Sermon Cloud

• God’s word is, “Living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword , and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” 
• As such, I have found the Lord to be dealing with my heart as we go through the beatitudes; as my heart is exposed by the Word, and I wrestle with my flesh, and seek to bring all of my life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
• As a teacher of God’s Word I am in grave danger if I am not first seeking to apply His Word to my own heart. You to are in a similar danger. 
• You to need to be examining your own heart: are you just gaining knowledge, agreeing or disagreeing, scrutinizing to see what is said or not said correctly. Or, are there prideful responses of “I already do that” “I already know that” “So and so should really be listening to this.” Or are they searching their hearts, wrestling with God? Has it produced any confession of sin, any prayer for God to produce these things, any self-examination?
  • God’s Word is to be applied to our hearts or it is of no benefit, even a danger of producing hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and hardening in unbelief and self-deception. 
  • I pray we are taking this to heart and with “humility receiving the word implanted which is able to save our souls” (James 1:21); and “longing for the word like newborn babes that by it we may grow in respect to salvation.”
• Now, we have been examining the portion of Scripture known as the Beatitudes, which define for us the reality of true blessedness within the Kingdom of God.  
• There is a logical flow, each building on the one before, together creating an unbreakable chain that describes a genuine Christian. 

Matthew 5:3-12. 

Trans: The crowds Jesus was addressing were generally very religiously  committed; their very cultural and national identity was defined by their religion. Among them, also, were the extremely committed and in many areas doctrinally sound Pharisees. But what they all have in common is a sense of security and self-sufficiency in their religion. But Jesus is cutting through all of that and addressing the one thing that really matters: the inner realities of the heart. This morning we come to “blessed are those who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness.”

1. Righteousness: Longing of all True Believers

• Being a genuine believer is not a matter of what you do, but who you are. 
• If I were to ask you how do you know you are a Christian, not in name but in truth, what would you answer? (Pause & give time to answer). 
  • There may be a variety of answers: 
    • “Because I made a decision when I was younger”
    • “Because I go to church and am involved in ministry”
    • “Because I obey God’s Word”
    • “Because I believe that Jesus died for my sins”
• None of these proves, or disproves a person profession of faith. However if statements like these are all hat you have you are building a a foundation of sand. Jesus would simply ask, “Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness?” 

“I do not know of a better test that anyone can apply to himself or herself in this whole matter of the Christian profession than a verse like this. If this verse is to you one of the most blessed statements of the whole of Scripture you can be quite certain you are a Christian; if it is not, then you had better examine the foundations again.” (M.L. Jones)

• Next, I want you to notice the order:  He did not say, “Righteous are those who hunger and thirst after blessedness,”  though this what we see in much that goes under the name of Christianity. 
  • Come to Jesus because He will make you rich, happy, successful, satisfied in this world - all focused on man. 
• As we noted last time, the beatitudes, like all of Scripture, are utterly *God-entered - this is no less true here, where blessedness lies in seeking after God Himself, it is after conformity to His will, mind, and character. 

Trans: In other words, blessedness in the kingdom comes by “hungering and thirsting after righteousness.”

