The Fourth Beatitude

The Fourth Beatitude

(No. 3157)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1909.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
DECEMBER 14, 1873

"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they
shall be filled." Matthew 5:6.

[In the year 1873, Mr. Spurgeon delivered what he called "a series of
sententious homilies" on the Beatitudes. After an introductory
discourse upon the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes as a whole,
he intended to preach upon each one separately, but either illness or
some other special reason prevented him from fully carrying out this
purpose. There are, however, six Sermons upon the Beatitudes, five of
which have already been published–See Sermons #422, Volume 7– THE
PEACEMAKER; #2103, Volume 35–THE HUNGER AND THIRST WHICH ARE BLESSED;
#3155, Volume 55–THE BEATITUDES; #3156, Volume 55–THE FIRST BEATITUDE
; #3065, Volume 53–THE THIRD BEATITUDE.]

I REMARKED, on a former occasion, that each of the seven Beatitudes
rises above the one which precedes it, and rises out of it. It is a
higher thing to hunger and thirst after righteousness than to be meek,
or to mourn, or to be poor in spirit. But no man ever becomes hungry
and thirsty after righteousness unless he has first passed through the
three preliminary stages–has been convinced of his soul poverty, has
been made to mourn for sin and has been rendered humble in the sight of
God. I have already shown that the meek man is one who is contented
with what God has given him in this world, that he is one whose
ambition is at an end and whose aspirations are not for things beneath
the moon. Very well then, having ceased to hunger and thirst after this
world, he is the man to hunger and thirst after another and a better
one! Having said farewell to these gross and perishing things, he is
the man to throw the whole intensity of his nature into the pursuit of
that which is heavenly and eternal–which is here described as
"righteousness." Man must first of all be cured of his ardor for
earthly pursuits before he can feel fervor for heavenly ones. "No man
can serve two masters." And until the old selfish principle has been
driven out and the man has become humble and meek, he will not begin to
hunger and thirst after righteousness.

I. Proceeding at once to consider our text, we notice here, first, THE
OBJECTIVE WHICH THE BLESSED MAN DESIRES. He hungers and thirsts after
righteousness.

As soon as the Spirit of God quickens him and really makes him a
blessed man, he begins to long after righteousness before God. He knows
that he is a sinner and that as a sinner he is unrighteous and,
therefore, is condemned at the bar of the Most High. But he wants to be
righteous. He desires to have his iniquity removed and the defilement
of the past blotted out. How can this be done? The question which he
asks again and again is, "How can I be made righteous in the sight of
God?" And he is never satisfied until he is told that Jesus Christ is
made of God unto us "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and
redemption." Then when he sees that Christ died in the sinner's place,
he understands how the sinner's sins are put away–and when he
comprehends that Christ has worked out a perfect righteousness, not for
Himself, but for the unrighteous–he comprehends how, by imputation, he
is made righteous in the sight of God through the righteousness of
Jesus Christ! But until he knows that, he hungers and thirsts after
righteousness–and he is blessed in thus hungering and thirsting.

After he has found Christ to be his righteousness as far as
justification is concerned, this man then longs to have a righteous
nature. "Alas," he says, "it is not enough for me to know that my sin
is forgiven. I have a fountain of sin within my heart and bitter waters
continually flow from it. Oh, that my nature could be changed so that
I, the lover of sin, could be made a lover of that which is good! That
I, now full of evil, could become full of holiness!" He begins to cry
out for this and he is blessed in the crying–but he never rests until
the Spirit of God makes him a new creature in Christ Jesus. Then is he
renewed in the spirit of his mind and God has given him, at least in
measure, that which he hungers and thirsts

after, namely, righteousness of nature. He has passed from death unto
life, from darkness to light! The things he formerly loved, he now
hates, and the things he then hated he now loves!

After he is regenerated and justified, he still pants after
righteousness in another sense–he wants to be sanctified. The new
birth is the commencement of sanctification and sanctification is the
carrying on of the work commenced in re-generation–so the blessed man
cries, "Lord, help me to be righteous in my character. You desire Truth
in the inward parts–keep my whole nature pure. Let no temptation get
the mastery over me. Subdue my pride. Correct my judgment. Keep my will
in check. Make me to be a holy man in the innermost temple of my being
and then let my conduct toward my fellow men be in all respects all
that it should be. Let me speak so that they can always believe my
word. Let me act so that none can truly charge me with injustice. Let
my life be a transparent one–let it be, as far as is possible, the
life of Christ written over again." Thus, you see, the truly blessed
man hungers and thirsts for justification, for regeneration, and for
sanctification!

