Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3157
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6.
[In the year 1873, Mr. Spurgeon delivered what he called “a series of sententious homilies” on the Beatitudes. After an introductory discourse upon the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes as a whole, he intended to preach upon each one separately, but either illness or some other special reason prevented him from fully carrying out this purpose. There are, however, six Sermons upon the Beatitudes, five of which have already been published—See Sermons #422, Volume 7— THE PEACEMAKER; #2103, Volume 35—THE HUNGER AND THIRST WHICH ARE BLESSED; #3155, Volume 55—THE BEATITUDES; #3156, Volume 55—THE FIRST BEATITUDE ; #3065, Volume 53—THE THIRD BEATITUDE.]
I REMARKED, on a former occasion, that each of the seven Beatitudes rises above the one which precedes it, and rises out of it. It is a higher thing to hunger and thirst after righteousness than to be meek, or to mourn, or to be poor in spirit. But no man ever becomes hungry and thirsty after righteousness unless he has first passed through the three preliminary stages—has been convinced of his soul poverty, has been made to mourn for sin and has been rendered humble in the sight of God. I have already shown that the meek man is one who is contented with what God has given him in this world, that he is one whose ambition is at an end and whose aspirations are not for things beneath the moon. Very well then, having ceased to hunger and thirst after this world, he is the man to hunger and thirst after another and a better one! Having said farewell to these gross and perishing things, he is the man to throw the whole intensity of his nature into the pursuit of that which is heavenly and eternal—which is here described as “righteousness.” Man must first of all be cured of his ardor for earthly pursuits before he can feel fervor for heavenly ones. “No man can serve two masters.” And until the old selfish principle has been driven out and the man has become humble and meek, he will not begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness.
I. Proceeding at once to consider our text, we notice here, first, THE OBJECTIVE WHICH THE BLESSED MAN DESIRES. He hungers and thirsts after righteousness.
As soon as the Spirit of God quickens him and really makes him a blessed man, he begins to long after righteousness before God. He knows that he is a sinner and that as a sinner he is unrighteous and, therefore, is condemned at the bar of the Most High. But he wants to be righteous. He desires to have his iniquity removed and the defilement of the past blotted out. How can this be done? The question which he asks again and again is, “How can I be made righteous in the sight of God?” And he is never satisfied until he is told that Jesus Christ is made of God unto us “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.” Then when he sees that Christ died in the sinner’s place, he understands how the sinner’s sins are put away—and when he comprehends that Christ has worked out a perfect righteousness, not for Himself, but for the unrighteous—he comprehends how, by imputation, he is made righteous in the sight of God through the righteousness of Jesus Christ! But until he knows that, he hungers and thirsts after righteousness—and he is blessed in thus hungering and thirsting.
After he has found Christ to be his righteousness as far as justification is concerned, this man then longs to have a righteous nature. “Alas,” he says, “it is not enough for me to know that my sin is forgiven. I have a fountain of sin within my heart and bitter waters continually flow from it. Oh, that my nature could be changed so that I, the lover of sin, could be made a lover of that which is good! That I, now full of evil, could become full of holiness!” He begins to cry out for this and he is blessed in the crying—but he never rests until the Spirit of God makes him a new creature in Christ Jesus. Then is he renewed in the spirit of his mind and God has given him, at least in measure, that which he hungers and thirsts
after, namely, righteousness of nature. He has passed from death unto life, from darkness to light! The things he formerly loved, he now hates, and the things he then hated he now loves!
After he is regenerated and justified, he still pants after righteousness in another sense—he wants to be sanctified. The new birth is the commencement of sanctification and sanctification is the carrying on of the work commenced in re-generation—so the blessed man cries, “Lord, help me to be righteous in my character. You desire Truth in the inward parts—keep my whole nature pure. Let no temptation get the mastery over me. Subdue my pride. Correct my judgment. Keep my will in check. Make me to be a holy man in the innermost temple of my being and then let my conduct toward my fellow men be in all respects all that it should be. Let me speak so that they can always believe my word. Let me act so that none can truly charge me with injustice. Let my life be a transparent one—let it be, as far as is possible, the life of Christ written over again.” Thus, you see, the truly blessed man hungers and thirsts for justification, for regeneration, and for sanctification!