Hunger for God

Introduction:

Connection:

Hunger pains tell us of our need to be fed. Have you ever been so hungry that your stomach literally hurts? The hunger pain is so constant and won’t let you go. The pain will persist until you satisfy your craving with a nutrient-dense meal. The more painful the hunger—the more satisfying the meal. This is true both physically as well as spiritually. We don’t just need to hunger after the bread the perishes—we need to hunger after the Bread of Life. We don’t just need to thirst after water in a dry land—we need to thirst after the Living Waters. We need to hunger for God—for communion with God—for satisfaction in God. The more painful the hunger—the more satisfying the meal.

Theme:

Hunger for God

Need:

We need to grow into a serious longing and panting after the living God! We need to be We need to make Him our Supreme Treasure and Pursuit in all of Life.

Purpose:

To describe what it is to hunger and thirst after righteousness; to exhort us to the blessedness of longing for God; to rebuke those who are full of self; and to comfort the starving with true Gospel satisfaction.

Recap:

Last Sunday was a tremendous Lord’s Day. There was joy in the house of the Lord. We had Elder Dave’s installation, we looked at the 3rd Beatitude, feasted at the King’s Table, and enjoyed a Church luncheon. In the sermon we saw how true Christians are meek like Jesus, and how they will inherit the new creation. We saw that our hope is resurrection life when Jesus returns. This morning on Palm Sunday, we continue with the 4th Beatitude. True Christians aren’t only spiritually poor, sorrowful over sin, humble like Christ, they are also starving to be fed—they have a deep hunger for God. And this was preeminently displayed for us in Jesus Christ during Passion week, how he sought God, on behalf of his people, as we prepare for Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday. Like Jesus Christ, true Christians hunger and thirst for God.

Read Text:

Matt. 5:6 ESV

PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY

(1) Those who are Starving for God are Blessed by God - v. 6a

Matthew 5:6 (ESV)

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

(1) Those who are Starving for God are Blessed by God - v. 6a

Q - What does it mean to be Blessed in the Gospel of the Kingdom?

As we’ve covered at the beginning of each beatitude, to be blessed is to be joyfully lavished with God’s saving goodness. It is to receive the promises of God, to partake of the life that is in Christ, and to possess the Holy Spirit. To be blessed in the Gospel is not worldly blessing—it’s spiritual blessing. It’s only in and through Jesus Christ. It is to be one who is trusting in the Gospel of salvation in Jesus, and one who is repenting of sin and self. It is one who is following Jesus Christ as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. It is one who is a child of God. God is your Father, if you are blessed in Jesus. God is for you, because your identity is wrapped up in the risen and reigning Saviour. To be blessed in the Gospel of the Kingdom is to be a true Christian. It’s described by the Apostle Peter:

1 Peter 1:8–9 ESV

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

It is true salvation through faith—which leads to true faith, joy, hope, and love. It is to be a recipient of the grace of God, and a partaker of the life of God. This is what it means to be spiritually blessed in Jesus Christ.

And as we mentioned last week, blessedness is also properly translated as happiness. And so to be blessed is to be truly happy—a deep joy that the world cannot know. Joy in God. And the only way to attain it is by longing after the Lord:

MLJ: “We put happiness and blessedness as the one thing that we desire, and thus we always miss it; it always eludes us. According to the Scriptures happiness is never something that should be sought directly; it is always something that results from seeking something else; Someone else.

True happiness is not found as the supreme pursuit of mankind. True happiness is only found in the supreme pursuit of mankind. What is that supreme pursuit? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. To know the living God in Christ Jesus. To be filled with the Holy Spirit. To seek first the Kingdom of God. Therefore, if you desire true Christian happiness—you don’t desire happiness itself—you desire the God who is supremely happy and blessed—and out of His fullness you will receive happiness and blessing. Come to Jesus, the Fountain of Life, and find true happiness indeed. This comes, only as we Hunger, Thirst, and Starve for God. So…

Q - What does it mean to Starve for God & His Righteousness?

Doriani: To “hunger and thirst for righteousness” means to seek it as fervently and regularly as we seek food and water. This hunger is a yearning for God’s rule in our life. It is a thirst for his kingdom (Matt. 6:33). To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to long for God. If we seek first the kingdom, then we also seek [first] the King. We long for his rule and his presence.

