The Perfect Standard For Life
A Call To Pursue Conformity To God’s Will -Part 4 of 8
Reading: Matthew 5v6.
In many magazines today, nutritionists have spoken to us about the importance of diet by telling us, we are what we eat.
In other words, they say, if you eat too many sweet things, to many doughnuts and cream puffs, we’ll become walking pastries, and I think what they say is quite true, isn’t it?
That also holds true about what our diet is in the spiritual realm.
In other words, if you continuously feed on violence, erotica and materialism, you will eventually become like that.
You will become what you eat.
In other words, you become a victim of your appetites.
…and this brings to light what Jesus is saying to us in this Beatitude, because in it Jesus sets before us the menu we have to eat from if we want a healthy and vibrant spiritual life.
He says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled”.
In other words, Jesus here tells us what to eat – spiritually of course – and how we must eat to have good spiritual health, because our spiritual health comes from what we hunger for.
What Does It Mean To Hunger And Thirst After Righteousness?
The word “righteousness” as we have it here, means conforming to God’s commands for our lives as it is spelled out for us in the Bible.
It talks of an inner righteousness that works itself out in my living in conformity to God’s will, in other words, righteous living.
…and this is what it means: Those people who hunger and thirst for righteousness, long to live righteously and long to see it in the lives of other people as well.
It is a passionate desire which begins with your own life that all things should be lived in line with God’s Word and God’s will.
In other words, it talks here of having a desire to be like Jesus in all ways possible.
…and so to hunger and thirst for righteousness means longing after the practical living that the Beatitudes describe to us.
The person who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is the person who wants to live according to the character of the Kingdom of God.
That is the person who longs to live by the fruit of the Spirit.
“What is the fruit of the Spirit?”
Galatians 5v22-23 says, “But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control;….” (LB).
…and so its a call to pursue conformity to God’s will for our lives in the most extreme terms.
…and by the way, this is not an optional spiritual extra, but a spiritual requirement.
Now I know when I am thirsty I simply turn on the tap and drink as much as I like.
When I am hungry I go to the fridge and eat what I want as much as I want.
“Do you have those same experiences at home as well?”
However, in the times when these words were written there was no such things as a tap or a fridge where I could satisfy my thirst and hunger immediately.
There condition was much worse than ours, because these people were never really far from dehydration or starvation.
…and so it describes a person who has gone without food and water for an extended period of time, and every fiber in their being is crying out for nourishment.
Its like this story I’m reminded about of a Mission’s trip to Mozambique a few years ago.
There was very little food for the people, and I remember one incident that really caught my attention.
Some of the girls went hut to hut, just visiting people and speaking to them about Christ and also trying to assess their needs.
They came to a hut of an elderly woman who was looking after her grandchildren.
There came a time when they asked he if she had anything to eat.
Her reply was, “We have something to eat now, but we expect to die in the next few days as we have nothing more to eat after today”.
That’s the kind of thirst and hunger Jesus is referring to.
In other words, Jesus is not talking about having a gentle desire for spiritual food, but rather a starvation for righteousness, a desperate hungering to be conformed to God’s will.
Its like this story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his companions who experienced extreme and continues hunger on their polar exposition.
When describing their experience, Shackleton said that they found it difficult to think about anything else than food or eating.
Well, this Beatitude is for the spiritual Shackleton’s of this world, those people who can think of nothing else but their hunger for God.
It promises that they will be filled.
…and then this Beatitude is further intensified by the fact that this hungering should be a continual hungering.
Let’s be honest, when we finish a meal our first thought is usually this, “Now what?”
After the last plate of food, one thing remains, to plan the next meal, Why?, because one breakfast, one lunch and one supper won’t last us a lifetime, am I right?
Soon our stomachs will cry for more food.
It’s the same with our spiritual need for God.
One spiritual meal once a week on a Sunday morning will never get you through the week.
You must have continual spiritual meals to satisfy your spiritual appetite.
That’s why we have Home Bible Study Groups, that’s why we have prayer meetings.
David was a man who had a huge hunger and thirst for God.
He even wrote a Psalm about his spiritual hungerness.
In Psalm 63v1 he says, “O 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”.
He also says in Psalm 17v15, “And I – in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness”.
…and this is the way it should be for any hungry believer in Christ.
We should never have enough of God and His righteousness.
We should always be hungry for more.
We should have the same attitude Jeremiah had when he said, (Jer.15v16), “Your words are what sustain me; they are food to my hungry soul. They bring joy to my sorrowing heart and delight me.” (LB)
The churches and Bible study groups should always be full of people hungering and thirsting after God, but it’s not so.
We rather want to sleep in or go to work, or go someplace else than church on a Sunday, because we don’t thirst and hunger after God as we should.
…and so in our modern world of today this does not make sense at all.
