Join Rick Hughes as he delves into Matthew 5:6, exploring the deep significance of spiritual hunger and thirst after righteousness. In this episode, listeners are guided through the Sermon on the Mount and learn the importance of effort in spiritual growth. From understanding the true essence of Christ’s teachings to identifying personal hurdles in the path of righteousness, this episode serves as a comprehensive guide for spiritual seekers.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stay with me. It won’t be long, just about 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, a whole lot of education, and no manipulation because we don’t con you. We’re not trying to raise money. We’re not trying to sell you anything, not trying to solicit your support. But what we are asking you to do is to listen as I try to verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if I’m able to do that, then you, as we always say, have the opportunity to orient and adjust to the plan. That’s really up to you. My job is to be accurate and get it right, and that’s been my pleasure to do for many, many years now. Thank you for listening. Thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time this morning. Let me remind you of our website, rickhughesministries.org. rickhughesministries.org. If you’ll go there and take a look at our website, you can see the many books that we offer free of charge. I think you’ll enjoy getting those, especially some of our books like Bible Promises and Principles that deals with all the many promises God has given you in the Word. also our book on God’s Grace and Aging, and also our book on Life’s Toughest Years, Dealing with Young People and What They Go Through. So much material is there available for you free of charge, and you can just order from the website, as well as listen to some of the books read to you by our announcer, Jack Steele. So thank you if you go to the website and give us a visit, give us a call if you’d like to, 800-831-0718. Today we’re going to talk about your spiritual appetite. Your spiritual appetite. What’s your appetite like? I know what mine’s like. I’m ready for dinner. You’re probably the same way. But you’re hearing this. Now, keep this in mind. I’m recording this in the afternoon. You’re hearing it in the morning. That’s why I said I’m ready for dinner. So let’s read a verse, okay? Matthew 5, verse 6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Matthew 5, 6. According to Matthew, our Lord gave these words to those disciples who followed him up a mountain as he sought to remove himself from those who were seeking healing from sickness and infirmities. These people that we’re talking about were the ones impressed with his spectacular gifts, like healings and miracles and the gifts that he was performing. Their hunger, the hunger they had was not necessarily for righteousness. What they wanted was something that he could do for them, not rather who he was, but what he could do. Listen to the background to this verse and you’ll understand it. In Matthew 4, 23 through 25, Jesus went all about Galilee teaching in their synagogues preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of diseases among the people. Then his fame, fame went all throughout Syria and they brought to him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments and those who were demon possessed, epileptics and paralytics and he healed them. Great, great, great, listen to that word, great multitudes followed him from Galilee and from Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and beyond the Jordan. Notice huge, massive crowds were following him because of the spectacular gifts he was performing, which in fact identified exactly who he was, the unique son of God. What he had to say to those select few who followed him up on this mountain we’re going to talk about It’s called the Sermon on the Mount. In these verses, Jesus told Matthew recorded the personality profile of the ones who desire to become Christ-like. And I want you to notice this personality profile and what’s required. It says, first of all, those who followed him in Matthew chapter five, when he was seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain and when he seated, his disciples came to him. The crowd was out of control, massive crowds, way too many people. So he had to get away and he had to go up on a mountain. Obviously, a majority of people didn’t go up that mountain. You know, too steep, too inconvenient, too much effort required. But notice that positive volition, people that are really hungry for the truth, they seek it out, whatever the cost might be. Those disciples who stuck it out heard this amazing information that he gave them. And this is how you learn verbal communication. Listen to this verse. He opened his mouth and he taught them. This required other people to stop talking and listen. You can’t learn if you can’t listen. And you know, many people were complaining about having to climb that steep mountain. It’s too big. Why did he go all the way up to the top of this hill? Why didn’t he just stay in the bottom of the foot of the hill? Wondering why he didn’t stay on level ground. That would have been much easier. Here’s a great principle for you to remember that we can extrapolate from this verse. If you’re ever going to grow spiritually, it’s going to require some effort. If you’re ever going to grow spiritually, it’s going to require some effort. If you want to have a steak, you got to cook it. That requires effort. If you want to fry fish, you got to cook it and catch them. That requires effort. If you want to grow spiritually, it takes effort. And secondly, if you desire to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, you must be willing to listen and learn. In Matthew 11, 28, Jesus our Lord said these words, come to me all of you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. You hear that? Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. There’s another phrase. I will give you rest and then learn from me. He goes on to say, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find again rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. We identified this verse in our book on God’s grace and aging. You might want to read about it and about the Zougas prescription. But here, let’s listen to this here. The first thing he wants you to learn is how to think, since it’s in your thoughts that you actually live the Christian life. Learn from me, he said. That’s the first thing. You must learn the word of God if you’re going to grow up spiritually, and it’s going to require some effort. That’s because it’s actually in your thoughts where you live the Christian life. How do I know that? Because Philippians 2.5 tells me that. Let this mind think. being you that was also in Christ Jesus. In other words, learn to think like he thought. Learn to have the mindset that he had. Did you hear him say, learn from me? That’s what he said, learn from me. If you learn from him, what are the results? You will find rest. That’s what he said. Well, okay, I’m going to find rest. Rest from what? Well, maybe from the demands of the religious legalism that so many were under at the time. and maybe from the burdens you carry through life like guilt and depression. But notice he said, rest for your soul. Notice that? I will give you rest, you have rest for your soul. He didn’t say rest for your body, he said rest for your soul. Why did he not say rest for your body? Well, because unfortunately, man is under a curse and must work to survive according to Genesis 3, 17 through 19. Then to Adam he said, Because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herbs of the field. So man is under a curse. Listen to the verse. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and dust you shall return. That’s what awaits this body. This body is not going to heaven. God doesn’t need this body. He’s going to give you a resurrection body. So those of you that are getting some age on you and you’re beginning to hurt, don’t worry about it. Once this body gives out, there is a new body waiting you in heaven. This body is going back to the dust where it belongs because it won’t operate in heaven. It has a sin-infected nature, and it can’t work in heaven. It’s got to go away. So when our Lord says you can have rest for your soul, what’s he referring to? He’s referring to the mentality of your soul. We know this rest as the faith rest drill, the faith rest life. That’s one of the great problem-solving devices on the flotline of your soul. Remember, the flotline has 10 unique problem-solving devices. Rebound, number one, the filling of the Holy Spirit, number two, and faith, rest, drill, number three. Unfortunately, many Christians today are part of the show and tell generation. You hear that? Show and tell. My kids used to go to school, show and tell, take something and tell about it. Well, this show and tell generation is due to the influence and the impact of social media. I mean, come on, there’s no need for much of the video content that believers display on their social media accounts today. But it’s all promoted as true Christian experience. Remember what the Lord said in Matthew 5, 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. The word blessed is an interesting word. It’s the Greek word makarios. It doesn’t really mean blessed, it means happiness. That’s what it says. Happiness belongs to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. That Greek word hunger means to be hungry, means desiring to be fed. Here’s my question to you this morning. Are you hungry for the clear, lucid, in-depth teaching of Scripture? Or are you satisfied with mere spiritual appetizers? Because if you want to grow spiritually, you’re going to have to put out some effort. You’re going to have to do something. You can’t just show up and shut up once a week, and you’re not going to grow that way. You may go to a great church, you may have a great pastor, but a 30-minute sermon on Sunday morning, you’re not going to grow. Why don’t you think about putting your kid in the first grade for 30 minutes a week and see what happens? It’ll never happen. The kid will never get out of the first grade, and many Christians never get out of the first grade spiritually because they’re not willing to put forth the effort. They’re not willing to do that. So they’re dissatisfied with spiritual appetizers. But true spiritual awakening, true spiritual awakening, always results in a craving, a hunger, a desire, hunger and thirst to learn more and more about the one that saved you, to know as the author and the finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12, two, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. I’ve seen a lot of modern revival movements that claim astounding numbers of converts, And they show it on the social media. Oh, look, here’s a video. Oh, we’re baptizing all sorts of people in the lake. All the social media baptism services. And I’m thankful for the genuine conversions. Great. Fantastic. And it is my prayer that these converts will get under the ministry of a solid, sound Bible teaching pastor and eventually grow to spiritual maturity. Listen, it took me a solid year after I got saved before I even knew what happened to me. I didn’t understand why I continued to sin, nor did I understand the need for spiritual growth, even though I was attending Bible college at the time. Nobody really taught me the mechanics of the Christian life. They just taught me about the Bible. I didn’t understand that. I went to Bible college. I learned Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I learned, you know, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy and all that. But nobody told me how the mechanics of the Christian life function. And that may be true with you as well. Maybe you understand the Bible, but you don’t understand the mechanics to the Christian life. Remember, you’ve heard me say that God demands protocol and the right thing must be done in the right way. And the right thing done in the wrong way is still wrong. So it took me a while to get that information. Now I know why so many of my friends came to Christ at the same time as me and they’re no longer to be found. Now I understand it. They got distracted. They got defeated in their spiritual growth because their emotions wore off and there was no foundation to build upon true. They got saved true. They are going to heaven, but they did not hunger. and thirst after righteousness. And that’s my question for you