Blessed are the pure in heart, Matthew 5:8

Today we are looking once again at our ongoing study of the Sermon on the Mount, and we are looking specifically at one of the Beatitudes.  The Beatitudes, you will remember, constitute a list of the characteristics of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.  This is the basis of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jesus, as the Apostle John described, is the Word made flesh, who dwelt among us.  He was in the beginning with God, He is God, and all things were made by Him.  So this is the message of God to the world.  This message gives the world the requirements to become a citizen of heaven, not just a citizen of the temporal world, but the way to be transferred into the eternal kingdom of God and to enjoy all the blessings of that citizenship forever.

Throughout the centuries, man has been searching for the fountain of youth. Searching for a way to escape death. A way to achieve immortality.  Ponce de Leon thought that he found the fountain of youth when he explored Florida. But time eventually proved his hope was false.  However, God has told us in His word how that we might have eternal life.  Jesus came to earth to provide the means by which we can enter into immortality and have life more abundantly.  But this eternal life isn’t found in a fountain in Florida, but in the fountain of blood which flowed from Calvary, when Jesus gave His life on the cross so that whosoever believes in Him might have everlasting life and enter into the citizenship of heaven.

The particular Beatitude we are considering today is found in vs 8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” We have said before that all of the Beatitudes are for all Christians, and they are all essential for citizenship in the kingdom of heaven.  But this particular Beatitude seems to have a certain preeminence.  Of all the Beatitudes, this one certainly seems to offer the ultimate goal of our religion, that we might see God. That we might be found fit to stand before the majesty and glory of God and not perish.  And if we should stand in HIs presence and live, then must we not then have true life, since He is the source of life?

So it brings up the question, why was not this the first of the Beatitudes?  Why here at this point, not first and yet not quite in the middle? Well, I believe the answer comes in recognizing that God has a divine order in these Beatitudes. There is a progression in the Beatitudes. The one who aspires to become a citizen of the kingdom of heaven must first recognize the poverty of his spiritual condition (blessed are the poor). Then recognizing his poverty of spirit, he must mourn over his sin which is repentance (blessed are they that mourn). Along with repentance is the need to humble yourself before God and recognize your need for a Savior.  To recognize your lostness, and call upon God to save you requires humility (blessed are the meek).  Then in response to your cry for salvation, comes the supply of the Savior, righteousness imputed to your account through the grace of God. (Blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled).

This imputation of righteousness to my account, makes me cognizant of my own unworthiness, and out of God’s mercy to me, I become merciful.  Through the change of heart which God gives me in salvation,  I acquire the compassion of God. (Blessed are the merciful).  Then in addition to that characteristic of God which is mercy, He adds another, holiness.  I am holy because of the imputed righteousness of Christ, and purified in holiness by the Spirit of Holiness who works within me.  Purity cannot happen until I am regenerated.  I cannot obtain purity on my own.  And so that is why this principle comes at the point in which we find it here. Purity is the result of my regeneration. Purity is the result of receiving the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Now let’s break down this doctrine more thoroughly by looking at the individual terms contained in it.  The first one we should consider is “heart”. The word heart is a word used often in the Bible. God told Samuel, “man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.”  The inward part of a man is that which God is greatly interested.  But of course, God is not referring to our physical heart, the organ that pumps blood through our veins.  The heart speaks of the center of our being.  The heart is the seat of our desire, the source of our will, the origin of our affections, the origin of our motives.  It is the seat of our emotions.  It includes the mind, the intellect.  It’s the total center, the soul of our being.

A lot of people want to characterize the heart as primarily the emotional aspect of our being.  We hear references to someone’s heart is breaking, or their heart is full of love, etc.  But the heart as God speaks of it must be both emotional and intellectual and  comprehends all of our inward faculties such as our will, our motives, and desires.  The Bible always emphasizes the heart as the source of our actions.  Jesus said in Matthew 12: 35, “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”

So the heart is not only the source of good things, but of evil things. Jesus said in chapter 15 vs 19,  “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Proverbs says, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”  The great fallacy of modern society has been an attempt to attribute man’s lawlessness, or wickedness to his environment.  Modern philosophy says that if you change one’s environment, then you can change the person.  But when they say that, it escapes their notice that man started out in a perfect environment in the Garden of Eden.  And yet even in a perfect environment, man fell into sin.  The source of our sin is found in the heart, in our affections, in our will, in our intellect, in our desires.

The prophet Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately wicked; Who can understand it?”  So we need to understand that man’s wickedness is not a product of his environment, it’s not a condition of circumstances that we can overcome, but it’s a matter of the natural sinful inclinations of the heart.  The solution to our problem is not to try to add something to it, or change it’s environment, but we need a new heart altogether.

