"As we hunger and thirst for more of this righteousness, then the things of the world grow strangely dim in the rear view mirror of life."
[This sermon is one of a series entitled "Sermon on the Mount, Concentrating on the Beatitudes," which is being preached on Sunday mornings by Pastor Tim Senter.]
When last we met we discussed being meek. Meekness is not weakness, but a freedom given to the Christian’s heart in their understanding and true assessment of self. As we look at this Beatitude–”Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled”–we are again mindful that this is a logical progression of spiritual ascent. Man’s spirit was first recognized for what it is: poor. Man then mourned in this poverty such that they consequently seek the living God, and seek to give the gospel to others. Then this cultivates meekness in man as he achieves a proper concept of personal worth compared to God. Now we look at the spirit of man as he yearns for righteousness. These are, again, very logical and commonsensical progressions for the spirit of man to achieve as he looks to a wondrous God who has given all for man who deserves nothing.
Our “Tim’s Translation” today reads,
”Contented are those hungering and thirsting for righteousness because they will be satisfied.”
We will look at Matthew 5:6 and consider the hunger a soul has for God, the thirsting a soul has for God, the righteousness that God is, and the great blessing of being satisfied in this hunger and thirst for righteousness. Look with me at Matthew 5:6 as I read again my translation of this passage, “Contented are those hungering and thirsting for righteousness because they will be satisfied.”
Man hungers and thirsts after righteousness in a variety of ways. We seek to be made righteous if we have been careless with our testimony and we need to regain credibility. In this fashion, we have left the pages of righteousness for reasons known to us, but not normally known to others. Therefore, we choose to remove ourselves from a proper standing, and have to seek righteousness in the eyes of those around us because of a loss of face or some embarrassment. We’ll present two senses of the word “righteousness” in this message. With respect to “righteousness” in man’s eyes, it is a position or status that is achieved which places the person in a position of credibility or acceptability in society. With respect to “righteousness” in God’s eyes, individuals are “righteous” when they are able to stand before God, perfect and unblemished by sin.
Man also seeks righteousness as some approval for the activity that he is undertaking, more of a confirmation of the idea. In the political world, we call this “floating a balloon.” If the idea gathers approval and is seen as a just idea, it garners a righteous and positive acceptance. Many times, we see this in how politicians present policies and new societal laws. This is normally an effort to get the approval for a concept that is already decided as a course of action; not to get approval for the course of action itself. In our political world, we see this with welfare laws, entitlement programs, and how we will treat allies and enemies. Unfortunately, national leaders are supposed to lead people to the betterment of the country, not the betterment of their personal careers. Those who lead to better the country are statesman, those who lead to better their careers are politicians, and politicians are always hungering and thirsting after personal righteousness.
People seek righteousness in their relationships with others. To them it is a form of confirmation for their activities, attitudes, and behaviors. One illustration is that a guy will sit at the bar with another guy talking about their not being “bad guys.” They would each concur with this assessment. After all (they reason), they had not killed anyone. The bar tender will confirm their conclusions and offer them another drink. If they are single, they do not consider that they are wasting their lives away as they sit at a bar drinking. If they are married, they do not consider that the money they are taking from their home could be used to benefit their family some small way. The bar tender considers their business and money a benefit to his cause, so his confirmation of their activity is a biased response based upon personal greed. This type of righteousness considers man as responsible only to himself and not as a creature of God.
In all of these instances the focus of righteousness, the endeavor to seek it, and the supposed outcome of this righteousness is flawed. Granted, these illustrations can be used to describe a number of worldly things, however today we are concentrating upon the righteousness that man seeks. Inherent in this is the problem and the paradox that we see with respect to this Beatitude, which describes contentedness as “hungering and thirsting for righteousness.” This is the conundrum: how can we be contented, yet hungering and thirsting? How can one be hungering and thirsting and yet be filled? The Christian does not seek righteousness. Man eagerly seeks his contentment in the approval of his righteousness by other men, but a “true righteous contentment can only come from God, and it is given, not taken.” What we find in the world is that “Man’s righteousness is sought through a sinful heart, but God’s righteousness is sinless.” People of the world seek affirmation of their goodness repeatedly; they call this righteousness. If they can be seen as doing good, they consider themselves justified or socially righteous before others. The problem is that in the seeking of this is a self-reliant, self-centered, and self-focused attitude and effort. Man, focusing upon himself, thinks righteousness is something he can attain, or something that others need to assent to his possessing. This is not righteousness.