When he has all of these, he longs for perseverance in Grace. He
thirsts to be keptright. If he has overcome one bad habit, he thirsts
to put down all others. If he has acquired one virtue, he thirsts to
acquire more. If God has given him much Grace, he thirsts for more. And
if he is, in some respects, like his Master, he perceives his defects
and mourns over them–and goes on to thirst to be still more like
Jesus. He is always hungering and thirsting to be made right and to be
kept right. So he prays for final perseverance and for perfection. He
feels that he has such a hunger and thirst after righteousness that he
will never be satisfied until he wakes up in the image of his Lord,
that he will never be content until the last sin within him is subdued
and he shall have no more propensity to evil, but be out of gunshot of
temptation!

And such a man, Beloved, honestly desires to see righteousness promoted
among his fellow men. He wishes that all men would do as they would be
done by, and he tries, by his own example, to teach them to do so. He
wishes that there were no fraud, no false witness, no perjury, no
theft, no lasciviousness. He wishes that right ruled in the whole
world. He would account it a happy day if every person could be blessed
and if there were no need of punishment for offenses because they had
ceased. He longs to hear that oppression has come to an end. He wants
to see right government in every land. He longs for wars to cease and
that the rules and principles of right, and not force and the sharp
edge of the sword, may govern all mankind. His daily prayer is, "Lord,
let Your Kingdom come, for Your Kingdom is righteousness and peace."
When he sees any wrong done, he grieves over it. If he cannot alter it,
he grieves all the more! And he labors as much as lies in him to bear a
protest against wrong of every sort. He hungers and thirsts after
righteousness. He does not hunger and thirst that his own political
party may get into power, but he does hunger and thirst that
righteousness may be done in the land. He does not hunger and thirst
that his own opinions may come to the front, and that his own sect or
denomination may increase in numbers and influence, but he does desire
that righteousness may come to the fore. He does not crave for himself
that he may be able to sway his fellow men according to his own
desires, but he does wish that he could influence his fellow men for
that which is right and true, for his soul is all on fire with this one
desire–righteousness– righteousness for himself, righteousness before
God, righteousness between man and man! This he longs to see and for
this he hungers and thirsts–and therein Jesus says that he is blessed.

II. Now NOTICE THE DESIRE ITSELF.

It is said that he hungers and thirsts after righteousness–a double
description of his ardent desire for it. Surely it would have been
enough for the man to hunger for it, but he thirsts as well. All the
appetites, desires and cravings of his spiritual nature go out towards
what he wants above everything else, namely, righteousness. He feels
that he has not attained to it himself and, therefore, he hungers and
thirsts for it. And he also laments that others have not attained to it
and, therefore, he hungers and thirsts for them–that they, too, may
have it.

We may say of this passion, first, that, it is real Hungering and
thirsting are matters of fact, not fancy. Suppose that you meet a man
who tells you that he is so hungry that he is almost starving, and you
say to him, "Nonsense, my dear fellow, just forget all about it! It is
a mere whim of yours, for you can live very well without food if you
like"? Why, he knows that you are mocking him! And if you could
surprise some poor wretch who had been floating in a boat cast away at
sea, and had not been able for days to moisten his mouth except with
the briny water which had only increased his thirst–and if you were to
say to him, "Thirst? It is only your fancy, you are nervous, that is
all, you need no drink"– the man would soon tell you that he knows
better than that, for he must drink or die! There is nothing in this
world that is more real than hunger and thirst–and the truly blessed
man has such a real passion, desire and craving after righ-

teousness that it can only be likened to hunger and thirst. He must
have his sins pardoned, he must be clothed in the righteousness of
Christ, he must be sanctified! And he feels that it will break his
heart if he cannot get rid of sin. He pines, he longs, he prays to be
made holy! He cannot be satisfied without this righteousness–and his
hungering and thirsting for it is a very real thing.

