Matthew

[0:00] As the Lord shall be pleased to help me, I shall call your attention to a subject you will find in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, and the 6th verse.

[0:19] Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

[0:32] Chapter 5, the Gospel of Matthew, and the 6th verse. This is a word which stands in the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus Christ began to shine on earth as the light of the world.

[1:02] Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

[1:18] And it says in the preceding chapter, the people which sat in darkness saw great light.

[1:30] And to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up. From that time, Jesus began to preach.

[1:41] The Sermon on the Mount is the most wonderful exposition of the things of God. And you need heaven's own light to read it and understand the blessed teaching set forth therein.

[2:04] As I view it, the Savior was making it plain that a new dispensation was being ushered in regarding the worship of God.

[2:26] The Old Testament way of worship, whereby Israel of old were instituted therein, and how God was to be worshipped then, was now being abrogated.

[2:47] Because the word of God says, the law was a shadow of good things to come.

[3:00] And with the coming of Christ Jesus into the world to save sinners, the good things are here. Summed up in all that Jesus Christ is as the sinner's friend.

[3:17] And I want to make one thing plain. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them.

[3:37] Not just the multitudes, at large. Some subjects taken up in the Sermon on the Mount are addressed to those who were disciples.

[3:52] Ye are the salt of the earth. And such like words. Sometimes you find that people who have good intentions, such as some politicians, or they advocate that the principles of the Sermon on the Mount must be inculcated in our national life.

[4:20] And it would be very good indeed if it could be done. But it can only be done as poor sinners come on the right side of that scripture.

[4:30] You must be born again. And they are disciples. You cannot inculcate the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount in Acts of Parliament.

[4:43] And thus make the multitude to be religious. And to be Christian-like in their behavior. Because the word of God says, A new heart will I give you.

[5:00] A new spirit will I put within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. I will give you a heart of flesh. And I thought in pondering this word a little.

[5:13] If you look as I approach the subject as grace is given at some of these beatitudes. And think of them, shall I say, in reverse.

[5:30] You will see what the world thinks about the Sermon on the Mount. And now the first beatitude is, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Eh, but you find the world at large does not think being poor is heaped up happiness.

[5:49] Because man as he is born is proud. And then it says, Blessed are they that mourn.

[6:01] For they shall be comforted. But the world does not view mourning like that. Because the worldlings' creed is this. Let us eat, drink and be merry.

[6:14] And that is the attitude of the man in the street to the Sermon on the Mount. Until the eyes of the blind are opened. And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

[6:26] And then it says, Blessed are the meek. For they shall inherit the earth. Eh, the meek, who are the characters in the text, are trodden under foot of men as opportunity is afforded.

[6:44] The Selmy said, there was cause men to ride over our heads. And there are tens of thousands who are meek.

[6:54] The characters in the text who are under the heel of communism and Roman Catholicism. And they are persecuted for Jesus' sake.

[7:05] So that the worldling will never believe blessed are the meek. Heaped up happiness is in store for the meek. So that it is a great truth a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.

[7:23] And it says here, Blessed are the merciful. But you must admit that in everyday life as you read the news or listen to it all over the world man is unmerciful.

[7:42] Cruel. Acting according to the dictates of his carnal mind. At enmity to God and godliness. And it says, Blessed are the pure in heart.

[7:58] For they shall see God. Aba, the worldling, lives according to that heart which he brought into the world with him when he was born.

[8:11] The heart which is indeed deceitful, desperately wicked. And pureness of heart is no attraction for him. Is it an attraction for you?

[8:25] It is good to have this in your religion. Jesus' blood for sinners spilt. I depend on solely to release me from my guilt.

[8:37] But I would be holy. Be of sin the double cure. Cleanse me from its guilt and power all to have pureness of heart.

[8:48] That is how these people in the text feel. And then it says, Blessed are the peacemakers. But then the world nowadays is just lawless.

