Now, we have come today to the words
of verse 6.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they will be filled.
They will be filled.
Some time, I believe it was quite a
number of years following the end of World
War II, an American cartoonist made a name
for himself by a cartoon that appeared under
his name.
It was rather unusual.
There were no figures, not even a few
lines.
It was just a square painted in black
and underneath the caption, The World of Tomorrow.
A square painted in black.
The World of Tomorrow.
I wonder how he would depict in his
own inimitable way the world that has developed
since those days, because this must have been
20 years ago now.
I wonder how he would refer to the
world of today.
Whatever the correct answer to that question may
or may not be, here we find our
Lord Jesus Christ, I would almost say, dancing
onto the scene, as we have previously said,
bringing good news to men and starting off
his eight or nine beatitudes with this remarkable
word, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed.
These words are especially significant when we remember
that one of the closing words in the
last book of the Old Testament was one
which spoke of a coming curse.
In the New Testament opens when Jesus, having
announced that the kingdom of heaven is at
hand, personified in himself, the rule of heaven
is manifested in heaven's only begotten Son.
Having expressed something of the significance of that
in the authoritative words of his lips and
by the mighty power of his hands, he
now comes onto the scene, onto the stage
to teach his own disciples in a more
formal sense this prolonged sermon on the mount
and he begins each major statement with this
word, blessed.
He defies the man with a black square
and he says there is good news where
everything is dark.
There is hope where everything, humanly speaking, is
hopeless and he brings it.
And it is a great privilege in this
20th century to be able to declare that
the Christ of yesteryear is still the Lord
of today and the Savior who brings light
into the darkness, who was anointed of God
to preach good tidings to the poor, release
to the prisoners and so forth as we
heard from Isaiah chapter 61 this morning.
For those scriptures were fulfilled in him and
to make men grow in such a manner
that they would be spoken of please don't
miss this, as oaks of righteousness.
God is the only one who can foretell
what he's about to do and what Jesus
says here will be true of the members
of his kingdom God said through Isaiah the
prophet would come to pass.
I says the Lord back there if I
may summarize the word I will make men
to be oaks of righteousness to beautify the
landscape and to show something of the power
and the strength of my own right hand.
Well we have come to this point in
the Beatitudes where we're now looking then at
these wonderful words and yet I think we
shall agree most challenging blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness are you among
them?
The first thing I would like you to
notice is the pathway to blessedness involves a
deep desire we shall enlarge upon that in
a moment but let's just refer to it
now as a deep desire for righteousness.
The first thing that demands our attention in
this fourth Beatitude is the fact that the
route into the experience of blessedness involves going
this way there are other features we've seen
already and there are others yet to come
but here is one aspect of experience that
cannot be missed members of the kingdom of
God have to come along this way where
they discover in their souls by the grace
of God a hunger and a thirst for
righteousness in vain do you and I say
that we have been born again of the
spirit of God unless we know something of
this in vain do we claim that we
are living in fellowship with the living God
unless we know something of this a hunger
and a thirst for righteousness is something says
Jesus that is indispensable for those who are
to be the citizens of his kingdom not
in order to earn their way in of
course that is the free gift of his
grace but in order to express the life
they receive from him as his citizens, as
his subjects, as his disciples the pursuit of
blessedness as outlined in these telling words of
our Lord now seem to take what we
might call a new turn in the progression
of the Beatitudes you notice here hitherto the
process has been one of humiliation and self
-discovery blessed are the poor in spirit it's
a devastating moment in the life of anyone
to realize that he can do, she can
do nothing at all to save himself or
herself and I've no idea, I've no doubt
but that all of us who've gone this
way would add to the truth of that
today when suddenly the spirit of God showed
us that our very righteousnesses were a filthy
rag not our unrighteousnesses but our righteousnesses that
the very best we could do was infinitely
short of what God requires of us so
that we can only say nothing in my
hand I bring simply to thy cross I
cling naked come for dress foul come for
cleansing and so forth in other words we
are utterly dependent upon the grace of God
when a man, when a woman sees himself
in that light then that is a, that
is a day or a night to be
remembered but that's not the end following that
according to the Lord Jesus there comes a
night and the day of mourning blessed are
they that mourn not so much now, though
this may come of course but in the
first place not so much mourning for the
sins of other people and their impact upon
us and upon society and upon history and
upon God's creation we'll probably mourn for those
things too in due course if we walk
with God but first of all a mourning
because of what our own sins have done
to us as God's creatures that the God
who made us to bear his image and
to do his will is a God who
is seeing in us the kind of creature
he can't he can hardly recognize of the
one he made fulfilling the purpose he had
in mind for us and we begin to
weep have you come that far?
