Blessed Are the Hungry, Part 2

It was Bernard of Clairvaux who stated it perfectly in the hymn that we often sing. We taste thee, O thou living bread, and long to feast upon thee still. We drink of thee, the fountainhead, and thirst our souls from thee to fill. Mark it down, Psalm 17, 15. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. That's the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. They are never satisfied until they awake with thy likeness. They are never satisfied until one day they stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and see him as he is, and then they will be just like him.

Those are the satisfied people. Point number three, let's detail the characteristics. I want to give you four of them. Number one, a person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness.

Are you ready for this? Squelches all sin. Now already you're mad at me, aren't you? Squelches all sin, Psalm 97, verse 10. You who love the Lord hate evil. You who love the Lord hate evil. So a man who hungers and thirsts for righteousness seeks to squelch all sin in their life. Why? As the inner man is satisfied with holiness, he becomes increasingly dissatisfied with unholiness. That's why. The closer we get to the light, the more we see the defilement, and the more we want to rid ourselves of that defilement.

The mind recognizes sin, the heart is repulsed by sin, and the will refuses to sin. Listen to what Jerry Bridges said in his book, The Pursuit of Holiness. Since hungering and thirsting for righteousness is the essence of being a Christian, what place does sin have in a believer's life? Jerry Bridges said that he made this discovery while studying 1 John 2. He says, I realized that my personal life's objective regarding holiness was less than that of the Apostle John's. He was saying, in effect, make it your aim not to sin.

As I thought about this, I realized that deep within my heart, my real aim was not to sin very much. Can you imagine a soldier going into battle with the aim of not getting hit very much? The very suggestion is ridiculous. His aim is not to get hit at all. Yet if we have not made a commitment to holiness, without exception, we are like a soldier going into battle with the aim of not getting hit very much. We can be sure if that is our aim, we will be hit, not with bullets, but with temptation over and over again.

Do you arm yourself with righteousness? Do you diligently avoid sin? Paul would tell Timothy over in 2 Timothy 2 to flee youthful lusts. Over in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul said, flee immorality. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul would tell Timothy, flee these things. Flee the love of money. Rid yourself, Timothy, of these things. Squelch all sin. Run the opposite direction. That's what the holy man does. That's the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. You know that you are hungering and thirsting for righteousness because you get rid of the secret sins.

You want to squelch all the sins, even the ones your wife doesn't know about, even the ones your husband doesn't know about, because God knows about them. And you seek to squelch them. Number two, a person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness surrenders every substitute.

Surrenders every substitute. A truly spiritually hungry person will never be satisfied with flowers. They will never be satisfied with music. They will never be satisfied with encouraging words. They will never be satisfied with a new house. They will never be satisfied with a new car. They'll never be satisfied with anything but more of God. The external never can influence the internal. A thirsty man is never satisfied until he is given a drink. A thirsty man does not want a pair of shoes. A thirsty man doesn't want a new coat.

He wants a drink and he will not be satisfied until he gets that drink. You can't give a hungry man a new house. It does not feed the individual. The rich young ruler in Matthew chapter 19, he wanted Christ and his riches. But you can't have Christ and something else. Psalm 119 verse number 20 is a verse. And see if this is characteristic of you. My soul is crushed with longing after thine ordinances at all times. Man, can you imagine that? Is your soul crushed? Is your soul longing for the ordinances of God in such a way that it longs at all times?

Not just on Sunday, not just on Wednesday, but all the time. That's the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. They just can't get enough of God. They get a little bit of God, they want more of God. They get a little bit of his word, they want more of his word. They just can't stop getting enough of God. It was Vance Adler who said these words. He says, we have too many casual Christians who dabble in everything but are not committed to anything. They have a nodding acquaintance with a score of subjects but are sold on nothing.

Of course I'm interested in church, they say, but with my club and my lodge and my golf and my bridge and my stamp collecting and my ceramics and my African violence, I just can't get too excited about religion. Our Lord, he says, has no place in his program for casual disciples. It is all or nothing. We want Christ and something else. We got to have that substitute. There's got to be something else that can make me happy. God really doesn't do that. I mean, after all, if you look back on my life, things haven't fared too well for me lately.

So there's got to be something else out there that can satisfy because Jesus just can't come through. But the hungry person, he surrenders all the substitutes, anything that takes the place of my affection for God. He gets rid of all those things and says, God, I just want you. Had a person in my office this past week who said, I don't have anything. Jesus is all I have and I just can't make it without him. My friends, that's a person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. They can have everything in the world God offers, but if they don't have Jesus, they got nothing.

