Man, I am so parched and thirsty.
Oh, look at water.
Oh, that's satisfying.
You know, all of us,
everyone everywhere,
is hungering and thirsting for something.
All of us want to be satisfied with something.
All of us want to be happy.
Fifty years ago this past summer,
the Rolling Stone released one of their hits,
I Can't Get No.
In the 1990s, U2 released The Joshua Tree.
I'm a big U2 fan.
My son and I were listening to The Joshua Tree
in our truck this past week,
and we were listening to the second song on the album
very carefully.
It says, the title is,
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.
So Bono sings this,
I believe in the kingdom come
when all the colors bleed into one.
He's singing about Jesus.
You broke the bonds and you loose the chains.
You carried the cross, all my shame.
You know I believe in.
And he goes into the refrain,
but I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
We're all looking for something.
We're all looking to be satisfied.
We're all looking to be happy.
Where are you looking for happiness?
Where are you looking to be satisfied?
What are you living for thinking that it's going to deliver?
Make you happy.
All of us want to be happy.
And Jesus tells us in Matthew 5, 6,
of where to find happiness.
Of where to find blessing.
Of where to find satisfaction.
Would you turn with me to Matthew 5, 6.
Jesus says,
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
Hunger and thirst for righteousness,
and you will be satisfied.
Well, we're in the middle of,
we just started actually,
this series on the Sermon on the Mount.
And I've been trying to frame it
as the manifesto of King Jesus.
And in this Sermon on the Mount,
His manifesto,
our King proclaims
what is to be true
of the citizens of His kingdom.
Those are the Beatitudes.
And then for the rest of the Sermon on the Mount,
He explains how His citizens live it out.
Live in light of the kingdom.
Live in light of what He has done.
The Beatitudes actually have a logical flow to them.
It starts with declaring your spiritual bankruptcy.
Seeing your debt to God.
And then it moves to mourning the sin
that puts you in debt.
You see it as sin against God,
and you grieve it because it grieves God.
And then we move into being meek.
When you realize your spiritual bankruptcy,
when you realize that it is against God,
and you mourn,
you're going to find yourself in a meek place.
You're going to see yourself as you are
in relationship to God and to others.
And for those who recognize,
they declare their poverty,
God meets them with grace.
He pays their debt.
With those who mourn,
He comforts.
With the meek,
He says,
I have a parcel of land for you in the new earth.
It's yours.
Bank on it.
And here in 5.6,
Jesus seems to turn a corner
because it seems as to what He's saying
is the spiritually bankrupt
who've been,
by the generosity of God,
they've been made debt free.
For those who are mourning their sin,
for those who have become meek,
they have an appetite
for something quite unusual.
They have a intense appetite.
It's an unnatural appetite.
It's even a counter-cultural kind of appetite.
And what Jesus says is that
these ones,
they hunger and thirst for righteousness.
If I can summarize Matthew 5.6
in just four words,
it would be this.
Christ is our satisfaction.
And I want to help you to see that
with two points.
We seek,
He satisfies.
We seek,
He satisfies.
All point to Christ is our satisfaction.
And so let's look at this first point.
We seek.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness.
He's talking about an appetite.
You're hungry for something.
Our appetite as kingdom citizens
is intense.
So when Jesus says hunger and thirst
for righteousness,
obviously He's using a metaphor.
Everyone can relate with it.
We've all experienced hunger
and we've all experienced thirst.
thirst.
And we hunger for food
and we thirst for water
and food and water
are essential to living,
aren't they?
But we live in a first world context.
And so our hungering
is a kind of,
I miss a meal
and I'm feeling faint hunger.
It's not that strong.
I came home recently
and I had skipped lunch
and I made a major mistake.
I walked in the kitchen
and my family was there
and I said,
oh, I'm feeling so faint.
And I have not lived it down.
I come home
and my kids are like,
Dad, are you feeling faint?
We miss a meal
and we're hungry.
We go without water
for a little bit
and we're thirsty.
That's kind of
first world hunger and thirst.
Third world hunger and thirsting
is something else.
People in places
where you're not sure
you're going to eat next
know a hunger
that we don't know.
They know a thirst
we don't know.
Our hunger is a hunger
between, you know,
what in the refrigerator
am I going to eat?
Third world hunger is
there's nothing
in the refrigerator to eat.
First world thirsting is,
man, I prefer my water cold.
Third world thirst is,
do we have clean water?
I mean, the people in Flint
are getting it right now.
What Jesus is getting at
is this third world hunger
and thirst.
It's intense.
It's prioritizing.