have you lost a tear ever, ever?
because your life is dishonoring to God but
we're still going down you see down, down,
down into the valley of almost despair because
the next beatitude says blessed are the meek
now the meek man is the person who
has come to a point in his spiritual
pilgrimage where knowing himself to be the person
he is morally and spiritually he doesn't expect
good from God nor does he expect man
to make him the center of the universe
that's a mighty spiritual miracle you know we
all want people to say well of us
we all want people to bow down to
us we all want people to make room
for us but when a man or a
woman has come to this point that he
doesn't expect God to do anything good for
him and doesn't expect man to lord him
and magnify him that man's meek, that is
meekness so the whole of the trend in
those first three beatitudes is down it's this
awesome, this awful self-discovery it's this breaking
up of the old nature it's this crucifying
of the self but you notice that things
now begin to change something happens when we've
been brought down here there emerges in the
soul something which is altogether new and positive
what is it?
it's a hunger and a thirst for righteousness
at this point in his experience the sinner
in the process of saving transformation wants to
please God he yearns now for what he
hasn't got and what he hasn't done and
to be right with God and to please
God have you come there?
you will notice that we have reached a
point in the progressive experience delineated in the
beatitudes then which is altogether new it manifests
a turn in the road when a man
now is not simply concerned with grieving concerning
his own situation but his grief takes a
new complexion he wants to be what God
wants him to be he wants to do
what God wants him to do this it
seems to me is what the term righteousness
really means in the context here before us
it is a longing to be right with
God not just to save my own skin
and evade the jaws of hell not just
to be able to turn my back upon
the path to perdition but to be right
with God to please God this is entirely
in accord with Old Testament the Old Testament
usage of the word righteousness which is often
synonymous with salvation moreover if we are to
interpret the language of our text accurately I
think we must take account of what some
of the grammarians tell us here you'll forgive
me for introducing another grammatical note I don't
like doing this but it has to be
done every now and again you know there
is an important point of grammar here three
or four of the commentators that I've been
conferring with recently make the point and it
is important verbs of hungering and thirsting are
generally followed by the genitive case now if
this is not your field switch off for
a moment I'll call you back the reason
being you see if I'm hungering for a
drink for water I don't want all the
water there is in the world I only
want part of the water there is in
the world enough to slake my own thirst
I don't want all the bread there is
in the world I only want part of
it and the genitive case covers that but
sometimes, now you can come back those of
you who went to sleep sometimes the genitive
case is not used but the accusative is
employed and when the accusative is employed it
means this that a man does not simply
want part of the water in the jug
but the whole jug not part of the
loaf but the whole loaf not a little
of what God gives but everything that God
gives in terms of what we have before
us not some aspect of God's righteousness but
total righteousness that's what Jesus said blessed is
the man who hungers and thirsts for total
righteousness you say what on earth is that?
may I suggest to you that it covers
a number of things as I understand it
this would include what Paul refers to as
justification God in infinite mercy taking away our
sins and forgiving our transgressions and clothing us
with the very garb of the Saviour's righteousness
so that in the sight of God we
are just as if we'd never sinned it
includes that the imputation to an unrighteous person
of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ
clothed in his righteousness alone sings the hymn
Jesus thy blood and righteousness my beauty are
my glorious dress that's the concept but it
isn't only that it will involve something more
than that it will involve something akin to
what the psalmist has in mind when he
says about God thou desirest truth in the
inward parts righteousness in the way I think
think about myself think about my friends think
about my foes think about people near think
about people far righteousness in the way I
think and in the way I inwardly react
to things I believe it even goes beyond
that it will include in due course a
concern that men and women everywhere are treated
on the basis of righteousness social righteousness he
is an enigmatic figure who says that he
is concerned to be right with God but
does not feel when unrighteousness rules in the
land and in courts of law and in
other places total righteousness means this it's the
whole thing to be right with God in
and of myself in what I think and
what I do and what I am in
my innermost life a life of inner heart
rectitude and then in my attitude and my
desire and my quest for all the peoples
of the world brothers and sisters it should
worry you and it should worry me that
there are millions of people today because of
their association with the name of Jesus Christ
that are being unjustly treated in the world
and we should be doing something about it
total righteousness now listen I am not preaching
a social gospel but I am preaching total
righteousness and I believe Jesus taught it blessed
is the man who hungers and thirsts after
total righteousness you see my friend whether you
realize it or not are you a believer?