And not only is it real, it is also most natural. It is natural to men
who need bread to hunger. You do not have to tell them when to hunger
or when to thirst. If they have not bread and water, they hunger and
thirst naturally. So, when the Spirit of God has changed our nature,
that new nature hungers and thirsts after righteousness. The old nature
never did, never could and never would–it hungers after the husks that
the swine eat–but the new nature hungers after righteousness. It must
do so, it cannot help itself. You do not need to say to the quickened
man, "Desire holiness." Why, he would give his eyes to possess it! You
need not say to a man who is under conviction of sin, "Desire the
righteousness of Christ." He would be willing to lay down his life if
he could but obtain it! He hungers and thirsts after righteousness from
the very necessities of his nature.

And this desire is described in such terms that we perceive that it is
intense. What is more intense than hunger? When a man cannot find any
nourishment, his hunger seems to eat him up–his yearnings after bread
are terrible. I have heard it said that in the Bread Riots, the cry of
the men and women for bread was something far more terrible to hear
than the cry of, "Fire!" when some great city has been on a blaze.
"Bread! Bread!" He that has it not feels that he must have it– but the
cravings of thirst are even more intense. It is said that you may
palliate the pangs of hunger, but that thirst makes life, itself, a
burden–the man must drink or die. Well now, such is the intense
longing after righteousness of a man whom God has blessed! He wants it
so urgently that he says in the anguish of his heart that he cannot
live without it. The Psalmist, says, "My soul waits for the Lord more
than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch
for the morning."

There is no other desire that is quite like the desire of a quickened
man after righteousness and, therefore, this desire often becomes very
painful. Hunger and thirst endured up to a certain point, involve the
very keenest of pangs, and a man who is seeking the righteousness of
Christ is full of unutterable woe until he finds it. And the Christian
warring against his corruptions is led to cry, "O wretched man that I
am!" until he learns that Christ has won the victory for him. And the
servant of Christ desiring to reclaim the nations and to bring his
fellow men to follow that which is right and good, is often the subject
of unutterable pangs. He bears the burden of the Lord and goes about
his work like a man who has too heavy a burden to carry! Painful,
indeed, is it to the soul to be made to hunger and thirst after
righteousness.

The expressions in our text also indicate that this is a most energetic
desire. What will not a man who is hungry be driven to do? We have an
old proverb that "hunger breaks through stone walls" and, certainly, a
man hungry and thirsty after righteousness will break through anything
to get it! Have we not known the sincere penitent travelling many miles
in order to get where he could hear the Gospel? Has he not often lost
his night's rest and brought himself almost to death's door by his
persistency in pleading with God for pardon? And as to the man who is
saved and who desires to see others saved, how often, in his desire to
lead them in the right way, will he surrender home comforts to go to a
distant land? How often will he bring upon himself the scorn and
contempt of the ungodly because zeal for righteousness works mightily
within his spirit? I would like to see many of these hungry and thirsty
ones as members of our Churches, preaching in our pulpits, toiling in
our Sunday schools and mission stations–men and women who feel that
they must see Christ's Kingdom come or they will hardly be able to
live! This holy craving after righteousness, which the Holy Spirit
implants in a Christian's soul, becomes imperious–it is not merely
energetic, but it dominates his entire being! For this he puts all
other wishes and desires aside. He can be a loser, but he must be
righteous! He can be ridiculed, but he must hold fast his integrity! He
can endure scorn, but he must declare the Truth of God! "Righteousness"
he must have! His spirit demands it by an appetite that lords it over
all other passions and propensities! And truly "blessed" is the man in
whom this is the case.

For, mark you, to hunger after righteousness is a sign of spiritual
life. Nobody who was spiritually dead ever did this. In all the
catacombs there has never yet been found a dead man hungering or
thirsting–and there never will be. If you hunger and thirst after
righteousness, you are spiritually alive! And it is also a proof of
spiritual health. Physicians will tell you that they regard a good
appetite as being one of the signs that a man's body is in a healthy
state–and it is the same with the soul. Oh, to have a ravenous
appetite after Christ! Oh, to be greedy after the best things! Oh, to
be covetous after holiness–in fact, to hunger and thirst after
everything that is right, good, pure, lovely and of good repute. May
the Lord send us more of this intense hunger and thirst! It is the very
opposite condition to that of the self-satisfied and the
self-righteous. Pharisees never hunger and thirst after
righteousness–they have all the righteousness they need and they even
think that they have some to spare for that poor publican over yonder
who cries, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" If a man thinks that he is
perfect, what can he know about hungering and thirsting? He is already
filled with all that he needs and he, too, thinks that he could give of
his redundant riches to his poor Brother who is sighing over his
imperfections! For my part, I am quite content to still have the
blessing of hungering and thirsting, for that blessing stands side by
side with another experience, namely, that of being filled–and when
one is in one sense filled, yet in another sense one still hungers for
more–this makes up the complete Beatitude! "Blessed are they who
hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."

