Righteousness, Fuel for the Kingdom

Introduction

Introduction: Welcome, Bibles.

Last week we started the new series on Jesus’ famous teaching called “the sermon on the mount”. We looked at the reason why we are going through this series; that is, to clearly see the kingdom of God and to get a biblical definition of the Gospel. We looked at the first 5 verses of Matthew chapter five in which we see how Christ opens his teaching on the kingdom really with a closing. A closing of yourself. What does it mean to be a part of the kingdom of God? It means to die. To empty yourself. Get rid of yourself and get Christ. So many religions and philosophies are founded on principles of “finding yourself” “saving your life” . The very entrance ticket to the kingdom of God is an exit from yourself. He who finds his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

Our text today is Matthew 5:6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.

There is a logical movement in the order of our Lord’s beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. We can see the same movement in psalm 143:1-6 READ. Broken spirit, mourning sin, meek and submissive to God but then... thirsting. Emptying yourself. Purging yourself of everything it means to be YOURSELF (not limited to but including; wants, likes, dislikes, dreams, hopes, and rights). But just as important as the emptying of yourself is what you fill yourself up with. What you desire to accomplish will determine what you fill yourself with. The argument here is that the Kingdom minded Christian will desire to bring the kingdom here on earth (remember the lords prayer) and they will fill themselves up with righteousness.

The Kingdom of God is not sustained by what you think or feel, but what God has to say. Look down at verse 21, Heres what you think, what you thought it meant to be angry (empty yourself), but here is what I say.

Well then, let us begin with this 6th verse. The way we will observe the text today is by its terms. We must see the pieces first and then put them together.

BLESSED ARE THOSE

A reminder from last week that blessed means happy. This isn’t a superficial happiness but happiness that is set in Heaven. It is a privilege that is given, but not deserved. There are nearly thirty beatitudes in the gospels. A beatitude normally has a condition in which you can be happy, and then a result, meaning how it will be accomplished. There are beatitudes in the OT and normally those have to do with a result that happens right now on the earth. EX. Psalm 127, blessed is he who fills his quiver with children, he will not be put to shame by his enemies. Or Psalm 65, blessed is he who you bring into your court, he will be satisfied. However, the Sermon on the Mount is not another set of guidelines for morality but a look into how the gospel transforms dead humans into kingdom residents hear on earth. It is not another “to do” list or “how to list” on being a better person. It is a look at how the Gospel is supposed to permeate your life in order to bring about God’s kingdom here on earth. Blessed is not for “everyone”, it is for he who is stepped into the kingdom by hearing the Gospel of Christ and believing it so. So, blessed, happy, here in the NT are those who have heard the Good news and are living it.

So then, in this fourth beatitude what is the condition for such a happiness? The condition is to hunger and thirst.

HUNGER AND THIRST

Hunger and thirst are feelings in response to a necessary need. What do they have in common? Why are they connected? They are life sustaining! You can withstand not eating and drinking for only so long. Your body needs food and water to survive! But here hunger and thirst is not used in a sense of longing for earthly sustenance such as food and water. I know that’s shocking when most of us, me included, revolve our day around eating. Look again with me at the first three beatitudes, they cut down our pride. Literally removing what humanity bases it entire existence upon (strengthen your spirit, justify your sin, unleash the strong person inside that you were meant to be)…no no no...This beatitude shows us what it means to truly live and thrive.

Turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 15. PAUSE. Recall the text read earlier from Nehemiah, as Israel was confessing their sin, recalling what god had done for them in the wilderness God looked on them in mercy. Verse 15 “You gave them bread from heaven and for their hunger, and brought them water out of the rock for their thirst and then told them to go and possess the promised land”. The next verses, verse 16, but they presumptuously stiffened their necks and did not obey god commands and appointed a leader to return them to Egypt. God had mercy. Then again further down in Nehemiah, in v22 you o lord gave them kingdoms and many people, v25 they captured fortified cities and a rich land, they ate and were filled and became FAT and delighted themselves in your great goodness. (everything anyone could truly want… they had peace… they had prosperity… they had power... they had everything!) Never the less, they were disobedient and rebelled and committed blasphemies and then were handed over to their enemies.