[9:04] Peace-breaking. As every opportunity is afforded to break out and make mischief and undo that which has taken centuries to build up for the world to be a better place to live in.

[9:19] Yes. You see, dear friends, it is sinners born again who will have ears to hear, hearts to receive the Sermon on the Mount and seek divine aid, to hoard up the sacred word and feed thereon and grow, go on to seek to know the Lord and practice what they know.

[9:44] And now, let us start afresh. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.

[9:57] And now, first of all, I would look at this word righteousness and it embraces all that is to do with religion that God is the author of.

[10:11] The word of God speaks about three kinds of righteousness. One no longer exists, but it did exist for a while.

[10:24] When God made Adam and Eve and placed them in Eden's garden, they had inherent righteousness, which is to say that they were righteous by nature.

[10:38] They had a perfect moral righteousness whereby they could do good and because they were so created they could hold converse and have fellowship with their creator as he walked in the garden sometimes in companionship with them.

[11:08] It is a beautiful picture to contemplate. But then that righteousness which Adam and Eve were the subjects of inherent righteousness was losable and they lost it.

[11:23] And having lost it, they began to see if they could find some other kind of righteousness to be a covering. And they sewed fig leaves together.

[11:35] If so be that would do, but it was a very solemn failure. And then God came down into the garden to deal with the matter of the Adam fall.

[11:46] And as I have told you often, the Lord God drove them out of the garden to live no longer therein because they no longer had a righteousness wherein they had a capacity to live there as creatures before their creator.

[12:05] And they went out into the earth under a curse. But I have thought about it many a time. The word of God says that the Lord God made them coats of skins.

[12:22] skins. And thus they were clothed to right. And so they had to begin to live their lives anew, clothed in those coats of skins made by God as their creator.

[12:42] And that leads our thoughts to the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ. and remember that is a righteousness made by God.

[12:58] Not one stitch of man's work is in it. God made it. Jesus Christ came down into this world and was made of a woman made under the law and as verily man verily God he lived under that law and kept it in all its demands and thereby wrought out of righteousness for everyone whom God had ordained to life eternal a number which no man can number.

[13:32] And you and I must be clothed in it or you can never go through the gates of Pearl and be made welcome. The thing is impossible.

[13:44] The Saviour said in the Sermon on the Mount For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

[14:04] And now that righteousness which is as a robe is called imputed righteousness. To him writer says unless the shadow of a spot should on my soul be found he took the robe the Saviour wrought and spread it all around.

[14:23] Jesus Christ says to poor sinners concerned to be clothed in it I bring near my righteousness to poor sinners like you. And you in hungering for it will be saying with top lady naked I come to thee for dress because you will be stripped of all your fancied meekness to approach the dread I am.

[14:51] Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. And now the third viewpoint of righteousness is imparted righteousness righteousness and that means the whole of the spirit's operations in beginning the good work and carrying it on and completing it.

[15:19] And I want to dwell on that most of all because if you and I are the subjects of that imparted righteousness then we shall be right before God right before man.

[15:34] Yes. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Mark how that is worded.

[15:47] They which do. Many have heard about it sung about it but they do not hunger and thirst after it.

[15:58] It is not the all important concern with them as they journey on through life to possess it to be clothed in it as a robe and to have it imparted in their hearts as the governing factor in their everyday lives.

[16:16] It is a great mercy if you and I do hunger and thirst after it. May this my blessed experience be to hunger Lord and thirst for thee and on thy righteousness to live which can both food and comfort give.

[16:38] And I want as the Lord shall help me to work out that line of thought. Remembering this righteousness embraces the whole of the work of grace in a sinner's breast where'er it is begun.

[16:54] Blessed are they heaped up happiness awaits them in the covenant of grace. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.

[17:09] There is a negative hunger and thirst which all men as they are born are the subjects of. And that is to be after the flesh the things of the flesh.