you and I are going to live in
a world where righteousness is at home and
there is nothing else there all unrighteousness will
have been swept out everything that offends has
been cleared off the stage there will be
nothing there but righteousness in the new heavens
and the new earth come down purged the
old earth purged and the new come down
and righteousness is at home there and as
the heirs of so great a hope you
and I have got to exhibit to God
and to men right now that we are
concerned with total righteousness Hosea tells the people
of his day that they were half-baked
have you come across that?
you know these prophets must have had a
sense of humor too but you know what
he meant don't you?
they'd only been cooked on one side you
know many of us have only been cooked
on one side and there's a whole side
of our lives that hasn't started cooking yet
and we need to be turned around and
we need to see the wholeness of God's
vision and the wholeness of God's concern and
we need to be following in the foot
marks of the Christ who was concerned for
all, for total righteousness the second thing I
would like you to notice is the intensity
with which this desire should be expressed could
I put it like this perhaps?
Jesus expects it to be expressed in terms
of a hunger and thirst now hunger and
thirst are elemental experiences of human life and
they express themselves in varying degrees at various
times it's commonplace to say that hunger the
felt need for food and thirst the corresponding
desire in relation to drink are necessary to
health absolutely indispensable to health the absence of
hunger and thirst marks death either in progress
or already present you see a corpse has
no appetite and I know men and women
who come to church sometimes but they have
no appetite, they're still dead they have no
hunger, they have no thirst they'll go and
play games a couple of hundred yards away
from the place where the word of God
is expounded and people are worshipping they have
no hunger they have no thirst they're in
the grip of something that has never been
broken there's a winter in the soul that
hasn't been dealt with by an omnipotent God
they've never come out from the grave yet
they're like Lazarus even if they have come
out their grave clothes are holding them and
you know we have many many people here
in Knox who've never been seen to worship
God on the Lord's Day evening I don't
understand that this to me is one of
the greatest mysteries in this beloved community you're
the dearest people that I've ever known you're
the kindest, you're the most generous and I
love you dearly but I don't understand why
some of you dear people only hunger and
thirst for God on a Sunday morning and
it can be confined to that you know
I've often asked would it be better if
I left the scene and somebody else could
minister to you far more profitably and I
would willingly do it for if I am
holding something back and men are not coming
to spiritual life to hunger and thirst after
God then in the name of the Lord
either the congregation or the preacher have got
something to answer for but this is one
of those serious things that is so lacking
among us it's a real hunger a real
thirst a real yearning for God that gets
us out of bed rather than come into
the service halfway through to meet the King
of Kings with our eyes dreary where were
we last night you know I'm tempted to
go off at a tangent but you see
the kind of thing that's on my heart
I shall not say any more about it
where there's a hunger where there's a thirst
where there's a yearning for the living God
oh brothers and sisters we know it when
we see it don't we the absence of
hunger and thirst marks death and this is
equally true in the spiritual realm as in
the physical Robert Louis Stevenson in his Master
of Ballantrae refers to the malady of not
wanting that's a very pregnant phrase the malady
of not wanting I don't want any more
I'm fed up I've had enough I don't
want anything I haven't any more hunger I
haven't any more thirst I want to get
up the table you have children like that
you've only just started dad can I leave
the table man you haven't put the spoon
in your mouth yet can I leave the
table they can't stand it the malady of
not wanting the world is full the church
is full of people with the malady of
not wanting now let's be clear about this
also in our Lord's thoughts as expressed in
this beatitude lies the concept of a very
real hunger and a real thirst I want
to stress the reality of it Jesus is
thinking of the real thing in each case
unquestionably this needs to be stressed because in
our much blessed western world you see we
don't really know much about hunger and thirst
on the natural realm do we?
what do we know about hunger?
what do we know about thirst?
the old testament knew more about it because
the new testament emerged from the middle east
and you can see you can read how
it is reflected in some of our psalms
the 42nd for example as the deer pants
for streams of water you got that?
as the deer pants for streams of water
so my soul pants for you oh God
my soul thirsts for God for the living
God that's real hungering and thirsting or listen
to the 63rd psalm oh God you are
my God earnestly I seek you my soul
thirsts for you my body longs for you
in a dry and weary land where there
is no water and the 84th psalm again
you have the same kind of background you
see my soul yearns even faints for the
courts of the Lord my heart and my
flesh cry out for the living God there
it is and there it is as a
purely spiritual desire that is expressed and that
is the kind of thing that our Lord
is thinking about here there is such a
thing as real hunger and real thirst for
God and without it there is no knowing
the kingdom of his Son that's the point
unless you know something of this in your
soul my friend you really have to come
to terms with this possibility that one day
you will find that the door of the
kingdom is closed to you and Jesus will
tell you I didn't know you you didn't
hunger enough you didn't thirst enough to come
near to me for anything you could get
on without me singing about me talking about
me preaching about me but I didn't know
you if blessing depends upon appetite if the
filled are the hungry and the thirsty we
are I trust in the way of that
blessing are we?
