The Secret of Satisfaction

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. Take God's Word, please, and turn to Matthew chapter 5. We're continuing our series on the Beatitudes. I remind you again, they're Beatitudes and not platitudes because the world would never agree with what these Beatitudes say.

I'm talking about this world system. Now, these are a series of statements that begin with the word blessed, and the word blessed means to be satisfied. It means to be secure. It means to be full of joy, and the world thinks that the idea of blessedness is what? Well, the world says blessed are the rich, blessed are the powerful, blessed are the handsome, blessed are the influential, blessed are the intelligent, blessed are the wealthy, blessed are those who are at ease, blessed are those who have plenty.

That's what the world says. Well, that's not what Jesus says. And then even in the Ten Commandments, while the world thinks that a man is blessed by what he has, in the Ten Commandments, the emphasis is primarily on what man does.

Do this, do this, do this, don't do this, don't do this, and don't do this. But you see, the Beatitudes go beyond even that. The Ten Commandments deal with outward action. The Beatitudes deal with the heart, the attitudes that ought to be. Now let's read them, and then we'll come to our Beatitude for today. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

That's the first Beatitude. Blessed are those who see themselves spiritually, morally bankrupt. They see their condition. And then look in verse 4, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. For after they see their condition comes this contrition. They're broken about their sin, broken over their sin, and broken from their sin. There's genuine repentance. And then blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

That's their compliance. They're ready now and willing to do God's will. To be meek means to be submitted, yielded to the will of God. Do you see how these Beatitudes follow the one after the other? And then we come to the one which is for today, verse 6. Look at it. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Listen to it again. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. I want to talk to you today on the secret of satisfaction. The secret of satisfaction. That is to have your deepest hunger met.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Do you know what Madison Avenue is in the business of doing? Madison Avenue is in the business of creating in you certain hungers. I mean, they will advertise things, and you'll look at it, and you didn't even know you wanted it until you see that ad.

I have watched something on television. Maybe it'll be a glass of iced tea, and I have to go in the kitchen and get one right after I watch that. I didn't even know I was thirsty. And they create in you. That's their business, to create hungers in you. And many times, we're buying things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like because Madison Avenue has just created in us a certain kind of hunger. Now, my dear friend, God, by the Holy Spirit, is wanting today in this message to create in you a hunger of something that you really do need, you desperately need.

As a matter of fact, you cannot live without it. And that is to hunger and thirst after righteousness. And if you do, and if you will, I promise you, satisfaction guaranteed.

You will be satisfied. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. This is what the scripture says, for they shall be filled. Now, what does it mean to hunger after righteousness anyway? What are we talking about when we say righteousness? Well, you may think of righteousness as something you do. But righteousness in the Bible is wrapped up in a person, and his name is Jesus. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 30, that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. He is made righteousness for us. He is our righteousness. And when a man hungers and thirsts after righteousness, he is hungering and thirsting after Jesus Christ.

Now, get that or you won't understand the rest of the message. Life's hidden hunger is Jesus Christ himself. The deepest need of your life is a right relationship with God through Christ. He is the righteousness of God that you to hunger for. Now, how are you to desire the Lord Jesus Christ? How are you to hunger after the Lord Jesus Christ? May I mention three ways today, and I'm talking to you about the secret of satisfaction. Number one, you should desire Jesus preeminently.

That is, you should desire him above all other things. Now, Jesus is talking here about hungering and thirsting. You've done that in the natural realm. You know what it is to be hungry naturally? Well, we're going to talk to you about being hungry supernaturally. You see, it's fine to hunger naturally. God made you where you get hungry physically. You get thirsty physically.

There's nothing wrong with that. But even if you seek food and water in first place, you've made a mistake. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33, Jesus has talked about food and fashion and fitness, and then he says after all these things do the Gentiles seek, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and what?

His righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things, food, fashion, fitness, they'll be added to you. Now, there's nothing wrong with food.

There's nothing wrong with fashion. There's nothing wrong with fitness in their place, and their place is second place. Their place is second place. Seek ye what? First, first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

God will not take second place to anybody or anything. Now, how are you to seek the Lord Jesus Christ? You are to seek him preeminently.

He is to be first in your life. Jesus Christ is heaven's bread for man's deepest hunger. Now, look at the verse again. It says, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are those who are hungering and thirsting after Jesus, who put Jesus first place. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.

Now, he will not work in second place. You know what most folks want to do? They don't want to seek righteousness. Do you know what they want to seek?