If you don't know
where your next meal
is coming from
or where your next water
is coming from,
you're going to be
prioritizing that
pretty significantly,
don't you think?
You're going to be saying
no to other things
so that you can get that.
What this is getting at
is an intense
spiritual appetite.
This is a metaphor.
And what Jesus is saying
is that
for those who
He has called to Himself,
they have a controlling appetite
for righteousness.
righteousness.
It's intense.
It prioritizes things.
A Christian longs for,
pursues,
yearns after righteousness
just as much as he craves
food and water.
Because righteousness
is essential.
It's a requirement
of kingdom living.
Those who are citizens
of the kingdom,
who have been saved
by grace,
they live
for righteousness.
It's the food
and drink
of a Christian.
It shouldn't surprise us,
John 4,
Jesus says
that His food
is to do
the will
of the Father.
Jesus,
hunger and thirst
after righteousness.
And so this is a metaphor
for an intense
spiritual appetite.
But it's also
unnatural.
This appetite
may be intense,
but it is unnatural.
When you were born
and you came out
of your mama,
you didn't come
wanting
this spiritual appetite.
You weren't hungering
for righteousness.
In my devotions,
I've been reading
through the book
of Romans.
Romans.
And yesterday,
I came across this.
Well,
more like it came
across me.
This is Romans
chapter 3,
verses 10 through 18.
None is righteous.
No, not one.
No one understands.
No one seeks for God.
All have turned aside.
Together,
they have become worthless.
No one does good.
Not even one.
He closes this little section
in verse 18.
There is no fear of God
before their eyes.
None of us.
None of us
have an appetite
for godliness.
None of us
are born that way.
None of us.
It's unnatural
for a human sinner
to want righteousness.
Ephesians 2,
verses 1 through 3
talk about
we are
dead in our trespasses
and sins.
Following the course
of the world.
Following the prince
of the power of the air.
Among whom we all
once lived
in the passions
of our flesh.
Carrying out
the desires
of the body
and the mind.
Like the rest
of mankind.
You know what sinners
naturally crave?
Unrighteousness.
Apart from Christ
what we want
is to fulfill
our sinful appetites.
Our natural appetite
is for things
that grieve God
not please God.
Sinners crave sin.
And so this
hungering and thirsting
for righteousness
that Jesus
is talking about
what you've got
to understand
is you cannot
produce that
in yourself.
You are so sinful
I am so sinful
we can't make
ourselves want
righteousness.
But God can.
And God does.
God can cause
a sinner
to hunger
and thirst
for righteousness.
How?
By giving them
a new heart
with a new desire.
And it's the
sole domain
of the regenerating
work of the Holy Spirit.
The appetite
for righteousness
is not natural.
It's supernatural.
It's a work of God.
When God
1 Peter 1.3
causes a sinner
to be born again
and He causes
that born again
by the Spirit
John 3
that sinner
is giving
a new appetite.
A hunger
and thirst
for righteousness.
A desire
to please
God.
For a Christian
and you know
all this
if you're a Christian
your sinful desires
don't go away.
But you have
a new affection.
A new inclination.
A desire
to please God.
So when we read
Matthew 5.6
you've got to realize
that this appetite
that Jesus is talking about
is a grace given appetite.
It's a spirit born appetite.
No one seeks God
unless God changes them.
Our appetite
for righteousness
it's intense.
It's not natural.
It is supernatural.
It's a work of God's grace in us.
The next thing you need to know
about this
seeking of God
we seek
He satisfies
that this appetite
is a
counter-cultural
appetite.
What we want
is counter-cultural.
It's a kingdom appetite.
Let's say that all of us
file out of here
and we break up in twos
and we're going to go out
into downtown Kenosha
and do an informal
unofficial survey
of people we come across
and we're going to ask them
two questions.
The first question is this
hey
what makes a person happy?
I'm guessing we're going to get
all sorts of answers.
Little kids say candy
candy makes me happy.
Other people say
well
the next iPhone
will make me happy.
I really like music.
Music makes me happy.
I love to paint.
Painting makes me happy.
Sex makes me happy.
Vocational success
makes me happy.
Makes people happy.
Financial independence
having no worries
that'll make everybody happy.
Having the perfect body
will make people happy.
Making everyone happy
will make me happy.
Being in control
will make me happy.
Family and friends
make me happy.
The great outdoors
makes me happy.
And then we ask them
the second question.
Well what makes you happy?
You know
I'm guessing
that if that person
was really honest
and if they've been around
long enough
we'd hear something like this.
Well
I'm not really sure.
I still haven't found
what I'm looking for.
In Matthew 5-6
Jesus tells us
what leads to real happiness.