I mean let us wake up! History is not a bad reporter, humans are bad listeners. We, me included, are so focused on our own fleshly wants, our own fleshly sustenance we miss that “we cannot live on bread alone. But on every word that comes from the mouth of God”. Hunger and thirst does not mean, “yeah i could go for some of that...” but “i NEED that now!”... When we are so full of ourself though it is hard to be filled with anything else. What I mean is, when we are so full of ourselves it is hard to be filled with God! Most of us this morning have a terrible kingdom diet, because we have been living on just bread, hungry and thirsty for the worlds idea of sustenance (bigger house, better car, easier job, free to do whatever your little heart pleases)... the worlds bread does not grant you life. That 401k does not grant you a future. A vaccine does not grant you protection. These are all good things in our eyes, but the Kingdom of God trusts in Christ alone. Apparently with these inaugural verses, the kingdom requires you give up those things , turn to God, empty, sorrowful, submissive, HUNGRY and THIRSTY.

In this conditional clause, what are those hungry and thirsty people longing to be filled with? Righteousness.

RIGHTEOUSNESS

What is righteousness? What does it mean to be righteous? If you look righteousness up in a concordance it will tell you that righteousness means justice, legal justice. Paul uses the word “righteous” In romans as a central theme of being justified = Having a judgment pronounced upon you based on how you have kept standard. With God the standard must be kept 100% too. There is no curve for his grading. When in Christ we are given a 100% even though we deserve a zero. That in itself would be an acceptable definition here too, but I would agreed with Dr Martyn Lloyd jones in saying that it righteousness here means not only justification but sanctification.

Righteousness in this sense of the word here is to be rid of sin. Or as we see in Psalm 143, to be obedient to God. Paul says in Philipians 1:6 that “ being confident of this [that you have heard and believed the gospel], that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ”. To be justified is to be made right with God once and for all. This is the beginning of the good work. Hebrews 10:14 says, “ For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified”. In believing that Christ died for you because you are a sinner, a law breaker worthy of hell, not yet conformed to God’s expectations, you are justified in the heavens. Justification is once. He does not see you with the title of ENEMY but rather a CHILD bought by the blood of Christ and belonging at that moment to Him. Your sin is not paid for by grace that you infuse through communion, or confession, or spending enough money on the homeless. Justification, being made right with God is once.

Immediately you want more of GOD! To be sanctified is to be made into the image of Christ, the continuing of a good work. Finding freedom from sin is the process of completion. After being justified you remain a sinner in bondage to sin here on earth. Because you come to Christ does not mean that you are without sin. Listen now to the crux, the core, the essence of the message today. To hunger and thirst for righteousness then is to each day be in a state of wanting freedom from the sin that so easily entangles you in order that you may be Christlike to the Glory of God! For children of the Lord to find freedom from Addiction to self pleasure.... oh what a joy!!! So after you get off your face in repentance stand up and proclaim your life will be lived under the lordship of Christ based on his word and his grace and his cross from his glory alone.

And one day, after we have put our flesh to death and hunger and thirsted for righteousness to the bitter end, the Lord will completely rid us of sin and satisfy us for all eternity. So come to Christ… Fall down and cry out to God for mercy...See your sin and enmity with God…