I remember a sermon by the late Dr.
W.E. Sangster of Central Hall Methodist Church
in Westminster in London great man that he
was a certainly great preacher I may have
referred to this before I don't know strange
if I haven't he refers to the great
Fletcher of Madeley a great man of God
who had preached a sermon under unusual anointing
on one occasion and there was social commotion
I won't go into the details but that
one sermon of Fletcher's quelled what would have
been a very serious situation now Fletcher's sole
notion was to preach the word of God
to the glory of God he wasn't thinking
of the social impact of his ministry at
the time when he preached the sermon but
he did not miss the authorities and the
ruling powers of the day thought that Fletcher
ought to be, ought to be given something
some acknowledgement of his great service to society
and the Chancellor of England the Lord Chancellor
of England called to see him the Lord
Chancellor wasn't quite sure how to approach the
subject as to how they could honour Fletcher
of Madeley this saintly man how they could
honour him for the service he had rendered
to his own society and to society at
large and he beat about the bush and
he he wasn't cutting any ice at all
Fletcher as Dr. Sandster says Fletcher like some
of the saints are very dull to self
-interest from time to time and he didn't
see what the man was talking about and
then the Lord Chancellor became a little more
definite, not definite yet but he came to
this point, he said Sir, he said, is
there anything that we the majesty's government could
you know, and he wasn't filling in the
blanks as if to say tell us what
we can do for you and at long
last the dear old man of God saw
what he was getting at Oh, how kind
of you, says Fletcher of Madeley how kind
of you, how kind of you you were
offering me something anything you ask for, says
the Lord Chancellor Oh, sir, said Fletcher there's
only thing, one thing I need grace he
says grace and more grace I need nothing
in this world poor man that he was
if you'd seen his house you would have
known I need nothing, only grace see the
point he was a thirst, he was hungry
what is anything else Oh, brothers and sisters
if you are praying today for yourself for
your soul, for the souls of your family
for the souls in your church pray for
a new hunger and a new thirst I
read of a man in the Middle East
who got lost in one of the deserts
I don't remember which but I do remember
his report he said that someone found him
and brought him back to life and in
reporting he said the first day, he said
after the first full day it seems to
me, the first full day I would have
given my right arm he says, for just
a cup of cold water by the end
of the second day I would have given
my two arms for half a cup full
by the end of the third day I
would have given two arms, two legs and
my life for a drop of water brought
by a dirty finger and touch my tongue
Oh, my friend this is what Jesus expects
the Word to do within us and the
Spirit to create within us something that gets
us out of bed in the morning something
that brings us to our knees during the
daytime something that brings us together to the
house of God to hear His Word and
to obey it and to heed it and
to put it into practice something that sends
us into the four corners of the world
this marvelous compulsion born of the Holy Ghost
do you know anything of it?
do I?
and I end with this unbelievable, it's unbelievable
did we not know, the speaker did we
not know that Jesus is the preacher of
this sermon I would find this very difficult
to believe listen to my text blessed are
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for
they may some sometime be filled didn't say
that they may partly be filled didn't say
that do you know what he said?
they will be filled which means, you see
that if we are without the fullness of
which Jesus speaks it means that we are
not hungry enough or thirsty enough to receive
it oh, such intense desire as we have
been considering cannot go unfilled and I'll tell
you why it cannot go unfilled because where
you find the kind of hungering and thirsting
of which Jesus speaks here it is first
of all it is the creation of the
spirit in the soul of man that's why
Jesus can say they will be filled you
see friends the preacher in the pulpit can't
work a congregation up to hunger and thirst
after righteousness now I know the limitation of
my gifts but I know if I use
certain techniques I could work up a congregation
to do this and to do that oh
yeah, I'm sure of it don't ask me
to start I am absolutely sure of it
because I have done it in a secular
capacity and it is possible to work up
congregations to do this and to do that
but there is no man there is no
group of men that can work up this
kind of thing in the souls of men
a hunger and a thirst after righteousness where
does it come from then?