III. Having thus described the objective and the desire of the truly
blessed man, I must now proceed, in the third place, to speak of THE
BLESSING ITSELF, the benediction which Christ pronounces over those who
hunger and thirst after righteousness. "They shall be filled."

This is a unique blessing. No one else ever gets "filled." A man
desires meat–he eats it and is filled for a little while–but he is
soon hungry again. A man desires drink. And he has it, but he is soon
thirsty again. But a man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness
shall be so "filled" that he shall never again thirst as he thirsted
before! Many hunger and thirst after gold, but nobody ever yet filled
his soul with gold–it cannot be done. The richest man who ever lived
was never quite as rich as he would have liked to be. Men have tried to
fill their souls with worldly possessions. They have added field to
field, farm to farm, street to street and town to town till it seemed
as if they would be left alone in the land–but no man ever yet could
fill his soul with an estate, however vast it might be! A few more
acres were needed to round off that corner or to join that farm to the
main body of his territory–or if he could only have had a little more
upland he might have been satisfied–but he did not get it, so he was
still discontented. Alexander conquered the world, but it would not
fill his soul–he wanted more worlds to conquer! And if you and I could
own a dozen worlds, were we possessors of all the stars and if we could
call all space our own, we would not find enough to fill our immortal
spirits. We would only be magnificently poor, a company of imperial
paupers! God has so made man's heart that nothing can ever fill it but
God, Himself. There is such a hungering and thirsting put into the
quickened man that he discerns his necessity and he knows that only
Christ can supply that necessity. When a man is saved, he has obtained
all that he needs. When he gets Christ, he is satisfied. I recollect a
foolish woman asking me, some years ago, to let her tell my fortune. I
said to her, "I can tell you yours, but I don't want to know mine–mine
is already made, for I have everything that I need." "But," she said,
"can't I promise you something for years to come?" "No," I answered, "I
don't need anything. I have everything that I need–I am perfectly
satisfied and perfectly contented." And I can say the same tonight! I
do not know anything that anybody could offer to me that would increase
my satisfaction. If God will but bless the souls of men and save them,
and get to Himself Glory, I am filled with contentment–I need nothing
more. I do not believe that any man can honestly say as much as that
unless he has found Christ. If he has by faith laid hold upon the
Savior, then he has grasped that which always brings the blessing with
it. "He shall be filled." It is a unique blessing!

And the blessing is most appropriate as well as unique. A man is hungry
and thirsty. How can you take away his hunger without filling him with
food? And how can you remove his thirst without filling him with drink,
at least in sufficient quantity to satisfy him? So Christ's promise
concerning the man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is, "He
shall be filled." He wants righteousness–he shall have righteousness!
He wants God–he shall have God! He wants a new heart–he shall have a
new heart. He wants to be kept from sin–he shall be kept from sin. He
wants to be made perfect–he shall be made perfect. He wants to live
where there are none that sin–he shall be taken away to dwell where
there shall be no sinners forever and ever!

In addition to being unique and appropriate, this blessing is very
large and abundant. Christ said, "Blessed are they who hunger and
thirst after righteousness: for they shall"–have a sup by the way? Oh,
no! "For they shall"–have a little comfort every now and then? Oh, no!
"For they shall be filled"–filled. And the Greek word might even
better be rendered, "they shall be satiated." "They shall have all they
need, enough and to spare! They who hunger and thirst after
righteousness shall be filled–filled to the brim. How true this is!
Here is a man who says, "I am condemned in the sight of God. I feel and
know that no actions of mine can ever make me righteous before Him. I
have given up all hope of self-

