Blessed Ye that Hunger Now

Q: What does the Bible say about being hungry for Christ?

The Bible indicates that those who hunger for Christ are blessed and will be filled, as seen in Luke 6:21 and Matthew 5:6. In Luke 6:21, Jesus declares that 'blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled.' This speaks to the spiritual condition of those who long for Christ, acknowledging that such hunger is a work of God in our hearts. When we are spiritually hungry, it is a sign of his grace in us, leading us to seek Him and His righteousness. Jesus fulfills this hunger by providing Himself as the Bread of Life (John 6:35), indicating that true fulfillment comes from Him alone and not from worldly pursuits.

Q: How do we know that Christ is our righteousness?

Romans 10:4 asserts that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes, confirming His role as our righteousness. The scripture makes it clear that Christ is our righteousness as stated in Romans 10:4, which says, 'For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.' This indicates that through faith in Christ, we are justified and counted righteous before God. Additionally, 1 Corinthians 1:30 tells us that Christ has been made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Therefore, our acceptance by God is based solely on Christ's perfect righteousness, not our actions or merits, highlighting that salvation is a work of God alone.

Q: Why is hunger for Christ important for Christians?

Hunger for Christ is crucial as it signifies our dependence on Him for spiritual nourishment and fulfillment. The importance of hunger for Christ cannot be overstated; it reflects our recognition of our need for Him. As expressed in Isaiah 44:3, God promises to 'pour water upon him that is thirsty,' which emphasizes that spiritual thirst and hunger are met by God’s grace alone. This hunger drives us to seek Christ continually, understanding that apart from Him, we cannot bear fruit (John 15:5). Furthermore, as we experience trials and tribulations, our hunger deepens, leading us to a greater reliance on His grace and sustenance. Thus, recognizing our need for Christ leads to true spiritual growth and vitality.

Q: How does God provide for those who thirst for Him?

God promises to satisfy those who thirst for Him by pouring out His Spirit and guiding them to spiritual fulfillment. In Isaiah 49:10, God promises, 'They shall not hunger nor thirst,' signifying His provision for His people. This assurance is reinforced by His Spirit, which He pours upon us to satisfy our spiritual thirst. Jesus further illustrated this in John 7:37-39 where He invites anyone who thirsts to come to Him and drink. This indicates that when we come to Christ in faith, we receive the Holy Spirit, who guides us in all truth and nourishes our souls. God's commitment to provide emphasizes His sovereignty and care for His people as we seek Him.

All right, brethren, let's turn in our Bibles to Luke 6. Luke chapter 6. I've tried to show you as we come to this sermon. Scripture says our Lord went up into the mount. Our Lord, when he finished the work the Father gave him to do, he went up into the mount. He's in Mount Zion right now. heavenly Jerusalem. And it says he called his disciples to him. He calls us to him. If we're here today, he brought us here today. That's how sovereign he is. And it says, and he preached to them. He preached his word to them. Don't you pray he preached his word to you today?

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, It's this written word, yes, but it's also by Christ the word, and it's by the word of Christ speaking affectionately into our heart. He says in verse 21, blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled. Now you're gonna hear me say this every time as we go through these Beatitudes, this is not what we are by something we did or something we do. These are what Christ makes us to be by him creating a new man in us in his image. Listen to this.

Colossians 3.10 says, you have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Christ created this new man. Again, where there's neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Ephesians 4.21, I want you to look at this one real quick.

Ephesians 4.21. Here's a good illustration of our old man and our new man.

Ephesians 4.21, he says, if so be that you have heard him, verse 21, Ephesians 4.21, if so be you've heard Christ and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off the former conversation, conduct, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. And if you match the next part, you could say, the old man which after Adam is corrupt according to the deceitful lust.

And be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. The new man in his people is created after God. When we were born of Adam, we had this whole corrupt sin nature, and that's still with us, but we have a new man, a new spirit, he said he'd give us, which is after God, and it's created in Christ's righteousness and Christ's true holiness. So this is what we are by what he's done, not by what we did. We're hungering now, whereas before we didn't.