today. Do you hunger and thirst after righteousness? What type of individual is this person that hungers and thirsts after righteousness? Do you want to be righteous before God? Well, that’s a motivational factor called personal love for God. Wanting to be righteous before God is a motivational factor called personal love for God. Remember, our Lord said this in John 14, 15. If you love me, third class condition, if you love me, keep my mandates. The Apostle John made it clear in 1 John 2, 5, whoever keeps his word truly in this one, the love for God has been perfected. So let’s understand something this morning, that the true test of the love of God is obedience. In 1 John 5, 3, for this is the love of God that we keep his mandates and his mandates are not burdensome. That’s what I had to do. I had to learn his mandates. And I didn’t learn them overnight, neither. As I got into the ministry in the early 70s and began to travel across the country speaking in high schools across the state of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, every night I sat in my motorhome that I traveled in and studied the teaching of the Word of God from my pastor by tape. Night after night, opened my Bible, sit down, have dinner, open the Bible, turn on the tape, and study and study and study, put forth the effort so that I knew what I was talking about, so that I had some sort of basis because I was hungering and thirsting after righteousness. And that hunger has never gone away even today. Do you have that hunger? Do you have the desire to grow spiritually? Are you willing to put forth the effort to do whatever it takes to become the man God wants you to be? Because if I talk about being righteous before God, we have to recognize a couple of things, okay? Let’s take a look at this. First of all, there is what we call positional truth. In 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for he, God, made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so we could become, here it is, listen, the righteousness of God in him. What did that verse say? Happiness belongs to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. So the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus is positional truth. That refers to our irrevocable position in Christ Jesus. When we get saved, we are absolutely righteous because we have his righteousness given to us. He took our sins on the cross, and at faith he gives us his righteousness. So the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness can also refer to something else, something we call, my pastor taught it to me, called capacity righteousness. And this righteousness is rewarded in eternity under what’s called the crown of righteousness in 2 Timothy 4.8. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. So we have two types of righteousness here. We have the righteousness that is the righteousness of Christ credited to our account when we put our faith in him and our salvation. And then we have the capacity righteousness that we build and accumulate as we grow spiritually. Capacity righteousness is developed through the filling of the Holy Spirit. Do you understand how to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Do you know what that means? Remember 1 John 1, 9 says, if we will confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and purify us from all wrongdoing. When you sin, you quench the Holy Spirit. You grieve the Holy Spirit. You know that by now. I’ve told it to you a thousand times on this radio show. You can’t glorify God as long as your sin nature is under control. You have to be in fellowship. You have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit the day you get saved. Ephesians 1, 13 tells you that. but you’re also commanded by Paul in Ephesians 5.18 to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And that only happens one way when you get rid of the personal sin you’re committing in your life. So if you sin by mental attitude sins, or if you sin by sins of the tongue, or if you sin even by some overt sin, you are out of fellowship with God. You’re still in the relationship. Remember the two circles we’ve talked about, but you’re not in fellowship, and you are not filled with the Holy Spirit. You do not have the ability to develop capacity righteousness within without being filled with the Holy Spirit. That can only occur when you use rebound in your life. I want you to just do a self-examination right now. Think about your day. What time is it where you are?
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7.30, 8.30, 9.30, 10.30?
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I mean, it’s one time on Main and one time in California, several hours difference. Are you in fellowship? It’s always Sunday morning when people get out of fellowship anyhow, isn’t it? I mean, you’re trying to get ready to go to church and everybody starts arguing and yelling, get up, let’s go, we’re going to be late, go, go, go, go. The kids are dragging, mom’s dragging, dad’s dragging, nobody gets to church on time. And by the time you get there, everybody’s fussing and fighting. You are out of fellowship. You may be in the right place, but you’re in the wrong way. And until you rebound and confess your sin, you’re not going to hear from God the Holy Spirit. You may hear the Bible taught by the preacher, but you’re not gonna be able to cycle and use that information in your soul because you quenched and grieved the Holy Spirit. So only way you can develop capacity righteousness is through the filling of the Holy Spirit. And this occurs through building spiritual IQ in your life and sustaining your spiritual momentum day after day, month after month, year after year, moving forward spiritually. Because capacity righteousness means you understand and you use God’s word as your guide in your life. Living like this, this type of living gives you stability. It’s a wonderful thing. That’s essential for you if you wish to be part of the pivot that will deliver our nation when times of apostasy occur like today and degeneracy begins to flood our nation like today. This type of living, this stability we’re talking about, this capacity righteousness we’re talking about, it’s not visible to other people, but it is definitely manifested in