justification." Listen, O Man, will you believe in Jesus Christ, the
Son of God and take Him to stand before God as your Substitute and
Representative? "I will," he says, "I do trust in Him, and in Him
alone." Well, then, O Man, know that you have received from Christ a
righteousness which may well satisfy you! All that God could rightly
ask of you was the perfect righteousness of a man, for being a man,
that is all the righteousness that you could be expected to present to
God. But in the righteousness of Christ you have perfect righteousness
of a man and more than that–you also have the righteousness of God!
Think of that! Father Adam, in his perfection, wore the righteousness
of man and it was lovely to look upon as long as it lasted. But if you
trust in Jesus, you are wearing the righteousness of God, for Christ
was God as well as Man. Now, when a man attains to that experience, and
knows that having believed in Jesus, God looks upon him as if the
righteousness of Jesus were his own righteousness–and in fact imputes
to him the Divine Righteousness which is Christ's–that man is filled!
Yes, he is more than filled, he is satiated! All that his soul could
possibly desire, he already possesses in Christ Jesus!

I told you that the man also wanted a new nature. He said, "O God, I
long to get rid of these evil propensities. I need to have this defiled
body of mine made to be a temple meet for You. I want to be made like
my Lord and Savior, so that I may be able to walk with Him in Heaven
forever and ever." Listen, O Man! If you believe in Jesus Christ, this
is what has been done to you! You have received into your nature, by
the Word of God, an incorruptible Seed, "which lives and abides
forever." That is already in you if you are a Believer in Jesus and it
can no more die than God, Himself, can die, for it is a Divine Nature.
"The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away; but the Word of
the Lord"–that Word which you have received if you have believed in
Jesus–"endures forever." The water which Christ has given you shall be
in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life! In the
moment of our regeneration, a new Nature is imparted to us, of which
the Apostle Peter says, "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a lively
hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an
inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away." And
the same Apostle also says that Believers are "partakers of the Divine
Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust." Is not that a blessed beginning for those who hunger and thirst
after righteousness?

But listen further. God the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the
blessed Trinity, condescends to come and dwell in all Believers! Paul
writes to the Church of God at Corinth, "Know you not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit?" God dwells in you, my Brother or Sister
in Christ! Does not this Truth astonish you? Sin dwells in you, but the
Holy Spirit has also come to dwell in you and to drive sin out of you.
The devil assails you and tries to capture your spirit and to make it
like those in his own infernal den–but lo, the Eternal has Himself
come down and enshrined Himself within you! The Holy Spirit is dwelling
within your heart if you are a Believer in Jesus! Christ Himself is "in
you the hope of Glory." If you really want righteousness, dear Soul,
surely you have it here–the nature changed and made like the Nature of
God. The ruling principle altered, sin dethroned and the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit dwelling within you as your Lord and Master!
Why, I think that however much you may hunger and thirst after
righteousness, you must count yourself well filled since you have these
immeasurable blessings!

And listen yet, again, my Brother or Sister in Christ. You shall be
kept and preserved even to the end! He who has begun to cleanse you
will never leave the work until He has made you without spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing. He never begins a work which He cannot or
will not complete! He never failed in anything that He has undertaken
and He never will fail! Your corruptions have their heads already
broken and though your sins still rebel, it is but a struggling gasp
for life. The weapons of victorious Grace shall slay them all and end
the strife forever. The sins that trouble you today shall be like those
Egyptians that pursued the children of Israel into the Red Sea–you
shall see them no more forever. "The God of Peace shall bruise Satan
under your feet shortly." And as surely as you have believed in Christ,
poor imperfect worm of the dust as you are, you shall walk with Him in
white on yonder golden streets in that city within whose gates there
shall never enter anything that defiles, "but they which are written in
the Lamb's Book of Life." Yes, Believer, you shall be near and like
your God! Do you hear this? You hunger and thirsts after
righteousness–you shall have it without stint, for you shall be one of
the "partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." You shall be
able to gaze upon God in His ineffable Glory and to dwell with the
devouring fire and the everlasting burnings of His unsullied purity!
You shall be able to see the God who is a consuming fire and yet not be
afraid, for there shall be nothing in you to be consumed! You shall be
spotless, innocent, pure, immortal as your God Himself–will not this
satisfy you? "Ah," you say, "it satisfies me for myself, but I would
like to see my children righteous too." Then commend them to that God
who loves their father and their mother and ask Him to bless your
children as He blessed Isaac for Abraham's sake, and blessed Jacob for
Isaac's sake. "Oh," you say, "but I also want to see my neighbors
saved." Then hunger after their souls! Thirst after their souls as you
have hungered and thirsted after your own! And God will teach you how
to talk to them and probably, as you are hungering and thirsting for
their souls, He will make you the means of their conversion!