Jesus said, “blessed are the pure in heart.”  We have just established that the heart of man is deceitful and desperately, hopelessly wicked.  Now we hear that God’s standard is a pure heart.  The next question then would be what is meant by a pure heart?  There are two primary meanings of that word which are accepted by most Bible scholars.  One meaning is that it refers to the idea of singleness, or without hypocrisy.  What that is talking about is being devoted to one purpose. Having a single minded devotion.  

Psalm 86:11 speaks to this idea; “ Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.”  The problem with us is our divided heart.  We say love God, yet we still love the world.  A pure heart then is one which is not divided.  That’s why the Psalmist says unite my heart.  Take out the dueling affections which pull me in different directions.  May I be solely devoted to the Lord.

The other meaning of the word purity is the idea of being cleansed. To be undefiled, unspotted by the world, is the idea of purity.  After David sinned with Bathsheba he prayed a prayer of repentance and asked the Lord to give him a clean heart, to purify him from his sin.  That prayer is found in Psalm 51; “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. ...  Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ...  Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. ... The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”  If we are to have a pure heart then we need it to be cleansed and made right by the Lord.  A pure heart is sanctified, holy, set apart, devoted to God above all else.

The ultimate example of a pure heart is of course, Jesus Christ. He was the spotless Lamb of God.  He was without sin,  the One in whom they could find no fault.  He was utterly devoted to the Father. He loved the Father.  Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with an undivided love.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and all your mind.”  That’s an undivided, pure love for God that puts Him before all else.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks the question, “What is the chief end of man?”  The answer is, “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” That should be the supreme purpose of our life, to love God and serve Him forever.  To know Him, to love Him and to serve Him.  That is what it means to be pure in heart.  To put the Lord first in your life.

To be pure in heart requires holiness.  Peter’s epistle quotes God as saying, “Be holy even as I am holy.”  To be holy is to be pure in heart. Hebrews 12:14 says, “pursue…holiness, without which, no one will see the Lord.”  It’s interesting to notice that Jesus says the pure in heart will see God, and Hebrews says without holiness no one will see God.  So obviously purity and holiness are synonymous. If you would see God, then you must be pure of heart and holy.  Holiness and purity speak of the entirety of being.  You can’t be partly holy.  You either are 100% or you are not. 

That brings us to the other term that needs explanation.  What is meant by “they shall see God?”  I believe there are two meanings to this.  One is that we may see God now, and the other meaning we shall see God in glory.  In a manner of speaking, we can see God now with the eye of faith.  We see Him in scripture most clearly. In scripture we come to know Him.  It is written, in thy light we see light.  We see God in scripture.  We are purified through scripture. In Ephesians 5:25 it says, “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”  So we are purified in the word and we see God in the word.

Paul said speaking in Romans 1 that we can see in nature  the invisible attributes of God, His eternal nature.  And we see the hand of God in the events of history and fulfilled prophecies.  As it is said of Moses in Hebrews 11 that by faith he endured, “as seeing Him who is invisible.”  By faith we see God.

But there will also be a day when those who are Christians  will see Him face to face. Paul said “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”  One day we shall see Him as He is in all His glory.  John said in 1Jo 3:2-3 “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope [fixed] on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

I don’t think that the natural man can fully ascertain what it means to see God face to face.  I don’t believe that there is any greater experience in life than to see God. To be in His unmitigated presence. Nothing else on earth can even be compared to it.  Men risk their lives, many of them losing their lives, in order to climb to the top of Mt. Everest, to experience the thrill of being on the top of the world, at the highest peak.  Men risk their lives pursuing extreme sports like riding giant waves or jumping out of airplanes, hoping to find a moment of pure bliss in which everything else in life fades away.  We all believe that finding true love can provide a glimpse of that kind of experience.  But I believe all those things cannot even be compared to the promise of being face to face with the Almighty God, immortal, invisible, the Creator of the universe, wonderful, majestic, holy, wrapped in light, attended to by thousands upon thousands of  powerful, angelic beings.  To be in the presence of the source of truth, the source of light, the source of life, by which all things hold together and have their being is something incomprehensible to finite man.

Theologians call this principle of seeing God the beatific vision.  To one day see God face to face is to experience all the blessings of life in perfect fullness and perfect satisfaction and perfect joy.  It is incomprehensible and beyond comparison.  But we know that  it will be worth it all, when we see God.

So the logical question remains, how do we attain being pure in heart? First let me say what it is not.  It isn’t becoming a monk. It’s not sequestering yourself away from the affairs of this world in a cave somewhere. It’s not found in a vow of poverty, or a vow of silence. ( though I might wish some people would take a vow of silence.) It’s not found in celibacy.  It’s not in something that we can do in or of ourselves.  