A great doctrinal lesson is contained within this Beatitude as we consider, “Contented are those hungering and thirsting for righteousness because they will be satisfied,” and that is grace. God’s grace is to be sufficient for all our cares and concerns (2 Cor 12:9). God’s grace gives righteousness. Man cannot seek, find, attain, or gain righteousness before God, only God has the power to grant it, and He grants righteousness based upon faith and nothing else.
What of this person, then–the Christian who craves righteousness? What is this craving? What does it entail? What does it look like? How can we crave righteousness?
I. Craving Righteousness
In considering the heart that craves righteousness, we have to first consider the Christian who possesses this heart. They are poor in spirit, admitting their position before God. They have mourned for their soul to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and they mourn for other souls to find the great Savior, Who is Christ Jesus. They are meek with the proper assessment of their position before a great and powerful God. Those who crave righteousness, then, crave a relationship with God such that their spirit which is bereft, can be full; their soul that mourns in it’s parched state can be refreshed; they can rest in the sovereignty of God for all things. This develops then a craving for the things of God. As Hughes puts it, this is a hunger for a “subjective righteousness,” or an “inner righteousness,” as exemplified seven times in this sermon by Christ.[1] As we hunger and thirst for more of this righteousness, then the things of the world grow strangely dim in the rear view mirror of life. We lose the sinful desire to justify ourselves before men and only seek that which is of God. We lose the sinful desire to be dependent upon our self and our own devices, and seek the freedom of salvation. We grow to lose the sinful desire to concern ourselves about the happenstances in our world, and seek only to implement the function of a more godly life in our future. We grow, therefore, to crave righteousness, the righteousness that is God that replaces the sin of the world in our life. We grow more sinless in our righteousness.
In putting hunger and thirst into perspective, we must realize that those in the first century, walking with Christ, knew hunger and starvation. They knew thirst and the need for water. Water and food were of great importance to them. These were potent descriptions, then, to those who followed Christ-people who were regularly hungry and thirsty in such an arid land.[2]
In our desire to become righteous, in our hunger for the food of righteousness, and our thirst to drink of God’s righteousness, we shuck sin like the scales of a thick scab. Still, what is the relationship between sin and the righteousness that is in this Beatitude?
A. Sin and Righteousness
The world is walking “according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2). All of the attempts made by man to establish his own righteousness are sins that focus upon self, and normally involve delusions of grandeur and self-aggrandizement. They are simply issues of pride. In this way man walks, talks, acts, and in all other ways functions with the same motives as Satan does.
Man attempts to solidify his power over others. We have unions today that are being supported by federal fiat and law. This is dangerous, in that man is now not responsible to the owner of a business, but to the union that controls the workforce. Unions are solidifying power to give themselves positions of righteousness by lobbying our government to regulate businesses, and giving the union control over the workforce in the process. This gives the union, whose focus is to gather more power and control to itself, a position of righteousness and viability. Their true righteousness was in working for the worker; now the union no longer works for the worker but for itself in developing more ways to ingratiate itself with power – developing self-righteousness. This is sinful righteousness not focused upon service to man, but enslaving man for personal gain – coveting power.
“What is best for me personally,” is another form of self-righteous behavior in man. We find this with our Nobel Peace Prize winners of late. Al Gore received the Nobel Peace Prize – a prize that is to be given to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
The award to Gore was given for his slide show on global warming – a weather phenomenon proven scientifically false. One of the other individuals considered for the award was Irene Sendler. Irene smuggled Jewish children out of Nazi concentration camps to freedom and gave them to good Christian homes. She was caught, beaten almost to death, then escaped. She saved over 2,500 children. Al Gore was personally ingratiated with the prize, and the prize was given for unknown reasons. Nevertheless, the righteousness and validity of the award have certainly become questionable, and the individual who would accept such an award over the likes of Irene certainly displays a self-appreciation that reeks of arrogance. This personal elevation both on the part of the Nobel committee, and Mr. Gore amounts to sins of pride, greed, and avarice – coveting personal attention at the expense of truth.
“What is best for my politics?” I read in a military article recently that the departing Navy Secretary awarded a Pennsylvania congressman the highest civilian honor. This honor was supposed to go to an individual who in, “those extraordinary cases where individuals have demonstrated exceptionally outstanding service of substantial and long term benefit to the Navy, Marine Corps, or Department of the Navy as a whole.”
