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We turn in your Bibles to Matthew 
chapter 5 as we continue in our study in the Beatitudes. Matthew 
chapter 5. Remember we broke them down into 
two categories of four each. The first four deal with attitudes 
consistent with the kingdom. And then the last four deal with 
actions consistent with the kingdom. We're taking up the fourth attitude 
this morning. The ones who hunger and thirst 
for righteousness in verse 6 of Matthew chapter 5. But I'll begin 
reading at verse one. And seeing the multitudes, he 
went up on a mountain. And when he was seated, his disciples 
came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught 
them, saying, 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 meek, for they 
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger 
and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed 
are the merciful, for they shall obtain 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 
are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom 
of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile 
and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely 
for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, 
for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets 
who were before you. You are the salt of the earth, 
but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It 
is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled 
underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. 
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they 
light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, 
and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light 
so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify 
your Father in heaven. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, 
we thank you for this description of what a Christian looks like. 
God, we confess we don't look like this perfectly. We confess 
that our righteousness is to be found first and foremost and 
alone in Jesus Christ, who is the Lord, our righteousness. 
We thank you that he always hungered and thirsted after it. We thank 
you that he accomplished the law of God, that he obeyed perfectly 
every every commandment, every ordinance, that he died as a 
sacrifice on the tree at Calvary and that he rose again. He's 
been delivered up because of our offenses and raised for our 
justification. We give You all glory and praise 
and honor for this. And having been justified freely 
by Your grace, grant us the desire, Father, to pursue those things 
described in this list. And we ask through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen. introduced our studies in the 
Beatitudes by looking at several statements from Martin Lloyd-Jones. 
He says they presuppose, or these Beatitudes presuppose the grace 
of God. All Christians are to be like 
this. All Christians are meant to manifest 
all of these characteristics. And the one most important for 
us to remember is that none of these characteristics refers 
to what we might call a natural tendency. There is no one by 
nature who hungers and thirsts after righteousness. There's 
just no such being. There is none righteous, no not 
one. Paul says in Romans 3, summarizing 
His indictment that all men everywhere are under sin. He takes a katana 
of Old Testament text and brings them to bear on that subject, 
and he displays for us that there is no one who seeks after God. There is no fear of God before 
our eyes. So we see that very vividly displayed 
here in verse six. No one by nature has this natural 
tendency of pursuing righteousness. Lloyd-Jones says, each one of 
them is wholly a disposition which is produced by grace alone 
and the operation of the Holy Spirit upon us. Remember the 
blessedness in view. It is happiness. It is blissful. It is not something connected 
to our outward circumstances, but rather it is implanted in 
us by the power of God, so that in whatever our condition, whatever 
our situation, whatever our trials and tribulations, we can be a 
blessed man or woman. Now, as we open up the ones who 
hunger and thirst for righteousness, I want to make six observations 
just to try and get at the teaching of the particular text. Six observations 
that begin, first of all, with the metaphor employed. The metaphor 
employed. Jesus says, blessed. are those 
who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He appeals to something we're 
very keenly aware of. I mean, for the most of us, when 
we wake up in the morning, we're already headed for the kitchen. 
We know we want to break the fast. We want to eat. Hunger 
is a natural disposition that is recurring in nature, and we 
need to satisfy that. So Jesus is using an image here 
to describe what a person looks like who pursues righteousness, 
who wants rightness in his life or in her life. It is an image 
that is used throughout the scripture. We saw it there, and I saw him 
sixty-three, but it's also in Psalm forty-two. Psalm forty-two. The psalmist says, as the deer 
pants for the water brought, so pants my soul for you. Oh, 
God, he says, my soul thirsts for God. For the living God, 
when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been 
my food day and night, while they continually say to me, Where 
is your God? And as we read out at the outset 
of worship, Psalm 63, O God, you are my God. Early will I 
seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh 
longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. 
Jesus is using a common metaphor. Jesus is describing a group of 
people who don't see righteousness as optional, who don't see righteousness 
as something just to tack on to their already crowded life. 
It's not something that finds its place in the daytime or in 
the calendar or online once a week. Okay, pursue righteousness for 
this particular time. No, these people hunger for it. 
