Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: Blessed, happy. Talking about happiness. Everybody's looking for happiness. They're looking for it in the right places and the wrong places. And of course, we believe, we Christian believers, those of us that profess to know the Lord Jesus as our Savior and Lord, Master, Ruler, Teacher, Friend, Lover of our soul, we believe that the place to find happiness is in a relationship with a God that we cannot see with our physical eyes.

And yet with our spiritual eyes, which are more real than our physical eyes, we can see Him with the eye of faith. So as we think about this Jesus who told us to build our life on solid ground, on the principles that He laid down in His manifesto, specifically in Matthew chapter 5. As we think about this, we've been thinking about being poor in spirit, being humble, mourning our spiritual poverty, realizing we can do no good thing without God's help, without God's power.

We've thought about being meek, esteeming others better than ourselves, and walking in this humble spirit, in this contrite way with God. And now we come to a subject that's very close to my heart, about hungering and thirsting after righteousness. I suppose it's close to my heart because I don't see too much of it around today. Minimally do I see people really hungering and thirsting after God. And whenever you do see it, it's very, very exciting indeed. And we're going to be talking about that today.

People are hungry for all sorts of things. People are hungry for knowledge today. People are hungry for money today. People are hungry for pleasure. They're power hungry. We talk about people being power hungry, don't we? People are often hungry for people. Have you ever had that people hunger? I don't know about you, but when my children all left home and got married, there are times, and it can be triggered by all sorts of things or nothing, when you suddenly get hungry for one of your children. Do you know what I mean?

I often say that to my husband, "I'm hungry for Pete or for Judy or for David or for their spouses. I get hungry for the people I love. Hungry for my grandchildren. You know that people hunger?" When Stuart used to be away for months and months on end, I used to get hungry for him. What about hunger for your roots? The older you get, I've noticed, this is a sign of old age, right? You want to go back to your roots. And I get hungry for red buses and the Queen of England and crumpets. Not English muffins. I never saw those till I came to America. We don't have them at home.

But just sort of hungry for things that are your roots, that belong to you, right? When Jesus talked about hunger, He talked about a deeper hunger than any of those things. And all those are valid hungers, good hungers. God gave us for survival, hungers, the hunger for food and for thirst and the hunger for love. These are good, God-given hungers. But there is a deep, deep hunger that is called a spiritual hunger.

The problem is people try to fill that hunger with all these other things I've been talking about, with people or food or drink or pleasure or knowledge. Now the Bible often speaks about this. I've spent a happy sort of week just thinking about some of the places the Bible teaches about hunger, and one of the places that I found that I really thought about a lot was Isaiah 55:1-3. "Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. You who have no money, come buy, eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost." This is talking about a spiritual hunger.

"Why spend money on what is not bread? Why spend your labor on what doesn't satisfy? Listen, listen to me," says Isaiah. "Eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." So this is talking very picturesquely, using the pictures to depict a spiritual hunger for us and a spiritual thirst, of course, hungering and thirsting after something that nothing else in this world can fill.

In Revelation 22:17, it says that when we get to heaven, and only when we get to heaven, we will never hunger or thirst again. Never. There is a sense in which Christ can fill our spiritual hunger here, but there is a sense in which He cannot, until we see Him face to face and we are like Him and we are perfect, for we are never perfect down here. And so sin always spoils that spiritual satisfaction of being what God wants us to be and doing what God wants us to do.

Sin spoils that. But when we get to heaven, Revelation 22, verse 17, says that we won't hunger or thirst anymore and that we'll come unto Him who is the fount of that spiritual fountain and He will quench our thirst, drench us with delight, and He will fill up our hunger. He is the Bread of Life and down here we can feed on Him in our spiritual souls, but there there will be Christ in all of His person that we will fully understand and we will be satisfied there. The Bible tells us and promises.

And in John 7, verse 37, Jesus is speaking. On the last and greatest day of the feast day, Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, "Now if anyone's thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this He meant the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

And we come back to this whole thought of Matthew and what Jesus was teaching there. Jesus said, "Come to me and I can give you not only a spiritual satisfaction but a well of water," as He says in John 4, "springing up within you to eternal life, so that out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water and refreshment will come to all the dry, thirsty people around you." People that are thirsting and hungering after things and don't understand, running here, running there. "Why is it that I'm not satisfied? Maybe it's the wife I have and if I had another sort of wife then maybe I'd be happy."

"Maybe it's because I don't have children. If only I had children then I'd be happy. Maybe it's because I don't have any meaningful occupations in my life, hobbies, clubs to join, new philosophies to learn. Maybe it's because I haven't quite got hold of the right religion and Christianity's out and what I need to do is to get on the New Age bandwagon and find something new." And Jesus said, "I'm God. I know what you need. I made you. I created you. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men."

Jesus said, "Here I am in a Jewish body. Come to me. Have a relationship with me. And of course, when the Spirit is given, have me inside you by my Spirit and from within you will well up inside you spiritual life, so you'll never thirst again and your hunger will be satisfied." It sounds so refreshing, so refreshing. So to hunger and thirst after Christ is to hunger and thirst after righteousness, for Christ is our righteousness, as the Bible teaches us.