So they surrender every substitute. Christ's righteousness does not awaken a man from a slight slumber. Christ's righteousness raises him from the dead. A person who truly hungers and thirsts for righteousness realizes he is dealing with a life or death issue, not just an interesting activity to be squeezed into an already busy schedule. Do you hunger and thirst like that? They surrender all substitutes. They squelch all sin. Number three, they search the scriptures.

They search the scriptures. Psalm 26 verse number nine, with my soul have I desired thee in the night and with my spirit within me will I seek thee early. Psalm 63 verse one, oh God, early will I seek thee. A person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness searches the scriptures and they can't get enough of the scriptures. We've said it before, but when people say, you know, I read my Bible, but man, it's just so boring. Folks, that's a commentary on you, not the Bible. See, God's not boring. His word's not boring.

You're boring. God's not, but people say that all the time. It's just so hard to understand. It's just so boring. My friends, a person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness searches the scriptures and they just can't get enough of them. I'm amazed at people who will come to church on Sunday and that's all they think they need to get into the week. That just amazes me that they come and get their little fix of God and a few verses here and a few verses there, you know, and they think they can go all week without spending time with God in his word, studying the scriptures, and it can make it from one week to the next.

Folks, if you came to me and I fed you breakfast every Sunday morning and you didn't eat another meal to next Sunday, you would look emaciated. You'd look pitiful, right? You'd be so skinny. We wouldn't even have to open the door to get you in here. But yet people think they can make it spiritually that way. That just boggles my mind. I just don't comprehend that. I can't understand that. I can't understand why anybody wouldn't get up every morning to spend time with God. I can't imagine somebody going through life without pouring themselves into the word of God to know what God has for them that single day at work.

That God would give them a verse. That God would give them a word that they can go to work with and say, man, this is what God taught me today and I'm gonna live it out. I just can't imagine people not doing that. But you know what? Churches are full of people like that. And then they wonder why their lives are so miserable. And I try to tell them, you've got a hunger and thirst for the righteousness. You gotta long for it. Jeremiah would say that words were found in the night and eat them and they were the joy and the rejoicing of the heart.

Can you say that? But the fourth characteristic is probably the most convicting. A person who hungers and thirsts for righteousness squelches all sin, surrenders every substitute, searches the scriptures, and three, are you ready? Is satisfied with suffering. Satisfied with suffering. You say, give me a verse. No problem. Proverbs 27 verse 7. To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Isn't that good? I don't hear any amens. To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Why is it sweet? Because the hungry soul knows that the God of the universe, because they have searched the scriptures, they know that God has one concern about their life and that is they be exactly like him.

And so those nasty disasters that come into my life that creep in either through my kids, through my spouse, through my boss, through some horrendous thing that happens to me, happens because God is molding me into his likeness. And to the hungry soul, to the thirsty soul, he says, man that's sweetness to me. Because at the depth of his being all he wants to be is just like Jesus. That's the most important thing. That's how you know you hunger and thirst for righteousness. Because when the bitter things in life are sweet, the hungry soul remains content despite the pain it experiences.

Those are the characteristics of one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. And you might be sitting here saying, wait a minute, how am I going to squelch all sin? How am I ever going to surrender every substitute that I have? Can I really, really be satisfied amidst suffering? I mean, you're asking me to go way beyond the normal thing here. And I'm going to say, no, I'm not asking you to go way beyond the normal thing. I'm asking you to live in the realm of the supernatural. The realm that we are supposed to live because that's the natural realm for the believer.

And so let me help you determine your course. That's our fourth point as you leave here tonight. Three points. How can I become that kind of person? Three things. And they're nothing earth-shattering, but the amazing thing about God is that the simple things are the main things. God does not make life with Him impossible. God does not make life with Him unattainable. God makes life with Him exactly as He wants to be as you lean upon Him. Number one, you need to develop an appetite for God.

That's number one. You've got to develop an appetite. Psalm 34, verse number eight. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34. Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good? See, you never know whether or not you like it until you taste it, right? You got that with your kids. Put something in front of them. Oh, I don't like that. Have you tasted it? Nope, never tasted it. Well, try it. No, I don't like it. Doesn't look good. So you got to put it in their mouth. Oh, that's not too bad. I think I'll eat some of that.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. First Peter chapter two, verse number three, or verse number two says, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

If you've tasted that the Lord is gracious, it should be, you should be like a baby who, who, who every two and three or four hours, depending on how long you can keep in between feedings, longs for milk from his mother's breast. So used to long for the milk of the word. Develop an appetite. You have to taste and see that the Lord is good. Number two, delight yourself in the Lord.