[17:24] The man in the street at this evening hour is on his way here and there and yonder if so be he can satisfy the hunger and thirst he possesses that his carnal mind might be eased and pleased a while and as he feels satisfied and yet tomorrow he will still be unsatisfied discontented and tomorrow he will be doing it all over again and never gaining any real ground but he finds in his breast something that is like the horse leeches two daughters ever crying give give and with all he receives he is never filled and he is never contented and he is never satisfied it is a great mercy if you and I have been made to differ from the world at large so that you and

[18:29] I are no longer living after the flesh the things of the flesh but you are here before God because you are the subject of a hunger and thirst after the spirit the things of the spirit it is a beautiful wording the things of the spirit the love of God shed abroad in your heart the grace of God to subdue all that you are by nature the mercy of God to overtop all your guiltiness before God yes and to know the truth by a gracious experience the things of the spirit oh to feel that they are our meat and drink much much might be said under that heading blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness and now in this hunger and thirst there will be some special characteristics which I would touch on the psalmist said long ago my soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall

[19:48] I come and appear before God you will find if God has given you some religion that he is the author of that you will have to be often in touch with him as the author of it and that is that he will maintain it carry it on then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord and this hunger and thirst can be summed up like this it is to be right and that is right before God matters right between your soul and God to be able to have this epitaph on your tombstone and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord godly fear is an umptuous light to what is right a bar to what is wrong you hunger and thirst to live like that because you know according to what you are by nature that you have no concern whatever to live such a life oh but this hunger and thirst will cause you much painful experience that you might be helped to live such a life the life of the righteous it has in it a hunger and thirst to know for certain you do want certainties in your soul's experience

[21:30] I say to know for certain that you are born again do you know that you are you say I do hope I am I hope you are I believe many of you are but you will hunger and thirst like this often assure my conscience of her part in the redeemer's blood and bear the witness with my heart that I am born of God you will never grow weary of begging show me a token for good say unto my soul I am thy salvation remember me oh lord with the favor that thou bearest unto thy people oh visit me with thy salvation you will find in your heart an amen always well enough to petitions like that and now that is the hunger and thirst and it denotes you were born again it is the fire ascending which seeks the sun because the fire ascending is of the nature of the sun remember that blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness and now when a sinner is born again and he is brought to have to do with God as it were before

[22:55] Sinai's mount he will hunger then and thirst after righteousness as a robe as I hinted earlier on he will want to have some sure evidence that he is clothed in it and thus made meat for the inheritance of the saints in light and the word of God is very searching and solemn about it you do not need the preacher to tell you and remind you of the man who was found at the wedding feast without a wedding garment on friend how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment and he was speechless he was a kind of gate crasher as the phrase nowadays is eh but he did not find a welcome because he had not the proper clothing and you and I can never enter the gates of pearl unless the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus

[24:04] Christ is the robe in which we are dressed Jehovah said keen you the Lord our righteousness and then in this hunger and thirst you will find it in your everyday life especially at the end of the day and that is when you appear before God as you do God be merciful to me a sinner oh it is a hunger and thirst for mercy because you will sometimes feel at the end of the day that this hunger and thirst is even intensified because it may be during the day you have given your time and your thoughts to earn in the bread which perisheth the duties and difficulties of everyday life in the stress and strain of it has worn you down as regards the things of

[25:05] God and you will be saying at the end of the day leave not my soul destitute and there is the hunger and thirst you want something from God ere you close your eyes to know that matters are indeed adjusted between him and you and you can say I will lay me down and sleep in peace for thou Lord makest me to dwell in safety yes it is a hunger and thirst to obtain mercy and then and then it will be also a hunger and thirst to find grace to help in time of need and now that will show you how continual will be the experience or rather the exercise it is both put together the exercise and the experience of hungering and thirsting because when is it not a time of need with you or me