1. Righteousness: Longing of the Regenerate Heart

• What kind of righteousness is He talking about? 
  • Three main views: 
    • (1) Social only - *meeting the needs of the poor, etc. 
    • (2) Imputed - will make them right with God. 
    • (3) practical/personal righteousness  
• In order to understand the Lord’s statement we need to clarify a few of the realities involved in salvation.  
• (1) A person must be born again: Regenerated.
  • John 3:3f - “born again” - This is a completely sovereign act of God whereby He imparts new life and the principle of righteousness into a dead sinner. The old heart is removed and the new heart is given; the heart of stone is made a heart of flesh. It is moving from spiritual death to spiritual life; rebellion and unbelief to faith and submission. 
  •  John 1:12-13 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born [aorist passive gennaoo], not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” 
• (2) Believing sinner is Justified. 
  • (a)Definition: A legal act of God whereby He declares, all the legal demands of the Law to be satisfied on the basis of the Person, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ on behalf of the believing sinner.
  • (b) All of God’s wrath for a believer’s sin was placed on Jesus Christ and “as a result of the anguish of His soul [God the Father] would see it an be satisfied” (Rom. 3:25; *Is. 53:11; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:24).
  • (c) All of the God’s righteous requirements in the Law Believing sinner is declared righteous based on the righteousness of Jesus Christ credited to Him. (Rom. 3:28; 4:9, 11, 13, 22; Gal. 2:16). “clothed in …”
  • (a-c) So, on the basis of faith, the believing sinner is forgiven and declared righteous before God. His legal standing has changed from enemy to friend; he is forever reconciled to God.
  • (d) Justification happens outside the sinner; it is an instantaneous legal declaration from God, based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, granted through faith, and in that sense is external/outside of the believing sinner. 
• (2) In sanctification the believing sinner is set apart unto God positionally, and is being conformed to Christ, practically. 
  • (a) Sanctification set apart to Christ positionally (1 Cor.6:11 “such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified nit eh name of the Lord Jesus Christ and  in the Spirit of our God”), and practically it means being made like Christ (1 Thess. 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is that you abstain from sexual immorality”; John 17:17). 
  • (b) Sanctification is the necessary fruit of regeneration and takes place within the believer (Titus 3:5; 1 John 3:9; John 15:1f).
  • (c) In sanctification the regenerated, believing, justified sinner has moved from death to life whereby they were “enslaved to sin” and moved they are “enslaved to righteousness” by virtue of their new life and **Union with Christ (Rom. 6:1-3).  

Trans: So, now let’s look at this statement again: Blessed are those [who are in a right relationship with God] who hunger and thirst for righteousness [who long to be conformed to the will and character of God]” Remember: Jesus is not describing how to enter the kingdom of heaven, but the character of those who are already in the kingdom of heaven.

• The emphasis seems to be on the doing of righteousness, but from a desire to be conformed to God’s holy standard.
• First it is helpful to note that it is not a righteousness that is produced by the seeker. 
• (1) Jesus cannot be talking about righteousness as meritorious. 
  • The OT context precludes that conclusion: 
    • Ezek. 18 “soul that sins will die”
    •  1 Kings 8:46; cf. Prov. 20:9; Ecc. 7:20 “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins”) 
    • Is. 64:6 “all your righteous deeds are like filthy rags …” 
    • Habakkuk “eyes are to pure to behold [i.e. approve] evil …”
  • The NT confirms this: 
    • Gal. 3:13 “cursed is everyone who does not …”
    • Rom. 3 “there is no one righteous, no not one”
• (2) Also Context makes this clear: 
  • It stands in order after poverty of spirit, mourning over sin, meek; (2) it is a righteousness that must exceed the most outwardly righteous of the day [5:20], (3) it is related to the nature of God and an impossible standard [5:48]; (4) it is related to the will of God [6:10]; and (5) it is related to faith [6:33]. 
• (3) The righteousness spoken of is total righteousness. 
  • The usual grammatical construction would normally be hungry for a part of the loaf of bread, thirsty for some water. However, the way the Lord phrases this statement emphasizes the fullness, or completeness of the thing desired. 
    • Paul hints at this aspect in Phil. 3 “not that I have already attained to it, but I press on toward the goal …” 
    • This obliterates self-righteousness, which is satisfied in itself. Self-righteousness says, “I am satisfied with my religious commitment,” “I am satisfied with my goodness, obedience, and observance of what God requires,” “I am satisfied with my current spiritual life” 
    • Anyone who is self-satisfied is self-deceived. Anyone who thinks they have no greater depths to attain in humility, obedience, service, etc. simply does not understand the holiness and righteousness of God. 
• Those who regularly as a habit, or consistent bent of their inner man have a strong inward desire to be conformed to the will of God. 

Trans: Now, let’s go a little deeper here and look at the illustration, and note: God is intensely concerned that He communicate in a way that is understandable and you cannot help but be amazed at His ability to communicate the most profound truths in the simplest, universal, and appropriate metaphors.  The person who has been regenerated, justified, is being sanctified has a new inner bent, desire, drive for righteousness that is aptly described as “hungering and thirsting.” 

