SPEAKER_00: This in the minimum was recorded at Faith Evangelical Features in Fort Cinema Decod.
SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_01: What a wonderful lead up to being able to look at God's Word together.
SPEAKER_01: If you are visiting with us, we want to welcome you again.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Pastor Jason.
SPEAKER_01: Glad to have you with us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We are working our way through the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: We've just arrived recently at the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with the Beatitudes.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Webb, for leading us through reciting those together.
SPEAKER_01: Great way to get them into our hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_01: This morning I would like to direct our attention for a few moments to verses 5 and 6 of Matthew chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Told someone before the service this morning that they could stay awake this morning because I was going to preach a shorter amount of time.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: At least take your Bible if you have it to Matthew chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have your own copy of God's Word, that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: There's one in the seat back in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: Again, that is Matthew chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: We won't read the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just focus on verses 5 and 6 since we read it together a few moments ago.
SPEAKER_01: Again, Matthew chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5 says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: This morning is one of those days when we have our older children's church kids with us.
SPEAKER_01: So, kids, we're glad to have you with us.
SPEAKER_01: I need your help this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to help me understand this passage of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to do me a favor.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to draw me a picture.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have any paper, that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: You can just find some right at the back doors here.
SPEAKER_01: Some paper back there.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to draw me a picture this morning as you listen along of how we should please God.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to think about how should I please God?
SPEAKER_01: What can I do to please God?
SPEAKER_01: What does God want me to do?
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to draw me a picture of that and then show it to me afterwards.
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: A Christianity Today article that was published just this week began with these words.
SPEAKER_01: The author wrote, Of all the beatitudes, I guess that blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth is the most misunderstood.
SPEAKER_01: Most misunderstood.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I believe it's the most mistrusted and the most neglected.
SPEAKER_01: He may be right.
SPEAKER_01: He went on to write, when I hear the word meek, it seems too insipid, too accommodating, too spineless to be a virtue.
SPEAKER_01: Yet, he argued, Jesus was not weak.
SPEAKER_01: He went into the temple and he flipped over tables.
SPEAKER_01: He faced death threats on a regular basis, and he stood firmly and strong before kings who could take his life.
SPEAKER_01: Now I think it's safe to say that in his message to the crowds and his disciples that day on the mountainside, Jesus' message was a shocking surprise to those who had, for their entire lives, been taught to be religiously proud and self-sufficient in their spiritual lives.
SPEAKER_01: Many in Jesus' day thought that they had their ticket to the kingdom of heaven punched.
SPEAKER_01: They were checked in all the way through.
SPEAKER_01: All the way through to glory.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus began to speak to them on the hillside that day and said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, there would have been an automatic double take.
SPEAKER_01: Huh?
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: What did you say?
SPEAKER_01: The poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Common thought was the poor didn't get anything in life, much less an entrance into God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: The poor were the last ones in line, not the first ones into the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus turned their expectations upside down.
SPEAKER_01: In his message on the hillside that day, Jesus began with what it takes to enter his eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: It's the poor in spirit, Jesus said, who are broken over recognition of their own sinfulness in the eyes of God.
SPEAKER_01: And that makes them recognize that when they stand before God, they are poor.
SPEAKER_01: They have nothing, and so they mourn in their sin.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are those who mourn, for they're going to be comforted.
SPEAKER_01: As a result of that concentration on the holiness of God, the broken and mourning person becomes meek.
SPEAKER_01: And that meekness drives them to hunger for righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that every single Christian is called to be meek?
SPEAKER_01: If you call yourself a Christian, if you claim the name of Christ, you are called to be meek.
SPEAKER_01: For example, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Paul says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you've been called.
SPEAKER_01: How are we to walk?
SPEAKER_01: With all meekness.
SPEAKER_01: With all meekness, with gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love.
SPEAKER_01: Or consider Colossians chapter 3, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
SPEAKER_01: You would think that with all of the Christians that there are in this world, the characteristic of meekness would be plentiful.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't appear to be the case, though.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, one person said it's too bad that the meek haven't already inherited the earth because the unmeek are making a real mess of it.
SPEAKER_01: What is meekness?
SPEAKER_01: It's a hard, hard question to answer.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, when I looked at the major translations that are available to us today, those translations use eight different English words to translate the Greek and Hebrew words for meekness.
SPEAKER_01: Eight.
SPEAKER_01: Seems like the translators have a difficult time determining the best English parallel.
SPEAKER_01: So let's try to work through this a little bit in a few moments to understand what meekness is.
