SERMON OUTLINE

Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness  Matthew 5.6

Introduction

-Rosedale’s theme verse for this year and our desire for this fellowship. Pictures pursuit of God, shows the goal of righteousness, and promises filling.

-A key verse in the Beatitudes.

Righteousness Essential

-Must be righteous (holy) to know God

-Sin and the cross must always be part of the discussion

-The first 4 Beatitudes describe the process of becoming righteous before God and growing righteous before God.

Progression in the Beatitudes

-An outline for salvation and Christian growth

-Foundation: A recognition and acceptance that we are sinners before a Holy God. The flesh in Christians.

–Poor in spirit is the heart attitude the leads to the other Beatitudes. Mourning >> Meekness >> Hunger for righteousness

Two Kinds of Righteousness

1) Justification. Declared to be accepted by God through the sacrifice of Christ and the righteousness of Christ credited to us. A gift from God and a lasting reality.

2) Sanctification. Personal righteousness. A process of growth through obedience. Romans 6.9-22

Conclusion

We should be hungering and thirsting for righteousness and if we are not need to ask God to show us afresh our need of righteousness before a Holy God.

An Outline of the Beatitudes

V3, Foundation. Basic Heart attitude that motivates all

V4-6, Three heart responses. Heart attentiveness

V7-9, Three outward responses. Heart in action

V10-12, The world’s response. Heart antagonism

First four are character. Last four are conduct.

SERMON NOTES

Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

Matthew 5.1-6

-Verse 6 is the theme verse we selected for 2010 at our leadership retreat in January. That is why it is on the wall. It has taken six months to get to this verse as we worked our way through the Beatitudes but now we are here.

-This verse expresses the desire we have for you and this fellowship. That we will be a fellowship that hungers and thirsts for righteousness.

-I like this verse a lot because it pictures a pursuit of God in the imagery of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. This verse also clearly identifies the pursuit as righteousness, a pursuit we need to be regularly reminded of. Too often we pursue happiness or other things and not righteousness. (Matthew 6.33) Finally this verse promises that the pursuer of righteousness will be filled.

-This is a key verse in the Beatitudes as I hope to show you.

-Blessing that deeply satisfies the soul and spirit comes as a result of a right relationship with God. The more you know God and live for God’s Glory the more you will be blessed. In order to know God we must be righteous. Because God is Holy we need to be holy if we want to be in relationship with Him. A hunger and thirst for righteousness is a desire to be free from sin in order to be rightly related to God. Whenever righteousness is mentioned in the Bible, sin and the cross must be part of the discussion because sin prevents us from being right with God, and the cross is the only way that we can become right with God. The process of becoming right with God is what these first four Beatitudes describe. Only those who are right with God will know the deep satisfaction of peace, joy and hope in relationship to God and will then go on to show the character of God in mercy, purity, and peacemaking.

-What I want you to understand this morning is how the statement made in verse 6 progresses from the previous three statements. In the Beatitudes we find a description of how a person comes to faith in Christ and of the result of that faith in Christ. In the Beatitudes we also find described the ongoing process of maturity in the Christian life. Think of the Beatitudes as a basic outline of salvation and of the process of Christian growth.

-The foundation for both becoming a Christian and growing as a Christian is a recognition and acceptance that we are sinners before a Holy God. The sinfulness of man before a Holy God is an essential truth in the Bible. The first 2 chapters of the Bible tell us about the creation of man in the image of God and God’s command for man to obey Him. Then in chapter 3 we have man’s disobedience of God and man’s fall into sin. The rest of the Bible describes the devastating effect of sin on mankind and God’s redemption of mankind in Christ. Sin separates man from God and only God can bring man back to God. Even after we are born-again there is still that pull toward sin which the Bible calls the flesh, which we need to overcome by learning to walk in the Spirit.

-The first Beatitude “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” describes the heart attitude that leads to the rest of the Beatitudes. A recognition and acceptance that we are not righteousness before a Holy God and that we cannot make ourself righteous before a Holy God is where spiritual growth begins. Before God we are beggars who without His forgiveness and His righteousness will die and be separated from God for eternity. The Christian life begins with a realization and acceptance that we are poor in spirit because of our sin. For those who admit their sin God gives the gift of heaven in Jesus Christ. One of the great gifts of God is the conviction of sin and the realization that we are helpless and hopeless to get to God on our own. Thank God if He has made you aware of your sin and of your need of His Grace and of His Son Jesus Christ. If you are not aware of your sin before God then ask Him for the gift of the conviction of sin. That conviction of sin will lead you to salvation in Christ and to heaven.

-Christians also need to recognize and accept their need for growth in righteousness. As Christians study the Character of God from the Bible and by the revelation of the Holy Spirit see the flesh at work in them, they will admit to a poverty of spirit and a need for more righteousness in Christ.

