WWUTT 1926 Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness (Matthew 5:6)

The Beatitude on Hungering and Thirsting for Righteousness

Matthew 5 -6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. We desire those things that God calls right and good when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .wutt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we've been in the Beatitudes right at the beginning in Matthew chapter 5. I'll be picking up where I left off yesterday, but reading through these eight Beatitudes once again.

This is Matthew 5 verses 3 -10 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the lowly, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

So the Beatitudes we've looked at so far, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the lowly. And this week we pick up in verse 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

There's somewhat of a similarity between this one and the first one. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Remember when we looked at that when I said that Jesus wasn't merely saying blessed are.

The poor.

And that's how a lot of people read that and take it, that they're automatically blessed by God or approved of by God, simply by virtue of being poor. But being poor is not a virtuous characteristic. A person is not automatically saved because they don't have anything.

It is the poor in spirit, specifically, who are blessed by God and will receive the kingdom of heaven. So we come here to verse 6 and it's blessed are those who hunger and thirst. Not just they're hungry and they're thirsty, again, because they're poor, because they don't have anything.

Blessed are those who are starving. It's very specifically blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Now what is righteousness? Well, the definition of righteousness is right at the beginning of the word.

I've had this conversation with my children several times, and I've asked them, what's the definition of righteousness? What word is right at the beginning of righteousness? It's the word right, R-I-G-H-T.

That's the definition of righteousness. It's what is right, but not just what people would say is right, what you deem to be right, what the culture says is right. It's what God says is right. This is also how you can come into an accurate definition of justice.

What is justice? Again, the word is right at the very start, J-U-S-T. It's what is just, and not what the culture says is just, not what you claim would be just if someone were to do it to you. It's what God says is just.

Incidentally, the words righteousness and justice, righteous or justice, are interchangeable through a lot of the New Testament. You may read a translation that says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied.

I can't think of one off the top of my head, but I would assume there might be one out there because those words can be translated either way. So hungering and thirsting for what God says is right, and how do we know what God says is right?

It's according to his word. It's what the Bible says. Now, as I had said on Monday of last week, the Beatitudes that we read here are not new. This is not Jesus making up new things now. Blessed are these people, and this is what they will receive.

He is summarizing things that have been said in the Old Testament. What we find in the Beatitudes, we can find even referenced in the Law and the Prophets. Now, you won't find anything in the Old Testament that explicitly says, blessed is he who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, but you will certainly find that God approves of the one who loves and pursues righteousness.

Remember that when we read that word blessed in the Beatitudes, it means approved. God approves of the one. Proverbs 15, 9, the way of the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but he loves one who pursues righteousness.

We have something prophetically stated for us in Psalm 45, 7. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy above your companions. We know by what is said in Hebrews 1, that verse specifically pertains to Christ.

It's about Jesus, who is the anointed one. That's what the word Messiah means. He is the one who has been anointed above all, the one who is made Savior, who will ransom his people from our sins. Those who believe in Christ, we have been forgiven our sins and clothed with his righteousness.

So that in Christ, we have been made to love righteousness, to desire what is right, and pursue what God has said is right and just and good. That is, all those who are in Christ. And in Christ, we are approved by God.

We hunger and thirst for righteousness as Jesus in his humanity. Yes, indeed, he is human, fully God, and fully man. Even in his humanity, loved righteousness. So we are to love righteousness right along with him.

In Jeremiah 23, we read in verse 5, Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he will reign as king and prosper and do justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely, and this is his name by which he will be called, Yahweh, our righteousness. Jesus is righteousness. And so when we read, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied, here's how we should understand this, my friends.

Blessed is he who hungers and thirsts for Christ, and we will be satisfied with Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 21, For our sake he became sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

In Christ Jesus, those soiled, filthy garments that we were previously wearing, desecrated because of our sin, those garments have been taken away, and we've been clothed in new white garments, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, so that when God looks at us, he no longer sees the filthy wretch that we were, but in Christ, he sees those who have been clothed in the likeness of his Son, and God the Father loves us with the same love that he loves his own Son.

We have been clothed in his righteousness and made to love his righteousness, and so let us pursue righteousness. Blessed, approved, are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Now, when you think of that expression, hungering and thirsting, is there a particular psalm that maybe comes to mind about hungering and thirsting for righteousness?

I don't know about you, but I think of Psalm 42. As the deer pants for the water brooks, or for flowing streams, as you probably have heard it, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God? Now, how do you often hear this psalm recited or maybe even depicted? As the deer pants for the water brooks, for flowing streams, so my soul pants for you, O God.

How do you typically see that psalm portrayed? You've probably seen a painting of it. It may be on your happy verse calendar. Or it could be that there's a painting in your church somewhere. There is one in our church.

There's a painting somewhere where you've got this mountain scene and this forest and this clear brook that's coming right through the trees. And what's right there next to the brook? Oh, yes, it is a majestic stag.

Look at that animal, that majestic beast that is longing for flowing streams. And the caption that's right underneath, right under the painting is Psalm 42, 1. As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

That's actually not the picture that's being painted here in Psalm 42. That's often the way that it's depicted, but that's not what's going on with this particular metaphor. This animal, panting for water brooks, is in a desert.

They are in a dry and a weary land. And they are longing for water. This is an animal that is scrawny, that is weak, with its tongue lolled out to the side because it's dying of thirst. And so David says, or I'm sorry, this is actually the sons of Korah.