But let me try and define what righteousness means throughout the Scriptures. Because just to say we need to be like Jesus doesn't really give us a handle on what real righteousness is. John Stott in his book "Christianity and Culture" says righteousness is spoken of as legal, moral, and social. Legal, moral, and social. What it really is is all that God demands and approves. Rightness. Forget the old-fashioned word righteousness. Take the "ness" out. Rightness is all that God demands. That's all He demands, just be right.

Totally right, totally good, totally holy, totally perfect. That's what God demands. That's what He demanded of Adam. That's what He demands of you. That's what He demands of me. And in case we don't know what it is, He spelled it out in the ten rightnesses that He gave us. It's right to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. It's right to love our neighbor as ourselves. It's right not to covet. It's right not to cheat. It's right not to lie. It's right not to steal. It's right not to commit adultery and on and on.

The Ten Rightnesses, the Ten Commandments, not the ten suggestions. The Ten Commandments that God gave us. So if we want to know what rightness is, look at the Ten Commandments. If we want to know what rightness is, look at Jesus. He lived them out. He never broke one of them, not one. Of course He didn't. He was God and man, perfect man as Adam should have been, yet perfect God. And so He came to show us not only the way to heaven, but He came to show us what's right by living that sort of a life.

He was right legally. He never broke any of God's legal laws. Broke many of the Pharisees' laws because they weren't God's laws, but not God's legal laws. He never broke any moral laws. He never broke any social laws, because rightness is legal, moral, and social. So to hunger and thirst after being right, we need to have a sense of what God does demand of me legally. What are God's legal laws that I don't break the Ten Commandments, which are His legal and moral laws?

"But I have," you say. Right, you have. And so God looks at us and says, "Now then, I judge you and I say you are condemned because you've broken my legal, moral laws." But then the Judge comes down to earth as Jesus Christ. And the Judge on the cross offers Himself as our punishment, to take our punishment. And all our sins are, as it were, drunk by Christ. He said, "This cup that I must drink. I don't want to drink it," remember what He said in Gethsemane.

"But I must drink it if mankind is to be forgiven, set free, not held accountable by me, the Judge, by God, the Judge. If mankind is not to be held accountable for the way that he's broken my legal, moral, social laws, then somebody has to pay the price and I will pay it for them." And so on the cross that's what happened. And so the satisfaction of God was there. He was satisfied. He had to judge or He wouldn't have been a very good judge. He had to condemn or He wouldn't have been a very good judge.

He wouldn't have been a right judge. But He did, He condemned Himself. He died in our place. So legally, morally, socially, I can be forgiven. Christ is my righteousness. He did everything that God demanded and approved. Therefore if I have Christ within me, when God looks at me, He looks and sees Christ. He doesn't see me breaking all that stuff. He sees Christ who never broke anything. And because He sees Christ, I am accepted. I am accepted in the Beloved. I'm in Jesus. And when God sees me, I'm clothed in His righteousness. That's what grace is all about. That's what forgiveness is all about. That's what the Gospel's all about. Incredible, incredible blessing.

So what is righteousness? Righteousness is legal, moral, and social. God is satisfied with what Christ did for me. Now what about the Pharisee in me? Well, he doesn't think any of that is worth tuppence. In Romans chapter 10, verse 3 and 4, this is what is said about the Pharisee. "Since they didn't know the righteousness that comes from God," this is talking about the Pharisees, "since the Pharisees didn't know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they didn't submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."

But what did the Pharisee in me say? The Pharisee in me says, "I don't need Christ. I'm good enough without Him. When God looks at my life, I'm so careful and I work so hard to keep all the religious rules. He has to accept me." But there isn't any Pharisee, and Paul was probably about the best there was, there isn't and has never been any Pharisee then or now who has kept every single law of God's. No Pharisee. No man. There is none righteous, none right, no, not one. In case anybody thinks they're the exception, the Bible says there is none right, no, not even you. No, not one.

This is so hard for us. You know that's what's so hard for Milwaukee, because we're so religious here in our city. Remember when that survey was done quite a few years ago? People were asked did they believe in heaven and everybody said yes they did. 98% of churchgoing Milwaukee, believing Milwaukee. I was proud of us. Yes, everybody believes in heaven. "Do you believe you're going there?" "Yes," they said. A good 90%. "Yes, I believe I'm going there." "Why do you believe you're going there?" "Because of the good life that I'm trying to lead."

That's the Pharisee. And that's what's so shocking and that's what's so difficult to share with people, isn't it? That however good you are, you're not as good as God. And yet when you think about it, who couldn't accept that? If you were saying you're not as good as me, then there might be some argument, but we're not. We're saying we're not as good as God. And if we're not as good as God, we need His rightness for Him to accept us.

Christ is the righteousness of God. Therefore we should have this insatiable hunger and thirst to be like Christ, to let Christ's life live in us, to be like Him, to act like Him, to think like Him, to speak like Him. Oh to be like Him, blessed Redeemer. There's a wonderful hymn. Do you remember the story I told about the little Salvation Army girl? Little Salvation Army girl in Australia, I think it was, who was doing some pub work and you know you go into these pubs and they take the War Cry and they try to sell newspapers and they try to witness.

