A Blessed Longing for Righteousness
A Blessed Longing for Righteousness
Matthew 5:6
In his book, Sahara Unveiled, William Langeweische describes the ordeal of Lag Lag, an Algerian truck driver and his assistant who set out across the desert to deliver some freight to a remote oil rig. The two men got lost and their truck broke down in the desert. They dug a shallow trench under the truck and lay in it to escape the oppressive heat. Eventually, their water supply ran out. Here is how Langeweische described their situation.
They nearly died of thirst during the three weeks they waited before being rescued. As their bodies dehydrated, they became willing to drink anything in hopes of quenching their terrible thirst… Physiologists use Greek-based words to describe stages of human thirst. For example, the Sahara is dipsogenic, meaning "thirst provoking."
In Lag Lag's case, they might say he progressed from eudipsia, "ordinary thirst," through bouts of hyperdipsia, meaning "temporary intense thirst," to polydipsia, "sustained excessive thirst." Polydipsia means the kind of thirst that drives one to drink anything. There are specialized terms for such behavior, including uriposia, the drinking of urine, and hemoposia, the drinking of blood.
For word enthusiasts, this is heady stuff. Nevertheless, the lexicon has not kept up with technology. I have tried, and cannot coin a suitable word for the drinking of rusty radiator water. Radiator water is what Lag Lag and his assistant started into when good drinking water was gone. In order to survive, they were willing to drink, in effect, poison.
This is a stark description of the potential intensity of thirst. The word Jesus uses in Matthew 5:6 is the word dipsao. It can, of course be used literally to describe the physical thirst of the body. Here Jesus uses it, along with the word peinao (hunger) to describe an intense or unquenchable longing – the longing for righteousness. Like a thirsty castaway or a starving beggar, those who belong to the kingdom of Jesus have a deep, intense longing. They long for righteousness. Today we will consider what this longing is and how it is satisfied by Christ.
I. Kingdom people deeply desire righteousness.
A. They deeply desire.
1. As we have seen, they hunger and thirst. These images of
Physical hunger and thirst are used to describe a spiritual
longing.
2. These metaphors are chosen to communicate intensity. The
Bible uses such descriptions of spiritual desire.
As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you o God, My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…Ps. 42:1-2
O God you are my God; I shall seek you earnestly; My soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearns for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Ps. 63:1
3. These metaphors also communicate necessity. Food and
water are not luxuries but necessities. A person cannot
survive without them.
B. They deeply desire righteousness. Righteousness has two basic
meanings in the NT.
1. Righteousness refers being in a right relationship with God.
It is the state of being right with God in which God views us
as fulfilling His demands on our lives.
a. This is what the Bible means by justification. To be
justified is for God to declare that you are not guilty.
It is for God to see you as fulfilling His demands.
None of us fulfill God’s demands. We all sin and fall
Dreadfully short of perfect obedience. So, we can
only be right with God by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus
lived a perfect life in fulfillment of God’s law and
then He died for sinners to pay the just penalty for
sin. Now all who trust in Jesus are forgiven and the
righteous obedience of Christ is credited to them.
This is one sense in which the term righteousness is
used in the NT.
2. Righteousness also refers to the life which is lived in
conformity to God’s standard. It is thinking, acting,
speaking, and living in ways that please God.
a. This is what the Bible means by sanctification. It is
the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit to make us more
like Jesus. It is the process of growing in conformity
to God’s desires in the way we live.
3. Matthew is emphasizing the righteousness of living in a way
that pleases God. This is the way he uses the word righteous-
ness throughout the sermon on the mount.
a. 5:10 – we are persecuted for righteousness
b. 5:20 – we need a righteousness that surpasses that of
the Scribes and Pharisees.
c. 6:1 – we are not to practice our righteousness to be
noticed by others.
d. 6:33 – we are to seek first God’s kingdom and His
righteousness.
4. Though Matthew emphasizes the practical righteousness of a
right way of life, the right relationship with God is in the
background.
a. This beatitude does not teach us that we achieve
righteousness but that we long for it.
b. This beatitude does not tell us that we fill ourselves
with righteousness but that God fills us.
c. So, it seems to me that what we long for is to have
a right relationship with God that produces in us a
right kind of living. This is not earned. It is a gift.
APP: Now, let’s put it simply. The true Christian is the person who has a deep and intense longing to be right with God and to live right before God. This is the sign of life. Dear friend, examine your desires today.
