Speak to me. Cover my defenseless
head. Cover my defenseless head. Cover
it. I have no defense but Christ. David
said, God is my defense. And also false and full of sin
I am. I can identify with that. I can
identify with that. We were talking today. We've
got a plant out in front of the house and we've been trying to
get rid of it. I took Maddox and Doug and rooted it and noticed
this morning another sprout come up. Mary was telling Winner,
said, it's a plant from hell. And I said, well, I can identify
with that. I said, I've got a heart full of them. I've got a heart
full of weeds. You know, born in hell. Pride,
self-righteousness, legalism, self-glory, vainglory, false humility, hypocrisy. Born in hell. I want to, oh God,
root them out. I can't root them out. Every
time I try, they get worse. God can. And one of these days,
bless His holy name, we'll be done with them. We'll be done
with them. Here in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 6, it says this,
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. They shall be filled. You know,
it talks about there in verse 3, let's just recap just a little. Our Lord is teaching His disciples,
teaching His people. Talk about poor in spirit, poverty
of soul, empty before God, nothing to offer, nothing to give. If
we get anything, and these are spiritual things that God does
for us, that the kingdom of heaven is this people. It's theirs.
It belongs to them. And then, you know, when you
have this poverty of spirit, you begin to mourn over your
sin, your inability, your powerlessness, your sinfulness, and then the
sin around you, the sin of your nation, the sin that's so prevalent
around us. But we'll be comforted. We're
comforted because of what Christ did and what will be done for
us. Blessed are those who are humble
before God, content with what God's given them, have a right
estimation of themselves before God and before other men. And
then he comes to say, and then they, these are the people, those
who are poor in spirit, who mourn, have disrighted estimation of
themselves before God and men. They hunger and thirst after
righteousness, and they'll be filled. Now, you know, whenever
these things happen to us and God begins to work in us, we
cease to hunger and thirst after the world. We hunger and thirst
for something outside this world, beyond this world. something
completely outside ourselves. And he begins to seek after something
that's heavenly, eternal. And it's a righteousness that
they don't have. It's a righteousness they can't
produce. It's a righteousness that's entirely provided by somebody
else. And you know, our Lord Jesus
told us that no man can serve two masters. You can't do it. You can't serve the world and
you can't serve God. You can't have your own righteousness
and His too. And when this beatitude is particularly in this verse
here, in the verses we've read, we see the gospel. The gospel. Everything here has to be given
to us. Has to be given to us. By nature, we're not poor in
spirit. By nature, we ain't gonna mourn over anything but when
somebody crosses our path. By nature, we don't have the
right estimation of ourselves. We have the right estimation
of everybody else, but we don't have it of ourselves. And you
know, it shows us here that salvation is entirely of grace. The free
grace of God. Every bit of it. Poverty of spirit,
mourning, meekness, hunger and thirsting after righteousness.
And you know, He said we are to hunger and thirst after righteousness.
That's the ones that are blessed. Not to hunger and thirst after
happiness. Everybody is hungry and thirsting after happiness.
I want to be happy. I love to be happy. We are happy.
Well, what in the world has happiness got to do with anything anyway? Happiness is a fleeting thing.
It just comes and goes. And if you make that your object,
you make that your goal, you're never going to get it. You're
never going to get it. It doesn't say, blessed are those
who hunger and thirst after gifts or blessedness. But oh, when
you put happiness and all the things that you want first, you'll
miss it just as sure as God's on His throne. And we're never
to seek these things for themselves or just by themselves. Whenever
you seek God and His righteousness and the glory of God, and as
Brad prayed, O Lord, make us love You more and make us obey
You more, when we are brought to love Him and know Him, then
happiness and blessedness are the results of what God does
for us. It's like a man, you know, If
a man's got great pain, some of you all experience pain. A
lot of pain. You go to a doctor. And the doctor,
he can do something for your pain. All you want immediately
is relief from that pain. You're not too interested in
what's causing it. I want relief now. But a good
doctor will help you with your pain, but they want to find out
what's causing the pain. And whenever you cure the disease,
then the pain will go away. Well, that's what God does. He
sheds the pain, makes us see the disease, and then He tells
us what the remedy is. The pain is the poverty of spirit.