You're poor, you have a contrite spirit, a humble spirit now by him. And he said, and yours is the kingdom of God. He said in your, now you hunger, you shall be filled. Matthew recorded it this way. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Somebody said that that is, All spiritual blessings in Christ, I can go for that, but I'll give you something even better. It's Christ himself. We're hungering for our savior, for him. He's everything to us, and we hunger and thirst for him. To know more of him, more about Jesus, would I know? Listen. We hunger and thirst after the Lord our righteousness.

The Spirit of God tells us that Christ is our righteousness. Listen to this from Romans 10. He's talking about the Pharisees not submitting. He said, they're ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God, for Christ is. If you just stop right there, Christ is the righteousness.

He's the righteousness of God, the righteousness God provided for his people, the righteousness in whom God is satisfied with his people. He's the righteousness by which he closes, by which we can be accepted of God. We're hungering for him. And our Savior declares here that if you have this hunger, you're blessed. It means to be highly favored by God and to be happy. That's what makes us happy. God has highly favored his people and Christ makes us happy. We're blessed and happy and we should be filled. Now, first of all, let's see what scripture says about this hunger. What does God say about this hunger?

If a person is not hungry for Christ, the reason is because they are full and they don't have a need. You don't eat when you're full. You know, that food that looked so appealing to you when you were hungry, once you've eaten and you're full, it could be the finest steak in the world and you just, ugh, I don't want it. And the scripture tells us in Proverbs 27 7, the full soul loatheth and honeycomb. But to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. One of the best illustrations of being full to me is in the wilderness with the children of Israel. They began to murmur against God because they were hungry. They just wanted natural food.

And the scripture says that God gave them bread from heaven. They said, they called it manna, it says, for they said, what is this? That's what manna means, what is this? And Moses said to them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. And the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. You know the manna pictured, go to John six, John chapter six.

Same kind of thing happened. These folks had been fed by the lobe. Christ fed them with the loaves and fishes and they followed him because they just wanted earthly bread. They wanted just their bellies full. And they said, they said, Moses worked a miracle for us. Tell us what you're going to do.

He gave them bread from heaven. And the Lord Jesus said in John 6, 32, Verily, verily, I say unto you, when you hear Christ say that, you better pay attention. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. He gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Just like we saw this morning, what he promised Abraham.

Christ come, he's the life, he's the bread. And he gives life, no matter where his people are in this world, he gives life to his people. Then said they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. He just told them, you just follow me because you want earthly bread. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Christ is the bread pictured in the manna.

God also gave them water out of the smitten rock. They were thirsty. And he told Moses, he said, Moses, you go, and he said, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and you shall smite the rock with the rod, and he said, and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. Our Lord Jesus went to the cross, and with all the sin of his people on him, he was smitten under the justice of God.

And it's from him that Christ gives the life. The water of life comes from him. Paul said, they all did drink that same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Christ is the one who is the life of his people. He's the water that, you know, without water, it's dry. He's the nourishment. He's the water of his people that gives us life. He told that woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that sayeth to thee, give me to drink, thou would have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.

What does this have to do with the fool's soul loatheth a honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet? What's this have to do with that? Well, that first generation, go with me to Numbers 11. That first generation, they murmured the whole way, their picture of us without God's grace. They murmured about everything, and their murmuring against Moses was murmuring against God.

And it says here in Numbers 11, five, then here's their children. Now they produced these children, so these children have the same nature as the fathers before them had. And the children, it says in verse five, they began to murmur and complain, and they said, we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely.

They were slaves in Egypt. They didn't eat anything freely. They had taskmasters over them, making their life bitter with hard bonded. The cucumbers and the melons, the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our soul is dried away and there's nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes. Look over at Numbers 21 and look at verse five. Numbers 21 and verse five, and it says, and the people spake against God and against Moses, and they said, wherefore have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?

For there is no bread, and there's not any water, and our soul loatheth. this light bread. See, until the Lord makes us hungry for him, a man can come and sit down under the gospel and hear Christ preach and endure it for a little while, like they ate the manna for a little while. But if the Lord hadn't given him a hunger for Christ, in a little while, he's gonna say, there's no bread here. There's no water here and I loathe this bread they're preaching.

Do you know that that's what the scripture says about the natural heart? Romans 8, Romans 8 says, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God, the word of God, neither indeed can be. So they that are in the flesh can't please God.