The answer to how I may be found pure in heart is found in David’s prayer once again. “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me.”  God alone is the one who is able to create in me a clean heart.  And in Ezekiel 36:25 we read that God promises to give a new heart to  those who mourn over their sinful state. "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

That’s the most wonderful promise of God to cleanse you and give you a new heart, to purify you and make you holy by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  It is the work of God, but we must also continually offer our hearts to God as a process of our sanctification.  James says,  Cleanse your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts you double minded.” The fact that God gives me a new heart and cleanses me from all unrighteousness is motivation for a constant renewing of my mind which goes on continually, day by day as I follow after the Lord.  It requires a daily mortification of the flesh, that we might walk in newness of life.

John said in 1John 3:3 “And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.” Are you purifying your heart in preparation for seeing the Lord?  Do you have a single minded devotion to the things of God, or are your affections divided?  Do you love the world, or love the Lord with all your heart?  Only those who are pure in heart will see God.  Examine yourself, and if you fall short in that examination, then pray the prayer which David prayed. 

Psalm 51:5-12 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.  Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.  Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.  Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities.  Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.”

The sacrifices that God accepts is the sacrifice of a broken spirit;

A broken and a contrite heart,  God will not despise.

Blessed are the merciful, Matthew 5:7

There is a tendency in modern evangelicalism today to make a distinction between faith and obedience.  That is a distinction that is not shared by the gospel of  Jesus Christ.  And this message we know as the Sermon on the Mount is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Someone has said, that in the gospels we have the gospel proclaimed.  And in the epistles we have the gospel explained.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is announcing, proclaiming, preaching the gospel.  His gospel.  

And it’s the only gospel we have.  There is not  a gospel of Jesus and another gospel of Paul.  The Corinthian church made that mistake, some saying I am of Paul, and another I am of Peter, and another I am of Christ.  Paul said that Christ has not been divided. There is one Lord, one faith and one baptism.  Paul said he was called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I heard a preacher say the other day that Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount  to the Jews, and thus it was not really something that we could appropriate because we are under a different covenant.   Let me tell you something; the gospel is the same since Creation.  The means of appropriating it are different, but the gospel is the same.  In the Old Testament they looked forward to the cross, today we look backward to the cross.  But the gospel is the same.  We are saved the same way that Abraham was saved.  Three times in the NT, in Romans and Galatians and James, the OT is quoted as saying, “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”  So in the OT salvation was by faith, and in the NT salvation is by faith.  The gospel hasn’t changed.

But back to my point, a lot of people want to make a distinction between faith and obedience that isn’t really taught in the gospel.  There is a story that might explain what I mean.  There  was a fire in an apartment building once that quickly consumed the lower floors.  And when the firemen arrived, they spotted a little girl that was trapped on the 6th floor.  She had the window open, and was looking down at the flames quickly climbing up the building.  The firemen took one of those round trampoline type of tarps and spread it open and pulled it taut.  The captain called out to the little girl with a megaphone, “Jump out of the window!  We will catch you.”  But the little girl was scared of the great height.  She was afraid to jump.  The firemen were confident that they could catch her and were urging her to jump, but her fear seemed to paralyze her.  Finally, the flames got so hot and had almost reached the room she was in, and at the last minute, she climbed onto the window sill, closed her eyes and jumped.  And the firemen caught her in the tarp.  The little girl was saved.  But I want to ask you a question.  What was it that saved the little girl?  Was it faith that the firemen could catch her?  Was it trust in what the captain said?  Was it because she finally believed the captain?  Or was it obedience to the command of the captain to jump?  

I submit to you that she could have had all the faith, all the trust, have believed fully everything that the captain said, but unless she acted on that faith, until she was obedient to his call, she would have perished.  The point that I want to make is that there is a connection between faith and obedience that cannot be dismissed.  One cannot exist without the other. 

Jesus spoke of this necessity for obedience and faith to be combined in much of His preaching.  At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, for instance, He says in Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

Notice that He is emphasizing there the works of faith, doing the will of God, rather than just giving lip service. 

Jesus further emphasizes that in Luke 6:46, "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?  "Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like:  he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.  "But the one who has heard and has not acted [accordingly,] is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”  Notice again the emphasis on acting on the word of Christ, not just hearing or even agreement, but acting in obedience to the word of God.

Now I make that point this morning because as James said, “Faith without works is dead.” But three times in the NT it says, quoting Habakkuk, “the just shall live by faith.” Our faith produces a life that is governed by faith, producing a faith and obedience that is ongoing.  Living in a way that does not come naturally.  Of course, the whole Christian life is not a natural life, but a spiritual life.  It requires first of all, that you are born again spiritually.  We are all born naturally in our mother’s womb, but in order to enter the kingdom of God, you must be born spiritually.  That’s what Jesus referred to as being born again in HIs conversation with Nicodemus in John 3.  