It's a surprise.
It's so counter cultural.
I am guessing
that when we're doing
our informal survey together
we're not going to hear
many people say
when we ask
hey what makes you happy
they're like
righteousness makes me happy.
Mmm
I just love to say it.
Do you know why?
Because normal people
don't think righteousness
is happiness.
Seriously.
Normal people
don't think
that righteousness
results in happiness.
Normal people
tend to think
that righteousness
leads to things
like boredom.
Being uptight.
Getting constipated.
Things like that.
Feeling guilty.
Churning your own butter.
People think
righteousness comes
like when you have
eight kids
and you dress them all
in different sizes
of the same
denim outfit.
they think
that's what
righteousness is.
Billy Joel gets at it.
If that's what
righteousness is
I'd rather
laugh with the sinners
than cry with the saints.
Seriously.
Those who are righteous
are serious
party poopers.
Let's stay away
from them.
Well brothers and sisters
in Christ
I'm here to tell you
this morning
that they got a point.
A Christian
who craves righteousness
is anything
but normal.
A Christian
is a sinner
born again
by the Holy Spirit.
A new creation.
A Christian
a citizen of heaven
is one who's been
justified.
Their sin
put on Christ
God's wrath
poured out on Jesus
for them.
Christ's righteousness
33 years
of perfect living
imputed to the Christian
the sinner
in God's favor
poured out for eternity
on the sinner.
Is that amazing?
That's not normal.
Justified
set apart
made holy
transferred from the domain
of darkness
into the kingdom
of the beloved son.
Christian's not normal.
The penalty of sin
fully paid
the power of sin
is broken.
They hold on to this promise
that sin will one day
be eradicated.
They've been given
the verbal deed
that has been sealed
by the blood of Jesus
that they have a parcel
a beautiful parcel
in the new earth
waiting for them.
That's not normal.
It's biblically normal
but it's not normal
to the world.
Christian is anything
but normal.
Check it seriously.
Seriously.
You know what a Christian is?
A Christian
is a walking
supernatural event
of grace.
That's what we are.
A Christian
is a miracle
of regeneration
wearing Adidas.
That's what a Christian is.
It's amazing
what God has done.
We're anything
but normal.
We are counter-cultural
by God's grace.
We've been made
citizens of the kingdom
of heaven
and we have
a spirit-born appetite
for the things
of God.
Of course it's not normal.
We stand out.
It's counter-cultural.
Don't let the world
deny you.
Don't let the world
deny you
what you're craving.
Don't let the world
give you
some empty calories
of worldly
empty promises.
Don't let that happen.
Our spirit-born
counter-cultural appetite
picks purity
over pornography.
That's what we want.
Purity.
Our spirit-born
counter-cultural appetite
craves to be generous,
not greedy.
We want to be
like our king.
Our spirit-born
counter-cultural hunger
hungers to be honest
and not to lie,
like our king.
Our spirit-born
counter-cultural appetite
wants to serve others,
not to be served.
It's very Christ-like.
Our spirit-born
counter-cultural appetite
longs for God's glory,
not our own.
Our spirit-born
counter-cultural appetite
is hankering
for world evangelization,
not worldwide
internet access.
Hey, that would be great,
but not as good
as people from every tribe,
tongue, and nation
coming to bow
at the knees
and worship Jesus.
as it were craving.
Our spirit-born
counter-cultural appetite
craves above all else
God's will.
We want what God wants.
This intense,
supernatural,
hungering,
thirsting for righteousness
is counter-cultural.
Now, I'm guessing
you're wondering
something right now.
What is this righteousness
that Jesus is talking about?
If it's all that,
I want to know.
Well, this appetite,
our seeking,
is for righteousness.
And where I want
to bring you
is this is Christ-likeness
that we're hungering for.
Chances are
that when you hear
the word righteousness
and if you've been raised
in a Protestant church,
you think in terms of
Pauline righteousness.
It's a legal righteousness,
a positional righteousness
that God imputes
to a sinner
like that
when they believe.
They're made
legally righteous
in God's sight.
It's the righteousness
of being justified.
And though that is true
of us in Christ,
that's not the nuance
of righteousness
that Jesus is talking
about here.
Matthew,
who wrote
the Gospel of Matthew,
uses righteousness
in a different way.
We see that
in chapter 5,
verse 10.
Blessed are those
who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake.
And then if you look
at verse 20
in chapter 5,
we read,
for I tell you,
unless your righteousness
exceeds that
of the scribes
and Pharisees,
you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven.
Righteousness
in the book of Matthew
is describing
a way of living.