The Lord, look down at Luke 6, look down at verse 25. As long as a man is full, thinks he's righteous by his works, thinks he's holy by his works, thinks by something he does, he can come to Christ. And let me be clear on this. It's not that Christ did it all, but you just adding a little bit to it. No, it has to be all Christ. We saw last week, the judge shall live by faith and the law's not of faith. The law says you gotta do it all.

Faith walks, blood of the spirit, looking to Christ. The grace and works never mix. If it's grace, it's all grace, and it's no works. If it's works, and the grace is not involved, it's all works. It's got to be all Christ. But until God's given a man a hunger for Christ, we don't have that hunger. Romans 3 says, there is none that seeketh after God.

We think we're full and rich and have need of nothing by nature. You talk to folks on the street, that's what you hear said. I'm not that bad. I'm not as bad as so-and-so. That's our number one way of trying to defend ourselves is finding somebody worse than we are. Isn't that what the publican did in the Lord's parable? Lord, I thank you that I'm not like this publican.

Lord's gotta make us hungry. But look here, verse 25, woe unto you that are full, for you shall hunger. He said in Isaiah 65, 13, thus saith the Lord God, behold, my servant shall eat, but you shall be hungry. Behold, my servant shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. Behold, my servant shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed. Our Lord saying, blessed are you that hunger.

If you hunger, the Lord did it, he gave you that hunger, and you will be filled. That's God's promise, you shall be filled. It's only when he gives us that spirit, now listen to David. David was given that spirit, that hunger. He said, as the heart panteth after the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. He said, my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

When he was in that wilderness, he knew that this gospel is the children's bread. He knew this is how God feeds his people. And he knew Christ was the bread. Peter stood up on the Pentecost and he said, David knew this, David being a prophet, he knew that the scripture, God gave him the right, saying thou has not left my soul and he said he knew that was Christ he was talking about.

And David, when he was separated from where he could hear Christ exalted and he could see the pictures in the shadows and types of those, that was their way of worship then. He couldn't see the lamb sacrificed and the high priest and him going in the holiest of holies to sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat, that's how they worship Christ.

And he was longing, when can I see God, he said. Another one, he said, I stretch forth my hands unto thee, my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty lamb. In the Psalm 63, he was in the wilderness. He said, O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee, and I try in thirsty land where no water is, to see thy power and thy glory as I've seen it in the sanctuary, because thy lovingkindness is better than life, and my lips shall praise thee.

Everywhere you read about God's saying, it's not a doctrine they're looking at. We love the doctrine of God. That's teaching. It's just the Lord teaching you. We love the doctrine of the scripture. But we're not saved just by knowing doctrine. It's Christ we want. He's our savior. And that's what you hear his people praying, Lord, I'm thirsting for you. I'm hungering for you. I want to see you. I want to know your power. I want to see your glory. It's Christ we're hungering for.

He said, I'm the bread of life. He stood on that last day of the feast. And they're going through all the religious ceremony that all pictured him. Every bit of it pictured him. But here's us without the spirit. They were looking to that form and thought that was what made them accepted of God. It'd be like us thinking coming here makes me accepted of God. Singing hymns makes me accepted of God. Hearing the preaching makes me accepted of God. Supporting the church makes me accept none of that. They were looking to their act of doing those things, thinking this was their acceptance with God, their righteousness, their holiness.

And there he is who represents every bit of it. And he cried that day with a loud voice, and he said, if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. What do you mean drink? How am I gonna come to Christ and drink? He said, he that believeth on me.

That's drinking Christ, eating his flesh and drinking his blood. You know, that group in the wilderness said, we love this manna. We see it played out in Christ. In John 6, after he declared, this is the work of God, that you believe on him who made a sin. He said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven that the father gave. And he said, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, he'll never hunger and thirst again.

He said, but unless you do, you don't have life. And they did just what those people in the wilderness did. They said, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? And they turned around and left him, wanting to be in bondage, wanting to be under bondage of taskmaster saying, you've got to do this, you've got to do that, or you can't be saved, rather than coming to Christ He didn't say you do anything to get the water of life. He said, he that believes on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. If you can believe on him, the truth is he's already given you life. But it's just gonna get better and better and better. He's just gonna keep revealing himself to you.

God makes us hungry like a little baby bird in a nest. You ever seen little birds in a nest where the mother bird comes in there and their mouth just open? He feeds us. The Lord said, I'm the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thou mouth wide, open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.