• In order to understand what He is saying here, let’s make a few observations regarding hunger and thirst: 
  • (1) It is automatic, we do not have to make ourselves hungry or thirsty, they are simply apart of being alive Basic, natural, physical drives and needs. Every living animal knows this desire. . 
    • He is referring here to an intense hunger (Matt. 4:2; John 4:19, 28).
    • So it is with those who are spiritually alive. If you are born again, if you posses genuine spirit produced life, then you will you have a basic drive in you for righteousness, for conformity to Christ.  
  • (2) They are ongoing. These are not one time experiences. 
    • ILLUST: how many have every said (usually after Thanksgiving) “I am never eating again!”
    • There is a degree of initial satisfaction, but as the body continues to need food and water, so the inner compulsion to obtain these will continue to be felt. There is never complete and final satisfaction. One meal does not satisfy forever.  
  • (3) They are feelings, desires, inner compulsions, they are not the thing itself. In other words, what is actually necessary is the food and the water desired; nothing else will do. 
    • So it is with the genuine believer, only true righteousness will satisfy the true Christian. That is to say the righteousness that comes through Christ, and genuinely conforms one to His image.
    • Much of what is offered in today’s churches is a false righteousness, empty calories. Drama, light feel good sermons, lot’s of activity with little content will not satisfy the longings of a genuine believer. 
  • (4) When a person goes a long time without food or drink the desire intensifies to an almost unbearable degree (cf. Luke 15:16; 16:2; Lam. cannibalism. 
    • To not have these desires imply there is no life. A dead person is not neither hungry nor thirsty because there is no life within them that needs to be feed and that can produce these desires. 
      • If you put a nice hot juicy steak in front of a dead dog it will do nothing because it is dead. If you put it in front of a live dog. 
  • This basic reality to our physical existence is also true for spiritual life. 
    •  1 John 2:29; 3:7, 10 - “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him … Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the Devil … By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious; anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God” 
  • It is a hunger and thirst that is centered on Jesus Christ. 
    •  John 6:35 (cf. 4:13-15 [31-34]; 7:37; Rev. 21:6; 22:17; Job 23:12) Jesus is the only true satisfaction for this spiritual hunger.
    •  Luke 6:25 (cf. 1:53) looks at the negative side. Those who reject true righteousness will eternally regret it. Those who only desire earthly satisfaction will be eternally filled with the anxious and torturous longing after the righteousness of God. 
      • The lie is that the world and self are the true means of satisfaction and that the righteousness of God through faith in Christ is the cheap lie that robs one of genuine satisfaction. However, not only does that lie produce misery here in this life, but an eternal, unthinkable misery in the life to come. Where the condemned will eternally long for what they can never have, and suffer for rejecting the very food they now long for but had continually before their eyes. (Matt. 16 “what if he gains …”; Luke 12:16-21).

Trans: It is a righteousness that will be satisfied.

(3) Righteousness: It will be Satisfied. 

•  “because they shall be satisfied” (future passive indicative) - Divine passive; the satisfaction received is given by God to those made righteous and made to desire righteousness. (cf. Lk. 6:21). 
  • 1 John 3:2 “Beloved,, now awe are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is”
    •  1 Cor. 4:11 - now there may be a lack and want of physical food and drink, but this pales in comparison to the satisfaction of the true food and drink. And God Will always supply what is necessary (cf. Phil. 4:12; Rev. 7:16).
  • So, the hope of the Christian is to realize in the future, what we only gets small taste of now. 
    • 2 Peter 3:13 “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” 
    •  Gal. 5:5 - “For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness” that is the full experience of the righteousness accomplished and realized in Jesus Christ. The desire of heaven for the those who hunger and thirst for righteousness is the ultimate satisfaction in Christ. 
    • The great joy of heaven is that it will only every be pure satisfaction, no longer mixed with the rotten and poisonous “food” of unrighteousness. 

“It is for this that the Christian desires to dwell in that world, and waits for the coming of his Savior. It is not primarily that he may be happy, desirable as that is, but that he may be in a world where he himself will be perfectly pure, and where all around him will be pure; where every being that he meets shall be ‘holy as God is holy,’ and every place on which his eye rests, or his foot treads, shall be uncontaminated by sin.” (Albert Barnes)

(4) Righteousness: Practical Tests

(A) Do you desire God’s Word?