So there must be  a transformation from death to life, there must be a conversion from natural to spiritual.  There must be given a new heart.  Not an actual new physical heart, but the term heart speaks of the soul, the seat of the mind, will and emotions.  So by the grace of God in response to our faith in Christ, at our new birth we are given a new heart, new desires, new attitudes.  But I want to make the point today that even though you have been given a new heart, with new desires to serve the Lord, to love the Lord, there is a maturation process that begins at that new birth which continues until the day we die.  And some of the characteristics of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven as Jesus describes him here, are not going to come about automatically as a result of your new birth.  Some attitudes or behaviors or characteristics are learned.

To use the analogy of our natural birth, a child becomes a son or daughter of the parents by birth, but they are then raised by the parents to be the men and women that they are supposed to become.  There are some characteristics in that child that are inculcated in their the DNA, passed down from their parents.  But there are other characteristics that are trained into them by their parents.  The spiritual birth is not much different than that.  We are born again in the Spirit, to have a spiritual nature, to have a new heart, new attitudes, new behavior.  But then we are trained in righteousness, we practice righteousness, we follow the example of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Some aspects of our Christianity are learned behavior.  That learned behavior is a process which is spoken of in scripture as being led by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit.  It’s living by faith according to what God has declared to be true even though it doesn’t come naturally.  It’s living according to the instruction of the Spirit rather than by the natural tendencies of the flesh.

Today’s Beatitude I believe fits into that category of a characteristic which is taught and we are trained in. Jesus says the citizen of the kingdom of heaven is merciful, and as a result they receive mercy. I believe this characteristic of being merciful is a characteristic that is learned, that is practiced. That it doesn’t come naturally, nor automatically.  Did you know that we are supposed to practice certain things in our Christianity that are not natural, but that we become more proficient at as we grow in the Lord? In Hebrews 5, talking about obedience to the word of God in relation to spiritual immaturity or maturity , it says in vs 14 “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”  So we practice righteousness, following the example of Christ.  

Peter talks about the need to pattern our lives after Jesus. 1Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  Peter says we are to imitate Jesus, following in His footsteps. And we know that Jesus was merciful, even as God is merciful.  That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.  We pattern our life after His life.

John speaks to the necessity of practicing righteousness in 1John 3:10 “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”  Children will exhibit the characteristics of their parents, and so we that are Christians will exhibit the characteristics of Christ.

Now speaking of righteousness, notice that this Beatitude follows on the previous one, which is hungering and thirsting for righteousness.  I have said previously that there is a divine order to these Beatitudes, that they build on one another.  And this one is no exception.  In fact, the previous principle of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and then being filled with righteousness as a result of that hungering and thirsting, makes it essential that the principle of being merciful should follow it.

What I mean is this;  having received righteousness which is by grace, it is essential we must remember that we are undeserving, we were hopelessly lost, we were enemies of God and estranged from God, so that the gift of Christ’s righteousness does not puff us up, does not give us a holier than thou attitude, but that we remember that it was only by the mercy and grace of God that we did not get what we deserved, because what we deserved was death.  Having received such mercy when we were yet sinners, should cause us to be merciful to others who sin against us.  

That principle reminds us that this is not a natural tendency.  When someone sins against us, our natural tendency is to strike back, to take revenge.  To get even.  Or at least to get defensive.  Maybe fantasize about how pay back is going to be sweet.  Just wait.  But that isn’t the attitude that Jesus says citizens of the kingdom have.  Citizens of the kingdom are blessed, because they live under the sovereign rule of God, are citizens of His kingdom, and are inheritors with Christ.  And Jesus says those citizens are merciful.  That’s a defining characteristic.  But I say that it doesn’t come naturally nor automatically.  It comes from a desire to please God, to see men saved, and submission to God’s word.

Being merciful follows upon hungering and thirsting for righteousness that we might not take vengeance from the province of the Lord out of some exaggerated sense of self righteousness. James 2:13 says, “For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”

Let me be clear though.  The scripture says “Vengeance is Mine says the Lord, I will repay.” Justice is God’s province.  God will not wink at sin in order to be merciful.  God is a God of mercy.  But He is also a just and holy God.  And in order for God to be just,  justice must be satisfied.  God did not stop counting sin so that I might be saved.  He counted it on Jesus.  And He poured out His wrath against my sin, upon His Son, putting Him to death by torture, crushing Him, so that those who believe in Him might be made righteous.  “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”   So God counted my sin towards Jesus, and transferred His righteousness to me. 

Therefore, having considered God’s mercy towards me, I have no other response but to be merciful to others.  I am blessed, I receive blessing, and I have received mercy and continue to receive mercy, so therefore I am merciful. 

So what is mercy? Psalm 85:10 says,  “Mercy and truth are met together.”  One is not at the expense of the other.  Mercy without truth is not mercy at all.  It is indulgence. It’s bad parenting.  It’s never holding your children accountable. But God is not a bad Father.  He has satisfied truth in the crucifixion of His Son and extended mercy through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Grace and truth are satisfied in Jesus Christ.