If he speaks affectionately, you know what you'll do? You're gonna open your mouth wide. When he raised his son, he said, sit here at my right hand and I'll make your enemies your footstool. And he said, your people shall be willing in the day of your power. And when Christ comes in power and speaks, You're gonna be like that little bird with your mouth open. And he's telling us right here, that's a blessing from God. And he's gonna feel it. He's gonna feel it. He said, my people would not hearken, though, to my voice. Israel would not, would not have me. Now listen to me.

You're telling people that Christ gets all the glory if we believe. Yes. That which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of spirit is spirit. You must be born again, and he gets the glory. Well, these people didn't believe. They heard him preach. They didn't believe. The general call goes forth to everybody. Everybody hears the gospel. Takes Christ to reveal it. But listen, your inability does not excuse your responsibility.

And people will say, well, that's not fair. Well, you tell that to the light company when you can't pay your bill. And you tell them, I don't have any ability, so it's not fair that I have to pay it. They're going to say, your inability don't excuse you.

So here's what I'm saying. If we believe, God gets the glory. If we don't, there's nobody to blame but ourselves. What that should do, and what it will do, if the Spirit is speaking to us, is it'll make us hit our face before God and say, Lord, I'm at your mercy. I need mercy. I need mercy.

God proved them with the manna, and that's what Christ proves his people. He's the one whereby it's borne witness that men believe or they don't believe. The gospel's offensive, because it gives God all the glory and don't give us any. And he's the proving. God gave them that manna to teach them.

Man doesn't live by bread alone. It's not anything in this world that is our true life, brethren. Nothing in this world is gonna give you eternal life, but we live by the word of God, Christ the word, Christ speaking the word, Christ making us understand the word that gives him all the glory. That's how we have life, not by the things of this world.

You can start out young and you'll try and you'll try and you'll try to think this next thing's gonna make me happy, this next thing's gonna make me happy. And you keep getting and getting and getting it, and you're not satisfied. There's only one that satisfies, and that's the Lord. And he has to give you a hunger and a thirst. And when he fills it, you'll find satisfaction.

And it don't matter if what's going on in this world, that he's brought it to pass in your life. He gives you this comfort of knowing. He's working this, and he's doing it for my good. And he's doing it according to his purpose. And he makes you to know that by bringing me through this, he's gonna teach me more of him. He's gonna teach me he's sovereign.

He's gonna teach me that he never, once he gives his gift to his children, he never takes them back. The gift and calling of God are without repentance. I'm gonna see my sin enough in the trial to know it has to be by God's grace. And I'm gonna learn that his grace is unchangeable and his love is unchangeable. and it's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's gonna feed me, that's gonna make me, here's what he teaches you, Romans 5. He said, we not only glory in Christ, we glory that he keeps saving us through all these tribulations. Because tribulation is working patience. He's teaching you, wait on the Lord. Go home and read Isaiah 30 again, wait on the Lord. He told them, wait on the Lord, don't go to Egypt.

And they did anyway. He said, therefore, will the Lord wait till you're like a tree with all its branches broken off, that the Lord may be gracious and merciful. He'll let us come till we just, and we're at the end of our rope, and he does it. So you see, he's the one that saves, not us.

And so patient, tribulation works patient. He teaches you to wait on the Lord. And patient works experience. This is how he grows you up. It's how he matures you. You learn through the trial that to wait on him and you learn that he's faithful. You experience it, he's faithful. He's not gonna let me go.

Paul said, in all my afflictions, the Lord delivered me out of all of them. And he did it so that I could comfort my brethren with the comfort wherewith I'm comforted. That's Christ Jesus. He did it so that you have the experience to go and talk to your brethren and say, brother, just wait on the Lord. Brother, look to Christ.

He loved us with an everlasting love. He's going to save his people. Just keep trusting him. And it works patience. You wait on the Lord. It works experience. You experience his faithfulness. And it grows you in hope because here's what you learn. If he saved me out of this trial, he's gonna save me out of the next trial. That's my hope. And ultimately he's teaching me he's gonna save me into glory. And hope maketh not ashamed. He never makes his people ashamed. If he's put trust in you and given you faith to trust him, he's never gonna betray that trust, never. It makes not ashamed because the spirit of God is shed abroad in our hearts. He makes you know him more. And what does that do? It makes you more hungry. It makes you hungry and thirst after him more and more. I want to know more of him. And here's the thing now. We say we want to know him and we want to know more of him.