The pain is the mourning. The pain is the meekness. And
oh, we see all these things in all mind. The world here is trying
to get rid of the pain. Religion is trying to get rid
of the pain, trying to give everybody the same pill. Never learning
the disease, the disease is sin, and it's blackness, and it's
hardness, and it's nature, and it's corruption. But oh my, that
we've learned and experienced the pain, we've learned the disease,
and God's told us what it is, that by one man, this is where
disease started, one man, sin entered into this world. Death
passed before all men because all have sinned. And all beloved,
and David said, it's against you and you only that I've sinned.
I was shaven in iniquity and I was conceived in sin. And that's
the pain when you find out you're a sinner. You find out you've
got no ability. You find out you've got nothing
to offer. And God brings this great pain
into your heart and your life. And you begin to mourn. You begin
to groan. You begin to have this poverty
of spirit. And then, beloved, He shows you
this glorious righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ. And you
start hungering after that. Huh? Hungering after that. Now,
righteousness is not just a general respectability or morality. One of the most awful things,
I think, that's being said in this age is that America is a
Christian nation. It's not a Christian nation.
There's some Christians in this nation. There's no such thing
as a Christian nation. There's Christians in a nation. You know if America was a Christian
nation, we wouldn't have locks on our doors, would you? Wouldn't be no bank robberies,
wouldn't be no social security, everybody would take care of
one another. That's right. Wouldn't be no nursing homes,
you'd take care of your own families. There wouldn't be no insurance.
The doctors, you know, there'd be everybody. There wouldn't
be no locks on doors. There wouldn't be locks on cars. There wouldn't be no cars. If
we was a Christian nation, and folks are trying to convince
people of that, and they don't know the disease. But beloved,
those of us that have experienced and God's taught us, we want
to know what truly the blessed man is. What is this blessed
man? Well, he's poor in spirit. He
mourns. He's meek and he's hungry and
thirsting for something beyond this world. Something beyond
his flesh. Something beyond his ability.
Something beyond something he can do. And what is it he longs
after? Righteousness. Righteousness. Oh, here's what he longs to be.
He longs to be righteous before God himself. That's where I want
to be. Don't you want to be righteous
before God? Righteous before God Himself. He knows He's a
sinner. The only thing He wants to know,
how can I be just? Can God be just with me? How
can I be just before God? How can I, a sinner, be accepted
of God? How can God have anything to
do with me? How can He look to me? How can
He speak to me? How can He commune with me? How
can He look towards me and do anything for me the way I am?
And he's not satisfied. He hungers and he thirsts until
he gets the answer to that question. And he learns the answer to that
question. You know he learns the answer
to that? Because look with me. You keep back and look over St.
Corinthians 5. He learns the answer to this
question. Very few people ask this question. St. Corinthians 5.21. Very few people
ask, how can a man be just with God? They automatically assume
they are. They automatically assume that
I'm right with God. They think being right with God
is living a certain way and acting a certain way, and believing
certain things, and attending certain places, and quitting
certain things. But to be accepted of God and
to have the righteousness of God is altogether something that
has to be done for us. And we want to know how we get
this righteousness. And we're all the time telling
folks, how can God be just and justify us? What a question! How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? How can anybody shaped in iniquity
and conceived in sin be made righteous? to where God Almighty
and human God can commune and go into the presence of holiness,
go into the presence of immutability, go into the presence of righteousness,
and say, Lord, it's me! And be accepted. Lord, it's me! And God hear him and accept him
and receive him, just like He does His own Son. Oh, my, what
a... We want nothing... And listen,
here's what He said in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. There's three people
in this verse. For he, God, hath made him, Christ, to be
sin. Whatever sin is, whatever it
is, whatever it entails, its nature, its actions, its guilt,
its shame, its rebellion, whatever all the sin is, God made Christ
to be that. Who knew no sin, had none of
his own, never experienced it. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, new no sin, and there's the others,
that we, who Christ was made sin for, who Christ bore our
sins, who Christ was wounded for our transgressions, that
we might be made, now watch this, the righteousness of God. Where
at? In Christ. Now it says the righteousness
of God. Now, can you be more righteous than having the righteousness
of God himself? Huh? Look over here in 1 Corinthians
1.30. We quote this all the time. But
look at this verse. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ. We
see, that's why we know Christ is the wisdom of God. Christ
is the wisdom of God. There we see how that God can
be just. He punished sin. He laid sin.