Delight yourself in the Lord. You know, the verse Psalm 37, verse four, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Now listen very carefully. Do you know how many people have asked me what that means? And many of you have, have asked what that means. Do you really mean that if I delight myself in the Lord that he, he's going to give me the husband that I want. He's going to give me the house that I want. He's going to, he's going to give me exactly what I want. You know what I believe that means with all my heart.

I believe that if you delight yourself in the Lord, he is going to give you the desires of your heart. You know what that desire is? More of God. That's what it is. If you delight yourself in God, you want more of God. That's going to be your heart's desire and he will give you that desire. Now you might not like that, that interpretation. That might not fit your, your, your lifestyle, but I really believe that that's what the Bible teaches. Seek first his kingdom.

Seek first his righteousness and everything else should be added unto you. Matthew 6 33. Christ says you seek me first and you will be so enthralled with who I am that you won't even be worried about your food and your clothing and all those extra peripheral things because you're going to be so desirous of me.

And you know what? Because I'll provide all those things for you anyway, because that's the kind of God I am. But you seek first my kingdom.

You seek first my righteousness and all these extra peripheral things will be added unto you. But the real thing is that you're going to desire more of me and you'll get more of me. It was Augustine who said thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee. That's true. Why? Because God has set eternity in the heart of man. That's what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes. And because God has set eternity in man's heart, there is a longing that's there that Jesus Christ wants to fulfill.

And until you come to him and realize what he has done and long for him, that emptiness will never be filled. It was the nation of Israel who lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and God gave them their requests. But he sent leanness to their souls. You see you can live your life and God will say, you know what, you want that? I'll give it to you. You can have it. But you know what? You're going to be absolutely miserable. My son asked me today on the way home, he said, you know, when you're walking down the aisle and you're going to get married, what if the father says that he doesn't want to give his daughter away to the man?

I said, well hopefully he would have said that before the day of the wedding. And then he said, well what if she goes on to marriage him anyway and dad says no, mom says no. I said, well then I really believe that she'll have a miserable marriage. Because you see, she broke a basic commandment. Honor your mother and father. Respect them. And if you can't break one commandment to fulfill another commandment and have it right, they can make it right. They can ask for forgiveness and repent of their sin.

But you know what? Sometimes God says, you want that bad? I'll give it to you. Boy, you're just miserable inside because God sends leanness to your soul. Emptiness is there. It's never filled. And oh, if we just listen to God, there is no rest apart from him. Psalm 32 11, be glad in the Lord and rejoice. Are you glad in the Lord? Do you rejoice in the Lord? Develop an appetite. Delight yourself in the Lord. And thirdly, deny yourself the things of the world.

Deny yourself the things of the world. Say no. Proverbs 27 24 says that riches are not forever. Proverbs 8 18 says that righteousness is forever. One thing's forever and that's the righteous man. Psalm 110 verse 3 says the beauty or speaks of beauty of holiness and that beauty never fades. Isaiah 61 10 speaks of the robe of righteousness that never waxes old. Proverbs 15 9 says he loves him who pursues righteousness. God loves those people who pursue righteousness. What are you pursuing tonight? What are you looking to pursue tomorrow on your way to work?

What are you looking to pursue this next year? Is it righteousness? God loves those kinds of people. Is it riches? The Bible tells you they don't last forever. Righteousness does. Riches don't. Remember Moses? Hebrews chapter 11. He denied himself the things of the world. It says this, by faith Moses when he had grown up refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure all treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

By faith he left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured as seeing him who is unseen. That's a man who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. He leaves Egypt. He refuses to be known in the Pharaoh's court. He chooses rather to do the things of God, to suffer ill treatment with the people of God. He does the things that are absolutely baffling to the world. Deny yourself the things that are there. Seek him. Seek righteousness. Because blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they and they only shall be satisfied.

Are you satisfied this evening? You can be. Jesus says you can. Let's pray. Father God we thank you for your word. It speaks so pointedly to our lives. And father there are so many things that we so desperately want to have. We pursue them vehemently only to find that Lord once we've been attained that they can't satisfy the soul. That's because only you can do that. Maybe there's somebody here tonight Lord who like the prodigal son has wasted their money in riotous living. Thinking that somehow there's something there for them to find happiness in.

May they come back to you father. Repent of their ways and say father I want what you have to offer. Father I believe that those who are here this evening are here specifically because there is that hunger. That thirst in their lives. They want more of you. They want more Christ-likeness. They just can't get enough. That's why they're here. Father I pray that you'd satisfy their souls with good things as the text says. That they might see the wonderful graciousness of our God. We pray these things in the wonderful holy name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.