SPIRITUAL HUNGER SHALL BE SATISFIED
MATTHEW 5:6
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
Introduction:
This is the second part of the text and it deals with the promise that God has made to His people regarding spiritual hunger. Here God gives His word: “they shall be filled.” The Lord has not bids us to seek Him in vain, Isaiah 45:19, “I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.” He has promised a blessing:
1. He promised to fill us with Good Things, Luke 1:53a, “3He hath filled the hungry with good things;” Revelation 7:15-17.
2. He will satisfy our souls, Psalm 107:9, “For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”
1) The world is fading, not filling, Isaiah 28:1, “Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!”
2) The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, Proverbs 14:14a, “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.”
3) The hungry soul will be filled with God’s goodness, Jeremiah 31:14, “And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.”
The psalmist said in Psalm 63:5, “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:”
I. GOD WILL FILL THE HUNGRY SOUL
A. The Lord is a fountain of life, Psalm 36:9a, “For with thee is the fountain of life.”
1. Cisterns may be empty or broken as are people, Jeremiah 2:13, “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
2. The fullness of God’s fountain is constant, even infinite.
a. The fullness of man is mutable; it ebbs and changes.
b. God is a constant fullness, Psalm 102:27, “But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.”
B. The Lord’s Fullness is overflowing and ever-flowing.
1. In His presence is fullness of joy, Psalm 16:11, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
2. Of His fullness we have received grace, if we know Him, John 1:16, “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.”
3. In the love of Christ we are “filled with all the fulness of God,” Ephesians 3:19, “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
II. WHY GOD FILLS THE HUNGRY SOUL
A. Because of His tender compassion, Matthew 15:32, “Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.”
1. The father had compassion on the Prodigal son when he came to himself, Luke 15:17, “And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”
2. The Lord invites man to come and satisfy his need, Isaiah 55:1, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
3. The Lord knows that we have this need, Matthew 6:21-32, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”
B. God will fill the hungry because of the sweet relationship He has with his children.
1. The hungry soul is very satisfied with God’s mercy, Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”
2. The hungry soul is most likely to praise the Lord even for the bitter things, Proverbs 27:7, “The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.”
3. The soul that is hungry for correction will praise the Lord, Hebrews 12:7, 10, “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 10For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.”
III. HOW GOD FILLS THE HUNGRY SOUL
A. God fills the hungry soul with His grace.
1. We are justified by His grace, Romans 3:24, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”
2. We are built up spiritually by His grace, Acts 20:32, “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”
3. We are redeemed through the riches of His grace, Ephesians 1:7, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”
B. God fills the hungry soul with peace.
1. The God of hope has filled us with peace, Romans 15:13, Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
2. God gave Israel honey from the rock [ Deuteronomy 32:13, “He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;”] and that Rock is Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 10:4, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” John 16:33, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
3. God has given peace to the spiritually minded, Romans 8:6, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
C. God fills the hungry soul with BLISS, Psalm 17:15, As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” Philippians 3:21, “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” 1 John 3:2-3, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
Conclusion
What an encouragement this is to hunger after righteousness. God charges us to fill the hungry, Isaiah 5810-11, “And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: 11And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”
Now is our opportunity to do just that by reaching out to our neighbors, friends and relatives with the truth from God’s Word. The challenge is has been made, but few have taken it seriously.