•  2 Tim. 3:16 - the Word of God/Scripture is the satisfying food for those who desire righteousness (1 Pet. 2:2-3; consider also Heb. 5:13),
  • The righteousness of God revealed in the Word (2 Tim. 3:16-17), and in Christ. In other words, it is the desire to be conformed to the image of Christ, which is to be conformed to His Word. It is bringing our lives into conformity with the Word of God - not externally, but internally that will then manifest itself in life. (John 17:17).
• Some probing questions to ask: 
  • “Can you go a day, two, three, etc. without reading the Word of God, or without any meaningful time of prayer and not feel a sense of longing, or feel any significant difference in your walk with Christ?” “Is church attendance, Bible reading, prayer something you do because you ought or should or because you genuinely, in your heart desire to learn and sit under God’s Word and fellowship with other believers?” 
  • Often attendance at prayer and evening service indicate this, because there is often no longing for these things if we already feel we have done our duty and what is expected by going to Sunday morning. Is their no more hunger and thirst for righteousness, for corporate prayer, for fellowship, for the Word of God, than this - this is a sign of concern. On the same token all of the others can be done out of a sense of obligation and self-righteousness rather than a genuine heart hungering and thirsting for the spiritual joy and benefit of them. 
    •  Amos 8:11-14 is key: God tells of a famine of the Word of God.

(B) Do you Submit to God’s Discipline? 

•  Heb. 12:11 - discipline produces righteousness.
  •  those who willing submit to discipline and trial, even find joy in them (James 1:3) because of the desire for the righteousness they are designed to produce.
  •  This also applies to the various situations and circumstances of life. When we are in a situation we do not like, even one brought on by God, then we often try to get out of the situation, grumble and complain about it, or try to alleviate the misery through some other means. However, to know true joy that God promises is to hunger and thirst (and seek) after righteousness; that is to respond and live in a way that conforms to God’s Word.

(C) Are you satisfied with external obedience rather than heart obedience? (As long as other people think well of you). 

•  6:1 - there is a false righteousness. It is a type of righteousness, but it is not the right kind because it is a righteousness a person can have and yet not enter the kingdom of heaven. The whole point of the Sermon on the MOunt is to distinguish between genuine righteousness and what is merely religion. 
  • Luke 18:9ff (cf. Phil. 3:6, 9) - “those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous”
  • Rom. 10:1-11 (cf. 9:31) “Zeal for God … rejecting God’s righteousness … seeking to establish their own … rejected the righteousness of God.” 
    • It is possible, even common among the religious, to be zealous for God, religion, and righteousness and yet it is the wrong kind, for the wrong reason, and leads only to self-deception and eternal damnation. 

“Moreover, as Christians grow in maturity, the kinds of sin that remain in their lives are often no so much sins of words or deeds that are outwardly noticeable to others, but inward sins of attitudes and motives of the heart-desires such as pride and selfishness, lack of courage or faith, lack of zeal in loving God with our whole hearts and our neighbors as ourselves, and failure to fully trust God for all that he promises in every situation. These are real sins! THey show how far short we fall of the moral perfection of Christ.” (W. Grudem)

(D) Do you inwardly long to be like Christ; to be pleasing to Him? 

• In contrast to Pharisaical righteousness Blanchard makes 3 helpful distinctions (of which genuine righteousness is their counter part): 
  • (1) Superficial (23:25) - (from the heart 1 Tim. 1:5)
  • (2) Selective (23:23)   - (complete 2 TIm. 3:16)
  • (3) Self-centered (6:5)- (God-centered Rom. 11:33-36).

(E) Do you long for Christian fellowship? 

(F) Do you long for prayer? 

(5) Righteousness: Possible Hindrances

(A) No spiritual life. 

•  Don’t let age, length of profession, amount of Christian activity, deceive you into equating those things to hunger and thirst after righteousness. 

(B) Unconfessed Sin. 

(C) Lack of self-discipline. Laziness. 

• The Christian life takes effort, growth and even the intensity of appetite do not just happen. There is a basic desire due to the reality of regeneration, if a person is truly born again. But the development of them requires effort. You have to plan for daily bible reading and prayer, you have to plan for attendance at services and events.