They thirst after it. It is a longing. It is a desire. 
It is something that characterizes their life. In the prophet Amos, 
the prophet foretells a time of God's judgment, a judgment 
that I wonder if it would really affect us, a judgment that would 
really pinch us. He foretells a time coming in 
the nation specifically of Israel. He says, behold, chapter eight 
of Amos, verse 11. The days are coming, says the 
Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of 
bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the 
Lord. That's what would pinch the genuine 
people of God. That's what would affect them, 
not a famine of bread. Not a lack of water, as difficult 
as that circumstance might be. The real problem to those who 
hunger and thirst after righteousness is a famine of hearing the words 
of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to 
sea and from north to east. They shall run to and fro, seeking 
the word of the Lord, but shall not find it. We need to ask ourselves, 
would such a judgment from God affect us? Would it be that much 
of a problem for us to have the Bible taken away, to have sermonaudio.com 
shut down, to have these doors shut, to have the centrality 
of the word be something that we really don't need in this 
local church? We can be about entertainment. 
We can be about feel-good religion. We can be about experience. What 
if you came in here on a Lord's Day morning and the pulpit was 
off to the side and some abominable altar was put in its place? Would 
it affect you? Would it hurt you? Jesus says 
those who hunger and thirst after righteousness would be affected. 
This is a continuous action. You're always hungry and you're 
always thirsty, right? One of my sons, we'd finish breakfast 
and he'd be asking what was for lunch. What's for dinner tonight? It's almost like his life was 
patterned after the pursuit of a particular meal. I don't think 
it was that bad, but it's continuous, isn't it? Note the metaphor employed. Blessed are the ones hungering 
and thirsting after righteousness. He goes on. This is a recurring 
symptom. It's not something like, wow, 
I've got my fill of righteousness today. I can go out and live 
the way I want to for the next several days. No, this is recurring. This is something that you must 
have. This is something that you are pursuing. This is something 
you're not happy with in its absence. It also describes a 
natural disposition. It's natural for the saints of 
Christ. It's natural for the born again 
believer. It's natural for the elect of 
God to hunger and thirst for righteousness. It's unnatural 
not to. It's unnatural not to want righteousness. It's unnatural for the saint 
to delight in wickedness. That's what Jesus is suggesting 
here. That's the metaphor employed. 
Secondly, the righteousness defined. Notice they hunger and thirst 
for righteousness, not blessing. The blessing is pronounced upon 
those who do this, but in their goal, in their sight, in their 
view, is not the blessing. It's righteousness. It's not 
experience. Blessed are those who hunger 
and thirst for religious experience. For those who love, feel good 
religion. Those who live based on the conference 
circuit are based on good preaching. No, blessed are those who hunger 
and thirst for righteousness. Not for position, not for prestige, 
not for power, not for glory, not for excellence, but blessed 
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. That's what 
Jesus is saying here. The righteousness in view is 
probably not justification. You take out your concordance, 
you look up righteousness and you'll see that Paul uses it 
a lot in terms of justification. Remember, we're dealing with 
in the Beatitudes. We're dealing with justified 
by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone believers. 
That's not what's in view. It's not these people are blessed 
because they're hungering and thirsting for acceptance with 
God. The Bible teaches that there 
is non-righteous. There is none who seek after 
God. This is a description of what 
kingdom citizens look like. It's probably rightness or righteousness 
in its broader meaning. Right living, right conduct, 
godliness, those things that please the Lord most high. Knox 
Chamberlain says those dismayed by their own law breaking and 
crushed by their guilt and weary of their struggle against sin 
long to do what is right. You see, it's a native disposition 
of the unconverted to pursue wickedness, right? Right? Everybody with me this morning? 
