The Good Life / Beatitudes: Righteousness 2.25.24

 God Filling My Hunger for Righteousness
Matthew 5:6 and various passages February 25, 2024    

1. Introduction:
   1. Kim and I were looking for a church to call home while we lived down in Dallas, Texas.  At the church we visited the pastor preached a sermon about “the attitudes of the Pharisees.”
      1. Much to my surprise God spoke to my heart that I was a modern day Pharisee!  
      2. I was so convicted that I literally could not speak for three hours after the service.  
      3. I remember going to breakfast afterwards with Kim and with my head hanging in disbelief and conviction.  I would lift up my head about every five minutes and saying, “I can’t believe it, I’m a Pharisee!” 
   2. I share that with you this morning because as you turn to Matthew 5:6 we need to remember that the group of people Jesus was talking to, their only knowledge of spiritual things, like: how to enter God’s kingdom, how to walk with God, what was righteousness, was shaped by their Jewish spiritual leaders and teachers of that day.  The Pharisees were one of the strongest and leading groups among the Jewish spiritual leaders of that day.
      1. The Pharisees’ emphasis was “external behaviors” 
      2. Listen to how Jesus described them in Matthew 23:27-28 
   3. This is important to understand because Jesus is bringing a new radical view of spiritual things to them, as he makes a huge shift from the external “behavior modification” of the Pharisees to a focus upon the inward disposition of the heart!
   4. In the beatitudes, Jesus is bringing to them a new picture of what a follower of Jesus, a member of God’s kingdom, looks like. What the good life really looks like!
      1. Today we are going to look at a heart that hungers for, longs for righteousness.   
   5. The beatitudes have a simple structure to them
      1. Declaration of blessing - the good life
      2. A virtue of the heart
      3. The reason that virtue is blessed  
   6. In this particular passage, we see that people are blessed when they have a heart that is longing for righteousness and the reason they are blessed is that that desire will be filled!   Read 5:6  
   7. So today I want to answer three questions 
      1. What is righteousness?
      2. How is this hunger satisfied?
      3. How is your hunger for righteousness?

• First 

1.  What is this righteousness we are to hunger for?
   1. Both the Greek and the Hebrew dictionary state two primary meaning of righteousness   
      1. Being in a right relationship with God 
      2. Living in conformity with the standard God has set up. 
   2. Righteousness is a very generic/general term that captures all beatitudes like poor in spirit, mourn, meekness, etc. and even the rest of the Sermon on the Mount and literally the rest of the Bible
      1. Warren Weirsbee says the entire Sermon on the Mount is about righteousness
         1. Ch 6 – picture of righteousness, 
         2. Ch 7 – practicing righteousness. 
         3. Ch 8 proof of righteousness.  
      2. Look at verse 20 
      3. Then in v 21-47 Jesus contrasts what the Pharisees were saying about the law with God’s true intent of the law that goes all the way to the heart!  
      4. Then listen to this read v48 – bottom line, the standard of righteousness we are to live up to is God himself – he is the standard!
   3. The way I define: righteousness is walking in alignment with who God is and what he requires of us as revealed in the Bible.    
      1. Two synonyms might be godly or Christ-like! 
      2. Listen to these two verses:
         1. Psalm 11:7 – God is righteous!  The Bible is clear that God is righteous in all that he is, all that he does and all that he says!
         2. Psalm 119:123 not only God is righteous, but also his word is righteous.
      3. God’s Word is the level that we put up against our hearts and activities to see if we are righteous as God defines it! 
         1. The righteous words of Scripture will never contradict the righteous God who authored these words!  A righteous God will never contradict the righteous words of Scripture!  Repeat