In fact, some Christians might even be offended by it.
But this Beatitude rules out the half-hearted Christian, it rules out the half-hearted Christian who wants to eat of Christ only now and then and when it suits them Why?, because only those people who sincerely hunger and thirst for righteousness, are accepted.
In other words, God says the person who has no hunger and no thirst for righteousness has no part in His Kingdom.
Now, if you look back on your life you might remember those first days you were a Christian.
Those were the days when you always hungered for God’s Word and had as great thirst for righteousness.
In fact, you couldn’t get enough of Jesus or the teaching of His Word and you were desperate for things of God.
You cared about the people who were hungry and lost in their sinfulness.
You always made yourself available to be involved.
But then, then as time went by, your desire for righteousness decreased and the “realities of life” took over, and your hunger for God took a back seat, and now you’re content with a lesser life and limited devotion to the God who gave you new life.
“Is that true of your life this morning?”
“Have your spiritual life and your thirst for God’s Word taken a back seat over the past few years?”
…and yet despite all that, now and then, by God’s grace I might add, God’s Word still stirs your heart, and that is a sign that you can be restored to what you were meant to be.
The point is, you and I must never be spiritually satisfied.
We must always become more thirsty and more hungry for God’s Word.
“Blessed are those who desperately hunger and thirst for righteousness”, says God.
In other words, approved of God are those people who hunger and thirst for more of Him in their lives, because those people who truly hunger and thirst know Christ intimately.
We live in a society today where righteous living is on the decline even amongst Christians.
More Christians today watch more murders and adulteries on television in one week than our grandparents read about in a lifetime, and we watch these things without the slightest twinge of conscience.
May I then say, our casual viewing of these things make us approve of these things.
More Christians these days divorce than people outside the church.
The gap between the gay community and the church is narrowing.
Very few Christians these days are concerned about the sinfulness of the world.
In fact,…you might be branded as being fanatical if you have such a view.
Jesus never said,…that if you look for happiness, you will become satisfied.
However, what we must do this morning is examine our hearts and make an examination of our righteousness.
You see, each one of us this morning know in our own hearts whether we really do long for righteous living or not.
You can only have the smile of God on your life if you live according to this Beatitude.
What Is Our Reward For Living A Righteous Life?
This beatitude suggests to us that if you hunger and thirst for righteousness you will be “satisfied” or “filled”.
This word was frequently used of the feeding of animals until they wanted nothing more.
In other words, they were allowed to eat until they were completely satisfied.
What that means for us, is that Jesus is saying here, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness then you will be given total satisfaction, and the giving of that satisfaction is God’s work alone!
In other words, this satisfaction does not come from external things like homes and cars and jobs and clothes and education and whatever.
No, - the source of this satisfaction is God alone.
Yet we have to ask the question, “How can I be hungry and satisfied at the same time?”
“How can I be satisfied and experience hunger at the same time?”
“Full yet empty?”
“How does it work?”
Well, the more you conform the God’s will for your life, the more fulfilled and content you become, and that in-turn produces a greater unhappiness with one’s life.
That’s when your hunger increases and intensifies in the very act of being satisfied.
I think it’s like eating a box of chocolates.
First you resist eating any, but then you eat one or two and you’re satisfied for a moment.
Then you begin to hunger for more and so you eat again with the same effect until the box of chocolates is finished.
Tomorrow you see another box of chocolates and the same things happens again.
“See what I mean?”
If we want to look at an example in the Bible we have to look at the life of Paul.
At one stage in his life he writes to Timothy, “I know whom I have believed”,...and it sounds that he’s quite satisfied.
Yet later he writes to the Philippians and tells them of how he longs for Christ more and more.
He says in Phil. 3v12, “I don’t mean to say I am perfect. I haven’t learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be.” (LB).
In other words, the world out there offers you and me an empty cup to drink from, but if we drink from the fountain of life which Jesus gives, then we will be “satisfied’ or filled”, and that little word “they” is again very emphatic of whom it speaks about.
Only a believer in Christ can experience this satisfaction.
Jesus says in John 4v13-14, “Jesus replied that people soon became thirsty again after drinking this water. “But the water I give them,” he said, “becomes a perpetual spring within them, watering them forever with eternal life.” (LB).
Jesus also says in John 6v35, “I am the Bread of Life. No one coming to me will ever be hungry again. Those believing in me will never thirst.” (LB).
This filling only comes from God!
…and look what it says about God in Psalm 107v9, “For he [God] satisfies the thirsty soul and fills the hungry soul with good.” (LB).
Therefore we need to listen to the words of Isaiah 55v1-2 this morning, “Say there! Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink—even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine and milk—it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that doesn’t give you strength? Why pay for groceries that do you no good? Listen and I’ll tell you where to get good food that fattens up the soul!” (LB).
We often have the cart before the horse.