It ought not to surprise us in a world marked by sin, depravity, 
and wickedness that New York just legalized sodomite marriage. That ought not to cause us shock. I mean, we ought not to be happy 
about it. We ought to pray to God in your 
wrath, remember mercy. We're not homophobes, we're theophobes. When men mock God, when men disdain 
God, when men raise the hand of rebellion at God, God sends 
judgment. And we ought to pray in your 
wrath, remember mercy, pity the nations, O our God, and constrain 
the earth to come. But that ought not to surprise 
us. When a man is born again by grace through faith in Christ, 
when a man has his eyes open He has been brought out of darkness 
into marvelous light. He wants to do those things pleasing 
to God. Every false religious system 
says, do this and live. The gospel says, live and do 
this. Live by grace alone, through 
faith alone in Christ alone. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and you will be justified. And having been justified by 
His grace, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus and 
we hunger and thirst for righteousness. Lloyd-Jones, again, get his studies 
in the Sermon on the Mount and read them. You'll be happy. He 
says a desire, trying to illustrate more fully what this righteousness 
looks like. He says it is a desire to be 
free from sin because sin separates us from God. Those who hunger 
and thirst for righteousness, in essence, are hungering and 
thirsting for God himself, right? Is that what Jesus says in Matthew 
6, 33? But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 
and then all these other things shall be added unto you. Lloyd-Jones 
says it also means a desire to be free from the power of sin. This is what we see in Paul, 
a wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this 
body of death? Lloyd-Jones says, but it goes 
further still. It means a desire to be free 
from the very desire for sin, because we find that the man 
who truly examines himself in the light of the Scriptures not 
only discovers that he is in the bondage of sin, still more 
horrible is the fact that he likes it and that he wants it. Right? Oh, not me, Pastor. Be honest. Paul was honest enough 
to say, the good that I wish to do, I don't do. The evil I 
don't want to do, I find myself doing. Paul, under the inspiration 
of the Spirit, said, the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and 
the Spirit lusteth against the flesh. These two are contrary 
to one another, so that you do not do the things you wish. Right? Lloyd-Jones brings it. He says he discovers that he's 
in the bondage of sin, still more horrible is the fact that 
he likes it and he wants it. Even after he has seen it is 
wrong, he still wants it. I remember hearing a preacher 
quote an unknown Puritan to me. I don't know if he even mentioned 
the man's name. He said sinners and even saints, 
when they're inflamed with lust, would swim through the fires 
of hell to get their sin. He goes on to say, but now the 
man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is a man who wants 
to get rid of that desire for sin, not only outside, but inside 
as well. He says, to hunger and thirst 
after righteousness is to desire to be free from self in all its 
horrible manifestations, in all its forms. That's the righteousness. Those 
things that are true of God. Those things that are characteristic 
of the redeemed heart. Those things that are true of 
us by God's grace. We want those things. We hunger 
after them. We thirst after them. Again, 
the metaphor is powerful. It's not something you just sort 
of tack on. It's not something you just sort 
of add on. Hunger and thirst typify what is natural in each 
man and woman and boy and girl. I believe it is very particular, 
very pathetic, that Jesus appeals to this metaphor to describe 
this. So we've seen the metaphor, the 
righteousness defined. Thirdly, the means pursued. What 
does this look like? What does it look like? You wear 
a white gown and you stand out on the street and you say, I'm 
a holy man. I'm praying. I'm pursuing righteousness. I'm 
hungry and I'm thirsty. So I'm satisfying my desire for 
righteousness. What are some means that the 
hungry and thirsty pursue? When you get up in the morning 
and you're hungry, you go to your refrigerator. Some of us 
probably go first to the coffee pot. We need to satisfy that 
particular longing. We need to satisfy that particular 
craving. We need to satisfy that particular 
itch. Right? So what do the hungry 
and thirsty, spiritually speaking, those who pursue righteousness, 
what do they do? Well, certainly they're going 
to study their Bibles, right? The Bible is the book of God's 
righteousness. How do we know what God desires 
from us in terms of right conduct? We put our noses in this book. 
We find a church where this book is central. We listen to sermons 
preached by men who aren't there to tell you stories or make you 
feel better about yourself. We want the Word of God expounded. Whole council mess. We want exposition. We want application. We want 
to be fed. We want our hunger and our thirst 
satiated. We want to know something of 
the abundance that is God's Word. Those who hunger and thirst study 
the scriptures. The spiritually hungry and thirsty 
also pray. I'm not going to say they pray 
for 20 minutes a day. I'm not going to say they pray 
for 15 hours a day, but they do pray. This was an indicator 
that Saul of Tarsus had passed from death to life. When Ananias 
is instructed to go find this man, he's identified this way. Behold, he is praying. Certainly, Saul the Pharisee 
spent countless hours praying in his life. I mean, that's a 
Pharisaic trait, isn't it? But it wasn't until he knew the 
grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ that he could be 
typified as a man. Behold, he is praying. The spiritually 
hungry and thirsty pray. They make much of God's book. 