SPEAKER_01: First, let's look at our context of our passage here in Matthew chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Beginning with the first Beatitude in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That tells us from the very beginning that we're looking at a spiritual characteristic.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking here not about physical stature or physical strength or weakness.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about a spiritual characteristic of the heart.
SPEAKER_01: And in the progression of this message of Jesus, it follows the recognition of sin and mourning over that sin.
SPEAKER_01: So if we are first recognizing that we have nothing before God because we stand in sin before Him, and that recognition makes us poor and causes us to mourn over our sin, what would the next step be?
SPEAKER_01: What might follow that?
SPEAKER_01: What would perhaps be a response to recognizing our sinfulness?
SPEAKER_01: Somehow this statement fits into the theme of Jesus' sermon in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: That theme says, unless your righteousness surpasses, exceeds that of the Pharisees and the scribes, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: So meekness has something to do with God's evaluation of righteousness, of what is right, what is considered right in God's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: But I think we arrive at an even fuller comprehension of meekness by looking at some comparison.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at perhaps Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 34.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Toward the scorners, God is scornful.
SPEAKER_01: But to the humble, it's actually the word meek, he gives favor.
SPEAKER_01: This is talking about the opposite of the meek.
SPEAKER_01: So those who are scornful are those who think they're okay, those who think they're in a good position in the world, good position in life, and they look down on other people and they scorn them because they don't have what I have.
SPEAKER_01: They're less than, they're poor.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they don't have the same status that I do.
SPEAKER_01: So God says, if that's the way you're going to treat other people, then that's the way I'm going to treat you.
SPEAKER_01: So there's this idea of humility, of being on a maybe a lower status level.
SPEAKER_01: A little bit later in Proverbs chapter 16, verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, again, actually the word meek, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it's better to be poor with those who are lowly in their spirits than to have wealth that you pass around.
SPEAKER_01: It's the opposite, really, of being proud.
SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, there's the greatest example, and that is Matthew chapter 11, verse 29, where Jesus says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek.
SPEAKER_01: Most of our translations have the word gentle and lowly in heart.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where you'll find rest for your souls.
SPEAKER_01: There's this idea of being a gentle person.
SPEAKER_01: There is a major misunderstanding about meekness.
SPEAKER_01: That major misunderstanding is that meekness somehow means or implies weakness or timidity, the lack of courage, the lack of boldness.
SPEAKER_01: That is a misunderstanding.
SPEAKER_01: Misunderstanding.
SPEAKER_01: Now to round out our understanding, we need to look at Psalm 37.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 37, I was tempted to have Jeremy read that this morning instead of Psalm 90.
SPEAKER_01: I stuck with our plan.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to look with me at Psalm 37.
SPEAKER_01: This is a passage of scripture about those who are meek.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Jesus appears to quote from this Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: Notice in Psalm 37, verse 11, it says, But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.
SPEAKER_01: The meek shall inherit the land.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds just like what Jesus says, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Seems like Jesus at least has this passage of Scripture in mind.
SPEAKER_01: And as we look around this passage in Psalm 37, we get a little bit of an insight into the word meek, into the characteristics of meek people.
SPEAKER_01: We look just a little bit before that, verse 8, kind of gives us the idea that these are people who hold back from being angry.
SPEAKER_01: They don't get full of wrath.
SPEAKER_01: They don't fret.
SPEAKER_01: They understand the way the world works in verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: In just a little while, the wicked will be no more.
SPEAKER_01: They understand that God is sovereign and that wickedness isn't going to last forever.
SPEAKER_01: If we look back at verses 5 and 6, they're people who trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They have a reliance on the Lord for their defense and their support.
SPEAKER_01: And as a result of that, they understand that God is the one who exacts vengeance.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need to.
SPEAKER_01: If we look a little bit later in verses 12 and 13, we see that they are the opposite of wicked people who devise plots in their pride.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16, better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of the many wicked.
SPEAKER_01: They're people who often have just enough materially.
SPEAKER_01: They don't have too much, they don't have too little.
SPEAKER_01: They're people who wait on the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 22, they are people who are blessed by the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Notice there the parallel in verse 22, for blessed by the Lord, they shall inherit the land.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 29, the righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 34, wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land.
SPEAKER_01: They are righteous people who keep the way of the Lord, and he honors them by exalting them.
SPEAKER_01: So the meek, then, are people who don't make their way in the world by exalting themselves.
SPEAKER_01: They wait on the Lord and they trust in him to exalt them himself.