There is also this Truth of God to solace you–there will be
righteousness all over this world one day. Millions still reject
Christ, but He has a people who will not reject Him. The masses of
mankind at present fly from Him, but "the Lord knows them that are
His." As many as the Father gave to Christ shall surely come to Him.
Christ shall not be disap-pointed–His Cross shall not have been set up
in vain. "He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the
travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." Well may you groan
because of the idols that do not fall, the oppressions that do not come
to an end, the wailing of the widows, the weeping of the orphans and
the sighing of those that sit in darkness and see no light. But there
will be an end of all this. Brighter days than these are coming–either
the Gospel will cover the earth, or else Christ Himself will personally
come. Whichever it is, it is not for me to decide, but somehow or
other, the day shall come when God shall reign without a rival over all
the earth, you can be sure of that! The hour shall come when the great
multitude, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty
thundering, shall say, "Alleluia: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!"

If we are hungering and thirsting after righteousness, we are on the
winning side! The battle may go against us just now. Priestcraft may be
pushing us sorely and evils which our forefathers routed may come back
with superior strength and cunning and, for a little while, the courage
of the saints may be dampened and their armies may waver–but the Lord
still lives and as the Lord lives, righteousness alone shall
triumph–and all iniquity and every false way must be trampled
underfoot! Fight on, for you must ultimately be victors. You cannot be
beaten unless the Eternal, Himself, should be overthrown–and that can
never be. Blessed is the man who knows that the cause that he has
espoused is a righteous one, for he may know that in the final Chapter
of the world's history, its triumph must be recorded! He may be dead
and gone. He may only sow the seed, but his sons shall reap the harvest
and men shall speak of him with grave respect as of a man who lived
before his time and who deserves honor of those that follow him! Stand
up for the right! Hold fast to your principles, my Brothers and Sisters
in Christ! Follow after holiness and righteousness in every shape and
form. Let no one bribe or turn you away from this blessed Book and its
immortal tenets! Follow after that which is true, not that which is
patronized by the great. That which is just, not that which sits in the
seat of human authority. And follow after this with a hunger and a
thirst that are insatiable and you shall yet be "filled."

Would you like to be up there in the day when the Prince of Truth and
Right shall review His armies? Would you like to be up there when the
jubilant shout shall rend the heavens, "The King of kings and Lord of
lords has conquered all His foes and the devil and all his hosts are
put to flight"? Would you like to be up there, I say, when all His
trophies of victory are displayed and the Lamb that was slain shall be
the reigning Monarch of all the nations, gathering sheaves of scepters
beneath His arms and treading on the crowns of princes as worn out and
worthless? Would you like to be there then? Then be here now–here
where the fight rages! Here where the King's standard is unfurled–and
say unto your God, "O Lord, since I have found righteousness in Christ,
and am myself saved, I am pledged to stand for the right and for the
Truth so long as I live! So keep me faithful even unto death."

As I close my discourse, I pronounce over all of you who are trusting
in Jesus the fourth benediction spoken by Christ on the Mount of
Beatitude, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness:
for they shall be filled." Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW5:43-48; 6:1-4.

Matthew 5:43. You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your
neighbor, and hate your enemy. In this case a command of Scripture had
a human antithesis fitted on to it by depraved minds–and this human
addition was mischievous. This is a common method–to append to the
teaching of Scripture a something which seems to grow out of it, or to
be a natural inference from it–which something may be false and
wicked. This is a sad crime against the Word

of the Lord. The Holy Spirit will only father His own Words. He owns
the precept, " You shall love your neighbor," but He hates the
parasitical growth of, "hate your enemy." This last sentence is
destructive of that out of which it appears legitimately to grow, since
those who are here styled enemies are, in fact, neighbors! Love is now
the universal Law of God and our King, who has commanded it, is Himself
the Pattern of it. He will not see it narrowed down and placed in a
setting of hate. May Grace prevent any of us from falling into this
error!