The spiritually hungry and thirsty make much of God's day. They 
celebrate in the Lord's day. They rejoice in the things of 
God. Turin makes the obvious observation that whenever a decline 
is seen in our allegiance to the Lord's day, all other religious 
duties decline as well. So that's legalistic puritanism. 
No, it's Bible. Call the Sabbath a delight. Cease 
and desist from your own thoughts. Cease and desist from your own 
ways. And I will make you ride on the high heavens, is what 
Yahweh promises. You see, the spiritually hungry 
and thirsty want to be where the people of God are. Corporate 
worship isn't an addition. It isn't something tacked on. 
It isn't a dreariness. It isn't a weariness. It isn't 
something they have to do. It's something they get to do 
because it satisfies their spiritual hunger and their desire. We might 
summarize the spiritually hungry and thirsty engage in those things 
indicated in London Baptist Confession, chapter 14, paragraph one. It's 
on saving faith. It says, The grace of faith, 
whereby the elect are enabled to believe that the saving of 
their souls is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts 
and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word. Where 
are spiritually hungry and thirsty people at? Same place a pig is when he's 
hungry. He's at the trough. We want the trough. We want God's 
Word. We want it brought out. I'm not 
saying it's slop or anything like that. Saying, we want to 
glut ourselves on the book of God. The confession goes on to 
say, by which also and by the administration of baptism in 
the Lord's Supper, prayer and other means appointed of God, 
it is increased and strengthened. You might also check chapter 
22 on worship. It highlights those means God 
has employed in the church for the spiritually hungry and thirsty 
to satisfy their longings for more of God. So they study the 
scriptures. They pray. They engage in corporate 
worship. But fourthly, they avoid those 
things which hinder the pursuit of righteousness. Right. If you're 
a kid and you come home from school and you eat two Twinkies, 
your dinner isn't going to be as appetizing, right? You're 
going to get to that broccoli, which you really desperately 
need, and say, I'm not really hungry for that anymore. The 
spiritually hungry and thirsty avoid those things which hinder 
their pursuit of righteousness. Now, obviously sin, right? Obviously, sin and righteousness 
don't go hand in hand. To use the language of Spurgeon, 
you don't entertain Jesus in the parlor and the devil in the 
basement. You don't have a little bit of 
Jesus and a little bit of the devil. We are not to go after 
sin. But there are some things that 
may not necessarily be sinful in themselves, but they may adversely 
affect our pursuit of righteousness. I'm not a nutritional wacko, 
so I don't think the Twinkies in and of themselves are necessarily 
wicked. But I do think they inhibit. The taking in of proper nutritional 
requirements. The same way there might be pursuits 
in our lives that are legit, they're not necessarily evil, 
they're not necessarily sinful, but if they begin to crowd in. If they begin to affect us, if 
they begin to hinder our pursuit of righteousness, then that's 
a problem. Lloyd-Jones says it this way, 
there are so many things that I cannot condemn in and of themselves. I just can't. In fact, when he's 
urging us to read our Bibles, he says, you know, we watch the 
films, we read our newspapers, we we see the TV. He says, I 
can't condemn these things in and of themselves, but are they 
hindering our pursuit of the book of God? Here, he says, but if I find 
I spend too much of my time with them and that somehow I want 
God and spiritual things less and less. Then, if I am hungering 
and thirsting after righteousness, I shall avoid that. I think it 
is a common-sense argument. It's legit. It's right. It's biblical. There might be 
something in your life that, again, isn't necessarily sin. But if it crowds out or it hinders 
the pursuit of righteousness, it gets to the point where you're 
not reading your Bible or you're praying. then what was at one 
time a good thing has become an adverse thing, and you must 
remove that thing in order to hunger and thirst after righteousness. Again, a common sense argument. The metaphor, the righteousness 
defined, the means pursued. Let's give a qualification here. 