Now let’s consider what it means to be merciful.  Mercy is not getting what I deserved.  I deserved death for my sin.  Grace, on the other hand,  is getting what I don’t deserve.  And God has given us grace and mercy. Grace and mercy go hand in hand in the gospel.  Thank God I don’t get what I deserve which is death, and praise God He has given me what I don’t deserve, which is new life everlasting. 

Merciful means showing compassion. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Compassion is something that comes from the heart, from the soul.  It’s having empathy for someone. Compassion comes from a Latin word which means to suffer with.  That’s why this characteristic has to be the result of a change of heart, because being merciful is an expression of a new heart, a heart like Christ’s.  

Let me expand on that for a moment, because it’s something that has come to my mind a few times lately.  Being merciful or being kind is not that difficult when it’s someone we naturally love.  If it’s someone you love then being merciful comes more easily.  Even when they sin against you, when they have done you wrong, it’s still easier than it might be otherwise because you love that person.  But it’s another thing entirely to be merciful when it’s an enemy, or when it’s someone that you really don’t like.  And it’s hard to be merciful to people that you somehow don’t think deserve your kindness. It’s tempting to look at others and judge whether or not we think they are worthy of our compassion, or our mercy. And I’m afraid that harsh condescension is more common to the Christian than we would like to think. We judge between people we think are worthy or unworthy of our compassion.  But we have been commanded to be merciful to the unloveable, even as God was compassionate to us when we were at enmity with Him. 

Jesus spoke of this principle of showing merciful to those deemed lesser than us in Matthew 25:34-40  "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me [something] to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me [something] to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;  naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You [something] to drink? 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?  'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’” 

That’s what it means to suffer with someone, to have compassion for others.  It’s not just a sentimental feeling, but acting like Christ acted towards us, showing compassion for others.  That’s the positive side of this Beatitude.  And Jesus addressed this Beatitude in the positive.  But other times He spoke about it in the negative. There is a parable in particular that Jesus uses to phrase this in the negative sense, speaking of those who are not merciful.  It’s the parable of the debtor, found in Matthew 18. 

Matthew 18:23 "For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle [them,] one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have [the means] to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. So the slave fell [to the ground] and prostrated himself before him, saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and [began] to choke [him,] saying, 'Pay back what you owe.' So his fellow slave fell [to the ground] and [began] to plead with him, saying, 'Have patience with me and I will repay you.' But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, 'You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?' And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

What that parable illustrates is that the worthless slave did not really have a true heart of repentance to begin with.  There is a difference between being sorry that you got caught, and a true repentance of your sins. Repentance is confessing your sin as sin, and committing to turn from it and go the other direction.  And mercy is God giving us forgiveness and giving us a new life.  And that produces gratefulness, out of the recognition that our standing before God is not based on our merits, but on His mercy.  Which in turn should produce mercifulness in us towards others. 

When I am truly repentant then I am truly forgiven. It’s realizing the repugnancy of my sin, and recognizing that I am not worthy of forgiveness, and as a result of repentance I am forgiven.  Then having that attitude and realization of my self worth,  I cannot help but be merciful towards others who trespass against me.

However, the opposite of repentance is the confession of the arrogant.  He says,  “I am not that bad.  I may have made some wrong choices in my life, but deep down I am a good person.” No, deep down you are a dirty rotten sinner, corrupt in every thought and deed, and deserving of death and hell.  And having realized that about myself, I see that other men are just as  blind and enslaved to sin and undeserving as I was, just as lost as I was, just as hopelessly held captive to sin as I was, and are in desperate need of mercy, just as God showed mercy to me.  I distinguish between the sinner and the sin.  I love the sinner and hate the sin, even when they sin against me. 

Jesus, in teaching the disciples to pray, said, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Why?  Because God forgave us our trespasses against Him. How? As we submit to Christ, to be remade in His image.  We suffer their trespasses against us, even as He has suffered for our trespasses against Him.  That’s what the scriptures call the fellowship of His suffering.  Phil. 3:10 says, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

This fellowship with Christ through suffering the trespasses of others against us here on this earth, is the thing that shapes us and matures us as we grow to be like Christ.  And that is our sanctification, which leads us to our future glorification with God. 

Romans 8:16-17 “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.]”

The question that I would leave you with today is, have you first of all been born again as a child of God?  Do you exhibit the characteristics of your Father in heaven? Are you merciful?  If you honestly examine yourself and the Spirit of God convicts you in your heart so that you know you’re not merciful, then perhaps it is because you have never been born again.  Listen, Jesus is calling out to you today to come to Him.  Jump into the arms of the Savior and you will be saved, born again, given a new life and a new heart that you might know the Lord and have the life which He gives.   