The congressman was known for accusing Marines of “cold-blooded” murder and war crimes — accusations that have been proven false. He does not deserve the Navy’s highest civilian award. After two years of investigation, six of the eight Marines and Sailors accused of crimes in the incident had their cases dismissed, one was acquitted, and the last has yet to be decided. The problem is that this was an effort to make the sinful behavior of the congressman righteous. This effort promotes an individual who has disgraced himself and those whom he was bound to serve. This is on par with David and his murder of Uriah, where General Joab put Uriah into the thick of the fight and withdrew all support from him. Because King David slandered Uriah to Joab, Joab thought Uriah was guilty of some evil deserving of death. The congressman and the Secretary of the Navy are culpable in their quest for political perfection – the perfection of man’s compromise that reduces everything of value to nothing. Both the secretary and the congressman are guilty of personal greed, slander, idolatry, and covetousness.
“What is best for my beliefs?” We find this best exemplified in the thought that “the end justifies the means.” This is a situation where individuals determine there is a wrong that society has not corrected, or that those who have been given the power will not take action to correct. We find this in the (presumed) Christians who kill abortion clinic doctors. These individuals consider their activity–committing murder–righteous because they act against murderers of innocent children. Truly, doctors who perform abortions are murderers. The attendants of the procedures are liable as accomplices and co-conspirators. Further, the women are guilty of conspiring to murder, and participating in the murder themselves. However, those who kill the doctors are equally guilty of murder, and are not righteous in this activity. Anyone who defies the laws of God in an attempt to right a supposed wrong has no sense of “vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” That individual has no faith, and has taken it upon themselves to execute justice.
In just these few examples we have shown that any time man attempts to bring about righteousness, any time man attempts to make himself righteous, any time man attempts to make a situation righteous it is in his own estimation, and therefore arrogant. Pride is the result of any attempt man makes at righteousness, and pride is sin. Therefore, any attempt man makes within his will, and especially outside of his power, authority, or responsibility to make something or someone appear “righteous” in the world is born from sin, results in sin, and is because of sin. It all amounts to self-righteousness.
In the world, then, righteousness is in the eye of the beholder – it is humanist in determination. We should explore this worldliness, this world-oriented, and humanistic righteousness.
B. Worldly Righteousness
Our first understanding that scripture offers in worldly righteousness is that the “god of this world,” blinds unbelievers (2 Cor 4:4). There is not a single individual mentioned above who attempted to make themselves righteous, and by that attempt is therefore proven to be a believer in the living God. These individuals seek only that which bolsters their personal, political, or human condition. There is naught of God in their efforts. Further, Satan has blinded those who would propound to or even actually believe that humanity or any one person can be a savior, make things righteous, or develop a utopian environment. These individuals are all under the control of Satan, under his influences, blinded by him in all their efforts to make things righteous in their eyes. If these folks take their eyes off of the only true righteous one, Christ Jesus, they have lost contact with the one true living God to whom they will be accountable.
Another aspect of this self-righteousness is that the things that develop from it are not the fruit of the spirit, but are of the flesh. They are efforts generated from the human sinful heart (Gal 5:17). They are against God, who is spirit, and are not in conjunction with His will. The scripture specifically names these activities as unclean, lascivious, idolatry, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, heresy, envying, and murder. Man covets power and submission to himself. This is self-righteousness at its “best” among men.
Worldly righteousness, then, is that which is focused upon making man righteous before the people of the world. It is an effort to ingratiate oneself with the human race, or simply with yourself. The effort is focused upon making the activities, wants, desires, and aspirations of man paramount, especially those that promote the one claiming or seeking personal righteousness. This individual claims their righteousness must be maintained, they must be seen as justified, they must be reconciled with other humans in order to gain credibility. Righteousness is distorted therefore to be something that presents one person to another person in a more positive light. However, Christian righteousness comes only from one source, and the reason for the granting of it is not merit or the personal effort of man. True righteousness is given by grace.
C. Christian Righteousness
Christian, do you crave righteousness? Does your heart, above all things, earnestly desire freedom from this world and the sin that is in the world? Christians look forward to the promised escape from the imperfection that is in the world today because of the curse. The true Christian wants to be out from under the influence of the sin in this world. This is hungering and thirsting after true righteousness – the righteousness of God.
The Christian wants to be free from sin’s desires, from the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh. Christians want to be rid of the things that would cause them to seek self-righteousness, or behavior that would influence others to see them as righteous. The true Christian wants to be free from liking and enjoying these sinful self-defensive and self-aggrandizing behaviors. The true Christian does not want to brag upon self, and wallow in self-importance, but to be free from that sin and the temptation to commit it. This freedom comes in the presence of the Jesus Christ the righteous.
Christians do not seek this sin, they shun it. They want to experience freedom from sin’s pollution and corruption. True Christians want nothing to do with this junkyard of life. Christians see the self-promotion of man as the dung heap, as a county landfill. As a man wonders how a dog, bear, cat, seagull, or buzzard can eat the rot that is in the landfill, so too the Christian wonders how man can exist in his own personal excrement that is his humanistic righteousness. The Christian wants to be free of this toxic contamination by moving on to their eternal home, promised to them by a perfect righteous God.