Let's give a qualification. Because I don't doubt that there 
are people that read their Bibles I don't doubt that there are 
people that at least outwardly look like they're praying. There 
are people that attend the public means of grace, and yet they 
are not hungering and thirsting for righteousness. So, in other words, it's not 
just a matter of doing the right things, being in the right place, 
showing up at 10, 30 or 11. Being there again on Sunday night. 
If you fulfill those, you are the one who hungers and thirsts 
after righteousness. No. Jesus had some pretty severe 
words for those who bank an external performance. We read it in 516. Let your light so shine before 
men that they may see your good words and notice and glorify 
your father in heaven. Not that they may see your good 
works and say, Man, you're holy. Man, you're a pursuer of righteousness. 
Man, you're a great girl or a great guy. No, you do these good works 
in such a way that you deflect all glory unto God most high. 
You're not patting yourself on the back. You're not going home 
and saying, Thank you, God, that I'm not like other men. Thank 
you, God, that I tithe. Thank you, God, that I give. 
Thank you, God, that I do all the right things. Jesus had very 
severe words for those who look to their outward performance, 
and that alone. Notice in chapter six, verse 
one, take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before 
men to be seen by them. Doing charitable deeds is a pursuit 
of righteousness, isn't it? God defines righteousness this 
way. Don't be nice to people. Don't do charitable deeds for 
people. Do things that are pleasing to others. Serve others. Esteem 
others as better than yourselves. But be careful, be very careful. Take heed that you do not do 
your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, 
you have no reward from your father in heaven. Therefore, 
when you do a charitable deed, do not sound the trumpet before 
you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, 
that they may have glory from men. One needs to know what you're 
doing in this regard. You don't need to blog it. You 
don't need to tweet it. You don't need to Facebook how 
charitable you are. That's precisely the kinds of 
stuff that is on the Internet. You think that's pleasing God? 
You're using this means of technology to parade yourself? Who is the 
one defined in this chapter? Don't blow a trumpet. Don't walk 
into the church and say, I'm here to give. Don't call attention 
to yourself when you give. Do it secretly. He says, do not 
sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues 
and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, 
I say to you, they have received or they they have their reward. If all you want is for men to 
say you're a great guy. Then blow the trumpet, drop the 
money in the box, and have everybody tell you what a great guy you 
are. You see, this is a necessary 
qualification. It's part of the tendency for 
us is to say, as long as I'm reading my Bible, as long as 
I'm praying, as long as I'm in the right place, as long as I'm 
not in the wrong place, as long... Now, Jesus is speaking to something 
a little bit differently here. Speaking to an inner disposition. 
Says when you do a charitable deed, verse three, do not let 
your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your 
charitable deed may be in secret. And your father who sees in secret 
will himself reward you openly. And when you pray, he says, you 
shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray, standing 
in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that 
they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they 
have their reward. But you, how do you pray? You 
go into your secret place. You cry out to God Most High. 
You're not banging the gong, calling attention to yourself 
and telling people how many hours you spent in prayer. It's not 
good. It's not righteous. It's not 
godly. When you fast, he says, do not 
be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance. I'm fasting today. I'm such a religious guy. I'm fasting. Don't do that. Anoint your face. slap some oil on, make yourself 
look properly so that you don't have to get into the inner religious 
workings of your life. If you are seeking to court the 
eye of man, you are not hungry and thirsty after righteousness. It is just that simple. We could continue on. Jesus does 
not stop. Matthew 15, the Pharisees and 
the scribes, what do they do? Oh, your disciples, they eat 
with unwashed hands. What's Jesus say? You hypocrites. You wretched hypocrites. Matthew 23, what does he say? These men love to be received 
by the crowds. They love the best places in 
the feasts. They love to have everybody see 
them with their phylacteries. They love to have everybody see 
them reciting their scripture. That is not what it means to 
hunger and thirst for righteousness. Is everybody with me? Because 
there is a tendency in man, if I do the right things and I don't 
do the wrong things, then I'm righteous. Let's move on, fifthly, 
to the disposition maintained. The disposition maintained. The 
ones who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they're also me 
aren't they? That's the attitude that precedes 
this. Blessed are the meek, for they 
shall inherit the earth. So those who hunger and thirst 
after righteousness are meek men and meek women. They don't 
boast of their pursuits or parade their supposed righteousness. 