Jesus said in Matt. 11:28-30  "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Come to Jesus today, and receive mercy. The invitation is open to all who will come.

And then to those who have been born again, but as you examine yourself in light of this Beatitude, perhaps you realize that you are not merciful as you should be.  Maybe you realize that you are still immature in your spiritual life.  This is an area that you need to be trained in.  I encourage you today to call upon the Lord and repent of your selfishness, repent of your self righteousness, and ask God to give you a heart of mercy, that you might give mercy even as you have received it.  Submit to the Lord and let the Lord deal with those who trespass against you.  Forgive them, even as you have been forgiven.  And in so doing you will bring glory to your Father in heaven, and bring others into the kingdom of heaven.  

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, Matthew 5: 6

I assume that most of you are here this morning because you want to worship God.  You want to say something to the Lord, perhaps, but most importantly, you want to hear from the Lord. It’s essential that we hear from God.  Jesus said that God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. 

And so I want to emphasize to you this morning that when we read the words of the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in this passage, you are hearing the actual word of God.  The word of God spoken by the Son of God, who John calls the Word.  God is speaking to us in this passage in the most direct way possible.  And this passage is truth because it is the word of God. 

So my purpose here this morning is not to entertain you, nor to make a nice sounding sermonette, but to faithfully expound God’s word so that you can fully comprehend all that God intends to tell us in these statements. God is teaching us in this passage the essential characteristics of a citizen in His kingdom.  He is telling us how we might enter the kingdom of heaven.  He is telling us how we can receive the comfort of God. He is telling us how we might inherit the true riches of this earth.  He is telling us how we might be filled with righteousness.  He is telling us how we might receive mercy. He is telling us how we can see God.  He is telling us how we can be the sons and daughters of  God.  He is telling us how we might become citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

And so we have been looking at these opening verses, in what is called the Beatitudes, we have been looking at each individually as part of our series on the Sermon on the Mount.  And we have said that they are in a particular order.  That they build upon one another.  And we have said that they are all necessary.  All are characteristics of all Christians.  All are characteristics of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.  

And as I have said previously, we are born into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “you must be born again.”  You are not naturally entered into the kingdom due to your heritage, you cannot not join such as a club or denomination to enter, you can not earn your way in, or climb up some way or another through your efforts, but citizenship is by spiritual birth. You are born once in natural birth, you must be born again spiritually in order to be part of the kingdom of heaven.  Notice that the Beatitudes are bookended by the phrase, yours is the kingdom of heaven.

Let me reiterate another important doctrine for those who are new here this morning.  The kingdom of heaven is spiritual.  It is the church.  It is the church, visible and invisible.  It is the body of Christ, the called out ones, (eklesia).  It is the invisible, spiritual reign of Christ in the hearts and minds of His people.  The kingdom of heaven is populated by the conversion of sinners formerly held captive to the dominion of darkness, who are supernaturally transferred into the kingdom of God’s Son, by the transference of Christ’s righteousness to our account by faith in the work of Christ upon the cross and His subsequent resurrection.  That faith constitutes becoming a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

So far then in our study of this sermon, we have understood the first Beatitude as a requirement of poverty of spirit, “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  We recognize our spiritual bankruptcy, and out of that recognition of our poverty comes the realization that we need a righteousness that exceeds our own in order to attain the kingdom.

Secondly, having recognized our spiritual bankruptcy, we mourn over our sin.  “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be filled.”  When we mourn over our sinful condition, that really means we repent of our sinful condition to the point of being willing to die to the old man, that we might be made new, and we receive the comfort of God’s forgiveness of our sins.

Thirdly, Jesus said that “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”  We learned last week that this refers to the need to humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God and then He will exalt you at the proper time.  It’s a recognition that you cannot do anything to achieve your own salvation, that you are a sinner, and in order to be a citizen of Christ’s kingdom you are going to need a Savior who is willing and able to pluck you out of the pig pen of the squalor you live in, and wash you off and dress you in His righteousness and in His mercy and grace bring you into His kingdom.  

Now we come to the fourth Beatitude.  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”  In the three previous Beatitudes, there was a predominantly negative element to them, in that they caused us to look at ourselves and see what was missing.  But as we look at this Beatitude, we see a change in perspective, we see the solution.

We have been looking at the hopelessness of our spiritual bankruptcy, mourning over our sin and our helpless condition, and being humbled before God by the inadequacy we have in ourselves, and now we see the deliverance, the filling which comes by the grace of God.  And this particular Beatitude emphasizes the doctrine of grace, which is so fundamental to our salvation.