What else must we know about our relationship to righteousness? We must understand 1. God is righteous (Ps 143 v 1&11). Righteousness is a characteristic of God (Ezra 9:15; 2 Chr. 12:6, Ps. 11:7; Ps. 119:137; Ps. 129:4; Ps. 145:17; Lam. 1:18; Jer. 12:1, Zeph. 3:5). 2. We are not naturally capable of righteousness v 2 ps 143, no one is righteous before you. Righteousness is not a good work. Obviously we are all capable for walking our neighbor across the street or serving at a soup kitchen. That is light work. But righteousness is rather to Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and tender-hearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.… Killing all the desire to be self sufficient, killing all the desire to be right, killing all the desire for your neighbors wife, or house, or life. These things are in you, if you deny them, the scriptures call you a liar. This is why we so desperately need Jesus’ forgivness of sin from the cross because every day we are tempted and fail to practice righteouness. However, . 3. The only way to righteousness is through the cross of Christ. Man is not righteous in himself. Man is sinful, contrary to God, disobedient to God, rebelling against God. When we come to christ we find grace. Remeber that justification thing? That status doesn’t change… What Christ does is gives you a desire, an appetite for rightesounses rather than sin. Romans 6:13-14 says

13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Under the payment of and the grace of the cross, we are to be freed from sin because we no longer hunger for unrighteousness, but righteousness. . A christian wants more than to be satisfied from earthly pleasures, a christian wants freedom from sin.

So then, what about this last part, being satisfied?

FOR THEY SHALL BE SATISFIED

How then are we satisfied? Simply and most gloriously, with the grace of Christ. It is a perplexing cycle but this satisfaction is by no works of your own so that you may not boast. Anything that you can boast in of yourself is not righteous. The Christian hungers and thirsts, and is filled with grace to turn from sin, then hunger and thirsts for more, and then is satisfied, and then again! No other will satisfy you and keep you from sin other than Christ. The more you are filled with the righteousness of Christ, the more righteous you practice here on earth. Imagine the wars, and cartels, and crimes that would end if everyone hunger and thirsted for righteousness!

Now here is the Gospel. Broken, incomplete, and in need, we come to Christ, Hungry, and thirsty, for him to show us where to go. For him to show us how to live a life that he wants us to live! For him to send his Spirit to us to lead us away from this world and further into kingdom living. It is him who saves you and him who transforms you. And this satisfaction runs deeper than any pleasure you can get your hands on. This satisfaction is not temporal in that it is eternal. This satisfaction is not superficial, but worth the price of all the treasures in the universe.

Final observation here and then a warning.

This is all for the Glory of God.

Back now to “blessed”, what is our goal in our happiness? Remember from earlier, the goal of our happiness is bringing glory to God!

Abraham Maslow, a phycologist, developed Maslows higherarchy of needs put out in the 1940s has been the most reference list of human needs every since. The first 3? Food, water, shelter. Basic right? The basic needs to live. We all want to live, and we all want to be happy. It is no fun to be sad all the time, we want joy. Ok, now, Consider with me then a pew research study done in 2018. The question given to Americans was “where do you find MEANING in life?”. Another way to phrase this question... “what do you need to have to be happy?”. The top three answers given was 1) family, 2) career, and 3) money. This is how WE human prioritize life. What do I need to survive? Water food and shelter? What do I need to be happy? A companion, work to do, and money. Jesus turns humanity on its head. You don’t need food and water as much as you need freedom from sin. You don’t need worldly pleasures to find happiness, you need God’s Glory! Poor spirit repaired by God… Glory! Tears over sin dried by God…Glory! Meekness because your strength comes from God… Glory! Hunger and thirst satisfied by Christ’s righteousness… Glory!

So many people in this present time want political and social righteousness. This is good and well but the kingdom righteousness needs to take hold of YOU first. What good is it for so and so to change their ways if they still don’t recognize their need of sin removal.

The warning here then is seeking righteousness must not be for the betterment of yourself, but rather for the furthering of the GLORY OF GOD. Kingdom living people, those who are “blessed”, desire the kingdom to come on earth. Every sin steals glory from God. Isaiah 49:11 says that God will not give his glory to anyone else other than himself! The glory of God will not be shared with you but will be shown to you. And my prayer is rather sooner than on Judgment day as we bow our knees to him in Glory. Hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness now and find satisfaction in Christ now. May your righteousness not be fabricated to glorify yourself and impress others but may your righteousness be aimed at Glorifying God.

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.