He charged His Son with the sins of all His people. He was wounded
for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. And there,
there's the wisdom of God. God's not letting sin get by.
God's punishing sin. He's justly punishing sin. His
wrath is poured out on Christ. Now, Christ banned our sins. God can be just to receive us
and accept us and declare us righteous when we believe on
Christ for everything. Not do for nothing, believe on
Christ who did it. Now look here, verse 30. But of Him, this is God who does
this now, but of God are you in Christ Jesus. How do you get
in Christ? God puts you in Christ. And God
made Christ unto us wisdom. The way we see the wisdom of
God in Christ. The way we see the key to the
Scriptures. We see the understanding of the
Word. We see how God can be just. And He made us righteousness.
He made Christ our righteousness. And He made Christ our sanctification. Now let me tell you something
about holiness and sanctification. There are people that teach progressive
sanctification. That you just get more sanctified,
more sanctified, more sanctified. But now listen, if Christ is
your righteousness and Christ is your sanctification, can you
be more sanctified than Christ is? Can you be more holy than
Christ is? And if Christ is our holiness
and Christ is our righteousness and Christ is our sanctification
and righteousness and holiness is a state of being, you either
are or you're not. Ain't that right? And you're
talking about assurance, and comfort, and rest. You're prescribing to do better
and to be better before God when you understand that Christ is
all you need. He's your righteousness, your
wisdom, your sanctification, and your redemption. He's coming
back for your body. You know, folks is trying to
be more holy. They're striving after something
they can't get. Because you cannot be no more
holy than Christ is and righteous than Christ is. And let me tell
you this, and I've said it to you so many times, that when
we get before God Almighty, when we leave this world and go to
the next, we will not have no better, our righteousness there
will be the righteousness we have here. The holiness we have
there is the holiness we have here. The sanctification we have
there is the sanctification we have here. We will just change
geographical locations, we will change bodies, but that's all
we'll change. Now, ain't that right? Oh my, we can lay back and rest
in Christ in that. And not only does he want to
be righteous and accepted before God, he knows that Christ is
this righteousness, but he wants a righteous nature. He doesn't
want to just be accepted of God. He wants to have this righteousness
of God, this righteousness of Christ. But he also wants to
have a righteous nature. You know the believer, this man
who hungers and thirsts after I, he wants this new nature too.
In fact, God gives us a new nature, a new heart and a new will. And
I tell you, how can you love righteousness without a new nature?
I love righteousness. Don't you love righteousness?
I love holiness. I love truth. I love everything
about God and His Word and what He's done. And you know God gives
us this new nature, gives us this new heart, this new will.
And we, beloved, we hate every evil, every evil way. And we
love that which is good. And oh my, we long for the day,
this hunger and thirst after righteousness has to do longing
for the day when we'll be free from the power and the tyranny
of sin. And things we once loved, now
we hate. And what we hated, we now love.
And oh my, He's seeking, this is what He wants. And oh my,
not only does he want this righteous nature, but he wants to be righteous
in his character. He wants to be righteous in his
dealings. Can I say it that way? David says that the man will
swear to his own hurt. Once he sells you his word and
he's got a character, he's got integrity, he's got sprucefulness,
he's got something more than morality. He's got such a nature
that he'll swear to his own hurt. If he tells you something and
he lays his word on that, he'll swear to his own hurt. He would rather lose anything
as to lose his name, rather lose anything as to lose his character.
No matter what anybody says about him, as long as it's a lie, he
don't care. But he would not give up his character, not give
up his name, not give up his integrity for nothing. He wants to be pure inside and
outside. He wants God to work in him that
he might be upright before God and upright before men. Anybody that don't care how they
live before men and act before men and what men think of them,
they're a fool. We're believers, we're Christians,
we're people that's what this whole business of the Beatitudes
is about. It makes us show how different we are from the world.