We're not talking
about the legal
positional righteousness
of Paul,
but a real-time
practical righteousness
that results
from faith-filled
decisions
to do God's will.
Righteousness
is living in conformity
to the will of God.
That's what Jesus
is getting at here.
And what that requires
is faith-filled obedience
of both attitude,
what's in you,
and action.
And so this righteousness
that Jesus is talking
about here
is not a pharisaical
righteousness.
And a pharisaical
righteousness
was one that was
self-dependent
and aimed at
pleasing others,
impressing others.
That's not what's
going on here.
The righteousness
that Jesus
is talking about
is God-dependent
and God-aimed.
And Jesus
is going to spell
that out for us
in the rest
of the Sermon
on the Mount,
but I want to
bring you
one more step.
I hate goats.
I really hate them.
I have had some
less than pleasant
experiences with goats.
And as a result,
I don't like goat meat.
There's this
goaty aftertaste
and it just
makes me sad.
A couple years ago,
some friends
invited us over
and they served us tacos.
And as soon as
I bit into the taco,
I was like face-to-face
with a goat in my mind.
And I was like
I was like face-to-face
with a goat in my mind.
I asked,
is this,
does this happen
to be goat meat
in this taco?
And they're like,
well, yes, of course.
And then I said,
will you pass the chips,
please?
Because I can't handle
this anymore.
That taco
had a goaty flavor.
the righteousness that we hunger and thirst for.
And for some who come into contact with this kind of righteousness,
that flavor is repulsive.
But for those of us who've been born again,
the righteousness that we long for
has the savor of the Savior.
the flavor of our founder,
the tastiness of the one who was sinless.
It's got the zing of the king of kings.
It's got a strong aftertaste of the king of grace.
And we love it.
We can't get enough of it.
The righteousness here
is a Christ-like righteousness.
And we see it played out
all throughout the New Testament,
all throughout the Gospels.
You keep an eye on Jesus
and you see righteousness incarnate.
We want to be conformed to Him.
We want to be conformed to the will of God.
I'm not sure if you remember this being in your Bibles,
but in Romans 8.29, we read,
for those He foreknew,
He predestined,
He willed to be conformed
to the image of His Son.
And so if righteousness is conformed
to the will of God,
you better believe
that we're going to have a hunger and thirst
to be like Jesus.
And so this righteousness
is a Christ-like righteousness.
We hunger and thirst for Christ-likeness.
The Father made us alive by His Spirit
so that we would live for Christ
to be like Christ.
That's what we want.
That's what we're hungering and thirsting after.
And so when we talk about
we seek our appetite,
it is an appetite that is intense.
It is an appetite that's supernatural.
It's born in us.
It's an appetite that's counter-cultural.
It's an appetite for Christ-likeness
to be like Him.
And so as I close this first point,
I just want to ask you,
do you have the hunger?
Are you thirsty for Christ-likeness?
Do you want to be like Him
in every area of your life?
Do you want it?
Do you love others like Jesus loved others?
Do you long for the Word of God
as though it's pure spiritual milk?
You can't live without it.
And maybe you're settling for
empty calories of worldly promises
that don't satisfy.
Shove those aside
and turn to the One who satisfies.
Now let's turn there now.
We've talked about our appetite.
We seek.
Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness.
Let's look to the One who satisfies.
For they shall be satisfied.
That word for in verse 6,
blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness.
For they shall be satisfied.
You see in all the other beatitudes.
It signals the reason why.
The reason why someone
who hungers and thirsts
for righteousness is happy,
is blessed,
it's because they know
that they're going to be satisfied.
They got the promise.
And what you need to see here
is that satisfaction
is a satisfaction given by God.
Look back at 5.6.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness
for they shall be satisfied.
It's a passive verb.
You know what that means?
It means that the subject of the verse,
those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness,
they don't satisfy themselves.
They are satisfied by someone else.
The subject is being acted upon.
Who's the one doing the satisfying?
God alone satisfies our craving
for Christ-likeness.
God satisfies.
I'm not sure if you've figured this one out yet.
Sin never satisfies.
Christ always satisfies.
And so, for the remainder of our time,
I want to help you see
how God satisfies
a citizen of the kingdom of heaven
with Christ
three ways.
Before I get to them,
I want to just remind you
that as kingdom citizens,
we live in between
the kingdom inaugurated
with Jesus' first coming
and the kingdom consummated
when Jesus comes back
and He cleans house
and He makes all wrongs right.
And so, these three ways
that God will satisfy us with Christ,
what you need to understand
is that the first two
deal with the present.
A present satisfaction.
It's partial.