They want to seek blessedness. The problem is by wanting satisfaction, you don't get it. By wanting happiness, you don't get it. By wanting blessedness, you don't get it. You see, what you need is not primarily happiness and satisfaction and blessing. What you need is Jesus. When you get Jesus, when you receive Jesus, when you do hunger and thirst after Jesus, then you're blessed.

But that is a byproduct. He doesn't say blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after blessedness. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.

You say, well, what's the difference? Well, my dear friend, that lack of blessedness, that lack of joy, that lack of satisfaction, that lack of peace, that lack of fulfillment, all that is is a symptom. That tells you that there's something wrong and that symptom that tells you there's something wrong causes you to seek the remedy which is Jesus Christ.

Let me illustrate. Suppose you feel bad, you're weak and you've got pain and you're trembling and you're dehydrated or you've got all of these terrible symptoms and you go to the doctor and the doctor says, well, he said, you're very sick, but don't worry about it. I'll give you something to kill the pain. And he gives you a sedative and that's all he does. And you go out of there, maybe on a high because of the drugs that he's given you.

And you feel fine for a while. Do you want that kind of a doctor? Well, when I go to my doctor and I hurt, I want him to make me feel better if I can. But if that's all he does, if all he does is treat the symptom, if all he does is deaden the pain without dealing with the infection, as far as I'm concerned, he's not a good doctor.

A good doctor is going to find the cause of that pain, the cause of that fever, the cause of that malady, and he's not merely going to deaden the pain and try to kill the symptoms because the symptoms are God-given to say there's something wrong, get it fixed. Isn't that right? Now, my dear friend, that unhappiness that you feel, that lack of fulfillment that you have, that lack of joy that's in your life, all of that is a symptom.

That's all it is. And if you treat the symptom without treating the disease, you're very foolish. So the Bible doesn't say blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after blessedness. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after peace. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after anything else except righteousness. Because man's problem is what? Unrighteousness. Unrighteousness.

And out of unrighteousness comes all these other things. And so until you come to the place where you see that your deepest need is Jesus Christ, till you bring all of your ambitions into a burning focus to seek Jesus Christ, you're not going to have your deepest hunger met and your deepest needs met. Now, we have physical hunger and there's nothing wrong with physical hunger.

And if you have physical hunger, dear friend, spiritual things can't meet your physical hunger. If you invite me over to your house for a meal and I come to your house and I know that you're a good cook, so I've been kind of laying off of food, ate a very light breakfast, hardly any lunch because I'm determined to put you out of business when I come to your house. So I come to your house and you invite me in and say, Pastor, let me show you how we've redone our garden. And we go out and look at your beautiful flowers.

And I say, that's nice. And you say, Pastor, come in the library. Let me show you some new books that I've bought. And we go in and look at your library.

And about that time I feel a growl down here, but I don't say much about it. And then you say, my wife has, she's done some antique shopping. Let me show you something that she just recently bought. And we'll look at that for a while. And then you say, you know, I've taken up painting.

Let me show you some of my painting. And I look at that for a while. And then he says, Janie, come in here and play the piano.

Let the pastor hear that new song that you've done. And I'm looking at flowers and I'm looking at antiques and I'm listening to music and all of this. And my stomach is gnawing. And I'm saying, hey, when do we eat?

Maybe I don't say it out loud, but finally we get to the table and there the table is perfectly set. The fresh cut flowers on the table, even candles burning, you know, sometimes as people do and all of the silverware is polished, but not a speck of food. Now, my dear friend, what good is all of that? None of those things, none of those things can meet the need for food. And conversely, my dear friend, food can never meet the need of your deepest longing, which is Jesus, your physical being, but your spiritual being.

And you must have, you must have the Lord Jesus Christ. Now food and water, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst. He's talking about food and water. In the material realm, food and water are necessities. They're not luxuries. If you don't eat physically, you're going to die.

If you don't drink water, you're going to die. And so it is in the spiritual realm. Jesus Christ is not some luxury. Jesus Christ is a necessity. And what are you to seek when you seek righteousness? You are to seek Jesus Christ, seek him preeminently. Now that means that all you ever will need spiritually is in Jesus Christ. Some people talk about a second blessing. They say, well, now that you've been saved, now that you've received Jesus, have you gone on and gotten the second blessing? Friend, I want to say it with all of the love that I can possibly say it, but dear friend, all you need is Jesus.