• Now that we know what this righteous is,,,

1.  How is this hunger for righteousness satisfied?
   1. The reason they are blessed is because they will be filled!
      1. Reread 5:6 
      2. Filled simply means this desire will be satisfied
   2. The Greek helps us see something that is not very obvious in the English.  The word filled is in the passive voice.  The voice tells us who is performing the action here, the action of being filled!
      1. Explain the Greek
         1. Active voice – the subject of the sentence performs the action
         2. Middle voice – the subject acts upon him/herself
         3. Passive voice – the subject is being acted upon!
      2. Illustrate 
         1. Active voice – Pat hit Pastor Don – of course, Don being built like a brick house and me like the Pillsbury doughboy – Don would just laugh it off.
         2. Middle voice – the doughboy is hitting himself!   
         3. Passive voice – means that the doughboy was hit by the brick house – and does that ever hurt.
      3. So Jesus is not saying if you hunger and thirst enough, it will motivate you to work hard at being righteous; so be encouraged because you will get there, you will fill yourself up. (that would be middle voice)
      4. What Jesus is saying is that those who hunger and thirst for righteous God will act upon them and satisfy that desire. (that is the passive voice)
   3. So how does God satisfy that desire to be righteous, to be godly, to be Christlike, that desire for God himself, to live in conformity with God and his word? How do we get a righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees, a righteousness that is as perfect as God?   Three ways  
      1. Imputed righteousness - the Father credits the righteousness of Christ to those not members of his kingdom  who put their trust in Jesus (salvation – declared righteous by God) 
      2. Imparted righteousness – the Holy Spirit infuses Christ’s righteousness into the members of God’s kingdom as they trust him moment by moment (sanctification – personally, practically and progressively we are made more righteous day by day)
      3. Imperial righteousness – when Jesus, the righteous one, reigns as king in a future kingdom that will be characterized by righteousness!

• Therefore, God will fulfill that desire for righteousness for us!  That leaves us with one question…

1.  How is your hunger for righteousness?
   1. How is your hunger today?
   2. If you are here today and not a member of God’s kingdom, do you long to be a part of his kingdom? Do you recognize you can never be as righteous as God (i.e., poor in spirit) and are not in a right relationship with him   
      1. If that is you that is a great thing because that is evidence, that God is working in your heart.
      2. Listen to these verses
         1. Romans 3:10-11 no one righteous... seeks
         2. John 6:44 
      3. If God put that desire in your heart, he is drawing you to Jesus! Do not put it off or resist it  
         1. God wants to fulfill it by imputing, crediting to you the very righteousness of Christ so that in God’s eyes he will consider you as righteous as Jesus so you can be in a right relationship with God
         2. Listen to Philippians 3:9
      4. Today, turn from all your own efforts to be religious, moral or doing good deeds, which will never be righteous enough, and turn to Jesus and trust his death and his resurrection to pay for your sins and to credit Jesus’ righteousness to you as a gift.   
   3. If you are a member of God’s kingdom - how is your desire to become more righteous, more godly, more like Jesus Christ, more of God himself – the righteous one?  It is God who puts that desire in our hearts and he imparts to us Jesus’ righteous to become more and more godly day by day!
      1. Read Philippians 2:12-13
         1. Obey – live in conformity with God’s righteous standards as revealed in his Word!
         2. The desire to obey and the ability to obey come from God!  
      2. If you have that desire, that hunger to walk rightly with God, then rely upon the Holy Spirit to work Christ’s righteousness into your life as you are seeking to obey his Word.
      3. If you are a believer and your desire for godliness or Christ-likeness is not there or is like a dim fire ready to do out.  Then  
         1. Possibly you have grieved the Holy Spirit of God in your life as some sin has taken center stage in your life
            1. Sins like - bitterness, anger, slander, unforgiveness, greed, lying, lust or things like these.
               1. Or it could even be putting a good thing in your life as the center of your life rather than Jesus.  Things like – your family, your children’s activities, an orderly house, your to do list or bucket list, working out, education, your job, sports, etc.
            2. Or possibly you have quenched the Spirit by not doing things that feed the fire of the Holy Spirit in our lives, things like – prayer, getting into his Word, not practicing gratitude in all things and things like that
      4. In either case, you must confess this to God, reopen your heart where you have shut out the Spirit and invite him to both reignite that desire within you and impart the practical and personal righteousness of Jesus in your life day by day.
   4. Finally, some of you are longing for a world where righteousness and justice will prevail as we live in a world now and even in portions of the church that calls evil good and good evil and in place of justice and righteousness there is wickedness and partiality.
      1. The good news for us is God will fulfill that hunger through the imperial righteousness, where Jesus, the righteous king, will reign over a kingdom characterized by righteousness.  Read Isaiah 9:6-7
      2. Is that your hope?   Is this your desire?   God will fulfill it!