[26:10] I need thy presence every passing hour not but thy grace can foil the tempter's power who like thyself my guide my stay can be in clouding sunshine Lord abide with me you will hunger and thirst for more grace you will have words looming as it were before the eyes of your faith such a word as this he giveth more grace and that will be attractive to you it touches a chord in your soul's feelings more grace how glad you would be to get it and you hunger and thirst after it and you do receive it but you cannot always feel that you can set up a way mark here and there in the reception of it what I mean is this he lends an unseen hand he gives a secret from and there shall be hoping with a little help and then you do not set up a big

[27:24] Ebenezer but you get the help and you receive more grace and I will tell you what will prove that you ask him still for more and his grace which makes men feel their need and cry to God for more you remember how often I quote Joseph Hart's lines ever on thy captain calling make thy worst condition known he shall hold thee up when falling or shall lift thee up when down thus you hunger and thirst for more grace but then you will hunger and thirst too for a broken heart a contrite spirit you will hunger and thirst to have some feeling in your religion not that you will stand upon frames and feelings I will make that plain you are glad to have good frames and feelings but if you should only have other kinds of frames and feelings that makes no difference to your standing before God remember that oh but you are glad when you can hunger and thirst and God is pleased to give you what the hymn writer refers to dissolved by thy goodness

[28:50] I fall to the ground and weep to the praise of the mercy I found oh that is a sweet blessed experience a broken and a contrite heart oh God thou wilt not despise and I might add this you will hunger and thirst to have a thankful heart you know sometimes when the hymns are announced something in your heart goes out with the hymn writer and you feel to be at one with him in what he is asking for in the hymn take our opening hymn in this evening service oh Lord I would delight in thee and on thy care depend to thee in every trouble plea my best my only friend your heart responds to him and it is because you are a sinner born again it sets forth exactly what you desire to do delight thyself in the

[30:03] Lord and they shall give thee the desires of thine heart and oh how you will hunger and thirst at times for a thankful heart as you survey the mercies of everyday life bestowed upon you altogether beyond our reckoning how great they are some how high they rise can ne'er be known beneath the skies blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness and now all these characteristics I have just touched on a little all culminate in this that I may win Christ and be found in him you see it in the psalmist in his great desire one thing have I desired of the Lord that will

[31:04] I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple that I may know him and the power of his resurrection the fellowship of his suffering and be made conformable to his death there you get the illustration of what it really is to hunger and thirst after righteousness as it was known and felt by Saul of Tarsus and then as he was made to be the apostle Paul to preach the gospel of the grace of God I have read to you for I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees he shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven and now

[32:04] Saul of Tarsus was almost choked with that righteousness and he was depending on it and even thought he was doing God's service to hail men and women really taught of God to prison but when his eyes were opened and when this hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ was wrought in his soul's feelings what did he say then regarding all the righteousness the doings of the great eye that he had accumulated oh he counts it dung and dross and he scrapped it as of no value and it is good to have a right sense of values in our soul's experience the doings of the great eye have got no value before God and to every sinner born again they have no value either regarded as filthy rags not the labor of my hands can fulfill the laws demands but you will be hungering and thirsting after righteousness in every sense in which you feel your need of it as you journey through life you will hunger and thirst for wisdom to handle life's matters wisely and you do find as you journey on that life is very complicated every day new straits attend and you need divine aid to behave aright and you have to say so often oh Lord we know not what to do but our eyes are up to thee

[34:06] Christ the wisdom of God hungering and thirsting that he will show us the right way wherein we should go like Moses when he said if now I have found grace in thy sight show me now thy way and give me a sign that thou talkest with me oh that the Lord would in his great mercy deepen this hunger and thirst in our souls exercises blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness but I must look at the subject from another viewpoint and the saviour declares for they shall be filled and now there you will have to weigh the matter up before God and do not think

[35:06] I am making a distinction without a difference but this filling is a lifelong process from the time a sinner is born again there are experiences when you feel for the time to be full of the blessing of the Lord being upon you but the effect of it dies down the reality of it remains but you cannot get this word in the fulfilling of it to the full until you step out of time into eternity and appear before God but you do get earnest of it and that is the filling blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled the word shall makes it to be in the future tense it is what you can plead with