Now get it down big and plain and straight. The fullness of God dwells in him and he dwells in you. Not some second blessing, not some second blessing. You seek Jesus. And when you get Jesus, my dear friend, you get everything. You'll never go beyond Jesus. Now you may go deeper and deeper into Jesus. Sometimes people ask me, Pastor Rogers, have you gotten the second blessing? And whimsically I say, oh yes, I have.

And they say, well, tell me about it. I said the second blessing is discovering what I got in the first one when I got Jesus. And I'll tell you what the third blessing is.

The third blessing is discovering I didn't discover it all in the second one, because I spend the rest of my life learning more and more about the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, you are to seek Jesus preeminently. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And my dear friend, Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God applied to us. I was thinking that Jesus Christ is alpha and omega. Alpha and omega. Do you know what alpha is? Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet. Omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet.

And so when the Bible calls Jesus the alpha and the omega, if it were in our idiom, Jesus would be called what? A and Z. Now I have my library at home. And I have, I really don't know how many books, but I have a lot of them. But did you know, dear friend, that all of the wisdom and all of the truth in that library is just in a handful of letters put together differently. That's all. Just a handful of letters put together differently.

Just 26 letters in the alphabet. That's all. And everything in those books is just in those letters. And my dear friend, all of the wisdom of God is in Jesus alpha and omega. I mean, it's all there. Everything is there. He is the A, the Z, and every letter in between.

He's it. You seek Jesus Christ preeminently. There was an old Saint. She had a favorite verse like all of us do. Her favorite verse was this, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. She loved it. She shared it with all of her friends. That was her favorite verse.

I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. But as she got older, dementia set in and she could not remember things like she used to remember them. And she would try to quote her verse to her friends when they would come in. And she would say, I know, I have committed, I know whom I have. And she couldn't quite get it all out and she'd give a part of it and get a little confused. And on her deathbed, her memory had come down to just one word, him. And she would just say him, him. But friend, in that one word, she had the whole Bible, the whole Bible, the whole Bible.

I mean, that's it. Him. Seek Jesus preeminently. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Not only should you seek him preeminently, but my dear friend, you should seek him passionately, passionately. What our Lord here is talking about is hunger. He's talking about thirst. What are the marks of a person who is hungry? What are the marks of a person who is thirsty?

May I give you three? The first mark of a hungry person is he is on a deliberate quest for food. Jesus here is talking about not a person who just has an appetite, but a person who sees himself broken and bankrupt and famished. What are the marks of this kind of hunger? My dear friend, if you were starving, are you all that interested in the flour arrangement for the Ladies Pink Lemonade Society? If you're all that hungry, are you interested in the ball scores?

I mean, if you are that hungry, what is the mark of a person who is truly hungry? Well, my dear friend, he is interested in one thing. His focus is narrow. He is interested what? In food.

He is interested in water. He has reached a point of deliberation. His mind begins to work on food and water, food and water, food and water.

People sit in the church service and their mind is a thousand different places. Do you know why? They're not hungry. There's no deliberation.

There is no determination. You see, a man who is on a deliberate search for food, he's set his face for it, then gets on a determined search for food. He's determined. He's going to be fed. You know, I've seen people come to churches and if thinking like maybe they've done God a wild favor by getting here, and then they kind of cross their arms and they say, well, you know, let's see what this fool has to say.

Let's see if he can persuade me. And so the preacher is preaching and they're in sort of a little mental argument. What the preacher says, they say to themselves, yes, but, and then there's a little thing going on there. They're not hungry. They're not hungry. They're not desperate. They're not trying to be fed. Can you imagine a starving man saying, well, if somebody wants to feed me, they may.

I've heard people literally say, well, if God wants to save me, he can. Oh my dear friend, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Little girl said, mama, may I have a drink of water? It was already 10 30 at night. She got out of bed and got the little girl a drink of water. 11 o'clock, mama, can I have another drink of water? She got up and got the little girl another swallow of water and said, now, that's it.

You go to sleep. 11 30, mama, I want some more water. She said, if you say another word about water, I am going to spank you. 15 minutes later, mama, when you get up to spank me, will you bring me a drink of water? Person who's thirsty will pay a price.

A person who is not thirsty or hungry, they won't pay a price. Again, along the same line, I heard of an itinerant who knocked on the door and said to a woman, will you feed a hungry man? She said, are you willing to work? He said, well, it doesn't look like there's any work to do around here. She said, when you came up the road, said there was a pile of wood that needed sawing.