The world's not poor in spirit. We're rich and increased in goods
and have need of nothing. The world ain't born and over
anything. The world don't know nothing about neediness. The
world don't know nothing about seeking righteousness. They're
seeking happiness. I can't be happy with that man,
I'll go get me another one. I can't be happy with that woman,
I'll get me another one. Can't be happy with that, I'll
get me something else. Oh my, God made us different. Oh my. And oh, to hunger and
thirst after righteousness. He hungers to be for the grace
to persevere. That's what this hundred and
third chapter is. God, please enable me to persevere. To keep
on keeping on. I want to persevere in grace.
And I want you to preserve me in grace. Not only do we want
to be right, but oh God, keep us right. Keep us right. You know how many folks have
we seen that started out right and seemed to start right and
didn't end up right? I want to be kept right, don't
you? I want to be kept. I want God to keep me in the
truth. I want God to keep me in Christ. I want God to keep
us hungry and thirsty. Keep us desired. Keep us longing. Keep us thirsty. Keep us humble. Keep us down before. Lord, I
want to keep on. I don't want to fall out by the
wayside. I don't want to miss Christ. Oh, He wants to be kept
right. He wants to grow. He wants to
grow in grace. He wants to be an overcomer.
He wants to add virtue to virtue. He's like David who said, I'll
never be satisfied until I awake in thy likeness. And he'll never,
this man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness will never,
ever be content or satisfied until that last sin in him is
conquered and he'll be brought to where he'll never, never sin
again. And oh my, what a day that'll
be. Oh, what a day that'll be. Oh, my. Do you understand what
I'm saying? You know, let's look at the hungry
and thirsted self. We want to be right before God.
We want to be right in our nature. We want to be right before men,
before God, before men. We want to be kept right. God keep us. But look at the
hungry and thirsted self. To be hungry, hungry after something
would be enough. But not only does he hunger,
but he thirsts. He has a craving, a spiritual nature. And his appetite
and desires, he goes after what he wants above all else. He wants
righteousness. He wants to be right before God,
before men. It's a passion with him. It's
a passion with him. This business, you know, of righteousness
is a passion with us. It really truly is. And it's
real. You know, when you're hungry,
hunger's real. You get real hungry. Sometimes
you'll eat this great big bait. You'll set out in the evening
and say, I'll never get hungry. I don't think I'll ever eat another.
Oh, I'll just... But sure enough, after a while,
you'll get hungry again. And thirst, oh my, thirst is
something else. I drink an unbelievable amount
of water in a day. I know I drink way over a gallon
every day. I drink three or four glasses
in the morning when I first get up. Stay thirsty. That's the way we are after Christ. And all we desire and we crave,
and it's only likened to hunger, and it's only likened to thirst.
And he wants assurance that his sins have been pardoned. He wants
assurance that he's been clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
He wants assurance that he's been sanctified. He feels like
sometimes that his very heart will break if he can't be rid
of sin. He asks and he longs and he prays,
Oh God, make me more like your son. There's no satisfaction
in him. No rest in him. until he has
this rest that's in Christ. And this hunger and thirst is
a very, very real thing. It's like the prodigal son. When
he was hungry, he ate the husk of the corn. But when he went
to starving, you know where he went? He went to his daddy's
house. We're all right, Logan. But boy,
when you get to starving, you've got to go someplace else. And
not only that is it real, but it's natural. and only to the
new nature. Just like this physical body
has all of its needs, the natural man has exactly the same needs. With hunger and thirst, we have
to have our intellect fed, we have to have our nature fed,
we have to have our souls fed, and in the spiritual nature,
we have that same hunger and thirst and all the needs that
we do. And nobody has to tell a man when he's hungry or when
he's thirsty. It's natural to me. And I am afraid, and I'm
afraid for folks who can go a long time without the gospel. I'm
concerned for folks who can go a long time without being fed,
ain't you? I'm concerned about folks who
can go for several weeks or months and then come in Get enough in
one meal to do them for three or four more weeks? I can't do
that. I've got to have a little food
every day. Christ said, I'm that bread that
came down from heaven. If any man's thirsty, let him
come to me. And that's why you're here tonight, and that's why
you'll be here Wednesday night, and that's why you'll be here next
Lord's Day. We're hungry. We're thirsty. Tell me more about
this righteousness. Tell me more about this holiness.