And when she came in, it was pretty late at night and everybody was pretty merry and it was full of rough, tough seamen, that particular pub. And she was a little tiny diminutive Salvation Army girl and hadn't been around very long, hadn't been doing it very long. And she got a little bit scared, but she started to go around sort of unobtrusively and suddenly a great big drunk man saw her and he picked her up, just got hold of this little thing and put her on the bar and said, "Go on, sing us a song then. Sing us one of your songs. You got your tambourine?"

She said, "No, I haven't got my tambourine." He said, "Sing us a song." She was so scared and so frightened they all gathered round and started to poke fun at her, at her uniform and just everything that she stood for. And so they poked her and poked her and prodded her and she couldn't get down and she thought, "All right, I better sing something." And so she began a very, very clear soprano voice, and I can't remember the words, I wish I could. "O to be like Him, blessed Redeemer." It goes on and on and on.

And at the end there was a quietness and a hush and the man got hold of her and lifted her down and said, "It's all right, lassie. You are like Him. You don't need to worry about that." Oh to be like Him, blessed Redeemer. And it's just that quality that comes out of those who are allowing Christ's life to fill their lives that is seen by other people. Christ is our righteousness. Socially too, it follows that we should care about oppression. It should move us to action.

We would want others to be right. We would want people to treat each other rightly, for blacks to treat whites and Hispanics rightly, for Hispanics to treat blacks and whites rightly, for whites to treat everybody rightly. We should be hungering and thirsting after social righteousness. The church traditionally, the evangelical church has been a little scared of getting into social issues because the liberal wing of the church that sort of doesn't believe the Bible has traditionally for a few generations taken care of all those social ills and they've been sort of light on Gospel preaching and teaching.

And so the evangelical church has said, "Well, we don't want to be thought liberal and so we'll just stick to preaching and teaching. We won't bother about meeting the needs of the oppressed and the poor and the hungry." And yet now, of course, I think there's been a great shift and we're seeing that if you want to give a man a tract, you wrap it in a sandwich. That you cannot say, "Bless you," to a hungry man unless you first fill his stomach, as James tells us.

And so there are social rightnesses that we should be caring for. Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after all these rightnesses, for they shall be filled. There will be a full life, a satisfying life if we involve ourselves in these sort of things. In this "Frog in the Kettle" book that I have been avidly reading, which has been hugely challenging, let me just read you this little bit about beliefs. Many people already feel that nobody knows what they need better than they do, including God or any other spiritual entity.

We will develop more blends of pop religion. Our choice of a religious system, however, will be based on that system's ability to satisfy our own personal needs and desires. Religion will be viewed as less of a corporate experience and more of a self-fulfilling process. These personalized religious systems will satiate our need for a religious perspective without requiring the sacrifice and commitments that some faiths like Christianity demand. We're seeing that people in their selfness, in their desire for selfness, are looking for religious philosophies to satisfy them.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness though, says Jesus, after Christ, after me, for that's the only way they're going to be filled. After all, if He is our creator, He should know. You know, I often wonder if Jesus had not been born when He was and if He'd been born today, just blows my mind when I start and think about it. If He'd been born in the slums of the Bronx, of a teenager accused of getting pregnant out of wedlock. If He'd got around the Bronx claiming to be God and then started traveling on foot because He couldn't afford any other way around the USA preaching.

What would He have preached? What would He have looked like? What would He have worn? And would He have preached instead of Matthew 5 things like this: "Blessed are you who are self-confident. Blessed are you who figured out how to get over guilt that's stopping you being as happy as you should. Blessed are you who aren't losing any sleep over the matter of sin. Blessed are you who are self-assertive. Blessed are you who are looking out for number one. Blessed are you who hunger and thirst after a good time, a big house, a vacation abroad, and a loose lifestyle that satisfies the moment's desire."

Would He have preached things like that? I believe He would have preached exactly what He has preached in Matthew chapter 5. And you know, this is very relevant to today because remember me sharing with you how intimidated I was at Wheaton College preaching a simple Gospel message and preaching about the things I'm telling you about. It's not just Wheaton College. I talk to my husband a lot and we're talking constantly about what's going on on the religious front. And we feel the same thing.

The message isn't changing. Jesus isn't changing. Rightness isn't changing. And hunger isn't changing. People are still empty. They're still hungry. And we have the Bread of Life. We have the righteousness of Christ to cloth them in. We have a message that will set them free. Let's hunger and thirst after that righteousness. Let's be like Him. And then let's tell others how they can be like Him too.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for these words of Jesus, so practical, so profound, so simple, yet so difficult to live. We thank you that you don't just leave us with the commands, but you give us the Christ to live the commands in us. We thank you that we can be right with God through Jesus. We thank you that we can be right with ourselves through Jesus. We thank you we can be right with our neighbors through Jesus.

Lord, we hunger and thirst after this righteousness. Fill us today, we pray, as you've promised you would. And help us to go out and be a source of satisfaction to those who are still empty and hungry and thirsty. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.