compassion and can be manifested through impersonal love to other individuals that you know about. So what we’re calling capacity righteousness is simply you staying in fellowship with God the Holy Spirit and you producing divine good which glorifies God and is rewardable at the judgment seat of Christ. That’s the crown of righteousness. You’ll see it in 1 Corinthians 3, 11 through 15 called wood, hay, and stubble are gold, silver, and precious stones. You know what wood, hay, and stubble is? That’s all the right things you did in the wrong way. You showed up to church, right thing. You sang in the choir, right thing. You gave money in offering, right thing. But you did it in the wrong way. You were quenched by the Holy Spirit. You grieved the Holy Spirit. You had unconfessed sin in your life. Right thing, wrong way, burns up. It’s called wood, hay, and stubble. Just think about it. Every good deed you did, thinking you were doing it for God, if you were out of fellowship at the time, you simply manifested human good, wood, hay, and stubble. And it will be burned up in 1 Corinthians 3, 11 through 15. You won’t burn up. you’ll be saved the bible says you’ll be saved yet so as by fire but you will have no crown of righteousness because you didn’t grow you didn’t hunger and thirst after righteousness you didn’t have that desire you weren’t willing to put forth the effort to get into god’s word on a daily basis to get under a well-qualified pastor and start studying if you don’t know how to do it contact me i can tell you how i can tell you how to study at home every day every night Just like I do, listening to DVDs or listening to the online presentations of well-qualified pastors that are out there teaching the Word of God. So you can see believing produces this righteous living. The believer, like you and I, can produce righteous living in Micah 6.8. You want to hear what it’s like? Listen, I’ll explain it to you. In Micah 6.8, here’s righteous living. Micah 6, 8, he has shown you, oh man, what is good, what is righteous. And what does the Lord require of you? Okay, here it comes now. Don’t get shocked. Here it is, three big things. To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Oh, that doesn’t sound like very much. To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. That’s righteous living. God wants you to walk justly. God wants you to act honorably. God wants you to have integrity. God wants you to be impartial. God wants you to be honest and fair. That’s what he wants. He wants you to do justly. Is that too much to ask? And God wants you to what? To love mercy. Mercy. That’s the compassion or forgiveness that he showed you. Listen, did God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son? What else could he be but compassionate? He’s not willing that any should perish, the Bible says. That’s compassionate. He loves you. He loves me. He loved us before we were even born. And in his compassion for us, he forgave us through Christ Jesus on the cross. So God loves mercy. Do you? Can you show mercy to people that have wronged you? Can you show mercy to people that don’t like you? Can you show mercy like God does? Yes, you can if you’re filled with the Holy Spirit. And yes, you can if you’re operating under virtue-love concepts of impersonal love, which is another problem-solving device we talk about. Problem-solving device number eight, impersonal love. So God wants you to love mercy. And then God wants you to walk humbly. Humbly. What does that mean? It means the absence of arrogance. One of the greatest sins that’s not ever talked about is arrogance in the Christian life. You know what arrogance is. It’s self-justification, why you justify. You’re right and the rest of the church is wrong. You’re right and your mate is wrong. You’re right and everybody else is wrong. In your arrogance, you justify why what you do is right and they’re wrong. And then you convince yourself, you become self-absorbed with it. And that’s arrogance. Self-justification and self-absorption are both traits of arrogance. That’s not walking humbly. Walking humbly doesn’t mean you have to stoop shoulder and, you know, I wouldn’t hurt a little bird, I’m such a humble person. That’s not what it’s talking about. It’s talking about orientation to authority. You can’t have humility if you don’t have orientation to authority. And walking humbly means to obey the word of God and to live it in hunger and thirst after righteousness. Listen to Proverbs 21 three. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. There you go. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. What about 2 Timothy 3.16? All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. There it is again. No believer is capable of righteous living without instruction from the scripture because morality is not what the Bible’s speaking of when it says happiness belongs to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness in our verse, Matthew 5, 6. So keep in mind these thoughts. A spiritual birth demands a spiritual life. And therefore, during our post-salvation experience, we have the option to accept or reject the word of God. Many believers never make time for Bible study on a daily basis because they’re like the automobile that runs out of gas. They’re still an automobile, but they’re sure not going anywhere. And that’s why we have the verse in 2 Timothy 2.15 that says, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That’s the effort I’m talking about. So remember the Bible is not a novel, it’s a textbook designed by God to be taught to you by those who have the spiritual gift of pastor, teacher. So are you, here’s a question for you, are you being well fed by a qualified pastor and are you growing as per 2 Timothy 3.18 where it says, grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. So if you’re not, then I got a simple question. What is the goal of your spiritual life if you’re not growing? What’s your goal, your spiritual journey? What is it? You must understand this. Do you hunger and thirst after righteousness? I hope I’ve explained it. I hope you understand it, and I hope you’ll listen to what I’ve said. It’s my prayer you’ll come back next week, same time, same station. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