We say, when my ship comes in, when I have that house, when I have that job, when I have that marriage, when I have that car, when I have my own business, when the kids are out of the house, when I have that education, - then I’ll seek God.
But Jesus taught us in His Word in Matthew 6v33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”.
So the saying, “You are what you eat” is not as simple as it may first appear, does it?
The tragedy of our time is that more people are hungering and thirsting after sex and wealth, violence and excitement and education than anything else.
An even greater tragedy is that many people in the church are seeking these very same things as well above their seeking of God, and their spiritual diets are making them empty and poor.
So we must select what we eat.
Selection is the name of the game.
In other words, only the intake of righteous things and the right actions will bring a result that we are filled properly.
Therefore we must be choosy about what we eat spiritually, because it will have an effect on our hearts in either the right way, or a sinful way.
It means, there are certain people I don’t hang around with.
It means, there are certain movies I don’t see.
It means, there are certain magazines I don’t buy or look at.
It means, there are certain beverages I don’t consume.
It means there are certain places I don’t go.
Selection is the name of the game.
You become effective as a Christian by being selective what you feed on spiritually.
…and so Jesus has given each one of us the menu and appetite.
The main course is righteousness, in other words, living according to His will for our lives.
The method is desperation.
If We Are Filled, We Are Filled With What?
a. You Are Filled With Faith.
Faith in God makes all things possible.
With more faith in God there comes a greater trusting of God.
With more faith comes more loyalty to God and His Word.
Jesus said, “Without faith it is impossible to please God”.
b. You Are Filled With Holiness.
When you become more holy, you become more dedicated to God, more separated for God.
Holiness talks of a certain separation that needs to happen.
Not a separation from other people, but a separation from immoral activities, a separation from immoral sins.
In other words, we are to separate ourselves as Christians from evil while living amongst people who remain uncommitted to the standards of God as spelled out for us in the Word of God.
…and here are God’s instructions for us in 1 Peter 2v9, 11-12, “But you [true believers] are not like that, for you have been chosen by God himself—you are priests of the King, you are holy and pure, you are God’s very own—all this so that you may show to others how God called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light… Dear brothers, you are only visitors here. Since your real home is in heaven, I beg you to keep away from the evil pleasures of this world; they are not for you, for they fight against your very souls. Be careful how you behave among your unsaved neighbors; for then, even if they are suspicious of you and talk against you, they will end up praising God for your good works when Christ returns.”. (LB).
In other words, as you pursue righteous living so God fills you with holiness.
c. You Are Filled With Purpose.
Your life gains a new meaning and purpose, as you follow Christ completely.
…and your new purpose determines what you feed on spiritually.
d. You Are Filled With Power.
God fills you with new power to communicate the message of Christ unashamedly – Boldness!
Yet that power only comes when you offer yourself in total surrender to the will and purpose of God for your life.
Listen to what God says will happen when we obey Him in Acts 1v8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”.
Notice something here.
Watch the sequence of events here.
You can only witness with great affect after the Holy Spirit comes on you, not before.
So as you pursue living righteously, so God gives you the power to witness effectively.
Robert Murray McCheyne once wrote these words, “It is not great talents God blesses so much, as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God”.
Conclusion.
As I said the first week, the first four Beatitudes are about our relationship with God and the next four is about our relationships with each other.
We’ve covered the first four now and that’s where you must begin.
You must begin with the first Beatitude, true poverty of spirit, realizing there is nothing within us than commends us to God.
Next, you must truly mourn over your sinfulness as well as the sin around us.
Then you must become meek and gentle just as Jesus was.
…and lastly you must hunger and thirst after righteousness.
In other words, you blessedness or approval in life never comes from looking for something, it comes from looking for Someone, Jesus Christ, and the power that drives you to God doesn’t come from a battery pack.
It comes from the onboard presence of the Holy Spirit
Remember, we are what we eat spiritually!
The only sign you’ll receive if you’re on the right track is when your appetite is restored for the things of God.
“Have you ever seen people who are ill?”
They don’t want to eat.
“Have you ever noticed when they’re on the mend?”
“What happens?
There appetite returns to them.
In other words, when we’re sick of the sin in us, we’re never hungry for the things of God.
But when you confess them, your spiritual appetite will return to you.
So spiritually healthy people have spiritually healthy appetites.
Can you really say what David said about His God, “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for You O Lord”.
“Can you honestly say that this morning?”
You see, our hungerness for God can never just be an afterthought, something I develop only on Sundays, - it must become a way of life.
“Can you truly say that you’re hungering and thirsting for God?”
“Is the sin in your life keeping you away from being filled by God?”
Then come and confess your sins before Him, mourn over your sins, seek His righteousness, and you will be filled this very moment by truly wanting to conform to God’s will for your life.
“Will you do that?”