He teaches us more ways, more than not, he teaches us through trouble. Because when everything's real good, we think we got to whirl by the tail on a downhill drag. But when you're in trouble and you can't do anything, You learn it's all of Him. And so when we pray that, we want to know Him, and then the trouble comes.

Oh, Lord, what are you doing? You asked me to grow you in faith. You asked me to show you more of me. That's how He's going to do it. But it makes you hungry and hungrier for Him. But when He's made you hungry for Christ, like He did David, He feeds you. Listen, Isaiah 44, three, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring and they'll spring up as among the grass as well as by the water courses. And Christ gets the glory. Look at Isaiah 49.

It's the Lord Jesus went, listen, I'm going through, started going through Acts and I'm telling you last Thursday, I preached a message. Acts would be better titled the Acts of Christ, the Acts of our King. Because it's God which worketh in you to will and do of his good pleasure. They did what they did by him. We see it all through Acts.

And it's Christ right here that makes you, that calls you and that leads you and feeds you. Here's my point in bringing this up. Just because he's not here bodily, doesn't mean he's not present. Christ is in glory bodily. but he's present in spirit with his people. He's in you. Christ in you is the hope of glory. It's the only reason we believe.

So look what he does right here. Isaiah 49, the Lord said there, I may not have it right here, but I think this is the chapter where the Lord said he was giving Christ for a covenant to the people. But I want you to see verse nine. He said, He said, I'm giving you that you may say to the prisoners, go forth, and to them that are in darkness, show yourselves. He calls us out of darkness to his light.

They shall feed in the ways, and their pasture shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them, for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them. Do you see that? Christ our shepherd's leading us. Even by the springs of water shall he guide them. I'll make all my mountains away and my highways shall be exalted. And he'll call more of his people from the east, west, north, and south.

What I'm saying to you is, I have him as my shepherd. I'm not going to want. He's going to feed me. He's going to feed you that know him. He said, I will satiate the soul of the priest. He doesn't feed us a little bit. He doesn't feed us a little bit.

I will satiate the soul of the priest with fatness. My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. He said in this mountain, in the church that he's assembled, that he's called together, he said, I'll make a feast of fat things. That's this gospel. It's all, everything he is to us, the feast of fat things. All right, and here's something I gotta throw in. During the Depression, We looked at how the full soul blows the honeycomb.

But to a hungry man, every bitter thing is sweet. If you're hungry for Christ and you hear the message that you're the sinner, helpless, undone, wretched without him, that you need him, that's a bitter thing to our flesh, but not to your new man. You say amen, that's me. Every bitter thing is sweet to you. The things that we once called bitter are now sweet, and the things we call sweet are now bitter.

But he's gonna keep feeding you, and it's not gonna be, it's not anything about the exteriors. 1 Corinthians 1 tells us he calls nothings and nobodies, weak things, things despised, so that nobody glories in their flesh. You're looking at nothing and nobody. You're looking at a weak thing, an earthen vessel, no power in me. It's all in him.

But you know, during the Depression, men waited in these long lines at food trucks and at soup kitchens, long lines. And they didn't care what the server looked like. All they cared about was wanting the bread. Why? They were hungry. If you're hungry, people make all these excuses. Pharisees were just trying to get Christ to justify them before the people for not believing on it. And people make all these excuses. I've heard complaints about the curtains being the reason. I mean, just crazy things people used to leave.

If you're hungry for Christ and you find a place where Christ gets all the glory and the preaching of the gospel, you're not going to care what the building looks like, what the people look like, because you're not looking at them. You're looking to Christ. You're being fed by him. And if you're hungry, you're going to continue looking at him.

And we bless him, we give him the glory. Thus will I bless thee while I live. I'll lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. We give him all the glory. God said, blessed is the man whom, David said, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts. we shall be satisfied with thy goodness and of thy house, even thy holy temple. Well, but we won't be fully, totally satisfied till we get to glory. Till we get to glory. Now, let me clarify something.