This particular psalm is a psalm of Korah, not an expression of David. But the sons of Korah express here as the deer pants, as it longs, as it thirsts, as it's crawling toward those flowing streams, the water brooks.

So my soul pants, longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, desires God. Once again, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And Christ is our righteousness. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Christ.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Verse 3, still in Psalm 42, my tears have been my food day and night. While they say to me all the day long, where is your God?

As a deer pants for the water brooks, what did I get all night long? Just my tears. That's what's dripped into my mouth. That's what I've received because I long for God. This world is so burdened me, it has so weighed me down, it is not satisfying.

It brings me woe. It heaps upon me grief. So I long for God. I pant for him and for his righteousness. Verse 4, these things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. You have these constant references to water here in Psalm 42.

The deer pants for the water brooks. My tears have been my food day and night. These things I remember as I pour out my soul within me. I don't even have the water, but what I've got in me, I'm pouring out, desiring God.

The rest of verse 4, for I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God. With the sound of a shout of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you in despair, oh my soul?

And why are you disturbed within me? Wait for God. For I shall still praise him for the salvation of his presence. That longing, that desiring for God is exactly what is meant here by this expression by Christ in the Beatitudes.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and those who desire Christ and his righteousness. This is the promise. They shall be satisfied. And that expression, they shall be satisfied, means they won't want anything else.

Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not what? I shall not want. He leads me beside still waters. He lays me down in green pastures. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

And the one who has the shepherd, the one who has been led by still waters, the one who has been laid down in green pastures, doesn't want to be anywhere else. They want to be on paths of righteousness and they are satisfied.

The world cannot give us anything better than what Christ can give. As Becky and I had talked recently about the Enneagram on the last Friday's episode of When We Understand the Text, the Q &A that we did on Friday.

You have all these people that are clamoring, looking for answers. And so they try to find it in these personality tests, even personality things that have come from evil spirits, which the Enneagram has.

It's not just pop psychology. It's not merely that. It's of the occult. It's what demons have to say about you. But we clamor for and long for so much more than what's been said to us that we think that we can find the answers in these psychology tests or even in what evil spirits would have to say about us.

That's a person who's just simply not satisfied with what God says about us in his word. Are you satisfied in Christ? Then why are you trying to find approval from evil spirits or pop psychology or what the world has to say about you?

Is not what Christ says about you enough? You've got the approval of the God of the universe.

What more do you need?

You should be satisfied. That expression, once again, satisfied.

That's it.

I've got everything I want, everything I need. And, my friends, when we go after sin, we express through our sin that I'm just not satisfied with Christ. I have to have this other thing in order to be satisfied, in order to feel like I'm getting the most out of life, in order to feel complete.

And I've been here before, friends. I've gone after lust, the passions of my flesh, because Christ wasn't enough for me. I felt like I had to have this. But that becomes an idol in our lives when we say that.

Like, we might even be able to quantify it and say, hey, I give 99 of myself to Christ. Just 1 of me needs this one thing. God, just can't I have this? And it doesn't matter whether you think you're giving 99 of yourself to Jesus.

Whatever has your attention on that one other thing, even though you might think it's 1%, that's the thing you 100 think you need in order to feel complete. That's your idol. It has taken precedence over Christ.

I'm not satisfied until I get that. But it's in Christ that we're supposed to be satisfied. And if we hunger and thirst for his righteousness, if we desire that with all of our hearts, the promise for us is that we will be satisfied.

And nothing else the world has to offer simply is going to be able to do it. Nothing in the world, nothing the devil tries to tempt us with, nothing that we'll even be tempted with in our own flesh. Nothing will satisfy because we're completely satisfied in Christ.

It was Jesus who said to be filled up with him, to hunger and thirst for him. In John 6, 40, 80 said, I am the bread of life. Your fathers, speaking to the Jews, ate the manna in the wilderness and they died.

This is the bread which comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And also the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

The Jews began to argue with one another saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? But Jesus continued saying in verse 53, truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.

As the living father sent me and I live because of the father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.

And of course, this doesn't mean as the Catholics insist, it means that the mass, the Eucharist and the cup literally transform into the body and the blood of Christ. And you have to partake of their mass in order to truly live, because that's what said here in John six, you must eat of my flesh and drink of my blood.

Jesus was speaking totally metaphorically here. We don't read in other parts of John where Jesus says, I am the door of the sheep. We don't picture him as being a literal door. So why is it that that the Catholics have so twisted this to mean that Jesus body must or the bread rather, must literally become Jesus flesh and literally drink his blood?

That's cannibalism. That's not what Jesus is saying. But rather that we must be filled up with him. And our food, our desire, our longing would be Christ. We would long for him. And when we do, my friends, when we long for Jesus, we desire his righteousness.

We're satisfied. That is the promise. We will be totally satisfied in Christ, even unto eternal life. As Jesus will say later on here in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter six, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And all the things you need on earth will be added to you as well. Psalm 1715. As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. I will be satisfied with your likeness when I awake. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here with regards to hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

And I pray that that would be our desire. We long for, we hunger and thirst for Christ. And the promise is that we will be satisfied. Fill us up with all good things in Christ. Make us satisfied so that we don't long for any passions of our flesh or temptations of this world.

We long for Christ and desire to be like him and live like him today. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

Christ as Our Righteousness and True Satisfaction

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