There are three parts to this statement which will serve as something as a guide for our exposition today. And perhaps it is best to start with the term “righteousness.”  Righteousness is the state of being accepted by God.  It is meeting the standard of conduct that has been established by God.  Many people have a misplaced trust in their own goodness, which is based on a comparison to other people.  And they base their sense of righteousness on their  own standard, and their standard is the failings of other people. So they say, “I’m not a bad person.  After all, I am not like that person over there.  I’m better than that person, so I am basically a good person.”  They base their sense of goodness on other people’s failings, rather than on the holiness of God.

Jesus gave an illustration about that sort of judgment in the story of a Pharisee and a tax collector who came to the temple to pray. And in Luke 18:11 we read that Jesus said, "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.' "But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'  "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

So there you have a person that did good deeds, he didn’t do the obviously bad sins, he tithed, he fasted, etc, but he was still not justified by his works. He still fell short of the kingdom of heaven.  And that’s because he was trusting in his works to gain entrance.  He was judging himself according to a scale that he had come up with, rather than by the scale of God’s righteousness. 

And yet later in this very Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.  So it’s necessary to understand that God’s standard is what constitutes righteousness, and only that level of righteousness can be acceptable to God.

Now notice what Jesus says, He says, “Blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousness.”  They are going to be the ones who are blessed.  Notice that He doesn’t say, you should hunger and thirst for blessedness.  Or to use the common translation for blessed which many Bibles use; happy.  He doesn’t say those who hunger and thirst for happiness.  But that is what the world’s mantra is. The world is seeking happiness. When happiness is what you desire and long for, you will end up missing it.   But when righteousness is what you hunger for, then Jesus says you will be blessed, you will find true happiness.  Happiness is found in pursuit of something else, not in pursuing it directly.

I have heard many a parent say, “I only want my children to be happy.”  And yet that pursuit of happiness almost always seems to be at the expense of righteousness.  They reject God’s righteousness because they think that is going to hinder their happiness, when in fact it’s the only thing that can produce it.

Imagine a man who is suffering from a painful disease.  And he goes to the doctor and the doctor is very concerned about treating his pain and so he prescribes a pain killer for the pain and sends him on his way. That’s not a good doctor.  A good doctor is one who is concerned about the cause of his pain.  If you take care of the cause of his pain, then the pain will go away.  But if you just treat the pain, you may look healthy for a while, you may feel better for a while, but actually you are still a very sick person on the inside, and the doctor has done nothing to help you.  Your condition will eventually get worse.

That’s the folly of the world seeking relief from the pain of life, seeking pain relief in alcohol or drugs, in entertainment,  in sexual hookups and so forth.  They may feel better for a little while, but in the end it’s a bitter cup. Hebrews 11 speaks of the pleasures of sin, which last for a season, but the end is destruction.

We even see the same error in the church. Some people are so focused on trying to find a state of blessedness.  Of course, they interpret blessedness to be health and wealth.  They come to Christianity seeking God’s blessing of health and wealth.  They are big advocates of the prayer of Jabez; O bless me indeed! Enlarge my horizons, fill my bank account. They hunger and thirst for what they think is blessedness.  

Or the hunger and thirst for blessedness and they look for it in spiritual experiences, in some sort of ecstatic experience. We are not told to hunger and thirst for experiences, or for even for blessedness  for that matter.  If you want to have the blessedness of God in your life, then Jesus said  we should hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Seek righteousness and then you will find blessedness.

So what does righteousness mean? It doesn’t just mean morality.  It’s not just some conforming to what’s considered upright, good behavior.  It’s the opposite of sin.  And sin is defined in the scriptures.  Sin is that behavior and attitude that is antagonistic towards God’s nature.  Righteousness is holiness.  Righteousness is being free from the manifestations of sin in all it’s forms.

So we are to hunger and thirst for righteousness.  And the response of God, the blessedness that He gives in response to that desire, is righteousness.  This righteousness that God gives is first of all, the righteousness of justification.  It’s the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is transferred to my account by the grace of God.  2 Cor. 5:21 says, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  Jesus became sin for us at the cross, bearing our penalty so that we might be set free.  And by faith in what He did for us on the cross, God transfers our sins to Jesus, and His righteousness to us.  That’s the righteousness of our justification.

The desire for righteousness then is the desire to be right with God.  When you come to realize your poverty, when you are sick to death of your sin, when you humble yourself before God, and come to the point of wanting to be made right with God, then God grants you forgiveness for your sin, and imputes righteousness to your account on the basis of Christ’s atonement on your behalf.  So in justification we are made righteous.