We are not hungering and thirsting after a concept of righteousness. We are hungering and thirsting after a Person. His Name is the Righteous One—the Righteous King—the Righteous Savior—the Righteous Lord. Longing for Righteousness is longing for God. Yearning to be near to Him. Starving to know Him more. Begging to experience His love afresh. Desiring to find Him as your ultimate Treasure. Panting after his refreshing presence in your life.

Psalm 42:1–2 ESV

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

But it’s also an earnest seeking of God, a looking unto Him, and a beholding of His power and glory:

Psalm 63:1–2 ESV

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.

And it’s also an aspiration to walk in righteousness, to observe the rules, laws, and commandments of our righteous God:

Psalm 19:9–11 (ESV)

the rules of the Lord are true,

and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold,

even much fine gold;

sweeter also than honey

and drippings of the honeycomb.

Psalm 119:137 ESV

Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules.

This and this alone is what it means to starve for God and His righteousness. So why is this how Jesus describes someone who is truly blessed by God? Why is this a description of a true disciple and Christian?

Q - Why are the Hungry and Thirsty Blessed in the Covenant?

Because in order to hunger and thirst, you need to admit your need of God’s grace—you can’t feed yourself, you must beg for mercy. Only those who buy the free gift of God are fit to receive the Gospel. They cannot earn it—they must receive it:

Watson: See here at what a low price God sets heavenly things. It is but hungering and thirsting. ‘Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, buy without money’ (Isaiah 55:1). We are not bid to bring any merits as the Papists would do, nor to bring a sum of money to purchase righteousness. Rich men would be quick to do that. All that is required is to bring an appetite. Christ ‘hath fulfilled all righteousness’. We are only to ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’.

A true Christian is someone who hungers and thirsts for God, because He knows he can’t satisfy himself in the vanities of the world, and the works of the flesh. The hungry and thirsty and blessed in the covenant of grace, because they admit their need of that grace! And this neediness overflows with a Hunger for God—to be right with God, to be like God, and to be with God.

It’s longing to be right with God. To be starving is to recognize your neediness of someone else's provision. You need grace. You need mercy. You need help. The previous beatitudes already told us that we have nothing good in us. We stand in complete need of the gift of God. So if we truly are hungering after God, then we’re hungering after being right with Him by grace. How can we find that? Only in the Gospel.

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We hunger to be transferred from enemies of God to friends with God—from children of wrath to children of grace—from enmity with God to peace with God—from condemnation to justification. This we receive through the Person and Work of Jesus Christ—whose life, death, and resurrection accomplishes our salvation, through grace alone and faith alone. If you are truly hungering for God, you will hunger for salvation in Jesus Christ.

But it’s also longing to be like God. We don’t merely desire to be free from the judgment of God, we also desire to please the God who has saved us! Out of gratitude for His grace, we desire to serve Him. We desire to be like Jesus. Not only saved from sin’s penalty, but saved from sin’s power. We long to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We long to be more like Him, for He is our chief Treasure, He is our Supreme Lord.

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Not only do we long to right with God legally—we also desire to be right with God relationally: to flee from sin, to draw near to Him, to pursue Him, to walk in faith, love, and peace, in the fellowship of the saints. The true disciple desires to be like Jesus, with his Church.

But even more than this, it’s also a longing to be with God. To dwell with Him forever. To be in His presence. To behold our King in all His beauty, face to face, for all eternity. To long to enjoy His presence now in the means of grace, in church fellowship and worship, but preeminently, to yearn for that day when we will see our Redeemer with our own eyes:

Job 19:25–27 ESV

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

If Job, who knew very little of the details of the New Covenant, could have his heart faint within him … with a longing to see his Redeemer in person … how much more should we who have the light of the New Testament earnestly seek the presence of God in resurrection life.

And so this leads us to ask:

Q - How can we know if we have this Gospel Hunger for God?

Quite simply, by applying the picture of physical hunger, to our spiritual life. Physical hunger produces hunger pains. The Puritan, Thomas Watson, gives us 5 signs by which we can discern if we have this Gospel Hunger for God:

Watson: (1) Hunger is a painful thing (Ps. 107:5), (2) Hunger is satisfied with nothing but food (Jg. 15:18), (3) Hunger wrestles with difficulties and makes an adventure for food (Gen. 42:1-2), (4) A hungry man runs to his food with an appetite (Jer. 15:16), and (5) A hungry man tastes sweetness in his meal (1 Pet. 2:3).