Tell me more about this sanctification. Tell me more about this new nature
that I've got. I won't disband. You see, when
the Holy Ghost changes our nature, that new nature hungers and thirsts
after the things that a new nature does. Righteousness and peace
and justification. And the old nature never did,
never could, and never would. Oh my, this man who's been quicker,
he don't have to be told what he's to hunger after. He just
starts hungering. He just starts thirsting. Ain't
that right? And it's an intense desire. What's
more intense than hunger when you really, really get hunger?
What's more intense than thirst? Than thirst. And the only thing
that'll satisfy it is water. You get really, oh, I've got
to have it. That's the way food is. You remember
when, I think it was Marie Antoinette that told those French, you know,
when they was going hungry and they was starving over there
and they was using all the flour to fill up their wigs with flour
and make them all white. She went out there and the folks
was out in the streets rioting for something to eat and she
said, let them eat cake. And the next thing you know,
she is beheaded and everybody else is beheaded. You got all
the flour, we want it back. Shake that wig, get a little
more bread out of it. You know, you let a fellow get
hungry, he going to go someplace to get something to eat. Ain't
he? And that's the way it is with
this thing of the new nature. You get this new nature, and
you going to go someplace to get fed. That's just all there
is to it. And if you go someplace where
you're not getting fed, you're going to say, well, I'm not getting
nothing here. I'm going to go someplace else. A man told me that years
ago. He said, if you'll feed the sheep, they'll just keep
coming and they'll eat. And there'll be some more sheep.
They'll just keep coming. You feed them, they'll come and
eat. And another thing about this feeding sheep. Everybody
here knows how, everybody here has one time or another had chickens
and fed chickens. Ain't you done that? Everybody's
fed chickens, had chickens. Now if you take a handful of
corn, you go out to feed the chickens, you take a handful
of corn and throw that like that, what happens to those chickens?
They just make a big lot of noise, start backing up and fluttering
and carrying on. You don't throw the food at them.
You take your hand and you scatter it. And they'll just come right
up around your feet and they'll eat it off your shoes, off your
feet. And that's the way sheep's food
is. You scatter it. You know, we don't throw it at
people. We scatter it. And that's why,
you know, in that new nature, in that new desire there, you
come, and the food's on the table, and you want it. Huh? And oh,
beloved, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, you know
what it is? It's a sign of spiritual life. If you don't hunger and
thirst after Christ, you don't hunger and thirst after Christ, maybe you're dead. Maybe you
don't have life. You know, to have desire for
something spiritual, you've got to have spiritual life. To desire
righteousness, to desire Christ, that's a sign of spiritual life.
And then, the more you desire, the more you want. It's a proof
of your spiritual health. If you get sick, you don't have
much of an appetite. But if you're spiritually healthy, you'll have
a healthy appetite. And then your spiritual body
will be healthy. And oh God, give us a healthy spiritual appetite. Give us an appetite after Christ.
Make us greedy after Christ. You know the Pharisees never
hungered and thirsted after righteousness? You know why? Because they already
had it. They already had it. They didn't
need to hunger and thirst after Christ. They didn't want Christ.
They didn't want... They didn't... You know, the
rich young ruler said, I've kept all these from my youth up. The
Pharisee loved to stand and pray thus with himself, and he said,
I thank you that I'm not like other men. They had so much righteousness
they didn't need it. They didn't know what it was
to hunger and thirst after it. But oh God, please, cause within
us. to continue to be blessed with
the hunger and thirst after this righteousness. Because look what
it says about it. He shall be filled. He shall be filled. And you know, this is one of
the mysteries of the gospel. This is one of the mysteries
of the new life. Is that you're filled, and yet you're always
hungry. You're satisfied with what Christ
has given you, but you always want more of Him. Always want
to know more of Him. Desire Him more. More about Jesus
would I know, would I see. More of His saving fullness see.
You know, and it says they should be filled. Those whose object is righteousness,
that desire it, that hunger for it. The Lord Jesus says they
should be filled. Now what a blessing. What a blessing. A unique blessing. A man who
eats is soon hungry again, who drinks soon thirst again, but
he that thirsts after Christ, thirst for righteousness shall
be filled. Never hunger for righteousness again, we got it. We got Christ.