But there is another aspect of righteousness that God gives us.  And that is not only justification but sanctification. Sanctification is the process of living righteously.  Sanctification is the blessing of God that delivers you from the power of sin.  Having been set free from the penalty of sin, we should naturally want to be free from the power of sin.  And God graciously provides that blessing as well.  And Jeremiah 31:33 speaks of this reality, saying, Jer. 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Please understand that when the Lord says he is going to put His law within us and write it upon our hearts, that He is speaking of rebirth, of conversion, of a spiritual transformation whereby our heart is changed, our desires have changed, our minds have changed.  That is the nature of a new birth.  That is what it means to be born again.  Many people try religion.  Many people attempt turning over a new leaf.   And yet they never find freedom from the life of sin.  They are still suffering under the dominion of sin.  The reason is that they have never been converted. They have never died to the old man, and been born again into a new man.  They have never received the new heart.

You know, I love ice cream.  I know it’s not healthy for me to eat a huge bowl of ice cream every night, but I do it because I love it. On the other hand I hate spinach.  I am not ever tempted to eat a bowl of spinach every night.  You couldn’t make me eat a bowl of spinach every night. The only way that is going to change is if you change my taste.  If you change my desire.  You change my heart and then you will see a change in my behavior.  

And the same is true in regards to righteousness.  I have to have a change of heart.  Because naturally, in my old nature I don’t love righteousness.  I love my sin.  And so there has to be a transformation from within in order for there to be a change in my attitudes and behavior.

Christ did not die on the cross only to set us free from the penalty of sin, but also to free us from the power of sin.  Sin no longer controls us if we are truly saved. Sin no longer has power over us.  We can live victorious lives through Christ who lives in us in the power of His Spirit.

The other phrase that we need to look at is “hunger and thirst.”  Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. What is meant by that description of hungering and thirsting? Many people today have no concept of what it means to be really hungry or thirsty.  But the reality of being actually starving or thirsty is that it becomes the priority of your life.  You will do anything in order to get something to eat or drink. Nothing else is as important.  It’s something that causes you to feel desperate.  You increasingly suffer until you get what your body craves.

The Psalmist expresses this desire in Psalm 42:1-3 “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, While [they] say to me all day long, "Where is your God?”

There needs to come upon a person the hunger and thirst for righteousness before there can be the filling of righteousness.  In other words, one must come to the point of realizing their need, of the fact that the fodder of the world is unsatisfying, that they are starving for something that truly satisfies.  You must come to realize that what you have been feeding on is worthless and that it doesn’t sustain life.  You might be eating of what the world supplies, but inwardly, spiritually you are starving to death.

A good illustration of that is the story of the prodigal son. When the prodigal son went out from his father to live  a life of wanton pleasure in the world, seeking the happiness the world promises, he eventually found himself eating the husks with the pigs in the pig pen.  But when he realized he was starving, he got up and went home to his father.  That’s the essence of being hungry and thirsty for righteousness. To be desperate, to be starving, to realize the urgency of my need and that the mammon of the world can never satisfy it.  And then to turn to the supply and Father of righteousness as the only way to be filled.

So then finally, what is promised to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness? They shall be filled. Their hunger will be satisfied with righteousness. This is the grace of God in response to your need. God will graciously grant you righteousness. And notice that it is complete.  It’s not a taste of righteousness.  It’s not a little bit.  But it’s a filling. It’s more than abundant.  The righteousness of Jesus Christ more than satisfies the need on my part.  When God credits the righteousness of Christ to my account, He gives me enough to last forever. Not just enough for today, and then tomorrow I have to go and get some more.  But enough to cleanse even the vilest sinner for ever and ever.

So there is the immediate credit to my account, which tips the scale of God’s justice so completely on the side of righteousness that He may ever consider me as righteous.  But then there is given to me the continual desire of righteousness which comes from a new heart, a continual hungering that causes me to seek the Lord in daily communion, to be fed with His word day by day. And that imputed righteousness to me allows the Holy Spirit to live in me as a holy vessel, filled with the Spirit of God to empower me, that I might do the works of righteousness as a child of God.

And then in that last day, when the trumpet of God shall sound and He will raise us up to be with Him, we will receive a new body in the new heavens and the new earth, and the presence of sin will be altogether removed, not only from my body, but from the world, and we will dwell in righteousness from then on through eternity.  

So the Christian then is one who is hungering and thirsting for righteousness, who is filled with the righteousness of Christ in justification, then continuously hungering and thirsting for righteousness in the process of sanctification, and then in eternity dwelling in righteousness in our glorification.  

Peter speaks of both  this future and present state of righteousness in 2Pe 3:13-15  “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.  Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,  and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.”

The question I would  leave with you today is,  are you hungering and thirsting for righteousness?  Have you been filled with the gift of Christ’s righteousness?  Have you been converted, transformed, into a new creation with a new heart and a new mind?  Jesus said, He who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out. He said in John 7:37, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”  He said in John 6:51  "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

Jesus gave His life, offered up His body on the cross, so that we might feast upon His righteousness. Call upon the Lord today and ask Him to give you a new heart, a new life in Him.  And He will fill you with HIs righteousness that you might have eternal life.