And the last one,
the future satisfaction.
That's going to be full and complete.
So, the first way
that God satisfies us in Christ,
we've already talked about it this morning,
God justifies us
through the finished work of Jesus.
I'm guessing that many of you
have this anxious hunger
for forgiveness,
to know that you've been forgiven,
to know that you're not condemned
for your sin,
and Jesus satisfies.
The doctrine of justification
helps us to be satisfied
in the finished work of Christ,
to rest in what He's done,
to be content in His work
on the cross on our behalf.
Our sin,
imputed to Christ,
God's wrath,
poured out in full on Jesus,
and simultaneously,
Christ's righteousness,
His perfect living for 32 years,
His perfect conformity
to the will of God,
that is imputed to us,
and because it's imputed to us,
what's poured out on our head
is not wrath,
but God's favor forever.
Let that satisfy you.
But it's a partial satisfaction
because if you're like me,
and I know you are in this area,
though you're justified,
you still sin.
We are simultaneously justified
and sinners.
In other words,
you have vying appetites within you.
There's something in you
that wants to hunger and thirst
for ungodliness still,
but there's something in you
born of the Spirit
that hungers and thirsts
for Christlikeness.
And so we're justified.
That is satisfying,
but it's partial
because I'm still wrestling with sin.
And so let me point you
to another way
that God satisfies us
in the present.
Would you turn to Romans 13, 14?
We are legally righteous
in God's sight.
Thank God for Jesus.
But we constantly fight our sin.
And one of the ways
we fight our sin,
we are shown in Romans 13, 14.
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ
and make no provision for the flesh
to satisfy its desires.
Find your satisfaction in Jesus
and it will crowd out desires for the flesh.
Christ justifies us
and Christ sanctifies us.
We dwell on Him.
We find our savor in the Savior
and it weakens the delight of sin.
We say no to sin
by being satisfied in Christ.
By putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what defines me.
Who defines me?
This is the one I live for.
This is the one that controls me.
This is the one I want to please.
If you have a sissy view of Jesus,
you're going to have a hard time
fighting sin.
But if you have a grand
and glorious view of Jesus,
if He just continues to ravish you,
like,
I can't believe Him.
He's awesome.
And you dwell on that.
And you put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
It will weaken the desire for sin.
God satisfies us in Christ.
He's justified us.
God satisfies us in Christ.
His delight in us
helps us to fight sin.
Those are the two for the present.
The last way that we find
our satisfaction,
that God satisfies us in Christ,
it's a future satisfaction.
They shall be satisfied.
And this future satisfaction
is our full and complete satisfaction.
When Jesus returns,
He said He would,
we will receive glorified bodies
unencumbered by sin
and we will see Him.
Faith turns to sight.
One of the joys of having
your resurrected body
is resurrected to eyeballs
that will see your Savior
and be with Him.
At that moment,
at that moment,
you lay eyes on Him.
At that moment,
you're in His presence
that you hear Him call your name.
At that moment,
you're going to be satisfied.
There's going to be a contentment
that you've never had.
It's going to be complete.
It's going to be full.
And it's going to be forever.
Because you're going to be
in His presence forever.
We will be with Him
completely satisfied
in His presence
for all times.
So we have present satisfaction
justified.
We're being sanctified.
We're dwelling on Christ
and we've got this promise
of a future satisfaction
of when we're actually
with Him.
I hope that makes you happy.
I hope you realize
your blessing,
how good that is.
There's one last thing
I want to add.
This is a satisfaction
that's guaranteed.
You can bank on it.
They shall be satisfied.
Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,
your future satisfaction
is guaranteed
because God never lies.
Jesus is coming back
and when He comes back,
you will experience
fullness and completeness
of satisfaction
in His presence.
You will be completely satisfied
by Christ Himself
for eternity.
He is,
Jesus is,
your satisfaction.
And He is
your guarantee.
So be happy.
Fight sin
with joy
because Jesus
is your satisfaction.
We seek.
God satisfies.
Christ is
our satisfaction.
satisfaction.
A satisfaction
that is guaranteed.
So let me just close
with this one question.
Who are you hungry for?
Let's pray.
God, we trust You
and Your Word.
Jesus, thank You for
this word,
this verse.
we look to You,
Lord Jesus.
We look to You.
I pray for us,
Your people,
that You would
deepen in us
a hunger and thirst
for Christ-likeness
and that, God,
You would meet
that hunger,
You'd meet that thirst
on this side of glory
that we'd find
satisfaction in Christ
but ultimately, God,
that we'd look forward
to being fully,
completely satisfied
when we see Him
face to face.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.