[36:11] God to do for you and he would do it as a rule here a little there a little line upon line precept upon precept the word of God speaks about the earnest of the spirit if you and I had been living in apostolic times it might have been our mercy and our privilege and pleasure to know more about the filling in the sense of being full because the apostle Paul I remember in the Ephesians epistle he has a great work where he says that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God did you ever feel like that at any time filled with all the fullness of God strictly speaking the thing is impossible but it means that your earthen vessel can be filled brimful as much as it will hold but when you think of the fullness of God yet you must be made full like that in your soul's experience ere you die or when you do to come into the deep down meaning of this word before us blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled you know dear friends when you try to pray and most of you do if not all

[38:09] I'm not taking things for granted I leave it between the Lord and you but all of you who try to pray you know that you tell the Lord much more about your emptiness and you say my leanness my leanness and you hang round that word he will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer you know much more of that line of things than you do about being filled with the fullness of God yet what did the saviour say ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full and now some of us can look back to sweet moments when we have known what it is to be filled with the joy of the Lord but as I said it dies down the reality of it remains to strengthen your faith and to help you to thank

[39:18] God and take courage but you still become empty again and feel destitute and if the time allowed although I must not take it it might be possible to prove that you being so empty preacher and people alike must all plead guilty here I say you being so empty and so destitute and so withered and barren in your soul's feelings is there not a cause is it to do with God with whom you have to do or does the onus of you being as you are in your soul's experience rest on you indeed it does when prayer is a burden and task no wonder I little receive oh Lord make me willing to ask since thou art so ready to give blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled there is a being filled for the time with joy spiritual joy and you can say my meditation of him shall be sweet

[40:41] I will be glad in the Lord and sometimes you do feel to be filled with the peace of God which passeth all understanding possessing your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus so that in his dealings with you you can enter into one scripture which you cannot do very often be still and know that I am God think of Job in his deep down distress and yet in the midst of it what did he say the Lord gave the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord and he had that filling for the time in his soul's experience the peace of God pervaded his breast sometimes you were filled with comfort and that may be in the means of grace the

[41:44] God of all comfort remembers you with the favor that he bears unto his people and you say Lord it is good for us to be here the apostle Paul says nevertheless God that comforted them which are cast down comforted us with the coming of Titus and for that time he was filled with comfort God may use any of his means of grace either in public or private what you must be doing is to make known your hunger and thirst give it a voice bread of heaven feed us now and evermore yes you might be well dressed as you go about but none could tell that you were hungry and thirsting for the want of things to keep you going in everyday life unless you made some confession of it and you must make a confession of it before

[42:59] God because he is so ready to fulfill this word blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled not only with comfort how good it is to be filled with the love of God I hope I have known that just a little two or three times in my life but they are very few and far between us rule God only knows the love of God oh that it now was shed abroad in my poor stony heart the hymn writer says and you can understand how he fell you hunger and thirst for the love of God the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ for they shall be filled to

[44:27] God to God to God to the God to the Romans but I must come to the Amen for they shall be filled there are just two other viewpoints of it I touch on for you to prayerfully think about and one is very essential and that is to be filled with resignation to the will of God concerning in you and yours be reconciled to God the word of God says and it is a sweet blessed experience when you can humble yourself under the mighty hand of God in his dealings with you and yours and say it is the Lord enthroned in life whose claims are all divine who has an undisputed right to govern me and mine and for the time you were filled with submission resignation reconciled to

[45:30] God you know then peace on earth and mercy mild God and sinners reconciled but there is just one more filling I hope you have already had and if not I hope you will have it quite a few times of the world then you will get deep down into the meaning as I have told you of this word blessed all the heaped up happiness of they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled be this religion yours and mine

[47:11] Amen l bird in than sour b John j he has me called her card lateral Ultima ed