Said, I saw you when you looked at it. He said, lady, you saw me see it, but you ain't seen me saw it. He wasn't hungry. He wasn't hungry. There are people, dear friend, when they're hungry, when they're hungry, they are in a deliberate quest for food. And that deliberate quest for food becomes a determined quest for food. I remember that song.

It's real. That old gospel song about the man who had a form of religion, but he really didn't know Jesus. And then he really got serious and he said, then I prayed to God in earnest. My poor soul, it must be fed. Have you come to that place? I prayed to God in earnest, not caring what men said. I was hungry for the blessing. My poor soul, it must be fed. As a matter of fact, not only is a hungry person on a determined quest, not only is a person a hungry person in a deliberate quest, my dear friend, he's in a desperate quest for food.

He'll go anywhere, do anything almost, pay any price. I've seen people eat out of garbage cans, have you? And you know, they lost all their pride. People come to church and many of them find something to criticize. Hey folks, if you're looking for something to criticize, you can find it. Let me tell you where to start, right here. If anybody says anything bad about me, I just say, thank God they don't know anymore. You're looking for something to criticize.

You can find it anywhere. Here's a man who sits down at a table and he says, well, the salt is damp. Ah, the china is chipped. Ah ha, the tablecloth is wrinkled.

The parsley is on the wrong side of the plate. I can tell you one thing, he's not a hungry man, isn't that right? People who come to pick to find fault, you can put it down big, put it down plain, put it down straight.

They are not hungry. If you come to find fault, you can find plenty to find fault with, but if you come to find Jesus, he's here. It all depends upon the appetite that you bring to church. One lady said to a pastor, I don't like the way you preached this morning. He said, what was wrong? She said, it's your language.

It was very inelegant. In the course of your sermon, you said pants. You should never say pants. You should say trousers.

It's much more elegant. He said, I'll try to remember that. He said, well, what did you think about the sermon? What else do you remember? She said, very frankly, I don't remember anything else.

He said, if I hadn't said pants, you wouldn't have gotten anything out of the message. Blessed, blessed, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. A person who is hungry and thirsty is on a deliberate, determined, desperate search for food.

Have you narrowed your interest down to one interest? I mean, do you see Jesus Christ as your greatest need? Do you see Jesus Christ as a starving man would seek food?

Friend, when you come to that place, you're going to find him. Why is it that people are not hungry? I mean, what's wrong with a man who is not hungry?

Well, several things. Number one, he could be sick. When you get sick, you lose your appetite. Number two, he could be stuffed full of something else, feeding on this world's garbage or anything else. You know what the Bible says in Proverbs 27 verse seven? The full soul loatheth a honeycomb. I mean, if you're full, even honey doesn't sound good to you. But to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet.

The full soul, he's not even interested in honey. But to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. Listen, you are to desire Jesus Christ preeminently, preeminently, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Secondly, you are to desire Jesus Christ passionately. You are to hunger and thirst after Jesus Christ. But not only that, my dear friend, you are to enjoy Jesus Christ perpetually.

Enjoy him. Listen, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. I don't know how much of God you have, but I'm going to tell you something today that may shock you. You have all you want. You have all you want. I don't know how much God you have, but you have all you want. A shout of thirst, a shout of satisfaction.

Small hunger, small satisfaction. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst, for they shall be filled. That's the reason I said, dear friend, I'll guarantee it because there's one who stands behind the guarantee and his name is Jesus Christ. He's the one.

He's the one who said no ifs, ands, and buts about it. You will be satisfied because when you're filled with righteousness, you're filled with blessedness because you have a hidden hunger. You have a need that can only be met by Jesus Christ. So many people have the idea that righteousness is a negative thing. The Pharisees were known for what they didn't do. People get the idea, well, if I'm going to be righteous, I can't have any fun. No, if you're going to be righteous, you can be blessed. Happiness and holiness are inextricably linked together. Dear friend, you don't lose the good things of life when you come to Jesus. As a matter of fact, listen, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and what? All these things will be added to you. They didn't say they'll all be taken from you.

They'll all be added to you. Friend, listen, you enjoy those things more in the context of righteousness. Don't let the devil get you to thinking negatively about God. The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 17 that God gives us richly all things to enjoy. He doesn't say he didn't want you to be blessed.

He just simply says, get your priority right. Seek him preeminently, seek him passionately, and you will enjoy him perpetually. Does that mean that if you just give your heart to Jesus today, get saved, receive him as your personal Savior and Lord, that from there on, you never have to seek him anymore? You never desire him anymore? Oh, no.