(1) Hunger is a painful thing. Do you experience spiritual pain because of your lack of nearness to God? Your lack of holiness and righteousness? Your lack of Christlikeness? Does it burden you deeply that you keep sinning against your God and Father?

(2) Hunger is satisfied with nothing but food. Do you remain in the hunger pains? Or you do realize that the only way to satisfy them is by eating a meal? Do you recognize that you need the Bread of Life and the Living Waters in Jesus? Do you agree that nothing else can satisfy you?

(3) Hunger wrestles with difficulties and makes an adventure for food. Those who are truly hungry don’t sit on the couch and wait for a meal. They get up to find a meal! They do whatever they need to do to satisfy those hunger cravings! They realize their need of Christ, and they get up to pursue Him!

(4) A hungry man runs to his food with an appetite. A man who is truly hungry for God doesn’t let the food sit on his plate for another day. His mouth is watering with expectation of the enjoyment of the food. He dashes to the table and feasts on the meal. The hungry man has an appetite for spiritual food.

(5) A hungry man tastes sweetness in his meal. He doesn’t just scarf it down. He savors it. He enjoys it. He delights in it. So too the spiritual man doesn’t just read or hear the word to get it in his stomach, he also reads or hears the Word to get it in his heart. He feasts on the Scripture that it might dwell in him richly.

Well, maybe your like me, at this point, and don’t just feel a hunger pain for God, but a hunger pain to have deeper hunger pains! You want to experience more of this yearning for God. So…

Q - How can we grow into Deeper Hunger Pains in the Gospel?

We need hard work & we need to exercise. Hard work makes you need to refuel. When you exercise you need food afterwards. This is spiritual discipline. As we seek God in private prayer, in devotions, in meditation throughout the day, in self-denial in the home, in glorifying God at work, in service to the saints, in repairing offenses, in Christian fellowship, in public worship on Sunday—we are expending spiritual energy, which will cause us to have spiritual hunger. You won’t get hungry unless you get busy. Find something to do for Jesus. Find something to do for His church. And the hunger will come.

1 Timothy 4:7–8 ESV

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

As we train ourselves for godliness, in the means of grace, then we will find our hunger increasing in Christian service. This is why church membership is crucial. If you treat church as an attendance sport on Sundays, you’re not going to be very hunger for God. But if you approach church-life as the family of God, communion with God, fellowship with his people, and your duty to know, love and serve—then you’re gonna get hungry pretty quick. Church-life isn’t easy—but your hunger for God will grow. The true disciple hungers for God, and longs to hunger for Him even more. But…

Q - Why should we be concerned if we have zero Hunger for God?

Because if we’re not hungry for God, then we don’t value Christ, and if we don’t value Christ then we haven’t tasted and seen that He is Good and that He is our Saviour and that He is our Lord. If we don’t desire God, then we must be enslaved in the corruptions of our own wicked hearts—desiring the world, the flesh, and the devil. If we’re not starving for God, then that means we’ve never taken a bite of His Gospel. Those who’ve tasted the sweetness of Christ can’t but long for more of Him.

John 4:10 ESV

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

Watson: It reproves such as have none of this spiritual thirst. They have no winged desires. The edge of their affections is blunted. Honey is not sweet to them who have lost their taste. So those who are soul-sick and ‘in the gall of bitterness’, find no sweetness in God or religion. Sin tastes sweeter to them; they have no spiritual hunger … [They have no spiritual life].

And if this is you this morning, you must not think that you are a Christian. And if you’re not a Christian, then your precisely the person that God invites to come and eat and drink from the free grace of God in Jesus Christ! Come to Jesus—feast on his promises—and be nourished with eternal life:

John 4:13–14 ESV

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

But by all means—don’t convince yourself that your hungry if your not feasting on Christ and His Word. Come to Jesus, and find true bread and drink unto everlasting life!

(1) Those who are Starving for God are Blessed by God - v. 6a

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. But they God doesn’t leave them in a perpetual state of hunger pains! Those hunger pains lead to true nourishment and satisfaction in the living God and His Christ:

(2) Those who are Longing for God will be Fed by God - v. 6b.