You don't meet Biblically meet people saying, yeah, I read my 
Bible 15 hours last week. Now, if you're in a group or 
you have an accountability buddy or whatever, it's a little bit 
of a different thing. But if your task or your goal 
or your desire is to set forth your supposed righteousness, 
you're not the Matthew 5, 6 guy or gal you think you are. They 
don't boast of their pursuits or parade their supposed righteousness. They boast rather of the righteousness 
of another. They deflect everything, it goes 
to Christ. Somebody says, wow, you seem 
to be pursuing the things of God in a vigorous and wonderfully 
consistent way. They don't go, yes, you're right, 
I am. You say, by the grace of God, 
I am what I am. And if you really knew what the 
issue was, you wouldn't be commending me. If you really knew me, you 
wouldn't be saying such a thing. But all glory, all laud, all 
honor, all praise goes to my Redeemer. They are comprehensive 
in their approach. They don't pick and choose. Some 
people, they read their Bibles and they pray, but they're wicked 
in their business dealing. Didn't the God who speaks to 
Bible reading and prayer speak to fair and accurate balance 
scales? He speaks to that a lot in the 
book of Proverbs. God abominates unbalanced scales. 
You may read your Bible, you may pray, you may be in the right 
place, you may not go to the wrong place, but if you're cheating 
people in your business practices, you are not pursuing righteousness. Right? Feel me? With me. Understand? They don't pick and choose. Man, I'm really good over here, 
but this is a mess. Clean up the mess. Pursue righteousness 
comprehensively. Hunger and thirst after all portions 
of Scripture. Be a whole council of God Christian. You may pray for ten hours a 
day. You may have all of that. But if you have not love in your 
heart for your brother and your sister, You're like a banging 
gong, a clashing cymbal. That's what Paul says, doesn't 
he? 1 Corinthians 13. You may do all these things, 
give your body to be burned. You may give everything to the 
poor. But if you have not love, you're nothing. And as well, they don't establish 
their own standard of righteousness. They submit to scripture. The 
Scripture is their rule, the Scripture is their guide, the 
Scripture is their pursuit. Jesus says, do not judge with 
unrighteous judgment. What does he mean by that? He 
doesn't mean let your preferences dictate what everybody else gets 
to do. Take the Scriptures, look through 
the lens of Holy Rick, see what God says concerning an issue. As well, they seek righteousness 
for themselves. We touched on this briefly on 
Wednesday night. It's intriguing. When the Bible 
enjoins upon us things like these, it enjoins upon us things like 
these. Husbands ought to help their 
wives. Parents ought to help their children. But you know 
what, brethren? Keep your own heart with all diligence, for 
out of it spring the issues of life. Pursue righteousness. I 
guarantee you, if you are hungering and thirsting after it the way 
Jesus specifies here, you'll be too tired to pursue other 
people's righteousness. Again, help, reproof, godly interaction, 
all those sorts of things. But you know what, brethren? 
The man described in this passage has enough to do to tend to himself. And then, sixthly, the blessing 
pronounced. The blessing pronounced, for 
they shall be filled. Isn't that beautiful? God does 
not leave his children wanting. He does not leave them lacking. 
In fact, it's probably such a surprising petition for our God that he 
is quick to repay. What? You want righteousness? 
Let's get right on that. Most people come and pray for 
blessing. They come and pray for deliverance. They come and 
pray for this. They come and pray for that. 
There are precious few that really hunger and thirst after righteousness 
and pray to God, Lord, help me to kill this sin. Lord, help 
me to be more like Jesus in this way. Lord, help me to love people 
more. Lord, help me not to be so lazy. Lord, help me not to 
be the man that I am by nature and continue by the power of 
your spirit to make me more like Jesus. That's what Jesus said. Blessed are those who hunger 
and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled already. Psalm 63. We've seen it. What 
happens? God doesn't leave him lingering 
in the wilderness. God doesn't leave him and abandon 
him. God blesses him. The Psalms are filled with that. 