-So an awareness of our sin and how we fall short of God’s glory is what begins and continues the process of righteousness before God. Mourning, meekness, and hungering-and-thirsting for righteousness, are heart responses to the recognition of poverty of spirit that results from sin. Mourning, meekness and hungering and thirsting for righteousness are the responses of a heart that is attentive to its spiritual poverty.

-Both the conviction of sin in the unbeliever, and the recognition of a need to be more like Christ in the believer, will lead to mourning the need for righteousness. Mourning the need for righteousness should produce meekness. Meekness is a humble acceptance of who we are before God and a surrender/submission of our life to God. The great mark of meekness is a teachable spirit and a willingness to obey God. This teachable spirit and willingness to obey God leads to the Beatitude we are looking at this morning – a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to have a deep longing and desire to be right with God in order to deepen in fellowship with God and know God.

-The three Beatitudes that follow, verses 7 to 9, are the outward response of a heart filled with righteousness, and the last Beatitude is the world’s response to righteousness.

-Hungering and thirsting for righteousness then is the longing of the person who is mourning their spiritual poverty, has humbled themselves before God, and desires to learn from God how they can be righteous before Him.

-Every sinner who comes to God needs two kinds of righteousness in order to be in right relationship to a Holy God. We need the righteousness of Justification, and we need the righteousness of Sanctification.

-Before we can live a righteous life before God we need to be righteous before God. How can a sinner be righteous before a Holy God? Committing one sin ends any attempt at being righteous before God. We have all committed many sins and cannot be righteous before a Holy God. The fact is that in ourselves we are not righteous but guilty sinners. The Bible also teaches that we are born under God’s condemnation as participants in Adam’s sin. So no action, effort, or attempt by us can make us righteous before a Holy God. We are powerless to be righteous before God.

–If God had not come into the world to save us from our sin, then our story would end with our dying in our sin, separated from God and condemned to hell. This is how the story will end for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ to save them from their sin.

-Praise God that He sent Jesus Christ to earth to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin. When Jesus was on the cross, God took my sin, which separated me from God, and put it on Jesus Christ so that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus for my sin, God forgave me when I asked Him. Once I was forgiven, God took the righteous life of Christ and credited it to me. So, in the sight of a Holy God I am not only forgiven but holy in the righteousness of Christ. God declares me right with Him because Christ died for my sin and I received his righteousness credited to me. Faith is trusting in Christ for my forgiveness and righteousness, and not trying to make myself righteousness before God. To be Justified is God declaring that I am accepted by Him because of the righteousness of Christ that has been credited (imputed) to me.

-If you are a Christian this morning you are righteous before God, you are Justified. You are accepted by God, and will always be accepted by God, and will never be rejected by God, even if you sin. You are accepted as holy before God and will always be accepted as holy before God because of the sacrifice and righteousness of Jesus Christ that has been credited to you.

-Justification is not something that is achieved by effort but is a gift from God. Justification is never taken away by God and is a lasting reality before God.

-From this truth of Justification by faith in Jesus Christ the Christian grows in personal righteousness through obedience to God. This process of growth in personal righteousness is called Sanctification (becoming more holy). The process is outlined quite well in Romans 6. We recognize that in our union with the death of Christ we died to sin, and that in union with the resurrection of Christ we are alive unto God. Because we are dead to sin and alive unto God we give the parts of our body as instruments of righteousness to God. Turn to Romans 6 and look at verses 19-22. [Read] The process is >> Offer our body to righteousness >> holiness >> eternal life.

-When we do sin, we are to confess our sin and keep moving forward in obedience to God because we have not lost our acceptance before God but remain Justified, right with God. As we give the parts of our body to God’s use we grow to become more like God in our attitudes, words and actions. We learn to walk in submission to the Spirit. As we see our need for spiritual growth and give ourselves to God, we hunger and thirst to be more like God. We become righteous before God even while God sees us as fully righteous in Christ.

-The promise in this verse is that those who seek for righteousness will be filled with righteousness before God, if they seek to be righteous God’s way and not by their own efforts. The blessings of fellowship with God and the peace, joy and hope of God, come to those who are righteous in the sight of God.

-As a Christian you should be hungering and thirsting for righteousness. If you are not hungering and thirsting for righteousness you need to go back to the beginning of the process outlined in these Beatitudes. You need to get before God and ask Him to show you your sin and how much you need the righteousness of God in your life. When you see your need you will mourn your spiritual poverty, abandon yourself to God, and hunger and thirst and seek for righteousness in Christ. God will meet your need with a greater assurance of your Justification in Christ, and a greater giving of yourself and your body to righteous behaviors in conformity to Christ and walking in the Holy Spirit.

-What a great gift God gives to us when He shows us what we are truly like before Him. As we see our spiritual need we will hunger and thirst for righteousness so that we might draw near to God and know His fellowship and blessings. May God put that hunger and thirst in our hearts.

Communion: Romans 5.1-2; 2 Peter 3.17-18