well it only comes from the work of
the spirit of God in the souls of
men and that's why Jesus is able to
say this kind of thing will be fulfilled
because it's the spirit that has brought about
the condition or let me say another thing
they will be filled because it is the
son of God who promises it and when
you have the promise of the son and
the power of the spirit working together you
may be sure that this kind of thing
is possible we may have never seen it
we may be ignorant of this kind of
this dimension of things going on in the
church so tepid as the church is today
and we know nothing at all about it
but I tell you, when the promise of
the son and the power of the spirit
are working together you can expect things that
some of us have never seen I
close with this let me show you in
closing that there are at least there is
a threefold answer to the question how, if
you ask it if you press it further
to begin with those who so hunger and
thirst will immediately be clothed upon with the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ I come
back to where we began almost the first
part of it will be will be answered
when you and I really see ourselves as
lost without the Savior undone and our very
righteousnesses our very good works as filthy rags
before God when we come to him in
penitence and with remorse he will clothe us
with a garment of righteousness further those who
hunger and thirst after righteousness will constantly and
increasingly be filled with a burden for righteous
living that will pervade heart and mind and
conscience and will bringing each activity of the
personality to render to God what he desires
and what pleases him this is sanctification where
the whole of the inner life is brought
under the rule and under the reign of
the Lord whose right it is to rule
beyond that lastly such as fulfill the terms
of this fourth beatitude will find ultimately that
they have been so completely transformed from glory
into glory that when they appear before God
they bear the very image of the Holy
One himself being made free from every taint
of sin being without spot or wrinkle or
any such thing and they will have had
a share en route to that ultimate destiny
they will have had a share in manifesting
righteousness and expressing righteousness which is glorifying to
our ever blessed and altogether righteous Lord this
as I understand it and nothing short of
this is salvation it's a very easy thing
just to put up my hand and say
I want to follow Jesus it's a very
easy thing comparatively to write my name on
a piece of paper and say I want
to trust Jesus I want Jesus as my
friend I want to be in heaven with
him I want to walk with him it's
very easy brothers and sisters let us make
sure that we are talking about the salvation
that Jesus himself talked about and he says
this is the way the way into the
blessedness of the kingdom is this way it
takes this route we haven't come to the
end of it yet and these are things
that should be going on and on in
the hearts of men and women as we
discover more and more of the sin that
is in our hearts we shall be made
sad and we shall mourn and we should
be becoming more and more meek and more
and more humble and hungering more and more
for righteousness we should even be able to
come to show mercy to be merciful and
to be peacemakers and even to suffer for
righteousness sake and so forth all these things
grow out of the experience of blessedness in
so far as it is experienced at any
given point as I conclude this morning will
you forgive me if I press the question
have you begun the journey is there someone
here this morning who has never seen himself
or herself as lost without Jesus Christ as
a personal saviour, lost ask
him to show you the truth about yourself
ask him to give you a penitence a
remorse a loathing of the thing that brings
you down to hell ask him to create
soul thirst for himself and if in your
heart of heart this morning you already have
it and you find something within you saying
oh my god I need you this morning
and I want you and I'm going to
cry upon you and I'm going to trust
you and I'm going to start out on
the pilgrimage this morning my brother, my sister
do it do it this is the day
the Lord hath made let us rejoice and
be glad in it this is a day
of salvation this is no concert and if
it helps you to come down the aisle,
one of these aisles and stand at the
front and have a word of prayer with
us at the close then just do so
that's not necessary for you to be saved
but if it helps you, come brother, come
sister make it public to others that you
mean business, that you do really want to
do something come do it and I tell
you that the Lord Jesus the head of
the church will be here to welcome you
in his name we shall do so but
he will welcome you into his arms, into
his hands into his keeping, into his care
and when once he begins a good work
in you he will continue it until the
day of Jesus Christ we're going to pray
now but after that when we come to
sing our closing hymn, I'm going to ask
you to consider perhaps you ought to come
forward and make a confession of your faith
this morning pray about it as we pray
together now, let us pray our
God, our heavenly Father we bless your holy
name that we are together in your sanctuary
today and that your word this living word
of God is still among us and the
Holy Spirit is still among his people and
it doesn't depend upon the mere human being
in the pulpit to be responsible for the
success of a service such as this because
you are among your people, oh Lord draw
us after you, in the way of blessedness
in the way of peace and joy and
everlasting life which is the way of your
kingdom and your rule over us bring us
to yourself and lead us on and as
it may be some of our brothers and
sisters here this morning already yearn to do
this feel they ought to do this and
to manifest it in some public way enable
them so to do grant them your grace
and grant us all so to magnify your
holy name together that yours alone shall be
the glory we ask it in our blessed
savior's name Amen