SPEAKER_01: They're humble people.
SPEAKER_01: They're like Jesus in that they consider others before themselves.
SPEAKER_01: They're gentle, not harsh.
SPEAKER_01: Their strength is not in themselves, but in the Lord, their rock and their defense.
SPEAKER_01: They don't seek vengeance, but they look to the Lord to take care of that for them.
SPEAKER_01: In the New Testament times, the word was often used outside of the Bible in interesting ways.
SPEAKER_01: It was used of a wild horse that had been broken for everyday use.
SPEAKER_01: So a wild horse still has strength, still has vitality, but it's strength that is brought under the control of another person for productive use rather than destructive use.
SPEAKER_01: Someone has said that meekness is the taming of the lion, not the killing of it.
SPEAKER_01: So meekness is not weakness, it is rather the choice of the Christian to submit their spirit and their strength to the master's use.
SPEAKER_01: To say, yes, I am strong, yes, I have purpose, yes, I have an intention in life, but I am submitting all of that to the Master so that he can use it for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: It speaks of one who's humble, not rejoicing in their own strength, their own power or ability, but instead in the power and the ability of the King.
SPEAKER_01: They've been humbled to the point of recognizing their sin, and so they come before the Master and they say, All that I am is yours.
SPEAKER_01: And that's important.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we've already seen every Christian should be meek, but why is this important?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Matthew tells us that Jesus taught there is a blessing in being meek.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are the meek.
SPEAKER_01: There's a happiness, a contentedness, a satisfaction, a true lasting joy in having this characteristic.
SPEAKER_01: And that's found ultimately in inheriting the earth.
SPEAKER_01: As you know, at least most of you know, Allison and I just purchased a home in the area.
SPEAKER_01: So we have our own little lot.
SPEAKER_01: It's not inheriting the whole earth, but maybe a little bit of it.
SPEAKER_01: It's bigger than the postage stamp that we owned in Wisconsin.
SPEAKER_01: So we're getting more.
SPEAKER_01: One day, Jesus says the meek will inherit the earth.
SPEAKER_01: How is that so?
SPEAKER_01: How can the meek inherit the earth?
SPEAKER_01: They inherit it in the Lord Jesus when he will come and reign over the entire earth and we will reign with him.
SPEAKER_01: Meekness is a fruit of the Spirit, we are told in Galatians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: So if you are a Christian and you have God's Spirit living within you, meekness is something that should come out of you.
SPEAKER_01: Gentleness, the word in Galatians 5.23, is the word for meekness.
SPEAKER_01: In James chapter 1, we learn that meekness is part of discipleship learning.
SPEAKER_01: James says, therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
SPEAKER_01: We should come to the word of God not with pride and arrogance, but with a receptivity that this is coming from the king, and I want all that I can get of it.
SPEAKER_01: That's why James goes on to say in chapter three, who is wise and understanding among you, let him by his good conduct show in his works the meekness of wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Meekness is strength under control.
SPEAKER_01: You see, if we go back to verse three, we begin by being broken in spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And when we're broken in spirit, we move to acknowledging our sin and our mourning over it will move us to understand God's absolute holiness.
SPEAKER_01: When we understand our sin and God's absolute holiness, that puts us in a position of submitting all that we are and all that we have to Him, to defending His name, not ours, of giving up all that we have so that God might be glorified.
SPEAKER_01: We're a person who has been tamed by the grace of the King to be put into productive service for him.
SPEAKER_01: It's these people filled with the meekness of Christ who will inherit the earth because they are in Christ the King, who is the perfection of meekness.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: For they will be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, that implies, doesn't it, that those who don't crave righteousness won't receive that blessing of satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: If you do not crave the righteousness that comes from Jesus, a part of you will forever remain unsatisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Now I don't know about you, but I don't like to leave the table without being satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: That's frustrating.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to enter eternity not being satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Last time we noted the main point of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that Jesus acknowledged that the Pharisees and the scribes had a righteousness of their own?
SPEAKER_01: They had a level, a standard of righteousness that could be identified.
SPEAKER_01: But it was a righteousness that did not succeed in gaining entrance into God's heaven.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't satisfy God or them.
SPEAKER_01: You need more, Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: There are millions and perhaps billions of people on the planet right this very moment who are in that exact same position.
SPEAKER_01: Who are seeking satisfaction in some way other than the way that really matters.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's in money, maybe it's in your family, maybe it's in job, maybe it's in drugs or alcohol, maybe it's even in religion, in what you're trying to do to please God.