Never thirst again, for the Lord Jesus satisfies us. And what
this means is that we're not hungry and thirsting after anything
other than Christ. Now a lot of folks hunger and
thirst after a lot of things. You know, they got all these
books. You go to the Christian bookstore, go up to the bookstore,
get on a book list, and you look at the top 20 books. Top 20 books,
and not one of them will have anything to do with Christ. They'll
have to do with marriage. They'll have to do with how to
have a purpose-driven life. They'll have to do with how you're
supposed to be a good wife, how you're supposed to be a good
husband, how you're supposed to treat your children, how you're supposed
to be a I don't understand this, they got Christian fiction. How
do you have Christian fiction? There's good literature, but
Christian fiction or Christian life? I'm too picky I guess. But you
look at it, none of it has to do with knowing Christ. It don't
have anything to do with a man's relationship with Christ. And that's why we're satisfied.
We're not going out and getting these books. We're not going
out hungry and thirsting after this. I know what the Bible tells
me about being a husband. A husband loves your wife even
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Right? Wives, honor your husbands. Obey
your husbands as you do the Lord. How are you supposed to be on
your job? Work on your job just like you're serving Christ. Don't
do our services, men pleasures, but you go on that job and you're
a servant of Christ. So we're satisfied with Him.
We're not looking for pie in the sky. We're not looking for
prophecy. We're not looking for how to split the hairs on the
tail of a horse that's going to come with the seven heads
on it. We're not interested in that. We want to know Christ. And He fills us. Gold will never
satisfy. Worldly possessions won't keep
satisfying. People keep telling themselves,
if I can get that, then I'll be satisfied. And then they say,
well, maybe just a little more. Maybe just a little more. Oh,
nothing can fill a man's heart but God Himself. And I know this,
beloved. I know this. That the man who
feels his necessity of Christ, finds that Christ satisfies his
soul. Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. How? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. And oh beloved, our Lord promised
they should be filled. They should be filled. And now
when it talks about being filled, That means that they shall be
satisfied. They shall have all they need
and enough. It don't say just a little. Just
a little. And you know whatever you're
full of, that's what comes out. That's what comes out. The man
who fills his condemnation before God, you tell of him as Christ
the Lamb slain, the substitute, the sin bearer. Tell him of righteousness
imputed. Will you have him? Oh yes. You'll be filled. You're complete
in Christ. Christ is all in all to them.
You want a new nature? God said, I'll make you a partaker
of the divine nature. He said, we've received an incorruptible
seed. And that incorruptible seed endures
forever. And the Holy Ghost comes down
and dwells in us. Dwells in us. And because of
this being filled, we shall be kept. We shall be preserved.
It's one of these days, and bless God's holy name, One of these
days we shall be preserved to the end. Sin shall completely
be subdued, and that's what we hunger for. We'll be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light, and we'll be filled
eternally, standing before God, spotless, pure, righteous, innocent,
satisfied, once and forever. And we know the end of the book.
We know the end of the story. that we shall forever be with
the Lord. And they shall never hunger,
they shall never thirst anymore. Our Father, our gracious, gracious
God in heaven, blessed be your name. How holy, how glorious
you are. Father, thank you for the gospel.
Thank you for this righteousness that you created, such a desire
in us to have, to know, to want, to need, and to understand what
it is. Thank you for filling us with
that righteousness, filling us with that desire for Christ. Thank you, Lord. And we are satisfied
with Him. We're not satisfied with ourselves
in no way, but we're satisfied with Him. And oh Lord, please,
Keep us desiring, keep us looking, keep us trusting, keep us believing,
keep us cleaving, keep us always coming to our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't let us be led astray. Don't
let us be taken away from Christ and the gospel in any way. God
bless the word to the hearts and minds of you dear saints
tonight. Keep these dear saints and meet
every need of every home. Thank you for the love of God
that you put in your people's hearts. The great fellowship
and enjoyment we have of one another. We thank you for that.
Bless Brother Brad as he comes to speak this Wednesday evening.
And Brother Daniel as he comes to preach next Lord's Day. God
bless these dear men. And Father, bless the saints
to hear them. We thank you in Christ our Lord's name. Amen.
Amen. you