Matthew 5:6 (ESV)

“For they shall be satisfied.

(2) Those who are Longing for God will be Fed by God - v. 6b.

Q - What does it mean to be Satisfied with Food?

It makes the hunger craving go away. It brings contentment. It brings rest. It brings fullness. It brings comfort. It brings happiness. It brings joy. It brings fulfillment.

Some of the best moments in life are while a meal is being eaten, and their is rich fellowship around the table. This is true spiritually as well as physically. So…

Q - What does it mean to be Satisfied with God and his Gospel?

It means you’ve been spiritually fed with the Bread of Life. It means you’ve been spiritually refreshed by the Waters of Life. It leads to contentment in the presence of God. It brings rest to your soul, as you rest in Jesus. It brings the fullness of the Spirit to fill your heart with divine comfort. And it brings true blessedness, happiness, joy, and delight in the beauty of Christ. Notice how the Lord invites us to find this satisfaction in the Gospel:

Isaiah 55:1–3 ESV

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

As disciples hunger and thirst for righteousness—they rest satisfied in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ that makes them right with God—they rest satisfied in the righteousness of the Holy Spirit who transforms them day by day—and they rest satisfied in the hope of resurrection life with King Jesus. To be satisfied with God and His Gospel is to experience the first 3 verses of Psalm 23:

Psalm 23:1–3 ESV

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Those who want more of God, shall not want anything else. How can this be?

Q - Why will those who Long for God be Satisfied in God?

Because nothing but the infinite beauty of Christ can satisfy our hearts that were made for Him. Everything else is a vanity and vapor. Only Christ and His righteousness can satisfy the longing soul, as we walk in righteousness and follow Him:

Watson: Those that hunger after righteousness shall be filled. God never bids us seek him ‘in vain’ (Isaiah 45:19). Here is an honeycomb dropping into the mouths of the hungry, ‘they shall be filled’. ‘He hath filled the hungry with good things’ (Luke 1:53). ‘He satisfieth the longing soul’ (Psalm 107:9). God will not let us lose our longing. Here is the excellency of righteousness above all things. A man may hunger after the world and not be filled. The world is fading, not filling. Cast three worlds into the heart, yet the heart is not full. But righteousness is a filling thing; nay, it so fills that it satisfies.

There is nothing that we desire that cannot be found in the Lord.

Do we desire love?—Our Father loves us infinitely so.

Do we desire peace?—Christ is the Prince of peace.

Do we desire holiness?—He gives us the Holy Spirit.

Do we desire protection?—He will destroy our enemies.

Do we desire security?—He will hide us in his wings.

Do we desire healing?—He will make all things new.

Do we desire fellowship?—He will draw near to us in mercy.

Do we desire happiness?—He will give us joy unspeakable.

Do we desire power?—He will renew our strength day-by-day.

Do we desire riches?—He has unsearchable riches of grace.

Do we desire hope?—He grants us living hope in Jesus.

Do we desire comfort?—He is the God of all comfort.

Do we desire endurance?—He will clothe us with energy from on high.

Do we desire justice?—He is bringing His recompense with Him.

Do we desire assurance?—No one can snatch us from His hands.

What do you desire that you can’t find in the Triune God and His Gospel? He gives you Himself! The promise of the New Covenant includes satisfaction in God’s goodness, as God’s people:

Jeremiah 31:14 ESV

I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord.”

Jeremiah 31:33 (ESV)

And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Oh dear Christian, looking unto Jesus, hungering after God—you can find true spiritual satisfaction in the Spirit. We can enjoy that now as we walk in the obedience of faith—and we will enjoy that forever when Christ makes all things new. In that place, in the eternal City, hunger and thirst will be but memories—and satisfaction will be our eternal experience. On that resurrection morning, when we will see him, and be perfectly transformed to be like him, we will be satisfied in Him whom our soul loves:

Psalm 17:15 ESV

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

But until that day …

Q - How can we fight to find deeper Satisfaction in the Beauty of Christ now?

Simply, by reminding yourself that idols make poor gods, and that creation can’t fill the place in your heart that was made for your Creator—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (ESV)

Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart.