SPEAKER_01: Pursuing the righteousness that comes from those things will never satisfy in meaningful ways.
SPEAKER_01: But the scribes and the Pharisees, oh, they were diligent.
SPEAKER_01: They worked and worked and worked to please God.
SPEAKER_01: They wanted to follow God's law to the letter, and so they defined their rightness with God by outward obedience, by what people could see.
SPEAKER_01: But that kind of righteousness never goes more than skin deep.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever tried to eat an apple that looked ripe and delicious?
SPEAKER_01: Just all shiny and wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: And yet when your teeth break through the skin, all they encounter is soft, mushy meat.
SPEAKER_01: To me, that's disgusting.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: But that's the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: Looks really good.
SPEAKER_01: But underneath the surface, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: Looked good from an outward perspective, but there was no inward righteousness with God.
SPEAKER_01: They craved the rightness that could be seen by other people.
SPEAKER_01: They wanted you to look at them and say, Wow, look at how holy they are.
SPEAKER_01: But they did not crave the righteousness that came from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Their righteousness put them in good standing with other people, but not with God.
SPEAKER_01: And there are many, many similarities today.
SPEAKER_01: Where does your righteousness come from?
SPEAKER_01: What are you resting in?
SPEAKER_01: Does it give you satisfaction?
SPEAKER_01: Perfect, complete, eternal satisfaction?
SPEAKER_01: Do you crave the righteousness that satisfies, that exceeds that righteousness that the scribes and Pharisees had?
SPEAKER_01: The scribes and Pharisees followed in a long line of those who did not crave the right righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what kind of righteousness are we talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Matthew refers to righteousness six times in his gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Two of those are connected to John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: The other four are in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_01: Two-thirds of the uses of righteousness in the Gospel of Matthew are in these three chapters, this one sermon by Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That seems significant.
SPEAKER_01: Let's see if that helps us know what kind of righteousness Jesus wants us to crave.
SPEAKER_01: So the first use is here in Matthew 5.6, just beatitude.
SPEAKER_01: The next is in 5.20, that we've already referenced.
SPEAKER_01: The key verse for the whole sermon.
SPEAKER_01: There we find what righteousness we are not to crave.
SPEAKER_01: The kind that the leaders, the religious leaders of Jesus' day possessed.
SPEAKER_01: The kind that was bound up in an external web of do this and don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: The next time we see righteousness is chapter 6, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.
SPEAKER_01: So again, we aren't told what kind of righteousness to crave, but what not to crave.
SPEAKER_01: Don't hunger and thirst for the kind of righteousness that drives you to perform in front of other people, to put up a good show.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't get you anywhere with God.
SPEAKER_01: The last time we see righteousness is chapter 6, verse 33.
SPEAKER_01: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: His righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: And all these things will be added to you.
SPEAKER_01: There it is.
SPEAKER_01: There is the key to what Jesus is talking about in the Beatitudes.
SPEAKER_01: The kind of righteousness that we are to crave is the kind that's found in Christ's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's God's righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: It's what He has, what He possesses.
SPEAKER_01: We're not to have a righteousness of our own that comes from what we do of going to church on Sunday morning, making sure we get to Sunday school, make sure we get the kids to church.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we're to crave the kind of righteousness that God possesses.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're to crave.
SPEAKER_01: And when we crave that kind of righteousness, our craving will be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: It's a kind of righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Need to understand that.
SPEAKER_01: If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done for you, you will receive the righteousness that is from God.
SPEAKER_01: When that happens, according to Philippians 3:9, we will be found in Him, in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Not having a righteousness of our own that comes through the law, through following God ritually, but that which comes through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The righteousness from God that depends on faith.
SPEAKER_01: Theologians use a big word to describe that.
SPEAKER_01: They say that this righteousness is imputed to us.
SPEAKER_01: It's a fancy word that means to bestow or to give to someone, to place on someone.
SPEAKER_01: It belongs to someone else.
SPEAKER_01: Belongs to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And it's given, applied to you when you trust in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the scriptures say.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians 5.21.
SPEAKER_01: For our sake, God made Christ to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's his righteousness that's given to us.
SPEAKER_01: Through faith in Jesus, the righteousness of his kingdom becomes ours.
SPEAKER_01: And because his righteousness is ours, we now live out that righteousness in our daily lives.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Peter tried to accomplish through his book.
SPEAKER_01: He said in 1 Peter 2.24 that Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of righteousness?