44, 45. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children
of your Father which is in Heaven: for He makes His sun to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Ours it is to persist in loving, even if men

persist in enmity. We are to render blessing for cursing, prayers for
persecutions. Even in the cases of cruel enemies, we are to "do good to
them, andpray for them." We are no longer enemies to any, but friends
to all. We do not merely cease to hate and then abide in a cold
neutrality, but we love where hatred seemed inevitable. We bless where
our old nature bids us curse and we are active in doing good to those
who deserve to receive evil from us. Where this is practically carried
out, men wonder, respect and admire the followers of Jesus! The theory
may be ridiculed, but the practice is reverenced and is counted so
surprising that men attribute it to some Godlike quality in Christians,
and admit that they are the children of the Father who is in Heaven.
Indeed, he is a child of God who can bless the unthankful and the evil,
for in daily Providence the Lord is doing this on a great scale–and
none but His children will imitate Him. To do good for the sake of the
good done, and not because of the character of the person benefited, is
a noble imitation of God. If the Lord only sent the fertilizing shower
upon the land of the saintly, drought would deprive whole leagues of
land of all hope of a harvest. We also must do good to the evil, or we
shall have a narrow sphere–our hearts will grow contracted and our
sonship towards the good God will be rendered doubtful.

46. For if you love them which love you, what reward have you, do not
even the publicans do the same?Any common sort of man will love those
who love him. Even tax gatherers and the scum of the earth can rise to
this poor, starveling virtue. Saints cannot be content with such a
groveling style of things. "Love for love is manlike," but "love for
hate" is Christlike. Shall we not desire to act up to our high calling?

47. And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others?
[See Sermon #1029, Volume 18–a call to holy livING.] Do not even the
publicans do sO? On a journey, or in the

streets, or in the house, we are not to confine our friendly greetings
to those who are near and dear to us. Courtesy should be wide and none
the less sincere because general. We should speak kindly to all and
treat every man as a brother. Anyone will shake hands with an old
friend, but we are to be cordially courteous towards every being in the
form of man. If not, we shall reach no higher level than mere outcasts.
Even a dog will salute a dog.

48. Be you, therefore, perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven
is perfect. Or, " You shall be perfect." We should reach after
completeness in love–fullness of love to all around us. Love is the
bond of perfectness and if we have perfect love, it will form in us a
perfect character. Here is that which we aim at–perfection like that
of God. Here is the manner of obtaining it–namely, by abounding in
love. And this suggests the question of how far we have proceeded in
this heavenly direction, and also the reason why we should persevere in
it even to the end–because as children we ought to resemble our
Father. Scriptural perfection is attainable, it dies rather in
proportion than in degree. A man's character may be perfect and entire,
lacking nothing–and yet such a man will be the very first to admit
that the Grace which is in him is, at best, in its infancy–and though
perfect as a child in all its parts, it has not yet attained to the
perfection of full-grown manhood. What a mark is set before us by our
Perfect King who, speaking from His mountain Throne, said, "Be you
perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect"! Lord, give
what You command–then both the Grace and the Glory will be Yours
alone.

Matthew 6:1. Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before
men, to be seen of them: otherwise you have no reward from your Father
which is in Heaven."You cannot expect to be paid twice. If, therefore,
you take your reward in the applause of men, who give you a high
character for generosity, you cannot expect to have any reward from
God." We ought to have a single eye to God's accepting what we give and
to have little or no thought of what man may say concerning our
charitable gifts!

2. Therefore when you do your charitable deeds, do not sound a trumpet
before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their
reward. And they will have no more! There is, in their case, no laying
up of any store of good works before God. Whatever they may have done,
they have taken full credit for it in the praise of men.

3. But when you do charitable deeds, let not your left hand know what
your right hand does. "Do it so by stealth as scarcely to know it
yourself–think so little of it with regard to yourself that you shall
scarcely know that you have done it. Do it unto God–let Him know it."

4. That your charitable deeds may be in secret: and your Father which
sees in secret, Himself, shall reward you openly. There is a blessed
emphasis upon that word, "Himself," for if God shall reward us, what a
reward it will be! Any praise from His lips, any reward from His hands
will be of priceless value! Oh, to live with an eye to that alone!