Because of this, when we try to find satisfaction in something other than God we find it to be a vanity and a snare. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Solomon proves that novelty can’t satisfy, that wisdom can’t satisfy, that self-indulgence can’t satisfy, that pleasure can’t satisfy, that upright conduct can’t satisfy, that work can’t satisfy, that money can’t satisfy, that nothing in all creation can satisfy our hearts that were made for the Lord.

Because of this, our hearts can only be satisfied in the eternal God—in Yahweh—in the Trinity. When we forget this we commit two evils, says the Lord:

Jeremiah 2:13 ESV

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

When we follow Satan’s tempting, and our hearts corruption—we replace the glory of the Creator for the gift of the creation. And we find that we aren’t satisfied. We aren’t happy. We aren’t content. We don’t have peace. And we don’t have joy. We have left the Fountain of living waters for cisterns that can’t hold any water.

Oh how foolish a thing it is for us to try and make a finite thing satisfy an infinite need. Let us return to the Lord, let us hunger and thirst for the Lord, and drink deeply from the Fountain of Life—that we might find true satisfaction in Jesus Christ and His Gospel of Grace. Let us look to him in renewed faith and love—and find Him to be altogether lovely indeed—and from his fullness let us receive grace upon grace (Jn. 1). And then let us, with Christ, make it our meat and drink to do the will of our Father, and to rest in our Father’s love and care, with living hope indeed. But what if we only try to find our satisfaction in the vanities of the world?

Q - What does it mean if we have no Satisfaction in God or in Christ?

Watson: If we do not thirst here we shall thirst when it is too late. If we do not thirst as David did ‘My soul thirsts for God’ (Psalm 42:2), then we shall thirst in Hell as the rich man did for a drop of water (Luke 16:24). They who do not thirst for righteousness shall be in perpetual hunger and thirst. They shall thirst for mercy, but no mercy to be had. Heat increases thirst. When men shall burn in hell and be scorched with the flames of God’s wrath, this heat will increase their thirst for mercy but there will be nothing to take away their thirst. O is it not better to thirst for righteousness while it can be had, than to thirst for mercy when there is none to be found? Sinners, the time is shortly coming when the drawbridge of mercy will be quite pulled up.

And so, hear the invitation of life and come to Jesus Christ with your hunger and thirst, and find true satisfaction in salvation, freed from the scorching wrath to come:

John 7:37–38 ESV

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

Revelation 22:17 ESV

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

(2) Those who are Longing for God will be Fed by God - v. 6b.

True disciples will be satisfied in the King of Glory and his Unsearchable Riches of Grace. So hear now our conclusion for this morning:

(C) Those who Hunger for God are Blessed in Christ, and will be Satisfied by the Spirit.

The more painful the hunger—the more satisfying the meal.

Matthew 5:6 ESV

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Spurgeon: They are not full of their own righteousness, but long for more and more of that which comes from above. They desire to be right themselves both with God and man, and they long to see righteousness have the upper hand all over the world. Such is their longing for goodness, that it would seem as if both the appetites of “hunger and thirst” were concentrated in their one passion for righteousness. Where God works such an insatiable desire, we may be quite sure that he will satisfy it; yea, fill it to the brim. In contemplating the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ, and the victory of righteousness in the latter days, we are more than filled. In the world to come the satisfaction of the “man of desires” will be complete. Nothing here below can fill an immortal soul; and since it is written, “They shall be filled,” we look forward with joyful confidence to a heaven of holiness with which we shall be satisfied eternally.

Psalm 81:16 (ESV)

With honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

Only Honey from the Rock of Christ can satisfy a weary soul.

(C) Those who Hunger for God are Blessed in Christ, and will be Satisfied by the Spirit.

Amen? Let’s pray.

Discussion Questions:

(1) It has been said that the 4th Beatitude is the Climax of them all. Do you agree with that? Why or why not?

(2) What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness? And what is that experience like for the true Christian?

(3) How can we grow into a deeper longing for the living God? What practical things can increase our hunger for Christ?

(4) Why is it that we can only find true satisfaction in Jesus? Why does everything else fail to fill our hearts with true rest?

(5) Why will we be perfectly satisfied in the presence of Christ in glory? Why will we never hunger or thirst ever again?