What do you do when you're down, brethren? Read the Psalms, please. Sometimes we get depressed and 
we get down and we get melancholy. I'm preaching to at least me 
here. We need the Psalter. It's genuine 
biblical Christian experience. You've got the heights of Zion 
and you've got the depths of Sheol. All in the Psalter. The 
same God. God on Zion, God in Sheol. We need to see that those who 
open their mouth will be filled by God Most High. There is the 
already blessing, there is the not yet. When we see Him, 1 John 
3 says, we shall be like Him. Isn't that a beautiful statement? Isn't that a glorious statement? When we enter into heaven, we'll 
be like Him. Not deity. We won't be God. We won't be Jesus. We'll be like Him in the sense 
that we won't sin anymore. It always amazes me. People love 
free will. People boast of free will. Everybody 
celebrates free will. Free will got us into the mess 
that we're in. And the state of perfection that 
we're progressing toward is a place where there is no free will. 
God is going to take away from us the ability to sin. That makes me happy. I hope it 
makes you happy as well. There's coming a time when day 
and night will stand before the throne of God and the Lamb and 
say, salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb who sits 
on the throne. We get about an hour and fifteen 
of this on Sunday morning, hour in the evening, on Sunday night, 
and we're ready for a nap. But in the book of Revelation, 
they're before the throne day and night. What's that mean? It means they've been invigorated. 
They've been spirit filled to the degree that they are able 
to stand before God with the capacity to praise Him and to 
worship Him and to glorify Him, world without end. Amen. They'll know something of John 
Newton's hymn. Actually, we'll know just, you 
know, we'll far transcend that when we've been there 10,000 
years. 10,000 years is a drop in the 
bucket in eternity. Kind of hard to even reckon that, 
right? If you're talking about eternity, 10,000 or 10 years 
don't make a whole lot of difference. For us, 10,000 years. Newton wrote, when we've been 
there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days 
to sing God's praise than when we first begun. You'll be filled. Blessed are those who hunger 
and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Christ 
will be our all in all. Christ will be everything. The 
Lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's land. Like the hymn says, when 
we enter in, we don't eye the garments that we're wearing. 
We eye our Bridegroom's face. We're not gazing at glory. We're 
not looking at the golden streets and the pearly gates and going, 
wow, that guy's here. No, we're going to be consumed 
with the Lamb. You've heard that before. Oh, 
when I get to heaven, it's going to be like one big basketball game. 
Or, you know, I really enjoy, you know, knitting. It's going 
to be one big knitting ball in the sky. It's going to be great. 
Brethren, that's just not even going to come into play. Jesus 
is there. Jesus is there. Jesus is there. They shall be 
filled. No more sin. No more unrighteousness. No more filth. No more bad thoughts. No more wicked words. No more 
unkind sayings. No more yelling. No more screaming. No more self. Praise God. No more self. The biggest enemy 
you and I face is self. Not in heaven. We're going to 
be reworked. Revived, renovated, we're going 
to be conformed to the image of our beloved Savior. Brethren, 
that's what Jesus is holding out in this passage. Blessed 
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall 
be filled. So that day-to-day hungering and thirsting, you're 
licking your lips, you're seeking those spiritual blessings, you're 
realizing that God is faithful. He's not allowing you to do the 
wicked things that you want to do. He's restraining you. He 
is putting good desires in you. You bless him for that, but never 
lose sight of the fact that there is a day coming when all evil 
will be destroyed. I don't think we think about 
that enough. We're just so accustomed to evil. 
We're so used to evil. We're so used to Supreme Court 
rulings like what we hear. We're so used to abortion. We're 
so used to all of the criminal activity that goes on. We're 
so used to having to lock everything. We're so used to having to look 
over our shoulder. We're so used to being burned. 
We're so used to being taken advantage of. We're so used to 
living in a world marked with sin. We can't even begin to fathom 
what it's going to be like to be in heaven. That's why we need 
the book of Revelation. That's why we need to read. That's 
why we need to understand. That's why we need to make much 
of chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation when John sees that new Jerusalem 
coming down out of heaven adorned as a bride for her husband. Praise 
God for that blessed view. Praise God for that holy city. 
Praise God for our victor and Lord that won us access to that 
place. Well, brethren, three thoughts 
and then we close. First, the pursuit of righteousness. 
