It's excellent. You read this. It talks about enjoying God's
best. You know that God, that's what
we just read about. That's what we just read in Psalm 81. Oh,
he said, wine and milk, I'd have fed them with the best. Fruit
of the land, fat, wine on the leaves, well refined, full of
marrow. The weed husks most of the time.
How do you enjoy God's best? Wouldn't you want to, don't you
want to enjoy the best God has? What we mean, Arthur Pink says,
what we mean by enjoying God's best is for the saint to have
daily communion with God. Do you want that? Do you want
that? Do you want daily communion with
God? How do you have daily communion with God? How do you commune
with anybody? I get up, here's my wife, I lay
with my wife, I wake up in the morning, how do I have communion
with my wife? How's it? That's exactly right, I talk
to her. I talked to her. Call her. Good
morning. Good morning. And you'll have
real good communion if you sit down at the table together, won't
you? Have a cup of coffee, talk back and forth. That's good quality
time, isn't it? You're talking about quality
time, time well spent. Wake up 15 minutes early, 30
minutes early, and sit down at the table and speak with God. and have a good cup of warm milk. Communion with God, daily communion
with God, is God's best, to walk in the light of His countenance.
I want that. I want that. For His Word to
be sweet unto our tastes. Can't you reckon I get tired
of reading this book when it doesn't mean anything to me? Don't you? As
many times I wake up and I read this and, you know, and, oh,
I just didn't, it just doesn't mean a thing. I might as well
read the newspaper. I want it to be sweet to me. Or to be light to our understanding.
I want it to mean something. Strength to the inner man. I
want it to actually strengthen me, encourage me, enliven me. Strength to the inner man. Enjoying
God's best is for prayer to be a delight. Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you? Don't
you want prayer to be a delight, not a chore? It's to have answers
of peace received. I not only want to pray to God,
I want Him to answer me. Don't you? Huh? You're not praying
unless you're seeking an answer. Well, you know, you're praying
to praise God, but we have petitions, requests, we make known to God,
and we want answers. Or you're not really serious
about it, right? It's to have channels of supplies constantly
open. It's to have the mind state upon
him. What does the scripture say about
he who has his mind state on thee will have what? Thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace. Do you want that? Wouldn't you
like to be unruffled and unmoved and undistressed during the day,
huh? Whoa! Don't we need that? Thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is staid on thee. Because
he trusts in God. It's to have a conscience void
of offense. I need that. My conscience is always pricking
me about what I'm doing or not doing. It's to have full assurance of
our acceptance in Christ. Oh, man. It's for our graces
to be kept healthy and vigorous so that faith, hope, love, meekness,
patience, zeal are a daily exercise, a ready thing that comes out
of your mouth in your life. Oh, my, I want that. And it ought
to be, he says, it ought to be the experience of every believer.
God's best by God's best. We mean a personal experience
of his approbation or that other word for approval. Does God approve
of his? Is there any way in which God
approves of us? Is there any way in which God is pleased with
us? Not in and of ourselves. No.
In Christ though. In Christ. He said present you
in Romans twelve. He said present your bodies a
living sacrifice, well pleasing. pleasing to the Lord. It's to enjoy his favor in grace,
providence, and nature. It's not to be limited in receiving
his special favors in a spiritual way, and that includes his favors
on our temporal behalf. We've got a blank check to draw
from. It's to have the blessing of
the Lord upon our lives in every aspect relationship. You know, there are many promises
in the scriptures about. people and even their families
and so forth. You go all the way through the
Scripture. Henry, you can go all the way through the Scripture, the
Old Testament, and see God's promises to men of His, how that
He would save them and their families and so forth. Promises
all the way through the Scripture to David, Solomon. God said concerning
Solomon, He'll walk in My way, and I'll never take the throne
from him. He'll be blessed. His children
will be blessed. And it does not mean that we'll
be exempted from the ordinary problems and trials of life.
But rather, these things will be sanctified in them and result
in increased blessings. Problems come along, and it's
a... Paul said in 1 Corinthians... 2 Corinthians 12, was it? That I rejoice in my infirmities. How in the world? Could a man
rejoice? How could Peter come back and
actually give glory to God that he was put through a whipping?
He'd glorify God that he was counted worthy to suffer shame. He was enjoying God's best at
the time, wasn't he? Yeah, he was. Well, it does mean,
it doesn't mean you'll escape the common trials and tribulations
of this life, but you'll glorify Him in the fire. But it does
mean that, in enjoying God's best, does mean that you may
escape those troubles and afflictions which the follies of an disobedient
mind will bring. The sore chastisements and course
which necessarily entail this thing. Did you understand what
he was saying, what he was calling, what old brother Pink was writing?
And it all starts with the appetite, hungry and thirsty. It all depends,
it all starts right there. So if we don't have it, where
do you get it? Who's got it? Who's got all things?
Lord, increase my appetite, would you please? Would you let me,
would you give me the grace, would you give me the strength,
would you give me the ability, would you give me the desire
to wake up in the morning, go to bed tonight, wake up hungry
and thirsty, partake of it, fill me up. Tell my mouth open, Lord. You promised, Psalm 81, you promised,
verse 10, open your mouth, I'll fill it, fill me up, Lord. All
right, stand with me. Let's pray. Dear Lord, this is
our prayer. Every scripture we've read, everything
we've considered, everything you've said in your holy book,
we take it personally. We take it for our own, and we
plead with you your promises. We plead that promise that if
we'll open our mouths, Lord, if you'll open our mouths, that
you'll fill them full.