Oh, no. Jesus is using an illustration that everybody can understand from the physical realm. He is saying in the spiritual realm, your spiritual hungers are like your physical hungers. Have you ever at Thanksgiving day, sat down for the Thanksgiving meal?

Generally, it's about, at our house, probably about 1.30 or 2 before everything gets fixed and everybody gets in. We all get around the table and we eat and eat and eat and fellowship and eat. And you know, it's just a great time. And everything is there and the turkey and is it stuffing or dressing?

I never can remember. Whatever they put on the inside. Anyway, that's in there. And all of that, you know, just having a wonderful time. And when you're finished, you say, I don't care if I ever eat again. I mean, that's it. I am completely satisfied. You know what I'm talking about? I am completely satisfied. And then what happens?

That's about 3.30. About 7 o'clock that night, you find yourself in there opening the refrigerator, looking in, poking around, all that stuff. That's amazing, isn't it? You see, listen, God allows us in the physical realm to have continuing appetite that we might have continuing satisfaction. This thing of being satisfied is not a once for all thing any more than eating a meal is a once for all thing. You see, you have a continual hunger not because that food didn't satisfy you. You have a continual hunger because that food did satisfy you. And your appetite is increased because of the goodness of the food and the satisfaction that it brought once, it continues to bring day after day. On my knees this morning, I have found that satisfaction. On my knees today, I have fed on heaven's bread and you come to the Lord Jesus Christ and you're continually being hungry and you're continually being satisfied. That's the reason, my friend, I say that when you desire Him preeminently, when you seek Him passionately, you will enjoy Him perpetually.

He will meet the deepest needs of your heart. And then when you meet the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His fullness, all of His sweetness, then you have that blessedness and all of these other things are added to you. I have found that satisfaction. I have fed on heaven's bread and you come to the Lord Jesus Christ and you're continually being hungry and you're continually being satisfied. That's the reason, my friend, I say that when you desire Him preeminently, when you seek Him passionately, you will enjoy Him perpetually. He will meet the deepest needs of your heart. And then when you meet the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His fullness, all of His sweetness, then you have that blessedness and all of these other things are added to you.

My dear friend, put it down. Listen, you will be completely satisfied. You will be continually satisfied and you will be certainly satisfied because Jesus said it shall happen. Let me give you a couple of verses. Listen to this, Psalm 107 in verse 9, for He satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. People understood what they had in Jesus.

I don't believe you could keep them away with a machine gun. Listen to 1 Peter 2 verse 3, if so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Psalm 34 verse 8, oh taste and see that the Lord is good.

Friend, I am not inviting you today to a funeral. I am inviting you to a feast. I have been on this road for a long time now serving the Lord Jesus. Jesus satisfied the need of my heart when I was a teenage boy. I stopped on the corner of 39th Street and Calvin Avenue in West Palm Beach, Florida and I looked up into the sky as a teenage boy.

I just walked my girlfriend home, the girl I'm married to today. I had been a church member, made a profession of faith. Whether I was saved or not, I really don't know. But I prayed like this, oh God, I don't have satisfaction. I don't know whether I'm lost and the Holy Spirit has me under conviction or whether I'm saved and the devil is trying to make me doubt it. But I just looked up into the heavens, I looked as it were into the face of God and I said, oh God, right now this moment with all of my heart, once and for all, now and forever, I receive you as my personal Lord and Savior.

I don't look for a feeling. I take you at your word. You said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I believe, I receive, and that settles it.

And my friend, as a teenage boy, my heart was satisfied and it still is. Do you know what evangelism is? It's just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

That's what I'm trying to tell you. I wish that I could take Jesus for you. I wish I could do it for you, but I can't. I'll tell you one thing I can do. I can hold up the Word of God and tell you what Jesus said when he said, blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness.

They shall be filled. Desire him preeminently. Seek him passionately.

You'll enjoy him perpetually. You will, I promise. And if you would pray a prayer like this, he would save you today. Oh God, I'm lost and I need to be saved. I know that you love me and I know that you want to save me. Jesus, I believe that you're the Son of God. I believe you paid my sin debt on the cross. I believe that God raised you from the dead. You said if I would trust you, you would save me, and I do trust you now, this moment, with all of my heart to come into my heart, forgive my sin and save me, Lord Jesus. I trust you to do it. Amen. Thank you.