That's what this text holds out to us, rightness. Justified by 
faith in Christ, believers will pursue holiness, will pursue 
Christ, will pursue the life of sanctification. The Pharisees 
and scribes spent countless hours in religious exercise, but they 
did not hunger and thirst for righteousness. While there are 
external means to employ, don't put your boasting in those external 
means. I mean, just surveying the Gospels, 
the hypocrite engages in charitable deeds. We've seen that. The hypocrite 
prays. The hypocrite fasts. The hypocrite 
does work for Christ. The hypocrite receives the Word 
with joy. The hypocrite knows he falls 
away. But the hypocrite knows something of the bitterness of 
sin, and the hypocrite is self-deceived. Those things are realities. I'm 
not trying to scare anyone here, but I don't want you to say, 
wow, I read my Bible five times last week and I prayed four times. 
this week, and therefore I'm pursuing righteousness." No. If righteousness comes through 
the law, then Christ died in vain. We respond to commandments 
and we respond obediently and we do what we're supposed to 
do, then Christ died in vain. Bogotha was for naught. It's 
just a sick perversion of justice. Brings us to our second point. 
We need to consider the one who always pursued righteousness. 
Our justification does precede sanctification. The fact that 
we have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ 
alone ought to cause us to revel in Christ. Notice the way Jesus 
describes his mission. He says, My food, John 4, 34, 
is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 
We can hear a sermon like this and go, I'm going to go hungry 
and thirst for righteousness and in about an hour be like 
a cold fish. Jesus always hungered and thirsted. Jesus always did the will of 
His Father. Jesus defined His life work as that food. Ritterbaugh says, His food is 
a means of life, and the fulfillment of His deepest need lay in the 
fulfillment of His divine mission. John Gill says, Now as food is 
pleasant and delightful and refreshing to the body of man, so doing 
the will of God was as delightful and refreshing to the soul of 
Christ. He took as much pleasure in it as a hungry man does in 
eating and drinking. Realize that you will not go 
to heaven because you hungered and thirsted for righteousness. 
You will go to heaven, because Jesus did. Jesus fulfilled. Jesus 
obeyed. Jesus always did what the Father 
called Him to do. Jesus went on that cross. The 
Lord was pleased to bruise Him, putting Him to grief. He went 
into that tomb. He bolted out on the third day. 
He ascended on high. He led captivity captive. He 
gives gifts to man. It is because of the finished 
work of Christ that we have acceptance with God. And having been accepted 
with God, that gives us the desire to go, therefore, and pursue 
righteousness. And that brings us finally to 
consider the gospel. There might be those in this 
church sitting in this room right now that have never hungered 
and thirsted for righteousness in their lives. It may seem a 
foreign thing. It may seem a contrary thing. 
It may seem a weird thing. Because you need the righteousness 
of another first. You need Christ. You need to 
look to Jesus. You need to believe the gospel. 
Justification always precedes sanctification. The pursuit of 
holiness comes as a fruit, as a result of having closed with 
Christ in the gospel. God made Him who knew no sin 
to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God 
in Him via imputation, via declaration, via transfer. God heaps our sins 
upon Christ and punishes Him. God takes Jesus' righteousness 
and gives it to us. If you are here and the pursuit 
of righteousness sounds foreign, contrary, weird, and odd, I invite 
you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to come to him alone 
who can forgive you of your sins and give you life eternal in 
Jesus Christ. Having come, you will then hunger 
and thirst for righteousness. Well, let us pray. Our Father, 
we thank you for your word and we thank you for this beatitude. 
And God, we confess it doesn't describe us as we ought to be. We ought to hunger and thirst 
far more for righteousness. We pray that you would forgive 
us. And yet, Father, we praise you that you have provided a 
righteousness. You have provided the Lord Jesus. We thank you 
for His mercy. We thank you for His grace. We 
thank you for all that you have done for us in and through Him. 
And God, for any and all that do not know Him as Lord and Savior, 
we pray that they would believe the gospel and they would be 
saved. We just thank you for this Lord's 
Day. We thank you for the blessings that you do grant to us. We ask 
that in all that we do, we give glory to you. And we ask through 
Christ the Lord. Amen.