Jesus says that those who belong to His kingdom are those who are marked by hunger and thirst for righteousness. True saving grace will produce in the heart a new desire. It is the desire to have a life that is in complete conformity to the will of God in every area. It is the desire to be separated from sin and saturated with holiness.
Paul is a wonderful example of this. Look at Philippians 3:2-11. Paul was no pagan. He was more religious than any of us. He had a strong desire to be religious and self-righteous. Then he met Jesus. All his old desires lost their appeal. In fact, he said that it was like what he once viewed as money in the bank now looked like manure in the feed lot. His new desire was to know Christ, to be found righteous in Christ, to know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. He wanted to be right with God and to live right before God. Nothing was more important.
Like Paul once did, some people desire religion, not righteousness. They want enough Jesus in their lives to give the impression of being religious. They want to go to church on Sunday morning, put a Jesus fish on the back of the mini-van, and appear to love the Lord. But deep down, they really love their job more than Jesus. They really love their house more than Jesus. They really love their 401K more than they love Jesus. They are more concerned about their image than being formed in the image of Christ.
Thomas Watson said, “Desire is the best discovery of a Christian.” In other words, your desires reveal whether you are a genuine follower of Jesus.
Are you starving to know Jesus and to please Him? Is there an unquenchable thirst in your heart to be right with God and to live right before God? Or as you examine your desires do you see that other things have eclipsed Christ in your life?
TS: The first half of this beatitude confronts us with a strong challenge – blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The second half of this beatitude comforts us with precious promise – for they shall be filled.
II. Kingdom people find their desire satisfied in Christ.
A. A longing fulfilled.
1. The word chortazo means to fill up or to be satisfied. It is
used by Matthew in 14:20 and 15:37 to describe the people
when Jesus fed the 5000 and the 4000.
2. Jesus is saying that those who hunger and thirst for right-
eousness will be filled to the full, totally satisfied.
3. They are filled with Christ and His righteousness. They are
filled with the assurance of a right relationship with God.
They are filled with the joy of seeing that relationship
produce in them an ever-growing conformity to the image
of Jesus expressed in a life that pleases God.
4. Ultimately, in a new heaven, the longing of their hearts will
be fulfilled when their personal righteousness is perfected in
a glorified life with Jesus and all that is unrighteous has been
banished forever. They will live in a world that is totally and
completely righteous where everything and everyone exists
in joyful conformity to the will of God.
ILL: Jonathan Edwards said, "The enjoyment of [God] is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied…. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends are but shadows, but enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean."
APP: Dear friends, true kingdom citizens who long for righteousness will be filled from the fountain of God Himself. Their desire is satisfied because it is focused on the proper object – Christ.
Many of us have strong desires which go unsatisfied. We have a hole in our soul and we keep piling things in it but we find no satisfaction. Solomon wrote about this in Ecclesiastes. He sought fulfillment in work. He sought fulfillment in education. He sought fulfillment in sex. He sought fulfillment in power and possessions. But his assessment of it all was that it was like chasing the wind. At the end of Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, this is what it all boils down to – fear God and keep His commandments. In other words, be right with God and live right before God.
The reason we find no fulfillment is because our desires are not focused on the proper object – to be right with God and to live right before God. To know Christ and to live for Christ is the only thing that will satisfy your soul.
The amazing thing is that the more satisfaction you find in Christ, the deeper your hunger and thirst for Him grows. It is an ever intensifying process of longing and fulfillment focused in Christ.
CONCLUSION
Remember Lag Lag and his assistant. I never finished his story. After waiting three weeks for rescue, Lag Lag was desperate. He finally thought that there might be some dregs of fuel in the bottom of the tank in his truck. He drained some oil, poured it in the tank and fired up the engine. They drove only a few miles to a set of tracks before the engine seized. Coming down that track was a refrigerated truck full of food and drink driven by one of his friends. They started a fire, opened up the truck and Lag Lag and his assistant feasted.
Can you imagine how good that food tasted? Can you fathom how satisfying that water must have been after drinking radiator fluid?
Jesus said that the starving soul and the thirsty heart which longs after righteousness will feast on the goodness of Christ. Why settle for drinking the radiator fluid of this world when your heart could be satisfied with the pure water of life that comes from Jesus.