The Christian wants to be free of self-piety, self-sensitivities, the desire to be self-protective, to boast and be prideful. Brothers and sisters in Christ want nothing to do with these false senses of righteousness. They seek only that righteousness, which is pure. The Christian seeks holiness, godliness, and spiritual purity that comes from a life that is lived before the face of God through the Son and in the Holy Spirit every day. This is the life that is lived by the Christian. Not that it is perfect, but the Christian knows the perfection that is Christ Jesus, and His atonement for the sin of man which makes the Christian perfect (Is 53:10-11).
The Christian, therefore, exemplifies and grows continually, displaying and producing the fruit of the Spirit in all daily life. We find these fruits to be love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. There is no focus upon self or the things of man in these attributes, they are results of a spirit that is infused with a Holy being, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the living God. The Christian knows that the evidences of a Spirit-filled life, the life of one who knows God and has seen and seeks His face, is one that seeks to put off the old man and put on the new one (Eph 4:24).
In the growth of the Christian in purity and righteousness, he seeks to have a close, intimate, personal, continual, and unstained relationship with God (1 Jn 1:3) [sermon link for this text]. The Christian, instead of desiring more of the darkness that is this world, lives in the light of God (1 Jn 1:5) [sermon link for this text]. Christian, do you seek His light? Do you in fact seek His will and desire in all you produce, all you are, all you want, and all you will be. Do you seek to have this perfect, righteous, sinless, and loving relationship with God through the Savior?
The Christian also seeks more audience with other Christians. The Christian seeks to be with other Christians and not with the world. As the believer is changed from the mind of man to a mind bent increasingly toward God (Rom 12:2), they grow to enjoy the perfect relationship that can exist in fellowship with other believers. They seek more righteousness with those who themselves seek righteousness (1 John 3:10-12) [sermon link for this text]. The world, the interests of the world, and the things of the world are driven away because they lack true righteousness.
Ultimately, the Christian wants to be like Christ. Believers strive continually to seek His righteousness and implement it in their lives. We seek this truth and justification not because we can get it ourselves, but because a great and glorious Savior promises it to us. His righteousness is imputed to us (2 Cor 5:21) and given to us by His grace through faith at salvation (Rom 4:5). We seek this perfection daily as we grow closer to Him by learning more of Him in His word (Rom 4:22-23). The Christian knows the position in which he stands. First, there is a poverty of spirit that knows there is no merit of its own devices, no defense of itself; it has no position before God. Then there is mourning for fulfillment, for the righteousness of a great God to fill the Christian heart. Then there is meekness that bears no self-importance and this spirit ultimately hungers and thirsts for the great pure righteousness of God.
The Christian has pains of great hunger; experiences the parched dry and desolate need for the refreshing righteousness of heaven.
D. Hungering and Thirsting Righteousness
As we have made the point before, it is not leaning upon ourselves for deliverance, salvation, justification, or righteousness. It is not some effort in ourselves to make ourselves self-sufficient. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is not a self-reliance that generates disdain, detestability, or disrespect for things that intrude upon us or for those who cannot see things our way. It is not a self-confidence we seek that we are able to sustain ourselves in all things, be isolated, and live a contented life materially, economically, or emotionally. It does not create some sanctimonious concept of self-righteousness and self-worth that promotes isolationism or an “It’s my way or the highway” attitude. This is born of man’s flesh and sin nature, which seeks only to please itself, seeking righteousness that is focused upon what the individual sees as righteous in their own eyes. This is hungering and thirsting after ones own pride and arrogance that would say, “Why don’t people just do what I have done?” This is as if to say, “I got it right, everyone needs to follow my example.” This is still focused upon self-glorification whether it is a positive encouragement or not.
Hunger and thirst, as described here, are intense sensations. The words used here to describe these sensations indicate a strong desire to attain an ultimate goal. However, they also indicate a lack of necessary provision to do so. It is an intense desire therefore to be righteous, but the ability is beyond the one who is hungering and thirsting.
Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is truly a Godly endeavor. It is a painful recognition of the absolute sovereignty of God and His great grace that gave us salvation. It is an acknowledgment of the need for man to receive this grace for the understanding that it is freely given–not earned, or bought. True hungering and thirsting after righteousness is a condition in man that is poor in spirit, it mourns for the fulfillment of the bereft soul, and it is meek in the understanding of the true position before God. For these reasons it is a continuous and ongoing effort of man to eat and drink of the righteousness that is God. We should recognize that hunger and thirst are two elemental and base requirements of man’s body. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is that base and elemental requirement of the soul – it is the proper food and refreshment of the believer. Therefore, the absence of this sustenance is literally felt like the pang of hunger, or the parched, dry, thirsty throat, the cracked and blistered lips of the one who thirsts in a dry and desolate land. Being without this nourishment and liquid replenishment is akin to not eating and not drinking. We have heard of complications of being without food, being without water and the agony that the death of hunger and thirst can bring. The Christian seeks to continually feed and replenish the soul with the great sustenance that is God. Without this regular replenishment, the Christian feels the pains of starvation and dehydration of the spirit.
People who love food and drink seek nothing but the ways in which to enjoy those things that they adore. The Christian likewise has a great hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God. The Christian seeks always to be fed sumptuously, to be satiated with the proper spiritual drink that is Christ. The Christian in their hunger and thirst should covet any moment that the Word is taught, dream about learning about God, contemplate any way or fashion that they can be in His presence, engineer ways and means by which to worship Him, and permit nothing to stand in the way of that desire. We find this desire confirmed in scripture in Psalm 42:1 - and it is why we sang “As the Deer” this morning. We read in the psalm,
”As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living god: when shall I come and appear before God?”
J. N. Darby is quoted as saying, “when the prodigal son was hungry he went to feed upon husks, but when he was starving, he turned to his father.”[3]
What, then, does the Christian believer receive in this uncontrollable desire to seek the righteousness of God; the believer who cannot set down the word of God as he hungers for the righteousness found therein?
II. Satisfaction of Righteousness
Here on earth, in fellowship with God, in fellowship with the Savior, in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, in the reading and studying the Word of God, and in fellowship with one another in Christ, the believer experiences great contentedness of being filled. Knowing there is no perfection here, the believer seeks all that can be perfect here–which is every relationship that seeks God and His will first.
The believer takes great comfort in knowing it is not of self, but of God. This is because believers know how much, how often, and how easily they fail themselves. They know they are imperfect to themselves, and they are therefore incapable of perfection for others. They take comfort and strength in the knowledge that perfection is not required of them, for they cannot achieve it. The believer receives fulfillment in the understanding of the grace of God.
The believer experiences this fulfillment upon salvation. Fulfillment and satisfaction is coincident with salvation and the removal of the sin guilt at the point of acceptance of the Savior. The removal of sin’s condemnation is not only the elimination of a great weight but also the release of the hold, the bondage to the world that captivates the unbeliever. The fulfillment of the desire for righteousness removes the gnawing knowledge of a need for forgiveness for the wrongs we have done.
It is none but grace that provides for the imputation of righteousness (Rom 4:6). God gave Himself for all of us. Man has done nothing to earn, deserve, or in any way merit this great gift. The believer is filled with the righteousness of God’s grace, knowing it is purely God’s choice, and God has chosen those who believe in His Son.
Satisfaction is found in sanctification as well as the believer’s hunger and thirst for more of God and not the garbage heap that is the World. Purity fills them through a life of Godliness, prayer, and saturation in the word. Hungering and thirsting for the good food of God, not the defiled offerings within secular society, the Christian is satiated. Hungering and thirsting for good fellowship with believers, not companionship with the unsaved the believer is satisfied.
A greater ability to resist sin and Satanic devices and influences produces great satisfaction. The bonds of this world are released. The believer no longer fears death; Satan no longer has this hold over the Christian. This is because those who know Christ, and know His righteousness, also know their ultimate destination is in the Kingdom of God. “Contented are those hungering and thirsting for righteousness because they will be satisfied.”
We first looked at craving righteousness. Considering the fact that man craves being considered righteous with or with out God. We identified attempts that people of the world make in order to justify themselves and make their sin filled activities some how righteous. We found that this righteousness was only something that was developed in their own eyes. Looking at God’s righteousness, and the righteousness that the Christian seeks, we found that it is a great comfort to the believer; a wonderful and satisfying experience to know true righteousness in the heart and soul as a believer. This satisfaction is manifested in many ways but most notably through the fruit of the Spirit.
Are spiritual fruits growing in your personal life? Do you see a greater and greater hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God? Do you, Christian, seek Him and all His righteousness in your life. Conversely, do you still toil to justify yourself, developing your own righteousness?
[1] Hughes, R. Kent, The Sermon on the Mount, The Message of the Kingdom, (Crossway Books: Wheaton, 2001), 40.
[2] Broadus, John A., commentary on Matthew, (Kregel: Grand Rapids, 1990), 90.
[3] Lloyd-Jones, D Martyn, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, One-volume edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 68.
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