SPEAKER_01: His righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: How blessed are the hungry.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the progression.
SPEAKER_01: We come to the king broken and begging poor, mourning over our sin, being humble before him in his holiness, earnestly desiring his righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Do you crave that?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's true or not.
SPEAKER_01: There is a story told of a devoted follower of the ancient philosopher Socrates, who came to Socrates to ask him the best way to acquire knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I want to acquire knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: How can I do that in the best way?
SPEAKER_01: Socrates responded by leading him to a river and grabbing him by his head and putting his head under the water and holding him there.
SPEAKER_01: The guy fought and fought, but Socrates held his head underwater and finally the man broke loose and came out of the water.
SPEAKER_01: Socrates then asked him, When you thought that you were drowning, what was the one thing you wanted most of all?
SPEAKER_01: Still gasping for breath, the man said, I wanted air.
SPEAKER_01: The philosopher then said, When you want knowledge as much as you want air, you will get it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus would say, When you want my righteousness, and you crave it, you'll be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: I want to point out some other parallel passages to you that fill out our understanding of this passage.
SPEAKER_01: First is the Old Testament book of Micah.
SPEAKER_01: Micah chapter 6, beginning in verse 13, God says, Therefore, I will strike you with a grievous blow.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds good, right?
SPEAKER_01: Making you desolate because of your sins.
SPEAKER_01: You shall eat but not be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds terrible.
SPEAKER_01: There shall be hunger within you.
SPEAKER_01: He goes on to say, you shall put away but not preserve.
SPEAKER_01: And what you preserve, I will give to the sword.
SPEAKER_01: You will sow, but you won't reap.
SPEAKER_01: You will tread olives but not anoint yourselves with oil.
SPEAKER_01: You will tread grapes but not drink wine.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I bring that up?
SPEAKER_01: Because God says that to not be satisfied is a part of his judgment.
SPEAKER_01: If you refuse to crave the righteousness that comes from God, he will bring instead not satisfaction, but the lack of satisfaction through his judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Those who do not believe in Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promise to save his people and make them right with him will never be fully satisfied as part of his judgment on their unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: Do you find your pursuit of eternity, of being right with God fruitless?
SPEAKER_01: Do you long for something more?
SPEAKER_01: If you do, then you've come to the right place.
SPEAKER_01: Because God tells you how to have satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Solomon, the wisest man, the scripture said in Proverbs 19, verse 23, the fear of Yahweh leads to life, and whoever finds it rests satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Come to Christ the King, and you will be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: And what is it that we're hoping to have?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the psalmist tells us in Psalm 17, verse 15, that when life ends, he says, As for me, I shall behold your face.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: In righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: We can't stand before God and behold him in our own righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: So it's in his righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Standing before him, we shall behold his face.
SPEAKER_01: And when we wake before him, we shall be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: It's in him, it's in Jesus that we find that satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says that that is a continually complete satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: It's a word that speaks of having enough, of being inwardly satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: And there's this sort of paradox.
SPEAKER_01: We are continually desiring God's righteousness on our behalf, and at the same time, we are continually being filled and satisfied with the righteousness that He gives us.
SPEAKER_01: There's a very sad illustration of this in Romans chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Paul speaks of his own people, the Jewish people, and he says of them in Romans chapter 10, beginning in verse 2, he says, I bear witness of them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God's righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: To what are you submitting?
SPEAKER_01: We need to be hungering and thirsting, craving for the righteousness that comes from God, and stop seeking to establish our own rightness.
SPEAKER_01: So that when we come before the gates of heaven and God asks us, Why should I let you into my heaven?
SPEAKER_01: Our answer should be You shouldn't.
SPEAKER_01: Except for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Satisfaction only comes through Christ's righteousness being given to us.
SPEAKER_01: Around 1875, a young woman composed the words to a hymn that became known by the title Satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you older saints might recognize that old, old hymn.
SPEAKER_01: It's a hymn that speaks of our fruitless search for satisfaction apart from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That hymn has recently been updated and re-recorded.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like you to just listen and consider.
SPEAKER_01: Have I been satisfied with the righteousness of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we come and we bow before you, humbly confessing that too often we have chased our own cravings.
SPEAKER_01: Things that do not satisfy.
SPEAKER_01: May your spirit open our hearts and minds, our eyes and our ears to hear and to see what truly satisfies.
SPEAKER_01: Do not let any of us leave today without having experienced the blessing that comes with having meek hearts before you and being filled with the righteousness that comes from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.