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HUNGERING AND THIRSTING FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." (Mat. 5:6) Jesus said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." He did NOT say that everyone who is coerced into praying an empty prayer will be filled. God's imputed righteousness is given to those who are truly convicted about their sins and who want Jesus Christ to wash them away in His blood. There must be a "hunger," Jesus said, not a mere mental assent that even the devil would agree to (James 2:19). The devil knows that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, but the devil has never hungered and thirsted for righteousness. That's why he's the devil, and that's why he's headed for the lake of fire, right along with everyone else who hungers for self glory and self gain in sin instead of God's righteousness that is found in Christ alone. A man who does not hunger for righteousness is a man who is comfortable in sin, and God will not save him. Leading him in a forced prayer will only help to seal his damnation by inoculating him against all future witnesses since he'll think that he's "already saved." It's best to give him the word and leave him alone while praying for him, praying that God will grant him a genuine hunger and thirst for righteousness so that he can be truly saved. Only those who hunger and thirst for righteousness can be filled, according to Jesus Christ himself. I spent some time this past week listening to and watching some video clips from people who are held up as being great "soul winners" in these huge empty-believe churches. I saw a group telling their pastor that they had won several THOUSAND souls to Christ in their lives. One alone, who honestly sounded like a naive ten-year-old, claimed to have won 2,500 souls to the Lord, and the idiot pastor stood there and praised her for it and encouraged her example to all the other. Knowing the church that she was from and the pastor that she was under, I know exactly how she was "trained" Another video that I saw had one of these souped-up "soul winners" claiming to have converted a room full of Jesuit priests! And people were all excited and praising this foolishness, including the pastor! Folks, that's not Bible salvation! That's worldly psychology and sales methodology like they teach in business and marketing school. It is 100% foreign to the word of God! A man must hunger and thirst for righteousness as a result of Holy Ghost conviction, else he is no where near salvation. Let's keep moving. Psalms 42:1-2: "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" Do you see that? Coming and appearing before God is directly associated with THIRSTING for God. A man doesn't find God just because someone told him to ask Jesus into his heart. A man finds God after his sins have beat him down and made him thirsty for God. Until then, he is full of sin and self and feels no conviction whatsoever. Such a man cannot be saved. Look at Psalms 107:9: "For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." He doesn't fill every soul that gets coached into praying a vain prayer. He fills the HUNGRY soul. Everyone else remains LOST. While we're in the Old Testament, please get Isaiah 55:1: "Ho, every one, 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." Is that what it says? No, that is NOT what it says. It doesn't say for EVERYONE to come to the waters; it says, "Ho, every one that THIRSTETH, come ye to the waters . . . " Big difference! God's "wells of salvation" (Isa. 12:3) are for convicted, thirsty souls, not for nonchalant Laodiceans who thirst for nothing but more worldly pleasure. Please remember how that verse said for the thirsty man to COME, because we're going to see some more of that in the New Testament. A thirsty man will LOOK for water; he will COME to where the water is when given the opportunity. That's natural, and everyone knows it. Now get John 6:37: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Look at that! "SHALL COME to me," it says! If some high-pressure "soul winner" gives a man to Jesus, then he might NOT come to Jesus, but if the FATHER gives the man to Jesus, meaning true salvation, then that man WILL come to Jesus Christ. That's what the Book says. It will be as natural as a baby coming out of the mother's womb when the time is right. But the time isn't right at only six months, two months, or even before a conception! Brethren, these empty-believists are completely ignoring God's long established laws of nature and scripture and are increasing the population of hell on a daily basis! A man who is thirsty will look for water, and he'll gladly take the water when it's presented to him. If he doesn't, then he doesn't need coaching and coercion; he needs conviction until he's ready to COME to Jesus Christ of his own free will. Okay, John 7:37: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." What if he DOESN'T thirst? What if your knock on his door interrupted his cold beer and he prays an empty prayer with you because that's the only way to get you to leave? Such a man will NOT drink of the water of life because he is not thirsting for it. He's happy and content in his sins, so he is not yet a candidate for salvation. Witness, leave him a tract, and pray for him. Anything more is a blatant violation of the word of God. He's not ready for the "rivers of living water" (vs. 38) because he's still enjoying the river of sin. No conviction means no conversion because there is no hungering and thirsting for righteousness. God's righteousness is only for those who hunger and thirst for it, as our opening text said, straight from the lips of Jesus Christ. Our next verse is John 14:6, where Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Do you see that word "COME"? Folks, salvation is NOT merely a man being pressured into asking Jesus to come into his heart. True Bible salvation is when a man grows tired of the burden of sin and chooses to COME to Jesus Christ for help! You might have to tell him and invite him, but you won't have to pressure him, intimidate him or trick him into making a profession! You won't have to utilize the stupid "Carl Squeeze" or the Jack "If you want a yes answer, then ask a yes question" psychology garbage. That stuff is wicked, and the fools who endorse it might be lost themselves. I know that's harsh, but not as harsh as the burning hell that some of them are going to, if they don't wake up and do some serious repenting. Okay, now get Matthew 11:28: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Why didn't he just say, "If you want to be saved, raise your hand?" Jesus knows the hearts of men, and he knows that most do not hunger and thirst for righteousness and will never be saved (Mat. 7:13-14), so he said "Come" to those who DO hunger and thirst rather than extending salvation to everyone who would raise a hand or repeat a prayer. FEW are chosen, not many, and those few are the ones who COME to Jesus Christ as a result of being convicted and burdened about sin. Next, let's consider Luke 14:23: "And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." Look at that! Even in the case when you're maybe at someone's house, maybe on their doorstep, Jesus does not say to have them repeat a prayer. He says for them to COME. Why? Because he knows that most will NOT come, because they do not hunger and thirst for righteousness, but those who WILL come to Christ out of a pure heart will be saved. The invitation to "come" is God's way of separating the true converts from the fake ones. Anyone who blurs that line is doing the devil's work. Out there in empty-believe land, they say, "Just get 'em saved and let God sort 'em out." No, God has ALREADY sorted them out! The ones who refuse to COME to Christ are lost. Period! We aren't told to get a profession anyway. We are told to give the gospel to ALL THE WORLD, and then the ones who COME are the ones who get saved. The simple truth is that about sixty years ago a bunch of fundamentalists weren't getting the results that they wanted, so they just started ignoring that "come" part and began pressing for professions from people who weren't hungering and thirsting at all. As a result, our churches and communities today are filled with lost people who THINK they are saved. They will NEVER come to Christ because the devil has inoculated them against the gospel by selling them a counterfeit salvation. They have a ticket to hell that says "Heaven" on it, and they're proud of it. They're not going to truly "come" to Christ because they were told that they don't have to come. I sure wouldn't want to be the one that told them! Okay, just one more. Revelation 22:17: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." There you go. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that simple? The thirsty soul will COME to Jesus Christ for the living water. You won't have to push him or pull him or drag him. He will COME to Christ because he HUNGERS and THIRSTS for something better than his sins. I recently saw some baby kittens hiding in fear under a garbage dumpster, so I left some beef jerky beside the dumpster. Within a half hour the jerky was GONE! I didn't have to beg the kittens to come and eat, nor did I have to pull them out from under the dumpster. They were HUNGRY, so of their own free will they came to the food and ate. My part was getting the food to them. Their part was willfully eating it. THAT is Bible salvation, my friend, and anything less is just Laodicean junk.