No right thinking person would argue the fact that we are living in a rapidly degenerating society. It is a society that is plagued with moral perversion, an alarming divorce rate, the escalation of teen violence, a lack of moral absolutes, little or no concern for spiritual things, and many other evils too numerous to mention. However, as evil as these things are, we must not lose sight of the fact that they are but symptoms of a much greater disease. This disease not only plagues this nation, but the world as a whole, and is the same disease that brought about God’s judgement in the garden of Eden and in the days of Noah. It also brought about the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. This dreaded disease is SIN. Every evil that exists in the world today is the result of sin.
There is much debate today as to whether or not we will ever see another great revival before Jesus comes. The truth is, only Jesus knows. We have been given the "Recipe for Revival" in 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." Humbling ourselves, praying, seeking the face of God, and turning from our wicked ways is what this fourth beatitude is all about. The solutions to the problems that plague our society today cannot be found in more government intervention or more social programs. The solution is in men and women developing a "hunger and thirst" for righteousness.
I. A DESIRED POSSESSION
The Bible speaks of three kinds of righteousness.
A. Putrefying Righteousness
1. Isaiah 64:6
2. Romans 10:1-3
3. Philippians 3:8-9
4. Titus 3:5
5. Every effort made by fallen man to be righteous is rejected by God.
B. Justifying Righteousness
1. Romans 4:1-11, 19-25; 5:1
2. The great truth taught in the fourth chapter of Romans is that salvation is by faith alone. In this chapter, Paul states that the result of our faith in Christ is His imputed righteousness.
3. Eleven times the Greek word logizomai is used in Romans 4. It is translated once as "counted" (v. 3), three times as "reckoned" (vs. 4, 9, 10), and six times as either "imputeth, impute, or imputed" (vs. 6, 8, 11, 22, 23, 24). In every case it means the same thing. It means "to put on someone’s account." Consider Philemon 18.
4. When a person places their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, His righteousness is put to their account, and their sin debt is canceled. As the result of imputed righteousness we are justified in the sight of God (Romans 5:1), and made to appear as though we had never sinned.
5. 2 Corinthians 5:21
C. Sanctifying Righteousness
1. To this point in the beatitudes we have been made to see our poorness of spirit, our utter helplessness and hopelessness outside of a right relationship with Jesus Christ. The result of seeing ourselves in this condition is Scriptural mourning or "godly sorrow" and meekness or humility before God. In essence we have been brought to see our deep need of a righteousness which we do not possess. It is at this point that we call out to the Lord, placing our faith in Him as our Redeemer and Justifier.
2. What follows in this list of beatitudes are the characteristics of those who have truly been born again, the first of which is a "hunger and thirst" for righteousness. It is a hungering and thirsting not only to be restored to favor with God, but to have His image restored in us.
3. Righteousness not only deals with being right, but also with doing right. It is doing right, sanctifying righteousness, which the Lord has in view here in this beatitude.
II. A DILIGENT PURSUIT
"Thorough righteousness is often parodied as some form of obsolete Victorian prudishness, or narrow- minded and vehement legalism. The pursuit of righteousness is not popular even among professing Christians. Many today are prepared to seek other things: spiritual maturity, real happiness, the Spirit’s power, effective witnessing skills. Other people chase from preacher to preacher and conference to conference seeking some vague "blessing" from on high. They hunger for spiritual experience, they thirst for the consciousness of God.
But how many hunger and thirst for righteousness?
This is not to argue that the other things are not desirable, but rather that they are not as basic as righteousness. It is with good reason that this is the fourth beatitude. The man marked by poverty of spirit (5:3), who grieves over sin personal and social (5:4), and approaches God and man with meekness (5:5), must also be characterized as hungry and thirsty for righteousness (5:6). It is not that he wants to be a little bit better, still less that he thinks of righteousness as an optional luxury to add to his other graces; rather, he hungers and thirsts for it. He cannot get along without righteousness; it is as important to him as food and drink." (D. A. Carson, The Sermon On The Mount, p. 21)
The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:34, "Awake to righteousness, and sin not..." If the righteousness of Matthew 5:6 is the sanctifying kind of righteousness, with the goal being to renew the image of God in the believer, then it only stands to reason that in order to do that, the believer must desire to rid himself or herself of that which marred God’s image in them in the first place. The man or woman who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is one who sees that sin and rebellion against God is what is responsible for their Creator’s image being marred in them, and therefore they long to be free from sin in all its forms and in its every manifestation. They desire to be free from the:
A. Power of Sin
1. Romans 6:6-23
2. John 8:34-36
3. At the time of our salvation we were spiritually set free from the power of sin. The one who is hungering and thirsting after righteousness is the one who desires to make this true experientially.
B. Preference of Sin
1. Romans 7:15-25
2. Paul was a man who desired to be set free from the preference of sin. He makes it clear in this passage that although there was a part of him that desired to do right, there was still present within him that part that desired to sin. He is teaching us here about the battle that rages between the carnal and spiritual natures.
3. Galatians 5:17
4. When the two natures are at war in the believer, the one that is the strongest is the one that will win. And the one that is the strongest will be determined by which one we feed the most.
4. The individual who is hungering and thirsting for righteousness will be feeding the spiritual man more than the carnal man. His desire for spiritual things will be greater than his desire for carnal things.
C. Presence of Sin
1. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness involves avoiding everything that is in any way opposed to righteousness.
2. There are certain things in this life that we know are clearly opposed to God and His righteousness. We know they’re bad, we know they’re harmful, we know they’re sinful. To "hunger and thirst" after righteousness is to avoid these things at all costs.
3. But a sincere and legitimate pursuit of righteousness goes beyond avoiding what is clearly and unmistakably sinful, it also involves avoiding those things that tend to dull or take the edge off our spiritual appetite.
4. There are so many things that are quite harmless in themselves and which are perfectly legitimate. Yet if we find that we are spending much of our time with these things, and that we are desiring the things of God less, then we must avoid them.
5. Paul speaks to this issue in 1 Corinthians 6:12 and 10:23.
6. Negatively speaking, if we are going to avoid the people, places, or things that will affect us adversely in our pursuit of righteousness, then positively, we must see to it that we are in the right place with the right people doing the right things that will aid in our pursuit.
III. A DIVINE PROMISE
The promise given to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness is that they will be filled. This filling is three-fold.
A. Filled Initially
1. The initial filling deals with the salvation experience. The moment an individual is made to see their need of Christ and they come to Him in repentance and faith, their initial need for righteousness is met in Him.
2. The problem when it comes to salvation is that so many people turn to things other than Christ to try and satisfy the craving of their soul.
B. Filled Continuously
1. Our sanctification is the goal of this continuous filling. The satisfaction we experience initially in Christ is so sweet to our spiritual taste that we desire to have more of Him and to be more like Him in our daily walk.
2. Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:12, "...for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." But he also said in Philippians 3:10, "That I may know him..." In other words, in his coming to know Christ, Paul had a desire to get to know Him better. He had an appetite for the things of Christ.
C. Filled Ultimately
1. 1 John 3:2
2. There is coming a day in which we will be perfectly, completely, and entirely righteous.