Christ said you'll never hunger and thirst. But then we're seeing and hearing all through these scriptures that God's people do hunger and thirst. So which is it? Well, when you, growing up in your father's house, if you had a faithful father, you knew you were never going hungry. You were going to be fed. But after a little while after you ate a meal, you want to eat again.

That's it. Christ will see to it his people have the gospel. We're going to have it. So we're not going to hunger and thirst in that sense. He's going to make sure you have the gospel. But after we fed today, In a little while, by Thursday night, I'm hungry again. I've got to come back and be fed again. And that's what it means. That's how both of them are true.

But we'll only be satisfied when we get to glory. The psalmist and Job said the same thing. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. That's when I'm going to be satisfied. He said that when he calls you home, the Lord's gonna dwell among his people.

They'll hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. Neither shall the sunlight on them, the heat, the lamb which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them and lead them to living fountains of waters, wipe away all tears from their eye. Well, that sounds like what he's doing for us now. It is. But that's, then, it's gonna be in perfection. We're gonna have it. in perfection, when we know him as he is.

And every bit of this we have, brethren, because Christ went to that cross and put away the sin of his people. He, listen, everybody Christ died for, he justified. Everybody he died for, he redeemed. And if we're dead and we don't have this hunger, how then are we gonna believe? The scripture says, he said, them I must call. He's gonna call these people. Justice demands it. The law that once condemned us now speaks for our favor, says you have to call them, they're redeemed. You can't pour out justice on them a second time.

And see, what it is about this that I'm preaching to you is, the reason I preach this gospel And I just preach, I preach from God down to us. I don't preach, I hear the world preaching from man up to God. I preach from God down to us, because it began with God and comes to us.

And he gets all the glory. That's why we don't say Christ went to the cross and made it possible. He went to the cross and accomplished what he went there for. He said it is finished. Well, that's going to offend people. I would rather offend men than offend God. And God said, his son's gonna have the glory. God said, I will not share my glory with another.

And I'm gonna tell you, salvation's of the Lord. The apostles said, we didn't choose you, you chose us. And we didn't justify ourselves, he justified us. And he's our sanctification, he's our redemption. Everything is of the Lord, salvation is of the Lord. And that doesn't make me want to run out and sin. That don't make me want to live ungodly life.

If you love somebody, if you really, if your heart is just ravished with them and love with them, you want to talk about them, you want to hear about them, you want to be with them, and you want to do whatever you can for them. And you don't have to have a list of rules telling you what you got to do. You may have to have a list of rules telling you to love your wife. You just love them because you love them.

We're constrained in our heart by the love of Christ. And that's preeminently his love to us. I love him, but I'm moved by how he loved me and gave himself for me. That's our constraint. That's the power that makes, you know, when I'm studying, it's just like everything else, the word of God, I got a flesh and sin and the word of God you can read up you could be reading a novel and just be wide awake you start reading the word of God and you're gonna get sleepy right away and it's remembering what Christ did for you he blesses that to you and he makes you say all right I gotta put some cold water my face or something, and you keep on going. And that's so with you. It's what makes you go the extra mile. It's what makes you want to take the next step. It's him bringing to your remembrance what he did for you. And that's the constraint. And I'm going to tell you something.

Love is a far better motivator than law is. Has the speed limit sign ever made you keep the speed limit? Only if you know the cop's that name there. Law don't, it's not the motivator. Love is, love is. But if you know you got your children sitting in the back seat and if you speed, you might wreck and kill them, you're gonna do the speed limit or below. Love's a far greater motivator than law.

He said, everybody that's thirsty, come to the waters. He that hath no money, come buy, eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? Come, let your soul delight itself in fatness. Why spend for this world? And you're never gonna be satisfied, you're never gonna be fed. Come to Christ, trust Him, and you'll find satisfaction, full fatness. All right, we're gonna remember Him now.

Blessed Ye that Hunger Now

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about being hungry for Christ?

How do we know that Christ is our righteousness?

Why is hunger for Christ important for Christians?

How does God provide for those who thirst for Him?

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Blessed Ye that Hunger Now

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about being hungry for Christ?

How do we know that Christ is our righteousness?

Why is hunger for Christ important for Christians?

How does God provide for those who thirst for Him?

Sermon Transcript

About Clay Curtis

Comments

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